Chapter 18: Luo Zhirou
Since they no longer had the capacity to continue the bidding, the Black Horned Mammoth ended up in the hands of the strangely dressed woman next to Xue Wei.
The price for these two mounts for exceeded a couple of years worth of value for the auction house, but they would be getting nothing as all of it went to the monks.
"No wonder that monks live in fancy temples, where everything is well looked after. The Diviners finance everything that has to do with the monks and priests. Even though it seems like a lot of money, there are not that many Diviners out there, but there are so many temples. I guess they just barely scrape by."
At first, Xue Wei had been amazed by the sheer amount of gold that they had gained, but after thinking a bit further, he realized that this bit of gold was not a lot for an organization that spanned the entire continent.
Having finished the sale of the two beasts, the light slowly returned to the auction.
"Thank you all for attending the beast auction today!" the auctioneer called out. "We are very proud to have been chosen by the esteemed diviners as the ones to handle their magnificent beasts. Now those two experts that made the winning bids, please wait to be lead to our office, and we will finalize the sale. Everyone else, have a pleasant day."
Having said this, people started standing up from their chairs, and the doors opened. Everyone, except the Shen family and the strangely dressed lady, began leaving the auction hall.
"I guess Shen Mu is going to go with his father," Xue Wei thought, "When he is with his father it will take some time for them to be handed the beast, and then I am quite sure that they will go back home right away to getting familiar with the Four-Tailed Scorpion."
"Since that is the case, I should return home and cultivate." Xue Wei was amazed by the beasts. They had truly looked overwhelming and powerful, even more so than humans at the same cultivation base, but now that he had seen them, he understood that if he truly wanted to fight against Fierce Beasts, and one day against Primordial Beasts, then he had to increase his strength tremendously.
Returning home, Xue Wei went to his room to change to more suitable clothes for training before he went straight to the back of the mansion where he started to train the Shattering Mountain Palm and the Forbidden Rush.
He had gotten a good understanding of the Forbidden Rush skill and was now able to merge with the wind, almost teleport around.
There was almost no wind in Tiankong City, but Xue Wei was now able to sense even the tiniest changes in the air which could be considered wind and merge with these. No matter how little wind there was, there would always be changes in the air, and these could be used just as well.
As Xue Wei was training the Forbidden Rush technique, he found that his senses were heightened and strengthened. He could see much further than before and hear even the smallest sounds.
He knew that some of it was because of him finally becoming a cultivator, but he was also aware that his senses were heightened further than most Ordinary Warriors.
Xue Wei also had a strength that was superior to other fifth layered Ordinary Warriors. As to how much superior it was, he still did not know.
Xue Wei wanted to know, but he did not have anything to measure his strength with. He had heard about strength measuring stones, but his kingdom was simply too small to have them.
The kingdom of Heping was a long kingdom. It was placed all the way at the edge of the continent, following the coastline from the cold north to the hot south. It was like a snake coiling its way down the side of the continent, and it was also the most impoverished and most underestimated kingdom in the entire continent.
Xue Wei had read so many books about the vast world, and he knew that many kingdoms on the continent had great sects filled with martial art cultivators, martial art families and so many other things that the Kingdom of Heping did not have.
Many of the experts of the Kingdom of Heping were just frogs in the well. The Primordial Beasts in the Kingdom of Heping were also the weakest compared to the rest of the continent.
Most of the experts within the Kingdom of Heping would never leave, and thus they would never know what the vast continent was like.
Xue Wei had let his thoughts wander while he had been training the Forbidden Rush technique.
He found that his speed had decreased and his accuracy was not as high as when he was focusing on his abilities.
Since this was the case, then he decided to focus fully on his techniques. He continued to train the rest of the day and the next couple of days without interruption.
After a few days, Luo Zhirou came visiting out of nowhere, and Xue Wei took the time to accompany her.
"I am sorry that I never treated you well before," she said as she handed him some sweets. "I was influenced by my friends and family. You were incapable of cultivating and seen to be the most useless person in the city, and although I know, my words won't change anything I still wish to apologize."
"I made these sweets myself. It is my hobby. If I could, I would become someone who made sweets for others, but I am afraid that I cannot become one of those people. I have my family's expectations on my shoulders."
"Anyway, when I started speaking with you when you followed Shen Mu to see the Fierce Beasts, I could not help but feel that you were so different from how everyone described you."
"You are really smart, and you seem to know about so many things that the rest of us does not know about."
