Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The Green Mountain Sect had a long history, with tremendous resources so it should have had enough magic pills and medicines for all the purposes. However, nothing on Shiyue Peak was suitable for Zhao Layue because she was working on the Tempered Will of the Sword, and also because nobody had practiced the Nine-Deaths Sword Style except for the Immortal Jing Yang, and so no pill or medicine was prepared for the purpose.
For something as important as entering the Free Travel State, the Green Mountain Sect would usually do their best to help Zhao Layue find the proper medicine, but no one could teach her the Nine-Deaths Sword Style, so she had to rely on herself to gradually understand it. At such a critical moment, it was almost futile to keep on practicing without proper aid. Travelling the world in the name of “seeking medicine” might help her in her effort of breaking through the Free Travel State.
Having left the Shenmo Peak, Zhao Layue and Gu Qing ate the hotpot in Cloudy Town, stayed in Shangzhou a bit, and headed to Nanhezhou on the same night.
Compared to the long journey Zhao Layue and Jing Jiu took many years ago, traveling was a lot faster this time, as riding on sword was swifter and more relaxed.
The twilight set on the gray wall of the Precious-Tree House, making it glow in a peculiar color. No pedestrian could be seen in the surrounding streets; its silence seemed anomalous.
A few Cultivation practitioners stood outside the wall, looking at the manager of the Precious-Tree House, and asked, “You have promised that the auction will be on tonight; why is it being called off?”
The manager of the Precious-Tree House apologized in tandem, saying, “We will give some gifts to the immortal masters later. Please forgive us, and come back in a few days.”
Usually, these Cultivation practitioners would take the gifts and leave without too much hassle because of the background of the Precious-Tree House; yet, this time, they had no choice but to get a case of Xianlian Pills from the auction, and they needed the pill urgently, so they couldn’t just leave.
“The Elder Jian of our sect is at a critical moment for breaking through Undefeated State; how long do you want us to wait?!”
A Cultivation practitioner yelled this at the manager while glaring at him.
The manager responded calmly, “I’m very sorry. My auction house is going over the books tonight, so we really can’t serve you, our cherished guests.”
The Cultivation practitioners were quite upset, wondering why such a trivial thing as checking books became an excuse for cancelling the promised auction.
All of a sudden, they thought it a bit strange. Though the background of the Precious-Tree House was profound, they had seldom done anything so unreasonable; besides, the manager’s expression was too calm, as if he didn’t care about the guests’ complaints no matter how ridiculous his excuse was.
A Cultivation practitioner thought of a possibility, and asked in surprise, “Is someone important coming from the mountains?”
The manager let loose a faint smile without answering the question.
The Cultivation practitioners craned their heads reflexively to look at the roof of the Precious-Tree House illuminated by the twilight, and quickly lowered their heads as they worried that the important figure might feel their gazes disrespectful.
“What are we waiting for? Let’s get out of here.”
“Please inform us of when the Xianlian Pill will be auctioned.”
…
…
The manager, caretakers and guards of the Precious-Tree House all remained on the two bottom floors. It was quiet on the upper floors.
This building was the tallest in Nanhezhou. Standing by the railing on top of the building, one could see the whole Chaonan City in the sunset, witnessing marvelous sceneries.
However, the boss of the Precious-Tree House wasn’t in such a mood and stood in front of the room door with a hunched back, waiting, careful not to make a sound or look around.
He was a famous figure in Nanhezhou and even the whole mortal world of Chaotian, but right now, he behaved like a servant.
The room door was pushed open. Gu Qing walked out from the room and handed a picture to the boss, saying, “Ask around to find out who has seen it.”
The boss of the Precious-Tree House took over the picture respectfully with both hands. He didn’t dare delay his task, jogging downstairs and pushing open the door of a room at the far end of the second floor.
This was a large room where stood over twenty elders in green clothing in waiting, their expressions a bit nervous.
These elders were the most experienced evaluators of the treasures at the Precious-Tree House, including a few caretakers who had good eyes. Some treasure evaluators from Zhaoge branches had also joined them for the purpose.
The boss of the Precious-Tree House placed that picture on the table and stood aside, saying, “The first person who has found the clue will be awarded a house.”
These evaluators and caretakers knew full well that the house promised by the boss wasn’t a regular residence in Chaonan City, but a branch of the Precious-Tree House. How much would it be worth?
Of course, they would try their hardest to find the clue even if they were not awarded anything, because the object in the picture was related to the future of the Precious-Tree House.
The elders got closer to the table, looking at the picture carefully.
Standing by the window, the boss of the Precious-Tree House felt quite hot, but he didn’t dare open the window to let in some fresh air. He took out a silk handkerchief and wiped off the sweat on his forehead, thinking of what he should do to compensate the possible failure. In the past few years, he had already sent so much gold and silver to the Zhao Manor House in Zhaoge City, and the result might not be desirable if he sent some more this time. Should he send some to Gu family? He wasn’t sure if Gu Qing would be grateful, as he had been treated badly by his clan in the past.
…
…
A few years ago, the Peak Master of Bihu went mad and was suppressed by Yuan Qijing. The Precious-Tree House suddenly lost its backer and was on the brink of bankruptcy.
Unexpectedly, Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue stayed in the Precious-Tree House for a while during their first long journey in the world, and they also did something here.
Using these facts as an excuse, the boss of the Precious-Tree House found his way into Zhao Manor = in Zhaoge City.
