The customers who had been watching the entire show all this time were shocked by this development. They were sure that it would be Jing Luo being beaten up rather than the owner. In fact, they had not expected the owner to be hurt at all.

But seeing that a member of the merchant council himself had done this, they could not question it. All they could do now was to wait and see what else happened. 

"The owner is out of his luck," One of the customers said.

"I didn't think that this man would be so influential that even council members Shang would give him face." Another customer said.

"You don't understand. What if the man was not lying at all?" A customer who was old said.

"What do you mean?" the previous customers questioned.

"Don't you all know that the spirit stones aren't actually the same size? It is the sects and the mine owners that cut it into that size to make it standardized. An uncut stone that is as big as this is quite rare." The old man spoke.

"Why would it be rare, grandpa?" a young teenage girl questioned.

"Simply because they are usually not let out into the market and the ones who can have them are usually the mine owners themselves. This means that either this man is an owner of a spirit stone mine himself, or that he belongs to some powerful sect." The old man spoke in a wizened tone.

"Whoa! Can he really be from a sect?" The people were now really surprised.

"I can't sense his cultivation base! He's definitely stronger than me." A young man who haha a sword on his back said.

The other customers of the shop also heard the conversation that happened on these few tables and had a face of realization. To them, the restaurant owner had simply kicked a steel plate today.

The owner, who had been knocked into the wall, managed to sit up while coughing blood. Pain filled his body as he realized he had probably broken several bones and had internal injuries. His mouth also seemed to be far lighter than before to him.

"My teeth… they are gone…" the owner said in a sorrowful tone.

When he spoke, one could see the missing teeth in the front and the fragmented teeth in the back. The fragments that had been broken could be seen lying around the place where he had coughed.

The white teeth stained with blood and lying in the splattered pools looked rather gross.

"Why Council member Jingming Shang?" The owner questioned.

"You just offended a person I know and you are in the wrong as well. This is truly a spirit stone… an uncut one." Jingming Shang stated.

"I-I… I… ahhhh! ~thud~" The owner tried to justify himself but simply fainted after a few tries.

Perhaps it was the pain of his body that made him faint or it could even be the loss of face that knocked him out, but the owner no longer replied.

"Come on, let's go." Lin Mu spoke while shaking his head.

"Humph!" Jing Luo harrumphed while looking at the unconscious owner, and turned around to follow Lin Mu.

Jingming Shang gave no more attention to others and hurried behind Lin Mu and Jing Luo. To him, he had done a favor to the restaurant owner by slapping him. If the owner truly had managed to piss of Jing Luo, there was a great chance he would lose his life and the business as well.

At least this way, he had only gotten some injuries and lost face; he still had his life and business. 

"You held back quite a bit there." Lin Mu said to Jing Luo.

"Why would I attack weaklings without a reason? Though I was quite on edge, if he really didn't stop I would have shoved that spirit stone down his throat." Jing Luo replied.

~gulp~

Jingming Shang secretly gulped when Jing Luo said this and felt a tinge of fear. And just as he did this, Jing Luo looked at him, making him shudder as well.

"And who's this man?" Jing Luo questioned after they all left the restaurant.

"This is one of the ten council members of the merchant council, Jingming Shang. He will be helping us in our endeavor." Lin Mu replied. "I'll explain more, but first we need to get to a more private place." He added.

"Let's head to my residence. I have formation arrays set up and no one will dare disturb us there." Jingming Shang said.

"Alright," Lin Mu agreed, and the three of them headed there.

A couple of minutes later, they reached the residence of Jingming Shang, that was actually located at the beach. This was in a slightly secluded area from the city and was away from the port where the main hustle bustle of the city was.

This area was silent, and the wide residence that extended into the beach sand looked exquisite and quaint. Jingming Shang led them inside and waved his hand, activating the formation arrays of the residence.

"Hmm… not bad for a place like this." Jing Luo commented, much to the pride of Jingming Shang. "But even Lin Mu should be able to bypass this in less than a minute." He added, dousing the pride Jingming Shang felt.

Still, the man could not really complain about it much and knew that compared to them, he was rather low. Even though his cultivation base was at the mid stage of the core condensation realm now, it was mostly achieved through the use of resources that he had bought with his fortune.

Ever since the danger of the invasion and the conflict of the sects started, Jingming Shang had become a bit paranoid and thought about increasing his personal strength. In these past couple of years, he had spent almost ninety percent of his profits on himself and to further his cultivation base.

But despite that, he had only reached the mid stage of the core condensation realm.

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