Chen Ping'an and Xiao Mo stepped onto an arched bridge and stopped.
A breeze suddenly stirred over the Calamus River, raising scales on the water that shimmered gold.
"Something on your mind, Young Master?" Xiao Mo asked.
Chen Ping'an rested a hand on the railing. "I'm estimating how much silver I could make in a year if I opened a restaurant here."
Xiao Mo laughed despite himself.
There was Gui Mai Courtyard on Guihua Island, Jade Ledge Cliff and the Ant Shop at Spring Dew Garden, and Fushui Island in Dragon Palace Cave Heaven, which he had bought for a mere eighty Valley Rain Coins.
Besides, when Jiang Shangzhen had been Sect Master of True Realm Sect, he had set aside five islands for Luopo Mountain as an enclave. They were temporarily registered under Zeng Ye's name, but the Great Li Ministry of Rites naturally had a confidential record of the arrangement, so Luopo Mountain could claim them whenever it wished.
Chen Ping'an now owned quite a bit of property.
Chen Ping'an glanced at his yellow-hatted, blue-shoed "attendant" and teased, "I'll give you a Hiking Staff and a bamboo book basket later. When you travel, you'll look even more like a frail scholar carrying his books on a study tour."
Xiao Mo nodded. "Then I'll take you at your word. If you happen to forget, Young Master, I'll shamelessly remind you."
"Back then, Liu Qi returned to the Vast Heaven and Earth and countered Yang Zhi's arts with his own, blocking her way back. She couldn't escape into the Return-to-the-Ruins passage," Chen Ping'an said. "Now the Temple of Literature seems to have confined her to a volcanic range said to have been the Dao Ancestor's Alchemy Furnace. If we ever travel Central Divine Continent together, I can take you to