Chapter 53: A Bewitching Beauty
He looked over and saw the lithe and sexy figure of Min Qing. He didn't know why but standing right there in the midst of the bustling market, she looked like a pure white lotus surrounded by mud.
He was momentarily dazed before he snapped out of it. "The nature of the Yin element is really taking over everything unh?" He thought with a frown.
If he of all people, especially with such strong mental fortitude, could be dazed by her beauty, then if this continues, she might be the literal downfall of an empire. "I just hope she's in total control of the situation. Or at least tell me if she's not…"
Catching Min Hong in a slight daze when he saw her, made Min Qing smile a bit. If she was like a lotus in the mud before, then this smile made her seem like a celestial goddess bathing in the divine radiance of the sun.
Min Hong was once again stumped, bordering on being enchanted. He recovered a bit later and glared at her, when he saw the elated and contented smile on her face.
He snorted and turned his face trying to hide his slightly red cheeks. He was like a kid who had been caught stealing meat from a pot of soup.
"What are you smiling at? Am I that handsome?" He shamelessly tried to regain his pride by switching roles, but his slightly hoarse voice gave way to what happened within his mind earlier.
Anyone who cultivates in the Yin element would gradually become prettier and prettier, until they become the true definition of a bewitching beauty.
Min Qing who was naturally a beauty since she was very little, had this extraordinary aura of innocence around her that would make even the most lecherous man or woman not want to defile her in any form.
Now that she was cultivating the Yin element, a very potent one at that, the bewitching aspect of the Yin element was now manifesting itself from within her.
Her pupils were now bluish-grey. Her skin a shade paler, with her hair turning shimmering blue from the tip upwards.
Her plumps were now greatly redefined on her slender figure, accentuating her perfect curves all over. All these coupled with her naturally innocent attitude made her something worth feasting one's eyes on.
Seeing Min Hong flustered for the second time in a long time made Min Qing very happy within. She allowed him to pull her along the crowd as they approached other stalls in the market area.
Since they didn't have enough funds to attend the auction which had an entrance fee of about two Mid-grade spirit stones, they had to turn their attention to bargain trades and exchanges.
As they picked a direction to go, Min Hong felt Min Qing tug him to a halt. Min Hong shifted his gaze only to see a very familiar figure walking out from the entrance of a building. Shockingly, it was Min Su.
As Min Hong saw Min Su, the latter also discovered the two of them. Initially, a pleasantly surprised look erupted on her face before it abruptly receded as if she had remembered something as she stood on the spot in deliberation.
Glued on the spot, Min Su looked at Min Hong. It was as if she was deliberating between walking over and something else.
But unfortunately for her thoughts, Min Qing pulled Min Hong over as they approached her.
"What happened? Why are you here?" Min Hong asked before realizing how stupid the second question sounded. This was one of the biggest events in the entire village and he was still asking such question.
He quickly recovered as his eyebrows furrowed slightly at his statement. "That can't be right? I can't still be dazed, right?" he thought to himself.
Looking up, he saw the two beauties looking at him with weird gazes as he was spacing out and acting out of sort. Realizing this, he quickly added; "We haven't seen since before the coming-of-age ceremony…Hope you have been good?"
"I'm fine young master, thanks for asking…" She courteously replied. "I was sent on a mission by Elder Rou just a little after we returned and I just came back. I should go so I can give my report…"
"Big sister Su, it's been so long since we've last gone for a stroll. Since we are both heading home from here, why don't you accompany us a bit and then we can return together." Min Qing chimed in with a beaming smile.
Min Su just stood there, momentarily dazed. She recovered a little bit longer than Min Hong. Then she looked at Min Hong to Min Hong for approval.
Noticing this, Min Qing looked at Min Hong with slightly teary puppy eyes.
"Hmph! Where did you learn how to do that?" Seeing her expression Min Hong looked away, somehow avoiding her gaze. Maybe because he didn't usually pay attention to it before, but since he came out of the exchange room, he had been somehow mentally influenced by Min Qing.
Obviously, Min Qing was oblivious to Min Hong's situation, neither did she know what he was thinking.
In all honestly, ever since he helped her absorb her Yin Qi, she had been wanting Min Hong to relate with her more, as they barely see not to mention hanging out or talking for this long. As such, she was very happy today.
"Well, it seems to work… Alright! Where should we go next?" He answered. Min Hong also felt he had not been a close relative to Min Qing. In fact, he knew that if it wasn't for her condition, he might not have related with her as much as he did in recent times.
Do since that's the case, he wanted to make a change. After all, she was the only sibling he had in this world, and if he didn't relate with her or hang out with her, then who would he do that with.
"Let's head over to the center of the market. That's where the good stuffs should be sold." Min Qing jumped in delight. Everything was going great for her today. In fact, she had no negative feeling or thoughts at this point.
Min Qing smiled as they walked around the market towards the center. This was one of the most bustling streets in the entire General Market. All merchants usually set up stalls here.
The streets were normally about a hundred feet wide, but there were so many merchant stalls on each side that more than seventy feet of the street was taken up, creating a very narrow walking space left, where several carriages were also traversing.
"Check out this lady. Very voluptuous chest with huge buttocks. She's definitely very fertile and can very much produce a well populated family. With one Mid-grade spirit stone, she can be yours!"
"These spirit beasts can carry over two thousand pounds of loads and are good looking enough to act as fine mounts. Three Mid-grade spirit stones. If you buy one, we can include one of its cubs in the deal."
