At this moment, snow began to drift again in the Daoist temple, sketching out four characters on the ground—'Credit Allowed.'

"No more credit, no more credit."

Zhou Xuan hurriedly waved his hand and strode out of the Secret Realm.

"Good heavens, nine sticks of incense, if I took credit, leaving aside whether I could handle the nine sticks, where in this vast Jing Country could one find a nine-stick incense?"

Zhou Xuan's mind returned to reality, staring at the deep and eerie shop, and after a moment, he glanced again at the black-on-white 'Double Happiness' character, muttering,

"There's surely a reason why the Blood Well offers the price of nine sticks of incense. Why is one soul worth nine sticks? Just because he was the Great Saint of the human literary world when he was alive?

Wasn't that Literary Saint's fate taken by the West Valley True Monarch? He isn't even a Literary Saint."

Zhou Xuan thought hard but remained puzzled, so he entered the shop once more, searching again. He found nothing else, only a pair of bloodstained invitations in a decaying cabinet, with scrawled and mottled handwriting.

After carefully identifying them, he found the recipient's handwriting peculiar and unreadable, except for the last line... 'November 4th, Year 22 of the Great Wu, an auspicious day, with endless blessings, respectfully, Xu Yuan Gong.'

"Year 22 of the Great Wu?"

Zhou Xuan turned around and asked, "Ya Zi, how long ago was Year 22 of the Great Wu?"

"The Great Wu Dynasty lasted 180 years. Jing Country has been around for over 60 years. Combined... that's about 220 years ago."

"Xu Jingshan turns out to be over 220 years old."

The letter was an invitation to Xu Jingshan's wedding. As for 'Xu Yuan Gong,' that must surely be Xu Jingshan's father.

A son's marriage invitation written by the father is quite reasonable.

Zhou Xuan passed the letter to Zhao Wuya, who also couldn't decipher the recipient's handwriting.

Zhou Xuan sighed and carefully folded the letter, placing it in his pocket. He said to Zhao Wuya, "Shall we head back to East Market Street?"

"Aren't you going to gather more incense fire?"

Zhao Wuya asked Zhou Xuan.

"Resolving King Yan's Trigram is the biggest incense fire."

Yun Ziliang mentioned that once King Yan's Trigram was interpreted, the rewards would be plentiful, and the incense fire would flourish even more—this is a major task.

...

East Market Street, Zhou Family's Jingyi Shop,

Yun Ziliang was sipping tea and listening to a tune, while Xu Li was tidying up a newly painted screen,

The tunes weren't from a music box, but Yu Zhengyuan opening his throat and singing folk songs from Ping Shui Prefecture for Yun Ziliang.

"Boss Yu's tunes indeed have some flavor."

"Boss is too high a title."

After finishing a song, Yu Zhengyuan waved his hand at Yun Ziliang's praise. In the peach garden, not everyone could assume the title of 'Boss'; it was reserved for top stars on the stage.

Liu Jiaotian could indeed be called 'Boss Liu.'

"Did you also learn opera before?" Yun Ziliang asked.

"Our Zhou Family's Troupe, our masters and senior apprentices first learned opera. If their singing strayed a bit, they'd switch to props, water tanks, or reed pipes."

"Then the opera row in your Zhou Family's Troupe must be something else—if someone dismissed can sing so flavorfully, imagine how the main star would be!"

"Our Zhou Family's Troupe has a star named Liu Jiaotian. When she opens her mouth, even the major roles of traditional pear garden troupes stand aside, not fit to carry her shoes."

Yu Zhengyuan spoke with pride about Liu Jiaotian's opera skills.

"I'll definitely have to listen one day."

Yun Ziliang, with legs crossed, lightly tapped his knee, reminiscing about Yu Zhengyuan's recently sung tune,

Zhou Xuan walked in, weary of dust, grabbed a teapot, drank two gulps, and said, "Lao Yun, another King Yan's Trigram has arrived."

"Let it come, it won't matter since you can't solve it anyway."

"There's hope this time," Zhou Xuan said.

"Hope? Hope in what? I've encountered King Yan's Trigram twenty-nine times in my life and only solved one."

