“Two hundred taels of silver?” The other party was stunned for a moment, then quickly realized that for such a precious pill as the Duotian Pill, a two hundred tael appraisal fee was already quite reasonable. If it were appraised at the auction house, it would probably cost three hundred taels.

Thinking of this, he reached into the pouch at his waist and fumbled around, but couldn’t find his money pouch.

This...

He suddenly realized that whenever he went to the auction house to have treasures appraised in the past, it seemed he had never paid himself. And as for himself, he didn’t have the habit of carrying money.

“Um, little brother.” The man scratched his head in embarrassment, his face flushing red, and stammered a bit, “Little brother, I forgot to bring money.”

“You forgot to bring money?” Mike Sullivan’s eyes narrowed, and he raised his hand, about to ring the alarm bell in the room. But in the next moment, he stopped—after all, the other party had brought a powerful exotic beast. Even if all the villagers joined in, plus himself, they probably wouldn’t be a match for that beast. What should he do?

“Ahem... little brother, I really did forget...” The man awkwardly stroked his bearded chin and said, “How about this—whenever you have time to go to town, you can go to the auction house to find me for the money, or after I return, I’ll send someone to bring you the money...”

As he spoke, the bearded man took out a name card and placed it in front of Mike Sullivan: “This is my name card. Whenever you want to go to the auction house, just bring my card, and someone there will naturally receive you. Even if you don’t want to go to the auction house, if you run into trouble in town, you can use this card to find someone from the auction house for help.”

Mike Sullivan casually took the name card and glanced over it. When he saw the name on it, he drew in a sharp breath.

David Wright, it was actually him!

The name David Wright was one he had heard countless times over the past few years. Not only in the countryside, the town, or even the city—even in the entire Dongshan County, David Wright was a very famous wandering hero.

It was said that David Wright was originally just an ordinary person, but later, after some unknown adventure, his strength increased dramatically.

This man traveled everywhere, loved to stand up for justice, and had a great reputation.

Even the Shuiyao Sect he used to belong to had invited him several times, promising to take him as a personal disciple, but he had always refused.

David Wright—it seemed he had misjudged him. He was not just at the level of a core disciple, but at least at the level of a personal disciple!

Facing someone like this, if he and the others tried to act, they wouldn’t stand a chance of winning. Besides, David Wright’s reputation was always excellent, so he probably wouldn’t default on his debt.

Thinking this, Mike Sullivan nodded to David Wright and said, “Alright, then I’ll come find you for the money when I have time to go to town.”

The embarrassment on David Wright’s face finally faded a bit, and he smiled kindly at the others: “I still have things to do, so I’ll take my leave for now. I hope we’ll have a chance to meet again in the future.”

After leaving his name card and a few words, he turned and left. Mike Sullivan could tell he really did have other matters to attend to.

Chapter 5: The Water Source Dispute (Part 1)

In a large house in the village that had been abandoned for many years, there were more than a dozen wooden tubs.

The tubs were filled to the brim with light green medicinal liquid, steaming hot, with a rich herbal fragrance. In each tub sat a half-grown child.

“Mike Sullivan gege, why do we have to soak in the medicinal bath during the day too? Isn’t it only at night?”

“Yeah, Mike Sullivan gege, this water is so hot, I can’t take it anymore.”

One child couldn’t stand the temperature of the medicinal bath and tried to stand up. Seeing this, Mike Sullivan hurried over and pressed the child back down, gently comforting him: “Little Jack, be good, just hold on a little longer. If you soak in the medicinal bath a bit more, you’ll be able to get into another sect. Then your grandpa won’t have to work so hard anymore.”

“Okay, Little Jack will be good...”

Mike Sullivan went around the room, comforting each child and encouraging them to keep soaking. Back when he took the entrance test, he hadn’t soaked in any medicinal bath.

The medicinal bath was a method he had read about in a book from the Shuiyao Sect. If children under sixteen persisted in soaking in medicinal baths, it could strengthen their bodies and make it easier for them to sense the spiritual energy in their dantian.

In order to help more children from the village get into a sect, even though the village was very short on water, the medicinal baths for the children continued every day. Of course, after the baths, the medicinal water would be used to irrigate the crops.

While Mike Sullivan was helping the children with their medicinal baths, suddenly, a commotion broke out in the village, accompanied by the barking of dogs.

“With such a ruckus, someone must be causing trouble in the village.” As soon as Mike Sullivan heard it, he quickly comforted the children to keep soaking, then rushed out at top speed toward the entrance of the village.

At the village entrance.

From a distance, Mike Sullivan saw more than a dozen people dressed as martial artists swaggering into the village from the entrance, while on the other side, several old farmers with hoes and some village women were slowly retreating step by step.