One Qi Chaoyang

Chapter 11 11: Merchant

Zhao Fuyun refused to attend their welcoming banquet, which made those who had prepared for it feel confused and angry.

After a night of careful discussion, I prepared the guests to be invited to the banquet and thought of what to say in various situations, but the other party flatly refused.

Even Yin Wushou, who had previously persuaded Li Heipi, who had killed the monkey, to stay calm, cursed after hearing Zhao Fuyun's refusal: "...You think you are a disciple of Tiandu Mountain? You look down on the cultivators in the Diaojiaolou. If you make me angry, I will refine you into a corpse puppet..."

But since Zhao Fuyun didn't come, they had no choice. After being angry, they could only keep it in their hearts and wait for an opportunity to retaliate.

As for the county magistrate Zhu Puyi, he did not come either. Because he was invited when Zhao Fuyun was invited, he was also invited. When he heard that Zhao Fuyun would also go, he naturally agreed.

However, he was afraid in his heart, so before leaving, he came to Zhao Fuyun and wanted to go with him. But Zhao Fuyun said that he would not go, so naturally he did not dare to go.

I could only say that I suddenly felt sick to my stomach, so I didn’t want to go.
-
However, since the heavy rain that night, Wuze County has had sunny days continuously, and it seems that the rainy season in the Nanling area has passed.

Zhao Fuyun completed his practice in the courtyard every day, reciting the Red Flame Mantra and offering sacrifices to the lamps.

Then it’s time to read books and practice the Dharma.

In the dojo, he focused on practicing sword techniques and needle control techniques.

The art of swordsmanship is to use oneself as a container, combine the will of heaven and earth into one's own will, and thus allow the goal to change according to one's own will.

The Sword and Weapon Technique is a foundation and also a framework, and many spells can be filled in and merged into it.

The opening words of the Sword and Weapon Art are: "All dharmas are in accordance with my mind and serve as my sword and weapon!"

What he was practicing now was the Art of Sword and Weapon, combining the divine power of the 'Red Flame God' with the 'burn' spell.

He himself sacrificed a statue of the Red Flame God, so it was naturally easy for him to sense the Red Flame God's divine power. Now he was in a Taoist temple built with the Red Flame God as the foundation.

He could feel the heat of the fire.

He sat in the main hall. There was a wooden pole in the yard with a piece of cloth hanging on it, swaying in the breeze.

He concentrated his mind and calmed his breath, clenched his left hand into a fist and placed it at his left waist, with the sword finger of his right hand inserted into the fist of his left hand.

Like a sword in its sheath.

Suddenly he stretched out his finger, as if drawing a sword or a baton, and pointed it at the grass in the yard. At the same time, a deep voice came out from his chest.

"burn!"

The sound and the direction of the sword, at that moment, his will represented the order of the entire dojo.

The Taoist temple is equivalent to a small world.

The grass suddenly caught fire.

Zhao Fuyun was delighted. He had been practicing the "burn" spell for a long time but had never been able to perfect it.

This had only been done in Zhu Puyi's dreams before, but now it was happening in reality.

“No wonder the Taoist master once said that everyone must learn how to set up a temple. A monk’s temple is not only a place for the body and mind to rest, but also a place for practice.”

"Creating an environment conducive to practice is of great help in understanding magic."

He felt the rhythm of the 'burning' magic, and also felt the 'divine power' that was extremely repelling to the evil.

Feel it with your own self-consciousness, and slowly an imprint will be formed.

This kind of mark is called "Talisman".

To build the foundation, it is necessary to combine the true evil with the mysterious light to condense a life talisman in the body, thus forming a fundamental qualitative change and building the foundation of the Tao.

And since he got the piece of jujube wood struck by lightning, he used it to carve the statue of 'Chijun', which meant that he was destined to have more opportunities to experience more about 'fire'.

Therefore, the first magic weapon he refined, the 'Fire Needle', also had fire attributes, and the Taoist temple he built was also a 'Flame' Taoist temple.

He knew very well in his heart that when he built his foundation in the future, the talisman seeds condensed in his body would probably be related to fire.

There is nothing wrong with this. The more things you comprehend before forming a talisman seed, the more mysterious the condensed talisman seed will be, and the more magical powers you can obtain.

Another day passed, and he found that the change he had been waiting for might have come.

Because on this day, a group of traveling merchants came to the county.

There were a total of eighteen people, including the boss, his assistants, the escorts, and some miscellaneous people.

