Chapter 201: Trade

“Young man, these are the dishes that the posthouse just prepared. They are still hot too. There’s spiced beef, braised potatoes, steamed buns, and carrot soup…”

Those two servants from the posthouse were very enthusiastic. One of them was holding the dishes while the other was holding a small wooden table that could perfectly fit through the corridor. Both of them managed to set down the dishes that they had carried onto the table as they talked to Yan Liqiang.

For those who had been running errands outside for a whole day, these warm dishes were able to greatly increase one’s appetite after just getting a whiff of the aroma.

Yan Liqiang smiled as he looked at the dishes on the table before he glanced at Ye Tiancheng inside the house, “I have a dog here too. I will have to trouble you to get some dog food for me. Oh right, this person inside the house needs some food as well. Bring some food for him along the way!”

“Sure, sure…” The two servants were brimming with smiles as they looked at the dog Yan Liqiang had brought with him as well as Ye Tiancheng inside the room before they swiftly left to bring more food. In the blink of an eye, those two managed to come back with two things in their hands. One was a clean tile which could be placed on the ground to be filled with food for the dog to consume. On the other hand, Ye Tiancheng was served food with a bowl and a pair of chopsticks. The bowl was filled with small portions of minced beef, half a steamed bun, and a bit of braised potatoes which seemed to be steaming hot as well.

“You guys seem to treat your prisoners well by allowing them to eat meat…” Yan Liqiang said with a smile.

Upon hearing Yan Liqiang’s words, the smile on one of the two servant’s faces began to fade. The servant immediately apologized to Yan Liqiang, “I am very sorry. We aren’t aware of your rules. If you are unsatisfied with this arrangement, we can exchange it with something else…”

“It’s alright. Since you’ve already served the dishes, we will let the imprisoned person savor this meal. Just put the bowl and chopsticks on the windowsill!” Yan Liqiang said this in a casual manner as he placed the steamed bun, potatoes, beef, and carrots on the tile with his chopsticks.

“Alright, understood…” The servants smiled as they retreated with a bow. Before the servant left, he inadvertently glanced at the bowl of food placed outside of Ye Tiancheng’s window. Yan Liqiang also caught a glimpse of the servant’s glances before he left the premise.

Yan Liqiang then placed the tile on the ground and said, “Come, Goldie. Eat up!”

Goldie came running over and earnestly sniffed every bit of the food placed on the tile before he started eating. Yan Liqiang only started eating his food once he saw Goldie start eating.

Goldie’s sense of smell was certainly on an abnormal level. He wondered whether he had placed too many points on Goldie, thus allowing its sense of smell to undergo a change, intensifying its ability. During the span of time he spent with Goldie, Yan Liqiang could clearly sense that Goldie was able to use its sense of smell to easily differentiate between various things that contained poison. Even if he hid the poison needle dipped in snake venom hundreds of meters away, Goldie would be able to find it easily even if it were embedded in a random log or in a crevice between rocks. Yan Liqiang even tested its sense of smell by using several types of items that contained poison for Goldie to locate, and Goldie would always be able to find them without any difficulties.

When it came down to eating, the food would only prove to be absolutely fine as long as Goldie was willing to eat it.

Apart from Yan Liqiang, no one else knew about Goldie’s acute sense of smell. Goldie was like a traveling detector for poisonous and harmful substances.

“Prefectural Governor, you should eat too…” Seeing that Ye Tiancheng hadn’t touched the food placed on the windowsill, Yan Liqiang spoke to Ye Tiancheng while pretending to not know anything about the food in his bowl.

Ye Tiancheng only glanced at the food on the windowsill from his room and shook his head. He then continued his effort in deluding Yan Liqiang, “If I eat the food served by the posthouse, I’m afraid I won’t have the chance to walk out from this place anymore. You are still young and your future is limitless. As long as you help me this time, the things I can give you in the future will definitely be ten times or a hundred times greater than what Sun Bingchen can give to you. You can have as much as you want regardless of whether it is money, an official position, properties, riches, or women!”

