Killing Dao Fruit
Chapter 115 - 112: The Tower of Wine, Women, Wealth Qi, and Qingfu Mother and Child Coins

Chapter 115: Chapter 112: The Tower of Wine, Women, Wealth Qi, and Qingfu Mother and Child Coins

In Junzhou, on the far eastern side, downstream of Luoshui, about six hundred li from Luoyang City, lies Guide Prefecture.

In Minglu County county town, Copper Coin Alley.

A young man with a gaunt figure and a sallow face crept timidly to the front of a shop bearing the sign "Universal Currency."

He looked up at the sign, clenched the worn copper coin in his palm hard, and muttered to himself:

"This must be the place Second Brother Chen was talking about, right?

Although I, Sun Wuliu, can’t recognize a single character, even without reading the sign, I know that the shop at the very end of Copper Coin Alley is this one here, without a doubt.

I don’t know where Second Brother Chen has gone. He clearly said he’d come with me to buy food, but his wife told me he was nowhere to be seen since early this morning.

Could it be that Second Brother Chen tricked me? Bringing this one copper coin to buy food, would they really sell it to me?"

Even though his neighbors had assured him solemnly beforehand, Sun Wuliu still couldn’t help feeling anxious, afraid he’d be kicked out.

Being kicked out wouldn’t be too bad, but it would be a real loss if he got beaten up again.

But when he thought about the current food prices in other grain shops in the county town, and his mother who was lying sick in bed,

he rubbed his feet on the ground—feet so cracked they could no longer bear sandals—scraped off the mud sticking to the soles, and then, gritting his teeth, he walked into the shop.

He might as well try it as a last resort.

For this year’s summer had brought disasters all over the Great Yan Realm.

Abnormal disasters at that, with floods in the north, droughts in the south, and locust plagues inland.

Minglu County was somewhat better off, but still, due to the flooding of Luoshui to the north, a large number of refugees flooded into the small county, sending grain prices skyrocketing overnight.

Previously, a stone of corn only cost six silver coins, which, with some wild vegetables and careful rationing, was enough to sustain one person for a year.

But now the same stone of corn costs a full two taels of silver, or two thousand copper coins, and the price changes every day.

For lower-class laborers like Sun Wuliu, food had long been unaffordable.

"Shopkeeper? Is anybody there?"

As he entered, Sun Wuliu realized there was no one inside the shop. After calling out twice with some courage, he remembered what Second Brother Chen had told him.

He quickly looked towards the lacquered money box placed in front of the counter.

Neighbor Second Brother Chen had told him that the price of rice in this shop had never gone up.

Not just rice, but oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, clothing, tea leaves, pottery... many items were extremely cheap.

No, one might as well say they were nearly free.

In peaceful times, items worth less than a tael of silver could be taken away here for just one copper coin!

It was like a pie falling from the sky.

Thinking of millet porridge suffused with the scent of rice and oil, Sun Wuliu couldn’t help swallowing his saliva and tossed the copper coin in his hand into the red money box with a slit for coins.

Then he shouted loudly:

"One stone of corn for me!"

Bang!

No sooner had his voice faded when a small door of the counter suddenly opened, rolling out a sack filled with corn.

Seeing it really was as Second Brother Chen had said, Sun Wuliu was overjoyed.

"This is wonderful, there’s hope in this year of disaster, tomorrow I must call all the neighbors to come together!"

He lifted the large sack of corn and ran out.

He was completely oblivious to the fact that his neighbor Second Brother Chen, who had arranged to meet him here, lay silently at the foot of that money box, with everything inside his stomach long since vanished.

The lacquer on the money box was identical to the dried-up bloodstains on the ground!

He had obviously arrived a step before Sun Wuliu and left a step ahead.

One really can’t blame these petty commoners for not being wary of this clearly unreasonable pie in the sky.

Being blinded by small gains at the expense of their lives is an age-old occurrence and will not disappear in the future.

After all, when people are almost starving to death, how can they care about anything else?

A short time later.

Two men dressed like wealthy merchants slowly walked out from the back hall of this shop.

Staring at the red money box, the slightly fatter merchant sighed:

"For every two people who enter, surely one will be devoured, feeding this ’Deceit Object·Money Box,’ a transformation of a trickster immortal, while attracting an endless stream of customers.

Senior Brother Song, wouldn’t it be great if all the businesses in the world were this good?"

His companion, Senior Brother Song, with a wealthy mole on his ear, stripped off everything that could be called wealth, including the silk clothes on his body.

Only then did he cautiously approach the money box.

For this wicked ’Deceit Object’ spared no relations; anyone who approached it with wealth on their person had a fifty percent chance of being devoured.

Even he, who had reached the pinnacle of ’Red Seal’ cultivation, was no exception.

"Junior Brother Qian, we labored in vain last year and lost all our invested goods to the water.

After traversing several counties and waiting a whole year, I only hope that today this ’Money Box’ won’t disappoint us again."

With that, he reached out to open the ’Money Box,’ pouring all the copper coins that had accumulated inside over the past year onto the ground.

Clatter, clatter...

The coins flowed onto the floor like water.

However, the copper coins that poured out were all severely corroded, as if stored in a dark and damp cellar for centuries, no longer fit for currency.

But instead of getting annoyed, the two men’s faces lit up with excitement, and they immediately started rummaging through the pile of copper coins.

Soon, Junior Brother Qian held up a shiny copper coin, laughing loudly:

"Hahaha, Senior Brother, using such a clumsy method to collect the ’Earth Spirit Qi’ and ’Wealth Qi’, and with this ’Red Dust Qi’ we could control the completely unruly ’Deceit Object’ — the Money Box.

