“Shopkeeper Pei, we meet again so soon!” Song Pengju said with a smile.
“Greetings, Executive, please uphold justice for us!” Pei Liang quickly cupped his hands in a salute.
“Apprehending thieves is our Immortal Market’s responsibility, please rest assured, Shopkeeper Pei!” Song Pengju nodded faintly, then suddenly said, “Shopkeeper Pei is quite unusual, very calm!”
Pei Liang’s heart skipped a beat. He glanced at Old Man Fang, whose nose was running, and couldn’t help but inwardly curse his own miscalculation.
There was nothing he could do; being honest and upright, he simply had no acting skills!
“The Executive overpraises me. I am merely heartbroken, with nowhere to vent!”
Song Pengju said nothing, instructing a Patrol Team member to move a chair from the chaotic small shop. He then sat down calmly.
The Patrol Team began their inquiry.
“When was the robbery discovered?”
“This morning!” Pei Liang replied.
“Actually, I heard some movement around the hour of Mao!” Old Man Fang quietly added.
“Exactly when?” The Green-Armored Guard frowned slightly.
“Indeed, I heard some movement around the hour of Mao!” Pei Liang softly echoed.
“Please describe the situation in detail!”
Pei Liang glanced at Old Man Fang, who immediately began to say with a crying voice, “At that time, I was sleeping in the inner room. I was woken by the sounds of rummaging. Through the crack in the door, I saw a dark figure sweep away all the items in my room, then fly over the wall and leave!”
“And you?”
“Uh… I was also sleeping. After I woke up, I also heard some movement, but I didn’t see anyone!”
“You two, you heard movement, why didn’t you come out to stop them? You just let yourselves be robbed?” The Green-Armored Patrol Team member coldly demanded.
Old Man Fang’s face fell, “Patrol Team Master, it’s not that we didn’t stop them, but that we didn’t dare! If we didn’t come out, they would at most steal some valuables. If we came out, he might have killed us, after all, our cultivation is weak…”
“My magic power is also very low…” Pei Liang quickly chimed in.
The Patrol Team member was speechless. He then looked at Pei Liang and said, “Your inner room was also ransacked. Where were you sleeping?”
“I… there’s a cellar in my room…”
A hint of disdain appeared on the Patrol Team member’s speechless face.
Digging cellars was not uncommon in such alleys, just like Old Man Fang’s inner room. It was a useless hiding method for poor and death-fearing low-level rogue cultivators.
After asking some more minor details, the Patrol Team member, seeing that he couldn’t get anything valuable, dismissed them both.
He then asked Song Executive for instructions, “Please instruct, Executive, how should this be handled?”
To these Patrol Team members, petty thefts in the remote alleys of the Immortal Market were common occurrences. They were usually just registered, recorded, and then left unresolved after some comforting words.
However, since Song Executive had personally come today, he couldn’t handle it on his own.
“Register what valuables they lost!” Song Pengju said expressionlessly, “Then go and summon the Patrol Team members who were on duty during the hour of Mao!”
“Yes!”
In the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, five Patrol Team members arrived before Song Pengju.
“Greetings, Executive!”
“I ask you, around the hour of Mao, was anyone seen leaving the Immortal Market!” Song Pengju’s gaze was cold, “Think carefully before answering!”
The five Patrol Team members looked at each other. The one in the middle cupped his hands and replied, “Reporting to the Executive, around the third quarter of the hour of Mao, there was indeed one person who left the Immortal Market!”
“Then why didn’t you stop him!”
“We…”
“Hmph, dereliction of duty, go back and receive your punishment!”
The five Patrol Team members left with faces full of grievance. Their duty was to prevent unknown individuals from entering the Immortal Market. As for leaving the Immortal Market, if there were no instructions to seal it off, it was relatively free!
Song Pengju sat in the chair, pondering for a while, then stood up and said to Pei Liang, “Shopkeeper Pei, when you have time, recall carefully why your shop was robbed. If you think of anything, you can always come to the Affairs Hall to find me!”
With that, he left with three Patrol Team members.
“This Executive is so strange!” Old Man Fang spat discontentedly, “We suffered a robbery, and we still have to reflect on the reason ourselves? What kind of logic is that!”
Pei Liang smiled faintly at the corner of his mouth, remaining silent.
He knew Song Pengju was suspicious of him, but what did it matter?
Given the style of a Foundation Establishment family, from the first time the Patrol Team came to question him, he had already entered their list of suspects.
Song Pengju seemed polite, but that didn’t mean he was friendly; it was merely the expected demeanor of a family disciple.
