Strike First and Gain the Upper Hand
"Two more jars of yellow wine and a roast chicken."
Watching the two men polish off the food like a whirlwind sweeping away clouds, Xu Fan paused and ordered a little more.
"Brother Xu, you're generous!"
The two old men stopped, gave him a thumbs-up, and went right back to wolfing down their food.
Only after they had eaten and drunk their fill did they smile and say:
"Brother Xu, ask us whatever you want. We've lived over forty years, and even if we can't leave Wuling County, we still know plenty about what goes on outside."
"People come and go at the Rosy Cloud Tavern, and we've heard plenty of fascinating things from them too."
Old Kong and Old Xu spoke with confidence. On this point, at least, they were sure of themselves.
"Take the county seat's two gangs, three households, and four martial arts schools. The gangs are the Firewood Gang and the Canal Gang. They each control a portion of the three thousand li of mountain roads, as well as these eight hundred li of Peach Blossom Spring Lake."
"The three households are the Huang Household, the He Household, and the Lin Household. They're great clans with a century of history, and they have plenty of powerful martial masters."
As Old Xu spoke, his face was full of awe and longing. Those households were the heavens above the fish market; a single word from them could decide the fate of every fisherman.
"Then there are the four great martial arts schools: Long Arm, Quicksand, Twin Forms, and Iron Hand. They have businesses all over Wuling County."
"All these powers have mighty martial masters who have undergone Blood Exchange six times. They say those masters can unleash ten thousand jin of force!"
Old Man Kong's face was full of envy.
He had once wanted to join a martial arts school and learn to fight, but he couldn't come up with the money, so he had chosen to study for a few years instead.
But in these times, anyone without strength was easily bullied. He had lost his land and been reduced to lowborn status, leaving him no choice but to take up a lowly trade.
Those so-called lowly trades included work like hauling manure and performing for tips, doing the dirtiest and most exhausting jobs.
Unable to do them, he had ultimately been forced to sell his house and fish on Peach Blossom Spring Lake.
"Six Blood Exchanges can unleash ten thousand jin of force?"
Xu Fan was somewhat surprised.
He had never faced a Blood Exchange martial master head-on and knew only that their strength was astonishing, but this was a bit too astonishing.
Then wouldn't someone who had undergone nine Blood Exchanges easily possess ten thousand jin of force?
"Of course. Only those powerful martial masters dare hunt the strange beasts in Peach Blossom Spring Lake and the Yin Mountains."
Old Xu nodded in agreement.
As an experienced fisherman, he naturally knew just how powerful strange beasts were. They were terrifying monsters.
He had never seen anyone survive once they became a beast's target.
The fishermen had no idea how many people died in the jaws of strange beasts each year.
"The powers in Wuling County are said to have some connection or other to the Aristocratic Clans in the prefectural capital."
"They're even connected to the Clearwater Sect, the strongest power in our Qingzhou!"
"Who knows how many people fight tooth and nail every year to join the Clearwater Sect? They'd be willing to settle for being an outer sect disciple!"
At the mention of the Clearwater Sect, Old Man Kong grew excited, as if he were a disciple himself, and talked on and on about the rumors surrounding it.
Xu Fan listened patiently. None of this had appeared in the Qin State Travelogue.
He was curious about everything beyond Wuling County's fish market.
It was only because his current strength did not permit it that he hid on Peach Blossom Spring Lake, building up his strength as he waited for the day he could ride the wind and soar through the void.
"One last question. How can someone shed their lowborn status?"
He had now formed a Circulation Wheel and was already more than halfway through his cultivation in the Embryonic Breathing Realm. He needed to start making plans for the Qi Refining Realm soon.
Of the two kinds of Great Yin Spiritual Qi the Plain Luminary Supreme Yin Wondrous Instruction required, obtaining Moonlight Yin Qi was only a matter of time. That left Emperor Flow Serum.
Even in the Land of Wu's immortal cultivation world, Emperor Flow Serum appeared only once every sixty years and was incomparably precious.
Presumably, it was just as precious and scarce in this world.
He had to plan ahead, or the years might slip away and he would waste time he could have spent cultivating.
If he couldn't find it, he should switch cultivation methods early, or gather spiritual objects and deduce a new one. He needed to have several plans ready.
