After asking Jia Rong to make the arrangements, Yunxiao left the Alchemist Association and went to a nearby market. As he passed through the lobby on the first floor, the eyes of everyone who looked at him had changed completely, showing awe and respect.
In fact, Yunxiao only needed a box of gold needles to treat the princess, but he was very particular about the size, thickness, length, weight, purity, and materials. Therefore, he decided to find some materials and refine them himself, so that he could treat with certainty.
While he was wandering around the market, a familiar figure suddenly appeared in his eyes, and a wonderful memory immediately came back to him. The hint of a smile emerged on the corner of his mouth as he walked toward the figure.
"Boss, I really have only one hundred and seventy gold coins. Just do me a favor and help me once," Meng Wu pleaded at a small stall.
Junliang, an intermediate apprentice alchemist, waved and said, "Go somewhere else then! Three hundred gold coins is the lowest possible price! Alternatively, if you can provide me all the ingredients, I'll help you with thirty gold coins."
Meng Wu took out two herbs and handed them over. "All I have are the bright orchid and the snake-tongue flower," she said.
Junliang glanced at them and said impatiently, "These two things are worth twenty gold coins at most. It's not that I don't want to help you, pretty, but you can't make me lose money, can you? But..." His eyes flashed with lust as he said with a grin, "If you are willing to be my girlfriend, we can discuss everything."
Meng Wu's face fell, and she immediately took back the herbs as she turned to leave.
"Oh, don't go!" Junliang said hastily, "You just have to be my girlfriend for three months! Why, don't you want to treat your younger brother?"
His words were like a spell that made Meng Wu stop and stay where she was.
A triumphant smile emerged on Junliang's face as he stepped forward and said, "That's right, I'm not asking you to marry me. Even if you want to, I wouldn't agree. I'm a man who's going to be an alchemist one day, and I'll only marry the daughters of nobles. You're worthy of being played by me for only three months. How about that? If you agree, I'll give you the resuscitation magic water for free."
Meng Wu was shaking with anger, and her lips were bleeding as she bit them too hard. "Help me concoct the resuscitation magic water, and I will raise enough money to pay you back in three months!"
"Pay me back later? Ha! If your brother is not treated with this magic water, I don't think he'll be able to live that long. Sure you can pay me back later, but your brother's life is priceless, isn't it?" While grinning, Junliang came closer, reaching out a hand to touch Meng Wu. "What do you think, my little pretty? I see you are still a maiden, or else I wouldn't give you such a generous offer."
Pa!
Junliang pulled his hand back as if he got an electric shock, and his forehead went cold from the pain. He hastily rolled up his sleeve and saw a bruise the size of a palm begin to bulge slowly over his arm. Shocked and outraged, he stared at Yunxiao, who had just struck him, and growled, "Who are you, boy? How dare you hit me!"
"Who are you, boy? How dare you touch my girl!" Yunxiao grinned and gave Meng Wu a meaningful glance over his shoulder.
At the sight of Yunxiao, Meng Wu's head was buzzing while what happened that night flashed through her mind. Shame and indignation poured out from the bottom of her heart; her cheeks flushed with embarrassment, and her eyes were burning with anger.
Junliang blanked for a moment, and then said in a cold voice, "Your girl? That depends on whether she admits it or not! Do you know who I am?" He pointed to his bruised arm and said, "Boy, you're in big trouble."
Yunxiao was amused when he heard that. "Who are you? I really don't know," he laughed and said.
"I'm going to wipe that smile off your face," Junliang sneered. "I'm an intermediate apprentice alchemist at the Alchemist Association. My master is Master Jia Rong, a first-tier alchemist, and my sworn brother is Long Hao, the eldest son of Lord Long Qing, the commander of the Imperial City Guards! If you know what all that means, get down on your knees and apologize, then give me a few hundred gold coins for my injury. Only then will I let you go."
Yunxiao laughed. "I know Jia Rong, and I also know Long Qing, but I have never heard of his son. Oh, I also have a few hundred gold coins." He pulled out a storage bag and threw it on the ground, his eyes flashing coldly. "But...I dare you to take it."
Junliang was taken aback. He did not expect that Yunxiao would actually take out hundreds of gold coins. Delighted, he bent down and reached for the bag.
Suddenly, a cold chill came from his spine and made him shudder. He went cold from head to toe, and a deep sense of fear rose from the bottom of his heart. He looked up in horror and saw a flicker of indifference in Yunxiao's eyes as they stared at him like he was a dead man.
'Heavens! What kind of a look is that? Even soldiers who have been through many battles do not have such a deadly gaze!' Junliang's outstretched hand stopped in mid-air, and he was instantly drenched in a cold sweat. He was sure that this guy would kill him if he touched the storage bag!
Meng Wu stared blankly at Yunxiao. His indifferent manner had affected and shocked her deeply as well.
