Since Zhong Shan was still weak, they moved slower than before. Two days later, they finally came out of the mountain range, not too far from Zhong Shan’s villa.
“Zhong Shan, you really have a house here?” Tianling-er was on her red silk and asked from above.
By now, Tianling-er was back to her bouncy and curious self. What had happened the other day was behind her.
“Uhm, almost there. When we get there, we will clean up and get a good rest for one day. Then we will continue our way. But now, get down here first.” Zhong Shan said.
“Why?” Tianling-er was wondering.
“We will be entering the mortal world soon. You want everyone to stare at you every day? Or even frighten them all away. If you want to mix in with the mortal people, then don’t show off your magical powers.” Zhong Shan explained.
“Oh.” Tianling-er flew down and put the red silk into her storage bracelet.
Following Zhong Shan, she skipped towards the villa nearby.
Carefree Villa! (逍遥山庄)
Those four characters were written on a large rock right in front of the villa. As they were approaching, a housekeeper ran up to them.
“Master.” The housekeeper called out.
“En.” Zhong Shan nodded.
Zhong Shan’s appearance had changed somewhat from one year ago; he now looked like a mortal in his thirties. The reason why the housekeeper could easily recognize him was because the housekeeper had met the shadow Zhong Shan, who had arrived earlier.
Tianling-er wasn’t paying attention to any of this. She was curiously looking all over the place.
After they entered the villa, Zhong Shan arranged a guest room for Tianling-er. A maid sent in hot water for Tianling-er to bath and change clothes.
Zhong Shan took his own bundle from Tianling-er and walked back into his own master bedroom.
Inside, the shadow was sitting there waiting.
When Zhong Shan opened the door, the shadow stood up at the same time. After all, they were the same person; their minds were in sync.
The body Zhong Shan took out the Kong Ling Gem from his bundle and handed it to the shadow.
The shadow Zhong Shan followed the instructions to quickly control the Kong Ling Gem and made a mold of a long sword about 160 cm in length. The body Zhong Shan opened the chest besides them.
Inside was a broken machete. It was the machete that had the Hongluan Manual concealed within it. The shadow had retrieved it.
Zhong Shan gave half the machete to the shadow to put into the sword mold while he melted the other half into his own big machete ‘Nightmare.’
“I named this machete for revenge, now let’s name the sword for immortality. From now on, this sword will be called ‘Eternal.’” Zhong Shan looked at the longsword in the hand of the shadow and declared its new name.
Eternal Sword! Nightmare Machete!
After he had finished all of his business, the shadow left a thick stack of silver notes then left by the underground train.
Zhong Shan rode on a large maroon colored horse with Nightmare on his back. He was galloping at full speed on a wide road while Tianling-er flew right next to him on her red silk.
“Zhong Shan, where are we?” Tianling-er was bored and asked.
“It’s a mortal’s country. Da Song Kingdom.” Zhong Shan answered.
Da Song and Da Kun were neighboring kingdoms. Right now, they were inside the border of Da Song. Zhong Shan kept galloping at full speed.
“Will we be in the next town following this road?” Tianling-er asked.
“That’s right. We will be there soon. I got information two days ago that there are many immortal schools’ disciples gathering at Da Song. I think maybe they have tracked down Hao San to here. Let’s go see.” Zhong Shan said.
“Was that the pigeon from the other day? How did it know that you’d already returned?” Tianling-er curiously asked.
“It’s not that they knew I’m back. It’s that I have arranged that information from all over to be sent to the Carefree Villa periodically.” Zhong Shan explained.
“Oh.” Tianling-er nodded.
They stayed at post house for the night. After two days, they could see a town in the distance.
Tianling-er immediately landed and Zhong Shan also dismounted. He led the horse towards the town. Tianling-er didn’t like to ride on the horse. She complained that the horse ride was too b.u.mpy and that it hurt her bottom. Therefore, Zhong Shan could only walk with her to the city gate.
Bian City!
On the gate, there were two big characters.
“Bian City?” Tianling-er read it out.
They led the horse towards the gate. At the gate, Zhong Shan didn’t pay much attention to the guards, but stretched out his hand to throw a silver ingot to the captain.
