Wushen Academy
As Xue Feng and Li Huo were 'escorting' Old Man Xia, Li Ruo and Xue Bai stopped in Snowy Wind City.
"Mother, why did we stop here?" Xue Bai asked with a raised eyebrow. He wasn't opposed to following his mother around, but he was just curious.
Li Ruo was the more enigmatic of his parents and would rarely enter the public's eye. So once she landed in the city, countless eyes latched onto her. It was similar to the paparazzi back on Earth.
For such people, even if there weren't drama, they would create it by either twisting words or sometimes just lying. Xue Bai looked down on these people more than anyone else.
On Earth, almost everyone hates paparazzi, from celebrities to even normal citizens. Still, since they were doing it for a living, some could empathize with it to some extent.
However, in the brutal Baishen Plane, where strength meant everything, who had so little going on in their day that they could simply sit around waiting for mundane things to report? If you had so much time, why weren't you cultivating?
Any tiny bit of strength gained could be the difference between living or dying in a future fight.
Xue Bai couldn't understand such people and had no plans to. It would simply rot his brain.
So, while ignoring the many eyes that were locked onto him and the many prodding questions, Xue Bai followed his mom toward her destination.
Li Ruo walked at a steady pace without much deviation in her footsteps for about ten minutes before reading her destination, a tall, 4-story golden, bricked pagoda. Other than its extremely bright color scheme, the first thing Xue Bai noticed was a sign on top of the pagoda that had very familiar-looking handwriting on it.
Golden Hall Auction House
"You have an auction house, Mother?" Xue Bai questioned Li Ruo as he led him inside. He had been around his mother for a long time now and had seen her handwriting almost every day. So, after seeing it once more, Xue Bai had no problem connecting it to her.
Li Ruo nodded simply at her son's question, not avoiding it.
"One of my old disciples sent me a message saying that she found something special and wanted to give it to me. I had been pushing it off for a few days, but since we were already near the city, I decided that I might as well pick it up." Li Ruo followed up.
Walking inside, Xue Bai was met with a magnificent interior where gold was the main color, with a long hall that led into a huge auditorium. Golden Hall Auction House was easily the most beautiful building Xue Bai had seen so far in this new life.
Just as stunning, if not more attractive, than the beautifully decorated interior was the floor. Every inch of the floor had a spotless, clear gleam that gave it a reflective look. Even from a distance of a few meters, Xue Bai could see his own reflection on the floor.
Surprised by how luxurious the building was, Xue Bai's eyes grew lively, and he started darting around, looking for anything cooler, but just as they did, someone rushed over to them.
"Master, you're finally here! Thank god! You came just in time." A jubilant, mature woman's voice sounded to Xue Bai's left.
The woman who was rushing over to Li Ruo and Xue Bai wasn't a celestial beauty by any standard, but she still possessed a mature and pleasing look that would make her the ideal wife for any cultivator. Moreover, with her eyes that possessed a deep shrewdness and a pair of thick glasses reminiscent of nerds from Earth, it was apparent she was an extremely smart woman who could hold her own in the business world.
However, much of that beauty was being diminished right now as her shrewd eyes were covered with tears, and her face was panicked.
Once she saw Li Ruo, all her previous sternness and resilience collapsed, and she turned into an almost womanly child, diving into her Master's personal space and clutching onto her thigh as if it were the buoy saving her from drowning. It was amazing how fast she swapped countenances.
Xue Bai had even seen the woman talking to a man for just a second, which was perfectly normal. How could she crumble so quickly and perfectly? Did she have training?
His mind was confused, but this wasn't the time for questions, sadly.
"Little Mei, you're a grown woman in the Law Engraving realm now. You can't continue to act like the little girl I found in the mountains all those years ago." Li Ruo sighed as she saw her disciples act.
Bending down, Li Ruo helped the woman up before pulling out a handkerchief and wiping the tears streaming down Little Mei's face.
"But I'm being bullied! And so what if I'm in this stupid Law Engraving realm? I don't even have the strength to fight back." Little Mei cried out, still aggrieved. She then pointed out her bullies, who were just a few meters behind her.
The bully in question was the man that Xue Bai had seen Little Mei talking to before she turned into a sobbing mess.
Li Ruo and Xue Bai spun their heads and looked in the direction of Little Mei's fair finger, and there they saw a small group of people. Three middle-aged men wearing silver scholarly robes, an old man in a similar set of robes but dyed golden, and finally, a young man with a haughty expression wearing a black and gold set of robes.
