Tao and Heaven

Chapter 20 A gluttonous feast
Gu Wen was alone in the depths of the mansion, swinging a long stick used for guarding the courtyard. He used the stick instead of a gun as if he was a dragon coiled in his body, controlling it as if by an arm. In just one month, he had become like a master who had practiced with the gun for ten years.

Xuanming Spear has three levels: Ming Jin, Nei Jin, and Xuan Jin.

The first two are similar to ordinary martial arts. Ming Jin is the power of the whole body's muscles, bones, skin and flesh, and Nei Jin is the skill of concentrating the power on one point. Xuan Jin has already touched on the practice of cultivation, and needs to be coordinated with the true qi to emit a kind of "qi" that is emitted through the weapon, also known as Gang.

He is still in the first stage, Ming Jin.

Yuqing Daoji was strengthening his body all the time, and Ming Jin was naturally there without even having to practice it. But Nei Jin required hard training, and he needed to explore and get familiar with it.

Gu Wen has now touched the threshold of internal strength, and can release internal strength once in ten times when dancing with the spear. According to those martial artists, he is now estimated to have reached the level of a famous master, and his internal strength can be called a master.

He originally wanted to practice slowly, saving his Heavenly Marrow for his Dao Foundation. After all, only the Dao Foundation could provide a more substantial improvement, and it was also the most difficult to practice.

But now plans cannot keep up with changes, and war is getting closer and closer.

In the previous life, the Anshi Rebellion lasted less than a year from the rise of An Lushan to the fall of Chang'an. However, Daqian was not the Tang Dynasty and was more fragile than the Tang Dynasty.

The demise of a last dynasty often takes only a moment, and all the conflicts and problems accumulated before will come like a flood. From small things like street vendors being beaten and scolded by officials to large things like excessive taxes that lead to the destruction of families, just like the Daqian general collecting all the taxes for the previous ten years.

The people of the world will remember the sufferings of the past ten years, and will be even more afraid of the sufferings to come. Now all that is missing is the last straw that breaks the camel's back.

At first, Gu Wen thought that extraordinary power might be able to change things, but from what he had seen and heard recently and his contact with the fairy Yu Hua, he realized that extraordinary power was greatly limited in Daqian. It was not enough to resist the wheel of history, and Daqian's demise was inevitable.

What determines the demise of a dynasty is never the kings, princes, generals, or ministers in history books, but the countless common people who will never appear in history books.

Gu Wen didn't want to drown in the torrent of the times when the time really came.

The fate is shaking.

【Tian Sui 2】

This is what I have saved up in the past month. I don’t know whether it was because the Taifu Temple discovered the problem of reselling, or because I bought too much, resulting in a decreasing supply of medicinal fruits.

The Heavenly Marrow is like fire, and the Xuanming Spear is different from the other two immortal techniques. It instantly turns into pure air, sinks into the Dantian, and flows throughout the body with the circulation of true energy.

An illusory figure appeared, holding a gun and running around the battlefield, going in and out seven times, and no one was able to match his moves.

He is like me and I am like him. In a trance, it seems as if I am on the battlefield. Without going through the fighting, my every move is filled with murderous intent.

The internal force of Xuanming Spear is done!
Xuanming Spear's mysterious power, done!
The true energy was condensed into a spear that stabbed out a sonic boom, and the curtains and candlelight danced continuously.

Gu Wen thought it was over and was about to exhale and regulate his breathing, but then an even more violent burst of true energy burst out from his dantian, and the Xuanming spear technique, which should have been completely refined by the Tiansui, began to emit a little golden light.

It took Tiansui eight years to comprehend the Yuqing Heart Method, and two years to comprehend the Yuqing Sword Technique, and he had obviously surpassed the Xuanming Spear.

The Xuanming Spear Shadow stood in front of him holding a spear. Gu Wen inexplicably showed a sense of pride as if he was showing off his skills in front of an expert. He had surpassed the original Xuanming Spear.

With one shot, the Xuanming spear broke, and the fierce gun force blasted the door open. Jiang Fugui, who was behind the door, seemed to be pushed by someone, and he stepped on empty air and fell flat on his face.

He did not see a large gun with a bloody color coming through the door, and the ink-like internal energy covering the long stick turned into the gun head.

When Gu Wen exhaled, all the extraordinary things converged, and the spear head disappeared and turned into a stick.

Perhaps he has figured out another use for Tiansui. When his comprehension reaches its peak, he will naturally surpass his master and push the original method to a higher level.

The fourth level of Xuanming Spear, with Xuan Gang attached!
【Depletion of Celestial Marrow】

Gu Wen has never been in actual combat, but the perception given by his fate should be clearer than his own actual combat. The function of the Xuan Gang is to provide hardness and "shock force". The former is easy to understand, and the latter is that the Xuanming outer gang always maintains a vibration, and everything that comes into contact with the outer gang will be affected by it.

When cold weapons clash, vibrations are very likely to cause the weapons to fall out of the hands, and armor has a certain ability to ignore defense.

However, Gu Wen prefers hardness, which means that he can fight with just a stick.

