Chapter 32: A Thousandfold Weight

Wen Xu’s brows knitted even tighter. Although he had not been cultivating for long, and his seventh-level Qi Refining cultivation was somewhat inflated, there was no possible way he was worse than someone at the first level of Qi Refining.

With his master’s jade slip on him, Wen Xu ran for a while before stopping. This man was clearly trying to latch on to them—or rather, he had set his sights on them.

“Who exactly are you?”

Physician Ming was panting so hard he could barely breathe, yet there was not the slightest trace of exhaustion on his face. “Take a guess. If you get it right, I’ll help you rescue your two friends. How does that sound?”

Wen Xu pressed his lips together, his expression already dark enough to be called stormy. “I never bargain with a tiger. Rather than count on you, I might as well—”

“Yonglu Mountain is certainly formidable, but distant water cannot quench a nearby fire. Surely a disciple of a Divine Venerable does not lack even this little bit of courage?” Physician Ming was no longer panting at all. Clearly, he had not used his full strength during the chase.

At that moment, however, Wen Xu said something completely unrelated.

“Where is your Golden-Feather Gilded Carriage?”

Physician Ming froze, then abruptly doubled over with laughter.

“Oh, that? It was nothing more than nonsense made up by the public. People outside also say that every time I make a move, I charge high-grade spirit stones. Yet right now, I cannot even scrape together ten thousand spirit stones.”

“But how did you figure it out? You should have only arrived in the cultivation world recently, right?”

There were so many people surnamed Ming in the cultivation world. How had Wen Xu concluded that he was actually surnamed Pei?

There was no malice in his words, but they carried the arrogance of someone looking down from a great height.

Wen Xu thought that this was hardly surprising. This Physician Ming, who loved disguises, played the fool, and was unmatched at stirring up trouble, was none other than Pei Mingshan, the young master of the cultivation world’s largest trading house, the Golden Cauldron Pavilion.

His family controlled entire spirit veins. Even if he truly could not cultivate, he still stood at the summit of the mountain.

Moreover, the claim that he could not cultivate was probably false as well. Wen Xu had not forgotten how impossible the man had been to shake off earlier.

“I’ve been to Clear Hearts Hall.”

All it took was a little asking around. It was hardly difficult.

Pei Mingshan had not expected that answer. “You suspected me that early? I should not have revealed any flaws.”

“I went to Clear Hearts Hall to buy silver needles.”

As for whether he had suspected him, Wen Xu had no intention of elaborating.

Pei Mingshan fell silent.

“Do your friends know how calculating you are? You should know that when someone is too clever, they end up without any friends.”

Wen Xu smiled faintly. The thing he feared least was being disliked.

“I could say the same to you. When someone is too annoying, they also end up without any friends.”

Pei Mingshan smiled and immediately changed his tune.

“Fine. I still prefer doing business with clever people. Honestly, you were remarkably lucky. I have been investigating Jade Pavilion for some time, but I could never find a way in. Rumor has it that Jade Pavilion’s owner is a Foundation Establishment cultivator, so no one on the entire pleasure street dares provoke the place. Unfortunately, no one has ever seen her.”

“You’re investigating Jade Pavilion?”

“Of course. The Golden Cauldron Pavilion may be a vast enterprise, but it all belongs to my father. For now, none of it belongs to me. As it happens, Gardenia Fragrance Pavilion, diagonally opposite Jade Pavilion, is one of my businesses. It had been doing perfectly well, but over the past few months, its expenses started exceeding its income. It has gotten so bad that I recently had to work as a resident mystic physician at Clear Hearts Hall. Absolutely outrageous!”

Wen Xu turned and walked away.

Although he had already sent a message to Senior Brother Huang in the city, it would still be best to go to Jade Pavilion himself.

“Hey, do not leave! We can talk while we walk. I also know a little about Mist Mountain Village.”

Wen Xu’s voice instantly turned cold.

“You investigated us?”

“Hey—can you really not see? Why do I feel like you can?”

Pei Mingshan tried to lean closer and take a careful look, but Wen Xu gave him no opportunity.

“Young Master Pei, I do not have time to listen to your nonsense.”

“All right, all right. Do not be angry. I only meant that Mist Mountain Village is connected to Jade Pavilion. That is why I know about it! I truly did not deliberately investigate which sect mission you accepted.”

His words were the very picture of someone protesting too much. They were hardly different from a direct confession.

Still, the Golden Cauldron Pavilion was an enormous enterprise. Finding out which missions a few Qi Refining disciples from Yonglu Mountain had accepted was probably not difficult.

Wen Xu had no interest in dwelling on it. He only wanted to confirm that his friends were safe. As for the mission, some matters were simply more urgent than others.

“Hey—wait for me!”

“To put it plainly, Mist Mountain Village is Jade Pavilion’s private backyard. That pregnant man you captured had an evil seed parasitizing his abdomen. The implantation was considered a failure, and because it failed, he had to be disposed of.”

His words clearly pointed toward the two thugs who had been digging a burial pit in Yueyu Forest.

They had not told the truth at the time, which was why they had been swiftly silenced afterward.

When Pei Mingshan saw that Wen Xu showed no reaction, he finally spoke one honest sentence.

“Actually, I was the one who issued the investigation mission for Mist Mountain Village.”

Wen Xu stopped once again.

Now he finally understood why he had run into this man.

So the mission had been cursed from the very beginning.

“You knew from the start that the so-called string of pregnancies in Mist Mountain Village was the work of a heretical cultivator.”

“Mm-hmm.” Pei Mingshan admitted it without hesitation, then even added an explanation on his own. “I was afraid that if I wrote the mission too explicitly, I would frighten the heretical cultivator away. That was why I worded it the way I did. I never expected a disciple of a Divine Venerable to accept it.”

