Ergouzi walked with quick, long strides, arriving at the county town just as evening approached.
As he entered the city, a trace of smugness lingered in his heart from having gotten a bargain.
Earlier on the road, he never expected that in such freezing weather, the mountain bandits would actually come out to block the road and rob instead of resting at home.
Although this group of bandits had decent credibility, Ergouzi did not want to hand over dozens of copper coins for no reason.
He was usually extremely frugal even when buying pork for a meal. Dozens of coppers could buy a whole jin of pork.
So, catching the group of bandits off guard, he suddenly sped up and fled.
After racing the black shadow last time, his confidence in his ability to escape had grown immensely.
Especially since his cultivation had recently progressed again. The wisp of True Qi inside his body had grown several times stronger, making him run faster and last longer.
When he put his strength into a wild sprint, the bandits were left with nothing to do but shout from behind, completely unable to catch up.
As for fighting the bandits to the death, he had never even considered it. Swords and blades had no eyes, and if one accidentally poked a hole in his body, he would suffer a massive loss.
Ergouzi walked through the city gates. There were even more beggars in the county town, and they swarmed forward like bees, surrounding him in the center.
At first, he hesitated a little, wondering if he should whip them like Laifu had done.
But these beggars bullied him for being a country bumpkin. Many hands were already starting to strip his clothes and snatch his sack; even the rope on his trousers was being untied.
“Get lost!”
Ergouzi let out a loud roar. He used both hands and feet, unleashing his brute strength. Instantly, the beggars surrounding him were thrown several paces away.
This time, no one dared to come forward to beg anymore. He retied his trouser belt, straightened his clothes, and strode forward.
It seemed he truly could not be lenient with these beggars, otherwise even his clothes would be stripped clean.
Rejuvenation Hall’s business was still as deserted as ever. That young man was bent over a desk, reading a book.
When he heard the footsteps, he looked up and saw Ergouzi. He immediately jumped up from his chair as if he had been bitten by a dog.
“You’ve finally come!”
“I’ve been waiting for you for so long!”
The young man tightly grabbed Ergouzi’s hands with both of his own, appearing extremely excited.
Seeing this, Ergouzi had already guessed that the previous batch of Great Strength Pills must have been used up.
“Do you still have any of those Great Strength Pills you gave me last time? How many did you bring this time?”
The young man made no effort to hide his thirst for the pills.
He had originally intended to keep the Great Strength Pills he bought last time in the shop to treat illnesses and save people.
But they had been discovered by an elder brother of his who practiced martial arts, and were eaten clean like sweet beans.
This elder brother then pestered him every day for this type of pill, claiming they possessed miraculous effects and were greatly beneficial to those who practiced martial arts.
Pestered to the point of helplessness, yet unable to find any trace of Ergouzi, he could only fret in anxiety.
“Look, from failing to find you, even my hair has turned white from worry.”
The young man pulled at one of his white hairs to show Ergouzi.
“I brought some.”
Ergouzi nodded, but in his heart, he felt that this young man was several years older than him yet possessed no sense at all.
Showing such an eager desire to buy—was he not afraid of being charged an exorbitant price later?
Since childhood, he had known that when wanting to buy something in the market, one had to pretend not to like it. Only by picking and choosing could one haggle properly.
Untying the sack from his back, he opened its mouth. The sack was filled to the brim with Great Strength Pills; there were at least four or five dou of them.
“So many! Good, I want them all.”
Generally, precious medicinal materials were very scarce. He had never expected Ergouzi to actually haul them in a sack. This massive bundle had to contain at least five thousand pills.
Immediately, the two of them counted the pills one by one. They counted for a large part of the day, finding a total of 5,695 pills.
“Shall we still go by last time’s price?”
The young man had already started flicking the abacus beads on the counter before remembering that they had not yet discussed the price.
Ergouzi nodded to indicate his agreement.
Selling them for 50 copper coins a pill last time had already exceeded his expectations.
Moreover, Ergouzi felt that the young man before him had a cheerful temperament and lacked any deep scheming. He planned to do business with him long-term.
“Alright then, a total of 5,695 pills at 50 coins a pill makes 284,750 coins in total.”
After the abacus beads clattered sharply for a moment, the young man announced the total price.
Ergouzi had also learned some arithmetic from Li Banxian. He calculated silently in his heart for a long time before arriving at the result.
“I’ll give you a round number, 285 taels of silver. How about that?”
“No problem, but don’t rush. I have two more kinds of pills, take a look.”
As Ergouzi spoke, he took down the two small bundles from his back, placed them on the counter, and spread them open.
The two bundles respectively contained the enhanced versions of the Great Strength Pills.
Ergouzi had tried eating them himself. The Spiritual Qi in these two types of Great Strength Pills was much denser, providing greater help for cultivation growth.
It was just that the ones with Cistanche added didn’t feel too good. Every time he ate one, he couldn’t help but let his thoughts run wild, dreaming about taking a wife, yet remaining hopelessly anxious with nothing to show for it.
