The Heavenly Court is gone, I don't want to be a True Lord.

Before dawn, Zuo Qi got up, ate about ten pounds of mutton, and began practicing his martial arts.

It didn't stop until the sun was high in the sky.

Feeling the increase in blood and energy within his body, he shook his head helplessly.

From frugality to luxury is easy, from luxury to frugality.

In four or five days on the other side of the river, his Qi and Blood increased from thirty-two to nearly eighty. After returning, he cultivated for several days in a row, but only increased by one level of Bone Refinement Qi and Blood.

This slow pace of cultivation is truly unacceptable.

The sky has been clear and blue for the past few days, so it's unlikely to rain anytime soon.

As for searching for other demons, Zuo Qi thought about the demons that had appeared near the dock, as recorded in Feng Yuan's Demon Record.

The most common are water ghosts, followed by river monsters, monstrous creatures, and maggots...

River monsters and Liang monsters only appear in the water. The former appears at dawn and attacks people on boats, while the latter appears in floods. They are huge and have immense strength.

Zuo Qi's fighting strength was severely reduced in the water, so he had no choice but to give up.

Finally, there are the worms, which are quite special. They parasitize the treasure fish, sucking its life force, and most importantly, they are poisonous!

Once the treasure fish dies, it will parasitize a person and release poison when startled.

There are people in the city who specialize in dealing with treasure fish. They practice the Wang family's Xuan-level martial art - Extreme Shadow Cloud Finger - which can kill the worms before they can release their poison.

Therefore, the Wang family is also the largest buyer of treasure fish in the entire Fushan City.

These pissworms were not something Zuo Qi could handle.

After all the calculations, only a soft target like a water ghost is easy to bully.

in the afternoon.

Zuo Qi and his two companions went out with a wolf skin in their hands.

This was bought by He Xiao and Chun Niang a few days ago when they went shopping. Because it was well preserved and belonged to the wolf king, and because the fur was said to be able to intimidate some wolf cubs, the merchant refused to lower the price, and it cost eight taels of silver.

Yin Jiu sent someone to visit again yesterday. Although Zuo Qi didn't want to get too close to Yin Jiu, he also didn't want to offend her because of this.

If someone brings a gift when they visit, he naturally has to bring one too.

Normal social interactions.

It's a bit expensive. Back in Lanshan Township, when my older sister's family visited relatives, a gift worth about ten yuan was considered a generous gift. I never expected that when I visited, the gift would be so expensive.

Yin Jiu lived in a courtyard by the dock, along with six or seven other men.

He was very polite and welcomed Zuo Qi into the room. The banquet had been prepared and was quite sumptuous, at least better than that of Danguilou.

Zuo Qi and He Xiao remained cautious, while Ni Heng ate without a care in the world.

With both of his older brothers around, he wasn't worried about being taken advantage of.

After mutual flattery.

Yin Jiu started talking, "Cultivation is difficult. For us commoners, obtaining resources for cultivation is incredibly difficult. We usually help the Wang family with their work, but we can barely make ends meet. Sigh..."

Zuo Qi laughed and said, "The three of us, Zuo and his companion, are just scraping by by living off the Lin family."

"My brother and I have some connections in the underworld. We have some connections. Brother Zuo, are you interested?"

Before Zuo Qi could answer, he spoke again.

"A friend asked me to find some people skilled in swimming or some valuable items, and he's asking for a hefty price. Do you have any connections, Brother Zuo?"

Zuo Qi felt a chill run down his spine as he suddenly thought of the water-repelling pearl.

Is Yin Jiu the one with the triangular eyes?

No, Yin Jiu is from the black market. The black market organizers are trustworthy. It's likely that the person behind the triangular-eyed man is unwilling to lose such a treasure as the Water-Repelling Pearl and wants to investigate through Yin Jiu's channels.

He shook his head slightly without changing his expression. "If I had that kind of skill, I wouldn't need to open a shabby fish pen; I could just jump into the water and catch treasure fish."

Yin Jiu laughed heartily.

"Don't say it, I don't like those people, the three of you are more to my liking."

Whether this is true or false is another matter, but it certainly sounds pleasant.

Before leaving, Zuo Qi thought for a moment and said, "Brother Yin, if you ever manage to get your hands on anything rare in the future, I hope you'll remember me and let me patronize your business."

Yin Jiu readily agreed.

……

Not long after Zuo Qi and his two companions left.

A farmer in peasant clothes walked in without a care in the world.

"Brother Yin, how's the investigation going? Are these three lads any good swimmers?"

Yin Jiu ate the meat, then picked up the bowl and drank a sip of wine before speaking with a disdainful expression.

