Am I the old man who's always by my apprentices' side?

Chapter 19 Master Liu
A gleaming gold brick suddenly appeared in Zhang Chengdao's palm. It wasn't very big, only taking up the center of his hand.

It's called a gold brick, but it's actually a gold ingot, weighing only about one pound. Zhang Chengdao bought it in the game store for 30 peach blossom stones.

The items available in the game store are mostly basic materials, seedlings that produce materials, and seeds for various crops. Items like gold ingots and silver ingots are materials needed for building construction in the late game when you are upgrading. They are not used much. If you don't buy them from the mysterious merchant, you will either be stuck at the level and unable to buy them, or you will have to spend real money to buy them from the store.

For Zhang Chengdao, reality is not a game, and there is no mysterious merchant waiting to trade with him, so gold ingots and silver ingots can only be obtained by exchanging them in the game store.

Fortunately, having purchased a permanent membership, he has 100 Peach Blossom Stones to squander every day. He can also reluctantly buy gold ingots that cost 30 Peach Blossom Stones each, so he can exchange them for some currency that circulates in this world and buy some daily necessities.

Master Liu stepped forward, couldn't help but reach out and touch the gold ingot, and said with some regret, "The quality is indeed excellent, but there are just too few. If Brother Zhang were to sell, I could offer ten strings of cash per pound!"

Although gold has always been a hard currency in ancient times, its value is not stable due to the economic development level of different dynasties and regions. Zhang Chengdao really didn't know how much money it could be exchanged for.

Who in their right mind would pay attention to such obscure facts?!

Moreover, he had no concept of the purchasing power of ten strings of cash, so he could only inquire, "Ten strings of cash... May I ask, Master Liu, how much grain and how much cloth can ten strings of cash buy?"

With a smug grin, Master Liu replied, “Grain can be exchanged for more than thirty bushels, and as for cloth… coarse cloth can be exchanged for forty bolts, while silk can only be exchanged for three bolts.”

Upon hearing this, Zhang Chengdao did some mental calculations.

One shi of grain weighs at least a hundred jin, and cloth was also quite valuable in ancient times. Given this purchasing power, ten guan (a unit of currency) would indeed be worth a lot, more than enough to support an apprentice for at least a year!

So Zhang Chengdao readily nodded and handed the gold ingot to Master Liu: "Please excuse my poor performance. This is all I have. It should weigh about a pound. Please weigh it, Master Liu."

Without any hesitation, Master Liu took the gold brick, weighed it in his hand, and beckoned to the shopkeeper who was craning his neck to watch the excitement: "Manager Zhao, help me weigh it!"

"Oh, I don't have a Sima scale here!"

As Manager Zhao spoke, he took out a black stick from somewhere. When Zhang Chengdao saw the black stick, he suddenly realized that the unit of measurement at this time was hexadecimal, which was probably very different from the modern calculation method that was defaulted to in the game.

That black bar is the old-fashioned scale, also called the 16-ounce scale. It has been gradually phased out in modern times and is rarely seen except in some local Chinese medicine shops.

Master Liu laughed and scolded, "This scale will do! They're getting a pound of gold, and you're getting a free piece of this wooden stick!"

Manager Zhao smiled ingratiatingly, skillfully placed the gold ingot on a small tray, let it hang to one side, and then squinted as he slid the line holding the iron weight, carefully examining the markings.

"It's a little short, it's three and a half ounces short of a pound!"

The patriarch of the Liu family picked up the gold ingot, rubbed it with his fingertips, then put it in his mouth and bit it. A tooth mark was clearly imprinted on it—this piece of gold was excessively soft and bright in color, and it looked purer than any gold he had ever seen!

After thinking for a while, Master Liu gritted his teeth, slammed his hand on the table, and said, "Here's what we'll do: your gold is of really high quality, only about three and a half taels short. I'll buy it as a full pound and give you ten strings of cash, just to make friends! If you need any more in the future, you can come find me. It's in the biggest courtyard at the north end of the city! But if you come to me again, you'll have to pay the exact weight. I want to buy some good gold for my daughter's dowry!" (The gold price is deliberately written like this. Don't be so presumptuous and insult me ​​anymore, I'm impressed.)

Before Zhang Chengdao could speak, Manager Zhao gave him a thumbs up: "Master Liu is generous!"

Since the other party was so straightforward, Zhang Chengdao was naturally just as quick to agree, and immediately nodded: "Then thank you very much, Master Liu. I appreciate your kindness."

