Chapter 7: The Big Cat Can Be Petted, Five Taels a Time

“Inferior goat hair brush, twenty wen. A knife of yellow paper, thirty wen. Mountain ink, fifty wen. White stone inkstone, thirty wen, clay water container, five wen. A total of one hundred and thirty-five wen!” The book attendant said weakly after hearing Shi Feizhe’s words.

Another poor bastard!

Clearly yesterday, Brother Zhang met a raggedly dressed person who bought dozens of taels worth of things in one go! Why can’t I encounter such luck? The book attendant grumbled in his heart.

“Uh… are there any cheaper ones?” Shi Feizhe asked again. It was because he was living off his savings now. Although he had a few taels of silver, he didn’t know how long he would stay in Three Talents Town.

Food and accommodation all cost money! When he was in Yiyang City, he had experienced the embarrassing situation of being stumped by a single wen. The feeling of being hungry and unable to sleep was too uncomfortable.

“No!” The book attendant’s face immediately fell, very unhappy. He felt like he was wasting time!

“Do you have any hard charcoal sticks?” Shi Feizhe had seen hard charcoal sticks in Yiyang City.

“Those are used by rough people like carpenters and bricklayers. This is a bookstore! No! No!!” The book attendant shook his head and said.

Seemingly hearing Shi Feizhe wanting to buy charcoal sticks, a burly man with a face full of flesh in the corner looked up at Shi Feizhe and continued copying books.

“Then give me a knife of yellow paper!” Saying that, Shi Feizhe started to take out money, carefully counted thirty wen, and gave it to the book attendant.

The book attendant also quickly took a knife of inferior yellow paper from the bookshelf and gave it to Shi Feizhe, then went outside the bookstore and started shouting: “Fragrant Heart Studio exclusive…”

The so-called “a knife of yellow paper” refers to the thickness of these papers being the same as the thickness of a knife, about 1.5 centimeters thick. This knife of paper is about the size of a book, and each sheet is relatively thick and of inferior quality. Shi Feizhe counted them, there were only a dozen or so sheets.

He didn’t know if the paper in this world was more expensive, or if the paper in Three Talents Town was more expensive.

After leaving the bookstore, he bought two hard charcoal sticks, and only then did Shi Feizhe go to Three Talents Manor.

Hard charcoal sticks are made by burning willow branches. They are about the same thickness as pencils and are mostly used by carpenters and bricklayers for their work. Every time they are used, the hands are covered in black, which is quite unsightly, and the handwriting is difficult to preserve, so few people use them for writing or copying secret manuals.

But at this time, Shi Feizhe didn’t care about elegance or not. What he needed now was a secret manual, to record it, and then practice step by step.

The closer he got to Three Talents Manor, the more people there were. Following the flow of people, Shi Feizhe arrived at the entrance of a manor with eaves and a roof.

There were two large stone lions at the entrance of the manor. The gatehouse occupied about four or five rooms. In the middle of six red pillars were two large gray-red doors.

It looked very imposing!

On both sides of the gatehouse were walls as high as two people. A nanmu plaque hung on the gatehouse, with the three large characters “Three Talents Manor” written on it.

“Line up for registration! Line up for registration!” The gatekeeper of Three Talents Manor, with his muscles bulging all over his body and a loud voice, stood at the entrance, motioning for the people at the door to line up.

“I am Zhan Ming of Three Talents Manor. Greetings to all the heroes and good men from the Jianghu!” He first cupped his hands and bowed to all directions, then said:

“Our Manor Lord Zhan has made martial arts manuals public. Anyone can go to the West Manor to see them! But all the heroes and good men who come and go must abide by a few rules. It’s convenient for us and also convenient for everyone!”

“First, the martial arts manuals are all in the West Manor. You are welcome to watch and discuss them, but do not go to the East Manor. That is where Manor Lord Zhan and we live. There are female family members inside, which is very inconvenient. If you mistakenly enter, we will kill you as bandits, so don’t blame us for not warning you in advance!”

“That makes sense!” The people lining up for registration echoed.

