The strange servant didn’t stop him, instead hustling to catch up and then move in front of Sage to lead the way. The huge hallway was more like a dark tunnel without a shred of light outside of that created by the open doorway behind them. After a few moments the darkness was broken by a light source up ahead and Sage found himself walking into a yard. To either side there were no walls, which meant this wasn’t a courtyard. He glanced back directly through the whole building.

Who puts a hall right through their home that leads directly to the backyard? Is this a house or a tunnel?

Sage was wondering if this fellow was playing with him, leading him directly out of the building without even bothering to say a word. This servant was clearly only in the fourth rank, so Sage wasn’t really feeling endangered by him, but he was also not in the mood to be getting played with. This was already a distasteful job even if the ‘customers’ didn’t make it harder. Sage gave the servant a stare, but the servant just turned and swept his arms back towards a large tree in the center of the yard. The bark was blackened and charred, and its immense trunk was completely devoid of vegetation. Somehow this tree could reach a hundred feet into the sky and cover thousands of square feet with its gnarled branches without carrying a shred of vitality.

The servant directed him towards the tree and Sage had no idea what the tree had to do with a debt being owed to Guan Zhenyan. Was it a treasure that he was supposed to take as payment? Sage walked closer to the tree to see if he was missing something, but as he neared he saw the six foot wide trunk start to twist. He prepared himself for a fight, but then realized that the trunk splitting apart in the center was not an attack. Instead either side of the trunk peeled back to reveal a circular door complete with a shiny bronze handle in the center of it.

The spherical handle twisted and then the door swung outwards. Thick fog rolled out of the opening, concealing what was within. Then the silhouette of a person stepped out, waving the fog out of their face and meeting Sage with a wide smile. This man was also thin, but he wasn’t as tall and spindly as the servant. Instead he looked pale and sickly, garbed in a simple brown. This robe was quite thick and the cloth it was made of reminded Sage of a bathrobe or a ‘smoking jacket’. The man stepped away from the trunk of the blackened tree and swung the door closed behind himself. Then he turned back to face Sage and smiled, showing off a set of cracked teeth.

“Greetings, and just who might you be?”

Despite the man’s ferocious dental work, or lack thereof, he spoke with a silky smooth voice. Sage smiled back at the man, “I am here as a representative of the Dream Dealer.”

The man’s sweet smile turned saccharin, watching as Sage held up the identity token to prove his claim. Seeing the token, he extended his Qi to give it a test and Sage confirmed that the man was also a Nascent Soul. Feeling this, he immediately realized this job was not likely to be as easy as the first one.

The man looked to the side towards the servant, “Golden, please show our esteemed visitor to our best guest room.”

Then he looked to Sage, “You must be extremely tired from your long trip to reach here. Please rest and relax. It will take me some time to collect the necessary goods. I’m sorry to have to make you wait.”

“I am fine, I don’t need to rest. It is no problem for me to accompany you. The Dream Dealer has told me your deal ended many years ago and apologizes for making you store his possessions for so long.”

The man’s eyes narrowed slightly, which matched Sage’s guess that the man didn’t have on hand whatever goods or payment he owed to Guan Zhenyan. Zhenyan also wasn’t making it any easier on Sage, refusing to even tell him what exactly each of these people owed. Instead he was just watching from inside the Universe Ring and if the payment was enough he would tell Sage it was acceptable. Otherwise, Sage had no idea what these people got from the ‘Dream Dealer’ nor what they owed in return. If this was Sage’s occupation, then it would make sense as it created the most separation between himself and the other two parties. This lack of knowledge would mean less danger for himself as he could not spread any information about things he knew nothing about, and the two parties wouldn’t need to eliminate him afterwards for knowing too much.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t Sage’s occupation and he was actually an extremely curious person. Having to do this business of collecting mystery items that were payments for mysterious deals from the past was truly torturous for him. It was even worse because of his internal time dilation, not only did he end up with hundreds of unanswered questions he had hours, days, and weeks to sit around waiting for these people to make a decision. As soon as he finished the job he could put the questions behind him and move on, but it was very annoying while he was actively on the job as he had to stay focused and aware of any danger on the Inner World, with nothing to do but wonder about the answers to all these questions.

“Oh no, I couldn’t let an important personage like yourself follow me around on some mundane errands. Please, rest and relax. I don’t have much space here, so I had to put things into long term storage and it will take all day to go and retrieve them. There’s so much tedious paperwork to do.”

“Don’t worry. This is very important work and the Dream Dealer prefers I handle it all personally. It’s no problem at all for me to accompany you. In fact, I insist we complete it as quickly as possible. Lead the way.”

Not only did Sage not want to waste any time, he also wasn’t in the mood to chase after this fellow if he decided to go on the run. Last time the man was weak enough that Sage could wait in a side chamber and still wasn’t worried about anyone getting away. This man, on the other hand, was strong enough that if he let him get enough of a head start it would become very troublesome to chase him down. It was also because Zhenyan told him that if this guy got away he’d have to do a few weeks worth of paperwork to claim the man’s land and auction it off instead.

The man smiled widely and nodded slowly. Then he started to walk towards the manor and led Sage back into the wide and empty tunnel-like hallway. They stopped in the middle of the hall and the man turned backwards and stomped on the ground. Sage braced himself for an attack, but none came. Instead a large section of the floor behind him lifted upwards to reveal a large ramp leading downwards. The man smiled apologetically and started to walk down the ramp, but Sage could sense he was being tested.

They walked down into a lower chamber with the servant behind them. This lower chamber reminded Sage of a parking garage or mausoleum. It had a low ceiling in comparison to the size of the room and how open it felt. It was made entirely of stone with many smooth sided columns holding it up. They walked forward towards a sleek black carriage and the servant moved off towards the side. The cracked tooth man walked towards the carriage while the servant started to open a lock. Behind the door there were the sounds of scuffling and whining which must be where the Demonic Beasts that pulled the carriage were hidden.

What am I missing here?