Chapter 29: The Taste of Gossip 

The boy’s eyes were devoid of light, only pitch black remained.

After being scolded by the stall owner for a few sentences for hugging his leg, he stiffly lowered his head, looking at the pitch-black alchemy furnace in his palm, his handsome brows furrowed slightly.

A trace of shock and panic flashed across his somewhat childish face, he threw the alchemy furnace to the ground as if he had seen a ghost.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

There were many people around, the stall owner quickly picked up the alchemy furnace and protected it in his arms, grumbling at the boy, “If you don’t buy it, don’t buy it, why did you throw my alchemy furnace? If you break it, you’ll have to pay for it?”

The boy’s lips moved, but he didn’t speak.

A black-clothed sword cultivator wearing the same clothes ran over and grabbed the boy, smiling at the stall owner, “I’m sorry, my brother is not very bright.”

“Is an apology enough? He broke my alchemy furnace, he has to pay.”

The man seemed to have a good temper, “No problem, how much is this alchemy furnace? I’ll just buy it.”

He was a rich man.

The stall owner stopped grumbling and immediately rolled his eyes, “Eighty thousand, this is a top-grade alchemy furnace, I’m giving you a discount.”

The man paid without a word.

Zhuang Churan finally successfully found her junior sister in the chaotic crowd, patted her shoulder, and handed her the freshly baked sugar-glazed candy, “What are you looking at?”

The woman followed her gaze and saw a small, pitch-black alchemy furnace being traded.

“It’s such a pity…” Li Yang sighed softly.

“You want the alchemy furnace?”

“Yes.” She admitted frankly, taking a bite of the sugar-glazed candy, “That alchemy furnace is in good shape, it must be fragrant for stewing pork soup.”

Before she said that, Zhuang Churan had even taken out her spirit stone card.

Thinking that her junior sister was short of money, she could pay to buy one for her.

But after hearing the latter half of the sentence, the woman’s fingers stiffened slightly, and she put away the card expressionlessly, “Oh, that’s a pity.”

The item was good, but since someone had already bought it, Li Yang could only choose to give up.

As she turned to leave, she inadvertently glanced at a certain spot.

The hand hidden in the sleeve of the black-clothed man who came later was dry and old, which didn’t match his age.

The girl was slightly stunned and looked back.

The man had foolishly paid the money, and had already disappeared into the crowd with the black-clothed boy and the alchemy furnace.

“Second Senior Sister, did you smell it?”

She asked out of the blue.

Zhuang Churan used the rope to retrieve the other two junior brothers, paused slightly, “What?”

Li Yang, “The smell of gossip.”?”

Zhuang Churan couldn’t keep up with her junior sister’s train of thought, she just raised her hand and tapped her forehead, “I didn’t smell the flavor of gossip, but I know that if we go back any later, we’ll be able to smell the gossip formation that Master Brother set up.”

Worried that Lou Qi would be tired, the group hurried back.

When they arrived at the pre-booked room, Lou Qi was sitting cross-legged on the floor, in front of him was a tall stack of talismans.

Lin Ya was hugging a pillow, sleeping on the other side with his bottom in the air.

Seeing this warm scene, Li Yang felt a bit uneasy.

Did these two not have a bed or a chair? Or did they have underfloor heating in the room and had to do activities on the floor?

Lou Qi waved them over, “Come here and help divide the talismans.”

The man had made good use of their time out, spending the entire afternoon drawing many low-level but useful talismans.

The most were speed talismans and defense talismans, followed by strength enhancement talismans.

He calmly took a stack of talismans and began to distribute them.

Zhuang Churan only needed two defense talismans; she rarely escaped in emergencies, so it was to prevent her from getting beaten up.

Bai Yu had a wind spiritual root, so he was fast and didn’t need speed talismans to escape, so he got defense talismans.

As for Lin Ya… well, he was annoying today, so he didn’t get any.

Ning Shiyan… um, the little junior brother was at the late stage of Foundation Establishment and was a weapon cultivator with little offensive power, so he got a batch of speed talismans to help him run away.

The remaining talismans, Lou Qi stuffed all of them into Li Yang’s hands.

“The teleportation array for the Rebirth Secret Realm can teleport a maximum of five people at a time, and each teleportation will land in a different location. We will be scattered when we arrive, and the communication jade tokens will also be affected and won’t work. Everyone should try to avoid danger and not stand out.”

He looked at Zhuang Churan, “Especially you.”

Zhuang Churan pitifully stuck the two defense talismans on his forehead, speaking each word clearly, “I’m aware, got it.”

Clearly, she was not happy about being singled out by Lou Qi.

But she wasn’t foolish; even with the defense talismans applied, she didn’t activate them.

After a few moments of silence, Zhuang Churan stuffed the talismans into her mustard seed bag; if they were free, she would take them.

The other few had some offensive capability, so Lou Qi wasn’t very worried; his biggest concern was for the good boy, Ning Shiyan.

The boy, like Li Yang, was at the late stage of Foundation Establishment but was a weapon cultivator and was afraid of the dark; he would likely be bullied in the secret realm.

Lou Qi remained silent for a few seconds before softly instructing, “Little junior brother, you and Lin Ya follow me, Bai Yu and little junior sister follow Zhuang Churan.”

He added, “If you really encounter danger, you don’t need to worry about us, just crush the token and leave the secret realm. After you’re out, be careful and wait in the City Lord’s Mansion; don’t leave on your own.”

The young boy’s eyes darkened slightly; he seemed to feel guilty for being unable to help and thought he would be a burden for his senior brothers and sisters. He nodded in agreement.