Pawn Crossing the River

Qiniang suddenly remembered something: "By the way, Sun Yongfeng is half the same as me. He likes yellow and white things and is very tacky. Tianyuan, you understand."

Qi Xuansu immediately understood the implication of Qiniang's words and hesitated: "This...isn't good, this is encouraging unhealthy tendencies."

To Qi Xuansu's surprise, Qiniang did not refute, but nodded in agreement: "Indeed, the Taoist sect has repeatedly issued orders to put an end to such things."

Qi Xuansu also nodded and said: "That's right."

Qiniang said indifferently: "Anyway, I don't want to enter Tiangang Hall, and I don't want to make progress. You can decide what to do. If there is nothing else, let's stop talking here. I still have a few accounts that I haven't settled clearly. "

"No price, no price." Qi Xuansu said quickly, "Qiniang, I just said it casually."

Qiniang chuckled: "It's okay, I just said it casually."

Qi Xuansu had no way to deal with Qiniang.

Qiniang changed her eldest sister-like-mother airs and said earnestly: "Tianyuan, there is a saying: 'As straight as a string, you will die on the edge of the road. As curved as a hook, you will become a prince instead.' We are all small people and cannot change. You can't resist this world, you can only struggle in it, and it's better to go against the odds. There is another saying: "If you are strong, you can help the world, but if you are poor, you can be good for yourself." What you have to consider now is not to help the world, but to help the world. It’s about being alone, you understand?”

"Yes." Qi Xuansu said honestly, "I have written it down."

There was a smile on Qiniang's face again: "Very good, bring two hundred Taiping with you when you go, preferably official stamps. Cash is too eye-catching and has a bad influence."

Qi Xuansu asked: "Qiniang, should I pay for the two hundred peace money myself? Or will the company reimburse it?"

Qiniang looked straight at Qi Xuansu, as if she didn't hear anything.

Qi Xuansu looked around and saw that no one was paying attention to him. He raised his voice slightly and repeated what he just said.

Qiniang was full of doubts and said to herself: "Hello? Hello? Tianyuan, can you hear me? Why is there no sound? Is it isolated by the formation? Or is there something wrong with the quality of the Zimu Talisman? I've already I just said, cheap stuff doesn’t mean good stuff, just buy a few good quality ones, anyway, it’s public money…”

Qi Xuansu watched the talisman in his hand slowly burn to ashes, Qiniang's shadow disappeared along with the light of the fire, and could only sigh helplessly.

The wind is getting colder and the snow is getting colder because my heart is cold.

Qi Xuansu could only take out two official tickets with a denomination of 100 Taiping coins from the sandwich on his chest and put them into his sleeve pocket, then braved the wind and snow and walked towards Yujing in the distance.

In this way, the three large tickets that Qi Xuansu had just received and were still warm were gone. He still had one hundred cash left on him, one medium ticket, four small tickets, ten loose tickets, and some more. Loose money.

In fact, Qi Xuansu has some savings, but he travels out all year round and makes a living by licking blood from the edge of a knife. He may one day follow in the footsteps of Zhuge Yongming and others. Wouldn't the money he has make it easier for others? So he exchanged his savings into worry-free money, which is more valuable and does not have an expiration date like official tickets. All of it is stored with Qiniang. If something unexpected happens to him one day, Qiniang will use the money to buy him a house. A decent coffin, and the extra money can be used to support Qiniang in her old age.

Although Qiniang is greedy for money, she still has integrity and is trustworthy.

Qi Xuansu walked along the smooth road paved with white marble towards the majestic city that could not be built by manpower.

Although they are far apart and blocked by wind and snow, you can still vaguely see the outline of the majestic city, and the purple aura of auspicious clouds makes the majestic city disappear and appear.

Because the city is built on a mountain, the terrain gets higher as you go toward the inner city, so there is no chance of being blocked by the city wall.

When you get closer, you can see thousands of palaces, row upon row, layer upon layer.

There is a Babel Tower deep in the city, which reaches straight to the sky. It is called the "Thirty-Three Heavens" by the Taoist sect. At the top where the clouds and fog are shrouded is the legendary Ascension Platform, where the previous great leader ascended to the sky.

Such a majestic city is not easy to build even if it is placed on an open plain, let alone the top of Kunlun, the ancestor of thousands of mountains. According to Taoist records, this city was indeed not built by manpower, but was left by Taishang Taozu. After Xuansheng led the Taoist sect to defeat the Confucian sect and became orthodox in the world, this city appeared out of thin air.

Qi Xuansu disagreed with this statement, and regarded it as a legend made up by later generations to mythologize Xuansheng.

However, Qi Xuansu never dared to put this thought into words, he just thought about it casually in his heart. He still understands the truth that disaster comes from the mouth.

Soon, Qi Xuansu came to the moat of Yujing.

This river is called "Taixu River". It is hard to imagine how the Taoists dug such a moat at the top of the mountain. Part of the river has even broken away from the mountain and is hanging in the air, like a rainbow in the Milky Way, hanging without falling. , flowing around endlessly, just this scene is enough to make people who come to Yujing for the first time think that they have arrived in fairyland.

Crossing the Taixu Bridge above the Taixu River, which is large enough for eight horses to run parallel, we arrived at the gate of Yujing City, where armored spiritual officials were stationed, responsible for verifying the ultimatum.

This is not a difficult task. Qi Xuansu's identity as a Taoist priest is genuine. As long as his identity as a Qingpinghui is not known to others, nothing will go wrong.

After the city guarding officer checked Qi Xuansu's ultimatum, he happily let him go.

Yujing City is surrounded by formations, so it is like spring all year round. After entering the city, Qi Xuansu felt that the chill all over his body disappeared immediately, and he felt indescribably comfortable.

