12dz Chapter 505 Mirage (Part )
Chapter 505 Mirage (Part )
A sea of mermaid fat lanterns glowed with indigo flames, making the entire underground black market as bright as day.
In the middle, there is a nine-story salt tower. Under the eaves of each floor are bells with intricate patterns. Each bell is tied with a wooden sign with the price marked on it. The sign is engraved with a line of words: Frost-marked salt voucher, three hundred taels per load.
"Master." Wu Yang walked over with a few Nuo masks in his hands.
Everyone here wears Nuo masks and no one shows their true face.
They put on the stalls and blended in with the local salt merchants.
"Find someone first." Fu Jinyuan said.
They passed the nine-story salt tower and saw a crowded market, but all the people coming and going were wearing masks.
There are teahouses and restaurants on both sides of the street.
It is really a huge and complete black market.
Fu Jinyuan observed each buyer to see how they conducted transactions.
These people wearing Nuo masks did not speak, but just pressed the gold leaves under the salt sculpture's tongue coating. The seller would give them a salt block, which would be placed in a special salt spoon and become a token of their fellow travelers when it came into contact with water.
"Without the pass token, we can't get in." Qin Zhen reminded in a low voice.
"The gold leaves in their hands are different from ordinary ones, Wuyang." Fu Jinyuan gestured.
Wu Yang and Gao Jian flashed and disappeared into the crowd.
After a while, they had two more gold leaves in their hands.
"Master, we found people from the Western Regions." Wu Yang whispered to Fu Jinyuan.
“Although they are wearing Nuo masks, one can tell they are from the Western Regions by looking at their hair and body shapes.”
Fu Jinyuan recalled the dark blue gravel on the embankment when he first entered Salt Lake City, and the indigo light on the arrow just now.
The dark blue gravel on the dam was the residue of iron ore, and the arrowhead used by Young Master Lu just now clearly had poison salt on the tip.
The refining of official salt was originally a monopoly of the imperial court, and poisonous salt... was an even more sinister and vicious thing, and its refining was prohibited by the imperial court.
This salt merchant from the northwest is really very courageous.
Fu Jinyuan took the gold leaf and came to the Nine-story Salt Tower. Like everyone else, he placed the gold leaf under his tongue.
He picked up a lump of salt at random.
In the melted water, there was actually a pass of a different color from the others.
"Oh, this year's Salt King Order has appeared!" The Nuo mask buyer next to him exclaimed, forgetting the rule that one cannot speak when exchanging cards.
Soon, two men in white robes came over, confiscated the pass in his hand, and drove him out of the mirage.
But other people had already noticed Fu Jinyuan. When Fu Jinyuan walked out of the Nine-story Salt Tower with the token, someone immediately followed him.
"Sir, are you willing to give up the Salt King Order? You name the price." Someone approached Fu Jinyuan and asked in a low voice.
Fu Jinyuan looked at the Salt King's Token in his hand. He was not very clear about the function of this so-called Salt King's Token, but it was obvious that everyone wanted to get this token.
"Then brother, what price do you think would be worthy of the Salt King's Order?" Fu Jinyuan asked calmly.
"You are a new salt merchant, right? This salt king's order is valuable to useful people. If you only do private salt business, this salt king's order is less useful to you than a few hundred salt permits."
Fu Jinyuan smiled without saying anything. He simply hung the Salt King's Order around his waist.
"Not everyone dares to transport poisonous salt to the Western Regions!" Seeing that Fu Jinyuan ignored him, the other party sounded a little anxious.
Poisonous salt? Western Regions?
Fu Jinyuan's eyes darkened, "Brother, should I sell the Salt King's Order to you, or should I trade it directly with the people from the Western Regions?"
The other party was choked and walked away angrily.
Along the way, many people wanted to exchange the Salt King Order with Fu Jinyuan, but they all returned empty-handed.
"Is this your first time attending Mirage?" Fu Jinyuan was stopped again.
The Nuo mask the other person wore was a little different from the others, it was a fox-shaped mask.
Fu Jinyuan looked at him calmly, "So what if it is, so what if it isn't?"
"He's the first person in history who dares to parade around like this after obtaining the Salt King's Order." The other party chuckled.
"The Salt King issues an order every three years. For the next three years, you will be responsible for transporting the Black Spring Salt out of the Southern Dynasty. If you can survive for three years, you will be as rich as a country in the future. If you fail, your entire clan will be destroyed."
Black Spring Salt! That's poisonous salt. If you put a little bit of it on your weapon, even if you don't die, you'll suffer from pain for days, and in the end you'd rather commit suicide than live.
"If you don't want to take any risks, you should give up the Salt King Order as soon as possible."
"Otherwise, the Mirage will be closed in three days, and you won't be able to open it even if you want to."
"Thank you for the reminder. I will consider it carefully." Fu Jinyuan bowed.
The other party just looked at Fu Jinyuan deeply, didn't say anything else, turned around and left.
"Master, it's almost midnight." Wu Yang reminded in a low voice.
"Keep an eye on those two people from the Western Regions. They should be here for the Salt King's Order." Fu Jinyuan said.
"Master, our people have found Miss Ruan. She is locked up with a group of virgin girls." Fu Jinyuan, who had just separated from the prison to look for Ruan Zhaoxia, whispered.
Fu Jinyuan lowered his eyes slightly, "Send the signal, surround them from the outside first, no one who is here tonight can leave."
Ruan Zhaoxia was imprisoned in a prison made of salt frost condensed into an inverted ice cell. The prison was covered with poisonous salt crystal thorns. Fu Jinyuan's suede boots stepped lightly on the salt crystals and he saw dozens of little girls in the prison huddled together in panic and fear.
Next to Ruan Zhaoxia, there was a girl who was almost the same age as her, and she was crying beside her.
Zhao Jiuling fell to the ground, his life or death unknown.
Suddenly, the muffled sound of chimes was heard all around, echoing throughout the black market.
There were cheers coming from outside.
"Sacrifice to the salt well, sacrifice to the salt well."
A group of people in white robes entered the salt prison. They asked all the girls to stand up. As they pressed the mechanism on the rock wall, the sound of a secret door turning was heard.
The stone cone on which the girl stood slowly rose.
On it was the altar that Fu Jinyuan and the others had just seen.
All the salt merchants with their stalls have gathered here.
On the altar, a group of white-robed Nuo masked figures were protecting a man in a purple robe. The man in the purple robe was holding a bronze bell in his hand, on which was engraved a salt bowl pattern.
Forty-nine virgins were forced to kneel around the altar.
In the middle of the altar is a saint wearing a red wedding dress.
"The Dragon King opens the salt road to get married, and the Ghost Gate carries the sedan chair across the Styx..."
"It was him. Three years ago, he almost killed me." Qin Zhen said gritting his teeth.
Fu Jinyuan put his hands on his waist and was about to draw out his soft sword.
Rumbling--
A loud explosion sounded from underground.
Everyone in the square was startled.
The purple-robed man who was chanting just now also stopped, his eyes sharp, "What happened?"
"Send someone to check immediately!"
"This year's mirage ends here. Everyone please bring your pass to see me tomorrow." He turned around and was about to leave.
Fu Jinyuan: "Stop!"