Protect Our Patriarch

Chapter 18 – Spirit beehive

In Changning’wei, the two busiest areas are the East Market and the West Market. The East Market is mainly a variety of shops along the streets, selling local products from the various towns under the county, such as fruits and vegetables, livestock, meat and poultry, firewood, rice, oil and salt, household items, etc. Ping’an Wang clan’s fish stall is located in the East Market.

Wang Shouzhe and his generals led their horses into the market, and it was as if they had entered a huge farmers’ market, with all sorts of agricultural products and handicrafts.

In addition to the large shops of wealthy merchants or aristocratic families, there were many vendors occupying every corner of the market, selling strange things. These were stalls specially designated by the Changning officials for casual cultivators to prevent them from setting up stalls everywhere and making it difficult for the officials to manage them.

Basically, the casual cultivators don’t have any good things to sell, but because they usually wander all over the world, they sell a wide variety of things, and occasionally, there would be some novelties.

“Gallbladder of a top-ranked beast of the second order, black-backed ferocious bear. Only one, priced at 15 pieces of Qian gold, no bargaining.” A scarred man in beast skin armour was setting up a stall. The casual cultivator laid out a thick bear skin and above him, a pair of dried bear gallbladders hung from a tree branch. There was a sign which looked like a strangers do-not-approach warning.

“This bear skin has a black back and a white belly, and the texture is thick, so it is indeed the skin of a black-backed ferocious bear.” Wang Zhong, the family’s general whispered, “The inner side of this bear’s gallbladder is golden in color and the quality is not bad so, 15 Qian gold is not expensive. We can resell this to the Dan workshop and will make at least four or five Qian gold.”

Wang Shouzhe had to study the ferocious beasts’ charts since he was young and was able to distinguish most of the materials on common and top ranked ferocious beasts. So, he just smiled and said, “Let’s not be greedy for this bargain.” With that, he left without looking back.

“Does the Patriarch think the seller is a swindler? I see that the colour and lustre of the gallbladder are extremely good, it can’t be wrong.” Wang Zhong was a little reluctant, but he still obeyed and followed, but he found it hard to tear himself away, “If the Patriarch does not see the point of making just a small sum of money …… why not ……”

“Idiot, the Patriarch must have seen something fishy.” Wang Yong gave him a fierce glare.

“Hehe~ The edge of the bear skin is dry and black. It’s obviously a few years old. Although the gallbladder is dry, the color of the bladder is still fresh, which means the gallbladder can’t be more than three months old.” Wang Shouzhe said with a smile, “Wang Zhong if you want to buy it, I can lend you the money. You don’t have to share the profit with me.”

He couldn’t help laughing in his heart. Compared to the swindlers on earth, the Xuanwu world’s hustlers are so crude. They don’t even make up any bizarre stories or anything. It’s so unprofessional!

“No, no, no, thanks. Fortunately, we are out with the Patriarch today.” Wang Zhong was so frightened that he broke out in cold sweat, and denounced angrily, “Sure enough, casual cultivators are not credible. There are too many swindlers and cheaters.”

“Our Xuanwu aristocratic family has a home and an industry, we have roots and foundation, and as long as we protect this foundation, we will have a steady stream of cultivation resources.”

Wang Shouzhe said indifferently, “Casual cultivators are wanderers without roots or foundations, they have to fend for themselves and look for their own resources, so naturally, life is difficult. It’s easy for them to go astray, such as swindling, cheating, deceiving, stealing and so on.

“Moreover, if they commit a crime, they can just walk away and change their identity. If casual cultivators could get resources at will, why would our ancestors have to build up their successes? Why would our ancestors have to build up the family’s assets and sacrifice their lives to protect the family’s foundation?”

The Patriarch made a lot of sense.

Wang Zhong and Wang Yong gradually grew to admire Wang Shouzhe even more. They have already sensed the difference between the new Patriarch and the previous Patriarch. In just a few words, Wang Shouzhe clearly distinguished the differences between casual cultivators and their aristocratic family.

At this point, they became more vigilant of the differently attired casual cultivators who were selling all sorts of messy objects along the roadside. Whenever they saw them, they thought they were scammers.

“How do I sell this beehive?”

Just then, Wang Shouzhe suddenly squatted down in front of a stall. The stall owner was a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties, with a somewhat unkempt image. At first glance, he looked like he was only at the peak of the third level of the Qi Refining realm.

However, this is also the normal state of most casual cultivators. Poor natural talent, lack of systematic cultivation techniques, lack of careful guidance from elders, extremely unstable cultivation resources, etc., all contribute to the difficulty of most casual cultivators to make a name for themselves.

