Journey to the West: Starting from the Imperial Horse Stable

The sky had completely darkened, and the starlight that flowed across the heavens cast a cool, ethereal glow over the celestial roads. Wang Chen didn't go straight back to his residence, but instead turned into another, slightly noisier street.

This street is located in a relatively peripheral area of ​​the Heavenly Court. At the entrance of the street stands a half-old stone archway with three characters written on it: Xuanzhuji.

As its name suggests, this is not a high-end immortal market. The transactions here are mostly for items belonging to low-ranking immortal officials, clerks, and wandering immortals, or for meager job opportunities. It is a place where many low-ranking immortal clerks, and even more wandering immortals like Wang Chen, struggle to survive in their daily lives.

The market was small, with simple stalls and low shops crammed together on both sides of the street. The stalls displayed mostly dull-looking ores and low-quality spiritual herbs. The air was filled with a faint smell of herbs and the earthy odor of inferior spiritual materials.

Most of the people coming and going looked hurried, dressed simply or even somewhat shabby. The voices of bargaining were not loud, but they conveyed a tense atmosphere of meticulous haggling.

Wang Chen was already used to the sights here. He walked in without looking to the side, but some fragmented sounds and familiar scenes inevitably drifted into his ears.

At a roadside stall, a burly, dark-skinned male cultivator, clutching a small bag of spirit stones, argued with the stall owner, his face flushed, "We agreed on 120 spirit stones for moving 300 boxes of Sunken Star Iron. I've finished, why are you only giving me 80?"

The celestial official didn't even lift his eyelids, using a jade ruler to fiddle with the items on the stall: "Oh, you must have misheard. It's eighty. What, don't you want it? Take it back, there are plenty of people who will take it."

The male cultivator's chest heaved violently a few times, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the spirit stone bag. In the end, he simply took a deep breath, lowered his head, tightly tucked the bag of spirit stones into his robes, and turned to quickly disappear into the crowd. His back was slightly hunched.

They were all once holy sons, who in their own little worlds once held sway and boasted that even if they ascended to heaven, they would still be among the most important figures.

On the other side, in a simple teahouse with a wooden sign that read "Tingfeng Xiaozhu" (Listening to the Wind Pavilion), one could faintly hear a woman's pleading voice and a man's malicious laughter as he urged her to drink. At the door, a young female immortal was being pulled by the arm by a drunken celestial official.

"Immortal Liu, I really can't drink anymore, I have errands to run tomorrow..." The female immortal's voice was soft and trembling.

"A job? How much can you earn from your scavenging job?" The official Liu burped, reeking of alcohol. "Keep up good to me, and even a little bit you slip through your fingers could be enough for half a year. Come in, don't push your luck!"

The female immortal struggled for a moment, but dared not exert too much force; tears welled in her eyes. In the end, she was half-pulled, half-dragged inside. The curtain fell, concealing the unsavory scene within, and seemingly also concealing many echoes of similar fates.

Before her ascension, she was an exceptional fairy in that world, the dream partner of countless people, but now...

Wang Chen didn't stop for a moment. His face was expressionless, and his heart was calm.

There are too many people in Xuanzhu Village who cannot be saved, and too many things that cannot be managed. He himself is already walking on thin ice, his life hanging by a thread, how can he have the spare energy to care for others?

He walked straight to the middle of the market and turned into a narrower alley. At the end of the alley was his rented Immortal's Cave, a simple stone chamber embedded in the cliff face. Sure enough, someone was already waiting at the entrance of the cave.

He was a middle-aged man with a goatee and darting eyes, dressed in a respectable silk robe, a stark contrast to the dilapidated alley. He was the manager of this area of ​​cave dwellings, surnamed Hu, and the wandering immortals secretly called him "Hu the Skinflint."

"Fellow Daoist Wang, you're finally back." Steward Hu rubbed his hands together, a smile on his face, but his eyes were cold. "I've been waiting for you for half an hour. Your cave rent for this quarter is three days overdue. 1,800 spirit stones a month, 5,400 for three months, that's the lowest I can go. I'm only giving you this discount because you're a long-time tenant. Anyone else would have been charged 2,000 by now."

Wang Chen stopped, a hint of embarrassment appearing on his face. He didn't say much, silently taking out the storage pouch he had just retrieved from the driver's office, then putting it back. He took out the small bag that originally contained all his belongings, poured all the spirit stones inside into his palm, and carefully counted them.

The scattered spirit stones gleamed faintly. He counted them once, then again.

"Manager Hu, the total is... five thousand four hundred and fifty spirit stones." Wang Chen raised his head, his tone pleading. "Could you... reduce the price by one hundred? I need to keep some to buy some basic Pure Dew, otherwise my immortal body's foundation..."

Manager Hu's smile faded. He waved his hand, interrupting Wang Chen, "Fellow Immortal Wang, that's not true. You don't have a single spirit stone. You shouldn't be thinking about cultivation; you should be thinking about how to survive and protect this cave. If you pay the rent, you'll at least have a place to shelter from the wind and rain and absorb some meager immortal spiritual energy. If you don't pay, you'll be sleeping on the streets tonight, and when the inspecting spirit officials come tomorrow, you'll be punished along with your spirit stones. You know the rules."

Wang Chen remained silent for a moment. Of course he understood. The Heavenly Court managed unregistered immortals extremely strictly. Defaulting on rent was considered "disrupting the order of the immortal market," and the punishment could be light or heavy, but confiscating all property and forcing them into labor was the most common outcome.

"Alright." Wang Chen stopped insisting, counted out 5,400 spirit stones, and handed them to Steward Hu. In his hand, only fifty low-grade spirit stones remained, their light dim.

