Chapter 72: Not Blinded by Greed

Seeing Zhang Kuang fall from the cliff, Pu Hanzhong cried out in alarm, but it was too late to save him. He walked to the edge and peered down into the swirling mist, unable to see the bottom. But there was no doubt the cliff was a thousand fathoms deep. “He’s surely been dashed to pieces,” he said to Qin Haoxuan. “No one could survive that fall.”

Qin Haoxuan stared silently into the abyss. They had both come from Datian Town. Though they had clashed constantly as children, he had never imagined they would one day be driven to a life-and-death struggle.

“A Purple Seed of the Taichu Sect…” Pu Hanzhong’s eyes glistened with tears, mourning the loss for his home.

Qin Haoxuan remained silent, his gaze fixed on the chasm. Only in this moment did he realize that Zhang Kuang had also been growing. Unwittingly, his fellow townsman had developed a sense of duty as a Taichu disciple that was perhaps even stronger than his own. If our positions were reversed, he wondered, would I have kowtowed to my master before the end?

“We need to clean this place up,” Pu Hanzhong said after a long silence. “The sudden disappearance of a Purple Seed will certainly alarm the sect’s higher-ups. They will launch a search, and this place will eventually be discovered. We must erase every trace of our presence.”

Qin Haoxuan nodded and was about to move, but Pu Hanzhong stopped him. “Not yet. First, restore your body. If we are not in peak condition, we are more likely to make a mistake.” With that, he sat down cross-legged and began to mend the damage to his own meridians.

An hour later, they both opened their eyes. Qin Haoxuan had poured all his spiritual energy into that single strike with the Formless Sword, nearly damaging his Immortal Sprout. Fortunately, the injury wasn’t permanent; as long as he replenished his spiritual energy, the sprout would recover. Pu Hanzhong, though his meridians were injured, had taken a pill and meditated for an hour, recovering some of his strength. The rest of his injuries would take a long time to heal.

He looked at Qin Haoxuan and offered a heartfelt thanks. At the same time, he found his junior brother to be more of an enigma than ever. He could even kill a Twentieth-Leaf expert. How many more hidden cards did he have? But Pu Hanzhong decided not to pry. It was enough to know that Qin Haoxuan was a disciple of the Nature Hall, and that he was his junior brother. He wouldn’t ask how he had killed Yelu Qi. Everyone had their secrets.

After recovering some of their strength, a heavy silence fell between them again. Pu Hanzhong’s thoughts were on the immense value of a Purple Seed. Even the Taichu Sect’s overlord, the ten-thousand-year-old Xiaoyun Pavilion, had never produced one. Now, one of their three had been lost.

Qin Haoxuan’s heart was also heavy. Three people had come from Datian Town. Zhang Kuang, the most talented, was now dead. That left only Zhang Yang as a fellow townsman. He decided that in the future, as long as it wasn’t too egregious, he would try to de-escalate their conflict. Did it really have to end with only one of them left?

Pu Hanzhong walked over to him, his expression grave. “Junior Brother,” he said solemnly, “today we killed an Unsurpassed Purple Seed. This matter must never, ever be spoken of. If word gets out, we will both be put to death, and the entire Nature Hall could be implicated. Let’s clean this up quickly and get off this mountain.”

An Unsurpassed Purple Seed was a priceless treasure to any sect, a prodigy that might not appear even once in ten thousand years. The Taichu Sect had been blessed with three at once, and each was a cornerstone of their future. Regardless of the reason—even if it was self-defense—killing one was no small matter. If the sect found out, they would undoubtedly be executed as an example to others.

“I understand, Senior Brother,” Qin Haoxuan replied, his mood still somber.

He walked over to where Yelu Qi’s body lay and retrieved his Formless Sword. He was about to toss the corpse over the cliff when Pu Hanzhong stopped him. “Wait, Junior Brother. Yelu Qi must have some spirit stones and other valuables on him. You should search his body.”

Qin Haoxuan did as he was told. Besides a few ordinary Qi-replenishing pills, he found twenty low-grade spirit stones. By then, Pu Hanzhong had finished tidying the area. He picked up the tiger talisman that had belonged to Yelu Qi and handed it to Qin Haoxuan. “This is a fine item, but unfortunately, too many people know it’s his…”

Qin Haoxuan shook his head. “I can’t use it yet, Senior Brother. Who knows when I’ll grow a leaf. Besides, as you said, controlling a talisman made from the soul of a beast slain in its prime can be dangerous. It’s better to get rid of it.” He then tried to give ten of the spirit stones to Pu Hanzhong, but his senior brother sternly refused.

“I have enough spirit stones of my own,” Pu said with a firm expression. He sighed, looking at the powerful talisman. “This tiger… ai.” He then tossed it into the abyss. Though it was a valuable item, if it were ever found and traced back to them, it would bring disaster.

Seeing his senior brother’s resolve, Qin Haoxuan put the spirit stones away. His respect for Pu Hanzhong grew even more. Many would have been overcome by greed for such a fine talisman, but his senior brother had remained clear-headed.

