An Unexpected Encounter

Li Qi was so embarrassed that he clenched his toes.

This guy really knows how to brag.

His Cultivation Method might indeed be able to sense life force, but Li Qi knew that his own life force would also merge into nature, making it not so easy to detect.

But it's probably because he has this ability to sense things that he noticed something was wrong, which is why he came out and called out to people from afar to see if anyone was coming.

After all, if they truly knew without a doubt that someone was following them, Li Qi estimated that these people would have set up an ambush and killed them instead of coming forward to waste words.

But Li Qi didn't intend to pursue these matters. After coughing twice, he walked up to the group and said, "I only wanted to find some grain this time, but there weren't enough distribution centers. I thought that by following you, I could go to a larger grain-producing area and find a solution directly. I never expected that you would have such a clever way of finding me, which caused some misunderstanding."

"I have no ill intentions, as you all can see," Li Qi said.

The burly man rose from his kneeling position and replied, "Of course, we have no doubt about it!"

Nonsense, if this person truly harbored malicious intent, none of us would have survived a single breath.

This person's strength is definitely on the same level as the sect leader's; both are extraordinary beings!

"So, senior wants to do business? Then my Golden Wave Sect will make an introduction for you. May I ask how much grain you need? Shall we get in the carriage and discuss it in detail?" the burly man said to Li Qi.

"Alright, let's go up and talk. I wonder if your Golden Wave Sect can provide 300,000 shi of grain?" Li Qi said as he followed him into the carriage.

Three hundred thousand shi!

This number startled the burly man.

Three hundred thousand shi of grain—that's no small amount!

A simple calculation will tell you: 300,000 shi is approximately 30 million jin.

Assuming each person eats only one pound of grain per day, then 100,000 people would need 100,000 pounds, or about 50 tons per day, enough to feed them for more than 300 days, or a year.

Of course, people in this world have a larger appetite due to their Cultivation Method and other reasons. In fact, they can eat three catties of grain a day, and a big eater can eat five or six catties. That is to say, 300,000 shi is probably enough to feed 100,000 people for 100 days, or enough to feed everyone in the entire Guangyang City for two days.

Assuming there are 100,000 people, even if they start eating now, it would be enough to last until the next harvest of Spirit Rice!

The burly man was unaware that Li Qi was indeed planning to feed over 100,000 people through the next harvest.

"Senior, one shi of grain costs about one hundred coins. So, three hundred thousand shi of grain would cost thirty thousand gold coins. I'm afraid not many grain merchants can come up with that amount of money all at once. Even if they were to raise it, it would take more than a month. I wonder if you can wait that long? And is the amount of money sufficient?" the burly man asked cautiously.

He deliberately ignored the option of 'giving it to Li Qi '.

Three hundred thousand shi of grain—no one in Guangyang City could afford to send them.

"Thirty thousand gold..." Li Qi frowned. He did have something worth thirty thousand gold on him, but those things were not easy to sell. As for thirty thousand gold in cash, who in their right mind would carry thirty thousand gold in cash on them?

One gold coin is roughly half a pound of gold, so thirty thousand gold coins is more than ten thousand pounds of gold, which shows how valuable three hundred thousand shi of grain is.

Li Qi frowned, which made the burly man tremble with fear. He was afraid that Li Qi couldn't afford it and was in a hurry to buy it, so he simply had a wicked idea.

But he was also puzzled as to why such a master would start procuring food.

There are generally two reasons for procuring grain.

First, they might have a group of followers with thousands of mouths to feed, but these groups usually have fixed food supplies and are unlikely to suddenly need large amounts of food.

The second reason is to provide relief to disaster victims, but are there any disaster victims recently?

It seems so.

There were reportedly some disaster victims near the town, but the number was not large. Only a few thousand to ten thousand people actually flooded into Guangyang City, not even enough to cause a ripple.

Aside from the increased number of beggars on the streets, improved business for human traffickers, and significantly lower prices at brothels, nothing particularly changed.

It was nothing to the vast Guangyang City.

Etc.

Thinking of this, the burly man suddenly realized something. He raised his head and asked Li Qi, "Senior, are you perhaps planning to provide relief to the disaster victims? Three hundred thousand shi (a unit of dry measure) is just enough for more than 100,000 people to eat until the next season's Spirit Rice harvest. Could it be that you, Senior, are..."

