The puppet stood completely still, with only its lifeless eyes staring at the two of them.
Shang Shuangze said softly, “There’s nobody in the room.”
The two silently withdrew again. Only after they were far from that eerie room did Xia Yunzhao slip away. “I’ll go ask around.”
Still wearing the bandit’s disguise, he found several people and asked for information. Every one of them said the stronghold master had been in closed-door cultivation lately and rarely appeared. When Xia Yunzhao asked when they had last seen him, they all answered that it had been three months ago.
Xia Yunzhao hurried back, puzzled. “A puppet can imitate someone’s cultivation at most. It can’t imitate a person’s behavior and mannerisms, can it? Was the master of Cold Crow Stronghold replaced by that puppet three months ago?”
Shang Shuangze looked at him. Xia Yunzhao currently wore the face of a sleazy middle-aged man, but his eyes remained as lively and clear as ever. “What if it was someone like you?”
Xia Yunzhao froze, then became thoughtful. “If the stronghold master they saw before that was already someone in disguise, then this becomes interesting… Hmm, but it doesn’t really matter.”
Shang Shuangze looked at him.
Xia Yunzhao smiled. “Remember why we came here? We’re here for Fire-Rat pelts. There isn’t a single innocent person in this stronghold. Whether they’re dogs biting dogs or criminals robbing criminals has nothing to do with us. We’ll take the Fire-Rat pelts and leave.”
The captured bandit had already explained that the Fire Rats were beneath the Second Chief’s residence, where a secret passage led directly to an underground magma pool. That was where the Fire Rats lived.
The residence stood in the middle of the stronghold, so sneaking inside would not be easy.
Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze discussed it, then split up.
Inside Cold Crow Stronghold, a group of Qi Refining small fry were chatting and joking when thick black smoke suddenly began rolling out of the nearby forest.
“Aiyo, is that a fire?”
“What are you standing around for? Hurry and put it out! If it spreads over here, none of us will have a good time!”
Several small fry who knew water-attribute spells ran at the front. The other cultivators followed them into the smoke-filled forest, and screams immediately began erupting from within.
“Hundred-Hunt Traps! Damn it, someone’s attacking us!”
“Aaaah!”
Someone had covered the entire outer forest with densely packed Hundred-Hunt Traps. The things could snap even Level-Two slaughter beasts in half, so catching a bunch of Qi Refining cultivators was effortless.
Only then did the bandits at the front realize the forest contained smoke but no actual fire. “It’s a trick! Go get the Second Chief and Third Chief!”
A clear voice answered with a hint of laughter, “Sure thing! I’ll go right now!”
The bandit froze. What the hell? We’ve been ambushed this badly and you’re happy about it?!
Xia Yunzhao ran out of the forest. Producing all that black smoke had taken some effort. In the end, he had dug a large pit, filled it with damp leaves, and set them smoldering to create the smoke.
Shang Shuangze had been responsible for placing the Hundred-Hunt Traps around the perimeter. Xia Yunzhao had refined these back on Liancui Mountain, originally planning to surround the valley with them so they could collect prey every day.
Then the Mist-Barrier Period arrived and more and more cultivators entered Liancui Mountain. Afraid the traps might hurt someone, Xia Yunzhao had never used them and simply kept them inside his Hundred-Compartment Pouch.
He ran back into Cold Crow Stronghold.
There were more than thirty Foundation Establishment cultivators in the stronghold. By now, the commotion outside had alerted them, and they emerged one after another, staring ahead in alarm. “Who are you?!”
Shang Shuangze stood alone with a single sword facing all of them. Though he was only one man, he seemed capable of holding back an army of thousands.
Xia Yunzhao suddenly remembered the first time he had seen Shang Shuangze wield a sword. That Level-Two Jadewater Toad had the Jadewater Toad Venom on its back sliced away by Mingyun in a single exchange and could only flee in miserable defeat. In Shang Shuangze’s eyes, this group of Foundation Establishment cultivators was probably not much different from that ugly giant toad.
Shang Shuangze clearly could not hear, yet as if they shared a tacit connection, he turned his head just as Xia Yunzhao emerged.
Xia Yunzhao instinctively smiled. He did not know why, but every time he saw Shang Shuangze looking at him without blinking, he felt happy.
Shang Shuangze’s expression was very gentle. “Go.”
“Got it.” Xiao Xia opened with a palm strike. The group of Foundation Establishment cultivators instinctively defended, only to realize the strike had been a feint. Xia Yunzhao had already slipped around their flank, leaving only one sentence behind. “Don’t get hurt!”
A faint smile appeared in Shang Shuangze’s eyes. When he looked back at the cultivators, it vanished again.
The Second Chief and Third Chief both frowned. They were late Foundation Establishment cultivators, yet this sword cultivator across from them treated them with outrageous disregard. One demanded forcefully, “You two killed brothers from our stronghold?”
