The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#481 - World-renowned

The three chatted idly along the way and soon arrived at the first pawnshop. After Lu Jing explained his intentions to the shop assistant, the latter readily agreed and brought out all the scriptures pawned by the monks of Ganquan Temple.

Although books were quite valuable in this era, that was during normal times. Now, with the chaos of war outside the city, everyone was busy hoarding food and weapons, and fewer people were buying books, especially religious texts.

The pawnshop was also racking its brains about how to sell them. Even though they hadn't spent much money when they took the books in, they still took up space in the warehouse.

Having someone willing to redeem them was the best thing that could happen. The pawnshop could still make a profit. In the end, Lu Jing bought sixty-five scriptures for two taels and one qian of silver.

Du Jing grimaced at the price. When they pawned the scriptures, they had only gotten seven copper coins for each book after much pleading. More than sixty books had only been exchanged for less than half a string of cash. Now, buying them back cost more than four times as much silver. The pawnshop was truly black-hearted.

However, Du Jing didn't know that it was only because the shop assistant sensed that Lu Jing was not to be trifled with that he had given a special "friendship price." Otherwise, if the monks of Ganquan Temple wanted to redeem them, they might have had to spend another tael or two.

But for Lu Jing now, this small amount of money was no longer important. Things that could be solved with money were very easy for him.

Lu Jing asked the shop assistant to find a large sack, threw all sixty-five scriptures into it, and without looking closely, carried it on his back and walked towards the next pawnshop.

At this pawnshop, Lu Jing found another eighty-four scriptures. But this time, he wasn't so lucky, because according to Du Neng and Du Jing, they had pawned a total of eighty-seven books at this pawnshop, and it seemed that three of them had already been bought.

Lu Jing couldn't blame the pawnshop for this, because most of the scriptures were dead pledges. In theory, these scriptures belonged to the pawnshop, and there was naturally no problem with them selling them.

Lu Jing could only ask the shop assistant for the buyer's name and address. However, perhaps because he didn't want to cause unnecessary trouble, the shop assistant claimed not to remember. Even when Lu Jing took out a silver ingot, he hesitated and still refused.

Lu Jing didn't waste any words and took out another silver ingot, continuing to throw money at the problem without even blinking, making Du Jing swallow hard.

However, the more he did this, the more the shop assistant worried about Lu Jing's intentions, and he stubbornly refused to speak. Seeing this, Lu Jing gave up the monetary offensive and tried to say Wen Da Niang's name, while taking out the keepsake Wen Da Niang had given him before he left—a small golden wine gourd, no bigger than a palm.

Unexpectedly, this little gourd was surprisingly useful, and the shop assistant immediately breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing it.

"Wen Da Niang's guest is our Fengxing County's guest. This is all as it should be. We were blind earlier and didn't recognize your importance. I hope you won't be offended." The shop assistant cupped his hands and bowed.

This was the advantage of being a local strongman. The Wen family had been in Huzhou for decades, and their local connections were very extensive, making it very convenient to do anything.

Lu Jing didn't even need to go to the Bai Mansion himself. As long as he found the Wen family's wine shop in Fengxing City and showed the golden wine gourd, the people from the Wen family's wine shop would naturally help Lu Jing get the books back.

In less than two hours, Lu Jing had obtained all the scriptures that Ganquan Temple had pawned.

But as before, Lu Jing didn't find anything unusual after flipping through the scriptures.

It was strange. Where would Master Honglian hide the true explanation of the Mad Demon's One Hundred and Eight Staffs?

Before entering Ganquan Temple, Lu Jing had already gone to the empty house next door and seen the words "Pure Land" written on the wall. But other than that, the house was completely empty.

It was said that the family who lived there had moved away long ago, and then a new family had moved in, but now that new family was also gone.

In addition, Yu Wenyu had probably searched inside when he saw Master Honglian's handwriting, so Lu Jing didn't have much hope for that place.

If the true explanation really existed, he would still rather believe that it was placed in Ganquan Temple.

But the most likely scriptures had already been ruled out, so where else could the true explanation be hidden?

Lu Jing looked at the sky. He had been busy for most of the day, and coupled with the previous running around, he took the two little monks to a restaurant and ordered a table of vegetarian dishes.

Du Jing hadn't seen such a lavish meal in a long time. Looking at the table full of dishes, he immediately started a feeding frenzy.

Du Neng was also swallowing saliva, but he didn't rush to pick up his chopsticks. Taking advantage of Lu Jing's free time, he finally asked the question that had been on his mind for a long time, "May I ask where Benefactor Lu is from?"

Lu Jing knew what the little monk wanted to ask, and smiled, "That's right, I am that Lu Jing from Wujiang."

"Cough! Cough cough cough!" Du Jing, who was shoveling rice into his mouth, choked on the grains when he heard this, coughing until tears streamed down his face.

And although Du Neng was a little better, he was also very excited, clenching his fists.

When Ganquan Temple was at its peak, there were indeed many pilgrims, but after all, it was just a small temple, and most of the people who came were ordinary people. This was the first time Du Neng had seen such a legendary figure.

Moreover, Lu Jing was the person he admired the most. In fact, this situation was quite common now. In this era, there were no traffic stars or teen idols. The famous people were either dignitaries or knights and demon heads.

Especially the latter two, which had nothing to do with background. Ordinary people could become them with hard work or good luck (not really). Lu Jing's popularity was naturally soaring.

Moreover, he was popular with all three generations, old, middle-aged, and young, with a fan base spanning all age groups.

No matter how mature and prudent Du Neng was, he was still just a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old child. Hearing Lu Jing personally admit his identity, he couldn't hold back any longer.

He and Du Jing asked questions one after another, first asking about Lu Jing's battle with Yama's Xiao, and then asking Lu Jing to talk about how hard he worked on weekdays to cultivate his unparalleled martial arts.

Lu Jing was too embarrassed to say that he just practiced casually, and not only did he practice casually, but he also practiced in reverse, spending a lot of effort to stop his internal force from continuing to grow, because that would be too Versailles and lack positive energy.

Early exposure to the cruel reality is also not conducive to the healthy growth of young people.

So Lu Jing used the story of getting up to practice at the crowing of the rooster to muddle through. Du Neng was very excited, but when the three of them finished eating and returned to Ganquan Temple, they learned that something had happened at the temple.