The two streets weren’t completely disconnected from each other. Once in awhile, there will be rich mortals who will go to Overlooking Immortals street to buy some elixirs. Even though they couldn’t cultivate, they could still consume the elixirs to strengthen their bodies and prolong their lifespan.
Overlooking Immortals street is Qing city’s most prosperous street. Innumerable cultivators would come and go along this street; there were some who had swords on their back, some who wore alchemist uniforms, and some would even carry wine gourds on their back.
“Dage, should we rent a stall first?” Yan Tianhen often followed Lin Zhan here to shop, so he more or less understood the rules of the bazaar.
Lin Xuanzhi thought for a bit, then said, “Yeah.”
They found someone who was patrolling nearby, then after they told him what they were here for, they gave the other party ten silver and obtained an incomparably remote and desolate location. Yan Tianhen grimaced, then said with an aching heart, “He actually asked for one gold, isn’t that a bit too exorbitant!”
You must know, one gold is equivalent to a hundred silver, and this amount could get them G.o.d knows how many stalks of spiritual plants! He could only earn back that amount after working for twenty days!
Lin Xuanzhi knew that his housekeeping mentality had resurfaced, so he comforted, “Don’t worry, we’ll just raise the price of these wine cups a little higher.”
Yan Tianhen nodded, then said, “Then we should hurry and lay the cups out ba.”
Lin Xuanzhi had crafted a total of seven cups, two of which he left for his and Yan Tianhen’s personal use. The remaining five cups were arranged side by side on a piece of black brocade1 that he had laid out on their stall’s table.
But since their stall’s position was really too horrible2, don’t even mention selling the cups, they could rarely see people pa.s.sing by. Once in awhile one or two people would walk by, but they would only cast a brief glance at their stall then walk away without much interest.
Lin Xuanzhi is someone who had never dabbled in any sort of business. In his past life, he had adhered by the cultivator’s principle of not being stained by the stench of copper, so he had rarely touched any sort of money.
Thus, this immortal that appeared like he had never been stained with the secular stood behind their store and didn’t say a word. He actually looked like a decoration for the stall.
After an hour pa.s.sed, Yan Tianhen couldn’t sit still anymore.
“Dage, why not I shout out a few words ba.”
“Shout? I’m afraid that won’t be very effective.” Lin Xuanzhi thought for a bit, then took out one gold and pa.s.sed it to Yan Tianhen, then said, “Ah Hen, go to the adjacent Changle street and buy a jar of good wine.”
Yan Tianhen was stunned, then asked, “Do I buy mortal wine?”
Lin Xuanzhi nodded, then said with profound mystery, “The more ordinary it is, the stronger the effect will be when you drink it.”
Yan Tianhen nodded, then ran towards the adjacent Changle street.
Within a moment, Yan Tianhen ran back with a black jar.
Yan Tianhen placed the jar on their table, then broke out into a huge smile and said, “Mortal’s items are cheap after all. I went to buy their best wine and it only costed me one gold per catty3.
For a mortal, one gold was already considered a sky-high price.
Lin Xuanzhi unsealed the jar, then said, “Take a whiff, how’s the scent?”
Yan Tianhen covered his nose, then furrowed his brows as he retreated a few steps back and said, “What a pungent smell, one whiff and you can tell that it’s wine drank by mortals.”
“Then that’s good.” Lin Xuanzhi nodded and said, “Ah Hen, circulate the Qi in your body and use it to disperse this wine’s scent.”
Yan Tianhen blinked and faced a dilemma as he said, “Overlooking Immortals street’s rules stated that no mortal items can be sold here, or else the vendors selling them would be chased out.”
Lin Xuanzhi said, “We’re not selling this wine, we’re just using it to attract people to our stall. Ah Hen need not overthink it.”
With Lin Xuanzhi’s guarantee, Yan Tianhen felt rea.s.sured. Then he began to brazenly circulate his Qi to disperse the smell of this jar of wine in all directions.
There’s an old proverb that said, fragrant wines fear no dark alley; but if the wine is bad, even if it was buried somewhere deeper than a dark alley, someone would smell it.
Thus, just as the smell of this wine reached a store that was selling spiritual wine, that store’s owner immediately fumed.
“Where did those ignorant rascals come from, they actually dare to sell mortal wine on Overlooking Immortals street? Dammit, I need to go take a look.”
