Chapter 4: with translation of chapter title

In short, Wu Sheng is making Zhou Shuo have to go on a trip, trying to kill Hou Qingchen. Facing this girl, Zhou Shuo is neither crying nor laughing; after thinking it over three times, he takes out a thousand cubic water crystal—no, it should be glass; after mixing with these natives for a long time, he really mistook glass for crystal.

Zhou Shuo managed to produce three thousand cubic glass for Wu Sheng, then exchanged with her for a hundred ingots of red gold, a fine jade-fetal bow, a steel sword with ice-crack pattern, a set of iron demon armor, a Fangxian Scripture specially discussing lead-mercury medicinal alchemy, and assorted useless trinkets, after which he promptly fled.

Indeed, the allure of the Marrow Cleansing Secret Art is strong, and he also greatly longs for the Yang Spirit World, but Zhou Shuo does not want to kill for these things; even though he has experiences unlike ordinary people and will inevitably have blood on his hands in the future, he does not believe human life is something that can be traded. As a good lad raised under the red flag, Zhou Shuo honestly admits that he is truly afraid.

"Little sis, big brother I'm not playing with you anymore!" Zhou Shuo lay on his small bed in his modern rented room, flipping through the Fangxian Dao Scripture in his hand, then rubbing his bag full of coins, looking at the treasure sword and bow placed beside the bed, feeling somewhat pleased with himself; even if you are an elder of the Supreme Dao, famed for overseeing imperial authority and enforcing heavenly justice, you still have to drink my foot-wash water.

During their time together, Zhou Shuo had long figured out Wu Sheng's identity; her real name should be He Wu Sheng, outwardly she is the Holy Maiden of the Wu Sheng Void Dao, a subordinate of the Great Qian Crown Prince Yang Yuan, but her true identity is actually an elder of the Supreme Dao; the Supreme Dao is a sect of considerable prestige, claiming to enforce heavenly justice and oversee imperial authority—once any emperor dares to cultivate Dao arts and attempts to establish a ten-thousand-year dynasty, the Supreme Dao sect leader will surely slay him.

Also, because the Supreme Dao's prestige is too high, He Wu Sheng appears completely confident in herself, or perhaps the other side might be plotting something against her, but it never occurred to her that she is a person from another world who can leave that world; Zhou Shuo just wants to see that girl's helpless expression, and he can't help but burst out laughing, letting you go crazy, letting you go crazy.

"Unfortunately, that world is temporarily inaccessible." Zhou Shuo thought of He Wu Sheng's clueless, bewildered expression, suppressing his inner joy, yet inexplicably feeling a bit wistful; although he had barely managed to trick that girl, the Yang Spirit World is currently off-limits to him, for the Supreme Dao's strength is no joke—although the novels always have the protagonist suffer at their hands, those guys dare even to kill an emperor.

Although he couldn't go to the Yang Spirit World, Zhou Shuo wasn't discouraged; he began selling the gold he'd brought back from the Yang Spirit World at pawnshops—if he sold it at gold stores, he lacked professional certification and the gold's origin would be hard to explain, whereas selling at pawnshops, though cheap, involved little hassle.

Without much effort, Zhou Shuo sold all the gold except the red gold, adding several hundred thousand to his bank card; he then gave the money to his mother in installments, saying it was his earnings from work, which made her happy for a while—when she asked what job he'd found, Zhou Shuo could only give a vague answer to get by.

On the bustling street, Zhou Shuo stood among the crowd, watching the thriving city, the flow of people, then looked up at the not-too-intense sun in the sky; he suddenly felt that he and this bustling world had somehow been cut off from each other—after just a year and a half, only a year and a half, he suddenly seemed to have become lonely.

"Mm!" Zhou Shuo clenched his fist, shrugged his shoulders, feeling the crackling of his bones inside and the blood constantly moving in his vessels; an inexplicable irritation rose from his heart.

"Beep-beep!" A sedan blared its horn as it sped past from the side; the grating sound made Zhou Shuo grit his teeth, feeling an urge to recklessly charge forward and smash the car to pieces with a punch—he certainly had the ability, but he couldn't act on it, for doing so would make the subsequent events hard to explain.

Challenging a nation and an existing system single-handedly is absolutely foolish, and the ultimate source of this challenge is merely a restless impulse unwilling to be lonely; Zhou Shuo took a deep breath, suppressed his agitation, then pulled out his phone with a cracked screen.

Upon suddenly opening his phone, Zhou Shuo discovered that his QQ and contacts list had many people, yet none were reachable now—even his mother; how could he tell her, "Your son I am now a transmigrator"? That would surely be seen as insanity.

Real life is too dull, so dull it almost drives one mad; Zhou Shuo returned home, reopened the transmigration gate, hesitating whether to venture into the Yang Spirit World for adventure, but this hopeful mindset, after he summoned the gate, turned into wonder.

In the collapsed space, a passageway appeared; at its end, two gates stood tilted opposite each other—one was gold‑red, leading to the Yang Spirit World, which Zhou Shuo had entered and exited many times, so he wasn't particularly surprised, but the other gate, dark bluish in color, remained tightly shut.

