Treasure hunters lived the sort of life where they practically carried their heads at their waists, so someone running into trouble was nothing unusual. Forget getting into trouble—people lost their lives every few days.
But this time was different.
An older treasure hunter was saying, “I heard some people went fishing in the lake east of Liancui Mountain, and then they ran into… something. They got bitten!”
He deliberately omitted the most important word, yet the person opposite him understood immediately and sucked in a sharp breath. “Seriously?! That’s going to be trouble!”
“Exactly! I heard three people were bitten! Luckily, there were plenty of them. The ones who weren’t injured came back for help and managed to drive that thing away.”
“Did the injured people come down the mountain? You can’t let them into the camp!”
“Of course not. Their leader is reasonable enough. He took everyone and settled down beside the lake, saying they’ll wait seven days and only come back if nothing happens.”
“Thank heavens. If they came back here, who knows what might happen!”
“Exactly, exactly…”
Xia Yunzhao frowned. The lake. Fishing. Those few key words reminded him of the sturdy man who had bought the Blackwind Hound offal from him. Could he have been the one who ran into trouble? And what exactly had bitten them? Why were the injured people forbidden from entering the camp? Was it contagious? More importantly, why did everyone seem afraid even to say the thing’s name?
His stomach was full of questions with no one to answer them, so he could only suppress his curiosity and head toward the buyers.
As the largest buyer in the camp, Boss Kang already had a crowd gathered around him. Xia Yunzhao considered it for a moment and decided not to squeeze into the commotion.
There were fewer people around the goateed old man, but doing business with him was far too exhausting. Xia Yunzhao did not feel like wrestling with him today.
So he went to the third buyer.
The third buyer was Wan Yuanzhong. He had a round face, thick lips, and a broad neck, and everything about him radiated an honest, simplehearted air. Xing Wenyu had introduced him before, saying that he only purchased spirit plants and was known for being fair and honest.
Xia Yunzhao still did not dare underestimate him. Anyone capable of establishing himself in a camp filled with all kinds of people could hardly be simple.
The moment Wan Yuanzhong saw him approaching, a smile appeared on his face. “Looks like our guest struck it rich. What treasures did you bring today?”
Xia Yunzhao took out the four or five kinds of spirit plants he had newly gathered. The plump buyer examined them with a serious expression.
After a moment, apparently having reached his conclusions, he went through them one by one. “Dew-Condensing Grass contains relatively high spiritual power among lowest-grade spirit plants. These three are excellent specimens, so I can offer seven spirit pearls each. Bloodstanching Leaf is a Level-One spirit plant, although these haven’t fully matured. I can offer twelve spirit pearls each. This Earthvine Root has all its roots intact, and you dug it up skillfully. I’ll offer eighteen spirit pearls. As for the Ironbone Flower…”
He finished evaluating them one after another, then looked at Xia Yunzhao. “If you sell everything together, seventy spirit pearls in total. Does that work for you?”
Xia Yunzhao quickly calculated the amount and nodded. “That works.”
Wan Yuanzhong carefully wrapped up the spirit plants and handed him the spirit pearls.
As though asking casually, Xia Yunzhao said, “By the way, Boss, I heard people talking about some trouble near the entrance. Do you know what happened?”
Wan Yuanzhong hurriedly waved his hands and lowered his voice. “Aiya, keep your voice down… I heard someone got bitten by that thing!”
Xia Yunzhao lowered his voice as well. “Do you know what it is?”
Wan Yuanzhong became anxious on his behalf. “You know! That thing… that…” He dropped his voice to the faintest whisper. “Renwen!”
Xia Yunzhao thought, That name sounds surprisingly cultured. He asked, “Which wen?”
“The wen from plague!”
Xia Yunzhao finally understood. So it was not renwen as in “humanities,” but renwen as in Human Plague.
Elio’s Notes: The joke relies on 人文 (rénwén), meaning “humanities” or “human culture,” and 人瘟 (rénwēn), literally “human plague.” 文 and 瘟 sound similar, so Xia Yunzhao initially thinks the creature’s name sounds unexpectedly cultured. 人瘟 is translated as “Human Plague” going forward.
