They eventually reached a room at the far end of the hall, isolated from everything else. It felt like they had entered an entirely different world. Wu Jian felt out of place, like he didn’t belong there. A shiver ran down his spine.

The young woman slid the door open just a crack.

“Lady Zhou, your guests have arrived.”

“Send them in,” said a voice from the inside, easily recognizable by this point.

“Please, go inside,” said the woman with a bow.

The four of them entered the room to find an elegantly furnished dining area with a low-seating round table in the center. The table was interesting in that it looked like there was a charcoal grill with rounded steel edges set in the middle.

Further out were various decorations. Beautifully painted columns complimented the lattice work of the ceiling, perfectly manicured miniature bonsai trees located in the corner, and a perfectly polished floor made this room look like something suitable for royalty.

Hard to believe something this extravagant existed in this city and I didn’t even know about it.

The Wu Clan was the preeminent clan of Zahn City. The Zhou Clan might have been stronger overall, but they had a policy of non-interference with the city’s politics. That made his clan the strongest by default.

Fluffy pillows were arrayed around the table. Sitting at one end was none other than Zhou Lihua. Dressed in a splendid hanfu colored predominantly white but with orange accents, the young woman was a vision to behold.

He thought she might have been wearing a light amount of makeup. Her eyes were lined with an orange and purple coloration that made them seem more vibrant, and her pink lips contained a glossy sheen as she smiled at them.

Wu Jian would never admit she stole his breath away. She certainly did not. He was not enamored by her beauty at all.

“Owch…” He mumbled and rubbed his backside, wondering which of the two girls on either side had just pinched him.

Standing behind Zhou Lihua were two women. They were wearing tai chi uniforms and had weapons strapped to their waists—a jian. He couldn’t tell what realm they were at since he was still at the Body Forging Realm, but he imagined these bodyguards were quite strong. They would at least be stronger than the one they were protecting.

Zhou Lihua stood up and bowed. “Thank you for accepting my invitation. I’m so happy to see you three.”

Wu Jian, Wu Meiying, and Hou Jingshu also bowed. Like the young woman, their bow was the traditional kind. They placed the fist of their left hand against the palm of their right and bent slightly at the waist.

“Not at all. Thank you for inviting us. We are honored,” Hou Jingshu said with a pretty smile. She seemed more used to this type of setting than either he or Wu Meiying. She spoke with a humble grace befitting the princess of a nation.

She’s probably used to talking with powerful dignitaries like this.

“Yes. Thank you. I really wanted to talk to you again,” Wu Meiying added.

Zhou Lihua’s smile widened. “What a coincidence. I had been hoping I would get another chance to speak with all of you. To be honest, I wanted to speak with you much sooner, but I have been undergoing isolated training to stabilize my cultivation base.”

“Well, you did skip four whole subrealms. It only makes sense that you focus on that instead of socializing,” Wu Jian said.

Whenever someone reached a new realm, their power was always in a state of flux, making it unstable. This was caused by the body not being used to the massive surge of power flowing through it.

To fix this, cultivators would often isolate themselves and train until their newfound power was stabilized, which required balancing the yin and yang energies within the body and learning to control one’s newfound excess of chi. Only after stabilizing their power could they begin training again.

The three of them sat down at Zhou Lihua’s invitation. Wu Jian sat on her right. Wu Meiying would have normally sat next to Wu Jian, but Zhou Lihua requested she sit on her left, which meant Hou Jingshu was able to claim the other spot beside him. Wu Taohua took up a guard position by the door.

“Since you’re here now, I’m guessing your cultivation has stabilized?” asked Wu Jian.

“Indeed, it has.” Zhou Lihua’s smile widened. “I have your gift to thank for that. The sacred lily you gave me not only made it easier to breakthrough to the Hunger Realm, but I was able to stabilize my chi in less than a month. I even broke through to the sixth subrealm during the stabilization process.”

“That’s very impressive,” Wu Meiying said.

“The power of a natural treasure is not to be underestimated,” Hou Jingshu mumbled. “Who knew the sacred lily would prove to be so useful.”

Zhou Lihua spoke a bit more on cultivation. She apparently had been born with a wood and fire affinity, which meant she could become an alchemist if she so chose, though she was currently undecided.

