Chapter 205 Life is not easy, beautiful women perform

Chapter 205 Life is not easy, beautiful women perform

Chapter 205 Life is not easy, beautiful women perform

Nothing happened in the next few days. The six people slept for two days, crossed mountains and rivers, and hurried their way towards the Dajie Mountain. In five days, they walked nearly a thousand miles.

As they got further and further away from the True Form Sect, the road became more and more desolate and deserted, and they even encountered powerful spirits a few times. However, none of them had the intention to exorcise the demons, because according to Kong Jingci, these spirits were also a barrier, at least in the past they could stop the Six Sects from traveling to the hinterland of the Central Continent.

After walking for another five days, Li Wuxiang gradually began to see villages and towns.

These towns and villages are completely different from those near the parish. For example, towns like Jinshui and Deyang, whether small or large, are all built alone on the wilderness, far apart from each other and surrounded by vast wilderness.

Now, the several villages and towns that Li Wuxiang passed through were very close to each other, often only one or two days' journey away, and there were many fields around them, which was consistent with his previous impression of the countryside.

The people living here seem to be more leisurely than those living near the parish. They are not as pale and thin as the people in Jinshui, and they smile more often. It seems that as Kong Jingci said, the farther away from the parish and the closer to the hinterland of Central China, the more prosperous it will be.

At this point, they were no longer worried about the Six Mystical Sects chasing them. So when they passed a big city called Pingshan that afternoon, they decided to go into the city to take a good rest and wash off the dust on their bodies.

Pingshan is the closest city to Dajie Mountain. In the Ye Dynasty, Pingshan City was a fortress, guarding a pass between the mountains on both sides. It was the ultimate road leading to Dajie Mountain, and it was meant to be a barrier. After passing Pingshan City and walking north for more than 500 miles, you will reach the territory of Dajie Mountain.

It was almost dusk when we entered the city. The streets were bustling with people, similar to Deyang. The difference was that the atmosphere here was more lively, unlike Deyang, which had a commercial street and a residential market.

The two sides of the road were almost all lined with vendors, and in addition to various daily household items, there were also various foods. The few people except Li Wuxiang had been sleeping in the open these days, and they could hardly take their eyes off these things. After entering the city for only a quarter of an hour, Tang Qilang had food in his hands, eating left and right. He said that these were just a basic meal, and he would ask around to find out where there were good restaurants nearby, and he had to make up for the consumption of these days.

As Li Wuxiang walked, watched, and listened, he felt that this place and the diocese were two completely different worlds. There was a dispute over there that could affect the world, but here people were not talking about the Xuanjiao or the Jianzong, but the great calamity alliance of the thirty-six sects.

Along the way, several people mistook them for casual cultivators and came up to them to ask if they wanted to go to Dajie Mountain and if they had found the way. They also said that if they didn't know how to enter the Dajie Mountain Taoist temple, they could find someone to lead the way for one thousand taels of silver.

In addition, many people selling goods on the roadside also use the Great Robbery Alliance as a gimmick.

The one selling sugar water should say, "When Donghuang Taiyi was not yet enlightened, he went down Pingshan three times. When he arrived at the door of his ancestor's shop, he felt extremely thirsty, so he asked for a bowl of sugar water. When his ancestor was boiling water, there was no sugar at home, so he added some pears, pomegranates, apples, etc. to make a pot of fruit sugar water. After Taiyi drank it, he found it extremely sweet and named the shop Candy Shop."

Therefore, if anyone wants to go to the Great Tribulation Alliance to watch the fun, they should drink a bowl of sugar water from this fructose shop to get some good fortune.

Li Wuxiang walked past dozens of sugar water shops on this street and couldn't help thinking that if what they said was true, then Li Ye might have had diabetes in the past. Because at least according to the story, he would stop to ask for sugar water every dozen steps on this street, and every shop had sold out of sugar at that time.

