Chapter 3: 1.003 Blazing Flames

Shao Kang'an was stunned. He considered himself a man who had played among the flowers for many years and seen all kinds of beauties, yet he could not find a single woman who could surpass the beauty before his eyes.

The woman wore a plain, long dress, with several pale cyan lotuses blooming from her sleeves. Her thousand strands of black hair were loosely tied into a single bundle, falling casually behind her, rippling slightly with the gentle breeze.

She had misty eyebrows and autumn-like eyes, with skin as white as snow. A single water-drop mark sat in the center of her forehead, glowing with a hazy rouge hue.

A trace of ambiguous mockery lingered at the corners of the woman's slightly upturned lips. Shao Kang'an felt a surge in his heart, struggling to suppress the impulse to get to know her.

However, before her brother could make a move, Shao Furong stepped forward first, frowning as she said, "Miss, this Tier 3 Gale Grass in your hand was already eyed by our Pengcheng Shao family. Please put it down."

Shao Furong knew her brother's character very well. This man, who lost his wits the moment he saw a beautiful woman, would hand over the Tier 3 Gale Grass the moment he opened his mouth.

That simply wouldn't do! She had searched for so long to find this single stalk of Tier 3 Gale Grass, and she needed it to participate in the Tier 3 Alchemist assessment at the end of this month. Success or failure rested on this single attempt; she couldn't let her brainless older brother ruin it.

The woman in plain clothes lightly raised an eyebrow. She casually stuffed the medicinal herb into the cloth pouch at her waist, turned around, and walked away without looking back.

Shao Furong's eyes instantly flashed with anger. She reached out to block her path, staring at her in disbelief, and shouted sternly, "Who are you? Didn't you hear what I said? I told you to put down the Tier 3 Gale Grass in your hand. Can't you understand?"

"Lie Yan." The woman's vermilion lips parted slightly, uttering two words.

"What?" For a moment, Shao Furong couldn't process it, staring wide-eyed at the woman before her.

Had she hit her head against a wall? Usually, when people heard her announce the name of the Shao family, wasn't every single one of them respectful toward her?

What did this woman mean? Was she playing with her by giving an irrelevant answer?

"Name." Lie Yan glanced at Shao Furong impatiently, bypassed the body blocking her way, and continued forward.

Huo'er, clutching Doubao, rushed toward her all the way.

Little Fatty followed behind the two little ones, flapping his wings with great effort—*flap, flap, flap*—flying along while shouting, "Huo'er, wait! Huo'er! Wait!"

"Little Fatty, you need to lose weight!" Doubao poked a furry little head out from Huo'er's arms, blinked his large, water-blue eyes, and said to him triumphantly, "Look at Doubao! A slender figure, an elegant physique! Now look at you! You're fat beyond measure!"

"What do you mean, 'slender'?" Little Fatty's bean-like eyes snapped wide open!

"Mother." Huo'er bounced over to Lie Yan's side and crashed into her embrace. "Mother, mother. Is there a bad person trying to rob our Tier 3 Gale Grass?"

Shao Furong's pretty face instantly darkened. She glared fiercely at Huo'er, thinking to herself: *So this woman is already married and has a child. Looking at their clothes, she's likely just a woman from an ordinary farming family in Pengcheng, someone who will never have anything to do with our cultivation clan, the Shao family, in her entire life.*

Cultivators and ordinary people were two different worlds, completely incomparable. A cultivator could crush ten or eight ordinary people with a single finger; how could they even be compared?

Thinking this way, Shao Furong's expression became even more arrogant, and she looked down on Lie Yan's group even more.

It wasn't surprising that an ordinary farm woman wouldn't know of the Pengcheng Shao family; no wonder she didn't show a face of respect upon hearing the Shao name.

Shao Furong stole a glance at her brother and, as expected, saw that Shao Kang'an's handsome face had turned completely dark.