Fairy, Please Forgive Me, I Never Meant to Impersonate Your Husband

Chapter 14: The Turtle Merchant Zhu Youqi and the Bird Seller Who Never Parts with His Wine

After roughly inspecting the storage room, Wu Yuan had an idea and opened both a private vault and a public vault within his spatial warehouse.

He placed blood essences, spirit equipment materials, and some high-quality primordial artifact materials into his private vault.

For the public vault, he designated one room for ordinary primordial artifact materials, along with a few special mundane materials that had caught his eye.

Another room in the public vault was reserved for unidentified oddities.

As for the remaining common materials, they remained piled in the temporary storage—no need to move them into the spatial warehouse.

He then summoned Cai Yu and put her in charge of organizing the temporary storage. He also instructed her to call for a carpenter to craft neat wooden shelves, boxes, and crates for the space.

Cai Yu arrived promptly, bringing with her the first batch of weapons forged by two blacksmiths. These included spears and fang-tipped arrows made from the claws and ironwood of fierce insects, serrated blades crafted from the saw-like teeth of millstone insects, and javelins forged from the spine spikes of green demons.

The variety of weapons pleasantly surprised him.

He began to realize he had underestimated the talents among the refugees Chen Yong had painstakingly recruited back in the camp. There were far more skilled individuals than he had initially noticed.

One of the two blacksmiths even knew how to craft arrows from monstrous insect materials. Given more time, he could likely produce bows as well.

According to Cai Yu, this blacksmith—known as “Uncle Stone Arrow”—boasted that his ancestors had once forged Rage Insect Bows, which were at least twice as powerful as the standard hardwood bows Wu Yuan had purchased in Qingqiao Town, rivaling even the military-grade Brute Force Iron-backed Bows.

“If he can really forge a Rage Insect Bow, tell him I’ll put him in charge of the blacksmith shop at the relay station and reward him with at least one gold coin,” Wu Yuan declared excitedly.

Cai Yu brightened at his enthusiasm. “Yes, Master! Don’t worry—Uncle Stone Arrow is reliable. If he says he can do it, he will.”

Wu Yuan nodded, then carefully instructed Cai Yu on managing the temporary storage. He explained the whereabouts of the missing materials and hinted that if she performed well, she might eventually oversee the public vault’s inventory—but only after excelling in her current duties.

Speaking of which, Cai Yu already had several responsibilities, with the Dreamfire Cave being the most critical.

Originally, Wu Yuan had only tasked her with arranging the harvest of 10,000 jin of Black Pearl Rice. That task was now complete, with the rice stored in another storage room, and a hundred jin of it already hulled.

With the spatial warehouse now available, storage space was no longer an immediate concern.

So, he issued a new order: Cai Yu was to organize the relay station workers to continue harvesting Black Pearl Rice, weave straw sacks, and pack both the harvested rice (including what was already in storage) and the hulled grains into 500-jin bags before moving them to the spatial warehouse.

He would periodically store them in a dedicated room within the public vault.

He had initially considered doing the same for stone, wood, and soil resources to keep the relay station courtyard tidy, but upon reflection, it wasn’t practical.

The temporary storage was only about 50 square meters, with a narrow entrance that made moving large logs or stones difficult. Even if they managed, the space would quickly fill up.

In the end, he decided only to have Cai Yu arrange for the Black Jade Soil to be bagged and moved into temporary storage, while wood and stone would remain piled in the courtyard.

With storage matters finally settled, Wu Yuan returned to the combat team outside the relay station.

No powerful monsters had appeared during his absence. Though some fighters had been injured, there had been no fatalities—a relief.

Just then, the shift change arrived. Huang You and Huang Tie emerged from the station’s resting quarters with thirty men—fifteen relay station workers and fifteen non-combatants.

Now armed—some with the blacksmiths’ new weapons, others with borrowed standard-issue spears and leather armor—their morale was high. What could Wu Yuan say?

Thankfully, he was personally overseeing the night’s operations. Otherwise, who knew what might have gone wrong?

Days in the Tianyuan World were long, and nights were no different.

Were it not for the twelve moons lighting the sky, the natives might not have treated the darkness so casually, continuing to hunt monsters and sing as if it were day.

Speaking of singing—after dealing with another wave of monsters, Wu Yuan took a moment to appreciate how quickly the non-combatants had adapted, now showing signs of becoming proficient monster hunters.

Then, an eerie, half-song, half-chant drifted faintly from the other side of Redleaf Cliff:

“I come treading the moonlight, the moonlight urges me away…

Through ten thousand miles of borderlands, none compare to Zhu Youqi…”

Listening closely, the “song” was barely recognizable as such—its content so bizarre it made Wu Yuan’s lips twitch.

The voice sounded familiar. After a moment’s thought, he matched it to a figure from his dream memories and couldn’t help but laugh.

“Long time no see, you self-absorbed howler. I didn’t expect you to appear at Redleaf Cliff so early. Who’s to say whether it’s the dream memories being unreliable or you, ‘Zhu Youqi’ the turtle merchant, being unpredictable?”

With that, he called Huang You and Huang Tie over, giving them quick instructions.

Then he returned to the relay station, fetched Chen Yong, and gathered a team of relay workers who were resting after recent breakthroughs. They hitched a rested Yellow Rhino Cart, loaded it with goods from the public vault (and a few from his private stash), and set off toward the other side of Redleaf Cliff.

The ten-mile stretch of Redleaf Cliff was safe at night—fierce insects and demonic humans avoided the scent of the redleaf grass that filled the gorge.

