Zanxing

Chapter 8 – Pingyang Town (2)

After ten days, they arrived at Pingyang Town.

Gufeng Mountain was located on the east side of Duzhou, and there was a river across the cliff, known as Lixiu. Water was coursing through the river, and sails on the ships were swaying in the morning sun. Fishermen shouted unknown chants while casting fishing nets into the river dyed red by the sunrise.

Pingyang Town was located at the foot of Gufeng Mountain, beside the Lixiu River.

The carriage stopped in front of the city gate.

Hongsu helped Zanxing out of the carriage, and Lao Niu said cheerfully, “Miss, this is Pingyang Town.”

Zanxing raised her eyes and looked into the distance.

Pingyang Town was a small town at the foot of Gufeng Mountain. Looking up into the distance, she could vaguely see the mountain range. The peaks were like clouds. Shrouded in purple ‘qi’, the place looked like an immortal paradise.

Lao Niu followed Zanxing’s gaze, and said with a smile, “That’s where the Taiyan Sect is located. If the young master successfully enters the sect in the future, Miss may be able to go to Gufeng Mountain to see the scenery.”

Zanxing looked away, smiled and said, “Let’s go.”

It’s a very lively town.

The street was very wide and extremely tidy, with carriages passing by from time to time. There were various shops and restaurants on both sides, and strangely dressed people chatting on the street. There was a cultivator with a long sword, wearing clothes like an immortal and sitting in a teahouse drinking tea. There was also a shirtless burly man, holding a glowing flower and arguing with an old man with a kind smile.

“Twenty spirit stones? Take a good look! This herb of mine is an intermediate spirit herb ‘Peach Blossom Face’, worth at least a hundred spirit stones!” the big man roared ferociously.

The old man standing in front of him was not afraid, and replied in a gentle voice, “Guest, this ‘Peach Blossom Face’ is indeed a mid-level spirit herb, but the branches and leaves of the spirit herb are incomplete, and only half of the flowers are left. The quality is too poor, even if it is used to refine into pills, the potency would only be one-tenth of the full strength. I will give you twenty spirit stones, which is enough. If you do not want to do this deal, you can go to other shops to have a look. We have other deals to do here.”

The big man argued for a while, and finally left cursing with twenty spirit stones.

Zanxing said, “This man is quite tough.”

Lao Niu standing beside her was like a dedicated voice assistant, explaining, “This should be the ‘Huajinlou’ that others are talking about.”

Zanxing, “Huajinlou?”

“I have heard of it too!” Hongsu said hurriedly, “I heard that Huajinlou is the largest exchange in Pingyang Town. Some people find treasures and bring them here to Huajinlou for consignment, and Huajinlou collects a commission. Various techniques, weapons, elixirs and spiritual herbs can be found here. Because of Gufeng Mountain, the disciples of Taiyan Sect sometimes come here to trade. There are many precious elixir cheats, which are not available at other exchanges!”

“The boss of Huajinlou, Jin Feicui, I heard that she is a beautiful woman…” There was a glimmer of expectation in Lao Niu’s eyes.

“Uncle Niu, don’t patronize that big beauty, let’s take a look at this beauty in front of you first.” Zanxing interrupted the coachman’s reverie, “In this place, there should be spiritual herbs that can cure my face injury, let’s go in and take a look?”

“To buy spiritual herbs, you need spirit stones.” Lao Niu pondered for a moment.

By the way, in the world of cultivators, the currency was spirit stones, and ordinary coins would not work.

“Then take the spirit stones.” Zanxing waited for the two to pay.

Hongsu and Lao Niu looked at each other, and after a while, Hongsu said carefully, “Miss, what are you talking about, we don’t have spirit stones on us.”

“How is it possible?” Zanxing asked rhetorically, “Am I not the young lady? How could I be lacking spirit stones?”

“But…but…” Hongsu looked at her aggrievedly, “Miss used to directly ask the young master for spirit stones. When we came out, we didn’t bring any money…”

Zanxing, “…”

The “Miss Yang” in the original novel, although she was called “Miss”, her family background was in fact not very impressive. She was just from an ordinary merchant family. If it wasn’t for her exceptional beauty, Wang Shao wouldn’t be engaged to her. And the “Miss Yang” who got next to this Wang Shao big money tree, also utilized the long-term meal ticket to the extreme.

Buy clothes, swipe Wang Shao’s card, buy jewelry, swipe Wang Shao’s card, bathe pets, swipe Wang Shao’s card, from furniture to nail clippers, all use Wang Shao’s card.

Wang Shao, an emotionless credit card machine.

Therefore, on this trip to Pingyang Town, Miss Yang didn’t bring a single spirit stone, and the cost of the carriage, horse and daily travel were paid by Wang Shao. But now there was a problem, when Wang Shao left her, she didn’t have a single spirit stone in her pocket.

“Women still need to have some money in their hands.” Zanxing sighed.

“It’s okay, Miss.” Lao Niu thought of something, “Didn’t you get a demon core? You can sell the demon core to Huajinlou and exchange it for spiritual herbs.”

“Yes,” Hongsu said happily, “That demon core must be more precious than that person’s ‘Peach Blossom Face’ earlier!”

Zanxing interrupted the joy of the two people in front of her, “It was refined by me.”

“What?”

“I said,” Zanxing repeated, “I refined the demon core.”

Hongsu and Lao Niu were shocked into silence.

Zanxing looked into the distance, the bustling crowd was reflected in the morning light, and Pingyang Town looked extremely lively, like a tourist town, full of unreal old feelings.

But here everything was real.

The wound on her face was getting more and more painful, and she had to seek medical treatment as soon as possible. It was difficult to do anything without money. Although she really wanted to avoid following the previous plot line, the novel still required her to meet the original plot characters to trigger the next plot.

Forget it, let’s go.

“Miss, what should we do now?” Hongsu asked.

“Let’s go,” Zanxing smiled, “to find our cash machine.”

…

Someone was sitting in the ‘Good Luck’ inn in Pingyang Town.

The location of the inn was well chosen, next to the river. Guests in the room could open the windows directly facing the Lixiu River. At night, with the river breeze blowing, guests could put a jug of fine wine on the small table by the window, invite a few friends, play the piano and drink a glass of wine. It would not disappoint the beautiful scenery of the night.

Of course, the price of the inn was also very expensive, one hundred spirit stones a night. Only wealthy families would spend so much. This time, Taiyan Sect was recruiting new talents, thus young talents from all parts of Duzhou, many with prominent family backgrounds, were gathered here.

Wang Shao sat on the soft couch by the window, looking out happily and drinking tea. The water used to make the tea was the spiritual spring water from Conggufeng Mountain. Not only was it refreshing and fragrant, drinking it would also be good for the body.

Although the damn place was expensive, people got what they paid for, thus there were still merits. “Young Master,” the servant came in and said in a low voice, “The whereabouts of the siblings, Mu Cengxiao and Liu Yunxin have not been found.”