Chapter 20

How could this be!

There were quite a few guests waiting for the ferry, the tobacco smell on the old man, the perfume smell on the woman, sweat smell, fishy smell, the smell of rotten wood at the ferry... rushed straight into the nasal cavity.

This kind of smell was simply refreshing.

Li Yan was almost smoked until he fell.

He understood that his sense of smell had suddenly improved again.

Since the life-and-death battle with the Cold Pool Guard soldiers that night, counting this time, it had exploded and improved three times in a short period of time.

Besides these ordinary ones, he also smelled many special smells.

A few hundred meters away from the ferry, there was a cold and sticky smell, which seemed to be left by some yin and evil thing, and it didn't dissipate after being beaten by the waves......

On the big ship of the Cao Gang on the river, someone was burning incense and tying red cloth at the bow, and also sprinkling paper money and pouring livestock blood, a hot spirit of qi circling the bow...

Even more terrifying was the Xianyang City in the distance.

Like a beast, sitting on the plain, exuding an ancient and desolate smell, and there were various incense smells in the city.

Any one of them was dozens of times richer than the Earth Temple in Li Family Fort.

Is this the real world...

Li Yan was shocked in his heart.

Since he awakened his sense of smell last year, let alone Changancheng, he hadn't even stepped into Lantian County, and had been holed up in Li Family Fort.

Now that he came to Xianyang City, he suddenly found the difference.

No wonder Widow Wang and the others had to hide in the remote village of Li Family Fort. If they arrived in Changancheng, they would probably be exposed immediately and attract their enemies.

Just at this moment, Li Yan suddenly went dark before his eyes.

Bursts of dizziness surged up, and his amazing sense of smell also disappeared.

Li Yan pressed the willow tree beside him, and it took a long time to recover.

His face was ugly, and he cursed in his heart.

Obviously, this kind of supernatural power was not without a price.

Widow Wang didn't mention it, perhaps she didn't expect that his sense of smell would explode and improve time and time again.

A worse reason was that his supernatural power had already gone out of control.

Any loss of control is a big trouble.

Must solve it as soon as possible!

"The boat is coming——!"

The boatman's voice interrupted his thoughts.

Fortunately, at this time, his sense of smell had already been turned off, although his head was dizzy and his back was sweating, Li Yan still walked toward the ferry boat.

The ferry boat was not big, about seven or eight meters long, without a shed to cover it.

After Li Yan paid the fare, he found a place to sit down at will.

The river breeze blew, and the chatting sounds of the surrounding people kept pouring into his ears:

"Mother Wang, you don't hurry to harvest wheat, what are you doing in the city?"

"This year I invited wheat harvesters from Longyou, I have to go into the city to offer incense, pray that it won't rain these days, and then rush back..."

"Your family has quite a few male laborers."

"Don't mention it, the second and third sons ran to Jinmen, saying that the factory there earns more money, and they won't come back even for the New Year. I thought, there isn't much land at home, the eldest son is enough, the second and third sons must have a goal..."

The things they said, Li Yan also knew in the village.

This Daxing Dynasty had been established for a hundred years, and at this moment, it had reached its peak.

But under the prosperous age, there were already undercurrents surging.

Large-scale land annexation began to appear, and there were more and more refugees in various places, which caused quite a few troubles in the first ten years.

But at the same time, the imperial court also announced the opening of the sea and conducted trade, and large-scale manual workshops were built in many port cities, absorbing many refugees.

In the imperial court, I heard that it was also not peaceful, forming factions and attacking each other.

Of course, Li Yan was not interested in these.

At this moment, he only wanted to solve his predicament as soon as possible.

After crossing the Wei River, Li Yan's brain was obviously much clearer, and that supernatural sense of smell also recovered, but it became very weak, about the same as before dealing with "Blind Xia Laosan."

Li Yan didn't care, lowered his straw hat, and entered the city.

After all, it was the ancient capital of the Pre-Qin period. In the classics, it was described as "palaces and pavilions, pavilions and pavilions, connected and covering three hundred miles, isolating the sky and the sun."

Although it had gone through wars and was rebuilt repeatedly, the city had shrunk quite a bit, but it was prosperous enough. As soon as he entered the city, the noise filled his eyes and ears.

Unlike the chessboard city of Changancheng with one hundred and eight wards, the layout of Xianyang City was not standardized. Li Yan entered from the south gate, which was close to the ferry, and it was directly an old commercial street with crisscrossing streets.

Shops lined the streets, various signs and flags were fluttering, shouting sounds were endless, and the mule carts and pedestrians at the ferry were intertwined, appearing prosperous and chaotic.

Of course, there was no shortage of beggars.

Perhaps because Li Yan was carrying a saber, no one bothered him, but other unfamiliar merchants were surrounded by a group of beggars as soon as they entered the city.

They were in rags, some were even disabled, surrounding people and begging, "Master, be generous, earn a thousand gold this year," "Madam, be kind, hold your son and grandson"...

Li Yan glanced at it and turned away.

The Beggar Gang in the Jianghu is divided into East-going and West-going.

East-going is soft begging, mainly based on selling art, with many types, such as "singing," "civil and martial cavity," "worshiping gods," "traveling five lakes," etc.

This type of beggar mostly travels north and south, drifting with the tide. And West-going is mostly sedentary beggars, who usually occupy a city, led by a beggar head, extracting the daily earnings from begging.

