Meihuawu is the largest and most prosperous city in the Baxian River Basin, but it is not as luxurious as Jiang Yuebai imagined. Instead, it exudes the simplicity and plainness of a water town everywhere.
Jiang Yuebai walked among them, his pace and mood became slow, he sniffed the fragrance of plum blossoms and appreciated the beautiful scenery.
Meihuawu is a large city with rivers scattered throughout the city. Merchants set up stalls on both sides of the river in boats. For low-level monks to travel, a small boat is enough.
Walking up the arch bridge, the street ahead was filled with waving flags, busy with pedestrians, and the sounds of hawking were endless. It was noisy and lively, and Jiang Yuebai saw many scenes that he had never seen anywhere else.
So many puppets!
Almost all the monks traveling on the road carried wooden or iron puppets with them, some in human form and some in animal form, following them like spiritual pets.
Several wooden birds flew over with scrolls in their mouths. Jiang Yuebai dodged to the side and watched the wooden birds fly away. His eyes fell on a small boat full of goods under the bridge. There was a vendor sleeping with his arm as a pillow and his hat covering his face. Next to him sat a wooden puppet toad.
In response to the merchants' inquiries, the puppet toad spewed out green smoke from its mouth, which turned into numbers.
The merchants took away their goods and threw the spirit stones into the puppet toad's wide-open mouth, and the vendors didn't need to worry about the whole process.
Jiang Yuebai's eyes lit up, thinking that the puppet toad must have attack power. If someone stole or caused trouble, the puppet toad would definitely fight back.
Walking down the arch bridge, Jiang Yuebai found everything new and thought that this was worthy of being the residence of the Zhuge family, with practical puppets everywhere.
The ones soliciting customers at the door, the ones greeting customers inside the shop, the ones moving goods in the side alleys, and the ones delivering messages are all puppets.
On both sides of the main street, every few steps there would be a two-person-tall black-armored puppet holding a long-handled sword standing by the road, like a statue, with a majestic aura.
Jiang Yuebai saw the word "Zhuge" on the chest of the black-armored puppet and guessed that this might be the guards placed by the Zhuge family in the city. If someone caused trouble or the enemy attacked, these black-armored puppets would start automatically.
"Be careful, you bastard!"
A few children were laughing and playing, chasing each other on simple puppet horses, running past Jiang Yuebai, leaving behind a string of silver bells and laughter.
Jiang Yuebai moved aside and smiled as well.
"Urgent report, urgent report, make way!"
In the crowd at the back, there was a man holding a huge flag high. His legs were made entirely of complex and sophisticated puppets. He walked very fast, leaped three feet high at a time, and kept jumping and flying from the crowd.
“My stall!”
The crowd dodged and cursed, debris flew everywhere, and there was chaos.
A man carrying a strange wooden box on his back was unable to dodge. The box behind him made a mechanical sound and turned into a pair of wooden wings that suddenly spread out and instantly lifted the man into the air.
"You're going to die!"
The man cursed angrily, folded up his wooden wings and slowly landed on the ground.
"What an interesting place." Jiang Yuebai exclaimed, turning his head to see a study with various books and jade slips placed at the door, and a golden toad puppet guarding it.
Jiang Yuebai immediately walked over and glanced at the stall. Basically, all the books were related to puppets, as well as famous masters' cultivation experiences, travel notes, etc.
"Yanjia Master? Yin-Yang School? What is this?"
Jiang Yuebai picked up a blue booklet without any seal, which looked like it introduced basic knowledge, and flipped through it quickly.
Just as I was watching with great interest, a gust of cold wind suddenly blew up from the ground next to me, and then a ghost figure emerged from the ground.
"Give me the third volume of Mr. Nangong's Yanshi Experience."
Quack!
The golden toad puppet spewed out green smoke, and the ghost shadow left the spirit stone behind, took away the jade slip, and disappeared underground.
