The peddler pushed his cart and arrived at Greenwater Bay's Changfeng Village.
At the village entrance, a few children were playing around. A little girl saw the peddler and went up to him to buy some medicine candy.
Where's the medicine candy?
The peddler searched for a while and finally found the medicine candy jar on the cart.
"How many do you want?"
The little girl said, "Two orange-flavored, one pear-flavored."
Which one is the orange flavor...
The peddler searched for a while and gave the girl five pieces of medicine candy: "I'll give you two extra, so you don't have to pick the flavors."
The other children, hearing they got two extra, also gathered around:
"I want three orange ones!"
"I want one cantaloupe!"
"I want one hawthorn!"
The peddler pursed his lips and muttered, "How much was each piece of medicine candy again?"
Gloves reminded him, "The peddler's selling at the regular price, one piece for thirteen cents each."
This set price was neither easy to calculate nor easy to give change for.
A village woman walked to the village entrance, calling the children home for dinner. She saw the peddler from afar and couldn't help but shout, "Oh my, he's here, he's alive!"
This woman's voice was so loud, with just one shout, she alerted half the village.
The villagers flocked to the village entrance, surrounding the peddler and asking about the prices.
"How much for this barrel?"
The peddler thought for a moment: "Take a look, today I'll sell it to you for half price."
"I'll take that pickle jar."
The peddler nodded: "You're straightforward, just give me whatever you think is fair."
"Two clothes racks, a pack of candles, two boxes of matches, one back scratcher, and a pair of scissors; how much altogether?"
The peddler scratched his head: "Are you buying so many things?"
The person laughed: "I'm not buying, I'm just asking the price."
"Out of the way, if you're not buying, don't crowd around!"
A young guy stepped forward, looking excited: "I want to buy Martial Cultivation Powder!"
The peddler opened the cabinet, looked inside, and shook his head: "The Martial Cultivation Powder is sold out!"
"Then, I'll buy the Literature Cultivator one."
"Do you know how to read?"
"I don't."
"How can you be a Literature Cultivator if you can't read?"
The young guy thought about it and said: "Then I want Fire Cultivation Powder."
"Such a rare powder, it's not something you can just have at will."
"What about Water Cultivation then?"
"Water Cultivation is also unavailable."
The young guy hurriedly asked: "What medicine powder do you have then?"
The peddler took a careful look again: "Only Gold Cultivation Powder."
The young guy's face lit up with joy: "Gold Cultivation Powder, is that the Taoist Sect's stone-to-gold technique?"
The peddler shook his head: "It's for carrying a golden barrel and collecting golden juice everywhere."
The young guy didn't understand, so the peddler took out a barrel to show him.
The young guy shook his head repeatedly: "Isn't this for carrying manure? This won't do, I definitely don't want this."
"Take it or leave it, you're being picky." Taking advantage of the situation, the peddler pushed the cart away.
The villagers didn't really care whether they bought anything or not. Usually seeing a peddler, they didn't feel anything was special.
But seeing the peddler today made them genuinely happy. Word of mouth spread from person to person, gradually reaching neighboring villages.
From Changfeng Village to Blue Poplar Village, and from Blue Poplar Village to New Land.
Upon reaching New Land, the peddler put down his cart, sat by the roadside, wiped his sweat, took out his old teapot, and poured himself a cup of tea.
This peddler was actually Li Banfeng in disguise.
Only when the peddler shows up can Puluo State be at peace, and the Inner State can settle down.
But Li Banfeng cannot pretend to be a peddler forever, he doesn't have the ability for that, unable to remember product names, nor prices, and that's secondary. The key point is that he doesn't have the medicinal powder, so he can't keep tricking people with gold cultivation.
He still needs to go to Pillow City to figure things out.
Pillow City is a proper city where trains come through.
Getting off the train, the station staff yawned while checking tickets, and upon leaving the platform, the area in front of the station was empty, not a soul in sight.
The small town isn't large, with only one main street. Walking along the main street, there were no pedestrians, and all the shops on either side were closed.
After walking for a long time, he finally encountered a rickshaw puller, who was lying in the rickshaw asleep. Li Banfeng wanted to ask for directions and called out for a long while, but the puller did not wake up.