Boss Feng immediately brought a few of his henchmen out of his shop and gallantly walked in the direction from which the wine smell came from with vigor.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the street stood a cosmetic shop. The Madam Duan who was browsing the latest collection of rouges had smelled the same scent of wine as well.
Madam Duan couldn’t stop her eyebrows from furrowing, then said to the Duan second young master, Duan Yuhao who had accompanied her, “Why is there this kind of strong-smelling mortal wine here?”
Duan Yuhao looked unhappy as he said, “It’s probably coming from some lowly mortal who had accidentally wandered into Overlooking Immortals street from somewhere. Don’t worry mother, I’ll dispatch some people later to drag that mortal out and beat him to death.”
Madam Duan’s face softened, then looked at Duan Yuhao askance and said, “You ah, you only talk about killing people the moment you open your mouth. If your father had overheard that, he would be preaching to you again.”
Duan Yuhao appeared to pay no mind and said, “Father is too indecisive, a real cultivator should be like me. All those mortals are mere ants to us.”
Madam Duan said, “The last time you impetuously murdered that mortal family’s three sons, you actually left evidence behind that they could use against you. But fortunately, when they came to lodge a complaint, your father wasn’t around so I could help you resolve that incident and seal their mouths. Or else, if your father had caught wind of it, he definitely wouldn’t have let you off easily.”
Duan Yuhao is the Duan family’s second young master and was ranked below Duan Yuyang. He was Duan Yuyang’s brother and they shared the same father, but different mothers. Although his cultivation level wasn’t low and his talent was extraordinary, he was too conceited and had homicidal tendencies.
These bad traits of his made the Duan family’s Master very unhappy.
Even though cultivators were born to be a cut above mortals, they were still outnumbered by mortals in this world, so they needed to abide by the rules that kept both sides from disturbing one another to some extent.
“Pft, Father just likes that deranged Duan Yuyang.” Duan Yuyang sarcastically said, “Duan Yuyang doesn’t kill people, but he’s a pitiful trash who’s destined to never go beyond Refining Qi.”
Madam Duan’s face stiffened, then abruptly pulled on Duan Yuhao’s wrist and lowered her voice as she said, “Ah Hao, take note of your words. There are a lot of people here, don’t arbitrarily spout nonsense.”
“I understand, Mother.” Duan Yuhao casually complied. He suddenly took another whiff of that low-quality wine, then immediately furrowed his brows and fumed. He cracked his fingers and said, “That f.u.c.ker deserves death, I’ll go and deal with him now lest he irks my eyes!”
When Boss Feng brought his henchmen and rushed to the scene, quite a number of people had already gathered in front of Lin Xuanzhi’s stall.
“What do you mean by this?” a cultivator who had pa.s.sed by was a.s.saulted by the scent of the wine and thus rushed over in a fit of rage to argue with its seller.
Most cultivators believed that exposing them to mortal goods was a kind of humiliation and provocation. Yan Tianhen explained, “We’re not selling wine, we sell wine cups!”
“Just these few broken toys?” Someone casted a glance over those cups that didn’t look like they were anything special, then said, “Hurry and quote a price, I’ll buy them all. You better stop your farce here and defile Laozi’s nose.”
As he spoke, this cultivator dressed like a rich young master casually threw a golden leaf out that was worth ten gold.
Lin Xuanzhi didn’t even look at the golden leaf before he lightly said, “Five wine cups, one thousand gold in total.”
“What?!” Rich young master was immediately startled. He dug his ears before he said, “One thousand gold? Have you gone crazy from dreaming about money?!”
“Hahaha, just these few broken cups, a few coppers should be able to buy them all. These two guys actually want to sell them for gold, are they crazy!”
“Judging from his appearance, I had thought that he was a cultivator, but I didn’t expect him to actually be an idiot.” Someone else added.
When the rich young master heard these words, he narrowed his eyes and sized Lin Xuanzhi up. Even though he couldn’t see his face that was covered by the bamboo hat, he could tell from this person’s body: broad shoulders, a narrow waist and ink black long hair that draped over his shoulders, coupled with his st.u.r.dy cypress stance and the charm he exuded — he was definitely a rare stunner.
As for the one standing beside him…shrivelled figure, short stature, and a head full of yellowing, unruly hair — he was probably a servant.
Rich young master raised his eyebrow, then said, “What about this, take off your bamboo hat and let Young Master4 take a look, if your looks suit Young Master’s taste, it’s not impossible for Young Master to give you a thousand gold.”
The crowd burst out into laughter. This rich young master was obviously teasing Lin Xuanzhi.
