When they reached the inn it was nearing noon. By the time they settled down in their rooms, it was lunch time. Instead of eating in the inn, they decided to head out and try the street food. After all, part of exploring is to try the delicacies of that place. Where else better to try the local delicacies than the street stalls? 

Stepping out onto the streets, Zi Yue looked at their surroundings. Compared to their hometown, it was bustling with so much more excitement and activity.  The main city was indeed different. She was glad she got the chance to see all these. Expectantly, she headed down the streets. 

“Food, food, food, food, food~” Zi Yue sang as she walked down the street, taking in the different delicacies in front of her. 

Captured by all sorts of stalls before her, it was a tough choice deciding where to start first. She was about to close her eyes and point at a store randomly when suddenly, a mouthwatering smell wafted towards them. Like a pack of wolves smelling prey, their heads snapped towards the direction in unison. Looking at one another, they headed towards the source of the smell without hesitation.

Roasted chestnuts!

Zi Yue's eyes lit up at the sight of the stall owner roasting a huge wok of chestnuts, the smell getting stronger and fragrant as he stirred the chestnuts to roast them evenly. Roasted chestnuts was something Zi Yue had heard about but seldom got to try because there was no one selling them in their town. There was this one time when her father came back from out of town and brought a bag of roasted chestnuts with him. She would never forget the taste of those chestnuts. 

She was definitely buying a big bag of these roasted chestnuts. 

“Hello young miss! Roasted chestnuts for sale, 1 copper per bag of chestnuts. Freshly roasted, try some!” With a huge smile, the stall owner offered the trio some roasted chestnuts to taste-try, sensing potential sales from them.

Peeling open the chestnuts, they enthusiastically popped one into their mouths. Chestnuts have to be peeled when they are still warm, but the thought of burning themselves never once crossed their minds. They were far too excited to try the chestnuts.

“The skin is quite easy to remove, and mmm, it is just nice, not too hard! Neither under nor over cooked, perfect. Yue Yue let’s buy some back!” Lan Ying chewed on the chestnuts, contentment shining on her face. 

“Mister, give us five bags of roasted chestnuts!” Zi Yue agreed with Lan Ying and bought five bags with no second thoughts.

“Sure young miss, that would be 5 coppers!” Hearing that she wanted five bags, his smile grew even wider and he enthusiastically started packing the chestnuts for her.

“Yay~ Five bags of chestnuts~ Wait.. Wait! Five bags?! That’s too much, Yue Yue! Two bags are more than enough for the three of us. What happened to the thrifty Zi Yue. Hey moon fool, say something!"

“You cannot save on food, Ying. Anyway we can bring it back to the inn and eat it later as supper. I was thinking of giving a packet to the lady boss of the inn as well. She looks like a pretty nice lady.”

“I agree with Young Mistress."

“Excuses… You just want to eat more… Fine fine, whatever you two say.” Sighing in defeat, Lan Ying gave up trying to talk sense into Zi Yue and Ye Yu. She should have known not to expect Ye Yu to be on her side. In his eyes, anything Zi Yue did would always be right. 

A packet of chestnuts in hand each, they slowly ambled down the street, tasting anything that caught their eyes (or rather, their noses). It was when they were on their tenth stall when they heard a huge commotion. Curious, they headed over to see what was the cause of the disturbance. 

“What did you just do! My husband.. my husband was killed by you!” Shouting was heard, followed by sobs. By the way she was weeping, it was clear that the person crying was wracked by grief. A woman cradling a man in the middle of a pool of blood pointed at the group of men standing before her, accusing them of murder. Face stained by tears, she glared at them, rage and grief distorting her delicate features. 

“Blame it on your husband. He owes us money and has been hiding from us, refusing to pay up. It’s either pay or die. Since he is dead now, the debt now falls on you. Either you pay up or sell yourself to pay off your husband’s debt! With your features and that body, you would do quite well in the brothel."

Lecherous looks came over the men faces as they walked towards her, hands outstretched as if to grab her. Fear on her face, she looked to the bystanders for help but everyone averted their gaze, some were even quietly slinking away. As much as they wanted to help her, this group of thugs were infamous for their notoriety and disregard for human life. Furthermore, they had cultivators who were at the Mid-Stage Transcending Level. Being mere mortals, the common people were of no match to the cultivators. It was better to stay out of trouble. 

It was a cowardly thinking, but it would be suicide if mere mortals went up against cultivators. Survival was more important than nobility.

She knew this too, but she had held hope that someone would help her. Seeing everyone avoiding her silent plea for help, she started despairing. It was probably the end for her. She had just lost her husband and now she was about to be sold to a brothel. 

Head hung down in despair, she felt someone grab her arms to lift her up. Struggling, she looked up to see the face of her captor when she realised she did not recognise the man holding her. He was not part of the group of thugs who killed her husband. Beside him was a beautiful young lady whose face was filled with anger.

“Are you alright? Those scumbags! How could they murder an innocent person just because of a debt! And who gave them the right to sell another innocent person.” 

