Mei Lin went back to the tea-house angry and with empty hands. She did not find out how to get into the auction and got rid of her bad reputation, because she would not be welcomed anywhere in the city. Mei Lin went slowly through the filth of the Yellow Zone and in no time, she lost her way and wandered deeper into the slums.
Mei Lin didn't notice something bad happening around her and just continued forward thinking about how to get the invitation. Before Mei Lin left the street, she discovered, that more and more people suddenly appeared around her, and they encircled her.
In one instance more than twenty beggars jumped out of the houses around her, and everyone was equipped with sharp tools from knives to sharp pieces of everything they could find. All of them were wearing ripped clothes and looked and smelled disgusting.
In no time, they were around her and started closing the net so she would have no way to escape. All of them looked set to rob Mei Lin at all costs. Beggars of all ages, including children, were holding sharp tools to attack Mei Lin.
"Give us everything you have bitch!!" Shouted one of the beggars, who was standing right in front of her. The boy who shouted at Mei Lin was in his late teens. As soon as Mei Lin watched the skinny boy, she felt, that he and the rest were not cultivators.
"What do you think you will accomplish?" Said Mei Lin, and quickly evaluated the situation, that there was not a threat to her in any way.
"Even if you will be able to fight..."
Before Mei Lin finished what she wanted to say, someone smashed her in the back with a piece of wood and sent Mei Lin to the ground. Mei Lin fell into the mud and before she stood up, everyone around her started to beat her and kick her with all their might.
Despite Mei Lin being at the first stage of BT and already able to use cultivation sea, which made her QI Condensation cultivators in some way, she was hopeless against the beggars. Being at the first stage of BT, she only started to temper her flesh, and her only way to defend herself was to use her inner natural energy to make her skin tough, so she would not suffer any damage from the attacks.
Mei Lin wanted to curse at herself, as she will gonna lose to beggars on the street until, she felt something sharp touch her skin, which made her erupt her inner natural energy, and a burst of blood-like energy escaped from her body, and with that sent all beggars flying in all directions.
Mei Lin was still not proficient in any special techniques that she could use in fighting, because the cultivation manual that she got from her master only told her how to cultivate and absorb natural energy from blood and her surroundings. From this, she created her technique which was to burst her inner natural energy, which she just released.
It was highly ineffective thanks to depleting most of her inner natural energy and she could use this technique only twice. Luckily for Mei Lin, she was able to fight off all the attackers. Fortunately for them, most of the beggars were only knocked unconscious and few, who were not on the frontlines, were only knocked into the mud.
"Oh no. She is a cultivator."
"Run."
Few, who were only lying in the mud disappeared like smoke, leaving the rest behind. These few were not able to stand up and were lying around Mei Lin scared and trembling. None of them said anything and the younger of them were crying. Few of them looked even younger than Mei Lin.
They had no way to run away so they only sat on Mei Lin. Thanks to them, she already lost her straw-hat, which was lying in the mud and exposed Mei Lin's snow-white face with two redly glowing eyes.
Mei Lin used the rest of the remaining inner natural energy, to see through the beggars if they were hiding something before her. To her dissatisfaction, they had nothing and Mei Lin stood as soon as she picked up the straw-hat ready to leave.
Mei Lin quickly went around them and started heading back to the tea-house. Everyone was stunned as they saw Mei Lin leave. They were in ave as they saw Mei Lin leisurely knock them all off and then left like nothing happened.
"Please stop," said the boy, who was the one who looked into Mei Lin's eyes. He had never seen someone so stunning and magnificent. Mei Lin walked for a few steps and then turned back. None of them was able to stand up and all of them watched Mei Lin as she swept them with her gaze.
"Can you give us some money?" Asked the boy regarding the fact, that he and the rest of the beggars just attacked Mei Lin and that if she were not a cultivator, they would probably kill her. Mei Lin thought for a while and then tossed eight low-grade spirit stones in the mud. She did that because there were eight beggars, lying around.
Mei Lin's corners of her lips moved as she grinned at them from under the veil. In just a few seconds she decided to gamble the spirit stones to find out something.
"If you want the money, you will need to do something for it. From now on, you will work for me, and start to collect as much information as possible about the cultivators who live in the Yellow and if possible in Green Zones. In exchange, I will gonna pay you spirit stones, if you can collect the information I want.
All of them noted and like nothing happened before to them, they lashed after the spirit stones in the mud like crazy. "I will be waiting for you in Xin Min's tea-house not far away from here."
Mei Lin was not sure if they will gonna do something for her or if they would not gonna just leave, but she let them be. As she left, she still heard as they were moving in the mud trying to find the spirit stones, which they buried deeper into the mud thanks to their recklessness. As Mei Lin went into the distance.
It took him r while to get back to the tea-house and as she went into the first floor, she saw Xia and others were eating the breakfast, so Mei Lin went to eat too and told them about the conditions to enter the auction.