Yan Tianhen fumed and said, “It’s up to you whether or not you want to buy these cups, my Dage isn’t here to sell his looks. If you can’t afford them then stand aside and don’t block the way.”
Rich young master narrowed his eyes and said, “I’m talking to your Master, you’re in no position to cut in. A servant like you has really poor upbringing.”
Lin Xuanzhi opened his mouth and said, “Right now, even if you offer me ten thousand gold, I won’t sell these cups to you. Since there’s not even one person in the crowd who can recognise the value of these goods, then it doesn’t matter even if I don’t sell them today.”
Lin Xuanzhi would definitely not tolerate those who dared to look down on Yan Tianhen.
When he finished, Lin Xuanzhi prepared to put away his five wine cups.
“Wait.” Boss Feng walked to the front and looked at those few wine cups, then hesitantly asked, “These cups, are they made from Blood Spiritual Stone Marrow?”
Lin Xuanzhi raised his eyebrow slightly, then his lips curved up underneath the white veil of his bamboo hat as he thought: looks like there is someone who can recognise value.
“They are indeed made from Blood Spiritual Stone Marrow, and the raw material is of a high-grade quality.” Lin Xuanzhi said.
Boss Feng’s interest was piqued. He took one wine cup and scrutinized it as he said, “Even though Blood Spiritual Stone Marrows are commonly seen, most are of either low or mid-grade quality. A cup made out of such a small piece of high-grade raw material can indeed fetch a price of a hundred gold, but two hundred gold is too high an asking price. Also, your wine cup is of the simplest design and doesn’t even have patterns on it. To make use of mortal wine to attract people over may have been a clever move on your part, but it had probably backfired on you instead.”
Lin Xuanzhi lightly said, “Why not your Excellency pour some wine into it and try its flavour.”
Boss Feng was slightly startled, then said, “What, don’t tell me there’s something else special about this cup?”
Yan Tianhen said, “Of course, my Dage wouldn’t purposely use mortal wine as a vulgar claptrap just to attract attention, you’ll understand once you take a sip. You’ll lose out if you don’t buy them, you’ll be duped if you don’t buy them, and after you buy them once you’ll want to buy them again!”
Yan Tianhen’s mouth was so smooth that Boss Feng almost laughed. This kid, he might have a rough and coa.r.s.e voice, but he could actually be an expert at doing business.
As for the one standing next to him, at one glance you could tell that this Dage of his didn’t fit in well with this place…if he could really sell his wares, then he’s probably quite lucky.
Boss Feng’s interest was piqued further. He picked the wine jar up and poured one full cup of wine into the wine cup, He was extremely adept at pouring wine. Even though the wine cup was only as big as an apricot and its top was only the size of a bowl, Boss Feng didn’t spill a single drop of wine.
Boss Feng held the wine cup and brought it under his nose to take a whiff.
He first used some wine to lightly moisten his lips, but then he suddenly paused. He lowered his head to take a look at the wine inside the wine cup, then hurriedly downed the rest of it in one shot.
Boss Feng was stunned. His eyes opened wider and wider, and after he finished drinking the entire cup of wine, he stopped moving.
“How is it Boss Feng?”
“What does it taste like?”
“Don’t tell me something happened to your body because you drank mortal wine ba!”
The onlookers were extremely curious and couldn’t help but incessantly ask Boss Feng about how he felt.
Boss Feng looked at Lin Xuanzhi, then picked up the wine jar and poured the wine inside directly into his mouth.
But he had just downed a big mouthful when Boss Feng spit the wine out with a “pu一” sound.
Lin Xuanzhi lightly smiled, “Boss Feng, how’s the taste?”
Boss Feng pinched wine cup in his hand and was actually reluctant to part with it.
He involuntarily asked, “Did you put anything else in your wine cup?”
Lin Xuanzhi said, “Naturally there are some other special ingredients mixed into it, but that’s my secret recipe, so it’s inconvenient to divulge this information to an outsider.”
Actually, the cup itself wasn’t special, what was special was his crafting method.
Items crafted using different hand seals and word seals can be said to be as different as heaven and earth.
1. Black brocade table cloth:
↩
2. Original phrase is “坑爹”, which refers to something very deceiving i.e. their spot was so horrible yet so expensive = they were cheated↩
3. One catty = 500~600g↩
4. He refers to himself as young master↩
T/N: There won’t be an update tomorrow, I have something important to prep for on Monday~