He placed his right hand on the chair, and the inner Qi in his body was consumed violently, and the dark red outer energy was attached to the chair. The consumption was greater than that of the long-pole weapon, and the vibration disappeared, and the outer energy became extremely chaotic.

"If it's too different from a gun, the Xuanming Wai Gang will be ineffective."
-
Jiang Fugui got up from the ground and saw Gu Wen walking out of the house. He was surprised to see the long stick in the other's hand.

"Master, are you practicing martial arts? I was wondering why you suddenly ran to this side yard. There are no guards around. What should we do if something happens? If you really don't trust those palace guards, I will find you some sailors. Every household of theirs depends on you for food, so they must be reliable."

"Oh my Lord, how did you develop such strong muscles? It's only been a few days."

The short Jiang Fugui followed Gu Wen and chattered. Gu Wen came to the water tank in the courtyard, took off his shirt and wiped the sweat off his face. The cold water splashed on his skin and wisps of hot steam rose.

Jiang Fugui on the side said again: "Master, be careful of the cold. If you want to take a bath, I can ask the servants to boil water."

"How are the medicinal fruits?" "Sir, they are in stock, but the price has gone up."

"How many?"

"Forty taels each."

Gu Wen paused for a moment and sneered, "These tooth market merchants really think they are tigers. Anyone dares to come up and take a bite. If he doesn't want to do it anymore, then he can retire and take a rest."

To put it bluntly, the old one-armed man is just a middleman. His biggest role is to take the blame, so that when something goes wrong, the buyer cannot be traced back. The rats in the black market are all like this, otherwise why would they be allowed to do such a lucrative business of buying and selling people?

Because it is not clean, the iron fist may fall at any time.

At first, he didn't want to cause any trouble. He could afford 18 taels per piece. After all, it was a contraband item, so it was normal to have a premium. But now the price kept going up, and he was not a pushover.

There is more than one old one-armed man in Ya City, but he is the largest slave trader.

He narrowed his eyes slightly, pursed his lips, and looked thoughtful.

"Master, do you want to go to the government and have him dealt with?"

Jiang Fugui knew that the old one-armed man was going to be in trouble. His Master Wen did not show his emotions on his face and would never draw his knife even when he was angry.

In the words of Mr. Wen: We are businessmen, not bandits. We must follow the rules. If anyone does not follow the rules, the rules will naturally teach them a lesson.

He has always kept this sentence in mind. It's not because of any business ethics, but because Jiang Fugui has seen Gu Wen kill people without using a knife more than once.

"No, the government officials will not enter the Ya Market."

Gu Wen only thought for a few breaths and ordered: "Tomorrow you go and tell all the major brothels that there are many people selling their bodies recently, and there is no shortage of good girls. Unite to lower the price in the market, and we will charge a small commission from them."

He doesn't touch food because it's immoral.

He went to brothels because brothels are not the places where people actually sell their bodies. They are just the best places to sell their bodies. There are also brothels and black dens below them.

Those who can enter a brothel are already desperate, and their lives will be better than most people in the future.

The world is like this, it’s better to be a prostitute.

Gu Wen only controlled the highest price for human trafficking, but it was enough to crush the tooth market.

Hiss! Remove the firewood from under the cauldron.

Jiang Fugui took a deep breath. There were more than just Longqiao brothels in Bianjing, but only Longqiao could produce an oiran.

The brothels can be sold to brothels, but brothels can't even offer one-third of the price of Longqiao Brothel. If all brothels lower the price, your brothels will lose more than a thousand taels of silver, and they may even make a small profit.

Moreover, the price cut is reasonable. There are indeed many people selling their bodies recently, so it doesn’t matter whether there are many good girls or not.

This is not entirely targeted at the Ya market. Whether it is Gu Wen or other businessmen and even aristocratic families, they all like to work together to lower prices. It’s just that Gu Wen never touches anything related to food and the people, and there are no taboos for everything else.

There is a conscience, but only a little.

--------------

The next day, in Jiangyue Building, Room No. 1.

There were many merchants and beautiful maids. Gu Wen, dressed in plain clothes, stood out among the merchants wearing gold and silver, but no one dared to criticize him.

Today he invited the owners of all the brothels to a banquet. When there is a disaster, the biggest beneficiaries are the grain merchants, followed by the market, including the brothels. A normal court would control the price of grain, and it would not be too high.

But now the emperor is in power, and the eunuchs under his command are making a lot of money.

Gu Wen raised his glass, and so did the merchants. Under the red candles, the wine, the women, the decadence, it seemed like a feast for the gluttons.

Those who were brought to the table were the extremely vicious merchants in the city of Yashi in the eyes of the people, and the evil forces who roamed the alleys brandishing knives and guns.

Their ferocity makes them seem so weak and cute in front of the Longqiao merchants.

Fengyue Tower has a sweet-scented osmanthus shark's fin dish that is delicious and ranks first.

Gu Wen took the first bite, and all the merchants rushed over. Amid the crisp sound of chopsticks hitting the jade plate, the profits of the tooth market were divided up completely.

(End of this chapter)