I am immortal with scientific thinking

Chapter 5 Yunlaifang City
Willow branches on the moon,
After about dusk.

In the evening, to the west of Qingyunzong, outside Yunlaifang City.

Under the silver moonlight, the whole picture of Fangshi is presented in front of my eyes.

Fangshi is very large, occupying the entire valley, two or three hundred feet long and twenty or thirty feet wide.The streets are intersected and scattered, and there are many large and small shops. Although the buildings are not beautiful, they also have their own characteristics.

The entire square city is divided into four areas by a crossroad, two of which are occupied by rows of shops, and the entrances of each shop are very lively, with countless customers coming in and out.

The other area is a relatively wide square, and the stalls of the immortal cultivators surround the square, forming a "Hui"-shaped path sparsely.And those who choose and trade items, walk in twos and threes in the middle of the open space with stalls on both sides, coming and going, there is quite a sense of secular business transactions.

As for the last area, it is occupied by a huge, beautiful building.Those who come in and out of it are either wealthy monks holding [spiritual weapons] and wearing [spiritual clothes], or powerful monks with spiritual pressure all over their bodies.As far as Lin Chen knew, this was a higher-standard auction house.

At this time, the sky was getting dark, and the bronze lamps placed on both sides of the road in the square city were lit up one by one, clearly illuminating the shops and the square.

However, no fuel such as lamp oil was placed on these lamps. Instead, each held a fist-sized night pearl that radiated soft light throughout.

This is the night pearl.The light it emits not only illuminates the booth under the lamp as if it were daytime, but in Lin Chen's view, its brightness is even comparable to the incandescent lamp in his previous life.

Although it was night, there were many more people in the square than in the daytime. Not only were some new stalls added to the square, but the number of people visiting the stalls also increased a lot. A large number of immortal cultivators poured into the square at this time The square makes this place bustling for a while.

Yunlaifang City is a city under the control of the Qingyun Sect. There is a foundation-building monk permanently stationed in the city, and there are more than a dozen monks whose strength has reached the late stage of Qi training [Cyclone Realm] to manage daily affairs.

Not only that, you can often see teams of monks passing by in Fang City. Everyone in these patrol teams has a cultivation base above the innate stage, and there are many monks who have the early stage of Qi training [Yuanyuanjing], wearing The spiritual armor, carrying a large number of talismans, will respond quickly to any disturbance.

Of course, Qingyunzong collects a lot of rent from the shop every year, and the most profitable auction house and alchemy refining business in the square city have its shadow.

In the evening, a thin young man wearing a gray robe from the outer sect of Qingyun Sect, a bamboo hat, and a black veil on his face came slowly from a distance.

It took a lot of time to stop and go along the way, so it was already night when we arrived.

Lin Chen glanced at Fangshi, then walked straight in.

Passing by the square, Lin Chen glanced there, and quickly looked away.He recalled that when he first came to Fangshi a few years ago, he always felt that he was the son of destiny in the legend, and he was lucky, so he wanted to run to the square to pick up leaks.In the end, I missed it so much that I didn't pick it up, but I got nearly a hundred spirit stones in it instead.

Since then, he didn't say anything and ran there, and ran directly to the shop. Although it was more expensive, it was better than being cheated.

Lin Chen didn't go directly to the destination, but walked a few laps beyond the usual practice, and after finding no one following him, he went straight to the destination - Baofu shop.

The store is located on a busy street.There are people coming and going in the store, so it is very lively.

Lin Chen walked into the store.The interior of the store is antique, the ceiling is inlaid with glowing pearls, and there are cabinets around it, with all kinds of charms placed on them.

"My lord, what kind of talisman do you need? My treasure talisman shop has all kinds of..." As soon as Lin Chen entered the door, a waiter from the shop immediately greeted him.

"I'm looking for Wu Xueting, your shopkeeper." Before Lin Chen could finish speaking, he interrupted the speech directly.

The waiter was taken aback for a moment, but immediately came to his senses and walked into the back room.

Not long after entering, a plump middle-aged female cultivator in purple greeted her.

This person is Wu Xueting, the owner of Baofu shop.

"So it's Daoist Zhang." She seemed to know Lin Chen, and couldn't help laughing when she saw him.

Zhang Ping was Lin Chen's pseudonym when he went out.

Lin Chen nodded irrefutably, and said lightly: "Old rules."

Wu Xueting immediately understood, and with a delicate palm, she led with one hand.

"Please."

He walked ahead and led the way.

Then the two went upstairs and entered a small antique room next to it. There was a carpet in the room, and everything was complete.

Wu Xueting closed the door, and after calling Lin Chen to sit down, she calmly took out a teacup and poured hot tea for Lin Chen.

"Zhang Daoyou, what kind of talismans did you bring today?" Wu Xueting asked with a smile.

Lin Chen didn't answer, but took out ten stacks of charms from the [storage bag], put them on the table, and said lightly: "Inspect the goods, follow the old rules."

Seeing this, Wu Xueting didn't take it seriously. After dealing with him for many years, he naturally knew that the other party was not a person who liked to talk nonsense during the transaction.

