Another Encounter with a Corpse Ghoul

"Quick, quick, quick! I got up late today—the morning lesson has already started."

"Actually, we're not children anymore. We've already learned everything we need to learn. There's no need to report to the academy every day."

"Still, we should leave a good impression on Master."

"That's true. And reading through the classics every morning counts as reviewing the old to gain new insight."

"Exactly."

"By the way, Brother Wang, I'm usually quite ordinary, but you've always been diligent and hardworking. How did you end up late today too?"

"Shameful, shameful. I indulged myself too much last night and got up late."

"Tsk, tsk, Brother Wang, don't joke around. Didn't your wife return to her hometown to visit her family? And you didn't go to Spring Breeze Pavilion yesterday either."

"It wasn't my wife. The night before last, when I was returning home from Spring Breeze Pavilion, I met a young lady at my doorstep. She had come to Tonglin County to seek relatives, but they had already moved away. She had no money on her now, so she is temporarily staying at my home."

"Oh?"

"Heh heh."

"Haha, Brother, you truly are blessed!"

"You flatter me, you flatter me!"

As the two spoke, they passed by Lu Zheng, then hurried into the nearby County School in a puff of dust.

The night before last, after dark, a young lady...

Lu Zheng halted and looked back at the Scholar in moon-white robes. He felt that misfortune was already hanging over the man's head, with black qi clouding his brow.

But...

Lu Zheng instead let out a sigh of relief. If she had targeted someone else, didn't that mean he was safe? Daoist Priest Mingzhang had said that after harming one person, a Corpse Ghoul needed a long time to refine them. It generally would not remain in one place for long.

Snap!

Lu Zheng raised his hand and snapped his fingers. His substitute appeared, and his whole body relaxed.

Then he quickly left the area.

When someone was unlucky, it was best for others to stay far away, lest they catch the bad luck too.

Lu Zheng wandered aimlessly along Bluestone Street, looking around as he thought about where to begin his career in the Great Jing Dynasty.

He would certainly cultivate, but he also had to live in the Great Jing Dynasty. He could not simply sit around and eat away his savings, much less follow that Old Beggar's example and beg for food.

Glass crafts and divine weapons indeed offered staggering profits, but he could not sell them frequently.

That would be practically inviting others to set their sights on him.

Even if his cultivation succeeded, he could not be so reckless.

So he needed his own business—something inconspicuous, yet capable of bringing in a steady trickle of income.

Then, as a person of status with his own business, Lu Zheng would find it easier to sell the crafts he brought over from the modern world.

If anyone asked, he had bought them cheaply and was now selling them at a markup. If they were dissatisfied, they could go buy them themselves.

Besides, judging from how cultivators like Daoist Priest Mingzhang still had to open temples, draw talismans, and conduct rituals, cultivators also needed these worldly possessions of gold and silver.

Thus, Lu Zheng watched the surrounding shops as he walked and thought...

Salt and iron were the first to be ruled out. As the foundation of the nation's military strength and necessities of daily life, salt, iron, and at least half the grain were all monopolized by the Great Jing Dynasty's court.

From that alone, Lu Zheng could tell that the Great Jing Dynasty was still far from its final days. It was absolutely still in its flourishing prime.

Lu Zheng had initially set his sights on selling cloth.

Cloth and silk yielded rich profits, and most were produced by small private workshops. If Lu Zheng brought in stock from the modern world, he could definitely become the foremost cloth merchant in Tonglin County, even Yizhou.

However, modern fabrics utterly crushed those of the Great Jing Dynasty in quality. Lu Zheng would not need to collect goods everywhere or open dye works for dyeing. Once the fabrics spread, they would be extremely likely to attract the attention of interested parties.

When the time came, even if Lu Zheng had a mouth all over his body, he would not be able to explain himself.

So Lu Zheng set his sights on two businesses.

Selling medicine and selling sugar.

First was medicine. Though medicinal herbs were important, they did not have the same influence as clothing, food, housing, and transportation. Their unit prices were not low, but sales volume would not be too great either.

Meanwhile, the modern world had large-scale medicinal herb plantations, and the costs of ordinary Chinese medicinal herbs were already extremely low. Lu Zheng could completely bring in stock from the modern world, buying only common, inexpensive medicinal herbs before reselling them in the Great Jing Dynasty.

At the same time, he could also purchase herbs from the Great Jing Dynasty's herb farmers. By working on both fronts, he would neither be held by the throat nor draw attention while quietly mixing in his own stock. It was simply perfect.

Second was sugar. Although sugar belonged to the necessities of clothing, food, housing, and transportation, it was not essential for human survival. It could be considered a luxury.

The Great Jing Dynasty grew sugarcane and possessed methods for making sugar. Its prices were not exactly expensive either: one tael of malt sugar cost ten coins, while one tael of rock sugar cost fifty coins. Even if snacks were somewhat costly, ordinary people could afford them if they gritted their teeth.

But to Lu Zheng, that was extremely expensive.

He could open a sugar workshop, then mix in modern rock sugar and white granulated sugar that cost five yuan per jin before selling them together.

Perfect once again!

Once his foundation in the Great Jing Dynasty was established, he could naturally come into contact with more things, gain more capital, and then feed it back into the modern world.

At the same time, he could influence more people and obtain more Light of Luck.

A virtuous cycle had begun! Now that his business had been decided, the only problem was his lack of money.

The money Lu Zheng had left after pawning the glass lion was only a little over a hundred strings of cash. That was not enough to take over a workshop and a street-facing shop.

Lu Zheng rubbed his chin, pondering ways to make money while feeling that the style of this story seemed a little off. Wasn't this supposed to be in the immortal cultivation category?...

"Li Niang, this flower suits you very well. Buy it and place it in your room—it will add a touch of fragrance."

"Is that so? Thank you, Young Master."

A crisp, familiar voice reached him, and Lu Zheng returned to reality in an instant.

He looked up to the left. He had arrived outside a flower shop, and the man and woman speaking at its entrance were none other than the Scholar surnamed Wang whom he had seen that morning.

And that Painted Skin!

"What is this? Did it have to be such a coincidence?"

Lu Zheng had never expected that he would be unlucky enough to run into her right in the street.

So Lu Zheng decisively turned his head with the motion, pretended not to know them, and strode away.

"It's almost noon. Let's go eat at Liu Family Eatery."

"As you wish, Young Master."

The next moment, the Peace Talisman in Lu Zheng's robes began to emit a faint warmth, along with a trace of stench that lingered at the tip of his nose.

"What's going on? Didn't she set her sights on that Scholar Wang? Why was she still showing hostility toward me?" Lu Zheng's thoughts raced. "Was it resentment because I ignored her the night before last, or had she noticed my malicious thoughts?"

The Peace Talisman in his robes grew hotter and hotter. Only after Lu Zheng turned the street corner and completely vanished from the Corpse Ghoul's sight did the warmth gradually fade.

Lu Zheng reached into his robes and took out the Peace Talisman. The scorched yellow curled section had grown larger.

With his vigilance raised to the utmost, Lu Zheng took a deep breath. He no longer had the mood to continue wandering the streets, so he decisively returned home and crossed over to the modern world.

He casually ate a serving of braised chicken rice at the entrance of his residential complex, then took a taxi to Ten Thousand Ren Ancient Sword Hall to collect the sharpened Embroidered Spring Blade.

After thinking it over, Lu Zheng made a detour to a security equipment store and bought a riot shield, a net gun, and a gas mask.

Whether they proved useful or not, it was better to prepare them first.

Thanks to Fellow Daoist Takes People Bowling for the hundred-coin reward.