39 Ruckus in the street

"Finally," Xie Ra muttered to himself. He found the artifact shop Tang Zihao was working at.

It was much bigger and older than Xie Ra imagined. Many servants were working in the shop. However, Tang Zihao wasn't there yet. Xie Ra already knew this before coming here. It was still the morning. But, he wanted to take a look at the shop.

Even though he was so curious about his mysterious partner's whereabouts, Xie Ra didn't want to risk the alliance between them by just barging into his workplace and asking questions.

So, he walked around the shop, watching the artifacts silently. He wanted to see if there was anything suspicious happening in this place at first.

Various artifacts gleamed at him. There were many helmets, armors, gauntlets, boots, charms, rings that were suitable for each realm, displayed separately. Xie Ra noticed the amount that belonged to each realm ran low as the realm got higher. Well, it was usual for any type of artifact shop.

There were beast taming equipments placed by another cupboard. It was something different for him. As a sword cultivator, he wasn't used to seeing many beast tamer equipments. He tried to identify them but he only managed to identify whips and chains.

Then there was another section of cupboards filled with ancient runes, talismans, and various charms. It was so interesting to watch these artifacts as they showed magnificent craftsmanship. At this moment something caught his eyes.

It was some sort of bronze color emblem that wasn't bigger than his palm. There was a big multicolored gem in the midst of it. A thin bronze chain hung on its side. A sudden urge of wanting to touch it overtook Xie Ra. He raised his hand to take it.

At the same time, a scream for help escaped from the street. Xie Ra's attention shifted from the emblem to the scream. He sprinted to see what in the world was going on.

A haunting gleam escaped from the multicolored gem on the emblem.

***********

"Help, This girl is going to kill me, Help. Anyone, please help."

A guy who wore the Phoenix sect uniform screamed as a pretty girl kicked him again. That kick resulted in the boy flying towards the other end of the street. A large crowd gathered around them to watch the show. However, nobody intervened as they identified both parties in this fight as cultivators.

The girl wasn't from the Phoenix sect. Her clothes were definitely Taoist. The pure white dress had golden borders, light green flower embroidery on the white outer robe, light green boots with golden margin. Everything on her clothes silently screamed about one thing. She was a disciple from Azealia Pavilion.

"Don't you ever dare to harass anyone again or I will kill you. How dare you put your filthy hands on me. I don't care that you are a Phoenix sect disciple, I will kill you."

She said angrily. Weird. Why did her voice sound like a guy's?

Wait. Even her clothes were men's robes. Xie Ra blinked. If she's another tomboy like Xiao Lan or...

"Wu Jian, that's enough!"

An elegant but firm voice was heard behind them. The attacker quickly stopped her attacks, turned in the direction of the voice, and bowed. The crowd made a way for someone that approached the fight scene.

It wasn't someone. Four Azealia pavilion people arrived through the space that this crowd made. The most notable figure among this group was a man who wore the Azealia pavilion elders' uniform.

These pavilion elders' outer robes had dark blue embroidery instead of light green. He was covering his mouth with a piece of light green flower embroidered clothing. Probably to *hide his identity on the way.

His phoenix eyes and handsome facial features would surely catch many eyes if this was a normal instance. However, at this moment his oppressive aura made everyone bow their heads in fear. Even Xie Ra couldn't help but have goosebumps on him. This man was surely in a higher realm than deity.

"Wu Jian, what happened here?"

The attacker was silent for a moment before answering. However, then the phoenix sect disciple who got beaten up screamed. "She beat me up. I didn't do anything. She beat me up." This seemed to make Wu Jian angry. "Shut up, you harassed me. You... you..."

Xie Ra felt that the girl was embarrassed about what happened. The phoenix sect disciple must had done something terrible. If so this should be a conflict that would shame both sects. He couldn't let it happen. Therefore, Xie Ra raised his hand. Then he stepped into the crowd and bowed before the elder.

The Azealia elder was surprised to see the Jade sword sect disciple here. He politely bowed the other back. His anger seemed to dissipate a bit. Then, the sword sect disciple started to speak.

"Greetings elder, My apologies for intervening in this matter. My name is Xie Ra and I'm a Jade sword pavilion disciple. However, I happened to stay in the Phoenix sect these days. I would like to escort your group there. It would be better if the elders could dig deeper into this incident there. So, if this little sister says the truth, she can ask for justice."

The sect elder nodded approvingly. "I agreed with Daozhang. Thank you for helping us to find the sect. Please, show us the way." He said gracefully. So, Xie Ra led the way.

Somehow, the voice of this elder rang a bell inside his head. He was so sure that he heard this voice before. Not only the voice but, this humble attitude despite being a high realm cultivator felt familiar. He tried to match these details with his memories.

Meanwhile, Wu Jian came closer to Xie Ra. "Thank you, Xie *Xiong for helping me out there. But, I'm not a little sister. I'm a boy." He chuckled.

Xie Ra wanted to *vomit blood. A boy? This person must be the total opposite of Xiao Lan.

Wonderful. Now he knows a girl that looks like a guy and a guy that looks like a girl.

"Oh, my bad. My apologies." Xie Ra apologized to Wu Jian. "No worries, Xie Xiong. I was scared that Elder Wan Mingyu would kill me for creating a ruckus again. You saved me. I owe you for that." He said casually.

Something clicked inside Xie Ra's mind. Elder... Wan Mingyu?

He was one of the closest elders in his past life.