What could fourteen thousand spirit pearls buy? Four copies of the Qi Refining Art, two copies of the Spirit Gathering Art, fourteen Azure Steel Sword sets…
Now? Gone.
Xia Yunzhao wiped his face. Yes, he knew the Spirit-Transmutation Art could absorb spiritual energy from spirit pearls, but he had never imagined it could absorb this much! How could it leave him without a single pearl? Wasn’t it supposed to be clumsy because he had only just started?!
He took out his money pouch, turned it upside down, and shook it unwillingly… Not one spirit pearl fell out.
At last, he accepted reality. One month after transmigrating, after struggling his way up to become a cultivator at the fifth layer of Qi Refining, he was once again completely broke.
What a marvelous Spirit-Transmutation Art! It…
Fine. He looked down at his rapidly improved cultivation and found himself unable to curse it after all.
Xiao Xia sucked in a hard breath. “It’s just money! I’ll earn more!”
He did not even eat. He scooped up Xiao Qing, stuffed it into his clothes, and left the camp in a few steps, moving as fast as a gust of wind.
Fourth Aunt called after the rapidly disappearing figure, “You haven’t eaten breakfast yet! Take something for the road—”
A distant reply floated back. “Thank you, Auntie! I have something urgent to do, so I’m skipping breakfast!”
Fourth Aunt shook her head speechlessly. That child.
By now, Xia Yunzhao knew the road to Qingxi City like the back of his hand. In less than an hour, he reached the city gate. He had come early today, so there were not many people at the entrance and he passed through easily.
At Wanglai Pavilion, no one knew whether Du Yan had stayed awake all night or had, for once, gotten up early. He was leaning sleepily against his eternally unchanged black recliner and did not even have the energy to drink.
The front door opened with a creak. A gust of wind swept inside, and Xia Yunzhao threw himself against the counter. “Brother Du! Get your money ready! I brought tons of stuff to sell today!”
Du Yan: …
His already less-than-neat hair had been blown into something resembling a chicken nest. He tried smoothing it twice, failed, and simply gave up. “What happened? Broke again?”
Xia Yunzhao heaved a heavy sigh. “Ah, don’t bring up painful memories. Hurry and look. I brought tons of resources today!”
With a wave of his hand, dozens of complete slaughter-beast carcasses dropped onto the floor. The thick smell of blood spread through the room, instantly transforming a perfectly respectable little treasure shop into the site of some illegal murder-and-robbery operation.
Du Yan, once again: …
He had a powerful premonition that ever since meeting this child, his previously peaceful life was gone for good.
Xia Yunzhao was still taking things out. “That’s not all. I have pills and magical treasures too. Look…”
“Wait, wait, wait. No rush.” Du Yan raised a hand and pointed. Spiritual power blocked the mouth of Xia Yunzhao’s storage pouch, and nothing else inside could come out.
Xia Yunzhao curiously tried again. Sure enough, he could not take out a single thing. His gaze immediately shifted to Du Yan’s finger.
Du Yan withdrew it. “If you need money urgently, you might as well visit the underground market. Quite a few cultivators have come to Qingxi City recently. There should be enough buyers there to take all these resources off your hands.”
Xia Yunzhao’s attention immediately shifted. “Qingxi City has an underground market? Where is it? Is everyone inside a cultivator?”
Du Yan muttered something, grabbed his wine gourd, and stood. “Forget it. I’ll take you. Where’s that mask of yours? Put it on.”
Xia Yunzhao grinned and took out his bark mask, tying it over his face.
Du Yan found him a long black robe as well. Once Xia Yunzhao put it on and pulled up the hood, he was wrapped from head to toe.
Xia Yunzhao followed Du Yan out through Wanglai Pavilion’s back door. They deliberately took tiny alleys and tucked-away side paths, and before long arrived at an isolated corner in northwestern Qingxi City. The place was filthy and run-down, with mosquitoes and flies everywhere and garbage strewn across the ground.
Xiao Xia truly could not help himself. He whispered, “They’re cultivators, at least. Couldn’t they pick somewhere a little more respectable?”
Du Yan nodded. “Mm. Next time we’ll set it up outside the Fang family’s front gate.”
Xia Yunzhao asked curiously, “So this underground market was established behind the Fang family’s back? They don’t know about it?”
