The power of money and connections (Part 2)

The middle-aged man's hands trembled on the premium meat as he wasn't sure what to do here. Should he give it to Bai Feng and Mo Pian, who came first? Or the firstborn daughter of the second most important loanshark in the whole sect?

The middle-aged man had some integrity in him, as he didn't immediately throw the crocodile elf rib-eye steak to Chen Lingxi the moment she appeared, but fear was a thing that could control the minds of humans to a high degree. So in the end, the man gave up and threw the red GoGo coins back to Bai Feng before saying:

"I'm sorry young masters. But young lady Lingxi has priority in this situation..."

Chen Lingxi covered her mouth with her hand as she laughed while looking directly into Bai Feng's eyes:

"Come on, don't be mad. This is only for the good of my little sister, who needs to cultivate. I'm not targeting you or anything- I got over what happened back at the restaurant."

It was obvious that Lingxi was lying. Bai Feng could feel it deep within himself. But her fake smile and the interest that overflowed from her eyes were the same. She wanted to get on his good side and recruit him, so Bai Feng didn't understand why she acted like this towards him. Wasn't she supposed to try and do some good things for him instead?

He really wanted the crocodile elf rib-eye steak, but considering the middle-aged man wanted to sell it to Chen Lingxi, he couldn't do anything about it. After all, Bai Feng couldn't force the man to sell to him. The seller had the right to chose who he can sell his goods to.

Bai Feng knew that it was mostly happening because his position in the sect wasn't that good, but what could he do about that at this moment besides eating it up?

Bai Feng patted Mo Pian's shoulder and decided to come another day. He could save more money and maybe buy a higher amount of rib-eye steak when it would be available.

Mo Pian's eyes were shadowed by his hair, his body was shaking before Bai Feng touched his shoulder, but he stopped and sighed as he glanced back towards Chen Lingxi, she still wore the same gaudy clothes as before along with jewelry, her red hair billowed slowly even though there was no wind in the area.

But Mo Pian couldn't see her beauty. The mask of flesh that humans had was something that the bamboo-like man had seen through a long while ago. All he could see was the hidden malice hidden under her beautiful facade, she did want Bai Feng, but she didn't want to get him easily as it seemed like this was a type of game for her.

Bai Feng started to walk away, ignoring her attempt to anger him by taking the item he wanted to buy.

Mo Pian was angered, but seeing Bai Feng's leisure made him calm down and decide to follow him back. He only knew of these stands around the entrance that sold fresh rib-eye. Some other places also sold it, but it wasn't fresh, or it was even sold as jerky, which meant there wouldn't be much Qi for Bai Feng to use anymore.

Of course, it would certainly taste better. But that meant it would also be more expensive and useless for the current Bai Feng who needed high amounts of Qi.

Usually, Qi cultivators could use the Qi in their environment to facilitate their cultivation, but Mo Pian knew that Bai Feng couldn't actually sense Qi. The basic Qi training technique only created that chain reaction in his body- due to the immense amount of Qi inhabiting it.

It was as Elder Chitong said. No matter how hard he would have tried using the basic Qi training technique. He would have failed if those previous conditions weren't fulfilled.

Mo Pian sighed. God knew when one more rib-eye crocodile elf steak would appear on their market since it was rather rare.

Chen Lingxi frowned as she watched Bai Feng and Mo Pian leave together. She wanted to provoke Bai Feng, so she could see what was so special about him in a better way, the fight between him and Bido was too quick for her to analyze what was going on properly. So she wanted to instigate him into another fight.

She wasn't sure how Bai Feng lost so much weight so quickly. But this made her even more interested in him.

Was his secret in his fat?

Chen Lingxi moved her eyes to Bido, who was now healed and at full power along with one more of her goons. She didn't even need to mouth off before the goons darted towards Bai Feng and Mo Pian, who had their backs to them.

Mo Pian's senses went haywire as he turned his head back and grabbed Bai Feng by the shoulder before pushing him down while he slid down himself. Two strikes that created wind disturbations were evaded this way.

Bai Feng frowned as he realized he was being attacked. Mo Pian got up and entered an amateur fighting stance. He was a former gambler and now a chef. He didn't have much fighting experience- if any at all.

Bai Feng didn't even know about a fighting stance. His only fighting experience was when he headbutted that annoying sheriff who decided to mouth off about his dead mother.

Bai Feng just stood there as he glanced at Mo Pian and decided to mimic his stance, one foot in the front, one back, his left hand kept near his chest while his right hand was a little bit more forward.

The two goons, Bido and Manjo looked at each other before laughing and attacking. They knew from their opponent's stances that they were newbies at fighting, or even worse.

Bido knew that Bai Feng was special. That one headbutt injured him quite a bit and he had to take some special medicine that Lingxi gave him to heal the injury, so even though he knew that Bai Feng and Mo Pian didn't have any fighting experience, he didn't let his guard down.

Manjo was there when Bido was injured, so he kept his guard up too.

The duo attacked in tandem, changing their positions to try and confuse Bai Feng and Mo Pian with their quick movements. It seemed that they had quite the experience fighting together.

