Chapter 739: 20 Years Old
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Lu Ping had used a single palm strike to kill Hong Yi and hundreds of his people, settling Jiang Yi’s concern about future consequences. This palm strike of hers had completely started a feud with the Hong and Li Clans. Apart from the two Clan Heads, no one else would be bold enough to come and kill in Sky Thunder City.
Would the two Clan Heads dare to come and kill someone?
The answer was no. Unless the two Clan Heads didn’t want to continue surviving in the Gods Bestow Tribe, they would never be bold enough to go into another conflict with Sky Thunder City.
The residents of Sky Thunder City were shocked by Lu Ping’s overbearing methods and were even more convinced in their attitudes towards Jiang Yi. Jiang Yi was truly significant enough for Lu Ping to disregard everything and offend the two clans.
Five days later, the people from the Red Sun Merchant Association had arrived, who Jiang Yi personally welcomed and had a discussion with the supervisor. When Qian Wanguan pushed over 10 million celestial stones to him and revealed that golden card, the supervisor’s expression immediately changed. It was impossible to change the navigation route of the Heaven Fate Ship, but escorting Qian Wanguan and his group to board the ship at White Sprout Island and escorting them from the outer shoal to the Red Fort was a small matter. The Red Sun Merchant Association originally provided escorting services. Hence, everything was easy to arrange.
Jiang Yi’s request was for at least ten middle-stage and two hundred low-stage Heaven Monarchs for every escort, which was originally very expensive. Seeing that Jiang Yi was a VIP of the Red Sun Merchant Association and the 10 million celestial stones that Qian Wanguan had given under the table had proven to be very effective, reducing the cost by 50%. Meaning that every escort would only require five million celestial stones.
Five million celestial stones were very costly, and it wasn’t just a once or twice deal—but every half a month. For safety, he had no choice but to accept with gritted teeth.
There was no problem on this side so Lu Feng contacted the merchants on the East Imperial Continent side immediately. After hearing that they were going to make the transaction at White Tiger Island’s largest black market, the Red Fort, they agreed to it delightfully. There were just too many people coming and going from the Red Fort every single day, and it wouldn’t bring up any suspicion. As long as they made the appropriate arrangements—even if there was a sudden inspection from the Lu Clan’s enforcement team, they wouldn’t be able to obtain any evidence.
Thus, after everything was arranged properly, Jiang Yi turned into a jobless supervisor as he went to the thunder mountains to cultivate again. The thunder mountains were a very safe place for Jiang Yi. Anyone was able to enter the Sky Thunder Island from the western side, but there was a Thunder Gathering Array at the thunder ridges. The Lu Clan was afraid that someone might enter the island to wreak havoc so they had put up powerful restrictions at the seaside. If anyone dared to barge in and destroy the restrictions, the Lu Clan’s enforcement team would certainly be on a pursuit to the intruders’ death.
Everything was back to normal as Qian Wanguan would store up all the constant submission of the thunder stones. When the number had reached a certain number, the Red Sun Merchant Association’s expert guards would come and escort them to ride the Heaven Fate Ship towards the Red Fort for the transaction.
Jiang Yi would be cultivating his essence force in the Thearch Palace during the day while he would be at the thunder mountains to comprehend the dao pattern during the night. Jiang Yi had already comprehended six types of dao patterns and only lacked three more types. He had already reached the entry stage for the seventh dao pattern, and it would take him a few more days before completely comprehending it.
There was also news about Zhan Wushuang and Yun Fei. The two of them had settled down in the largest city in the Blue Dragon Archipelago’s Blue Dragon City. The two of them resided in a courtyard that was secretly purchased by Qian Wanguan and were lying low while cultivating indoors. Their safety was guaranteed, and apart from a soul slave that Qian Wanguan subdued, no one else knew that they had gone to the Blue Dragon City.
Qian Wanguan didn’t make any arrangements to hunt for the mountain bandits as they had more than a few dozen Heaven Monarchs that had perished in the Black Wind Mountain Range. Now that they had offended the Hong and Li Clans, he was afraid that their Heaven Monarchs might just intercept and kill them. He decided it was best to stay obediently in the city.
One and a half months later…
Jiang Yi’s essence force had already reached the fourth stage of the Vajra Realm, but his dao pattern comprehension didn’t make much progress as he was still stuck at the eighth low-grade dao pattern. Qian Wanguan had led the Golden Flood Dragon, Yang Dong, and Niu Deng out; and it was very successful this time as they came back five days later with a good transaction.
Yet, Lu Ping suddenly sent a transmission to Jiang Yi and told him that the progress was too slow, and they had to increase the number of thunder stones during the transaction. Jiang Yi was feeling the pain in his ass. There were two methods to increase the number of thunder stones. The first method was to make the city’s population decline, which would decrease the number of thunder stones required to hand over to the city lord mansion. The second method would be for Jiang Yi to personally dig for thunder stones in the thunder ridges.
