Chapter 25 – Sparked Rivalry (1)
"Excuse me, I'm here to free a debt slave."
In front of Poseidon Spa House, a dirty young man in ragged clothes carrying a large sack was asking a brothel receptionist if he could buy a slave. He had scruffy messy hair, and some of it seemed burned. His scarred and rough hands revealed that he had been working hard for a long time.
Yet, the beggar man's sharp eyes and determined pupils showed the unyielding spirit within him. He came here for a reason, and he had to achieve it no matter what the cost.
"You again? I told you, right? The minimum price for a slave is 500 raw spirit stones. If you don't have it, you should leave before I call the security."
Ma Xingjuan, who once escorted Miaomiao to Xu Xiuying, stopped this young man from seeing a certain slave.
This wasn't the first time that the ragged clothed man came here. He visited the brothel two weeks ago, but he got kicked out by this receptionist. He didn't still realize that Ma Xingjuan had saved his life from the hands of evil cultivators inside the brothel.
"I have the stones. They're in this sack," The beggar man tossed the sack to Ma Xingjuan.
The receptionist raised her eyebrows, surprised. She examined the content of the sack.
Indeed, hundreds of raw spirit stones were in there. However, she didn't know the exact number since they were hard to tell. Unless she counted it with her Succubi Sense, she wouldn't be able to confirm the number.
It took Ma Xingjuan a minute to confirm everything, "There're a total of 512 raw spirit stones. Well, I guess we can do business. But don't you think you should at least take a bath or buy some clothes with these stones first?"
"Nah, it will get dirtied again. I work in a mine."
"I see. Well, come with me. I'll take you to see the slaves."
"No need. I'm here for a friend of mine."
Ma Xingjuan found him amusing. Normally, men who came here to buy slaves always chose to browse through the list first, and they usually picked the best looking slaves. Yet, in this dirty man's case, he came here to free his friend.
"Oh, really? How noble of you."
"Just get to the point. How much does it cost to free my friend?"
"Who is your friend? Can you give me her name?"
"Jiang Lan."
"…"
Ma Xingjuan frowned. She had heard this name from somewhere recently, but she couldn't recall where she had heard about this slave. Also, Ma Xingjuan had a feeling that trouble was brewing.
"Give me a moment. For now, hold on to that sack. I don't want to be branded as a robber if I keep holding onto it."
"Sure."
Ma Xingjuan strode into the brothel to inquire about a slave with this name.
.
.
.
30 Minutes later, Ma Xingjuan returned with a bitter smile on her face. She remembered where she heard Jiang Lan's name, and where she currently was.
The receptionist gave the young blacksmith an apological smile, "I'm sorry. Jiang Lan has already been freed. She has already been accepted an outer disciple of Silver Phoenix Sect."
"R-Really!?"
Ma Xingjuan didn't tell the young man that Miaomiao had already bought Jiang Lan. As a professional receptionist, she cared about all her potential customers' feelings. But in this case, she had to gather some information.
"Yes. By the way, what's your relationship with her?"
"Why do you ask?"
"It's our sect's policy. Silver Phoenix Sect is an all-female sect. We forbade the man-woman relationship during our training. It affects our discipline and principles."
That was a lie. Ma Xingjuan probed the young man if he had any ulterior motive behind his request.
"Err, your sect is running a brothel, though."
The beggar pointed out the flaw in Ma Xingjuan's lie. However, the girl came prepared.
"Prostitution is a business that our sect runs. It doesn't mean that our disciples are working as one of those girls."
"O-Okay."
Aside from Silver Phoenix Sect's disciples, workers, or elders, outsiders didn't know that dual-cultivators were disguising as prostitutes here. The beggar also wasn't aware of the secret of Xu Xiuying's sect, so he couldn't refute.
"Now, back to my question. What's your relationship with Jiang Lan?"
"Oh," the beggar's eyes turned bright, "To tell you the truth, both Jiang Lan and I grew up in the countryside. Our parents were ordinary people without a cultivation background. You see, we were farmers."
Ma Xingjuan listened to this man's story to kill time.
…
This beggar's name was Xie Tian. Judging from the tone that he talked about Jiang Lan, this man was her childhood sweetheart.
Jiang Lan used to date Xie Tian and promised each other to be husband and wife in the future. Even their parents approved their relationship.
However, two years ago, cultivators from Wei Clan visited their village. Wei Feng, the youngest child of the clan master, discovered Jiang Lan's beauty. He proposed to her and promised her that she would become a cultivator and obtain immortality.
Jiang Lan declined. Yet, Wei Feng's words ignited her family's desire to attain immortality. Even Jiang Lan's heart wavered when she imagined herself having a never-aging youthful body.
Wei Feng withdrew without doing anything to the family, but the harm had been done.
A month later, something happened to the Jiang family. Xie Tian didn't know how it began, but he discovered later that Jiang parents borrowed several spirit stones from both Xu Clan and Wei Clan to cultivate. Jiang Lan also had a few raw spirit stones in her hands!
The Jiang parents and Jiang Lan suddenly became 1st stage cultivators, but they often got bedridden because of Qi Deviation sickness, which was caused by Qi radiation.
