Master of Kaidan
Chapter 255

Chapter 255: Chapter 255

After tossing and turning for most of the day, Feng Xue and Old Li finally set foot on the land of the new world. The language used here was a variant of the Yan Country language, similar to a dialect with a heavy accent, which allowed the two to quickly learn the language solely based on the "Yan Country" label’s accompanying knowledge.

Strictly speaking, this was no coincidence, as most of the worlds of martial arts originated from Yan Country. Moreover, the True Object Feng Xue wore when he opened the door was a Chinese sword, so it was not surprising that the language used was the Yan Country language.

After two inter-world transfers, by the time they arrived here, it was already the morning of the second day. The streets were crowded with people who mostly wore coarse cloth and looked impoverished. Observing the low houses on both sides of the street and the absence of street vendors, it was clear that this place was not a wealthy area.

"Let’s first find an inn or a teahouse or something," Old Li said without hesitation, speaking with experience. Feng Xue heard him and understood that he wanted to find a place where information was readily available. Without objecting, the two started moving in a chosen direction.

However, their wandering was not aimless. After all, by simple logic, where the buildings were taller, there tended to be more wealthy people.

In this city, this rule apparently held true. As the buildings along the street slowly grew taller, the street became livelier. However, perhaps due to the time of day, there were still few jianghu people carrying weapons.

"This one looks good." Old Li looked around and chose a two-story inn with a sign reading "Wealthy Guest Inn" hanging in front. The inn, with its brick-wood structure and somewhat mottled wooden doors, had an air of the jianghu.

The waiter, likely attracted by their fine attire, greeted them eagerly and said with a familiar professional greeting:

"Gentlemen, are you stopping for a meal or staying at our establishment?"

"Bring us a table of your signature dishes," Feng Xue said, flipping a gold coin carelessly. Although he was not sure which currency was used in this world, he thought that paying for a meal probably wouldn’t require something like a Spirit Stone.

The waiter, who didn’t show much martial skill but was agile nonetheless, caught the gold coin and immediately felt that its weight was off. Upon closer examination, while he didn’t recognize the embossed pattern, he knew it had to be gold.

"Right away, please come inside!" Knowing that these customers were no ordinary folk, the waiter hurried toward the kitchen. Feng Xue and Old Li found a spot by the window in the main hall and casually surveyed the surroundings.

The inn looked much like those in period dramas, but since it was still early, there weren’t many customers and no jianghu chatter for them to overhear.

"Miscalculated, didn’t we?" Feng Xue gave Old Li a teasing look, but Old Li ignored him and instead asked the waiter who was approaching with a teapot:

"Young man, do you know of any strange happenings in the jianghu recently?"

The waiter, about to serve the esteemed guests a fresh pot of tea, was startled by the question and replied with a flustered smile:

"You jest, sir. How could someone like me know about matters of the jianghu?"

"This batch of waiters isn’t up to snuff," Old Li sighed inwardly, but at least this confirmed the existence of the "jianghu" in this area. He felt relieved and put on an affable smile as he said:

"No harm done. Just tell us whatever you know. Are there no experts in these parts?"

"This..." The waiter became a bit nervous upon hearing this but still whispered:

"Our Si Province is decent, but Martial Arts aren’t prosperous. There’s the Golden Crow Sect, but as you may know, in these times, the major sects do not allow their disciples to leave unless they are a Grandmaster. Speaking of experts, only a few Grandmasters maintained by the government are seen maybe once a year."

Having said this, the waiter closed his mouth and quickly changed the subject:

"The dishes ordered by the two guests still haven’t arrived; I’ll go and hurry them up for you."

Having said that, the waiter dashed off and disappeared.

Old Li and Feng Xue exchanged a glance. Although they had only spoken a few words, the content was certainly substantial.

The message about this small town belonging to "Si Province" was cryptic enough, but the phrase "the place is nice, but Martial Arts aren’t flourishing" was particularly strange.

In any martial arts novel, shouldn’t it be that the more outstanding the people and the more spiritually endowed the land, the more prosperous the Martial Arts would be?

Yet, from another perspective, if everyone could live and work in peace, without constant fighting, it would make sense that Martial Arts weren’t flourishing.

The real issue was, if Martial Arts weren’t flourishing, why would there be strange regulations like "one must not leave the mountain without becoming a Grandmaster"?

Or could it be that becoming what this world calls a "Grandmaster" is actually very easy to achieve?

The more they thought about these things, the more confused they became, but it seemed to be common knowledge; asking around could easily draw unnecessary attention.

They were indeed aiming to become famous, but not through the infamy of acting foolish.

"What should we do?" Feng Xue asked in Mandarin, which was somewhat different from the language of this world. After pondering for a bit, Old Li responded,

"We have three options: either go check out the so-called Golden Crow Sect, or pay a visit to the Grandmaster from the government office, or... naturally, leave Si Province and look for a place where Martial Arts are thriving."

"We have too little information; we don’t even know what kind of realm these so-called Grandmasters are in. If we aren’t careful and something goes wrong in this broken place, that would be..."

Feng Xue suddenly stopped speaking and then saw the waiter, along with a few colleagues, bringing over plates of food.

The waiter was quite honest; when he said a table’s worth, he meant it. Eight dishes—four meat and four vegetable—along with a soup and a small bowl of fragrant rice, it all looked quite appetizing.

Feng Xue’s dormant [Chef] identity immediately activated, and she began analyzing the details of the dishes.

"The steamed fish is freshly killed wild river fish, the vegetables, and bamboo shoots were picked no more than two days ago, each dish is specifically chosen to avoid common dietary restrictions, indicating that this restaurant has quite a few signature dishes..."

As Feng Xue muttered to herself, she picked up a piece of fish with her chopsticks. The flesh was tender as garlic cloves, fragrant and delicious, but Feng Xue’s expression became increasingly serious—

"This isn’t the kind of dish that a small city can serve."

"You’ll get used to such things. I’ve seen a waiter in some small frontier shop, probably during the Song Dynasty, serve a full imperial Manchu-Han feast, and for two tables at that!" Old Li curled his lip, indicating with a "you’re making a fuss over nothing" expression,

"Different worldviews mean certain things can’t be generalized. From a scientific perspective, factors like soil fertility, atmospheric oxygen levels, geographical location, the degree of crop domestication, and so on. From a mystical point of view, there’s also consideration of nature’s spiritual energy and such. It wouldn’t be rare for a small plot of land in some worlds to feed an entire city’s population."

"Uh..." Feng Xue, momentarily stunned by Old Li’s explanation, suddenly looked up, pointed her finger outside the window, and deliberately used a confused and puzzled tone,

"So being cornered by a government officer after just eating a meal isn’t rare either?"