Jiang Yuebai watched the whole process from the side. Although he was a ghost, the negative energy on his body was not creepy, and there was a talisman between his eyebrows, which looked like a method of controlling souls in the righteous way. He usually absorbed the negative energy from the underground, rather than the blood of living people.
One lineage is the Yanjia masters who are proficient in the manufacture of various mechanisms and puppets, and the other lineage is the Yin-Yang masters who specialize in controlling Yin and Yang puppets.
The Yanjia Master is easy to understand. It is what Jiang Yuebai used to think of as a puppeteer or a mechanism master.
The Yin-Yang School is somewhat like a combination of the Beast Tamer and the Ghost Tamer.
The Yin in Yin-Yang School refers to ghosts and spirits, which can be controlled by humans or animals.
Yang refers to living things. The book says that a powerful Yin-Yang master can even directly control living monks and use them in battle.
It’s quite scary to think about it, and what excites Jiang Yuebai the most is that the Yin-Yang family focuses on cultivating the soul, and has extremely high requirements for the soul.
It is easy to become a Yanjia Master, you just need to study hard and practice hard, but to become an Onmyoji, it depends on talent.
There may not be one Yin-Yang master among ten thousand Yanjia masters.
In this case, the Yin-Yang School of the Zhuge Family must have some very powerful spiritual and mental skills, which may be able to make up for the problem that her current spiritual power cannot match that of her chaotic body.
"How many spirit stones does this book cost?"
Quack!
The puppet golden toad uttered the word "one".
"How many spirit stones are needed to buy all of these?"
Jiang Yuebai waved her hand and wanted to buy all the books on the bookstall. The new knowledge made her blood boil, and she had to buy them all home and read them all night long.
The puppet golden toad was slow for a moment, and it took about ten breaths before it spit out a number.
Fortunately, it was within Jiang Yuebai's affordability. The books on the bookstalls outside were not valuable in themselves. The valuable items were the jade slips of the martial arts books that were sealed in layers inside the library.
After buying it, Jiang Yuebai didn’t have time to continue shopping. He immediately looked for a place to stay and couldn’t wait to start reading.
At this moment, a female ghost in red with a blue face and disheveled hair appeared under a tree on the opposite bank of the river.
Although she was wearing red clothes, if Jiang Yuebai saw her, he would definitely recognize her as Yan Hongyu, the 'mountain god' whom he met when he first entered the upper realm and accidentally fell into the Iron Palm Realm.
Jiang Yuebai didn't see her, but she saw Jiang Yuebai's fleeting figure. She opened her eyes wide with excitement and was about to chase him when another figure emerged from the ground beside her. It was Guangling, who was defeated by Jiang Yuebai together with her.
"What are you looking at?" Guangling frowned and looked in the direction Yan Hongyu was looking.
Yan Hongyu shrank back in fear, her eyes flickering, "Nothing... nothing."
Guangling looked displeased, and exuded the pressure of a Jindan stage cultivator, shocking Yan Hongyu, who was only at the peak of Qi training. Both he and Yan Hongyu had mountain-like rune marks between their eyebrows.
"Remember your current identity. Everything you have was given by the master. It is best not to have any thoughts that you should not have. Otherwise, I can destroy you in an instant without the master having to do anything."
Yan Hongyu twisted the corner of her clothes, her eyes were covered by her messy hair, and she cursed Guangling in her heart for being even more servile than her when facing Jiang Yuebai. Now he was showing off to her, what a bastard!
"What are you still standing there for? Go buy what the master wants."
Yan Hongyu forced out a flattering smile, "Don't be upset, Master. I'll go right away. I'll go right away."
Yan Hongyu secretly glanced at the direction Jiang Yuebai left, then immediately walked in the opposite direction and quickly disappeared in the crowd.
Guangling stood there, looking thoughtfully at the other side of the river, his eyes gradually narrowing.
"Who did she see?"
(End of this chapter)