The more polite and high-and-mighty the courtesy, the more they inwardly looked down on low-level cultivators like Pei Liang.
But he didn’t care.
On the surface, he was a penniless, impoverished, low-level cultivator.
Suspicion is suspicion, what’s there to be afraid of?
His value was not enough for them to lose face and directly take action. At most, they would send some Patrol Team members to monitor him!
Standing at the entrance of the small shop, Pei Liang expressionlessly looked at the shop he had smashed to pieces.
He didn’t go in to clean up, letting it remain in that state.
Then he turned and prepared to leave!
“Where are you going?” Old Man Fang asked, puzzled.
“Sell the house, pay debts, move!”
“Are you crazy?”
“Not crazy, just forced!” Pei Liang waved his hand, slowly disappearing into the alley.
No matter what, he had to escape the dangerous vortex.
If he couldn’t pay off the usurious loan within a month, he couldn’t guarantee what the creditors would do.
Now that the shop was being targeted, it was possible it would suffer further robberies.
He had to find a safe residence.
The Yunluo Immortal Market is divided into two areas: inner and outer.
The inner Immortal Market is the commercial shop area of the Immortal Market, and also the area with the largest flow of people in the Immortal Market. The core is even guarded by a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
The outer Immortal Market consists of densely packed, crowded alleys, where most low-level rogue cultivators reside.
The entire Immortal Market is covered by a second-tier magic array, but to save spirit stones, only a portion of its protective functions are activated, and it only covers the inner Immortal Market.
This is also why entry and exit from the outer area are free, and there are frequent cases of rogue cultivators committing crimes.
If Pei Liang wanted stability, he naturally had to live within the protection of the magic array.
A few days ago, when he bought wine at the Flying Star Tower, he learned that there were still vacant three-story buildings next to the restaurant, and he had been thinking about them ever since!
The rent inside the Immortal Market is very expensive, and they are all rented annually, at 450 spirit stones per year.
With his financial situation, he definitely couldn’t afford to live there.
Moreover, he still had a high debt hanging over his head. He had only borrowed two hundred spirit stones initially, but in a few months, it had already increased to five hundred.
The interest was simply outrageous.
The only solution now was to mortgage the small shop.
More than ten years ago, when the Yunluo Immortal Market was first established, he spent only a hundred spirit stones to buy a small house on the outskirts.
Now that the Immortal Market was stable, housing prices had risen, and selling it could fetch nearly a thousand spirit stones.
The Spiritual Construction Pavilion offered a clear price for recycling: seven hundred spirit stones!
He was confident he could sell it for over eight hundred if he found a private buyer, but he was afraid of being scammed!
To be safe, Pei Liang still decided to follow the official procedure.
Seven hundred spirit stones: 450 for rent, 200 to repay part of the debt, and the remaining fifty for emergencies.
Renting first and repaying later was a decision Pei Liang had carefully considered.
The safety factor in the central area of the Immortal Market was very high; as long as he didn’t leave the range of the magic array, the creditors wouldn’t be able to trouble him for a short time.
Most importantly, Shen Fu had successfully entered the Fu Bao Pavilion, making great progress in the path of talismans. His skills had synchronized, and his Master had finally become a true low-grade, elementary talisman Master.
The path to making money had finally opened up to him!
The reason for repaying two hundred spirit stones of debt was simply to alleviate the other party’s volatile emotions.
What if they became enraged and, risking the Immortal Market’s sanctions, ran inside to kill him?
The process for selling and leasing houses was very simple.
In less than half an incense stick’s time, Pei Liang walked out of the Spiritual Construction Pavilion, clutching the rental deed and two hundred and fifty spirit stones.
He hadn’t walked two steps when he was blocked by three burly men.
Pei Liang smiled faintly and followed them into a narrow alley.
A middle-aged man dressed like a wealthy landowner was waiting there, his face cold. “Shopkeeper Pei, you play a good game! Selling your house but not repaying your debt, yet running inside to rent a house. Do you really think our knives dare not draw blood inside?”
Pei Liang calmly took out two hundred spirit stones. He knew the other party’s methods, but at least for now, they wouldn’t dare.
“This two hundred spirit stones will serve as a down payment. Please grant me another half a year’s grace period. By then, I will still pay five hundred spirit stones!”
The middle-aged man was silent for a moment, then snorted, “One thousand spirit stones, otherwise blood will be shed within a month!”
“Deal!”
Pei Liang’s expression was hard to describe as either calm or grim.
His strength was insufficient, so he would endure for now!
My life has been like treading on thin ice. Two hundred years of ordinary longevity, and in the end, I even sold my small shop!
However, the future is still long…