Chapter 331: Han Clan of Dafeng Mountain |
Under the bedding were a total of twelve travel pouches, all different sizes. Some bulging full, others flat and empty. When he dumped them out, most of the contents turned out to be gold, silver, and spirit stones. The gold and silver together came to a little over 500 taels, and there were more than 60 spirit stones.
Liu Xiaolou was stunned.
What shocked him was this. Just what he could see in front of him already amounted to over 60 spirit stones. So how many must Big White and Little Black have already swallowed?
If you added it all up, it had to be well over a 100.
“This is what you’ve saved up over the past few years?” Liu Xiaolou asked. “How on earth did you get all this?”
“Honk honk honk.”
“Meow meow meow.”
“Even robbing people or running scams couldn’t bring in this much, could it?” Still reeling, Liu Xiaolou felt a deep pang of worry. “Can we not do stuff like this anymore? It’s dangerous, you know?”
“Honk!”
“Don’t give me that attitude! Your little scheme might be clever, but anything can go wrong. You can’t succeed every single time. Sooner or later, something’s bound to blow up in your faces. If someone fought back and killed you, the two of you would’ve ended up in a stew! The fact that you’re still alive means you’ve just been incredibly lucky.”
After nagging them for a good while, Liu Xiaolou scooped up all the gold, silver, and spirit stones and stashed them safely in his Qiankun Pouch for safekeeping.
In the corner of the cave sat a flatbed cart. Liu Xiaolou walked over, ran his hand across the thick layer of dust coating it, and felt a rush of emotions. He had built this cart with his own hands. So many years had passed, yet those two beasts had carried it with them the whole time.
Big White ambled over and beat its wings. A powerful gust spun up at once, sweeping the built-up dust into the air. The dust visibly whirled with the wind, all the way out of the cave.
In moments, the cart was spotless, not a speck of dust left.
Judging from that move alone, Big White’s strength was already at least on par with someone in mid–Qi Refinement. As for how tough it would actually be in a real fight, that still remained to be seen.
While Big White cleaned off the cart, Little Black leapt onto the stone platform, rolled up the bedding laid on top, dragged it onto the cart, and spread it out in a thick layer. Then it hopped up as well and looked at Liu Xiaolou.
“Meow.”
Big White climbed into the front of the cart on its own, looped the ropes over itself, turned around, and started pulling the cart out of the cave.
Liu Xiaolou quickly climbed aboard, squeezing Little Black toward the back. The ride was brutally bumpy; he could feel his butt jolting with every rut. But as a Foundation Establishment cultivator, he barely cared. Besides, all this shaking actually suited the Yellow Dragon Sword Art’s training method pretty well.
Once they left the cave and continued weaving through the mountains, Liu Xiaolou found the range quite impressive. He even suspected there might be a spiritual vein somewhere in the mountains, since the air was filled with a faint trace of spiritual energy.
“What mountain is this?” Liu Xiaolou asked the two of them.
“Honk honk honk!”
“Meow meow meow.”
“So this is Dafeng Mountain?”
Wasn’t Dafeng Mountain the Han family’s home, Han Jiuxian’s place?
Liu Xiaolou looked up at the name carved into the cliff face. Each character was taller than a person, radiating the aura of the mountain’s owner.
So those two troublemakers had been making their nest right outside the Han family’s front door.
As for Han Jiuxian, Liu Xiaolou felt genuinely grateful toward him. When Liu had been searching for a sword cultivation manual, Han had gone out of his way to help and had even personally contacted the Qingyue Altar of Hengshan. True, Liu had nearly stumbled into a “peach blossom calamity,” but honestly, it had been a rather pleasant sort of disaster. All in all, he found Han Jiuxian to be a fine man, refined in both conduct and character.
Given that kind of character, now that he was standing at Han Jiuxian’s doorstep, it would feel wrong not to pay a visit.
After a moment’s thought, Liu Xiaolou headed inward along the path between the two mountains. After walking a little over a hundred zhang, he came upon the mountain gate. Beyond it lay an estate nestled among lush green trees.
Pavilions and towers stood amid birdsong and fragrant blossoms.
So it really did have a true spiritual eye. And the concentration of spiritual energy was far richer than the one he'd opened up on Wulong Mountain. There was no question it was several times stronger.
Five times stronger? Six? Liu Xiaolou could not tell for sure. What he did know was that for spiritual energy to spill out over such a wide area, the core strength of the spirit eye had to be extremely high. His own spirit eye could never manage that.