The three middle-aged men who wore the silver scholarly robes exuded an air of wisdom and serenity. With eyes that seemingly gleamed with profundity, it was more than evident to anyone with a set of eyes that they were distinguished scholars with centuries of knowledge under their belt.
Even disregarding the intelligent air that they subconsciously let out, their silver robes were laced with dozens of intricate and mystical runes, showing that the three men weren't people of low standing.
A few feet away, the old man wasn't much different. His golden robe was highly similar to theirs, but he had more runes engraved onto it than theirs. They were most likely all part of one organization but had different hierarchical positions.
However, unlike the middle-aged men whose cultivation bases were completely concealed like an airtight water bottle, the old man didn't bother hiding his, letting it all out into the air, revealing a domineeringness that would make any weaker cultivator cower.
Xue Bai couldn't see through the old man's cultivation base as he had barely started cultivating and had yet even to finish the 5 physical realms, but Li Ruo could.
"Why is a Domain Lord realm heaven-ranked teacher of Wushen Academy in my Golden Hall Auction House?" Li Ruo asked with a raised eyebrow as she walked over to the group of 5.
Li Ruo was at the peak of the Domain Lord realm now and even had some insights into the Xiantian Great Realm. It went without saying that she could see through the cultivation of the old man in front of her.
Yet even though she was stronger, the old man didn't cower at all. Instead, he even felt prouder.
Putting on an expression no worse than the arrogant young man behind him, he looked at Li Ruo and started speaking.
"Duchess, there is indeed a reason me and my disciple are here. One of the hunting teams under your Golden Hall Auction House stole a certain item from our Wushen Academy, and we are here to get it back." The old man said as he glared toward Little Mei, who was still looking at them aggrieved.
"Heee!" Little Mei was about to curse the old man for pointing at her, but once he glared at her, she shrieked and hid behind Xue Bai, the child.
'I'm like 11 years old. Why the hell are you hiding behind me? He's a Domain Lord realm cultivator. A child won't stop his glare, woman!' Xue Bai was exasperated, as now he was in the line of sight of the old man.
Thankfully, before Xue Bai felt anything from the glare, Li Ruo stepped in front of them, blocking the old man's line of sight and stopping him.
"This is the second time you've disrespected me and my establishment. At first, I was planning on looking through this matter and resolving it peacefully, but I changed my mind. You five have one minute. Leave or else." Li Ruo angrily spoke.
While the old man was arrogant in front of her, which Domain Lord realm cultivator wasn't? They were one in a million talents that managed to cultivate all the way to the final realm of the Houtian Great Realm. It was normal for them to have a bit of arrogance.
However, this was beyond arrogance. This mere 2nd stage Domain Lord realm foggy just treated her as air and started to intimidate her disciple in front of her. Even if Li Ruo were a monk, she wouldn't be able to keep herself calm.
"Do you know who I am?" The old man wasn't that afraid of Li Ruo and, rather than getting angry at the threat, simply laughed.
"A pawn of the mismanaged and internally rotten Wushen Academy whose death would go unnoticed." Li Ruo didn't give a crap about the old man or the young man behind him. Wushen Academy was the weakest of the three great sects, and yet, in spite of that, it was the one that created the most problems.
This would change after Huo Long climbed through the ranks of it, but until then, it was still a horrible place for anyone without a background to cultivate in. Li Ruo knew this and naturally had a bad impression of this group in front of her.
The old man still didn't feel insulted and merely stared at Li Ruo for a few moments before snorting and waving his hand.
"Luo Kun, let's go. The Duchess obviously doesn't welcome us here." The old man angrily spoke, beckoning the young man behind him.
"Yes, Master!"
The group left after Li Ruo's threat, but not after staring down all three people on Li Ruo's side. This matter wouldn't end here.
Eventually, the Wushen Academy group left, and Little Mei felt a bit more confident. Walking out from behind Xue Bai's back, she ran back over to Li Ruo and gave the woman a big hug.
Bawling her eyes out, Little Mei started to pour her heart out to Li Ruo while explaining the situation.
While that happened, though, Xue Bai still had his thoughts on the Wushen Academy group that had just left.
'Isn't Luo Kun one of Huo Long's first stepping stones? Why the hell is that dude barking up my tree?'
Luo Kun was in "Children of the Plane," but his role wasn't too large. He was simply one of the many arrogant and spoiled young masters who tried to impede Huo Long's progress at Wushen Academy.
The only reason he was memorable was that he was completely infatuated with one of Huo Long's lovers and, through a plot, managed to poison her with an aphrodisiac. However, his efforts were for naught, as not only did he not manage to pluck the heavenly flower as he wished, he even lobbed up a pass to Huo Long, who did it for him, only after dying to him, of course.
