As soon as Yan Tianhen stepped through the door, he shouted, “Ah Gu, I want to drink water!”
Ling Chigu, who was looking after the house, took a glass of water and handed it to Yan Tianhen. He could clearly understand Yan Tianhen’s words without much difficulty now.
Yan Tianhen took a sip, then sprayed it out with a snort. “Ah Gu, I want hot water.”
Ling Chigu thought for a moment, appearing unable to understand how to get hot water.
Wasn’t water just water?
“Don’t bully this big idiot.” Feng Jingyu flew out and sneered, “He’s a corpse puppet now. He doesn’t have his five senses nor sense of touch at all. Even if I burn him, he won’t feel the heat and will only be burned to ashes.”
Moreover, the reason that things like corpse puppets were called malicious and sinister techniques was because, no matter whether one attacked with fire or sharp weapons, they would not feel anything at all, even if their arms were to be cut off, their legs were broken, and their necks snapped. They would still obey the master’s orders and continue to fight crazily. However, such a killing machine was not what Yan Tianhen wanted.
“Ah.” Yan Tianhen was somewhat depressed. “Don’t tell me that Ah Gu will be like this all his life?”
Feng Jingyu coolly responded, “Ling Chigu’s whole life has long since come to an end the moment he fervently died for that prince. He’s merely an undead now, neither dead nor alive. What’s so bad about staying like this forever?”
Yan Tianhen immediately pursed his mouth, glaring at Feng Jingyu, “There’s meaning in my family’s Ah Gu’s death; why do you say that about him?”
Feng Jingyu was quite dismissive, “That’s called stupidly loyal. What I, Feng Jingyu, despise most is this kind of fool who couldn’t change his line of thinking and never lived for himself all his life. Although I admire him, I look down on him at the same time. In those days, who in the entire Nine Lands’ royal family didn’t know that the feeble and incompetent bitch of a third prince was simply using Ling Chigu’s foolish loyalty to him? But this idiot just refused to listen to advice, which resulted in the destruction of his entire family. Don’t tell me that I’m to blame for this?”
Yan Tianhen had just wanted to refute but was pulled by Lin Xuanzhi.
Lin Xuanzhi looked at Feng Jingyu warily, “Even if there’s some truth in these words, you’re not allowed to say them in front of Ling Chigu.”
Lin Xuanzhi then looked away. Yan Tianhen and Feng Jingyu followed his line of sight and saw that two trails of bloody tears had actually fallen from Ling Chigu’s eyes.
His body was trembling slightly, his thin purplish lips gently pursed, looking like he was silently enduring the sorrow.
Feng Jingyu was stunned and spoke with quite some surprise, “It shouldn’t be that bad? He actually had such a big response when I mentioned this fellow’s third prince? Now I really want to see exactly what kind of sacred deity that third prince is.”
Yan Tianhen had a contract with Ling Chigu, so he could more or less feel what Ling Chigu was feeling. He frowned, some sadness appearing in his eyes.
“Ah Gu, don’t cry.” Yan Tianhen walked over and wiped Ling Chigu’s bloody tears with his handkerchief. He said rather sadly, “Although you already died, let’s continue to cultivate together. Sooner or later, you’ll be like a living person, and there will be no difference.”
Feng Jingyu landed on Lin Xuanzhi’s shoulder, “He’s definitely not crying; he’s dead.”
Lin Xuanzhi asked, “Do you know why he’s crying?”
Feng Jingyu sneered, “He became like this as soon as I mentioned the third prince. Who doesn’t know about his and the third prince’s dog blood fall from power?”
Ling Chigu mechanically raised his head slightly, a pair of black eyes fixed on Feng Jingyu.
Ling Chigu’s gaze always carried a thick aura of death. One could see with a glance that he was not a living person. Therefore, Yan Tianhen jokingly nicknamed his gaze the “death gaze”.
