Chapter 14: Night Journey

After dealing with all five people, the whole morning is basically spent seven

or eighty-eight.

The situation mentioned by the yellow shirt man is gradually becoming reality-

in order to compete for the opportunity to stay in Qingshan Town, the

candidates began to attack each other, and this situation even appeared at the

entrance of the hotel and the restaurant.

If it weren't for one of the rules that "it is forbidden to interfere in the

daily lives of villagers," Xia Fan suspects that these people would treat the

store as a place of struggle.

"Fortunately, they won't make trouble in the teahouse," Wei Wushuang said with

lingering fear, "it seems that the examiner is still merciful."

"It may not be so." Xia Fan shook his head.

"Why did Brother Xia say this?" He asked in astonishment, "It is clear in the

test rules that candidates must not—"

"You must not interfere with the lives of the villagers, but there is no rule

that hotels and teahouses are not allowed to be broken."

"This..." Wei Wushuang couldn't turn around for a while.

"Think about it," Xia Fan lowered his voice, "If you make trouble in the hotel

outside and smash one or two tables and chairs, what will the store do?"

"As long as you lose money, unless you don't have enough money—" He was

stunned by this.

"Yes." Xia Fan raised the corners of his mouth slightly, "If you can lose

money, the store probably hopes you will smash all the old tables, and the

government will not deal with such trivial matters. Changing to Qingshan Town

is equivalent to making trouble. It’s not a violation, it’s a violation only

if there is no money for compensation."

Wei Wushuang was speechless for a while.

Xia Fan didn't go on, he knew that based on the other party's knowledge, he

would definitely be able to think of what it meant.

There are two reasons why no one does it now.

One is that everyone hasn't noticed this yet, and the other is that the money

in hand is not enough.

Not being aware of it now does not mean that no one will realize it in the

next few days; in the same way, there is not enough money now, it does not

mean that it will be the same in the next few days. As candidates continue to

be eliminated, the money will gradually be concentrated until a "giant" is

formed. This trend is almost inevitable.

In the last one or two days, I am afraid that there will be a lot of money in

the remaining candidates, even if you smash a few tables or the bed of the

hotel door, you can still afford it.

In the face of the spirit fire that is bound to be insufficient, getting it

from other candidates becomes their only choice. Xia Fan can imagine what will

happen when he closes his eyes-whether it is day or night, whether in a tea

house or in a hotel room, the entire Qingshan Town will become a hunting

ground. It can be said that whoever can gather more money can completely take

the initiative.

Wei Wushuang's face changed.

Such a situation development is obviously the worst for him.

In other words, it is the worst kind for every candidate.

Trust and cooperation will no longer exist, and even those improvised gangs

must always guard against attacks from within—after all, the examiner wants a

jar full of spiritual fire, and doesn’t care where the jar comes from.

After arching his hand to Xia Fan, the fellow villager left with a look of

despair.

He found a side table on the second floor of the tea house, ordered a meal,

and watched the situation on the other side of the hotel.

At this moment, the core content of Shikao seems to have surfaced.

It's just that Xia Fan still has a lot of doubts in his heart.

Regardless of how you look at it, this rule is too advantageous for the

disciples of the family. Compared with the temporary gangs, they are

undoubtedly much more stable internally. What's more, the quota allocation may

have been determined before the exam. Only a small number of people can

accompany the exam to get the whole maximum profit.

Although network and family background are also part of strength, in this way,

the selected alchemists will also have a family background, and the Qi royal

family should not expect to see such a result.

Of course, Shikao’s political purpose is not something he needs to think about

now—no matter what the above considerations are, it has nothing to do with

him. His current top priority is to get a bottle of Spirit Fire as soon as

possible to ensure his qualifications.

……

At midnight, it was dead at night outside.

Xia Fan sighed slightly after interrupting her Qi-entraining practice. At this

point, the fox demon hasn't appeared yet, and her guess is almost always

confirmed \- she won't come again.

With a trace of regret, he began to prepare for the business tonight. Shikao

is allowed to bring two sets of clothes, in addition to one set is a common

burqa, the other set is a night suit made by himself. Different from the loose

clothing that is popular in this era, the latter completely follows the

principle of simplicity and ease of use. There are no buttons. The sleeves,

body and cap are integrated. The wrists, elbows and chest are all sewn with a

layer of cowhide to improve durability.

clothes are not pure black, but navy blue fabric-theoretically, the most

suitable color for the night is dark purple, but limited to the dye level, he

can only take second place and choose the less rare dark blue. As for black...

it looks most like night, but once in a light place, a moving "shadow" can

easily attract attention, and the hiding effect is not even as good as gray.

Taking a deep breath, Xia Fan turned out from the window and climbed against

the wall towards the second floor.

Different from the smooth concrete wall, the outer edge of the wooden house

has many protruding wedges, which are naturally suitable for climbing. Even a

half-hanger like him can easily climb several floors.

He spent all afternoon observing the residences and movements of the disciples

of the aristocratic family, and finally selected a house closest to his

residence as the target of action.

Now the spiritual fire gathering place is occupied by the Fei family, Luo

family, and Wei family in turn. Only these three families can obtain the

spiritual fire.

