202 Old Faces and New Faces
After entrusting the blueprint to Ju Shoufen, Cao Mao took out his phone and called Qiang Han.
Beep
[Can I help you, junior Mao?]
"Yes, I need you to tell my customers in the slum that I will open a stall in front of the Ma Clan's resident."
[That's not very nice. Are you trying to avoid the tax? Do you know that I'm managing the black market stalls?]
"No. I'm not trying to avoid taxes. I'll pay you 2,000 refined stones. Let me do this for a day. After today, I probably won't sell anything in the black market for a while."
[… Ah, that's a pity. Oh, right. I heard that you've commissioned many people to gather herbs. Is it related to that?]
"Yes. Many days have passed, and I think many of them are dying to claim the prizes. If I don't fulfill my promise, it will ruin my reputation in the long run."
[Of course, of course. Very well, I'll handle this, but this job will cost you 3,000 refined stones.]
"… 3,000?"
[It's an extra tax for using the public road for an illegal business. I need to publish that you are opening a stall without my authorization and you are punished by paying an expensive fine, so no one can claim that I'm playing favoritism.]
"Fair enough. Don't arrest me after this, though."
[Don't worry. As long as you complete whatever you want to do, we'll inform our men to pick up the payment. Then, we'll leave quietly.]
…
The Qiang Clan worked efficiently. Within 30 minutes, many people started coming toward the Ma Clan's residence.
They were the laborers that Cao Mao tricked into gathering herbs. They came here to exchange their herbs for magic weapons.
Cao Mao got his stall ready. As promised, he exchanged low-grade and medium-grade weapons with their herbs.
Unfortunately, nobody managed to score a high-grade item. Although the forests and nearby side roads had become wastelands because of these poor men, they failed to get enough usable herbs to exchange for a high-grade weapon.
While Cao Mao was busy exchanging herbs, Ma Moxi came out of the residence to see the commotion.
When the ex-protagonist realized that these people were his rivals, who had snatched up several herbs from the wild, Ma Moxi understood how his former rival turned master had utilized his wealth and sighed in regret.
"I wish I were as rich as you. I would have tricked them the same way. By the way, how many magic weapons do you have in your arsenal?"
Cao Mao snickered, "Enough to create an army!"
"You should keep useful items with you. I plan to recruit soldiers soon, and I might have to borrow weapons from you."
"Before you think about recruiting soldiers, shouldn't you consider ways to make more money? Without the cash flow, you can't do anything. Also, you can't rely on me every time, right?"
Cao Mao grinned. He could lie and hide his deeds, but he chose to be frank to test Ma Moxi's loyalty, "Hahaha! You got me. That's me."
Ma Moxi shook his head, "You're actions certainly are despicable, but I'm glad to be on your side.. Say, if you have more unused herbs, can you donate some?"
"Oh?" Cao Mao raised his eyebrows and turned to Ma Moxi, "You're not angry?"
"Why should I? On the contrary, I'm happy that you bought them all. Now, I can just borrow them from you."
Ma Moxi had changed a lot after he evolved. Unlikely Xie Tian or his previous self, who had stubbornness issues, he became…?a shameless freeloader. He simply used his status as Cao Mao's underling and cousin-in-law to beg for free herbs.
"I thought I gave you enough herbs and liquor ingredients for your businesses. Do you still want more?"
"Capitalism doesn't have the word, [Enough], in its dictionary."
"…"
Cao Mao tossed a spatial ring with 50,000 catties of spiritual barley to chase him away.
Ma Moxi took the ring with a wide grin. He could either make some good beers or cultivation pellets from these grains.
"Oh, hey, boss. I have another question."
"What now?" Cao Mao no longer wanted to look at Ma Moxi. He was busy scanning his customer's spatial rings if they gave him enough herbs for his weapon. Several men were still queuing, waiting to submit their items for his magic items.
Ma Moxi wanted to ask if Cao Mao was really a demon as he had heard it from his grandfather. But seeing that so many people were around, he chose to postpone it.
"Never mind. I'll ask you when you're free. Oh, my grandfather and my uncle have approved of your request. We'll move to your Siren City tomorrow morning."
Cao Mao nodded. He was glad that they had made the decision so quickly.
After all, he had to bring the blueprint scroll away from here before more experts arrived.
…
While Cao Mao was trading his unused weapons away, many airships from various factions landed outside of Xuan City.
Not only did Liu Bian and his entourages arrive, but many big shots from Aves Continent came for the rumored mural of time-and-space.
Myriad Cauldron Sect, led by Zhang Junyi, brought their elite alchemists over to sell their pills in this event. They were also looking forward to purchasing local products and local herbs for their alchemy research.
Another force, the Demon Alliance, the new emerging country of Wei Huang, came here for the time-and-space mural. They even signed a peace treaty with Liu Bian, so they could participate in this auction.
Xu Lanying and Xia Dun led their clan members here. These two 7th-stage demons cooperated to win the time-and-space mural at all costs.