Wan Yuanzhong whispered, “You really shouldn’t ask about it anymore. Its bites are contagious! And the old folks all say that it can hear whenever someone says its name. If it hears you, it’ll come looking for you!”
Xia Yunzhao nodded. “Got it. Thanks.”
On the way home, he saw more and more treasure hunters returning from the mountain. Some were even discussing whether they should go up again tomorrow. The Human Plague had caused a much greater disturbance than he had expected.
As for the Bao brothers, just as he had predicted, their disappearance had not caused so much as a ripple.
With the newly earned spirit pearls tucked away, Xia Yunzhao wandered around the market stalls again. In truth, he did not need to buy anything. He simply wanted to gather more information.
The stallholders looked restless and uneasy as well. Sure enough, the sturdy man from before was nowhere to be seen, making Xia Yunzhao increasingly certain that he was probably the one involved in the incident.
He also spotted the woman who had sold him firewood. She normally looked as though she were nervous about everything, but today her complexion was especially poor. Xia Yunzhao thought he could even see her hands trembling slightly. When she noticed him, however, her expression improved a little and she forced out a smile.
Xia Yunzhao had originally planned to ask her for information, but seeing her like this, he immediately gave up on the idea. Better not frighten her any further.
Just as he was thinking this, another commotion broke out behind him. He turned around and saw several dozen guards pouring out of the Fang family compound before forming ranks and heading toward the mountain. An unfamiliar middle-aged man was leading them.
A short while later, guards from the other two families emerged as well and headed in the same direction.
Xia Yunzhao heard the stallholders visibly relax.
“The Fang family has gone. We can stop worrying now.”
“The other two families are going too. It’ll probably be dealt with by tomorrow.”
“Is the person leading them a cultivator?”
“What are you thinking? Why would a cultivator lord bother with such a minor matter? He’s probably just some kind of senior guard…”
Xia Yunzhao relaxed slightly as well. He still needed to go into the mountains himself, so naturally it would be best if the cultivator families could resolve the problem.
He had to admit, those three families had not occupied such huge compounds for nothing. They were actually fairly dependable.
With that, he turned around and headed home.
He had left early that morning to lure the Bao brothers out, and now it was already afternoon. He had not eaten anything in between. The only thing he had eaten all day was the bowl of noodles Xing Wenyu had cooked for him that morning, and by now his stomach was practically stuck to his back from hunger.
The moment he stepped through the door, he ignored everything else and started a fire to cook!
He chose a piece of salted Blackwind Hound meat, finely minced it with his new knife and chopping board, then stir-fried it briefly in hot oil. He added water to the pot and brought it to a boil, mixed fine white flour into little dough clumps and scattered them in, then sliced tender green vegetables into thin strips and dropped them into the pot, where they cooked almost instantly.
Xia Yunzhao’s cooking skills were only average. His family had usually employed an auntie to cook, and he had only learned after moving out during university because he was too lazy to hire anyone to help him.
Fortunately, the ingredients themselves were delicious enough to compensate.
The salted Blackwind Hound meat had a different flavor from before. Its rich, savory taste now carried a deep saltiness, and he did not even need to season the soup. Soon, a bowl of meat-filled dough-drop soup was ready.
As usual, he served Xiao Qing a small bowl. Only after Xia Yunzhao began eating did he remember that he still needed to lecture it. “What were you rolling around for this afternoon? Scared now, aren’t you? One of these days I’m making you a net bag. You’re getting tied into it whenever we go out. Got it?”
Xiao Qing drooped dejectedly and gave a small wobble, apparently aware that it had done something wrong. Then its lid moved again with a clink-clatter.
After several days together, Xia Yunzhao could understand it a little better now. “You’re saying there was something down in that valley that you could eat?”
Clink-clatter.
