Chapter 557: Chapter 317: Traveling Among Men Still Carrying Wine

Zheng Yisi was ordered to accompany He Kao out, yet they didn’t visit the ancestral hall but instead wandered around the town outside.

The ancestral hall is merely a local shrine commemorating ancestors, not a paid tourist attraction, and is usually not open to visitors. When hosting Jianghu wanderers like He Kao, only the front three courtyards are accessible, and they can’t enter the critical sections of the second courtyard.

Outside the ancestral hall, the town was very lively.

Most areas within Phoenix Tail Town are deep mountains and dense forests, with only one town and eight natural villages, totaling a registered population of over 11,000, while the town’s permanent residents are about 6,000.

Upon learning that He Kao hadn’t eaten breakfast, Zheng Yisi introduced a local old brand restaurant that serves hot noodle soup with thousand-layer scallion meat cake, quite unique.

Ordering can be done via scanning a QR code; the restaurant is very busy, and Zheng Yisi insisted on treating, so He Kao let him pay the bill.

Sitting at a table near the entrance, He Kao found the food here really good. He drank the noodle soup entirely, but the truly unique specialty was the thousand-layer scallion meat cake. It tasted exceptionally fragrant with each bite!

He Kao “identified” that the ingredients in the cake were not just ordinary green onions but also included a small amount of Spirit Plant Jade Finger White, which is very similar in appearance and texture to scallions.

Though the Jade Finger White in the cake was in small quantity and not of quality suitable for refining elixirs, when steamed with fat and flour, it neutralizes its strong spiritual effect, making it edible for ordinary people and beneficial for health, a very good healthy food.

No other breakfast place would have such a thing, let alone selling a cake for only 25 yuan; it seems slightly expensive but is absolutely a public-friendly common price. After finishing one, He Kao felt shy to buy more.

According to Zheng Yisi, this breakfast shop opens daily at 6:30 a.m., the scallion meat cake has limited stock, and it’s sold out once finished. If you’re late, you can’t buy it… Today, they were quite lucky.

He didn’t mention anything about Zhao Ci or even touch upon topics related to the Magic Sect, the conversation merely introduced the local customs and features.

He Kao looked out the door; the row of houses across the street was evidently ancient architecture, not the modern classical-style buildings often seen at many attractions, yet they were very well maintained, as if newly built in recent decades.

In other places, these houses would probably be cultural heritage units, but here they are just ordinary shop fronts along the street.

Across the street, there was an old and elegant tea house, with many customers in professional attire, who placed open laptop computers beside them while eating… Upon looking back at this noodle soup shop, there were also many such customers.

This scene is often seen in coffee shops in large cities; Zheng Yisi explained that those people were local workers who have breakfast nearby before going to work.

As for that old tea house across the street, it doesn’t only sell tea; it has a variety of tea-time snacks that are quite distinctive. Many young people like having them for breakfast.

Of course, the most special thing there is the tea, especially the Spirit Tea. Zheng Yisi suggested that after breakfast, they take a stroll, wait to digest, and then have a pot of tea…

Phoenix Tail Town’s tertiary industry is quite excellent; many local township enterprises have quietly developed into large-scale operations, with offices and various branches in many big cities outside the mountains.

Yet they deliberately established their company headquarters or other office institutions in Phoenix Tail Town, including the town and surrounding villages.

Whether local or outsiders, young people can settle and work here or take turns residing in Phoenix Tail Town. In the future, their children can attend school here; they actually prefer their children to study here.

At this point, a bus drove by, and He Kao asked: “Is there public transit here too?”

Zheng Yisi explained: “Phoenix Tail Town has its own bus system but not as frequently as in big cities.

There are three bus routes within the town, each departing once daily round trip in the morning, noon, and evening, with the starting station being the town and end stations being Jinghua Village farthest west, Cloud Ascension Village farthest east, and Cai Ping Village outside the mountains.

There is also a route that goes to the county town, passing through the high-speed rail station, with one departure each from Phoenix Tail Town and the county in the directions at 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. daily.

The road from Phoenix Tail Town to the county has been newly repaired in recent years, and now the car ride takes over two hours, allowing villagers to take the bus if they don’t want to drive themselves.

There are no taxis in the town, but there are ride-hailing services which can be ordered via mobile phone, organized by the township government for some villagers to do as a part-time job…”

He Kao sighed: “Life here is quite nice!”

Zheng Yisi: “Of course it’s nice, considering it’s where the sect headquarters are located, with mountains and water naturally serene from ancient times. Although the environment was extremely isolated before, now everything is convenient, even the internet speed is fast…”

He Kao: “Elder Zheng is quite familiar with this place?”

Zheng Yisi: “When I graduated from elementary school, my teacher brought me here, and we ate at this very restaurant, leaving a deep impression. The teacher once wanted me to stay here for middle school, arranging for me to join the class taught by Elder Zong.

At that time, Elder Zong was still young, just started as a homeroom teacher for middle school… Yet, I, being ignorant, didn’t want to and ended up returning to study with my master in Dangguan County.”

Zheng Yisi held back from saying that since Master Zhao Sanjin retired, unless summoned by the Ancestral Hall, disciples of the Huailin Lineage rarely reside in Phoenix Tail Town, and he himself hasn’t officially held a position in the sect.

Their lineage has inherited Dao Fields and medicinal gardens around Ba Mountain since ancient times, and has also managed various industries over recent decades, living quite a comfortable life, delighting in leisure and engaging little in sect affairs or contributing much.