In the following years, Shenmo Peak had finally accepted the Precious-Tree House for their efforts of serving the Zhao Manor. From then on, the Precious-Tree House was responsible for providing Shenmo Peak with all of their needs, and at a steep expense, though they managed to keep the resource quota to avoid the bankruptcy, which was more important than anything else.
Recently, Shenmo Peak had become a forbidden land once again, and all the requests were sent by Gu Qing through his clan.
A few days ago, the Precious-Tree House had received a letter from the Gu family, saying that the peak master of Shenmo would come in person to seek an object.
After the initial shock, the boss soon realized this would be a critical matter for the house; if they couldn’t fulfill the request, the Precious-Tree House might not be able to operate any longer.
“It should be the three-leaf grass. The immortal master might have remembered it wrong by one word.”
An old evaluator with white hair said with certainty while turning over a yellowish book in his hands, “It’s recorded in the Tian’an Collection of Medicines.”
“How can you believe in the recordings of that valueless collection of wild grasses?”
Another evaluator said, “We have seen so many treasures over the years; but all these people in the room have never heard of it, to say nothing of having seen it.”
Listening to these arguments, the boss of the Precious-Tree House looked terrible on his face, walking to the table and looking at the picture. “It doesn’t look so extraordinary, why don’t you all have any impression of it?” he demanded.
It was a grass in the picture, with three leaves, looking like a green jade.
That evaluator replied with a helpless expression, “It’s precisely the common look that makes it harder to identify. It can’t be a three-leaf grass.”
The boss of the Precious-Tree House said with a solemn expression, “I don’t care about what it is. Just find it; otherwise, I’d rather die even if I was given the choice to live.”
Upon hearing this, the arguments stopped immediately. The evaluators started reading the ancient books again or were deep in deep thought, trying their hardest to find any clue.
It was oddly quiet in the room, and the only sound came from the turning pages in the books.
Time went by slowly. After a long while, a surprised and happy voice suddenly burst out.
A caretaker came to the table, pushing through the crowd with a book in his hand. “It’s written in the Qiuyang Anecdotal Recordings!” he said while showing a page of the book.
The crowd didn’t feel confident, and their expressions slightly changed when they heard the name of the book.
There were too many strange and weird events listed in the Qiuyang Anecdotal Recordings, so it was difficult to tell true from the false information, not to mention that the writing of the book was vulgar with uninteresting descriptions. As a result, few people would read it carefully.
Dozens of gazes fixed on the page.
It was recorded clearly in the book. Hundreds of years ago, someone saw a peculiar grass by the Great Marsh with three leaves; the grass had no other special traits, except for its extraordinary greenness, which was unaffected by the cold wind or hot fire. This grass was evaluated by the monk doctors of the Fruit Formation Temple as the rarely seen spiritual grass, named “Three-Purities Grass”, drawing the contests among the sects and the travelling Cultivation practitioners.
The reason why nobody in the Cultivation circle remembered the matter was that no more tragedy of fighting for the treasure had happened in the following years, and because all the people who saw the spiritual grass were asked to keep it a secret. However, no one expected that a scholar in the mortal world had recorded it.
“It looks quite like the one in the picture,” the boss of the Precious-Tree House commented.
The rest of the evaluators nodded in agreement.
The Qiuyang Anecdotal Recordings, with its crude descriptions, were not really trustworthy, but the description of this topic in the book was somehow very detailed and reliable.
No other Cultivation sect had the courage to even mention such a precious grass, allowing it to disappear from the world. It was the Green Mountain Sect that had such courage to openly look for it in Chaotian.
On the nine peaks of the Green Mountain, the Immortal Jing Yang was probably the only one who could motivate the whole Green Mountain Sect to help find such a grass for him.
The Immortal Jing Yang had practiced the Nine-Deaths Sword Style, and he of course needed the same medicine to break through the Free Travel State.
Thinking of something, an evaluator asked with a baffled expression, “The Immortal Jing Yang had such powerful status on the nine peaks of Green Mountain even before he had entered the Free Travel State?”
The boss of the Precious-Tree House knew quite a bit about the secrets of the Green Mountain, answering, “Definitely.”
“That’s good.” Feeling somewhat relieved, an evaluator said, “As long as it’s confirmed that the item actually exists, we have a chance of finding it.”
The boss of the Precious-Tree House said, “We must halt all business and gather all manpower to find this Three-Purities Grass.”
An auction house of this scale, plus dozens of branches in the entire Chaotian, would suffer dearly when business was shut down for a day.
Nonetheless, the boss, the evaluators, and those caretakers were not at all worried about it, seemingly taking it for granted.
But there was one issue.
Someone said worriedly, “If the Three-Purities Grass is really so precious, we wouldn’t be able to compete with those Cultivation sects, even if we found it.”
The boss of the Precious-Tree House scolded, “You idiot! When we find out where the grass is, the Green Mountain will ask for it themselves; we are not needed for it. Since the nine peaks of Green Mountain owe senior master Jing Jiu, who would dare not give it to senior master Zhao when she demands it?!”
…
…
The night was almost over. In a room on the top floor, the glowing orb emitted a faint light.
A case on the table in front of Zhao Layue was similarly emitting a faint light, and it should be some kind of formation that sealed off the energy inside the case.
There was grass inside the case possessing three leaves. It looked quite ordinary, but its greenness was so fresh and tender, as if these leaves would fall down and turn into fruits at any moment.