To raise money, she had agreed to help Lan Fei in his plan of framing Yunxiao. She did not expect it to end up so badly. Not only was Lan Fei expelled and she did not get a single coin, but she was even groped all over by this guy.
She would never forget what he had done to her. That night, she had secretly wept in her bed, scratched her arms bloody with her own fingernails as she swore over and over again that she would kill this guy. But, when Yunxiao did appear in front of her again, she could do nothing to him but fly into a rage.
Perhaps, the mighty figure that descended from the sky in the arena that day had been deeply imprinted in her heart. Little girls always adored heroes, and a strong man was apt to arouse innumerable reveries.
She had no idea what a real strong man was, but probably not far from that figure.
"Brother Hao!"
Junliang's cry of surprise pulled Meng Wu back from her thoughts. As if seeing a savior, he ran quickly toward a man in armor, then pointed in Yunxiao's direction and said something to him.
With a grim look on his face, Long Hao came over with a group of soldiers. He gave Yunxiao and Meng Wu a cold glance, then looked up at the sky and said, "I don't know who you are, and I don't want to know. Now, I'll give you two choices: you can either kneel and apologize to my brother, leave this girl, as well as the money before getting out of here, or become a cripple and spend the rest of your life in jail. You have only three breaths to make up your mind!"
Long Hao was on duty today, and he was patrolling around with a group of men, which was a boring task. Although Junliang was from a poor family, as he was not weak and his master was Jia Rong, who was known as the most promising alchemist, Long Hao was more than happy to befriend him and do him a favor now.
"Hmph! How dare you touch me! I already told you, my sworn brother is Long Hao. Keep your eyes open when you walk in the capital, boy!" Junliang shouted in a swaggering voice and came in front of the storage bag with two steps before bending down to pick it up.
Boom!
Yunxiao's figure flickered and Junliang's body flew up like a kite with its string cut in the blink of an eye, before falling into the group of men led by Long Hao.
Long Hao's pupils constricted as he and his men quickly scattered, and a loud boom rang out between them in the next instant. Junliang's face was full of blood and a look of incredulity as he said in a trembling voice, "Br-bro-brother, m-mm-my dantian is broken...Cripp-crippled...I'm completely crippled..."
Long Hao looked at Junliang in disbelief, his head reeling. "How dare you hurt my little brother, boy!" he growled. Meanwhile, the soldiers behind him had all drawn their weapons, and were ready to fight at any moment.
Meng Wu was stunned as well. She did not expect Yunxiao to be so resolute in his actions, crippling Junliang without even saying a word. Although she thought it was cruel, her heart was filled with an indescribable warmth, and she felt a stinging sensation in her eyes.
Yunxiao said coldly, "I choose the second option. Please send me to jail to have some fun, brother soldiers!"
"Die!"
Long Hao roared as he came to his senses at last. His cultivation base of a warrior exploded out in a flash and he pulled out a broadsword, putting all his strength into it as he chopped it down!
He was so angry that he had gone berserk. It was rare to have someone from the younger generation in the capital who dared to not give him face. Now that Junliang's dantian was destroyed in front of him, not only did he lose a friend with a promising future, he was certain that he would be badly beaten by his father when Jia Rong found out about this.
A worried look emerged on Meng Wu's face. Although she knew of Yunxiao's background and strength, he was outnumbered, and his opponents were all real imperial guards. These were warriors who licked blood from the edge of their knives, whose actual fighting strength was far stronger than the students who spent all day in academy cultivating.
"What! How's that possible!"
Long Hao's strike was powerful, but as he brought the broadsword all the way down, he only heard a faint thud. To his shock, he found that his broadsword—Bluemoon—was caught by his opponent with just two fingers!
He caught Bluemoon with just two...fingers?
Everyone was shocked!
A trace of a smile played about the corners of Yunxiao's mouth as he held the broadsword gently between his fingers, looking like he was enjoying the moon while holding a flower. It seemed relaxed, but in fact, it was a very advanced finger technique.
Long Hao came to his senses after a brief lapse. 'He's strong! No wonder he's so firm in attitude!'
"Unseal, my Bluemoon!"
A dull noise rang out of the broadsword as if its sleeping soul was waking up. At the same time, its blade began to pulse while a strong murderous aura spread out in a flash, and its appearance began to change.
Yunxiao frowned as he sensed the blade's transformation between his fingers, which were then knocked away.
"A mystic weapon!"
Meng Wu cried out and covered her mouth with both hands, her eyes full of horror.
Mystic weapons were the exclusive fighting tools for warriors, containing infinite power. Only alchemists could refine them, and each one of them was priceless and hard to come by!
"My Bluemoon was made of deep-sea cold iron by Master Liang Wenyu, a second-tier Master Alchemist." Long Hao's eyes flashed with a cold gleam as he gently ran his fingers across the blade. "You are the third person to see it unsealed. It is your great privilege to be killed by Bluemoon today!"