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

oh......

Chu Mingkong remembered that he felt bad for taking too much of his master's wife's original spiritual energy, so he exchanged it for a snow lotus. He had forgotten the name of the medicinal plant.

What impressed me most was how well the snow lotus petals could hold water!

"After my master's wife finished refining the medicinal power of that snow lotus, her strength increased by leaps and bounds, so now she is giving me more and more filial piety points."

"Looks like I'll have to give Zhi'er and Pei Mi some nourishment."

I used to think that making more jade dildos and increasing "rent" income was the best way to show filial piety and freedom of use. But I never imagined that the more I tried to break through, the more I realized that the path still lay with the elders around me.

In fact, Chu Mingkong had never stopped using the Filial Piety Mall to benefit the women around him.

He was rather laid-back, only putting in effort when he felt like it, so he didn't give the women any earnest advice or urging, thinking that he would just give them what they needed.

It seems we still need to be more proactive.

Chu Mingkong took out an Ice Phoenix Marrow Bone Pill that he hadn't perfected during the refining process. This was the result of his recent intimacy with his master's wife, during which he had casually looked for Bing Xixi and asked his master's wife for help.

If a cultivation technique is incomplete, it can be a big problem. At the very least, it's a waste of effort and energy, and at worst, it's like cutting off one's future. But with pills, there are not so many concerns. As long as it's not a poisonous pill, once the grade is high, even if the medicinal power is damaged, it won't affect its rarity!

As the saying goes, the wool comes from the sheep.

"Take this Ice Pill back to Master's wife and let her refine it again!"

From an efficiency standpoint, it's pointless to save these filial piety points now. It's too difficult to accumulate enough points to buy a cultivation technique with 500,000. Spending some of them to convert into efficiency might actually earn you back faster.

.......

Chu Mingkong had just left Shen Xuejun's room.

Although he offered to help Shen Xuejun tidy up her disheveled state, she refused, saying that she looked clumsy and it would be faster for her to clean up herself.

The beautiful woman exuded a chilling aura; the few remaining traces on her cold and dignified face, and between her deep creases, froze into frost and snowflakes, which slid to the ground and disappeared completely with the chill.

Cleansing the skin is that simple. If Chu Mingkong were to help, it would probably just result in an extra dirty handkerchief.

Suddenly, the sound of Chu Mingkong and Xiao Yunhan talking could be heard outside the door.

"Huh? Why did Mingkong come back again? Didn't we just talk about going back to the Immortal Treasure Pavilion to go to the auction?"

Shen Xuejun muttered something in confusion, and Chu Mingkong and Xiao Yunhan walked into her room together.

Xiao Yunhan naturally came to report that the matter her master had entrusted to her had been completed, and that she should let him know when it was over. Just as she arrived, she bumped into Chu Mingkong, who had returned.

At this moment, the siblings entered together.

"Mingkong, is there anything else?" Shen Xuejun asked.

Chu Mingkong then took out the pill that was slightly weak, and the room was instantly filled with a medicinal fragrance mixed with cold air, which was refreshing and invigorating.

"Master's wife, I bought this from Qingse. I thought since it's compatible with ice spiritual energy, I wanted to see if you could use it. I'll ask Qingse to look for something else another day." This time she was smarter and said she bought it from Qingse at a high price.

Getting something from an auction should be more credible than getting it by chance, right?

Xiao Yunhan looked at the pills with surprise, slightly shocked:

"This should be a relatively ancient pill. Judging from its color, its medicinal power has not been fully released. Perhaps there was a problem during the refining process, but it has diluted the pill! Would anyone from a celestial treasure pavilion of Qingse's caliber really sell such a high-grade elixir there? Master, what grade is this pill?"

Shen Xuejun frowned slightly, pondering and recalling:

"It seems to be some kind of ancient pill. At least, none of the ancient pill formulas that have been preserved so far contain this kind of pill. Its medicinal power has been reduced to only about the fourth or fifth grade, which is a pity. However, pills related to ice spiritual energy have always been rare. Moreover, this pill is more effective for you, Yunhan. You can take it."

Shen Xuejun recognized that this pill was more beneficial for nourishing the spirit and soul. Although it was only a fourth or fifth grade medicine, it was worth more than a hundred fourth grade pills in the current market.