When the stall owner saw a luxuriously attired Wang Shouzhe and two heavily armed and valiant family generals behind him, the casual cultivator knew Wang Shouzhe was not an ordinary person.

He immediately swallowed the rip-off price he wanted to quote and smiled ingratiatingly, “Young master, this is a tiger-head spirit beehive, which I risked my life to secure after a chance encounter in the mountains. There is still a lot of spirit nectar and pupae in this hive, so I would like to exchange it for two Xiao Pei Yuan Dan.”

When he talked about Xiao Pei Yuan Dan, his stomach grumbled.

“Are you trying to rob us?” Wang Yong’s expression changed, and he pressed his hand on the hilt of his sword, furious, “Your hive is no more than the size of your head, and it can be filtered for two taels (1 tael = 1.76 ounces) of spiritual nectar at best, and the small number of pupae are not even enough to fry a dish. At most, it will only sell for a couple of Qian gold.”

“Oh, this master, don’t get angry.” The stall owner said with a slightly frightened expression, “My hive is newly picked, and many of the pupae inside are still alive. If your family have a spirit insect master, you might be able to cultivate a tiger-head spirit bee colony.”

Although the casual cultivators who wonder all over the world are not powerful, they have pretty good knowledge.

“You’re thinking too much, I haven’t heard of any spirit insect master in the entire Changning’wei. It is rare to see this, so I want to fry these pupae and eat them. Wang Shouzhe took out 10 Qian gold, “Enough for you to buy a small Xiao Pei Yuan Dan. Take it or leave it, add one more dime and I’ll leave.”

The stall owner hesitated for a long time. Finally, he had no choice but to agree to the deal, “Young master, if this was the town in Zhou prefecture, the beehive would really be worth 20 Qian gold, but unfortunately, by the time I get there, all these pupae would be dead.”

If it wasn’t for the fact that the pupae cannot survive beyond a few days, the stall owner would really be willing to go to Zhou prefecture to sell the hive. After all, there was a difference of 10 pieces of Qian gold. However, if most of the pupae are dead, the value of the hive would plummet.

After the transaction, Wang Shouzhe asked Wang Yong to pack it up and carry it, and he didn’t bother to talk with the stall owner any longer.

Although the beehive can’t be considered as picking up an antique at a cheap price, it wasn’t a loss either.  If you give it to fifth sister, Wang Luojing, for her to play around with, perhaps a miracle would happen. If they can raise the tiger-head spirit bees, they’ll add a unique business to the family’s industries.

The tiger-head spirit bees are almost invisible in the wild, and one would only occasionally encounter them off the beaten track. However, you might not even find them even if you took the trouble to hunt for them for half a year.

After that, Wang Shouzhe wandered through the stalls of the casual cultivators, but didn’t come across anything of interest. As he walked around, he ended up at the East Market where the clan had a fishmonger’s shop.

Ping’an Wang clan’s fishmonger shop.

With six large letters running across the three shops, the shops are noticeably neater and more upmarket than the messy stalls.

Looking at the Wang’s shop, Wang Shouzhe’s memories came flooding back and his heart rippled.

These three shops, plus the courtyard behind them, were the last of the Wang’s assets in Changning’wei county.

Since those two great battles 50 years ago, the prestige of the Ping’an Wang clan had plummeted. In order to support those who are strong and capable to reach the spiritual realms so that they can support the family as soon as possible, the Wang clan ruthlessly sold off many of their fixed assets in the county.

Regrettably…

Second uncle, Wang Dingtian, on whom so much hope was pinned, died young at the age of 20, without even leaving his bloodline behind.

His sixth grandfather, Wang Xiao Han, reached the ninth level of the Qi Refining realm when he was in his forties and tried to reach the Lingtai realm, but he failed after consuming a huge amount of resources. Now at the age of 65, he was still stuck at the ninth level of the Qi Refining realm.

Wang Shouzhe’s father, Wang Dingyue, was even more pitiful. When he did not have enough resources to support his breakthrough to the Lingtai realm, he ventured into the outer realms in search of an opportunity and ended up losing his life.

In fact, if they had continued to sell the family’s assets, such as selling all three major farms, they would definitely be able to get the resources for Wang Dingyue to attack the Lingtai realm. But then, it would be all or nothing. If he failed, the Ping’an Wang clan would be destitute overnight.

Wang Shouzhe had a vague feeling that if he waited until he reached the peak of the ninth level of the Qi Refining realm, the family might make a move to sell off all their assets to allow him to make the final gamble.

However, if the family were to take that final step, Wang Shouzhe, the transmigrator, would be a failure.

“Fourth brother, what brings you here?”

Just as Wang Shouzhe was feeling a bit emotional, he heard a surprised voice.