“I admit that the things that you just said are reasonable, even if just a little. Indeed, the Grand Chancellor is currently the one in power. However, the Grand Chancellor is the Grand Chancellor, and you are you. You are now our prisoner. Do you think it’s possible for someone else to just help you by risking their lives through your empty words? I’m not that stupid, you know!” Yan Liqiang continued to eat while he listened to Ye Tiancheng talk. He pretended to act as if he was inexperienced yet somewhat smart. This kind of performance was exactly how youngsters of his age should behave.

“Haven’t you heard of the saying, ‘providing timely help is better than icing on the cake’ before? If you help me this time, I will definitely be grateful for you in the future…” Ye Tiancheng said, unwilling to give up.

“I don’t need your gratitude. As long as I do my part well, Lord Sun will naturally give me whatever you can give me too. Why should I risk my life for you?”

“It might seem spectacular to follow Sun Bingchen now, but from this point onward, you will be troubled by him. Although I am a prisoner now, I will definitely rise from the ashes in the future…”

“Haha, I am just an insignificant character. The Grand Chancellor and Emperor are both incredibly brilliant people. If both of these godlike figures break out into a fight, a mortal like me can never interfere in such a huge scenario. Moreover, these things have nothing to do with me. Regardless of what the future will become, it’s impossible for the superior Grand Chancellor to remember my name and make things difficult for an unknown young man like me….”

Afterward, regardless of what Ye Tiancheng said, Yan Liqiang could not be swayed. The reason he behaved this way was to tell Ye Tiancheng that he could never be bought through empty words. Yan Liqiang wanted to see what other tricks Ye Tiancheng could play right now. On the other hand, the current thought inside Yan Liqiang’s mind was whether he should take the chance to kill Ye Tiancheng. If he did that, he would get his ‘revenge’ and there would be fewer unknown dangers on the journey back to the Imperial Capital with Sun Bingchen. This truly would be the best of both worlds. However, doing so would be a bit like a betrayal to Sun Bingchen…

In just a few minutes, Yan Liqiang was done with his meal. The food that he had placed on the tile for Goldie had also been completely consumed.

Yan Liqiang used the chopsticks placed on the windowsill and picked up the beef inside the bowl before he placed it in front of Goldie to smell it.

“Woof…” Goldie let out a soft bark. It didn’t consume the piece of beef. Instead, Goldie just plopped itself down on the ground.

Yan Liqiang was fully aware of the situation when he saw Goldie behaving the way it did. Indeed, there was something wrong with the dishes that the posthouse had prepared for Ye Tiancheng to eat.

Yan Liqiang then returned the bowl and chopsticks back to their original place.

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After a few minutes had passed, the servant from the posthouse who had just served the dishes to Yan Liqiang came back again. As he was collecting Yan Liqiang’s bowl and chopsticks, he deliberately looked at the dishes on Ye Tiancheng’s windowsill and noticed that he hadn’t touched his food at all. Acting as if he was curious, the servant asked Yan Liqiang, “Sir, why isn’t the person locked inside the room eating his food?”

Yan Liqiang also played dumb as he replied, “I don’t know either. This person is probably not in the mood to eat yet. Let me tell you, this person used to be a Prefectural Governor, so it’s difficult to serve someone like him!”

“Oh, I see!” The servant shot a deep glare at Ye Tiancheng inside the room before he took away the food in the bowl and left.

After Yan Liqiang was done eating, he stood up and paced back and forth at the narrow area beside the entrance corridor all while moving his body and throwing out punches and kicks. A martial practitioner would never be fond of sitting quietly after eating their food as they would feel the need to move around for a while. Doing so would be beneficial for blood circulation and food digestion.

Just a few minutes after Yan Liqiang began working out, a voice suddenly rang out from Ye Tiancheng’s room once more.

“You practice martial arts too?”

“Of course!” Yan Liqiang replied without turning his head around while moving his hands and feet.

“If you can help me, then perhaps we can trade with each other…”

Yan Liqiang stopped and walked toward the window. He looked at Ye Tiancheng, who was behaving weirdly, and asked, “What trade?”

Ye Tiancheng’s eyes darted around as he looked at the sides of the window.

“Don’t worry. There’s no one in the corridor. If someone’s coming, I will be able to see them as soon as they approach from afar!”