Xia Yunzhao remembered the crystal Xiao Qing had eaten before. Its progress bar had filled twice in succession afterward, giving him the Qi-Guiding Art and the artifact blueprint for the Azure Cloud Shoes.
“All right. Once the fog clears tomorrow, we’ll go down and take a look.”
＊
After dinner, it was time to sort through the day’s gains again.
Seriously, killing three villains had been almost as profitable as killing a Blackwind Hound!
Xia Yunzhao’s share of the spirit pearls alone had been two hundred and thirty-six. Add the seventy he had earned from selling the spirit plants today, and the total exceeded three hundred!
Three hundred and six spirit pearls in a single day. He would not dare compare himself with people elsewhere, but within this camp alone, that income was probably among the highest.
He poured the spirit pearls into his money pouch and shook it. The little bag was satisfyingly heavy, and the crisp sound of more than four hundred pearls knocking against one another was extremely pleasant.
After hiding the money pouch away, he inspected his other gains: three stalks of Qingling Grass, one piece of Black Iron Ore, and a concealed weapon.
“Qingling Grass…” He found the artifact blueprint for the Azure Cloud Shoes and read the list written on it: 【Three stalks of Qingling Grass, one Level-One beast tendon, one vial of Level-One wind-attribute slaughter-beast blood, and three pinches of spirit-pearl powder. Refining method: …】
Sure enough, Qingling Grass was one of the primary materials.
Looking at the other ingredients, he did not have any wind-attribute slaughter-beast blood. Spirit-pearl powder would be easy enough. As for the Level-One beast tendon…
He took out the unidentified beast tendon he had obtained earlier. He had no idea whether this tendon was Level One. If it was, then all he needed to do was find a vial of wind-attribute slaughter-beast blood, and wouldn’t he have everything required to refine the Azure Cloud Shoes?
The more he thought about it, the more promising it seemed. He therefore placed the blueprint together with the materials and committed the matter to memory.
Finally, there was the concealed weapon.
Knowing that it was poisoned, Xia Yunzhao did not dare touch it directly with his hands. He wrapped it in cloth and examined it carefully.
He wanted to keep it for himself.
Ever since transmigrating here, he had encountered life-threatening danger more than once: the Blackwind Hound, the Bao brothers… Although he had already drawn qi into his body, he had far too few methods of attacking. No—that was not quite right. He had none at all. At least other treasure hunters carried weapons. He did not even have that.
If he wanted to stay alive, he needed a few trump cards.
There was something else too. He had always felt that something was strange about this concealed weapon.
The goateed man had already warned him that the three brothers possessed it, so naturally Xia Yunzhao had been prepared. Yet despite being prepared, the weapon had still moved so fast that he had been unable to react.
At the same time, although it was incredibly fast, its destructive power was surprisingly weak. It had not even broken his skin. Granted, his body was stronger than an ordinary person’s, but if this really was a lowest-grade magical artifact, how could it fail to injure someone who had only just begun cultivating?
No matter how he thought about it, something did not add up. The Bao brothers were all dead now, so surely they had not been pretending to be weak in order to catch stronger opponents off guard? If that was what they had been doing, then they were not playing the pig—they were just actual pigs.
“A magical artifact…” Xia Yunzhao had only ever seen one magical artifact before. When the Fang family guard fought the Blackwind Hound, the beast had bitten down on his shoulder and the artifact had emitted a faint glow that protected him.
After thinking for a moment, Xia Yunzhao gathered the meager spiritual energy within him into the tip of one finger and gently pressed it against the concealed weapon.
Click.
The finger-thick outer cylinder split open, revealing a much finer, slimmer tube hidden inside. Without making a sound, the inner tube fired three needles as thin as strands of hair. They were almost impossible to see as they streaked through the air, pierced straight through the wooden wall, and continued flying outside.
A cold sweat broke out over Xia Yunzhao’s entire body. He hurriedly stood to check outside. When he confirmed that no one was there, he finally sat back down and stared at the slender black tube on the table.
This was the real magical artifact.
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