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The 'Tea Haven' was a rather noisy restaurant on the edges of Camellia city, where men and a few women ate their first meals of the day, and drank various types of cheap, watered down tea.
It was snowing, so the restaurant was abnormally full, as half of the customers were there to escape the cold.
Servant boys hurried around the scattered and battered looking tables, trying to meet orders and please the customers, and a lone musician played the *guzheng, with the natural wind howls from outside, punctuating his rendition of a popular tune called 'Dance amidst the snow'.
*Guzheng - Chinese harp
There was lighthearted, sometimes crude, conversation blowing around with the air.
Sometimes it was about the weather, or farms, or this or that clan's most powerful cultivator, or disciple, of this or that Lord's household rules, or even about this or that new city tax.
However, one was more likely to hear about things like how 'mister this' was caught and chased by 'lady that's' husband, for 'doing the deed' with his wife, or how 'madam this' had hit her husband over the head with a pot stick, after a young lad who looked exactly like him had arrived at their doorstep and dared to call him father!
But through all of these, the major point of gossip was still Xuè Shèngrén.
"Some people say Clan Leader Zhao and his family were by no means good people, but did they deserve to die like that?Their corpses were really frightening! How can people feel safe enough to sleep?"
"Not even one proper corpse to be buried! How much of a grudge did Xuè Shèngrén hold for them?"
"I privately think they got what they deserved!" one bitterly spoke aloud.
He had been part of the Zhao Clan, just two years ago.
Clan Leader Zhao had destroyed he and his son's cultivation, essentially making them useless! Just because his family had been getting more powerful than the Zhao family.
"If I ever meet Xuè Shèngrén, I'll *Kowtow to him at least ten times!" He hatefully finished.
*Kowtow- kneel and touch the ground with the forehead in worship or submission as part of Chinese custom.
"Shhhhhh! Do you know what it means to support such a fellow?! He's the enemy of the entire Wulin!" The others glanced around nervously, and one even attempted to shield his face from view.
In the corner, a stranger's lips curled upward in a smile.
'This interesting name, 'Xuè Shèngrén'... Who even came up with it?' She shook her head as she filled her cup.
In stark difference to the teas trickling into teacups on the other tables, clear wine trickled into a small liquor cup, which was surely designed to deceive one into drinking 'just one more cup', until they didn't remember their name.
Her pale, slim fingers lifted the small liquor cup and raised it to her waiting nose.
"Mmm..." She gently turned the cup, swirling the liquid as she savored the scent of the aged wine.
'Twenty years? Thirty years?' She wondered. 'This aroma is certainly close to Thirty years!' She could guess, but couldn't be sure... She had stolen the wine!
She didn't toss the first cup of wine down her throat, but savored it slowly, feeling every tang of its deep, rich taste, and lightly turning it over on her tongue, then letting it smoothly glide down her throat, leaving a pleasant burning sensation in its wake.
"*Hao Jiu!!" She declared loudly in a light voice, causing a few of the other customers to stare at her.
*Hao Jiu- Good Wine! I left it like this, because it's pretty common, and used a lot.
She filled the small cup four times, tossing down the wine each time, and with each toss, the topic of conversation was slightly changing.
"Aiya... Tsk tsk tsk! A drunk fellow, first thing in the morning!"
"This place doesn't even sell wine, but he brought his liquor!"
"Cui! This fellow's wife didn't *light enough incense sticks before the marriage!"
*She didn't pray well enough for a good husband.
A few tried to look at the stranger's face, but 'he' wore a wide bamboo veiled hat. The black veil was so long, that it would sweep the floor, even if she was standing, so even though it had slits running down the sides, her face was completely hidden from view.
Because of the way she was dressed, they had already assumed she was a man and a drunk one at that.
But none could even guess, that this tiny person, was the same Xuè Shèngrén, who had shaken the whole of Xin Dao!
Xuè Shèngrén ignored all the stares and mutters around her.
Though several of them sat quite a distance from her, her skill level allowed her to easily hear everything that was being said in the restaurant, but she tuned them out, and poured herself another cup of wine.
She wasn't drunk... At least, not yet.
She needed about four to five gourds to get drunk, but only had three.
Still, she would have sat there quietly, content to mentally wish for more wine, but the howling wind had calmed a bit, so the restaurant had gotten quieter.
Which unfortunately made her pay a bit more attention to the music...
