Chương 574: Chapter 569: The Red Phoenix Tavern

The Red Phoenix Tavern was on a corner in the eastern district of Stillwater City, it was the kind of place that cultivators liked to go when they wanted to talk privately without making it obvious that was what they were doing, and it had been doing good business for that reason because the jade formation arrays that were set into the walls kept conversations from spreading to other tables which made it very popular for business dealings.

The main room could hold about forty people but that evening there were around thirty patrons spread out at different tables and the lanterns that hung from the ceiling beams gave off a warm soft light that reflected off the polished wood everywhere. Behind the bar there was a man who looked to be in his thirties, his face was one that you would forget almost immediately after looking away from it, average in every way.

His dark hair was tied back simply and he wore plain gray robes like a working cultivator who earned his living serving other people. There was a white cloth over his left shoulder that he used to wipe down the counter. He poured drinks and cleared away empty cups and moved between the tables without saying anything that wasn't necessary. The evening crowd was what you would expect the night before a major expedition was supposed to leave.

Two Thoughtshaper cultivators near the front windows were having an argument about a map that was spread out across their table, the older one kept jabbing his finger at the parchment and insisting that the southern route through the Broken Teeth Mountains was the faster option, three days shorter he said, if the weather cooperated.

His companion who had her hair done in elaborate braids was shaking her head and saying that faster didn't mean safer and that the Broken Teeth had spatial rifts that could appear without any warning and that she personally knew a Dream Architect who had lost half his entire expedition there the previous spring because of exactly that problem.

"That was spring," the older one said, "the rifts are less active in autumn."

"Less active doesn't mean gone," she replied, "you're gambling with all our lives just to save three days." At another table four Dream Architects were celebrating something.

"To Zhao Ming!" one of them raised his cup, "he finally achieved Dream Architect realm after seventy years!" Zhao Ming himself was grinning and protesting that seventy years wasn't actually that long and that some people took centuries to do it.

"You were complaining about it every single day for the last decade," one of his companions said back, "'I can feel the breakthrough coming I just need one more insight.'""Well I was right wasn't I, I did need one more insight."

"What was it then, the insight?" Zhao Ming's grin got wider and he said he had stopped trying so hard, that he had spent three weeks sitting by a river just watching the water and not doing any meditation or cultivation techniques at all, and then suddenly everything had clicked into place.

"That is the most Zhao Ming answer that has ever existed," the first cultivator laughed, "overthink a problem for seven decades then solve it by not thinking at all." Near the bar, two merchants, who had some cultivation ability, were talking quietly about prices, specifically that dream stones had gone up another ten percent this quarter because the Black Water Sect was apparently buying up everything they could find for some big project nobody knew the details of.

"Good for them and terrible for everyone else," the second merchant said, explaining that he had three contracts he might have to cancel because he couldn't source enough stones at the price he had already quoted. The first merchant asked if he could renegotiate with whoever he had the contracts with and the second merchant made a face and said it was the Liu Clan, and they would rather cancel and put him on a blacklist than adjust the terms of anything.

"Better than going bankrupt trying to fulfill them though," the first merchant pointed out.

"True enough," the second agreed, "at least I'm not dealing with the Xen Clan anymore, those bastards tried to claim my whole shipment was damaged when only one crate had a cracked seal." The barkeeper went between tables refilling cups and taking away plates and he didn't say anything to anyone beyond what was needed to do his job, he just worked. Then the door opened and a middle aged man walked in like he already owned the establishment.

Sun Tao appeared to be in his late forties though cultivators could maintain a specific appearance for centuries if they wanted to so that didn't mean much, he had a strong face with a square jaw and eyes that seemed to always be narrowed like he was judging whatever he was looking at.

His hair was mostly black with gray at the temples and he wore crimson robes with golden phoenixes embroidered all over them which announced his fire cultivation to anyone who had eyes to see, and the spiritual pressure he let leak out of himself made the air around him several degrees warmer than the rest of the room. The jade ring securing his hair back probably cost more than most people earned in an entire year. He went to the bar without looking at anyone and knocked on the counter twice with his knuckles.

