When Xie Qiutao saw this white dumpling, his big eyes lit up. He put down the iron pipa, stood in front of Shangguan Lingye, and raised his hand to touch Tuanzi's head:

"This bird is so beautiful. Did it be picked up from outside? It looks so stupid."

"grumble?"

Tuanzi was pretending to be stupid as the wet nurse told her, but she was a little unhappy when she heard this, so she slapped Xie Qiutao's hand with her small wings.

Seeing Shangguan Lingye glanced at it, the dumpling tilted his head and looked stupid, and continued to eat claws.

"Huh? Can it understand human words?"

The dumpling shook his head like pounding garlic.

“…”

Xie Qiutao opened his mouth and thought the bird was very smart, but not particularly smart.

Shangguan Lingye was also a little helpless and fed a dumpling with dried fish:

"Pretending to be stupid, what do you do to eat your toes? It's not reachable."

When Tuanzi heard this, he realized something was wrong. He put down his claws and changed to biting the tip of his wings. Then he suddenly realized the "chiji~" and said twice, probably:

"No wonder, Bird Bird said why can't you reach it? It turned out that Quanquan taught him wrongly."

Xie Qiutao blinked his big eyes, a little jealous.

Shangguan Lingye signaled the dumpling to pretend to be stupid, took out a hairpin from Linglong Pavilion and inserted it between Xie Qiutao's hair bun:

"Just go to Sixiangzhai directly. I will follow you. If you have any questions, you will not make any mistakes."

"All right."

Xie Qiutao had no right to refuse. After forcing her to agree, she carried the iron pipa and turned around and left the door...

——

At noon, Zuo Lingquan and Shangguan Lingye disguised themselves as casual cultivators and walked slowly among the rare beasts all over the ground, heading to Sixiangzhai near the entrance to the sea.

The markets near Dengchao Port are very large, stretching intermittently for nearly a hundred miles. Leaving the dense streets near the port, the industries outside gradually loosen and the scale begins to expand, becoming elegant manors or various workshops surrounded by mountains and rivers.

Sixiangzhai is doing a spirit beast business. The size of the spirit beast is not limited. The largest one is the size of the heavenly turtle. Even the smaller crane is two stories high, so the required venue must be quite large.

The monks in the port were too dense, and every inch of land was valuable. Even the Tie Ling Money House was only three-story building. Drawing a street to be used as a beast circle was purely because of the excessive amount of money. Therefore, the Sixiangzhai of the Hou family opened a site to serve as a pawn near the entrance to the sea.

In Sixiangzhai, in addition to the specialty spirit beasts raised by various small sects and aristocratic families, there are also popular items brought by the Jingtao and Wanghailou, etc., to attract the popularity of monks.

There are many monks who practice the Tao and raise spirit beasts. The reason why the group is concentrated in the lower level is that high-level spirit beasts are too rare and ordinary people cannot get them at all, not that they do not want to raise them.

It is also worth mentioning that the reason why the spirit beast is called "spirit beast" is because it is human nature and possesses spiritual wisdom; the main purpose of the nine sects is "Immortal Way and Reveal Life", which has special regulations that the spirit beast has some human rights, and after transformation, it is equal to the monks, slaughtered for no reason, medicinal use, and abuse will violate humanity, and will be severely punished; this is why the monks and their own spiritual snakes will be caught and reported, and they will be really punished.

The three of them walked forward, Xie Qiutao walked in front alone. After coming to the entrance of Sixiangzhai, he took out the famous letter and was invited by the guards.

In order to integrate into the surrounding environment, Shangguan Lingye squatted on his shoulders, looking like an ordinary casual cultivator coming to the party. When he brought Zuo Lingquan in, he was not questioned.

Sixiangzhai covers a large area, with buildings and houses in the middle, and is welcomed by distinguished guests; outside there are landscape gardens, and all kinds of rare beasts are not locked in cages, they are all wandering in the grass and ponds, and are guarded by animal trainers, and groups of monks are commenting on their heads.

