Chapter 146: Vast News Studio

The manager of the tea house wore an extremely grim expression. Dropping his forced, superficial smile, he furrowed his brow and said, "What is it you want, then? How can we put this matter to rest? If you are determined to ruin this tea house's reputation, do you realize that you will offend people you cannot afford to cross?"

Chen Mu let out a cold snort. "Now you resort to threats? Hmph! It is not a matter of what I want, but what *you* want! Your servant humiliated a Core Formation cultivator in public and showed utter disrespect, yet instead of offering an explanation to everyone present right away, you blame me for making groundless accusations? I paid spirit stones to drink tea here, only to be subjected to unprovoked insults from one of your subordinates. Is this how you run a business? Am I the one being unreasonable, or are you? You ask what I want? It is as if you are trying to frame me as the troublemaker here. Today, I have truly witnessed the extent of this dump's hospitality. Not only is there not even a basic apology, but you dare question my demands! Everyone here has witnessed the entire process with their own eyes. The other party completely lacks any sincerity to apologize. A shop that takes people's money yet expects them to kowtow like servants—I will certainly never patronize this place again. Since the other party refuses to apologize or make appropriate amends, there are green mountains and flowing rivers; we shall meet again at a better tea house."

With that, Chen Mu turned to walk straight out of the establishment. The manager’s face shifted between shades of green and red. He immediately bowed and said, "Young brother, it was my oversight. Please forgive my improper handling just now. I will not keep this servant here any longer, and I shall refund your tea money as well. I only ask that the young brother does not harbor any resentment over this."

The servant turned pale. He had assumed his master would shield him, never expecting that he would be cast aside after all.

He had secured this position only because his family had some connections with the manager, which was precisely why the manager had continuously tried to minimize the issue and deflect attention away from the core problem.

Unfortunately, Chen Mu had relentlessly seized upon the servant's disrespect toward a Core Formation cultivator, arousing the public anger of the crowd. Left with no other choice, the manager had to fire the servant.

He secretly cursed the servant for being utterly blind, actually daring to provoke a Core Formation cultivator, and then, having failed, flying into a blind rage and mocking the man.

If this wasn't courting death, what was it? Had fighting and killing not been forbidden within the city walls, the servant certainly would have been slapped to death by Chen Mu on the spot.

In truth, Chen Mu could indeed have killed the servant. Although cultivator cities forbade brawls, if a lower-tier cultivator committed the offense of insubordination against a superior, the higher-tier cultivator was permitted to execute them.

However, Chen Mu had three reservations: first, he was unfamiliar with the city's actual situation; second, out of caution, he wished to avoid offending the City Lord's estate and the enforcement guards; and third, he feared giving the manager a legitimate excuse to retaliate if he took matters into his own hands.

To play it safe, Chen Mu had reluctantly resorted to such troublesome tactics to place himself on the moral high ground. With the support of the surrounding onlookers, the manager would not dare to act rashly.

Although Chen Mu had avoided a direct physical clash with the manager, the incident had still blown up.

With so many people witnessing the entire sequence of events, and with Chen Mu having spoken so harshly, word would inevitably spread once this matter concluded. By then, surely no one else would ever come here to drink tea.

Thus, while the manager kept up a facade of profusely apologizing to Chen Mu, he never uttered a single genuinely remorseful word. Instead, a subtle, cold glint flickered in his eyes—clearly, he had marked Chen Mu with a grudge.

Chen Mu took in every bit of this. He sneered internally but did not expose him. After all, he had already achieved his desired effect; from now on, the reputation of this tea house would be utterly ruined.

Bowing slightly so that his hair shadowed his chilling gaze, the manager asked, "May I ask the young brother's esteemed name? Ah, before inquiring, it is only proper that I introduce myself first. My surname is Jiang, and I am Jiang Fangyuan of the Jiang family. Might I know the young brother's honored name? Our Jiang family always delights in making friends everywhere, and we are more than happy to befriend promising young talents like yourself."

Hearing that Jiang Fangyuan hailed from the Jiang family, the onlookers felt a wave of surprise. They had not expected this tea house to be a Jiang family enterprise. Although the Jiang family could not compare to the supreme powers, they were nonetheless a moderately renowned clan in the vicinity. Rumor had it that their patriarch was a Dharma Idol realm existence.

Chen Mu had already guessed what Jiang Fangyuan was plotting. The man undoubtedly intended to investigate his background afterward so he could launch a retaliatory strike—after all, registering one's name upon entering the city meant anyone with a bit of leverage could dig up the information.

Since his identity would be exposed sooner or later anyway, Chen Mu did not bother to hide it. He glanced at the man and said, "Chen Mu."

Chen Mu was not worried that the other party would dispatch overly formidable opponents to hunt him down. Since he was merely in the Core Formation realm, they would undoubtedly send family members at the Core Formation or perhaps Nascent Soul realm to intercept him. As for anyone above the Soul Formation realm, unless they had nothing better to do, they certainly wouldn't pick a fight with a mere junior.

Therefore, Chen Mu cared very little about the Core Formation and Nascent Soul realms. He could handle most Core Formation opponents, and if he couldn't defeat a Nascent Soul expert, he could simply outrun them. Even Soul Formation masters couldn't catch him if he fled, let alone those in the Nascent Soul realm. Thus, Chen Mu dismissed the Jiang family's threats entirely.

