Chapter 250 (1): From the Northernmost Point to the Southernmost Point

Chapter 250 (1): From the Northernmost Point to the Southernmost Point

In the following days, the journey along the dragon channel slowly petered out to a conclusion, and the ship was fast approaching the southern end of the channel.

Having already completed his target of 200,000 repetitions, Chen Ping'an was no longer as strict and stringent in the rest of his fist technique practice, taking a more relaxed approach instead.

The day after his failed attempt to buy wine, he went out during the daytime to buy three jars of wine from the restaurant, with which he was able to fill his Sword Nurturing Gourd. The wine was extremely expensive, and although its flavor was decent, it was not on the same level as the fine brew of Sword Water Villa.

Chen Ping'an removed the two talismans glued to the wall, both of which were made from ordinary azure talisman paper. One of them was a calming talisman that could help Chen Ping'an focus to a certain degree so that he wouldn't be swayed by outside distractions, and was a commonly used talisman in major Daoist temples of the mortal world during ceremonies.

The other talisman was a cleansing talisman that many powerful officials and renowned scholars of the mortal world liked to request from Daoist temples during the summertime. Not only were these talismans able to release faint spiritual energy, they also had a cleansing effect that eradicated dirt and foul odors, ensuring that the room they were in stayed pristine.

Both talismans were among the most rudimentary talismans recorded in the Authentic Death-Avoiding Book, but despite their basic nature, they had helped Chen Ping'an greatly. Otherwise, the ship owner would never allow him to set foot off the ship!

During the past two months, Chen Ping'an had been practicing his walking meditation day and night in this room, sweating up a storm this entire time, and without the cleansing talisman, the room would have been completely uninhabitable.

Both were disposable talismans, and at this point, they had almost completely run out of spiritual energy, so they were barely any different from two normal sheets of paper. Chen Ping'an was very accustomed to being cautious and keeping a low profile, so he didn't even discard these used talismans into the river channel, instead stowing them away in his pocket treasure.

These were both key contributors to his 200,000 repetitions, so he couldn't just throw them away. At the very least, they would serve as good souvenirs.

At this point, Chen Ping'an was all but certain that the stack of talisman paper he had gotten from Li Xisheng, particularly the golden ones and the ancient book pages, were extremely valuable, so he had to use them as sparingly as possible.

A treasure pagoda demon-suppressing talisman inscribed upon a piece of golden talisman paper was able to easily suppress the officials of the Blusher Prefecture that had fallen into demonic ways, and that was sufficient testament to their value. Another example was the golden-armored warrior that one of the top Qi refiners of Water Combing Nation had used as his ultimate trump card. That golden-armored warrior talisman used paper of clearly inferior quality to the golden talisman paper provided by Li Xisheng.

Prior to disembarking from the ship, Chen Ping'an made sure to clean up his room and pack up all of his belongings. After returning the wooden badge for his room, he left the ship with everyone else.

Not far away in front of him was a couple that was conversing with one another, and Chen Ping'an found the woman's voice very familiar. He took a quick glance in her direction to find that it was a young woman with a mole on the corner of her mouth.

This was the very same woman who had been "suffering" on the ship for the past two months. In Chen Ping'an's mind, her love for her husband had to be extremely deep and genuine. Otherwise, there was no way that she would've been willing to put up with such torment.

During the disembarking process, Chen Ping'an heard many things. For example, someone had captured an extremely rare pair of twin aromatic herb maidens at the Ancient Pond. A single one of these plant spirits would only be worth around a dozen snowflake coins, but a pair of twins like these would set one back at least fifty or sixty.

Over the course of the entire two-month journey, very few of the fishermen were able to fish up even one river dragons the length of two fingers, and no miracles had taken place.

The ship had stopped at quite a few ferry stations on the way to its ultimate destination, and as some of the wealthier Qi refiners were disembarking from the ship, many of their pitiable servants were forced to carry a mountain of large and heavy bags on their backs.

On top of that, they had to be very careful when they walked so that they didn't damage any of the items inside the bags, many of which extremely precious and worth no less than the carriers' lives.

The ferry station was quite large, and it was also packed with shops. Here, the wares peddled by the merchants were specialty local products from the cluster of nearby nations. Chen Ping'an had nothing better to do, so he took a stroll through the hops, and inside, he discovered many different types of spirits, most of which were adorable and energetic plant spirits.

Some were in the form of children, some were elderly men and women, and all of them varied in size and appearance. However, even the largest of these spirits was no taller than a finger, and they were either housed in green bamboo cages or standing atop inkstones. There was also a little girl with wings on her back toiling away in front of a tiny spinning wheel, and it seemed that there was no end to the variety on display.

