by Shian Jeen
Huwang Xiao sighed heavily in his heart. Despite his Master Feng Yang having Lin Tong, Ceng Leng, and the All Dragons League Enforcers and disciples locked up in the Black Warrior Institute’s dungeon, nothing could be done about Wang Na, that old witch, even though she attacked the Golden Dragon Peak last time.
As for that Jiang Yu, since he had already turned into an idiot, Feng Yang’s hands were bound from levying further punishment on him.
“Come, drink up!” Huwang Xiao clinked his jug against Xie Puti’s, gulping down the fiery liquid down his throat.
Both men drank to their heart’s content.
Still, Huwang Xiao could see there was something on Xie Puti’s mind, thus he asked, “Are you still thinking about your Ancestor’s matter?”
Xie Puti shook his head, “No,” his words paused slightly here before continuing, “Do you still remember when I mentioned that there is a woman I like?”
“I remember, you said that the other side’s lowest requirement is that you must breakthrough to God Realm before agreeing to associate with you seriously.” Huwang Xiao said. He remembered this matter clearly because it was Xie Puti’s matter.
Xie Puti nodded, but there was hesitation in his voice, “She asked to meet me ten days later in Black Warrior City.”
Huwang Xiao thought for a moment, asking: “You want me to accompany you?”
“It’s just that I don’t want to disturb your practice, so I…” Xie Puti’s voice reduced to a mumble.
Huwang Xiao laughed, “What’s there to disturb, it’s not like we’re going to the Azure Dragon Galaxy, how much time would it take? Coincidentally, spending so much time with that Ascending Moon Old Man is suffocating, I was thinking of taking a stroll around the Black Warrior City to relax a little.” Huwang Xiao had a feeling that this woman asking to meet Xie Puti was not as simple as it seemed.
Xie Puti’s face lit up hearing Huwang Xiao promise to accompany him, and no longer refused. Both of them continued to drink the night away, their words were spoken through wine.
Several days later, Huwang Xiao brought the matter up with the Ascending Moon Old Man, saying that he planned to go Black Warrior City. Unexpectedly, not only did the Ascending Moon Old Man not object, the old man even amiably agreed, “Just as well, this old man also feels like going out for some air, I’ll come with you guys.”
Huwang Xiao could only smile bitterly in his heart.
He didn’t expect this old man would want to tag along for a short trip, who knows what kind of trouble this old man would cause later. Then again, Huwang Xiao was powerless to stop the old man if he wanted to follow, thus Huwang Xiao could only consent.
Then, Huwang Xiao went and asked his parents, and they too wished to go out. After all, there was the Ascending Moon Old Man, this super bodyguard with them. Huwang Xiao need not worry about their safety.
When everything was settled, three days before the appointed time, a group departed from the Golden Dragon Peak, heading toward the Black Warrior City.
Other than his parents, there were also his siblings, Huwang Xiaohai and Huwang Min, his nephew Guo Xiaofan, brother-in-law Guo Fan, the Violet Spirit Devourer Monkey Huwang Xiaoyong, Heaven Devouring Beast Lil Tian, the Blessed Buddha Emperor Shi Fantian and his Empress Lin Meng, Zhao Shu, and Zhang Fu.
Adding Huwang Xiao, the Ascending Moon Old Man, and Xie Puti, there were fifteen of them in total.
Because their cultivations were in the Saint realm and above, they flew instead of riding on beast mounts.
Laughter could be heard the entire way.
Stepping out from the transmission array, several members of the Huwang Family cheered on the Black Warrior City’s street. Being cooped up inside the Golden Dragon Peak for the last several years had nearly bored them to tears.
Ch.654
“Come on, let’s head to the Peace Spring Street!” Walking in the lively streets of the Black Warrior City, Huwang Min suggested in high spirits.
They had stayed for a period in the Black Warrior City and thus were familiar with some parts of the city. Located at the city center, the Peace Spring Street was one of Black Warrior City’s most prosperous streets, with shops offering various kinds of goods, entertainment, as well as restaurants.