Several traders were shouting at the top of their lungs as they advertised their goods. The man selling slaves had several women and girls around him, while there were about two dozen guards standing guard by his stall.
All the women and girls stared around in self-pity, they could only hope that a kind master would buy them and take them away from the hell hole they currently found themselves.
There were several tags around their necks signifying that they were for sale.
The Min Hong trio walked around and looked at the different goods that were on sale here. there were slaves, beast cores, beast skins, live beasts and even eggs here. there were also manuals, weapons, medicinal plants, pills, poisons, secret arts and many other things for sale.
"Over five hundred warriors from our tribe died before we could acquire this Nine Star Qi sea stage green-eyed shark beast core, and we had to make our way back through the lake within the Mist Marshlands and encounter countless troubles before we arrived here."
"We weren't even willing to sell it for a dozen Mid-grade spirit stones, but you're trying to buy it for seven? That's extortion. Pay ten Mid-grade spirit stones and you can have it!" Two bald middle-aged men with raspy voice were yelling at the merchant in front of them.
Min Hong gazed towards another stall nearby. He saw a crowd circling three strong men with huge scars all over their body, the blood around some of the scars were still a bit fresh showing that they just came out of a huge battle of some sort.
He saw the pelt of a magic beast on the shoulders of one of them.
The man with the beast skin spoke, "This is the pelt of a Three Star Dan Formation beast and we had to battle a One Star Dan Formation stage beast for five consecutive days to obtain it, several of our brothers died in the process. Forty Mid-Grade spirit stones and anyone can take it!"
"Too greedy!"
"Blatant extortion!" Min Su and Min Qing both murmured in disdain at the asking price of these men. If one were to convert Mid-Grade spirit stones to gold, would they even be able to spend it in five lifetimes?
Min Hong was shocked as well. One Mid-Grade spirit stone was equivalent to one hundred thousand pockets of gold which in turn translates to one million pounds worth of gold.
If one were to multiply that by forty, that is about forty million pounds of gold coin. That was a vast amount of fortune. In fact, one can build a very large and prosperous family with such amount of money.
"No matter how man of your brothers died, one would at least have to invade four mid-level tribes and sell the entire population before one can fork out such huge amount of money."
"Fifteen Mid-grade spirit stones! I'll pay fifteen Mid-grade spirit stones at most. You're looking to sell and I'm willing to buy, don't make this any more difficult than it already is!" All of a sudden six armored guards marched through the crowd with an overbearing and slightly stifling aura.
Many people amongst the crowd gasped at the entry of this line up "Si...ss..six Star Dan Formation experts!" The moment someone stuttered out these words, the entire crowd gasped at the statement. They wondered which family, tribe or region could be this luxurious to set out such a line up.
They traced the voice that just made a bid for the beast pelt to its source and a well-dressed and highly ornamented handsome youth appeared in their view.
The moment the saw this youth, the entire crowd burst into a crazy uproar.
"Young master!"
"Young master!" Many people stepped backwards in reverence. "It is the eldest young master of the Wang Family!" Anyone capable of forking out that huge sum of money for a beast pelt and not the beast itself was definitely an extraordinary person.
Min Hong looked at the Wang Clan young master and he was truly worth the title. Asides from his almost feminine handsomeness and the entourage of half a dozen Six Star Dan Formation experts that came with him.
He was also in the Four-Star Dan Formation stage himself and didn't look any older that twenty!
He was exuding an air of superiority and there was a certain aura of arrogance around him. He seemed to look at everyone via the bridge of his nose. He didn't even give a second look to anyone around amongst the crowd.
"Young master, young mistress, we have to leave immediately!" Min Su who was naturally very calm and rarely look at people twice was quite flustered at the moment.
"What is it? What are you fussing about?" Min Hong frowned at the sight of Min Su's body language.
"I will explain when we get back to the castle. But for now, we have to leave this place as soon as possible." Min Su strongly urged Min Hong who was still standing there seemingly surprised by her flustered state.
"Alright, you had better give a very good explanation for this." Min Hong concurred. He was slightly displeased that his time with Min Qing was interrupted, especially when she was having a good time.
He rarely saw her this happy. The last time was when he was about to start cultivating. But seeing the dejected look on her pretty little face Min Hong reassured her, "Don't worry, we would go to the forest together to hunt the next time I'm going to train."
"Really?!" Min Qing's face beamed with joy as she squealed a little. She was actually going to go out hunting with Min Hong? Moreover, he was the one who suggested it. This really lifted her mood as she grabbed Min Hong's arm.
"I promise." Seeing this, Min Hong sighed self-mockingly. He had really done nothing social with Min Qing, for her to be this happy about a mere hunt. He then vowed to himself never to do that again.
Seeing that Min Hong had handled the matter in a matured manner, Min Su's view of Min Hong rose once again within her heart. She nodded to him as they both retreated silently from the crowd and headed home.
Little did they know that the young master of the Wang Family actually saw them. He was currently looking in their direction with a vicious and lecherous smile.
"Young master, is he the one the Family Head was talking about?" the nearest guard to Wang Zheng asked.
"Unh." he replied as the smile on his face turned to a frown seemingly because the guard interrupted his thought.
He then threw thirty Mid-Grade spirit stones at the man with the beast skin, and ordered his men to collect the pelt as they returned the way they came.