The birds and beasts that can be sold are all spiritual beasts, and they look as cute as the other. Because they are artificially trained, they are not afraid of humans. Some small beasts are still sleeping with their belly rolling under the sun, and their silly looks very eye-catching.

Although Zuo Lingquan and Shangguan Lingye were in good condition, they were still a little happy when they arrived here, and they felt like they had entered a zoo.

The dumplings were not the case. They felt that they had entered the cafeteria and could not pretend. They looked left and right and looked "it looked delicious". If Zuo Lingquan hadn't stopped him, they would have pounced on him and staged a "phoenix fights with hundreds of beasts".

After all, the two of them didn't come to visit the zoo. They followed Xie Qiutao and walked among the crowd and came outside the high-rise building in the center.

A plaque of "Sixiangzhai" was hung on a tall building. A young man in brocade clothes greeted him from it and bowed:

"Miss Xie, please come in quickly. The hawking has just begun. If you come later, you will miss it."

Xie Qiutao did not look back at the two of them, and responded with a smile:

"The shop of Mr. Hou's house is so big. I was outside just now and I was afraid to come in."

"Where are, please come in."

...

Shangguan Lingye looked at it for a moment and did not see Hou Guan's exact background, so he took Zuo Lingquan and prepared to enter the tall building.

But the high-rise buildings sell extremely precious spirit beasts, and they won’t let people come in without any financial resources. The two dressed up as ordinary cultivators, and they didn’t seem to have much wealth. When they walked to the door, they were stopped by the guard:

"Two fellow Taoists, you can only enter here with invitations. If the boss forgets to send invitations to you, can you report it to your home? I will inform you immediately after going down. Please forgive me if the rules are in place."

This is very polite, but the meaning is also very obvious - monks who are not famous are not allowed to enter.

Shangguan Lingye was able to come, so he naturally planned in advance. She took out the forged family waist sign from her arms and signaled that she was a distant junior of an elder in Wanghailou. She brought her son-in-law to recognize her relatives and first arrived here.

Under normal circumstances, if a cultivation family cannot afford to offend the elders of the Nine Sects, they would rather believe that they have something than they do not have it, so as not to offend others.

But Shangguan Lingye had just taken out the waist card and had not handed it to the guard. Hou Guan, who had just walked up the stairs, looked back when he heard the sound.

Hou Guan focused on Xie Qiutao. He was just looking at it casually, but at this glance, he saw the stupid bird squatting on Shangguan Lingye's shoulder.

Hou Guan was born in a family that tamed spiritual beasts. His understanding of birds and beasts was extremely comparable. His eyes lit up slightly, and he walked down the stairs and spoke:

"Fellow Daoist, this white mountain spirit is strange. I haven't seen such a big one in more than 30 years. They have grown into balls. How do I feed them?"

The variety of dumplings is indeed the Baishan spirit, a specialty of barren mountains. It was originally just an ordinary bird, with a rare number. It was useless except for its good looks. It was chosen by the world and became alienated into its current appearance.

When he heard the 'growing into a ball', Tuanzi was obviously unhappy, but he had already gained a memory and continued to tilt his head and pretend to be stupid.

Shangguan Lingye checked the varieties of dumplings, but was not surprised by this, and said with a smile:

"Young Master has good eyesight. This white mountain spirit has been a good meal since he was a child and has grown a little big, which makes you laugh."

Hou Guan walked up to him and looked at him a few times, but could not see the details. Due to the rules, he did not look closely and raised his hand and said:

"The visitor is a guest. Please, Lao Zhou, arrange a seat."

"yes."

The manager standing in the hall hurried forward, raised his hand to signal, and invited the two of them.

——

"...This three-color deer was carefully cultivated by the master of Jingtai. It was born only three months ago. It is the genus Qilin, and its fur is extremely good..."

On the second floor of Sixiangzhai, there is a hall with exquisite textured cradles, fish tanks, and some spiritual beasts staying there. The manager of Sixiangzhai is carefully introduced.