Manager Hu quickly collected the spirit stones, took out an account book and made a few notes, then a smile returned to his face: "That's more like it. A wise person knows when to yield. Alright, I won't disturb Fellow Immortal Wang's rest any longer." He turned to leave.

"Manager Hu," Wang Chen suddenly called out to him, as if asking casually, "I remember, Li Changsheng from our Imperial Horse Stable's fodder warehouse also rented your cave dwelling, didn't he?"

Manager Hu turned around and gave Wang Chen a wary look: "Yes, so what?"

Wang Chen was about to say something, but then smiled and shook his head: "It's nothing, I just suddenly remembered and was just asking. Take care."

Manager Hu looked him over suspiciously, but couldn't figure it out, before turning and leaving.

Wang Chen watched his figure disappear into the alleyway, the faint smile on his face vanishing as well. He weighed the fifty spirit stones lightly in his hand, then pushed open his simple stone door.

He didn't go in, but stood at the entrance for a while, seemingly deep in thought. Then, he turned and walked deeper into Xuanzhu Village.

This time, he had a clear goal. He bypassed the stalls and went straight to an inconspicuous shop in a corner of the market. The shop had no signboard, only a string of black stone abacus beads hanging above the door, which gleamed coldly in the dim light.

The door was ajar, letting in a dim, yellowish light.

Wang Chen pushed open the door and went inside.

The shop was slightly larger inside than outside, but the furnishings were simple, with only a heavy black wooden counter and an old man sitting behind it, fiddling with a real jade abacus.

The old man had white hair and a gaunt face, but his eyes were unusually bright and sharp, as if they could see through people's hearts. On the wall behind him hung a calligraphy scroll with four large, bold characters written in ink: "What is borrowed must be returned."

There were no other customers in the shop, only a faint, old-fashioned smell.

Hearing the door open, the old man raised his eyes, his gaze sweeping over Wang Chen, but his hands continued moving the abacus. He simply asked, "Pawning, or lending?"

Wang Chen walked to the counter, but did not answer immediately. Instead, he took out the celestial talisman given to him by Liu Changyun and gently placed it on the black wooden counter.

The jade plaque glowed with a faint, unique light emanating from the celestial official's mark.

The old man stopped using his abacus. He put down his work, picked up the jade pendant, examined it carefully under the light, and then ran his fingers along the edges, trying to decipher the information within.

"The head of the Imperial Stables, the fodder depot, Liu Changyun's deputy." The old man accurately stated his background, then turned his gaze back to Wang Chen, this time with a more scrutinizing look. "Deputy deputies are usually lent out for official business, such as depositing or withdrawing government funds. You want to use it to borrow money?"

"Yes." Wang Chen nodded, his tone calm. "How much can I borrow?"

The old man didn't answer directly, but instead asked slowly and deliberately, "Interest rate: 15% per month, compounded annually. Minimum loan term: three months; maximum: one year. If the loan is overdue, we will use this celestial register to directly pursue this Manager Liu, or report it to his department. Are you clear about the rules?"

"Understood." Wang Chen answered without the slightest hesitation.

The old man stared at him for a few seconds, seemingly trying to find some flaw or nervousness on his face, but Wang Chen simply returned the gaze calmly.

"Hmm." The old man withdrew his gaze, picked up the jade token again, weighed it in his hand, and quickly did some mental calculations. "Based on the annual salary of the official in charge of this token... I can lend you a maximum of 72,000 spirit stones. How much do you want to borrow?"

"I'll borrow 72,000," Wang Chen said.

The old man looked up: "Borrow it all?"

"Borrow it all."

The old man said no more, turned around and took out a dark blue storage bag from the cabinet behind him, then took out two copies of a contract made of a special material, and laid them on the counter. The terms on the contract were clear, with the key points being the borrower, the amount, the interest rate, the repayment method, and the recourse clauses.

"Sign the contract." The old man pushed the contract in front of Wang Chen and handed him a pen that gleamed with spiritual light.

Wang Chen took the pen and quickly glanced through the contracts. Then, on both contracts, he neatly wrote the three characters "Liu Changyun" in the borrower's section. Following the old man's instructions, he pressed the celestial talisman in a specific position on the contract, leaving a unique mark.

Once the procedure was complete, the old man pushed one of the contracts, along with the dark blue storage bag, in front of Wang Chen.

"Seventy-two thousand spirit stones, count them one by one. On this day of each month, you need to repay ten thousand eight hundred spirit stones, for twelve consecutive months, totaling one hundred and twenty-nine thousand six hundred spirit stones. The first repayment is one month later."

The old man's voice remained calm and even. "Remember, the interest doubles for every day you're overdue. If you're overdue for three days, we'll come knocking."

Wang Chen opened his storage bag and scanned it with his divine sense. Inside, seventy-two standard-grade spirit stones were neatly arranged, their light warm and their spiritual energy abundant. They were worlds apart from the fifty low-grade spirit stones in his arms.

He closed the bag, a perfectly timed smile of gratitude and apprehension on his face: "Thank you, boss. I will definitely return it on time."

The old man simply waved his hand, picked up his jade abacus again, and began to fiddle with it, no longer glancing at Wang Chen.

Wang Chen put away his storage bag and his own contract, then turned and left the shop.

Stepping out of the shop and into the still noisy yet cold night of Xuanzhuji, the feigned gratitude and restraint on his face vanished instantly.

He gripped the heavy, dark blue storage bag tightly in his hand, feeling the surging spiritual energy fluctuations within, and a faint smile appeared on his lips.

"Ask Liu Changyun for money?" he murmured to himself, his gaze calmly fixed on the direction of the Imperial Horse Stables. "I hope you have the ability."