594 Three Faction Alliance
The Three Factions Alliance was the alliance formed between the three sects in the Riverweed town.
Not only did they have a restaurant that Alex was currently standing in front of, but they also had many other places such as Auction houses, stores, libraries, and security personnel for guarding the town.
Alex walked up the few stairs to go into the restaurant. After he walked in, he finally saw how large the restaurant was.
This was a bustling restaurant with nearly hundreds of people inside.
There were almost 50 different tables in front of Alex, and that was just on the first floor.
Alex could see a staircase at the center of the room that one could use to go up to an open floor above as well.
He wanted to check what it was like up there with his spiritual sense but decided not to on the off chance there was someone that could sense his spiritual sense.
He looked around, but he couldn't find any free tables. So, he was forced to go sit at a table that already had a single person eating his food.
"I hope you won't mind me sitting here," Alex said as he pulled the chair and sat down in front of the middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man suddenly looked like he had seen a ghost and quickly wiped his mouth to say, "Certainly not, esteemed senior."
'Senior?' Alex thought. 'Do I look that old right now?' he thought. He was certainly not giving off a cultivation aura for the man to think he was a senior, so it had to be the face Alex assumed.
Still, he didn't think he looked that old. Maybe 25 years old at best.
Just as he was thinking, a waiter walked up to him. Alex noticed him and took a look at the menu in front of him.
However, before he could even make an order, the waiter asked, "Sir, are you a cultivator."
Alex looked toward the waiter. 'What a weird thing to ask in this place,' he thought. 'Maybe I should release my aura a little.'
"Yes," Alex said, releasing an aura close to Mind Tempering 1st realm.
"Would you mind changing seats then, sir?" the waiter asked. "Cultivators usually eat on the 2nd floor."
"Oh," Alex said and finally looked around. Due to the many people, he hadn't released his spiritual sense and had thus not realized that almost everyone that was sitting on the first floor was all mortals.
"The mortals can't go to the second floor, so most are forced to wait even though we have tables empty," the waiter explained as respectfully as he could.
"Oh, I didn't know that," Alex said as he stood up. "I'm sorry to have bothered you." He told the middle-aged man and walked up to the second floor.
Finally, as he walked up the stairs, he saw and felt a cultivation aura from the people around him.
Most of them were in self tempering realm, but a few older folks were in the True realm as well.
However, he couldn't find anyone that either had a high cultivation base or young folks with the True cultivation realm.
He looked towards the left after reaching the 2nd floor and asked the waiter behind him, "what does that set of stairs lead to?"
"That leads to the 3rd floor, senior. Only VIP members and people they invited can go up there," the waiter said.
"Oh, so I can't go just because I want to, huh?" he asked.
"I'm afraid not, sir," the waiter said.
Alex nodded and made his way to an empty seat. On the 2nd floor, there were many.
The seat lied at the corner of the room, unfortunately away from any windows, but he wasn't here for the scenery anyway.
He looked at the menu and quickly ordered some food. He didn't know which was good, but he knew he needed nutrients, so he mostly ordered meat dishes along with a sort of vegetables.
He looked at the names of the dishes and was a little surprised.
'Common rank and True ranks? Foods have ranks too?' he thought. Crimson Empire didn't have it, and the players never really bothered with food as cultivators didn't require it.
He never cared about food enough to go around searching about it.
He looked at the prices and checked his storage bag. He never really had a lot of spirit stones after the other guy kept sending it back home.
He had managed to gather about 1000 True Spirit stones before he left, and he had already spent close to 400 True spirit stones in the capital for the various ingredients and formation materials.
Of the 600 he had remaining, he looked down and the menu and realized, about 50 would be gone today if he wanted to eat the best thing on it.
Alex sighed, but he had ways to earn his money back. So, without hesitation, he ordered 5 dishes that in total cost him 58 True Spirit stones.
The waiter nodded and left.
"I know, I know. Some of it is for you too," Alex said to Pearl in his robes who quietly sent him a message through the spiritual sense that said he wanted to eat some as well.
Alex felt a few watchful gaze falling on him, but they were all simply curious about his sunken physique and his missing arm.
He didn't show attention to these gazes and simply waited for the waiter to return with his food.
It took him about 20 minutes, but the waiter returned with his food. He put down all of the food and bowed a little before leaving.
Alex was left with the 5 different dishes he had ordered. Pearl poked his head out of the robe and looked at the food at the table.
"MEOW!" he said as he pointed towards one of the plates.
Alex took the chopsticks and tried the food Pearl pointed to. "Oh wow, it's good," he said.
"MOEW!" Pearl got angry. He wanted to try the food first.
"Haha, sorry. You can try the rest first," he said and brought out Pearl to place him on the table.
Even though he had grown in the many month since he had been with Alex, Pearl was still less than a foot in length.
His white body disappeared onto the white sheets that were on the table, but people still noticed.
Some were disgusted that a beast was eating on a table meant for humans, but those were in the minority.
Most people didn't care.
As Pearl started eating, Alex did too. The food was incredibly delicious and he could even feel the energy from it directly being absorbed by his body.
Some were certainly turning into Qi like all foods did for him. There was also a certain healing factor in the food, although it couldn't reach the same level as healing as a healing paste or an actual healing pill could provide.
In less than 10 minutes, Alex ate all of the food that was brought to him. Pearl certainly ate a lot, but that couldn't be considered to the amount Alex had ate.
Once he finished, he closed his eyes and looked into his body once more. As he did, he noticed that there was no food left in his stomach at all, and he had indeed gained some muscle mass.
It was a very low amount, but it was certainly something. 'I will have to eat a bit more maybe,' he thought.
He was certain there were pills that could immediately give him muscles, but he wasn't certain how well those would work with his body that had went through body cultivation.
Eating food so that his body could absorb as much energy needed to give him muscle over the course of a few days seemed like a better choice than a single pill that would instantly restore his muscle, but likely not the strength in them.
Alex put Pearl inside his robes and decided to leave. His stomach was empty and he could eat it all twice over, but he didn't think that was a good idea.
Certainly, it wasn't good for his pockets. 'I should take it slow. It's not like I have anywhere else to be immediately,' he thought.
He left the table and went on to pay. As he went down the stairs, he saw a bunch of people walk up past him.
He didn't look in their direction, but he caught an information about an auction taking place in the near future.
Alex thought back to his low spirit stones, and thought that it would be a good idea to get some from here.
As he paid for his meals, the staff couldn't help but look at the cost with wide eyes. Who in their right mind would eat over 50 True Spirit stones worth of food in one sitting? Was this the son of a successful merchant.
She looked towards the skinny Alex and didn't think that was true at all.
"Do you know any place around here where I can learn about the city and everything else?" he asked.
"Learning? Umm… there is a library about 50 paces right from outside the restaurant. You won't miss the building," she said.
"Thank you," Alex said and walked out.
As he was told, he took a right and walked down 50 paces until he saw something and nearly laughed out loud.
'She wasn't lying when she said I won't miss it,' he thought looked at a building across the street whose front wall looked like the cover of a book half opened, with a bookmark hanging from the top left.
The cover had a title written on it which read 'Three Faction Alliance library.'
Alex had guessed what the 'Three faction' meant, but he still wanted to learn more. So, he walked in.
