229 No Badmouthing Him (2/2)
Hearing this, the first man then calmed down. ”Now that you mention it, Da Zhuang was unfortunate. A hundred mid-level spirit stones are equivalent to ten superior spirit stones.”
The two men thought that Zhou Donghuang would not be able to hear them since they were some ways away, but Zhou Donghuang's hearing ability had been enhanced by the ”Way of the Four Supremes” each time his level of attainment had improved, so he could hear every word.
He shook his head and smiled to himself. These two were simply pawns in the game of chess he was playing.
”Let's continue.” Over the rest of the day, Zhou Donghuang successfully sold the remaining fake goods at his stall. He finally sold the ninth item at dusk. Then, he packed up and returned to the Autumn Valley.
”The Summer Valley is about to have some fun these next few days!” On his way back to the Autumn Valley, Zhou Donghuang smiled to himself as if he had accomplished something unremarkable today. To him, it was indeed not worth a mention. The nine fake items had taken him ten full days to create. But this was because he had spent much of that time on his practice and had only invested a little of his downtime in creating the items.
”The most important thing right now is to train the fourth Golden Essence. Only then can I break through the Dharma frontier. Otherwise, I can't even go anywhere near the Dharma stage's barrier.” For Zhou Donghuang, who was practicing the ”Way of the Four Supremes,” he could only reach the Dharma stage after attaining his fourth Golden Essence.
After returning to the Autumn Valley, Zhou Donghuang prepared to return to his room in the courtyard to train. When he arrived, he noticed that Da Zhuang was chatting with some people in the adjacent yard. These people were comforting Da Zhuang. Zhou Donghuang had a vague impression of these men, who were all disciples of the Autumn Valley.
”Little Brother is back.” Once Zhou Donghuang arrived in the air above his courtyard, Da Zhuang noticed him.
Zhou Donghuang nodded, then landed in his own courtyard. As for the other people, he paid no attention to them at all. Seeing this, the few men beside Da Zhuang were slightly offended.
”This Zhou Donghuang has no manners!”
”Doesn't he know how to greet his seniors?”
...
The few Autumn Valley disciples beside Da Zhuang were all energetic teenage boys. Since Zhou Donghuang's arrival in the Autumn Valley, they had noticed that, whenever the teenage girls from Autumn Valley gathered, they no longer talked about them. They were only concerned about the newcomer, Zhou Donghuang. This made them feel as if Zhou Donghuang had stolen their limelight, and they were secretly jealous of him.
”Seniors, please do not badmouth Little Brother.” Da Zhuang frowned. ”Little Brother is a very kind man, so you cannot badmouth him.”
”Da Zhuang, we are not badmouthing him!” Because Da Zhuang was very close to the princess of Autumn Valley, He Mengxi, all the male disciples were very polite to Da Zhuang. ”We only said that he was disrespectful. He did not even greet us when he saw us.”
”Exactly! He is nowhere as polite as you, Da Zhuang.”
”We are here discussing how to take revenge for you. What about him? Who knows what this newcomer has been doing all day out there. He comes back so late and rushes into his room as if he does not care that the Summer Valley disciples bullied Da Zhuang.”
...
Hearing these disciples speaking so brazenly about Zhou Donghuang, Da Zhuang was furious, and his face turned red. He growled in a low voice, ”Seniors, Little Brother is nothing like that! If you badmouth him one more time, I... I... I will have nothing more to do with you!” Da Zhuang was immensely angered by what they had said.
The Autumn Valley disciples did not expect Da Zhuang's reaction to be so extreme. They looked awkwardly at each other, then left quickly. As they turned to leave, their eyes were filled with disgust and arrogance. If not for their intention to use Da Zhuang as a steppingstone to get into the Autumn Valley princess' good books, none of them would have bothered talking to a big fool like Da Zhuang.