A Mortal’s Immortal Gourd
Chapter 21: Striking It Rich

Ergouzi walked briskly and reached the county town by dusk.

As he entered the city, he couldn't help but feel a bit pleased with himself—he’d gotten away with something.

Earlier on the road, he hadn’t expected that even in this bitter cold, the bandits would still be out robbing travelers.

Though these bandits had a decent reputation for keeping their word, Ergouzi still didn’t want to hand over a few dozen coins for nothing.

He was stingy even when buying pork—those coins could get him a full jin of meat.

So, while the bandits weren’t paying attention, he suddenly picked up speed and made a break for it.

Ever since racing that black-cloaked attacker, he had newfound confidence in his escape skills.

Especially now that his cultivation had progressed, and his strand of True Qi had grown several times stronger—he ran faster and had more stamina.

With a burst of energy, he took off. The bandits could only shout from behind, completely unable to catch up.

As for fighting the bandits head-on? That never even crossed his mind. Swords and knives don’t discriminate—one wrong move and he could end up with a hole in his body.

Ergouzi passed through the city gates, only to find even more beggars swarming him, surrounding him from all sides.

At first, he hesitated—should he act like Laifu and start whipping them away?

But these beggars saw he looked like a country bumpkin and grew bolder. Several hands reached to strip his clothes, grab his sack—even the rope on his trousers was being untied.

“Scram!”

Ergouzi shouted and lashed out with both fists and feet. With brute strength, he sent the surrounding beggars flying several steps back.

No one dared approach again.

He re-tied his waistband, straightened his clothes, and strode ahead.

Clearly, with beggars, you couldn’t afford to be soft. Otherwise, they'd strip you naked.

Huichun Hall was still as deserted as ever. The young man inside was hunched over a book.

When he heard footsteps and looked up to see Ergouzi, he jumped out of his chair like he’d been bitten by a dog.

“You’re finally here!”

“I’ve been waiting so long!”

The young man grabbed Ergouzi’s hands excitedly, practically glowing with joy.

Seeing this, Ergouzi immediately guessed—the previous batch of Dali Pills must’ve run out.

“Do you have any more of those Dali Pills from last time? How many did you bring?”

The young man didn’t even try to hide his desire for the pills.

He had originally planned to use them at the shop to treat patients.

But his martial artist brother discovered them and mistook them for candy—ate them all.

Now his brother wouldn’t stop pestering him for more, claiming the pills had miraculous effects and were great for martial training.

Driven half mad, and unable to find Ergouzi, the young man had been stewing in frustration.

“Look, I’ve even gone white from worry!”

He yanked out a white hair and showed it to Ergouzi.

“I brought some.”

Ergouzi nodded calmly, though inwardly he found the young man a bit childish—he looked older than Ergouzi but wasn’t very savvy.

Revealing his eagerness to buy so plainly—wasn’t he worried about being overcharged?

Ergouzi had learned from a young age: when buying anything at market, you had to pretend you weren’t interested and haggle carefully.

Maybe this guy grew up wealthy and never had to worry about things like that.

He untied the sack on his back and opened it—completely filled with Dali Pills, probably four or five Dou’s worth.

“So many! Great, I’ll take all of them.”

Rare herbs usually came in tiny amounts. Yet Ergouzi brought them in a sack—this batch must’ve had over five thousand pills.

They counted them one by one for most of the day: 5,695 pills total.

“Are we sticking to the same price as last time?”

The young man was already fiddling with the abacus when he suddenly realized they hadn’t discussed pricing yet.

Ergouzi nodded.

Fifty wen per pill last time had already exceeded his expectations.

And this young man seemed sincere and straightforward—Ergouzi was thinking of building a long-term partnership.

“Alright. 5,695 pills at 50 wen each—that’s 284,750 wen.”

The abacus clacked nonstop as the young man calculated the total.

Ergouzi, having learned some math from Li the Half-Immortal, took a while to do the math in his head and finally agreed.

“I’ll round it off for you—285 taels of silver. Sound good?”

“No problem. But hold on, I’ve got two other kinds of pills here—take a look.”

Ergouzi placed two smaller bundles on the counter and unwrapped them.