"Wine. Your best vintage. Quick with it." The barkeeper didn't change his expression, he just reached for a clay bottle on the shelf and poured a generous cup and set it on the counter. Sun Tao picked it up, sniffed it, and made a face.

"This is your best? I've had better rice wine from village taverns."

"Fifty dream stones," the barkeeper said.

"Fifty stones for swill?" Sun Tao laughed but he took a pouch from his storage ring and threw it onto the counter and told the barkeeper to keep the change and maybe afford something drinkable. A Dream Architect at a nearby table who had been talking quietly with his companion looked up and frowned.

"Some people don't understand the concept of basic courtesy." His friend, another Dream Architect judging by her spiritual pressure, nodded.

"Probably thinks his cultivation level means he doesn't need manners." Sun Tao turned his head toward them very slowly and didn't say anything, he just let his spiritual pressure expand outward and the temperature in their corner of the room rose noticeably. Both of them felt the weight of Late Stage Oneiric Sovereign cultivation pressing down on them, their faces went pale and they both found their cups extremely interesting suddenly and said nothing else.

Sun Tao turned back to his wine looking satisfied with how that had gone. This was how the world worked in his understanding of it, the strong did whatever they wanted and the weak learned to keep quiet, and he had spent five hundred years pulling himself up from a minor clan that could barely produce Thoughtshapers so he had earned the right to do as he pleased. If people wanted to judge him, they could do it somewhere else because none of them would say it to his face.

He had come to this expedition for the Celestial Dream Lotus, obviously, because everyone knew the palace held treasures beyond what most people could imagine and whoever got the lotus would be set up for advancement to Lucid Lawbearer realm and possibly even further than that. Sun Tao had been stuck at Late Stage Oneiric Sovereign for ninety years and he was tired of waiting.

The door opened again and the man who came in looked young, probably his mid twenties in appearance, with a round face that seemed like it naturally wanted to smile and warm brown eyes and slightly messy hair that gave the impression he had been too busy doing other things to worry about it. His robes were simple but good quality, earth toned browns and greens without decoration.

Despite how young he looked, his cultivation marked him clearly as Peak Oneiric Sovereign, just one step below the threshold that separated Oneiric Sovereigns from Lucid Lawbearers.

"That's strange," the young man said looking around, "I was in Stillwater City just last year and I don't remember this place being here." He looked at the barkeeper, "is this a new business?"

"New enough," the barkeeper said.

"Well congratulations on the success," the young man said warmly, "you're getting good traffic for a young establishment, must be the location." Then he noticed Sun Tao and his face lit up.

"Brother Sun! It's nice to see you here." Sun Tao's expression soured somewhat, "Xu Feng. I should have known you'd be involved in this." Xu Feng walked to the bar with an easy unhurried way of moving and sat on the stool next to Sun Tao without being invited. He nodded to the barkeeper.

"Tea, please. Whatever you recommend."

"Still drinking tea like an old scholar," Sun Tao said with clear disdain, "you're a cultivator not a retired poet."

"I like tea," Xu Feng said, his smile not changing at all, "wine makes my thinking fuzzy and I prefer to keep my head clear."

"Your head is already too clear, that's your problem actually." Sun Tao finished his cup and gestured for more.

"You think too much and do too little, how you reached Peak Oneiric Sovereign while avoiding every real fight is beyond me." Xu Feng and Sun Tao had crossed paths various times over the past hundred years and had both been part of a group expedition to the Whispering Caves about ninety years ago during which Sun Tao had complained constantly about Xu Feng's preference for defensive techniques and avoiding unnecessary confrontation.

The fire cultivator seemed to genuinely believe that cultivation required constant aggression and forceful assertion of dominance over others and Xu Feng had a completely different view of things.

