Cultivating Immortality: Starting from Ferrying Passengers

Chapter 12 Martial Law
Ten days later.

After finishing the day's ferrying and soliciting passengers, Fang Jingxuan was not in a good mood.

Today I only earned two spirit stones. For some reason, there have been fewer cultivators traveling between the two places recently.

The line that could originally carry four or five cultivators a day now often only has two or three, which has caused Fang Jingxuan's income to begin to decline.

Business was slow, and the number of people in the market decreased significantly. As a result, Fang Jingxuan's daily work of transporting goods and doing odd jobs was no longer possible.

In a short period of time, Hongyefang seemed a little depressed.

"Brother Fang, come here!"

At the entrance of the market town, Wei Tong saw Fang Jingxuan and waved to him to come over.

When Fang Jingxuan saw that it was Wei Tong, he took Tu Yuan to meet him.

"Brother Wei, what's the matter?"

Wei Tong first looked around, then lowered his voice and said:

"Take a break recently and stop ferrying passengers. You can earn spirit stones anytime. Your life is more important."

Hearing Wei Tong's words, Fang Jingxuan's expression changed slightly, and he also asked in a low voice:
"Brother Wei, what happened?"

"Another Qi-refining family was attacked, with heavy casualties. Now, all the families and branches are gathering their men and closing their doors. Hongyefang will also begin martial law to prevent the robbery cultivators from colluding with the inside, so the talent pool is so sparse.

Those robbery cultivators have gathered together, looking for opportunities. If they fail to find their target and encounter you, do you have the confidence to escape from their clutches?"

After hearing this, Fang Jingxuan wanted to gasp, but luckily he managed to hold it back.

Wei Tong's information was precious, otherwise he would still be foolishly ferrying passengers. If he was really targeted, no matter how fast Tuoyuan could run, he might not be able to escape the methods of so many robbery cultivators.

"I can save myself the trouble, Brother Wei. I won't go out these days. Thank you for your advice."

"Hey, as the guard of Hongyefang, this is what I'm supposed to do. After all, I've consumed so much of your wine, how could I possibly see you risking your life crossing the river? Okay, let's go back early and buy some more spiritual rice and monster flesh. I think it's time to raise the price."

Fang Jingxuan suddenly woke up. Yes, once the doors are closed, these supplies will be the most sought-after. Although he still has a lot of them in stock, who knows when this storm will end.

Thinking of this, Fang Jingxuan quickly said goodbye to Wei Tong and started walking towards the spiritual rice shop in the market.

······
Half an hour later, Tuoyuan, carrying seven or eight bags of spiritual rice and a large piece of monster flesh on his back, slowly walked into his own house.

After Fang Jingxuan carefully recorded and placed these supplies, he breathed a sigh of relief. Looking at the flesh and blood of these spiritual rice monsters, Fang Jingxuan felt more at ease.

However, looking at his current number of spirit stones, Fang Jingxuan could only sigh. The more he accumulated, the fewer spirit stones he had.

A bag of spiritual rice weighs fifty jin, which is equivalent to four dou. If one dou is worth one low-grade spiritual stone, then thirty low-grade spiritual stones will be spent.

And this piece of monster flesh and blood is also very expensive. Such a piece costs twenty low-grade spirit stones. If Fang Jingxuan had not been thinking about Tu Yuan's needs, he would not want to buy these monster flesh and blood.

These supplies are enough for Fang Jingxuan and Tuo Yuan to eat for two months.

Fang Jingxuan didn't believe that the turmoil of the outside world had not subsided in two months. Given the current depressed situation of Hongyefang, the Chu family would not tolerate it.

Hongyefang is the property of the Chu family. The decline of Hongyefang means that the Chu family has less income. Cutting off someone's source of income is like an irreconcilable feud, and the Chu family must take action to resolve it.

With this belief, Fang Jingxuan, after purchasing a large amount of supplies, chose to stay at home and live a quiet life of spiritual practice.
A drop of moonlight dew slowly dripped into Fang Jingxuan's mouth, and instantly turned into a hot stream, spreading into Fang Jingxuan's limbs and bones.

Feeling this heat flow, Fang Jingxuan quickly began to practice the "Three-Turn Wheel Meridian Technique". The speed of running the "Three-Turn Wheel Meridian Technique" was very fast. After one cycle, it actually took more than half the time than usual.

After Fang Jingxuan consumed this drop of Moonlight Jade Dew, his current cultivation progress became as follows:
[Real name: Fang Jingxuan]

[Age: twenty-three]

[Cultivation: Qi Refining Level 2 (273/300)]

Looking at the progress of his practice on the data panel, Fang Jingxuan was delighted. A drop of Moonlight Jade Dew could increase his practice points by 2, which was equivalent to five or six days of hard practice.

As expected, blindly practicing hard is not a good idea. It is better to have more of good things like elixirs.

However, the cheapest bottle of Qi-boosting pills costs ten low-grade spirit stones, and things like elixirs for cultivation are not something that low-level cultivators can hope for.

Humph, when I have money, I will definitely eat the Qi-boosting pills like candy beans.

Fang Jingxuan set another vision, then slowly got up and prepared breakfast.

"Clang clang clang!"

At this moment, someone knocked at the door of the courtyard. Fang Jingxuan frowned and asked loudly:

"who?"

Suddenly an elderly voice came from the door and said:

"Brother Fang, I'm your neighbor, Lao He. I'm here today to discuss something with you."

Old He? The image of a hunched old man flashed through Fang Jingxuan's mind. This Old He did exist, but he was only at the second level of Qi Refining. He was at least eighty years old. Although he was a cultivator and lived longer than ordinary people, he was also in his twilight years.

Although the lifespan of a Qi-refining cultivator is one hundred and twenty years, not everyone can live to that age. Generally speaking, if one can live past one hundred, he or she is considered to be good at health preservation.

I have met Lao He before, but we were just acquaintances. What is he looking for me now?

Fang Jingxuan hated trouble and didn't want to cause any trouble, but now that people had come to his door, hiding was no solution, so Fang Jingxuan thought about it and motioned Tu Yuan to go up and open the door.

As the courtyard gate opened, Tuoyuan's ferocious beast head appeared in front of Lao He, frightening the old man.

After giving Lao He a warning and showing that he was not someone to be trifled with, Tuo Yuan stood behind Fang Jingxuan, while Fang Jingxuan silently stroked Tuo Yuan's head with a somewhat cold look in his eyes.

Feeling Fang Jingxuan's unwelcome, Lao He was also shameless and bowed:

"Brother Fang, we're all neighbors. Hongyefang has been under martial law for almost half a month. Many of us in Muye Street have lost our jobs, and many are struggling to make ends meet. So, I, Old He, was asked to act as a middleman, hoping to exchange what we have and what we need, and organize a bartering activity. So, I'd like you to come over and take a look."

Fang Jingxuan understood clearly that when he asked Tuyuan to carry the spiritual rice back, someone had noticed him, and now the person was thinking about his spiritual rice.

However, private fighting is strictly prohibited in Hongyefang, and Tuyuan seems to be not easy to deal with, so they dare not use any shady tricks. Instead, they think of exchanging what they have with each other and try to exchange some spiritual rice from him.

In this case, Fang Jingxuan had an idea. It is said that even a rotten boat has three pounds of nails. Rice is expensive now, so these old neighbors may have something that can open the door for him to pick up at a bargain.

(End of this chapter)