"Brother Xu, you've got ambition!"
Old Man Kong clapped his hands together. He hadn't expected Xu Fan to want to shed his lowborn status.
Over the decades, he had seen many people reduced to lowborn or slave status among the three lowest ranks, but he had never seen anyone defy the heavens and change their fate.
After all, the fish market exploited them year-round. They could barely save a few coins, so how could they change their fate?
They couldn't enter the city, and there was no way for them to learn martial arts.
They either became lowborn commoners among the three lowest ranks or joined one of the twelve water strongholds and became water bandits who never knew if they would live to see the next day.
"The imperial court has rules."
"If you have property and a business, you can register as a merchant household."
"If you have a house and land, you can register as a farming household."
Old Xu, however, shook his head.
"That's what they say, but those petty officials take bribes and make things difficult, while the people at the fish market fiddle the figures. Shedding your lowborn status is hard."
"Old Man Huang, who was beaten to death earlier, knew how hard it was. That's why he sold the treasured fish to the buyers, hoping to scrape together enough money to bribe the right people."
"That old fellow spent his whole life guarding his own skin, but he tried to take a gamble this once and still came to grief."
As a few of the old fishermen, they had known one another for years and felt quite sorry about it.
But they also admired Old Man Huang. With more treasured fish being caught in Peach Blossom Spring Lake these days, he had wanted to take a gamble.
If he had succeeded, perhaps he would already have been enjoying a comfortable life in the city.
A treasured fish sold to the fish market fetched one tael per jin, but sold to those buyers, it fetched five taels per jin.
If Old Man Huang had managed to sell that Silver Moon Rainbow Trout of more than twenty jin, he would have struck it rich.
"Yes. I underestimated him before."
Old Man Kong nodded with a sigh.
"Is that so?"
Xu Fan rubbed his chin, unsurprised.
For many things, besides the official conditions, there were all sorts of twists and turns behind the scenes. That was more or less the norm.
"It's getting dark. We can talk about the rest next time."
Xu Fan glanced at the sky outside and stood up.
"As long as you don't mind our company, Brother Xu, we're happy to tell you these things."
The two old men rose with smiles and left the tavern together.
After buying half a sack of white rice, they leisurely poled their black-awning boat away until it vanished across the lake.
As night fell, only a few areas of the fish market were lit.
In the shadows at the fish market docks.
Xu Fan walked toward Li Tieyi's residence.
"Your Grandpa Xu doesn't want to wait for you to bring people after him, so he can only come and finish you off himself."
Today, Li Tieyi had discovered that he had cultivation, yet had let him go so easily?
Given how the people of the Canal Gang usually behaved, they should have acted at once to seize him. After all, the strength he had shown wasn't very great.
A fisherman who suddenly had cultivation was bound to have a secret.
If they didn't seize him and torture him for answers, were they still the people who ran the fish market?
Putting himself in their shoes, he certainly wouldn't allow someone who had been exploited for years and whose parents had died because of the Canal Gang to possess great strength.
He would definitely crush it in the bud.
Why would he ever treat the other party as an equal just because they had gained a little cultivation?
It wasn't as if the other party was so strong that the entire Canal Gang couldn't take them down. How could their hatred possibly be resolved?
"Hm? Is that... Lin Chu?"
"This kid really does have some luck on his side. He survived even that?"
On the way, Xu Fan spotted a figure hurrying in another direction, toward the new steward's courtyard.
"Is he targeting the new steward, whose cultivation is higher?"
With one look, Xu Fan guessed what Lin Chu might be thinking.
He wanted to devour a martial master of a higher realm to increase his cultivation.
"Perfect. You can take the blame for this."
Xu Fan chuckled inwardly and soon reached his destination.
"A dark night with a fierce wind is just the time to kill someone and seize their treasure."
Li Tieyi changed into clothes for night operations and brought two hidden weapons just in case, unable to resist a quiet chuckle.
Since he wasn't sure whether Xu Fan had broken through to Blood Exchange, it was better to be careful.
If it was really as he thought, and Xu Fan had the Wedding Robe Divine Art, or a Middle Vehicle or even Higher Vehicle martial art, he would make a killing!
"Who's there?!"