Surviving in the chaos of war begins in the wilderness.

Chapter 118 Mountain and Sea Tower

Faced with Zhou Ye's astonished gaze, Wu Jun appeared quite composed: "Ah Ye, let me introduce you. This is Da Ni, she's Ah Sheng's cousin. Didn't we agree? I'll take good care of Ah Sheng's whole family. So, I'll be with Da Ni—hehe, hehehehe."

The girl nodded shyly: "You must be Brother Ye? And Brother Jun—yes, he's a very nice guy!"

"Oh! Oh, oh!" Zhou Ye was both amused and exasperated. That bastard Wu Jun, I sent you to take care of Ah Sheng's whole family, and this is how you take care of them?

"Ah Jun, Da Ni, are you here to visit Third Senior Brother too?"

"Yes! I just got back from outside and heard about it."

"Then hurry back, I'll wait for you outside. It's the first time I've met Da Ni, so I'll treat you to lunch."

"No, no, it's on you! Da Ni and I will treat you together."

"hehe.

""

'

'

At noon, Zhou Ye, Wu Jun, and Da Ni had a pleasant drink together and reminisced about many interesting things from the past.

When it was time to say goodbye, Zhou Ye couldn't help but sigh: Not only has Hua Hua grown up, but even the little friends around me have grown up!

However, during this battle, Zhou Ye discovered that he had several problems. The biggest problem was that his weapon level was insufficient, which was almost affecting the performance of his martial arts skills.

However, those high-level weapons are only sold in upscale shops within the inner city? And they're ridiculously expensive?

Therefore, one of my plans is, of course, to work myself to the bone. I'll train arduously for several months, striving to break through to the mid-stage of Ming Jin as soon as possible.

Another option is to max out the Wind and Thunder Grappling Hand technique and integrate it into the Azure Dragon skill. Due to the unique geographical environment of the Gray Swamp, the Azure Dragon skill is actually more suitable.

The other is raising money. If a problem can be solved with money, then it's not a big problem.

Therefore, in the following two weeks, Zhou Ye made several trips to the mountain market to clean up the last batch of salted fish and salted beef.

Surprisingly, prices are now ridiculously high. Ordinary grains have risen to 5 or 60 yuan per kilogram.

The value of the coins has increased approximately tenfold. Without a doubt, those powerful and wealthy families have made a fortune.

As for salted fish and salted beef, the price has also risen to over 500 wen per jin, which is more than half a tael of silver.

So Zhou Ye actually sold the last 1 jin for more than 6200 taels? If you add the more than 2000 taels he made to recover his losses before, and the more than 1800 taels he earned from private tutoring, he suddenly had another 8000 taels on his hands?

That day, Zhou Ye put on a leather mask and went to the largest commercial street in the inner city. Since becoming a Ming Jin martial arts master, he finally felt more confident.

After wandering around for a while, Zhou Ye chose the most luxurious shop among them—Shan Hai Lou.

As soon as you enter the gate of Shan Hai Lou, a young waiter dressed in brocade robes greets you: "Honored guest, what would you like? Please feel free to browse, or I can serve you."

Zhou Ye glanced at the waiter's fine clothes. This Shan Hai Lou restaurant is really wealthy. Even the waiter's clothes are worth several taels of silver—right?

"I want to buy weapons, and they must be good ones." Zhou Ye was too lazy to wander around, so he simply let the shopkeeper introduce them directly.

"Distinguished guest, what weapon would you like?"

"Swords, spears, and bows and arrows. By the way, do you have any top-tier weapons here? Ideally, even legendary or powerful ones?"

"You flatter me, esteemed guest. Such divine weapons are rarely seen at auctions. However, my humble shop does indeed possess several second-rate weapons in its collection."

"Let's take a look!"

"Distinguished guest, this is a very important business for you. I will escort you to the VIP room immediately. Would you like the manager to personally attend to you?"

"Uh-huh"

More than an hour later, a long knife, a long spear, a hard bow, and a bundle of arrows appeared in front of Zhou Ye.

Both swords and spears are second-rate weapons. Being terrible at naming things, Zhou Ye simply named them "Battle Sword" and "Steel Spear."

That hard bow was a standard military-grade 15-stone hard bow. It was considered the highest-stone type of standard hard bow. If a better bow and arrow were needed, it would require a master craftsman to make one.

After breaking through to the Ming Jin stage, the eight-stone bow was no longer sufficient. Zhou Ye could now use the two ten-stone and twelve-stone bows. The fifteen-stone bow was slightly beyond his capabilities. However, he should be able to use it in the later stages of the Ming Jin stage. He could continue to use it throughout the entire An Jin stage.

That bundle of arrows consisted of 50 steel wolf-tooth arrows. They weren't actually made of wolf fangs, but rather the arrows' shape resembled wolf fangs.

In fact, the actual material used in its manufacture is stainless steel.

For bows with a draw weight of twelve or fifteen dan, even iron-shafted arrows are a bit of a stretch; these fine steel arrows are the best option. Of course, the price is also quite steep—one steel wolf-tooth arrow costs one tael of silver!