The owner of the caravan was a middle-aged man who looked to be in his forties. He was slightly plump, but his face was full of the vicissitudes of life and had a smile on it.

His caravan carried seven carts of goods.

The car was loaded with daily necessities shipped from other places, and they all looked very exquisite.

Since Wu Ze County was incorporated into the Great Zhou Kingdom, merchant caravans have dared to come here. Before, they had to go out to purchase on their own.

This is because the moral environment here is really bad. People who come here to sell things often lose both their money and their lives, their goods are stolen, and they are even detained.

It has been better in recent years, but there are still few caravans coming.

After the caravan named Dafeng Trading Company arrived, they sold out all the goods on the caravan in just three days.

But after they sold out, they didn’t leave, but started collecting the goods.

Everyone knows that when traveling merchants transport goods to sell, they cannot return with an empty truck. They must take local specialties to sell elsewhere.

What special products does Wuze County have that can be shipped to other places and sell better?
Zhao Fuyun didn't know, but he knew that these traveling merchants would definitely know.

What was beyond Zhao Fuyun's expectation was that they actually started collecting Gu seeds, Yin ghosts, and some materials unique to Wu Ze.

For example, poison, or some essence stones.

There is also a kind of tree here called Yin Willow, which grows in damp water and prefers shade to sunlight. If the tree is more than 30 years old, its heart will be used as the flagpole for the Yin flag.

Of course, they also collect some local medicinal wine and insect wine.

The items collected were very mixed and their purpose was unclear. Zhao Fuyun even wondered if he was wrong.

Until he saw the daughter of the owner of the trading company.

The woman looked to be in her twenties. Zhao Fuyun was sure that he had never seen her before, but for some reason he had a familiar feeling the moment he saw her.

When she got out of the carriage and looked at the people from Wu Ze County who were watching, she saw Zhao Fuyun standing outside the crowd.

When their eyes met, Zhao Fuyun knew where that sense of familiarity came from.

What was familiar was not the woman's appearance, but her temperament, like a cat.

Her slender figure looks very much like that white cat.

Especially her eyes, which were extremely similar to the white cat's eyes.

Although her eyes only made contact for a moment and she looked away as if nothing had happened, Zhao Fuyun had already seen what he wanted to see.

So he returned to the dojo, took out his brush and ink, and started painting.

He drew a bird, and the ink dyed all the feathers of the bird black.

When it was dark, he cut off the nightingale with scissors, went to the window facing the front yard and opened it, but at the same time closed the other doors and windows, then returned to the wicker chair in the hall and sat down.

Close the paper bird in your palm and close your eyes.

He visualized the nightingale in his mind.

In order to practice transforming into a nightingale, he once raised one from a young age, observing its habits and combing its feathers. He also dissected dead birds and observed their internal organs and skeletons. He also learned painting, especially bird painting, from a famous painter in the capital.

The paper bird in his palm suddenly moved, and it became fuller from thin. It seemed to have grown a skeleton and feathers inside, supporting its entire body.

"Jiji!"

Zhao Fuyun opened his eyes at the sound of a bird singing, and at the same time he spread his hands. A nightingale with rich feathers kicked off his hands, jumped lightly into the air, flapped its wings, flew out of the open window behind him, and flew into the night sky.

A little mysterious light transforms, a little thought is placed.

The nightingale flew in the sky, crossing most of Wuze County, and soon arrived at the residence of the group of merchants.

The group of merchants rented a few row houses to live in, but did not enter the county town and all the mules were untied.

At night, in every room of those houses, the lights were on, and you could see people photocopied on the windowsill, and you could hear different people talking inside, even playing finger-guessing games in dialect.

The nightingale transformed by Zhao Fuyun listened for a while, then fell from the tree next to it to the roof, and then flew in through the eaves.

I happened to see a few people sitting there drinking, but their movements were stiff. Only one person was speaking with a constantly changing voice, looking very lifelike.

Zhao Fuyun immediately understood that this man was good at ventriloquism and could imitate the voices of the crowd, while those people sitting there with stiff bodies were all dummies.

Those were also illusions, but the ventriloquist had too many objects to manipulate, so his figures were stiff. However, with the windows closed, it was impossible to tell them apart by just looking at the shadows on the windows.

He flew out and came to another room where only one person was, and there was a person writing something at a desk.

Only after seeing it with his own eyes did he realize that it was also an illusory fake person.

