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Three years later.
A thin figure in gray clothes walked up and said softly: "Buy wine."
A girl of twelve or thirteen years old, with a stall opposite her, had a pair of bright eyes hidden behind a thick fringe, which also hid the sparkling waves in her eyes.
"Here's your wine." The girl's voice was crisp and carried a hint of a smile.
The man in grey looked at the amount of wine and found it was twice as much as usual, so he looked at the girl with surprise. A faint light flashed in his eyes. In just three years, the little girl had become a young lady, and more surprisingly, her cultivation had reached the fifth layer of Qi Refining.
At this age, she has already cultivated her Qi to five layers, so her innate talent must be quite good. Yet, for some reason, the thought flashed through the mind of the person in gray.
"Congratulations." The man in gray spat out two words, low and clear yet elegant.
The young girl smiled sweetly: "Thank you, I was just about to tell you that because I've recently broken through in my cultivation, so I probably won't be coming for a while."
No wonder the girl gave him twice as much wine as usual, it turned out that he had just made a breakthrough and needed to consolidate his boundary.
The man in grey clothes silently handed over double the amount of spirit stones, nodded slightly to indicate understanding, and turned to leave.
The girl glanced at the back of the man in gray and lowered her head to start packing up her stall.
"Hey, I'm telling you, Qingchen, this guy is really weird. For over three years now, he's been coming to buy wine on the same day every month. It's hard for me to put up with it, and each time we only exchange two sentences at most." A nearby young woman said casually while snacking on melon seeds.
It was indeed Mo Qingchen, the wine-selling girl.
"Sister Su, it's nothing. All sorts of people come to buy wine here. That customer just happens to come every month on this day, and for me, he's no different from anyone else." Mo Qing said calmly.
After knowing her for four years, Mo Qingchen was no longer as reverent and distant towards the young woman in front of him as he had been at first.
After being together for a long time, I feel that although this woman's words and actions are not to my liking, she doesn't have any major flaws. As someone who does business, I've met all sorts of people and have lost some of my initial pride, but gained more tolerance instead.
Of course, this tolerance doesn't mean she thinks everyone is a good person. It's just that those people are after all just strangers to her and have nothing to do with her.
The young woman claimed to be from the Su family, and in the Cultivation Realm, seniority was determined by cultivation level. Mo Qingchen didn't know exactly how old she was, but since she had only reached the fourth layer of Qi Refining, he addressed her as Sister Su.
The young woman heard Mo Qingchen's words and chuckled: "Qingchen, if you say that you are no different from others in treating the man in gray clothes, I don't believe it. In these years, your wine shop business has been booming, with many regular customers. However, because of cultivation, there is a day each month when you rarely miss, even if you can't come, you will put the wine at Lao Han's place in advance. I haven't seen you do this for anyone else."
Mo Qingchen smiled slightly and nodded in agreement with the young woman. Although she said so, her words were actually different from those of other customers when it came to that man in grey clothes.
It all started three years ago when she was eager to buy the portable medicine garden, but was short of dozens of spirit stones. It just so happened that at that time, a man in gray came to buy wine, not only buying a lot of new low-grade spirit wine, but also leaving some rare materials for her to brew, what made Mo Qingchen even more surprised was that he didn't worry about her swallowing those materials and never coming back, and even prepaid part of the spirit stones.
It just so happened that she had just enough spirit stones to successfully purchase the Portable Medicine Garden.
That medicine garden was only two mu in size. According to Xiao Xia, it was the lowest grade of portable medicine gardens. Nevertheless, Mo Qingchen was still very satisfied.
She went to the medicine garden and bought a lot of seeds from a store that specialized in selling spiritual medicine seeds. She also personally went to the mountains to pick some low-grade, unknown spiritual herbs and medicines that were valuable if they were older.
Not only that, but the medicine garden was also specially divided into a piece of land by her, specifically for planting Biyucao. Under normal circumstances, Biyucao matures in three months, and with the watering of Huzhong's beautiful wine, it can be harvested in just one day.
Relying on the sale of Biyucao and Lingjiu, Mo Qingchen not only bore the burden of his grandfather's regular medicinal dan medicine for treating injuries, but also had more than enough Aggregating Spirit Pills for his own cultivation, without having to carefully calculate their use as before.
She is only twelve years old now, and with the help of Yu Yudan, she has successfully entered the fifth layer of Qi refining a few days ago. Her cultivation speed is not inferior to that of Mo Yan's double spirit root back then. After all, it is the effect of the elixir.
In fact, the spiritual medicine garden that Mo Qingchen carried with him had been planted for over a thousand years. If he were to casually take out one of those spiritual medicines, he could exchange it for a substantial amount of spiritual stones. However, Mo Qingchen did not dare to take this risk. Even when selling Bi Yu Cao, he controlled the quantity so as not to arouse suspicion.
Fortunately, nothing major has happened in the past three years. Although Grandfather's body is not good, under her nourishment with spiritual food, it has not deteriorated. She herself has also successfully entered the middle stage of Qi refinement and once she masters the art of alchemy, she can refine the Liugu Dan.
Because of this, Mo Qingchen had a natural sense of gratitude towards the gray-clothed person in her heart. However, she didn't want to say more to the young woman, so she changed the subject and said: "Sister Su, you mentioned that, I was just thinking of asking, why didn't we see Master Han today?"
The young woman glanced at the empty stall next to her and replied, "You didn't come for a few days, so you don't know that Old Man Han went to stock up on goods. He said he found some top-notch spiritual tea. Humph, that old man was boasting to me that his business would definitely be booming soon."
Mo Qingchen smiled: "Mr. Han is actually more diligent than us, every day he goes out early and returns late, business is good, it's natural."
