Secret Escort

Body Tempering, Meridian Opening, and Blood Shifting—these three realms all cultivated the body's interior.

As long as one did not deliberately reveal one's strength, outsiders generally could not tell. Chen Yuan had no need to deliberately conceal it either.

After taking a bath, Chen Yuan called Zhang Xiaoyi and headed to Xiande Tower on Azure Dragon Street for mutton.

Having just entered the Meridian-Unblocking Realm, Chen Yuan needed a large amount of meat to replenish the energy he had expended breaking through his meridians.

Linked Mountains City lay in northern Youzhou, close to the grasslands, so the quality of its mutton was excellent.

Xiande Tower was the best establishment in Linked Mountains City for mutton dishes.

After going upstairs and entering a private room, Chen Yuan immediately told the waiter to bring out every signature dish Xiande Tower had.

Xiande Tower's proprietor also recognized Chen Yuan and hurriedly went to supervise the kitchen himself. He absolutely could not offend Young Master Chen of the Heavenly Wolf Gang.

Steamed sheep's head, braised mutton, peppery mutton stew, wine-roasted sheep's heart—the head chef brought out every trick he had kept tucked away, and Zhang Xiaoyi ate until his mouth gleamed with oil.

Chen Yuan's table manners were far more refined, but he ate just as quickly.

The large chunks of mutton barely got chewed after entering his mouth. He gave them a slight press with his lips before swallowing them whole.

Dish after dish arrived. By the time Chen Yuan was nearly full, he reckoned that he and Zhang Xiaoyi had eaten close to half a sheep.

No wonder scholars were poor while martial artists were rich. The expense of food alone for martial arts practice was beyond what ordinary people could bear.

However, once martial artists reached a certain realm, they would buy pills to assist their cultivation and replenish their energy.

Otherwise, relying on food alone to restore one's strength was far too inefficient.

Some sects and aristocratic families even had dedicated alchemists to refine pills, raise all manner of rare beasts, and cultivate precious spiritual herbs.

Chen Yuan half-closed his eyes, lightly tapping his fingers against the tabletop as he considered what opportunity he should seek next.

What he urgently needed now was an internal cultivation method. Under normal circumstances, he should first secure a cultivation technique.

But thinking of pills reminded him that there seemed to be an opportunity related to pills coming up soon. It was not particularly difficult, so he could take it first.

"Xiaoyi, do you know the Weiyuan Escort Agency?"

Zhang Xiaoyi's belly was round with food. Hearing this, he hurriedly nodded with some difficulty. "Of course I do. It's the biggest escort agency in our Linked Mountains City."

"Keep an eye on the Weiyuan Escort Agency for me. The moment they have a secret escort up for auction, come back and tell me immediately."

Normally, an escort agency had to know what goods it was transporting so it could charge according to the value of the cargo.

A secret escort, however, was a type of shipment that did not permit the escort agency to inspect the goods and remained sealed from beginning to end.

Since the cargo could not be inspected and its value could not be determined, the escort agency's rule was to set a base price according to the distance.

Then the owner would decide the declared value of the secret escort. Should anything be lost or damaged along the way, the escort agency would compensate according to the price stated by the owner.

The Weiyuan Escort Agency was the largest escort agency in Linked Mountains City. Its teams traveled daily between cities throughout Youzhou, transporting goods, and they often encountered dead escorts.

A so-called dead escort was one that arrived with no one to receive it, while the owner could not be found either. The escort agency could not collect the remaining payment, so the shipment became a dead escort.

Dead escorts were usually kept for three months. If no one claimed them after three months, the escort agency would sell the goods to make up for the outstanding payment.

However, if a dead escort also happened to be a secret escort, the agency would find itself caught between a rock and a hard place.

Some secret escorts contained merely private items that were not worth much.

Others were extremely valuable, but their owners declared a low price in order to keep a low profile, conceal their goods, or save money.

If they opened a secret escort only to find worthless items inside, the escort agency would suffer a huge loss.