Inside were two new versions of the Dali Pill—enhanced editions.

Ergouzi had tested them himself—both had denser spiritual energy and gave a bigger boost to cultivation.

Though, the one with Cistanche gave him… certain thoughts. After eating it, he’d always start dreaming of getting married—and never actually got there.

The young man studied them for a while, then picked up all three pills to compare.

“I can tell these two have much stronger effects, but I’m not yet sure in what way. I’ll need to test them first.”

“If you’re okay with it, I’ll buy these at 60 wen per pill. If they turn out to be extraordinary, I’ll pay you more later.”

Ergouzi saw how honest he was and had no objections.

“There are 50 pills of each type, 100 total. Comes to 6 taels of silver.”

The young man did the math, then disappeared into the back room. A moment later, he came out holding a small wooden chest.

When he opened it, inside were stacks of gleaming white silver—just the sight of it made Ergouzi’s heart leap with joy.

The young man weighed each silver ingot in front of him.

Each was a standard 10-tael piece. He counted out 29 ingots, then added one tael in loose change.

“A total of 291 taels. Please double-check.”

“My name is Sima Yi. If you’ve got more Dali Pills in the future, sell them to me.”

“Oh, okay. I’m Zhang Er Gou—I’ll sell to you again.”

Ergouzi wrapped up the silver ingots tightly in layers of cloth, tying each knot securely.

Hugging his silver as he walked out of Huichun Hall, this was the first time in his life he’d ever held so much money.

This much silver could buy ten mu of fertile land—enough for a tenant family to live on for over a decade.

At the market, it could buy over a dozen young brides, to bring home as wives, concubines, or maids—whatever he wanted.

By now, it was fully dark. The people on the streets looked shady to Ergouzi—every one of them suspicious, like thieves.

Every passerby made him tense with alertness.

Carrying a fortune in silver had a way of straightening your spine.

Passing a bun shop, he waved his hand generously and bought ten of the biggest meat buns—no haggling.

Hugging the hot buns, he ate as he walked—each bite was heavenly.

The beggars nearby stared, drooling three feet long.

By the time he finished the ten buns, it was completely dark. He decided to find a place to stay the night—he still planned to visit the blacksmith’s tomorrow to buy a sword.

Feeling extravagant, Ergouzi thought he’d stay at an inn for once.

He happened to walk past a grand five-story building with red lanterns hanging at the entrance—Hongyan Tower.

He hesitated at the door, scraped the mud off his feet in the snow, then walked up.

He just wanted to see what it looked like inside.

As soon as he approached, a servant in green rushed out, bowing respectfully.

But when he noticed Ergouzi’s muddy feet, the smile on his face vanished. He gave Ergouzi a cold once-over.

Country bumpkin!

“Get out!”

The servant barked harshly.

Ergouzi was stunned, thinking maybe it was a misunderstanding—maybe they thought he was a beggar. He quickly said,

“I’m here to get a room.”

“Get a room?”

The servant looked him up and down again.

Hair a mess, dark rough skin, worn-out cotton coat, hands covered in calluses and cracks—and no shoes.

“Pah! You don’t even know what place this is!”

“One night here costs two taels of silver—can you afford it?”

“If I let you stay, what face would our noble guests have?”

As he spoke, he moved to push Ergouzi away.

But though Ergouzi wasn’t tall, he had hundreds of jin of strength.

To the servant, it was like shoving a rock wall—didn’t budge an inch.

Then Ergouzi gave a light tug and sent him tumbling flat on his back.

“Dog eyes looking down on people!”

Ergouzi turned and walked out of Hongyan Tower.

Truth be told, hearing it cost two taels per night—he wouldn’t have stayed even if they welcomed him.

That kind of money could buy 20 jin of pork.

Lesson learned—he didn’t even bother entering any other obviously pricey places.

He finally found a run-down inn with a crooked signboard—30 wen per night.

The room didn’t come with bedding—if you wanted blankets, that was another 10 wen. But it had a kitchen for cooking your own food.

Surprisingly, business was good. It was filled with all sorts of folks from every walk of life.

Plenty of thieves too—his room got visited three times in one night.

He barely slept, but at least not a single coin was stolen.