After smoothly passing the preliminaries, Xian He stepped down from the arena, rubbing his bruised and swollen left cheek as he went to the betting table to collect his money.
"Son-in-law, are you all right?" Old Man Yun came over with a white towel draped over his shoulder.
Before Xian He could answer, Old Man Yun pinched his chin and examined his left cheek.
"What kind of miraculous technique have you been practicing? You were only hit with a third-level acupoint seal." Old Man Yun raised his brows, looking astonished. "Don't move! I'll unseal the acupoints on your face!"
He formed a sword-finger with one hand and jabbed Xian He's cheek several times before releasing his iron-tongs-like grip.
Once the sealed acupoints were unblocked, the bruising on his face began to fade at a visible speed. Xian He couldn't see it, but he could feel the numbness in his left cheek easing.
"You know how to unblock acupoints?" Xian He rubbed his face as he stared in surprise at Old Man Yun's unkempt beard.
He'd thought the old man only knew how to cook Wood Powder Porridge. He hadn't expected him to have the knack for unblocking acupoints, too.
"Could you..."
Before Xian He could finish, Old Man Yun cut him off.
"No! Don't even think about it! My skills aren't passed on to outsiders or women. Give it up."
Xian He was baffled. "Old Man, I'm your son-in-law. A son-in-law is half a son. How can I count as an outsider?"
"Enough. I'm not teaching you my skills." Old Man Yun was adamant. "But if you and Yun Ling have a son, I could teach that little fellow."
That would take who knew how long.
Old Man Yun sighed inwardly. Perhaps he'd already joined the boy's maternal grandmother underground by the time the little fellow grew up.
"Deal!" At those words, Xian He beamed.
In a little over a week, when Xian Dabao was thirteen or fourteen, he could bring him out to practice martial arts with his maternal grandfather. That would keep him from being idle all day and bullying his younger siblings.
Old Man Yun rolled his eyes at Xian He, unable to understand what he was grinning about. He couldn't help pouring cold water on his excitement. "Don't celebrate too soon. Plant the fields first. By the way, when did you reach White Obsidian level? Out with it."
"If you won't teach me your skills, I won't tell you." With that, Xian He pulled the bet slip from his shirt and strode toward the betting table.
The bookmaker reluctantly took out twenty thousand Copper Coins. This time, he'd lost big.
If only he hadn't set the odds so high. Who could've imagined that a Two-star Azure Obsidian would win?
After collecting the money, Xian He returned to the Congee Shop with Old Man Yun.
After resting for about an hour, once the bruising on his face had disappeared, Xian He took his leave.
He circled around behind the Congee Shop, dug the Mountain River Society Diagram out of the ground, and headed straight for the slave market in the eastern part of the Sky Fortune Tribe.
Twenty thousand Copper Coins could buy twenty female slaves.
Now that he had an additional twenty-four mu of Spirit Fields at home, he was short on people to work the land.
"Grandma, sorry for the trouble!"
He summoned Grandma Chen on the outskirts of the slave market, and the two of them ambled inside.
The Black Merchant wasn't around today. Maybe he'd gone to watch the Azure Light Competition.
"Little brother, back to buy slaves again?"
The speaker was a slave trader wearing a white headscarf. Qiuxiang was the one he'd bought from this man.
The slaves sold by the White Merchant were generally thin and weak. Yesterday, he'd claimed that his slaves ate little and worked hard. They must have been starved since childhood.
Xian He nodded. "If I buy a lot, do you throw in any for free?"
"How many are you buying?" The White Merchant perked up at that.
Xian He didn't answer directly, instead testing the waters. "Buy five, get one free?"
"I'll think about it." The White Merchant narrowed his eyes and weighed the pros and cons.
The slaves he sold were so thin and weak that they were very hard to sell. He'd only sold one in the past week.
Rather than keep them and waste food, he might as well let them go at a discount.
The White Merchant glanced around, then leaned close to Xian He's ear and whispered, "I'll only offer this deal to you. Don't tell anyone else."
"Sure." Xian He nodded and called Grandma Chen over to pick them out.
After choosing six slaves who looked fairly healthy from the White Merchant, Xian He went to the other traders.
"Buy five, get one free?"
"No deal!"
"Everyone else is offering freebies, but you won't. No wonder you can't sell anything. Come on, Grandma. Let's go support the other guy's business."
"Wait, don't go! I'll throw one in!"
After some haggling, Xian He spent twenty thousand Copper Coins and ended up buying twenty-four female slaves.
The sight of him leading more than twenty women out of the slave market was nothing short of spectacular.
The White Merchant couldn't help remarking, "Good grief! Which one of you is the slave trader, anyway?"
Could he even afford to keep so many slaves?
After leaving the slave market, Xian He ordered the female slaves to hold hands, then sent all of them, along with Grandma Chen, into the Mountain River Society Diagram in one go.
Back at the Congee Shop, he buried the Mountain River Society Diagram in its original spot and covered it with a brick. Then Xian He followed them into the Inner World.
The twenty-four female slaves were divided into three groups of eight and assigned to live in the Dazuo House in the front courtyard of the Siheyuan.
Chen Jingjing and Grandma Chen would manage the female slaves in the East Courtyard, Yun Ling and Muyang would manage those in the central courtyard, and Xiao Xue and Qiuxiang would manage those in the West Courtyard.
Qiuxiang had been bought from the White Merchant, so having her manage the female slaves who'd also come from him would make it easier for her to win their trust.
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