"Pop!"
Lin Qi pulled the cork from the wine bottle and poured the fine wine into a decanter carved from magical crystal.
Kars Chenxi watched Old Mister "Wan En Longshan"'s elegant, unhurried movements in a daze. All of a sudden, he realized that he had learned far too many useful things from this generous, learned, tolerant, and steady old gentleman.
Though he came from a highly esteemed divine-blood family, the Church's divine-blood families were rigid, conservative, stiff, lifeless hellholes that made young men like Kars Chenxi feel as if they were sitting in prison. Besides, he was lively by nature, high-spirited and freewheeling—not a fanatic or ascetic like Law, who had made such a resounding name for himself in the Temple of Punishment a few years ago.
In the Longshan Family, Kars Chenxi had enjoyed much, and he was more than happy to keep enjoying it.
Quietly watching Lin Qi's movements, Kars Chenxi followed the instruction of the court etiquette officer Lin Qi had found for him. His face bore a radiant, textbook-perfect smile—restrained rather than showy, gentle enough to win goodwill at first sight.
Two young elven girls silently entered and carefully set two exquisite porcelain platters on the table.
The large milky-white, translucent porcelain platters, etched with subtle patterns, came from Vias. They were the finest pieces among the premium tribute porcelain that the Green Forest Duke had brought back from the East. Upon these broad platters, each more than two feet across, lay a serving of dark brown fish roe and a serving of golden roe.
Every grain of the dark brown roe was as large as an ordinary person's pinky finger. This was roe from Blackfin Herring of Duoyinhe in Wolin Province, the bitterly cold northernmost region of the Caesar Empire, meticulously prepared through secret techniques.