“Pa.”
The captain reached out to catch it. A tremendous force pushed the captain backward. He steadied himself but his right hand which had caught the ingot was totally numb.
The captain quickly moved back and didn’t search the two like the other people entering the city.
Zhong Shan with Tianling-er strolled right into the town.
“Boss, this guy is rich. Should we stop him and get some more from him?” A young guard asked.
The captain stared at him.
“Shut up. Do you have a death wish?” The captain immediately scolded him in a low voice.
The captain saw that Zhong Shan had thrown the ingot without using any force, however, it had shaken his arm so badly that he could no longer feel anything. That man was at least at the eighth level of Houtian. Even if he didn’t have a strong background, he was still a strong man. Rush up to him again? He still treasured his life.
Tianliing-er skipped into the town. Her eyes had become busy ever since she had entered the town. She had never seen so many people back at Kaiyang School.
There were many stands on the street, selling all kinds of strange things which were all drew in Tianling-er’s attention.
According to Zhong Shan, in the mortal world, one could exchange anything you wanted as long as you had silver.
“I want this one.” Tianling-er pointed at a ghost mask.
As she spoke, she took out a silver ingot and handed it over. She took over the mask and happily put it on. She then turned around to run to Zhong Shan without waiting for change. The vendor who was selling the mask burst into a fit of laughter. This one silver ingot could buy his entire stand ten times over.
“Zhong Shan, look, look, isn’t this fun?” Tianling-er showed off her ghost mask in front of Zhong Shan.
Zhong Shan shook his head; just let her have some fun. He didn’t care about the money.
Along the way, Tianling-er would buy whatever she liked when she saw them.
“This is candied fruit? You can eat it? I want one. Here.” Tianling-er excitedly took over a string of candied fruits and handed over a silver ingot. She took a bite and ran to Zhong Shan.
“Zhong Shan, there’s only ten ingots left out of the hundred silver ingots you gave me.” Tianling-er sighed while biting the candied fruits.
Zhong Shan, at the moment, was selling his maroon horse for fifty silver ingots. He just got the money and spun around after hearing what Tianling-er just said.
Ninety silver ingots were gone just like that?
“Oh, here’s some more. Also, you can use those silver notes to buy things too. Each silver note is one thousand silver ingots.” Zhong Shan said while shaking his head.
Ninety silver ingots probably could buy a small house in this town. She had spend it all in such a short while just buying those small items?
“Don’t worry. I’ll spend it carefully this time.” Tianling-er a.s.sured him.
“En.” Zhong Shan nodded.
Zhong Shan wanted to find a place for food. He searched around and saw a restaurant in a huge building.
“Let’s get something to eat.” Zhong Shan told Tianling-er.
“En.” Tianling-er nodded.
She put away the fifty ingots while no one was watching.
When they walked to the front of the building, Zhong Shan discovered that it wasn’t just simple a restaurant.
Golden Brick House!
Zhong Shan knew this was actually a gambling house. Yet, this kind of large gambling house would have restaurant. Zhong Shan wasn’t going to change to another place since they were already here. As long as there was food.
The two walked in.
“How can we help you two?” The doorman respectfully greeted them right away.
“Take us to the restaurant.” Zhong Shan said and tipped him with a silver ingot.
“Yes sir, please come this way. We have a restaurant on the second floor which has private rooms too. We have the best food.” The doorman attentively said.
“En.” Zhong Shan nodded and walked with Tianling-er to go inside.
They found the inside to be a hubbub of voices and noise. Tianling-er widened her eyes at the ma.s.s of people. She was very curious at what they were doing.
“Zhong Shan, what are they doing?” Tianling-er pointed at the people who were shouting.
“They are gambling.” Zhong Shan answered.
“Gambling?” Tianling-er’s eyes brightened up. She had yet to play such a game since she had gotten into the town.
“After we eat, I’ll show you.” Zhong Shan said.
“En.” Tianling-er resisted the urge to run off and followed Zhong Shan to go up to the second floor.
Zhong Shan chose a table on the balcony so they could eat and see the rest of the gambling house down below.