They came for the martial arts manuals in the West Manor. If they sneaked into the East Manor and were killed as bandits, they would indeed deserve it!

“Second, everyone who enters the West Manor needs to register briefly! If there are any fights or murders in the future, we can track down the clues based on the registration! This will prevent the West Manor from becoming chaotic and full of murders, making it seem like our Three Talents Manor is standing idly by!”

“Third, after dusk, please leave early, heroes and good men! This manor does not provide accommodation!”

“Fourth, the martial arts manuals on the stone tablets have not been fully deciphered by this manor. If you practice them incorrectly and become insane, don’t come to this manor to cause trouble!”

“Fifth, there is a big cat in the West Manor, very powerful. Don’t provoke it, lest you lose your life!”

Big cat? What big cat? Shi Feizhe had doubts in his heart.

✿✿✿

The burly man finished speaking in one breath and cupped his hands to the people lining up. It could be said that he was very polite!

Then he started to register people. The registration was very simple, just the person’s appearance, name, and sect they came from.

As for whether the name was real or not, it didn’t matter, as long as they roughly remembered the appearance and that this person existed.

There were also a few people from other places who were uncooperative, but after seeing the burly man’s demonstration of True Qi External Emission, with one hand ice-cold and the other hand blazing with fire, they all obediently registered.

These people who had not cultivated True Qi, encountering the burly man, would most likely be slapped to death one by one!

Shi Feizhe also registered and entered Three Talents Manor. Following the flow of people westward, he arrived at the West Manor.

Although it was called the West Manor, compared to the high walls and courtyards of the East Manor, it was actually just a flat piece of land with five or six thatched sheds and a few stone benches. In the middle of the flat land were rows of standing stone tablets, with martial arts manuals carved on them, about a few hundred stone tablets!

It was about nine or ten o’clock now. There were already many people studying in front of the stone tablets. In the thatched sheds, there were also people sitting on the ground, lost in thought.

But even more people were watching a big cat.

It wasn’t that everyone hadn’t seen a cat before, but this cat was really big!

It looked like a gray tabby cat, with tabby markings on its body. The fur from its chin to its chest was white, and its four paws were also white. Its fur was shiny and oily, and it was obvious that it was well-fed!

What was surprising was its size. Shi Feizhe estimated it to be about three or four meters long, like a huge tiger! If it weren’t for the gray markings on its body, it would be easy to mistake it for a tiger.

At this moment, it was pressing its paws on its belly as if holding its hands, squinting its eyes, seemingly basking in the sun, lazily lying not far from the entrance of the West Manor. It didn’t seem to mind the people around it watching it.

Next to it were two wooden basins and a wooden sign. There were sixteen characters written on the wooden sign.

“The big cat can be petted, five taels a time. Welcome to feed, but no beef!”

Below this line of words was a cat paw print.

As for the two wooden basins, one was filled with white silver, and the other was filled with food scraps, seemingly a cat food bowl.

Shi Feizhe had never seen such a big cat in his two lifetimes!

So he also stood there and watched for a while. It was really hard to say which was rarer, the martial arts manuals or this thing!

“This is Master Cat! As expected, he’s mighty and extraordinary!” Some of the onlookers couldn’t help but want to touch it, but perhaps their pockets were tight, they raised their hands and then put them down.

“You know it?” Someone asked.

“Legend has it that Master Cat has lived for hundreds of years and is a great demon of the True Person Realm!” The person said, “It’s rare to see even a True Person Realm expert. Now that we can see a True Person Realm great demon, how can we not be excited!”

“True Person Realm great demon!”

“Lived for hundreds of years?”

“Holy crap…”

The onlookers also exclaimed. Even the longest-lived martial arts experts only lived for one hundred and forty-nine years. Now there was a great demon who had lived for hundreds of years in front of them, how could people not be surprised?

Five taels of silver for a touch was indeed not expensive! But they were all poor bastards, they really couldn’t afford it, they could only discuss it.

“Meow~!” The big cat let out an unhappy meow and glanced at them.

It meant, keep your voices down, you’re disturbing my sleep!

Master Cat could clearly rob them, but he still let them touch him. He was too kind!