The Zhou Clan was a merchant and information gathering clan. Her role in the family would likely be that of a negotiator. However, alchemists were highly esteemed and sought after, so there was some appeal in learning alchemy as well.

“I was thinking of doing alchemy as a hobby and perhaps turning it into a side business. There is always a lot of profits to be had selling alchemy pills,” Zhou Lihua said.

“Yes, but you would need the time necessary to devote to learning alchemy,” Wu Meiying said.

“That’s true. It takes many years to become good enough to refine pills, and it takes even longer to refine pills that are worth millions of spirit coins.” Zhou Lihua nodded. “Still, if I can become an alchemist of some renown, it would be a boon to the clan.”

“And what about you?” asked Wu Jian.

“Me?” Zhou Lihua blinked.

“Irrespective of whether it would help you clan or not, do you want to be an alchemist?”

Zhou Lihua tilted her head thoughtfully for a moment, then smiled. “I think it would be fun to learn alchemy, so yes, I do believe I would like to become one.”

“Then that’s all that matters. I say go for it,” Wu Jian said.

Zhou Lihua’s smile widened. “Perhaps I shall.”

During their conversation, several servants pushed in a number of carts. They set up the carts around the table and began putting the food on it. A rich scent filled the air as a young man placed a large metal bowl in the very center. With a divider in the middle of the bowl, Wu Jian could see there were two separate types of broth, one a light auburn and the other a spicy orange. The other servants began placing various dishes around the broth bowl. Leafy greens like spinach and hearty greens such as napa cabbage, root vegetables, mushrooms, tofu, corn, beef, lamb, chicken, pork belly, and even offal like pork tongue was served raw on several plates.

Wu Jian looked at Zhou Lihua as the servants set plates in front of them. “Hotpot?”

Zhou Lihua’s lips curled. “Yes. Woo Tangs is rather famous for their hotpot.”

While she mentioned this like eating a hotpot was a matter of course, Wu Jian understood that sharing a hotpot like this meant far more.

Hotpots were not something you shared with just anyone. By inviting them to share a hotpot with her, Zhou Lihua was essentially declaring that she liked them enough to share her food with them.

If she were anyone else, this might not have meant much, but she was the heiress of the Zhou Clan’s Zahn City branch family. She had power. And this powerful person was essentially telling them through her act of sharing food with them that she saw them as equals, as friends.

It was quite humbling.

“I’ve never eaten a hotpot before,” Hou Jingshu admitted as she lifted her chopsticks.

“Then you are in for a treat,” Zhou Lihua smiled like a fox. “I do so love hotpots. However, I very rarely have the chance to eat them because there hasn’t been anyone I like enough to share one with.”

While it was perfectly possible to create an individual hotpot, they were traditionally large meals meant for groups. They were used as a form of social gathering between individuals who were intimately familiar with each other. This normally meant people related by blood—family, in other words.

“Well, let us not stand on ceremony. Please, enjoy,” Zhou Lihua said.

“Hee-hee. Don’t mind if I do,” Wu Meiying said as she nabbed a slice of pork tongue and dipped it into the orange broth. Hou Jingshu looked like she wanted to scold Wu Meiying for her lack of decorum, but instead, she merely sighed, picked up a slice of beef, and added it to the broth.

It was not long before all four of them were adding various meats and vegetables to the broth. The two kinds of broth were as different as night and day.

The auburn broth was a shacha sauce made with soybean oil, garlic, shallots, chilies, brill, and dried shrimp. Wu Jian tried the lamb without dipping it in a sauce after cooking it and was shocked at the flavor. It hit his tongue like cannon fire. Yet while it was certainly spicy, it was not so overbearingly hot that he couldn’t enjoy it.

The other broth was a much milder chicken broth and the flavor wasn’t nearly as powerful. The gentle flavor of the chicken broth went well with the dipping sauces. He found himself particularly enamored with the soy sauce, sesame oil, and chili flakes combination.

No one spoke while they ate, but all of them obeyed appropriate hotpot etiquette. There were a number of rules regarding eating a hotpot with others.

Chopstick washing. This was something that happened to everyone at some point. You forgot about the beef, mushroom, or pork belly you were cooking just a few minutes ago. Now it has been lost in a sea of fish balls, vegetables, and tofu. It was important to rescue it, but there was a rule against swishing your chopsticks back and forth in the brother. There was a hotpot strainer made specifically for saving your food.

