Zhong Yin, a disciple of the Summer Valley and a late Dharma adept, was also a personal disciple of an elder of the Summer Valley.
This elder of the Summer Valley was coincidentally an inner elder of the Lightning Sword Sect.
In the Lightning Sword Sect, if one wanted to become an inner elder, one had to be at the mid Primordial Soul stage at the very least. That was the threshold that the inner elders abided by.
As for those who wanted to enter the Lightning Peak and become an elder of the Lightning Sword Sect, the conditions were even stricter. One had to be at least a late Primordial Soul adept and above.
As for becoming an outer elder, one only had to be at the early Primordial Soul stage to qualify.
In other words, in the Lightning Sword Sect, even the most average and mediocre outer elder was also at the very least within one of the Primordial Soul stages.
“Bai Liqing!”
Zhong Yin floated to where Bai Liqing was in the sky, stabilized himself and stared beadily at Bai Liqing. In a low voice, he asked gravely, “I, Zhong Ya, have never offended you before, right?
However, you dared to sell fake Thousand-Year Red Wood to me?”
Zhong Ya had used 80 high-quality spirit stones in this exchange only to realize that the Thousand-Year Red Wood was fake; it was no wonder that he was greatly angered by it!
Originally, after he had arrived at the Winter Valley, over a period of time, his anger had already diminished slightly.
However, now that he was face to face with Bai Liqing, his anger was fueled yet again like a flame that was restarted. He raged, and now it was too late to calm him down.
“Zhong Ya, is everyone from the Summer Valley crazy!?” Bai Liqing asked solemnly.
“First, it was that Fang Baiwei who claimed that the Frozen-Blood Jade I sold him was fake… Now, you’re here creating trouble and claiming that the Thousand-Year Red Wood I sold you is fake too?
“Are you going to act like Fang Baiwei and mention that you can’t provide any evidence for your claims since the Thousand-Year Red Wood has already been in contact with fire and got destroyed?”
At this point, Bai Liqing was extremely frustrated and angered.
After all, Zhong Yin and Fang Baiwei were different.
Other than the fact that Zhong Yin had an inner elder backing him up, Zhong Yin’s stage was also higher than his.
“You sold Frozen-Blood Jade to Brother Fang?”
Zhong Yin furrowed his brows.
“Furthermore, Brother Fang mentioned that the Frozen-Blood Jade was fake as well?”
“Hmph!”
Bai Liqing snorted coldly and replied mockingly, “All you people of the Summer Valley are clearly working together to malign me… You’re still acting right now?”
“Bai Liqing.”
Zhong Yin sighed deeply.
“No matter whether it is the Thousand-Year Red Wood that I wanted or the Frozen-Blood Jade that Brother Fang wanted, they are all items that we have been searching for from the shelves at the trade center for quite some time.
“Usually you wouldn’t have these items, much less sell it to us… but today, you suddenly managed to present both items? Be it Thousand-Year Red Wood or Frozen-Blood Jade, both are not items that are commonly found!”
At this point, Zhong Yin glanced solemnly at Bai Liqing.
Now, another disciple of the Winter Valley, who was standing nearby, Zhang Weiyuan, overheard the entire conversation and gained a vague understanding of the matter at hand.
He glanced at Bai Liqing and asked, “Brother, the fortune that you mentioned you gained today was due to the fact that you had sold Thousand-Year Red Wood and Frozen-Blood Jade to Zhong Yin and Fang Baiwei?”
Earlier today, in the afternoon, Bai Liqing had randomly sought him out to borrow 20 high-quality spirit stones and had promised that he would return them by the end of the day.
At that point, Zhang Weiyuan had assumed that Bai Liqing had either borrowed the spirit stone veins to gamble or to sell some items and gain some profit.
Bai Liqing rarely gambled with others, and thus Zhang Weiyuan had assumed the latter to be more probable.
Now, he knew that his assumption was right, seeing as how a disciple of the Summer Valley, Zhong Yin, had appeared.
