“Did no one tell you that this Venerable One loves wealth?”
With a single palm strike, Li Jiushu shattered the Succubus’s charm realm, and his surroundings returned to his sleeping palace.
The Succubus clutched her chest and scrambled to rise, intent on fleeing. If she didn’t realize by now that she had been intentionally allowed in, she would be a fool.
This man was not like other Divine Tree contractors who were pampered and protected by their families; his current cultivation and status had been achieved step by step on his own. Not only was he exceptionally gifted, but he also practiced diligently. His divine abilities were merely tools he used for convenience when amassing wealth or seizing treasures in his spare time. Or, when he was displeased, he used those same abilities to slaughter his way in and out of the Demon and Monster Realms. In the centuries he had guarded the Abyss of Chaos for the Li family, he had cowed the Demon and Monster Realms to the point where they didn’t dare show their faces.
Sending her this time was mainly to find out if the Breaking Void Divine Tree had chosen a master. If Immortal Venerable Jiusu lost the Divine Tree’s power, the springtime of the Demon and Monster Realms would arrive. If she could discover who was chosen as the master, they might even take the opportunity to destroy the Divine Tree during the contracting process.
She had only dared to entertain the thought of meeting this legendary Immortal Venerable Jiusu because she was a full-rank Succubus.
“Since you have defiled this Venerable One’s eyes, leave your life as compensation.”
Li Jiushu manifested the Star River Fan and gave it a wave, directly turning the Succubus, who was about to vanish into the void, into grey smoke, leaving behind only an unwilling scream of agony.
Stowing the fan, Li Jiushu entered his space and walked to the Xingluo Stone.
A spiritual beast egg had appeared on the stone. Although he couldn’t take the items out, he could probe them with his divine sense. To his surprise, it was a spiritual beast egg possessing the Ice Phoenix bloodline. However, this egg only had a faint sliver of vitality left; it likely stood no chance of hatching.
He did happen to have an Ice Phoenix Pearl in his treasury. That Ice Phoenix had once invited him to dual cultivate; her passion was hard to refuse, so he had beaten her until only her pearl remained.
But why should he facilitate this opportunity? Did he look like someone who would be a “sucker”?
Li Jiushu gave a cold laugh, yet a treasure box appeared honestly in his long, jade-like palm.
The box opened automatically, revealing an ice-blue pearl emitting a chilling aura. If the box didn’t have its own barrier, it would have frozen everything within ten miles in a single breath.
Li Jiushu looked up at the Divine Tree, his expression lazy. “Look at what kind of master you’ve picked for your next term. Having been companions for ten thousand years, this predecessor cannot bear to see you so pathetic. I’ll help you boost the strength of your next master then.”
With that, Li Jiushu pressed his two fingers together and sent the pearl above the Xingluo Stone. He drew a seal with his finger and struck it into the stone; the pearl gradually turned into blue points of light that merged into the spiritual beast egg.
As he was about to leave, Li Jiushu caught sight of the doll out of the corner of his eye and stopped. “Really, who told me I was in a good mood today?”
He summoned several treasure boxes, picked through them, and finally took a Soul Condensing Pearl of the lowest value and struck it into the doll.
Even the one with the lowest value was something others would beg for in vain.
As the Soul Condensing Pearl vanished into the Little Suisui doll, a ripple of light flowed over it. The threads on the doll seemed to be endowed with power, and the entire doll became more vivid.
Glancing at the result, Li Jiushu put his hands behind his back and left the space.
……
In the lower realm, after finishing the verification, Chong Yuan had Bian Yun take Suisui out first, leaving Ye Wan behind.
Chong Yuan raised his hand to set up a barrier and asked Ye Wan seriously, “Is the Stop-Life Grass in your hands?”
Ye Wan was stunned for a moment and did not answer immediately.
“If the Stop-Life Grass is in your hands, the sect is willing to take it. You can make your demands.” Looking at Ye Wan’s expression, Chong Yuan knew that the grass was likely with her.