With the path virtually monster-free, Wu Yuan dared to race through the canyon under the moonlight.

The flat terrain allowed them to cover the distance in minutes.

Emerging from the cliff’s mouth, they spotted a massive figure turning back toward them not far ahead.

Under the moonlight, the figure was unmistakable—a colossal land-walking turtle.

These gentle giants often reached lengths of over thirty feet, but this one was absurdly large—at least a hundred feet long and sixty to seventy feet wide, with legs as thick as tree trunks.

Even crouched, its shell alone stood three stories tall. A true behemoth!

A two-story pavilion was fixed to the turtle’s back, where a man in crimson robes leaned against the railing, reciting poetry to the moon.

Had Wu Yuan’s group not arrived noisily, the man might have continued his lyrical journey for miles, stopping only when his throat gave out.

“A man of refined tastes, I see,” Wu Yuan called out, cupping his hands in greeting, unfazed by the giant turtle’s imposing presence.

He knew Zhu Youqi’s temperament well—flattery and cultured conversation were the only ways to get anywhere with him.

The crimson-robed man laughed heartily, studying Wu Yuan’s group briefly before using some unseen method to make the turtle halt and crouch. He then leaped down, landing smoothly in front of Wu Yuan.

Zhu Youqi was a tall, portly middle-aged man with a booming voice. Without preamble, he asked:

“You know me?”

“I’ve heard tales of Master Zhu, but we’ve never met until today,” Wu Yuan replied, feigning regret at their late acquaintance.

Zhu Youqi’s face brightened with satisfaction. “Honest and likable. I approve. So, what do you want to buy?”

Wu Yuan smiled. His goal was within reach.

Zhu Youqi was a wandering merchant who traveled the wilds atop his giant turtle, infamous for his eccentricities.

If a buyer asked to purchase something first, Zhu Youqi would assume desperation and multiply the price.

But if he asked first, prices remained fair.

In Wu Yuan’s dream memories, a rhyme circulated about two unique merchants:

“Turtle merchant Zhu Youqi,

Bird seller never parts with his wine.”

These two roamed dozens of borderland towns, offering rare and exotic goods.

Win their favor, and one might even acquire a set of spirit artifacts or fragments of mystical oddities.

Answering Zhu Youqi’s question, Wu Yuan avoided stating his desires outright. “I may need many things. Might I first browse your illustrated catalog?”

Zhu Youqi’s delight grew. “You even know about my catalog? Impressive! Very well—since the moon is bright and my mood is high, I’ll let you pick from it. Provided you have enough gold.”

He tugged a red rope hanging from the turtle’s back, and a dictionary-thick leather-bound book dropped into his hands, which he then passed to Wu Yuan.

Wu Yuan accepted it eagerly and began flipping through.

The catalog had multiple indexes and vivid color illustrations—pages featuring these were Zhu Youqi’s prized items, priced at least in silver.

After several pages, Wu Yuan found what he needed: medicinal pills.

Several types had caught his eye back in Qingqiao Town, but he hadn’t dared to splurge then. Despite carrying a Purple-Striped Fish Scale Gold piece, he’d kept his wealth hidden, preferring to appear broke rather than risk drawing attention as a powerless, low-level cultivator.

Now, with a small force of loyal followers and the reinforced Lingyuan Relay Station as his base, facing the famously eccentric (but reputable) Zhu Youqi, he could finally spend more freely.

“I’ll take fifty bottles (600 pills) of Cleansing Malice Pills, ten bottles (120 pills) of Low-Grade Healing Pills, and five bottles (60 pills) of Blood Essence Pills,” Wu Yuan declared in one breath.

Zhu Youqi raised an eyebrow. Wu Yuan’s plain attire and ragged entourage had suggested a focus on basic weapons and armor—not a massive pill purchase.

“Hold on, let me calculate.”

He produced a small black abacus from his sleeve, fingers flying.

“Cleansing Malice Pills at 50 copper per pill—600 pills make 300 silver.

Low-Grade Healing Pills at 1 silver each—120 pills total.

Blood Essence Pills at 20 silver each—60 pills make 1,200 silver.

Grand total: 1,620 silver.

Call it 16 gold coins if you’re paying in gold.”

“Let’s not settle the total yet,” Wu Yuan said, looking up from the catalog. “Do you have Three-Blood Pills? I don’t see them listed.”

Zhu Youqi’s eyes narrowed slightly. “You even know of Three-Blood Pills? They’re not in the catalog—they’re a second-tier pill. But I have one bottle on me. If you want it, gold alone won’t suffice.”

“I know. Will this do?” Wu Yuan turned, retrieved a small wooden box from the cart, and handed it over.

“A box of blood essences? Twenty of them?” Zhu Youqi’s surprise was palpable.

This was his second shock of the night.

At first glance, Wu Yuan’s group had seemed unremarkable in cultivation—hence his lack of caution.

Finding one or two blood essences among them could be attributed to luck, but twenty—seventeen low-grade and three mid-grade—defied belief.

“Low-grade at 30 silver each—17 make 510 silver.

Mid-grade at 2 gold each—3 make 6 gold.

Total: 11.1 gold.

Tell you what—trade them for the Three-Blood Pills. If you agree, the bottle is yours.”

He produced a white jade pill bottle from his robe, its seal intact—clearly a freshly refined, unopened batch.

Wu Yuan nodded. “Fair enough. Done.”

He took the bottle, broke the seal, and confirmed it held twelve round pills, each bearing three faint blood patterns.

He couldn’t help but smile.