♂,
This old man's cultivation was quite extraordinary, having already reached the early Integration stage. It was exceedingly rare for an Integration stage cultivator to remain in a restaurant in the Marketplace.
According to common practice, although Integration stage cultivators sometimes stayed in the Marketplace, they generally only remained there to oversee things and would not participate in managing daily affairs.
Yet the old man before him was the manager of this restaurant, clearly someone who controlled its operations.
"Fellow Daoist Du, greetings. This Qin has just arrived here, yet the waiters at your restaurant recognized this Qin at once. That has truly aroused my curiosity. May I ask how Fellow Daoist knew of me?" Qin Fengming had no desire for a lengthy conversation, so he immediately clasped his fists and voiced the doubt in his heart.
"Although this is Fellow Daoist's first time at the Immortal Talisman Sect's Marketplace, one of your senior friends came here more than twenty years ago and left behind a portrait of you, asking us to keep an eye out for you. That senior's surname was Fang. I presume Fellow Daoist Qin knows him?"
Hearing Du Fei's words, Qin Fengming suddenly understood. The person who had left the portrait was actually Fang Liang.
In that case, Fang Liang had not encountered any danger. He had probably waited several years without seeing Qin Fengming arrive, and thus thought of this method, asking the Marketplace's shops to watch for him.
"Indeed, this Qin knows Senior Fang. May I ask whether Senior Fang left any message?"
Since Fang Liang had left before Qin Fengming arrived, he likely had encountered something that greatly interested him. For Fang Liang of the Spirit Severing realm to give up waiting for him was enough to show how urgent that matter was.