7 Chapter 7 - Suishan city
As the team went down the busy main street, they looked around the city. Every single building was made out of stone which reached second floor at least. Many shops and stalls littered the side of the street. Some people were also talking about the entrance exam.
"Hey, Bruce you're going to participate in it?"
"Yeah, I'll definitely come on top, HAHAH"
"Of course you will, you're our strongest team member, HAHAHA"
"HAHAHA"
Although there were many people in the vicinity, the group which stood out the most was Luan's as they looked complete different from everyone. They had cultivation of Qi gathering 2 at the young age of 10 with a beast of the same realm but they wore cheap looking clothes which was something people with that cultivation will not do. More importantly, they looked beautiful with just that alone, like they were from a Royalty.
Ignoring the people, Luan smelled something delicious in the air and they reached a food stall where he ordered noodles for them.
"....What...Is?"
Angela said behind him looking at the food. When Luan looked back, he could see the two looking at the noodles. It smelled heady, and spicy. As the stall owner made the noodles and passed it to Luan he could see the two looking in amusement.
"You two didn't eat anything except monster meat right? Here, take this." He said as he passed the plate to Angela and the next plate to Kai.
"Yumm... Delicious!"
"Wolf!"
They both started eating the noodles slowly but surely because it was spicy. Kai and Angela never had the opportunity to come into a city and they ate monsters' meat everyday. The same could be said for Luan, although he ate many kinds of dishes when he was with his parents, he never went out to eat in this world.
"This is technically our first dish since coming to this world."
When they finished eating, he ordered another plate for everyone as none of them were satisfied with just that. The price of a plate was 1 gold so he could buy a few more plates with the money he had right now. After filling their stomach, he sold the beast corpses to the Hunter's guild. Luan now knew that there was something called storage space items in this world which could be brought to carry materials around freely, So it wasn't too hard to get the items out of dimensional storage. He placed his hand in his pocket and took out all the corpses.
When that was over, they went out to explore the place again as they had enough money.
"Come here and you can fight this big guy!! " They heard the noise of people cheering not too far away from them. They decided to check it.
"Argh"
*Cough*
A person that was fighting with the man coughed blood as he was one his knees.
"I lost." He said as he went to get healed by the girl that was waiting in the distance.
"See that? You can fight this guy if you want! he's in Qi gathering 3!!"
'Too loud' Luan thought to himself.
The person who was holding the competition saw luan looking at the big guy.
"You there, you're in Qi gathering 2 right? Wanna fight him?" He said as he pointed at the person who defeated the previous guy.
"Nah, I'm good" Luan replied quickly.
Saying that, the team walked away from the crowd.
"HEY! "
...
After a while they stopped. Not because the people were gone but because of something else.
"What is this place?"
When they were near the plaza, the noise of of the crowd didn't seem to stop. But here, it was as if that amount of hustle never existed. This place was the complete opposite of the busy street they saw a few minutes ago.
"... Creepy" Angela said as she looked at the houses.
Compared to the plaze, the houses here were not that impressive, cracks were present on many of the houses. Some of them even had a holes in them. Though, there was a house which caught Luan's eyes. It wasn't like many of the other houses around here. By the looks of it people lived there.
He decided he didn't want to middle in other people's business so they turned around.
"Hey"
They heard a small voice of a kid. When they turned to look who it was, they was a child who was 7 years old looking at them. He was not normal, far from it. He had ears on his head.
'A demi-human' Luan thought with his eyes widen.
"What is it" He asked him suspiciously.
Demi-human were the hybrid of a human and a beast. They had the body of a human but ears and strength of their corresponding beast parents. Luan was suspicious because this was the first time he met a real demi-human, before he had only heard about them on his was to this neutral city.
"...Do you want to spend the night in our inn?" The kid asked pointing at a house. It was the same house that was different from the others.
"No thanks" He said as he started moving.
"W-Wait" The boy said in a weak voice.
Slam
The next second the boy fell on the ground as Luan looked back.
!!!
They quickly went to check on him. The good thing was that, the boy was just sleeping, bad thing was that, he was malnutrition. His skin was so thin Luan could literally see his bones popping out of his small body.
He carried the boy on his back to the house he pointed at. The door was open so they went inside and Luan shouted.
