Astral Dragon Monarch

After the rather odd events that happened at the door, Shen went in and took a nice warm bath.

If they were going to show him hospitality, then it would be rude of him to not welcome it to the fullest.

Even if he was going a teensy tiny bit overboard since the sect head, the terrifying Lord Feng himself, was not particularly happy about him leeching off them.

'It seemed like he disliked me quite a lot.'

After using the strange glimmering concoction in the bathroom that he thought was soap, and chewing on something that looked and smelled like mints, he felt like a hundred million bucks as he left that bathroom, all clean and squeaky.

All the grime and blood of yesterday had been washed away, and he was clean enough to go on another hunting spree today.

'I can't wait to see what twelve stat points in strength can do for me!'

Almost as soon as he opened the door, Xin was already at his nose.

"Hey, Shen brother, would you... um... like to have breakfast with us... before you.. leave?"

Shen's ears perked up and his eyes widened.

Was that not going too far? It was already obvious that Lord Feng did not want him there, but taunting fate by going to brazenly have breakfast with them when he was only meant to spend a night, that was... just wrong.

"No. No way, I'm sorry, but I really can't."

***

Initially Shen had refused as that was clearly crossing some boundaries.

He had crashed in their place without REALLY having permission to, used their spirit grade herb concoction as soap, and chewed the hundred year old mint clover.

How could he then have face to eat breakfast with them?

However, Xin was very, very persuasive.

'Come on', she said.

'it will be okay', she said.

And now, Shen was sitting on the floor across the other end of the table with an almost deafening silence permeating the room.

The silence was so awkward, that Kai even considered excusing himself and getting the hell out if there.

To make things worse, Lord Feng was glaring down at him with terribly concealed malice gleaming in his eyes, and the mother, Lady Feng was excitedly staring at him as if she were expecting him to propose to Xin in the next second.

'So awkward...'

To make things even MORE worse, his stomach began rumbling in annoyance as he couldn't possibly start to eat when his hosts had not eaten yet.

Why wouldn't it, when all kinds of delicacies were lying untouched on the table, everything ranging from steamed white rice to some sort of sautéed fish, and everything in between.

He was not really into eating these stuff, and would have preferred some pancakes and maple syrup, but right now, he would kill for even a single dumpling. He did not really visit anywhere other than his father's grave and his mother's hospital room and just spent all his free time reading web novels back on earth, but still, starting to eat before the hosts began their meal just felt very wrong, so he had to tighten his stomach and bear it.

"So,..."

Liu Xin Xiaoping cleared his throat and glared at Kai Zhao.

"Your name, Zhao Kai, is rather peculiar.

Any relationship with the Zhao demons from the Dao mountains?"

Shen froze for a second or two.

Who the hell were the Zhao demons?!

He knew that he should have changed names almost as soon as he had transmigrated!

"Well, um... I... I'm from... somewhere outside the empires?"

Shen said with a sheepish grin.

"There's land outside of the empires?!"

Lady Feng raised a brow in confusion.

"Of course there is, it's... uh.. Its so far away, that its almost like it's not there, haha.."

Shen let out a nervous chuckle as he scratched the back of his head.

Why the hell was he feeling so nervous?

No, in fact, the question he should be asking was how things had gotten to this!

He had woken up in a new world, found his transmigrator's cheat, and went down to the beast lands to complete his daily mission, and now he was having breakfast with the family of Lord Feng, sect head of the Blazing Valor sect.

It was crazy.

Lord Feng narrowed his eyes as he glared down at Shen with disdain.

Picking up his chopsticks, he sighed.

"Let's eat."

The family of three picked up their chopsticks and began their meal, only to abruptly stop soon after.

"Zhao Shen?... what's wrong?"

The black haired guy chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his head once again.

"Nothing!... nothing.. um... carry on, I'll soon start eating. I just gotta... uh, do something first."

They all gave him strange looks, but continued on with their meals anyway.

Meanwhile, Kai Zhao was a sweaty, nervous mess.

'How do I escape this place?'

***

After the rather awkward breakfast, Shen found his way out of the pagoda and fled without looking back. He was positively sure that if he were to spend one more minute there, he would be roped up into joining in one event or another.

Xin had just tidied up herself after taking a long, long bath, only to discover that Shen had disappeared.

It was quite a bummer, as she had been looking forward to him accompanying them for some beast hunting.

Well, she would just have to stalk him once again to see how fast he would advance to the next tier.

'How disgraceful that I, the only successor of the great Blazing Valor sect is stalking a man.'

Xin shook her head.

But why did she have a smile on her face?