From the Valkyrie to the Endless

The more Shen Qing listened, the more weird this place felt to him. A chill penetrated from the soles of his feet to his head, and his hair stood on end.

The two of them quickly filled their stomachs and left without staying for long.

A moment later, two figures walked out from behind the Buddha statue, one old and one young, both wearing monk robes that had been washed bleached.

The old monk looked to be over ninety years old. He was thin, with loose skin and wrinkles on his face. His eyes were full of restrained wisdom that came from years of experience, and were extremely bright.

The little monk next to him was no more than eleven or twelve years old, with delicate features and a hint of maturity in his demeanor.

"Master...there's one more mouth to feed."

The little monk was a little worried.

"Monks are compassionate. It's only three times a month. It's no big deal." The old monk shook his head slightly.

"Three times for each person. With this newcomer, there are already twenty-three."

The little monk grumbled, his worried look not diminishing: "No one has come to burn incense in this desolate mountain for two months. If you go begging by yourself, you will starve to death sooner or later."

Most of the people who can come to Baihong Temple are beggars who are so hungry that they have no other options. Anyone who has something to eat will not come here.

This can be said to be the last straw for those beggars.

"They are all miserable people, so we should help them if we can."

The old monk touched the young monk's head and urged:

"Hurry up and arrange the tribute. Tomorrow, the wife of Captain Song from Changling City will come to pray for a child. Don't neglect her."

The captain's wife helped, and at least three or five taels of silver were enough for incense and offerings, which could last for another two months.

"We don't have a fertility-giving Guanyin statue here."

Hearing this, the little monk was puzzled for a moment. He went up to collect the offerings as he was told. He looked up at the only big Buddha in the temple on the altar and wondered:

"Does the Buddha care about this?"

"It doesn't matter whether he cares or not, as long as the captain's wife believes it."

The old monk lit three purple incense sticks, bowed nine times, and then inserted them into the incense burner:

"What we pray to Buddha for is peace of mind..."

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"Why are there these rules in Baihong Temple? Didn't Lao Zhao tell you about it?"

Inside the dilapidated temple, Shen Qing tossed and turned in the straw pile, still unable to fall asleep. She always felt that there was a big secret hidden in the Baihong Temple.

She had read a lot of novels about the supernatural and the weird, and at this moment she had already imagined countless possibilities in her mind.

There might be a thousand-year-old monster hiding in this wild mountain temple, raising countless monsters and ghosts. It uses these tributes to lure people into the trap and cultivates by eating humans.

"He didn't tell me, and I didn't ask."

Zhao Yu was already a little sleepy and confused, and said vaguely:

"He just said that if you don't follow the rules, people will get killed..."

Before he finished speaking, he began to snore softly.

Killing people...

Shen Qing's eyes fixed, and for some reason he felt a little excited, as if his heart was being scratched by a cat's claws.

This Old Zhao must be no simple person, and is definitely not an ordinary beggar.

In today's world, there must be some supernatural powers, such as gods and ghosts.

…………

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The next day, early in the morning.

The sun shines into the temple through the broken roof, and in the beams of light that come in from outside the wall, dust can be seen floating in the air, like smoke or fog.

Because of Baihong Temple, Shen Qing's mind was full of thoughts and he couldn't sleep all night. Maybe it was because he had slept for two days, he was still full of energy at this moment.

When the first ray of sunlight hit his face, Zhao Yu opened his eyes.

She was obviously not awake yet. She got up with lifeless eyes, grabbed a tattered cloth bag, put it on her shoulder, and staggered out of the temple.

"Xiaoyu? Xiaoyu!"

Shen Qing stood up and called out to him several times before Zhao Yu gradually came to his senses.

"We have to go into the city today, or we'll be hungry."

She scratched her tangled hair, a little hesitant:

"Why don't you wait for me here?"

He was just dug out of a mass grave a few days ago, and his injuries must not have healed yet. It’s best not to run around.

"Need not."

Shen Qing shook his head and took out a banknote from his waist: "I'll take you to eat something good."

Most of the loose change had been spent on the journey, leaving only the silver bills.

Thanks to Zhao Nuo and Yu Zhen's help, she still had several hundred taels of silver on hand, so at least she wouldn't have to worry about food and drink for the time being.

