The Legendary F Rank

Chapter 378: Poker face.

Candlelight flickered in the hall, dancing against the countless patterns on the walls within. The golden chandelier above rained light down upon the red carpet that led towards the three men sitting in the hall on wooden chairs at the back corner of the room. 

On the left side, there was a long dining table layout with a mountain of food sprew over it. For whatever reason they put it there, Haru could tell that it was going to be a banquet for sure. 

Each of the men had a jar of alcohol beside them, and Master Chu took a sip from his as Haru, and Hong Xia entered the room.

"So this must be your sister. Welcome." Master Chu said as he looked at Hong Xia for a moment before turning his attention back to Haru, who was the main reason why they had gathered. 

Hong Xia bowed her head in acknowledgement, and Haru took a few steps forward before stopping as he felt a powerful gaze hit him from the man in the middle. He had long dark hair and looked to be older than Master Chu. His beard was beginning to grey, and the clothes that he was wearing were of higher quality than the other two men for sure.

"That robe You must be the one that stole the fabric I had worked so hard to obtain and then injured my guards. To think that I would end up inviting you into my house as a guest after pulling something like that. Chu, what are you planning?" The man asked with frustration in his voice as he turned to Master Chu who was smiling.

"Calm down, you old bat. He is the one that saved your daughter. I believe that you were planning to make something for him with that material anyway, weren't you? Wait, I'm sure I told you this already. Why are you making a big deal out of it right now?" Master Chu asked with his brows furrowed; he was sure that he had already had the conversation with the City Lord, yet he didn't seem to remember.

"You did? Wait, I think I remember something like that. Was it when I was- Never mind that. Welcome to my home, Mr Luo Yang. It's a pleasure to have you here. I hope you are enjoying that robe I had made for you." The City Lord said with a huge grin as he took a large sip out of his jar with his cheeks flushed slightly red from both embarrassment and the alcohol within.

"Uh, it's a pleasure to be here." Haru stuttered, confused as to what was happening, but as he turned back to face Master Chu, he felt something hit his chest and instinctively held out his hands to catch a brown leather bag.

"What's this?" Haru asked, looking back up at the three men watching him react, but neither of them uttered a word in response.

'Okay then' he thought to himself as he inspected the bag for a few moments to make sure that there wasn't anything strange going on with it, but other than the spatial rune written on the side, it seemed to be completely normal.

He held his hand out below the bag and tipped it upside down, injecting a small amount of Qi into the rune before feeling that there were a bunch of pills within the bag. He pulled one of them out, floating down gently from the bag and dropped down into his hand. 

He inspected the pill in his hand before realising that it was one of the pills that Annabeth had asked him to make for her. He looked up with worry plastered on his face. He couldn't hide his feelings as he looked at the three men who didn't react to his change of expression.

"What's this about?!" Haru demanded an explanation from the three men as they stared at him with suspicion. They didn't know what to think about the situation, and neither did Haru as he wondered what was going on for them to call him here over the pills he had made for them to use.

'Are they planning to hand me over to the Alliance? Who is this other guy? Is he the one that they are going to give me to? I will level this whole city if they so much as try it.' Haru's mind began to fill with theories as to what he was doing there.

He was beginning to feel like a deer in headlights. There were three cultivators sitting in front of him, and each one was more powerful than he was. If they tried to do anything to him, he knew for sure that he would have a hard time escaping alone, let alone escaping while protecting Hong Xia.

He stepped to the side and blocked her from sight with his body. He figured that if they were going to attack, then he would give her the chance to escape before he did. He brought him in there after all, and it didn't sit right with him to just leave her in case something happened.

The three men looked at each other with concern, seeing that Haru was getting anxious. They were wondering what his next move would be now that they had confronted him, knowing that he was the one that crafted the pills. 

"It's okay; we just wanted to know where you got the pills from, that's all. It's pretty rare to find pills here since the Alliance started kidnapping people who were able to make them. But you pulled out over 50 pills and gave them to Annabeth.

I haven't told the other two here about your circumstances, but I know for a fact that these didn't come from your home." Master Chu said as the other two men looked at him with inquisitive gazes.

'Of course, they didn't come from my home. I can't use regular Qi anymore, so I improvised with true Qi.' Haru thought as they both knew it was impossible for true Qi to exist within the lower realm. Which meant he could only answer one of three ways.

He could claim that he found them by accident in the forest, but he couldn't fool anyone with something that ridiculous. No one in their right mind would leave their pills in the forest, and in a world where pills were limited, they wouldn't take so many out with them in case they got lost.

The other way he could answer was to say that he got them from a mysterious old man, which would have been a little more believable as if the Alliance only recently started kidnapping pill refiners, it would be normal for old people to still have a supply for them. However, Haru didn't know the history of the planet. The Alliance could have been in control for thousands of years since it was normal for a cultivator at his current level to live for upwards of two hundred years. But that plan would rely on guessing if it was possible, and according to Hong Xia, he wasn't the best liar in the world.

Which left him with his final option, to tell the truth, and hope that they wouldn't try to hand him over to the Alliance. There was more to gain if they kept a good relationship since he could make pills for them if they wanted to buy them. But Haru wasn't sure if his strength was enough of a deterrent to stop people from wanting to take advantage of him.

He was unable to sense anything in the room; there was no hostility and no sense of friendship between them as they spoke. It was as though there was an array in the room to keep each other from sensing how the other person felt as they spoke. He figured that it was worth a try to just speak the truth and hope that everything worked itself out.

"I made them. Annabeth came to me one night to explain how everything in this town worked. She told me about the situations with the Alliance causing a constant threat of war and the group under the Alliance that have their base nearby that want to kidnap Master Chu's disciple to force her to be their lord's bride.

She also explained that it was hard to get pills around here due to the Alliance kidnapping all the pill refiners, so I offered to make some for her. I didn't think that you would end up questioning me about them." Haru said as he looked at all of their faces, trying to see how they would react to what he just said, but their faces were completely neutral; it seemed like they had played their fair share of poker.

Master Chu looked at the old man sitting beside the city lord and spoke.

"Is that good enough for you? Or do you still want to test him?" Master Chu asked the old man who had yet to speak and was just observing the situation so far, but as the question was directed towards him, the city lord but down his drink and turned his head in surprise.

It seemed that even the city lord valued this old man's opinion, but Haru was yet to be introduced to him. He wondered what was going on as the room grew quiet as the old man brushed his beard with his hand a few times before standing up from his chair beside the city lord.