Lianyuncheng West District.
In the evening in the West District, the family monks had finished their busy day and returned to their houses, and the shops in the market began to close.
There is no night market in Lianyuncheng.
In other words, even the West District, which has relatively good security, is not safe at night.
In Chengneifang City, West District, a "Hong's Cloth" store with a small store and inconspicuous exterior decoration was empty. The store owner and the waiter were doing the final cleaning of the goods and preparing to close the store.
At this time.
A monk with a rough appearance and an unkempt beard stopped the shopkeeper who was about to close the door:
"Shop, buy a piece of cloth."
The hunched shopkeeper turned to look at the monk who came to buy cloth, and continued to close the door: "It's closed. Fellow Taoist, please come back tomorrow. Remember to be early."
As soon as he finished speaking, the hand that closed the door was pressed down, and the rough monk said in a hoarse voice:
"I would also like to ask the shop owner to do me a favor. There is a big news in my family and I urgently need a piece of red cloth. The cloth is six feet long and one foot wide. The size cannot be more or less."
The rickety shop owner's hand stopped closing the door, and his turbid eyes glanced at the rough monk, and said slowly: "Congratulations, fellow Taoist. Purple is an auspicious color. There is good news in your family, why not buy purple?"
The rough monk had no expression on his face:
"Red is festive, just red. Inlaid with gold lace, the pattern is green mountain flowers, twenty-six flowers, no more, no less."
The rickety shopkeeper narrowed his eyes and finally stopped closing the door. The tall wooden door is half open and half closed, waiting for the owner's next move.
After a while, the rickety shopkeeper nodded and said:
"Fellow Taoist, this is a lot to ask for. It needs to be customized. Since fellow Taoist is willing, then come in with me."
The store doors reopen.
The rough monk breathed a sigh of relief... Fortunately, He Xianxiang's information was effective. Based on this alone, the braised monster beast had enough meat.
Chen Ping, a rough and arrogant monk, followed the store owner into the store.
The store is not really big, measuring dozens of square meters, with all kinds of cloths hanging, making the space look particularly small. The hanging fabrics are not too high-end, they are all ordinary fabrics. In short, an ordinary store.
Chen Ping said nothing the whole time and followed the store owner into the store. The waiter did not follow him and stood guard at the door. The store owner went behind the counter.
"What information do fellow Taoists want?" The store owner got straight to the point.
Perhaps because there was no one around at the moment, the store did not lead Chen Ping to a high-privacy room such as a dark room, but communicated directly in the store.
Since the store was direct, Chen Ping didn't beat around the bush and handed over a piece of yellow talisman paper:
"A person, Situ Shan,"
"This is the address of his house. I want all his information."
The reason why I gave the address of the house was because I was worried that there would be someone with the same name. After all, Situ Shan was a small person and the shopkeeper might not know him. Get the wrong information and that's it.
The store owner has obviously done this kind of thing many times. He is familiar with the traffic and is not surprised at all.
It was just a matter of routine:
"50 low-grade spiritual stones."
This price is quite reasonable.
Information has always been valuable, but Situ Shan is just a second-level qi-training ant, which is worthless. The two offset each other, which is about the same price.
Chen Ping silently paid.
He only had 13 low-grade spiritual stones at his disposal in his pocket. But there are still 200 reserves, which have never been used. They are waiting to be used by Jianghu for emergency relief one day.
Now is the moment for Jianghu to come to the rescue.
No, a life-saving moment.
"Fellow Taoist, please wait a moment. Maybe there is something in stock. Our store will come to you as soon as you go." The store owner took the spirit stone, counted it, and immediately turned around and uncovered a wide and thick piece of cloth behind the counter and disappeared.
The moment the cloth was uncovered, Chen Ping only saw darkness behind him and could not see anything. But I can feel the vague pressure in the darkness, and that pressure is not weak. Or very strong.
...There are high-level monks in the darkness.
A moment later, when the store owner appeared again, he had an additional file in his hand.
"Fellow Taoist, please read this. Do you understand the rules?"
"Understand."
Chen Ping took the file.
The so-called rule is that the files cannot be taken away. What they sell is knowledge, not commodities. The store probably didn't want to expose the file and cause it to become a flaw.
It has a bit of a "burn after reading" feeling.
Chen Ping opened the file on the spot.
The information on Situ Shan is meager.
It is nothing more than an introduction to his family, his cultivation, his skills and spells, and his address.
There are also conscientious remarks at the end of the introduction to spells and skills, to the effect that a monk's swordsmanship, spells and other abilities may change at any time, and these data may be lagging behind.
These are not what Chen Ping cares about.
But when he saw the bottom line, even though he had already guessed it, Chen Ping's heart skipped a beat when he saw it.
[Situ Shan: Qi Jianglun’s secret apprentice. 】
Chen Ping tightened his hands and suddenly understood a lot of things. Things that had no clue at first became extremely clear, and the ins and outs were clear at a glance.
...It turned out to be Qi Jianglun.
This makes perfect sense.
"Fellow Taoist, have you finished reading?" The store owner pointed to the hourglass next to him that was almost finished.
Chen Ping returned the file and said in a hoarse voice:
"Buy another person's information, Qi Jianglun."
The store owner still had no expression:
"160 spiritual stones."
The corners of Chen Ping's mouth twitched.
But he still paid silently.
Is it expensive?
Too damn expensive.