"You're quick-witted. That's exactly what it's for. Don't worry, I won't rob you. Take me there and we can talk to your sect leader. Although I don't have 30,000 gold, I should be able to find something else to offset it," Li Qi said.

The burly man stood in awe, cupped his hands and said, "Senior, you are so righteous, saving more than 100,000 people. Such merit will surely inspire countless people to build shrines and statues in your honor, and pray for you day and night."

"Why waste time talking nonsense? Just take me to your base quickly," Li Qi said. "On the way, could you tell me about the grain market in Guangyang City so I can make a judgment?"

"Of course, sir. Please ask me if you have any questions," the burly man said.

The convoy continued on its way, and Li Qi and the burly man began to talk in the car.

Along the way, perhaps out of fear or perhaps out of respect, he answered Li Qi's questions without reservation. However, Li Qi did not accept all his answers but silently remembered them for future reference.

The burly man called himself Di Danyi, one of the leaders of the Golden Wave Sect. He practiced the most common martial arts and had reached the level of refining internal organs, having already refined two organs: the kidneys and the lungs.

In other words, with three more, he would enter the 'Xiantian martial artist' realm and reach the ninth rank.

With this level of cultivation, he was already considered a top expert in the Golden Wave Sect, and even in Guangyang City, he was a well-known martial arts master. That's why he was qualified to be the head of a grain transport team, handling thousands of shi of grain every day and millions of shi a year.

The leader of the Golden Wave Sect was a master of innate martial arts, a ninth-rank martial artist. He and more than twenty other ninth-rank martial artists formed the Grain Alliance, with each of the twenty-odd gangs controlling a portion of the grain business in Guangyang City.

This Grain Alliance monopolized all the grain business in Guangyang City.

In a person's life, the four basic necessities of clothing, food, shelter, and transportation are absolutely indispensable. This shows the power of the Grain Alliance. Behind the Grain Alliance, there is even the Guangyang Situ!

In other words, there is an eighth-rank official with government connections backing him up!

This shows how powerful he was; in Guangyang City, he was practically all-powerful.

However, although the Grain Alliance was powerful, it was not a monolithic entity. Under the control of Guangyang Situ, although there were no apparent conflicts, everyone worked together to maintain stable grain prices and prevented any trouble.

However, within the Grain Alliance, each member controls different channels.

For example, the Golden Wave Sect is able to interfere in the grain trade because it has dozens of villages backing Golden Wave Sect up; these villages are all staunch supporters of the Golden Wave Sect.

The village elders are middle-level members of the Golden Wave Sect. Most of the young people who leave the village become ordinary members of the Golden Wave Sect, and the Golden Wave Sect is responsible for selling most of the grain grown by the villagers.

Based on these villages, even more villages were willing to supply only Golden Wave Sect, including an entire county town, all within the Golden Wave Sect's sphere of influence. They used these places as their base to establish a foothold in Guangyang City.

This serves as the background.

The Grain Alliance consists of more than twenty factions, each occupying a portion of grain production capacity. The smallest has only a million shi (a unit of dry measure) a year, while the largest is a Lineage called the Guangyang Zhang Family, whose output is close to ten million shi.

The total output of the twenty-odd enterprises combined is about fifty to sixty million shi, which is enough for Guangyang City's needs for a year, with some surplus.

The Guangyang Zhang Family were the pillars that stood up.

The giant pillar that Li Qi saw in Guangyang City, which was twenty feet long and had ten thousand bats carved on it, and was called "Ten Thousand Blessings Come to Court," was erected by the Zhang family.

As for the Golden Wave Sect, it has a yield of about three to four million shi (a unit of dry measure), placing it in the middle to upper range.

Di Danyi said, "In other words, senior, you are going to take away 10% of the total output of the Golden Wave Sect this year. This is indeed not something that can be easily given out. At least most of the forces in the Grain Alliance cannot give it up."

"Perhaps only that one with ten million shi of grain can meet your needs." Di Danyi shrugged at Li Qi, indicating that there was really no other way.

Upon hearing this, Li Qi put one hand to his forehead and rubbed his temples. "How could there be such a big difference? According to you, the personnel, experts, and power of each family are not much different. If someone really took such a large share, how could you all stand it?"

Di Danyi nodded and echoed, "I also find it strange. The Golden Wave Sect knows very well their sphere of influence. There is absolutely no way they could produce so much grain, but they just happen to be able to produce so much. It's just that the sect leader is unwilling to tell us. I'm afraid only you, senior, can ask about these things yourself."