"I reached Peak Oneiric Sovereign by understanding the earth," Xu Feng said in a mild tone, picking up his tea and breathing in the steam, "water wears at it over centuries but the earth remains, fire burns across its surface but the earth endures, that is where real strength comes from."

"Flowery nonsense," Sun Tao said, "the earth gets walked on by everyone, that's what patience actually gets you, footprints."

"And fire burns bright and then goes out when it has nothing left to consume," Xu Feng replied, still with his smile, "we each have our own path." Sun Tao hated when Xu Feng did this, took every criticism and turned it into some calm philosophical observation, the earth cultivator was infuriating because he never got angry or rose to any bait presented to him, no matter how hard you pushed he just absorbed it and settled back to how he had been before.

"Your path is going to get you killed in the Sunken Dream Palace," Sun Tao said.

"That place doesn't reward patience, it rewards strength and decisive action."

"Perhaps," Xu Feng sipped his tea, "or perhaps it rewards those who can endure what others cannot, the palace has stood for hundreds of thousands of years after all, maybe it has some respect for similar qualities." Before Sun Tao could say anything back the door opened again. The room went quiet. The woman who came in looked to be in her early twenties and had features that seemed carved with precision, pale and perfect, high cheekbones and eyes so light blue they were almost white entirely.

Her hair was long and black and fell straight down her back without a single strand out of place, she wore white robes, the temperature in the room dropped noticeably as she walked past the tables. Xie Ling looked at the room with those cold eyes, her gaze going over every person with what appeared to be complete disinterest.

She chose a table in the corner that gave her a clear view of both the door and the rest of the interior of the room, she sat down and arranged her robes and then folded her hands on the table in front of her and waited. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Several of the male cultivators in the room were staring at her and one Dream Architect at a nearby table leaned toward his companion and spoke just loud enough that she would almost certainly hear him.

"Now that's what I call a cultivation resource. I'd happily spend a few years warming her bed if she'd share some of that ice qi." His companion laughed nervously, clearly aware they were playing with fire. Xie Ling didn't turn her head or look in their direction at all. Frost spread across the Dream Architect's skin, starting from his feet and climbing rapidly up his legs and torso, and in less than three seconds he had become a perfect ice statue with his face frozen in an expression of surprise.

His companion fell backward off his chair scrambling away from him. Xie Ling still hadn't looked at either of them. She sat perfectly still with her hands folded and her face expressionless. The frozen cultivator would thaw out eventually, maybe in an hour or two, assuming nobody knocked him over and broke him into pieces, and he would be fine except for some spiritual damage and a very thorough lesson about keeping certain thoughts to himself, but the message to everyone else in the room was clear.

Sun Tao studied Xie Ling with narrowed eyes. He had heard rumors over the past six months, whispers that she had achieved a breakthrough, Half Step Lucid Lawbearer, not the complete realm but close enough to be genuinely dangerous to the wrong person. She could manifest partial laws, enough to freeze a Dream Architect without even directing her attention at him. He had had plans for Xie Ling because she was powerful and her ice cultivation would complement his fire techniques in certain dual cultivation practices.

A woman's ice qi could be refined and absorbed by a fire cultivator to strengthen their flames, it was a tradition that had existed for a long time, though most people used the phrase cultivation partner instead of the more accurate term. But that calculation had been made when she was still Peak Oneiric Sovereign. Half Step Lucid Lawbearer changed things considerably because she wasn't weak enough to be forced anymore and not desperate enough to be bought.

Sun Tao looked back at his wine and decided he would need to think more carefully about how to approach that particular situation. The door opened again. A young man came in, he had the look of someone who wasn't certain he was in the right place. He appeared to be in his mid twenties, thin with nervous energy that showed in every single movement, his robes were decent quality but worn at the edges.

His hair was pulled back neatly and his face had fine features that might have been handsome if he hadn't looked quite so worried about everything. He saw Sun Tao and Xu Feng at the bar and took a hesitant step in their direction.

