Yang Zhai and the others stopped in front of a village gate.
"Sir, if you would please."
A guard said to Yang Zhai.
"Here,"
Yang Zhai handed a low-grade essence stone.
Mortals in this world would mostly ask nicely, fearing that the person facing them might turn out to be a cultivator.
After Yang Zhai handed the essence stone, he enters the village with others.
This village was located in a valley, in the middle of the forests and mountains.
As this village was located in the middle of nowhere, everyone was required to hand over an essence stone, one essence stone for a person or a group.
Mortal guards were guarding the village from all four sides.
I have only twenty-one essence stones left. I need Kas for healing, for increasing my speed and strength, and for other purposes as well. I also need an ire for defending myself. We are only a week away from reaching Luo Sect. I can exchange essence stones for Kas there, but I lost all of them when fighting Tai Qi: Yang Zhai was thinking when he was disturbed by a voice.
"Win five essence stones. Whoever manages to defeat this man here will be given five essence stones!! The entry fee is one essence stone!!" A mortal was shouting loudly.
A crowd had gathered around him. He was standing in a ring like a dohyo. Beside him was a man in his twenties.
Yang Zhai walked up to them and joined the crowd.
"But, isn't it unfair? He is a rank 1 cultivator, and you want us to fight him."
"Yeah, you always fool us into believing that his physical strength is just the same as us, but he is definitely stronger than that."
The crowd was not happy with them.
"Well, what can we do? He trains every day; that's why he is stronger than an average man. Believe me, this strength isn't from a cultivator, but from training. You guys know as well as I that a rank 1 cultivator's body is the same as a mortal."
The man standing in the ring denied it.
"Well, I would like to fight." Yang Zhai stepped into the ring and handed an essence stone.
"Good, good, see, there are still strong men here. Now, if you would please get ready. The rule is simple: throw the man out of the ring, and the five essence stones will be yours."
Yang Zhai got ready and the battle began.
The rank 1 cultivator ran at Yang Zhai and tried to throw him out of the ring. Both of them grabbed each other. Yang Zhai placed a little bit of strength in his arms and the man was about to be lifted. However, Yang Zhai stopped and was thrown out of the arena.
"You are very strong. I am impressed."
After saying this Yang Zhai left the ring and came to his group. While coming back, a smile could be seen on his face. Whoever saw this was confused. How could he smile when he had just lost?
Now, who is the weakest among us: Yang Zhai looked at the four.
"Brother, was he really that strong that he even threw you out of the ring?!" Jun Haru and the others were shocked.
"Li Na, go and fight. Here, take these and say that you want a hundred essence stones, as five stones are given for one essence stone. Also, avoid using any cultivation methods."
Yang Zhai didn't answer Jun Haru and handed twenty essence stones to Li Na.
"What?!!!" The four were shocked.
Even Yang Zhai lost, so how could he ask Li Na to fight and even give her twenty essence stones?
Right now, they had only these twenty essence stones. None of the others had any. If they even lost these, how would they enter the other villages and even purchase necessities?
However, nobody refuted Yang Zhai. Li Na walked up to the rank 1 cultivator and said,
"Ah…I, I, wo,wo, would like to…fight, please."
Li Na stuttered, was anxious and embarrassed.
"What?!"
When the crowd and the cultivator saw Li Na, they were shocked.
This girl had short black hair that extended to her shoulders and was injured all over. She even had flesh missing from many places of her body: those wounds were burnt to stop bleeding. Her clothes were ragged and on top of that, she seemed to be only eleven. Just what did this girl go through?
"Little girl, this ring is not for you. Anyway, what happened to you?" The man beside the cultivator asked.
"Uh, please… let me participate. I, I, I, I…have twenty…essence stones here. In return, I, want… hundr…Ed essence stones if…I win."
"Hmm, little girl, look here. This arena is not for you."
The man was shocked to see twenty essence stones in Li Na's hands, but his pity for her overcame his greed.
"Please… let me… fight, please."
Li Na was adamant.
The man looked at Li Na for a while before saying,
"Fine, if you insist. Hey you, just throw her out of the ring as quickly as possible. Go easy on her." The man took the essence stones and said to the cultivator beside him.
