The Path to Immortality: Starting with the Growth of Bubble Fruits from the Ground

"Ouch, be gentle!"

The shopkeeper slapped Old Wang's hand away, causing him to wince in pain.

Old Wang clapped his hands: "Tell me, what's going on here? Could it be that someone has come to the Lieyang Chamber of Commerce to freeload?"

The shopkeeper glared at Old Wang and gritted his teeth as he spat out, "I was tricked by them when I went to the Wang family to collect the goods yesterday."

Old Wang asked suspiciously, "The Wang family only has one person at the early Foundation Establishment stage. Do they really have the guts to do this?"

"The Wang family was just an excuse to lure me out of the market; the key is the person behind them."

As he spoke, the shopkeeper looked at Zhou Mu.

Now Lao Wang and Zhou Mu both understood that this was the work of the family alliance.

As for the purpose, Zhou Mu could guess it without the shopkeeper explicitly stating it: to encircle and suppress him and cut off his source of income.

"Ever since you left last time, people have been spreading your portraits throughout the market, and they're forbidding all merchants from doing business with you."

The shopkeeper slammed his hand on the table and said, "Of course I couldn't stand it with my short temper, so I gave them a good scolding, and then... I sparred with them for a couple of moves and suffered a little loss in the process."

"Shopkeeper, it's all my fault for dragging you into this. I'll be leaving now."

Zhou Mu's killing intent surged rapidly. He hadn't expected the family alliance to go to such extremes. After failing to harm him, the sect immediately turned to threatening people connected to him.

This was even more painful for him than killing Zhou Mu.

Zhou Mu clenched his fists, but a deep sense of powerlessness filled his entire body.

Zhou Mu didn't want to involve innocent people because of himself, so he turned and walked out after saying that.

"Stop!" Zhou Mu turned around and saw the shopkeeper with a wicked smile on his face: "So you're backing down?"

"no way!"

"That's good," the shopkeeper laughed twice, "Bring out your goods, I'll buy them at a high price today, and I'll do it with great fanfare."

"Xiao Zhou, just do as the shopkeeper says."

Seeing Lao Wang's signal, Zhou Mu hesitated for a moment before taking out all the goods.

"Shopkeeper, this is 1,000 catties of medium-grade Huangjing rice, and 400 catties of low-grade Xueya rice."

Zhou Mu kept only 100 jin of blood-tooth rice from this season's harvest for food; the rest was all left here.

The shopkeeper glanced at it, then looked up at Zhou Mu.

"For every 1,000 catties of medium-quality Solomon's Seal rice, I'll give you a price of 37 spirit stones per 100 catties, which is 370 spirit stones in total."

"Four hundred catties of Blood Tooth Rice, at twenty-four spirit stones per hundred catties, that's ninety-six spirit stones."

"Xiao Zhou, the two types of rice cost a total of 466 low-grade spirit stones. What do you think?"

Zhou Mu quickly calculated in his mind that the price was slightly higher than the acquisition price of the previous season.

He looked at the shopkeeper, "Shopkeeper, this price..."

"What, you think it's too much?" The shopkeeper grinned, then aggravated his wound, letting out a painful hiss. "If you think it's too much, I'll reduce it."

Zhou Mu quickly replied, "No...no problem, thank you very much, shopkeeper."

"That's more like it," the shopkeeper smiled and continued, "I won't settle the bill with you for the spirit stones yet. Whatever you need to buy, I have everything you need for your Qi Refining stage."

Zhou Mu had already decided what he needed to buy, and said directly, "I need ten bottles of Qi-Nourishing Pills, as well as some spells and magical artifacts. Do you have any recommendations, shopkeeper?"

The shopkeeper took out ten bottles of pills and a thick booklet and handed them to Zhou Mu: "These are the pills, and this is a list. Everything you need is on it. Let me know when you've chosen."

"good…"

Zhou Mu put away the pills, picked up the booklet and walked to the side to look through it, while Old Wang and the shopkeeper held teacups and talked in hushed tones.

"Wow, that's expensive!"

