It turned out that while flying on a sword looked incredibly cool, doing it for too long was also a kind of torment. The sword-flying technique could form a barrier to keep out wind and rain, but it couldn't block the sun. Though it wasn't midsummer, the sun was still scorching, and after flying for two or three hours, Ye Yun finally gave in beneath the increasingly high sun and landed in the forest below. After all, his cultivation was still just short of being immune to heat and cold.
The forest was full of snakes, rats, insects, and beasts, not to mention tigers, leopards, and wolves. What's more, this was a fantasy world. But the aura Ye Yun gave off told them he was someone they shouldn't mess with, so snakes and rats fled wherever he went, and even a nearby tiger turned and ran. Still, there were exceptions to everything. After Ye Yun had bounded through the woods for more than ten miles, a huge black bear blocked his path, roaring at him nonstop.
Ye Yun sized up the giant bear, which stood nearly three meters tall, then fixed his gaze on its enormous paws. Licking his lips, he murmured, "I've been traveling for ages, and I'm just about hungry. I've decided—today's lunch is you."
Half an hour later, an enticing aroma drifted through the forest. A bear paw, slightly larger than an adult's thigh, sizzled as golden fat oozed from it, while not far away lay the giant bear's corpse, its forepaws hacked off.
He scored the already golden-brown paw a few more times with his knife, sprinkled on some cumin, and soon had a delicious roast bear paw. After blowing on a spot he could bite into, he took a mouthful. The crispy exterior contrasted sharply with the tender meat inside, and the cumin made it absolutely delicious. The only downside was that it was so fatty it burned his mouth a little.
Once he had eaten his fill, Ye Yun gazed at the bear's corpse and fell into thought. At last, he flicked his right hand, and the small knife he'd used to cut the meat shot out. In just a few quick cuts, it sliced open the giant bear's hide, and he pried out its gallbladder, which was larger than a palm. It was valuable stuff, a good ingredient for both alchemy and medicine.
After preparing the gallbladder and putting it in his bundle, Ye Yun looked up at the blazing sun, then at the black bear. He set to work skinning it, then cut several branches to stretch the hide over, making something like an umbrella canopy. He tested it with his object-manipulation ability and found it took little effort, so he mounted his sword again and held the bearskin canopy above his head to block the sun. It looked a little silly and completely out of place, but it was still better than bounding through the forest. Besides, he had only six or seven silver nuggets, each about the size of a thumb. The bearskin could shade him from the sun, and once he reached his destination, he could sell it for some money—a win-win.
Ye Yun's destination was Heyang City. In the original story, it was the first place Zhang Xiaofan and the others visited after descending the mountain. Ye Yun hadn't chosen it because he wanted to follow in their footsteps, but because Heyang City was the largest and most prosperous settlement within a hundred miles. Two or three hundred thousand people lived there, and its favorable location drew countless merchants and travelers, making it bustling with activity.
Heyang City was only half a day's journey from Qingyun Mountain, and Ye Yun had already been traveling for several hours. So when he took to his sword again, it took just over an hour for him to spot a large, bustling city in the distance.
The city wasn't much different from the ancient cities on television: tall walls built of stone, low buildings within. He couldn't make out what was happening inside, but the crowds streaming through the city gates made it clear that the place was prosperous.
Ye Yun found a secluded place to land, strapped his sword across his back, then rolled up the bearskin and tied it with vines. He cut a long wooden pole and slung the bundled hide and the uneaten bear paw over his shoulder, then ambled toward the main road.
Ye Yun's getup drew plenty of attention. He was a handsome young man with a sword on his back, yet he was carrying a black bearskin on a pole—an odd sight, to say the least. But with the sword on his back, the other people didn't dare say anything, though they were curious.
Thanks to its location, Heyang City was very prosperous, with all sorts of people passing through. So even though Ye Yun's appearance was strange, the guards at the gate merely gave him a few curious looks and stopped him to ask some questions before letting him enter the city without trouble.
Ye Yun didn't have much money and didn't want to reveal that he was from the Qingyun Sect. After entering the city, he found a shop that dealt in animal hides, intending to sell the bearskin, then find a decent inn to stay at and ask around about the area, to see if he could learn anything about treasures.
When Ye Yun spread out the bearskin, which was more than two meters long and over a meter wide, the hide-shop owner was stunned. He had seen fine hides before, but never one this enormous. More remarkably, it was pure black, so dark that it seemed to shimmer faintly in the sunlight. It was clearly no ordinary hide. Unfortunately, it was incomplete.
"What a pity. If this hide were intact, it'd be worth at least a hundred and fifty taels of silver. But it's missing too much—the head's gone, too. It's worth fifty taels at most." The shopkeeper sounded regretful, but he never took his hands off the hide. Clearly, Ye Yun's bearskin was worth far more than that.
The shopkeeper wasn't much of an actor. And who was Ye Yun? He was a transmigrator who had been bombarded with a vast amount of information in the modern world. If he let the shopkeeper's little tricks fool him, he might as well be dead.
"Shopkeeper, let's be frank. I know a thing or two about how this business works, so just give me a fair price. I don't feel like haggling. If you keep trying to pull a fast one on me, I'll turn around and leave without another word. I'm not desperate for the money." As he spoke, Ye Yun rested a hand on the bearskin, looking ready to walk out at any moment if the shopkeeper refused.
The shopkeeper took another careful look at Ye Yun's clothes and only then realized that, although they didn't look particularly luxurious, they were made from an exceptionally fine fabric known as cloud brocade. Clothes made from it were as tough as oxhide yet soft and comfortable. His entire stock of hides wouldn't be enough to buy even that outfit. Ordinary wealthy families had never even seen such fabric, let alone worn it. It was woven from the silk of cloud silkworms, which could only be found in places rich in spiritual energy, and most people couldn't afford it.
The shopkeeper had been in the fur business for years and knew exactly who he could cheat and who he couldn't. At first, he'd seen that Ye Yun was young, despite carrying a sword, and had hoped to take advantage of him. But now he wouldn't dare. Anyone who could wear clothes like these was either rich or powerful, and he couldn't afford to offend them. In the end, he bought Ye Yun's bearskin for a hundred taels.
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