"I, I, I want a hundred essence… stones in return if I… win."
"Fine, fine, get ready."
Nobody here believed that she could win. Everyone thought that she was giving twenty essence stones away for free.
The battle began and the rank 1 cultivator tried to grab and throw her out of the ring as quickly as possible.
However, his speed was pretty slow compared to what she had imagined and managed to easily dodge the cultivator.
She punches the man and he is thrown out of the ring.
A silence pervaded the venue. Everyone was flabbergasted; even Jun, Ma, Si, and Li were confused. Didn't Yang Zhai
Yang Zhai smiled when he saw the cultivator thrown out of the ring.
The reason he lost was that he let the man win. He just wanted to measure the man's true strength before betting his twenty essence stones. He wouldn't simply bet them on thinking that the man was just a rank 1 cultivator.
If I had tried to use twenty stones instead, then the cultivator would have been alerted, and this wouldn't have worked, Yang Zhai thought.
Why would he place twenty essence stones when he knew that the opponent was a cultivator? Simply, because he was confident that he was stronger than the rank 1 cultivator. Thus, the rank 1 cultivator wouldn't have agreed so easily.
However, Li Na was just a kid in their eyes and didn't know what she was doing. They also took pity on her condition: thus, they agreed and lost a hundred essence stones.
"I, I won! Brother Fen, I really won!"
Li Na exclaimed enthusiastically and looked at Yang Zhai. Yang Zhai nodded with a smile.
"How could she win?!"
"She is just a child, not even fourteen years old."
The sentence is clear, but here's a slightly refined version for smoother flow:
"Is she a cultivator? I thought people only became cultivators after turning fourteen."
The crowd was shocked. This was out of their expectations.
"My reward!!"
Li Na excitedly asked for the essence stones.
"Hmm," the man hesitantly handed her a hundred low-grade essence stones. She took the essence stones in her makeshift pouch¹ of her robe.
She took the essence stone and left. She came to Yang Zhai and said with a smile,
"Brother Fen, here. I really won! I thought I was going to lose! Did you lose on purpose?!"
Yang Zhai patted her head and stored the essence stones.
"Let's go."
Yang Zhai left after storing the essence stones. He came to an inn and entered it.
They all sat across a table and ordered the food.
"Sir, would you also like some liquor? Our liquor is the best in this village. We make and store it for years before serving."
The waiter asked with respect.
"Do what you are told."
Yang Zhai said with indifference. To him, liquor was nothing less than poison. In fact, it was even worse than poison to him.
He liked to keep his mind straight and think before doing anything, whereas alcohol was the exact opposite and could affect a person's brain.
Forget about destroying the brain, it even destroys a person physically. Even on earth, I avoided making friends with the ones who drank alcohol; who knows what they might end up doing: He thought.
"Brother, why did you not order the liquor? I heard it gives your brain peace and relief. It's also very delicious, people say. "
Jun Haru suggests with a drool.
"You four, I once had a friend who drank alcohol and ended up revealing something he shouldn't have. As a result, he was killed. I also had another friend who took his own life after removing his clothes in front of others while drunk. Alcohol is far more dangerous than you might imagine. It's better to drink poison than this."
Yang Zhai looked at the four and said with a sad expression.
He didn't directly forbid them from drinking liquor, but made up a story. Mah Qi wasn't as submissive to Yang Zhai as Si Yu and Li Na, so he was sure she would ignore him if he directly forbade them from drinking liquor.
However, he indirectly forbade them by comparing it to poison and giving two examples: one was related to life, and the other was related to honor, both of which were important to an average person.
If he keeps this up, alcohol would become nothing less than a poison to them with the passage of time.
As they say, the atmosphere creates a person's rights and wrongs. I need them for my future plans, so I will be telling them a lot of things. If they end up revealing even a single thing, they will become useless in that very instance. I need them to keep their minds straight: Yang Zhai thought.
/!*****!*****!/
1 Makeshift pouch: well, you can say she moved her robe forward by folding it to hold the essence stones in it as she couldn't hold so many in her hands.