Bai Feng and Mo Pian nodded at each other before going straight in to attack.

However, they quickly realized that it was a bad idea to go in without even one plan.

Mo Pian was hit squarely in the jaw before he could bring his guard up, and he was thrown around like a ragdoll before he dropped to the ground unconscious.

He couldn't even use any of his low-level Qi techniques before he was knocked out cold.

But this is when things started to get a strange turn. As Bai Feng was left alone, he had to take the attacks of both Bido and Manjo, but no matter how hard they tried to attack him, and no matter where their attacks landed, Bai Feng was quite unfazed by their attacks.

No matter how hard they tried, Bai Feng was unflinching under their constant assault of palms, punches, or kicks. His body was very hard- and Bido even injured his own fist when he attacked Bai Feng's head directly.

Chen Lingxi was getting sick of watching them fight a body cultivator without using Qi, while they were Qi cultivators. Of course, they would do no damage to him. A body cultivator's body was basically as hard and strong as an iron weapon!

"You two dumbasses, strike him while you coat your attacks with Qi, attack him with long-range Qi attacks, don't just fight it out with him as if you are two useless mortal thugs!"

Bido and Manjo were extremely embarrassed by what was happening, and this lead to creating an opening even a newbie like Bai Feng could exploit.

Before they could gather their wits and concentrate the Qi in their bodies, Bai Feng struck!

He appeared quickly near Bido's body before he launched a punch into his stomach, making him kneel over and vomit his launch on the ground before falling face down in his own vomit, unconscious.

Manjo got scared immediately after seeing this situation. The Qi that he was trying to concentrate into his body scattered right back where it came from before he almost slipped on his partner's vomit on the ground.

He tried to take a few steps backward. He didn't know anyone this strong in the outer disciples that Chen Lingxi had under her payroll, so his flight and fight instinct kicked in.

But that was also the moment Chen Lingxi's sweat voice trailed into his ear:

"You won't run away, will you? My father hates cowards, especially those that work on his money!"

At this point, Manjo realized that he was between a rock and a hard place. Should he fight Bai Feng, who was extremely strong to the point that he took down Bido in one punch, who was also his equal in strength?

He would go down just as easily, but his mind cleared up after Chen Lingxi's words. At best, he would lose his launch and become unconscious. But he didn't want to think what would happen to him if he disobeyed Chen Lingxi's orders.

He took a few steps forward as a blue and blurry Qi started to encase his hands and feet, then with a surprising speed, he launched himself at Bai Feng and struck him in the jaw, making his body fly up for a few meters from the ground.

Blood dripped from Bai Feng's mouth down his jaw as he fell back to the ground. His reaction speed wasn't great, so he got struck immediately.

But fighting was giving him experience. He didn't fall for the same trick twice as he took one step backward to avoid the next uppercut that would have sent him even farther into the air. However, before Manjo activated his Qi, it could be said that he would have been easy pickings. Even with Bai Feng's lack of fighting technique, experience, or finesse. His body alone would have been enough to finish the job.

But now, things wouldn't be the same.

First, Bai Feng actually got hurt by that landed attack even though his body was quite hard and strong, practically at the level of a 5th stage Qi apprentice. He wasn't sure what level the guy in front of him was at. But he gave a similar pressure to Bido who was the 4th level.

Bai Feng, who was ahead of him with one level, was currently losing because of his lack of experience.

Bai Feng tried to bob and weave out of his enemy's attacks. But from time to time, they would still find their mark, adding some injuries to his body.

Bai Feng's body was quite sturdy, so he could take all of these injuries easily. But he was also exhausted from staying awake for a longer amount of time than he intended. So he didn't know how much he would resist before he would lose consciousness. Also, he didn't know what would happen if he lost consciousness with Chen Lingxi around, so he would rather not.

But his lack of experience made him quite the easy target for the Qi enhanced Manjo. However, a little bit more time passed, and Manjo started to breathe roughly. The blue blurry Qi aura that was encasing his fists and legs started to slowly flicker out of existence. Sweat dripped from his forehead down to the ground while his body started to shake.

He ran out of Qi! As a Qi apprentice, the Qi that ran through his body wasn't that much. He didn't even get to use one of those fancy techniques like creating fire before he ran out of Qi due to the consumption that his aura had on him.

Bai Feng was still conscious, and he lost a bit of blood. But the injuries around his body weren't anything life-threatening, and he could sleep them off with his current body.

With a mighty heave, he punched Manjo in the face, which threw him around like a ragdoll into Chen Lingxi's group of goons, pushing them a little bit back after they caught him.

Chen Lingxi's eyes were flickering with an intense red light the whole fight, and her eyes were currently narrowed as she looked at the exhausted Bai Feng, who was ready to pick up Mo Pian and leave.

She waved her hand towards Bai Feng, which made his figure freeze. His outstretched hand, which was ready to pick up Mo Pian was frozen in place just near Mo Pian's shoulder. It almost looked like both of them were frozen in space. The only thing that showed they were alive and not intricate sculptures was that they were still breathing.