Undoubtedly, the shops and restaurants on this streets were some of the largest ones on the Cloudsea Mainland, and the entertainment premises were known to be of higher standards. Therefore, Peace Spring Street garnered the highest spending rate.
Everyone thought it was a good suggestion and agreed. Hence, the group headed out towards the Peace Spring Street.
Since Xie Puti’s meeting was scheduled for the day after, Huwang Xiao and Xie Puti accompanied everyone to the Peace Spring Street. As for the Ascending Moon Old Man, he was talking and laughing with everyone the entire way, portraying an impeccable image of a proper elder. Even so, he was still clad in that old and shabby robe, seemingly a little out of place with the rest.
Upon arriving at the Peace Spring Street, the womenfolk began scouring the various shops.
The first shop they entered was a large shop that sold various kinds of ornaments, however, these weren’t the usual ornaments. The ornaments were made with rare and precious spiritual gemstones and star diamonds found in the galaxy, amongst other materials, set in ore kernels. When worn on the body, they nourished the body and were said to keep evil at bay.
Some of the higher grade ornaments were even inscribed with powerful formations. When facing an enemy, the formation could be activated to block attacks. Certain precious ornaments were inscribed with attack formations, enhancing the wearer’s attack power.
Because most of the Huwang Family members were Saint realm cultivators, Huwang Xiao had concealed his aura, coupled with the Ascending Moon Old Man in his permanent beggar-like appearance, when they entered the shop, the workers around merely swept a quick glance over the group and looked away with disinterest. No one bothered to introduce or explain the ornaments’ functions to the womenfolk.
Inside the shop, some big family’s madame perusing the displayed ornaments also showed disdain and distaste toward Huwang Xiao’s group.
In their eyes, Saint realm cultivators were no different from the lowest of slaves.
“I wonder which family this bunch of slaves ran out from!” A splendidly garbed middle-aged woman muttered under her breath.
Despite her low voice, it reached everyone’s ears inside the shop loud and clear. Huwang Xiao and the Huwang Family all raised an eyebrow.
At this point, the middle-aged woman was pointing at a phoenix-shaped hairpin, “Worker, how much is this phoenix hairpin?”
Immediately, a shop worker hurried to her side, bearing a respectful smile, “Madame Wenting’s sight is sharp as always! This phoenix hairpin had just arrived yesterday, it was made with an extremely rare stone in the galaxy, Sky Dawning Gem, Crimson Star Stone, and a mix of Divine World’s soft irons. Not only are there two defense formations inscribed on this hairpin, it even has an attack formation. The selling price is ten thousand top heaven grade spirit stones! As our shop’s longtime customer, there is a special discount, only needing nine thousand five hundred spirit stones!”
One piece of top heaven grade spirit stone was almost equivalent to twenty thousand Xuanwu coins.
Ten thousand pieces were close to two hundred million!
Hearing the price gave that Zhou Wenting a fright. Although her status wasn’t low, two hundred million Xuanwu coins was an exorbitant amount for her. She gave a little smile, saying, “I’m just asking out of curiosity, I have one like that at home, it’s a waste to buy the same thing twice.”
But it was obvious to everyone around, this was just a surface excuse, as for whether she really had the same hairpin back home, the people around each have their opinion.
However, the shop worker smiled amiably, agreeing, “It is so, as Madame said.”
Unnoticed by others, Huwang Min sent a look at Huwang Xiao. Understanding
his younger sister’s intention, he slightly nodded.
Seeing Huwang Xiao agree, Huwang Min deliberately raised her voice, sounding drastically surprised, “Wha-t?! This phoenix hairpin is only ten thousand top heaven grade spirit stones? Worker, quickly wrap it up for me, I want it.”
The shop’s atmosphere instantly fell into a pin-drop silence.
Zhou Wenting suddenly burst out in a shrill laughter, her face filled with undisguised ridicule as she looked at Huwang Min, “I say, little maid, do you even know what top heaven grade spirit stones are? Top heaven grade spirit stones are not Xuanwu coins. Listen carefully, the price is ten thousand top heaven grade spirit stones, not ten thousand Xuanwu coins! Forget ten thousand top heaven grade spirit stones, you probably can’t even take out a single top heaven grade spirit stone!”