Seeing the Sect Master’s sincerity, Ye Wan stopped pretending. “Did Senior Brother Qin tell you?”
“When he returned, he only said that Stop-Life Grass would appear at the Guangjiao Pavilion. It was Elder Chong Yun, who is guarding the pavilion, who saw the trade information regarding the Stop-Life Grass and informed me. Our sect currently has only one Integrative stage cultivator, Elder Chong Yun, and she naturally cannot step away to be someone’s servant for three hundred years. The Void Refinement stage is different.
I originally thought that if all else failed, I would hand over the position of Sect Master and trade myself to get that Stop-Life Grass. I didn’t expect that before I could make a decision, the trade information was withdrawn. Considering you returned with Zixun, it wasn’t hard to guess.”
Ye Wan suddenly understood.
Qin Zixun had guessed the Stop-Life Grass was in her hands, and even though the sect desperately needed it, he didn’t expose her or put her in a difficult position. Instead, he returned and told the Sect Master that the grass was being traded at the Guangjiao Pavilion.
Who said this Sect Eldest Senior Brother was unreliable?
If he had come forward directly and said the sect needed the grass and told her to name her price, she really wouldn’t have been able to ask a Void Refinement powerhouse to sign a master-servant contract. Even if a Mahayana ancestor were willing to take Suisui as a disciple, in her eyes, that wasn’t as good as a bodyguard bound by a master-servant contract. That was likely a choice she would only have made if no one else was willing to trade.
She hadn’t expected the Wan Yan Sect’s strength to have declined so severely.
One Integrative stage and one Void Refinement stage. To think the Wan Yan Sect was once a massive sect, yet its talent had dwindled to this.
Although there was still a Mahayana ancestor to hold the fort, rumors said that the ancestor had narrowly survived the invasion war five thousand years ago and had damaged his foundation. With no hope of ascending, he was merely waiting out the remainder of his lifespan.
Presumably, the Sect Master was so willing to go all out for the Stop-Life Grass for the sake of that Mahayana ancestor.
Thinking of Doctor Kong from Banyan Village, Ye Wan asked, “How many pills can one stalk of Stop-Life Grass produce?”
“It depends on the age of the grass and the skill of the alchemist,” Chong Yuan said.
“What’s the minimum?”
“At least two pills. A skilled alchemist can refine three.”
“I want to choose one treasure from the sect treasury. If three Stop-Life Pills can be refined, I want one,” Ye Wan stated her conditions.
Chong Yuan frowned slightly, not because he was stingy with the treasure, but because Ye Wan wanting a Stop-Life Pill made him a bit reluctant. However, she said she would only want one on the premise that three were refined, which was already quite considerate of the sect.
Stop-Life Grass, even if it could only halt the loss of longevity for twenty years—twenty years could hold infinite possibilities. No amount of demands would be excessive.
“I promise you. With the Heavenly Dao as witness, if three pills are refined, you shall have one. You may pick any one item from the sect’s hidden treasury.”
The words carried the force of law; a golden mark condensed in the air, and the Heart Demon Oath was formed.
Ye Wan: “…”
The Sect Master was afraid she would regret it, wasn’t he? Was he?
Fortunately, she had already planned the use for the Stop-Life Grass and had put it in her storage bag before entering the sect.
Ye Wan took the “Luminous Grass” out of her storage bag. Previously, she had been cautious outside and hadn’t dared to easily let the “Luminous Grass” show its true form.
No matter how she looked at it, it appeared no different from a real Luminous Grass. Even if a professional appraiser looked at it, they wouldn’t see it was fake.
Chong Yuan stepped forward with some excitement to take the “Luminous Grass.” He pressed his two fingers together and tried to input spiritual power into it. The “Luminous Grass” in his hand changed its appearance in the blink of an eye.
The transformed grass had feathery leaves like centipedes, and its stem rose in segments, with a total of one hundred stems.