New gates would appear, and beyond them should be a new world—should he go in? Looking at the newly emerged gate, Zhou Shuo's mind filled with various thoughts; after pondering for three seconds, he decisively stepped forward and pushed the gate open—behind it there was nothing, just like the gate to the Yang Spirit World; only by crossing the threshold could one see the other side.

Having experienced one crossing, Zhou Shuo walked forward without any hesitation; he stepped over the threshold, and the sunlight in his bedroom behind him vanished instantly, replaced by a somewhat dim forest; not far beyond the trees came faint sounds of people and horse hooves.

"What kind of world is this again!" Zhou Shuo followed the human voices and saw that on the plain, a official road had some sparsely traveling people, and at the road's end lay another city.

"My luck is really good—each time I happen to land right beside a city." Zhou Shuo looked at the distant city, couldn't help but curl his lips, then glanced at the clothing of passersby on the far road; this too was an ancient era, the people's garments were ragged but the style wasn't far from that of the Yang Spirit World, yet clothing style on commoners is something you can never notice much difference in.

After observing, Zhou Shuo did not directly blend in locally; instead he returned to his modern bedroom, took out the clothes he'd worn in the Yang Spirit World and changed into them, put on a right‑lapelled blue robe, fastened the sash, then went back to that world, walking along the official road toward the distant city; the city bore seal script, which he couldn't fully read, but fortunately the people around still spoke proper Mandarin.

Everyone in the world speaks Chinese, Zhou Shuo found it both laughable and exasperating, yet he focused his mind, trying to glean useful news from the marketplaces, but unfortunately he miscalculated this time and heard little of use, because the townsfolk on the street were mostly sallow‑faced, their spirits tinged with weariness and confusion, showing that the general environment here is inferior to the Great Qian Dynasty, let alone compared to modern times.

Unable to hear any useful news, after observing for a while Zhou Shuo entered a handicraft shop; while seemingly intending to buy a pottery jar, he said a couple of things to the shop owner, who noted that his Korean pottery technique was top among the Seven States and advised him to purchase this jar made in Xinzheng.

"Shop owner, guess where I'm from?" Zhou Shuo put the jar back on the shelf, smiling at the earnestly persuasive pottery shop owner.

"Wei or Zhao? Maybe Yan?" The shop owner looked at Zhou Shuo, who had suddenly spoken, felt a bit stunned, then tentatively named three states; seeing Zhou Shuo smile without speaking, he guessed again on his own.

"If not, you must be from Qi or Chu… sir, I really can't guess, please spare me!" The shop owner looked at Zhou Shuo's perpetual smile and silence, feeling near collapse, "I just want to do business."

"By the way, I haven't yet asked for your name?" Zhou Shuo looked at the near‑collapsing shop owner, collected his smile, and said, "Han, Wei, Zhao, Yan, Qi, Chu, plus Qin—this is the Warring States period."

"I am Tao Xiu, sir…" The pottery shop owner Tao Xiu looked at Zhou Shuo's subdued smile, his heart tightened slightly, and he felt a bit fearful.

"No problem, I'm Zhou Shuo—do you recognize what this is?" Zhou Shuo looked at the fearful shop owner Tao Xiu, took out a red gold cake, a round coin‑sized piece of bright red gold.

"This, this is gold!" Tao Xiu looked at the gleaming red gold, involuntarily swallowed, and said somewhat uncertainly, "Although the color is even shinier, this is indeed a gold cake; a single such cake could buy his whole shop."

"I have a fortune to bestow upon the pottery shop owner—do you want it?" Zhou Shuo looked at Tao Xiu's expression, flipped his hand to conceal the gold coin in his palm, and his smile returned.

"I, a humble person, cannot accept this." Tao Xiu's face turned a bit pale, and he glanced twice toward the street outside the shop; seeing Zhou Shuo's expression, he trembled even more, "Is this not a villain?"

"You can take it; my requests are few—I just want a simple dwelling, and then I'll ask you a few questions." Zhou Shuo extended his palm toward a man who was barely thirty but whose face looked like forty, laying the gold coin calmly in his hand.

"What questions?" Tao Xiu stared at the gold coin, swallowed, but dared not reach out to take it.

"Who is most famous in Xinzheng City?" Zhou Shuo raised his right eyebrow; having seen the Yang Spirit World before, he had reason to believe this world might also be a fictional construct.

"The King of Han! No, it's General Ji Wuye." Tao Xiu, hearing Zhou Shuo's words, hurriedly replied, but then immediately shook his head to reject that and gave another name.

"Besides Ji Wuye, who else?" Zhou Shuo narrowed his eyes and asked.

"Chancellor Zhang Kai Ge, Left Commander Liu Yi." Tao Xiu offered two more names.

"I ask you, does Xinzheng City have a place called Zilan Pavilion?" Zhou Shuo thought carefully, then asked.

"Sir, why are you asking this? I can't go there." Tao Xiu embarrassed, scratched his head—Zilan Pavilion is a newly opened pleasure house in Xinzheng City, and someone of his low status couldn't enter.

"Alright, I'll give you this gold coin; I want you to help me find a place to live." Zhou Shuo looked at the embarrassed Tao Xiu, felt assured, tossed the gold coin over; Tao Xiu hurriedly caught it, then felt an surreal sensation—"Is it really this simple?"