289: Chapter 235 289: Chapter 235 Jiang Tang’s little avatar looked at Jiang Tang and his two pets eating with a cute longing expression, feeling a bit salivating.
It was just an avatar and not supposed to eat, so it could only watch with longing.
Seeing the avatar’s cute expression, Jiang Tang thought, maybe the avatar could eat as well?
He tossed a skewer of grilled fish to Fenfen.
The avatar held the skewer, which seemed not much larger than the little person itself.
Biting into the grilled fish, the little avatar ate quickly and soon finished the entire skewer.
It didn’t wait for Jiang Tang to offer more, instead, it started to snatch more food for itself.
With an additional little one joining the scramble for food, Jiang Tang and his two pets ate even faster, and in just a moment, they finished a fish weighing over a dozen pounds, still feeling unsatisfied.
Jiang Tang only felt half-full, not because he ate like a glutton, but because the cow and Eryao stuffed a skewer into their mouths with each bite, and with the avatar snatching food as well, he only managed to have one skewer, and the dozen-pound fish was gone.
Looking at his two pets who seemed to want more, and the avatar still giving him cute longing looks,
Jiang Tang, also not yet fully satisfied, decided to get another fish of a dozen or so pounds ready for Qianji Fire to cook.
The avatar, eager for more grilled fish, had already stopped its alchemy actions, leaving Xuanming Spiritual Fire idle, which then mocked Qianji Fire for finally getting a chance to be active.
Qianji Fire retorted, “serves you right.”
Qianji Fire hit back at Xuanming Spiritual Fire, saying that it was only busy for a moment, and that the master wouldn’t eat every day, so it didn’t need to work as ceaselessly as Xuanming Spiritual Fire.
Qianji Fire thought it was right, but it didn’t anticipate that Jiang Tang would have it cook meals for the next few days at every meal.
Xuanming Spiritual Fire, aside from the times the avatar needed to eat, was busy day and night.
It seemed like the avatar didn’t need to sleep and didn’t tire from making it work continuously.
Xuanming Spiritual Fire couldn’t escape the control of the avatar; after all, there was another true master in the space, so it had no choice but to diligently prepare more supreme elixirs and, in its brief moments of rest, take the opportunity to tease Qianji Fire.
Jiang Tang didn’t intervene in the squabble between the two types of fire; to him, they were just like humans bickering, as long as they remained under his control and couldn’t turn the tables.
Having contracted the flames, Jiang Tang, as their master, could know what they were thinking and sense their thoughts.
This was the benefit of the contract, for not all cultivators could understand a myriad of languages.
******
The Earl came to Jiang Tang’s Holy Pavilion, looking for Jiang Tang as he had previously planned.
The first reason was to show his prototype and gift storage bags, hoping to sell Spirit Grass to Jiang Tang in exchange for some pills and resources.
The members of the Blood Clan also needed resources, and he wondered if the pills from the Cultivation World were the same as the resources of the Blood Clan?
He hoped that Jiang Tang, the alchemist, could prepare special pills exclusively for the people of the Blood Clan.
Not having found Jiang Tang at the Holy Pavilion, he had to convey his intentions through the shopkeeper.
Without Jiang Tang’s address or any device for sending messages, and considering that those voice transmission devices in the Cultivation World were very expensive, he was reluctant to spend money on them.
Moreover, without that kind of spiritual energy from the Cultivation World, he wouldn’t be able to use the voice transmission treasure.
Even if he could use it, it would be useless if his kin couldn’t, so buying one was pointless.
The Earl watched the shopkeeper use a voice transmission treasure to speak, and then the familiar voice of Jiang Tang came out of the device.
Blinking, he learned something new, realizing how such a treasure worked.
After hearing what Jiang Tang said, he explained the situation with the help of the shopkeeper.
Not daring to reveal too much without seeing Jiang Tang himself, he didn’t trust others as much.
When Jiang Tang suggested meeting again in five days’ time, he agreed.
