11 King of the Mountain (1/2)
Shen Mu, who was walking by Xue Wei's side, was used to the young man being quiet, and he did not mind it. He was, however, quite surprised that Xue Wei had accepted to come to town with him since he had avoided the city center due to the others bullying him.
Although Xue Wei did not speak, there was a bright light in his eyes, and Shen Mu knew that he was simply too excited about being able to cultivate. He was also aware that Xue Wei was hoping that the others would accept him now, but he was more realistic about their reactions.
If he had just reached the first layer of the Ordinary Warrior rank, then they would not have minded, but Xue Wei was now at the peak of the fourth layer! In a mere four months, he had started to rush down the path of a cultivator with a speed so shocking that none of the others could compete against it.
Those who had hated him for being a piece of trash were likely to hate him for having too much talent, and no matter how he looked at it, Xue Wei was going to get beaten up. He was only a fourth layer expert, so how could he possibly withstand the ninth layer geniuses of the town as things were now?
The sad thing was that many of them did not hate him because he was trash, being trash was just convenient for them to bully him and gave them a legitimate reason to beat him up. The truth was that all of them were jealous of him being Xiao Lei's nephew.
Sighing, Shen Mu shook his head with a small self-mocking grin on his face. Although he was the one who had suggested they went to town, he never expected that it would happen and now he could only curse himself. If Xue Wei were to enter a fight, then he would have to stick up for him, and in the end, it was likely that he too would be drawn into a beating.
Shen Mu would never let his friend fight alone, and he knew that although he was the strongest expert in town, he was not the only expert, and Li Jian had gathered a whole group of followers who would beat anyone and anything that stood in the way of bullying Xue Wei.
Truthfully, while Shen Mu did not dislike Xue Wei, and he was genuinely shocked by the performance this young man had shown with his sudden explosive talent, he did not consider Xue Wei one of his good friends either.
Xue Wei was simply too hard to get close to. He was never one to talk much; he kept everything he felt on the inside, and his eyes would always burn with defiance.
This was also another reason why they had beaten him time and time again. One thing was that he was a piece of trash, another thing was that he refused to bow and grovel on the ground in front of them. His eyes were always shining with an unyielding spirit, and Xue Wei was without a doubt the smartest youth in the entire city.
Although he was incapable of cultivating inner Qi, when it came to his mental age, it was many times more developed than any youth his age, and his knowledge even surpassed that of some elders.
This was yet another reason that the young members of the city all hated Xue Wei. He could not cultivate, but he could do just about anything else, and this agitated them. They wanted to prove that he was truly worth nothing compared to them.
But now Xue Wei had managed to get a cultivation base; he no longer wished to stay an ordinary youth with high intelligence.
Xue Wei had always dreamt of making his uncle proud of him and to do so he needed to be one of the strongest experts. He wished to slaughter Primordial Beasts like his uncle and gain recognition.
His eyes shone with excitement as he thought about it, and he sped up slightly as he moved towards one of the shops selling medicinal plants and pills.
Shen Mu, who was completely in the dark about what Xue Wei had been thinking about, just followed behind. He had already accepted that whatever would happen would happen and that he could not stop it no matter what.
When he saw Xue Wei speed up, he was certain that the reason he did so was because he did not want to be caught by the others, not because he was eager to find the herbs he needed.
Shen Mu agreed with Xue Wei on making their trip to the city markets as fast as possible, so he said nothing and just sped up as well.
Unfortunately, things did not go as he wished. Li Jian and his followers had not seen Xue Wei in four months, and although Xue Wei did not often leave the mansion, he would at least enter the markets around once a month.
Now it had been four months since last, and Li Jian was missing his favorite hobby of bullying Xue Wei. He had even started worrying that Xue Wei would never enter the marketplaces again and thus he had paid beggars and other commoners to keep an eye out for Xue Wei.
Whoever managed to bring news to Li Jian about Xue Wei entering the marketplaces could go and collect a silver coin from Li Jian, and a silver coin could feed a family of four for three weeks.
The offer was simply too tempting for anyone to care about the possibilities of revenge from Xiao Lei who was not even present in the city, and as soon as they saw Xue Wei, a few commoners vanished from the street as stealthily as shadows as they moved towards the Li residence.
The first commoner that made it to the Li residence found the Young Master Li at the family's training ground where he was practicing.
”Young Master! Young Master!” someone called out, and Young Master Li scowled as he was interrupted in his training of a martial art skill. He turned around to look at the person who appeared in front of him, his scowl turning to excitement. He knew that there would only be one reason for a commoner to arrive in front of him at this time.
”I will go to town instantly!” he exclaimed and waved his hand, causing a whole group of experts to stop their training and follow behind him.
Many of those experts were from minor noble families, whose families were beneath the Li family, and others were just opportunists who figured that following Young Master Li around would be beneficial to them in the future.