Chapter 40
The new day arrived with the first ray of sunlight brightening the continent of Anga. Aakesh had already woken up, so he didn't wait and opened the door of the store.
When he opened the store and took a single step outside the door, he couldn't see many people since the day had only arrived and the market would only get busier as the day proceeded.
He turned around to enter the store when he suddenly stopped after he heard a familiar voice. He turned around and noticed Maria hurrying in his direction while waving her hands. He didn't wave back and entered the store.
Maria expected the same response from Aakesh, so she didn't mind it. She also entered the store after a few seconds had passed.
"Hello, store owner!" She greeted Aakesh with a smile right after entering the store.
"Hello!" He expressionlessly responded while sitting in his comfortable chair. Since Lily was still sleeping, he didn't wake her up and opened the store on his own.
"Owner, I want to buy the pills," She said while a huge smile spread across her face. The mental healing pill acted like a magical pill on her. It forced all her concerns, negativity, and stresses out of her head. She had never felt better than what she was feeling right now.
"Which one?" Aakesh asked as he stood up to take the pills out of the shelf.
"I want three pills of all the three categories," Maria smilingly said. She had seen yesterday how he liked when someone bought his products, so she would try to impress him by purchasing the pills since she had more than enough Primal stones. In reality, Maria only needed one dantian healing and three mental healing pills. She still had one body healing pill left since only two helped her in getting rid of the horrendous scar.
"Why would you need so many of them?"
Aakesh's response was opposite to what she expected. Instead of happily selling her the pill, he asked her the reason.
"I just want to buy them," She responded while not daring to look into his eyes. She felt like she had done some terrible thing by asking for all the pills.
"Excess of pills will harm you. Since you're my first customer, I would warn you of not using pills in excess," Aakesh said as he went to the shelf and started taking out the pills.
"That'll be 300 inferior Primal stones," He told her the price as he handed her the pills. She nodded and gave him the pouch containing 300 stones.
"Don't waste so much money on the pills. There are going to be more expensive products in the future. You should save money until then," Aakesh expressionlessly advised Maria. She was his only buyer until now, so he wanted the best for her.
An embarrassed look appeared on her face since she spent around half of the money she had to buy the next shop to Aakesh's store. She was going to be neighbors with him from tomorrow onwards.
He didn't care for what expression appeared on her face, so he told her to leave after that. She also nodded and left the store with a wry smile. After Maria left, she returned to his chair and started thinking about the challenge in the battle arena.
If he desired to win, he needed to take his head. Who knows, the swordsman turned out to be even better with sword using from his legs or mouth after losing both his hands. Aakesh needed to find his weakness to obstruct his movements, and it would become easy for Aakesh to defeat the competitor after that.
Time flew by, and the market got busier. It became overcrowded in no time. Suddenly a group of people angrily forced their way through the market. One of the men in the group was pulling bloodied Maria by her hair, with their direction being Aakesh's store.
***
A few hours ago, Maria was happily returning to her store thinking about the future, where she'll regularly meet Aakesh and one day, he'll start liking her and then fall in love, and then. She stopped thinking any further due to her face getting red like a tomato.
"Halt!"
She suddenly had to stop since out of nowhere, a group of guards surrounded her. She cautiously looked at the soldiers and lost all hopes of escaping. There were more than 100 soldiers. She couldn't identify the cultivation level of even a single soldier, so that meant every soldier surpassed her.
Suddenly the guards made way for a middle-aged man. The middle-aged man had a grim look as he came toward her.
"Are you Maria?" The man suddenly asked in a hoarse voice.
Maria didn't speak anything in response since she knew why the guards were looking for her. Getting no response made the man angry, the next moment he appeared in front of Maria and slapped her, throwing her several meters away.
Her mouth started bleeding after the slap. She would have lost her head if the man hadn't controlled the power of his slap. He then appeared in front of the fallen Maria.
"Are you Maria?" He asked again, with rage clearly evident in his eyes. She still ignored him and stayed silent.
"Slap her!" The man suddenly ordered the nearest guard instead of slapping her himself. The guard accepted the order, came forward, and hit another side of Maria's face, resulting in broken teeth.
"Don't stop! Continue slapping her until she speaks," The man ordered the guard. The guard accepted the order and did as told.
Maria's mental strength has gotten better after the tragedies she had faced, so she was able to control herself. The man's brows furrowed, seeing her still not speaking up.
"Five of you come here and beat her down," He turned around and ordered the guards closest to him. The guards also expressionlessly accepted the order and executed the order. In no time, Maria's body became filled with wounds. She still didn't speak anything.
"Okay, leave her," The man suddenly ordered. The guards stopped and expressionlessly went back to their position.. The man then got hold of her hair and started pulling her, his direction being the store.