Chapter 67: Earthshaking
“Crack!” A tree branch snapped in the bonfire.
Today’s branches were picked up in a hurry, they were quite damp, so there was a lot of smoke.
By the bonfire, the honest Monk Liaocheng smoked and said to Shi Feizhe,
“When those people came, I felt the Buddha’s presence. The Buddha told me to let them stay in the temple. Namo Amitabha Buddha!”
“How much did they pay?” Shi Feizhe asked with a dark expression.
Liaocheng raised a finger and said, “They didn’t pay with money, but with accumulated merit.”
“One tael of silver?” Shi Feizhe asked.
Liaocheng shook his head.
“Could it be one tael of gold?” Shi Feizhe asked in surprise.
Liaocheng shook his head again.
“It was one hundred wen!” he said.
“Damn baldy! You gave the temple to others for a hundred wen!” Shi Feizhe was furious.
“You can live in the wilderness yourself, why did you kick me out too! First come, first served, understand!”
“Benefactor, they gave more than you!” Liaocheng said honestly.
“Baldy! Do you know how sharp my sword is?” Shi Feizhe drew his rusty sword and pointed it at Liaocheng angrily.
“This poor monk has accumulated merit for the Buddha, Benefactor, please do as you please!” Liaocheng closed his eyes, acting like a dead pig not afraid of boiling water.
He knew Shi Feizhe wasn’t the kind of person who would kill for a hundred wen.
Shi Feizhe sneered. He had finished copying the manuals during the day, and when he returned to the temple, he found that it had been occupied by several people!
This baldy said the temple was too crowded and took him to a more spacious place, which turned out to be the wilderness outside the East Market!
Spacious it was, but damn, it was too spacious!
He naturally wouldn’t kill for such a trivial matter, but he was ready to beat up this baldy to vent his anger.
“Benefactor, I’ll share fifty with you!”
Just as Shi Feizhe’s fist was about to land on Liaocheng, Liaocheng suddenly spoke.
“Ridiculous! A mere fifty wen cannot appease my anger!” Shi Feizhe said.
Fifty wen might be considered money elsewhere, but in Kongtong Mountain Market, it could only buy two and a half rolls of toilet paper.
“Benefactor, some people may earn mountains of gold and silver, but only share a tiny bit with you. But for one hundred wen of merit, this poor monk shares fifty with you! This poor monk is very fair!”
To avoid being beaten, Liaocheng proactively counted fifty wen and gave it to Shi Feizhe.
“…”
“You baldy, you are indeed honest!” Shi Feizhe took the money and muttered.
He suddenly lost the desire to beat him up.
“Of course, this poor monk is the most honest.” Liaocheng said seriously.
“Hehe…” Shi Feizhe chuckled without saying anything.
The two words “hehe” contained everything.
For a moment, both of them by the bonfire fell silent.
Shi Feizhe looked towards Kongtong Mountain Market and saw twinkling lights hanging from the large residences in the West Market; those were burning lanterns. He could even hear the faint sounds of music coming from there.
The East Market, however, was pitch black, with only the occasional sound of dogs barking.
“Why are there so many people coming to Kongtong Mountain Market recently?” Shi Feizhe suddenly asked.
“Doesn’t Benefactor know?” Liaocheng said.
“What should I know?”
“The main vault of the Great Cai Armory is going to be excavated!”
“Something from hundreds of years ago is only being excavated now, that’s really… Besides, isn’t that all controlled by the Three Mountains and Seven Academies? What does it have to do with these wandering Jianghu folks?”
Shi Feizhe said.
Of course, he had heard about the excavation of the main vault of the Great Cai Armory on his way here.
Although he didn’t understand what was so special about excavating a mountain cave from hundreds of years ago.
Even a pig could dig open a mountain in a few hundred years, right?
And even if it was excavated, so what? Kongtong Mountain Market was controlled by the “Three Mountains and Seven Academies,” and the items within the main vault must have already been allocated.
✿✿✿
There was no chance for wandering Jianghu folks to get a share!
