The door leading to the currently empty tavern, bar, and inn that called itself the best one of all in 'Tree Reefs' opened, and a youthful voice said

"We would like to rent two rooms for the night"

"Understood, what are the esteemed guest names?" The woman behind a desk that served both as the reception and the bar counter stood up and asked.

"This is my martial brother Deng Zian, as for me, I am called Bai Qi" Introduced both his companion and himself a light brown-haired youth dressed in common grey clothes.

He could be considered even handsome, if not for the enormous reddish birthmark occupying the right side of his face. As for his companion, it was a thirty or so years old man who looked sickly because of his paleness. Dressed into dark common clothes, he maintained his distance, seemingly as to avoid interacting with anyone.

Still, the middle-aged woman behind the desk did not pay too much attention to such strange conduct. The youth in front of her had used the words 'Martial Brother' and when she asked for the nightly rent of half-silver per room, he instantly took out a silver coin from a holding pouch. Adding this two together meant that the guests were cultivators.

The lack of uniforms and badges meant that they were rogue ones, and so it was better to simply do her job and don't ask anything.

"Will you have dinner tonight? Or breakfast tomorrow?

"I will, as for my martial brother, he seems to be feeling a bit off lately so most probably he will not" Wu Guang, as it was no one else than him, explained.

"I see, we normally include breakfast along with the room. But as only one of you will eat, then I will throw in today's dinner as a courtesy. But! If you want wine or anything extra, I expect you to pay"

"Thanks" Wu Guang nodded and took the two offered keys.

Being a small inn in an even smaller town, there were obviously no runes meant for lighting, locks, or anything else. Even so, Wu Guang's room looked decent, with the bed having a fresh hay mattress and the sheets being spotless. It also had a window, a chair, and a small wardrobe, something that could be considered luxury elements for such a place.

In any case, Wu Guang did not dislike such places and so after examining the room and having nothing else to do, he confirmed with Deng Zian that the latter would stay in the room until sunrise and returned to the hall that served as the bar, restaurant, or tavern depending on the time of the day and the customers.

"Dinner will be ready soon, does the guest wants anything before?" As soon as he appeared a young waitress appeared in front of him.

"Is there any place to wash the dust off?"

"Yes, go outside and circle the building, You will find the well there"

"Thank you. When I return, serve me a beer"

As the girl nodded and Wu Guang passed her a pair of coppers, he went towards the well.

He did not really need to wash anything off as he was constantly covered with a fine coat of qi that did not let things like dust reach him, but even so, a bit of cold water never hurt.

After quickly splashing a bucket of water over himself and using qi to dry both body and clothes, Wu Guang returned to the hall. The time was nearing dinner, and villagers were starting to arrive. This was not strange, after all, this 'Rainbow Fish' establishment was not only the best but also the only one in the entire town.

There were only two big tables with benches to the sides that served as sitting in the entire place, and so Wu Guang took the farthest corner seat. The waitress noticed his return, and so in just a few moments, a cup of foamy beer was placed before him.

A few minutes and new arrivals that did not pay attention to him later, the voice of the woman behind the counter was heard

"Chow's ready"

When the waitress approached Wu Guang and asked what he would like to have, he first asked about what was available.

A single meal dinner was given to him as a courtesy, but he decided to try a few more things and so ordered a portion of boar stew, a few grilled small fish, some vegetable snacks, and another beer. This was normal food catered for mortals, and so he ended paying only four coppers.

The local cuisine as in most towns was pretty simple, even so, as Wu Guang ate, he found that it was well done.

Every cultivator had a moment in his life where one was calmly sitting in a tavern and trouble arouse. In Wu Guang's case, he was nibbling at a small fish while sipping his beer when his corner was approached by three men that reeked of salt and alcohol. He had noticed this group as soon as they entered, as they did not look like the normal fishermen that were present. Plus, the three of them were cultivators and so he instinctively checked on them. But as soon as he saw that the strongest one was a 1st level of the Spirit realm while the other two were on the advanced levels of the Body one, he lost all interest and did not pay any further attention.

"Yooh, guys look there is a new face in our town" The leader spoke while sneering and pointing with a dirty finger towards Wu Guang. But as the latter did not even spare a glance towards the speaker and continued sipping his beer, the leader spoke again

"I say that there is a new face in our town! Are you deaf or simply dumb? Don't you know that you should obey the customs and buy something for your local brothers?"

Hearing such approach to a simple shake-down, Wu Guang barely contained his laughter.

Now that ignoring the pests was impossible, he decided to scare them away.

He turned around and examined the speaker. The man was young, only about 20 years old, and sported dark brown messy hair and a round face with a broken nose.