It took him nearly a day to travel from home, and with the round trip and a trip into the mountains to gather herbs, five days would be just enough to gather some.
After hearing Jiang Tang’s response, the shopkeeper turned off the transmission device and took several empty storage bags out of the cabinet.
The Earl examined the storage bags, having seen the cultivators in the Cultivation World pull a multitude of things from them, both animate and inanimate, feeling both envious and curious.
He inspected the storage bag, which seemed only the size of a palm, but upon looking inside, it could hold a lot, even more than the room he lived in.
The earl, holding the storage bag, revealed a delighted smile and then secured it on his person, fearing someone might steal it.
He did not want to stay a moment longer and thought of hurrying home before it got dark.
“Take care on your journey…”
The shopkeeper watched the earl’s departing figure, then went to the doorway and, after the customer had left, made a signal to a passerby on the street to follow the earl.
This shopkeeper was the former manager of the Immortal Venerable City Lord’s shop, and although he was now working in Jiang Tang’s shop and receiving wages from Jiang Tang,
he had always been secretly helping the Immortal Venerable City Lord with some matters.
The auction house owned by the Immortal Venerable City Lord where Jiang Tang’s supreme elixirs were sold was under his coordination.
The person following the earl had high cultivation, at the Great Perfection of Nascent Soul, and it was easy for such a cultivator to track someone like the earl, who appeared to have no cultivation at all.
He could burrow underground or fly high among the clouds, unbeknownst to the earl that he was being followed.
The earl did not ride a horse, nor did he have an ox cart; he used his feet to walk.
The young man’s pace was quick, and as he ran, it seemed as though he possessed qinggong, not much different from a galloping hippopotamus.
However, this was in no way comparable to the leisurely flight of the Nascent Soul tracker in the sky.
He ran with sweat on his brow, while the tracker leisurely used a magic artifact to fly and even ate and drank aboard it.
The earl could only buy some food with money before it got dark in a town he passed through, unwilling to spend on lodging and instead observed that a temple of the Earth God in the town would let him rest for the night without cost.
When the earl arrived at the Earth God Temple, it was quite clean, possibly from frequent offerings.
It might also serve as a place for travelers to stay.
There were no beds, but there were cushions to sit and rest on.
The earl surveyed the Earth God Temple and, finding it empty at the moment, sat down on a cushion and took out the dried food he had bought to eat.
As he was eating, two raggedy men walked in, each holding a chipped clay bowl, and upon seeing another person in the temple potentially contesting for space, they stood at the entrance and glared at the earl.
“Hey, this is our spot.
You don’t look like someone who doesn’t have money for lodging.
Why are you taking our place?”
One of the raggedy men sized up the earl and spoke.
They were two raggedy men, one old and one middle-aged, with messy and filthy hair as if not washed for a long time, looking as though bugs might be nesting in it.
Seeing these two men, the earl noticed the contents of their broken bowl and surmised they were members of the Beggar Sect from the Martial World.
Their clothes were patched up here and there, and they wore rotting cloth shoes on their feet.
They looked able-bodied and not weak or incapable of work, yet they had chosen to beg for food instead.
“There’s no name written here, is there?
And who says I look like I have money?
If I did, wouldn’t I go to an inn?”
The earl had no intention of leaving.
“Hmph, looks like you won’t know the might of my Dog-Beating Staff until I hit you with it.”
The middle-aged man swung his bamboo stick at the earl.
The earl, who had not cultivated spiritual energy like those in the cultivation world, had the physical training of his own Blood Clan.
The man who attacked him with the Dog-Beating Staff relied solely on martial arts, exerting no significant force.
There was no threat to the earl, not a trace of spiritual energy.
The earl blocked the Dog-Beating Staff with his hand, then grabbed and pulled it, catching the middle-aged man off guard and pulling him close.
Upon pulling the middle-aged man to him, the earl also caught the foul stench of the man, then pushed him away.
The middle-aged man was tossed around like a puppet on strings, with no chance to resist.