Although Qi Xuansu had been to Yujing before, it was a long time ago. At that time, he had just left the Wanxiang Dao Palace. He was favored by the master during the three-year assessment period and lived here with the master for a period of time. Later, the master died. , he left Yujing, so Qi Xuansu's understanding of Yujing was quite limited, and he had only seen the tip of the iceberg.

Generally speaking, the structure of Yujing and Xuandu is like a "convex" character.

The upper part of the character "convex" is "Xuandu", which has the highest terrain. The lower part of the character "convex" is "Yujing", which has lower terrain.

"Xuandu" is in the shape of "Hui", and the small mouth inside is "Zifu".

Qi Xuansu has never been to Xuandu and Zifu, so he doesn't know much about it, but Yujing is still familiar with it. Unlike Xuandu and Zifu, where the roads are complicated, Yujing's plan is very clear, using the ancient city layout, such as a chessboard generally.

If Qi Xuansu remembers correctly, there are twenty-four squares in total, each named after the ancestors of the Taoist sect. For example, Chongyang Square is the Chongyang Patriarch, Chunyang Square is the Chunyang Patriarch, Chongxu Fang is the Chongxu Patriarch, and so on. . In the past, Qi Xuansu lived with his master in Haichanfang, which ranked relatively low among the twenty-four houses and belonged to the lower eighth house.

As for the Nanhuafang that Qi Xuansu is going to this time, it corresponds to Nanhua Daojun, which ranks first among the twenty-four squares, second only to Taishangfang, which is the first of the twenty-four squares, and is equally famous with Haotianfang.

These three squares, together with Xuanyuanfang, Guangchengfang, Chongxufang, Tongxuanfang and Donglingfang, are called the Shangbafang. Many real people will also settle down and buy property in these eight lanes for occasional use. needs.

Qi Xuansu walked slowly along the north-south avenue that ran through the entire Yujing.

This avenue is called "Shangqing Street", and there is also an east-west "Yuqing Street". The two form a cross, dividing Yujing City into four equal parts and turning it into a "field". Each part includes six squares. , the interlaced center forms a huge square, which is the "city" in "Fangshi", named "Taiqing City", and Taoist people also call it "Taiqing Square".

The word "square" comes from "Ode to Xijing": "The square where you are facing is the wonderful play of Cheng Jiaodian."

Nanhuafang, where Qi Xuansu is going, is located northwest of Taiqing Square.

At this time, Qi Xuansu was located at the junction of the middle vertical line and the lower horizontal line of the word "田". From here to Nanhuafang, it was a full twenty miles away.

At this moment, a crisp copper bell rang, and a sheep cart drove past Qi Xuansu, slowed down, and walked side by side with Qi Xuansu.

There are no horse-drawn carriages in Yujing City, only sheep-drawn carts, deer-drawn carts, and ox-drawn carts, which correspond to the three realms of cultivation. Among them, the sheep-drawn cart is the lowest level and can be ridden by Taoist people, Taoist boys, and ordinary Taoist priests. Moreover, this kind of cart is the lowest level. The goat is very strange. It is tall and strong. The two goats together are no worse than ordinary horses.

The driver was an ordinary Taoist. He sat on the shaft about a foot above the ground and asked, "Do you want to take the Taoist priest? Ten Ruyi coins per mile."

"Go to Nanhuafang." Qi Xuansu stopped and took out two small circles from his shoulder bag.

As the most widely used currency, there are three types of Taiping money. The commonly referred to as Taiping money is one yuan by default, also called a big round. In addition, there are medium yuan and small yuan. All three are engraved with "Peace in the World", but the latter two are much smaller and thinner than one yuan, and the silver content is also very different.

In terms of price, the Chinese yuan is equivalent to half a yuan, which is half a tael of silver from the previous dynasty. A small round is equivalent to one piece of silver. Ruyi money is made of red copper with 95 copper, 4 lead and 1 tin. One thousand Ruyi coins can be exchanged for one yuan, five hundred Ruyi coins can be exchanged for medium yuan, and one hundred Ruyi coins can be exchanged for small yuan.

One mile is worth ten wishful coins, and twenty miles is worth two hundred wishful coins, which is two small circles.

The coachman stopped to take the money and greeted warmly: "Taoist Master, please get on the bus."

The structure of this sheep cart is not much different from that of a horse-drawn carriage. It has two wheels, a boxy carriage, and is covered by curtains and door curtains. There are also four-wheeled vehicles in Yujing City, but they are of higher quality and more expensive. For people like Qi Xuansu who are alone, two-wheeled vehicles are more cost-effective.

Qi Xuansu got on the sheep cart and lowered the door curtains and curtains.

Yujing City is good, but it has no fireworks, is cold and inhumane.

However, Qi Xuansu became more and more curious about Qiniang's identity. He had asked Qiniang a long time ago, but Qiniang always avoided talking about it, so Qi Xuansu stopped asking any more questions. Judging from Qiniang’s words, she is quite familiar with Yujing City and may have been there before.

I lived in Yujing City for a while.

Could it be that Qiniang is also a member of the Taoist sect?

If so, then what is Qiniang’s status in the Taoist sect? Based on her occasional display of realm cultivation and her familiarity with various Taoist halls, she would definitely not be a seventh-grade Taoist priest like Qi Xuansu. She might be a fifth-grade Taoist priest, or even a fourth-grade wine-sacrifice Taoist priest.

If not, then Qiniang was probably once a member of the Taoist sect, and what made her leave the big tree of the Taoist sect?

Qi Xuansu thought about this, and the sheep cart moved neither fast nor slow. Half an hour later, Nanhuafang was already in sight.