Another rule regarding hotpot etiquette was to make sure something was yours before eating it. There were times when a slice of food was just sitting there, begging to be eaten. If you weren’t sure the food was yours, it was important to ask everyone else before staking your claim.

Perhaps the most important rule of the hotpot was double-brothing. Having more than one kind of broth available was a good thing, and it was always important not to ruin a good thing. Maybe not everyone loved spicy food, or perhaps a guest had seafood allergies. It was not nice to begin cooking something in one broth, then finish cooking it in the other broth. The great divide was to be respected.

“That was delicious,” Wu Meiying said, leaning back. She patted her belly as though to emphasize how full she was.

“It was,” Zhou Lihua agreed. Her mild smile was refreshing, and yet, Wu Jian was still vaguely reminded of a fox.

“I would love to come here again some time.”

“I’ll be sure to invite you over some more then.”

“Ah. Zhou Lihua, I just knew you and I would get along.”

Seeing the two get along so well put a small frown on Hou Jingshu’s face. She seemed jealous. Coughing into her hand, she decided to move things along.

“I’m assuming you asked us here for a reason besides just sharing a meal, correct?” she asked. “I can’t see someone as important as you inviting us to dine with you otherwise.”

“Well, I did want to eat with you three again, but you are correct. I didn’t just invite you to dine with me for no reason.” The servants cleared away the table, prepared them some tea and a simple dessert of nian gao, and left. When they were gone, Zhou Lihua placed her hands on the table and clasped them together. “Tian Hao is becoming a problem for the Zhou Clan. However, because of our policy of non-interference, we are unable to deal with her ourselves.”

The Zhou Clan was one of the only international clans, with holdings across all thirteen nations of the Xiao Continent. Such a powerful clan would normally be seen as a threat. To be able to operate as they did, the Zhou Clan had adopted a policy of non-interference, meaning they would never interfere in another nation’s problems or attempt to change national policy. This also meant that for all their power and wealth, they could not affect any significant changes themselves.

Wu Jian placed his forearms on the table and leaned forward. The table creaked just a little underneath the weight, but he ignored it and fixed the young woman with a steady gaze.

“I assume you have a plan to deal with her? You’re a smart woman. I don’t think you’d invite us over unless you already had a plan in place and just needed our help to execute it.”

Wu Meiying grabbed a slice of nian gao. It was a popular dessert of brown sugar cake wrapped in a pastry and deep fried. She pushed the piece into her mouth, then almost moaned in delight.

“Jingshu! Jingshu! You must try this nian gao! It’s delicious.”

“Very well--what are you doing?!”

“Come on. Say ‘aaah.’”

“A-absolutely not! I can eat it myself!”

Wu Meiying was leaning over the table, a slice of nian gao in hand, and trying to hand feed it to a red-faced Hou Jingshu. What a lucky princess. Wu Jian would have felt sorry for her, but he rather enjoyed it when Wu Meiying fed him.

“Why don’t you feed me some of that?” suggested Zhou Lihua.

“Very well. Say ‘aaaah.’”

“Aaah.”

Hou Jingshu’s cheeks puffed out as Wu Meiying handfed Zhou Lihua nian gao.

“I-if you’re going to feed her, then I guess you can feed me too.”

“Hee-hee. All right. Say ‘aaah.’”

“A-aaaah.”

Wu Jian was conflicted. He would have loved to have Wu Meiying feed him, but there was also something therapeutic about watching girls feed each other. What a conundrum.

“Wu Jian, why don’t you have some too. Say ‘aaaah,’” said Zhou Lihua, holding out a piece of nian gao.

“AaahhhHHHH?!”

Wu Jian opened his mouth on instinct and only realized who was feeding him moments after she put the food in his mouth.

“Is it good?” she asked as he chewed and swallowed.

“V-very good. Thank you.” Wu Jian felt his cheeks flush. He coughed into his hand, ignoring Wu Meiying’s giggling and Hou Jingshu’s petulant glare. “A-anyway, let’s get back on topic. I’m guessing you have a plan for dealing with Tian Hao?”

“You are correct. I do have a plan.” Zhou Lihua paused. A sense of tension filled the air before, with purposeful slowness, she smiled deviously at them. “Wu Jian, Wu Meiying, Hou Jingshu, how would the three of you like to enter a business venture with me?”