"You guys take herbs for sell?" Xi Chen asked.
"Of course, we buy them." The servant replied with a smiling eyes.
"Then how much for these 2 begs of low grade 1 herbs." Xi Chen showed him the two begs.
"It depends on what kind of herbs they are." The man's eyes lit up seeing the two begs and replied without even looking at the trio.
He continued. "I can sort out the herbs inside if you give me the begs."
The words hit Xi Chen's nerves. "Do you take me for a fool." A cold voice sounded the hall. Xi Chen spoke out with his Acquired Qi Realm aura emitting from him.
That servant got the nerves to say that words. Sorting out inside for them... are they trying to scam.
Their conversations were all heard by the man on the counter. He did not show any reaction when the servant mention sorting the herbs inside.
But as soon as he heard Xi Chen voice and seeing the aura on him, he broke out in cold sweat. He hurriedly left the counter and appeared in front of servant.
"Senior, it's a misunderstanding. He did not mean that. He is just a newbie. Please forgive him." The man instantly poured out the sentence in a flattering tone.
"You leave us." The man ordered the servant.
"I am the manager. Please follow me." The manager led Xi Chen and his siblings to a private room.
When they reached the private room, a female servant came to the room and served tea.
But the trio did not even touch the tea.
Seeing their act, the manager quickly offered to sort out the herbs. The total herbs came out to be 32.
After identifying the herbs, the manager offered 400 silver coins for all of it.
Some of them are valued at 5 or 6 then some at 10 or 12. There were even 1 silver coins for some useless herbs.
After getting their money, Xi Chen and his group left the pavilion. They did not even look back, when they left.
The manager stood at the entrance and stared at them as they left.
After some minutes later, the previous servant came up to the manager.
"Sir, they?" He respectfully called out and asked.
The manager nodded. "Hmmm." Then he continued. "Just some unruly rogue cultivators."
"Don't worry Sir, I have already arranged some things." The servant said with a smile.
But those words were like swords to the manager.
He instantly slapped the servant.
Clap....
The force of the slap shattered the servant's mask. Before the servant could said a word the manager scolded him. "Do you even know why I leave you out. Because the leading man was a genuine Acquired Qi Realm expert. And you got the nerve to send people after them. Are you trying to kill us all. Do you think the higher ups will protect us when they heard of us offending an Acquired Qi Realm warrior?!....HUH.!??"
The voice was very loud. It was heard by all the people inside.
Hearing the manager's words, the servant was terrified. He even forget the pain from the slap earlier.
"Humph." The manager flung his robe ib anger and left, leaving the servant sitting on the ground with fear on his face.
------
When Xi Chen and his brothers reached the tunnel that leads to the stone steps, the man that led the, before was sitting on a near corner with a chair.
Seeing the man, Xi Chen walked up to him and handed 15 silver coins.
The man took the money with the extras and sat down on his chair.
Seeing that the man did not say anything, Xi Chen felt a bit disappointed. But he did not think much about it and turned to leave.
As he was about to walk away, the man suddenly said. "Careful."
Xi Chen stopped but he did not turned around again. "Thank you." He said.
Then he left through the tunnel with his brothers.
------
After they emerged from the underground stone steps, Xi Chen took a deep breath and said to his younger brothers. "Stay close to me."
Both the younger ones nodded with a serious but excited eyes.
"Let's go." They started running away from the market mark.
When they were about 5 miles away from the market, Xi Chen suddenly stopped. Then he looked towards the dark path ahead and said. "You guys don't need to hide anymore. I know you guys are waiting for us." Then he turned around and continued. "And you three also can come out. We know you are following us."
Nothing happened even after Xi Chen's words.
Sighing, Xi Chen picked up 5 stones from the side and threw it forward with qi wrapping around them.
Whish....
The 5 stones headed for 5 different directions.
3 stones headed backward and 2 in the forward direction.
Thud..thud..thud..thud..thud...
"Aaarghhhh...."
The sound of the stones hitting things spreader along with a loud scream.
3 men jumped down from trees in the back and 2 men fell out on the front.
But one of the two men on the front was dead and the other was already seriously injured that he could not even move.
Seeing the two in front, the other three in the back took a step back.
The leader of the three men suddenly spoke in a loud tone. "Don't run. Only one of them is just strong. The other two are just weakling kids. We can first finish the two kids and take on the older one together."
The other two men looked at eachother and looked at Xi Bing and Xi Xuan, then at Xi Chen.
Then the two men nodded at the leader.
Xi Chen did not stopped their actions. He wouldn't fight them, only his younger brothers would. He was going to teach them the last fight of their training, a fight against a martial artist.
Xi Bing and Xi Xuan charge at the 3 men without delaying another word.
The 3 men was delighted at seeing no action from Xi Chen, thinking they can easily take on the two kids.
Two of them were at the bone tempering realm and the leader was at blood refinement realm.
Xi Bing charged at the leader and Xi Xuan charged towards the two lackey.
As they were fighting, Xi Chen approached the injured one.
When he reached near the man, Xi Chen squat down with his elbows o his knees.
He looked at the man asked flatly. "Who sent you?"
The man turned his upward slowly. Then he looked at Xi Chen's masked face and said slowly in a low hissing voice. "You are at Acquired Qi Realm...."
Xi Chen was surprised at his reply. Even though he wrapped the stones with his Qi, unless one is at Organ Strengthening Realm or above, no one could sense it.
Which shows that the injured man is atleast an Organ Strengthening Realm warrior.
When Xi Chen checked the man again, he was even more surprised to see that the man was actually at Peak of Mortal Realm.
Then he realized that the difference between the two Realm is just like comparing a child with a matchstick and a teenager with a fire stick torch. Too large of a comparison.
He asked again. "Who sent you?" Even though many people have seen he and his brothers carrying two begs, nobody knows the value of it. So no one will take the risk to bet their lifes with 3 martial artist, unless they know the value of it.
"He..rb.s....pa..vi..lion.." The answered with difficulty.
Before Xi Chen could asked another question, the man took his last breath.
Xi Chen already knew at that point that the one sending those people was the Hundred herbs pavilion. He also figured out that the one who sent those men might be the servant he met, not the manager. Because the moment Xi Chen emitted his aura, the manager knew he was a genuine Acquired Qi Realm expert.
So unless the man want to get fired and die, he won't do anything to offend an expert at Acquired Realm.
Xi Chen also thought maybe it might not be the servant's intentions, it might be how they do their businesses. Sending assasins to the weak ones and flattering the stongs.
Xi Chen did not think it was wrong to do that in this chaotic world. It just that they picked him.
As he was thinking the sound of fighting ended. So turned around to see.
As he expected, Xi Bing and Xi Xuan both won.
He did not waste any words to compliment them. The sound of fighting might have already been notice by some people. So he said. "Let's go."
Both the boys followed him quickly.
After they left, some martial artist in black arrived at the scene. And one of them spotted the two men Xi Chen killed. "Wow... what a force. They were kill before they could even react." He said, seeing the holes on the head of the bodies.
About 5 minutes later, they fully analyzed the situation.
One of the man with the highest strength among them spoke. "Two were killed instantly. And the other 3 were kill in a close combat fight. The killers are good at using hand skill like Claw, fist and palm. Or maybe all three."
Many of them nodded at his words. But they also quickly left the scene one after another.
On the other side, after leaving the scene, Xi Chen's trio took their last beg and went straight home.