Chapter 46 Good Wine with Water

Even though Li Fuyao thought Qing Huai was too quiet, he could hardly deny that this teenage girl whose clothes were all the same color of green was a nice person after they walked together for so long. If anyone thought it was improper, and he might say that she was a nice demon.

Others didn’t know, but Li Fuyao had no doubt.

These days, Li Fuyao finally promoted his cultivation to the peak of the Intent Stage and was close to breakthrough. Then he could enter the second stage, the Focus Stage, but he had paid a huge price. Qing Huai beat him with the green strands all day long when she was bored. She beat him when he made a fire and cooked and even before they went to bed at night.

The machete Li Fuyao had grabbed from the scholar Huang Jin was broken into halves in an evening, which meant he had to walk forward with half a machete before he reached the Sword Mountain. A swordsman who had no sword wanted to take a machete as a sword, but later the machete was broken. If the news spread, people would feel that it was weird and funny. If this swordsman became famous in the human world someday and more luckily, he had some followers, what happened in the past might make those followers open-mouthed.

When he was free, Li Fuyao always thought about some things, such as the Sword Immortal Chao Qingqiu. Now he was the only Sword Immortal in the human world and could be said to be world-famous, but no story about him before he became well-known spread, none of the funny or not funny stories.

All people in the world just knew that the Sword Immortal climbed the Sword Mountain to learn swordsmanship and then came down the mountain after he finished studying. Then he travelled around the world and entered the Ocean Stage one day, becoming the only Sword Immortal in this world.

None of the stories about him was known.

However, Li Fuyao was not alone. As many people in the world thought about something like this, even if he couldn’t figure out the reason, it was not a big deal. When he couldn’t figure it out, he pondered over something else. For example, why was the Sword Mountain the only way which must be passed by all the swordsmen? Why should they climb that Sword Mountain and then go down before they became real swordsmen? Qing Huai next to him couldn’t give him answers, so this teenage boy who had only half a machete comforted himself, thinking that he would know when he reached that mountain.

Everybody should have a short-term goal. For example, the short-term goal of the genius girl from the demonic land was to attend the Daoist assembly in Liangxi and then challenge the gifted Dao cultivator Ye Shengge, and her immediate goal was to take Li Fuyao out of Yanling. If she had enough time, she could take him to the Sword Mountain conveniently. Of course, if she had no time, it was fine that she told him to go to the Sword Mountain alone along the border of Yanling. And Li Fuyao’s short-term goal was to climb the Sword Mountain to practice swordsmanship and find his own sword.

And later, he could return to Luoyang City or go to Shaoliang City. Li Fuyao always thought that he didn’t walk fast enough, and indeed, he made progress slowly.

However, Li Fuyao’s determination to learn swordsmanship and become a powerful swordsman was implanted in his mind.

So Qing Huai didn’t know since when she realized that the boy suddenly became hard-working. He used to practice swordsmanship for only several hours at a fixed time, but now he just practiced all the time except for dinner and sleeping hours when they didn’t walk on the trip. Although in Qing Huai’s eyes, he was not as diligent as the geniuses she had seen on the demonic land, she thought this guy was much more pleasing to her eyes.

Though this guy brought half a machete and looked strange.

This morning, the two came to a tavern near the north border. Yanling was one of the top three empires in the human world, but some small countries in the remote southwestern area occupied the territory, so it was not surprising that the remote area in the north looked deserted. However, after all, this area was near the Dayu Empire, so Yanling didn’t have a reason to allow the small countries to exist like the area in the southwest. Instead, Yanling sent a powerful army to guard the border and resist the sudden attacks from Dayu at any time, and there were even many cultivators in the army at the border in order to prevent Yanling from being intruded by Dayu. But it was uncertain if they had other intentions.

Before Li Fuyao stepped into the tavern in a small town far away from the border, he found that it was not fastidious. Other taverns would pay much attention to the flag outside. They might not make the flag with high-quality fabric, but the word “WINE” on the flag should be written neatly even though it might not be written by a famous calligrapher. At least the flag should be bright and eye-catching, right?