“They probably know.” Du Yan explained in a lazy, intermittent fashion. “Of Qingxi City’s three cultivator families, the Fang family stands above the rest. The Liu family follows the Fang family’s lead and can basically be ignored. The Ji family appears to be the other two families’ obedient little follower, but in practice they only pretend to comply and don’t put much heart into it. Naturally, the other two know that too. So when Qingxi City’s profits are divided up, the Fang family eats the meat, the Liu family drinks the broth, and the Ji family doesn’t even get to smell it. But cultivation is expensive, so of course the Ji family has to find some other source of income.”
Xia Yunzhao understood instantly. “So the Ji family established this underground market?” Interesting. Tiny Qingxi City had only three cultivator families, yet they were already scheming against one another.
Du Yan neither confirmed nor denied it. He simply continued, “A great many cultivators pass through Qingxi City, while there are only three cultivator shops in the city. They can’t possibly satisfy everyone’s needs. So this underground market appeared naturally. Since you’re here to sell, you’ll be fine. But if you buy anything, keep your eyes open. In here, all gains and losses are your own responsibility.”
Xia Yunzhao had never been somewhere like this, but he had heard of places resembling black markets. Once you bought something, the deal was final. Money and goods changed hands, and afterward neither party owed the other anything. If you did not have eyes sharper than a hawk’s, you came in as meat for someone else to carve up.
Du Yan led him through a garbage heap and into the corner beside a wall. When they emerged on the other side, a wave of noise filled his ears.
The scene before him was actually livelier than East Street!
No—more accurately, it was lively in a completely different way. East Street belonged to mortals, with men and women, young and old, passing along the road. Everyone here, however, was a cultivator. Their presences affected one another, and turbulent spiritual energy collided in the air.
Anyone whose cultivation was not solid enough might have their own spiritual energy thrown into disorder the moment they entered and need some time to regulate their breathing before recovering.
There are actually this many cultivators in Qingxi City. And yet the treasure hunters at the Liancui Mountain camp still spread rumors that cultivators never entered Liancui Mountain… It showed just how thick the barrier between cultivators and mortals truly was.
Du Yan glanced back. Seeing Xia Yunzhao completely unaffected, he nodded and continued leading him inward.
Xiao Xia noticed that most people along the road were dressed much like him and asked, “Why aren’t you wearing a mask? Aren’t you afraid someone will recognize you?”
“How am I supposed to drink with a mask on?” Du Yan pointed ahead. “There. Go register, pay the fee, and pick a decent stall. Sell everything early so we can go back and sleep early.”
Sure enough, a crude wooden table had been set up ahead. A cultivator who looked around thirty sat behind it. His left cheek was perfectly ordinary, but a large, ugly black scar covered the right… When he raised his head, Xiao Xia saw that the scar actually moved, almost as though it were alive!
The cultivator looked at him with cold eyes. It was not the coldness of hostility, but a temperatureless indifference, as though he were looking at a stone or a piece of rotten wood.
The Qi-Guiding Origin-Connecting Art inside Xia Yunzhao began circulating on its own, and a chill passed through him. He did not want to make this comparison, but the man’s aura resembled the Turbid-Qi Mushrooms, like the damp, dusty smell rising from underground.
Is this the Ji family’s Yellow Springs Art? Interesting.
The cultivator did not speak. Once Xiao Xia reached the table, he simply handed over two booklets.
One contained the rules of the underground market, while the other was a map of its stalls. Different locations cost different amounts. The most expensive stalls were one thousand spirit pearls per two hours, and every one had already been rented. Xia Yunzhao could only choose the second tier, at five hundred spirit pearls per two hours.
Besides the rental fee, the underground market also took a commission. It was not much: “one out of every hundred.” For every one hundred spirit pearls’ worth of resources sold, the market took only one.
But when he thought about how many people came through the market each day and how many resources must change hands, even one percent added up to an enormous amount. No wonder the Ji family was willing to stick its neck out for this business. Money moved people’s hearts indeed.
As for the market rules, they were written plainly in black and white: no fighting, no bloodshed, no robbery, and no theft.
Clearly, there was a reason this place was called an underground market rather than a black market. It did have some rules.
Xiao Xia chose one of the five-hundred-spirit-pearl stalls on the map and calculated the time. Four hours should be enough to sell everything, so he paid one thousand spirit pearls… Right. He did not even have one thousand spirit pearls. He had to borrow them from Du Yan.