The young man lowered his head and inspected them for a long time. Then he picked up all three kinds of pills to compare them.
“I can only sense that the medicinal effects of these two have greatly increased. However, I am still not entirely certain what specific effects they will produce. I need to test them a few times.”
“If you don’t mind, sell me these pills for 60 copper coins a pill. If they truly have miraculous effects after being tested, I will add more money later.”
Seeing the young man speak so sincerely, Ergouzi naturally had no objections.
“There are 50 pills of each kind, totaling 100 pills. That comes to 6 taels of silver.”
After the young man finished calculating, he ducked into the pharmacy’s back hall. A short while later, he came out hugging a small wooden box.
The wooden box was opened in front of Ergouzi. Inside was bright, shining white silver, bringing a wave of joy to the heart just by looking at it.
The young man took out the silver ingots one by one and weighed them in front of Ergouzi.
Each ingot was a standard ten taels. He took out 29 ingots, then weighed out another tael of broken silver.
“A total of 291 taels of silver. Please check it again.”
“My name is Sima Yi. If you have more Great Strength Pills in the future, you can sell them all to me.”
“Oh, alright. My name is Zhang Ergou. I’ll sell to you again next time.”
Ergouzi took the silver ingots and wrapped them in a bundle using several layers of cloth, tying them all off with dead knots.
Clutching more than two hundred taels of silver to his chest, he walked out of Rejuvenation Hall. This was the first time in his entire life he had ever seen so much money.
This sum was enough to buy ten mu of good farmland. It was enough to cover an ordinary tenant family’s living expenses for over a decade.
If he took this money to the market, he could buy over a dozen young virgin girls, bringing them home to be wives, concubines, or maidservants as he pleased.
By now, the sky had fully darkened. The people on the road were of all sorts, and every single one looked highly suspicious to him, just like thieves.
Carrying such massive wealth on his person finally allowed Ergouzi to straighten his back.
When passing by a steamed bun shop, he waved his hand grandly and bought ten of the largest meat buns without even haggling.
Holding a pile of massive meat buns, he munched on them as he walked. The savory smell was heavenly.
The beggars on the roadside saw this, drooling strings of spit three feet long.
By the time he finished eating the ten meat buns, the sky was completely black. He needed to find a place to stay the night first; tomorrow, he still had to go to the blacksmith’s shop to buy a sword.
Ergouzi planned to be extravagant just one more time and find an inn to stay for the night.
Just by the side of the road happened to be Hongyan Tower. It was five stories high, with large lanterns hanging by the entrance, appearing extremely magnificent.
Ergouzi stood by the entrance and hesitated for a while. He rubbed the mud off his feet in the snow, only then walking toward Hongyan Tower.
He wanted to experience what it looked like inside.
He had barely reached the door when a blue-clad servant immediately came forward, bowing and scraping.
However, when the servant caught sight of his mud-stained feet, the smile on his face vanished entirely. He shot Ergouzi a cold glare, looking him up and down.
A country bumpkin from the sticks!
“Get out!”
the servant shouted coldly.
Ergouzi blanked for a moment, assuming there was some misunderstanding. The man had probably mistaken him for a beggar, so he hurriedly explained.
“I’m here to stay the night.”
“Stay the night?”
The servant looked Ergouzi up and down once again.
Messy hair, dark and rough skin, a torn cotton jacket reeking of rustic dirt, hands covered in calluses and cracked skin, and not even wearing a pair of shoes.
“Pah! Don’t you look at where you are!”
“Two taels of silver for a single night! Can you afford it?”
“If I let you stay here, how could the noble lords inside show their faces!”
As the servant spoke, he reached out to shove him away.
However, while Ergouzi was not tall, he possessed several hundred jin of strength.
The blue-clad servant felt as if he were pushing against a mountain of solid stone. He didn’t budge an inch.
At the same time, Ergouzi lightly pulled with his arm, sending the servant falling flat onto his back with all four limbs in the air.
“You snob! Looking down on people like that!”
Ergouzi turned around and marched right out of Hongyan Tower’s main doors.
In truth, upon hearing that a single night cost two taels of silver, even if they had let him stay, he wouldn’t have been able to bear spending such a massive sum of money.
Spending that much on lodgings was far worse than buying ten or twenty jin of pork to eat himself.
Learning his lesson from Hongyan Tower, he completely avoided asking for prices at places that looked expensive at a glance, lest he invite humiliation upon himself.
He finally found a small inn with a somewhat shabby storefront, where a night’s stay only cost thirty copper coins.
The guest room didn’t even have a quilt for the bed. If he wanted one, it would cost an extra ten coppers. However, it did have a kitchen where he could light a fire and cook his own food.
The business at this shabby little inn was surprisingly good. It was filled with people of all trades and backgrounds traveling north and south.
There was also no shortage of thieves in the inn. They paid him three visits in a single night, leaving him almost unable to sleep. Fortunately, not a single cent of his silver was lost.