An Unexpected Outcome

天神

Step. Step. Step.

To any normal person, the notion of someone having killing intent cannot be perceived by the normal human senses unless their lives were in danger. As for those hardened and tempered by battle, any whiff or hint of killing intent emanating from a person would make them vigilant and tense as they prepared themselves for battle.

Of course, it could be considered as a joke if the leaders of the three clans were not tempered by battle, since no such clan would have been brought up through sheer wealth alone, as power and wealth go hand in hand. That's why, for some people in the Pavilion, who took interest in the happenings between Shi Xingwan and Huang Tiankong, it was quite weird that Huang Tiankong's body was not getting tense as Shi Xingwan got closer to him.

Step. Step. Step.

With each passing second, this faint killing intent grew more and more obvious as it gradually gave everyone who looked at it the feeling of a wolf baring its fangs, aiming to kill its prey in one go. Unfortunately, this killing intent felt like it had hit some sort of jelly, a jelly that was not even affected by this killing intent.

"Hoh? You're coming closer to me?" Huang Tiankong could not help but sneer as he knew that his plan to agitate Shi Xingwan worked. Although he thought that it would take far longer than that, he was thankful that Shi Xingwan got angry before he ran out of mocking words to say.

"Well…I can't really punch you without getting closer." As if he was speaking through gritted teeth, Shi Xingwan replied as his fists were clenched tightly, ready to punch out at any instance. As he was walking closer, Shi Xingwan could not help but think twice as he looked at Huang Tiankong's confident face, muttering to himself, "Why is he so confident?"

While this was happening, Huang Tiankong's son, who was beside Huang Tiankong all this time, could not help but slightly frown at his father's actions, although he knew what his father's aim was. "Father, I can't help but think that something bad may happen to us in the future," he could not help but mutter to himself as he sighed, keeping his words to himself.

As for Shi Li, who was also seeing this from a third person's perspective, he noticed that an ounce of hesitation appeared in his father's eyes, making him smile inwardly as he could not help but say to himself, "Father finally found what the Huang clan patriarch was wanting him to do."

Just as Shi Xingwan was about to raise his fists to punch Huang Tiankong in the face, he decided to open his fists to pat Huang Tiankong on the shoulder with a bit of force, retracting his killing intent as an angry smile appeared on his face. "You know what, I've decided to give you some face and let you go this time. I'm just here to buy some Seal Breaker Pills, not fighting against the whole Huang clan."

Whoosh!

He then applied a bit more force in the horizontal direction towards the hand that was on Huang Tiankong's shoulder, pushing him enough so that he would move out of the way, but not enough to make him fall to the ground, also saving Huang Tiankong a bit of face. Huang Tiankong was bewildered at this outcome, wondering as to where his plan went wrong.

As for Shi Xingwan, he gestured Shi Li to come follow him, wherein Shi Li decided to follow. While walking closer to Shi Xingwan, Shi Li could not help but look at the Huang father and son duo, especially when the Huang clan patriarch's son met eyes with him, his eyes somewhat filled with an apologetic expression.

It was as if the Huang clan patriarch's son was trying to tell Shi Li that he was sorry about his father being this okay, to which Shi Li could not help but respond with a simple nod and a hidden okay sign that only the Huang clan patriarch's son could see.

After that, the Shi father and son duo went their own ways, heading towards where most of the people were congregated, where the Seal Breaker Pill was being sold.

…

With the authority and power Shi Xingwan commanded throughout the whole Verdant Breeze Town, many of the people that barred his way from buying the Seal Breaker Pill could not help but think twice before deciding to move out of his way, thinking that this patriarch would remember their faces and give them a bit of face later.

Thankfully, unlike the other patriarchs, Shi Xingwan did remember the peoples' faces who moved out of the way to let him and his son through to buy the Seal Breaker Pill. It did not take them long to make their way towards the shelf that stored the Seal Breaker Pill, where an attendant of the Pavilion was situated.

Taking notice of Shi Xingwan, the attendant made its way to come to Shi Xingwan and bow respectfully as the attendant said, "Welcome to the Red Dawn Pavilion, esteemed Shi clan patriarch. How may I help you today?"

