When they returned to the Taoist temple, they saw that the walls were covered in weeds. Zhang Qianjun Wanma told them that there were more than thirty Taoist temples like this in the deep mountains. They were all large in scale, so the locals called the area Hundred Heaped Temples.
There was a fire at one point, so only a few temples were left and the local religious activities gradually decreased. After that, the bandits moved into the temple ruins. They often wore Taoist robes, so Zhang Qianjun was able to mix in among them.
But the temples hadn’t been repaired in a long time. After his master passed away, the bandits’ business wasn’t doing good. The young bandits in the mountains went to work in the army, while the elder bandits got old and died one right after another. Among the ruins, this Taoist temple was the only one left that could still accommodate people.
The Abi people belonged to a regional ethnic group that arose after the local Miao and Yao settlements mixed together. In fact, there were four or five ethnic groups living together, and they built their villages along the mountains.
There were six large villages and more than three thousand households in the outer village. This outer village was called Gold Tooth Village, but was also known as Potluck Capital. It was the only place where people lived together with Han Chinese. The villagers there thought that gold teeth were beautiful, and they would use gold powder during the holidays to paint their teeth before going to the streets to gather.
There was a river by Potluck Capital that directly connected to the Hongshui River and led to Shanxi. It was a small canal on the southern Silk Road that led to the Central Plains.
As a result of this, Potluck Capital was very developed and people from various industries stayed in the relay stations there every day. There were so many, in fact, that the number of people far exceeded the three thousand households. At night, the streets were so full of lights that it looked like the Milky Way was in the mountains from a distance. Because there were many ethnic groups there, all kinds of ancestral halls, costumes, snacks, and bathhouses could be seen. Everything was so lively.
It was difficult for Han Chinese to enter the depths of the mountains behind Potluck Capital. Zhang Qianjun only knew that there were five big villages inside. In addition to Bone Washing Cave, there was also a village in the deepest part of the valley, but no one even knew its name. All they knew was that people in that village sold a kind of spring water that seemed to have a special use. As a result, they took to calling it Ghost Water Village.
Zhang Qianjun Wanma was a Han Chinese, but he managed to sneak into the villages behind Potluck Capital. He only went as far as the second village, where he bought a special kind of opium. As to the other villages, he had heard nothing but countless legends from others.
Zhang Haiqi looked at the Taoist temple and sighed before asking if it was necessary for monks to stay in this kind of shabby place. “It’s not like that,” Zhang Qianjun Wanma said. “The monks don’t need much. A straw mat is enough.”
That night, Zhang Qianjun chopped wood, boiled water for baths, cooked three dishes, and opened a jar of wine. The Zhang Family Office in Xiangxi was officially open again.
The three of them didn’t talk after finishing their meal, since they had already made an agreement to enter Potluck Capital tomorrow.
The bathing area was a square brick pool behind the kitchen. Zhang Qianjun had taken the clay bricks from various temples and stuck them together using cow dung, but he didn’t tell Zhang Haiqi that.
Zhang Haiqi closed the doors of the surrounding rooms and blew out the oil lamps. There was only one bathing pool in the whole hall, with a giant hole overhead that let in the moonlight. Under the moon’s ethereal glow, there wasn’t a trace of redness on the naked white skin that looked so very delicate.
Zhang Qianjun Wanma was trying to fall asleep on the beams in the room, but the sound of water was keeping him up. He stared at the eaves above him before suddenly sitting up, finding his master’s guqin, and playing it casually. He had basic skills, but he didn’t know which song it was.
Little Brother Zhang lay alone at the top of the huge locust tree outside with a strange smile on his face, “Monks.”
To be honest, he was feeling a little jealous today, so now he could only look up at the moon. The old Taoist’s skull had been placed on the opposite side of his tree trunk, and he looked at the dark eye sockets.
“What do you think we like about her?” Little Brother Zhang asked in confusion.
The sun was bright the next morning and the fog in the depths of the mountains quickly dissipated. It was obvious that Zhang Qianjun didn’t sleep well last night, but Little Brother Zhang dragged him up anyways. He ate some coarse grain rice cakes while explaining the locations and geographical differences of the several villages. Zhang Qianjun looked at Little Brother Zhang and said, “The problem is that only a few people in the previous village know how to enter the next village. The mountain and canyon roads in the middle are as chaotic as a maze. We won’t be able to get in there if we just rely on luck. We have to find the right people and get them to take us there.”
“Who should we look for? Can we bribe them?”
Zhang Qianjun Wanma shook his head, “Based on your backgrounds, I’m afraid you’ll end up coming back after staying in Potluck Capital for only three or four days. These people are Tusi chiefs and prestigious officials. All the nearby mountains belong to them, so I’m afraid money won’t solve the problem.”
Zhang Haiqi looked at Little Brother Zhang, who said to her, “If the patriarch is in this village, it means that a Han Chinese has entered the six great villages. If this isn’t the norm, then a big change must’ve occurred in the villages. A Han Chinese has entered the political center of the Abi clan, so I’m afraid the relationships between the village Tusi chiefs aren’t what we’ve been expecting. If I’ve guessed right, we’ll notice something right away once we’ve entered Potluck Capital.”
MereBear's Translation 
Poker Face makes his own rules.
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thank you for the chapter
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