sjar Chapter 15 Master, you have quite a few wicked ideas.
Chapter 15 Master, you have quite a few wicked ideas.
The store descended into chaos once again.
The noodle shop owner suddenly grabbed his tools, using a rolling pin as a weapon, and shouted:
"Did you all hear that? Our Lord Gatekeeper has ordered a thorough investigation of the escaped spirits! It is my responsibility to count the number of people in the shop and check if you are spirits! Otherwise, one bad apple will spoil the whole bunch."
"If the gatekeeper finds out that the spirit of the dead is in this room, it will be a burden to everyone."
"Now, line up on my right and come up to me. Hand over a low-grade spirit stone! After I check it, go to the open space on my right to rest."
"Did you hear that?!"
As soon as he finished setting the rules, someone objected and shouted, "Isn't this just taking advantage of someone's misfortune?!"
“That’s right! No matter what, Eternal Calamity Town is human territory. Your Lord Gatekeeper is a living person too! All transactions here are conducted with copper coins and gold and silver. I’ve never heard of anyone asking for spirit stones!”
"A low-grade spirit stone? What a big mouth you have! You can make me ten bowls of noodles and you still won't get half a spirit stone fragment!"
"..."
With a loud "boom," another tongue of fire shot up. The shop owner, holding a rolling pin with a burning tip, threatened the crowd, saying, "You all saw how that person died. Be careful, don't play with fire!"
He casually pointed at someone in front of him, "Would you like to try what it feels like to be burned?"
Unexpectedly, this person was a cultivator, who sneered, "Others may fear you, but I do not. It's just a mere fire-starting technique; how can it possibly defeat me..."
He was about to continue speaking when he looked in surprise at his right hand, which was already raised in mid-air. It was empty; there was nothing there.
Where is the fire? Where is his Samadhi True Fire?
It's astonishing that someone with such superior fire elemental talent would lose their signature ability to control fire.
He was rooted to the ground like a stone pillar.
The shop owner immediately burst into laughter, laughing at this cultivator for not knowing what other places there are, and for thinking that Eternal Calamity Town was some kind of place. This was not a celestial abode with abundant spiritual energy; here, anything sinister could happen.
"Gentlemen, if any of you are cultivators, you can check whether you have lost the skills you usually practice."
After he said those words, many people exclaimed in surprise, but soon the whole shop fell into a deathly silence.
No one knew why their magical powers had suddenly vanished.
This is a fatal blow to all cultivators.
Some suspected that the shop owner was behind it, but because they had no magical protection, they dared not speak out.
In an inconspicuous corner of the store, the trio, who had remained silent, observed everything.
Wang Wu didn't believe it at all. He twisted his wrist and looked at the shop owner's smug and arrogant appearance in the crowd. He thought to himself, "I'll find the right moment and give you two punches. Then you'll know whether I've lost my usual skills or not!"
Li Tingyun transmitted his voice from afar, asking Mei Shiyu, "Master, is what he said true?"
Mei Shiyu nodded, but her expression didn't change much.
"Master, don't you find it terrifying?"
"will not."
"He said that all cultivators have lost their magical power, but hasn't Master lost his?"
"you guess."
Li Tingyun rested his chin on his hand. "Let me guess?"
He squinted, thought about it carefully, and then, recalling Mei Shiyu's strange action of pushing him by the shoulder and shoving him into this corner, he understood the key to it.
He couldn't help but laugh: "Master, you have quite a few mischievous ideas."
"presumptuous."
Mei Shiyu said calmly, "You have no manners. Don't talk like that again."
"Ok."
Li Tingyun could detect a hint of indulgence in his not-so-stern tone.
So in the days that followed, they became even more brazen.
At the shop entrance, the owner was still brandishing a rolling pin, grabbing one of the unlucky souls in the crowd by the collar and asking, "What, do you dare try what the unique Red Lotus Karmic Fire of this place tastes like?"
The man hurriedly waved his hands and said with a fawning smile, "No, no... You just want spirit stones, right? I don't have any other special skills, but my family is very rich. I brought a lot of spirit stones with me this time..."
As he spoke, he hurriedly untied the bag from his waist, and in his nervousness, the bag fell to the ground.
The sheer number of top-grade spirit stones dazzled everyone.
The shop owner grinned slyly, but pretended to be virtuous, saying, "A gentleman loves money, but he earns it in a proper way. I am also a gentleman. I won't take all of your money. I only want one high-grade spirit stone from you."
Then, he pointed to the naive young man who obediently handed over the money and said to everyone, "Everyone, he is the first in line to pay. He only needs to pay one high-grade spirit stone. The second in line needs to pay two, the third needs to pay four, and the fourth needs to pay eight!"
So everyone started scrambling to line up and give money.
Li Tingyun clicked his tongue in admiration, "He really has a knack for making money; he's so resourceful!"
There were a total of eighteen people in the shop. Not all of them were cultivators, and not all cultivators were wealthy. Some had never even touched a high-grade spirit stone, and some didn't even know what a spirit stone was.
There are still six or seven people who haven't paid yet.
Most of the cultivators who handed over the spirit stones were unwilling. When had they ever suffered such humiliation in the mortal world? They always accepted the worship of ordinary people with their heads held high.
But in this Eternal Calamity Town, having lost their magical power, they had no way to reason with them.
I feel so frustrated.
The shop owner counted the spirit stones being tossed into the iron pot and mocked, "Why do you cultivators always run to Fengdu? Look at everyone here, more than half of you are cultivators. You outwardly look down on this land and on us demon cultivators, yet you come to our territory in droves to seek knowledge..."
"I know, you just want to go to the Fengdu border market to do some shady business and transactions, right? The Fengdu border market is a well-known black market in the Three Realms. You can find anything you want there."
"I know that what you people want most is unorthodox methods to improve your cultivation! What you really want to do is follow those crooked and evil paths that you despise!"
"Hahahaha...Why are you all blushing? Are you getting angry because I hit the nail on the head?"
The shop owner was smug and proud. Relying on the fact that no one had seen through his scheme and everyone believed that he had really lost his magic power, he used extremely sarcastic and cutting words to mock and ridicule him.
He used a rolling pin to push aside the figures blocking his way and saw those who hadn't handed over their spirit stones cowering in the very back corner. He couldn't help but shout angrily, "Hey! All of you, come forward! Let me see what valuable things you have that are worth more than spirit stones!"
He licked his chapped lips. "Take that woman with the big butt, for example. I could tell you weren't human at first glance. You little vixen... you can't even hide your fox tail!"
The girl he was eyeing trembled and, surprisingly, revealed a large, fluffy tail.
As expected, she was just a little fox demon who had only recently taken human form.
"Fairy, if you don't have spirit stones, then use your demon core to pay off your debt!"
The girl had just grabbed her tail when she was so frightened that her two ears popped out, and she backed away step by step.
They retreated to the table and chairs where Li Tingyun and the other two were sitting.
Sobbing, she turned and knelt on the ground, clutching Wang Wu's boots, and said in a trembling voice, "Good brother, please save me!"
"Hey, I have such a bad temper!"
Wang Wu jumped up with a "howl," pointed at the arrogant shop owner, and cursed, "I've put up with you for too long! What kind of bastard are you! Do you think I'm just a spineless coward like everyone else?"
Upon hearing this mocking remark, the shop owner flicked his wrist, and the rolling pin was aimed at him.
Who's barking like a dog over there?