After two years, we have finally obtained another... ’Life Trading Coin’!"

That’s right, isn’t the curvy Seal Script on this copper coin exactly the same as the ’Life Trading Coin’ Wang Yuan had in his hand?

Senior Brother Song, looking at the copper coin in Junior Brother Qian’s hand, laughed heartily as well:

"Including this one, we have a total of twelve!

For twenty whole years since our master’s generation, the Junzhou branch of the ’Wine, Color, Wealth Qi Tower’ has spent twenty years collecting these twelve ’Life Trading Coins.’

We’ve gathered enough materials to create the Taoist Inheritance Artifact, ’The Six Desires Red Dust Umbrella’. This time, we must boast and breathe easily within the Tao Lineage!

Junior Brother Qian, it’s time to use the Qingfu Technique to recall the eleven ’Life Trading Coins’ we scattered out there earlier."

The corpulent merchant, Junior Brother Qian, nodded immediately in agreement:

"Yes, Senior Brother.

Those people wouldn’t know that what’s in their hands has already been fashioned into ’Qingfu Mother and Child Coins’ by us. With the Mother Coin calling, the Child Coins will naturally fly back to us.

Moreover, no matter how many ’Life-Saving Money’ they distribute, eighty percent of the brought-back lives will be intercepted by the ’Life Trading Coin,’ just waiting for us to recover them.

No matter how cruel their hearts or how much they scheme, in reality, they are just working for us, the ’Wine, Color, Wealth Qi Tower’—hahaha..."

If you were to ask what the most beautiful flower in the world is called, it would certainly be the ’Suibian Flower.’

This unique spell of the ’Wine, Color, Wealth Qi Tower’ — the Qingfu Mother and Child Coins — could make the ’Suibian Flower’ a reality.

During the refining process.

One must place a female Qingfu and its eggs separately in urns, burn three talismans, and then bury the urns under the gloomy base of a wall. After three days, open them up.

Smear the blood of the female Qingfu on a copper coin to create the ’Mother Coin’; then smear the blood of the Qingfu progeny on another coin, calling it the ’Child Coin.’

When spending money, spending only the Mother Coin or the Child Coin alone allows you to control the other, making the spent money fly back on its own.

Hence, this money would never run out!

If a single copper coin is not enough to spend, one pair of Qingfu mother and child can refine up to eighty-one pairs of Qingfu Mother and Child Coins, and you can even refine a second set, a third set...

Clearly, there are numerous clever people in the Cultivation World.

If Wang Yuan is crowdfunding his cultivation, then they are crowdsourcing artifact refinement... with countless lives!

However, at this very moment.

A sad, insect-like chirp suddenly came from within Junior Brother Qian’s bosom.

Both men’s complexions changed instantly.

Junior Brother Qian quickly took out a string of copper coins tied with a leather cord from his chest. Exactly eleven Mother Coins were strung on it, corresponding to the eleven ’Life Trading Coins’ scattered outside.

But at the very top of the string, the coin that was first refined now appeared dull, and in the blink of an eye, it was covered with verdigris.

Realizing what had happened, Junior Brother Qian cried out in alarm:

"Not good! There’s a problem with the copper coin we sent to the Luoyang King years ago!

The first ’Life Trading Coin’, which has accumulated the most provisions for us over twenty years!"

Senior Brother Song, likewise pale with anger, stamped his foot:

"Quick, bring the ’Money Box’, we must set out for Luoyang right away!

As long as that ’Life Trading Coin’ still exists, this ’Money Box’ as the parent body will surely lead us to it!"

...

At the same time, six hundred miles away on Beimang Mountain.

Squeak—!

The ’Life Trading Coin’, bathed in the ’Enlightenment Immortal Light’, suddenly let out a mournful, insect-like shriek, startling one man and two ghosts.

"Why is this ’Deceit Object’ chanting a verse from the ’Money God Scripture’ while being enlightened, but then it made an insect’s cry at the end? What’s all this about?"

The three of them looked at each other, all puzzled by the unique spell, ’Qingfu Mother and Child Coins.’

At this moment, however, it was Wang Yuan who, after successfully establishing his Dao Foundation, finally had the time to sort through the spoils of war he had acquired earlier.

The first thing he did was to enlighten the ’Life Trading Coin.’

Biography: ’Deceit Object’ — ’Life Trading Coin’

This object was originally an ordinary copper coin that, by a fluke, became tainted by a powerful ’Deceit Object.’

Ability: With this copper coin stamped on gold and silver jewelry, Treasure Banknotes, cloth... and so on; anything that can be circulated as currency, one can buy the lives of others.

Deciding life and death, all is in one’s hands.

Once you’ve taken the ’Life-Saving Money’, your life is no longer your own!

If the victim returns it to its owner within three days, or immediately discards it after handling, or gives it away for free, there will be no consequences.

But if one chooses to keep it or directly spends it, the transaction is considered complete by default, agreeing to sell their own life to the ’Life Trading Coin’, and they cannot resist any orders from their owner.

Precept Taboo:

[1. Avarice is never satisfied. If one holds onto this treasure for a long time, avarice will uncontrollably swell up gradually. Greed for wealth, power, beauty, delicacies... eventually accumulating all the five poisons, becoming a force of evil.]

[2. Glutton for lives. The ’Life Trading Coin’ itself is also greedy. There can only be a maximum of three targets it enslaves without devouring immediately.

The enslavement of others cannot exceed a month in duration. Beyond that, they will be swallowed up entirely.]

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