But outside this tavern in front of Li Fuyao, the flag was tilted and even the word on it was also tilted. What was more disgusting was that the flag hadn’t been washed for a long time, and the black dirt was on its surface. The word “WINE” almost couldn’t be seen clearly. Under the sunshine, it even reflected slightly because it was oily.

It was strange that such a tavern had customers. In fact, even Li Fuyao and Qing Huai wanted to turn to leave after standing in front of the door for a while.

But before they turned around, thunders came from the cloud, and soon heavy rain fell.

Li Fuyao and Qing Huai looked at each other and then silently walked into this oily and dirty tavern.

The tavern was not big with little furniture inside, three wooden tables and six benches. Logically, it could hold twelve people at most.

There was no customer in this tavern at the north border, and only the shopkeeper, who was a middle-aged woman and an aged man who felt bored and watched the sudden heavy rain were inside. The aged man was so old that he didn’t have energy to stand up and welcome the two guests walking into the tavern which had no customer for many days. He just cautiously drank the half bowl of rice wine in front of him.

The middle-aged woman who was checking accounts by the counter got furious to see that and roared, “Old guy, do you think you are a scholar? It’s fine that you owe me more than ten pots of wine. Now I let you stay in the tavern and work as a waiter because I feel sorry for you as you are homeless. What? So you work in this way?”

The old Confucian scholar with a red nose laughed in a daze, “It rains outside, so where can the two go? After they come into the tavern, are you afraid that they won’t order some wine to drink? Boss, you are good at selling wine.”

In fact, the middle-aged woman had no account to check by the counter. She pursed her lips and regretted. Why did she let such an old crazy guy stay?

The middle-aged woman calmed down and then turned her head to smile at Li Fuyao, “Sir, what would you like to drink? At the north border of Yanling, we have more kinds of wine than any other tavern.”

The old drunk Confucian scholar added, “And it’s expensive. I drank only more than ten pots of wine, but she wanted me to pay three hundred taels of silver. Otherwise, how can I work for this woman instead of reading books?”

The middle-aged woman was exposed to her face by her employee and looked terrible. She glared at the old Confucian scholar and was about to say something when Li Fuyao said with a smile, “I want a pot of wine that this old gentleman drank then. Can I order dishes? You’d better offer some. We come in mainly to take shelter from rain. If the rain doesn’t stop even after we finish the wine, please don’t complain as we stay here, Lady.”

The middle-aged woman smiled and brought a pot of wine, wiping the dust away from the pot calmly. After putting it on their wooden table, she smiled apologetically, “My tavern is small and I don’t offer dishes. It is delicious even if you drink it only.”

Li Fuyao smiled to show that it was fine. The middle-aged woman turned her head again and looked Qing Huai up and down for the first time, saying sincerely, “This girl is so beautiful.”

The old Confucian scholar at another table sniffled and laughed, “The country is peaceful, so the girls are beautiful. How could the girls be like this when the country was not stable?”

The middle-aged woman threw a dishcloth randomly to him and cursed with a smile, “When was it not stable? There has been no war in Yanling for many years.”

The old Confucian scholar smiled and didn’t answer but gulped down all the half bowl of wine. He had a click of the tongue and nodded with satisfaction. Then he supported his head with both hands on the table and snored in an instant.

The middle-aged woman said angrily, “You just sleep all day long, as if I owe you. Do I have a Buddha to worship?”

Li Fuyao ignored these and poured Qing Huai and himself a bowl of wine for each. Then he picked it up and smelt it. After smelling the aroma, he sighed with emotion, “How many days ago did I drink this last time?”

Qing Huai kept silent as always.

Li Fuyao took a sip of wine with an unknown name and praised, “Lady, good wine!”

The middle-aged woman was stunned. Before she reacted, Li Fuyao sighed, “It’s just that there is too much water mixed.”