Spirit Cultivation

Chapter 44 Stolen Herb

After Xuefeng was done, they left the clan territory to visit the Golden Phoenix restaurant. Although everyone in the city heard about Xuefeng, not many knew his appearance. They quite smoothly passed through usual crowds on the street.

Just as they were one road away from the restaurant, Wuying stopped and looked at the circle of people that were gathering around something. She sensed that something was wrong there. When they approached it, they could hear the sounds of fighting.

It was forbidden to battle in the city or else you would be paying the fine.

’Xuefeng, I can sense some Fate Qi in the air! There must be a Fate Spirit Herb in front of us. What luck.’ Ling suddenly cried.

"Let’s check this out." Xuefeng moved as soon as he heard Ling cry. It would be a shame to lose such a good opportunity.

He tried to move through the crowd but there were so many people there, he couldn’t get passed them. Just as he was getting frustrated his surroundings changed to grey colours and everything looked blurry. He felt the warmth in his hand and he remembered this was Wuying Spirit Art.

"Right, how could I forget about your skills." He was so excited, he forgot about Wuying abilities for a second.

"No problem." She replied before cancelling the art. They appeared in the middle of the circle. What they saw shocked them. A young boy, around 12 years old who was covered with injuries and blood, desperately held into a leg of a man in a black robe.

"Give me my herb back!" The boy shouted loudly despite his severe injuries.

"Fuck off, I didn’t take anything from you." The man who looked to be in his twenties kicked with his other leg trying to get rid of the boy.

"Aaargh, give me my herb back!!" The boy spat another mouthful of blood but shouted even louder before biting the leg with his teeth.

"Damn, stupid brat!" The man got angry and pulled out the long knife before striking towards the boy.

"Clang" A clear sound of a blade hitting the blade awaken everyone in the crowd. They turned away their head as they didn’t want to get involved and didn’t think anyone would as well.

Before they realised what was happening they heard another sound of a blade hitting the ground. They looked at the scene and saw a handsome blond teen blocking the strike for the boy.

The black robed man was also dumbfounded. He didn’t expect someone would help poor brat from the streets. Why would someone help him and risk offending a force behind him? You never know what background someone has.

Xuefeng seeing the whole situation was fuming. He didn’t understand why everyone looked and did nothing as if it was a show. It was the first time he was so angry he wanted to hurt someone.

"Can you tell me what the hell are you doing?!" He put his rank 5 sword on the man neck, shouting into his face. He then turned towards the crowd and yelled: "And what about you all! Why are you just watching and doing nothing! He could have killed the boy!"

The crowd around him turned into silence. His voice could be heard loud a clear to everyone. Although they knew they should have helped, nobody did. That was just people’s nature in this world. To always stay out of someone else business.

The man felt the cold blade on his neck and gulped. He ceased his movements so the blade would not go any deeper. He dropped the hilt of the sword to the ground and asked: "Who are you?!"

’Do you want me to save this boy? If we don’t, he will probably die from internal bleeding anytime soon.’ Ling informed him.

’Yes.’ Xuefeng didn’t hesitate. He ignored the man’s question and placed his free hand on the boy’s face. He faked putting something into his mouth before letting Ling heal him through his body.

The boy turned unconscious from blood loss as the man blade was falling on his head. With Ling’s help, it didn’t take 10 seconds before he woke up completely healed.

"Are you alright?" Xuefeng asked the boy after he woke up.

"Why did you help me?" The boy asked confused feeling the energy was back inside of his body.

"Because that was the right thing to do." Xuefeng smiled.

The boy repeated this sentence in his mind to remember it for the future.

"Big brother, can you please help me? I tried to sell a herb on the bazaar but this guy stole it from me." He looked at the man with hatred and begged.

Xuefeng didn’t answer but looked at the man pressing the blade further into his neck to the point the blood started to flow threatening "I give you 5 seconds, if I don’t see the herb in my hands, your head will roll on the ground."

"This kid is lying! It was my herb from the beginning but he wants to frame me!" The man shouted wronged.

"Shameless! Big brother, he is lying!" The boy cried to Xuefeng worried that he will believe the black-robed man.

"I will give you ten seconds to admit to your crime, If you do, I can spare your life. If you decide to hide the truth, I will find out what you did from the witnesses in the crowd. There is bound to be someone who saw what you did. But the second scenario won’t end with your body intact. Your choice." Xuefeng gave him an ultimatum and started counting.

"10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3...2...1...zer..." "Okay, I did it!" Before he could finish counting down to zero, the man cried out his confession.

"Give the herb back." He knew the man was guilty. A little pressure and he would definitely give in. Ling’s Qi was still inside the boy’s body and she could feel if he was lying or not.

"Here, can I go already, please?" The man pulled out a flower with white petals and three golden stamens inside of it. They were shining with similar golden light to the one Ling had.

’That’s the one I felt. You must get it. The boy still didn’t start his cultivation so I can easily see through his mind. He wanted to sell the herb and buy Spirit Awakening Liquid. You can propose that in exchange.’ Ling got excited seeing the herb.

Xuefeng grabbed the herb and turned towards the boy.

"Did you want to sell this Spirit Herb? How about I buy it from you? If I give it back to you, someone else will try to rob you." Xuefeng proposed.

"Thank you, big brother!" He also thought it would be a better idea.

"I see that you are yet to start your cultivation how about I buy Spirit Awakening Liquid for you in exchange?" Xuefeng offered.

The man seeing that he was ignored, checked out the blade that was still on his neck. Even after he gave the herb back, Xuefeng still didn’t remove the sword. The only possible explanation he could think of is that he won’t be released free.

He got pushed to the corner and his only solution was to fight back. Seeing that Xuefeng was still preoccupied with the boy he summoned another knife. The moment it appeared he pierced towards Xuefeng heart.

Blood spilt and everyone in the crowd exclaimed as they didn’t expect this turn of events.

"Remember this lesson for the future. Never turn your sight away from your opponent." Wuying said before kicking the body of the man to the ground. The head separated from his neck and rolled on the ground.

Xuefeng touched his face as he felt a hot liquid drip from his chin. He looked at his hand and it was red from blood. Seeing the headless body on the ground he wanted to vomit but he stopped himself.

"Clean up the body," Wuying commanded and suddenly a few Shadow Guard members appeared around them.

"Everyone, the show is over, Liu Clan will take care of this incident." She said towards the crowd.

Hearing her mention the Liu Clan, the cultivators around them quickly left the area, but they couldn’t resist commenting between themselves.

"So they are from Liu Clan Shadow Guard, they could tell us earlier."

"Do you know who the blond man might be? Can he be the famous Young master with black talent?"

"That might be true. Only a man like that would defend the masses."

Wuying approached Xuefeng who was still in shock from what he just witnessed.

"Let’s go clean you up." Wuying grabbed his hand and lead him to the closest fountain.