Su Li withdrew her gaze.
That was a token for a personal maid of inherited disciples. No wonder that they dared to be rude to them.
When the head girl saw Su Li’s cowardly reaction, she sneered, “You are girls who have never seen the world before. You should stay at home, serve your husbands, and raise your children, but you are day-dreaming of being immortals. Be careful that no one will collect your corpses when you die!”
Jin Ying grew up in the royal palace. Although she was not favored, she never heard such excessive words. She flushed angrily, and could not help but stand up and scolded,
“You are way out of line! How dare you… curse us? My… My Junior Sister Apprentice and I didn’t offend you.”
That was a perfectly reasonable statement, but her voice was too small. With her weak expression, that was not so effective.
The four maids laughed tremblingly, which draw the attention of the surrounding handymen. But they turned around instantly because of fear.
Although Su Li and Jin Ying were full of potential, and they would possibly become inherited disciples in someday and even achieve much more. But it was only possibilities.
These four maids were notoriously bad on Danxia Mount. But they were lucky enough to become the personal maids of inherited disciples. Even if they casually killed one or two disciples of Waimen Branch with little potential, their masters would still cover for them.
Now, although the four maids were bullied to the mount head’s favorite apprentices, even only verbally, they still dared not to do what they want to do.
As the loud laughter continued in her ears, Jin Ying shivered with rage, showing an angry look, and was about to continue to argue. The head maid with the silver token had laughed enough. Seeing Jin Ying’s reaction, she suddenly became harsh. She hummed,
“Offend? I am telling you the truth, Junior Sister Apprentice. You haven’t yet begun to practice but give your Senior Sister Apprentice a lesson? Do you think that you, chosen by the mount head, can push around the handyman disciples like us?”
Jin Ying’s face flushed with anger. Biting her lips, she stammered, “I didn’t, and it was you…”
“Shut up!” The face of the young maid with the silver token was gloomy, and the look on her face was a bit frightening, “When your Senior Sister Apprentice talks, don’t interrupt.”
After saying that, her eyes fell on Su Li, who was still eating silently, and she smiled, “Learn from your Junior Sister Apprentice, and there is nothing wrong to be an ostrich sometimes.”
Then she came closer and pressed Jin Ying’s head fiercely. Jin Ying, who had not yet begun to practice, was, of course, no rival for her. Jin Ying screamed and was almost kneeling on the ground.
“This time, I’ll let you go, for you are new in the sect. But the sect etiquette must not be forgotten. Remember to greet me with ‘Senior Sister Apprentice’ respectfully when you see me next time. This is the first lesson I give you, and you’re welcome!”
The maid with the silver token laughed as she spoke. The other three maids behind her laughed even more wantonly, and they left in the frightened gaze of the many handyman disciples.
Jin Ying stood dumbfounded. Without kneeling down, she felt a devastating strike to her pride. Tears snapped and fell down her face.
“Come and eat.”
At this time came Su Li’s cold voice. Jin Ying turned around rumbly and met Su Li’s calm face.
The air seemed to be stagnant for a moment, and Jin Ying clenched her teeth and left in anger.
She was scared, but… she felt ashamed to associate with Su Yue, who stooped to compromise without dignity.
Su Li was slightly startled and then shook her head. Then she lowered her head to keep on eating. She had no interest in wasting her time on those nonentities. Jin Ying could learn from those hardships and would no longer stick to her all the time, which was good for Su Li.
As the incident passed, the hustle and bustle in the lobby gradually resumed. Su Li focused her spiritual power on her ears so that she could hear all the whispers. Some were still talking about the incident that happened just now. After the useless contents of the other talks were filtered, Su Li indeed got some useful information.
After making sure there was no more information available, she put down the chopsticks and left, ignoring the pitying and disdainful stares of the other handyman disciples.
Back to her log cabin, Su Li glanced at the tightly closed door next to hers and entered her room.
Feeling that Wang Yu was not on the mountain peak today, Su Li planned to have a focused practice at night.
However, she didn’t hurry to begin her practice when she returned to bed. Instead, she took out a thumb-sized square stone from her baggage. The stone was glowing with a faint white light under the dull candlelight.
It was a lowest-grade spiritual stone.
The handyman disciples could receive one lowest-grade spiritual stone monthly, which could speed up their cultivation in Yunti Realm and Lianqi Realm. But it was not of much use for Su Li.
Secret Records of Black Lotus that she cultivated produced a black spiritual power of high quality. And the spiritual power from a lowest-grade spiritual stone could not be refined and purified by Secret Records of Black Lotus, so she guessed that only low-grade spiritual stones could work for her.
“However, I can refine it into a lowest-grade matrix rune to sell in exchange for some low-grade spiritual stones. It was okay for me to sell it only once. If I sold it frequently, I would get attention from others, as I was in such a situation now.”
Su Li frowned.
The only easy way to recover her cultivation as quickly as possible was to sell matrix rune.