The parents stopped cultivating, but they pressured Jiang Lan to continue doing so. They were planning to send her to a sect to earn spirit stones so that they could pay off the debt.
Xie Tian tried to persuade the Jiang Family to stop, but Jiang Lan didn't listen to him. Her family kept borrowing more spirit stones and hired doctors to treat her. As time passed, the debt kept increasing and reached over 100 raw spirit stones.
In the end, Jiang Lan's family gave up. They sold Jiang Lan to the Xu Clan as a slave to pay off the debt.
Xie Tian followed after Jiang Lan to Mountain Goose City, hoping to free her from the slave status. He worked as a miner and a blacksmith for a year. And now, he had a fortuitous encounter and managed to collect enough spirit stones to free her.
…
Ma Xingjuan wanted to laugh and mock Xie Tian, but she refrained herself. It would be rude to reveal that Jiang Lan had become Xu Miao's chambermaid.
"I understand. I'll tell Jiang Lan that you've come to visit her. Give me your address, so we can contact you in the future."
"Thank you, senior sister! Err, but I'm staying at my master's storehouse at the moment. He told me that he had a connection with one of your executives or so."
"Your master? Who is he?"
"Senior Luo."
There were not many people with surname Luo in this city that had a connection with Silver Phoenix Sect. She wondered who it was, "What's the senior's name again?"
"Luo Cheng, Senior Luo Cheng from Mountain Goose Sect."
"…"
"I'm working as his blacksmith apprentice at the moment, and I'm working in the mine part-time. Please tell Jiang Lan that."
"… Okay."
Xie Tian cupped his fist and bowed to Ma Xingjuan before he departed with his spirit stone sack. The receptionist could only send him off with her gaze.
'Too bad, lover boy. Your girlfriend has ditched you. Your master is also a spy from our clan. Well, what should I tell Jiang Lan and young master Xu Miao?'
…
= Jiang Lan's Room =
At the corner of the room stood a 20-cubic-feet refrigerator. It was filled with canned food, grain pills, spirit drinks, and water, which was automatically refilled. This was a magic item of Silver Phoenix Sect that could teleport supplies to fridges of disciples, who were a closed-door training, so they wouldn't die starving.
Jiang Lan opened the fridge and opened a canned fermented herrings, which had an iconic label.
Surstr*mming
As soon as she opened the can, the rotting fishy smell filled the room. Yet, Jiang Lan inhaled it as if it was the tastiest smell in the world. Then, Jiang Lan chowed the fishes in the can.
*RING*
As Jiang Lan was enjoying her fermented fishes, her jade phone rang. She picked it to see who was calling.
"Senior Ma?"
The caller was Ma Xingjuan, who was an inner disciple senior. Jiang Lan picked it up without hesitation.
*PIIP*
"Hello, E1053 here."
[Jiang Lan?]
"Yes? Can I help you?"
[Ah, I'm just curious. Do you know a guy named Xie Tian?]
Jiang Lan froze. She furrowed her brow, annoyed that she heard this name at a time like this.
"I know him. Is there something wrong?"
[He visited the brothel just now and claimed to be your boyfriend. He wants to buy you.]
"I'm already a free woman, though. Also, I'm not his girlfriend."
[Are you sure? He said that you had promised to marry him.]
"That was when we're kids. Do you think I have to keep that silly promise?"
Jiang Lan was serious. Their promise was already 10 years old, which was made when Jiang Lan was 8. She hoped that Xie Tian should have moved on since she was now a cultivator, and he was a commoner without cultivation strength. Their status was now different.
Moreover, she had become the favorite wife of Miaomiao, the adopted son of the vice master, Xu Xiuying. Her future seemed more promising if she could become Xu Xiuying's daughter-in-law.
Also, Jiang Lan didn't forget the hot nights. Her husband's yang qi and his dual cultivation techniques could boost her levels. Just by getting inseminated once, her strength increased by a level.
In summary, Xie Tian was just a slum boy while Miaomiao was a rich stud with exceptional bed skills. It was an obvious choice who she should choose as a husband.
[Of course not! Say, he left me an address and a contact number. Do you want me to contact him for you?]
"No, please. I'm in the middle of closed-door training. I'm about to break through, so I don't have time for something stupid."
[Ah, what a pity. I was hoping for a melodrama.]
"Not gonna happen, senior. Anyway, is there anything else? I'm busy."
[Eh, fine. You're no fun. I won't continue bothering you, then.]
"…"
[Oh, by the way, do you mind if I abduct him and throw him to the dungeon?]
Jiang Lan almost said, "Yes, please," but she managed to hold back her words. Although she planned to abandon Xie Tian, her lingering guilty conscience stopped her from harming him. Childhood memory and his smiling face were still precious to her. It was a happy memory that Jiang Lan wanted to treasure, and she didn't want to ruin Xie Tian's future.
"… Please don't. At least, leave him alone."
[Hahaha! Just kidding. I was messing with you. Have fun cultivating.]
"…"
Ma Xingjuan hung up the phone, but she sent a MeChat message.
<
Jiang Lan stared at the address, hesitated if she should go out and meet her ex-boyfriend.