Du Yan led him to the stall and shook his wine gourd. “I’ll wait for you at the wine shop up ahead. Come find me when you’re done.”
Xia Yunzhao waved a hand: Okey-dokey.
Du Yan chuckled twice and walked away. The road was crowded, yet he did not bump into a single person and soon disappeared into the distance.
Xia Yunzhao began setting up his stall. He had experience from selling at the Liancui Mountain camp, so he first spread two slaughter-beast hides on the ground and arranged the magical treasures, pills, spirit plants, ores, and other things he wanted to sell on top. The slaughter-beast carcasses went directly on the ground.
The moment he finished setting up, someone stopped in front of him.
The newcomer was a female cultivator. She wore no cloak, only an iron mask, with two crescent-shaped sabers strapped behind her and an ocher storage pouch hanging at her waist. She pointed at a Water-Purifying Gourd. “Is this magical treasure meant for attacking?”
Xia Yunzhao glanced around and saw that quite a few people were watching the new stall. He immediately raised his voice slightly. “It isn’t an offensive item. It’s for storing water. This magical treasure is called the Water-Purifying Gourd. It’s Level One and can purify lake water, rainwater, and the like into drinkable water. The purified water also contains spiritual energy.” As he spoke, he tilted the gourd and let one drop of water spill out. The female cultivator and the nearby cultivators watching all nodded. There really was faint spiritual energy in it. If even one drop carried enough to be sensed, then the spiritual energy in the purified water was not negligible. This was no gimmick.
With a faint smile in his voice, Xia Yunzhao continued, “This Water-Purifying Gourd can store ten shi of water. It is completely full at present, and I’m asking only nine hundred spirit pearls.”
The female cultivator’s interest stirred. She had come to the underground market to help a companion buy an offensive magical treasure, but after seeing the Water-Purifying Gourd, she found it highly practical. She was only at the third layer of Qi Refining, a full eight hundred zhang away from fasting. Her body was stronger than a mortal’s and she could go three or four days without food, but going without water was absolutely impossible. Dehydration would sap her strength and affect her ability to fight.
Whenever her group entered the mountains, they normally carried buckets of drinking water in their storage pouches. How could that possibly be as convenient as this Water-Purifying Gourd?
Still, nine hundred spirit pearls was rather expensive…
While she hesitated, another cultivator stepped past her from behind. “This gourd is good. I’ll take it. Is this your first day setting up here, stallholder? I’ve never seen you before. Do you have anything else good? Take it all out and let me see.”
Xia Yunzhao discreetly sized the cultivator up. Three protective magical treasures, and the storage pouch at his waist looked even higher-level than those carried by Fang family cultivators… A big spender.
He immediately became all smiles. “Besides magical treasures, I have pills. These are Fasting Pills and Dew-Condensing Pills. One Fasting Pill keeps you from feeling hungry for three days, while Dew-Condensing Pills ease the pain of polishing acupoints during Qi Refining.”
The moment he finished, the surroundings went utterly silent. One could have heard a needle hit the ground. Only faint noise drifted from farther away.
The cultivator covered in magical treasures reacted first. He rushed forward and grabbed several pill bottles. “I want all of these pills! How many spirit pearls?”
Xia Yunzhao was a little stunned. “Uh… thirty Fasting Pills and twenty-two Dew-Condensing Pills. I’ll give you a discount based on market price. Six thousand six hundred spirit pearls altogether…”
Who knew what he was in such a hurry about? The cultivator skipped bargaining entirely and dropped a money pouch onto the stall. “Seven thousand spirit pearls total. Keep the change.” Then he turned to leave.
Xia Yunzhao called after him, “Wait! You forgot the Water-Purifying Gourd!”
The cultivator stopped, turned back, took the gourd, set down another nine hundred spirit pearls, and hurried away. Judging from his direction, he was heading straight for the underground market exit. He was actually leaving without browsing anything else.
Xia Yunzhao’s heart gave a thump. He wondered whether he had misunderstood the market’s rules and caused trouble. Are pills not allowed to be sold here?
Only after the cultivator covered in magical treasures left did everyone else react. They surged forward all at once. “Stallholder, do you have any more pills?”
“Exactly! Any pill will do. I’ll pay market price!”
“I’ll pay twenty percent of market price! Do you have Qi-Replenishing Pills or Bloodstanching Pills?”
“Any Fasting Pills left? Could you spare me one?”
