Early morning.
Hundreds of meters above, the ceiling of Heavenly River Water Mansion began to slowly light up.
Tower after tower on Tongtian Tower was illuminated, and the entire Water Mansion buzzed to life.
Chen Mu withdrew his gaze from the ceiling.
“No matter how many times I see it, it still feels magical.”
He used to think it was bioluminescent algae, but after living here for a while, he realized the light was emanating from the Water Mansion itself.
Chen Mu guessed that this might be an innate ability of the Golden Pearl Clams.
“Once things settle down, I’ll raise a Golden Pearl and see.”
According to the information he heard, cultivating Golden Pearl Clams seemed to be a very mature industry.
Jilong Road seemed to have its own cultivation farms, just not in the Lower Courtyard of Tongtian River.
“When I first came to Yunzhou and was choosing a profession, there seemed to be an option to cultivate Golden Pearl Clams.”
…
Regaining his focus, Chen Mu, as usual, strolled over to Warehouse District Number Nine in Geng District.
Entering small Warehouse Number Sixty-Seven, he separated out six to seven hundred jin of Yellow Bud Rice, took a quarter of an hour to absorb the Essence of the Five Grains, then replaced some of the lime powder to absorb the moisture in the warehouse.
With the door locked, Chen Mu left the warehouse district.
This was one of his daily routines lately.
“After two more batches, I’ll stop,” Chen Mu planned in secret.
The Proficiency of the Five Elements Qi Absorption Technique wasn’t high enough, doing too much was just wasteful.
The essence he was absorbing now was mainly being stockpiled as a reserve supply of food.
…
Geng District was the gateway to the Heavenly River Water Mansion, with Ling Boats coming and going frequently and a dense flow of people, which in turn spawned a plethora of stores.
Compared to the refined and bustling shops in District Ding where even minor purchases required payment in White Jade Coins,
the marketplace here was rougher and more down-to-earth, where transactions could be made with gold, silver, or White Jade.
He found a Fish Ball shop and ordered a bowl of fish balls.
The mixed fish meat was skinned, deboned, mashed, seasoned, and molded into walnut-sized balls.
Once boiled in a big fire until cooked, a basin-sized black pottery bowl was filled to the brim, garnished with a few verdant greens—savory and satisfying.
Having eaten his fill, he left behind two soybean-sized Golden Pearls as payment and stood up to enter a shop just diagonally across.
Behind the counter, a little-eyed fat man was dozing off out of sheer boredom.
…
“Insect Repellent Incense?” Chen Mu, looking at the shelf to the right of the store, raised an eyebrow.
Shang Huan stood up with a smile, “That’s right, Insect Repellent Incense.”
“Wild Cultivators who roam the mountains and forests hunting Exotic Beasts can’t do without this stuff.”
He said as he took out a gray cloth bag from below the counter and winked as he handed it to Chen Mu, “Here, this is yours.”
Chen Mu reached out to take it, his eyebrow involuntarily arching.
This bag contained at least a hundred White Jade Coins.
“Back at Peng Yue Mountain, you had to conceal your identity to deliver goods, and now you brazenly sell it…”
This also involved the Wood Spirit Boy.
Anyone interested would know that it was Shang Huan who sold the Wood Spirit Boy and the Spiritual Pulp back then.
“Not afraid,” Shang Huan chuckled, “Now, haven’t I got a connection with Liang from the Minor Supervision Court?”
“In the eyes of others, I am now a trusted confidant of Brother Mo, and Brother Mo is a close friend of Liang from the Minor Supervision Court. So that makes me one of Liang’s people too,” Shang Huan said proudly.
Chen Mu suddenly realized.
That’s right. With Liang Yi as his support,
there truly was no need for the same caution as on Peng Yue Mountain.
After understanding this, Chen Mu happily pocketed the White Jade Coins.
He hadn’t expected that a batch of incense he casually made to drive away poisonous insects in the mountains would continue to bring him income!
Quite a pleasant surprise.
After chatting idly for a bit more, Chen Mu left—he had to go back and continue grinding for experience.
…
Two streets away, at the top floor of a three-story wooden building.
Two robust men sat by a half-open wooden window.
Beneath the window was an elongated brown table, on which was placed a platter of toasted pine nuts and a black pottery wine jug.
With a white porcelain cup each, they picked at the pine nuts and drank with gusto.
“We’ve been watching him for six days now, right?”
“What’s the deal with this fatso?”
To the left of the window, a man with dark pockmarked skin and a face of thick flesh slightly tilted his head, peering through the half-open window frame at the little shop not far from the street corner.
To the right, the round-faced, gaunt man with a broad oily forehead chuckled in response.