"Is anyone there?"
After a few seconds a women came out. She had the same ears as the kid. When she saw the scene she quickly took the kid from him.
"Ava are you ok?!" Despite the worry for her son, she too looked like she could faint any moment.
"He hasn't eaten in quite some time" Luan said to her. Then he proceeded to take out some food he had taken with him.
"Here, he will wake up soon. When he does, eat this with him" Luan said as he went outside the home.
She only watched them go as she was looking out for her child.
The team looked around the place more and luan began understanding a little about it.
Many of the old houses were either ruined or even if people lived there, they would run inside whenever they saw them.
"This place, all of the people living here are demi-humans"
He wanted to check some more, but night was already starting to fall so he started going in the direction of the previous house.
When they got close to it, the door opened and the kid bowed down after seeing them.
"I am sorry I wasted your time!" He apologized with intensity.
"No, it's alright but are you ok?"
"Yes, now that I've eaten something" He said in a respectful tone. "By the way" He continued, my mom wanted to thank you so would you like to come inside?"
"Hmm." Luan narrowed his eyes thinking.
"Ok. Let's we'll come, its alright with you two?" Luan asked Angela and Kai.
"Yes... " Angela spoke with her, a little better English.
"Woof!" Kai was excited to meet new people, especially if they were from his race.
When he got inside the house. When the mother saw them, she apologized for the trouble and offered them tea as they sat on the chair.
When luan finished his tea he asked, "Is this an inn?" He wanted to know if the family lived here with outsiders.
"Yes, this is an inn plus our home" The women said.
"Although nobody comes to this place"
He looked around. The house was made out of old wooden slabs. After seeing him, the women said, "That's the reason people don't come here"
Luan realized what he was doing and said, "I'm sorry i didn't mean to-" But before he could finish the sentence she replied, "No, no don't be sorry, people don't like us anyway."
Hearing her he went silent for a second before he spoke.
"I want to stay here for the night"
The family wasn't expecting that, their jaws dropped for a second. A person like him who looked strong and rich would stay in this inn? They weren't expecting that. But it happened.
"Yes! of course I'll ready your room!" The women said as she ran to the upper floor.
When she was finished, she asked Luan and Angela to see how it was. It was an ordinary room with a single bed. Nothing out of the ordinary at all, except the bed which was the only one in the house.
"Thank you, its good" Luan said with a smile at the mother and son.
They thanked him again and after luan asked for the price when she said it wasn't necessary because they helped them.
"I wonder what happened to this particular area for it to become like this?" Luan murmured as he was sat on the bed.
"Well, I shouldn't dwell on it, its not my job to worry about things like this. Besides, the entrance exam is tomorrow" He said as he looked at Angela.
She was tired so she slept really quickly. As for Kai, he was used to sleeping outside and did the same.
'Should I sleep on the bed with her?'
"No, what am I thinking? She's still a kid" He shook his head in disagreement with himself.
As Luan said that, he took out a cushion and few blankets that were at the corner of the room. And he slept too.
•••
The next day they woke up earlier than usual for the big day. That was about to come.
They said their goodbye to the family and went towards where the exam was held.
When they were not in the area Luan said to Angela, "I think they may have gotten our gift now" To which she just tilted her head to the side in confusion.
...
"Ava! clean up the room where our guests slept" The women was cleaning the first floor as she ordered her kid to do the job.
"Ok" He said as he ran upstairs.
What he saw surprised him. There was nothing to clean there and there was a bag which was on the bed.
"Mom, I think you should see this"
When Ava said that, his mom came up and saw the same thing. They thought the people left their stuff here because they were in urgency. But there was a note beside the bag.
{This is our gift to you for letting us stay here. We hope you a long life}
A month of food was present inside it.
When she saw the letter, warm tears started forming in her eyes.
Mom, what's written here? Why are you crying?" Ava asked worried. The women hugged him ans said, "Nothing, we should get ready to move out of this wretched place"
...
Luan and hia team were in front of a huge stage that was a few meters above the ground. It was nothing fancy, it looked like duels happened there. Next to the stage was a person who was writing participant's name as they placed their hands on the crystal like ball before him. It was the similar to the one he used when was in the small town.
Only Handful of people were there at the time of the day, but Luan knew that number would increase later.
