This was the truth; roasting and grilling was the Barbarian clan's primary cooking method.
A roaring fire ignited in Man Gu's eyes, blazing with fighting spirit.
Lu Yang: "..."
Why get fired up about this of all things? We're here to infiltrate a demonic cult, not open a branch of your family business!
Lu Yang let out a sigh. Since Man Gu refused to lower his standards, they could only raise the prices.
"What kind of wine would you two gentlemen like?"
The two jianghu martial artists were hearty men. One bellowed boisterously, "The stronger, the better! In the martial world, they call me the Man Who Never Gets Drunk After a Thousand Cups!"
The other also shouted, "And in the martial world, they call me the Man Who Never Falls After Ten Thousand Cups!"
Lu Yang thought to himself, *Cut the bragging, you two. If I served you two jugs of pure grain alcohol, would you even hold up?*
In the end, Lu Yang brought them two jugs of Laobaigan, hoping their tolerance was as legendary as their boasting.
Lu Yang stood by the entrance greeting customers, shouting at the top of his lungs, "Please take a number and line up! No cutting! We've prepared complimentary tea and light snacks. Please wait patiently, a table will open up shortly!"
"Also, there is no discount for referring customers to our shop, so please stop bringing new people here!"
Lu Yang had no idea if it would help, but he called out a few times anyway. They really couldn't afford to turn this into a restaurant chain.
The customers in line were restless as well, pelting him with questions one after another.
"Can we make a reservation in advance?"
"Do you do home delivery?"
"Can we book the whole place?"
Aside from wandering martial artists, there were also cultivators in the queue, flush with cash.
"Reservations are fine. If it isn't too far, we can deliver, though there's an extra service fee. Booking the whole venue is fine too."
What Lu Yang hoped for most was for someone to buy out the entire place so they could enjoy some peace and quiet.
"Attention, everyone. Qin Yuanhao has left the residence." Lu Yang and Man Gu received Meng Jingzhou's voice transmission at the same time. Lu Yang actually felt a wave of relief.
"I'll go tail him. You come down and take my place. And Man Gu, keep an eye on him—don't let him cause any trouble." Lu Yang had mastered the two arts of Shrinking the Earth and To Inches, giving him an immense edge in both combat and pursuit.
Lu Yang couldn't very well shrink into the dirt in front of a crowd. He slipped into the backyard, where only the two chang ghosts were present.
The two chang ghosts were busy grilling skewers, sweating buckets and moving so fast their hands blurred into afterimages, wishing they had eight arms to work with.
Presumably, neither of them had lived such a fulfilling and busy life when they were alive.
Incidentally, the two chang ghosts were dressed in the traveling merchant attire from their mortal lives. To prevent drunk customers from wandering into the backyard and noticing that the ghosts were dressed improperly, the trio had spent half a day researching how to change a ghost's clothes.
From Daoist rituals and Buddhist chanting to scouring ancient texts and consulting legends, by the end of all the fuss, the two chang ghosts had grown so faint their souls were practically fading away.
Fortunately, Lu Yang discovered the simplest method—all they had to do was burn the clothes for the chang ghosts.
The two chang ghosts were so consumed by their work that neither noticed Lu Yang's arrival. Lu Yang sank smoothly into the earth, cautiously trailing Qin Yuanhao.
Meng Jingzhou swiftly changed his clothes to take Lu Yang's place. Serving lamb skewers, he called out, "Lamb skewers, ready to serve! Enjoy your meal, guests!"
"Now, speaking of these lamb skewers, their origins are nothing short of extraordinary! Lend me your ears, folks, and I'll tell the tale. On a certain day, golden light burst across the northern grasslands, and an infant was born..."
...
Qin Yuanhao moved through the shadows, his silhouette blending seamlessly into the night, unnoticed even by passing pedestrians.
*A technique related to shadows, or perhaps one connected to darkness?* Lu Yang observed from the shadows, gathering as much intelligence as possible.
In his quest to create his own cultivation technique, he had read voraciously and possessed an understanding of all manner of arts.
Lu Yang continued to follow Qin Yuanhao.
Qin Yuanhao trod down a muddy path into a labyrinth of winding alleys. The sour stench wafting through the air reached even Lu Yang underground.
Listening to Qin Yuanhao's quickening footsteps, Lu Yang could tell the man was in a foul mood.
Qin Yuanhao furrowed his brows in disgust at the squalor. With a dark expression, he kicked open a door, jolting his sleeping henchman awake.
"Still in the mood to sleep?!"
The underling scrambled to his feet, trembling, having no clue why his boss was enraged.
They had been working diligently without ever daring to slack off. After toiling all day, was it a crime to sleep at night?
If anything, it was the boss who stayed up all night and slept all day. Their daily routine was far more regular than his!
Qin Yuanhao kicked the lackey against the wall, fuming, "Why hasn't anyone reported to me these past few days?! Where's the person I told you to find?!"
Feeling as though a giant hammer had slammed into his chest, the underling said aggrievedly, "Boss, you said it yourself—if we couldn't find the person, we weren't allowed to see you!"
"We couldn't find the man you described, so we didn't dare go to you. How is obeying your orders wrong too?"
The underling pleaded his innocence. Whatever the big boss commanded, the minions did. Yet the big boss still wasn't pleased. He was truly impossible to serve!
Qin Yuanhao: "..."
He actually found the henchman's words entirely reasonable, but he still wanted to beat him to a pulp. What was he supposed to do?
"If you couldn't come see me, couldn't you have written a letter?!"
"B-but you also said that important matters must be reported in person!"
"Didn't I also say that special circumstances call for special measures?!" Qin Yuanhao roared.
"You did say that special circumstances call for special measures, but you also said that determining what counts as a special circumstance requires an internal discussion among us, and then you would personally make the final call."
"Then did you discuss it?!"
"We discussed it two days ago! We unanimously agreed that this is a special circumstance and needed your decision!"
"Then why didn't I see you come get my decision?!"
"You said that important matters must be reported in person, and since we couldn't find the rumor-spreader, we weren't allowed to see you."
Qin Yuanhao: "..."
*Am I going to be driven into an endless loop and die right here today?!*
Qin Yuanhao took two deep breaths, repeatedly warning himself not to kill, not to kill. Although these lackeys didn't know how to adapt, they were fiercely loyal and executed his orders to the letter, without the slightest deviation.
Killing an underling would chill the hearts of the rest.
Besides, he had few trustworthy subordinates to begin with; if he killed any more, he would have none left.
"Then how is the search going? If you can't find the person, surely there are some clues?" Qin Yuanhao glared at the henchman. If the man dared say they had found no clues at all, he wouldn't leave this room alive today!
Did they really think he wouldn't kill?!
The underling muttered a tiny "no." Catching the murderous look in his boss's eyes, he hastily added, "Big Boss, you know how distinctive the person you're looking for is. Anyone like that would draw eyes the moment they showed their face on the street! Four days have passed, and the boys have run until their feet are covered in blisters, but we still haven't found him!"
"Setting everything else aside, just that condition of being eight feet wide and eight feet tall—we asked all over and found only one creature that fit the bill. Except he doesn't have pockmarks on his face, doesn't eat children, and looks quite endearing."
"Who is it?" Qin Yuanhao thought to himself: *Never mind if the face doesn't match. I'll kill someone with the same build first to make an example of him, lest whoever is lurking in the shadows looks down on me!*
"It's the mascot of the tofu seller on Front Gate Street."
"I'm going to fucking butcher you!"
Chapter 56