With her first attack blocked, Ling Ruoxue immediately struck again, aiming for Qin Xiao’s head.
Yun Man wouldn’t let her succeed. Another stroke of her sword knocked the attack aside.
“Who are you? Why do you keep getting in my way?”
Furious as she was, having both strikes blocked told Ling Ruoxue that this woman was no easy opponent.
“Ha! Didn’t expect that, did you? She’s my disciple. You can’t beat her.”
Seeing both sword strikes easily blocked by Yun Man, Qin Xiao finally felt relieved and immediately grew mouthy again.
“Master, please stop talking.”
Yun Man was helpless, but couldn’t explain openly.
“A mortal like you could never have a disciple like her. You must have hired her as a bodyguard. Young lady, whatever he pays you, I, Ling Ruoxue, will pay double. No, triple! I’m killing him today.”
Ling Ruoxue naturally did not believe Qin Xiao’s words, and instead she offered Yun Man a price.
“Thank you for your kind offer, but he truly is my master.”
Yun Man directly refused.
“Who exactly are you? Who’s backing you?”
After that burst of anger, Ling Ruoxue had calmed down considerably. Since he dared insult her, he must have some backing. She had better find out who he was.
“What does it matter who I am? Are we exchanging Spirit Stones or not? If so, bring out the silver. If not, I’m leaving.”
Qin Xiao had wanted to invoke Tianyuan Sect as his shield, then thought better of it. What if she had powerful backing too? If she came to the sect demanding him, those elders would certainly hand him over. He couldn’t rely on Tianyuan Sect.
“You… I’ll remember you. Fine, we’ll exchange.”
Angry as she was, Ling Ruoxue still had a business to run. She would remember him. There would be plenty of chances for revenge later.
She had an attendant take ten thousand taels of silver in cash and Banknotes worth nine million nine hundred ninety thousand taels from a Storage Bag—ten million taels in all.
“How do you prevent counterfeit Banknotes? You haven’t slipped any fakes in, have you?”
Qin Xiao naturally knew such a large shop could not have fakes, but he still intended to annoy this fierce tigress.
“You! These Banknotes are specially made by our Immortal Dao Merchant Association. Of course none are fake. Do you want to exchange or not? If not, forget it!”
Ling Ruoxue gritted her teeth as she explained.
“Of course I do.”
Qin Xiao poured ten thousand Spirit Stones out of his space, straight onto the floor.
“Let me make this clear: I’m a mortal. I can’t use a Storage Bag, so this is the only way. Don’t make another issue of it.”
Qin Xiao quickly explained as he looked at Ling Ruoxue, whose eyes were blazing with fire.
“Fine, fine, fine, collect the Spirit Stones.”
Ling Ruoxue had been about to lose her temper, but had to swallow it again.
“Disciple, collect the money.”
Seeing Ling Ruoxue act so high and mighty, even leaving her attendant to collect the payment, Qin Xiao couldn’t back down. He had Yun Man collect his money too. Enjoying the story? Read on at novelping dot com.
“Yes, Master.”
Yun Man just wanted to get out of there. She couldn’t let Sister Ruoxue recognize her.
Just as Yun Man waved her hand to collect the silver, her face veil lifted slightly, revealing half her face.
With the transaction completed, the two prepared to leave.
“Wait.”
Ling Ruoxue thought carefully for a moment, suddenly remembered something, and called out to stop the two who were about to leave.
“What? Do you want to fight again?”
Qin Xiao had meant to let it go. Wasn’t this tigress pushing him too far?
“Out of the way. I’m not talking to you.”
“Miss, may we speak privately?”
Ignoring Qin Xiao, Ling Ruoxue walked up to Yun Man and spoke unhurriedly.
“Very well.”
Yun Man could see from Ling Ruoxue’s eyes that she had already recognized her, so there was no need to hide anymore.
“Let us go, we will talk in the back hall.”
After speaking, Ling Ruoxue led the way inside, with Yun Man closely following.
“Huh? What’s going on? Does this tigress know my disciple?”
Qin Xiao also guessed something at this point. From the moment Ling Ruoxue had entered, Yun Man had put on her veil. It seemed his disciple had many secrets as well.
“Immortal, I am impressed.”
After the two entered the inner hall, Zheng Kaiming spoke quietly to Qin Xiao.
“Honored immortal, please don’t take offense. Our young miss may be willful, but she’s kind at heart. She’s just been spoiled. Please don’t hold it against her.”
Zheng Kaiming admired Qin Xiao’s nerve, but he was loyal too, and defended Ling Ruoxue.