This pill wouldn't be of much help to her; it would be more suitable to give it to Yunhan.

"Thank you, Master!"

Seeing the pills flow into her sister's hands, Chu Mingkong felt something was off.

For some reason, I had a feeling that "Yunhan, this is compensation for making fun of your brother."

Chapter Seventy-Nine: Ancient People of the Yin Time?

Before returning to Xianzhen Pavilion, Chu Mingkong visited the female relatives again, explained the plans to them, and told them that they could contact him at any time if they needed anything, or they could contact Qingse if they couldn't find him.

Since it wasn't his own territory and he was in a foreign land, Chu Mingkong couldn't feel at ease unless he personally took care of many things.

Despite the large number of cultivators gathered in Guanhai City, it remained remarkably peaceful. Before Chu Mingkong and his group arrived, the auction had been going on for about half a month, and so far only four or five deadly battles had broken out. These were all between enemies who had met, and the duels were arranged in a very civilized manner outside the city. Overall, the security was quite reliable.

"Hey, what are you looking at?" Chu Mingkong had just returned to Qingse's tea room when he saw her staring at a catalog with starry eyes. It seemed to contain items that had been auctioned off in the past two weeks.

"Senior Bao's sales figures are incredible. Many fledgling Immortal Treasure Pavilions earn less than the commission from just one auction item in a year. Money is secondary; being able to sell such a priceless treasure on their own turf is a source of immense pride..."

Forgive Chu Mingkong for not being able to empathize with her and for not being able to offer any words of comfort.

If he were to comfort her with something like, "Then you'll soon be the first extraordinary woman to auction off a jade penis for an astronomical price, worthy of being recorded in history!", Qingse would most likely retort with something like, "The infamous prince will also leave a significant mark on history, making his fortune by reselling his own jade penis carvings."

Why hurt each other?

"At that time, I can bring out some incomplete treasures to support you, so that the whole auction will not be just about strange items." Chu Mingkong's vision appeared in the help shop, and he said while browsing: "They are mostly ancient pills with weakened medicinal effects, as well as extinct herbs. However, they are not very old, and their advantage is that they are 'extinct'. Maybe they can be used after being planted for another thousand or hundred years."

Qingse gave a forced smile, "An extinct medicinal plant that isn't very old... that's useless anyway."

Although she was not knowledgeable about pharmacology, she was not so ignorant as to not know why those medicinal plants had become extinct. It was simply due to changes in the environment, making it no longer suitable for those plants to grow.

Even if Chu Mingkong really did dig out those extinct medicinal plants, he would mostly sell them as "unique" because others couldn't cultivate them.

"Why do I get the feeling that Your Highness's expression is like you're inspecting your own warehouse for treasures, and then picking out some defective items to give to me?"

"You noticed that? I have a lot of treasures in my storage ring, but I'm afraid that if I take them all out, it will have too much of an impact, and you won't be able to handle it."

"hehe......"

Sometimes it's strange how telling the truth can lead to no one believing you, while fabricated stories can be readily accepted by listeners.

"Is the auction over yet? Take me to take a look," Chu Mingkong said.

"Today's auction has ended. If you go there now, you can either temporarily send something to Senior Bao's auction house for consignment, and they don't usually accept ordinary items, or you can go and look at some of the pictures of the auction items they have released."

While the contents of the auctioned items should be kept secret to leave room for surprise and anticipation, they cannot be completely concealed. It is appropriate to release a portion at appropriate times to elicit further interest.

Just like the women in brothels, they may appear to be dressed in "ragged" clothes, revealing a lot of flesh, which is quite a feast for the eyes for anyone passing by. But it is precisely those few places covered by the fabric that are the real key to attracting people to go in and spend money.

The principle is the same.

On the way, Chu Mingkong asked, "Qingse, have you found any information about keywords like 'day of full moon' and 'hour of moon'?"

Qingse, dressed in a white, elegant cheongsam, walked beside her, her steps as graceful as a cat's. Her stockings and high heels were faintly visible through the hem of her cheongsam, making her look charming and alluring. She held a rather childlike little fan and fanned herself from time to time.

"Yes, quite a lot, and some of it is even valuable intelligence. A lot of it is fake news, and we're screening it. I'll give you a summary tomorrow."