"You're too kind! Come on,"

Master Liu first tapped the table a few times, indicating, "Brother Zhang, you probably haven't eaten yet, come and have a couple of drinks with us!" Then, he said to Manager Zhao, "Manager Zhao, send someone to the escort agency to find my wife and have him send someone to fetch ten strings of cash. Tell them I received a piece of gold for Ni'er's hair ornaments!"

Manager Zhao responded and put away the scales. He then sent a waiter who had been watching the commotion outside before approaching and asking, "Master Liu, Master Zhang, would you like to add some more dishes?"

Zhang Cheng bowed apologetically, saying, "No need. I have other matters to attend to, so I won't sit at the same table with Master Liu."

Upon hearing this, Master Liu frowned and his face fell, but he held back his temper. Before he could say anything, Zhang Chengdao conjured a large handful of bright green wheat ears out of thin air and placed them on the dining table.

The wheat was still a bit raw, the stalks were a tender green, and some of the grains hadn't yet swelled up. But no matter what, it was quite astonishing to find such a fresh bunch of wheat at this time of year.

Not to mention that everyone around could clearly see that this white-haired man was actually a handful of wheat that appeared out of thin air!
The patriarch of the Liu family was dumbfounded, a sense of fear rising in his heart: "This, this, this..."

“Master Liu is a generous man. I really don’t have anything of value, except for this handful of spirit wheat, which may be of some benefit to you and is presentable.”

Zhang Chengdao casually picked up an ear of wheat, plucked a few grains, rubbed off the husks, and scattered them on the table. The bright green wheat grains rolled right up to Master Liu, emitting an indescribable, refreshing wheat aroma.

"This kind of spiritual wheat can strengthen the body and prolong life. I probably only have it in the whole world."

Zhang Chengdao originally wanted to boast a bit so that this nouveau riche would realize how good it was and be able to sell through him in the future. But the more he talked, the more he almost couldn't help but laugh—this sales pitch sounded just like a shady health product salesman!

However, the patriarch of the Liu family was so frightened that his eyes widened in disbelief.

Which wealthy person wouldn't get excited upon hearing the words "prolong life"? Besides, Zhang Chengdao's feats of creating things out of thin air are completely different from those street magicians who spit fire and swallow knives!
The more Master Liu thought about it, the more excited he became, his face glowing red. The more he looked, the more he felt that this white-haired man was truly a hermit, a true immortal!
His hair was completely white, but there wasn't a single wrinkle on his face, and he looked quite robust. If it weren't for his white hair, Master Liu would believe he was in his twenties!

If this isn't white-haired and youthful-looking, then what is?

And this old sage actually peeled...peeled what?

What kind of wheat was this, as the old hermit just said?

Yes, yes, yes! It's barley! It's barley!

The old master of the Liu family was breathing more and more heavily. He carefully picked up a grain of wheat and stared at it for a long time. He felt that the wheat grain was a wonderful fragrance that he had never smelled before in his life!

I didn't originally intend to get involved in the controversy here, but some self-proclaimed geniuses keep pointing out my mistakes and criticizing me, so I'll explain anyway.

First, the other world is not reality, so the price of gold will naturally be different.

Secondly, the world is set up with an abundance of precious metals (including but not limited to gold and silver), which naturally lowers their prices. After all, gold and silver resources were very scarce in ancient China. If it were written realistically, where would the metals used for refining and casting, especially precious metals, come from? Would they rely on Schrödinger's cat?

Third, considering the future availability of tools such as alchemy furnaces, metal must be relatively abundant (of course, abundant does not mean cheap, but there is a relationship between them).
Fourth, gold has a special purpose in this story, so its reserves are large and relatively easy to collect (including the "ore" mentioned earlier that grows on the cliffs; I didn't miswrite it, it's part of the world setting. This world is a high-level martial arts cultivation world, where true qi exists, extraordinary beings exist, and of course, different things exist).

Fifth, using the discrepancy between gold prices and reality (especially since I specifically designed this) to argue that my writing lacks logic is truly infuriating. Do you enjoy logic so much that you read cultivation novels? Does logic tell you that spiritual energy exists in reality? Or does it tell you that cultivation is possible in modern society? You open a novel with a completely different worldview from reality, and then use real-world settings to argue that the novel's settings don't conform to reality. What do you mean? Shake your head and listen to the sound of water inside?

Finally, in normal conversation, my attitude should be very good (after all, I've called you all "baby"). If you insist on swearing, then you'd better take a look at my pen name.
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(End of this chapter)