Who is spreading rumors that my filial piety towards them has changed?

"Come on, come on, you used to make money!"

At the entrance of a red-light district specializing in selling rabbit figurines, a tall, strong man with a peculiar and strange appearance was calling out, attracting wealthy young men who came to buy tea and catch a glimpse of the courtesan.

Among them were Cui Lian and his cronies, disguised as men, who scrutinized the strange man.

"Strange, why would someone put a jar on their forehead? Are they trying to catch a turtle in a jar?"

"I also think it's strange. Why does that voice sound so familiar?" Cui Lian touched his forehead. He had fainted for some reason yesterday. Perhaps those bastards in his family bumped his precious head when they were moving him. It still hurts now.

Having seized control of the clan's economy and achieved financial freedom, Cui Lian, after collecting the silver, simply called over a few of his brothers to have the tender-skinned rabbits serve him, thoroughly enjoying himself.

"Tell me in detail what's so special about these jars," one of them said, showing interest.

Seeing these bastards approaching, Chu Mingkong chuckled inwardly, thinking, "I'll take your land deed later and give you a good beating, Cui Lian." However, for the moment, Chu Mingkong steadied his composure and forced a smile:

"When immortals are buried, they are always buried with some treasures. These are all the immortals' belongings from their lifetime, but we don't know exactly what they are. Once you buy the jar, the contents are yours, and you are responsible for whatever happens to them."

"Isn't this just money for the dead? What bad luck!"

Chu Mingkong tossed the spirit stones in his hand and patiently explained:

"Alas! Sir, you are mistaken. The burial items of ordinary people are just things for the dead, but the burial items of immortals are called opportunities. Even if you don't need them yourself, you can exchange them for spirit stones and then for silver. Even if you only have a tiny bit of silver, you can easily get tens of thousands of taels!"

Cui Lian became interested. Running a small shop with a net profit of a thousand taels was considered good. A less profitable shop would even require him to lose money. This was something he had only heard about recently. Now, by touching a jar, he might have the chance to earn tens of thousands of taels.

"Are they all in stock?"

Chu Mingkong smiled mysteriously again:

"It's understandable if there's an empty one occasionally~ But if you buy five, we'll give you an old jar for free! The first round of these five jars will cost twenty-five taels each."

"Twenty-five taels each?!" one of the men exclaimed. His family was slightly poorer than his brothers', so he had a clearer understanding of money.

In secular dynasties, the most common currencies were copper coins and silver coins. Twenty-five taels of silver would still sting for these spoiled rich kids, except for Cui Lian.

Having been subservient so many times in the past, he finally got a chance to show off, so naturally he became generous.

"I'll buy five, and we brothers can each open one jar!"

Cui Lian took the five jars, plus the extra one he was given away, and distributed one jar to his cronies, keeping the rest for himself.

His friends broke the jar one after another, but found nothing inside except broken mud.

Chu Mingkong then took out a simple, unadorned heavy sword, gesturing for them to speak amicably:

"It's understandable if there's an occasional free slot!"

Those young men from wealthy families dared not utter a sound, and could only curse themselves inwardly for being tricked. They had spent twenty-five taels of silver for nothing! If they had saved it up a bit more, they might have been able to win the heart of the courtesan and have a close conversation at the banquet.

But Cui Lian exclaimed in surprise, "I'm out!!"

He took out a huge stick made of spirit stone. This stick had been polished by Chu Mingkong beforehand, making it difficult to see its original appearance. Now it was rough and looked like a pestle used in a pharmacy to pound medicine.

"What is this? Is it valuable?"

Chu Mingkong explained earnestly:

"I obtained this item from a fairy's tomb. Since it is shaped like a stick, it is naturally called the Fairy Wand!"

If you're asking whether it's valuable, my opinion doesn't count; you'd probably think I'm lying to you. Ask one of your friends.

Cui Lian's cronies certainly couldn't figure out what this thing was for, but such a large column of spirit stone was worth a lot of money just for its size. Although it was badly worn, it was still worth several hundred or even a thousand spirit stones. After conversion, it would actually be worth tens of thousands of silver!

When Cui Lian heard his brother's valuation, his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, and then he burst into laughter.

"Ten thousand taels of silver. My wives work hard all year round and they only earn around thirty thousand taels. I made ten thousand taels in one trip. This Rabbit Tower is indeed my lucky place."

"Pah! That Zhong Feihuang even talked about how hard she worked, what a load of rubbish! Oh, right, I still have a can of food!"

Cui Lian quickly opened the remaining can and was immediately shocked. His hands trembled as he took out a pair of... tattered silk trousers.

