Chapter 40: Kill Him

  Why is the reader's impression ranked first as "Beauty must be collected"?

  About half an hour after Li Wenjun left, a Taoist-looking man rushed over like the wind. He stood outside the mansion that was burning with fierce flames, his face gloomy as water.

  "Bastard, how dare you ruin Master Dao's good deed. Don't let Master Dao find you, or else he will tear you to pieces." The Taoist said gritting his teeth.

  At this time, Li Wenjun had already returned home, he jumped over the wall and returned to his own room. He also had no heart to sleep, but sat cross-legged on the bed, practicing meditation.

  When it was daylight, Sun Jianing came over and knocked on the door, asking Li Wenjun to have breakfast with them.

  At the dinner table, Li Wenjun found that Sun Baicao and his son Sun Jianing had an unprecedented expression on their faces, not as worried as they were in the past few days. He asked: "Uncle Sun, is there something happy? Did you find a good buyer?"

  Sun Baicao chuckled and said, "You're a clever kid, nothing gets past you. Indeed, yesterday afternoon I met an old customer who was willing to pay a good price for our herbs. Today, he'll bring people over to inspect our herbs personally, and if everything goes smoothly, we can sell all of our herbs today."

  Sun Jianing said mysteriously: "If we can sell them all, we can at least earn five more silver coins."

  Looking at Sun Baicao and Sun Jianing, who were overjoyed just for five taels of silver, Li Wenjun felt the huge gap between ordinary people and cultivators, an unbridgeable chasm.

  He is now at most a half immortal, killed three strong thieves, didn't use much effort, and got three thousand taels. This sum of money, Sun Baicao and his son Sun Jianing might have to work hard for tens or even hundreds of years, without eating or drinking, just to accumulate it.

  He's just a half-baked immortal cultivator and he can make money this easily, so how wealthy must a real immortal cultivator be?

  In addition, Li Wenjun also realized that if he didn't practice the "Changchun Gong", his whole life might be like Sun's father and son, who would be happy for several days just to earn a few more silver coins.

  Such days were absolutely not what he wanted!

  These thoughts only flashed through Li Wenjun's mind for a moment, and he smiled: "So many? Congratulations to you, Uncle Sun."

  Sun Baicao said: "Wen Jun, Uncle is going to trouble you today. Can you not go out? Also don't stay in the house and not come out? Later when my old customer comes, can you help Uncle do something?"

  Li Wenjun nodded quickly, he only spent a day brewing a dose of medicine, then practiced and slept, which was enough for several hours. With twelve hours in a day, he had plenty of time to help Sun Baicao, it was just a convenient task.

  Three people finished their meal, simply cleaned up a bit, and started waiting for that so-called old customer.

  Not long after, a businessman-like person came over with several companions. After inspecting the medicinal herbs of Sun Baicao, he was very satisfied and settled the payment on the spot.

  After Sun Baicao verified the authenticity of the silver, he and Li Wenjun, Sun Jianing helped move the herbs to the merchant's horse-drawn carriage.

  Seeing off the merchant, Sun Baicao said: "It's been hard for so many days, and finally it's all done. Wen Jun, I plan to take Jianing out for a good meal, do you want to come along?"

  Sun Baisuo wasn't being pretentious, nor was she using this method to hint that Li Wenjun shouldn't go out. Rather, for so many days, Li Wenjun had been staying at home and not going out. Sun Baisuo didn't know if he would be willing to go out today, which is why she asked.

  Li Wenjun smiled and shook his head, saying: "No need, you guys go eat."

  Sun Baicao nodded and said, "You don't want to go, I won't force you. When I come back, I'll bring you a roasted chicken. By the way, you shouldn't stay cooped up in the house all day either, go out and take a stroll around. In the last few days of the Trading Convention, they usually hold a Rare Goods Market, where people buy and sell relatively rare medicinal herbs. You might be interested, you can go take a look."

  Li Wenjun's eyes lit up as soon as he heard it, and he hastily asked: "Zhenpin City? Where is it? When does it start?"

  Sun Baicao said: "In front of the county magistrate's office, there is a school field with an area of about 5 or 6 mu. Every year when the transaction conference comes, the precious goods market is usually held there. The precious goods market lasts for three days, counting today as the first day, you can go and take a look, maybe you can find the medicinal herbs you need."

  "Really? I'll go right away." Li Wenjun said as he ran out of the courtyard.

  "Wait, Wen Jun," Sun Bao Cao said hastily. "The medicinal herbs at Zhenpin Market are quite expensive, and many of them are sold in batches. Do you have enough money? If not, take this money and use it first."

  As he spoke, Sun Baicao handed the money bag to Li Wenjun. Inside was all the payment for the medicinal herbs he had sold today, about thirty taels of silver.

  "I have money, Uncle Sun, don't worry about me. You quickly take Jianing to the dentist." Li Wenjun waved his hand and walked away without looking back.

