Immortal Refiner

It takes no time to practice martial arts. In the blink of an eye, Shengtian City entered winter, and heavy snow fell like goose feathers.

During this period, the entire imperial city was in a big commotion because of the Star-Picking Thief.

Under the promotion of the Prince's Mansion, all the major martial arts halls in the city and several underground gangs took action, and even some civilians joined in, just to find the thief who stole the prince's 400-year-old mountain ginseng.

However, the result is naturally obvious. Without even knowing the specific appearance of the person, how could it be so easy to catch this daring thief.

During this period, Li Qing was not idle. He exchanged all the top-quality jade he brought out from the Polar Night World for silver.

Then he bought a blacksmith shop on a street in the outer city, which cost a lot of silver, but fortunately, the procedures were complete, so he didn't have to go to the government office.

In this way, Li Qing became the owner of the blacksmith shop again. He helped people forge iron every day and spent time selling some weapons he forged.

Dang! Dang! Dang!

In the blacksmith shop under Li Qing, he was beating the dark red iron block seriously and meticulously, as if he was treating a work of art.

Outside the shop, due to the high temperature of the forge, there was no snow in front of Li Qing's blacksmith shop, but it was very warm and dry.

Qi Kang sat on the ground leaning against the doorpost, looking at the snow scene outside the street with boredom.

Dang!

With the fall of Li Qing's last hammer, a kitchen knife has taken shape.

Qi Kang said at the right time: "Master, don't forget the banquet of Qingshan Martial Arts Hall tonight. The owner of the hall has a son in his old age, and he is very happy these days."

Li Qing put away the posture of Guxuan Hammer Kung Fu and immersed the kitchen knife in the water. The high temperature caused sparks on the water surface, and a burst of white smoke rose violently.

After the kitchen knife gradually cooled down, Li Qing let out a breath and said to Qi Kang: "You go and sharpen this kitchen knife, and then send it to Widow Wang's house."

After buying the blacksmith shop, Qi Kang was accepted by Li Qing as his apprentice, but he did not teach him any martial arts, but only taught him how to forge iron.

After a long life, Li Qing finally understood why Bodhi Patriarch did not allow Wukong to claim to be his apprentice.

It was because he was worried that his apprentice would cause trouble when he went out. If he provoked some strong man, he, as the master, would not be able to escape.

So Li Qing only taught blacksmithing skills, and did not teach anything about martial arts.

...

In the evening, night fell.

Li Qing led Qi Kang to the only martial arts hall on this street, Qingshan Martial Arts Hall.

This old owner of the old hall was indeed quite capable and was a master who had practiced external strength.

However, this is not ranked in Shengtian City. The three martial arts halls in Shengtian City are really famous!

They are: Hongfeng Martial Arts Hall, Feiyun Martial Arts Hall and Jinjia Martial Arts Hall!

The masters of the three martial arts halls are all masters of internal strength. Their martial arts strength cannot be underestimated, and there are many external strength masters under their names, which is far beyond the comparison of Qingshan Martial Arts Hall.

In addition, there is a powerful underground force in the city that cannot be underestimated, that is Jiulianmen!

This sect is spread over half of Fengguo, and has an unclear relationship with the court, so it can also take root in Shengtian.

The above information was all inquired by Qi Kang alone.

It must be said that Qi Kang's ability is still very strong. He helped him collect information and helped him in the blacksmith shop. He did everything perfectly, which made Li Qing a little embarrassed and wondered whether to pay him more wages.

Of course, Qi Kang, who worked hard without complaint, never mentioned anything about salary increase. His biggest wish was to let Li Qing teach him martial arts.

...

Walking through the streets, the two finally arrived at the gate of Qingshan Martial Arts Hall.

At a glance, the owner of the hall, who had a son in his old age, stood in front of the door to welcome guests, with a very bright smile on his face, as happy as he could be.

"Hahahaha, Master Li, come in and take a seat." The owner of the hall, Xu Qingshan, said to Li Qing with a fist, like a man of the world.

Seeing this, Li Qing also took out the gift, and while saying congratulations, he stuffed the gift money into Xu Qingshan.

"Congratulations, Qingshan Hall Master!" Li Qing said with a smile.

Xu Qingshan took the gift money, and after feeling the heaviness of the gift money, the smile on his face became more intense, but he refused: "Hahaha, you are so polite, Master Li, come in and sit down, come in and sit down."

In Shengtian City, in addition to paying taxes to the government, you also have to pay some protection fees to these martial arts schools in secret. If you encounter any troubles that the government is unwilling to deal with, you can basically go to these martial arts schools.

After paying the protection fee, generally there will be no hooligans coming to cause trouble, and you can do business with peace of mind.

The underground forces of the entire Shengtian City are basically monopolized by the three major martial arts schools and Jiulianmen. Small martial arts schools like Qingshan Martial Arts School have no choice even if they don't want to collect money, because opening a martial arts school here requires the nod of the three major martial arts schools, and you have to pay them a share of money every once in a while.

For such things, even the government turns a blind eye and maintains a state of acquiescence.

For example, Qingshan Martial Arts School is under the jurisdiction of Feiyun Martial Arts School. Every year, Qingshan Martial Arts School has to hand over a large portion of the membership fees it collects from various merchants on the street to Feiyun Martial Arts School.

Now the division of territory has already reached a balance. Half of the territory of Shengtian City belongs to Jiulianmen, and the other half belongs to the three major martial arts schools.

It is said that a long time ago, when the territory had not been clearly divided, the three major martial arts schools and Jiulianmen had conflicts with each other, and there were fierce fights outside the city every night.

Even the internal strength masters of several major forces often clashed.

However, in the end, with the intervention and mediation of the court, such fierce fights gradually subsided, and finally formed the current situation.

As the saying goes: "Rice is expensive in Shengtian, and it is not easy to live in a big place." There are naturally many reasons for this.

The martial arts school collected a fee from the merchants, and the merchants had no choice but to raise the price of the things they sold and earn this part of the money back from the people.

The so-called Jianghu is nothing more than this.

When Qi Kang first learned about these inside stories, he was like an angry young man. He didn't know how many times he cursed the incompetence of the court and the black hearts of these martial arts schools.

Naturally, they also hated people like Qingshan Martial Arts School, and wished that they could become a peerless martial arts master and get rid of all these martial arts schools that exploited the people.

In response, Li Qing just smiled and did not tell Qi Kang that the three major martial arts schools and Jiulianmen were probably instructed by the court to do so.

It would be fine if Qi Kang just cursed them behind their backs, but at least he had to pretend to be a little restrained in public.

...