"Shopkeeper, we're checking out!"
As two burly men with beards came downstairs, one of them greeted the shopkeeper as he passed by and then went out the door.
"Ah, good, safe travels, esteemed guest!" The shopkeeper, engrossed in his accounts, paid them no mind. By the time he realized who it was, he inwardly praised them. "What remarkable disguises! Even with my cultivation, I couldn't see through them. If not for that familiar voice, I wouldn't have known who it was."
"Hey, stop! You two up front, the bearded ones..."
Ji Chenmu looked around and saw a girl in red pointing at him. "Are you calling me?"
"Who else? Hurry, come with me. It's your lucky day. If I weren't short-handed, I wouldn't bother offering you this chance to show yourselves!" the girl in red chattered.
"Apologies, young lady, but we're in a hurry. What is it? I'm not interested," Chenmu said, refusing after glancing at Wu Ye's cold expression.
"Don't! This young lady has her eye on you two. Come on!" The girl in red grabbed Ji Chenmu's hem and wouldn't let go. Ji Chenmu tried to cast a spell to break free, but the opponent didn't budge.
"Let's go!" Ji Wu Ye could tell that this girl's cultivation was not simple. He decided to follow along for now. Fighting in this busy street would only attract trouble!
"This young brother is much more sensible!" The girl in red gave Ji Chenmu a triumphant smile, a smile as arrogant as can be!
"Hmph! Where are we going? How much is the reward? We're quite expensive!" Ji Chenmu immediately began to negotiate!
"Five immortal stones!"
"What? So cheap. What exactly do we have to do? We don't do anything like killing or arson!"
"You? With that bit of flesh, you're not even qualified for killing and arson!" the girl in red scoffed.
"Also, what 'young lady'? Did you just come up from the mortal world? How old-fashioned! Call me 'little fairy'!"
"Alright, then, little fairy, what exactly do you want us to do?"
"Oh, you're so verbose! I'm telling you to move some things," the little fairy said impatiently. How could this person be so wordy!
"No, move things? Can't you put them in your Qiankun pouch? You need us to move them manually?" Ji Chenmu was incredulous!
"What do you know? This is a gift for the City Lord. Gifts should be presented grandly, not sneakily. Wait until we reach the City Lord's mansion. Be clever. If the City Lord favors you, it'll be much better than doing your own work!"
"Ah?" Ji Chenmu was flustered. This was like a sheep walking into a tiger's den! He wondered if his disguise could fool the City Lord, and if it was too late to escape now.
Ji Chenmu rubbed his forehead, thanking her profusely! He'd have to find Senior Tian Ji later to check his fortune. Why did he always encounter such bizarre women, and ones he couldn't afford to offend? Once he found Ji Jie, he'd hide in seclusion in his spatial realm to improve his cultivation. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to defeat any woman who came his way! It was too frustrating.
"Little fairy, do you know what we do?" Ji Chenmu asked persistently.
"Dock porters. You look strong and fit, so you must have taken on a lot of jobs." The red-clad fairy glanced at them, her expression as if to say, 'Isn't it obvious? Do I need to discover it?'
Ji Chenmu looked at his short tunic and tanned arms. He looked up at Wu Ye's wild beard, his handsome face roughened by it. Weren't they just like dock porters? He'd been careless, accustomed to his lower realm attire, and had just casually adopted this look!
"Little fairy, you're amazing, with eyes that can see through people. We brothers have just arrived in Ice Moon City and were looking for work. We don't even know where the docks are!"
"You've asked the right person. Ice Moon City is south, there's Qinghai Lake, and ships often stop nearby. There are plenty of jobs! Weren't you heading there just now?"
"Oh, thank you for the information. This is our first time here, we haven't figured things out yet. We just heard there were jobs over there. So Qinghai Lake is in the south city?" Ji Chenmu said with a laugh!
"Alright, this is it. It's not far from the City Lord's mansion."
The girl in red waved her sleeve, and a giant crimson coral three meters tall appeared. People around marveled.
"So beautiful!"
"What a grand gesture! What are they doing?" The passersby were filled with questions!
"Little fairy, is this for the City Lord?" Ji Chenmu quickly asked, his eyes sharp!
"Of course! I dug this up from the depths of the North Sea. I even fought a鲛人 for it," the girl in red said deliberately loud.
"Wow, that's incredible! The鲛人 of the North Sea are fierce!" The onlookers chattered amongst themselves. Indeed, such a large fire coral was rare! But they also looked at the little fairy with new respect, to have returned fully intact.
"Hey, isn't that Miss Nangong? I heard Lord Nangong, the City Lord, likes fire coral. Is this a gift for him? Such a filial child."
...
Unfazed by her identity being revealed, Nangong Huan felt no embarrassment.
She didn't mention that she had dug it up from the鲛人's doorstep, enraging their clan leader who pursued her for three thousand nautical miles! In the end, she reluctantly dropped a bag of immortal stones, and the鲛人 clan leader let her go.鲛人 also occasionally came ashore to buy supplies, so they also needed to trade with immortal stones.
Now, Father wouldn't have an excuse to punish her.
After showing off enough at the City Lord's gate, Nangong Huan directed Ji Chenmu and the other to move the fire coral.
As they carried it inside, they encountered Nangong Li sitting in the main hall, with a handsome man seated beside him. Nangong Huan paid them no mind.
But Ji Chenmu and Ji Wu Ye felt their hearts surge with excitement. Isn't that Feng Chu? Now they finally knew Ji Jie's whereabouts.
"Dad, look, I got the fire coral you like. You can't punish me now."
"Nonsense! Nangong Huan! I think you're itching for a beating. How dare you go to the North Sea? You've been away from home for almost a year. If people didn't know better, I'd think your Miss Nangong had been kidnapped and made a bandit's wife." The City Lord Nangong had already taken a good look at his beloved daughter from the moment she started making a scene at the gate.
"Hmph, you don't like it? Then I'll sell it at Baolai Pavilion!" Nangong Huan was completely unfazed by her father's scolding!
"Hey, don't! It's already been given, how can you take it back?" Nangong Li couldn't sit still. He got up and walked around the fire coral, rubbing his hands and looking at it from every angle, as if it were a treasure.
"Dad, quickly give them the immortal stones!"
"Give what immortal stones?" Nangong Li suddenly became vigilant.
"Oh dear, you're so stingy. I'm giving this fire coral to you, I won't accept any immortal stones. This is for these two young brothers, as a reward for their hard work in moving it." Nangong Huan had already given her immortal stones to the鲛人 and was now penniless!
"How much?" Nangong Li breathed a sigh of relief.
"Ten immortal stones!"
"You're something else. You could have just given it directly to me, but you had to move it in through the front gate. What a waste of effort!"
"I was getting the citizens of Ice Moon City to be witnesses, so that certain someone wouldn't go back on their word." Nangong Huan glanced at her father.
Nangong Li touched his nose, knowing that he was precisely that someone who went back on his word.
Nangong Li saw her father's guilty expression and continued,
"Another reason is that this way, the whole city will know that the City Lord's mansion has a fire coral. No one will dare to steal it, and even if it is stolen, it can't be sold. Who would dare to accept the City Lord's fire coral."
"Mmm, mmm, my Ni Ni is truly clever!" Nangong Li suddenly understood.
Ji Chenmu watched the City Lord being successfully fooled by his own daughter and let out a snicker.
Nangong Li looked at Ji Chenmu with a stern gaze. Huh~~~