At dusk, the alluring scent of food once again wafted from the backyard of Hesheng Hall.
Chen Mu, clad in Jie Jia armor, ate his meal in silence and with great speed.
Both men had hearty appetites, and the spread of dishes before them was swiftly devoured.
Soon, black smoke billowed, and the bowls and utensils were left spotlessly clean.
In the corner, black smoke enveloped the wooden trash bin. A pile of bones and vegetable juice fell into it.
Jie Jia gazed at Chen Mu with a complex expression.
"What's wrong?" Chen Mu glared at Jie Jia, spreading his hands. "Isn't this very convenient?"
Jie Jia couldn't help but nod in agreement.
But still, using a Magic Artifact like this... the feeling was truly... indescribable!
Chen Mu rolled his eyes.
"The ghosts outside the city are gone now, aren't they?"
"They've dispersed." Jie Jia nodded as he took the tea cup Chen Mu handed him.
"The waterway from here to Lijiang Guard City is also safe now, right?" Chen Mu's eyes lit up.
"The ghosts were only around Nanyang Prefecture City before. There weren't any on the Lijiang River..."
As Jie Jia spoke, his hand holding the tea cup suddenly froze.
This guy doesn't want to run now, does he?
"Then I'll leave tomorrow!" Chen Mu said excitedly.
Although Nanyang Prefecture was temporarily safe, what if someone like Li Tianwang came after Chao Tianwang had left?
The less he stayed, the better.
Jie Jia put down his tea cup, his eyelids drooping.
Without the evil spirits, he wasn't needed to personally escort Chen Mu.
There went a business deal...
"Right, do you recognize this thing?" Chen Mu suddenly said, as though something had occurred to him.
A black staff, accompanied by black smoke, appeared.
Jie Jia glanced at the black staff on the table, a glint of recognition in his eyes.
"This is..." He began, but suddenly stopped midsentence.
His eyes narrowed, glancing toward Chen Mu's left arm.
"Here, here, here!" Chen Mu rolled his eyes and took out ten silvers to give to Jie Jia.
Jie Jia slowly lowered his head to look at the silver, then gradually extended his right hand, opening it wide.
"Fifty... fifty silvers?!"
"Hey! You're getting greedier, huh?!
"You used to open your mouth for two silvers, now why the price hike?!" Chen Mu glared at Jie Jia.
Jie Jia calmly looked at Chen Mu without uttering a word.
"Speak up!" Chen Mu gritted his teeth and took out another forty silvers.
Carrying a massive debt on his back, he wished he could stretch a single silver to serve as two, but Jie Jia had just conned him out of fifty silvers, wiping the smile off his face.
Jie Jia leisurely rolled the silver beads.
The fee for escorting him was gone, but here came the fee for information consultation!
...
"Soul-Calming Stake."
"Take the heartwood of a locust tree that is over a hundred years old, and refine it with Secret Techniques."
"This one..." Jie Jia's fingers gently brushed the black staff: "At least three hundred years old."
"This thing is made of locust wood? You're kidding me, right?" Chen Mu caressed the black staff, which felt more like jade or glass, in disbelief.
Can the heartwood of a locust be black? And so hard?
"Help me sell them."
"To make it worth your while, I'll give you a commission of one hundred silvers for each."
Jie Jia: "..."
I sell them to you for two thousand, five hundred each,
and you want me to sell them for three thousand, five hundred each?
Do I look like I need those extra one hundred silvers?!
What I'm missing is a thousand silvers!
Jie Jia's eyelids abruptly lifted another notch.
The silver beads he was rolling in his hands almost got crushed!
...
The next day, after eating breakfast, Chen Mu was in high spirits as he counted his silver notes.
After selling the thirty-one Zuming Talismans and deducting Jie Jia's commission, he profited twenty-seven thousand, nine hundred silvers.
Subtracting the debt remaining for the last ten, he was left with two thousand, nine hundred silvers.
This month he also sold quite a few Blue Medicine Pills.
All told, Chen Mu's net worth had skyrocketed to thirteen thousand, two hundred silvers.
His personal wealth had surged!
"With this money, I could reside in leisure at the Lijiang Guard City until the end of time!" Chen Mu thought cheerfully.
In the front courtyard of the Hesheng Hall.
Chen Mu walked in carrying a small cloth bag, purely for symbolic reasons.
Jie Jia sat behind the spotless counter as usual, rolling his silver beads.
"I'm off."
"Don't forget to have someone come for the medicines."
Lijiang Guard City wasn't far, and Chen Mu could still carry on with his remote drug-peddling business.
Jie Jia looked up, his bright yellow pupils calmly gazing at Chen Mu as he nodded slightly.
Chen Mu chuckled lightly, then swiftly turned and strode away.
...
East of the City at the Jian'an Gate.
After a chaotic month, the area near Jian'an Gate was bustling as usual.
Chen Mu, altering his facial features and clad in a grey outfit with a black cloth tied around his hair, walked briskly carrying a small pack.
Following the crowd, he quickly passed the routine inspection and once again left Nanyang Prefecture City.
Looking back, Chen Mu shrugged his shoulders. Who knew when he would return next?
Just as he was about to depart, a long family convoy caught his attention.
The line of vehicles was extensive, the carriages sumptuous, and the guards all looked strong and formidable.
"Which large family's convoy is that?"
Chen Mu followed the outgoing civilians to the roadside to evade the procession.
"Isn't that the Zhou family from the Inner City?"
"They actually survived that disaster."
"The Bai family is safe too. Rumor has it they all went to the Lijiang Guard City for ancestral rituals, and thus fortuitously escaped."
"What good luck..."
Chen Mu observed the lengthy caravan, feeling an inexplicable chill inside.
The Bai family, the Zhou family, the Shangguan family...
Luck? Luck so great that the whole clan survived?
Heh...