Overhearing some of the bargaining, Chen Ping'an came to find that out that these spirits were similar in nature to the row of tiny green-robed children standing on the branch of that bonsai plant in the green beetle Green Beetle Shop, and their price was determined by their rarity. The cheapest ones only cost a single snowflake coin each, while the most expensive ones could fetch up to fourty snowflake coins.

In the end, Chen Ping'an arrived at a conclusion, which was that the further south he went, the more commonplace these spirits seemed to be.

Chen Ping'an visited all of the shops in the ferry station, but didn't buy anything. This wasn't because he was stingy. Instead, he was planning to buy some spirits on the way back to the Great Li Empire from the Sword Qi Great Wall.

After emerging from the underground cave, Chen Ping'an felt as if he were finally seeing the sun again for the first time in a long time. Once again, the entrance of this cave was riddled with engravings from renowned figures, even more than the one at Water Combing Nation ferry station. It was as if all of the engravings were jostling for space, and even the tiniest of spaces had been occupied.

Chen Ping'an carefully examined the engravings on the cave entrance. They were all great pieces of calligraphy that varied in style and flair, but deep down, he still felt as if none of them could compare with Cui Chan's calligraphy.

The men were naturally vehemently opposed to this, and instead of visiting his shop, they wanted nothing more than to beat the man senseless!

While it was true that the man was very much lacking in morality, he was a shrewd businessman, and the more people gathered around him, the more scathing his insults of Su Jia became. The women around him were also quite clever. They didn't want to make themselves look bad, so they never agreed with what the man was saying.

Instead, they would rebuke him here and there, making it appear as if they were against him, but in reality, they were just fanning the flames. The man was naturally more than happy to oblige, and his insults became more and more vile by the second, much to the elation of the women, who were glancing at their male companions out of the corners of their eyes, as if they were gloating: "See how far your beloved Su Jia has fallen? Do you still admire her now?"

The man was becoming more and more animated, and emboldened by the indirect support he was receiving from these women, he made his way over to the screen, then waved his hand back and forth over it to simulate slapping the life-like visage of Su Jia on it while continuing to hurl more insults at her.

Chen Ping'an couldn't help but think of how Liu Baqiao was back at the small town while speaking of Su Jia.

Out of all of the outsiders who had entered Jewel Small World in search of opportunities and treasures, Liu Baqiao was the one of the few people who had left a positive impression on Chen Ping'an.

The thing that moved Chen Ping'an the most about Liu Baqiao wasn't his status as a prodigious swordsman of Wind Lightning Field, nor was it the masculine pride that he always spoke with when talking about how someday, he was going to make Su Jia marry him of her own volition.

Someone had then raised an unexpected question: "What if Su Jia really does set aside the differences between your two sects and fall in love with you someday? What will you do then?"

The question had left Liu Baqiao completely stumbled, and in the end, he had mumbled a response. "How could she possibly fall in love with me?"

Chen Ping'an couldn't help but be reminded of himself upon hearing this response.

For the sake of Liu Baqiao's pure and devoted love for Su Jia, Chen Ping'an decided that he had to do something. Thus, he made his way over to the screen and began to stare at the middle-aged man.

The man was just about to take the women around him to visit his shop, only for Chen Ping'an to suddenly appear in his way, and a disgruntled look appeared on his face as he asked, "What the hell are you looking at?"

"I'm looking at you," Chen Ping'an replied.

"Oh yeah? Keep looking at me if you dare!" the man threatened.

"I will," Chen Ping'an replied with a nod.

Even the young women who sorely detested Su Jia couldn't help but be amused by this exchange, and they were quite interested to see what was going to happen next.

The sect that the women had come from was quite close to Sun Scorch Mountain, so they would often catch glimpses of the mountain from afar, and it stood like an insurmountable monolith in their eyes.

When it came to the prized jewel of Sun Scorch Mountain, she was greatly admired by all of the men in their sect, who refused to allow anyone to speak ill of their goddess. It was only now that Su Jia had fallen from grace and they were far away from their sect that they were able to vent some of their longstanding and deep-rooted envy.

A furious look appeared on the man's face. "Do you have a death wish?"

Chen Ping'an shook his head in response.

"Then what the hell are you doing, standing here like an idiot?!" the man yelled. "I'll have you know that my family has been doing business here for generations, and I know more powerful immortals than the number of meals you've had in your life!"

In response to the man's blatant threats, Chen Ping'an suddenly replied, "Liu Baqiao of Wind Lightning Field likes Su Jia."

The man was very much taken aback to hear this, and was momentarily at a loss for words.

"I know Liu Baqiao," Chen Ping'an continued.

The man took a glance at the sword case on Chen Ping'an's back as he gulped nervously, while Chen Ping'an concluded, "If I run into Liu Baqiao someday, I'll tell him about what you've said and done here."