Chapter 50: Ice Silkworm, Snow Silkworm

Captain Fan was also a little angry. He felt Shopkeeper Fang was already so old, yet the older he got, the more childish he became.

“Hmph, that Old Fang is getting more and more vain. I said I met a good cultivator, and he had to compete with me.” He had completely forgotten that the other man had been the one to bring it up first.

The climate of Beisheng Continent was far colder than that of Easternmost Continent. Over in Easternmost Continent, people were still wearing short shirts, while frost had already fallen at night in Beisheng Continent.

At this moment, many people who wanted to board the ship had gathered at Lan City’s docks. Cultivators were naturally elegant and unafraid of wind or rain. Even when boarding, they did not take the same path as others, and there were boatmen serving them with umbrellas and hand warmers. Qi Refining mortals, on the other hand, depended on their wealth. Some were surrounded by servants, while some could not even bear to buy a single cold-avoidance talisman and wore heavy padded jackets that made their whole bodies look bulky.

Captain Fan returned to the Kun Boat and, as usual, went to the honored guests’ door to offer a greeting.

Speaking of which, the reason he had been able to arrive at Beisheng Continent so quickly this time was because of an unexpected change.

The Kun Boat he looked after did not only travel back and forth between Easternmost Continent and Dongchen Continent. After reaching Dongchen Continent, it still had to make trips in order to East Central Continent, Northernmost Continent, Northern Central Continent, and Beisheng Continent. Only after completing this full circuit would it return to Easternmost Continent. This was also the reason the Kun Boat only returned to Fengcheng once every half month.

Not long ago, the Kun Boat had returned to Fengcheng, but because something had happened to Fengcheng’s spiritual vein, the Kun Boat was stopped at the dock and could not take off. Captain Fan could be considered an old hand by now. No matter how the court officials of Donglai Kingdom begged him, he remained unmoved.

In any case, Tyrant Blade Sect had regulations. The spirit stones on the Kun Boat could not be touched without permission, and they had to wait for orders from above. He would not mind waiting at the docks for a few months. He would just treat it as a vacation.

A Qi Refining mortal only had a lifespan of a hundred years. Working oneself to death would not raise one’s cultivation anyway. With such a perfectly justified chance to slack off, Captain Fan was not willing to let it slip by.

It was only one night several days ago, when two fairies from Spirit Sword Sect suddenly visited and demanded that the Kun Boat set sail at once to bring them back to Beisheng Continent, that Captain Fan had no choice but to rouse himself and get back to work.

Spirit Sword Sect was one of the Three Great Sects. Back then, the moment Captain Fan saw the jade token representing Spirit Sword Sect, his legs had nearly started trembling. At first, he had not even dared accept their spirit stones, until the two female cultivators said, “If you don’t accept spirit stones, outsiders may laugh at us for taking advantage of Tyrant Blade Sect for nothing.”

Only then did Captain Fan accept the one thousand spirit stones needed to start the Kun Boat.

Captain Fan did not know why disciples of the famous Spirit Sword Sect would appear in remote Easternmost Continent. He only knew that with these two distinguished guests on board, he had to put on several more smiling faces each day, and his mood was not exactly beautiful.

Now that the Kun Boat was about to set sail again, Captain Fan came to the door of the two Spirit Sword Sect disciples. They had not even closed the door and were teasing and joking with a young man.

The man was about twenty, with an extremely handsome face and the bearing of someone raised in luxury. His voice was also exceptionally gentle and pleasant, and he was speaking softly to the two female cultivators, making them laugh without end. As he spoke, he also refilled their water and poured tea for them, showing abundant patience.

In Captain Fan’s eyes, there was nothing frivolous about the man’s behavior. His body did not even lean half an inch toward the two female cultivators. Instead, it was those two female cultivators whose conduct was rather improper. From time to time, they pinched the young man’s cheek or arm, teasing him as if he were a performer.

Even Captain Fan found these actions excessive, yet the man took them calmly. There was no trace of flattery in his smile. Instead, he seemed gentle and helpless, as though indulging his sisters.

If it had been in the past, Captain Fan would not have bothered with such things. After all, one was willing to hit and the other willing to be hit. But the way that man smiled reminded him of another young man with a warm, amiable smile, and a bit of pity unconsciously rose in his heart.

Captain Fan walked a few steps closer and made his footsteps a little louder. He showed the people inside his usual respectful smile toward cultivators. “Two fairies, the Kun Boat is about to set sail. In roughly another three quarters of an hour, we will arrive at Little Bamboo Ferry.”

