Chapter 2 The Stall

  Xu Fu's West Garden, Xu Hua walked through the long corridor and arrived at his own house, from afar he heard the playful voices of two young girls.

  "Heh heh, Chunmei, you little girl's bust is getting bigger again, it's almost catching up with mine."

  "Cut it out, Autumn Chrysanthemum, you're too full of yourself. Your breasts aren't even as big as mine."

  Upon hearing this, Xu Hua's face turned slightly red as he walked towards them. As a young master of a wealthy family, although only 14 years old, he had some understanding of relationships between men and women. However, his heart only felt something for Zhou Ying, the little girl. Perhaps in two more years, he could ask his father to propose to the Zhou family on his behalf, Xu Hua thought suddenly.

  "Ah, young master, when did you arrive? Did you hear everything we said earlier?" Just as Xu Hua was stunned, Qiu Ju suddenly saw him and immediately blushed and whispered, her face red with embarrassment. Chun Mei beside her also had a bashful expression, constantly glancing at Xu Hua, seeing that he was secretly smiling to himself, before relaxing.

  Chun Mei and Qiu Ju were Xu Hua's maids, only 18 years old this year. They had been following him since he was ten years old, responsible for his food and daily life. They were both orphans who were taken in by the Xu family and raised to become maids in the mansion, taking care of the Xu family's needs. They were very loyal to the Xu family and considered it their own home. Even among the maids of the Xu family, there was a significant gap between them. If they had encountered a bad master, their future would have been miserable. However, Xu Hua was a well-known good person in Qing Shan Town, so they naturally wouldn't be bullied by him. Over the past four years, the relationship between them and Xu Hua had always been good, and the three of them were very casual with each other.

  "Young master, are you thinking of Miss Ying again? Every time you think of Miss Ying, you always have this silly smile on your face." Chunmei and Qiujie walked slowly to Xu Hua's side, shaking his arm and chuckling.

  "Ah, what?" Xuhua came to, but didn't hear Chunmei and Qiujie's words. Seeing his appearance, the two immediately said: "Young master, every time you think of Miss Ying, you're like this, so distracted, it makes us sisters so heartbroken!"

  Xu Hua scratched the back of his head with a sheepish grin, and immediately changed the subject: "Two sisters, help me prepare for bathing and dressing, I'll be going out later."

  "Master, please go inside and sit down first. We two sisters will get ready right away." After saying that, the two of them hurriedly went to make arrangements. Only then did Xu Hua push open the door and step inside.

  Xu Hua's house was not very luxurious, on the contrary, compared to other Xu family members, it looked a bit simple. A big bed, a wardrobe, a table, three chairs, a screen, and several dark blue long gowns placed on the cabinet at the head of the bed were the ones Xu Hua often wore, he preferred dark blue shirts, so his outerwear was mostly dark blue.

  He walked to the bedside, took off his shoes, and quietly lay on the bed, waiting for Chunmei and Qiujie to finish their work. He looked particularly comfortable, and slowly he fell asleep. In his dream, he seemed to see himself and Zhou Ying teaching the world, spreading the way of equality among all living things, and saving all sentient beings...

  "Master... Master..."

  A familiar voice pulled Xu Hua out of his dream, and he stretched lazily, looking at the bathtub and the large wooden tub above which rose a wisp of hot mist. Xu Hua smiled and said, "Thanks to both sisters."

  "Master, let us two serve you in bathing and dressing!" After finishing speaking, the two began to take off Xu Hua's clothes, revealing Xu Hua's robust body that didn't match his age. Everything was so smooth, Chun Mei put wooden clogs on Xu Hua's feet, Xu Hua walked to the wooden bucket, took off the clogs and entered the water, waiting for the two to scrub him.

  ……

  After a good half-hour, Xu Hua finished his bath and changed into new clothes before stepping out of the room with great enthusiasm towards the main gate.

  As he walked on the road, Xu Hua would often greet or nod to his fellow clansmen and the guards at the mansion. However, apart from those guards, it seemed that no one else paid attention to him. Some of the younger generation of the Xu family even gave him a look of disdain, but Xu Hua ignored them all, as if he hadn't seen anything. This made many of the Xu family's younger generation grit their teeth in anger.

  They finally arrived at the Xu family's gate, where a young man of about twenty years old, tall and stately, with an air of pride in his eyes, walked out from outside the gate.

  "Master Zhēn."

  The young man in white didn't look at them, but smiled faintly and greeted Xu Hua: "Xiao Hua, going to the commoner's quarter again?"

  His name is Xu Zhēng, the grandson of the Great Elder, the most outstanding genius of the Xu family. He's only twenty years old, but he's already a first-level martial artist. In the future, there's an 80-90% chance that he'll enter the Martial King level and become the top strongman in Qing Shan Town.

  Unlike other Xu family juniors, he greets Xu Hua every time they meet. It's not that his relationship with Xu Hua is particularly good, but as the first among the younger generation of the Xu family, he has a unique temperament. Although he doesn't acknowledge Xu Hua, after all, they are both Xu family juniors, and Xu Hua dislikes martial arts. Given the current trend, Xu Hua can't stop him from becoming the master of the Xu family, so naturally, he doesn't have much aversion to Xu Hua either.