Shang Shuangze slowly raised his sword. “Which ones?”
Xia Yunzhao circled around the crowd with the Lightness Technique and Flowing Cloud Leg Art both pushed to the limit. He did not even leave an afterimage behind. Like a passing breeze, he shot straight into the Second Chief’s courtyard.
He had heard the secret passage was underground and assumed it would be difficult to locate, but once inside, he discovered otherwise.
There was a formation in the courtyard, but it was not defensive. Its purpose was to keep the spiritual energy inside from leaking out.
The fire-attribute spiritual energy in the courtyard was so dense it nearly condensed into visible firelight. The Earthfire Art inside Xia Yunzhao began circulating with a whoosh, like flame finding dry kindling, greedily absorbing the fire-attribute spiritual power in the air.
Following the guidance of the spiritual energy, Xia Yunzhao quickly found the entrance to the underground passage. He immediately smiled. “Cold Crow Stronghold really is generous. If this were the Fang family, wouldn’t they hide it behind a painting or some calligraphy?”
The fire-attribute spiritual power grew even denser underground. A faint hiss sounded from time to time as the abundant fire-attribute spiritual energy became so concentrated that it spontaneously ignited.
Xia Yunzhao followed the passage all the way down and encountered another defensive formation, this one designed to keep the Fire Rats inside.
Then he saw a magma pool resembling molten red gold. Large crimson stones lay around its edge. The air was so hot that his clothes began to catch fire, but the Snow-Crane Spirit-Guarding Crown flashed and protected his entire body.
He held out a hand and the Li-Fire Banner automatically appeared in it, separating him from the heat and flames of the magma. He muttered to himself, “Where are the Fire Rats? Didn’t they say this was their den?”
A small spark splashed from the magma pool. One of the stones beside it shifted, then suddenly sprang up and lunged at his face. “Squeak squeak!”
Xia Yunzhao dodged instantly. The Li-Fire Banner swayed and absorbed the flame the creature spat at him. When the “stone” landed, it turned out to be a crimson rat larger than a dog. Its red fur burned like fire, and its two eyes were even redder than the magma.
It squeaked twice more, and every stone scattered across the ground began moving, sprouting four legs and long, thin tails… They were all Fire Rats!
Xia Yunzhao: “…I need a hundred of these? Four of them put together are already bigger than me!”
＊
The northern sunset was magnificent and beautiful. Its color burned a passionate red, yet carried no warmth whatsoever. Once it sank behind the mountains, the bitterly cold night arrived.
Beneath the brilliant evening clouds, Shang Shuangze formed a sword seal and summoned Mingyun back. The Second Chief slowly collapsed, blood frothing from his mouth as he forced out his final words. “A-as expected of a sword cultivator… invincible within the same realm… i-impressive…”
The Third Chief’s corpse lay nearby, one hand still clutching a sneak-attack magical artifact that gave off a foul, bloody stench.
The corpses strewn across the ground made the approaching night feel even lonelier and colder.
Then there came a tremendous boom. The neighboring courtyard collapsed, and a lively cloud of hot smoke burst outward.
Shang Shuangze: “…”
A hand emerged from the ruins. Xia Yunzhao poked out his head and coughed out a mouthful of smoke carrying the heat of fire. “Quick, quick, pull me out. These giant rats are way too hard to deal with. I’m exhausted!”
Shang Shuangze reached down and pulled him free. His cool hand met Xia Yunzhao’s heat-warmed one, like ice touching a red-hot coal. The contrast was so sharp that both their hands trembled slightly.
“Huh?” Xia Yunzhao held on instead of letting go. “Why are your hands so cold? I’ll warm them up for you.” He grabbed Shang Shuangze’s other hand too, wrapped both between his own, breathed warm air over them, and rubbed, rubbed, rubbed.
Mingyun was trapped between all four hands and pretended to be an ordinary sword without a spirit.
Shang Shuangze took out a handkerchief, lifted Xia Yunzhao’s chin, and slowly wiped the soot from his face. His movements were even gentler than when he normally cleaned Mingyun.
Mingyun continued pretending to be an ordinary sword.
After another moment, Xia Yunzhao seemed to come back to himself. “Why do I feel like I’m forgetting something…”
He stared at Shang Shuangze for a while, then suddenly remembered. “Ah! The loot!”
He looked down. Foundation Establishment corpses covered the ground, and every storage pouch was perfectly clean without a single drop of blood on it.
The joy of a successful harvest instantly spread across Xia Yunzhao’s face. He cupped his hands toward the now-empty stronghold. “Thank you for the hospitality. In that case, I won’t stand on ceremony!”
Once he finished harvesting this area, he ran to the nearby forest. More than two hundred Qi Refining cultivators were still there!
Not all of those two hundred-plus cultivators were dead. Some still hung alive in the traps, while others had never been caught at all and had simply been too frightened by the commotion in the stronghold to come out.
