Chapter 11: Wuchao Town

Pushing the bamboo raft into the water, holding a bamboo pole, Liu Xiaolou jumped on it. The bamboo raft turned in the water and immediately drifted with the water flow.

Drifting for more than ten feet, ahead was a waterfall a foot high, and the bamboo raft fell from above.

Liu Xiaolou pointed his toes, his body floated slightly, sensed that the bamboo raft had a tendency to turn over, so he sank his true qi, exerted force with his back feet, maintained the forward force of the bamboo raft, landed steadily on the water surface under the waterfall, pulled his waist to the left, the bamboo raft bypassed the hidden reef ahead, and continued to drift. The whole process was done in one go.

"Huo Huo—" Liu Xiaolou played happily.

The upper reaches of the Wuchao River are very dangerous. Liu Xiaolou in the past could not control the raft alone. Now that his cultivation has reached a level, his body method, perception, balance, and even the conversion of true qi breath have made great progress. Walking between waterfalls, dangerous shoals, and hidden reefs, it is unspeakably refreshing!

However, it took less than half an hour to go down the mountain, and then it merged into the lower reaches of the river. The water potential became gentle, and fishing boats and ferry boats could be seen one after another on the river. By the river were green rice fields, the rice ears were already full, bending down heavily, looking like they could be harvested in a few days.

The houses by the river gradually increased, and pedestrians became more and more dense. Turning a river bend, a prosperous small town appeared—Wuchao Town.

Wuchao Town is penetrated by a main street from east to west. Shops, eateries, restaurants, and tea stalls are lined up along the street. It looks no different from other villages and towns, but the various small alleys branching out from it have a lot of ways. It is not only a place for rogue cultivators in Wulong Mountain to trade, but also many rogue cultivators in Jingxiang come here for the name.

The materials and goods traded here are of course incomparable to the big city of Tanzhou sixty miles away, but it is the most reassuring place for rogue cultivators in Wulong Mountain to trade. It is said that Shopkeeper Su of the Zhongyi Workshop in Tanzhou received his generous gift, but didn't handle the matter. Taking good things to him to sell would naturally fetch a high price, but the problem is that the spirit herb was snatched from the Jinping Mountain Manor, and the Jinping Mountain Manor, like the Zhongyi Workshop, is an outer sect branch of the Dongyang Sect. Trading at the Zhongyi Workshop is no different from going to the door to surrender.

Liu Xiaolou had come to Wuchao Town many times with his teacher Three Mystical Master, and he was familiar with the roads. He knew all the rules. Walking east along the main street, two women were guarding the first alley entrance.

The older one is called Zhang Ma, a madam of the previous generation. It is said that she was once very glorious, but now she has been devastated by the years; the younger one has a lot of charm, is not yet thirty, and has outstanding looks, named Qing Jie. In the past, she was a famous top card within tens of miles of Wuchao Town. Now she no longer receives guests herself, but is still a female immortal in the hearts of many rogue cultivators in Wulong Mountain.

Outsiders who come to Wuchao Town for the first time, not knowing the truth, often follow Qing Jie in. Because Qing Jie is indeed beautiful and can be called a flower of Wulong Mountain, but in fact, locals mostly choose Zhang Ma.

Zhang Ma is old, but the daughters under her command are good, and the overall appearance is better than Qing Jie's sisters, unless Qing Jie takes the field herself, then there is something to do, otherwise, most of them regret it after going.

The way of cultivation, conditioning yin and yang is also an important way, otherwise there would be no such thing as dual cultivation. Liu Xiaolou was young and had shallow cultivation before, so he couldn't talk about yin and yang imbalance. The teacher didn't let him cultivate the yin and yang conditioning technique of the Three Mystical Sect, just memorizing and learning, saying that he must wait until he is over eighteen and his cultivation is more advanced before talking about cultivation.

But the teacher himself had no restrictions to speak of. This alley was a place he often patronized. When he patronized, he usually bought a pear for Liu Xiaolou, let him squat at the corner of the alley wall outside the alley, and he went in leisurely. After being refreshed, he came out. The ways of Zhang Ma and Qing Jie were also the experience taught to Liu Xiaolou by the teacher in the past two years. Unfortunately, Liu Xiaolou was eighteen, but the teacher had ascended.

