"Were you threatening me?"
O Yegan spoke coldly.
"No, I was merely explaining why my actions were reasonable. After all, unless I made things clear, you wouldn't be able to keep it here and appreciate it with peace of mind, would you?"
Liu Zheng smiled.
"Hmph. Come in."
O Yegan snorted and opened the gate.
"You look so young. With all your talk of being an old man, I thought you'd be ancient and decrepit."
Liu Zheng smiled when he saw him.
O Yegan looked about thirty or forty, with a lean face, swordlike eyebrows, sharply defined temples, and white hair tied into a long braid down his back. He wore a blue cloth robe, his powerful muscles filling out its shape.
In short, he looked like a musclebound version of Huang Yaoshi.
"I like it. What's it to you? Take it or leave it. If you don't like it, take your divine weapon fragment and get lost."
Perhaps because their exchange at the gate had been less than friendly, O Yegan's attitude only worsened once he opened it.
But Liu Zheng was used to cold looks and merely smiled it off.
Had O Yegan welcomed him with smiles and lavish hospitality, he would have suspected the old bastard was trying to lure him inside like a lamb into a trap.
"Yes, yes. Greetings, venerable master. This junior pays his respects."
Liu Zheng bowed with clasped hands as he slipped through the gate.
Inside was a front courtyard, with a small locked door on either side and a decorative hanging-flower gate straight ahead.
"Follow me."
O Yegan led him through the hanging-flower gate and across the courtyard to the main hall.
"Rong'er, bring some tea. Nothing too good."
Once they had taken their seats as host and guest, O Yegan