Phoenix Rise: XieRong

XieRong had pulled her hood up once again.

She asked around for jewellery stores that exchanged jewellery for money.

"The Fa and Bai family stores are well known in the capital," one woman said as she picked up a hairpin from the stand.

"I agree, but there are others in the alleys behind the two stores as well. I’m telling you this because you seem like a good child, but you mustn’t tell this to anyone. The ones in the back alleys are open at this time and they give you a fairer price than the Fa and Bai stores. The Bai store is fair, but they attend to the nobles more than they do the commoners. The Fa store never deals a fair price."

"Thank you, pretty aunties!" XieRong thanked, as she made her way to the back alleys, asking for directions along the way.

Once she was at the back alley, she was surprised to find it fairly crowded. However it wasn’t the usual crowd she had been seeing all along. There were sweaty, burly men all over the place, shouting and hooting as a slave merchant auctioned his wares. XieRong knew she’d require people loyal to her but first she had to do what she’d set out to do. This place was dangerous for her, a seven year old with no martial arts and no cultivation. Even poison would only give her so much leverage in an actual battle.

XieRong stored everything in her spatial ring and started to make her way through the crowd. Although she was small it wasn’t easy avoiding everyone.

She spot a little boy in the corner and made her way to him hoping to get directions to the shop she was looking for.

"Hello, I’m looking for the jewellery store around here."

"Wrong alley, big sister. The Bai and Fa stores are on the front alley."

"I’m not in the wrong alley. I was told to come here."

"Then I don’t know big sister, try somewhere else."

"Hm, just like how you won’t know about the requests for medicine you’ll pick up at the hour of the pig from the people?"

The boy startled. XieRong noticed the shift in his body language and smiled inwardly. This little boy didn’t know that certain smells were hard to wash off completely, especially that of Chou grass.

"Don’t worry, I’m harmless. I just came to do business. Can we go to the shop? We can talk there."

The boy settled down when he sensed no cultivation from her and judging by the way she’d made her way out of the crowd, she possessed no martial art skills either. After making sure she was harmless he turned to a narrow alley about whose corner he was standing.

"Big sister, follow me," he said, leading XieRong down the street.

"Big sister, you’ve never bought medicine from me, and no one knows my face. How did you..."

"You handled a stinky grass recently, didn’t you?" XieRong looked around the dark alleyway which was growing darker by the minute.

"The smell hasn’t completely left you yet. The grass is not easily available in these parts, a little beggar like you couldn’t have gotten it, unless you were the one I was going to meet during the hour of the pig," XieRong said as she ruffled his hair.

"Go wash your hands and clothes with lemon water. The smell will go away."

"Hmph," the boy said as he pushed her hand away,"you don’t look that much older than me, don’t treat me like a kid."

"I have a sister around your age. I treated you the way I treat her, sorry," Xierong said, smiling sheepishly.

The boy soon stopped in front of a door. The building was so small that it could be compared to the Old Lady’s hut in the forest.

"Are you sure this is the right place?"

XieRong clutched onto her cloak tighter. The place looked extremely shady.

"Sister, my job was getting you here. Whether you trust me or not is up to you."

XieRong caught his collar as he was about to leave.

"Where do you think you’re going? You’re coming in with me. I have business with you too," she said as she knocked on the door.

"Who is it?"

"I have business with you."

"What’s the password?"

XieRong glared at the little boy who looked everywhere but at her. He’d had no intention of helping her in the first place.

"Listen, you better tell the correct password or else I will poison you. You must know by now that I’m no cultivator, but I can assure you that I have enough medical knowledge to poison you to your death," XieRong threatened the boy she held tightly by the collar. Her eyes had grown cold.

The boy shivered. He knew she would follow up on her threat if he didn’t comply.

"Bai Guan," the boy said to the door.

The door opened.

The man who opened the door was shocked to see the little master held by the collar and about to cry. The girl holding the young master wasn’t much older than him too.

The man sighed and wondered what trouble his master had brought this time.

"Come in, miss. What can I do for you?" The man asked as he led the little girl to the counter.

"I want to sell this," XieRong said bringing out her mother’s only pieces of gold jewellery and few of the silver ones.

"I want 80 gold taels for the gold pieces, 150 silver taels for the silver ones, nothing less."

XieRong had knowingly offered a price more than what the pieces were worth. Her mother had told her the cost of every piece of jewellery before she packed one. XieRong hadn’t understood then why her mother did this, but had remembered the prices anyway.

The little boy who was being held by the collar scoffed at the way the girl acted so high and mighty when she wasn’t a cultivator.

XieRong ignored the boy.

"Little miss, the pieces you’ve brought are in good condition and they are expensive, just not as much as you’re bargaining for them. At most, I can give you 75 gold taels for the gold pieces and 100 for the silver ones."

"75 for the gold ones," XieRong pretended to think about it. She’d gotten the price she’d wanted for the gold pieces.

"Okay mister, 75 for the gold ones but I want 150 for the silver ones."

"Miss, I can’t."

"150!"

"100 silver taels, no more."

"125 then, mister. No less."

The shopkeeper sighed. The young miss in front of him looked determined to loot him out of his money. Nothing ever went well when his young master brought someone.

"Fine, 125 silver taels."

"You must be losing your touch,Chanming, if you’re letting a girl not much older than my brother haggle you out of your money," a well dressed man, around 17 years of age said, as he appeared from a small room in the corner.

XieRong got up and bowed low at the waist.

"This lady greets young lord."

"Miss, I’m curious, tell me how old are you?"

XieRong didn’t want to anger the man in front of her. This man’s cultivation was far beyond Prime minister Fa’s who was in the early Earth cultivation realm.

"Answering the young lord, I’m seven years old."

"Hm, two years older than my brother whom you’re holding by the collar."

XieRong let go of the boy’s collar immediately.

"I’m sorry, Wang ye, I didn’t know he was wang ye’s brother," XieRong said, losing her composure. She didn’t want to die before she’d helped her sister, before she’d gotten revenge.

"What did you call me?" The man said as he approached the little girl. He was sure he’d never met her before. He would definitely remember meeting such an interesting girl.

XieRong panicked. She’d let her thought slip. She didn’t speak.

"Why do you call me prince? If you’re honest, I’ll let you go, otherwise I’ll consider you a spy and kill you right now."

The air in the room grew cold and tense.

XieRong breathed in deeply. She had to live.

"Answering the prince, I am looking for medicine for my grandmother. I heard of a boy who begs wearing a purple jacket in the alley behind the Fa herbal store. Purple is only worn by royalty, so I assumed the boy worked under one. When I came here looking for a shop to sell jewellery, I approached this boy," she looked towards the boy she’d been holding by the collar just until a moment ago,"to ask for directions to this shop when I smelled Chou grass on him. It is not normally found in these parts and he, a commoner child, wouldn’t smell like one unless he was the beggar delivering medicine. He gave himself away when he became alarmed as I mentioned it to him. He led me here and looked relieved when he saw the shopkeeper-"

"-so you thought that both of them knew each other and worked under one person, me, the crown prince,"the man finished for XieRong.

"I just came to do business and will be leaving the capital tomorrow by the hour of the rabbit. Please, don’t kill me," XieRong pleaded sincerely as she knelt on the ground, her eyes firmly shut.

She didn’t like this feeling of being at the mercy of others. She promised herself that as soon as she knew what kind of spirit root she had, she would start to cultivate. That she would aspire to be nothing but the strongest.