"Mr. Tian, ​​thank you for your understanding. The total is 950 taels." The person who received the guests at Shan Hai Lou was Manager Hu, who was also a Ming Jin martial arts master.

To be fair, aside from being a bit pricey, Shan Hai Lou has no other drawbacks. The service is also very attentive; even the transaction takes place in a very private VIP room, and the manager, Mr. Hu, even used telepathic communication—wait, telepathic communication?

Zhou Ye suddenly became very interested. There was no doubt that telepathy was a very practical skill.

"Manager Hu, may I ask where I can learn this secret telepathic communication technique?"

Although Du Keyuan, that old man, certainly knew the secret art of telepathy, and would be willing to teach it for a fee, Zhou Ye didn't want to reveal his true strength. After all, everyone knew that only Ming Jin martial artists could learn things like telepathy.

Shopkeeper Hu smiled slightly. He already had a guess in his mind that the person in front of him should be a folk martial arts master without any formal training or lineage.

"Young friend, there are two options. One is to find any martial arts school to learn from, which will be slightly cheaper. The other is to learn a sonic martial art, which will definitely include several techniques for using sonic waves, including teleportation. Our Mountain and Sea Pavilion has a top-tier sonic martial art called 'Nine Heavens Dragon Roar.' I wonder if you're interested?"

"How much?"

"2200 taels."

Zhou Ye hesitated for a moment. Sonic martial arts techniques were relatively niche, hence the slightly higher price. But—his own safety was paramount; spending a little more money didn't matter. Besides, niche was fine! Having more skills was never a bad thing.

Who knows when we might need it?

"Manager Hu, could you offer a lower price?"

"Young friend Tian, ​​since this is your first time visiting our Shan Hai Lou, you certainly deserve a discount. So, I'll make the decision. Including the weapons you received earlier, let's round it up to 3000 taels, how about that?"

"Okay—yes!"

However, just then, seeing Zhou Ye readily pull out 3000 taels of silver, Manager Hu suddenly asked, "Young friend Tian, ​​do you need any supplementary pills? We have both mid-grade and high-grade Qi and Blood Pills here."

"what?"

Zhou Ye was taken aback. He vaguely remembered that at the auction, the mid-grade Qi and Blood Pills had already been snapped up, while the high-grade Qi and Blood Pills had attracted the attention of many experts, so much so that he didn't even dare to bid.

How come these pills are already being sold openly in shops in less than a few months?

Perhaps sensing Zhou Ye's question, Manager Hu chuckled and began to provide a detailed account of the latest news:

So Fufeng Prefecture had been constantly changing prefects, hadn't it? They even killed the prefect sent by the imperial court? While the imperial court reluctantly accepted the situation with the two new prefects, they couldn't be without resentment. Therefore, they secretly issued a new decree—strictly prohibiting the flow of high-grade elixirs into Fufeng Prefecture!

The strategy involves controlling the number of local experts in Fufeng County through the use of high-grade elixirs. Over time, this will weaken Fufeng County's strength and lay the groundwork for the imperial court to regain control.

That's why powerful and wealthy families were well-informed at the auction. So as soon as the pills appeared, they immediately started scrambling to buy them.

However, no one expected that such a ban would have the opposite effect. Precisely because the prices of mid-grade and high-grade Qi and Blood Pills had increased several times over, many powerful and influential forces in the Great Yin Kingdom began to smuggle them, which ironically made the supply of pills in Fufeng County more abundant.

Good heavens! The court of the Great Yin Kingdom is like a sieve, even this kind of decree is treated like a fart? This shows that the court's control is not very good anymore, and even various powerful figures have begun to undermine the court.

Meanwhile, Manager Hu continued to boast: "Young friend Tian, ​​the owner of our Shan Hai Lou restaurant is none other than the Duke of Yi, the old Duke Lin, of Yunzhou. That's a hereditary dukedom that lasts as long as the state! Do you know Yunzhou? It's many times richer and more powerful than your Liuzhou."

Yunzhou is also teeming with experts; it's a gathering place for masters from several nearby states, all elites from their respective regions. This includes your Fufeng County. Let me tell you, what you call the deep mountains are merely a small branch of the Yunshan Mountain Range in Yunzhou. So rest assured, our Shan Hai Lou still has channels to transport even a mid-to-high-grade Qi and Blood Pill to your Fufeng County.”

After hearing these introductions, Zhou Ye immediately became interested. So he asked a few more questions and learned a little about the situation in the Great Yin Kingdom and Yunzhou.

To be honest, Fufeng County, where Zhou Ye was located, was a rather remote and isolated region. Liuzhou, where Fufeng County was located, comprised about twenty counties, all of which were relatively small and weak.

Yunzhou was the center of several nearby states and was considered the most powerful among the states in the region.

Of course, Ming Jin martial arts masters aren't exactly commonplace. Even in Yunzhou, they would be considered true experts. But their numbers are several times greater. If we add in the experts from neighboring states who have migrated or settled there, then the number of experts in Yunzhou would be dozens of times greater.

This even includes top masters of internal strength and external strength, whose numbers here in Liuzhou are dozens or even hundreds of times greater. Aside from the capital of the Great Yin Kingdom, Yunzhou is one of the most powerful states in the world!