Wen Xu was speechless.

Once they returned to the mountain, he would make Chunzhou wash his hands more often. His luck was truly abysmal.

“Are you saying the owner of Jade Pavilion is the heretical cultivator controlling everything?”

Pei Mingshan shook his head.

“I never said that. I merely… believe it to be the case.”

Cultivators traveled extremely quickly, and Wen Xu could ride the wind. By the time they finished speaking, the two of them had already arrived at Jade Pavilion’s main entrance.

However—

“Whoa. That fire is really raging.”

Forget Jade Pavilion—even the neighboring building was about to catch fire. Worse still, the flames swelled whenever they touched anything combustible, leaping impossibly high. This was clearly no ordinary fire.

Wen Xu placed a layer of protection from a Water Talisman over himself, then swiftly leaped onto the roof ridge and jumped inside.

Pei Mingshan saw how impulsively he had acted. After a moment’s thought, he followed him in.

The blaze inside was even fiercer. Flames surged upward, turning the entire building into an enormous furnace.

Wen Xu’s mutated wind spiritual root had evolved from wood and earth spiritual roots. Although he possessed no water spiritual root, the air inside was obviously far too scorched and dry, as though it could steam the blood from a person’s veins.

Wen Xu had heard Bian Chunzhou explain some of the more ingenious applications of water and fire spiritual roots. In an instant, he realized that Chunzhou must have started fighting someone—and he was fighting without holding anything back.

Wen Xu’s heart sank.

Chen Zui had already reached the ninth level of Qi Refining. With his strength, he might even be capable of fighting a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Yet the two of them together had still created a situation like this.

Who knew when Senior Brother Huang and the others would arrive?

Wen Xu steadied himself. He also knew that charging inside like this had been far too reckless.

A clever person would have waited outside for reinforcements instead of plunging in without a second thought, relying only on the jade slip his master had given him.

But…

Damn it.

He did not regret it at all.

Smoke and flames filled Jade Pavilion, making it impossible to see any direction. The wind could bring him no useful information either.

Wen Xu simply took out a strip of satin, tied it over his eyes, and relied on a cultivator’s spiritual senses to search for them.

…

At the same time, Chen Zui was still swinging his saber.

In truth, his body was covered in wounds. Fighting a Foundation Establishment cultivator was ultimately far too much for him.

Yet at this moment, not the slightest trace of dejection could be found on him.

In fact, the longer he fought, the more energized he became.

“Again!”

Compared with the two battered young men, Zan Xue appeared far more composed.

However, judging from the way her movements were growing increasingly slow, she was not nearly as relaxed as she seemed.

Jade Pavilion represented half a year of her painstaking effort, yet these two brats had destroyed it before her eyes.

It was true that no one had been harmed and that she could simply move to another city and open a new establishment, but she still could not swallow this humiliation.

Today, she would take their lives no matter what!

So what if they came from Yonglu Mountain?

Once she grew powerful enough, she would dare fight even the Harmonious Union Sect alone!

“Aaah! We actually got a real one! Chen Zui, retreat! Hurry! I cannot hold on much longer!”

Bian Chunzhou had to admit that his Water-Fire Steam Talisman was having some effect.

Unfortunately, he had not yet mastered the balance between water and fire. At this rate—

If he kept expending his strength, he would end up killing himself!

Folks, who could possibly understand this?

They had been promised a fake female cultivator, only for Jade Pavilion to be so sincere that it produced a real one—and a Foundation Establishment cultivator at that!

Sure enough, the things that were free always cost the most.

He had only come here to have some fun and gather information, yet this woman actually wanted their lives!

Boohoo.

Was he really never going to see tomorrow’s sun?

Why was his luck always so terrible?

It was all that damned quack physician’s fault!

While fighting, Chen Zui had naturally sensed the array’s steadily accumulating power.

But if they withdrew now, would they not be releasing a tiger back into the mountains?

He hesitated.

His battle instincts drove him to keep swinging his saber—but then he saw Bian Chunzhou, who could barely remain standing.

The Handbook said that life must always come before everything else.

Whether it was one’s own life or a companion’s, it should take priority over all else.

“Hold your breath. I’ll carry—”

“Fuck! You run first! Otherwise, we’ll both—”

Chen Zui had an obstinate temperament.

Once he decided to accomplish something, he would carry it out without even blinking, even if the miserable ending was already plainly visible.

An array had actually been set up inside Jade Pavilion.

Even a Golden Core cultivator who entered would have to leave their life behind!

Pei Mingshan inwardly realized that something was wrong.

Yet in the next moment, he began to laugh.

“Oh my. As expected of a Divine Venerable’s disciples. The things they carry to preserve their lives really are extraordinary.”

Just moments earlier, Bian Chunzhou and Chen Zui had both mentally prepared themselves to be gravely injured or killed.

The array’s tremendous power surged outward. It was an attack they could never withstand.

Yet in the next instant, the agony they had imagined never arrived.

Instead, the array’s power seemed to rebound upon its caster.

“Aaah—!”

Huh?

Why did Zan Xue’s scream sound just a teeny-tiny bit too deep?

Suspicion rose in Bian Chunzhou’s mind.

However, the moment he saw Wen Xu standing there and breathing heavily, he immediately tossed the question aside.

“Boohoo! I knew you would come save me! Wen Xuxu, you’re so reliable!”

Wen Xu’s hand was trembling slightly.

He hid it behind his back, instinctively unwilling to let his friends see how shaken he was.

They had been so close.

Thank goodness he had charged in without hesitation.

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