"If it is not too late, then I would like to become your friend."
Xue Wei had said nothing while Luo Zhirou was speaking and he saw how she was twisting her hands, filled with nervousness and worry, and he could not help but smile at her.
One has to know that Luo Zhirou was recognized as one of the beauties in town. She was a heavenly-favored daughter within the Kingdom of Heping, and for her to visit him like this and to acknowledge her mistake had to be a challenging and difficult situation.
"Do not worry," Xue Wei smiled, "I would like to be your friend."
Although Xue Wei did not speak much, Luo Zhirou looked like someone had lifted a stone from her shoulders and she broke out into a great smile.
"Thank you! I am so happy," she said as she almost jumped on the spot. Her happiness was obvious and as she realized how she was behaving she could not help but blush in embarrassment.
Seeing her bashful expression, Xue Wei could not help but smile slightly as he shook his head.
“Now that both Shen Mu and I are at the ninth layer Ordinary Warrior rank no one will bully you with us around.”
"Oh, you broke through to the ninth layer of the Ordinary Warrior rank?" Xue Wei asked surprised as he looked at Luo Zhirou.
He had never expected that this person would be the third in their age group to reach the ninth layered level.
"Yes," Luo Zhirou nodded her head, "I don't know how, I actually don't train even half as much as my older or younger siblings, but my cultivation is going much smoother than theirs."
Xue Wei could almost not believe what he heard. It was clear that Luo Zhirou was gifted with cultivation. She was not cultivating a lot, but she was already at the ninth layer of the Ordinary Warrior rank.
Xue Wei was deeply shocked. Although he felt that his cultivation technique was fast, it was after all a technique. If Luo Zhirou were serious when cultivating, she would be able to be an Earth Warrior already! Xue Wei shook his head in pity.
"Well then, I better go now," Luo Zhirou said with lowered eyes. Her cheeks were still red.
"Okay, well I will see you around," Xue Wei said as he followed her to the mansion gate.
After saying goodbye the two of them went back to what they had been doing before. Xue Wei was training, and Luo Zhirou returned home.
Xue Wei spent the next many days doing exactly what he had been doing; he was cultivating and training.
At the end of the month, he felt that he was close to making another breakthrough, but he also found that he no longer had any medicinal ingredients for the herbal concoction he had been bathing in.
"I need to go to the marketplace," Xue Wei sighed. He felt it was a waste of time to go, but he dared not have his maids or servants get the herbs for him as they knew nothing about the materials he was getting.
The only one who he would expect to do a proper job was Manager Su, but Xue Wei did not want to trouble Manager Su with such a small thing.
Since this was the case, Xue Wei went to rinse the sweat of his body, dressed in some nice clothes, took his purse with gold coins and left the mansion, heading for the main marketplace where he last bought the herbs.
He did not fear anyone right now. Although he knew that the older generation would be able to defeat him and even kill him, he was also perfectly well aware that he had done nothing to warrant them to make a move on him.
No matter who from the younger generation made a move, Xue Wei was certain that he could avoid them by relying on the Forbidden Rush, and since things were like this, Xue Wei did not hesitate to leave the mansion.
It was a long time since Xue Wei had been in the city center on his own, it was before he was capable of cultivating but now he went with his head held high and filled with excitement. He no longer received looks of scorn, no one even dared look at him with hatred as he had been invited to a private room with the Diviners.
The only ones who stilled looked at Xue Wei with hatred were Li Jian and his followers.
As he made it into the city center, Xue Wei found that a caravan of Wayfarers had arrived in the city.
Although Wayfarers were rare in the Heping Kingdom, they were much more usual than Diviners.
Wayfarers needed the blood of primordial beasts to unlock their bloodline, and the primordial beasts within Heping kingdom were much weaker than the ones in the rest of the continent, so they were often hunted by wayfarers.
The wayfarers that arrived sold everything from jewelry to books, to beast parts. They had souvenirs from the rest of the continent and sold it on their travels to sustain themselves. They also created jewelry themselves that was highly sought after.
Xue Wei looked at the group and found that the caravan of Wayfarers was rather large, there was at least five hundred people in this group.
The old were seated in the carriages, the young and the children were playing, and the adults were dealing with business.
Amongst everyone, wayfarers were the only ones who were not expected to join the army as everyone knew that they were going to become primordial beast hunters as they grew up. Forcing them into the military would just be the same as making less Primordial Beast hunters grow up.