Fairy Desire

With a bang, a flame lit up in the room, adding a touch of life to the dark room, and at the same time illuminating a very terrifying figure: the hair is withered like weeds; the eyes are dry and dull, like two cloudy eyes. A small puddle; a mouthful of black teeth, only a few left; the most terrifying thing is his face, dark and dirty, with several holes, just a tattered and discarded rag doll.

At this time, he raised a burning palm and walked towards a dusty oil lamp. Every step he took, there was a creaking sound in his whole body, as if all the joints in his body were rusted.

When that weird man tried to light the oil lamp, Yan Shi finally couldn't help it anymore, and asked in a low voice, "Brother Meng, who is this old man? I...how do I think he doesn't look like a real person?" .”

Meng Xiang also replied in a very low voice: "Stone, you guessed right, this Uncle Mu is indeed not a normal person, he is a puppet. But don't say it in front of him, or he will get angry .”

"Brother Meng, I see." Yan Shi nodded, but he felt a strange feeling in his heart, Meng Xiang seemed to know the mechanism puppet in the room very well.

Just when he was about to ask Meng Xiang what a puppet was, the Uncle Mu whom Meng Xiang was talking about had already lit the oil lamp and walked towards them dragging a hand that was burned black. The question swallowed.

After tidying up the room, Meng Xiang and Yan Shi simply ate something and fell asleep.With a feeling of familiarity and strangeness, Meng Xiang quickly fell asleep.

But Yan Shi couldn't fall asleep for a long time. Apart from the pungent musty smell on the bedding that made him uncomfortable, his mood was ups and downs, and he couldn't calm down for a long time. Although he promised Meng Xiang that he was very straightforward, he was willing to follow him to any place, In fact, he still has concerns in his heart: he has come to a completely strange world, and he has no idea what will happen.

It wasn't until the clapper on the fourth watch was knocked outside that Yan Shi felt a little tired, and fell asleep in a daze wrapped in a quilt, but he still didn't sleep very well, and had many dreams. For a while, he and Meng Xiang were chased and killed Suddenly, they fell into the cliff again... He spent the first night in another world in confusion and anxiety.

The next day, Meng Xiang and Yan Shi ate something casually, and went out together. First, they found a leather goods store in the town.Maybe the owner of the leather goods store had heard about their performance yesterday, and he was very polite to them, and he didn't try to haggle them because they were foreigners. In the end, he gave them 220 taels of silver for a whole wolf.

According to the memory of his previous life, although this price is a little low, if he was from this town, he would have given him ten taels of silver more, but Meng Xiang has a good social status, so he doesn't care about the mere ten taels of silver.

Next, Meng Xiang and Yan Shi made a big purchase. There were two big carts. In addition to some weeding tools such as shovels, shovels, and hoes, they also bought brand-new bedding, food, pots and pans, and a full set of living utensils. , Uncle Mu is an organ puppet who doesn't need to eat or sleep, but he and Yan Shi need it.

In the next three days, Meng Xiang and Yan Shi cleaned up the entire yard and room. Originally, Uncle Mu wanted to help, but after his leg was broken, he could only watch from the sidelines.

After the whole house had a new look, Meng Xiang and Yan Shi did a calculation, and there was 220 taels of 150 taels of silver left, but Meng Xiang knew that the remaining taels of silver would no longer belong to them soon.

Meng Xiang's prediction was very accurate, and a tax official came to collect the debt that afternoon.Of course, it's not that Meng Xiang and Yan Shi owed any debts, but that the middle-aged man who gave Meng Xiang the black sign, that is, the original owner of the house they live in, owes the town a debt.

And they inherited the house from the middle-aged man, and the debt was passed on to them, so if they wanted to live in this house, they had to pay off the debt for the middle-aged man.The name of the tax collector's tax is residence tax, which is mainly based on the size of the living area.

The world Meng Xiang is in now is called Wood Realm, also known as Tree Realm.Trees play a vital role in people's lives. Without those towering trees, people may not be able to survive at all.

Just like the maple town where he lives now, the core of the town is the huge maple tree.It is necessary to choose it as the center of the town. It can release an inverted bowl-shaped transparent shield to protect the town when the whole town is in danger.

People living in the tree world often encounter two kinds of dangers, one is natural disasters, and the other is animal disasters.These two dangers have a great impact on people's survival, even related to life and death.

The weather in the tree world is much more violent than the world Meng Xiang and Yan Shi used to live in, like tornadoes and hurricanes that can blow houses into the sky, bowl-sized hailstones that can kill people alive, and cold waves that can freeze everything...every day. appear every year.

Without the protection of the big trees supporting the entire settlement, it would be very difficult for people to survive these terrible natural disasters. Even if they could survive, they would have absolutely no chance of surviving in the face of the animal disasters that broke out every year.