Thus, the Weiyuan Escort Agency chose not to open secret escorts itself, instead auctioning them publicly.

Whether there was anything good inside depended entirely on luck. As long as the escort agency recovered the outstanding payment, it would not lose money.

In the original storyline, the Weiyuan Escort Agency would soon hold an auction for secret escorts.

A gambling-addicted player had staked his entire fortune on buying a secret escort, and he had actually struck gold.

Among the Weiyuan Escort Agency's secret escorts that time, one had contained the Medicine King Valley's secret Nine-Turn Nourishing Origin Pill.

Medicine King Valley was a renowned major alchemy sect in the martial world. Any pill refined by Medicine King Valley was worth a fortune—something money alone could not buy.

Usually, other factions had to exchange all kinds of rare treasures for them, or complete certain tasks issued by Medicine King Valley, before they could obtain pills produced by Medicine King Valley.

The Nine-Turn Nourishing Origin Pill's effects were exceptionally domineering. It simply and directly raised one's cultivation, with no side effects whatsoever.

That player had relied on that single pill to stay levels ahead of the other players for a long time.

Unfortunately, he never changed his gambling ways. After earning money, instead of improving his cultivation, he gambled, and in the end he lost everything down to his underwear.

Zhang Xiaoyi nodded repeatedly, wiped his mouth, and immediately ran off to watch the Weiyuan Escort Agency.

Chen Yuan had more than one trusted attendant, but after transmigrating, Zhang Xiaoyi was the one he used most often.

Though this young man's strength was only average, he handled matters steadily and reliably.

He would not ask Chen Yuan why he needed to watch the Weiyuan Escort Agency's secret escort auctions, or why he cared about things that only low-level martial world folk would find interesting.

He only knew that since the young master had given the order, he had to carry it out properly without the slightest slackness.

After Zhang Xiaoyi watched for three days, news indeed came from the Weiyuan Escort Agency that it would auction secret escorts.

Chen Yuan did not plan to attend the secret escort auction personally, nor did he intend to send Zhang Xiaoyi.

That was because the people participating in secret escort auctions were basically all low-level martial world folk.

Most secret escorts put up for auction had been declared at low values. Those with high declared values were opened by the escort agency itself.

The rest were basically just gambles on luck, and only low-level martial world folk would be interested in them.

Chen Yuan was too conspicuous. Even Zhang Xiaoyi was conspicuous; neither of them looked like low-level martial world folk.

Someone like Hu Laosan, whom Chen Yuan had previously cut down with a single slash, had the appearance of a true low-level martial world man.

So Chen Yuan told Zhang Xiaoyi to take one hundred taels to Worry-Free Tower, casually find some wandering martial world man, and have him bid on every secret escort shaped like a small box at the auction before handing them over to Zhang Xiaoyi.

On the evening of the fourth day, the Weiyuan Escort Agency's secret escort auction began in its own courtyard.

Zhang Xiaoyi waited in an alley beside the escort agency.

Chen Yuan, meanwhile, sat on the top floor of a restaurant beside the agency, eating and drinking while observing the activity inside to guard against any unexpected incident.

An escort master wearing black fitted-sleeved attire and sporting a great beard had several dozen chests carried over. He cupped his hands to the crowd.

"Everyone, this is not the first time our Weiyuan Escort Agency has held a secret escort auction. You all know the rules, so I will not waste words.

"You have all inspected the special seals on the secret escorts. None show any sign of having been disturbed, and our Weiyuan Escort Agency would never smash its own signboard.

"Without further ado, the secret escort auction officially begins now."

Individual secret escorts were not expensive. Even the priciest did not exceed fifty taels.

Chen Yuan's targets were the small boxes, which had a starting price of only ten taels each.

That player had found the Nine-Turn Nourishing Origin Pill in one of the small boxes. Chen Yuan was not sure which box it had been, so he simply bought them all.

The man Zhang Xiaoyi found was a burly fellow named Wei Yidao. He wore a wolfskin vest, had a shaved head, and gave off a rank, gamey stench.

