“Thanks, elder!” he waved at the old man driving the horse cart. The old man just smiled and nodded in response. The boy started walking into the town after saying his goodbyes.

He had hitched a ride with the elder who was also coincidentally going to Huangye town. On the way, they chatted and the old man was kind enough to offer him some food. The boy wanted to pay for it but the old man declined.

“So, this is Huangye town!” the boy inhaled the air of the town. He saw people walking on the streets, vendors selling their products, and carts and carriages on the road. The roads were paved with cobblestone. The town was medium-sized, having almost 80,000 people living in it!

The boy began walking around without a destination but with a goal in mind. As he walked through the streets, he listened to the gossips of the townsfolk. The sun quickly began to head west as he walked around. Just a whole day of walking around had made him catch up to the recent events of Huangye town.

The boy stopped walking around and headed into a park nearby. He sat on a stone bench and began to organize the information he had heard.

He had walked quite a distance. An entire day of walking had taken him from the west gate halfway to the east gate. The village he woke up at was west of here and going east from here would take him towards the mainland and Xi Capital City.

Huangye town had three big clans- the Murong clan, the Li clan, and the Wang clan. They were amiable towards the masses but were at each other’s throats. Each of them had their own area of dealings. The Wang clan ran the gambling houses and brothels, the Murong clan ran the food sector, and the Li clan was in the clothing business. It seemed that the Li clan was a bit weaker than the other two clans. But that was just in influence, the Li clan head, Li Yan was in the fourth stage of Tendon Transformation.

The boy got up from the bench and walked to a more deserted road. His face was hard to read.

Qi Refinement, Blood Condensation, and Tendon Transformation…just what were they talking about?

The townsfolk would often say these words. They referred to them as ‘realms’ and these realms were separated into an unknown amount of ‘stages’. Well, nobody ever spoke about anything higher than the fifth stage of Tendon Transformation and even that was in the context of the Li clan head who was apparently close to ‘breaking through’.

The boy shook his head. The sun was close to setting. He needed somewhere to stay. He checked his pockets. The 45 copper taels he had weren’t enough to rent a room in these inns. Other than a place to stay, he needed a job. But he couldn’t just ask for a job in those high-class or crowded establishments. Let’s not talk about them letting him in, it wasn’t guaranteed that they had an open spot. It would do him much better to aim for a moderately crowded and low-profile establishment. Taverns and restaurants would be a good place.

The boy kept on walking. He kept on thinking about the things he heard today as he kept his eyes peeled for a suitable place to work.

There was also something called the ‘inter-clan tournament’ happening half a year later. The winner would get to enter into something called a Sect. And these Sects were very powerful. Though the people didn’t say how powerful, it was implied that they were even stronger than the three clans.

All the clan head’s children were taking part in this inter-clan tournament. They were either referred to as Young Master or Young Miss. The Li clan head had two daughters. And surprisingly the Murong clan head, Murong Fei, was a female! She had two sons. The Wang clan head, Wang Lao had a son and a daughter.

Also, it seemed that these Young Masters and Young Misses were not that old. With the oldest being Murong Fei’s first son, at the age of 15.

After quite a bit of walking, the boy’s eyes caught sight of a tavern. The tavern was named ‘Cloud Tavern’ as was written on a signboard near the door. It wasn’t that crowded with there being eight people in the tavern. The owner seemed to be an old man. And the tavern was not all that big, only able to house 12 or 13 people at once. And it was also situated on a relatively deserted road. The tavern checked all of the boy’s boxes.

The boy’s eyes lit up. All that remained was to find out if the old man needed a helper or not. The boy walked up to the tavern and stood outside the tavern, next to the door. And he waited.

Time went on by. All of the people who were inside came out with smiles on their faces, bidding the old man farewell and promising to come back again. Every one of them stared at the boy who waited patiently outside. Some of them kept on glancing at him while others blatantly stared.

