After one round of applying medicine, Hou Niao had come to know all the senior brothers in the Town Office in this fashion.
Yao He suddenly became talkative. Hou Niao knew it was not the relief of having finished applying the medicine, but that his slap had scratched this senior brother Yao right where he itched.
A very strange state of affairs...
Yinling was a town jurisdiction with very little presence, at least in terms of the economy of the whole region; yet it was also a very special place for certain people who regarded danger as a trial.
"Fifteen Quanzhen disciples are stationed in Yinling: two in the Bridge Linking realm, five in the Grain Avoidance realm, and eight in the Foundation Cultivation realm. Here, we concern ourselves only with slaying demons and exterminating ghosts. Civil affairs are delegated to the clans. That is the sect's overall strategy, and a choice made out of necessity."
Hou Niao nodded. "I noticed. People here don't hold us in as much awe as they do elsewhere."
In Yao He's room, this senior brother poured him a cup of wine. "Try the local wine. There's no shortage of grain here, but transporting it is very difficult. Since it won't keep forever, they can only turn it into wine.
"Several wines brewed in Fang Family Fort are famous locally. Even people from other towns often come to buy them. You have to admit, transporting this stuff takes far less effort than transporting grain."
Hou Niao smiled. "I heard even Yinling's demons and ghosts like drinking wine?"
Yao He shrugged and gave a helpless smile. "What can you do? It's the local specialty. After several hundred years, Yinling acquired another name: Wine Tomb."
Yao He was a drunkard himself, pouring and drinking his own wine.