"Alright."
Upon receiving Su Mu’s consent, the green-dressed woman wearing a spirit bird mask had a subtle hint of anticipation flicker in her beautiful eyes. With a swift gesture, her fingertips circulated spiritual qi, breaking a corner of the seal on the wine jar.
Instantly, the aroma of the wine seemed like a demon beast breaking free from the shackles of the old ceramic jar, letting the fragrance spread wildly.
For a moment, several passersby near Su Mu’s stall threw curious and suspicious glances due to the intense aroma of the liquor. Several gazes lingered on the two of them and then fell onto the wine jar.
"It smells amazing!... Is it that liquor?"
"Could it be someone is selling stolen Drunken Moon Brew?"
"No, that’s not right. Although I’ve never tasted Drunken Moon Brew, that aroma isn’t correct... Damn, I didn’t even notice the fine wine on that stall earlier."
The people of the black market wearing masks murmured softly, some feeling deeply regretful.
The green-dressed woman merely sniffed slightly before tremors ran through her body. The beautiful eyes visible through the spirit bird mask flashed with astonishment and brilliance, and moments later, a clump of black mud appeared with a flash of spiritual light in her hand, with which she resealed the wine aroma.
Su Mu slightly narrowed his eyes, noticing that the cohesive motion of resealing the jar performed by this green-dressed woman did not utilize Daoist spiritual qi, indicating that she was very accustomed to it, suggesting that she probably hailed from a long line of winemakers and had been brewing wine for years.
"Most winemaking establishments in the Commandery City are held by the Tao, Li, Lin, and Zhou families... this lady’s extraordinary presence along with being a Daoist cultivator suggests she’s likely from one of these four families."
Within a flash, Su Mu garnered some guesses about the origins of the green-clad woman before him, causing him to exercise more caution as he didn’t want any trouble brewing.
"I’ll take the wine; how much is it?"
Su Mu remained silent, signaling with his hands the number ’six’.
"Sixty, or six hundred?"
"Six... hundred."
"Alright, this jar of wine is mine now."
Seeing this, the green-dressed woman withdrew a small stack of silver notes without a second thought, as if fearing Su Mu might change his mind, and quickly took away the wine jar. Before arriving, Li Lu had only anticipated a selling price of six hundred coins.
Su Mu’s asking price in mind was higher than six hundred coins, but it wouldn’t exceed ten taels of silver at the most.
At present, the green-dressed woman had just quoted six hundred years, perfectly ten times the expected price, all while looking like she feared Su Mu might regret it.
Su Mu played along smoothly, accepting without overt reaction. This firmly cemented his belief that the person before him hailed from one of the four families in the Commandery City.
Having emerged from the Land of Cyan Clouds, both Su Mu and Li Lu traversed several thousand miles to reach Donglai County, always stopping to sample any wine they came across in small counties, towns, or even villages.
Li Lu had been by Li Kang’s side since childhood, observing and eventually inheriting Li Kang’s tracing technique, hence naturally developing an interest in wines, and presumably passed down with Li Kang’s fondness for wine.
However, during their journey, Su Mu exercised some control and wouldn’t let Li Lu drink too much. As for Su Mu, he wasn’t actually fond of wine, but a few years ago, to resist Gu Insects, he began with ordinary wines and then moved to pharmacists mixing different kinds of brews for him.
Three master brewers, notably the pharmacist, were avid lovers of fine wines. Consequently, over time, Su Mu’s tolerance and fondness for wine grew. Currently, in his Sumeru Ring, there were nearly two hundred jars of wine, which was the last batch Li Kang left behind in this world.
Nowadays, Su Mu had long stopped using medicinal wines, and he was reluctant to easily use the wines left behind by Li Kang, treating them as a sentimental connection to the Land of Cyan Clouds.
Properly stored wines only get more fragrant and rich over time.
Regarding Gu Insects after stopping medicinal wine, Su Mu no longer had any worries.
"Currently, the Gu Insect has been dormant for a long time... mostly due to the Sun Family Ancestor."
Su Mu’s eyes flickered slightly, having noticed before that the dormant Gu Insect in his chest would react, albeit shivering, only when the Sun Family Ancestor awoke, leading him to suspect that it was the Sun Family Ancestor secretly lending a helping hand.
With such an esteemed deity residing within the Jade Pendant, for now, Su Mu didn’t need to concern himself with the Gu Insect issue.
Returning to the moment, Su Mu’s gaze fell upon the old rough clay pot. This old wine jar was bought by Li Lu from the marketplace, mainly for its price efficiency.
In terms of wines, after leaving the Land of Cyan Clouds, Su Mu had tasted many wines, yet finding one that reached the level of the ’old Hu Hu Wine’ brewed by Li Kang in his lifetime was rare.
Regarding the ’new Hu Hu Wine’ brewed by Li Kang using distillation and other brewing techniques from Su Mu’s previous life, there was no wine that could compare.
As a result, Su Mu had his own acceptable price range for wines. Six hundred taels weren’t a significant amount for Su Mu currently, but he wouldn’t spend six hundred taels of silver on a jar of ordinary wine.
After all, the ’old Hu Hu Wine’ brewed by Li Kang only sold for half a tael per jar back in the day, but transactions are a matter of mutual consent, so Su Mu immediately accepted the six hundred taels of silver notes.
"Do you...?"
The green-dressed woman took away the only jar of wine from the stall and was about to ask Su Mu if he had any other wines, as she was considering acquiring them all, but before she could finish speaking.
"Splash, ah——!"
Accompanied by the sound of someone falling into the water, a panicked scream immediately followed from outside the ship building.
"What’s that noise?"
"I heard a scream; did someone fall in the water?"
Most people in the black market were ones who lived life on the edge. Upon hearing such a scream, their hearts immediately became vigilant, and many quickly walked out of the ship building to see what was happening.
"Help, help... I can’t swim, save me!"
The serenity of the black water domain was broken by cries for help. Accompanying others out of the cabin, Su Mu witnessed many figures gathering at the ship’s bow before taking a few steps forward to see clearly.
Amidst the water outside the ship was a ghastly pale-faced woman struggling to keep afloat, her limbs paddling desperately, mouth unleashing shrill cries for rescue time and again.