After Chen Mu stated his name, Jiang Fangyuan transmitted his voice coldly so that only Chen Mu could hear: "Chen Mu? Very well, I have remembered you. When the night is dark and the wind is high, a man who makes a single misstep dies just like that. Little brother Chen, you had better watch your step and make sure you don't carelessly lose your little life."

Though Chen Mu did not know how to transmit sound, he simply grinned without speaking aloud, using lip movements to convey his reply to Jiang Fangyuan: "I'll be waiting."

The onlookers had no idea what the two had exchanged in that fleeting moment. They only watched as Chen Mu strode boldly out of the tea house and away. Meanwhile, the Core Formation patrons and onlookers, thoroughly disgusted by Jiang Fangyuan's previous customer service, also departed with looks of displeasure. Since the tea house was so snobbish and looked down on people, why should they stay any longer?

Jiang Fangyuan knew he could not retain these patrons; his tea house’s reputation was now utterly ruined and notorious.

Gazing darkly in the direction Chen Mu had left, he thought that for offending the Jiang family, this Chen Mu had to die.

***

After leaving the tea house, Chen Mu looked dazedly at the bustling, crowded streets.

While he could simply ask someone at random where to gather intelligence—such as a notice board posting major continental news or an intelligence broker—the people on the street did not look like easy conversationalists. Given his eccentric attire, everyone gave him a wide berth, clearly wishing to avoid any association with him.

This left Chen Mu quite perplexed. He could clearly see the disdain in their eyes. It seemed he would have to change his wardrobe; otherwise, he might not even get the chance to speak normally with anyone.

Wandering the streets, he sought out a tailoring shop that sold Daoist robes for cultivators. Rather than having the shopkeeper custom-make a set, he simply purchased a standard set of garments woven from ordinary spirit materials.

His stingy behavior earned him the shopkeeper's silent contempt. Given that he had already reached the Core Formation realm, he was utterly unconcerned with his appearance and far too tight-fisted. He must be some wild, itinerant cultivator from some remote, impoverished countryside, so poor that he had to skimp even on buying clothes.

The shopkeeper shook his head internally, marveling at how someone so miserly had managed to cultivate to the Core Formation realm against the odds.

Of course, this was merely the shopkeeper's private appraisal, of which Chen Mu remained completely unaware.

He had little choice; the amount of spirit stones he had left was truly minimal. He had burned through a quarter of his wealth just trying to break through to the Core Formation realm. If he continued cultivating at this rate, his funds would soon be entirely depleted. Although others viewed him as a country bumpkin and a pauper, the cruel reality was that their assumptions were entirely accurate.

Having changed into a new set of clothes, Chen Mu no longer stood out quite as jarringly as before, though his Daoist robes remained utterly ordinary, leading others to assume he was still short on spirit stones.

Still, the new outfit improved his impression quite a bit. After all, clothes make the man. Although Chen Mu was still young and not exceptionally dashing or unearthly handsome, he was a pleasant-looking youth. The heroic spirit between his brows and his resilient facial features still won him favorable first impressions.

Thus, with his makeover, Chen Mu successfully inquired of a passerby the location of the cultivators' intelligence exchange hall. Known as the Vast News Pavilion, the information Chen Mu sought was actually not so crucial that he needed to venture inside the pavilion itself.

The outer hall and plaza of the Vast News Pavilion featured numerous notice boards displaying recent happenings: bizarre anomalies and strange occurrences around the continent; powerful experts who had perished in duels against rivals; newly emerged prodigies in alchemy and artifact refining; postings for finding lost persons or items; clans recruiting servants or guards; and teams seeking recruits to hunt demonic beasts... All kinds of miscellaneous information were gathered there.

The areas with service counters served as intelligence trading posts, generally dealing in slightly more confidential information unknown to the general public.

Acquiring such confidential intelligence required offering some form of remuneration—spirit stones, medicinal pills, or any items of equivalent value to the information could be used for exchange.

As for the inner sanctum of the Vast News Pavilion, it was overseen personally by the pavilion master. Only top-secret and vital news was handled directly by the master himself, and acquiring such intelligence required paying an exorbitant and hefty price.

Chen Mu slowly perused the notice boards in the plaza and outer hall, searching for the news he desired. Most of the information posted here was quite mundane and essentially common knowledge to everyone.

Yet for Chen Mu, reading these notices was an eye-opening experience. Even if some of the bizarre tales were of dubious authenticity, at least they were things he would never have witnessed on the Yuanyao Continent.

Therefore, he carefully read through each notice line by line, diligently absorbing the fascinating events currently unfolding across the continent.

Finally, on a larger information board, the news he sought caught his eye: three months from now, the four supreme sects of the Bixiao Continent were planning to hold a Dao-Discussion Assembly at the ethereal fairy mountain.

For a low-tier cultivator like Chen Mu, participating in such a Dao-Discussion Assembly was far too ambitious. However, listening to the Dao expounded by those supreme masters would undoubtedly benefit his own cultivation.

Furthermore, once the assembly concluded, the major sects would widely recruit disciples and hold entrance examination trials.

Passing would secure one a position as an ordinary disciple, while outstanding scores offered a chance to become an elite disciple. Moreover, these evaluations began right at the onset of the Dao-Discussion Assembly; the more one gained from listening to the masters' lectures, the more it would boost one's score, as innate talent and comprehension were core criteria for these major sects.

Reading this news, Chen Mu was instantly overjoyed. Since the four supreme sects were recruiting disciples, securing admission into one of them would instantly solve his cultivation resource woes.