He didn't recognize what it was, but Chu Mingkong did. It was the black stockings that his sister-in-law Huang had worn last night, but they were worn out and their durability had been lost during training. They had become stockings with holes and snags, but they were something that had been updated from the Filial Piety Mall.

It's an equipment that comes with a bit of a "useless but cool" effect, mainly for things like keeping warm, dissipating heat, and warding off evil spirits. Plus, Chu Ming had sprayed the essence of the "Su Nu Jing" (Classic of Plain Girls) on it, so it gives the impression of restoring blood and healing injuries.

These are just old socks that barely have a special aura about them. They were originally going to be thrown away, but Chu Mingkong suddenly remembered them and stuffed them into the jar.

When Cui Lian's brother saw it, he immediately gave an exorbitant price.

"A close-fitting garment worn by a fairy, and it even has special effects. It's a treasure, though a bit worn, but it's worth at least five thousand taels!"

As Cui Lian held up the "trousers" and looked at them, an image of a highly skilled fairy wearing them flashed through his mind, and he felt a longing for the woman who owned the clothes.

This simple act of collecting canned goods yielded unexpectedly a huge harvest.

Others didn't get it, but he got it in front of his brothers. Regardless of whether he got any treasure or not, the satisfaction of that face alone was worth the price of a hundred taels. The urge to open more cans became stronger and stronger.

But he pretended not to care, with a "win this round, quit while you're ahead" look on his face, and just brushed past the canned man and walked into the depths of the alley.

Seeing the canned man's calm demeanor, Cui Lian felt puzzled. Everyone else was filled with envy and jealousy, but he alone remained so composed, which annoyed Cui Lian.

"Aren't you annoyed that I got the treasure? I know you're very regretful!"

"Heh... I've even dug up a fairy's undergarment. Considering the owner's identity, if this undergarment were sold, it would be worth at least 100,000 taels of silver, right? Why would I want your two things?"

After much hesitation, Cui Lian finally fell for it. He thought that even though he had drawn such a treasure, it was nothing special. He then put all his effort into drawing more treasures.

Whenever he was on the verge of despair, he could scrape together a tiny bit of something that seemed like enough to recoup his losses, but it never did. He wanted to repeat his good luck from the first round and was determined to stop once he made up for his losses this time, but he ended up getting deeper and deeper into trouble.

They arrived at the alleyway of the Rabbit God Restaurant, but before they could even go in and enjoy their money, they had already gambled away their entire wallet.

When Cui Lian came to his senses, he realized that he had given away several land deeds in his haste. He jumped up and down in a panic, saying:

"You liar, you cheat people out of their money! How dare you do this kind of thing in the capital! You have no respect for the law! Believe it or not—ugh!"

Chu Mingkong held back to avoid killing him. He punched him so hard that he bent over and knelt on the ground like a shrimp. Then he kicked him unconscious. He casually dragged him to a corner in a brothel and threw him there, letting him wake up and be told that "Master Lian Er was so happy playing with the rabbit god that he fainted."

His cronies, sensing the danger, had already fled, knowing that someone who dared to sell burial items for immortals was not someone to be trifled with.

Chu Mingkong tossed him a few spirit stones as medical expenses. Combined with the spirit stone sticks that Cui Lian had "opened" earlier, Cui Lian actually made a profit by exchanging them for a few land deeds.

"Having learned your lesson from me, you mustn't gamble away the entire family fortune in the future, now that the Cui family no longer has any smart women in charge. It doesn't matter if the Cui family declines, at least you should leave some of the family's dilapidated assets for Old Master Cui to see in his lifetime."

"If being beaten up might ignite your fighting spirit and motivate you to cultivate, that would be good. Or perhaps I could see if the Emperor has the 'Shattered Dream Sword Manual' for you to practice? But that won't work either. That evil art requires you to be deeply in love with the other person. You and Sister-in-law Huang are filled with hatred and have no feelings for each other; practicing it would be pointless."

Chu Mingkong shook his head and took the land deed to the pawnshop to "transfer" the ownership and clear his identity. The process was easy. On the surface, such matters should be handled by the government and registered, but if everything were so formal, would there be any instances of forcibly seizing land from innocent people?

Aside from his master's wife, Shen Xuejun, Chu Mingkong had never seen anyone who set rules and then followed them himself.

------------

On the outskirts of the capital, a man leads a beautiful white mare along a path, with a woman in an elegant white dress and veiled hat sitting on its back.