Feng Jingyu used to avoid looking into Ling Chigu’s eyes before, but now he stared into Ling Chigu’s pair black eyes with a careless smile and spoke with some ridicule, “Who in the Nine Lands doesn’t know that the Crimson Tassel Snow-Robed Youth is the third prince’s bed warmer? They’ve known each other since childhood and hold deep affection towards each other; that person has even been engraved into his soul. Right now, he and his lover are separated from each other by circumstance. Even though his soul has already scattered away, there are still residual memories of the past in this body. He’ll naturally feel unbearable sorrow when the third prince is mentioned again.”
At this point, Feng Jingyu couldn’t help sighing. He felt that Ling Chi Gu was very pitiful. If it weren’t for his deep love for the third prince, he absolutely could have been able to stay in his Northern border, safe and secure. He could have continued being his Little General Ling, guarding the northernmost seas and wilderness and preventing invasions by the Demon Realm and foreign countries; he would still be the undefeated god of war in the hearts of the Qianyuan Dynasty’s people.
Those who fought on the battlefield were not suited for joining the political struggle.
But unfortunately, it just so happened that Ling Chigu took a side for the sake of the third prince.
He was the legitimate heir of the Ling family. Every decision he made would have an unpredictable impact on the entire Ling family.
“In the end, Ling Chigu was someone who placed too much value on emotion.” Feng Jingyu sighed, “Such a temperament was completely incompatible with the Nine Lands’ Divine Clans. Cultivators should be pure in heart and few in desires, to begin with. But it was impossible for him. Now, he’d met such an end; it really was a pity.”
“Yeah.” Yan Tianhen also sighed deeply, “I didn’t expect Ah Gu to have been such an emotional and righteous person. This kind of person is rare in the world of cultivators.”
Feng Jingyu couldn’t help chuckling coldly when he heard that Yan Tianhen actually quite admired Ling Chigu. “This is stupidity. This kind of moron is rare in the human world, let alone in the cultivation world.”
Yan Tianhen, “….”
In any case, Feng Jingyu abused the fact that Ling Chigu couldn’t speak up and refute his claims to wantonly slander him.
In Purple City, there was a spiritual herb store with quite a large shop front.
Qing Zhu came in, and a sales clerk came up to him, “This customer, do you want to buy some spiritual plants? You were right to come here. The spiritual herbs in our Serene Herb Manor are of the best quality in the entire Five Continents, but the price isn’t expensive either. What do you want? I can select the plants for you.”
Qing Zhu looked at the young salesperson and thought that this boy was very eloquent. At the very least, he dared to exaggerate. Qing Zhu was quite clear on exactly what quality level the spiritual herbs in this Serene Herb Manor were. Although the quality wasn’t bad, it absolutely couldn’t enter the Five Continents’ rankings.
Qing Zhu felt that after they took back this Serene Herb Manor, this lad might as well keep working here.
But for now, Qing Zhu lightly told him, “I’m looking for your Shopkeeper Dong. Let him come out to see me.”
The boy was taken aback and secretly sized up this person whose true cultivation level remained unclear. He dared to ask for Shopkeeper Dong by name as soon as he came. It seemed that his origins weren’t small.
The sales clerk hurriedly replied respectfully, “Gentleman, please wait for a moment. I’ll go back and ask our Shopkeeper Dong to come out.”
Qing Zhu nodded and watched the sales clerk leave.
There were other salespeople in the shop. They all heard what Qing Zhu said and couldn’t help looking at him with curious eyes.
Qing Zhu casually looked at the spiritual plants on the shelf. After observing a few, his face darkened.
Qing Zhu picked up a First Level low-grade spiritual herb and asked the sales clerk who was closest to him, “How come I remember that Serene Herb Manor had a rule before where it couldn’t buy even one stalk of the low-grade spiritual plant, but now you’re in the low-grade spiritual plant business?”
After hearing this, the sales clerk dressed in brown clothes showed a somewhat dazed look, “I, I haven’t been here for long. I haven’t heard of this kind of rule. Our Serene Herb Manor has always sold this kind of spiritual plant, and no one has said anything about it.”
Several other people also nodded one after another, clearly none-the-wiser on this matter.
Qing Zhu’s expression grew colder.