However, the protection of big trees cannot completely offset the harm of natural disasters and animal disasters. People living outside the settlements may be affected, and their lives may even be in danger. Therefore, people living in the core area of ​​the town must pay according to their living area. A certain amount of silver will be given to the town mayor as a residence tax, and it will be used as a relief fund after various disasters, and it will be used to comfort the injured residents and rebuild after the disaster.

The house where Meng Xiang and Yan Shi live is right in the center of Fengshu Town, and the area is quite large, so there is no doubt that they have to pay residence tax.However, due to the absence of the original owner of the house and his great kindness to Maple Town, successive mayors have allowed it to exist until today.

Now the original owner of the house has given the house to Meng Xiang, which means that he has become the new owner of the house, and he has not made any contribution to Fengshu Town. In addition, he is a foreigner, so he must hand over the house. tax.

30 taels of silver a year, the original owner of the house has been away for ten years, that is to say, he has not paid taxes for ten years, so Meng Xiang and Yan Shi have to pay 300 taels of silver.

After some negotiation, because the original owner of the house had great kindness to the whole Maple Town, so 100 taels were exempted, and they had to pay 200 taels of silver, but they only had 150 taels in their hands, which was still not enough.

The tax officer is not bad. After asking the mayor for instructions, he thinks that they are newcomers and cannot have some silver taels in their hands for urgent needs, so they are allowed to pay in installments, first half of which is 100 taels, and the rest will be paid in one lump sum after half a year. together.

In his previous life, the reason why he lived in Fengshu Town for three years was to pay back the damn residence tax, and he still hadn't paid all the money when he left, so he had to mortgage the deed, which was tantamount to a cheap sale.

When he rushed to Ironwood City with 500 taels of silver and was about to venture into it, he realized that [-] taels of silver seemed like a lot, and it would be enough for an ordinary family to live for several years. , he realized that five hundred silver was still too little.

In addition, he also made a very fatal mistake - he did not obtain the maple town resident certificate, that is, the identity card.After arriving in Ironwood City, he became a hooligan without any identification. He was discriminated against everywhere and could not do many things. He had to pay almost twice as much for food and lodging.It can be said that his miserable life in Ironwood City has a lot to do with his lack of identity card.

But having said that, it is not easy for him to obtain the identity certificate of Maple Town.First, he made a contribution to Maple Town, which was very difficult for him to do with his skills at the time.

Of course, he can be a voluntary watchman and a night patrolman, but in order to meet the contribution standards for applying for an identity certificate, he must have to work for at least ten years, which is not acceptable to him.

Even if he contributed enough to Fengshu Town, he still needs to pay a handling fee of 200 taels to get his identity certificate. He couldn't even pay the residence tax at that time, let alone take out 200 taels of silver all at once.

After sending away the tax officer, Meng Xiang and Yan Shi started restorative exercises. Although they are located in the center of the town, because they purposely raised a section of the courtyard wall, the townspeople of Fengshu Town will not accidentally see their practice. .In fact, even if they saw it, they couldn't steal anything from them.

Half a month has passed in a flash, Meng Xiang and Yan Shi haven't stepped out of the yard, they are practicing hard all the time, and they can obviously feel the progress is more obvious than in the original world.

Although none of them have produced Dao seeds, they cannot resonate with the spiritual energy in the air and absorb it for their own use, but the food they eat and the water they drink contains spiritual energy, so they can still absorb some spiritual energy, and the spiritual energy is beneficial to them. The body is undoubtedly very beneficial.

In the original world where Meng Xiang and Yan Shi lived, it was a rare longevity for a person to live to **150 years old, and even so, the person would be hunched over and had no choice but to do anything else.But in the tree world, as long as they are not seriously ill or bitten by wild animals, most people can live to be more than 120 years old, and the long-lived people can even reach [-] years old, and they still have a certain working ability before [-] years old.

In his previous life, Meng Xiang's background was too weak, and he was already in his early twenties when he started practicing "Bronze Skin and Iron Bone Art". To live so miserable.

On the morning of the No. 20th day when the two came to the tree world, Meng Xiang and Yan Shi did not practice any more. After eating, the two went to a weapon shop in Fengshu Town - Lianfeng with the remaining 50 taels of silver. Number.

Lianfeng is not only the largest weapon store in Fengshu Town, but also the largest weapon store within hundreds of miles. It has branches in many Xiaoshu villages and tree towns, and is closely related to the town government of Fengshu Town. Not only the town More than [-]% of the bow and arrow weapons used by hunters are bought from it, and even the weapons and armor of the security brigade are also ordered from it.

The reason why Meng Xiang and Yan Shi went to Lianfeng to buy bows and arrows was that besides the high quality of the bows and arrows sold by Lianfeng, he actually had other purposes, and their hidden purpose was that they went to Lianfeng to buy bows and arrows. The most important reason is that it is impossible to buy a high-quality bow and arrow suitable for the two of them for a mere 50 taels of silver.