Chapter 19: Another piece (holding out her hand) Miss Shanglu is a wonderful person. ...
(nineteen)
Laiqu City lies at the confluence of mountains and rivers, five miles below Mingzhuo Mountain.
The slate-gray city walls churned with people coming and going. Along the long streets, wine and medicine banners fluttered in the wind. Shops crowded together, the crowds thickening toward the center. Caravans hauled hides of magical beasts slain in the Northern Territory on horse-drawn carts, while swordsmen selected gleaming, fine swords in the blacksmith's shop.
The sky of the entire city was covered with a layer of dark blue, almost transparent light shield. Looking closely, there seemed to be some incomprehensible spells written on the light shield, probably some kind of city defense formation.
Li Shanglu had never seen an alchemy pavilion, a weapons workshop, or a magic weapon building in her life... The small town where she used to live didn't have these things at all. She walked around again and found that every piece of clothing in the clothing store was glittering and beautiful, not to mention hairpins and rouge. This was the first time Li Shanglu had seen pure black rouge in her life. Who on earth was using this thing?
The wealthy city was truly extraordinary. She stared at it for a long time, dazzled, and began to doubt whether her wallet could afford to buy those things.
It was just like a mountain man returning to the city. Li Shanglu deeply felt that he was far behind this world.
However, in fact, most ordinary mortals in the world are like her. In an unknown small town, they don’t even know what sword cultivators are. To them, cultivators are like the existence in legends.
For example, the story that Li Shanglu and Shen Changyi loved to hear most when they were young was about a master named xxx who passed by their small town and encountered a fox demon that was breathing air in the city. He lured the enemy with his body and then stabbed it to death with a sword.
It was a long time later that Shen Changyi found out that the master named xxx was actually a sword-cultivating disciple from the neighboring sect, who was only in the Qi Refining stage. When the other party came to him to ask for sword-fighting lessons, he happily went to learn from him and took the battle extremely seriously, and as a result, he almost killed the other party.
Shen Changyi: ...Is he really only at the Qi Refining Stage?
No, it should be that he let it go on purpose. In the storybook, xxx is clearly very powerful, and he must have held back because he was afraid of hurting his confidence.
xxx is such a good person.
Back to the point, Li Shanglu's understanding of the world still remains in the small town of her hometown and the village in the mountains. Going to and from the city is too prosperous and wealthy, which makes her feel uncomfortable.
If I had known this earlier, I would have asked Shen Changyi to come along. If the money was not enough, I could use him to pay the bill.
His eyes fell on Shen Xiaohuang who was silent beside him, and somehow, Li Shanglu felt a little comforted.
At least I'm not alone anymore.
She took Shen Xiaohuang for a stroll along the long street in the city. Passersby cast curious glances at her, and some even stopped her to ask how much the wood carving of the Sword Immortal Lord cost.
He offered three thousand taels of silver!
Li Shanglu didn't sell it, not because she was reluctant to part with the wooden figure that Shen Changyi had spent three days making, but mainly because she was waiting for a higher bid.
When someone stopped him and asked for the price for the seventh time, Li Shanglu said impatiently, "No deal below three thousand taels. Gold is best, spirit stones are even better."
"Selling a wisp of Sword Immortal's soul for three thousand taels is such a loss."
A familiar voice sounded in front of him. Li Shanglu looked up in surprise and met Helan Jin's eyes with a deep smile.
"Why are you here?" Li Shanglu felt like meeting an old friend in a foreign land, although the other party was not an old acquaintance, but just an acquaintance.
Helan Jin opened his folding fan from his palm, stared at her with a smile, and leaned down slightly. "I just came back from exorcising demons. Why, did you miss me?"
Li Shanglu glanced at him and said, "I do miss you."
"Hmm?" Helan Jin paused, then said seriously, "Really?"
"I miss your money." Li Shanglu opened his purse and showed it to him. "How did you know I only had forty coins with me? I can't buy anything."
She originally just wanted to go shopping, but she found herself dazzled by the city's extravagance and wealth, and wanted every piece of clothing and jewelry she saw.
Hearing her words, the curve of Helan Jin's lips suddenly disappeared, and he said with a lack of interest, "Oh. Ask your cousin to buy it."
"My cousin has no money." Li Shanglu pointed to the golden hairpin on the stall in the distance as a matter of course, and said gently, "Master Lan Jin, Miss Shanglu wants that."
Following her finger, Helan Jin chuckled softly, covered his lips with his folding fan, and said meaningfully, "Master Lan Jin can buy it, but what will Miss Shang Lu give me in exchange?"
Li Shanglu was silent for a moment, then took Xiao Huang by the hand and walked away. "Forget it, Xiao Huang, let's go."
She thought Helan Jin was really stupid and rich, but it turned out that he was not easy to fool. It was boring.
Seeing that she really turned around and left, Helan Jin hurriedly chased after her, "I'll buy it, I'll buy it, isn't it okay? As long as you do me a small favor..."
"What small favor?" Li Shanglu kept walking, saying perfunctorily, "I can't help you with this small favor, Master Lan Jin. Let's find someone else who can help."
Helan Jin sighed softly, then simply grabbed her wrist and pulled her in front of him.
Li Shanglu was startled and immediately pulled his hand back, angrily saying, "Are you crazy? I have..."
"What's the matter?" Helan Jin looked at her in confusion.
Li Shanglu choked and swallowed the word "husband" back, "I'm crazy. If anyone touches me, I'll chop them. Stay away from me."