There are many more. Almost every place that looks a little older will have someone setting up a stall there, saying things like "Grandpa Taiyi once stopped his horse here", "Grandpa Taiyi once admired the flowers here", "Grandpa Taiyi once recited poems here", or "Grandpa Taiyi once sold paintings here" -

There weren't many people in front of other stalls. They were probably casual cultivators from far away. There didn't seem to be many locals. But there were quite a few people in front of the stall where "Master Taiyi sold paintings in the past". It was almost packed with people.

When passing by, Li Wuxiang was just going to take a glance inside and leave. But in just one glance, he found that this stall selling paintings was not a painting and calligraphy stall, but more like a performing arts stall.

In the open space surrounded by the crowd stood a wooden sign, with a piece of paper stretched over it. On the paper, it looked like a cat had been drawn, and a few strokes had been made. Li Wuxiang didn't know much about painting, and he wasn't very good at it, but even so, he could tell that the few strokes he had already made weren't very good, perhaps at the level of a teenager who was just starting to learn painting.

But what the crowd was looking at was not the painting, but a person - the stall owner was a woman, slightly taller, about the same height as many of the shorter men who were watching. She was tall, had long legs, and was wearing tight clothes, with a belt tightly wrapped around her thin waist, which made her look even more slender.

She was wearing a piece of light gray veil on her face, but the veil could not conceal the outline of her face, so one could vaguely see that the woman's appearance was also amazingly gorgeous - Xue Baoping was considered very beautiful, but this woman's appearance was even more aggressive. Even the most demanding person could only say "dislike" rather than "not beautiful".

The woman was holding a brush in one hand and a sword in the other, and was dancing with it. Her painting skills were not very good, but her sword dance was very beautiful, and she was also beautiful, so the onlookers watched intently and cheered continuously.

Li Wuxiang couldn't help but stop and said to Kong Jingci, "Take a look."

He said he wanted to see, so several people had no choice but to stop. They stretched their necks to look inside at the sword-dancing woman, and then looked at Li Wuxiang, with different expressions.

However, Li Wuxiang did not stop because of the beauty of the woman, but because he saw a layer of dust under the wooden sign, like paper ash.

The woman danced with the sword and added one or two strokes on the paper in between moves. After dancing for about a quarter of an hour, she finally drew a cat with a crooked mouth and slanted eyes on the paper.

So she stopped, looking a little out of breath, gasping for breath several times, and everyone's eyes were all on her heaving chest. When she caught her breath, she drew back the long sword, raised her hands and clasped her fists: "Dear audience, the talisman paper is ready, now I will perform a little magic trick for you -"

Before she finished speaking, someone in the crowd shouted, "You are much better than your magic tricks. Don't stop, keep dancing! Who is here to watch the magic tricks?"

This made the people around laugh and they all agreed. The woman also laughed and bowed with her fists clasped: "Everyone, please give me a break. I have danced for an hour today and I need to take a breath. Wait until tomorrow-"

As soon as she said "wait until tomorrow", the crowd began to disperse, saying "then wait until tomorrow and come back to see", and in just a short while, there were only fifteen or sixteen people left.

The woman seemed to sigh slightly under her veil, but she still smiled and said, "Then let me show this little trick to those of you who are left behind."

She turned around and walked to the wooden sign, peeled off the painting, shook it in her hands, and flipped it back and forth to let everyone know that there was nothing unusual about the paper. Then she took out a fire starter from her waist, blew it up, and put it under the painting paper: "Look, everyone, there is a cat in this painting, and now I will conjure up a cat -"

The tinder lit the edge of the paper and the paper caught fire. At this moment, the cat on the paper seemed to come alive, turning into a hazy shadow that jumped from midair to the ground, jumped twice, and then gradually faded and disappeared.

The woman stood there, as if trying to see the reactions of the others. But the faces of the dozen or so people were all blank, they only glanced at the cat's shadow and said nothing. After a while of silence, one of them couldn't help but say, "That's it?"

The woman was stunned for a moment, then clasped her fists and saluted: "This is—"

"Is it really gone?"

"That's it, that's all..."

The rest of the people looked disappointed and turned away.

