Chapter 21: Xuanhuo City

“Hey, young man, what are you thinking about? Why don’t you hurry up?” Just as Bu Gong lowered his head and muttered, a familiar yet strange voice sounded in his ears; Bu Gong turned his head slightly and found that the person who called him was the thin old man who had helped him before.
Then, Bu Gong looked up at the carriage speeding away on the official road. After a moment’s hesitation, he said, “Old sir, was that carriage heading to a city called Xuanhuo City?”
The thin old man beside Bu Gong raised his brows slightly when he heard Bu Gong’s words, but then he immediately regained his composure. He coughed lightly, stroked his sparse beard, and said in a very mature tone, “Young man, from what you said, you don’t know Xuanhuo City?”
Bu Gong was a little helpless about this, “Who told me to just come out of the mountains?”; The thin old man next to him saw that Bu Gong didn’t answer, so he thought that Bu Gong was not from the vicinity of Xuanhuo City, so it was normal that he didn’t know about Xuanhuo City.
Then he grinned, reached out and patted Bu Gong’s shoulder gently, and said with a smile: “My friend is not from here, so it is normal that you don’t know Xuanhuo City; the nearest city to here is Xuanhuo City, and you can arrive there at noon tomorrow.”
After hearing this, Bu Gong nodded slightly, looking at the official road ahead, a hint of heat flashed in his eyes; “Xuanhuo City, we can arrive there tomorrow”; in fact, Bu Gong had just come out of Shitou Town, saying that he came out to improve his strength, but he didn’t know where to go for a while, so he could only go to a big city first to take a look, and then make plans.
…
The next day, the sun was shining brightly, and the number of pedestrians on the official road gradually increased. During the time Bu Gong was on the road, except for the last night when he did not rest, he would meditate and regulate his breathing at other times of the night. Just because they were about to reach the so-called Xuanhuo City, Bu Gong traveled all night.
“Is that Xuanhuo City ahead?” Bu Gong looked up at a huge red city rising from the ground a thousand meters ahead. He couldn’t help muttering, “What a tall and magnificent city.” Bu Gong was a little shocked at this moment.
The city before him covered an area of ​​several thousand miles in radius. From the outside, it gave people a sense of grandeur and heaviness. If one stood closer, one could not see the end of the city. For Bu Gong, a young man who had just walked out of the mountains, this was the most gorgeous and spectacular city he had ever seen.
In a town like Shitou, most of the houses are made of mud and stone. Bu Gong was used to seeing those small mud houses, but had never seen such a huge and spectacular building. At this moment, Bu Gong looked at the city in front of him, and his heart was inevitably shocked. There was also some spirit in his indifferent eyes.
The gate of the city in front of him was dozens of feet high, with three fiery red characters “Xuanhuo City” engraved on the top in a flamboyant style. Bu Gong was stunned for a long time before he came to his senses. He found that the pedestrians passing by him were looking at him with strange eyes.
“Uh…” Bu Gong was a little embarrassed at this time. He didn’t expect that he was so focused on looking at the city that he forgot to walk. “I really have the potential to be a bumpkin,” Bu Gong touched his nose and said in a low voice.
He came to the city gate, gently patted the dust on his robe, and then followed the crowd that was about to enter the city gate; “Ahaha… my friend, what a fate, we met again.” When Bu Gong was carefully looking at the city in front of him, an inappropriate and old-fashioned laugh sounded in the crowd.
As soon as he heard this voice, Bu Gong felt a headache; because just by hearing this voice, he knew that this person was the old man Bu Gong met yesterday.
At this time, Bu Gong closed his eyes slightly and began to rest. He didn’t intend to pay attention to the old man; because since he met him yesterday, the old man had been pestering Bu Gong, talking about this and that, and he really couldn’t get rid of him; finally, because Bu Gong had to travel overnight, the old man reluctantly separated from Bu Gong.
“Young man, how about treating me to a drink when we get into town later?” When Bu Gong closed his eyes, a strange voice sounded in his ears. Bu Gong simply ignored it. In the past, Bu Gong had always been respectful to the elderly in the town, but after going outside, he found that even old men could be very annoying sometimes.
After what happened to him, Bu Gong’s personality gradually changed; he went from being honest to being a little silent. The boy who used to always respond to people with a silly smile has now become a little difficult to approach; but this is only to strangers.
As the weird old man kept chattering in Bu Gong’s ear, Bu Gong gradually felt annoyed and a little angry. “Just line up and go into the city, why are you talking so much nonsense?” Bu Gong thought to himself, and his face was a little gloomy at this time.
The old man next to him seemed to have noticed that Bu Gong was a little angry at this time, and he closed his mouth naturally; but the old man pouted his lips strangely like a girl, and muttered something in an inaudible voice.
Obviously, Bu Gong’s easy anger also made him somewhat dissatisfied; in fact, in the past, Bu Gong was well-known in Stone Town for his honest and simple character, and he was polite and respectful to his elders, but since his father’s death, Bu Gong’s character has become somewhat silent.
As for this point, it is understandable that Bu Gong became like this after experiencing that incident; but if it is just this matter, it is not surprising. The more unusual thing is that since that incident, Bu Gong’s state of mind seems to no longer be as peaceful and natural as before.
Whenever he encountered something he was not willing to do or did not want to see, he would feel a sense of suffocation in his heart, followed by easy irritation, which even Bu Gong himself did not notice.