Although they sometimes provide some rare spirit medicines to the Sect, those are paid tasks… Otherwise, when the Ancestral Hall successfully refined a cauldron of Pure Yang Pills today, Zhao Ci wouldn’t have failed to get even one.

After breakfast, the two wandered around Fengwei Town. He Kao felt that this place was like a tourist attraction, one that hasn’t undergone commercial development or been hyped up by internet celebrities, maintaining its primitive atmosphere.

In fact, there are quite a few “tourists” from outside here, and even the local people are not surprised anymore. For example, the town’s permanent residents number six thousand, but the total population throughout the year is nearly ten thousand, with a transient population of three to four thousand.

There is only one hotel here, namely the former town government guesthouse, but there are also hundreds of countryside bed and breakfasts.

Almost none of the people who come here are tourists in the conventional sense. There are no organized tour groups, and most will stay for at least ten days to half a month, or even several months. It’s considered a deep experience tour.

If you ask them what they are here for, they usually say they’re here for a vacation, and they often have acquaintances locally, like colleagues from the same corporation and so on.

The number of registered disciples in the Magic Sect has grown explosively in recent years due to various reasons. The result of the first large-scale census of Magic Sect disciples was about five thousand, and the latest data has exceeded seven thousand.

The sorcerers permanently residing in Fengwei Town don’t even reach a thousand, with most other Magic Sect disciples scattered all over. Besides, there’s also a much larger group, the Guests of Fate totaling over a hundred thousand, potentially numbering in the hundreds of thousands.

Among them, there are some wealthy and leisurely, well-informed people who know the location of the Sect Headquarters. Even if only a small portion occasionally visits Fengwei Town for “vacation,” the outer tourists here are not few.

The Magic Sect even advises these people not to crowd in too often, to avoid disturbing the normal lives of the local ordinary villagers.

Therefore, the town is always bustling, and most businesses are doing well. He Kao bought quite a few local specialties, initially packing them in a backpack. When the backpack couldn’t hold anymore, he bought a large bamboo-woven backpack and put the backpack inside it.

Preserved mountain products that are easy to store were fine, but he even bought some fresh fruits, vegetables, and wild game from the market, unknowingly filling the bamboo basket to the brim, even piled high, which really couldn’t be carried without some strength.

He bought a lot of local specialties from various shops that were like both ingredients and medicinal materials, and by the end, the bamboo basket was truly full, so he was carrying another large basket woven from soft vine in his hand.

Zheng Yisi was a bit dumbfounded, was he here to stock up?

Indeed, there were many good things to buy locally. Some shops were opened by sorcerers, and they weren’t afraid that customers wouldn’t recognize the goods. Moreover, those kinds of things were mostly much more expensive than a scallion meat pie.

Shopping here for He Kao felt just like a mouse in a rice bin, as long as he wasn’t broke. As he shopped, he found himself with another large basket, and both baskets he carried were almost all filled.

In less than a morning, he bought some rural specialties and spent nearly two hundred thousand, which seemed pretty exaggerated.

Zheng Yisi asked curiously, “He Xiaoyou, it’s one thing to buy those semi-processed spiritual materials, but why did you also buy these fresh vegetables and meat?”

He Kao: “Later, I’ll return to the Flower Shocking Grotto Heaven and cook a meal for Elder Jiang and Junior Sister Wei… By the way, is there any place here that sells liquor, the kind that isn’t high in alcohol, is neutral, and tastes good?”

By “neutral,” He Kao meant that it had spiritual effects, but wasn’t specifically for any beneficial treatment, just a balanced nourishing effect that even ordinary people could consume.

Zheng Yisi: “Aren’t you also implying that it would be best if it were suitable for ladies to drink?”

He Kao nodded: “Yes, yes, you understand me.”

Zheng Yisi: “I know a place that sells good osmanthus rice brew, they have both ordinary rice brew and special Hundred Saliva Valley Brew… But how are you going to carry all this stuff?”

He Kao: “Elder Jiang brought me here on a tricycle, parked outside the Ancestral Hall; I’ll put everything in the cargo bed and haul it back.”

Zheng Yisi rubbed the tip of his nose a little, not really wanting to speak, then took him to buy liquor, buying two white plastic drums, each holding ten jins, both filled with Hundred Saliva Valley Brew.

After buying the liquor, they finally went to the teahouse they had seen at breakfast for a break.

The tea snacks here weren’t expensive, but the tea prices varied widely, with options for the general public and some with outrageously high prices on the menu, at least two extra zeros compared to others.

Usually, such items are just printed on the price list to flaunt, showcasing the shop’s status. If someone actually orders them, they are truly fools… but the situation here was a bit different.

Zheng Yisi volunteered to buy the most expensive pot of tea. He Kao noticed that it was the same tea used by the Lingxi Sect to entertain Zhao Sanjin the day before in the Flower Shocking Grotto Heaven, a tea he had brewed himself.

This place not only sold tea but also tea leaves, so He Kao bought three jins of tea leaves from the shop owner.

Right after purchasing the tea leaves, Zheng Yisi received a notification to go to the Ancestral Hall to fetch his disciple. It seemed the Elders had already made a decision on punishment, and Zheng Yisi breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that at least the person was okay.

**

PS: There’s a double update today! (Mainly because these two Chapters describe the slow-paced experiences in Fengwei Town.)

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Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep