Sichuan and Guizhou have a vast territory, abundant resources, and a diverse population, with many people from three religions and nine streams flowing in and out.
Because the mountains are high and the emperor is far away, trade management is relatively loose, so a large number of ghost markets have emerged.
There are as many as five large-scale ghost markets in the two places alone, three more than those in the vast northeastern region of Zhongzhou.
The ghost market closes in the middle of the night and disperses after the rooster crows. There are many people and transactions, and many foreign objects.
The goods in the ghost market can be described as diverse, ranging from large furniture and utensils to small daily necessities, as expensive as rare treasures, as rare as antique calligraphy and paintings, and even medicinal materials, clothes, vegetables, etc.
Of course, in the Zhongzhou Jianghu, any ghost market will inevitably sell rare weapons, secret recipes for good medicines, or unique martial arts books. It just depends on the hands, eyes, noses and mouths of the buyers and sellers to say how much of them are true and how false.
Contested.
The origins of most things in the ghost market are unknown, and there are countless fakes and defective products. Choosing and buying things depends on skill, but also on luck.
The reason why it is called a ghost market is that there is no distinction between businessmen and ghosts.
As for the rules in the ghost market, they are all established by convention. You only talk about business but don't do anything. If you intentionally break these rules, you will have to bear the consequences.
In the southeastern part of Guizhou Province, a ghost market emerged between the junctions of three towns. It is the first of the two major ghost markets in Guizhou Province and is called "Qianxu".
Qianxu is open every seven days in spring and winter, and every night in summer and autumn.
It's past midnight, and the sky in the west dims later than in the east. At this time, the sky is completely covered with an upper curtain, and the light cannot penetrate and the moon cannot escape.
There are no lights in the ghost market. It is difficult to recognize people and objects in Qianxu at night.
I wonder if there are many fewer people because of this.
There are not only a lot of vendors missing, but also a lot of customers missing.
Or maybe it's because of some political factors that these people are missing.
If we say that the imperial court and the rivers and lakes are inseparable, one will wax and wane and the other will grow.
Then, the relationship between the market and the rivers and lakes is mostly symbiotic. If the rivers and lakes are stable, the market will be peaceful. If the rivers and lakes are chaotic, the market will be in danger.
The imperial court ignored the assassinations that had been going on for many days, while the world was in turmoil and everyone was on guard.
But when it comes to the lives of ordinary people in the city, they can't sleep at night and are frightened.
A woman with children at home has created a night-time murderous monster to frighten the children who have too much energy and wander around in disorder at night.
Women without children warned their husbands not to linger in the night world, after all, those who were killed were said to be not good birds.
As a result, only those who were forced by life, tempted by interests, or driven by lust were left in the Guizhou Ruins tonight.
The west side of Qianxu is the entrance to the ghost market.
There are only a few stalls scattered here and there, and there are no stalls right next to each other.
Normally, there are many things sold at the entrance, which is not a rare thing. The deeper you go, the more crowded the place is, the more vendors gather, the more good things there are.
However, in the past three days, there has been an additional vendor selling alcohol at the entrance.
With him shouting from the front, many customers who came to the market stopped at the entrance, and even the vendors nearby became more popular.
The vendor looked like a middle-aged man, with a plump and dark face, and three forehead wrinkles easily visible on his forehead.
He always wears slightly loose clothes to hide his slightly clumsy figure.
There were three wine jars and six large bowls on the stall in front of him for customers to try.
Behind him was a small cart filled with more than twenty jars of wine waiting to be sold.
In the past two days, this stall's business has been pretty good. Basically, the stalls come in with full trucks and leave empty.
However, the amount of silver earned in the first two days should not be considered too much, because there are so many people who come to try it out in response to his orders.
The widely advertised saying that "one bowl refreshes the mind, two bowls will never fatigue you, three bowls will never fail" is too impactful for anyone, especially in a ghost market where most of the male customers are.
I couldn't help but want to have a bowl and try it out.
And the early adopter price is only ten cents a bowl, which makes everyone feel that they can neither suffer a loss nor be cheated. Naturally, most people will not be stingy with that small amount of money to gain more experience.
But in the vendor's own words, it was all a loss and a profit.
Because what he sells is not ordinary wine, but fine wine.
Each jar is refined and fermented with secret royal jelly mixed with other medicinal materials. Although it is not as exaggerated as never feeling tired or never falling down, it has the effect of clearing away heat, relieving heat, and nourishing the liver and kidneys. The cost is not low.
He named this nectar and jade liquid "Old Divine Water".
A jar of the old divine water can only be filled with ten bowls, and only earns a mere hundred cash; if a single jar is sold, it is worth at least five taels of silver.
As far as this statement is concerned, there are few believers and many disbelievers.
Naturally, some of the customers who came to try it were experts. They knew what they said was true. Not only did they want to buy all the old divine water, they even paid a lot of money to buy the secret brewing recipe, but they were politely declined.
After all, the old Shenshui vendor still has to rely on this unique craft to make a living.
I don't know whether it is to prevent the "secret recipe passed down from the family" from being discovered, or out of genuine concern, each customer can buy up to three jars of the old divine water from the vendor.
The old divine water vendor always explains this with great earnestness: "This old divine water is medicine, not wine. It is a medicine with three parts poison. Although it is a good product, you should not drink too much. Do not drink more than five kilograms a day. If you drink more, it will be harmful rather than beneficial."
And it is difficult to store it for a long time, so it should be used within one or two months. Storing too much is a waste."
Everyone seemed to understand the rules, so they hesitantly followed other people's rules.
All in all, most of the vendors and customers in Qianxu believe that if this old sacred water vendor can keep a constant supply and insist on coming here every night, he will make a lot of money in less than a month.
Just like tonight, the old magic water vendor came earlier than the previous two days. As customers streamed into the market, most of the cart of old magic water had been sold.
Looking back at the less than ten jars of Lao Shen Shui left on the cart, the vendor seemed to be in no hurry to sell out and go home. Lao Shen sat back on the embroidered pier on the ground, waiting for the next customer to come.
Compared with the previous two days, the Lao Shenshui vendor had more time.
After all, what he had to do in the past two days was not only selling old magic water, but also killing people.
This old divine water vendor is none other than Jiang Yichen.
If nothing unexpected happens, Luo Piaoling and others should successfully return to Jiangning County at this time.
Likewise, if nothing unexpected happens, Jiang Yichen will still need to kill someone tonight.
This time, there were only two people he wanted to kill.
In order to kill these two people, he had been preparing for quite some time.
The first step is to prepare the so-called "Old Divine Water".
As he said, these old divine waters are medicines, not wine, and they are tonics for health.
Naturally, this secret brewing recipe is not passed down from Jiang Yichen's family, but from the Medicine Valley.
There is no shortage of prescriptions for various nourishing drinks in the Medicine Valley, and Jiang Yichen can get a lot of use out of just one of them.
And the secret royal jelly is also a real product of Yaogu. It was given to Jiang Yichen as a personal tonic by the Yao Lao who showed compassion to the younger generation.
Although there are only two cans of secret royal jelly, it is already a burden for Jiang Yichen who has to travel here and there.
Not being able to eat it all by myself in a short period of time, I simply took this main ingredient and found a new branch of Zuihongyan Restaurant in Guizhou Province, and personally ordered Baitan Lao Shen Shui.
The crafting process was all dictated by Jiang Yichen, and there are only two cans of royal jelly made exclusively by Yaogu, so there is no need to worry about the leakage of the secret recipe of Lao Shen Shui.
Being able to brew hundreds of jars of delicious old divine water in less than ten days shows Zuihongyan Restaurant’s solid strength in the beverage business.
Bai Tan Lao Sheng Shui has been on sale for three days and is about to be sold out.
Jiang Yichen was still calm and unhurried, but he believed that he would be able to catch fish before he sold out all the old magic water.