“How are we going to get these dozen apes back?” Qin Haoxuan asked, looking at the unconscious beasts. “Each one weighs over two hundred pounds, and the mountain path is treacherous. If we carry them one by one, the others will wake up and run off before we can make two trips.”

Pu Hanzhong smiled mysteriously. “What’s so difficult about that? I’ll have them walk back themselves.” He took out a dozen yellow talismans and placed one on the forehead of each ape. With a quick hand seal and an incantation, the apes rose to their feet like mindless puppets. At his command, they began to clean the battle site.

Soon, Yelu Qi’s body was thrown into a ravine, and all traces of the fight were erased. Qin Haoxuan marveled at the magic.

As the two prepared to lead the apes down the mountain, the small, dark golden monkey leaped down from its tree. It looked at Qin Haoxuan with eyes that held both fear and a hint of reverence.

Qin Haoxuan smiled. He found the little monkey quite interesting; it seemed to possess a keen intelligence. “You’ll just be bullied by the other apes if you stay here,” he said. “Why don’t you come with me?”

Though the monkey couldn’t speak and still looked at him with fear, it resolutely began to follow behind them.

While Qin Haoxuan’s Immortal Sprout hadn’t been permanently injured, the act of using the Formless Sword had completely drained his spiritual energy, causing it to wither significantly and even shaking its root. As a result, he had to stop and meditate every so often on the way back to ensure his sprout had enough energy, lest it be damaged again. The journey from Hundred Beasts Mountain to the Spirit Field Valley was not a short one, and he ended up stopping to meditate more than twenty times. In the process, all the residual energy from the Seven Star Mushroom was consumed. But on the bright side, his depleted spiritual reserves were gradually restored.

He felt a pang of regret at using up the mushroom’s power. He had estimated it would have been enough to grow his first leaf within a month. Now, it was all gone. To avoid falling too far behind the others, it seemed another trip to the Immortal-Slaying Poison Valley was in order.

Because of their slow pace, they didn’t arrive back at the Spirit Field Valley until the following morning.

At the fork in the road leading to Hundred Beasts Mountain, several figures stood waiting in the biting cold of the winter night. At the very front, a small, delicate figure was craning her neck, her expression anxious. When she saw Qin Haoxuan and Pu Hanzhong returning safely, especially with a dozen robust Mighty Apes in tow, the worry on her face finally melted away.

She ran to meet them. It was, of course, Xu Yu. Behind her were Luo Jinhua and Murong Chao.

“Congratulations, Brother Haoxuan!” she said, her blessing simple and sincere. “You’ve brought back so many Mighty Apes. Once you tame them, you won’t have to farm the land yourself anymore! You’ll have more time to cultivate!”

Beside her, Murong Chao forced a smile, but he couldn’t hide the envy and jealousy in his heart. He couldn’t understand why Qin Haoxuan always managed to look so impressive in front of Xu Yu, while he, a Gray Seed, was constantly being outshone by this Uncolored Seed. He eyed the apes greedily. He had only managed to recruit two Attendants, far short of his ten-person limit. And here was Qin Haoxuan with more than a dozen apes that, once tamed, would work better than any human.

Seeing the exhaustion on Xu Yu’s face, clear evidence that she had been waiting all night, Qin Haoxuan’s heart was filled with a warm, touching feeling. The look he gave her softened.

“Why are we all just standing around in the wind?” Luo Jinhua said. “Let’s get back. These three months of the trial are precious. We shouldn’t waste them.”

The five of them had just returned to their quarters when Pu Hanzhong turned to Qin Haoxuan with concern. “Junior Brother Qin, you’ve sprouted now. The spiritual arts taught in the Spirit Field Valley are no longer suitable for you. I will take you to see our master and ask him to teach you some more advanced techniques.”

Qin Haoxuan, remembering that his Dao Heart Seed Demon Art needed an orthodox art to progress, readily agreed. “Then I’ll have to trouble you, Senior Brother.”

Although Pu Hanzhong knew some arts himself, the sect rules were strict. Privately teaching techniques between disciples was a major offense, punishable by decades of confinement or even having one’s cultivation crippled and being expelled from the sect.

The four great halls were all located on the main Emperor Peak. But the Nature Hall, being weak, had been pushed to a small, nameless peak nearby. It took them a full two hours to walk there from the Spirit Field Valley. A narrow stone staircase led to the summit, flanked only by sparse shrubs. There wasn’t a single large tree in sight, giving the place a desolate, lifeless feel.

From a Feng Shui perspective, this was strange. The peak faced south and was backed by the Emperor Peak; it should have been one of the most auspicious locations in the Great Islet Mountain range. How had it become so barren?

Seeing his confusion, Pu Hanzhong sighed. “When the Taichu Sect was first established, its foundation was on this very peak. Back then, the spiritual energy here was much denser than on Emperor Peak. But for some unknown reason, about a hundred years after its founding, the mountain became like this. The founding patriarch had no choice but to move the sect to Emperor Peak.”

(End of Chapter)