"Grandmaster!?" the manager yelled. He was so stunned that he thought Grandmaster Mao had misspoken. He surely meant to ban the foolish child in front of him from ever setting foot in the pill tower again, right?
"Don't grandmaster me, you damn bastard!" Grandmaster Mao exclaimed. "You dare attack our most respected benefactor!?"
The girl beside Master Mao looked shocked at the revelation. She had heard the rumors that a boy around her age had killed a beast king and donated the bone marrow they needed, but she didn't expect to get the chance to meet him. She stared at Li Jun with a scheming smile.
The manager and worker dropped to their knees and begged. Grandmaster Mao's authority was second to no one. If he fired them, no one could dispute it.
"Get up, you idiots, and leave. I'm not the one you should be begging. You have messed up big time. Not only is the young man a precious benefactor of the pill tower, but he is also the first student of Lord Shen Guo. Now that you have offended him, you can say goodbye to living in Spirit City."
The two workers almost fainted upon understanding just how much trouble they have caused not only for themselves but their families that lived in spirit city.
"Please, young master," The manager turned and knelt before Li Jun. "I made a mistake. My subordinate must have lied when he said you were causing trouble. I hope you will forgive me."
The worker who had caused the incident looked as though he was about to have a heart attack. His face had flushed red, and tears began to form in the corners of his eyes. He was being thrown under the carriage by his manager.
"Please, young Lord!" The worker yelled. "It wasn't my fault. The manager made a deal with me. He said if I can steal from weaker customers, he will share the money with me and give me a discount on pills."
The manager's face grew paler as he had now been exposed.
Li Jun was infuriated by their behavior. They were both scum, and he knew that if he let them go or wanted to enact any kind of punishment, they were likely to scheme against him in order to get revenge.
'They don't seem like the type to let go of a grudge. If I was strong enough, they would have no choice but to let it go. But since I'm only at the second stage of body refining, either one of them could easily kill me even if I can avoid a couple of attacks.' He thought
He felt a little drained after using his beast skill back to back. It consumed a lot of spiritual energy, and if he had to dodge more than ten attacks, he knew he would no longer have the strength to fight.
Li Jun weighed his options for a while as the two workers waited to hear his verdict. Once Li Jun had made up his mind, he ignored the two of them and looked up at Grandmaster Mao.
"Grandmaster Mao, I don't trust that they won't scheme against me for this. Can I trust you to keep them detained until I let my Master know? I fear since they both know they are stronger than me, they will blame me for losing their jobs and come for revenge." Said Li Jun. He clasped his hands together and bowed.
"Of course. I gave you my personal token, after all. Your intentions within the pill hall will be as if they are my intentions. I can assure you they will both be detained until Lord Shen decides their fates." Grandmaster Mao smiled with a reassuring smile.
The two workers slammed their heads against the floor. There was nothing they could do, they had tried their best to talk their way out of it but Li Jun wasn't as naive as they had thought.
It was like Master Shen had explained. The pill hall was so indebted to the Shen family that Grandmaster Mao would take every chance he could get to pay them back in some way. And helping Shen Guo's students was an excellent place to start.
"Thank you, Grandmaster Mao." Li Jun bowed once more. "I'm afraid that my Master is expecting me, and I have already been held up long enough by those two. If you don't mind, I will come back and collect my pills after I've finished training."
"Of course," Grandmaster Mao smiled politely. "Our doors are always open to you, our young benefactor."
Li Jun smiled and made his way to the exit but then stopped. He thought about something for a moment and then turned back.
"I will make sure that I tell my master that you came to help me right away." Said Li Jun with a sly grin. "And that you certainly didn't wait until it seemed like I was in trouble before stepping in."
Grandmaster Mao's heart sank as he heard those words, but before he could dispute it, Li Jun had left.
The girl beside him let out a giggle at Li Jun's last sentence and then ordered the guards outside the door to take the two workers to a back room to be held until it was decided what their punishments would be.
Grandmaster Mao remained standing in the doorway with a thoughtful expression. After the workers had been taken away, the girl came back to his side with a smile.
"How did he know that you were watching?" She asked with a curious expression.
"I'm not sure either." Grandmaster Mao muttered, lost in thought about how a second-stage body-refining child was able to sense him.
Li Jun smiled as he walked out of the city and towards Master Shen's house. He knew that his last words would have worried Grandmaster Mao. But after the whole situation with Li Hong and his grandfather, he knew that if Grandmaster Mao was at the core refining stage that he would have sensed the spiritual energy of the fight long before he appeared.
It was clear that he was waiting for the crucial moment to appear and try to earn Li Jun's favor. But the fact he had schemed something like that in the first place made Li Jun think of him as nothing more than a scheming old man.
He now knew to be careful around him and wouldn't go looking for trouble if he could avoid it.
"All of these old men are schemers." Li Jun muttered as he made his way up the hill.