  The position of the head of the Xu family has always been established through physical strength, whoever is stronger will take the position. Among the younger generation of the Xu family, except for Xu Hui and Xu Lang who are studying abroad, Xu Zhong is the strongest. Xu Hui is a woman and cannot be the head of the household, only Xu Lang has the qualifications to compete with Xu Zhong for the position, but Xu Lang is two years younger than Xu Zhong and it's unknown whether he has broken through to the level of a martial master.

  "Yes, Brother Xu Zong, I'll go take a look." Xuhua smiled and nodded at Xu Zong, their relationship was neither too close nor too distant, so there was no need for many words.

  As soon as Xu Hua walked out of the Xu family gate, he headed towards the Beiping civilian district. At this time, he and Zhou Ying would usually go to the civilian district to help those poor people a bit.

  Xu's family was on the east side of Qing Shan Town, walking along the bluestone road, and there were more and more vendors calling out on both sides.

  "Candied hawthorn... candied hawthorn!"

  "Just out of the oven, hot and sweet buns."

  "Antiques... antiques, freshly unearthed antiques, come and take a look! They might just be spiritual artifacts with immense power, don't miss out if you're passing by!" A middle-aged man with a pitch-black face sat beside his stall, shouting at the top of his lungs.

  "Boss, you're just cheating people. How can your stuff be antique? If you really had antiques, would you still need to come here and set up a stall?" A passerby jeered.

  "You can't say that, I don't know which one is an antique? If I knew how to make it cheaper for you, it's up to your discerning eye. If you have a good eye and pick a spiritual piece, then you'll really get rich."

  "Seems to have some meaning, boss, how do you sell these antiques?" Two young people wearing ordinary clothes walked up to the stall and each picked up an item, scanning it briefly.

  The stall owner smiled and stretched out a palm, where one of the young men said to himself: "Five hundred copper coins, okay, boss, wrap this up for me, I'll take it home and play with it."

  The stall owner shook his head immediately, making a gesture to drive him away, saying: "Go go go, poor devils don't come and see, all of these are 50 taels of silver per piece! Five hundred copper coins? You're buying a chamber pot!"

  Those two young men immediately became angry and threw down the ornaments in their hands, saying: "This broken toy is worth fifty taels of silver. You'll be waiting until you're old and dead before you can sell it."

  The stall owner looked at the two of them impatiently, then his eyes lit up as he stared at Xu Hua who was walking over slowly. "Little rabbit, hurry up and scram, don't block my business, look, a customer is coming."

  "Hu Tan Zhu, with this appearance of yours, I'm afraid there aren't many people who would dare to do business with you." Xu Hua said with a smile as he looked at the big and dark man.

  "Haha, as long as there are kind-hearted people like Master Hua around, I can get by with just one or two deals a month."

  Xu Hua often patronized his small stall, from time to time buying some strange gadgets, which earned him a lot of money. The owner also treated Xu Hua with extra enthusiasm.

  "It's actually Xu San Shao, no wonder boss you won't starve to death, with Xu San Shao as a scapegoat, just buying a few small things will make you rich." The two young men looked at each other and immediately became very disdainful, even deliberately blocking Xu Hua in front of him, puffed out their chest, staring at Xu Hua with eyes like fighting cocks. Xu Hua only responded with a faint smile.

  "Don't buy anything, what nonsense are you talking about here? Get out of my sight!" Hu Tan's owner suddenly burst out with a strong momentum, pressing towards the two young men. Under this momentum, the two were caught off guard and immediately retreated several steps backwards. When they looked at Hu Tan's owner again, their eyes had added a few points of fear. They did not expect that this dark-faced vendor was actually a powerful martial artist. After feeling the vendor's martial arts aura, the two did not dare to stay and left with their noses pinched shut.

  Seeing the two leave, Hu Tan's face suddenly broke into a smile and he said: "Young Master Hua, take a look and see what you like. Although this time it's not something good from a big tomb, I still spent a lot of effort to find these things."

  Xu Hua picked up a pot-like object from the stall and began to examine it. Xu Hua often visited this old man Hu because he had obtained the "Shengong" technique from him, which was originally a blank sheepskin paper with no words on it. After buying it back, he put it aside for a whole month without asking about it, but later the sheepskin paper was accidentally wetted by water, and after Xu Hua dried it over the fire, words appeared one by one, which turned out to be the complete "Shengong" technique.

  It's been two years, and Xu Hua has been cultivating the "Devouring Life Technique" every day, absorbing the life force of countless plants and trees to nourish his body. Now his physique is incredibly powerful, probably even surpassing that of a Martial King-level warrior. To outsiders, he appears to be just a novice martial artist who has only reached the early stages of the Warrior Realm, but only he himself knows how terrifyingly strong his physical body has become.

  Two months ago, he had tried it out and was able to punch a huge hole in the ground with one fist. He estimated that his physical strength was no less than a thousand kilograms. Two months had passed since then, and his strength should have grown even stronger. However, only he himself knew about this, not even telling his father - this was his own secret.

  For two years, he often patronized this stall owner, trying to gain something else, but in vain. He still picked some utensils that he couldn't see through and took them home. As the third young master of the Xu family, he didn't care about this little money.

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