Chapter 967: Chapter 9: Obedient Son-in-Law
Shaking Light also accompanied Li Guanyi.
Just as usual.
With Shaking Light’s mystical skills aiding, Li Guanyi swaggered into the city. The town’s structure was quite simple and direct, yet functional areas were distinguished. It was unpretentious and straightforward, with many commendable aspects.
On both sides, there were stalls set up differently from the Central Plains. They used wooden sticks and cloth to support small tents, where a layer of cloth was spread. Fruits were rolling and piling up together, being sold there.
They still used the Tuyuhun currency system.
However, it was a mixture of various coin sizes from the past century or so.
There were also livestock sellers at the town entrance.
It wasn’t very lively, with a bit of a desolate feeling. The fruits placed on the ground were all covered in dust. Those selling fruits used small knives to carve out the rotten parts, throwing them in a pile, which led to a swarm of tiny bugs emanating a smell akin to fermented fruit wine mixed with a foul odor.
As people walked by, bugs flew wildly, and the light scent of wine and stink assailed their noses.
Even the Qilin, transformed into a long-haired cat lying on Li Guanyi’s shoulder, pinched its nose with two claws, turned to the other side: “Bad fruit.”
“Not eating, not eating.”
Li Guanyi joked: “Huh, you actually have fruits you don’t want to eat.”
Which made the Little Qilin grumble.
Li Guanyi restrained his smile, looked around noticing many desolate places. About a quarter of the town was barren, clearly, it was not the most prosperous time, judging from various traces.
In the past year, this place had undergone expansion.
However, where did they get the money to expand…
Li Guanyi continuously assessed, deep in thought: “In Miss’s eyes, it’s a village, but compared to the more prosperous towns in the Central Plains, its level of prosperity is indeed lacking. To Miss, it might really just be a village.”
Just then, people in front of the town path stepped aside as two specially dressed foreign monks approached:
“Amitabha, Amitabha.”
“All of you had sins in your past lives, suffering in this life. Donate your merits to eliminate various sins and erase all sufferings, relieve worries in this life, and blessings in the next life, Amitabha, Amitabha…”
A chant of Sanskrit music filled the air. These two foreign monks were not like the ones seen before. The one in front held a strange iron basin, striking it with a hammer with resonant sound, while the one behind carried a box. Dazed-looking commoners took out small coins and placed them in the iron basin.
“Demon Sect’s foreign monks…”
Li Guanyi squinted his eyes slightly.
These two monks couldn’t see through Shaking Light’s mystical skills, swaggering past Li Guanyi and Shaking Light. Li Guanyi felt a slight stir in his heart and followed with Shaking Light, seeing the two of them gather a whole box of large and small coins, heading into the central mansion.
Li Guanyi turned to look, and the entire road was lifeless.
It seemed as though it was even more serious than before by a bit.
As if the vitality and blood of the commoners had been forcibly stripped away.
“Demon Sect, commoners, Buddhist Sect, and city-state nobles…”
These existences stack layer by layer, constructing a multi-layered societal ecology.
Li Guanyi, deep in thought, felt that he was about to touch upon the truth of the complex situation of the entire Western Regions. Along with the silver-haired girl, he entered that house; clearly, there weren’t any Grandmasters from the Three Sects of the World. With Li Guanyi and Shaking Light entering, it was nearly smooth going.
Li Guanyi reached out to touch the girl’s hair, praising:
“Well done, Shaking Light.”
The silver-haired girl’s face remained expressionless. After a moment of thought, she raised her hand too.
Her five fingers clenched into a fist.
She squeezed it tightly, then looked at Li Guanyi.
“Good.”
Li Guanyi smiled and also formed a fist.
The silver-haired girl pondered for a moment.
She bumped her small fist on Li Guanyi’s fist.
The two foreign monks entered a side room of the big house where some other foreign monks were. They babbled on about many things, though Li Guanyi didn’t understand the language, he could comprehend the meaning due to Shaking Light’s mystical skills:
“Have we gathered enough things?”
“Yes, the fat of this town is almost squeezed dry.”
“That Old Wolf King fought too fiercely; those Dangxiang people really cannot rise. Our Holy Sect sent quite a few Grandmasters, Sixth Heaven incense masters, into the Dangxiang army, using Holy Medicine, feeding it to those Dangxiang soldiers, making them fear neither life nor death, knowing only to fight.”
“Even so, it ended up in a crushing defeat by that Xiao Wuliang.”
“He truly is an unparalleled fierce general who rode onto the battlefield alone as a teenager.”
“Wasn’t there a Secret Technique…”
“Oh, oh, you mean the Secret Technique obtained from the Great Sacrifice over a decade ago? It is said that at that time, they found a special girl considered a [Reincarnated Spiritual Child], tempering her body with the ultimate Secret Technique to revive the ancient Buddha, but it didn’t succeed.”
Li Guanyi’s eyes slightly shifted, looking at that silver-haired girl.
Shaking Light quietly leaned against the corner of the wall. When her eyes dropped calmly, she suddenly felt warmth by her ear, slightly raising her head to see Li Guanyi focused on listening to the intelligence of those monks.
The boy’s palm gently cupped her ear.
The silver-haired girl remained expressionless.
Thinking a bit, she reached out her hand, placing it on Li Guanyi’s palm.
The foreign monks, unaware of the two outsiders popping out from the corner of the wall, chatted about major events and gossip to relieve boredom in this increasingly impoverished town where there were no Central Plains stories, no storytellers in teahouses, no street peddlers.
“Although it didn’t succeed, they still managed to gain some skills from the process.”