Upon hearing this, Li Qi felt a headache coming on.

The matter of the food supply seems to be progressing, but ten Chen have already passed. Hopefully, the White Rhinoceros Army has received my message and won't panic because I haven't returned.

More than 100,000 people are without food; just thinking about it is terrifying.

The most urgent task is to contact the leader of the Golden Wave Sect and see what means we can use to get him to help us contact the Guangyang Zhang Family.

Given the enormous annual output of the Guangyang Zhang Family, producing tens of millions of shi of grain, proposing 300,000 shi of grain shouldn't be too difficult. They should be able to manage it by squeezing it out, and if necessary, they can ask the Golden Wave Sect to supplement it. It should be enough.

As for whether they could sell it to him, Li Qi wasn't too worried.

Although he didn't have much gold on him, there were many things more valuable than gold. If he put together enough, he should be able to scrape together 30,000 gold.

Furthermore, these things are easy to exchange for gold.

If Jinzi wants to buy these things, it will be difficult to do so; the phrase "high price but no market" is very true.

Aside from special cases like Li Qi's, it's unlikely that anyone would sell items that only cultivators use in exchange for gold, which is only meaningful in the mortal world.

They continued talking along the way, walking from morning until noon. When it was time for lunch, they finally arrived at the Golden Wave Sect's outpost.

This appears to be a granary they built against a mountain, but it's empty right now.

Li Qi certainly didn't think this was the original destination for Di Danyi and his group.

He probably hinted at changing the destination during their conversation, replacing the original destination with this empty granary, so that he couldn't do anything about any malicious intent.

Immediately afterward, Di Danyi said to Li Qi, "Senior, please wait here for a moment. I will go and inform the sect leader. I will arrive within two Chen at the latest!"

"Thank you for your trouble," Li Qi nodded and said.

"There's no need to trouble yourself. The Golden Wave Sect will definitely not miss this big deal. We'll make sure it's handled perfectly for you, Senior." He patted his chest and said this before running off quickly.

It was clear that he was about to break down. Although he acted naturally, being with Li Qi obviously put a lot of pressure on this leader of the Golden Wave Sect.

Before long, Xia Li Qi was the only one left in the room; it seemed that even the servants had left.

Li Qi stood up and looked around.

Although it was just a manor built next to a granary, it had everything one would expect.

The manor faces a lake on one side, and a long pond of about an acre on the other, planted with lotus and water chestnuts, with hibiscus flowers along the embankment.

The small room has three bays and a tea stove, and the courtyard is sparse and quiet.

There wasn't a single person in sight.

This made Li Qi start to have doubts.

Did they run away? Did they leave themselves here and then pack up and move?

It shouldn't be that bad. They can run away, but they can't hide. Golden Wave Sect is such a big business.

With this in mind, Li Qi simply sat down and quietly waited for the leader of the Golden Wave Sect to arrive.

This made him somewhat sigh.

There was a time when he had to be obsequious when dealing with the person in charge of a business, but now the situation has been reversed.

Things are different now.

The best thing he could ever do was give the neighbor's child a bowl of meat soup.

Now, they are able to shoulder the responsibility of saving the lives of more than 100,000 people.

However, for Li Qi, there was no difference between the two.

Both things were simply doing good deeds within my ability.

The only difference is that their own strength is different, so the scope of what they "can do" is also different.

A ninth-rank expert is considered a master in this world, holding a high position and surrounded by thousands of followers.

However, Guangyang City seems to be inferior to Clear Mist City in the Green Mountain Kingdom.

The number of Rank 9 cultivators in Clear Mist City is far greater than here, and I don't know why.

If a ninth-ranked person in Clear Mist City is one in a thousand, then here it's one in ten thousand.

Is Clear Mist City particularly strong? Or is there something special about it?

Li Qi was thinking about all this, and at the same time, he was also calculating how to deal with it later.

What would be the best way to exchange 300,000 shi of grain?

What do you have that you don't need but can exchange for?

As Li Qi pondered these thoughts, time slowly passed.

Soon, half Chen had passed.

Li Qi looked up and gazed outside.

But then, a carriage drove up from outside the door.

Di Danyi led the way.

Seeing this, Li Qi sat down and waited for the other party to come in.

But then he saw someone get off the carriage.

Dressed in white, he was dashing and debonair, holding a folding fan, and exuding handsome charm.

Li Qi had seen this person before.

Wang Baiyan!

The person atop the five-tiered pagoda!