When Lin Zhan decided to open Serene Herb Manor to supply spiritual plants and spiritual plant seeds, he made careful plans. The slogan he advertised was to “not sell a single stalk of low-grade spiritual plant”. And it was precisely because of this slogan, that Serene Herb Manor became famous in a short span of two to three years, attracting the favor of many alchemists and even doing long-term business with many distinguished families.
Businessmen relied on sincerity and honesty as their roots, and Lin Zhan had always been kind. Therefore, during Serene Herb Manor’s peak a few years ago, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that every day was much more prosperous than the last.
Now, however, based on the flow of customers from the moment that Qing Zhu first stepped into the Serene Herb Manor’s door till now, he was certain that Serene Herb Manor definitely no longer had its previous prosperity.
The young sales clerks in the shop could not understand what was going on. Some even felt that this rather gentle-looking guest was quite frightening when his expression turned dark. Thus, they all kept silent.
The room was quiet for a while.
Qing Zhu didn’t make things difficult for these people who relied on this job to survive. He continued to look at some other spiritual plants.
The more he looked, the uglier his expression became.
When Shopkeeper Dong arrived, Qing Zhu’s expression was as dark as the bottom of a pan.
Shopkeeper Dong was an alchemist himself and couldn’t be considered old. There were dark bags under his eyes; obviously he didn’t rest well.
As soon as he saw Qing Zhu, he could not help speeding up his pace with some excitement. He rushed over, “Boss, you guys have finally come. Over the past two years or so, our Serene Herb Manor was almost bullied to death. If you come any later, I won’t be able to maintain this shop!”
Qing Zhu had been managing Lin Zhan’s private property for a long time. Naturally, he knew Shopkeeper Dong. His expression softened slightly. “After Boss had an accident, something also happened to the Young Boss. I didn’t receive any news at that time and couldn’t rush back. However, things have been resolved now. Tell me about our Serene Herb Manor. What happened after the owner left, and why did Serene Herb Manor begin to sell this low-grade spiritual grass now?”
Shopkeeper Dong’s name was Dong Qu. He was among the group of people who had followed Lin Zhan since the very beginning and was in charge of Purple City’s Serene Herb Manor from the start. Therefore, Dong Qu had strong feelings towards Serene Herb Manor.
Dong Qu sighed, “Young Master Zhu, please come in with me.”
Qing Zhu nodded and walked toward the inside with Dong Qu.
After they left, several sales clerks gathered together, gossiping.
“Just now, our shopkeeper called him Young Master Zhu, and he also said something about ‘Boss’ and ‘Young Boss’. Maybe this person is related to our mysterious owner?”
“Obviously.” Another agreed. “Didn’t you see our shopkeeper’s expression and attitude? It was like he saw a savior.”
“Sigh, I’ve also heard that before I came, Serene Herb Manor was one of the most powerful shops in Purple City, which even suppressed the momentum of the Zhang family across the street.”
“Really? The Zhang family is the largest family in Purple City. The spiritual plants they sell are of excellent quality.”
“They’re not that good? Ours aren’t so bad either, and there are many especially good seeds. It’s just that our shopkeeper is not willing to sell them.”
“In any case, the Zhang family does not sell low-grade spiritual herbs. This alone is much better than us.”
In the room in the backyard, Dong Qu knelt down as soon as the door was closed.
Qing Zhu got a fright, “What are you doing?”
Dong Qu burst into tears, “Young Master Zhu, I let Boss down. I failed to protect the property Boss gave me. This Serene Herb Manor is almost about to change its name and owner!”
Qing Zhu froze, then hurriedly helped Dong Qu up.
Dong Qu didn’t look old, but in fact, he was nearly 100 years old.
“Why can’t you protect Serene Herb Manor? Let’s start from the beginning.”
Dong Qu sat on the chair for a while, then said indignantly, “Ever since Boss disappeared, strange things occurred in our spiritual plant fields. Those bastards who threw rocks while we were down, threw worms that could eat the spiritual Qi inside spiritual plants into the fields. They actually ate the spiritual plant seedlings almost overnight. Although there are other supply channels, most of our spiritual plants are self-produced. As a result, the new batch of spiritual plants in that year couldn’t be used at all. Although I tried my best to remedy it, the situation still ended up like this.”