She rose a hand and spoke quite loudly. "You there! The fellow playing the guzheng." She hiccuped a little. "So the wind was the only source of pleasant sounds? Why play the instrument, like it wronged you in your past life?"
It took a few seconds for her words to sink in, and the musician's fingers halted on the strings. He was a bald man with a sharp short beard and an even sharper mustache, and he shot to his feet at once, ready for war.
"How dare you?!" He yelled "I noticed when you came in here! You didn't even drop a small bronze coin for my performance! You're a beggar looking down on free food!"
"Ei?!" She shot to her own feet, staggering slightly in a drunken imitation. If one wanted to cause trouble, acting drunk was the easiest way.
She pointed to the musician from behind the black veil. "It's you that's a beggar! Your whole family are beggars! I merely spoke the truth! Your music might make a person cut off their own ears, so why not accept the teaching and improve?! Why call me a beggar?!"
Most of the other customers had gasped at the words coming from such a tiny fellow, while a few laughed, but this further enraged the musician, who had turned red.
"You're obviously a beggar!" The musician made a series of spitting motions. "Cui cui cui!! Drinking and making trouble! If you are any better at playing the guzheng, come and play it!"
"Hmph!" She scoffed. "You think I won't dare to?! Why don't you bring it here?!" She could play the guzheng flawlessly, even in sleep, and she wondered whether to give the people here some entertainment...
But she never found out whether the musician would humour her or not, as her irises suddenly darted toward the restaurant's wooden door. "Hmm?"
Through the frosty air outside, she could sense danger approaching...
'Fun's over.' She thought, then pretended to collapse to her chair.
The muttering started at once.
"Eiss, such a useless drunk! Cui!" The musician, who had built up a lot of pent up steam, practically spat towards him.
"Wilted after causing trouble."
"He's dressed like a cultivator, so I thought we might get to see a decent fight!"
"Such a disappointing turn of events."
But the 'drunkard' was no longer paying any attention to them. She lifted her head so slightly, then held one hand in a seal, under her table.
A small demon fruit appeared in her palm, and it emitted some dark greenish fumes, which flowed into her hand, and then disappeared with the fruit.
The demon fruit was grown by a tree demon, and it's fumes allowed her release her aura, without alerting any cultivator around.
The restaurant seemed to be full of regular people, who seemed to have no experience in cultivation, but it was better safe than sorry...
Under the table, she held the fingers of one hand in another seal, and she whispered, "Divine Piercing Eye!"
A slight burst of power emanated from her, but thanks to the fruit, it went unnoticed.
'Divine Piercing Eye' was a technique which let her see through almost any obscurity, and allowed her consciousness wander beyond her physical position, and the range was wide enough to let her consciousness go outside and watch a certain group approaching.
She counted them. 'Eleven. Nine men and two women.
'Ho? This is the same group that managed to find me twice! How commendable!"
Eight in their number seemed like disciples, who didn't appear much younger than she herself was.
Of the remaining three, one was far older than the other two, but he seemed completely unremarkable. She couldn't tell much about the other two from here, as they had masked their auras.
Being chased was normal to her...
In the past weeks, at least fifteen groups, had been looking for 'Xuè Shèngrén'. In fact, the entire Wulin was after her, but after her 'crimes', that was only expected.
Fortunately, no one knew what she looked like, or even the fact that she was a woman, so evading them was rather easy, and once, she had even approached a group of cultivators from the Northern Region, and had fed them false information, which led them far away from Camellia city!
Most of the groups looking for 'Xuè Shèngrén' could only rely on trying to feel for powerful auras, or they went around asking questions in taverns or inns, choosing to investigate strange occurrences.
But since the 'strange occurrences' usually had nothing to do with her, she went about freely, and the groups ended up going around in circles.
But this particular group was different...
'They've somehow found me three times now.' She thought, as she watched them advance, and it bothered her.
It wasn't that avoiding them was hard... She could simply disappear, once she sensed them.
But if they found her three times, without even knowing what she looked like, then they must be using some sort of talisman to track her.
And that meant they had somehow acquired an item that belonged to her...
'My ribbon!' She realized.
It must be.
She had lost her white ribbon, the night she attacked the Zhao Clan, and this group must have guessed it was hers.
'Impressive. Let's play with them a little then.' She decided. She really wanted the ribbon back, as it was a precious momento, and besides, even if she avoided them as usual, they would just keep using if to find her.
So this time, rather than disappear, she waited for them.