Wei Yidao's appearance was the very model of a low-level martial world man.

Such people generally made a living running errands, guarding homes, or taking on temporary escort jobs. Thrown into a crowd, they would not stand out in the slightest.

The moment the auction began, Wei Yidao fixed his eyes on the small-box secret escorts. He bid on every one that appeared. Whenever someone tried to outbid him, he would add another twenty or thirty taels, lavishly generous.

"Damn it, Wei Yidao! You brat, are you not planning to live anymore?"

Someone who had repeatedly been outbid by Wei Yidao could not help cursing.

Wei Yidao grinned. "I've got money, and I'll spend it however I damn well please!"

As several hundred taels of silver flowed away like water, Wei Yidao instantly felt an exhilarating rush.

Still, he was puzzled. Why did this fool insist on bidding for secret escorts in small boxes?

Generally, small-box secret escorts contained private letters and the like. They rarely yielded gold, silver, jewelry, or ornaments.

No one usually sent such hard currency as a secret escort.

When the auction ended, Wei Yidao tied the dozen or so small boxes together and strode out of the escort agency. After circling around twice, he finally arrived at the alley where he had arranged to meet Zhang Xiaoyi.

"Did you win all the items?"

Zhang Xiaoyi asked with a solemn expression.

Before Chen Yuan, he appeared somewhat honest and simple, but before these low-level martial world folk, he still needed to show some imposing manner.

"Thirteen secret escorts in total, four hundred and eighty taels of silver altogether. I have the receipt issued by the Weiyuan Escort Agency."

Wei Yidao patted the secret escort boxes in his hands.

Zhang Xiaoyi nodded. "Including the payment I promised you, that comes to five hundred and eighty taels. I gave you six hundred taels earlier. You do not need to return the remaining twenty; consider it your reward."

At that moment, Wei Yidao suddenly grinned. "Little brother, you calculated wrong. You still owe me another five hundred taels."

Zhang Xiaoyi froze, frowning. "What do you mean? How do I owe you five hundred taels?"

Wei Yidao let out a strange laugh. "You dared spend several hundred taels bidding on these little secret escorts. The things inside must be worth a fortune. You think one hundred taels is enough to send me away? That's far too stingy. You need to pay more!"

"You're courting death!"

Wei Yidao lifted the secret escorts, wearing the look of a reckless rogue. "Since you people are eating meat, at least let me have a sip of the soup, yeah?

"I do not want to know what is inside these secret escorts, but if you do not pay more, I'll shout that there's treasure here right now. How many people do you think that'll draw?"

Zhang Xiaoyi's face instantly flushed red.

He had too little experience in the martial world. For a moment, he did not know what to do.

Just then, a flash of blade light suddenly swept past behind Wei Yidao.

Accompanied by the soft hum of a blade returning to its sheath, Wei Yidao's head fell to the ground in an instant, his face still wearing that arrogant, rogueish grin.

Chen Yuan took the secret escorts into his hands and beckoned to Zhang Xiaoyi. "Let's go."

Zhang Xiaoyi looked at Chen Yuan with guilt written across his face. "I'm sorry, Young Master. I failed to handle this properly and actually chose such an insatiably greedy fellow."

Chen Yuan waved a hand and said indifferently, "It does not matter. Some unexpected incidents are unavoidable no matter how meticulously you handle things. Besides, it is perfectly normal for low-level martial world folk like him to do something like this."

"Why?"

Zhang Xiaoyi was somewhat confused.

Though that fellow did not know his identity, anyone who could casually produce several hundred taels to bid on secret escorts could not be some insignificant character.

How had he dared threaten him and demand more money on the spot?

"Because they are greedy, and because they cannot see themselves clearly.

"That is precisely why they can only muddle about at the very bottom of the martial world."

Zhang Xiaoyi nodded as though he understood, then immediately took back the remaining silver from Wei Yidao's body and spat on him viciously.