“Yes,” Bai Liqing affirmed this statement.
“The Thousand-Year Red Wood and Frozen-Blood Jade were both bought from other people?”
Zhang Weiyuan asked again.
“Yes,” Bai Liqing affirmed Zhang Weiyuan’s words yet again.
“Who would be silly enough to trade through a dealer? The person who sold them to you could have sold those items to Fang Baiwei and Zhong Yin personally! If he did so directly, he could have earned much more than you did!”
Zhong Yin furrowed his brows in thought. “Furthermore, the items that they want are rare, and they have been searching for them for a long time. They had even left a possible reward on the bounty list of the trade center for them!”
“Brother Zhang, perhaps that disciple did not view the bounty list and were unaware that people were looking for these items!” Bai Liqing reasoned.
“However, the issue lies in the fact that both Zhong Yin and Fang Baiwei have claimed that the items are fake!” Zhang Weiyuan continued to speak.
“Brother Zhang.”
Bai Liqing’s face had changed.
“Do you not believe me either? For those two items, I carried out an authenticity check by myself.
Zhong Yin and Fang Baiwei both carried out authenticity checks personally as well and only passed me the spirit stone veins after ensuring they were satisfied with the products!”
“Brother, I believe you, of course. However, I feel like this is too much of a coincidence!”
Zhang Weiyuan shook his head as he glanced at Zhong Yin.
“Zhong Yin, you better not be fooling around. I hope that this isn’t an instance of you teaming up with that Fang Baiwei to cheat Bai Liqing of his spirit stone veins!”
Just as he spoke, Zhong Yin’s glance turned hostile.
Although they were both late Dharma adepts, he was not afraid of Zhong Yin. Furthermore, previously, in a showcase of skills by the four valleys, he had managed to defeat Zhong Yin within ten moves despite them being at the same stage.
“Zhang Weiyuan, it is not me who claims that the Thousand-Year Red Wood is fake.”
Zhong Yin sighed.
“It is my senior who said that the Thousand-Year Red Wood is fake… I was looking for the Thousand-Year Red Wood as I wanted to ask my senior to help me create an ultimate Dharma spirit weapon that suits me. However, once his Wumei fire came into contact with the Thousand-Year Red Wood, the Thousand-Year Red Wood was immediately destroyed by the fire and turned to ashes and smoke.
“When the Thousand-Year Red Wood first reached me, my senior and I had both agreed that there were no issues with it at first.”
As Zhong Yin spoke to this point, he looked at Bai Liqing with an unfriendly gaze.
“Did you witness the Thousand-Year Red Wood change into smoke and ashes with your own eyes?” Bai Liqing asked with a cold smile.
“When my senior creates weapons, he does not like bystanders disturbing him… What do you mean by that sentence? Are you trying to insinuate that my senior kept the Thousand-Year Red Wood for his own use and then lied to me?” Zhong Yin asked in return.
“Who knows?”
Bai Liqing gave a twisted smile.
“Bai Liqing, you best watch your mouth before you stir up some trouble.”
Zhong Yin glanced at Bai Liqing coldly.
“If my senior wanted the Thousand-Year Red Wood, he could have just said so, and I would have automatically given it to him. He would not have needed to find such excuses to obtain it.
“If you do not believe this, I can bring him here to the Winter Valley, and you can argue with him yourself!”
The more Zhong Yin spoke, the colder his tone became.
“Brother, your words have crossed the line.”
Zhang Weiyuan shook his head as he spoke. “Elder Ke Liang is at the Primordial Soul stage, he has no need to thirst over his disciple’s Thousand-Year Red Wood!”
“Although Thousand-Year Red Wood is seen as precious in our eyes, to Elder Ke Liang, it definitely isn’t worth much. Furthermore, at his current stage, the Thousand-Year Red Wood is mostly useless to him!”
Ke Liang was not only Zhong Yin’s senior and the Lightning Sword Sect’s inner elder but was also an elder of the Summer Valley.
“Senior Zhang, I was just making a joke.”
