Chapter Fifteen Temporary Residence in the Mountain Village

  The young shopkeeper took Song Qing with him and hired a horse-drawn carriage in the city, then galloped towards the outskirts of Xiangyang.

  On the road, Song Qing Shu was silently thinking about the problem. He had previously thought that the problem was too simple. Although with his current abilities, dealing with poisonous snakes shouldn't be too difficult, but in the deep mountains and old forests, anything could happen, and one mistake would lead to a big failure. Moreover, if he went searching and hunting himself, the time spent would increase exponentially, making it not worth it. Suddenly, Song Qing Shu remembered a sentence that Xiao Er had said at the beginning, and his heart skipped a beat.

  He raised his head and asked, "Little brother, you said your family has been making a living by hunting for generations? Can you hunt the kind of poisonous snake that shines with a faint golden light all over its body?"

  The young man did not expect that Song Qing would suddenly ask a question, and for a moment he was stunned. He immediately reacted and said, "That's right, not only my grandfather, but also my father, and most of the hunters in our village can do it. It's just that the venom of that snake is too strong, so there's no use for it, so generally nobody will catch or kill it."

  "Really?" Song Qingyu was overjoyed and hastily asked, "If I pay them to catch and kill this venomous snake, would they be willing?"

  "Of course, there's money to be made, they'd definitely be willing." The little man replied in one breath, but with a puzzled expression, "But sir, that venomous snake is 'tasteless when eaten and a waste when discarded', what use do you have for it?"

  "Hehe, it's precisely because of its strong toxicity that I want it. Otherwise, what use do you think it has?" Song Qing Shu said with a profound meaning, looking at Xiao Er's puzzled expression, "I'm currently cultivating a poisonous skill, so I need a large quantity of this venomous snake."

  "What? You know martial arts?" The young shopkeeper was immediately stunned, and when he came to his senses, he became even more flustered, stuttering as he said, "Young master, I..."

  "Alright, as long as you've taken care of the things I entrusted to you, everything will be fine." Song Qing Shu said with a wave of his hand.

  "Yes, yes, I'll do my best." The little one nodded hastily. Although he said so, Xiao Er was no longer as carefree as before, and felt somewhat uneasy all the way.

  Actually, Xiao Er's big reaction after knowing that Song Qing Shu knew martial arts was because in the Jianghu, people were generally fugitives. Especially, there were three types of people who couldn't be offended: one was monks and Taoist priests, another was women, especially beautiful ones, and the third was children. Although Song Qing Shu wasn't a child, he was still young. So when Xiao Er found out that the person he had extorted, Song Qing Shu, was someone from the Jianghu, he became so afraid.

  This is also the result that Song Qing wanted, after all, he was just a novice in the Jianghu, lacking experience, and to avoid unnecessary trouble, it was necessary to show off his skills that were not easy to mess with.

  It wasn't until they found out that Song Qing was a Jianghu person that the carriage became even more quiet. Fortunately, it didn't take long to reach their destination. This was a small mountain village located at the foot of a vast and majestic mountain range.

  In front of the village stands a luxuriant yellow locust tree, while inside the village are rows upon rows of thatched cottages. It is now high noon, and smoke rises from every household.

  "We've arrived, young master has arrived, it's here, get off the carriage." The servant said respectfully.

  Song Qing nodded and got off the car with Xiao Er, paid the fare, let the driver go back by himself, and then walked towards the village with Xiao Er.

  As I walked to the entrance of the village, a gate made of bamboo stood outside. Suddenly, one of the low thatched cottages opened its door and out came a woman wearing coarse linen clothes.

  The woman looked to be in her forties, with a piece of green cloth wrapped around her head, slightly plump, dark complexion, ordinary appearance, only looking somewhat rougher. The woman was holding a spatula in her hand, seemingly cooking.

  This woman Song Qing was naturally unfamiliar, but he didn't know her, it doesn't mean Xiao Er didn't know her. As soon as he saw this woman, Xiao Er opened his mouth and called out, "Hey, isn't that Auntie Ma?"

  "I wonder who it is," I said, hearing the dog barking and looking out to see that it was actually Second Dog. Madam Ma laughed with a pause in her step, "Aren't you working as an apprentice in town? How did you end up running back here?"

  "Hehe, something's up, let the guest go back." The second dog said with a smile, "Alright, I'll head home first, we can chat again later."

  "Alright, you go ahead." Ma's aunt smiled and nodded, then nodded towards Song Qing Shu who was standing aside.

  Two dogs led Song Qing to the village, and soon they arrived home. As soon as they entered the house, they couldn't avoid a round of greetings. Just in time, lunch had just been prepared at home, and Er Gou's grandfather hurriedly asked his mother to add some small dishes in the kitchen. He himself sat down with Er Gou's father, and Er Gou accompanied Song Qing to eat at the table.

  It's actually not that strange, in ancient times women generally had no status and were not allowed to eat at the table, especially when there were guests.

  On the dinner table, the dishes are simple home-cooked meals. It's just the homemade rice wine brewed by the farmers themselves, with a low degree but still tastes good.

  The two dogs and their family were quite apprehensive about this legendary figure from the pugilistic world coming to their home as a guest, although they didn't go so far as to be afraid.

  After drinking and eating enough, Song Qing let Er Gouzi tell the purpose of coming here.

  The two dogs and their family finally felt relieved, letting out a long sigh.

  "The grandfather of the two dogs patted his chest and said, 'Young hero, please rest assured, the old man still has some prestige in the village, and besides, he has money to spend, and will definitely make things go smoothly.'"

  "Good, with this sentence from the old man's house, I can rest assured." Song Qing was also very happy.

  Suddenly I thought that I still don't have a place to live, which is a problem. Usually, I need to cultivate and require a quiet environment, so it's not suitable to live directly in the villager's home. However, asking Song Qingchu to find a cave to live in is also not suitable.

  Although it is said that people in the jianghu do not bother with trivial matters, Song Qingchu was not a native of this place after all. Moreover, since arriving at Wudang, he had never suffered any hardships, so letting him live in a mountain cave was out of the question.

  Then Song Qing Shu said to Er Gouzi's grandfather, "Old sir, there is one more thing I'd like to trouble you with."

  "Where did you hear that?" said Second Dog's grandfather nonchalantly. "Young hero, go ahead and speak."

  "Alright, then please ask the elderly to have someone build a house for me on a quiet mountain near the village. In the future, you can also send the poisonous snakes you catch directly there." Song Qing looked at Er Gouzi's embarrassed expression and couldn't help but chuckle, saying, "Hehe, of course, I'll cover all the costs of building the house myself."

  "That's it, no problem." Er Gouzi's grandfather smiled awkwardly.

  It's not that Song Qing didn't want to stay in the mountain village, first because he needed a quiet place to practice his martial arts, and secondly, as a Jianghu person, although he didn't have any bad habits, the villagers would inevitably be afraid of him, so it was better for him to spend money to build a temporary dwelling house in a secluded place.