Envy Immortal Teahouse.
Chen Mu stared inexplicably at the small bowl in his hands.
The bowl contained a fist-sized clump of rice.
This rice was extremely heavy, holding the small bowl felt like holding a stone!
The grains were crystalline yellow, as thick as rice from his previous life, but as long as peanuts, slender and sharp.
Chen Mu picked up a grain and slowly chewed.
A sweet and sticky fragrance spread in his mouth.
Swallowing it, a gentle warmth emanated from his stomach.
“Delicious!” Chen Mu exclaimed in surprise, “Yellow Bud Rice is truly extraordinary.”
Then he shook his head and wryly smiled, “But it’s also extraordinarily expensive.”
Just a fist-sized portion had cost him five hundred Silver Taels!
“Yunzhou can’t possibly have these prices, right?” Chen Mu worried deeply about future living expenses.
“How come after Spirit and Soul Unification I’ve ended up with such a huge appetite?” Chen Mu said helplessly.
The Fasting Pills were all eaten.
The Silver was nearly all spent.
If he continued to stay, he’d have to use those seventeen White Jade Coins.
“I should’ve extorted more from that old shaman!” Chen Mu thought, annoyed.
As the Cloud Mirage Spirit Armor Technique improved, his body’s transformation accelerated and his appetite greatly increased. Ordinary food was no longer enough to satisfy him.
“Is Yellow Bud Rice the main dish after Spirit and Soul Unification?”
“This taste is somewhat familiar,” Chen Mu puzzlingly frowned.
“Fasting Pills?” He suddenly realized.
Although still unable to discern the ingredients, the Fasting Pills must be related to Yellow Bud Rice.
“I wonder if this stuff is easy to grow.” Chen Mu sighed.
For the next twenty years, he’d have to live with this stuff.
…
Within the Zuo Liuyi Mao cabin.
Chen Mu sat cross-legged on the bed.
The table still had the version 1.0 Calming Spirit Pills smoldering.
In his mind, silvery strands pierced through a veil-like fog, rushing towards his eyes.
Chen Mu was gradually getting used to these assaults. Stay updated through empire
“The Divine Intent Diagram clears the fog, achieving Spirit and Soul Unification. Is this what they call ‘opening the Heavenly Gate’?” Chen Mu suddenly understood.
Chen Mu opened his eyes and looked toward the gray wall.
Cloud Mirage Spirit Armor Technique: 7757/10000/Sixth Rank;
“Once all the Soul Strength undergoes a quality transformation, I can begin perceptive cultivation.”
“I can’t outdo Daoist Bone, but I am still one step ahead of the majority,” Chen Mu nodded in satisfaction.
…
The White Ba louse has reached Yunzhou, but not yet Jilong Mountain.
The scenery beyond the transparent screen remained unchanged. Whether by day or by night, there was always a watery landscape.
Had it not been for docking every two or three days to let off passengers, Chen Mu might have thought they were still drifting at sea.
“No wonder it’s called the Tongtian River.” Not to mention the reverse surge wonders described in the books,
Even the width where one cannot see the riverbank is enough to be called the Tongtian.
People gradually left the ship, and familiar faces like Zuo Sheng, Cheng Yi, and Tu Shan disembarked one after another.
“Who knows when it’ll be my turn.”
Even though he had prepared himself mentally, he couldn’t help feeling uneasy about arriving in an unknown place.
“I should have given that old man a few more White Jade coins.” Chen Mu regretted faintly.
With more money, perhaps he could have been arranged a better place.
…
Half a month later, just as Chen Mu’s Silver savings fell below five thousand Taels, they finally arrived at Jilong Mountain.
Running down the boarding stairs to the exit, Chen Mu saw the skinny old man who had stamped his documents again.
He checked everyone’s marks, then silently led the group of over a hundred people to disembark.
The back of the pale White Ba louse opened up like a pentagonal turtle shell, revealing a straight passage.
The line of people walked out of the passage and onto a stone pier.
The old man handed the stamp to a fat Daoist wearing a black Daoist robe, and after a brief exchange of words, turned and left.
Chen Mu blended into the crowd and looked around carefully.
Looking around, the distance was filled with layers of lush green mountains shrouded in light clouds.