Full of anger, Lan Ying supported the woman up and looked over at where the thugs were. A person was standing before the thugs, stopping them from advancing. That person was radiating killing intent. She was going to leave those scumbags to Zi Yue. 

Zi Yue was furious. She wanted to kill them all for what they just did but doing so would be stooping to their level and she would never do that. She was mad at the cultivators in that group of thugs who were using their powers for the wrong things. This was not what they, as cultivators, were taught. Zi Yue was never a believer of using her powers to kill and it angers her to see mindless killing. Overhearing the conversation between the woman and the thugs and seeing the woman's husband dead made Zi Yue boil with anger. 

"Who are you? Get out of our way! Looking at you though, you can make quite a fine substitute for that woman over there." One of the thugs leered at her and made an action as if to grab her as well.

Disgusted, Zi Yue grabbed his outstretched hand and twisted it easily, throwing him onto the ground away from her. 

"You!" Writhing in pain, the thug roared at Zi Yue. The audacity! Nobody has dared to cross him before and this, this… female threw him so easily as if he was paper in front of everyone here, making him lose face. Quickly, he jumped back to his feet and stood tall so he could tower over and intimidate her, face red from both anger and embarrassment.

“To dare to hit me, Mo Hao Ze, who is at the 5th Mid-Stage Transcending level, you’re courting death!” Roaring, he threw a punch at her. Because his dominant hand were previously twisted by Zi Yue and was now injured, he used Iron Qi to strengthen his weaker hand to power it up. 

Iron Qi is the art of strengthening any parts of the body to withstand strong blows and attacks and was often used by cultivators to both attack and defend. It was similar to turning your body into armour, making the body stronger by at least fifty times. The higher your mastery of Iron Qi, the stronger your body would become when strengthens using Iron Qi. The highest record thus far was held by the Sect Master of the Silver Dragon Sect at a level of five hundred and fifty two.  

For Mo Hao Ze, the leader of the thugs, the person whom Zi Yue just embarrassed, his mastery was at only level fifty three, but that was already strong enough to kill a mortal. Using Iron Qi to strengthen his hand was too much as a mortal who would not be able to defend against it. However, he did not care, and would never care about the lives of others. To him, everyone else’s life but his own was insignificant. He did not stop to think that Zi Yue may not be a normal person by the way she was able to injure him so easily. 

“Iron Qi huh? Looks like you’re all out to kill. I’ll let you have a taste of your own medicine!” Sensing the presence of Iron Qi, her eyes flashed and she retaliated, meeting his attack head on. Like Mo Hao Ze, she strengthened her hand with Iron Qi and sent out a punch against his. Since he had assumed she was a mortal and yet had attacked with Iron Qi, it was clear that his intention was to kill her. She was not going to forgive this trash and was going to teach him a lesson there and then. She would not kill him, but she would make him feel pain.

A sound rang across the street as punch met punch, both strengthened by Iron Qi. It was only a matter of whose level of mastery was higher. The street was silent as everyone held their breaths, waiting for the outcome of the fight. They had not pinned much hope on the young lady, but they secretly hoped that she would be able to teach that Mo Hao Ze a lesson. He had been terrorising them all and it was getting worse by the day. 

The silence was broken by a howl of pain. 

“My hand! My hand! You crippled it!” Cradling his left hand with his right, tears flowed down his face as pain shot through his hand. He had not expected her to be a cultivator as well! And a strong one too. Her Iron Qi had to be in the hundred range at least. He knew that this time, he had messed with the wrong person. His left hand was now crippled, which means he will never be able to use it again, and his right hand was injured. In addition to that, everyone had watched him lose and his face was all gone now. How was he going to command fear and respect him from now onwards. If only he knew she was a cultivator... If only….

“Be grateful that I did not break both your hands and that I spared your small pathetic life. Do not ever belittle human life like that again. And if I ever hear even a single whisper of you, or any one of you bullying the common people again, expect a visit from me soon. Live properly. All of you.” Her gaze sweeping across Mo Hao Ze and his group of thugs, she gave one last warning and turned around to walk away, leaving the thugs in her wake. 

—— 

“How strong did you strengthen your hand just now? It looked like his level was around the fifty range. For him to still be alive and his hand still intact, you did not go all out right?” Later on, while walking back to the inn, Lan Ying curiously asked Zi Yue. She knew that Zi Yue’s mastery of Iron Qi was very high, but Zi Yue had never disclosed the level she had reached to anyone of them before. She guessed that given the speed of Zi Yue’s cultivation, her level of mastery had probably hit the hundreds range. 

“One hundred. I didn’t want to kill him.” Zi Yue replied simply, revealing that her mastery was way higher than that.

“One.. One hundred?! That was twice the strength of his! I’m surprised his hand is still intact and that it was not completely shattered from the impact. One hundred…” Taken aback by Zi Yue’s answer, all Lan Ying could do was shake her head in amazement. One hundred was not even Zi Yue's max for she had definitely adjusted it down in this fight. Lan Ying could only wonder what Zi Yue’s Iron Qi mastery level was.