Of course, this little bit of spiritual energy leaking out might do birds and beasts some good. For cultivators, though, the benefits were pretty limited. The only places that truly made a dramatic difference to cultivation, places that could let a cultivator completely stop relying on spirit stones, were the legendary blessed lands and Grotto-Heavens.
Savoring the feel of the spiritual energy in Dafeng Mountain, Liu Xiaolou left Big White and Little Black waiting at the mountain gate and went up to knock on the manor door. Before long, a disciple of the Han clan came out to greet him and escorted him to the reception hall, where tea was served and he was kept company.
As they talked, Liu Xiaolou gained a clearer picture of the Han family of Dafeng Mountain.
The Han family could be considered a cultivation family, but compared to the Su family of Shenwu Mountain, they were on a completely different level. And not just by a small margin.
The Su family may have declined, but that decline was only relative to their own past. In terms of top-tier cultivators, they still had two Golden Core experts and more than ten at the Foundation Establishment stage. Within the next ten years, there was even a good chance a third Golden Core cultivator would emerge. On top of that, the Su family was one of the five great clans of the Danxia Sect, and they also maintained close ties with the Weiyu Soaring Crane Sect, one of the ten greatest sects in the world.
The Han family of Dafeng Mountain was affiliated with the Luofu Sect. While Luofu was also one of the ten great sects, the Han family was only a subordinate branch, not one of the sect’s core families. As for cultivation strength, they did have a fair number of Foundation Establishment cultivators, six in total. However, their most powerful elder had only reached late-stage Foundation Establishment.
Liu Xiaolou was, after all, a high-level Foundation Establishment cultivator himself. After waiting for about an hour and sampling several cups of mountain tea, someone who truly held authority in the Han family finally came out to meet him.
This man was Han Jiuqian’s fourth uncle. Twenty years older than Liu Xiaolou, also in Foundation Establishment, but only early-stage. Liu Xiaolou had met someone like this before in the Su family of Shenwu Mountain. Cultivators of this type had been pushed up through a mountain of resources. Once they broke through to Foundation Establishment, they usually stalled at the early stage and never advanced any further.
Amid the small talk, Liu Xiaolou got straight to the point about why he was there. Fourth Uncle Han sighed and said, "Friend, your timing's off. Jiuqian left a few days ago to visit some friends. No idea when he'll be back."
"Ah," Liu Xiaolou let out a sigh of regret, then cupped his hands in a polite salute. "In that case, I won't take up any more of your time. Please pass on a message to Brother Jiuqian for me. Tell him that his junior, Xiaolou, came to pay his respects."
Fourth Uncle Han stood up to see him off. “When Jiuqian returns, I’ll be sure to have him come call on you.”
After leaving the Han family manor, Liu Xiaolou looked around for Big White and Little Black. Those two rascals should have been fairly familiar with Dafeng Mountain, but who knew where they had wandered off to. He searched for quite a while before finally finding them. He was just about to give them a piece of his mind when he noticed Big White clutching a pink spirit flower in its flat beak.
Liu Xiaolou recognized it at once. It was called July Fragrant Orchid, an excellent ingredient for refining spiritual incense. If he added a bit of it to his own Bewitching Fragrance, the effect would be even more intoxicating.
The July Fragrant Orchid still had its roots, leaves, and blossoms intact, making it perfect for transplanting. Liu Xiaolou patted Big White on the head, took the spirit flower, and cast a glance back toward the Han family manor behind him before scolding softly, “Just this once, all right?”
After thinking it over, Liu Xiaolou figured that just one July Fragrant Orchid might not survive the transplant reliably, so he asked, “Where did you pick this up?”
He was just about to follow Big White and pick a few more when he saw a maid hurry out of the manor. She looked anxious and ran straight over as soon as she spotted him. “May I ask, are you Young Master Liu? Young Master Xiaolou?”
“Yes. And you are?”
“I’m a maid who serves by the side madam’s quarters. I heard that you came to pay a visit, so I rushed over to see you. I beg you, Young Master, please help us. Go find my lord and have him return at once. Please save my madam!”
“Which side madam?”
“My lord’s name is Jiuqian. He’s said before that you are his close friend!”
Han Jiuqian’s side madam. Of course Liu Xiaolou knew who that was. It was Green Pearl. How could he not? How many times had he dreamed about her, or ended up with her plastered all over him back at the Green Courtyard? They were close, more like sister and brother than anything else. There was no way he wouldn’t know her.
“All right. Tell me exactly what happened.”
The maid immediately began recounting the whole affair.