Zhou Mu gasped. The booklet contained so many wonderful things that it dazzled him and made him very tempted.

But Zhou Mu could only afford a few.

After a long, drawn-out process, Zhou Mu finally decided what to buy.

The eight earthworms and the Spirit Control Technique manual will save Zhou Mu a lot of time for cultivation.

One inferior magical artifact, the "Azure Leaf Sword," and one copy of the Azure Leaf Sword Manual.

One copy each of the inferior spells: Wood Armor Spell and Wood Vine Spell.

"Shopkeeper, I need these."

The shopkeeper glanced at everything, his brow furrowing slightly. He asked in surprise, "With all this stuff and ten bottles of Qi-Nourishing Pills, I'd only give you two spirit stones at most. Aren't you going to keep some?"

"Don't keep them!"

Zhou Mu didn't hesitate. He should spend the spirit stones he had earned. In his current situation, he wouldn't live long as a miser.

"So what if I'm poor? I'll be poor enough that all I have left is my skills."

Before long, the shopkeeper had prepared everything Zhou Mu needed: "Put it away. There are two spirit stones left."

After Zhou Mu finished packing his things, Old Wang, who had been silent all along, spoke up: "Little Zhou, why don't you go downstairs and have some tea first? I'm going to talk to the cabinet installer about a business deal. I'll come down to find you later."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Mu nodded and followed the maid downstairs to a tea room.

---------

After Zhou Mu left, Old Wang and the shopkeeper remained silent.

Suddenly, Old Wang said, "Are we just going to leave it at that?"

The shopkeeper covered his face, his tone icy: "Impossible, I've already made arrangements, right here..."

"Hey..." Old Wang waved his hand to interrupt, "Don't talk to me, this old man can't handle these things now."

"Sigh... Brother, back then..."

"Shut up, calculate these things, and give me the spirit stones."

With that, Old Wang expressionlessly tossed the storage bag into the shopkeeper's arms.

"All right."

---------

"Xiao Zhou, return to the sect's headquarters."

Zhou Mu, who was studying magic, heard Old Wang's voice and immediately went outside, where he saw Old Wang waiting for him at the entrance of the Chamber of Commerce.

"Old Wang, what's going on with them?"

Zhou Mu pointed at the eight servants at the entrance of the Chamber of Commerce and looked at Old Wang with a strange expression.

"It's nothing. Didn't the shopkeeper just say that there was a lot of banging and drumming?"

Four of them were seen holding megaphones and shouting at the top of their lungs: "Zhou Mu of the Myriad Paths Sect, a thousand catties of spirit rice, top quality..."

The other four people were banging gongs and drums on the side, the sound echoing throughout the street, attracting many cultivators to stop and watch.

Among them were some spiritual farmers from the Myriad Paths Sect, who looked at Old Wang and Zhou Mu at the entrance of the Chamber of Commerce with surprise.

"Get out of here, it's too embarrassing."

Zhou Mu pulled Lao Wang through the crowd and ran towards the camp.

At the same time, two men in black robes in the crowd exchanged a glance, then slowly retreated and disappeared without a trace.

---------

As Zhou Mu and his companion passed by the Red Mansion, a fair-skinned, rosy arm suddenly took Zhou Mu's arm.

"Hey buddy, come in and have some fun."

A woman dressed in a thin veil tightly hugged Zhou Mu's arm with one hand, drew circles on his chest with the other, and whispered seductive words in his ear.

"Holy crap..."

The woman's cultivation was higher than Zhou Mu's, and he was caught red-handed because he wasn't paying attention. At this moment, Zhou Mu's hair stood on end. He cursed under his breath, pulled his arm out, and ran away.

"Oh, so he's a gentleman after all..."

"I think it's just a virgin..."

"Impossible, he must be a pauper..."

The women laughed uproariously as they watched Zhou Mu flee in such a disheveled state.

At this moment, one of them glanced at Old Wang, who was still standing there grinning foolishly, and said, "Grandpa, your grandson has already run away, what are you still looking at?"

Old Wang: "I..."

"roll…"