Caught In the Act
Fangsu continued to act on her hunger on spiritual energy by consuming spirits every few days while slowly reducing the dose of medicine; the stronger the spirit the taste of rotten flesh became more mild. The Chen family made sure to cover the evidence that people who were possess were usually taken care of within the capital. The members of the Chen Family each had a role to fill; idenitifctaion of a spirit possessed person, scouting of information and its rank, discreeting dealing with the spirit and body and finally the clean up. Liansu took care of identification, Susu dealt with information collection, Fangsu dealt with the spirit from the possessed body, their mother dealt with the clean up and their grandpa dealt with covering up their tracks incase they did leave any behind.
However, the uncle had a different job to do that only he could do; investigating the organisation wanting to snuff out spiritual cultivator and protecting Xiao Cheng in case something occurs. Ang Siu and Sim Siu were free to travel under the guise of being tourists to the capital but they were actually aiding the uncle. Though the were trying to scour the capital and other notable locations for any information about any organisation looking into spiritual cultivators were few to none. There simply was not enough information to go off on to figure out the motive of the mysterious organisation trying to find spiritual cultivators. The Uncle entered the same auction house which Fangsu had visited trying to obtain her issters and mother to seek out anything notable item being auction off that could be related to spiritual cultivators. As he was seating in a crowded area as to not stand out too much, quietly observing the items and who was buying them.
As he continue to seat there quietly without actually bidding on any items since the items being auctions were only the normal thing that cutliavtors would use, "Ladies and Gentlemen! Today, we have recieved a last minute submission that might be quite interesting to many!" The auctioner announced with a loud voice immediately catching the attenton of all who were interested in the last minute submission of an items that even the auction house couldn't even refuse not to auction off today, "I proudly present you a true young proud Qilin in the flesh!" Many high ranked cultivators that were working for the auction house dragged in a special grade metal cage with a young Qilin trying to thrash around with chains trapping and draining the energy of the poor Qilin. As the Uncle witnessed such an act on one of the Chen's family sacred animal that they were swore to protect was being treated in such an inhumane way like it was a trophy.
The Uncle quickly pulled out of a mirror from his robe secretly gesturing that it was an emergency and that he need money. Lots of money. The only person who responded was his sister who immediately was ready with the money and on her way to his location, "2 million gold!" The first bidder shouted out a huge amount of gold that many people wouldn't usually pull out but more people followed along increasing the starting bidding price for the Qilin. It finally reached 20 million gold which was simply a good price for a mythcial creature that was said to have vanished from the world completely.
Finally, his sister quickly entered the auction house with a slam, "30 million gold!" The sudden increase of 10 million gold immediately cause the mass majority of bidders to immediately withdraw from the bid. Even if a Qilin is a sacred animal; spending more than 20 million gold was not worth it for the majority. A mysterious beauty of a woman with a slim figure had entered the auction house with confidence passing many of the men who oogled at her beauty.
However, even with the ludicious increase of gold for the Qilin there was still one bidder, "35 million!" The bid had now been increasing to 5 million each bid. Causing his sister to hesitant to continuing adding more gold; she only had bought 35 million gold with her thinking it was enough but she had taken into accounting other bidder who were desperately wanting to own a Qilin as a mount or medicine.
The auctioneer eyes were glistening at the amount of gold that these people were splashing out for the Qilin, "35 million gold!" They wanted to juice out as much gold as possible as the huge sale would be contribute to her commission, "Going once! Going Twice! It is sold to number-" Before the auctioneer to continue the door of the auction house was oonce again opened once again revealing a mysterious figure with black with a navy hue to it. A unbelieveable colour for any human unless they were of other races, however, the hair that belong to the indivdual young person of androgynous appearance seeing that what they wore wasn't typically clothing from the capital. So, it was difficult to source their origin.
The person had a strong aura emitting from them whcih caused everyone to focus on them forgetting the auction for a moment, "45 million gold, " The person didn't even have to tremble when speaking that loud in order to shake the audience with the quantity of gold that they were willing to splurge on the Qilin, "I'm already have the cash ready to paid on site. " The person was absolutely nonchantly about such a crazy amount of money as an blubous jelly attendant quickly rushed to the indivdiaul's side serving them a high quality pu'er tea.
The blubous jelly attendant was actually the mangaer of the auction house, "Esteemed guest, you are supposed to be seated in the VIP room not here in the common section." He was worried that security wasn't able to recognise and offend such aa important merchant that had supplied them with various merchandise that only them could supply and each item would often be sold at high rates no matter if it was a special medicinal ingredient, food ingredients where people wouldn't be able to normally eat or special materials that have been seen or utilised in the capital before. The jaded pendant that the person carried was that from the Ghost Merchant, a mysterious being of curious nature. Each time a person come bearing the Ghost Merchants pendant with them it was usually many different people of different stature, indicating that the Ghost Merchant always had someone deal with the auction on their behalf. So, the manager never could truly know the identity of the Merchant.
The representative of the Ghost Merchant took a sip of the Pu'er Tea before smirking, "No need to worry," They waved off the manager concern for having to be seated at the common section, "Any way is anyone going to bid because if not this Qilin is mine to take," The mysterious person coming as the Ghost Merchant was actually Liansu who was bored at the time and was given a ton of money along that was given by Fangsu collective savings from being the boss of Blossoming Fragrance for a year and being travelling merchant for three or so months. Since, no one dared to increase the bidding price on the Qilin since the manager of the auction house was trying to get chummy with the last minute arrival of an esteem guest that was given enough priority to have a VIP room. Finally, the Qilin went to Liansu who quickly took the Qilin leaving behind a spare spatial ring with some items in there for the manager to deal with.