The other wealthy madames around snickered, shaking their heads. It was clear that they too did not believe that Huwang Min was capable of taking out ten thousand top heaven grade spirit stones. In fact, they very much doubted that Huwang Min and the group of slaves with her even had ten thousand Xuanwu coins on them.
Huwang Min flashed a satirical smile in response to their ridicule, “Just because you’re poor, unable to take out that sum, doesn’t mean others are like you. No money, yet putting a facade here.”
Huwang Xiaohai, Guo Xiaofan, Huwang Xiaoyong, Xie Puti, and the others clamored, backing Huwang Min up. That woman annoyed them ever since they stepped into the shop.
The Ascending Moon Old Man was more excited than anyone, clapping his hands while shouting ‘good’ to cheer Huwang Min on, “That’s right, you poor doxy, what are you pretending here for if you're actually poor? Quickly scram if you have no money, don’t block people that want to buy things!”
In mere seconds, his respected elder image crumbled. Huwang Xiao cried silent tears of bitterness watching the old man.
Zhou Wenting was fuming with rage, pointing at Huwang Min’s group with her long fingernail, “You all! You all! Oh, I’m so mad right now!” She made an abrupt turn toward the shop worker, “One look and it’s obvious these slaves that ran out from god-knows-where are here to cause trouble, why aren’t you throwing them out of here?!”
The shop workers around hesitated for a second before moving toward Huwang Xiao’s group. After all, Zhou Wenting was a frequent patron. On top of that, they didn’t believe that anyone from Huwang Xiao’s group could afford to take out ten thousand top heaven grade spirit stones.
Another obvious reason was that the backing of a group of Saint realms was unlikely to be all that powerful.
“In order to not disturb our customers, please leave the shop.” Someone that looked like the leader spoke to Huwang Xiao.
However, Zhuo Wenting shouted: “Don't ask them to leave, throw them out!”
The group of workers struggled, not knowing what to do.
Watching these people, Huwang Xiao sneered, “Leave the shop? Don’t disturb your customers?” With a casual wave of his hand, numerous spirit stones rained down from midair like a torrential rain, falling to the floor.
The floor issued muffled thuds as large amounts of spirit stones fell on its surface, making some people began to wonder if the floor would collapse into a large pit if this continued.
A while later, the spirit stones rain finally stopped, filling the shop with rich spiritual energy as if it was the center of a spiritual energy ocean.
The family disciples and rich madames were flabbergasted staring at the pile of heaven grade spirit stones piled high as a small hill. How many spirit stones were there in this pile? One million? Ten million?!
It did not escape their notice that this tall pile of heaven grade spirit stones was fully composed of top grade spirit stones!
Zhuo Wenting stared dumbly, as did the surrounding shop workers.
Suddenly, the sounds of hasty footsteps could be heard coming from the back hall as a middle-aged supervisor appeared. Obviously, he was alerted by the loud noise of spirit stones falling to the floor.
The moment he saw the pile of top heaven grade spirit stones that looked no less than ten million pieces, he nearly took a tumble right into it. Regardless of his years of experience in business, this scene still shocked him to the core.
Ten million top heaven grade spirit stones, how much was that in Xuanwu coins? More than two billion!
Exerting great effort to tear his gaze away from the small hill-sized pile of spirit stones, the middle-aged man’s eyes swept around the shop, finally stopping on Huwang Xiao. He quickly scurried over to Huwang Xiao, extremely respectful in his manner, “How may I address Young Master?”
The frostiness on Huwang Xiao face did not change, “Just now, my younger sister wanted to buy that phoenix hairpin, but your workers were prepared to throw us out, assuming that we can’t afford to buy it. Could it be that these ten million top heaven grade spirit stones are too little for that hairpin?”
Ch.655
The shop supervisor was dazed for a minute at Huwang Xiao’s words, then he slowly turned his neck, looking at the shop workers under his charge.
Under the supervisor’s gaze, the surrounding shop workers became ashen, large beads of sweat trickled down their foreheads, involuntarily trembling. The leader was stammering in fear, “Su-Supervisor, w-we…”
The supervisor released a loud roar at them, “You bunch of good-for-nothing dogs, roll over here for me! Immediately apologize to this Young Master!”
