Zian Yi understood that for his cultivation, he needed two things. The first was Corpse Qi and the second was Knowledge related to increasing power.
Currently, he had more than enough corpse qi but he lacked the knowledge he needed.
Since this was the case, he had to seek out knowledge. His desire to get more knowledge was not just for his cultivation. This desire seemed more like a great thirst that would devour him if he failed to fulfill it.
Zian Yi left his new inn and began moving through the city while soaking up as much information as he could. He or rather it, had a perfect memory. Once he saw something, he never forgot it.
He memorized every corner of the city except the Imperial Division which contained the Royal Palace and the Military Division.
These two places were off-limits to ordinary citizens.
In the city, there were merchants, thieves, pharmacists, prostitutes, and many other professions he could consider joining but he did not feel any connection to any of these.
He wanted something that could give him access to information, especially cultivation information.
He had now formed a stable background for himself the girl he had named Zian Rou as his daughter and Ting Huan as his wife. These two reduced the suspicion placed on him. Since this was the case, he was free to move about human society so that he could get what he wanted.
After an entire day of searching the city, he found himself seated in a pub with a glass of alcohol before him. He could not drink but he found that with the alcohol before him, he attracted less attention.
The real reason he had come to this pub was so that he could gather some information.
He had read somewhere that humans liked to converse about all sorts of things as they drank alcohol.
He listened to everything that was said and he found that he had not been wrong to come to this place.
"I heard that the refugees that recently came to the city are being killed by the gang who are robbing them of the few possessions they brought with them and the aid given to them by the minister of internal affairs." said a man whose face looked flushed from all the alcohol.
This conversation attracted Zian Yi's attention. This was because he understood that all this was the doing of the minister who had welcomed the refugees to the city. This was what made the most sense to Zian Yi. The refugees were too poor to attract the attention of these gangs. Not all refugees were like Zian Yi who had come to the city with enough gold to even buy an inn for himself.
"I heard that the army is recruiting new people in preparation for war with the Western Plain Dynasty." said another man.
This also got Zian Yi's attention. He had heard that the army had cultivation techniques that they gave to their soldiers and those soldiers that performed well on the battlefield were given even better skills for their cultivation. When Zian Yi heard about the recruitment, he felt that this was the perfect place for him.
Soldiers were given cultivation skills and they were sent to the battlefield where countless humans breathed their last.
After thinking about the matter, he decided that this was simply made for him.
He would be given cultivation knowledge and sent to a place where humans would die daily.
This was more than perfect. He could collect corpse Qi and even kill humans out in the open without being considered a monster by other humans. From the conversation in the pub, he would even be considered a hero if he killed enough people. Zian Yi liked killing people and getting knowledge.
He immediately stood up and joined the group that was talking about enlisting. He had traveled with humans for many months and he had learned how to interact with them so that he would not be considered an outsider.
He had even learned to speak clearly. After joining the group, he even made sure to buy more alcohol for the men so that they would speak even more on the matter.
He learned that although the Cloud Empire was the most powerful on the Sky continent, there were other kingdoms, empires, dynasties and powerful sects whose might could not be ignored. For this reason, the Cloud Empire was almost always fighting in some war. This made the Cloud Army one of the most funded and respected factions in the empire.
Zian Yi absorbed all the information he could get from these drunkards and when he was done, he left the pub and returned to the inn.
He found Ting Huan and Zian Rou already asleep. It was already midnight but since he did not have any need for sleep, night and day were no different except that during the day, he made sure to walk in the shadows or have an umbrella with him so that he could avoid being burned by the sun.
In the morning, Kai Syaoran found that Ting Huan had already hired some new workers to run the place and they already had a few guests.
All the workers greeted him with their backs bent and hands clasped.
They called him, the boss Zian Yi and Ting Huan were called the madam since she was pretending to be his wife.
Zian Rou was the young lady.
Zian Yi was finally able to put this worry to the back of his mind. It seemed that his disguise was becoming even firmer. If he had emotions, he would be happy.
"We need to find Rou a school so that she can be with people her own age .This will help her regain some semblance of normalcy," said Ting Huan as she ate her breakfast.
Zian Rou looked at her with her cold eyes. Zian Yi looked at Zian Rou and he agreed that if the girl continued looking so broken, this could attract the wrong kind of attention from the humans.
"Do as you see fit," said Zian Yi.
After pretending to eat breakfast, he left for the military division of the city.