The Alliance was infamous for their condescending behavior toward non-cultivators. They were often rude and dismissive.
Not all of them behaved that way, but most ignored human problems—and sometimes even added to them, making life harder for ordinary people.
The people of the capital were shocked and saddened when they heard the news that ICEB had been suspended and placed under the Alliance. Even the HQ had changed hands. Enforcers had been kind and helpful to them.
So, when the seller heard Ling Yu's question, he was beyond relieved.
"This Young Master owes three silver taels, Lady Xianren."
Ling Yu nodded. She almost always faced similar problems, if not the exact same, during her city patrols. It irked her to the bone. These problems shouldn't exist. Cultivators were supposed to help non-cultivators, period. Not burden them further.
When she first encountered a problem like this, she saw how blatantly the Alliance sided with cultivators and dismissed the concerns of non-cultivators. She had struggled to hold her anger in check. Both Li Ran and Ling Yu had to hold each other back.
Ling Yu turned to Xu Ming. In her eyes, this was yet another arrogant cultivator who refused to "lower" himself to perform such an insignificant courtesy as paying for his food.
She was a bit taken aback when she saw Xu Ming. What she saw was not a typical cultivator, but a young man who couldn't be more than twenty-two, with a beautiful, clean appearance. He wasn't as tall as Xuan Tian, but he wasn't short either.
Iron Wall is just abnormally tall, Ling Yu couldn't help comparing Xu Ming with Xuan Tian.
Her gaze moved to his mouth. Crumbs? Down to his chest. More crumbs? Then to his abdomen and both hands. Crumbs???
Xu Ming waited as Ling Yu scanned him. He was sure that right after this, the young lady would recognize him, bow, and salute, while trembling. He couldn't help but smile.
Ling Yu was confused. She couldn't sense any cultivator aura from this young man, but she wasn't certain he wasn't one. Something about him made her think he was a cultivator. She remembered her Shizun's and Xuan Tian's words: the bigger the cultivation gap, the harder it was to determine the other person's level.
Ling Yu was in disbelief. No way! There's no way this… this… young man-child has a higher cultivation than mine!
Xu Ming, being the most powerful Saint in the Wusheng Empire, obviously noticed Ling Yu's disbelief even though she tried hard to hide it. With one hand behind his back, he subconsciously lifted his chin and straightened his posture.
Anytime now. Those sparkling eyes will widen in horror, and she will bow and salute me.
Ling Yu's attention snapped back to reality. What was in front of her was real. It didn't matter how much she didn't believe her eyes or her judgment. This young man-chi… no. This young man was a cultivator. And he owed money to a non-cultivator.
So Ling Yu did the one thing that was completely outside Xu Ming's expectations: she placed her left hand on her hip, extended her right arm toward Xu Ming, and said, "Xianren, you need to pay." Then she waited.
For the first in his life, Xu Ming was dumbfounded. His eyes widened in shock, both his arms laxed on his side, and his jaws literally dropped.
Ling Yu frowned her eyebrows. Is he okay? He looks shocked. Genuinely shocked. I don't think he's deliberately not paying. Is he slow? What's going on?
Ling Yu, sensing Xu Ming's shock, changed her approach. She stepped in closer to Xu Ming and spoke with lower volume and gentler tone, "Xianren, when we eat at someone else's place, we need to pay. We can't just leave. Non-cultivators need to earn money so that they can survive."
Xu Ming didn't answer, he just stared at Ling Yu. Without blinking.
This scene is familiar, Ling Yu thought.
She sighed, then nudged Xu Ming lightly. "Do you have money?" Her tone and voice were still the same, gentle and low.
Xu Ming automatically shook his head, without saying anything, and without blinking.
Ling Yu sighed again. "Okay. It's okay. I got this." She patted Xu Ming's upper left arm and turned to the poor youtiao seller, who was still waiting anxiously behind her.
"Here, Sir. Four taels."
"No, Lady Xianren! It's three taels."
Ling Yu replied, "I know, Sir. The extra tael is for your trouble. Keep it." She added with a stern voice, hoping to 'intimidate' the seller into taking the money.
It worked. The seller was stammering, "T… thank… thank you, Lady Xianren!" He accepted the silvers, bowing non-stop.
Ling Yu turned back to Xu Ming, who was still staring at her with blank confusion plastered plainly on his face.
Ling Yu gripped Xu Ming's clothes on his elbow and was about to drag him away from the stall when a group of seven to eight Lingxu cultivators walked by. They were all wearing light green robes, indicating they were outer disciples of Lingxu.
Ling Yu stopped in her tracks. She recognized three of them. Zhou Wenkai, Han Zhiyuan, and Yu Meixian. Them again. She clenched her jaws.
In the last decades, Lingxu accepted anyone with talent. Then threw them into the viper pit of outer disciple life. Only a handful would ever been chosen as inner disciples of Lingxu Peaks.
This caused the number of outer disciples being quite large.
These outer disciples were treated like slaves within Lingxu by the inner disciples, teachers, and Head Peaks.
Among the outer disciples themselves, the competition was vicious. They would scheme, frame, murder… basically anything to fight for dominance, to be noticed by the higher-ups, so they would be chosen as inner disciples.
They would form cliques to fight among each other, and it was common for outer disciples to kill each other without fearing punishment from Lingxu.
Xu Ming had never had to deal with these outer disciples. His position was too high, he didn't really care about them, and the rest of Lingxu would do anything not to disturb Xu Ming with the insignificant problems of the outer disciples. So, it was logical that most of these outer disciples did not recognize Xu Ming.
"Oh? Isn't that Ling Yu Shimei?" Han Zhiyuan exclaimed.
Yu Meixian looked in the direction Han Zhiyuan pointed. Her nose immediately crunched up, as if she was smelling something awful.