And Xia Fan's plan was to steal a bottle of spiritual fire source from them!

Although it is not clear who lives inside, the people wearing the Luo family's

blue robes have been in and out of this house many times, and all of them are

highly vigilant. They will look around before entering the door. Considering

that disciples of the aristocratic family might also be attacked, Xia Fan

speculated that the other party's countermeasures should be to collect the

spirit fire for centralized care instead of handing it over to individuals.

At the same time, he also noticed that the corridor outside this house was

connected to a total of six rooms, four of which were rented by the Luo

family. If someone wants to break through, they only need to say hello, and

the Luo family can quickly squeeze the corridor and form a line of defense

that is difficult to overcome.

The family didn’t even know the content of the exam, and it was even

impossible to know the layout of Qingshan Town in advance. This was

undoubtedly their own idea based on the situation on the spot.

occupies a high corner of the hotel, taking care of each other, easy to defend

and difficult to attack. I have to say that the thinking of the disciples of

the family is indeed more sophisticated than most of their peers.

But Xia Fan didn't plan to head-on from the beginning.

He moved to the edge of the house window a little bit, unfastened the cloth

belt around his waist with one hand, and wrapped it around the raised eave

beam to fix himself in the air. At the same time, he took out a hairpin and

pierced the window paper from the corner. Poke into the house gently.

This special hairpin is thin in the front and thick in the back, with a hollow

interior, through which you can barely see the situation in the room. Xia Fan

scanned for a week and found that the Luo family had specially arranged two

people to watch the night, which further confirmed his guess.

It shouldn't be too late, he took out the medicine packet, filled the hairpin

with a mixed herbal medicine, then lit it with a fire fold, and carefully blew

inward.

This medicinal herb made from Datura flower, Immature grass black, night

peony, magic mushroom and winter fern is his master's proud work. It is said

to be difficult to buy for a thousand dollars and must not be easily spread.

When they are ignited, the smoke that emerges is soft and elegant, colorless

and tasteless, and the person who smells it will only feel extremely peaceful,

and has the effect of relieving pain and calming the spirit. If you smell it

for a long time, you will fall into a drowsy unconsciously, and will not wake

up until dawn. Its hypnotic effect is far better than those in the black

market.

Xia Fan personally tested it several times. It turns out that this is probably

one of the few things his master did not brag about—even if it is an

alchemist, it is difficult to detect its existence. Even before the master was

stunned by his medicine, he did not do it. After any reaction, he slept really

well afterwards.

This is also his biggest support for this plan. If there is no such thing, he

would not dare to spend money on the first day.

In fact, only a handful of medicinal materials in Xia Fan’s medicine package

are related to magic, most of which are wounds, intoxicated drugs and

antidote. After ten years with Master, I have not learned much knowledge of

magic, various tricks and yin. He is a little better at human skill.

From this it can be seen that Shaogang is positive, and there is output only

when he is alive. It is the truth wherever it is placed.

blew for about half an hour, and there was no sound in the house.

Although Luo's family has arranged for a night watch, they are all teenage

children after all. It is unrealistic to require them to stay at the door with

a high concentration of energy for several hours. Before Xia Fan ignited

Mixiang, the two of them had been dozing off, and Mixiang just pushed them a

little.

Xia Fan opened the window pin, covered his mouth and nose with a wet cloth,

turned over and entered the house.

This wing room is much larger than the one he rented, and the two rooms inside

and outside are separated by gauze curtains. The outside is regarded as the

living room, and the inside one is the bedroom.

He pulled the gauze off, searched lightly, and quickly found the goal of the

trip.

As he expected, the Luo family collected all the spiritual fires collected

here, and hid them under the bed very uncreatively. With the dim yellow

candlelight in the outer room, he could see at least twenty porcelain bottles

stuffed under the bed, each with a string tied to the mouth.

This is probably the last defense of the Luo family, right?

Although I can't see where these ropes are connected, in all likelihood, just

a move of the bottle will trigger the rope-connected mechanism. Xia Fan

guessed that it might be something like a bell, which could alert Luo's family

to the invasion in the first time.

Of course, this is not too difficult for him. After all, he has studied

mathematics, physics and chemistry, and he is not afraid to travel all over

the world. Cut two strands of cloth from one corner of the bed sheet, take the

material on the spot and roll it into a rope shape. Then, according to the

parallelogram rule of force, tie the two cloth strips separately between the

string and the bed frame to make the direction of the combined force

consistent with the rope. After finishing these preparations, Xia Fan cut the

string.

The rope that had lost its restraint shrank slightly, but was quickly pulled

by the taut cloth and maintained its original position.

At this point, there is no obstacle to taking out the porcelain bottle.

After confirming that the bottle was indeed the source of the spiritual fire,

Xia Fan tied it behind his back, returned to the window on the same path, and

returned to his cabin along the wall again.

It wasn't until the moment his feet landed that he was completely relieved.

The whole process was unexpectedly smooth, and it only took more than an hour

from the start to the success.

"Should I say that the alchemist is good at stealing things such as chickens

and dogs, should I say it was accidental, or should I take it for granted?"

But the next moment, a voice came from behind unexpectedly, shocking him in a

cold sweat!