Stop-Life Grass grows ten stems every thousand years; one hundred stems meant this was a ten-thousand-year-old Stop-Life Grass, capable of refining Stop-Life Pills with a fifty-year duration.
“Hahaha!!” Chong Yuan couldn’t help but laugh heartily, and the way he looked at Ye Wan couldn’t have been more affectionate.
This disciple’s cultivation wasn’t much, but her luck was undeniable.
Cultivation is all about destiny; sometimes strength can’t even compare to luck.
Chong Yuan took out a jade box and carefully placed the grass inside. Compared to how Ye Wan had stored it like a common weed, it was much more dignified.
“You already have a Void Refinement powerhouse as a guard, so why did you want to trade the Stop-Life Grass for another one? Did you offend someone powerful?”
Chong Yuan withdrew the barrier. At the same time, he felt incredibly lucky that there weren’t many people of his cultivation level whose longevity was nearing its end, and not many were willing to go all out. Otherwise, this grass would never have fallen into his hands.
Well, that brat Qin Zixun clearly hasn’t been beaten enough.
“I just wanted to gauge the weight of the Void Refinement stage. I wanted to know how important I am in the heart of the child’s father,” Ye Wan began to lie through her teeth.
Chong Yuan frowned. “What sect is Suisui’s father from? Or which great clan?”
“None of those. He’s just a wild vegetable digger,” Ye Wan said.
Chong Yuan had a face that said ‘you’re kidding me.’ “A wild vegetable digger can command a Void Refinement cultivator to be your daughter’s servant? You dare to say it, but I don’t dare to believe it.”
“When I met him, he was digging wild vegetables. When he went missing, it was because he went to dig wild vegetables. As for the rest, I don’t know,” Ye Wan looked innocent.
When she entered the cultivation world, she had decided that the father’s persona would be a wild vegetable digger, and she was a “love-brain” who dug wild vegetables everywhere to find him.
What was Wang Baochuan digging for eighteen years? She was going to dig for a thousand.
With her being a top-tier love-brain attracting the fire, no one would dig into her daughter’s miraculous nature.
Chong Yuan’s head was filled with “digging wild vegetables.” How could the profound and powerful person with a great background he imagined be so obsessed with wild vegetables?
“So you’ve come back this time because you have a lead on the father’s whereabouts?” Chong Yuan firmly believed that the less a person revealed their background, the more extraordinary their origin was.
Ye Wan nodded and then shook her head. “Before he disappeared, he said he was going to dig a very new kind of wild vegetable for me to eat. He said if he didn’t come back, I should return to the cultivation world to dig wild vegetables. He said when I’ve gathered wild vegetables from all the major secret realms, he’ll be back.”
Chong Yuan: “…”
Chong Yuan didn’t know what kind of look to give Ye Wan anymore.
Listen to that. Just listen to those words meant to trick a three-year-old. And this girl seemed to believe them without a doubt.
Is her head okay? Has she never considered that Suisui’s father actually just returned to his powerful background and status, and even acted out a scene of disappearing while digging vegetables for it, leaving this Void Refinement cultivator as compensation?
If you’re going to lie, at least find a better excuse. Digging wild vegetables is too insulting! He would not allow a disciple of his sect to be so stupid!
“So, what are your plans now that you’ve brought Suisui back?” Chong Yuan suppressed his anger and sat back down.
“Naturally, I will cultivate hard, improve myself, enter secret realms to dig wild vegetables, and look for the child’s father along the way,” Ye Wan answered exceptionally smoothly.
Chong Yuan’s anger finally broke through; he slammed the table in rage. “Have you never thought that was just an excuse used to deceive you?!”
Ye Wan shook her head. “That’s impossible. Even if the sky falls and the earth sinks, the child’s father would never lie to me.”
Seeing her calm and confident expression, Chong Yuan stood up and paced in anger. He felt that this disciple, whose brain was clouded by the threads of romance, was even more of a headache than his own boy.
At that moment, Suisui’s exclamation suddenly came from outside.