Little Bamboo Ferry was the docking point closest to Spirit Sword Sect. Captain Fan’s meaning in saying this was that they were almost at Spirit Sword Sect. When the two female cultivators heard this, the frivolous smiles on their faces slowly faded, and they waved for Captain Fan to leave.

Before long, the young man came out of the room. Before leaving, he even thoughtfully closed the door. Seeing Captain Fan standing in the corner, he walked over in a few steps and gave him a salute. With a bitter smile, he said, “Many thanks for your reminder just now, Senior Fan. Otherwise, I’m afraid I would have had to stay inside for another half hour.”

Captain Fan politely returned the salute. “Your Highness is too courteous. I was also doing it for the sake of the two fairies.”

“No matter what, you have shown me kindness. If not for your reminder, I would not have been able to meet the two fairies, much less board this ship to go to Spirit Sword Sect.”

Captain Fan became even more polite on the surface, looking entirely businesslike. “I’m afraid the messenger has not yet reached Dongchen Continent. Whether this trip succeeds or not, Your Highness will still need to make a trip to Dongchen Continent to report the matter of the spiritual vein to Tyrant Blade Sect.”

The person before him was none other than the crown prince of Donglai Kingdom, a blood descendant of Donglai Kingdom’s current ruler.

It was said that something had happened to Fengcheng’s spiritual vein, but in truth, no cultivator had gone underground to investigate, so there was no way to determine what problem had occurred with the spiritual vein. From what Captain Fan could tell, this Highness wanted to find a way to exchange Fengcheng’s spiritual vein for another one. This time, he was following those two female cultivators to Spirit Sword Sect because he also wanted to search for an ancestor of Donglai Kingdom who had joined Spirit Sword Sect several hundred years ago and use that person as support.

However, in Captain Fan’s view, the hope was slim.

The two of them spoke in low voices in the corner, unaware that every word they said was heard by the two female cultivators in the distant room.

The younger female cultivator showed a disappointed expression. “Hmph, I thought he was a decent one, but it turns out he was only putting on an act and wanted to use us sisters to enter the sect. They went so far away and thought they had already left the range of a cultivator’s divine sense, but they don’t know that Senior Sister is already in the False Core realm. How broad is your divine sense? On this little Kun Boat, even an extra ant could not escape Senior Sister’s eyes.”

The other female cultivator was much steadier. Hearing this, she only said lightly, “What’s wrong with putting on an act? We were also after his good looks. In my opinion, the more people like this there are, the more fun we have.”

When the junior sister heard this, the irritation on her face dispersed, and she instead revealed an intrigued look, as if she were still thinking about the person who had just left.

The senior sister glanced at her and said, “Playing is playing, but do not be coaxed into bed by that sort of person. A female cultivator’s primordial yin is far more precious than a male cultivator’s primordial yang. Keep your primordial yin, and it will be greatly beneficial when you form your Golden Core in the future.”

“Senior Sister, of course I understand that. He is only a plaything. How could he compare to the great path of immortality?” As the junior sister spoke, confusion appeared on her face. “Cultivating immortality is so good. Who knows what madness Eldest Senior Sister went into? She actually fled privately to the mortal world for the sake of a mortal, making us run all over several mortal continents these past few days to find her. Her younger sister has stopped over the East Pole Sea for her sake for days now, causing lightning, thunder, violent winds, and rainstorms there every day. If not for that, we would have returned to the sect long ago, and we wouldn’t have had to find a Kun Boat and travel slowly.”

For cultivators below Golden Core, the current East Pole Sea was indeed very difficult to fly across.

The senior sister said, “In any case, we have done our best these past few days. Proof has also been stored in the recording pearl. After we go back, we can give Master an explanation.”

The junior sister said, “With no news for so long, she has probably died somewhere. It’s just a pity about that ice silkworm in her hands. It was still a larva…”

…

Easternmost Continent, Zhaoge

Xingchun had been in Zhaoge for less than seven days, but she had very quickly adapted to life in Zhaoge.

In the past, when she was in Silver City, she had to get up before dawn every day to sell cooling talismans. That way, she could hurry to sell a few before the practitioners left the city. At noon and in the evening, she would casually make something to eat and fill her stomach halfway. Then she had to rush before nightfall to pick some fresh mulberry leaves to bring back and feed the snow silkworm. At night, she still had to light a lamp and stay up late, weaving the silk the snow silkworm spat out into cooling talismans. This was when her luck was good.