"Those three brutes, all they think about is relying on the Lin family for cultivation, what do they know about water?"

Upon hearing this, the man in farm clothes frowned, and asked somewhat unwillingly, "Really not at all?"

Yin Jiu nodded affirmatively.

The man in farm clothes was speechless. His real name was Xu Feng, and since he was surnamed Xu, he was naturally a member of the Xu family.

As he walked out of Yin Jiu's courtyard, he was once again struck by the decline of the Xu family.

Several of the retainers favored by the Lin family's young ladies have become a source of trouble.

Like a hedgehog, it couldn't move an inch.

Yang Nuo had just asked someone to investigate these three people when another faction asked him to investigate the Water-Avoiding Pearl. After investigating, he found that these three people were also suspects.

Yin Jiu said that these three people had never been to the black market and couldn't swim.

It probably has nothing to do with the water-repelling beads.

That Xu Dong is such a useless piece of trash. He's been working for the young lady all these years and hasn't learned anything. He's a complete waste.

Just tell him later that it was done by some random江湖人 (jianghu person) who happened to be passing by.

If all else fails, let him go and cause trouble for Zuo Qi and his two companions. It would be best if he killed them, and then Miss will give him a good beating.

Xu Feng thought with a sinister glint in his eyes. He didn't get along with Xu Dong, and because of Yang Nuo and the Lin family's background, he also disliked Zuo Qi and the other two. He couldn't make a move himself, so he could let Xu Dong, that brainless guy, do it.

……

There was still no sign of rain in the following days.

Zuo Qi could no longer tolerate the snail-paced cultivation speed, so he approached Yin Jiu and asked to buy some cultivation supplies.

Yin Jiu readily agreed, and the next day he sent over several pieces of yellow jade, which contained the essence of the pied worm.

The essence of a demon with ten years of cultivation, worth one hundred taels on the market, was discounted by 20% by Yin Jiu.

The six pieces of yellow jade were worth a full 120 taels of silver less.

"Brother Zuo, be careful when refining the essence of the larvae, as there may be residual poison."

Yin Jiu gave a reminder, paused, and then said, "The Wang family asked us brothers to get some water ghost essences, but water ghosts are too difficult to deal with. If you can get some, you can exchange water ghost essences of equal cultivation level for two worm essences with me."

Zuo Qi was taken aback at first, then nodded. "I'll take advantage of Brother Yin then."

Back home, He Xiao frowned.

"Brother, we need to be more careful with our money."

This is not surprising. Each of them needs to eat thirty to forty catties of meat every day, and they can't just eat fish. Just eating meat alone costs nearly two taels of silver a day, plus the things they bought at the black market some time ago and from Yin Jiu today.

He only had a little over three hundred taels of silver left.

In addition, Chen Xun hired people to teach at the docks during this period, and the monthly tuition fee was five taels of silver.

Given Zuo Qi's extravagant spending habits, he would spend it all in a month at most.

The key issue is that they have no income. Apart from the thirty taels of silver that Lin Yuchan provides every month, the fish market's total monthly income is only seven or eight taels, and that's only because Zhang Chunfang takes care of them.

"Brother Qi, if all else fails, we can go into the city and find some connections. If that doesn't work, we can do some errands for Miss Yu Chan and earn some money."

These days, affiliation is a very normal thing.

Some wealthy families in the city, who had only recently become rich and lacked powerful martial artists to rely on, were looking for strong individuals from outside the city.

For this type of person, the greater the fame, the better, and the more identities they hold, the better.

They are guests of the Lin family and their strength is not bad. They are capable of handling minor troubles. As long as the word gets out, there will probably be many people seeking to be affiliated with them.

Zuo Qi nodded in agreement upon hearing this.

He lacks money, but he doesn't know how to do business. It's not that he looks down on it, but rather that it's too much work and not worth the effort.

In this world, everything else is considered inferior, only martial arts are considered superior.

People who make their fortune in business think first of sending their descendants to practice martial arts, rather than inheriting the family business. Unless the descendants are hopeless, they will find some geniuses from poor families to sponsor. Once the geniuses grow up, they will protect their descendants and wait for their grandchildren to grow up. This is how some aristocratic families started.

"OK."

Zuo Qi agreed with He Xiao's idea. Affiliation is similar to borrowing a name, which is somewhat similar to some companies in the previous life that hire people with special qualifications as consultants. As long as they have the certificate, they do not need to work and receive a salary every month.

When it's time to actually do something, the host will pay an extra fee.

"The Akimoto Festival is approaching, and Miss Yuchan has treated us very well. I plan to take advantage of this time to obtain some water ghost spirits as gifts."

There is nothing wrong with either of them.