Li Wuxiang and his companions were standing far away from the woman, who must have thought that no one was watching her, so she sighed, reached behind her head to tighten the veil on her face, and squatted down to pick up the scattered copper coins on the ground.

When she danced with the sword before, her posture was graceful and her movements were smooth and fluent, but now that she squatted down, Li Wuxiang found that her legs seemed to be injured, and she had to slightly tilt her legs and stretch out a little to reach the things on the ground. She almost had to take a breath and rest after picking up a few copper coins. She rested like this for more than ten times and picked up all the copper coins on the ground. She only collected more than 30 coins in total.

After picking up the money, she slowly moved to the wall and sat on the ground. She took out a small coin bag from her bosom and counted the copper coins one by one. Then she put the coin bag away, picked up a gourd from the ground and drank a sip of water. Then she tightened her clothes, clasped her hands in her bosom, and leaned against the wall to rest.

When she rested, she didn't close her eyes, but stared at the opposite side of the street. Li Wuxiang saw that there was a snack stand across the street, selling fried meat sandwiches, which were crispy and golden, and the aroma drifted all the way over here. The woman looked for a while, and Li Wuxiang heard a very slight "gurgling" sound - it was her stomach growling.

Li Wuxiang had been standing here for quite a while. Tang Qilang behind him glanced at Kong Jingci, who had an expressionless face, and stepped forward and said, "Senior, actually, this kind of female cultivator is the most troublesome... No, it looks like she is not even a cultivator. If you get involved with her, she will ask for all kinds of things from you. If you know when to advance and when to retreat, it's fine. But if you meet the kind of person who doesn't understand——"

"Is this kind of trick common?" Li Wuxiang interrupted him.

Tang Qilang was stunned for a moment, and didn't react. Kong Jingci, who had been silent before, suddenly became animated. "Brother, are you talking about the trick of drawing a cat?"

"Ah."

"It's very common here, and they're all tricks. As long as ordinary people get a chance to practice and develop some Qi, they can learn it. Some people have never practiced, but they have developed internal strength through martial arts, and they can also learn it. Brother, are you interested in this? The Suhua Sect does have a lot of interesting tricks that are much more interesting than this."

Li Wuxiang nodded: "Does this kind of magic usually use the same kind of paper she just used, or yellow talisman paper?"

Kong Jingci frowned and thought for a moment: "Usually it's yellow talisman paper. Isn't that what she used just now?"

"No. Is there anyone who uses bamboo paper?"

Kong Jingci looked at the woman, then at the paper ash under the wooden sign, and thought for a moment: "In fact, this kind of magic is not limited to what kind of paper is used, it can be painted on stone or wall, but it may be a little more laborious for people like them. If she used bamboo paper, it is not surprising. Brother, you see, there are so many casual cultivators coming and going in Pingshan City, and they all heard about the Great Tribulation Alliance."

She raised her hand and pointed at both sides of the street market: "Whenever something like this happens, monks gather and the paper and pen shops have the best business. Yellow talisman paper, yellow paper, cinnabar and the like are all sold out, especially yellow talisman paper, which can increase in price by dozens of times. Seeing her like this, it is reasonable for her to use bamboo paper instead of yellow talisman paper because she can't afford it - but brother, don't you think that since she is using painting as a gimmick, it's just right to use bamboo paper?"

Li Wuxiang nodded: "That's right. Let's go."

He took a step forward and glanced at the woman as he passed by her stall. When she saw Li Wuxiang's gaze, her wooden face immediately became lively and she smiled, wanting to stand up and greet him. But Li Wuxiang turned his face away again, so she also stopped smiling and continued to sit against the wall stiffly.

After walking a dozen steps, they were about to turn a street corner when they heard some noise behind them.

Li Wuxiang couldn't help but look back and found that there were a few more people gathered in front of the woman's stall. He thought at first that there was more business, but when he was about to turn around, he found that those people were dressed similarly - dark blue round-necked arrow-sleeved robes, green cloth wrapped around their heads, and long swords slung around their waists.