"One hundred first-level top-grade spirit talismans, three hundred first-level middle-grade spirit talismans, and the remaining six hundred first-level low-grade spirit talismans. According to the different types of spirit talismans and the degree of preciousness, I count [-] spirit stones as a fellow daoist. What do you think?" After some calculations, Wu Xueting asked softly.

Two thousand and one hundred spirit stones is a huge sum of money for a monk in the Qi training period. After all, most monks in the Qi training period can earn one or two spirit stones a day, and a few hundred yuan a year, which is considered good. that's it.

And only monks who have achieved success in alchemy, refining weapons, making talismans, etc. can earn enough spirit stones for their own cultivation.

However, there was no joy on Lin Chen's face. Instead, he frowned, and immediately asked, "Has the price of the talisman increased again?"

"That's right." Wu Xueting nodded, and then handed over a small notebook, "This is the price increase of various talismans in the market in the past three months."

Whether it is buying or selling talismans, the price is not static, but rises and falls according to the overall market conditions.

Lin Chen glanced at her, took out the gloves from the storage bag, put them on, took the notebook, and flipped through it.

The talismans he made are of good quality and large quantities, and are very popular in the market.

The reason why she chose to sell it in this store was because the other party promised that every three months, she would spend a certain amount of money to collect statistics on the purchase, sales, and price changes of talismans in the market.

"Fellow Daoist, isn't it possible to earn more with the increase in the price of talismans? Why doesn't fellow Daoist seem very happy?" Seeing Lin Chen constantly analyzing the data in the book, Wu Xueting couldn't help asking softly.

"The dynamic balance of the supply relationship is the basis for the stable price of talismans in the market. However, the talismans entering the market this year have basically remained within a certain range, but the prices have continued to rise. What do you think this means?" Lin Chen looked at Glancing at her, he asked suddenly.

supply?

Wu Xueting was taken aback when she heard the words, but she still roughly understood what it meant.

"Fellow Daoist, what you mean is that in the Fangshi market, the demand for talismans is increasing, but the supply remains unchanged, so the price continues to rise?"

"That's right." Lin Chen nodded.

To put it simply, it means buying more and selling the same amount. Many merchants raised the price of the talisman when they saw a profit.

"But isn't this a good thing?" Wu Xueting didn't understand.

"A good thing?" Lin Chen repeated these two words softly, and continued, "Except for the needs of cultivation, the consumption of spiritual stones for buying talismans is basically maintained at a certain limit for a monk, and the same is true for expanding to the group of monks."

"If the source of spirit stones has increased, at most it's because the price of elixirs has increased. After all, spirit talismans are not needed for cultivation." Lin Chen put down his notebook, stood up, walked to the window, and looked down at the crowd downstairs.

"The price of the elixir needed for practice remains basically the same." Wu Xueting murmured. For some reason, listening to Lin Chen's calm words, she felt a bad premonition in her heart.

After all, pills are an indispensable thing for most practitioners, and in Yunlaifang City, she is naturally very sensitive to the price of pills.

"Could it be that more monks are buying?" Wu Xue hesitated for a moment before asking.

"There are only so many elixirs available in Fangshi. If there are more monks, the price should also increase. It is impossible for new monks to only buy talismans and not elixirs?" Lin Chen asked rhetorically.

"Besides, you've been here for so long, what major event happened in Yunlaifang City, so that all monks had to buy talismans to fight?"

"This..." Wu Xueting was at a loss for words for a while, and after thinking about it carefully, there was indeed no such thing, "What do you think is the reason?"

"I know that casual cultivators lack spirit stones and can't afford spirit weapons, so most of the time, they use spirit talismans to assist in combat. Then, looking at the situation..." Lin Chen was silent for a while, "Then There are only two possibilities left."

"Which two?"

"One is to open up wasteland in the Hengduan Mountains. In order to obtain more resources, casual cultivators and Zongmen cultivators bought a large number of talismans to use in battle, just like the time 50 years ago."

Fifty years ago, in the Hengduan Mountains, to the north of Qingyunzong, a Jindan stage monster was beheaded by Qingyang Master Qingyang of Qingyunzong. Later, in order to obtain the huge territory left by the opponent, Qingyunzong launched a vigorous land reclamation operation. received substantial benefits.

"Could it be that Shangzong is going to carry out another land reclamation operation?" Wu Xueting was taken aback.

"If it is a land reclamation operation, then it should be the attacking type of talisman that sells well. After all, the main enemy is the monster that guards the treasures of heaven, material and earth. But after observing the market this year, the talisman that has been rising one after another tends to be healing, defense, and escape. , so I am more inclined to the second possibility." Lin Chen pointed at the ledger with a blank expression on his face.

"What is possible?"

Lin Chen didn't answer, but stared out of the window blankly. The evening wind was blowing from outside, gently brushing over the wind chimes on the window sill, making a crisp and melodious sound.

"Zhang Daoyou?"

Hearing this, Lin Chen turned his head away, took a deep look at her, and softly uttered a few words: "The omen of war."

For a moment, the atmosphere in the venue seemed to freeze. It was a hot night, but Wu Xueting felt a lingering chill.

(End of this chapter)