The Affairs of the Martial World - Vol 2 - Desert Treasure Hunting: Chapter 1

Endless dunes undulated endlessly, connecting the edge of the earth with the distant horizon.

A gust of wind whistled through, lifting clouds of sand into the air. After the sand settled, there was a deathly silence all around.

Under the scorching sun, the air was filled with dry heat, making the sand seem smoking from the heat.

Surprisingly, in this place that seemed like a human hell, there was a small town.

There were over a dozen households in the town.

Surprisingly, there was a well in the town. The entire town was built around this well, so this place was called Welltown.

There was also an inn and a teahouse in the town.

Legend had it that this town had been in existence since the trade between the Tang and Song Dynasties with the Western Regions. A dozen or so households guard this murky well, selling water and food to passing travelers.

It was dusk when Zhu Que and his only companion, a camel, arrived at the only town within a few hundred miles. In the vast desert, Zhu Que stood on the camel’s back and could see smoke rising from a distance, but it took half a day to reach there.

The desert was indeed too difficult to traverse. Even with Zhu Que’s martial arts skills, it seemed like he had reached his endurance limit.

The first place he went to, of course, was the teahouse. The attendant brought a bowl of tea, and a few pieces of broken leaves floating in the murky water, and that was the tea.

Zhu Que first asked, “How much for a bowl?”

The attendant replied, “Ten taels.”

This price could buy a well elsewhere, but it could only buy a bowl of tea here.

The tea also tasted as awful as horse urine.

Zhu Que picked up the bowl, tilted his head back, and drank all the tea and water in one gulp, even chewing on the tea leaves before swallowing everything.

“Here,” Zhu Que took out a silver note worth one hundred taels from his pocket, “give me another bowl.”

The attendant filled his bowl again, and he drank it all in one gulp.

Zhu Que quenched his thirst and said, “Alright, the changes.”

The attendant asked, “What changes?”

“I gave you one hundred taels, ten taels per bowl. Aren’t you supposed to return me eighty taels? Are you running a shady business here?”

“Sir, I don’t like what you’re saying. This is a century-old establishment, fair and honest. A bowl of tea costs ten taels of gold, with gold and silver at a ratio of one to five. Two bowls of tea cost twenty taels of gold, which is exactly one hundred taels of silver. Why bother with the changes?” The attendant said in one breath, without any hesitation, clearly accustomed to saying these words.

Instead of getting angry, Zhu Que smiled, “Alright, my bad. I didn’t ask clearly. Excuse me, is there an inn here? I need to rest my feet.”

“You see, right across the street is an inn. Although it only has one room, there have been few guests lately. Sir, you have arrived at the perfect time, you can have the whole room for yourself.”

Zhu Que led the camel away.

At first, he didn’t understand what the attendant meant by one person sleeping in one room. But when he arrived, he understood. It turned out that the whole inn had only one room and one bed. When there were guests, the owner wouldn’t sleep inside the room. There was a shed outside, and the owner would sleep under the shed. Only when there were no guests would he sleep inside. It was such a small inn, yet it managed to keep the owner well-fed and plump.

“How much for a night’s stay?”

“Not more, not less; it’s also ten taels,” said the plump owner.

“Ten taels of silver?” Zhu Que learned from his mistake and asked in advance.

“Of course, what do you think it is? Ten taels of sand?” The plump owner spoke somewhat aggressively.

After all, unlike water, which was a necessity, travelers didn’t necessarily have to sleep in a bed. So, in this place, the price of the inn was still reasonable.

“How about the camel?” Zhu Que wanted to make sure his old buddy was taken care of. After traveling such a long distance, the camel also needed to graze and replenish water.

“Twenty-two pounds of food daily for the camel should be enough.”

Zhu Que nodded. And so, everything was finally arranged.

The people here all seemed to have bad tempers, but Zhu Que didn’t mind and slept on the bed that could barely fit.

After nightfall, everything around was pitch black.

But nothing unexpected happened, and the night passed calmly.

The next day, Zhu Que saw the only well in the entire town. He walked around the well for a while, seeming very interested in it.

In the morning and at noon, he ate his expedition dry food but still ended up spending fifty taels of silver on a bowl of tea at the teahouse.

The plump owner of the inn has been following him since he got up.

Zhu Que asked him why he was following.

The plump owner replied, “The inn is full anyway, and there is nothing else to do.”

Zhu Que ignored him and went to scrutinize the well several times instead. Not just the well but everything here also seemed to be of great interest to Zhu Que. But the townspeople seemed to be only interested in him.

The plump owner followed him for half a day and finally couldn’t help but ask, “Excuse me, sir, are you leaving today?”

Zhu Que shook his head and said, “No, I’m living well here. Why should I leave?”

The plump owner followed up with another question, “How long will you be staying?”

Zhu Que said, “When the time comes that I no longer wish to stay, I will naturally leave. You wouldn’t want to chase me away, would you? Oh…”

Zhu Que had not finished speaking when his eyes suddenly stared straight ahead as if he had seen something astonishing.

The plump owner followed his gaze forward, but he saw nothing strange.

Before he could ask, Zhu Que began muttering to himself, “Strange, strange, really strange.”

The plump owner asked, “May I ask, what’s so strange? Why didn’t I notice it?”

Zhu Que pointed to a skinny, yellowish dog at the intersection ahead and said, “Do you find this dog strange?”

The plump owner asked, “What’s strange about the dog?”

Zhu Que smiled and said, “The people here are as fat as pigs, I’m not surprised. A bowl of tea costs fifty taels of silver, it’s strange not to get fat. But with such a wealthy host, why are the dogs so skinny? Isn’t that strange?”

The plump owner’s face suddenly turned red. Before he could speak, something truly strange happened.