Chapter 173 Food Price Liang Qu stood up and felt the difference in the qi and blood in his body. Compared with before practicing, it is a little more mellow. "It's a pity that the dragon-tiger golden body is far from perfect, but the strengthening of Qi has begun to show results, and the movement of Qi and blood is smoother and more comfortable." The condensation of the golden body is the biggest feature of the Diamond Sutra, although it is divided into several stages. The deeper the practice, the stronger the golden body will be. If there are corresponding natural treasures to assist, the practice can be accelerated. But no matter what, it is impossible to condense it successfully right after starting, otherwise this skill would be too shocking. Dragon tendons and tiger bones are beneficial to the condensation of the golden body. Liang Qu himself is favored by the Emperor of Sichuan, and his martial arts talent has doubled. He can learn skills and martial arts faster than ordinary people. Even so, if one wants to initially condense the golden body, without rare materials and treasures, it will take no less than several months. Liang Qu didn't know how fast other people were, but he thought it was probably much slower than his own. He was very envious of the effects of the Golden Body of Dragon and Tiger, especially the characteristics of it sounding like dragon roars and tiger howls when used, which could deter ghosts and demons, and exterminate evil spirits.
The Great Merit Exchange Book contains a wide variety of skills with various characteristics. Although he did not look at it carefully, he did not have the impression that there was any skill with such characteristics. It must be rare. There are all kinds of wonders in the world. Any strange phenomenon will appear as long as you look for it in a large enough area. Having a rare skill is definitely not a bad thing. "Comfortable! Sleep!" After returning from Fengbu County, Liang Qu was given two days of vacation after having solved a great crime. He had no intention of rushing back to work. Workers, take a night off. the next day. Aunt Zhang, who was cooking, pushed the door open from the side and saw Liang Qu wielding the Fu Bo rifle and practicing his spear skills in the courtyard. "My boss is back?" "Yes, I came back last night. Good morning, Aunt Zhang. You can make more breakfast. Oh, by the way, I won't be eating at home tonight, so the portion for the master alone is enough." "I have something to do tonight, so you don't have to save any food for me." The old monk opened the door, walked into the courtyard and bowed. Liang Qu nodded and did not ask the old monk what he was going to do. The two of them lived under the same roof and each took what they needed, so it was not appropriate to ask too much. "Then don't cook tonight. Aunt Zhang can go back and rest after finishing lunch." Aunt Zhang nodded in agreement. Liang Qu gave her a vacation and paid her a good salary every month, so she was happy to have the extra half day of free time. "By the way, Aunt Zhang, is the price of food still rising recently? If so, I'll give you some more money so you don't have enough." Liang Qu took out a silver ingot from his arms. Practicing martial arts requires a big appetite, and a lot of beef and mutton are needed for meals. The food money alone is a considerable expense every month. Aunt Zhang’s salary is not enough to cover it, so naturally she has to pay first and settle the bill at the end of the month.
Aunt Zhang waved her hands: "That's enough, that's enough, the price of grain has fallen!" Liang Qu was puzzled. "Falling? How did it fall? Isn't it April yet the time to harvest grain?" "It dropped yesterday. My husband told me that the price of fine rice in the rice shop is now 13 wen per pound. It is not as high as the previous price of 8 wen per pound, but it is still much cheaper. I don’t know how it fell, it just happened in two or three days, and suddenly it dropped.” Aunt Zhang gestured with her hands and feet. She was very excited, but because of her limited knowledge, she didn't understand why the price of rice would fall before the harvest time. "It's the county magistrate." The old monk at the side spoke. "Master, do you know?" "I haven't heard the whole story, but I can roughly guess that on the day the donor left, the county government issued an order to raise the grain price in the entire county again, selling grain at a price of 20 wen per catty, which is 2 wen higher than the original market price. Afterwards, they sent people along the river to beg for food and spread the word. I looked carefully and found that the people who spread the news were mainly traveling along the river. Huainan had a well-developed water transport system and many grain storage facilities along the river, so there was an overabundance of grain in many places. On the fifth day, merchant ships came to sell grain. After that, more and more ships came, and the ports of several surrounding towns were crowded with grain ships. Until the day before yesterday, the county