“It’s no trouble. This isn’t such a big deal. She seems to be an old acquaintance of my disciple’s, so I certainly won’t hold a grudge.”
Qin Xiao was not someone who enjoyed causing trouble, and since she was an old acquaintance of his disciple, it was all the more a misunderstanding.
“It is good that you say so, Immortal.”
Zheng Kaiming was relieved that Qin Xiao held no grudge. Unlike Ling Ruoxue, he wouldn’t look down on him. A mortal with no cultivation, a Golden Core disciple, and ten thousand Spirit Stones to exchange without a second thought? He must be either a reclusive expert or a young master from a major power. Whatever he was, it was better not to offend him. Good relations made for good business.
Meanwhile, in the inner hall, Yun Man removed her veil.
“Sister Ruoxue, I didn’t mean to hide it from you. You know—”
As Yun Man spoke, her eyes turned red.
“Man’er, I understand. After what happened, I had no news of you for three years. I thought you were gone too. I never expected you to be alive. I’m so happy to see you.”
“Sister, I dragged you into this. After the upheaval in the Yun Family, the Merchant Association wanted to keep doing business with them. Because you were close to me, they drove your Ling Family out to the Qingzhou branch. I’m so sorry.”
Yun Man could no longer hold back her tears, and she hugged Ling Ruoxue tightly.
“Don’t say that. Our families have been friends for generations. Even without you, the Merchant Association’s elders would have sent our Ling Family to Qingzhou. My father didn’t want to stay at headquarters, scheming against those people while they schemed against him. Coming to Qingzhou gave us some peace.”
Ling Ruoxue patted Yun Man’s back to comfort her.
“Enough, Man’er, let’s not talk about that. How did you get involved with a mortal and become his disciple? Does he have something on you? Tell me, and I’ll cripple him for you.”
Seeing that the past caused distress, Ling Ruoxue quickly shifted the topic to Qin Xiao.
“No, Sister. He really is my master. He has nothing on me. I became his disciple willingly.”
Seeing that Ling Ruoxue had misunderstood, Yun Man hurriedly explained.
“What? He’s nothing special—a useless nobody without any cultivation. What were you thinking?”
Ling Ruoxue still could not understand what that fellow possibly had to offer.
“Sister, look at my cultivation now. I owe all of it to my master. He may be a mortal, but he’s no ordinary man. If I’m ever to avenge myself, I’ll have to rely on him.”
Yun Man showed her cultivation as she spoke. Her powerful Spiritual Qi was close to the peak of Golden Core.
“What? You’re almost at the peak of Golden Core? What on earth has that fellow been feeding you?”
Only now did Ling Ruoxue recall how easily Yun Man had blocked her two strikes. She hadn’t expected Yun Man to be so close to the peak of Golden Core.
“That’s a secret, Sister. I can’t tell you.”
Yun Man knew her limits; even before Ling Ruoxue, she could not reveal it.
“All right. If you can’t tell me, don’t. What are you and that fellow doing in Tianyuan City? Why exchange for so much silver?”
Ling Ruoxue knew everyone had their own secrets and pressed no further, instead asking about their purpose for coming.
“Well, Master brought me to the auction. The silver was a misunderstanding. He doesn’t know what things cost in the mortal world, so he made a bit of a fool of himself. He’s a good person, Sister. Please don’t blame him. I think this is his first time in the mortal world. There’s a lot he doesn’t understand.”
Hearing Ling Ruoxue ask about Qin Xiao, Yun Man hurriedly explained, continuously speaking well of him.
“All right, I understand. For your sake, I’ll let him off this time. Since you’re here for the auction, that’s perfect. I’m hosting it myself. I’ll give you a Supreme Membership Card. His exchange would have earned him a Silver Membership Card, but I didn’t give it to him because I disliked him. Since you’re together, I’ll upgrade it to a Supreme Membership Card for you.”
Ling Ruoxue retrieved a purple-gold card from her Storage Bag and handed it to Yun Man.
“Thank you, Sister,” Yun Man said.
“Now that we’ve cleared everything up, let’s go out,” said Ling Ruoxue. “Otherwise that fellow will make a fuss again, saying I’ve kidnapped his disciple.”
Ling Ruoxue patted Yun Man’s head and led her back out.
“Disciple, you’re back. How did your talk go?”
Seeing Yun Man return, Qin Xiao asked with concern.
“Master, it’s all right now. Didn’t you want to go shopping? Come on, let’s go.”
Not wishing for Qin Xiao to ask too many questions, Yun Man pulled him along and quickened her pace out the door.
“Could little Man’er have taken a fancy to that fellow?”
Watching their departing figures, Ling Ruoxue murmured softly to herself.