…
After waiting for about half an hour, Bu Gong was finally able to enter the city. After Bu Gong stepped into the city gate, his eyes lit up and he saw countless pavilions and towers in the city. On both sides of the dozens of meters wide streets, there were stalls, shops, inns for eating and drinking tea, etc. Bu Gong was dazzled.
“Is this the scene in a big city?” Bu Gong walked slowly on the street, and his eyes kept scanning everywhere; after a moment, he turned his head by chance, “Huh? Yingchun Restaurant?” He found that there was a restaurant in front of him, with a curtain hanging outside the door with the words “Yingchun Restaurant” written on it.
“I heard from Grandpa Zhang that the food in restaurants and inns in big cities is naturally different from that in small towns. Why not go in and have a seat first?” This idea came to Bu Gong’s mind when he saw this restaurant.
Then Bu Gong walked towards the restaurant. Just as he reached the door of the restaurant, a waiter came out from inside. After the waiter came out, he spotted Bu Gong with his cunning eyes.
He just took a quick look at Bu Gong and saw that he was wearing a red robe, and the fabric was of low-quality stuff; he was dirty and looked dusty, and it was obvious that he had walked a long way; then the waiter came to a conclusion that this guy was probably homeless and might have fallen on hard times.
Then he saw the waiter who had just come out to greet him with a smile on his face, but his face suddenly fell; there was a hint of contempt in his eyes, and he immediately said, “This is not a place for beggars, go away, go somewhere else,” as if he was shooing away a fly.
Bu Gong understood why the waiter was like that, but he saw that his face was calm and his eyes were as indifferent as ever, and he didn’t care about what the waiter said; because he was a cultivator after all, it was impossible for him to bother with ordinary people.
Then Bu Gong stretched out his right hand from his sleeve, and three or four gold coins appeared in his palm, which he then threw directly into the hands of the waiter; “Is that enough?” Just as the waiter was stunned, a flat voice came from Bu Gong’s mouth.
“Uh, that’s enough, hehe… Sir, that’s enough, please,” the waiter snapped out of his trance and gave a dry, apologetic smile. He was being as respectful as he could be, what a joke! Four gold coins! A good meal in a restaurant would only cost about two gold coins, and they’d just casually spent four. This was a big customer.
Afterwards, Bu Gong was welcomed into the store by the waiter with a smile; in fact, the gold coins in Bu Gong’s hand were given to him by Blind Zhang when he left Stone Town, asking him to keep them for use on the road.
At the beginning, Blind Zhang directly threw him a palm-sized cloth bag and asked him to open it after he was on the road. At that time, Bu Gong didn’t know what was inside. However, after he left Stone Town, he couldn’t help but open it out of curiosity. As a result, he found a small cloth bag full of gold coins, shining with golden light.
When Bu Gong saw the bag full of gold coins, his heart skipped a beat. He had never seen a single gold coin since he was born, and Stone Town used copper coins almost exclusively. So, it would be a lie to say he wasn’t excited after seeing so many gold coins for the first time.
Of course, gold coins are almost impossible to find in Stone Town; Bu Gong has only seen copper coins, and 100 copper coins are equivalent to one gold coin. At that time, having more than ten copper coins was considered a fortune, not to mention this whole bag of gold coins.
After following the waiter into the restaurant, Bu Gong glanced around and saw that the restaurant was almost full of guests; some had one person per table, while others had three or four people sitting around a table, chatting about everything.
The facilities inside the restaurant were also relatively clean and tidy. Seeing this, Bu Gong sighed in his heart, “The restaurants in this big city are really unique.” Thinking back, there were only one or two restaurants in Stone Town, and the space inside was small and dim…
“Sir, what would you like to order? I’ll prepare it right away. We have vegetarian dishes, meat dishes, and all kinds of tea and wine.” After Bu Gong sat down, the waiter hurried over and served tea and wiped the table, and asked Bu Gong with a flattering smile.
“Please bring a few plates of your restaurant’s more famous dishes, and some tea.” Bu Gong hesitated for a moment and then spoke; because this was his first time entering a restaurant in such a big city, he had no idea what dishes and wines were available; so he handed it over directly to the waiter to avoid embarrassment later.
Not long after Bu Gong sat down, he saw a figure that gave him a headache; “Haha… my friend, you are here too? You don’t mind if I sit at the same table with you?” A familiar old voice was heard, and the old man who said this sat down next to Bu Gong without waiting for Bu Gong to nod.
But this thin old man forced Bu Gong to talk to him about some irrelevant things; during this period, the waiter was diligent and the dishes were served quickly.
Finally, Bu Gong was at his wit’s end. He said, “Just sit down. There’s no point in chasing him away or scolding him. It’s better to just ignore him.” “Young man, what are you doing here?” But after he sat down, another voice rang in Bu Gong’s ears. Just because Bu Gong didn’t speak didn’t mean others wouldn’t speak. During Bu Gong’s silence, the old man asked again.
Next, Bu Gong was a little overwhelmed. He kept asking the same question as before, “Young man, why are you here?” The old man in front of him repeated this sentence dozens of times in just a short while. Bu Gong was really at a loss for words, so he said casually, “I just came here to take a look, nothing much.”
“Oh? Didn’t my friend come to this city for the opportunity to enter the immortal gate?” After hearing Bu Gong’s reply, the old man finally became excited and spoke.
“Hmm? Entry quota for the Immortal Sect? What does that mean?” Bu Gong originally planned to ignore this old man, but when he heard what the old man said, he became interested. After a slight pause, he asked.