Zhao Yu opened his eyes wide and stared at the fifty-liang silver note for a long time, somewhat stunned.

When she checked Shen Qing's wound, she only found a dozen copper coins, which she barely exchanged for two feet of good cloth to bandage Shen Qing.

She thought that was all of Shen Qing's belongings.

The next moment, Zhao Yu's eyes gradually changed, as if she had dug out a treasure from a mass grave.

Shen Qing's life was worth more than she thought, at least more than the two taels she had estimated earlier.

…………

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The city closest to the ruined temple is called "Changling", which is also Shen Qing's original destination.

This injury completely drained away Shen Qing's already limited internal energy, and all traces of the blood transfusion and palace transfer completely disappeared from her body.

Apart from a few broken ribs, she was fine now and could start trying to learn martial arts again.

This time when she goes into the city, she also has to prepare the tonic medicine needed for the medicinal bath.

The acquired realm is the foundation of martial arts. It involves practicing internal skills, supplemented by medicinal baths, to dredge the meridians and strengthen the muscles and bones.

When one's acquired realm is cultivated to perfection, with the help of inner strength, one can easily exert a force of thousands of pounds, which is enough to tear tigers and leopards apart alive and hunt a pack of wolves alone.

However, the internal strength of the acquired realm is limited after all. Hundreds of well-trained soldiers equipped with strong bows and crossbows can easily surround and kill him.

On the battlefield, it is also easy to be accidentally injured by stray arrows or hidden weapons.

Only by entering the innate realm, opening up the meridians throughout the body, allowing Qi to flow through the whole body, and allowing the Qi in the Dantian to circulate on its own, can one move freely in an army of thousands of people.

But the power Shen Qing wants is far more than that.

Originally she had no choice but to be an ordinary person, but the appearance of the sundial changed this situation.

In today's world, she can definitely pursue more powerful power.

At this moment, she has not yet started practicing martial arts, but what she is thinking about is how to reach the level of a martial arts grandmaster and become a legend of the world.

After leaving the mountain road and walking along the official road for less than half an hour, the city gate was already in sight.

Compared to the strict guards in the imperial capital, the inspection for entering the city here is obviously much more lax.

When Shen Qing and his companion entered the city, they were not even questioned and were completely ignored.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 13 Thunder Knife

After entering the city, Shen Qing found a Tonghai Money House and exchanged fifty taels of silver.

This is not a small amount of money. It is the annual revenue of an ordinary shop.

The owner of the money shop was extremely easy-going and did not feel embarrassed by Shen Qing and the other man's attire. After verifying the authenticity of the banknotes, he quickly sent someone to bring the cash.

When it comes to exchanging silver, money shops only recognize bills and not people. In Qianzhou, meddling in other people's affairs will only bring about fatal disasters.

No matter where this silver note came from, it has nothing to do with the money house.

The bank charged more than half of the fifty-liang silver note as an exchange fee, so when it came to Shen Qing's hands, only a little over forty-seven liang was left.

After the silver was delivered, the bank owner smiled and handed over an iron plate half a finger long.

"With this token, you will receive preferential treatment in all the cloth shops, money houses, rice shops and grain stores under the name of Tonghai Merchant Alliance."

Shen Qing took the iron plate and couldn't help but become interested in the Tonghai Merchant Alliance.

Whenever you withdraw money from a bank, there will be expenses.

Money is hard to come by. With this iron plate, even if it doesn't save much money, most people think that the Tonghai Merchant Alliance will be the first choice.

The business has grown to this point, with industries covering all walks of life, and the person at the helm is definitely no ordinary person.

"What to eat?"

After leaving the money house, Shen Qing spoke with much more confidence.

“Roast chicken!”

Zhao Yu's eyes seemed to be filled with light:

"When Lao Zhao was still around, he brought me half a roast chicken. It was the most delicious thing I have ever eaten."

She couldn't bear to throw away even the bones of the half roast chicken, so she ground them into powder and cooked a pot of wild vegetables. She still remembers the taste to this day.

Shen Qing looked down at her messy clothes, then at Zhao Yu's dirty little face. She didn't rush to find food. Instead, she bought some ordinary clothes and rouge and powder, then went straight to the inn, asked for a room upstairs, and began to wash up.

The inn was also owned by the Tonghai Merchant Alliance, and the iron plate saved Shen Qing thirty copper coins.