This was why Xue Bai remembered him so easily with just a name. That, and the name Luo Kun, were rather rare. Unlike the Long, Wang, and Ye surnames that were ever so prevalent on the Southern Continent, the Luo surname only had one, which was the clan that Luo Kun was from.
His clan wouldn't survive the Home Continent Arc, sadly, as after Luo Kun's death, they all picked Huo Long as their mortal enemy and died to the protagonist's spear shortly after.
Knowing all of Luo Kun's misdeeds and arrogant affairs, Xue Bai didn't think much of this tiny spectacle and simply walked over to his mother, who was petting the head of Little Mei as one would pet a cat's.
Xue Bai wasn't Huo Long. He had a background that was far stronger than Luo Kun's. So, while the old man did walk away threateningly and leave strongly, there wasn't much they could do beyond that.
Li Ruo was right. Should the old man annoy Li Ruo beyond reasonability, she would be able to kill him and get away scot-free. The life of an early-stage Domain Lord realm cultivator wasn't worth the ire of a peak-stage Domain Lord realm Li Ruo. Moreover, Li Ruo was the continent's greatest alchemist.
If she decided to blacklist Wushen Academy from her sales, the entire academy wouldn't have a place to cry. It would have hugely detrimental effects that would topple their position as one of the three greatest sects of the Southern Continent.
So unless that old man went senile and went overboard, Xue Bai and his family would be safe.
"Little Mei, don't worry. Just treat those five as jumping clowns. I'll even go ahead and blacklist that boy and his family." Li Ruo dotingly said this as she struggled to push off Little Mei.
While she was called Little Mei, the woman was anything but little, and the valleys being pushed onto Li Ruo's were setting a rather erotic image that she didn't want to be out in public.
Little Mei may or may not have seemed to sense that as well, and she didn't make it hard on Li Ruo and also got off her.
"However, can you give me that Spirit Cleansing Fruit your men had found? I've been searching for one of those for almost two years now." Li Ruo asked once her disciple had cleaned up her appearance.
"I know, Master. That's why I've been calling you all this time. But apparently, one of the hunters in the squad that found the Spirit Cleansing Fruit leaked its existence to those Wushen Academy dogs. How hateful! I've employed him for almost a decade, and he bites my hand!" Little Mei angrily spoke out. Now that the Domain Lord realm fogey was gone, Little Mei had gained a bit of liveliness, and she was able to talk without fear.
Li Ruo simply smiled without saying anything. Some people in this world don't care about gratitude or enmity but only profits. That hunter was on Little Mei's payroll not out of gratitude but for the money. And once he saw a chance for even more money, he took it.
"Don't beat yourself up about one minor character, Little Mei. Just look forward and get better." Li Ruo sweetly spoke, greatly cheering up the woman.
Little Mei nodded.
"Master, follow me. I'll get you the Spirit Cleansing Fruit now." Now composed, Little Mei led Li Ruo down a hallway toward her office.
"Young Duke, Master, and I will be right back. I'll have one of my attendants take you to the storage room, though, in the meantime. You can go there and look around. If you find anything you like, you can just take it." Little Mei said this to Xue Bai, who was about to follow them.
Following them wouldn't do much for the boy, so she wanted him to do something he liked while she and Li Ruo completed their business. It was politely put, but in essence, she was just shooing away a child with a toy.
It was rude, but it worked.
Xue Bai's eyes light up at the chance to enter the Golden Hall Auction House's storage room.
Protagonists could always find a hidden supreme treasure inside a storage room; maybe he could do the same? It was a long shot, but Xue Bai had high hopes. He was a transmigrator, after all; maybe he could defy the heavens and get a Heaven-grade treasure.
—
"Bai'er, are you okay? Why do you look so angry?" Li Ruo asked with a smile.
The smile was one part happiness, as she had gotten something extremely important, and another part dotingness toward Xue Bai. She almost always smiled when speaking to Xue Bai. Being her pride and joy, Li Ruo couldn't stop a smile from appearing on her face when she spoke to him.
"I couldn't find anything good." Xue Bai mumbled angrily.
He didn't get lucky. Other than a cool sword named Fire Breath that would help his fire element, Xue Bai didn't find anything special inside the storage room.
"Little Mei told me you found a sword that was comparable to a low Black-grade treasure. Was that not enough for you?" Li Ruo teased as the two walked out of the auction house.
Xue Bai merely snorted in response.
"Hahaha." Li Ruo laughed at her son's antics and took out a flying sword, saying, "Hop on. We'll go back home."
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