Petrified by the supervisor’s anger, all the shop workers scrambled to stand in front of Huwang Xiao, falling to their knees without any hesitation, apologizing over and over again.
An eyebrow rose up as he watched this group of workers, “Forget it.”
Only after hearing Huwang Xiao’s words did the supervisor shoo the shop workers away.
After the group of shop workers left, Huwang Xiao pointed at Zhuo Wenting, asking the supervisor, “Is she an Elder of your shop?”
No doubt, the supervisor recognized Zhuo Wenting. Although he didn't know why Huwang Xiao asked such a question, the supervisor still answered truthfully, “She is not.”
Huwang Xiao snickered, “I thought she was one of your shop’s Elders since she was the one who ordered your shop workers to throw us out.”
The supervisor blanked for a moment and hesitated. He understood the underlying meaning of Huwang Xiao’s words, but even so, Zhuo Wenting was their shop’s frequent patron, not to mention the fact that her status wasn’t low.
While the supervisor was struggling, his eyes caught sight of the pile of ten million pieces top heaven grade spirit stones and brightened. In the next second, he walked toward Zhuo Wenting.
When Zhuo Wenting saw the supervisor walk toward her, her face paled.
“Madame Wenting, if there’s nothing else, kindly leave the premise for the day.” The supervisor spoke courteously.
But Zhuo Wenting did not care, pointing her finger at the supervisor’s face, “Good, good, you’d better remember this, I’ll definitely make you pay!” Throwing out that sentence, she flicked her sleeves and stormed toward the exit. When she passed by Huwang Xiao, her gaze was filled with fury and hatred, “You bunch of dog slaves, don’t think just because you've got your hands on some cultivation cave treasure, that you’re so great with some money in your hands. I will make sure you understand that there are some people you cannot afford to offend even if you’re wealthy!”
But, just as she was about to step out of the shop, whether it was by pure coincidence or otherwise, she tripped over the threshold, falling face first to the floor.
Watching this, the Huwang Family snickered out loud.
Huwang Xiao turned around to face the Huwang Family, “Since everyone is so happy today, if you see anything you like, just buy it. If we don’t spend these ten million top heaven grade spirit stones, we’re not leaving!”
Only leave after spending ten million top heaven grade spirit stones!
These words buzzed ceaselessly
like a beehive in the surrounding family disciples and wealthy madames’ minds.
Zhuo Wenting had just climbed up from the ground, but as if Huwang Xiao’s words startled her greatly, her legs went weak, slumping to the ground once more.
Hearing Huwang Xiao announce that they would leave only after spending the ten million pieces of top heaven grade spirit stones, the supervisor bowed so low before Huwang Xiao’s group that he was barely at chest height, making people wonder if he went through strenuous exercise the night before and hurt his waist.
Those rich madames around immediately began to send flirtatious looks in Huwang Xiao, Huwang Xiaohai, and the other menfolk’s direction. A more daring madame approached Huwang Xiao, speaking in a coy voice, “My name is Meng Xiaojiao, may I know how to address this Young Master?”
Huwang Xiao did not answer, but the Ascending Moon Old Man beside him grinned sheepishly, “Little miss, I’m surnamed Xiao, name Bailian.”
The young madame was startled, then recited the name in one breath: “Xiao Bailian.” [1]
The Huwang Family nearly burst out laughing.
Huwang Xiao hid his smile in a head shake, this old man’s face was thicker than the average people. Taking a glance at the Ascending Moon Old Man’s wrinkle-filled face, almost as black as charcoal, if a face this like could be called ‘little white face’ then this world would be filled with pretty men everywhere.
With the matter settled, everyone began looking around for things they liked. After going through the front hall, inner hall, as well as the shop’s special collections, they finally achieved the task Huwang Xiao set out, spending the ten million pieces of top heaven grade spirit stones. What made Huwang Xiao speechless was that the old man also chose more than a hundred ornaments. According to the old man, it would be a waste not spending his disciple’s money.