Third District.
Inside the small wine tavern, the quiet murmur of a few early patrons barely reached the corner where Zhang Tianwen and Zhang Yan sat. Tianwen leaned back slightly, his posture relaxed, eyes scanning the interior without appearing to do so.
Tianwen thought that although the tavern was small, its location was excellent, close enough to the market street to catch passing traffic, yet far from the main street to avoid idle eyes.
Ten months had passed since his awakening. In these ten months his spiritual cultivation reached late stage of rank 1. This was because he had been deligent and also have resources. In this period of time other than listening lectures daily, he only did two things, cultivating and practising space pause ka. As for soul cultivation, he had not started yet.
It was only after starting cultivation and experiencing the status he understood how good of a position he got. The reason his cultivation increased this fast is mostly because of spirit stones. In fact, he could have reached the peak stage if he had not saved 20 spirit stones every month.
Although he is receiving a good number of spirit stones monthly, he is still not satisfied with them, so he saved them to do some 'business'
Now that he saved two hundred spirit stones without effecting his cultivation, he decided to act on it.
Beside him, Zhang Yan eyed the wine but did not touch it, trying to restrain himself as they are here for an important matter.
His situation is simply way worse. If we compare both it can even be said that Zhang Yan is almost worthless.
He was selected to the support ka third division, which consists mostly of speed related ka members. The chances of encountering dangers are not low, although it's still manageable. The most important thing is that he only receives 30 spirit stones a month even after working there after putting his life in danger.
If he just worked hard and did nothing it might take years for him to just reach rank 2. After 10 months he only reached the middle stage of rank 1.
Soon, the manager of the tavern, a thin middle-aged man with calculating eyes, came over and bowed slightly. Tianwen calmly gestured for him to sit.
Sitting down, he did not say anything unnecessary but directly asked "Young Masters, the wine related proposal you said about yesterday?"
This guy's name is Chen Tao, a rank 1 peak stage cultivator, also the manager of this wine tavern. Looking at his low cultivation at such an age, Tianwen couldn't help but sigh thinking that Zhang family is really ruthless.
Don't look at how generous the family is towards its own people and misunderstand, for outsiders in the region, it is always a ruthless and blood-sucking behemoth.
Even if someone wants to awaken using the awakening stone, they need to pay an enormous sum, which most people couldn't afford.
These people could only awaken naturally, which might happen at literally any time, for some at 16 itself, but for others maybe even 25.
Let's say you successfully awakened, what then? Every step of cultivation is so hard because almost all the resources in the region are controlled by the family, even placing several formations and drawing almost all the spiritual energy towards the central area where the family is located.
So, people like Chen Tao could only work as hard as they can to earn spirit stones and be willingly exploited by others, only to grow old ending up being a nobody at the end.
Tianwen simply pointed at twenty-five jade wine jars silently, lined in a neat row beside him. He took one into his hand and opened it, handing it to the manager, the faint aroma of 'Quick-fire spiritual wine' immediately spread into the air — rich, sharp, and carrying that unique burning sweetness.
"These are the things I talked about. Twenty-five of them," he said calmly. "Mix them into the tavern's original stock. Sell them as usual."
Chen Tao did not reach for them, clearly hesitating. He forced a stiff smile. "If something goes wrong or if owner knows of this, then this small one.... "
This is the so-called business, Tianwen wanted to do. This quick fire spiritual wine is actually a special wine which is costly and famous for among the rank 1 and 2 cultivators, this costs 10 spirit stones per jar. Tianwen brought 20 jars for 200 spirit stones he saved and other 5 empty jars which are similar looking and mixed the wine of 20 jars into 25 jars, then he mixed some water and some cheap herbs to make them unable to distinguish them from the original.
After thinking about several ideas, he decided that this is a perfect idea, the people in this world are not that strict with labelling and packaging. Most of the business goes with reputation and integrity. And most importantly, he won't face any risk, all the risk will be faced by this Chen Tao for him.
This is not some brilliant idea or anything, but most people simply dare not do it because of the owner of the tavern, but he decided to go with it; as with his status, he won't face any risks.
He already told Chen Tao about what he did with the wine before and made him agree, it's just that this guy is afraid of consequences.
" Your owner won't check them specifically, quick fire spiritual wine is famous and hundreds of them buy this regularly, just mixing our 25 or so wines won't make any difference." Tianwen explained.
Seeing that this guy is still agitated Tianwen is not angry but calmly explained "Firstly our wines are almost 95% similar to original, unless someone compare them side by side they can't be differentiated. Secondly if someone really finds out, I will definitely protect you as this much is not difficult for me. At that time, I will just say that it is someone else's work, even if your owner knows the truth, he can't do anything because of my status and can only let you go."
"And it's not like I am asking you to do this for nothing, you will definitely get your cut for your work"
Listening to this Chen Tao is a bit tempted. After a few seconds, he finally decided to agree.
Most important reason he agreed is because he is afraid that disagreeing might lead to even more problems; as he knows that these Zhang family children will definitely not let him off if he disagrees. By agreeing he could at least make some profit. If he gets caught, at most he can simply flee with that money; or so he thought.