Without delay, Shi Xingwan looked at the attendant with a smile on his face as he replied, "I would like three Seal Breaker Pills of the Refined grade. And might I ask if you could store them in jade boxes?"

Hearing the order Shi Xingwan made, the attendant could not help but become ecstatic as the attendant nodded profusely, happy about the fact that he was finally able to make a sale. As for the other people surrounding the Seal Breaker Pill, they could only stare at it, lacking the money to even buy the Substandard grade of the pill. Not only that, many of them were not even in the peak of the Martial Master realm, or in the Half-Martial Lord realm for that matter.

The attendant grabbed a few exquisitely designed jade boxes from a certain place within the second floor of the Pavilion before removing the stopper on three pill bottles that housed a single Seal Breaker Pill of the Refined grade each.

Pop!

In an instant, the energy that the Seal Breaker Pill radiated was finally brought out to the masses, stunning them for a bit at the utter power and purity the energy held. Nonetheless, they could only savor it for a short time as the attendant deftly and quickly placed the three Seal Breaker Pills into three jade boxes before giving it to Shi Xingwan not long after.

"Here you go esteemed guest, three Refined grade Seal Breaker Pills worth 1250 gold coins each, coming to a total of 3750 gold coins. But since the esteemed guest has bought so much at once, the Pavilion shall offer you a discount, bringing the total down to 3500 gold coins," the attendant said after seeing that Shi Xingwan placed the jade boxes inside an inconspicuous bag.

Shi Xingwan nodded towards the attendant's price, since it was around the same price that his attendants have received a few weeks ago. He then rummaged a bit through his inconspicuous bag, revealing four golden notes with the Chinese character for 1000 engraved on it on his hand a few seconds later.

"Here you go, 4 golden notes from the Verdant Breeze Bank worth 1000 gold coins each. Please give the change as a golden note so it would be easier to carry," Shi Xingwan said as he gave the four golden notes to the attendant. As for the attendant, he hastily went to the cashier to complete the transaction before coming back to Shi Xingwan and Shi Li with five golden notes with the Chinese character for 100 engraved on it.

"Here you go sir, your change of 500 gold coins. Thank you for choosing Red Dawn Pavilion, and I hope we can see you again." With a smile on the attendant's face, the attendant bowed as he gave the change to Shi Xingwan.

"Don't worry, if I'm not going back to this Pavilion, then my son definitely will." Shi Xingwan chuckled as he patted his son's shoulder. Not long after, they turned around as they headed towards the stairs leading to the first floor of the Pavilion, leaving many of the onlookers dumbstruck at this incident.

What was true wealth? This was!

It only took the two a few minutes to finally make their way outside the Red Dawn Pavilion as they walked their way back towards the Shi clan, deciding to take their time as it was indeed a long while since the two of them were outside the clan's walls.

"I'm sure you have a lot of questions on your mind, especially about the Refined grade version of the Seal Breaker Pill." While they were walking, Shi Xingwan could not help but look at his son that was staring at the bag beside his waist. With a smile, he then added," Of course, I can tell you about this—"

Only for this smile to be replaced with a serious expression as two familiar silhouettes appeared in front of the two, causing them to stop in their tracks.

"For now, we can move this discussion later," Shi Xingwan looked at his son before looking at one of the silhouettes with the killing intent he emanated earlier. "So…you came back to agitate me once more?"

"Agitate? Who says I was agitating you?" The silhouette could not help but laugh at Shi Xingwan's words as he replied with a mocking tone. In an instant, one could see that the two silhouettes were the Huang father and son duo.

"Although I want to beat your face into a pulp right now due to how irritating it is, I cannot do that since that would go against my code," Shi Xingwan replied to Huang Tiankong's words with a slight sneer on his face.

"Hoh? And what code is that?" Huang Tiankong had a sneer on his face as well.

"To not dirty my hands with things that are dirty." The slight sneer on Shi Xingwan's face was replaced with a smug grin. "Anyways, if you're still unsatisfied with this current outcome, let us have our sons fight against each other. Think of it as an appetizer a few months before the tournament."

As for Shi Li, and Huang Tiankong's son who heard this, the both of them could not help but simultaneously say, "Ah?"