"This is Demon City." Zhao Xia Qiu said lightly, standing at the entrance of the long street.
Su Baiyi and Nangong Xier were so shocked that their jaws dropped: "Is this the Devil's Castle?"
In the Demon City they imagined, there should be ferocious bullies or gloomy killers walking around everywhere, but what they saw was a prosperous and bustling world: the long street was crowded with people, the street was full of pharmacies and taverns, infantry hawkers were shouting and selling, the flower girls walked briskly, and occasionally a drunkard who wanted to default on his debt was thrown mercilessly onto the street by the strong men in the tavern. Each scene looked very much like Jianglin City, the most prosperous city in the south of the Yangtze River where Su Baiyi had visited as a child.
"You two enjoy your stroll. I won't disturb you any more." Zhao Xia Qiu said.
"I haven't been shopping for a long time. When I saw this scene, I felt particularly happy for some reason. It's just that my senior sister and I have been running all the way, and we are already..." Su Baiyi said with a smile.
"The city lord gave it to me." Zhao Xia Qiu took out a bag of silver from his arms, threw it to Su Baiyi, then turned and left.
Su Baiyi weighed the purse in his hand and raised his eyebrows at Nangong Xier: "Senior Sister, I will treat you to delicious food."
Nangong Xier reached out and knocked on Su Baiyi's head: "How did my father teach a disciple like you?"
Su Baiyi stuck out her tongue and said with a smile: "Senior sister, you have never seen a master. If you had seen one, you would know that only a master like that could teach a disciple like me."
Nangong Xier frowned slightly: "But mother said that father is a gentle and elegant scholar..."
"Then I can do that too." Su Baiyi softened his voice and straightened his back. "Senior sister, do you think I look like an elegant scholar now?"
"I'm not going to pay attention to you. I want to eat oranges." Nangong Xier walked to the nearest stall, reached out and picked up an orange, put it to her nose and smelled it.
"Girl, you can't tell whether an orange is good or bad just by smelling it." The old man selling oranges grinned, revealing a mouthful of rotten teeth.
Su Baiyi walked to Nangong Xier and said, "Can I try it first?"
"Of course." The old man threw up an orange and then reached out to catch it. The orange had been peeled and only the flesh was left.
"Where is the peel?" Su Baiyi asked in confusion. As soon as he finished speaking, a whole orange peel fell on Su Baiyi's head.
Nangong Xier took it off Su Baiyi's head with a smile: "Senior, you have great martial arts skills."
The old man handed over the orange: "I just know how to peel an orange."
Su Baiyi took the orange, gave half to Nangong Xier, and put the rest into his mouth. As soon as he put it in his mouth, he couldn't help but exclaimed: "This orange is so sweet, I want a pound of it."
"Okay." The old man threw a few oranges into the scale pan, then gently moved the weight with his hand. In a smooth movement, he finally put the oranges into the paper bag. "One pound of oranges, five copper coins."
"Here." Su Baiyi took out five copper coins from his purse and handed them to the old man, then took the orange, turned around and prepared to leave.
But Nangong Xier looked at the old man curiously, and after a moment she asked tentatively: "Old man, one or two souls are worth a few copper coins."
The old man held up two fingers: "Three."
"Old man, are you really the Killing Bodhisattva Xu Luoyang?" Nangong Xier asked in surprise.
"I am the Fruit Bodhisattva in Demon City." The old man still smiled and showed his rotten teeth, looking very wretched. "Girl, you got the wrong person."
"Sorry." Nangong Xier lowered her head slightly, then followed Su Baiyi away.
"What's wrong?" Su Baiyi asked.
"The man just now was Xu Luoyang, the Bodhisattva of Killing, a well-known killer in the martial arts world back then." Nangong Xier sighed, "I didn't expect that he would be selling oranges in Demon City."
"Since he kills lives, why is he called a Bodhisattva?" Su Baiyi was puzzled.
"Because he only takes business from poor people. As long as you pay three copper coins, he will kill someone for you, but the prerequisite is that the other party must be a very evil person. So he is both a killer and a Bodhisattva." Nangong Xier explained.
"He's also a wonderful person." Su Baiyi nodded.
At this time, a little girl holding flowers came towards them and smiled at them.
"Senior Sister, according to the usual plot in novels and storybooks, this girl will definitely mistakenly think that we are a couple, and then say that since I have such a beautiful girl by my side, shouldn't I buy a flower for her?" Su Baiyi whispered.
Nangong Xier blushed slightly: "What kind of novels are you reading?"
The little girl finally walked in front of Su Baiyi. Su Baiyi cleared his throat and smiled at the girl.
Then the little girl walked straight past Su Baiyi.
"Flowers for sale, flowers for sale, flowers just picked this morning~"
Su Baiyi was petrified at once: "How could this happen?"
Nangong Xier was laughing so hard that her body was shaking: "Hahahahaha, you idiot, you think life is just like a novel... "
"Don't cry, big brother." The little girl retreated back to Su Baiyi's side, "Although I can see at first glance that this beautiful sister won't fall in love with you, I still have to give you a flower..."
"Then give me one." Su Baiyi covered his face with one hand and took out a copper coin with the other. But after taking the flower from the little girl, he suddenly realized something, "Wait! Did you hear what I said just now?"
The little girl smiled and said, "It's not that far away, so I can hear it naturally."
"It's thirty steps away, and this street is so noisy, how come you can hear what I say?" Su Baiyi asked in confusion.
"I can hear it even from three hundred meters away." The little girl jumped and ran away.
“This… this…” Su Baiyi glanced at the little girl’s back and then at Nangong Xier, his face full of confusion.
Nangong Xier took the flower from Su Baiyi and sniffed it. "If I'm not mistaken, the little girl's surname is Tang. She is Yan Xiaotang's sister. She can tell the direction by listening to the wind and kill people by blinding them. Thirty meters away is really nothing."
Su Baiyi sighed: "This is not a pedestrian street, this is clearly a street of broken souls..."
"I want to have a drink." Nangong Xier turned around and saw a tavern with four words written on it.
Huangquan Tavern.
Su Baiyi shook her head and said, "Senior Sister, why did you choose this one?"
"Because of him." Nangong Xier pointed at the man in white standing at the door.
The man was dressed in white, with a jade flute hanging from his waist, long hair flying, and a very elegant demeanor. He was staring in a daze at the lanterns in the tavern.
"Senior sister, you are indeed an ordinary woman. You even consider the appearance of the drinker before drinking." Su Baiyi sighed.
Nangong Xier shook her head: "No, I guess this is not a drinker, but the owner of this wine shop."
"Boss?" Su Baiyi was stunned. "Senior sister, you can see this?"
The man in white turned around, looked at the two of them, and said with a smile: "I am Huang Chunsheng, the owner of this Huangquan Tavern. I heard that you two are honored guests of my Demon City. Please come in and have a drink."
"It really is the boss." Su Baiyi said in surprise, but then he thought about the name Huang Chunsheng, turned around and wanted to run, but was pulled back by Nangong Xier.
"Senior Sister, Huang Chunsheng, the human chef! The one you said makes human meat buns!" Su Baiyi said anxiously.
"He's the one we're looking for!" Nangong Xier grabbed Su Baiyi's collar and walked inside.