"Excuse me," he said, "is this…I was told this was the meeting place for the Sunken Dream Palace expedition?" Sun Tao turned slowly on his stool and looked the newcomer over from top to bottom with obvious contempt.

"And who the hell are you?"

"Pan Jun." He bowed quickly, a little too quickly.

"Mid Stage Oneiric Sovereign, I received word that Song Wei was organizing an expedition and…."

"Mid Stage?" Sun Tao interrupted and laughed but it had no real humor in it, "you think Mid Stage Oneiric Sovereign is qualified for the Sunken Dream Palace? That place eats Mid Stage Oneiric Sovereigns for breakfast." Pan Jun's face went red.

"I know it's dangerous, but I have experience with…"

"Experience with what, running away?" Sun Tao stood up and his spiritual pressure filled the space between them and the air grew noticeably warmer, "let me guess, you're desperate, something happened, maybe you lost a sect position or maybe you need resources you can't afford, so you figured you would tag along on a real cultivator's expedition and grab whatever scraps get left behind." Pan Jun tried to say that wasn't it but his voice started failing under the weight of the spiritual pressure pressing down on him.

Pan Jun had led the Crimson Wind Clan for eighty years. It wasn't a major clan with only about two hundred members, but it had been his family's legacy for six generations and he had worked hard at it and made careful decisions and built alliances with neighboring clans.

Then his nephew Pan Lu had shown exceptional talent and reached Peak Oneiric Sovereign at only a hundred and fifty years old, the clan elders had decided that Pan Lu represented their best chance at producing a Lucid Lawbearer and they had staged a formal challenge.

Pan Jun had lost the challenge, not because his nephew was necessarily stronger but because the elders had made clear through many small gestures beforehand that they wanted him to lose, and when you spent your whole life building something and then your own family decided you were no longer necessary, the scars from that went much deeper than anything physical.

He needed the Celestial Dream Lotus to advance to Late Stage Oneiric Sovereign, from there he could push toward Peak stage, and if he could match his nephew's cultivation level, maybe he could challenge for leadership again and prove he wasn't disposable. But he had forgotten how the cultivation world operated. Weakness attracted predators and desperation made you appear weak.

"I have money," Pan Jun said, trying to keep his voice steady, "I can contribute to expedition costs, I'm not asking for charity."

"Money?" Sun Tao took a step closer, "what makes you think money is relevant here? This is about survival, every weak link in an expedition puts everyone else at risk, when we're deep inside the palace and something comes for us are you going to protect the group? Or are you going to panic and leave the rest of us to deal with the consequences?"

"I wouldn't do that…"

"You would." Sun Tao raised his hand and flames flickered across his fingers.

"Because that's what weak cultivators do, they make promises they have no ability to keep and then they break under pressure, I have seen it happen a hundred times." Xu Feng shifted on his stool looking concerned and started to say, "Brother Sun, perhaps we should…"

"Stay out of this, earth lover." Sun Tao didn't look away from Pan Jun.

"This is about maintaining standards, if we let every desperate weak cultivator join us, this expedition will become a rescue mission." Pan Jun's hand drifted toward his storage ring where he kept his defensive talismans, his face had gone from red to pale and his breathing had become shallow, the spiritual pressure bearing down on him made it hard to think.

"Go on, reach for a talisman," Sun Tao smiled.

"Let's see what happens when you try to defend yourself against a Late Stage Oneiric Sovereign." And at that exact moment the door opened again. The young man who came in had copper brown hair and pale blue eyes. He looked around eighteen years old and wore simple traveling robes in dull colors without anything that would mark him as anyone important. His spiritual pressure was controlled so perfectly that it told nothing about his cultivation level.

He paused just inside the door and looked around the room, his gaze moved over every person there, the frozen Dream Architect standing stiffly by his table, Xie Ling sitting alone in the corner, Xu Feng at the bar, Sun Tao standing over Pan Jun with flames on his fingers, then his eyes found the barkeeper and stayed there a moment longer than they had stayed on anyone else.