“Tomorrow, I will go to the marketplace down the hill first, and maybe I can get something.”
Thinking of this, Su Li slowly entered the state of practice. As she focused on recovering her cultivation, she seemed to have completely forgotten one thing.
The next day before dawn, Su Li had finished her practice and changed a grey robe worn normally by those ordinary handymen. Then she headed down the mountain.
As for how did she get the grey robe… Since man could find this kind of ordinary grey linen garment in every corner on Danxia Mount, Su Li casually took a set, and no one noticed it at all.
At this time, the handymen hadn’t yet started their work, so the mountain road was quite quiet. Only a few handymen were in the same way as Su Li. The rest handymen glanced at Su Li and said nothing.
The handymen, who went down the mountain at this time, were going to buy daily necessities for their masters.
After walking for an hour, she finally saw the outline of the small marketplace hidden in the forest. She was slightly relieved, and it seemed that the information she had gathered at the spiritual dining room yesterday was correct.
Walking down the last stone step, Su Li came to the small marketplace. On the roadsides, there were stalls, and behind the stalls sat disciples or handymen in uniform of Waimen Branch or Danxia Mount on the ground, yelling like hawkers in common marketplaces. Behind those stalls, there were small, simply decorated lofts, which looked slightly upmarket.
As the sun had risen, the people in the market were getting more and more. Su Li, who dressed the common grey clothes, blended into the crowd, and wandered around the marketplace, roughly figuring out its structure.
The market was divided into two categories: stalls and lofts. At the stalls, man could generally find daily necessities such as Bigu Elixir and cleansing runes, while in the lofts, man could find stuff which was related to cultivation.
In a loft named “Wenyun Pavilion,” Su Li found a Huichun Elixir, which price was marked fifty low-grade spiritual stones.
Although it was incomparable to Wuxia Elixir in pureness, it was enough to make any severely injured practitioner in Zhuji Realm return to his full strength in a short time.
“I can’t tell if this elixir was made by a disciple on Danxia Mount. If there was such a person…”
Su Li’s gaze flickered, and she focused her eyes on the signboard of the loft in front of her.
Zhenlou Group!
“It is weird to see a branch of Zhenlou Group in Huajian Sect…”
Zhenlou Group was a mysterious force in Jiuzhou Region, specialized in the business of materials and magic treasures related to tactical matrixes. It assembled over 90% of the matrix masters in Jiuzhou Region.
When she was still the holy girl of Yuxu Sect, she was also an honorary member of Zhenlou Group. So, she knew better than anyone else what a superior power it was.
For a small sect like Huajian Sect, it was impossible for Zhenlou Group to send someone to establish a branch. But now, a branch of Zhenlou Group stood in front of her, which made her feel suspicious.
“Does it have anything to do with the matrix I deployed?”
Thinking of the oddness as she entered the sect, a bit of contemplation flickered over Su Li’s tender face. She walked into the building amidst a large group of handyman disciples.
A familiar smell of the matrix material rushed into her nose, which refreshed Su Li. She looked in the direction of the source of the smell.
As expected, in a room with transparent walls, a matrix master was carving matrix patterns on a low-grade spiritual stone. From his technique, he should be a first-grade matrix master in Lianqi Realm. The thing he refined would only be useful for the practitioners in Lianqi Realm.
Many disciples of Waimen Branch from Danxia Mount stood outside the room, watching it admiringly.
“It’s too easy for matrix masters to earn spiritual stones. We, however, after working so hard on the tasks from the sect, can get so little reward.”
“Matrix masters are rare, so they are respected. Be content that you can reach Lianqi Realm from a mortal.”
“…”
Squeezed through the crowd, Su Li came to a row of transparent vitrines, where various grades of matrix runes and more advanced matrix compasses were displayed.
Su Li quickly found the yellow matrix rune that she was about to refine for sale — ten low-grade spiritual stones each.
Earth-typed rune, a rune with very high defensive power, despite its high value, was regarded as a “must-have” treasure for practitioners in Lianqi Realm to save their life, if they had ventured outside and were not short of money.
On top of that, Su Li found another, even smaller, cyan-colored matrix rune for fifteen low-grade spiritual stones each.
Agility-typed rune, which could make one’s flying quicker, was perfect for escape in combination with the earth-typed rune.
Su Li was wondering. Two earth-typed runes could be refined by one lowest-grade spiritual stone, but… cultivation in the ninth hurdle of Lianqi Realm was required. Even with the help of Secret Records of Black Lotus, she still needed to be in the sixth hurdle of Lianqi Realm.
“I can only refine the earth-typed rune for now, and the others must be planned for later.”
Although she had no idea what the purpose of Zhenlou Group was, since it was near the sect, it would be much more convenient for her to sell matrix runes. She might be able to… get the materials for Tactical Matrix for Camouflage.
Making up her mind, Su Li turned around and left without hesitation. The people around her noticed her leave, though being surprised, no one was bothered to probe into the thoughts of a grey-clothed handyman disciple.