The young woman leaned in close to Mo Qingchen and blinked her eyes, saying: "Still isn't it all for the sake of his son?"
"Huh?" Mo Qingchen had never heard of Mr. Han having another son before.
Jian Mo Qingchen looked bewildered, and the young woman's interest was piqued: "I'll tell you, Old Man Han has a son who joined the Yao Guang Sect. In the past, whenever he mentioned his son, he would be beaming with pride. But before you arrived, I heard that his son had left the sect to travel and hadn't returned. At first, Old Man Han would still mention him from time to time, but later on, he gradually stopped mentioning him altogether. From what I can see, it's been seven or eight years since his son lost contact with him, and who knows if he's even still alive? Thinking about it, Old Man Han is quite pitiful, selling spiritual tea every day just to earn more spirit stones, saving up for his son."
There was a Korean old man who liked to take advantage of small benefits, and he had this experience. But which person doesn't have some past?
Mo Qingchen didn't want to gossip about these things, so he said: "I heard Grandfather say that cultivators go out to find opportunities and many people don't return for decades. Mr. Han's son has only been gone for seven or eight years, let's not think the worst. Ah, Sister Su. I'm afraid I won't be able to come back for some time, so please give this jug of wine to Mr. Han."
"Miss Qingdun, you're quite generous." The young woman rolled her eyes.
Mo Qingchen didn't take it to heart and tidied up his stall before leaving the market.
At the fifth layer of Qi Refining, a cultivator is considered to have distanced themselves from ordinary people. Not only can they release true fire externally, but they can also learn techniques such as Fireball Technique, Rainfall Technique, Object Manipulation Technique, and Sound Transmission Technique. For a cultivator, entering the Foundation Establishment period is truly stepping onto the path of immortality. However, in the eyes of ordinary people, a mid-Qi Refining stage cultivator is already a god-like figure who can summon the winds and rains.
Mo Qingchen had just entered the fifth layer of Qi Refining. Mo Daxian instructed her to stabilize for a few days and not rush into learning those things. After a few days, she felt that it was about time, thinking that today was the day the Grey Robed Man came to buy the specially brewed spiritual wine for him, so she hurried over. After returning, she first had to learn how to force out the True Fire within her body, and then she would have to study the art of alchemy, quickly familiarizing herself with the path of alchemy. After refining the Lihuo Dan, she still had to learn many more techniques, and it was unknown how much time this would take.
"Little girl." Mo Qingchen had just walked out of the alley when someone appeared in front of her.
Three years have passed, and the young boy of yesterday has grown into a young man. The only thing that remains unchanged is that warm smile.
Sometimes Mo Qingchen himself found it strange that a person with such a personality could burst into his life in such a lively and vigorous manner.
"Little Xia Ge, what are you doing here?" Mo Qingchen smiled slightly.
Xiaoxia smiled: "I was doing something and happened to pass by. I was just thinking that if I didn't run into you today, I would have sent you a message."
Mo Qingchen looked at him and asked, "Is there something urgent?"
In recent years, except for that one time when Grandfather had a dispute with someone and ran to his own residence to report the news, their daily interactions were always on this side of the market, sending messages through messengers, which was also unprecedented.
The two of them slowly walked out together, Xia looked at Qingchen and suddenly reached out her hand to touch her face.
"What are you doing?" Mo Qingchen rudely slapped his hand away and asked with a glare.
Xiaoxia smiled and said: "Little sister, you've been dressing like this for years, I almost forgot what you originally looked like."
Mo Qingchen sneered: "What original appearance, I am just like this."
Xiaoxia fell silent for a moment, and the two of them gradually moved further and further away from the town.
"Xiao Xia Ge, what's wrong with you?" Mo Qingchen couldn't help but ask, noticing Xiao Xia's abnormal behavior.
"I... have to go." Xia said in a low voice.
"What?" Mo Qingchen was taken aback.
"Leave, leave Tianyao City." Xiaoxia said with a hint of a smile.
Mo Qingchen's expression gradually turned serious: "Why?"
If it were someone else, she would never ask about the reason, after all, cultivators are extremely particular about this kind of thing. However, Xiaoxia was different from others.
"It can't always be like this," Xia said.
"It's not necessary to leave Tianyao City, you're so familiar with this place, why not do a small business like me? You have a wide network of connections, and the business will definitely be booming." Mo Qingchen said.
Xiaohua hesitated for a moment before saying: "I... actually have an older brother in the Yao Guang Sect, and this time I'm going to find him."
After listening to Xiao Xia's words, Mo Qingchen stopped persuading him. Having a backing in the Yao Guang Sect was better than struggling to make a living here.
Her life as a wandering cultivator was really tough, if she wasn't skilled in brewing wine and had the beautiful wine from the gourd to attract customers with its unique flavor, it's hard to say what her situation would be like by now.
"In a few months, Yao Guang will be recruiting disciples again, which happens once every ten years. Little sister, why don't you come to Yao Guang as well?" said Xiao Xia.
Mo Qingchen smiled and said, "We'll see about that later."
She is different from Xiaxia, she has her own grandfather to take care of, how can she go?
Xiaoxia also seemed to be unaccustomed to this somewhat melancholic atmosphere, patted Mo Qingchen's shoulder and revealed a brilliant smile: "Alright, today I'll just bid you farewell. The Yao Guang Sect is not far from Tian Yao City, so in the future, I'll have plenty of opportunities to come visit you again. Until next time."
"We'll meet again." Mo Qingchen said as he watched Xia Xiao walk further and further away.
Xia Xia suddenly turned around: "Right, I'm Xia Yan, don't forget it."