Xia Yunzhao felt uneasy, but his voice remained smiling. “There really aren’t any pills left. Yes, not one. That Fellow Daoist bought them all. In the future? Yes, yes, I’ll come set up again. Everyone is welcome to visit.”
It took some effort to shoo everyone away with the promise that he would “come again in the future.” Along the way, he sold another two Water-Purifying Gourds and several whole slaughter-beast carcasses, bringing in another three thousand-plus spirit pearls.
Only after the crowd dispersed did Xiao Xia notice that the female cultivator from earlier was still there.
She stepped forward and lowered her voice. “Fellow Daoist, are you wondering why everyone is so desperate for pills?”
Xia Yunzhao kept his tone unchanged and smiled. “I imagine everyone is eager to cultivate and unwilling to miss any resource.”
The female cultivator looked at him, then lowered her voice further. “I’ll give you a piece of information in hopes that you’ll give me a small discount… Do you know Wandan Hall in Qingxi City?”
How could Xia Yunzhao not know it? He had been there himself, and the experience had been thoroughly unpleasant.
The female cultivator said, “Wandan Hall has always been overbearing. In larger cities it’s somewhat restrained by major sects and great clans, but in small cities it does whatever it likes. Qingxi City is exactly such a place. From the moment Wandan Hall arrived, it declared that it alone would be allowed to sell pills in this city.”
“There used to be several pill cultivators in the city, but they couldn’t withstand Wandan Hall’s pressure and all moved away. Wandan Hall only became more arrogant after that, and its pill prices climbed again and again. Pills of the same kind now cost three times as much here as in other cities. If you want to keep selling pills in the future, you can raise your prices freely. As long as you’re cheaper than Wandan Hall, you’ll always have buyers. Just watch out for them causing trouble behind your back.”
Xia Yunzhao understood. So that’s what this is about. No wonder the Wandan Hall shopkeeper had been so unbelievably arrogant. They had a monopoly.
He took a new Water-Purifying Gourd from his storage pouch. “Fellow Daoist, this Water-Purifying Gourd is empty. There’s no water inside, so it’s eight hundred spirit pearls.”
Satisfied, the female cultivator paid the eight hundred spirit pearls without hesitation and left.
The stall was quiet for a moment. Xia Yunzhao began sorting through what he had just learned.
Wandan Hall, pills… Cultivators’ demand for pills would never disappear. It would only shift elsewhere.
He could already refine quite a few kinds: Lingwei Pills, Dew-Condensing Pills, Fasting Pills, Aura-Concealing Pills, and Mountain-Opening Pills.
He was not yet very practiced at refining Aura-Concealing Pills or Mountain-Opening Pills and had made only a few batches for his own use.
Lingwei Pills were lowest-grade pills and cultivators did not need many of them. As for Dew-Condensing Pills and Fasting Pills, he refined those in greater quantities. He kept all the high-grade ones for himself and sold only the mid- and low-grade pills. Those were what he had sold just now.
He had already considered earning money through alchemy before, and now the idea resurfaced… Judging by the cultivators’ demand for pills, even if he relied only on Dew-Condensing Pills and Fasting Pills, he could earn a fortune.
And if he added Water-Purifying Gourds…
What else could he say? He could only thank Wandan Hall for sending him this modest but still very considerable road to wealth.
“Fellow Daoist.” Someone called from beside him. He turned and saw the stallholder next door.
The stallholder sounded young and wore a mask too. Naturally, cultivators could not be judged by appearance, and voice was even less reliable, so Xia Yunzhao simply replied, “Did you need something, Fellow Daoist?”
At the same time, he glanced at the other man’s stall. This person was strange too—he sold nothing but ores. Most were spirit ores, though there was also some ordinary iron ore and several kinds Xiao Xia did not recognize yet.
He instinctively looked to the right. That stallholder was unusual too. Everything on display was a book, and not even serious books… One glance showed words like “travelogue” and “secret affairs.”
…What cultivator has enough free time to read this kind of miscellaneous book?
Wait. Put that way… Xiao Xia looked around and felt embarrassed. Fine. The weird one was actually him. Everyone else’s stall was highly specialized, while his looked like a traveling peddler’s assortment of everything under the sun.
The stallholder who had spoken to him did not notice his distraction and continued, “Fellow Daoist, would you sell me one of those Water-Purifying Gourds?”