For the population to decline, he would either have to kill the men or to transfer some people to fight with the mountain bandit groups. Jiang Yi couldn’t bear to send people to die so he had to personally go dig for thunder stones in the thunder ridges.
Fortunately, he wasn’t afraid of the Thunder Fire and could dig thunder stones with extreme speed. He would be able to find more than a few thousand thunder stones in just a single day of exploration in the thunder ridges. He had to give up cultivating in the day and explore the mountain ridges to look for thunder stones before he continued to comprehend dao patterns during the night.
With Jiang Yi personally getting involved, the thunder stones immediately increased in the collection. In just two weeks, Qian Wanguan was venturing out again, this time—only bringing the Golden Flood Dragon. With the escorts from the Red Sun Merchant Association, there wasn’t even a need to bring any men; the reputation of the Red Sun Merchant Association was just too useful. No one would dare to intercept during the way.
Time flowed like water as half a year had passed in the blink of the eye. Jiang Yi finally made great progress for his dao pattern and had finally comprehended the eighth low-grade dao pattern. He just lacked the final dao pattern before he could do the fusion.
During these six months, the Sky Thunder City had been very peaceful; and the selling of the thunder stones was going very smoothly without any hiccups. Qian Wanguan ventured out for six times, and every time, he would be able to bring back a massive amount of celestial stones. After splitting some to Lu Ping and the ten commanders, they had profited at least 300 to 400 million celestial stones. Adding up to the celestial stones that Jiang Yi originally had, they just had to make another two or three more transactions before they accumulated one billion celestial stones.
The Hong and Li Clans were also very quiet during this period of time. Lu Ping might have withstood all the pressure, making it very peaceful for the people in Sky Thunder City.
On this day, Jiang Yi didn’t go excavating for thunder stones in the thunder ridges. He didn’t cultivate in the night as well as he simply sat on the thunder ridge and stared blankly by himself.
Buzz!
The Thearch Palace which suspended in mid-air flashed with a radiance which woke up Jiang Yi from his blank state. He flew up while a beautiful young lady in a gorgeous snow-white long dress appeared outside the Thearch Palace.
Jiang Xiaonu used a single hand to grab onto Jiang Yi’s arm and revealed a sweet smile and said, “Young Master, Happy Birthday!”
“Happy Birthday…”
Jiang Yi let out a bitter smile and carried Xiaonu back to the mountain and stood on the peak while staring at the eastern skies with an entranced expression.
That’s right!
Today was his birthday, and apart from Jiang Xiaonu, no one else knew it was his birthday. He had been sitting here staring blankly and not cultivating because it was his birthday. His 20th birthday!
After today, he would be 20 years old. To others, it might just be a memorable day, but to Jiang Yi, today was an especially important day.
“If you are able to cultivate to the peak stage of Vajra Realm before the age of 20, you are then qualified to come and look for Mother. When that time comes, you can go to the East Imperial Continent and look for a man named Yu Wen. He will tell you how to look for me. You have to remember if you cannot reach the peak stage of Vajra Realm. Even if you look for Yu Wen, he will not tell you anything.”
His mind echoed with a gentle and benevolent voice which was spoken by the illusion left behind by Yi Piaopiao. He was 20 years old today, and his strength was already very competent as he could already eliminate a middle-stage Heaven Monarch, but he had yet to find Yu Wen.
He too wasn’t sure when he could return to the East Imperial Continent. If he was to return to the East Imperial Continent to look for Yu Wen after a few years or ten years later… would Yu Wen still tell him Yi Piaopiao’s whereabouts?
He didn’t know, but he was currently feeling very despondent. He knew that his mother was still alive, but he had no means to look for her and couldn’t kneel before her to express his filial duties. He couldn’t personally tell her how much he missed her—tell her that Jiang Bieli had passed away and told her that he had let her down.
“Young Master!”
Feeling the disappointment and pain in Jiang Yi’s heart, Jiang Xiaonu grabbed his hand tightly and spoke resolutely, “Don’t be discouraged! When Xiaonu cultivates to the third stage of the Ink Feather Divine Art, we will kill our way back to the East Imperial Continent to look for Madam and Big Sister Ruoxue. If an immortal obstructs us, we will kill the immortal. If a Buddha obstructs us, we will kill the Buddha. We will find them even if we have to stir up the entire East Imperial Continent!”
Jiang Yi didn’t respond and simply stood there silently with his eyes closed. The bright sun rose in the east, intersecting with the moonlight to illuminate the lands and elongating the two shadows.