Beggars traveling in the Jianghu, every time they arrive in a city, they must first go to the beggar nest of the West-going beggars to worship the pier, obtain permission to sell art, and also be extracted.

If they don't know the rules, they will become a corpse before nightfall.

Among the West-going beggar heads, there are also many "fake beggars," who pass down from generation to generation, controlling the beggar nest in the city, wearing rags during the day, and changing into brocade clothes at night to go to the brothels to be happy.

Even more hateful, they also do business of kidnapping and selling people, and have a close relationship with the human traffickers in the city.

What they are good at is hard begging. Don't look at those beggars as pitiful, they are actually black-hearted and ruthless, and ordinary people can't afford to provoke them.

Sure enough, seeing that the unfamiliar merchant didn't give money, the beggars immediately changed their faces, knocked on their broken bowls, and sang "Lotus Fall" to curse.

"If you don't give money, I won't come, you buy a coffin with the remaining money!"

"If you don't give, I won't beg, see if this grandson of yours is anxious!"

The merchant was furious, chased and beat the beggars, but didn't find that his money bag had been stolen...

Of course, there were also many beggars traveling in the Jianghu.

!.

Li Yan passed through the street, and a blind old beggar was telling stories on the street corner.

His eyes were turbid, his tone was vicissitudes, and he had quite an ancient charm.

"Fame and wealth every morning, glory and wealth are hazy"

"The world is rolling like a tide, how many people become immortals..."

"Attaining the Dao!"

"Excuse me, is Daoist Wang Daoxuan here?"

Outside a small shop, Li Yan asked the shopkeeper.

Near the City God Temple in Xianyang City, besides those selling snacks and breakfast, they were basically paper-burning shops, incense shops, coffin shops, burial clothes shops, and there were quite a few shops for physiognomy and divination.

For example, the shop Li Yan asked about was an incense shop, from ordinary soil incense to arm-thick long incense, from ordinary red and white candles to gorgeous dragon and phoenix candles, and all kinds of paper money and ingots, which could be described as everything.

Li Yan came to this place, only feeling that the incense smell in the temple was rich, smoking him until he was dizzy, so he didn't get close, and directly searched according to the address given by Sha Lifei.

According to Sha Lifei, Wang Daoxuan also opened a shop, measuring characters and asking for divination, choosing feng shui, red and white happy events, catching demons and subduing monsters, and he would take any job.

However, the shop at the address had already changed owners.

Li Yan had no choice but to ask others.

"Wang Daoxuan?"

The owner of the incense shop was a fat man with squinting eyes. Upon hearing this, he was first puzzled, then thought of something, and suddenly realized: "The guest is talking about Wang Lao Nian!"

After saying this, his eyes were full of smiles: "He owed a buttload of debt and already sold the shop to me. Now he is doing business at home."

Wang... Lao Nian?!

Li Yan's face stiffened, and he only felt anger surging up.

This Sha Lifei was really unreliable.

Although he mentioned before that Wang Daoxuan would take any job, he was mostly a stick, but at least he was a person in the Mystic Sect and could find out some things.

But listening to what the owner said, I'm afraid it was even more unbearable than imagined.

Owed money, and couldn't even keep the shop...

The three characters Wang Daoxuan, I'm afraid, were also like Sha Lifei, an artist name he bragged about to the outside world!

Li Yan was already out of control, and at this moment, evil fire surged up.

Seeing this, the owner already had a plan, stepped forward, nodded and smiled: "The guest is asking for a character or divination, or handling red and white happy events, why not say it, I am familiar with the shops on this street, and it can be cheaper..."

"Thank you, let's talk about it later."

The words sounded nice, but Li Yan wouldn't believe it.

He had seen too many such people, even peers could tear down walls, facing guests, wouldn't they be even more ruthless?

Moreover, the things in this incense shop, he could tell as soon as he smelled them, were all ordinary things, and even the statue of the god offered didn't have an incense smell, it was just a layman.

Sure enough, seeing that Li Yan had no intention, the owner's attitude immediately became cold.

Li Yan moved in his heart, a trace of anger appeared on his face, cupped his hands and said: "I have a debt to settle with that Wang Lao Nian, please tell me."

The owner squinted and glanced, seeing him carrying a saber at his waist, a trace of schadenfreude appeared in his eyes, raised his hand and pointed: "Easy, guest, see that alley? Walk in for three hundred meters, and the Ask Dao Hall on the right is it!"

The place pointed by the shopkeeper was an old residential street alley.

Li Yan entered it, and what he saw were all ancient old houses. Although they were all independent courtyards, they were remote and narrow, clearly the residences of ordinary people.

However, these houses had quite a few courtyard walls built with old Xianyang Qin bricks, coupled with the mottled bluestone slabs on the ground, which had quite an ancient charm.

Walking forward for three hundred meters, he soon found the place.

He saw a plaque hanging on the gate of an old house.

It was made of ordinary jujube wood, just painted with some wood paint, and it couldn't even compare to a restaurant's, but the three characters "Ask Dao Hall" were ancient and vigorous, quite extraordinary.

Li Yan's anger inexplicably disappeared a bit.

Immediately, he sniffed.

In the small courtyard, there were quite a few special smells......

(End of chapter)