“Of course.” Xiao Xia handed him a Water-Purifying Gourd, accepted nine hundred spirit pearls, then placed a fresh one on the stall.
Water-Purifying Gourds were easy to refine. He had made six in his first batch. Later, he harvested that Thousand-Jointed Bamboo. Despite the name, one plant only had ten bamboo sections, so Xiao Xia had refined another ten Water-Purifying Gourds.
He kept one for himself and planned to sell the other fifteen.
The stallholder looked at the newly placed gourd and asked curiously, “Fellow Daoist, are you an artifact refiner? Why do you have so many identical magical treasures?”
Xia Yunzhao had long expected people to probe for information and did not mind. He simply smiled. “If you want to buy, don’t ask. If you ask, we won’t be able to do business next time.”
The stallholder understood and cupped his hands apologetically.
Who did not have a few secrets these days? He had merely blurted the question out in curiosity, not deliberately tried to pry into someone else’s private affairs.
Once he became busy, four hours passed in the blink of an eye.
Xiao Xia was lucky. Just as his time ran out, he sold every last item, including the two slaughter-beast hides he had used to spread beneath the goods.
One generous cultivator bought all the remaining low-tier spirit plants and slaughter-beast carcasses in bulk, so Xia Yunzhao threw in those two hides for free. When doing business, one could not be too generous, but neither could one be too stingy. Too generous and you earned no money; too stingy and you made no friends.
Sure enough, the cultivator was delighted. He said he came to the underground market every few days to stock up, and if they met again next time, he would trade resources with Xia Yunzhao again.
With everything sold, Xiao Xia did not even need to clean up. He cupped his hands toward the stallholders on either side and went to find Du Yan.
On the way, he calculated how many spirit pearls he had made… The income was frightening.
This one stall session had transformed him from pauper to rich man in an instant.
The pills alone had sold for seven thousand spirit pearls. He sold fifteen Water-Purifying Gourds, nine hundred apiece when filled with water and eight hundred when empty, bringing in twelve thousand in one go!
The money from the Water-Purifying Gourds alone already matched his previous entire net worth!
No wonder people said artifact refiners and pill cultivators were the richest. Just look at this earning speed!
A craftsman never starves, even in a famine. The ancestors truly did not deceive me!
Those two categories made up the bulk. Next came the slaughter-beast carcasses. Xia Yunzhao had often gone out with Shang Shuangze lately. Fellow Daoist Shang’s combat strength was terrifying; any slaughter beast they encountered in the outer reaches of Liancui Mountain, whether lowest-level, Level One, or Level Two, generally died to a single sword strike.
Xiao Xia had kept the Level-Two slaughter beasts and a few of the more valuable Level-One carcasses. He sold the rest today for more than five thousand six hundred spirit pearls altogether.
Then there were spirit plants, ores, and other things Xia Yunzhao had no use for. Those miscellaneous items brought in another two thousand-plus spirit pearls.
So Xia Yunzhao’s storage pouch now held more than twenty-seven thousand spirit pearls in total.
It was an enormous fortune!
Even Xiao Qing in his arms could no longer restrain itself. Usually it behaved very well outside, but today it kept trying to jump out, pitifully begging for a bite.
Xiao Xia remembered how it had munched mushrooms all day yesterday and had missed breakfast this morning too. The child really did seem pitiful, so he grabbed a handful of spirit pearls and stuffed them into its belly.
Xiao Qing settled down and slowly savored its snack.
Following one of the market lanes, Xia Yunzhao soon spotted a crude little shop with a wine banner hanging outside. Before he even reached it, the fragrance of alcohol drifted toward him.
Looking closer, he saw Du Yan collapsed in a chair beside the counter, reeking of wine as expected.
Xia Yunzhao strode inside and called brightly, “Waiter! What’s the most expensive wine you have? Bring this young master a whole jar!”
The waiter immediately came out smiling. “Right away! One jar of Hundred-Herb Rejuvenation Wine for this young master! Fifteen hundred spirit pearls a jar!”
The cultivators resting in the wine shop cheered, and several leaned over to watch the excitement.
A worker in the back quickly carried out a jar, broke the seal for Xia Yunzhao to inspect, and poured him a bowl to taste.
The wine was pale green and crystal clear. Alongside the aroma of alcohol came a fresh herbal fragrance. He tasted it: slightly bitter at first, then gradually sweet, crisp and refreshing. And perhaps it was his imagination, but after one bowl, the rate at which his spiritual energy recovered seemed to increase slightly.