The so-called "hawking" is an auction. Those who have the highest price will get it. Those who can sell it here are practical spirit beasts that are in the bottom of the box. The price is high. There are not many monks who can buy it. The status of monks is relatively high. Sixiangzhai is naturally thoughtful to treat VIPs. Everyone arranges a separate room, serving fairy tea and fairy fruits, and there are also zithers playing music in the dark.

Zuo Lingquan and Shangguan Lingye came to a private room beside him and took a seat. Although there were bead curtains blocking the view, there was no formation in the private room.

The private room where Xie Qiutao is located is located in the middle of the second floor. As Xie Qiutao enters it, he can't feel the breath. The room is obviously different from others.

Shangguan Lingye knew that there was something strange. After waiting for the reception manager to go out, he first checked the surroundings of the room, confirmed that there was no snooping, and isolated the room by himself. Then he took out the bronze mirror from Linglong Pavilion and checked the situation in the room through Xie Qiutao's hairpin.

In the room not far apart, Xie Qiutao entered the private room and sat on the chair behind the pearl curtain. Although he looked at it with a smile, he was obviously a little nervous. He was always observing the surrounding environment and looking for the best direction to retreat.

After Hou Guan welcomed the person up, he did not follow him, but not long after Xie Qiutao sat down, a maid walked in with a tray and introduced respectfully:

"Fairy, these are the longevity peaches and immortals produced in Taohuatan. They are extremely expensive and are only used to entertain the elders of the nine sects on weekdays. Most people are reluctant to take them out. When the young master heard that the girl came across the sea, he specially prepared some, and hoped that the girl would not be too little."

The maid brought not much immortal drunkenness, only a small bottle, and it was probably gone for two people, but the peach was very big.

Xie Qiutao nodded and said, "Young Master Hou is so kind."

The maid put down the tray and bowed to say goodbye.

Xie Qiutao looked at the wine sent. He knew that Hou Guan was strange, but he didn't dare to drink it. He looked like he was uninterested and stared at the various cubs outside the bead curtain.

On the other side, Zuo Lingquan saw this scene and frowned:

"I am sending us tea and wine to Miss Xie. I'm afraid I don't have a good intention. But the immortal drunk seems to be unable to get drunk. Did he put medicine in it?"

Shangguan Lingye shook his head slightly: "After the Lord of Peach Blossoms hidden in the world, the immortals drank one jar less than one jar. There were basically no real people on the market. The jar I came from Dakushun of the Imperial City last time, either fake wine or badly preserved. If it were real wine, we both worked a whole jar and could be drunk and dreamed for several years."

"Fake wine? I just said...but the fake wine is also delicious. Did they give Miss Xie real wine?"

"It should be true. Poisons that can deal with the golden-body and impure monk are extremely rare, and it is impossible to deceive the monk's senses. Only the immortal drunk can make the practitioner drink and get drunk on their own."

After Shangguan Lingye finished speaking, he whispered:

"Don't worry, we'll be watching, we can come over at any time."

In the bronze mirror, Xie Qiutao obviously heard the words, hesitated a little, and hesitated for a moment before slowly picking up the wine glass and taking a sip.

I guess I found that the taste was rare in the world. Xie Qiutao said "Yeah!" and then he sipped the rare wine in a sip.

The immortals were drunk and drunk, but even the gods couldn't stop them when they came up.

Xie Qiutao was quite sober at first. After drinking a small bottle of wine, he ate a few mouthfuls of the big peach filled with juice. His eyes slowly began to float, his cheeks flushed, and he showed a little drunkenness. Then he supported his cheeks with his hands, leaned against the tea table, and closed his eyes.

When Shangguan Lingye saw this scene, his eyes were focused and ready to rush over if there was anything wrong. Zuo Lingquan also stood up and calculated the distance of the explosion.

Time passed little by little, and about half an hour later, there was only a movement in Xie Qiutao's room.

First a maid came in, looked at it for a few times, and shouted:

"Miss Xie? Miss Xie?"

Xie Qiutao lay on the tea table, just murmured drunkenly, unable to hear clearly.

Seeing this, the maid closed the window facing the hall, completely sealing the room, and then retreated.
To be continued...