Weapons

Pushing my way past a few people I headed over to Yao Ya, Rao Nuan, Qiu Tu, Liang Jia, and Hu Daquan. And I quickly asked what happened while I was gone. One of them gave me a quick run down of the situation.

So the guys in grey across from us over there had basically came over and started harassing the girls. After a while they still hadn't left even after being declined the entire time and Liang Jia followed shortly by Hu Daquan came over from their respective weapon racks wondering what was making such commotion in the store.

When they found the source they then intervened between the girls and grey robed men which was when they started becoming more and more violent to where we are now.

Before Liang Jia and Hu Daquan came they were apparently just trying to slowly woo the women. But as soon as they arrived and stepped in their gentlemanly attitude disappeared, replaced by rowdy and crude intimidations.

After hearing what happened to the girls I turned around towards the similarly robed group to help deescalate the situation. But before I could even speak a word, a loud voice spread throughout the shop floor.

"SILENCE!... WHO DARES TO CAUSE SUCH A SCENE AT MY STORE!" The voice bellowed and seemed to focus upon us.

Looking over at where it came from a muscular middle aged man slowly descended a set of central stairs. His eyes fixated towards the heavily crowded area we were located. The floor was completely silent as the man and two guards following behind him took step after step down.

Even after reaching the ground floor he continued walking forward into the crowd. The crowd in front of him parted, splitting the crowd into two. That is until he finally reached the center of the commotion stopping a meter between both groups, silently staring at both sides with a slight frown.

..

"Well, is any one going to explain what happened?" He asked with an annoyed tone after a few moments of silence.

Taking his chance one of the young men wearing a grey robe stepped up to answer.

"We were merely browsing through your wonderful store when these hoodlums appeared and threatened us. Please kick them out of the store and restore the peaceful environment." He pointed over to us accusingly.

Before we could even make our own point the middle aged man spoke, "...I've decided... you six folks wearing the grey robes please leave the store."

"Hah! That's what you.. huh?! I-I'm sorry sir, but I think you made a mistake in your accusation. I said they were the ones causing the trouble." The grey robed young man from before spoke up once more.

"I said, please leave."

"Wait! Wait! Wait! I said that they were the ones causing trouble. N-not us!"

"What do you think I'm stupid or something? I'm a third stage cultivator hired to oversee the first two floors. You think I wouldn't notice when other cultivators lower than I come in and immediately begin to chat up strangers?

I know about your sect, the Grey Hounds. Don't even try talking about sending your elders here. Why would some elders even listen to outer disciples like you anyway. Now you brats better scram before I kick you out with force!"

The grey robed young men stood there a little shocked for quite a few moments.

..

I heard one of them whisper to each other "G-Guys w-we should leave, he called our bluff before we even said it." Before he quickly scurried out of the shop with the rest following along behind him.

When they completely exited the store the middle aged man just went back up the stairs like nothing happened. He completely ignored our group and didn't even speak a word to us the entire time.

'I thought that would turn into something. Well it's for the best that it doesn't I suppose.'

I guess these kinds of things happen pretty often or something. Everyone seemed to just immediately stop caring and went back to their own business the moment it ended. It was probably more like just a spectacle for the bystanders to peer over at and watch than anything actually important to them.

I guess it's just like a car crash, as long as they weren't involved in it they wouldn't care much for it. At most they would watch it as they passed by, but they wouldn't do much else to interfere with someone's business.

As the others started to forget and stop caring about what happened and went about their business, so did we. The only difference between this time and the one before was that I was here.

The other two men had went back over to their own weapon sections as I went along with the girls to the sword section. None of the swords they had in stock really caught my eye though. I felt like the one Yao Ya gifted me was quite a good sword on it's own.

I didn't need to look at any new weapon, but I did look at the racks to pass the time.

They had many swords of varying weights, shapes, and lengths, but if you threw them all in the same pile you wouldn't be able to tell them apart unless you were looking for a specific one.

After a little while Qiu Tu and Rao Nuan had picked a couple of swords in the area to buy and went to the center to meet up with the other two to pay for all their new weapons. The total cost of the four weapons they picked was around 7 iron coins.

After we had gotten our weapons we explored the city a little more until it started getting dark where we then started heading back to the sect.

After walking for about 15 minutes along the path outside of the city we heard a yell behind us which got all of our attention.

"You bastards think we were done earlier?! Now you don't have any protection from that Essence Gathering Realm person, we're going to beat your asses! How dare you all make us humiliate ourselves?!"

The six grey robed people from earlier charged at us from behind. Since they had announced their arrived before attacking us, we quickly reacted.

Responding by taken out our own weapons to clash with them. It was almost perfect, their timing that is, for our group to try out our brand new weapons. Each side was equal in number so everyone had their own target and mine was a man with a sword.

Every duel had split up a bit for extra room while fighting against each other. It was like their came with 1v1 intention the entire time and my opponent was no exception.

Getting close enough our swords sailed through the air, and we had met mere inches from another's face as our swords were colliding with one another between us. I had sprung back a few moments after the clash. From the few moments our blades met neither of us had more power than the other.

"So you're also a cultivator? This makes it a bit more interesting." He said adjusting his posture.

Taking another look at my situation I decided to let go of my left hand's grip on the sword to take a different stance.

"What you giving up already? No matter, you just have to face me as my practice. " He said while beginning a charge toward me.

As he's about to launch his strike I initiated my own action before him toward his blade. As our blades clash once more I could feel the power balance shift towards his side so I quickly launched a little distraction guard break by sending my left fist going in straight into his gut.

Feeling his movements falter and weight upon my right arm lessen I rapidly retract my fist only to send it straight up to his jaw. The uppercut knocked him off his feet for a moment tossing him onto the ground, but just enough for me to lunge atop him and knock his weapon away.

"Wait! Wait! wa-"

Quickly I plunged my sword through his neck as to not be taken over by any pity or mercy for these people. They were people who would go as far as killing another just because they were kicked out of a store or were rejected by some girls.

His blood spewed out uncontrollably like a fountain. His blood stained my new weapon and puddled below him. My very first kill with this sword was actually a young master character's minion.

As I finished up I searched his body and took some of his supplies, I actually found a small pill bottle with a little note reading energy pill on it. Oh sweet some kind stamina pill or something?

Pocketing the pill bottle I looked around at everyone else and it seemed everyone else had also already finished with their battles. It even seemed to be an overwhelming victory even though we were equal in numbers. No one even seemed wounded from the battle, probably just just a little tired at most.

Gathering back together we had decided to just go back to the sect and not worry about what just happened, It seemed like such a common occurrence in the world and if we reported it we all would have surely been caught in some kind of trouble.

So instead we would pretend like nothing happened, hiding the evidence there was a battle here as best we could. The bodies of the people were simply tossed into the wooded forest. The puddles of blood on the other hand were a little more difficult to hide. So we just wiped it the best we could and left after it couldn't come off anymore.

When we got back there was a notice for an inner disciple exam coming in around four months with the top 20 being able to become an inner disciple of the sect and top 10 even winning some prizes along with it, but we had to at least be in the second stage to even enter the competition.

As everyone read the notice on the wall about it we made the exam our current goal to progress towards and decided to work harder so we can help our country/world adapt more when we return.

Making it to my room I decided lying on my bed. For the next few days or so I would just practice my swordsmanship outside in my little backyard, reading and studying inscriptions, practice my footwork for the movement technique, or cultivate to get a little stronger. It was a bit of a cycle, but I didn't mind too much.