The two fish he wanted to catch were named Zheng Lun and Chen Qi, the second generals of Fenghuo Tower, Heng Ha.
When Jiang Yichen returned to Xishan Island, he helped Meng Chaoge and others out of trouble in the Misty Valley Gorge and killed several important members of Ziyexuan and Linlangju. It was these two people who added fuel to the fire to create another scene.
On the one hand, the suspicion of stealing seals from Tingyu Pavilion was aggravated, and on the other hand, he framed the Demon Palace and killed his colleagues indiscriminately.
At that time, the Demon Palace was reduced to the point where many gangs from the Four Seas Alliance launched an attack, and the initial public opinion campaign was all due to the contribution of General Heng Ha.
Because of Leng Mei's relationship, Jiang Yichen could not help but feel a bit regretful about the Demon Palace in the past.
But this time Zheng Lun and Chen Qi were chosen as targets, but there was little intention of sharing the same enemy. If they were, it was just to follow the trend.
What Jiang Yichen valued was the ability of the two of them.
These two people are only second-rate in martial arts, but they are very good at listening and seeing.
This is how Fenghuo Tower built an intelligence network that ranks among the top ten in Zhongzhou. They are able to receive intelligence clues from various places earlier than most sects and take corresponding actions.
In the eyes of people who don't know the details, these two people also fit into the mythical and legendary clairvoyance and wind-sighted ears. They can see in all directions and hear in all directions.
Therefore, Fenghuo Tower, whose combat effectiveness is only at the mid-range level in such a vast arena, can always show its considerable presence in various major occasions.
In the past few days since Jiang Yichen took action, 30% of the eyeliners who could smell his traces were managed and deployed by Zheng Lun and Chen Qi.
If Jiang Yichen just walked away, there would be nothing the two of them could do against him.
But if some time passes and a few more strong players join the hunting camp targeting him, sooner or later he will fall into the trap of a dragnet.
Fortunately, Jiang Yichen had taken precautions against the two of them before he came out of the Medicine Valley. Even now, he still takes the absolute initiative.
In fact, with Zheng Lun and Chen Qi's abilities, second-rate gangs like Fenghuo Tower will never be able to retain these two talents.
But they had stayed in Fenghuo Tower for more than ten or twenty years, and they had never thought of finding another good branch.
Although it is rare and valuable, it also makes people think differently.
For example, these two people have no great ambitions and little demands, so they are willing to stay in the same place, neither high nor low, just hanging around.
Or perhaps, Fenghuo Tower is not the real owner of the two, but there is another master behind it.
Jiang Yichen guessed that it was the latter, and sure enough, upon further investigation, he found clues.
Their intelligence gathering abilities are closely related to their hobbies.
Both of them have great collecting habits and are extremely possessive of new things.
To satisfy their collection habit and possessiveness, the money earned from doing things inside and outside the Beacon Tower is far from enough.
In other words, there is a potential third party that secretly transfers interests to the two of them, allowing them to function in a low position for a long time, which not only allows them to act with peace of mind, but also attracts as little attention as possible.
In addition, the fatal attraction of the ghost market to the two is also self-evident.
If it had been a year or two ago, Jiang Yichen would have had more time to follow the clues with the support of the secret department of the Daoyi Alliance, unearth the entire network tied up by Zheng Lun and Chen Qi, and deliver a fatal blow.
But now is the critical moment to seize time and force the attack. The two of them can only be used as sacrifices to scare the snake away.
Of course, as long as the two of them can endure their loneliness, they can live longer if they don't show up in this Guizhou ruins before the rooster crows today.
However, every time they moved around, the two of them would always look here and there, not only to gather information, but also to find new things.
Two days ago, the two of them had arrived in Guizhou. Although they had been to Qianxu more than a hundred times, the ghost market every day was a different ghost market for them.
Either out of caution or because they were busy hunting down Jiang Yichen's plan, the two endured it for two nights.
On this third night, can I still restrain myself and remain indifferent?