A Jiu glanced around at the assembled people with concern.
She knew her mother loved money, but being surrounded by so many people, packed three layers deep, gave her a constant feeling of being on the verge of being robbed.
Huh? The old man wasn't speaking. Following his intense gaze, she saw it was Grandma A.
They looked at each other, no, they glared, as if a crackling bolt of lightning connected their eyes.
Cai Lihua also noticed. Mother and daughter, like they were watching an invisible rope, looked from Wang Shi to the old man.
"What's going on?"
Meng Shaode shook his head. "I don't know."
Then, the old man's face began to turn red at a visible rate, and he stumbled back two steps.
"You old thing..." The old man gritted his teeth, pointing at Wang Shi, his finger trembling.
Wang Shi put her hands behind her back and chuckled. She pointed at the sheep. "This is good stuff, mine. If you want it, take those two. Granddaughter, name your price."
Everyone was stunned.
A Jiu looked at the frail lamb in her arms and thought it would be difficult to raise.
"Five taels of silver."
But this time, the old man didn't even glance at the lamb in A Jiu's arms. He looked at the two strong, spirited ram lambs, narrowed his eyes, and looked at Wang Shi.
"Wanna spar?"
"Sure, I'm happy to oblige." Wang Shi turned and walked towards the woods by the roadside, humming a folk tune.
"Grandma, what are you doing?" A Jiu took a couple of steps, saw Wang Shi didn't look back, and just waved at her.
Meng Shaode clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. "Dirt is almost up to our waists, what's there to spar about?"
They watched as the two old folks entered the woods.
"Let's go, let's go."
A young man shouted impatiently, and the crowd slowly dispersed.
A Jiu squatted down to rest with the lamb in her arms. Half an hour later, Wang Shi emerged from the woods first.
"Trying to spar with me with that little bit of cultivation, you overestimate yourself."
Meng Shaode's old face was dark with worry. Seeing his mother return, he sighed. "Mother, they're already far away. Please don't cause trouble next time. Whether the sheep are sold or not, we can still have a good meal. It's not that important."
"That's right, Mother. We're fleeing famine now, and you're delaying our journey," Cai Lihua said, leading the sheep ahead.
A Jiu deliberately slowed her pace. Only when her grandmother caught up did she ask the question in her heart.
"Grandma, don't you usually stay out of worldly affairs?"
"Granddaughter, you don't know. That old fellow is a cultivator. He read two books on fate and thinks he's capable. Heh." Wang Shi chuckled and continued,
"Do you think that old thing was just interested in the mutton? Wrong, he was interested in the spiritual energy within these sheep."
"Ah?" A Jiu exclaimed in surprise. "Grandma, are you saying that old man can also see that these are spiritual sheep?"
Wang Shi huffed. "Naturally? If I didn't put him in his place, he would have tried to snatch them before we could even talk properly."
However, Wang Shi wasn't intentionally causing trouble. If it were any other time, even if the other party proposed to spar, she wouldn't have been in the mood.
It was just unexpected that in this godforsaken world, not only were there wars but also famines, and there were even cultivators.
But it was a pity that after struggling half his life, he was only at the Great Stability realm, a completely unranked tier.
A Jiu instinctively looked back, not seeing the old man emerge from the woods.
"Grandma, you didn't kill him, did you?"
"No, no." Wang Shi waved her hands repeatedly. Seeing her granddaughter looking back, she guessed the reason.
"He's crying back there, begging me to take him as a disciple. I refused. I don't want to take someone so old. If he hasn't advanced in ten years, he's useless. It would be a waste of effort."
This happened too. A Jiu felt a lingering fear. She didn't understand what kind of cultivation her grandmother, these so-called cultivators, practiced, or how powerful they were. But her grandmother's physical changes were visible as they traveled.
"Master, Master... take me as your disciple. In the future, you will ascend to the heavens, and I will see you off."
A sudden mournful cry came from behind.
A Jiu's head whipped around to look.
Wang Shi also stopped. "Don't cry out like that. Consider this: you might be the one seeing me off."