Tea Stall

"Huff... huff." Li Qi gasped for breath, moving with unsteady steps.

He was already over a hundred li from Lizhou City. Though he hadn't yet left its jurisdiction, human settlements had grown sparse.

To be honest, this was the first time Li Qi had traveled this far in this world.

In this world, most people never left their hometown their entire lives—at least, that was the case in Lizhou.

Villagers had likely only ever been to the county seat; county folk had only been to the prefectural city; and prefectural city dwellers might never leave it at all.

Li Qi had never left the prefectural city in over three years, not once. At most, he'd helped haul boats in the shallow, countercurrent areas near the city, turning back once the waters smoothed out beyond the outskirts.

This time, fleeing after killing a man, he wouldn't have left the city if he hadn't been cornered.

Working the docks, hauling boats and ferrying vessels, he'd overheard the idle chatter of various canal guilds and merchant associations, and he knew the dangers of the wild.

In the water lurked demons—if lucky, a carp spirit or a turtle monster that only toyed with people without harming them; if unlucky, a water monkey that would drown an entire boat, unless a skilled cultivator shielded them and let them escape with their lives.

Avoiding the water meant taking mountain paths, but those were thick with forests and swamps, crawling with snakes, insects, rats, ants, vicious beasts, and fierce birds.

The only truly safe places were human settlements.

Leaving meant danger.

He'd been gone a day now, roughing it in a tree for one night. Fortunately, he'd encountered no trouble. He'd eaten some wild fruit and, following his original plan, aimed for Feng County, three hundred li away.

Feng County, he'd heard, was a fairly stable little county town. He'd lie low there for a year or so, then return to Lizhou City—by then, nothing would come of it.

A hundred li in a day, all over rugged mountain paths, wearing only straw sandals—even with his current physical condition, it had worn him out.

The one saving grace was that it was still winter, so beasts were dormant and insects hadn't yet emerged. Aside from exhaustion, the journey had brought no other torment.

"Even if I don't take a wrong turn, it's still three hundred li... really." Li Qi trudged along a wild path, glancing around for any roadside tea stalls or water stands. He'd been walking for an entire day now.

After a look around, luck was on his side—he actually spotted a roadside tea stall.

He quickened his pace, reaching into the bundle on his back to pull out two copper coins.

The copper coins of the Great Deer Kingdom were called Great Deer Wuzhu Coins. They were purple in color, of decent weight but somewhat thin, each weighing about half a qian. He had roughly a thousand coins on him now—that is, one guan.

Great Deer Wuzhu Coins were the official currency of the Great Deer Kingdom, mostly what was issued for River Opening. But they weren't worth much. The common coin on the market, a type called the Deyuan Tongbao Coin, was far more valuable—it had more copper content and circulated widely. It seemed to be a coin from the Tang Kingdom. One Deyuan Tongbao Coin was worth five Great Deer Wuzhu Coins.

In fact, the weight unit "one qian" in this world referred to the weight of a single Deyuan Tongbao Coin.

Even the unit of weight was based on another country's currency. From this alone, Li Qi could tell how powerful the Tang Kingdom of this world was.

Though this Tang Kingdom probably had nothing to do with the Tang of his own world.

Still, this world had one difference: despite official coinage, silver wasn't in circulation. Economic activity relied almost entirely on copper coins, with gold used only rarely for payments.

Even bills and notes were recorded in copper coins, and only in very large transactions were gold notes used.

Silver seemed to have been kicked out of the economic system. Li Qi didn't fully understand the reason.

The thousand Great Deer Wuzhu Coins Li Qi carried were worth a thousand coins in the Great Deer Kingdom, with decent purchasing power—enough to buy half a pig, about three to four hundred catties of meat.

Generally, a catty of meat cost two or three coins. Two copper coins were enough for a pot of tea at a stall, plus two small plates of complimentary snacks.

But those two or three coins—normally, Li Qi would never have been willing to spend them.

Two or three coins could buy two or three catties of rice. People in this world generally had big appetites; plenty could eat ten catties of rice in one meal. Two or three catties of rice, steamed, only made ten catties anyway.

Besides, pork was cheap. Expensive beef and mutton cost two or three times more—truly beyond his means. As a towman, it was physical labor; without a full stomach, he had no strength. So most of the time, he filled up on plain rice. For dishes, pickled vegetables were a luxury; otherwise, he made do with water weeds and salt.

Occasionally, he'd have fish as a treat, but fish... eating river fish without seasoning was pure torture. If not for the nutritional need, Li Qi would rather eat plain rice.

At least plain rice was plentiful.

He offered a blessing to the farmer who had cultivated Spirit Rice. If not for him, who knew how many people in this world would have starved to death? At the very least, cultivation techniques wouldn't be so widespread.

No matter what technique, it had to be built on eating. Without enough nutrition, everything else was nonsense.

Oh, except for spells. Even now, Li Qi had no idea where the power of the Ox-Strength Technique came from.

The existence of Spirit Rice kept manual laborers like him from dying of exhaustion and hunger. He didn't know the inventor, had never heard of him, but he often offered blessings to that old man.

Achievements like that were worthy of sainthood, weren't they?

Revering the old man in his thoughts, Li Qi headed toward the tea stall.

Now that he had spells, maybe he could try finding other ways to make money.

The things he'd learned in his mind supposedly came from... Qi.

But what the hell was Qi?

He didn't understand. He'd learn slowly later. Something called a Divine Will Inheritance—just the name told him it wasn't common stuff. Getting another Ox-Strength Technique would probably take a very long time.

Clutching two copper coins tightly in his hand, Li Qi walked up to the roadside tea stall.

"Tea Vendor, a pot of tea!" Li Qi slapped down two copper coins and called out loudly.

There were quite a few people around. Though it was winter, itinerant merchants didn't rest. They gathered at this tea stall to drink tea and rest, then hoist their large back-baskets and continue trading between villages.

But the merchants were clearly divided. Different baskets sat together, each group forming its own clique. Only Li Qi sat alone, wedged between two merchant teams, looking out of place.

"Coming right up!" the Tea Vendor called back, hurrying over. He enthusiastically wiped down Li Qi's table, then set down a pot of tea and two complimentary plates of pastries.

They were rice cakes, made from Spirit Rice.

After all, it was just a freebie, so it couldn't be too expensive. Rice cakes were already decent enough.

Li Qi picked one up and took a big bite. Though the main ingredient was also rice, it had a bit more flavor than plain white rice, and with his hunger gnawing at him, it tasted pretty good.

After finishing a rice cake, he gulped down a large cup of warm tea.

The tea wasn't hot, just barely warm. After all, the customers at this kind of tea stall were all hardworking travelers who couldn't afford to wait for their tea to cool while parched. So it was always lukewarm water with tea leaves that had been steeping all day, barely carrying any fragrance—just enough to say it had a hint of tea flavor.

"Phew..." Li Qi was already satisfied. At this rate, he should be able to reach Feng County by tomorrow evening, right?

Just then, someone suddenly spoke up from behind him: "Hey there, big brother, traveling far all alone?"