According to his past earning power, even a few years of storage cannot buy Qi Jianglun's information. According to the current earning power of selling talisman skins, with a surplus of 8 spirit stones a month, it would take a full 20 months, or nearly 2 years of storage, to buy this information.
Buy?
Must buy.
After a while, Chen Ping got Qi Jianglun's dossier. The process was the same - read it immediately and return the dossier when the hourglass time was up.
"Fellow Taoist? Is there anything else?" the store reminded.
Chen Ping touched the lining, where there were some spiritual stones taken from Situ Shan's corpse.
He gritted his teeth and said:
"Buy another message."
The store owner was a little surprised. He took a serious look at Chen Ping for the first time and thought, can you afford to buy so many people's information at once?
But this is the buyer's business, and as a store owner, I can't interfere.
The shopkeeper nodded and said slowly:
"Fellow Taoist, please speak."
Chen Ping still had the same hoarse voice: "When will the caravan last come to Lianyuncheng?"
The store owner was slightly stunned.
Not many people buy this kind of information.
But then it returned to normal.
But who comes to the store to buy information? There are also people who bought a certain woman’s time to come to Kwai Shui.
"Fellow Taoist bought information twice. The third information is not valuable, so there will be no charge. The store will consider it as a gift to fellow Taoist."
"If the journey goes well, a caravan will arrive in Lianyung City in about six days. But if something else happens on the journey, it will be out of control."
Chen Ping understood.
Leave.
"Do fellow Taoists understand the rules after going out?"
"Of course I understand."
This information was obtained by himself and has nothing to do with this store. He cannot mention the transaction of information between the two parties to anyone, otherwise he will be held accountable.
The so-called 'pursue' means going to death.
In short, everyone can know that my store provides information, but no one can have evidence.
Chen Ping left the cloth shop, spit out the pebble in his mouth that suppressed the sound in his throat, followed the old process, walked around a few streets, changed his makeup several times, and then headed east.
At the same time, he processed Qi Jianglun's information in his mind.
Qi Jianglun, a first-level casual cultivator.
I learned how to make talisman skins from an old master in my early years. He was not very talented in cultivation, but he was very talented in making talisman skins. He figured out a set of skills for making talisman skins on his own.
Then he killed his master and established his own business.
Because of his superb skills, he quickly became famous in the small circle of talisman-making circles. After that, he embarked on the path of recruiting apprentices and teaching.
Surprisingly, Qi Jianglun, whose pockets were gradually bulging, did not choose to branch out. He did not even find a Taoist companion and focused on making talisman skins.
In addition to making talisman skins, Qi Jianglun also has another major hobby, which is gambling. He hangs around gambling houses all year round, and he becomes haggard from gambling every day.
As for whether it was gambling that made him embark on the road of recruiting bad apprentices to fish for spiritual stones. Or because he harvested too many spiritual stones as an apprentice, he fell into a gambling addiction. This is unknown, as it is not mentioned in the file.
'No wonder this guy makes so much money and his yard is so poor. 'Chen Ping remembered what he saw when he went to Qi Jianglun's home to study.
'Is gambling so easy to become addicted to? Qi Jianglun didn't even find a Taoist companion, but just indulged in gambling. This is really... unreasonable. I am sworn in with drugs and gambling! '
Chen Ping was confused and incomprehensible.
But that’s what the data says.
also.
In his early years, Qi Jianglun invited a high-ranking monk to serve as a guest to protect his safety, but later he was almost killed by the high-ranking monk for seeking money, and he never invited him again. And led to a naturally suspicious character.
In order not to be noticed by outsiders, Qi Jianglun chose to live next to the house of one of the leaders of the city defense, named Zhou Jianping. This is similar to Chen Ping's choice to live next to Yu Qingyi.
Chen Ping felt that the name was familiar, but for a while he couldn't remember where he had heard it. Zhou Jianping's cultivation information is not introduced in the information, but it cannot be weak. Otherwise, I can't be one of the leaders.
Apart from this, Qi Jianglun only had a few disciples with whom he had close contacts.
Situ Shan is one of them.
In addition to Situ Shan, there is another apprentice whose identity is not disclosed to the public.
There are four apprentices whose identities are disclosed to the public. When he was learning leather-making at Qi Jianglun's house, the monk who distributed books and provided disciplinary guidance was one of his apprentices.
These five people are all second-level Qi practitioners.
Qi Jianglun himself is a fourth-level Qi practitioner, and is still a long way from the fifth level.
At the end of the file, Qi Jianglun's final comments were given.
[Qi Jianglun: It is not appropriate to rob the Tao. ]
This conclusion is quite reasonable.
Think about it, Qi Jianglun is famous but has little money. Being famous means that the probability of Jie Dao being traced is high, and since there are several disciples, the risk of Jie Dao is also high. But because this guy has been hanging around gambling houses all year round, he has lost all his money, and the profit from the robbery is too small.
The input-output ratio is not equal.
In addition, the dossier also gave a piece of suspected but unconfirmed information:
Qi Jianglun is suspected of having a backhand, but the backhand cannot be from the late stage of Qi training, because the monks in the late stage of Qi training are all in Lianyuncheng, under the eyes of Hong's cloth, and it is impossible for Qi Jianglun to be a dog without Spotted by Hong's cloth. As for the monks in the early and middle stages of Qi training, because there are too many, the eyes of Hong's cloth cannot cover them, so there may be mistakes.
Chen Ping took back his thoughts.
Tonight is destined to be a sleepless night.
