Building a sect from scratch.

"I heard that Immortal Wantong disappeared without a trace?"

"Yes! I think it might have been Si Yin's doing, trying to force Wan Tong Immortal away! If the Taiyin Sect hadn't suddenly intervened, he might have been targeting the secluded Changyi Golden Immortal next!"

As they talked, they arrived at the bustling "Chang'an City Night Market".

Although the night market in Chang'an City is called a "night market," it is no longer limited to being lively only at night. It is only morning now, and it is already crowded with people. Many cultivators who have come from afar have set up stalls wherever they can find a space. There are countless ordinary mortals selling snacks and all sorts of novelties. Even many disciples of the Taiyin Sect are pushing small carts, selling something.

Seeing this scene, Jing Jiezi looked left and right, almost unable to take it all in, and exclaimed sincerely, "What a wonder!"

Just as they were marveling at the sight, a very handsome man approached them, but he had a somewhat sly air about him. He lowered his voice and whispered, "Is this your first time here? Would you like to try my milk tea, which is so delicious it makes you want to bleat? It's made with spiritual spring water! A specialty drink of Chang'an! You can't find it anywhere else! And it's not expensive! Only three coins! You'll save yourself the trouble of queuing! Otherwise, if you go to the Duck Duck Milk Tea shop, you'll have to wait at least ten... cough, the time it takes for an incense stick to burn!"

Upon hearing this, Jing Jiezi realized that drinks made with spiritual spring water were spiritual food! At only three coins a cup, it certainly wasn't expensive, and she immediately reached for her purse to buy two cups. Before she could even make a move, her friend beside her snapped, "Why don't you just rob me?! Three coins? Duck Duck Milk Tea Shop sells something for one coin, and you have the nerve to sell it for three coins? What's your ID? I'm going to report you!"

"Hey, hey, wait! I'm not a player, I'm an NPC! Um, this is a brand new product! Of course it's more expensive! Besides, there's a delivery fee and a service fee, you know... Haha, if you don't want to buy, you don't have to. Well, have fun, you two!"

The man gave a few perfunctory words, turned around, and squeezed into the crowd, disappearing into the throng in the blink of an eye. Jing Jiezi, however, heard her friend still cursing: "Pah! An NPC! I don't believe you for a second! What NPC would claim to be an NPC! These players are getting lower and lower! They're even trying to fool me! If I see him again, I'll dig out his ID! Humph!"

Jing Jiezi, who had never seen Song Bozheng like this before, was quite surprised: "Bozheng, what's wrong with you...?"

“Brother Jing, let me tell you, the morals of these Taiyin Sect disciples are polarized. The good ones are extremely good, and the bad ones are extremely bad. If you are bullied, just go and report it to the police in Chang'an City! If you want to vent your anger, I’ll teach you. You can grab a few of those who don’t walk like normal people, you see,” Song Bozheng said, pointing to a few cultivators who were indeed walking with a limp or hopping gait. “Those are Taiyin Sect disciples. Just find one of them, tell them you have a mission, and have them chase after the Taiyin Sect disciple who bullied you. Give them any reward, even just a bottle of Rejuvenation Pills. There are plenty of people willing to help!”

"Chase, chase, hunt down!?"

Upon hearing this, Jing Jiezi was almost dumbfounded: "Find the disciples of the Taiyin Sect, hunt down the disciples of the Taiyin Sect!?"

"Oh well, they're immortal anyway, so killing them a few times to vent my anger doesn't matter! Besides, they're quite willing to take on these kinds of missions! I heard that the price of a Taiyin Sect disciple on the black market is one yuan per head! That's only one spirit stone! It's practically worthless! Last time, a Taiyin Sect disciple stole my Qiankun bag, and I spent ten yuan to have someone guard his corpse for most of the day! Now he avoids me whenever he sees me! Hmph!"

Jing Jiezi exclaimed in amazement, "Bo Zheng, you've really changed a lot in just a few years!"

Song Bozheng said, "Ah, I guess I'm in a better mood! To be honest, Chang'an City is really nice. At least working at the research institute here pays much more than my monthly salary from the Jiwei Sect. If it weren't for my master being so good to me, I would have wanted to leave the Jiwei Sect long ago! I even tried to persuade my master to come here! It's a pity that he looks down on places where human cultivators and demon cultivators live together! If you ask me, there's no difference between human cultivators and demon cultivators!" The two chatted all the way and soon arrived at the barbecue restaurant serving large intestine sashimi. Although it was broad daylight, there was already a long queue waiting for their number to be called to eat. Cultivators don't have the concept of being hungry or not; they can eat whenever they want, so there is no peak mealtime. Because there are more monks than porridge, the restaurants in the Chang'an City night market are never in peak hours.

Although cultivators don't have the same worries about the cycle of food and drink as ordinary mortals, they still need to find ways to circulate their inner energy to aid digestion and absorption, and expel impurities after eating too much, which is quite troublesome. However, since they eat every now and then, this trouble is still within a tolerable range. Therefore, most cultivators don't care about the time of day when they eat. For example, the most popular duck milk tea shop, the barbecue restaurant serving large intestine sashimi, and the hot pot restaurants next door always have long queues.

After receiving the queue number slip from the doorman, Song Bozheng sighed, "Number 136, sigh! The number of people has more than doubled in the last two days! We're going to have a long wait!"

Jing Jiezi, seeing this method for the first time, found it quite novel and asked, "Number 136? Does that mean we have to wait for 136 more people?"

Song Bozheng explained, "Oh, no, it's because we're number 136 since the barbecue restaurant opened this morning. But this barbecue restaurant is very small and opens late. It only serves about two hundred tables of customers in the morning. Judging from the sky now, we'll probably only have eighty or ninety tables left. We're going to have to wait a while!"

Jingjiezi then asked, "Is it really that delicious? Why are so many diners queuing up? Why not send a servant to queue up for them?"

"Shh! Don't talk nonsense! There are no servants in Chang'an! Even if there are, it's an employment relationship! Besides, restaurants and similar establishments are cracking down on scalpers. If someone queues up for you, your number will be invalidated. You have to queue up in person to eat!"

"What...what is a 'yellow ox'?"

Before Song Bozheng could explain, a male and female cultivator walking beside him took a few steps closer. The male cultivator enthusiastically interjected, "Scalpers are middlemen! Ticket scalpers! Number scalpers! Or smugglers, black market dealers, that's what we call scalpers most of the time!"

Jing Jiezi quickly bowed and greeted him, saying, "I see! I haven't yet had the pleasure of learning from you..."

The male cultivator returned the greeting, saying, "You flatter me! My name is Du Cihuai. I'd like to greet you, fellow Daoist. I see you also seem to be a pill cultivator? May I ask which sect you belong to? Is this your first time visiting Chang'an City?"

"My younger brother is Jing Chen, and my Daoist name is Jie..."

Before Jing Jiezi could finish her polite words, Song Bozheng suddenly raised his voice, exclaiming with surprise and excitement, "Du Cihuai!? You're Du Cihuai!? Du Cihuai, the number one stay-at-home dad in Chang'an!?"

"Milk...milk what!? Milk Daddy!?" (End of Chapter)