Even Fu De came here as a representative of his father's organization, the Twilight Hunter Guild. He had a hundred true-blood vampires as his entourage although they refrained from entering?the city just yet.
Several new faces also parked their airships outside of the city.
Sun Wentai, the sect master of Jiangdong White Tiger Sect, who reigned the southeastern parts of the Aves Continent, came here accompanied by his eldest son and three sect elders.
Sun Wentai proceeded to Xuan City without hiding his nascent soul aura. His cloak was made of a monster beast's fur, which resembled a white tiger. He also wore heaven-grade crimson plate armor and a full helmet, which covered his expressionless face. His presence was so awe-inspiring that onlookers mistook him for an imperial general.
Another powerful group, the infamous demon worshiper organization, Huangjin Sect, sent their first elder as their representative.
Zhao Bao, the elder of the Huangjin Sect, was an old monk in an orange cassock. His dark orange kasaya glittered in white light, increasing the elder's saintly aura.
The bald monk had a straight long white full-beard, which reached his chest. Yet, it was silky smooth as if the elder had used many modern moisturizer products on it. His wrinkled skin and withered muscle looked fragile at a glance, but no one dared to rob this old man.
They would be stupid if they tried to rob a nascent soul cultivator!
Behind the elder monk, three boys in ragged clothes followed the former around.
One of them was a 6-year-old child, who had a long, slim and pointy tail. His small clothes also couldn't cover his black bat wings. The boy cheerfully looked around in enthusiasm.
Another one was a 12-year-old white-haired boy with a pair of rabbit ears and red eyes. He nervously looked around as he tugged the elder's kasaya.
The last one was a human child in ragged yellow robes. Had Cao Mao been here, he would have recognized the boy on the spot.
He was the original of the beggar's clone, whom Cao Mao had used as a sparring partner during his early days.
Xin, the beggar.
Xin was different than last year. He grew a lot taller, and he was now 130cm tall. His eyes were brimmed with determination and self-confidence. Moreover, despite being only 7-year-old, his strength reached the bone refinement realm. Still, his demeanor was a bit arrogant.
Within less than a year, his cultivation base jumped from the very first level of muscle tampering realm to level 1 of bone refinement realm. His aptitude and talent began to shine under the guidance of this elder monk.
Many cultivators gazed at Xin in awe and admiration. Hadn't Zhao Bao stayed by the boy's side, one of the clan representatives would have kidnapped Xin and taken him home.
Other smaller sects and clans also joined the event. Yu Shun brought his men and caravans here, planning to sell his products in this auction. He didn't care about the mural, though.
Another merchant family, the Chen Clan from the east coast, also came. They disguised themselves as commoners to avoid detection. However, they carried many rare goodies with them to sell.
Most of the new visitors camped outside of the city as there weren't enough hotels or inns for their people. Even Liu Bian chose to secure a place for their army in the outskirts since he didn't like to be too close to other 7th-stage cultivators in the area.
Only a few daredevils or confident elites, such as Sun Wentai, Zhang Junyi, Xu Lanying, Xia Dun, and Zhao Bao ignored other nascent soul experts and took a tour through the city.
However, one prominent clan decided not to participate in this big gathering event.
The Zhu Clan never bothered to show up. As these women didn't want to get involved in the conflict between the imperial clan and the demons, they took this opportunity to migrate eastward, withdrawing from the central plain.
Yet, a rowdy girl from the family snuck here without her mother's authorization.
Zhu Qiao, donned in a brown hooded cloak and black dress, blended in the visiting crowd. She covered her face with a dark ninja mask, and nobody expected the shorty to be a beauty in hiding.
The girl strolled into the city in joy. She finally got closer to her target.
'Mao Miaomiao, you son of a bitch! I've finally caught up!'
Zhu Qiao had discovered that Mao Miaomiao, aka Cao Mao, was the only lead to the murderer of Xie Tian.
When she was searching for clues in the Myriad Cauldron Sect, she ran into CJ, a famous arms dealer of Wet Banana Garden.
CJ told her about Cao Mao, who had come to buy several grenade pills from him. He also revealed that Cao Mao had a deep relationship with Yuan Hua, and he managed to persuade their
dao god to expel Ju Shoufen from the sect.
At first, Zhu Qiao didn't think that they were involved, but she had heard something interesting.
Many disciples of Xin Garden had seen Cao Mao in the dryad realm. They saw him rushing into the inner area, that the Xin Garden's elders had marked as a dangerous zone. After the commotion with the giant ent, one of the disciples saw Cao Mao getting dragged into an underground tunnel.
Another piece of critical information came from a drunk rogue cultivator. Zhu Qiao had heard that those dryads had captured several of his friends and Xie Tian. They got pulled by mysterious tree roots, the same fashion how Cao Mao got captured.
None of them came back alive! None… but Cao Mao.
Seeing as he was her only clue, he just had to know something about the events in the dryad realm.
Thus, Zhu Qiao came here in secret in searching for Cao Mao.
'Mom is going be pissed, but I gotta do what I gotta do! This is all YOUR fault, stupid System!!!'
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