Passing by the alley entrance at this moment, he couldn't help but think of the teacher's teachings, so he paused involuntarily.

This pause made Qing Jie entangle him: "Yo, isn't this little immortal master Xiaolou? Why? Little immortal master Xiaolou is eighteen?"

Liu Xiaolou froze, not expecting that people knew him well. He coughed: "Cough... yes..."

Qing Jie immediately became happy: "That's great! Encountered difficulties in cultivation? Following the teacher's order down the mountain? Go, go to sister's room, sister will take your pulse..."

Saying that, she came up to pull and drag.

Qing Jie was a martial artist when she was young and had some skills, otherwise it would be difficult to control the sisters under her command, but she couldn't see it in front of Liu Xiaolou. She was gently shaken off by Liu Xiaolou, and her arm was thrown off.

But she had been coveting this handsome little immortal master of the Three Mystical Sect for a long time. How could she let Liu Xiaolou escape? She simply wrapped her whole body around Liu Xiaolou, pressed her chest against Liu Xiaolou, and giggled: "First time? Rest assured, no consultation fee, sister will take your pulse personally."

Liu Xiaolou didn't know what to do. Zhang Ma, who was leaning against the corner of the wall, suddenly asked: "Where is your teacher?"

Liu Xiaolou replied: "The teacher ascended, half a year ago."

At this, the atmosphere immediately cooled down. Not only was Zhang Ma stunned, but Qing Jie also looked at Liu Xiaolou blankly, reached out and touched his head, and sighed lightly.

Liu Xiaolou nodded to them, broke free from Qing Jie's arms, and walked toward the next alley entrance.

This alley was covered with a row of open wooden sheds. Dozens of cultivators were separated, a few feet apart, two by two, sitting cross-legged, talking in low voices.

Wealth should not be leaked. Any real treasure would definitely not be spread out for sale. You can only ask one by one. Liu Xiaolou can also join their ranks, find a place to sit down, and naturally someone will come up to climb. Buying and selling are actually mutual. It can also be said that Liu Xiaolou came to buy spirit stones, but the only thing he can pay is that spirit herb.

Liu Xiaolou walked slowly along the wooden shed, looking at them one by one. There was no familiar face. So he found an empty space and sat cross-legged, observing slowly.

He hadn't sat for long before someone came up: "Little brother, do you have goods to sell?"

Liu Xiaolou was here alone for the first time, and he was thinking about the teacher's instructions: "When you come by yourself, be careful and cautious. Look more and talk less, so as not to be fooled."

The words are still in his ears, so he dare not say much, just said: "Look, look and then talk."

The man smiled: "Caution is not excessive, but things always have to be taken out to see the light. If I offer a price you are not satisfied with, don't sell it. Can I still rob it? The rules of Wuchao Town, everyone understands."

Wuchao Town's market cannot be robbed, otherwise everyone can attack it. This is indeed the rule. Liu Xiaolou thought about it, so he took out the spirit herb: "Obtained by chance outside the mountain, look at it."

The man looked at it for a moment and asked: "What grass?"

It seems that he doesn't know the goods. Liu Xiaolou took it back: "Goods are sold to those who have affinity, not knowing is no affinity."

The man nodded and went to wander elsewhere.

Liu Xiaolou breathed a sigh of relief and continued to wait. After a while, two more people came to inquire, neither of them knew this grass. One shook his head and left, the other offered a price: one hundred taels of silver or fifty liters of spirit rice. Of course, he was rejected by Liu Xiaolou.

Turning to the foot of Ghost Dream Cliff, there was the surging and turbulent Wuchao River. He dragged a bamboo raft out from the grass by the riverbank; it was covered in mud, but it was tied very sturdily and was not damaged.

This was the bamboo raft Wei Hongqing had lashed together. In the past, when descending the mountain, Wei Hongqing would often lash together a bamboo raft and go down with the current, and he himself had accompanied him many times, enjoying the convenience of the raft. Now that Wei Hongqing was gone, it was naturally up to him, this sworn brother, to inherit the raft.