"Brother, don't waste your effort," the teapot spoke, "If it's at the station front, there's still a chance of waking those asleep. But in the town, to wake someone, you'd have to wait until next spring."
Li Banfeng took out the teapot: "You're quite familiar with this?"
"Familiar, I was born here, grew up here. I can't remember how many years I stayed, I just remember one day, I felt that people shouldn't live like this. People need aspirations, a goal to strive for, so I thought it was time to wander. Who knew, I wandered straight into Bitter Vegetable Manor."
It's fine even without directions, as Li Banfeng is a Traveling Cultivator, with a great sense of direction. Following the address Liao Zihui gave, Li Banfeng explored on his own.
Entering an alleyway, things became lively.
A man lay at the courtyard gate, both hands posed as if crawling into the courtyard.
The courtyard should be his home, why did he fall asleep at the door instead of inside?
The old teapot yawned: "He wanted to go back inside but didn't make it."
Up ahead, a stall selling sundries lay on the table, with the stall's keeper asleep at the stand, opposite a woman who was asleep too, one hand clutching a box of rouge, the other some loose change.
She was likely buying the rouge and about to pay, but the vendor didn't have time to collect the money, both fell asleep there.
The old teapot glanced at the rouge in the woman's hand: "This kind of rouge isn't easy to buy, she was probably afraid she'd not get it later. The vendor was greedy, insisted on doing this one more business, ended up not having time to close shop, and ended up like this."
Li Banfeng was curious: "The business was halfway done, can't they wait and not fall asleep here?"
As they spoke, Li Banfeng couldn't help but yawn.
The old teapot chuckled: "Once the day of 'Lixia' arrives, after midnight, everyone in Pillow City can't keep their eyes open.
If they're sensible, they hurry home to sleep, if they insist on finishing the work, they might end up sleeping on the street and won't wake until next spring begins."
Li Banfeng still didn't understand: "What about urgent calls of nature?"
"The local deity has methods. In Pillow City, as long as you clean up before falling asleep, there'll be no need for urgent relief after..."
"What's the local deity called here?"
"I don't remember his name."
"What Taoist Sect is he from?"
"He's a Lazy Cultivator."
Li Banfeng touched the Judge's Pen: "This place suits you perfectly!"
The Judge's Pen did not respond, it was already asleep.
The vendor wasn't outrageous, as Li Banfeng walked further into the alley, he saw a latrine.
A woman lay at the latrine's door, probably aiming to head home after using it but ended up asleep nearby.
Even more ridiculous was that inside the latrine, a man was half-lying, directly asleep halfway through using it.
After walking through the alley for about ten minutes, Li Banfeng found Ye Haolong's residence.
It was a big household, with three steps and three courtyards, Li Banfeng didn't knock knowing there'd be no response, he directly used the Unobstructed Technique to pass through the walls.
In the front courtyard, the maids were each in their rooms, sleeping soundly.
In the main courtyard, Li Banfeng directly went to the main house, where a man was sleeping alone in the inner room, covered with a quilt, the bed neatly made.
The man seemed to be in his seventies, with white hair and beard, he should be Ye Haolong whom Liao Zihui mentioned.
Li Banfeng called beside Ye Haolong several times, but Ye Haolong did not wake.
"He's a Cloud Top First Layer cultivator, and even he can't resist Pillow City's rules?"
"Can't resist," the teapot spoke sluggishly, "No matter how high his cultivation, in Pillow City unless he wants to wake up himself, it's difficult to wake him."
What to do now? Without him getting up, there's no way to communicate.
Li Banfeng looked around: "Are there other places like Pillow City in the world? Aren't they afraid of theft?"
"Not afraid, truly not afraid," the old teapot yawned, "In Pillow City, if you take something you shouldn't, you won't leave this territory, you'll sleep for three to five years, and when you wake, you have to repay double,
If someone harms people in the city while they sleep, they can forget about waking up, their life is simply over,
Brother, think of some idea quickly, I'm about to fall asleep too, I'm afraid you also can't hold on too long."
PS: Pillow City is quite a nice place!