"There's truly hope."

Zhou Xuan briefly recounted today's experiences to Yun Ziliang.

Yun Ziliang, hearing this, couldn't sit still. He stood up and said, "So, as long as we find the soul of Xu Jingshan, the trigram's solved...? It does sound promising."

"Sounds like there's no hope,"

Yu Zhengyuan poured cold water from the side.

"Why, senior brother, you just got to Mingjiang Prefecture, and you're already jinxing me?" Zhou Xuan laughed.

"How can it be a jinx? Wasn't Xu Jingshan reputed for running many wooden platforms?"

"You know about it too?" Zhou Xuan asked.

"He was infamous in the nine prefectures of Jing Country."

Yu Zhengyuan said, "Over two hundred years ago, Xu Jingshan was a notoriously wealthy merchant among the nine prefectures of Jing Country. Many major government offices and halls held shares in his businesses. His business was immense.

Then he mysteriously died—neither alive nor a corpse. There's gossip in Ping Shui Prefecture, saying that Xu Jingshan buried the wealth he earned before he died in a Dragon Cave,

and he himself was buried in that cave, so over the years, people have been seeking him, hoping to uncover the vast wealth he amassed during his life. All that gold, silver, and jewels would take lifetimes to squander and couldn't be wasted completely."

"So there was such a thing."

Zhou Xuan realized Xu Jingshan wasn't boasting at the fur store—twenty-four wooden platforms were understated.

"Don't you have the Blood Well Venerable's divination? You should ask it, and you'll find it immediately."

Yun Ziliang offered Zhou Xuan some advice.

"I've asked."

"What did the Blood Well Venerable say?"

"It wants a sacrifice of nine sticks of incense."

Zhou Xuan's words landed like a heavy club, striking Yun Ziliang and making him slump back into his chair: "Then there's no hope. Nine sticks of incense are plenty above the Heavenly Dome, but you have to be able to cut it."

Through the Blood Well's resurrection, Zhou Xuan had borrowed its breath to cut down a clone of 'Gong Zheng.' To slay a god in the Heavenly Dome was extremely difficult.

Given his current incense fire level, that was out of the question.

"Lao Yun, why are you dispirited? You should see it from another angle—just knowing where a soul is worth nine sticks of incense; imagine the benefits if you actually find it?"

Zhou Xuan said.

"Isn't it because it's nowhere to be found?"

"There are clues."

Zhou Xuan pulled the invitation from his pocket and handed it to Yun Ziliang, saying, "Look, this is the invitation Xu Jingshan sent out for his wedding, but I can't quite read the recipient's name. It's not a typical way to form characters in calligraphy."

Yun Ziliang took the invitation and, giving it a careful glance, said, "This is in Saman script—the Witch script. If Mr. Peng were here, he'd recognize it in a glance.

This Witch script, I'm not too familiar with it either."

As soon as he finished, Yu Zhengyuan leaned in for a look. After a few glances, he discerned the handwriting and said, "Oh, the recipient is Hu Yunhai, and the letter gives his formal name, respectfully called Hu Third Grandfather."

Zhou Xuan and Yun Ziliang both looked at Yu Zhengyuan, "How do you know the Witch script?"

Yu Zhengyuan was equally puzzled, saying, "Junior brother, it's one thing for Mr. Yun not to recall, but why didn't you? Our Zhou Family's Troupe's Nuo God originates from the Witch, the class leader is also a witch, and the major prayers of the troupe's performances are written in the Witch script.

I've handled so many of these transactions, I became familiar by just seeing them."

"..." Zhou Xuan.

With Yu's translation, Zhou Xuan immediately said, "The Hu Clan has four major divisions: Yun, Deng, Chang, and Qing. If this Hu Third Grandfather is called Hu Yunhai, then he's a wild immortal of the Hu Clan."

"You're gaining knowledge, you even know Yun, Deng, Chang, and Qing." Yun Ziliang looked at Zhou Xuan with some newfound respect,

not knowing that Zhou Xuan had learned this fresh tidbit of knowledge in the morning while having lamb soup and chatting with Sister Cui—he indeed learned and applied it on the spot...

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