Rivers of the Night

The Purple Scale Teahouse was often frequented by the young nobles of Thistle Brook. It could be said that it was popular even across the empire.

The waitresses were beautiful, the food was of the highest quality, and the tea, especially, was well known for its positive effects on cultivation.

Theron had never been before. If not for his curiosity about the mission Thessa, Soren, and Teagan were on, he would have never come. It was impossible to enter this establishment and not spend several thousand bronzes, and that was if you were being frugal. The top floors certainly had customers spending exorbitant amounts of silver.

Luckily, the group gathered together on the first floor. Soren was already waving around a leg of meat and telling a tale about how he valiantly defeated a Fiend Beast.

"... and then I slid under its enormous body and ran my blade down its gut. You should have seen it, blood and intestines were flying everywhere. I thought I was going to drown down there!"

Thessa rolled her eyes. "Oh, yeah? You cut the belly of a grey rhino that easily?"

Soren flexed his free arm. "Haven't you seen these muscles? Are you doubting my prowess?"

Theron smiled, sipping at his tea. A warmth spread through him that made the obscene price tag worthwhile. His cultivation had stabilized at the Fourth Resonance, but it was showing signs of increasing already.

The process was also gentle and soothing, nothing like the pain he had endured consuming those mid-tier pills.