He thought that maybe it was the Pingshan City garrison troops, who were going to cause trouble for the woman or collect money. Just as he was about to turn his head away, he caught a few words in the noisy noise on the street:

"... Madam Yu, why are you... setting aside past grudges... He has a family background... Come back with us..."

Listening to these words, it seems that this woman is called Yu Niangzi, and she ran away from home, and her family is now looking for her. But then Li Wuxiang heard a few more words -

"...Why do you have to know...Naturally...Baoxia Chapter..."

Li Wuxiang immediately stopped, walked back three steps and stood to listen. He finally heard clearly what one of the leading men was saying, "...If you don't go back, the master said that you can give us the Baoxia chapter to take back. Lady Yu, you can do whatever you want."

Embracing the Clouds? Embracing the Clouds?

He didn't know whether there was a technique called "Baoxia Pian" among the many techniques practiced by other casual cultivators in the world, but Ranshan's core technique "Huai Lu Baoxia Pian" was strictly speaking divided into two parts: "Huai Lu Pian" and "Baoxia Pian".

The upper part, Huailu chapter, talks about the method of collecting and refining Qi, while the lower part, Baoxia chapter, talks about the specific method of cultivation. It is not like the Tianxin School's mental method, which blends the two together.

He stopped to watch because he saw that the woman was using bamboo paper, and her sword skills looked a little familiar - when he fought with Zhao Kui in Jinshui, Zhao Kui had demonstrated his sword skills.

At that time, life and death were at stake, and Li Wuxiang did not know as much about martial arts as he does now, so he did not pay much attention. It was only when he saw her dancing with the sword that he felt that it seemed a bit like the fast and dense style of Zhao Kui's sword, so he wondered if she was a separated disciple of Ranshan.

And now that suspicion seems to be confirmed.

Li Wuxiang immediately walked back, and the people behind him noticed that he had turned around, and hurried over to follow. When they returned to the woman's stall, other people on the street also gathered around, all of whom had seen the scene and came to watch the excitement.

There were eight people in total who came to look for the woman. After they had spoken a few words, a circle of people gathered behind her. The leader frowned and waved to the people behind him. Then those people started to drive people away by pressing the handles of their knives, shouting "It's none of your business."

When ordinary people saw their fierce appearance, they dispersed far away. But when they saw the attire of Li Wuxiang and his companions, one of the young men calmed down a little, raised his hands and clasped his fists, and said politely: "Fellow Taoists, we have some private matters to attend to here. Please go somewhere else."

Li Wuxiang glanced at the woman and saw that she was still sitting against the wall, holding her sword tightly in her arms. She didn't look at the leader, but just stared at the ground with her eyes lowered, pursed her lips and said nothing.

The leader, in green, squatted in front of her, very close to her, frowning and speaking in a low voice. Seeing that the woman did not answer, he frowned even more and used his hand to push her head. The woman still did not speak, so the leader pushed her head hard and tilted it to the side, then stretched out a hand to hold her shoulder tightly and shook it hard.

With this sway, the woman's collar tilted, revealing a large area of ​​her neck and shoulders. Her neck was slender, her collarbone was straight, and her skin was white, but it was not just white - her neck and shoulders were covered with large patches of pale pink scars, which made people feel numb, as if they had been burned by fire or corroded by some poison.

The woman couldn't help but raised her hand to tighten her collar. The leading man immediately slapped her in the face, then frowned and spoke to her in a low voice.

Li Wuxiang retracted his gaze: "I'm just curious - what is it that you want to do? Why do I look like I don't do anything serious?"

The young man glanced at the people behind him, saw the weapons they were carrying, and smiled: "They are just runaway slaves from our family. Guys, give us Ranshan some face and go somewhere else."

Li Wuxiang was stunned for a while. "Ah? Ranshan?"

The young man saw his expression and seemed to understand. He straightened his body slightly and his smile turned from warm to slightly cold: "That's right. Ranshan Sect is doing business, I advise you not to feel uncomfortable and go somewhere else."

(End of this chapter)