The Journey of Immortal Cultivation
Chapter 115 - 87 Staying at a Residence

Chapter 115: Chapter 87 Staying at a Residence

Who would have thought that within just a dozen breaths, the blisters on the man’s hand began to subside; another quarter of an hour later, all the blisters on his entire arm had disappeared without a trace, leaving only the redness from his own scratches. He took a long breath of relief, just as he was about to hurl some curses to vent his frustration, his companion quickly covered his mouth:

"Think you can easily survive red scorpion poison? They obviously spared you this time, don’t bite the hand that feeds you! If you annoy that young lady again, she could turn your bones to ash!"

At this moment, from a distance, "What poison did you put in his arm?" the whistle asked. A cunning master often has a disciple who is not far behind.

"Just a bit of scorpion powder. I caught a scorpion a few days ago on the road and extracted a little bit of poison liquid," Ning Xiaoxian said, "I lessened the potency, he’ll be alright. Even without treatment, the swelling would subside naturally after two quarters of an hour." Her heart was too soft, a slight punishment for those who offended her was enough, there was no need to take a life.

The whistle sighed. Such a delicate and beautiful young lady, but insists on squatting by the roadside capturing venomous insects and squeezing out their poison, he felt the scene was utterly bizarre just by imagining it.

As Ning Xiaoxian walked and chatted with the whistle, she learned that merchant teams had been continuously arriving and staying in Rock City over the past few days. Not all team leaders were like Deng Hao, sharing weal and woe with their subordinates, and as long as the team members had spare silver, they naturally could find a good bed to sleep in. Although room prices surged by more than 60% during peak season compared to the off-season, the inns in the city were mostly full, not to mention single rooms; the basic situation was that there was a shortage of available rooms.

The so-called homestays were, simply put, privately-operated small family inns. However, she had only heard of such homestays being managed by farm families in rural wildernesses. Could it be that in such a grand city, the authorities permitted homestays to freely compete for guests?

The whistle was not exactly an ideal explainer. It took her a long while to pry some general understanding out of him.

It turns out that ever since Rock City became known far and wide as Tea City, the number of merchant teams coming here to buy tea each spring and autumn increased. Even after the City Lord ordered the expansion of the entire Rock City more than twice its size and built a merchant inn, the problem of lodging still intensified.

Although the idea of building more inns was tempting, it was not feasible, because after the peak season, the number of guests would greatly decline, leaving many inns at risk of not only losing their investment but potentially going bankrupt. Therefore, the City Lord came up with a solution, which was to allow the opening of homestays to solve the accommodation problem for merchants, especially those who are independent travelers.

Originally, Rock City’s urban policy did not allow residents to conduct business at home; all commerce had to be carried out in the East Market established by the city. However, a few years ago, the City Lord changed the rules, not only allowing residents to orient their main doors towards the street but also agreeing for people to open shops along the street, conducting business there. Especially during the peak season, the authorities would specifically grant favours, allowing residents to rent out their spare rooms to visitors from out of town.

Rock City had over 30,000 households and more than 170,000 people. It was a newly expanded city, and the price of land was far from skyrocketing. It was common for wealthy families to have three or maybe even more house deeds hidden away. Silver was the greatest asset, and the two peak seasons each year were prime time for making money; no one would refuse to earn such profits. Once this decree was issued, it greatly alleviated the conflict of insufficient guest rooms, with some small merchant teams even taking up residence directly in private homes.

Of course, among the merchant teams, there were many rugged men, as well as those who were thieves by nature with less-than-clean hands. In order to warn petty criminals, Rock City set up a Military Patrol Station every nine hundred steps along the main streets. The Corner Patrol officers maintained traffic order and facilitated the flow of people and vehicles during the day; at night, they guarded government buildings, merchant houses, prevented theft and fire, and avoided accidental incidents.

The first year when homestay operations started, there were two incidents of theft, but they were quickly solved, and the caught thieves and their merchant teams were severely punished. In the following years, due to effective security measures and the merchant teams’ self-management, there had been mostly peace.

The whistle, familiar with the paths, led her through twists and turns to a residence in the civilian area, gently knocking on a household’s front door. A woman around twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old answered, dressed plainly with refined and delicate features. Seeing the whistle at the door, she exclaimed, "Mr. Hua?"

Huh, the whistle’s surname is Hua? Ning Xiaoxian blinked, realizing she had always been calling him "whistle" this and "whistle" that, at most adding a "Brother" suffix, but never knew his actual name.