Without appearing to have any concern about the situation he had just walked into, the young man began looking for somewhere to sit and the only available seat was at Xie Ling's table, so he sighed and walked across the room and sat down. The room got very quiet. At a nearby table, someone whispered, "Is that kid suicidal?" His companion whispered back, "He's either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid. Probably both."

"Hundred dream stones says she freezes him within thirty seconds."

"I'm not taking that bet. That's just giving you free money." Even Xie Ling seemed surprised. Her head turned slightly, those pale eyes focusing on the newcomer with what might have been curiosity. But she didn't immediately freeze him solid, which was probably a good sign. She studied him for a long moment, then returned her attention to the room at large without comment.

Sun Tao's attention had moved away from Pan Jun now and he stared at the young man sitting next to his womanand his expression darkened, he crossed the room in three strides with his spiritual pressure flaring hot enough that people at nearby tables actually leaned away from him.

"You." His voice carried across the whole tavern, "are you here for the expedition?" The young man looked up at him.

"I am. My name is Hou Hongyun. You can call me Hou."

"Hou? Never heard of you," Sun Tao said, saying the name like it tasted bad, "what cultivation realm?"

"Oneiric Sovereign."

"What stage?" Hou appeared to consider this question for a moment and then said, "does it matter?"

"Yes it matters!" Sun Tao's flames got more intense around his hands, "the Sunken Dream Palace is not a training ground for juniors, we need to know if you're qualified to be here or if you're just another desperate person hoping to get rich."

"I see," Hou said, his expression still calm, "and you are?"

"Sun Tao, Late Stage Oneiric Sovereign, and yes that means I'm qualified to be here, and yes that means I outrank you by enough that you should show some respect."

"Respect," Hou repeated as if thinking about the word carefully, "I'm not sure I understand what I've done to be disrespectful, I entered a public tavern and sat down, is that not allowed?" Sun Tao's jaw got tight. The boy was either genuinely confused or deliberately provoking him and either possibility was infuriating.

"You sat next to Senior Xie without asking permission, that shows either complete ignorance or complete arrogance."

"I don't see any other seats and she hasn't asked me to move."

"That's because she's too polite to freeze you immediately like she froze that person over there," Sun Tao gestured at the ice statue, "but don't mistake her patience for acceptance, a woman of her cultivation level and beauty attracts many admirers, and most of them have enough sense to admire her from a distance."

"I'm not an admirer," Hou said, "I'm just sitting at a table."

"Don't play games with me," Sun Tao's temperature rose more, "you see a beautiful woman and you think sitting next to her makes you look confident, I've seen a hundred young cultivators try the same thing and it never works and usually ends with them learning difficult lessons about where they stand in the world."

Hou's expression shifted slightly and for the first time he looked genuinely puzzled, "you're upset that I sat at a table in a public tavern, you threatened that man over there for being Mid Stage Oneiric Sovereign which apparently isn't strong enough, and you believe you have some claim to Senior Xie even though she's shown no interest in you. Did I summarize that correctly?" Sun Tao's flames got brighter.

"You've got a smart mouth, that's going to cause you problems."

"I'm not trying to be smart," Hou said, "I'm trying to understand why you're so angry at people you only just met, it seems like it would be very tiring to live that way."

"You little…" Sun Tao started raising his hand. Xu Feng stood up from his stool, "Brother Sun, perhaps…"

"I told you to stay out of it!" Sun Tao snapped at him without looking away from Hou. Hou looked past Sun Tao toward the bar at the barkeeper, and something crossed his face that was hard to read. Sun Tao followed his gaze and laughed harshly.

"Looking for help? The barkeeper isn't going to save you. He's smart enough to know not to interfere in cultivator business." The barkeeper kept wiping down the counter with his cloth, his face completely neutral. Hou sighed and stood up slowly and he looked more tired than anything else, like he had hoped to avoid exactly this kind of situation but had known it was coming, he didn't reach for any weapon or storage ring, he just stood there facing Sun Tao with the same calm expression.

