Chapter 215

Tianbo Chamber of Commerce.

One of the largest chambers of commerce in the entire Great Shun.

When it came to shipping and water trade, there was no other; its business spread across all great rivers and surrounding oceans, claiming to connect north and south, with nothing it didn't have.

Some said that behind the Tianbo Chamber of Commerce were multiple noble families holding shares, and others said that the Emperor occupied half the profits, and the entire chamber of commerce was the money bag of the royal clan.

Which was true and which was false, Liang Qu didn't know.

But he knew that the branch of the Tianbo Chamber of Commerce in Huaiyin Prefecture had sold an incomplete ancient book for the terrifying price of 1.3 million taels of silver in May.

And transactions like this happened almost every month.

Damn it, spending over a million taels of silver on a book; who on earth is spending money to buy these things?

Liang Qu gritted his teeth with envy, but remained calm on the surface, let Fan Xinglai go to make tea, and got up to greet the guest at the door.

Zhu Bingcan, who had a goat beard, waved his hands repeatedly: "Master Liang is too polite; I have important matters to attend to, so it's inconvenient to stay long, and I'll be leaving in a moment."

"Manager Zhu came in a hurry; I don't know what the purpose of your visit is?"

"To tell you the truth, Master Liang, the branch building of the Tianbo Chamber of Commerce will open on the 18th of this month, and a Tianbo auction will be held at that time; I came here this time specifically to deliver an invitation to Master Liang."

As Zhu Bingcan spoke, he pulled out a gold-stamped red invitation from his sleeve, held it up with both hands, and presented it respectfully.

Liang Qu took the goose-down invitation, opened it, and a golden letter paper slid out; he supported it with his little finger and picked up the paper.

Rubbing his fingertips, he discovered that this wasn't paper at all, but a thin piece of gold!

The afternoon sun shone over, and the gold leaf glowed with a layer of brilliant light, almost blinding the eyes of this country bumpkin.

Just this one invitation alone was probably worth a lot!

Liang Qu took two steps back to avoid the sunlight.

In the center of the gold paper, text was engraved in relief, including the location, time, and the name of the invitee; below the center, the seal of the Tianbo Chamber of Commerce was stamped.

"The Tianbo Chamber of Commerce only sets up branches in the center of prefectures; however, the change of Huaiyin Prefecture to Pingyang Prefecture is a general trend, so the chamber of commerce naturally has to prepare early.

This auction has been in preparation for a long time, and there are many treasures; we look forward to Master Liang's arrival."

Zhu Bingcan bowed and cupped his hands.

For the first auction, they naturally had to invite the local powerful families and dignitaries.

Although Liang Qu was holed up in the small Yixing Town, his reputation was not small.

Great Duke's Mansion, apprentice to Hunting Tiger, eighth-rank official of the River Office, capable general of the Xu Yuelong line; every identity mentioned had a name.

His strength was slightly lower for now, but he was promising, so he was naturally on the invitation list of the Tianbo Chamber of Commerce.

"Sorry to trouble Manager Zhu."

Liang Qu nodded.

"It's my duty; since Master Liang has received the invitation, my task is completed, and I still need to rush to the next location..."

"Then I won't keep Manager Zhu any longer; walk slowly."

"Don't see me off."

Zhu Canrong bowed and saluted again, backed out for more than ten steps, and turned to leave.

Auction...

Liang Qu looked through the gold paper.

He was quite interested in the so-called auction, and didn't know what good things would be inside; he would go to broaden his horizons.

Who knows, there might be some unexpected joy.

It was just that he didn't know why, but every time he heard about an auction, a series of plots would float before his eyes: malicious bidding, threats, secret tracking, killing for treasure, being forced to hide in the great lake, and from then on eating raw fish and secretly developing.

Clearly he had never participated in such a gathering, but his brain couldn't stop these images from appearing.

Strange, what exactly gave him this first impression?

No, his brain was getting sleepy.

Liang Qu's eyelids were fighting, he hurriedly put away the invitation, and drilled back into the room to sleep.

When he woke up again, the sun hadn't set, but had risen a bit higher.

"I slept for a day and a night?"

Liang Qu looked at the sun rising against time outside and was a bit confused; he dived into his sea of consciousness to check the spiritual connection.