  Li Wenjun had once made a circuit of Fengshou Town and knew where the county magistrate's yamen was, so he hastened at a rapid pace to the drill ground in front of the county magistrate's gate.

  As expected, the place had already been surrounded by a curtain of over half a person's height, leaving only four entrances in the east, south, west and north. At each entrance, there were two officials guarding it, no matter who wanted to enter the Treasure Market, they had to pay five silver coins to the officials, if they were sellers, they would have to pay an additional one or two coins.

  Not to mention other things, the income from the entrance tax alone is several thousand taels. Adding up other items, the county's annual tax revenue and financial income are not less than 10,000 taels, accounting for about half of the entire Sanshan County. The reason why the county magistrate of Sanshan County is a fat post is that the county magistrate and the county lieutenant have been inextricably linked, which has a great deal to do with the existence of this precious market.

  Li Wenjun didn't rush in, he first found a place to disguise himself simply, then returned to the entrance of Zhenpin City, handed over five silver coins, and the gatekeeper gave him a wooden token, waved his hand, and let him in.

  In the Zhenpin market, there were already many stalls, and there were also many mobile buyers, with over a thousand people. As soon as he entered, Li Wenjun found that at a stall near the entrance, there was a herb that was exactly what he needed to refine the Qi-gathering powder. He hurriedly walked over and asked about the price.

  As Sun Baicao said, the stall owner priced them at one yuan per plant. Li Wenjun haggled with him and spent more than two taels of silver to buy all the plants from the stall owner, totaling over thirty plants.

  The door opened with a smile, and Li Wenjun's expectations for Zhenpin City grew. So, he wandered around Zhenpin City.

  After a while, Li Wenjun found that besides some businessmen, there were also people who were very eye-catching in the market. They were either dressed as monks or Taoist priests. Among these two groups of people, one or two gave Li Wenjun an extremely special feeling, as if he had seen the old Taoist from Junbao Town's drying platform again.

  Li Wenjun's heart skipped a beat. Could it be that these people were also cultivators like the old man? Were they outsiders or locals? Had they appeared in Zhenpin City for the same reason as him, to find the rare herbs?

  After thinking for half a day, Li Wenjun was still completely clueless. He could only warn himself to be careful and temporarily avoid contact with those monks and Taoist priests who gave him a particularly strange feeling.

  After a while, Li Wenjun saw another group of familiar people, County Magistrate's daughter Wu Xuemei, young master Wu Yiming, and also Kong Yaoshi. Behind them were two attendants wearing casual clothes.

  Li Wenjun and Wu Xuemei brushed past each other, just as they heard Wu Yiming say: "Kong Yao Shi, can we really find hundred-year-old medicinal herbs here? We've been searching for half a day, why haven't we encountered any?"

  "Wu Gongzi, don't worry, let's take a look around again." Kong Yao Shi seemed to be comforting Wu Yi Ming, but upon closer listening, his voice also revealed a hint of anxiety.

  Li Wenjun secretly sneered and walked straight forward.

  There are indeed many precious and rare medicinal herbs in the market, but not all of them can be used to refine the Gathering Qi Powder. Perhaps they can be used to refine other medicinal herbs that cultivators can use, but Li Wenjun doesn't know the recipe for alchemy, so he just focuses his mind on finding the herbs he needs, and doesn't even glance at other herbs, no matter how precious they are.

  After another while, Li Wenjun found another herb he needed.

  The owner of the herbs set up a stall and put all his herbs on a piece of red cloth for people to see.

  Li Wenjun squatted down, pointed to the herbs he needed, asked the price, and just as he was about to ask the vendor how many plants there were, a voice that sounded very familiar suddenly came from behind him.

  Li Wenjun's mind turned quickly, and in almost an instant, he remembered who the owner of the voice was. He had followed Sun Shi and his son up the mountain to pick herbs, when Sun Shi and his son were both injured, he went down the mountain at night to find help, halfway through resting, there were two cultivators not far away from him, resting and talking. The two voices that sounded very familiar were theirs.

  Li Wenjun picked up another herb, but his ears perked up, eavesdropping on the conversation between "Sixth Brother" and "Old Seventh". This listen really made him hear something.

  Lao Qi seemed to be questioning why Liu Shixiong had brought him here.

  Sixth Brother said, "Old Seventh, don't look down on this Treasure Market. Among some low-level cultivators, it's still quite famous. Within the borders of Sanshan County, there are three great mountains. Although they lack spiritual energy, they're suitable for low-level cultivators to use spirit grass, which occasionally produces some. These spirit grasses are unrecognized by ordinary people and can be bought and sold with gold and silver. For many impoverished fellow cultivators, this is simply the best thing that could happen."

  Lao Qi said disdainfully: "Still want to spend money to buy? Just take it by force. Whoever is not willing to give, just kill them."