As soon as Liansu took a step from the building to leave; she vanished completely. But, in reality she was just phased to the spiritual realm so that she could run away from potentially stupid people that wanted to deal with her away from the safety of the auction house. Liansu then went into a skipped in a carefree manner as she headed in the direction of the Chen household. But, seeing that there someone following her; Liansu quickly redirected herself to a different area entering the Main Street and shifting back into the the normal realm with ease to grab some snacks for herself. This way the person following her to get confused by the crowd and lose sight on her but there were able to quickly find her like a god damn bloodhound, unwilling to let her leave his sights. Liansu kept trying to shift back and forth into the spirit realm and the normal relam interchangeably into order to confuse her stalker but even that wasn't stopping the stalker from following her to the end of earth.
The only strange thing was that he never seem to be approach any closer than he was remaining only a few meters away from her but never truely trying to get too close with her. Soon, Liansu jumped to the roof of the city to get away from the sight of the man and finally confronting him about his intent of following her. As Liansu knew that she was out of his sight for just a moment she quickly waited behind a structure of the roof and as soon as she saw him jump to the roof as well. Liansu quickly sneak up behind him; tackling him to the ground with a blade at his throat, "You have been following every step of mine and hiding yourself like a damn bloodhound," Pressing the sharp blade to his neck until it drew some blood. the man instantly stiffened as the blade was pointed at his vitals at his neck.
Liansu was then assaulted with a slight musky scent that was being emitted from the man that attracted Liansu to place her nose on the nape of his neck to only have him flinch from the intimate action, "What are you doing?" His voice even was attractive in Liansu's ears. It was a deep resonating voice that was pleasant to listen too and Liansu could even imagine what it would probably sound like in the morning; just from waking up.
But, Liansu shook her head trying to stop her mind from wandering to her imagination that was too much for her heart and mind to handle, "I'm asking the questions here!" Reverting back to her cautious nature handling the man in her hold that was much bigger than herself wasn't even try to fight against her, "Why were you following me?" It was strange to Liansu who was accustomed to people challenging her back before she snuck into the military camp to spar with people who were fighters. Judging from her observation and her body pressed against his back; it was all toned muscles from diligent training of some sort. She could also tell that he was much older than her which would make it much harder for her to fight someone who had much more experienced than her.
But, before he could answer. Small droplets of water before raining down on them and soon before they knew it they were completely soaked like wet dogs. They quickly went to find shelther at a roof that over cloaked them allowing for them to drain the water that the clothes soaked up. Even the dye that Liansu had on was being washed away in the rain, dyeing the water a blusih colour revealing her natural black wavy hair from all the humidity, "I have got to be fucking kidding me! It just had to rain today!" This was a surprisingly reveal as no person in the capital had wavy hair; only pin straight hair whether it be wet or dry. But, despite this the man was attracted to the wavy haired girl who looked pissed at the timing of the rain. But, to be attracted a young that was seven year his junior was a bit absurd, "For the last time, answer my question! I hate having to repeat myself and im running late for dinner!" Liansu was hopping in her spot anxiously as she was hoping to reach home to get dinner and eat barbecue while grilling pork belly but this stalker had to follow on this particular day.
The man scartched his neck nervously as he was embrassessed having a woman's body being so close to him, "I was requested to come to the auction and keep an eye on the buyer," He bluntly told the truth knowing that the girl could be able to tell if he was lying to her or not. So, it would be better to be truthful.
Liansu chuckled at him seeing that even though he was hired to follow the people who were buying the Qilin, "Well, you are doing a horrible job at following since your body sticks out like a sore thumb," Liansu critically gave him some feedback which stung the poor man pride which was very little, "You can't even conceal yourself properly within a crowd! How are you expected to follow anyone when you can't even do that! My baby brother can even do better than you!" Each insult struck at the man who wasn't very verse in the art of concealment but rather brute strength. But, being compare to a young child who could do better than him was quite painful.
The man could only painfully shed a tear as whatever little pride he had was immediately crushed by the insults the spewed out of the girl's mouth, "I typically stationed as a bodyguard for clients, " He honestly babbled as he could only crounch into a tight ball however his huge frame made him more of a boudler, "Following people using stealth isn't my strong suit," Seeing that he was terrible at the task assigned to him.
Despite this Liansu sat down waiting out the rain whilst pulling out a gourd filled with alcohol that she had made, "Bodyguard huh?" Handing the man a small cup for him, "Who are your usual clients?" Pouring out a crimson red colour that was transculent in colour and a strong boozy order into both his and her own cup. Liansu decided to downplay herself so that they weren't fight. It was too much to energy and time to fight with the man whose fighting level she couldn't tell.
The man felt unusually comfortable around the girl as he carefully took a sip of the alchol to find that the fragrance of the booze was quite flora but the taste was sour and tart with bit a touch of astringent dryness at the back of his throat, "I'm usually assigned to keep track of the numbers of spiritual cultivators and keep them safe from other forces," He was handed a piece of thinly slice meat that smell like it was cured, "But, there seem to be an abnormally high number of disappearance of spiritual culivators and this has caused a disarray within the spirit cultivator assocation. " As he threw the thinly sliced meat inot his meat the astringent feeling at the back of his throat disappeared with the fattiness of the cured meat. This small meal satisfied his hungry belly that was deprived of food since he was so busy.