"Okay." Chu Mingkong trusted her completely.

However, adhering to the principle of "better to kill the innocent than let the guilty go free," Chu Mingkong was quite inclined to have Qingse gather all the information, just in case they managed to find something valuable out of nothing.

He shared his idea, which was met with strong opposition from Qingse.

"You absolutely mustn't make such a 'mistake.' If your generous purchase of information gets out, it will only lead to more people spreading false information."

Although there are many people here, the intelligence market is vastly different from that of the Crescent Kingdom. Here, people disperse after only a month; they spread false information without fear of being caught, and run away with the money.

Chu Mingkong thought about it and realized it made sense. It seemed that buying intelligence was a skill in itself, and it was better for him, an outsider, not to get involved.

"Does this place have any temporary pleasure quarters? My master wants to see graceful female cultivators dance. Ask around for her." Chu Mingkong asked with a pure and filial expression.

"I'm just a proprietress who sells jade penises, not a brothel madam who sells girls!" Qingse exclaimed in frustration.

"Okay, then I'll go back and tell my master that there's nothing wrong, and ask her to shut up."

The effects of the day of waning yin energy were indeed evident in this once-in-a-century event.

However, the way it was done was a bit bizarre—someone was reselling burial goods. It's estimated that some graves were opened, and someone went in to steal things to sell. The ancient soil from the graves was still there.

There are even people who carry other people's coffins out to sell!

These stall owners were shouting that the current weather was unusual, and ordinary senses could not detect what was inside these burial objects; the aura of the dead was too strong!

Ironically, some people do manage to knock out small trinkets or large pieces of spirit jade from those bottles and jars. It's only after they've been knocked out that you can sense their aura, which is quite strange.

There were still many customers at those stalls, and countless onlookers; it's unclear whether they were planted.

However, Chu Mingkong had experienced this feeling of déjà vu before when he was still in the capital, when he tricked the Cui family members—"It's understandable if there's an empty slot occasionally~".

"This is no longer a matter of being immoral or not..." Chu Mingkong was speechless, inwardly condemning himself!

"In the end, they've really exploited people's gambling instincts. Even though they know these things are probably just a bunch of scams, some cultivators still think they can get a bargain. They spend a watermelon and pick up a sesame seed, and they think they've made a huge profit." Qingse was full of disdain, unable to understand how money in this industry could be so easy to make.

"..." Chu Mingkong.

Why does it feel like you're insulting me for liking blind boxes?

Flying onto the island shaped like a pair of fingers, the two chatted as they walked, and soon arrived at the auction house. Their discussion was overheard by the male manager of the auction house.

The male steward recognized Qingse and came over to speak to her:

"It's not just these people who steal from other people's graves; there are also some who pretend to be ancient people, bringing ancient coins to exchange for real ones, acting as if they were genuine. And the ancient coins these people bring are actually real. There's more than one such person. What's most infuriating is that they are truly disrespectful to the dead."

"..." Chu Mingkong's expression was strange. Could it really be an ancient person?

The steward didn't notice Chu Mingkong's unusual expression, but instead greeted his old acquaintance Qingse, casually teasing her:

"Long time no see! I heard you've been selling those weird things quite well lately, Qingse. What brings you here?"

Qingse suddenly wanted to turn around and leave. She felt indignant. She had made money and her Xianzhen Pavilion had survived the competition, but she had no face to stand in front of her peers!

The relationship between Qingse and this person should be considered a friendly one, where they can tease and banter with each other, and they also share a family connection.

"Hehe, your wife likes it quite a bit too. She asked me to save one that can generate electricity for her to use in her cultivation. For your sake, I'll give your wife a discount."

The male manager's face turned a bit green with frustration.

Chapter 80 Emma's level of trust in me

Qingse has figured out a set of ways to deal with this. From now on, whenever someone tries to make fun of him, he will say that his wife came to buy a jade dildo. His ability to taunt people is top-notch.

The male supervisor just laughed and scolded a few times before going back to work. With so many people around, he couldn't slack off for too long, or he might lose his job.

Chu Mingkong said earnestly, "Qingse, aren't you afraid of affecting their relationship as a couple? Spreading rumors is not a good thing!"