The middle-aged women complimented his looks while the men looked at him weirdly. After a while of this happening, the old man grew curious as to who the customers were staring at outside his store. The old man opened the door and looked to the side. A boy was standing there and he was so pleasing to look at!

“Boy, why are you standing here?” the old man inquired.

“Elder,” the boy looked at him. The old man had snowy hair and a long beard. His eyes were full of vicissitudes, as though he had been through a lot. “I am here for a job,” the boy politely responded.

“A job?” the old man stroked his beard contemplatively. “Come in first,” the old man went inside the store and beckoned the boy inside.

The boy nodded before heading inside. The interiors looked clean with wooden chairs and tables for the customers. The kitchen was out of view from the customers and there was a bar separating the door to the kitchen from the main room.

After going in, the old man closed the door behind the boy and sat down on a chair. He gestured to another chair and the boy sat down as well.

“So, why do you want a job?” the old man asked.

“I need to earn money so I can get somewhere to live,” the boy admitted honestly.

“What?” the old man looked stunned. “Wait, you don’t look too old. What about your parents?”

The boy shook his head.

“Ah,” the old man realized his blunder. “My condolences.”

“It’s not a problem.”

“So, what happened to your home?”

“I don’t have one. I just came here today.”

“You-!” the old man felt his head spinning. “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean, I never had a home. I don’t remember anything,” the boy sighed helplessly.

“You don’t remember anything?” the old man kept getting one shock after another.

“I don’t.”

“Then how did you get here?” the old man asked worriedly.

“I took a ride on a horse cart.”

“I see…then where did you come from?”

“I woke up yesterday on the side of the road,” the boy decided to hide his involvement with the village to the west where he first woke up. He didn’t know who murdered the couple in that house and he had a faint feeling it wouldn’t do him any good if the murderers found out about him.

“Hmm…” the old man felt into deep thought. The boy was hiding something but he decided not to ask. Everyone had their own circumstances and it wouldn’t be polite to pry. Besides, the boy seemed to be telling the truth about his memory loss.

“Elder, can I work here?” the boy blinked his ocean-blue eyes.

“I’m curious, what would you have done if you didn’t get a job today?”

The boy thought for a bit. After a while, he looked at the old man and answered, “I’d sleep at the park tonight and try again tomorrow. Nothing else I could do.”

Pah!

The old man smacked the boy’s head. The boy rubbed his head to ease the pain and cried out indignantly, “What was that for!?”

“Sleep at the park, huh?” the old man looked at him angrily. “A boy your age wants to sleep outside? What’ll you do if you get sick or worse, kidnapped!?”

“Why would that happen?”

“Have you taken a look at yourself? Many women would want a handsome child like you as their boy toy!”

The boy shuddered. He then looked at the old man with fear in his eyes and asked, “What should I do, elder?”

“Haah~” the old man sighed and massaged his temples. “You can work here. Your job is to take orders and give the customers their food.”

The boy’s eyes lit up. “Thank you, elder!” he said with gratitude.

“Hoho!” the old man laughed heartily and then looked at the boy, “As for a place to stay…” The old man paused for a while and replied, “I have an empty room upstairs, and you can take it.”

“Thank you for your kindness!” the boy bowed.

“Stop that!” the old man hastily helped him up. “I’ll also get something out of this.”

“Huh? What’s that?” the boy asked.

“Hehe!” the old man’s eyes were lecherous. “With your handsomeness, many a beautiful girl will come to see you. I’ll get to snag one or two of them. Maybe, Murong Fei will come!” The old man was off in his own fantasies.

“Ah,” the boy felt speechless. “T-Then, I’ll go upstairs and get settled in.” The boy left the old man to his fantasies and headed up the stairs.

“Wait, boy!” the old man stopped the boy as he was about to head upstairs.

“Yes?” the boy stopped and looked at the old man.

“What’s your name?”

“Oh, right! My name is-”