He shifted his gaze back, looking towards the end of the stone-built dock.
Streets, shops, peddlers, crowds. Chen Mu even thought he had returned to the docks east of Lijiang City.
He turned his head to look at the north side of the dock and noticed there was a Low Mountain.
Near the side of the Tongtian River was a cliff with a gradient almost vertical.
Five or six tall, black-tiled wooden buildings were actually built, embedded mid-cliff!
“Daring to live in a place like this, they must not sleep well, really bold.” Chen Mu mocked in his mind.
If it really collapsed, with the body strength of everyone’s Shell Soul present, death from the fall would be unlikely, but it would definitely hurt.
After giving the ordinary-looking dock a good once-over, a hint of disappointment flashed through Chen Mu’s mind.
“Were the White Jade Coins really given too little?”
Then he saw a figure abruptly leap out from the window of a wooden building on Low Mountain, enveloped in a cocoon of glowing white light in an instant.
After a slight dip, the figure ascended slowly and then accelerated upwards.
Upon reaching above Low Mountain, it turned a right angle, and zoomed off into the distant mountains.
Chen Mu: “…”
Fuck!
…
The chubby Daoist looked back for a moment, and then with a beaming smile, said, “That is our Director Song Wujie of the Lower Courtyard of Jilong Road.”
“Our Director Song is a rare master of Condensing Aperture.” The chubby Daoist said with unmistakable pride.
“What’s most important is that the starting point of the Oversight Courtyard was the same as yours!” he said, full of remembrance.
“Director Song also came here riding on the White Scroll Shuttle.”
“Through diligent labor and dedicated cultivation, step by step, he Joined Jade Seed, gathered the Gathering Talisman, Condensed Spirit Orifice, and finally became the Elder Inspector.”
“If you work steadfastly without causing trouble or adding chaos, maybe you could become the second Director Song!” The chubby Daoist encouraged them sincerely.
The crowd, which had just a moment ago wore hesitant expressions and eyes filled with disappointment, suddenly boiled with enthusiasm.
It wasn’t that these people were easily deceived, but rather, they were the cream of the crop from their respective countries.
They all had an air of confidence that they too could make it.
Even Chen Mu, the lazy homebody, couldn’t help but feel excited.
Fly!
That was actual flying!
Not the floating of Five Ghosts Moving Mountain, but real, off-the-ground flying!
And it was so fast!
Even knowing the chubby Daoist was just luring them with possibilities, Chen Mu couldn’t help but be moved by the ups and downs of his emotions.
“A true man should be like this!” Heat rushed to Chen Mu’s head in the moment.
…
Three days later.
The food store of the Lower Courtyard of Jilong Road.
“Yellow Bud Rice is limited to ten jin, totaling two thousand Silver Taels.”
“Silver Bead Rice two hundred jin, totaling twenty-four Taels.”
“Sir, the total comes to two thousand and twenty-four Silver Taels. What do you think…” A shop assistant in his thirties clad in gray clothes looked at Chen Mu with a smiling face.
The corner of Chen Mu’s mouth twitched. The enthusiasm from three days before evaporated instantly in the face of day-to-day necessities.
Although the prices were significantly lower than on the White Scroll Shuttle, they were still outrageously high.
He had a total of four thousand two hundred and fifty-six Silver Taels on him. This purchase would take away almost half, which really hurt.
And this was only enough for one month’s worth of rice!
Not to mention the cost of all kinds of meat and vegetables!
Life is not easy…
…
Carrying two sacks and holding a gray cloth bag, Chen Mu silently left the food store.
He walked down the dockside street, heading eastward.
Passing through the Market District, residential areas, and leaving behind the stone archway marked with Tongtian Square, he turned around the slope of Low Mountain.
A vast basin plain that seemed limitless appeared before his eyes.
Well-ordered fields lay on the ground.
Scattered houses were barely visible among the fields.
“Looks like I’ll be muddling through here for the next twenty years.”
Despite the visible hardships, he felt somewhat at ease.
Jilong Road was no fringe sect or evil cult, at least there was no immediate danger to life.
Chen Mu tightened the sacks on his shoulder, quickened his pace, and with clouds of dust swirling behind him, he bounded off energetically.