“Didn’t you say that all I had were empty words? However, there’s one thing I can trade with you even if I can’t move from this place right now!” Ye Tiancheng said, determined.

“What is it?”

“Martial arts secret manual!”

Upon hearing those four words, Yan Liqiang shivered without needing to act like he was surprised. He didn’t expect for Ye Tiancheng to still be capable of possessing this trick up his sleeves.

“The reason for my status today is all thanks to my numerous past learning experiences and cultivation of the secret martial arts manuals. Most of them are the advanced kind too. As long as I have learned from those secret martial arts manuals before, I am still able to remember them even now. I can impart them to you. What do you think of this trade?”

“How will I even know that the things you are going to impart to me are true? Based on my current ability, even if you tell me that those things are fake and that I will fall into Qi deviation after learning them, I might not be able to differentiate between what’s real and what’s fake!”

“I can start by imparting you a Deft Lightness Jump technique so that you can experience it first. There’s a set of mnemonics for this technique. Based on the mnemonic, anyone can cultivate this technique as long as they have passed the Horse Stance Stage. You will know whether this technique I’m imparting to you is real or fake once you try it out!”

“Oh, I have learned a bit of the ‘Nine Palace Wind Shadow Steps’ before…”

“The Nine Palace Wind Shadow Steps is a body and footwork technique, not a Deft Lightness Jumping Skill. The body and footwork techniques are effective in dodging within a small area, allowing oneself to become more flexible or faster. On the other hand, the lightness skill is superior to that of the body and footwork technique. One will be able to jump even higher and run even faster, becoming as light as a swallow. He will be able to leap over roofs and vault over walls with ease too. Tramping over mountains, and through ravines, and leaping through air by walking on tides are considered trivial things too. This Lightness Leaping Skill is more valuable than normal body and footwork techniques. The highest layer of the ‘Nine Palace Wind Shadow Steps’ is only to the Sixth Heavenly Layer, while the Deft Lightness Jump technique that I’m going to impart to you, which is also known as ‘Cloud Dragon’s Ten Transformations’, has ten layers at max. Once you break through to one transformation, your jumping ability will increase by one zhang [1]. If you manage to break through to ten transformations, you will be able to effortlessly jump ten zhang high. The walls of the city will not be able to stop you. An average person will not be able to obtain this even if they wanted to!”

“Since you know how to use this technique, why did you still allow the Patrol Inspector to take you down that day?”

With an expression of hatred, Ye Tiancheng replied, “I wasn’t able to fully utilize my techniques inside my room that day. Moreover, I was injured from the start after being affected by that woman’s Bone and Tendon Weakening Palm, which is why I wasn’t able to unleash half of my powers that time. If it were outside of the room that day, Sun Bingchen might not have been able to stop me!”

Yan Liqiang intentionally looked at him with an alarmed expression, “Then how do you want me to help you?”

Ye Tiancheng curved a smile on his face and said, “Relax. This is just like conducting business. Only when we have established trust with each other will the forthcoming businesses progress smoothly. Just try out this set of martial arts that I’m going to teach you. If you believe it and are willing to help me, then we will proceed to the next order of business. If you’re not willing, then we will forget about it. Sun Bingchen will not hold anything against you either. This way, you won’t have to face any risks, right?”

Knowing that Yan Liqiang could not be swayed with just words and could not be easily ‘tricked’ like he had expected, Ye Tiancheng quickly changed his tactic and began throwing out his bait to lure him to his side.

Yan Liqiang laughed coldly inside his heart but pretended to briefly consider the matter seriously on the outside, making him seem a little startled and somewhat hesitant…

Ye Tiancheng narrowed his eyes and stared intently at the expression on Yan Liqiang’s face. When he saw a hint of hesitation on his face, he decided to reveal the mnemonics of the ‘Cloud Dragon’s Ten Transformations’ all by himself before Yan Liqiang could open his mouth to speak. Yan Liqiang had no choice but to listen to it…

A few moments after Ye Tiancheng finished saying the mnemonics, a commotion suddenly broke out downstairs. Someone could be heard yelling, “Fire! Everyone put it out quickly….”