"Are we going to fight?" Hou asked.

"Because I would rather not, I came here to meet Senior Song Wei and talk about the expedition, not to deal with whatever personal issues you're working through."

"Personal issues?" Sun Tao's voice went up, "you disrespect me, you disrespect Senior Xie, and now you're going to…" The pressure hit everyone in the room at the same moment. It wasn't anything like Sun Tao's aggressive heat or Xie Ling's cold intensity, it was completely different from both of those things. The air itself seemed to become solid, and it pressed down on every single person in the room, making it difficult to think let alone breath, This was genuine Lucid Lawbearer aura.

Someone near the door made a strangled noise. The Dream Architect who was frozen solid cracked slightly from the pressure differential affecting the ice around him. Everyone in the room except Hou and Xie Ling had the same reaction, they all turned toward the source of the pressure with expressions that were mixtures of fear and awe.

The barkeeper stood behind the counter with both hands resting on the wood surface and his expression had changed from neutral to something harder and more focused and the pressure was coming from him. Sun Tao's face went through several changes very rapidly, shock first then calculation then wariness, and his flames went out and he took a step backward. Xu Feng had gone still on his stool and his round friendly face showed surprise. Pan Jun looked like he was about to faint.

Xie Ling's cold eyes had narrowed and she leaned forward in her chair, studying the barkeeper with clear and intense interest. Hou hadn't moved from where he was standing, he looked more curious than frightened with his pale blue eyes fixed on the barkeeper in a way that suggested he had already known something or suspected something. The barkeeper raised his right hand and made a gesture that looked like pulling away a piece of cloth. The air shimmered.

It started at the outer edges of the room where the walls began losing their solidity, they became translucent and then dissolved into wisps of silver dream qi. The tables and chairs dissolved after them, and the lanterns flickered out one by one leaving only a soft silver light that came from no particular direction. The patrons at those dissolving tables looked down at themselves in horror.

"What's happening," one of the merchants said in a panicked voice, looking at his hands which were becoming transparent. His companion tried to stand up but couldn't. His legs were already gone, reformed into dream qi that swirled around him.

"We're... we're not real?" The two Thoughtshapers watched their carefully marked map dissolve at the same time as their bodies and one of them said quietly, "the southern route, we never actually..." Zhao Ming, who'd been celebrating his breakthrough to Dream Architect realm, stared at his companions as they faded.

"Was any of it real? Did I actually breakthrough, or was that just..." His friends were dissolving faster now and their forms were breaking apart into silver streams of dream qi. One of them tried to say something but his mouth was already gone and they scattered apart. The frozen Dream Architect cracked completely into pieces but there was no ice underneath, just dream qi that had been shaped to look like frozen flesh, and the pieces each dissolved separately. Within a very short time the entire tavern was gone.

The walls and furniture and every patron who had been sitting at tables having their own conversations were all dream constructs that had been created to establish a particular atmosphere and environment. Only four people remained standing in the empty space that had once appeared to be a busy establishment: Sun Tao, Xu Feng, Pan Jun, and Xie Ling. And Hou who had not moved from where he was. The barkeeper had changed in appearance.

The forgettable average face had refined itself into sharper more defined features, the average build had become more defined, his left sleeve which had been arranged carefully to conceal something had fallen to reveal that his left arm ended just below the elbow. Song Wei stood where the barkeeper had been a moment before. He looked to be in his late thirties with hard eyes and a mouth that seemed to have forgotten what smiling felt like, his right hand hung at his side relaxed but ready.

The spiritual pressure coming from him confirmed unmistakably that he was a genuine Lucid Lawbearer. He looked at each person present slowly, his gaze lingering on Hou for a long moment before moving to Pan Jun, then Xu Feng, Xie Ling, and finally settling on Sun Tao. When he spoke his voice was clear without being raised at all.

"This expedition has rules."