Family Cultivation: Rise of the Wilderness

Chapter 156 Itinerant Merchants Gather
Two months later,

Outside Puyin Mountain lies Monkey Valley.

With the departure of hundreds of craftsmen from the valley, the Monkey Tavern was finally renovated and acquired its own elegant name – Taibai Tavern.

As Lü Mao gazed at the brand-new signboard, a touch of sadness flashed in his eyes.

"Boss, what's wrong?"

A young cultivator nearby asked curiously, craning his neck to look around at the layout of the tavern.

"nothing!"

Lu Mao shook his head, led five or six members of the demon-hunting team inside, and quickly arrived at the bar, tapping on the wooden tabletop.

Behind the bar is Li Qiansu, a cultivator from the Jinfang sect of Lijia City. He appears to be in his forties, with fair skin and a slightly plump figure.

"Commander Lü's presence is an honor to our humble establishment!"

Li Qiansu handed over a glass of wine with a smile.

"Look at these."

Lü Mao untied the cloth bag from his waist and placed it on the table.

"It seems that Commander Lü has gained quite a lot this time."

Li Qiansu opened his cloth bag, took out a handful of demon cores, and then selected a few small pieces of demon beast materials. He carefully examined them by the light of the tavern. When he felt that there were no problems, he called out, "Master, estimate the price for Commander Lü."

"okay!"

Li Xiangji picked up the cloth bag with practiced ease, counted the pieces, weighed them, and after a short while said, "15 spirit stones."

"Only 15 yuan?"

The young man next to Lü Mao frowned and couldn't help but say, "This weight, we used to sell to Zhao Jindou for 18 or 19 spirit stones."

Li Qiansu remained expressionless and chuckled, "This fellow Daoist is unfamiliar. May I ask your honorable name?"

"Lin Hao."

The young man said coldly.

"So it's Fellow Daoist Lin."

While wiping the wine bottle, Li Qiansu casually replied, "What Fellow Daoist Lin said is not wrong. This batch of materials is indeed worth 18 spirit stones. However, things are valued for their scarcity. Our Taibai Restaurant has acquired too many similar materials and cannot sell them at all, so the acquisition price has naturally declined. If Fellow Daoist Lin wants to sell more, why not wait for Zhao Jindou to come over?"

Upon hearing this, Lü Mao and the others fell silent.

If you can see Zhao Jindou, why bother looking for the Li family?

The problem is that Zhao Jindou seems to have vanished into thin air; he hasn't been to Puyin Mountain for three months.

A demon-hunting team can't exactly sleep on demon beast materials, can they?
In fact, for the past three months, Lü Mao had been trying to find other traveling merchants to cooperate with, but he suffered too many losses due to the schemes and interference of Ge Yi and Zhang Mazi.

That's why they had no choice but to pin their hopes on Taibai Restaurant.

As a neutral trading platform, Taibai Restaurant was not originally intended to participate in the acquisition of monster materials.

However, in order to make things more convenient for customers, Shijinfang has launched a similar service, but the acquisition price is really not something to be proud of.

Lu Mao and the others hesitated for a long time, but none of them dared to speak.

This was something everyone risked their lives to get, and now it's being sold off so cheaply?

"Boss, shall we wait a little longer?"

Lin Hao said in a low voice.

"can not wait anymore."

Lu Mao sighed and ultimately sold the monster materials to Li Qiansu.

There was nothing we could do about it; everyone desperately needed spirit stones to buy the Burning Fiend Pill.

This Demon-Burning Pill can clear away evil energy and is an essential item for the Demon-Hunting Team.

As everyone knows, the demon-hunting group enters the mountains three to five times a month, and sometimes more than ten times, during which they hunt countless demons and become tainted with countless malevolent energies.

These malevolent energies are usually harmless, but they cause trouble when you practice breathing exercises.

The vast majority of cultivators will be disturbed by the evil energy, feel frustrated, and repeatedly fall out of meditation.

The reason everyone ventures into Puyin Mountain is to earn spirit stones so that their future path will be smooth.
However, under the interference of evil energy, cultivation becomes difficult, and many people even suffer from qi deviation and mental confusion due to excessive evil energy.

At this point, the Burning Evil Pill comes into play.

A cultivator only needs to consume one of these pills and refine it to clear away the evil energy from their body, thus maintaining their purity for thirty to fifty days.

Of course, one can also purchase the Cleansing Pill, which can also suppress the evil energy and allow cultivators to enter a meditative state with peace of mind. However, the Cleansing Pill and other alternatives only suppress the evil energy, not eliminate it. Once the effect wears off, the cultivator will still suffer from the evil energy.