Compared to yesterday, today was very obvious; the proportion occupied by the spiritual connection had shrunk by one-sixth!

The Golden Gong Fish really had the effect of strengthening the spirit!

Rare.

Breaking through the Galloping Horse, Liang Qu's spirit had already grown, and added to the growth of this Golden Gong Fish, he was afraid that the remaining space could contract two more spirit monsters.

It was just that he felt the cost-performance ratio of doing so wasn't high.

The share occupied by the spiritual connection always remained unchanged; for example, when he first commanded Cannot Move, it had always been the share of an ordinary wild beast.

Even if Cannot Move now had Galloping Horse strength, the share of the spiritual connection wouldn't change.

In other words, if it was small at the beginning, it would be small later; conversely, if it was large at the beginning, it wouldn't become small later.

And excluding strength factors, the willingness to submit itself also had a great influence; Round Head occupied a share that wasn't very large because its willingness to submit was high.

From an ordinary wild beast to a spirit monster, the Water Ze Essence required wasn't too much.

Too strong spirit monsters had the risk of spiritual backlash; Liang Qu had no need to give up the number of commands just to command water beasts of ordinary strength; that wasn't cost-effective.

It would pointlessly reduce future possibilities.

"Master Liang has achieved great results today; I'll count twelve small merits for you."

Li Shoufu added ink to his brush and recorded a stroke on Liang Qu's file.

"Do you want to exchange for anything today? Still three Cockscomb Fruits?"

"No, exchange for a River Dolphin token; my accumulated small merits have reached one hundred, right?"

"Wait a moment, let me see." Li Shoufu counted them once and gave a thumbs up, "One hundred and ninety-six small merits, more than enough; Master Liang is the person who has accumulated small merits the fastest in our River Office!"

The people around heard the sound and looked sideways, discussing in low voices.

Three months, nearly two hundred small merits?

No, excluding the exchanged ones, it's over two hundred!

Looking at the twelve heads at Liang Qu's feet again.

Could it be by killing spirit monsters?

How was this done?

For ordinary martial artists, wanting to earn small merits by relying specifically on the River Office's tasks of killing spirit monsters was extremely not cost-effective.

They were hard to find and hard to kill, wasting too much time; one could only occasionally see one and solve it along the way.

Specifically hunting spirit monsters to kill, I'm afraid they would starve to death.

Yet someone not only did it, but was much fiercer than others!

Liang Qu was accustomed to the awestruck gazes of the crowd and pointed to the small merit book.

"One hundred and ninety-six, then ten more Qi-Supplementing Pills and two Water Source Fruits."

Qi-Returning Pills were usually used by martial artists below the four barriers; Liang Qu had been promoted to a Galloping Horse martial artist, and the medicinal power of the Qi-Returning Pills was a bit stretched, so he had to start changing to Qi-Supplementing Pills.

The price was also a bit higher.

As for the Water Source Fruit, it was said to be an upgraded version of the Cockscomb Fruit, costing twenty small merits each; he didn't know how the effect was, so he would try it first.

Li Shoufu knew Liang Qu's ability, left the long desk, led him to collect the resources, and suddenly said on the way.

"By the way, I forgot to inform Master Liang that tomorrow our River Office will move to the county, and we won't be working on the building boat from now on."

"I saw the notice on the task board; it's actually closer to my house."

A few days ago, the Tianbo Chamber of Commerce came to invite Liang Qu because they had established a branch; counting the days, the River Office should be about the same.

"That's a good thing."

Li Shoufu came to the token room, verified his qualifications, and the manager let Liang Qu pick a token in the ordinary River Dolphin column.

Every River Dolphin token had a number; Round Head's wife was...

"Found it, 374."

"Master Liang, why not choose a male one? They are all one hundred small merits; the male's body size is larger, and they provide more help."

"No need, this one is quite good."

Round Head helped him find a wild river dolphin group last time, and he accidentally obtained the Tiger-Eating Human You, Buddha Carving, and Mermaid Tears.

Any one of the three items was worth much more than one hundred small merits, so Liang Qu definitely had to satisfy its wish.

Li Shoufu didn't persuade him much, then turned to the elixir room and treasure plant room to find people to exchange for Qi-Supplementing Pills and Water Source Fruits.

After getting the rewards, Liang Qu finally saw Round Head's wife.