magistrate stopped raising the price, and grain prices plummeted. " "I see." Liang Qu suddenly realized. He couldn't lower the price, but the merchants were only too happy to raise the price. He was afraid that the county government would not agree, but he didn't expect that he would be cheated. They were all grain, so how could they sell them at a high price? No wonder he saw several large merchant ships heading towards Pingyang County on his way back. Merchants are profit-seeking, so they probably haven't heard the news that food prices have fallen? It is not that simple to transport grain by canal. With the labor cost and loss, if the price is only thirteen or fourteen cents per pound, it will definitely not attract people. The whole trip will most likely result in losses, which is far inferior to selling locally. After the arrival of the people, the county magistrate stopped collecting grain, and the merchants could only sell it locally, because taking the grain back would incur losses and costs. The original local grain prices were even lower than those in Pingyang County. Pingyang’s food shortage is not a natural disaster but a man-made calamity. There were no major floods or droughts in the past two years, and grain reserves in many surrounding areas were sufficient. If you change the place, there will definitely not be such an effect. …… After lunch, Liang Qu went to the stable and rode up Chishan Mountain, carrying a pile of gifts to Pingyang County. On the way, Liang Qu looked at the construction of the river port and found that most of the soldiers were warriors. Their hands and feet are much quicker than those of ordinary people, and their efficiency is doubled. The entire river station has become more organized, and I'm afraid it won't be long before the office location can be changed from the ship to the land. There are many inconveniences on board a ship after all.
On the other side of Pingyang County, the construction of the Demon Hunting Bureau’s government office was also proceeding in an orderly manner, with progress being made one step ahead of the other. When Liang Qu passed by, he saw a martial artist carrying a wild boar that was more than four meters long. He cut it open and sold the meat. Occasionally, martial artists passed by and bought more than ten kilograms of meat. Look at the physique of the wild boar, it is definitely a spirit. I wonder which mountain it was caught on. In the previous Pingyang Town, such a scene was rarely seen. A prosperous scene. It's not without reason that experts like to gather together. In small places, if you want to eat some monster meat, you can't even find a place to buy and sell it. Ordinary people would move to the county town when they made money. A capable martial artist would like to go to the palace or the imperial capital to try his luck at the illusory wealth. Passing by the martial arts hall, Liang Qu dismounted, took out two gift boxes from among the many gift boxes, and walked through the corridor. "Brother Hu, Brother Xiang! I'm back!" "Junior Brother Liang!" Hu Qi and Xiang Changsong were teaching an apprentice. When they saw that it was Liang Qu, they let the apprentice practice on his own. Unexpectedly, when they took a few steps closer, both of them sensed Liang Qu's undisguised warrior aura and their expressions became strange. Hu Qi took a step forward, put his arm around Liang Qu's shoulders, and looked him up and down. "Brother Liang, have you broken through the blood barrier?" "Brother Hu, you have good eyesight! From today on, I am a legitimate fourth-level martial artist!" Liang Qu smiled happily and shared the things in his hand with the two of them. "Quick, too fast." Xiang Changsong took the gift box. He thought it would take some time for Liang Qu to catch up with him, but he didn't expect it to happen almost immediately. He still clearly remembered how Liang Qu looked when he first came to the martial arts gym. He was thin, dark and short, with only one good quality: he was polite. A blink of an eye. Strong, bright, and enthusiastic, the youthful vigor bursts out. "Okay, that's great." Xiang Changsong patted Liang Qu's shoulder, feeling deeply moved. Hu Qi took the gift box and asked, "Why did you think of sending us something? Did you run into trouble?" "No, it's a happy event!" The news about Hebo Institute was only circulated within the institute, and Hu Qi and others did not know about it for the time being. Liang Qu recounted his experiences in Fengbu County.
"I thought it was just an ordinary monster causing trouble, but unexpectedly, it gave me two great merits and a large sum of money. Brother Xu said that I have a chance to be promoted. I was so happy that I bought some gifts to celebrate with my senior brother! I have already booked a private room at the restaurant last night. I will go to see my master and his wife and we can chat together tonight!" Hu Qi, Xiang Changsong scratched his head after hearing this. What year is this eve? Liang Qu has only been gone for less than half a month, right? (End of this chapter)