Therefore, the Burning Demon Pill became an indispensable life-saving elixir for all major demon-hunting groups, and together with the Hundred Herbs Pill and the Blood Burning Pill, it was widely circulated around Puyin Mountain.

The Burning Fiend Pill is quite expensive, costing twelve spirit stones to buy a bottle.

Lu Mao was naturally very cautious. After some discussion, everyone decided to buy the Li family's Burning Fiend Pill. The reason was simple: the Li family had a reputation for integrity.

"Boss, I've bought the Burning Fiend Pill. When will I get my magic weapon?"

Lin Hao stared longingly at the spirit stones in Lü Mao's hand, which had shrunk by more than half.

"Don't worry, I told Zhao Jindou to bring back a few decent magical artifacts."

"That guy hasn't come for so many days, he's probably dead somewhere."

Lin Hao muttered in dissatisfaction.

Seeing this, another member of the demon-hunting team slapped him on the back: "Lin Hao, how dare you talk like that?"

Lin Hao staggered back and turned around with a forced smile, saying, "Uncle Shan, I was just anxious."

"Zhao Jindou is a big businessman after all. Money can make the devil turn the millstone. You should be careful what you say."

"Yes, yes, Uncle Shan is right!"

Lin Hao scratched his head, about to say something, when suddenly he noticed something, pulled Lü Mao aside and whispered, "Look, it's the head of the Li family!"

Is the Li family in charge?

Lu Mao hurriedly looked towards the valley entrance and indeed saw Li Xiangming in a green robe walking towards him. Behind him were a group of cultivators, roughly a dozen or so.

"Zhao Jindou!"

Uncle Shan's voice turned somber.

"Not only that, but also well-known traveling merchants from the surrounding area, such as Old Man Wu, Zhang Zhi'ang, and Madam Feng, have all come here."

Lu Mao's gaze was complicated. Only the Li family could have such great power to bring these elusive merchants together.

Li Xiangming also saw Lü Mao, who was planning to leave the valley, and was somewhat surprised.

"Commander Lü, it's been a long time."

Three months ago, Lü Mao announced that he had parted ways with Ge Yi and established his own Mad Lion Demon Hunting Team.

However, the Mad Lion Demon Hunting Team has recently been relentlessly targeted by Ge Yi, suffering heavy losses.

Even the fourth brother, who had been by Lü Mao's side for many years, died in battle.

Under these circumstances, Lü Mao still dared to swagger out, which shows his great courage.

Of course, it may also be something that had no other choice.

Because only Monkey Valley around Puyin Mountain can provide supplies to these demon-hunting groups.

"I, Lü, have met with Steward Li."

Lu Mao's attitude was very humble. For most demon-hunting groups, Li Xiangming, who guarded Monkey Valley, was someone they had to curry favor with.

"Ah."

Li Xiangming nodded without saying much; he had no interest in such a minor character. Zhao Jindou, however, winked at Lü Mao.

Zhao Jindou still cared about this former customer. He quickly gave him a few words of instruction via divine sense, and then followed Li Xiangming into the Taibai Restaurant to preside over the first Puyin Mountain Guild Hall Gathering.

After everyone was seated, Zhao Jindou got straight to the point: "The first and most important thing I invited you all here for is to drive away Zhang Mazi."

Zhao Jindou has always regarded Zhang Mazi as a formidable rival.

In comparison, Zhao Jindou has more stable channels and can handle large quantities of commodities, while Zhang Mazi has a wider network of contacts, and he can always sell whatever he wants.

In the past few years, due to their limited size and the enormous size of the Puyinshan market, the two have been able to coexist peacefully.

However, as more and more traveling merchants entered Puyin Mountain, and even the Li family got involved, Zhang Mazi couldn't help but feel a sense of crisis. He became more aggressive and took advantage of Zhao Jindou's predicament in Daishan to steal many of Zhao Jindou's customers.

This move immediately provoked strong dissatisfaction from Zhao Jindou.

Once the matter at Daishan was settled, Zhao Jindou immediately contacted Li Xiangming and proposed holding a meeting to gather the strength of the Puyinshan Guild Hall to jointly deal with Zhang Mazi.

Li Xiangming had no objection to this.

Since returning from Weixian County, he has been secretly promoting the formalization of the Puyinshan Guild Hall, and has also expanded the number of seats to fifteen.

These fifteen people may not represent the entire itinerant merchant group in the middle section of Puyin Mountain, but their influence is already considerable, and it is time to bring them to the forefront.

(End of this chapter)