It was past midnight,
Yang Zhai was sitting on a bed in a room. This room was mostly made of wood, as well as the furniture. There were two beds in this room.
Yang Zhai is sitting alone on one bed, cultivating. On the other bed were sitting Si Yu and Li Na. As for Jun Haru and Mah Qi, they were sitting on the wooden floor. They were all cultivating.
"They are late, I wonder if they have changed their plans?" Yang Zhai mutters.
"Brother Yang, did you say something?"
Jun Haru heard Yang Zhai and asked.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the ground.
"They are here." Yang Zhai said with a smile.
The others were confused.
Yang Zhai opens the door and sees a few people standing in the hallway.
They pushed Yang Zhai to the side and entered the room. Yang Zhai didn't resist, or rather he allowed them to.
"Who are you guys?!"
Jun Haru stood up when he saw them entering the room and asked in a loud voice.
There were fourteen men and two women. Half of them entered the room, while others waited outside.
He was about to attack the man at the front but stopped when he saw Yang Zhai signaling him to stop.
Others also didn't retaliate after seeing this.
"I will ask nicely, hand over the essence stones you took from us. We will be fair and won't ask for extras, just hand over a hundred essence stones."
The man at the front asked. He was the one who was with the rank 1 cultivator earlier today.
"I know you guys are cultivators and we have cultivators on our side as well. If we fight, both of us will incur losses, so let's just handle it peacefully." The man said.
"What do you mean? We won fair and square!!" Si Yu shouted.
"What fair and square? You clearly lied to us. This girl is definitely a cultivator." The man said indignantly.
"Seriously?!!" Jun Haru said with surprise.
He was surprised by what the man said. Weren't they using cultivators as well to win the matches?
"Just hand over the essence stones, where are they?"
"We don't have any, we spent all of them."
Jun Haru said in a low voice. He was holding back from punching the man because Yang Zhai had stopped him.
"Ah, sir… wh, why… are you doing this?" Li Na asked hesitantly.
"Now, you are making me angry!" The man said with annoyance.
"Sir, how about we discuss it tomorrow." Yang Zhai came forward and said.
Thump!!!!
The man punched Yang Zhai in the face heavily.
"You bastard!!"
When Si Yu, Li Na, and Jun Haru saw this, they were furious and were about to attack. However, Yang Zhai signaled them to stop.
When the others saw this, they understood one thing: Yang Zhai was their leader, and they were relieved.
The reason they had the confidence to come and demand essence stones back was because of Yang Zhai.
Earlier today, even though this guy was a little stronger than the average person, he was defeated quite easily. Why would a group keep such a weak person with them if they were traveling in such a dangerous world? It's obvious that his strength should be close to the other four: the rank 1 cultivator thought.
If that's the case, then they didn't need to worry. As he was the leader of this group, their suspicions were proven right.
"Fool!! Just hand over the essence stones already!"
The man punched Yang Zhai once again.
I really want to kill this bastard: the other four were clenching their hands and barely holding themselves back.
"Sir, how about this? I'll hand over the essence stones, in return, let us join you. We have two cultivators in our group, both of them are rank 2."
Yang Zhai said, confusing others.
"Interesting, what do you mean? And how will it benefit us?" The man was intrigued.
"Here, I have a storage bracelet. I have the essence stones stored in this. You can keep these as well as the storage bracelet."
"What?! You have a storage bracelet?!"
They were shocked when Yang Zhai showed them a storage bracelet.
In this world, ires other than defense were rare, extremely rare. No wonder they were shocked.
"Prove it to us." The man was not convinced or, rather, was unable to believe.
"About that, for some reason, it's not being activated by my cultivators. Here, you can refine and check it."
Yang Zhai handed the storage bracelet to the man. He tried to refine it.
"Yeah, it's definitely an ire. As for whether a storage ire or not, we will know soon enough. You said you wanted to join us, right? Follow us then."
After saying this, he left. Yang Zhai followed them and so did the other four.
Why, brother, why are we joining these scoundrels? the other four were confused by Yang Zhai's decision. But they still followed them.
"So, this village you see is under our authority, we control it. Even though not openly but by staying in the shadows. So, we take one essence stone from each stall owner after a month."
"Almost everyone in this village owns a stall. They make a variety of things, such as accessories, and sell them in the Luo sect just a week away from here. What you have to do is this, as you three are not cultivators, you will be helping in collecting ransom from these stalls. As for two rank 2 cultivators, they will be helping us."
"After a week, we will decide whether to let you join our group or not. As for this bracelet, if it turns out to be a storage ire, we will also reward you with five essence stones." The man said with a smile.
It was night and they were walking in empty streets. Even though there were mortal guards, they ignored them. It could be seen that the man was right, and they controlled the whole village.
"Even the village leader listens to us. Even though he is the leader on the surface, it's us who are actually ruling. As for my name, it's Ma Nik. I am also a rank 2 cultivator." Said the man.
Hmm, so it's the force that's ruling here. It's quite common, in fact, even on earth, almost every country was ruled by dictators, or at the very least, they had very high influence in the rule: Yang Zhai wasn't shocked.
The ones who could defend against others definitely had more power than the ones who couldn't.
"For now, go back and sleep. We will discuss it tomorrow."
After saying this, Ma Nik left with three people and sent his other men with Yang Zhai and the others.
…..
"Brother, why did you do that and even stop us from doing anything?" Jun Haru asked.
"Just do what I tell you to do for now. Also, make sure not to use any kind of cultivation methods except for Li Na and Si Yu. Not just that, avoid engaging anyone in a battle, you two might not be able to control your strength." Yang Zhai whispered as there were people standing guard outside the room.
"Fine, but why did you even hand over your storage bracelet? It's a huge loss. You could have sold it for so many essence stones."
Not just Jun Haru, but the other three were also confused. Even their leader was just a rank 2 cultivator, they could have defeated all of them easily.
"No need to discuss it further. Just get some sleep. What did I tell you? Just do what I tell you to."
After saying this, Yang Zhai lay down on the bed and closed his eyes.
/!*****!*****!/