As a cultivator, he could not get drunk with mortal alcohol, but still, the sheer reek accounted for how much he drank. Dressed in dirty work robes, he looked like a day laborer, but it was clear that his profession was different. The reason for the latter being the curved dagger preferred by sailors hanging on his belt.

"Are you speaking to me?"

"And who would I be speaking to?! Quickly buy your father some drinks or scram from the town!"

"Huh, since when this place is yours to command, Yufu? Don't bother my guest and scram yourself" Approaching with practically visible steam rising from anger the woman that had received Wu Guang loudly spoke.

"Shut up Ma! This is also my place!" Unexpectedly the ruffian was related to the woman and pretty closely, after all, he just claimed that she was his mother.

"I don't remember having such an idiot as my son. Don't bother young master Bai Qi, or he may get angry and send you to meet your deceased father" The woman did not back down, and in fact used Wu Guang's identity as a cultivator to try and beat some sense into her son's head.

"Young Master? Cultivator? How could you believe such lies Ma! Why would such a person even come to this place? He is simply a scammer"

"Shut up and don't offend a paying guest. As for if he is a cultivator or not, I clearly saw him using a 'Holding Pouch'. Did not you tell me that such things are only usable by strong cultivators?"

As mother and son quarreled, Wu Guang was attempting to hide the fact that he was finding this extremely funny. Seemingly his take on the situation was the same as of the people around, as people lightly chuckled while watching the scene.

A change only happened after the words 'Holding Pouch' were said. Even though there was not much malice in Yufy's eyes before, hearing these words made greed surge and now he looked at Wu Guang as prey.

Sensing that the situation could turn messy and not having the wish to kill this idiot, Wu Guang stood up and activated the holding pouch he had brought out from his storage ring especially for the disguise. The object he took was a common medium-quality chopper, one of the used by the criminals under the Eagle Kingdom's control.

This scene made everyone in the hall hold their breaths and fall silent.

Wu Guang was not done yet. He slowly circled it in his hand as if showing the blade to everyone around. Then made a few probing slashes and with the last one cut the corner of the table.

"As you see, this is a real weapon and not the toy that you have on your belt" Wu Guang spoke calmly, but fear was already visible on the faces of Yufu and his mother. The latter was unsurprising, after all, he was still her son and so even if she scolded him, she did not want to see him dead.

Such intimidation should be sufficient, but Wu Guang never did things halfway, so he did not stop there and added another element. He calmly grasped the chopper with his bare left hand and...

*SNAP*

...snapped it in two as a simple twig. Afterward, he simply placed the two parts on the table, nodded to everyone, and spoke coldly before leaving his room.

"I will be staying here only for a single night, and so will make it clear. I do not want any trouble, but if anyone and I mean it, comes searching for it... He or she will end like this blade"

Before resting, Wu Guang spent some time speaking with Chun Hua. Emotions and free thought being new for her, she was extremely enthusiastic to learn more things. In the end, Wu Guang again opened his memories and allowed part of his Bai Qi life to reach her. Her innate knowledge was enough to understand what he showed her, and it even solicited a surprised reaction. But after finding out that he had used her race skills to avoid a sure death, she was even more surprised.

The next morning, Deng Zing did not mention the matter about Wu Guang's small intimidation the last night while during breakfast, nobody from the inn touched the theme either, so the matter could be forgotten about.

_________________________________________________________________________________

A small town like this one obviously had no proper port, with only a few slippery planks that served as somewhat resembling piers. On the other hand, this let Wu Guang instantly identify the ship they would be using. After all, it was the only real ship between the small boats and fishing rafts.

Civilian runeships could be divided into three types, depending on their use. This would be the courier, transport, and cargo ones.

The ship that was meant to transport them to their destination was of the first type. With a small and sleek frame, looking like an arrow ready to fly even by eye it screamed of speed. It had two masts with triangular sails and half a dozen holes in the sides meant that it could use rows for propulsion if needed.

A notorious difference from the common courier ships, images of which Wu Guang memory contained, was the coloring. Normally rune ships were not painted, and so retained the tone of the wood used for it. The copper lines running around it and serving as a qi vein for the runes would be the only detail that could be used to differentiate them. After all, these lines were made by Refining Masters or Apprentices and so every work contained some kind of signature. Be it design, carving, or something else.

But the ship that Wu Guang had in front was painted in low blue colors. As for the copper lines, they were unadorned and darkened as to not reflect light. Such a coloring should be considered camouflage, and in Wu Guang's opinion, it should serve very well to mask the ship while in the open sea.