One of the cultivators sitting next to Feng Shu was female cultivator Shi Ming Lia. She was one of three QI Condensation realm cultivators located in the east part of the green zone concretely in this auction house to control the flow of spirit stones and support their families in constant struggle for power and domination of the city. Despite not being part of the main Shi family, which was currently head of one of the sub-families, she was more than happy that she was able to damage Feng Shu as much as possible and along with that his reputation.
Shi Ming Lia was wearing a beautiful colorful cultivation robe which clearly showed everyone her superior birth. Unlike Feng Shu, Shi Ming Lia was from a sub-branch of one of the leading families who were located in the Peng Sect which was in the blue zone.
She was only once in the Peng Sect in her whole life, and in that opportunity, she got her cultivation awakening ceremony with cultivation techniques unique to the Shi family which specialized in Earth Path.
Thanks to this extremely complex cultivation technique, which was part of the Shi family for thousands of years, she despite not acquiring the main cultivation techniques was superior to the other cultivation techniques, which were common in the Peng sect and Peng City making her superior to the other cultivators at the same cultivation stage.
She stood up went to Xia who was in front of them and gave her the book. She was much more dignified than Feng Shu and was able to ease Xia without doing anything.
"It will be good if you tell others that shops which belong to Feng Shu are doing this kind of thing to the customers. If you want you can help me resolve this situation, so it will never happen again to anyone here. I will need to do something important now."
Xia wanted to thank her, but as she turned around Shi Ming Lia wasn't there and the other man who was right next to Shi Ming Lia was gone. Xia was surprised how could they suddenly disappear out of nowhere and leave her here once again only with Feng Shu and the two cultivators who brought her here. Xia looked at Feng Shen and stood up.
"If that's all I will leave. If you don't like my friend then do bad things to her, not to me. Miss Shi Ming Lia will surely help me if this happens again."
Xia stood up and left the room. As soon as she felt and cultivators who brought Xia here go back down to the first floor, Feng Shu released his cultivation aura as she left and started destroying everything around him. Paper was flying all around the room and the table in front of him was crushed and sharp pieces of the table destroyed everything around.
"That bitch Shi Ming Lia, she stole her just for a few low-grade spirit stones. Start investigating who the hell is she and the other one in a red robe. We need to take them down along with the Shi family, so we can rule the green zone. Find where are they staying if they are in the yellow zone destroy them."
A strange noise suddenly was heard from the next door and Shen Shi calmed down.
*****
Xia went outside the room as fast as she could out of here. Along the way, one of the attendants who was looking very different and didn't look like someone from the yellow zone stopped her and gave her a note.
Before Xia tried to stop the attendant, he quickly ran away and she was left in the middle of the street hanging. She looked at what was inside and as she saw some writing she knew that she had fallen into another trouble again.
'So this is all because we went to look at the house that we want to live in.'
*****
Xia closed the paper and went outside of the building. She was slowly walking back to the yellow zone in the hope of finding some shop to buy the books when an old man from the street shop stopped her.
"Girl, I am here to escort you. Don't make it too complicated for me and follow me. Someone is very interested in you."
Xia knew from the start, that she was probably watched by someone, and going back into the same auction house was surely a mistake and now, she got some paper with writing on it, which she was not even able to read.
"No, I am not going with you. I am going home to show Mei Lin what is written there."
When the man heard that, he thought that he would kill himself. He served to Shi family for many years and never knew one of the family connections so unreliable. The old man quickly switched and started to talk with Xia about the letter.
"Shi family was one of the oldest families in the city, and had many connections all over the city. They had the same goal as Feng Shen. Control and rule Peng city, but unlike the Feng family, who are merchants Shi family is the real ruler of the city and ruling it."
Xia already knew that she had fallen into another pit, but this time, she got into much more trouble than before. Xia felt that she had no way to shake this old man away and so she decided to follow him anyway.
As they went throw the city they arrived at a luxurious mansion. At the entrance was standing a guard and everything looked luxurious. Xia was once again shocked by how could someone build such a giant household. Xia clearly remembered how big was her village, but just one mansion was equivalently big, but unlike her village, this building was owned by one person.
"What are we doing here? Why did you bring me her old man?"
"Family head invited you for tea."
They entered the mansion and Xia suddenly felt like everything around her was much more beautiful than outside. The air was much more pleasant with the smell of herbs and warm. She tried to compare entering the city with this change but was not able to. This feeling was completely new.
"Something is wrong here. I feel somehow different."
"Yes, that's because natural energy inside is much more denser than outside. Your perception of natural energy is quite good. What were you doing before you entered the city?"
Xia was very interested in how was this possible and completely forgot about going to talk with an old man or why they were there. Xia starts walking to the different kinds of flowers and studying them. She felt that staying here for a while would help her with her knowledge of flowers and herbs, not to mention, if someone would tell her about them.
It took her a while, and after that, the old man told her to go with him inside. They went to the main hall, which was in the biggest building in the middle of the mansion, where was already Shi Ming Lia and a few other people waiting for them.
"You are finally here. I have been waiting for you for quite a long time!"
Xia bowed her head, as she saw that none of them looked like someone who should be disrespected and if she did, she would be in trouble.
"What do you want from me? I will pay you back the money. I need to go back first to ask Mei Lin for it."
The old man tried to stop her to not to talking, so Xia stopped. She didn't understand why, but Shi Ming Lia started talking and Xia felt like she was just rude to them.
"You are here because I will offer you a job. You and your friend will start making problems for Feng Shen and with that, you will help me take down Feng's family. I will pay you whatever you want, and you will manage to get rid of him for me. He already hates your friend for whatever reason so it's up to you if you want to do something about it with help or he will destroy you."
Xia was scared because if she didn't go to the shop to buy a book for herself nothing would happen and someone so powerful would not set their eyes on them. She knew that Mei Lin had some kind of secrets and just because of that, they were staying in the Yellow zone, despite being rich.
"I will go home now. I will bring you money for the book tomorrow." Xia didn't want to be here not even a second longer and ran away. As she left the mansion she went back, so she will not gonna make it even worse than now. Now Feng Shen and Shi Ming Lia were both angry at her and Mei Lin, even if she didn't do anything.
Once she got to the tea house, she closed the front door and went to tell Mei Lin what happened. Mei Lin was still cultivating so Xia started waiting and looking at her. The tea-house was very quiet and peaceful. Both girls were sleeping from the drinking and Xin Meng was also cultivating. Xia starts slowly cleaning her and Mei Lin's room so she will not disturb her in her cultivation and occupies her mind for a while until Mei Lin is done.