A grudge mark!

Just like that, I left the poor unconscious guy that is an embarrassment to every inner disciple…

"Hey! Wait up!"

Oh come on! Another one?! What did I do to deserve such attention?! Damn, I should have known that I would attract this amount of attention if I carried an item that only inner disciples can gather. Perhaps these flowers are only able to be gathered by inner disciples that are the top of the top! The quest that I had selected is an extreme rank quest after all…

Not wanting to step into another quarrel, I decided to walk faster, while completely ignoring the person that was calling for me. Unfortunately, the person was shameful enough to run after me. But who am I to not be shameful too! Obviously, I began to run as well.

"Hey! Junior brother! Stop! I just have a few questions!" The person who was having a hard time catching up to me, tried to explain, but was running out of breath.

Of course, me being the kind and understanding person that I am, I stopped running for the person who I assumed is a fine lady. Oh… Not bad indeed. All that's left now is to see if her personality is not bad as well… Cough Cough, anyways, I stopped to listen what this nice lady had to preach to me. To be honest, I'm surprised that she doesn't look older than Xianner. Because, if I'm not wrong, those attire of hers indicate that she's a inner disciple. Sigh, I knew it. Xianner is truly trash. I sure hope her bussy isn't trash too Cough Cough.

Anyway, time to respond to this poor lady's cry for help.

"If you have something against me and want to fight me, or if you want to steal my hard earned materials, or perhaps assassinate me, I can only humbly decline. Sorry." I quickly spoke, before running away again.

"Huh? No no no! Wait! I just want to ask where you bought those firefly lilies!" Panic and desperation was apparent on the lady's voice. Also, she didn't run after me, because she was certainly too tired to.

"Buy them? I simply got them on my own…" I replied, as I made my way back to the lady.

"That's impossible. You're just an outer disciple. Someone like you has no way of handling the strength of one with the force of the phoenix. Even for the top inner disciples, it's impossible to pick a firefly lily without the guardian with the force of the phoenix injuring them. Much less pick the lilies, how could you even escape the guardian once it takes notice of you?!"

The lady wanted to tell me facts, but she was simply overstating the power of the phoenix's force. Has she never heard of the fact that water is the weakness of fire without a constant and powerful fuel? All I did was throw half a liter of water and that guardian was already dead. Maybe her believe is like how legends are portrayed, with people believing exaggerated rumors too much…

"Whether you want to believe me or not, do I look like I care? There is no one I know that sells these, that I'm sure… You need to get these flowers yourself."

"Were there no guardians in the area where you picked these lilies?"

"If you're talking about the one with the force of the phoenix, there was. Oh, I think I have the perfect way to proof to you that I got them myself."

With her being so persistent about me not being able to defeat that damn fiery chicken, I figured that I clearly had obvious proof for her to see. I almost forgot about it even, since I don't feel the burning pain anymore. The damn mark that looked like the silhouette of a phoenix. That should be enough proof!

So, what I did was put the flowers down. After placing them on the ground, I cleaned the dirt off of my hands, and stretched my hand towards her as if I was asking her for a dance. For a few seconds, she stood still, looking at me with a confused look, and within those few exact seconds, I only gave her a smile, waiting for her to see the marking of a phoenix that looked quite magical.

"A grudge mark! D-Di- You killed a creature with the force of the phoenix?!" The lady was too stunned to speak properly, and was so loud that she gathered almost everyone's attention.

"See, it's not impossible. I told you I got them on my own, and you didn't want to believe me."

"But how?" She questioned me, full of curiosity and bewilderment.

"Let's just say, I got lucky…" I simply replied to her with a smile of embarrassment plastered on my face, as I tried to act as mysterious as I always have been. Kekeke…

"Fine, keep your secrets. If I'm not wrong, it should be a very embarrassing tale for you to explain. Also, you're luck should be fading away now. With that grudge mark, any disciple that has a connection with the force of the phoenix, might have a great and unreasonable hostility against you.

"I see… Thank you senior sister. I will be careful then. Also, why are you looking for firefly lilies?" I decided to ask her, since she seemed kind enough by warning me about the potential enemies that I might have in the future.

"That… You see, I have this cold every night which keeps my PP quite active for some reason. It's hard every night, and whenever I wake up, there's always stains on my clothing. Both where my PP is, and on the area of my chest… I asked the librarian about this, and she said that I could warm my body and prevent my PP from overloading by having those lilies planted near me."

"Interesting… I believe I have a better way to fix that problem of yours, which might benefit the both of us…"

"What?"