If her luck was bad and she could not sell a single one all day, she would have to go hungry. Sometimes, when the hunger became unbearable, she could not help fighting the snow silkworm for mulberry leaves to eat.

But now things were different.

As soon as she entered Zhaoge, she was immediately assigned a good job at Heavenly Garment Workshop. She was also given a room of her own, warm bedding, three fixed meals a day, monthly wages, and four new sets of clothing every quarter. On the first day she arrived, she received two new sets of clothing that belonged to her, and she was so happy she almost fainted.

At first, when the steward said that the room, bedding, three meals, clothes, and so on were all being loaned to her and that she would have to use her own monthly wages to repay them in the future, Xingchun was a little disappointed. But then she thought about how this job was already something she could never have hoped for in the past, and how the spiritual qi in Zhaoge was something countless practitioners would pay out of pocket just to come in and absorb for a while. With that, her mind became calm and balanced.

It was not until she heard Sister Fan say that they, as hired workers in Zhaoge, had something called an internal price, and that the price of buying things was only one-third of the outside price, that Xingchun did a quick calculation and was shocked to discover that as long as she was not dismissed, then in just three months, she could repay everything she had taken on credit before, including that room!

Food and lodging were included. After three months, that room, the furniture and bedding inside it, and that season’s clothes would all be hers. How was this any different from giving them to her for free?

Xingchun had never dared dream of such a wonderful thing, yet it had truly descended upon her head!

She calculated more carefully. Two or three months of wages could buy that small room, which meant that in less than two years, she could buy a beautiful little two-story building in Zhaoge with a courtyard, just like Sister Fan’s home!

Not only that, she could also buy many nice-looking furnishings, buy many respectable clothes, and store up a great deal of grain. She would never again have to fear having no clothes to wear, no place to live, or no food to eat!

In less than two years, in a wonderful place like Zhaoge, she could own a small courtyard of her own and live the respectable life that had once existed only in her dreams. Such a wonderful thing, something she once had not even dared to imagine, now seemed as if she could reach it just by standing on tiptoe and stretching out her hand.

Xingchun had never felt as she did now, that being alive was such a beautiful thing.

Xingchun’s life became more fulfilling than ever before. Yet it was not the same busyness as before, when she had been trapped by mere food and warmth. This was busyness with more hope, busyness that made her happier.

Every day, she went to bed early, then rose refreshed first thing in the morning. After tidying herself up, she immediately reported to Heavenly Garment Workshop. She fought to do every task, and strove to do everything as perfectly as possible. Whenever she received praise, she would think sweetly, I work so well. Surely I can stay here for a long time!

That day, she again entered Heavenly Garment Workshop early to work. Who could have known that something terrible enough to make the sky collapse would happen in the silkworm room?

The snow silkworm she had sent into the silkworm room had actually bitten and injured another snow silkworm inside. Looking at the stewards gathered around the snow silkworm and quietly discussing it, Xingchun’s face turned pale, and she almost could not stand steady.

Soon after, Fan Huilan brought Xingchun into the elegant reception room Heavenly Garment Workshop used to receive guests. With a serious expression, she asked, “That snow silkworm. Where did you get it?”

Xingchun stammered, “I picked it up. I picked it up.”

Fan Huilan’s expression became even more serious. “You could pick up a snow silkworm by the roadside?”

Xingchun was about to cry. With red-rimmed eyes, she said, “I-I can’t remember clearly, but I really picked it up! I…” Flustered and at a loss, she apologized. “I really didn’t know. When I raised it before, it was always perfectly fine. I saw that the conditions in the silkworm room were good and thought I had wronged it before, so I sent it into the silkworm room. I really didn’t know it would bite and injure another snow silkworm.”

“Sister Fan, please, I’m begging you. Don’t drive me away. I’ll work twice as hard. I’ll definitely compensate the silkworm room for its losses.”

Seeing her panicked appearance, Fan Huilan’s expression softened. She asked her, “When you fed it before, were you ever injured by it?”

Xingchun hesitated, then nodded. “Yes. Before I came to Zhaoge, it bit me once.”

Fan Huilan nodded. “That makes sense. This isn’t a snow silkworm. It’s an ice silkworm.”

Huh? An ice silkworm?

Xingchun thought blankly, What does that mean? Is it different from a snow silkworm?

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