Shi Feizhe didn’t pay much attention to the armory issue. With his current cultivation level and physical condition, he had some self-awareness.
This kind of thing was not something he could participate in at this time.
He came to Kongtong Mountain Market only for the 《True Origin Sword Finger Formula《, to copy the manuals and study them slowly, and then find a place to open a martial arts academy!
“In the Jianghu, secret manuals move people’s hearts.” Liaocheng said, “Originally, the Three Mountains and Seven Academies planned to excavate the main vault two years ago, but they were interrupted by someone.”
“Oh?”
“That person was the Blood-Eyed Gentleman, Ren Daokuang. He single-handedly broke through the blockade of the Three Mountains and Seven Academies, injured two True Realm experts from among them, and forced his way into the main vault.”
“So powerful? I’ve never heard of him.” Shi Feizhe thought for a moment and said.
“It’s said that anyone who has seen the Blood-Eyed Gentleman, Ren Daokuang, claims he is extremely powerful! His fame is only slightly less than those two.” Liaocheng said.
There were no idle people or organizations in the Jianghu who bothered to create martial artist rankings.
Because the risk was too great. You want to rank me with your meager skills?
Who do you think you are?
How dare you gossip behind people’s backs?
How dare you try to instigate conflict among us?
Do you even deserve to?
Therefore, the titles in the Jianghu were all over the place, very exaggerated, and the actual strength often didn’t match the title.
Some experts were well-known in a certain region, but they had no fame elsewhere.
But there were two exceptions: one was the invincible Yuan Jiuzhong!
The other was the Central Plains Demon Sect’s leader, the ever-changing Hua Chonglang!
Yuan Jiuzhong was the undefeated legend of the Jianghu!
No one had ever seen him lose, and everyone who lost to him was utterly convinced of his superiority. Therefore, he was universally recognized as invincible in the Jianghu!
Hua Chonglang, on the other hand, had stirred up a bloodbath in the Jianghu forty years ago, killing countless people and making the Jianghu tremble at the mention of his name, establishing his formidable reputation.
His only defeat was at the hands of Yuan Jiuzhong!
These two had not been heard from since that battle forty years ago!
The lifespan limit of a martial artist was one hundred and forty-nine years. Forty years seemed like a lifetime to ordinary people,
but for martial artists, especially True Realm martial artists, forty years was just a few years ago!
One day, Yuan Jiuzhong and Hua Chonglang would definitely reappear in the Jianghu!
“You’re quite well-informed, baldy!” Shi Feizhe said, thinking about these two people.
Were Yuan Jiuzhong and that old man, Chong Jiuyuan, really the same person?
Could there be such a coincidence in the world?
“If Benefactor spends enough time in the East Market, you’ll naturally become well-informed about all the news, true or false.” Liaocheng said, “And this poor monk is an honest monk, not a baldy.”
“So two years later, when the armory is officially opened, many people in the Jianghu want to be like Ren Daokuang?!” Shi Feizhe ignored his words and said instead.
“Exactly!”
“I’m afraid they’re just being used as cannon fodder to test the waters!” Shi Feizhe could see at a glance that there was something fishy going on, someone wanted to fish in troubled waters.
“Since Benefactor can see it, how could they not?” Liaocheng continued, “But in the Jianghu, even if you see the pit, you still have to jump in!”
That’s how the Jianghu was, there were no fools.
There was just no choice.
After all, only by obtaining martial arts manuals could one become stronger. And once you were strong, you had everything!
Shi Feizhe was about to say something else when he suddenly heard a loud “boom.” Then he felt the ground shake and the heavens and earth tremble.
“Is it an earthquake?”
“No!” Liaocheng stared wide-eyed at something behind Shi Feizhe.
Shi Feizhe turned his head and saw a brilliant light shooting up into the sky from Kongtong Mountain in the darkness, dyeing the entire sky with a myriad of colors.
“It’s the Great Cai Armory!” Liaocheng said.
Earthquake!