The waiter explained cheerfully from beside him, “This Hundred-Herb Rejuvenation Wine is our shop’s signature treasure. It can restore spiritual energy and nourish the meridians. It’s very gentle, and the taste is refreshing without harming the body.”
Xiao Xia drained the bowl and smiled. “It really is good.”
Then he carried the wine jar over and set it beside Du Yan. “Brother Du, drinks are on me today.”
Du Yan opened his eyes, which were surprisingly clear. “You little brat. You aren’t trying to get out of paying me back, are you?”
Xiao Xia joked, “Which do you want, the wine or the money?”
Du Yan sat up with a yawn. “The wine, obviously. What fun is money?”
Xia Yunzhao thought, Lucky you said that to me now. If you’d said it four hours ago, I would’ve had to fight you.
Du Yan accepted the jar without the slightest politeness.
The two continued toward the exit. As before, a Ji family cultivator guarded it. This cultivator had no scar on his face, and his cultivation looked somewhat higher than the one at the entrance.
Xia Yunzhao paid the required commission in full. It was not much, only a little over two hundred spirit pearls. The cultivator waved a hand, and the stone wall at the end split open to let them out.
Xiao Xia was curious. No one supervised the trades inside the underground market, so how did they know how much commission each person owed?
Then he reconsidered. Since they had established the rule, naturally they had some method of monitoring it. There was no need to pry. As long as he behaved properly, set up his stall, and made money, that was enough.
Xia Yunzhao followed Du Yan back to Wanglai Pavilion, repaid the one thousand spirit pearls, then asked, “You said before that you sent a letter to the Du family in Beiliang City. Did it arrive?”
Du Yan had not expected him to remember. He looked at Xia Yunzhao, and his tone softened. “The letter arrived. They’ve already sent people. Judging by the timing, they should be here in three days.”
Xia Yunzhao calculated too. He should not have anything scheduled three days from now, so he said, “Then I’ll come back in three days and take all of you up the mountain. If I don’t show up, something probably delayed me in the mountains. Just wait a few more days.”
Du Yan nodded.
Seeing that Xia Yunzhao was about to leave, he added, “When you go out lately, wear that magical treasure of yours.”
Xia Yunzhao froze. “Hm?”
Du Yan said, “Don’t always wait until a fight starts before putting it on. There are countless spells in this world, and no one knows when they might get hit. Don’t find it troublesome.”
Xia Yunzhao considered this. “That makes sense. Thanks.”
With that, he slapped his chest, and the Protective Vine Armor appeared on his body.
He cupped his hands and left, thinking that one of these days he absolutely had to get himself a stronger protective magical treasure. Wearing a Level-One magical treasure still did not give him quite enough sense of security.
When he stepped out of Wanglai Pavilion, the sun happened to be setting.
The orange sun hung at the edge of the sky, gilding most of Qingxi City in gold. The pedestrians on the road, cultivators and mortals alike, seemed equally precious beneath the light.
When Xia Yunzhao reached the city gate, he happened to hit the evening rush. A huge crowd was packed around the exit.
He was in no hurry and had no intention of competing with ordinary people for space, so he simply flashed onto a rooftop and waited for everyone else to leave.
The street below was full of voices. Xia Yunzhao took Xiao Qing out and set it beside him, folded both hands behind his head, and watched the crimson evening clouds spreading across the sky as his mood gradually relaxed.
Ever since transmigrating, he had either been rushing to save his life or rushing to make money. He rarely had moments this leisurely.
He sighed contentedly. “Now this is living, right?”
Xiao Qing could not have cared less. It furtively hopped forward, trying to approach the money pouch at Xia Yunzhao’s waist.
It had no idea its movements had been exposed long ago. It was a bronze pot hopping across roof tiles as hard as stone; the noise was anything but quiet, clop-clop like horse hooves. Sure enough, before it even got close, Xia Yunzhao flicked it away with one finger. It rolled half a turn with a rumble-rumble.
A faint smile hung at the corner of Xia Yunzhao’s mouth as he waited for the round-bellied bronze pig to hop back so he could flick it again. Suddenly, his gaze sharpened and he sat up to look into the distance. That figure looks so familiar. Isn’t that Fellow Daoist Shang? Why is he here?