“You know?” the man with the dark face and horizontal flesh glared at his companion.
“About seven or eight days ago, Prefect Zhang caught a disciple from the Lower Courtyard of Jilong Road.”
“I was present during the interrogation.”
“Don’t be fooled by that fatso’s slick look; he’s quite something,” the broad forehead man said as he shelled a pine nut and popped it into his mouth.
“He’s underling to Liang Yi and the close confidant of Mo Wuzhou!”
“What are we waiting for then? Just grab him!” the man with the dark face said, full of excitement.
“We’re waiting for his accomplices, of course,” the man with the broad forehead replied, giving the dark-faced man a glance.
“Does Prefect Zhang intend to take down that fat man’s friends and family all at once?” the dark-faced man realized.
“What do you think we’ve been watching for?” The broad-foreheaded man shot a sideways glance at him, and then pointed at his head: “I remember all the people that fat man has been in contact with recently!”
“Like the man who just left.”
“What’s so special about that man?” the dark-faced man asked, puzzled.
“Hehe…” The broad-foreheaded man took an enjoyable sip of wine, setting down his empty wine cup on the table, remaining silent.
“Hey!” The dark-faced man tapped his finger on the broad-foreheaded man’s head, but eventually he refilled the man’s cup with wine.
“Out with it, what’s so special about that man!”
The broad-foreheaded man happily picked up the wine cup, held it to his nose, and took his time smelling the wine, putting on airs.
“I’ll cover the cost of our drinks tomorrow, so spill it,” the dark-faced man glared at him.
“Yeah, out with it. I’m curious about what’s so special about that man too,” a deep voice suddenly rang out in the room.
The two men whirled around.
Somehow, a person wearing a white mask and a black hooded cloak had abruptly appeared inside the room.
Black smoke swirled around the figure, eyes calm and detached.
At just one glance, the hairs on the men’s necks involuntarily stood up!
Run!
The same thought simultaneously flashed through their minds.
Both men bolted out of the window in an instant.
Mid-air, they exchanged glances, full of uncertainty yet also feeling relieved.
As long as they jumped out the window, they would have a chance to escape.
The next moment, black and white dense fur sprouted simultaneously on both of their cheeks, and the muscles in their legs rapidly became engorged and swelled, tearing through their trousers. They just needed to land to instantly flee in different directions.
Just as their toes were about to touch the second floor’s blue-tiled eaves.
An invisible force descended from above.
It was as if a pause button was pressed— the two rapidly falling men suddenly stopped mid-air.
Whoosh!
The next moment, they were sucked back into the third-floor room, even faster than when they had leaped out.
Bang!
The wooden window’s bamboo pole fell to the floor, and the heavily pasted paper window suddenly slammed shut.
Instant silence fell within the three-story wooden building.
…
“That was close…” Chen Mu sighed with relief inside the wooden building.
Lucky for him, he had a habit of using the Truthful Listening Technique when roaming the streets.
Initially, it was to gather as much information about the Heavenly River Water Mansion as possible.
Who would have thought that he would overhear people surveilling Shang Huan?
He had assumed it was local forces coveting wealth and goods.
But these two men…
Chen Mu looked at the two figures with thick thighs and slender calves, both with dense black and white hair growing on their hands and faces.
“Heavenly Demon Reincarnation Technique? Zhongshan Path?!”
“So the previous peace was indeed fake!”
How could Zhongshan Path easily allow their three hundred people to stay comfortably in the Heavenly River Water Mansion!
Capture them, interrogate…
Those who went to live in the Heavenly River District earlier…
Chen Mu suddenly had an ominous premonition.
“Collecting information? Divide and conquer?”
“How sinister!”
…
Back at Shang Huan’s small shop, Chen Mu returned.
“Mr. Gongsun?” Shang Huan asked, surprised.
Why would this patron come to his little shop?
Bang!
Two figures appeared out of nowhere, crashing to the ground.
“What is this…” Shang Huan looked at the two half-dead strongmen, immediately stood up, and closed the door.
“You’ve been targeted by people from Zhongshan Path!” Chen Mu said calmly.
Shang Huan’s complexion changed instantly.
“Hand him over to Mo Wuzhou, tell him that Zhongshan Path’s ambitions are not dead, and to go find Liang Yi.”
Detain the mastermind, daringly infiltrating enemy territory?
No no no, that’s something for the hot-blooded protagonists to do.
I’m just an ordinary person. Faced with this kind of situation, in my past life, of course, I would call the police. Now, I have to find someone powerful for help.
“Having taken the money, it’s time they did some work,” said Chen Mu with an even expression.
“Yes!”