"Master Yu, wait a moment!"
Suddenly, a corpulent figure hurried in from outside, panting, followed by two equally breathless figures.
Yu Daochen looked at the man leading the way with some surprise, "Xun Zheng, ranked fiftieth on the Earthly Rankings?"
Xun Zheng nodded and was about to enter, "Master Yu, give me some water first, I'm dying of thirst."
Yu Daochen raised his hand to stop him, "That won't do. My shop is closed and we're not accepting customers. You can stand at the door."
The two figures behind Xun Zheng were Guo Lian and Liu Xiaocheng.
Xun Zheng's mouth was too dry to speak. Yu Daochen smiled faintly, "However, I can personally sell you some water. It's not expensive, just three hundred yuan a cup."
Xun Zheng said nothing, raising his hand to signal Yu Daochen to quickly bring the water.
Yu Daochen chuckled, walked to the tea table, picked up the teapot, took three tea cups, and walked out, handing one to Xun Zheng.
Xun Zheng took the tea cup. Yu Daochen poured the cooled tea into Xun Zheng's cup.
Xun Zheng raised the cup and drank it down in one go.
Gulp... gulp...
Yu Daochen looked at Liu Xiaocheng and Guo Lian, who were parched, "What about you two?"
Without hesitation, they walked over and took the tea cups. Yu Daochen poured tea into their cups.
Gulp... gulp...
The three of them drank seven or eight cups, finishing a whole pot of tea.
Xun Zheng let out a long sigh, "Damn it, I almost died of thirst."
Yu Daochen chuckled, "Master Xun, how does this nine-yuan-and-ninety-cent tea taste?"
Xun Zheng glared at him unhappily, "Master Yu, that's a bit unfair. Three hundred yuan for a cup of tea this small? You're really cutting the leeks, and it's just nine-yuan-and-ninety-cent tea. You should at least brew some Pu'er or Tieguanyin."
Yu Daochen retorted playfully, "Holy crap, do I look like someone who can afford Pu'er or Tieguanyin?"
Xun Zheng coughed dryly, "But your prices are too high. Robbing a bank isn't as fast as this."
Yu Daochen ignored him, "Stop the nonsense. Are you paying, or do you want to have a chat with my Kang Long Jian? One hit from my Kang Long Jian costs three hundred yuan."
Xun Zheng waved his hand, "Holy crap, Master Yu, you're practically trying to kill me."
Yu Daochen extended his hand, "Then stop the nonsense and hand over the money."
Xun Zheng reluctantly took out a wad of red bills from his shoulder bag and started counting, muttering aggrievedly, "We're all fellow villagers, do you have to rip me off like this?"
Yu Daochen chuckled, "As the saying goes, when fellow villagers meet, they rip each other off."
Xun Zheng was from Yangzhou, and Yu Daochen had met him a few times. The man seemed unremarkable.
Besides being a bit fat and a bit ugly, there was nothing else.
However, this guy was exceptionally wealthy. How wealthy? To the extent that he could use money to get Hao Tian Quan to take him as a personal disciple.
Xun Zheng was originally just an ordinary person. Five years ago, an accident led him into this line of work. He desperately wanted to learn magic.
As everyone knows, ordinary people who want to learn magic must join a sect and their talent must be considered. Xun Zheng's talent wasn't good; it could be said to be particularly poor.
Sects generally wouldn't accept people like him. But Xun Zheng's family was rich! They paid for him to join the then-rising Yan Shu Sect.
But Xun Zheng, without even looking at the sect, refused on the spot.
The reasons were very simple, summarized in a few sentences.
The sect didn't have any famous magic, it wasn't a reputable sect, and most importantly, it wasn't the strongest sect in the martial world.
Xun Zheng's father was so angry he stomped his feet, but there was nothing he could do. He was his only son, and he paid for him to join the three major sects.
The three major sects were not places that could be joined just by having money. The Heavenly Master's Mansion directly ignored him. The Ten Thousand Buddha Temple was more tactful, but the meaning was also that they wouldn't accept him. The Northeast Spirit Mediums accepted Xun Zheng as a disciple, but not a single immortal would be his guardian spirit.
None of the three major sects were places Xun Zheng could enter.
Finally, Xun Zheng's father, using some unknown method, invited the strongest in the human world, Hao Tian Quan, to take him as a personal disciple.
Xun Zheng knew they were the strongest in the human world, so he reluctantly agreed.
However, Hao Tian Quan really had some skill. Using some unknown method, they caused Xun Zheng's strength to surge, and he even managed to break into the fiftieth position on the Earthly Rankings.
It was said that Hao Tian Quan put in a lot of effort for this.
It was just unknown why Hao Tian Quan would take Xun Zheng as a personal disciple.
It was probably for the money, after all, Xun Zheng's family had nothing but money!
Because they took Xun Zheng as a personal disciple, Hao Tian Quan was ridiculed by people in the martial world for a period of time.
Hence the saying:
The disciples of the strong and the weak all show off, only the disciples of Hao Tian Quan get beaten.
Whenever there was a major event in the martial world, Hao Tian Quan never brought Xun Zheng along.
Xun Zheng was also given a sect rule by Hao Tian Quan: no matter what happened outside, even if it meant death, he was not allowed to mention his master's name.
In other words, just like what Patriarch Bodhi said to Sun Wukong, although not explicitly stated, it meant he had been expelled from the sect.
No matter how much time passed, this incident became an indelible source of amusement for Hao Tian Quan throughout his life.