The 68th Salt Merchants Convention

  ……

  There is a kind of suffering called "better off dead than alive".

  There is a kind of pain that makes people prefer to die rather than continue to endure it.

  What's there to be afraid of when you're not even afraid of death? This is usually a remark made by someone who has never experienced it.

  At this time, Qing Tao really thought that even suicide would be better than the current situation. He felt the piercing pain in his bones, which made him feel like his spirit was about to collapse and his breathing was about to stop. He rolled around on the ground in agony.

  A person appeared in the room, he knew it, but he didn't have the energy to see who had come in.

  Time passed like incense burning out, and Qing Tao suddenly felt that the piercing pain in his body had eased a bit, he couldn't help but feel surprised.

  At this time he was covered in sweat all over his body, his face was pale, and his hands and feet were powerless.

  The pain subsided, and his strength slowly recovered. His attention also turned to the person who had been quietly observing in the room - Lu Shi.

  His eyebrows furrowed, a spark of anger ignited, and he thought to himself: "How dare this cheap woman watch me struggle like this? She's asking for death."

  He thought for a moment, how did he become like this, the woman's appearance here was clearly unusual, could it be that she had a grudge against him?

  Now that I think about it, it's really possible that she's behind this!

  "You cheap woman, what have you done to me?" Qing Tao cursed.

  Lu sneered and laughed: "You finally know, that's not stupid. But you're still stupid, do you know the consequences of scolding me like this?"

  Qing Tao was stunned for a moment, and then the pain all over his body surged like a tide, rushing towards him again.

  He let out another mournful howl and rolled over again.

  After a stick of incense time, the pain disappeared, and Qingtao lay on the ground in a big character shape, like a drowned dog.

  But as a proud cultivator, he couldn't bear the fact that he was being fooled by an ordinary person, and cursed: "I'll kill you..."

  He kicked his feet and was about to pounce on Lu Shi.

  Lu was very calm and didn't show any fear. Qingtao had just jumped up when he fell down again, continuing to roll around on the ground and wail.

  "You can kill me, but you don't even have the ability to move your fingers now. If you want to kill me, you need to have that skill. Even if you had the chance to kill me, do you know that from then on, my life would be yours? As soon as I die, you'll lose your life too. So think carefully!" Lu said coldly, squatting down in front of Qingtao.

  This time, Lu allowed him to suffer for only half a stick of incense before Qing Tao also caught his breath and responded with: "I'd rather die than live, why not take you down with me!"

  That gritting of teeth, really is hating her so much that he can't wait to bite into her flesh and drink her blood.

  Lu despised his intelligence, "If I just wanted to kill you, would I need to be talking to you here?"

  She pulled out a small knife from her waist and ran her fingers over the blade.

  Qing Tao took a look and also felt that if she really wanted to kill herself, when she was rolling around just now, with just one random slash of the knife, her life would have been gone.

  So what does she want to do?

  "What have you done to me? What do you want me to do?" Qing Tao slowly sat up, his eyes venomously staring at her.

  "I now have the ability to make you wish you were dead, and when I want you to die, I'll let you die. If you die, nothing will happen to me, but if I die, you'll also die with me!" Lu looked at him, feeling a sense of accomplishment, this was the rhythm of peasants turning the tables on their masters. "From now on, you have to listen to me, whatever I tell you to do, you must obey!"

  The cultivators of the ancient martial world are being controlled by a lowly mortal woman, this is a humiliation!

  The green waves made his whole body tremble.

  "It's not good for your body to be so angry!" Lu Shi was very understanding of people's hearts, and her tone began to soften. "I'm not going to take your life, I just want your skills to protect me. I also cherish my own life, if I were to push you too hard and we both end up dying together, that would be no good. Besides, I have this wealthy family, with plenty of money and women. You can eat and drink as you did before, and play with women as you did before. Isn't that still a good life?"

  People in the ancient martial world, apart from pursuing greater power, also pursue longevity. No one is willing to lose their life for no reason. Let alone losing it at a woman's hands.

  To suffer a little humiliation and preserve one's life is no great harm.

  Qing Tao quickly understood and said: "Alright, if you dare to be excessive with me, you also need to take care of your own life."

  "Of course, from now on you'll stay by my side."

  Lu smiled, and in this way, she had subdued a cultivator, and was overjoyed.

  "No."

  However, Qing Tao refused, "I'm only out here because my sect has a task for me. If I don't go out at all, my sect will be suspicious. If I can't come up with a reason later on, they'll kill me. So our relationship is like this: unless you need help with something and call me over, otherwise I have to go take care of sect business."

  He said that, not only because of the reason of the school gate, but also to get rid of the constraints that Lu wanted to impose on him. Only when Lu had something would she call him, and he would come to help her at that time. Otherwise, he wouldn't come here, and it was better for him to be farther away from her. Of course, if she called him, he also planned to pretend not to know sometimes. The journey was long, the traffic was inconvenient, and there were many excuses.