Hearing as Zhong Yin was offering to invite his senior over physically, Bai Liqing’s heart dropped slightly. Now, as Zhang Weiyuan was stepping up as well, he began to defend himself with an awkward smile for fear of further trouble.
“Zhong Yin, did you hear that? Bai Liqing was merely joking around.”
Zhang Weiyuan glanced at Zhong Yin and said, “Furthermore… Be it you or Fang Baiwei, the transactions between the both of you and Bai Liqing were legitimate and paid for, pestering him further also leads to nothing.
“You can’t just ignore sect rules like this.
“If you continue to chase this matter, it will also not lead to any positive outcome for you. Even your senior, Elder Ke Liang, cannot go against our sect rules,” Zhang Weiyuan said.
“I am of course aware of this,” Zhong Yin replied in a low tone.
“Since I paid for the items, even if they were fake, I know that there is nothing I can do… I merely came here to ask Bai Liqing for an explanation as to why he wanted to cheat me of my money.
“Of course, I also thought about the possibility that Bai Liqing himself also did not know that the Thousand-Year Red Wood he sold me was fake.
“Just now, I heard that the Thousand-Year Red Wood he sold me was bought from someone else? It seems like this possibility is becoming more likely, then.”
As he spoke, Zhong Yin glanced directly at Bai Liqing.
“Bai Liqing, I am not asking for those 80 high-quality spirit stones back. However, I would like to know who sold you the Thousand-Year Red Wood,” Zhong Yin asked gravely.
He intended to approach the original seller who had given the Thousand-Year Red Wood to Bai Liqing and question him.
If it were only Thousand-Year Red Wood he had bought that had an issue, Zhong Yin may have brushed the whole issue off as a coincidence. Perhaps the person that had sold the Thousand-Year Red Wood to Bai Liqing had also been unaware that it was fake?
However, Bai Liqing instead mentioned that the Frozen-Blood Jade that his fellow disciple from the Summer Valley, Fang Baiwei, had bought, was also fake as well!
Furthermore, be it the Thousand-Year Red Wood or the Frozen-Blood Jade, both were from the same original seller!
This made Zhong Yin doubt the credibility of this seller, and he came up with the theory that the original seller had planned to trick him and Fang Baiwei at the same time.
This led him to then wonder what he and Fang Baiwei had in common.
Well, they were both disciples of the Summer Valley.
Of course, even so, Zhong Yin was still inclined to believe that the entire series of incidents was a coincidence… If not, it was hard to imagine what exactly could compel one to create fake Thousand-Year Red Wood and Frozen-Blood Jade at the same time.
Could it be that coincidentally, the original seller had possessed both fake Thousand-Year Red Wood and Frozen-Blood Jade?
Of course, Zhong Yin wanted to investigate whether or not the entire incident was indeed a coincidence.
Just as Zhong Yin wanted to ask Bai Liqing for his source of the Thousand-Year Red Wood, from afar, a figure flew towards them in the air and landed somewhere near Zhang Weiyuan and Bai Liqing.
“Senior Zhang, Brother Bai Li, you are both here? Did you hear about what happened at the trade center?”
This person was a young-looking disciple of the Winter Valley.
“What happened?” Zhang Weiyuan asked curiously.
“On the bounty list of the trade center, out of the tens of items that the elders and disciples of the Summer Valley asked for… There are nine that have been cleared from the list today.”
The young-looking disciple of the Winter Valley sighed and said, “Within a day, nine people from the Summer Valley managed to buy items that they have been searching for for a long time… The people of the Summer Valley are really lucky today. I’m so envious of them!”
Just as the words left the mouth of this Winter Valley disciple, Zhong Yin’s face immediately changed, and he glanced meaningfully at Bai Liqing straightaway.
“Don’t look at me!” Bai Liqing replied gravely. “I only sold two things off the bounty list to you and Fang Baiwei. The other items were not sold by me!”
At this point, even Bai Liqing could sense that something was amiss.