After listening to Chu Mingkong's account of how he wanted to retrieve the farm's land deed, Shangguan Rong didn't know where to begin her evaluation:

"Where did you come up with this kind of 'making money with money' scam? Who throws a jade dildo in and treats it like a treasure, and even gives it a different name like 'fairy wand'?"

"Isn't it a good thing that we got it back? If Cui Lian were honest and law-abiding, I wouldn't bother with him. But he's so troublesome, and he chose this time when we can't let him get away with it. He's really getting cocky."

Chu Mingkong still felt unsatisfied thinking about it. He suddenly realized that Cui Lian was quite prescient, deliberately not cultivating, which made Chu Mingkong afraid that he might accidentally kill him.

For now, we still need to use Cui Lian's name to create the illusion that "Cui Lian won the power struggle within the family and drove away the women who married into the family."

Without this pretext, Chu Mingkong was afraid that Aunt Gu and the others would be stopped and detained as soon as they left the capital. If he had the Dust-Free Talisman, things would be much easier. He could cover them up and hide them all at once, and then pack them up and take them away.

"Are you going to pick up your wives later?"

"I'll pick you up in a couple of days. Jinyu has been making a fuss for a long time and wants to get some fresh air. Tonight I'll bring her and Yongzhen over for a stroll. After that, I'll take you to Xiaoxiang Qin Academy first, and then pick up all the sisters-in-law."

Shangguan Rong nodded slowly, murmuring to herself:

"...Jinyu and Yongzhen."

Chapter Sixty-Five: Empress Pei is Seriously Ill

As the night deepened, a cool evening breeze swept through.

Chu Mingkong arrived at Princess Jinyu's residence. There were normal royal guards outside, but it was far less secure than the residence of the eldest princess. He easily sneaked in, but there was no sign of Jinyu inside.

Her boudoir was not lit with candles today; the candles on the candlesticks were all new, and the bed was neatly made, so it seemed she had not been in the mansion at least before nightfall.

This puzzled Chu Mingkong. Where had the princess gone? He paced around the room, lost in thought. Just then, the colorless shadow mark went out of effect. He sat down to wait for his power to recover, while continuing to ponder.

“There aren’t many places Jinyu can go. It’s either Yongzhen’s place or the palace. But she can’t freely go in and out of Yongzhen’s place now, so she can only go to the palace.”

That's unusual. Did she go back to get her clothes or something? Jin Yu clearly dislikes staying in the palace.

This is where the advantage of the paper slips became apparent. Chu Mingkong didn't dare to send a message to Jin Yu directly. If she were summoned to meet with someone like the emperor, the spiritual energy fluctuations of the paper slips might be detected, causing unnecessary trouble.

He then contacted Yongzhen instead.

【Yongzhen, is Jinyu with you?】

Before long, Yongzhen replied, her neat and flowing handwriting appearing on the paper.

No, why are you asking me if I'm looking for Jinyu?

Jinyu has been staying at the princess's residence these past few days. I wanted to take you outside the city for a stroll, but I haven't seen her there. Could it be that she went back to the palace?

The woman with the graceful curves sat up from the bed, recalling what she had heard during the day, and wrote it down on a piece of paper with her finger.

[He may have gone back to visit Empress Pei.]

Chu Mingkong frowned, his previous casual attitude vanished, and he unconsciously straightened his back, staring intently at the contents of the note.

He recalled the time when he used "Lady Baili" to accumulate the initial funds for his distorted filial piety. She had mentioned the delicate situation of the Heavenly Empress. Could it be...?

What happened to Empress Pei?

Yongzhen looked at the handwriting, which was obviously much more hasty and sloppy, with suspicion. Why was Mingkong suddenly so concerned about Empress Pei?

These days, the palace has been sending imperial physicians to check on my health and make sure I'm not unwell, so I won't fall ill on the day I leave the city for the marriage alliance.

From the imperial physician, I heard her mention a few things happening in the palace, including a sigh that Empress Pei had fallen ill for unknown reasons, and that Jin Yu was most likely in the palace because of this.

After responding to Yongzhen's simple question, Chu Mingkong sat quietly in front of the desk, determined to go to the palace to see for himself what the situation was!

While his colorless shadow technique was still not fully restored, he planned to make some preparations:

"Although the Dustless Talisman is gone, the Colorless Shadow can still move around in the palace. Feng Ying even used this concealment technique to kidnap Empress Pei. There shouldn't be any new barriers appearing in the palace. If they really had the ability to detect Feng Ying, they wouldn't have kept it in place when the emperor was critically ill, but instead kept it open when things were calm."

However, things weren't exactly peaceful. He had just abducted Madam Zhen, but he hadn't been near the palace recently, so he wasn't particularly wary of anything inside.