Helan Jin didn't know what he was thinking about, and he couldn't help laughing, "Miss Shanglu, you are really a wonderful person."
She said she had killed someone, but Helan Jin could still laugh. It seemed that she didn't believe it, but she had really killed people, including a sword immortal.
"Are you sick? Don't follow me. I have something important to do." Li Shanglu was too lazy to bother with him and just found a shop to go into.
However, when she saw what kind of shop it was, her face suddenly turned red.
"Miss Shanglu!"
Helan Jin followed closely, and when he saw the scene around him, he was stunned for a moment, and then he laughed so hard that he couldn't breathe.
"The serious business you're talking about..." He stopped laughing after a long while, leaned close to her ear, and said in a low voice, "Are you talking about visiting a brothel?"
Li Shanglu said nothing, his face as red as a ripe apple.
She had never been to such a place in her life. The men and women in the brothel all looked at them strangely. Li Shanglu wished she could find a crack in the ground to crawl into, and before crawling in, she would first hack Helan Jin to death.
Die, die, all of you die!
Li Shanglu was furious and turned around to run away. Before he could go far, he was grabbed by Helan Jin.
"Miss Shanglu," Helan Jin pulled her back, "Are you angry?"
Nonsense, isn't that obvious enough?
Li Shanglu glared at him and was about to curse when he saw Helan Jin take out a top-grade spirit stone from his arms.
"Apology," he said with a smile, placing the spirit stone in Li Shanglu's palm. "Is that enough?"
Li Shanglu calmed down instantly, "... Another piece."
Helan Jin took out another piece and was about to put it in, but before Li Shanglu could grab it, he quickly took it back.
"Just a small favor, please."
The spirit stone shone brightly under the skylight. Li Shanglu really couldn't refuse such a beautiful thing.
"explain."
Helan Jin suppressed his smile and pointed at the wooden figure, "Xiao Huang, lend it to me for a day."
He actually remembered that this thing was called Xiao Huang.
Li Shanglu stared at him suspiciously and asked calmly, "What do you want it for?"
"Exorcising the demon," Helan Jin answered quickly, almost without a second's thought. "This is a wooden figure that carries the spirit of the Sword Immortal. Taking it out to exorcise the demon will save me a lot of effort. If you agree, I'll give you three more high-grade spirit stones."
There were four high-grade spirit stones in total. Li Shanglu clenched her fingers. She could not find any reason to refuse.
Besides, it would be better for Helan Jin to use this thing to exorcise demons instead of protecting her. At least it is useful.
But after hesitating for a while, Li Shanglu said, "I'll go with you."
Helan Jin's expression faltered slightly. "Why?"
"I want to see what a demon cultivator looks like." Li Shanglu didn't give him a chance to refuse and said coldly, "Four high-grade spirit stones, plus my conditions, do you agree?"
She just suddenly thought of the scene when she got up late at night to drink water the day before yesterday and happened to see Shen Changyi carefully carving this wooden man under the moonlight.
If she went along, she would earn money and the wooden man would protect her. Then...
Someone's hard work won't be wasted.
"No!" Helan Jin refused without hesitation, "Exorcising demons is no joke, you can't go."
Li Shanglu stared at him for a while, then threw the spirit stone back into his arms.
"I really can't," Helan Jin said with difficulty. "The demon I'm trying to eliminate this time is quite powerful. Countless people die tragically at its hands every day. Otherwise, I wouldn't be borrowing the Sword Immortal's spirit. Miss Shanglu, I beg you to have mercy on me."
"Other people's life and death is none of my business." She has never been a compassionate person. This may work for Shen Changyi, but it is useless to her.
Seeing that she was determined to leave, Helan Jin was silent for a while, then said calmly, "Okay."
Li Shanglu stopped and looked back at him.
A trace of emotion flashed across Helan Jin's eyes that Li Shanglu couldn't understand. He said calmly, "Come on."
I don't know how long they walked. It was getting dark as they walked back and forth outside the city, one in front of the other, with the silent wooden man following behind them.
Suddenly, Helan Jin stopped and looked back at her. "The temple ahead is the lair of the demon cultivators. Please wait here for a moment. I will go explore the way first."
Li Shanglu frowned, vaguely sensing something was wrong, but he didn't know what. "Hmm."
Helan Jin took two steps, turned around, and sighed, "You really don't want to consider going back?"
"Not considering it."
The feeling that something was wrong became even stronger. Li Shanglu frowned and moved slightly closer to Xiao Huang beside him.
Hearing this, Helan Jin closed his eyes and turned away.
Soon, his figure appeared in the temple outside the city.
In that dilapidated temple, there were more than a dozen demon cultivators with extremely strong demonic energy. When they saw him coming, they all knelt down the moment.
He glanced indifferently at the demon cultivator kneeling before him, as if looking down at an ant, and said in a calm voice,
"Kill Li Shanglu and take his soul.
This time, no mistakes can be made.”
I didn't want to do this, but she was too stubborn to listen.
He obviously liked her and wanted her to live longer... Unfortunately, since she was Shen Changyi's wife, the poison he sent to her last time didn't work for some reason, which really disappointed him.
Helan Jin sighed deeply and went back to find Li Shanglu helplessly. Now he just had to bring her and Xiao Huang here.
He had already ordered her to be killed swiftly, so that they could put an end to their friendship.
However, when he returned to the narrow path, he was stunned.
The wilderness was empty and lonely.
Where are the people?
——He actually ran away!
The author has something to say:
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Fun fact: Kittens will run away if they feel unwell.
Helan Jin: ***!
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