  Seeing Lu's hesitation, Qingtao thought there was a chance and said: "If you're not satisfied, just kill me directly."

  "Alright." Lu compromised.

  "You're not just doing things for me, you also have to tell me about what's going on in the world of ancient martial arts." Lu put forward her request.

  "What do you want to know?" Now Lu didn't cast a spell on him, he adjusted his clothes and stood up.

  "You first tell me, what task of the sect did you come to Liangfu County to complete?"

  "There was once an old monk who had achieved great things through his practice, but he died in this county without passing on his knowledge. His skills and relics must be hidden here somewhere, which is why my school sent me to find them."

  He only mentioned the mission of the sect, but he wouldn't mention Qingzhong, this pure yin body.

  Now that he and Lu had established their relationship, his freedom was still intact. He could still abduct Zhong Qing this time and find a secluded place to cultivate together, and it wouldn't disrupt his plans because of Lu.

  Lu didn't expect that in this small Liangfu County, there would be such a story.

  However, that was what his sect wanted, and she couldn't intervene.

  She is more concerned with practice and skill.

  "Then I'll ask you, how can I train to have skills as strong as yours? Do you think I'm capable of it?" she asked nervously.

  Qing Tao shook his head, "You're almost twenty years old and you've already broken your yuan yin. Even if you want to cultivate now, it's very hard to achieve anything. Every one of us cultivators started training when we were six or seven years old, persisting every day, and after more than twenty years, we finally have some small accomplishments. The older you get, the smaller your progress."

  Lu Xiang suddenly realized that there were so many paths and methods in cultivation.

  Although she was disappointed, she had long been prepared for the worst and soon saw through it.

  Then she asked many things about the ancient martial world, and after being satisfied, she said: "Tomorrow there is something that requires you to go. Those disobedient shopkeepers are due for a cleanup."

  After she finished speaking, she turned around and left.

  Qing Tao encountered a major setback in life and was filled with hatred towards Lu Shi. At this moment, she went out, and he muttered a few vicious curses under his breath.

  "You can scold me however you want, just help me properly and that's all." Lu's voice came in.

  This woman is well aware of Qing Tao's thoughts.

  Qing Tao sighed dejectedly.

  Originally planned to go pick up Zhong Qing tonight, looks like it's not possible anymore.

  The next day, Lu brought Qingtao out and arrived at a place with more than a dozen middle-aged men. It seemed that they had agreed to meet here. As soon as Lu entered, someone stood up and confronted him: "Lu, don't think you can control us, just honestly hand over the IOU."

  Others also stared at Lu with wolf-like eyes, as if they wanted to swallow her alive.

  Lu had a calm and composed demeanor, unlike her previous encounters where she was panicked and at a loss. She also slowly realized that in order to deal with these people, she needed to be even more calm and ruthless than they were, so as to suppress them!

  She calmly walked to the front and sat down, then said to the old man: "Uncle Liu, why get angry? In the past you worked under our family, now continuing to work isn't the same?"

  The man called Liu Shu sneered: "A rich family is a rich family, you are you, a woman who still wants to control our rice bowl, what a joke!"

  "Is that what you really think?" Lu asked back.

  Liu Shu coldly smiled: "That was when..."

  He suddenly gulped, clutched at his throat, but his head fell off from his neck the next moment.

  All the shopkeepers were shocked, and then they looked at Qingtao in horror. This man had jumped behind Liu Shu without making a sound and cut off his head.

  "You killed someone, you killed someone! The government will behead this cheap woman!" A shopkeeper jumped up in shock and scolded Lu Shi.

  However, his hand was cut off immediately, and he let out a miserable cry. The next moment, his head also rolled away.

  No one dared to speak again, their faces turned pale with fear, and they sat in their seats trembling.

  "Lao Liu, Lao Dong, what's the point of this again? Whether it's in a wealthy family or doing business under the wind and moon, is there really anything different?" Lu Shi smiled lightly and spoke slowly, her eyes looking at others, asking: "What do you think, isn't that right?"

  Life is in Lü's hands, who dares to say no?

  They all nodded.

  "It's settled then. Here are the business orders for next year and the year after, everyone sign this list first. I, Feng Yueliang, have to take care of some matters on the mainland, of course, I won't let anyone lose out, in the future, everyone will earn even more money than before, you can all rest assured!"

  Mr. Lu took out a large stack of bills and distributed them to the shopkeepers.

  Qingtao took out a bottle of medicinal powder and poured it onto the corpse. The corpse began to bubble up and soon disappeared, leaving behind only a set of clothes.

  "Lao Liu and Lao Dong went missing halfway, they didn't show up here, what do you guys think?" Lu asked them.

  ……