Where did they go?

Zhao Fuyun didn't know, so he waited on the tree nearby. After a while, the lights went out and it seemed that everyone inside was resting and sleeping.

As daybreak approached, he discovered that the room suddenly became crowded.

He came under the eaves again, but saw real people.

He was slightly puzzled, so he looked at the ground carefully and found that the soil was loose.

So I immediately thought of the Earth Walking Technique.

Some people who are talented in certain areas can learn some escape techniques early on, such as earth walking techniques, or they can perform them through talismans.

Judging from the soil in the room, these people either used talismans to perform earth-walking magic and left, or they had earth-walking magic of their own.

He wanted to hear what these people were talking about, but he found that after they came back, they didn't talk about anything else. After a while, they went to bed to rest.

However, Zhao Fuyun knew that with their current level of cultivation, the Earth Walking Technique would not allow them to travel too far underground, and the same went for the talismans.

As for the direction, it must be the mountains outside the city. It was impossible to go into the city, so he flew in the sky and began to patrol back and forth within the distance he estimated in his mind.

Finally, he saw a clump of new soil in a forest.

The new soil was like a grave mound, bulging and extremely soft. The soil looked like an ant nest, very fine.

He knew that this was the soil that had been refined by magic, and those people who performed the earth-walking technique must have come out from here.

When a ray of light appeared in the sky, the nightingale flew back to the small courtyard dojo. The moment it flew into the window, it caught fire and turned into a ball of ash floating down from the void.

Zhao Fuyun, who had been lying there all night, stood up and began to do morning lessons.

During the day, he walked around the alleys in the county, feeling the cultural atmosphere and observing the living conditions of the people there.

Every time I walk and look around, I feel that everyone’s life is really hard.

We are busy all day long, but just working hard to have enough food and clothing. The key is that even if we work so hard, it is still difficult to have enough food and clothing.

He saw that many people were wearing tattered clothes, some children were naked, and many adults here did not wear shoes.

Even those who raise poisonous insects and have magical powers do not necessarily live a good life. Their food, clothing and other necessities are extremely ordinary and simple.

They live a hard life like insects in the barren mountains.

He walked through many houses, sometimes stopping to listen quietly, and could hear the chirping sounds of poisonous insects in some houses.

People here raise Gu as a way of life.

Moreover, there is a trend that came from nowhere, but people here like to use the spent Gu to make wine.

Of course, there are also some people who set up mourning halls and raise ghosts. These are unorthodox methods and the magic that the disciples of Xuanmen disdain to practice.

But it is very popular here, and he also found that children often die here, not only teenagers but also babies.

But when they died, no one was buried and their ghosts were raised.

There are even some mothers who raise their deceased children as ghosts, and they don't think there is anything wrong with it.

Zhao Fuyun saw all this and could only sigh in his heart.

That night, he once again drew a nightingale, which appeared out of thin air and came to the grove, waiting.

About an hour after it became completely dark, a person suddenly emerged from the ground.

When the man came out, the soil there was rolled up like water.

People came out one by one.

Among them was the woman that Zhao Fuyun thought looked like a cat.

After they came out, they walked quietly in the forest one by one, as if they had a very strong purpose.

The nightingale flew through the woods, following them silently.

When they came to the edge of a swamp, each of them took a pill, which should be an anti-poison pill.

Because there is a lot of obstruction here.

But at this moment, each of them took out a talisman, the talisman's light flickered for a moment, and then one by one disappeared into the darkness.

Hiding the traces?

Zhao Fuyun found that he could not see them, so he flew forward directly, but after flying for a while, he felt powerless.

The Paper Nightingale has reached the limit of what it can reach.

The nightingale suddenly turned into a paper bird in the air and fell to the ground.

At the same time, Zhao Fuyun opened his eyes, then went out from the door in the middle of the compound to the front yard, and then climbed over the wall to leave.

He did not learn any method to hide himself, and even though he had great skills in transformation, he could not make his heavy body transform into an animal like a cat or a bird.

So he could only go to the place where his paper warbler appeared in his physical body.

As for why that woman could transform her body into a cat, she either had some unique secret method or some kind of talent.

He soon came to the place where his paper warbler had fallen.

Suddenly, I heard a loud laugh coming from afar.

"Hahaha, I knew you weren't some traveling merchants. I've been waiting for you for a long time. Today I'm going to feed you all to the bugs..."

(End of this chapter)