Xia Yunzhao felt no softness toward them. He stabbed every last one to death and called it done.
Cold Crow Stronghold had occupied this area for more than eighty years and kept extremely high standards for joining. Ordinary killers and robbers were not even good enough for them. Put these bastards together and not one had earned a single clean coin in his life. Xia Yunzhao could slaughter them three times over without worrying about killing an innocent person.
The cold wind dispersed the smell of blood while Xia Yunzhao happily plucked storage pouches one after another. He never let anyone else do this job and did not even use a spell. He simply enjoyed picking them off one by one, probably with the same satisfaction a farmer felt harvesting fruit from the tree!
After collecting more than two hundred storage pouches in one go, Xia Yunzhao felt as though all the exhaustion from fighting in the magma pool had disappeared. Without stopping, he ran back to Cold Crow Stronghold and searched room after room, hoping to uncover even more good things.
Shang Shuangze followed behind him, smiling without saying anything as he watched Xia Yunzhao bound around happily like a cheerful little horse.
The Second Chief’s courtyard contained the most valuable things. The Third Chief, however, had almost nothing. Whether he had spent everything or hidden it elsewhere, nobody knew.
By the time they had searched most of the stronghold, those two hundred-plus storage pouches had been filled with even more loot. Only one room remained.
The two returned to the door of the stronghold master’s room. Even through the door, they could almost feel the puppet inside staring at them without blinking.
Xia Yunzhao whispered, “Why do you think whoever’s behind this left that puppet here? We wiped out the entire stronghold and it still hasn’t moved.”
Shang Shuangze considered it. “If it wasn’t left here for protection, then it was left for surveillance.”
Xia Yunzhao smiled. “That’s what I think too. And a puppet can do too little by itself. There has to be an inside accomplice within Cold Crow Stronghold. Two or three?”
Shang Shuangze thought back for a moment. “Three.”
Xia Yunzhao said, “I think three too.” He opened his palm. A Cold Crow Stronghold token lay there, with the words “Third Chief” written on the back.
He tossed it through the window. The puppet raised a hand, caught the token, and walked outside.
Xia Yunzhao said, “The Second Chief betrayed us and killed every brother in the stronghold. I’m going to chase him down.”
The puppet’s eyes flickered. It returned the token, took a step, and headed into the distance. Runes and treasure-light flashed across its body, and in the blink of an eye it vanished from sight, moving so quickly that pursuing it would have been difficult.
Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze exchanged looks. “Whoever’s behind this isn’t simple.”
The two returned to Xiangqu City and first visited the tailor shop.
Behind the counter, the garment cultivator they had met before was cutting fabric. He was happy to see them return, and even happier when he heard they had found Fire Rats.
Xia Yunzhao, however, sounded a little regretful. “I searched that entire cavern and only found ninety-six Fire Rats. I couldn’t reach a hundred. Do what you can with them.”
“Four short?” the garment cultivator said. “That’s fine. I have pelts from other fire-attribute slaughter beasts here, so I can make up the difference.” He sighed again. “Before Cold Crow Stronghold arrived, we had tons of Fire Rats around here. They’ve ruined everything now. There aren’t even a hundred left…”
Thud!
A corpse larger than a dog landed on the floor. Xia Yunzhao asked, “How about I take them out one at a time as you receive them? Your shop’s too small. If I put them all down at once, there won’t be anywhere to stand.”
The garment cultivator fell silent. After a long pause, he slowly said, “I’ve never actually seen one of these before, but I don’t think this is a Fire Rat… This is a Fire Rat King.”
Xia Yunzhao: “Huh?”
The garment cultivator’s expression was indescribable. “A Fire Rat colony of several thousand produces only one Fire Rat King. You killed more than ninety Fire Rat Kings?”
The garment cultivator was screaming internally. Case solved! Cold Crow Stronghold wasn’t the reason the Fire Rats were disappearing. This guy was! He wiped out more than ninety entire Fire Rat colonies!
Xia Yunzhao said, “…No, I just followed that bandit’s confession…” He pointed, then suddenly realized what had happened. “Fuck! That bastard lied to me!”
The bandit knew they were looking for Fire Rats, so he had told the truth about everything else and lied only about the location of the Fire Rat colony!
Because every other piece of information had proven accurate, Xia Yunzhao never doubted the part about the Fire Rats… What the hell was wrong with Cold Crow Stronghold? Why were they raising a pile of Fire Rat Kings?!
Thinking about it now, no wonder the Second Chief’s courtyard did not even have a proper formation guarding it. It was practically waiting for someone to break in and deliver themselves as takeout for the Fire Rat Kings!
The real secret passage to the ordinary Fire Rat colony was in the Third Chief’s courtyard!
Xia Yunzhao had wondered why that formation was so bizarre. After finishing the Fire Rats, he could not even get back out and had to blow the ground apart before escaping.
Fury surged straight up Xia Yunzhao’s chest. He rolled up his sleeves and was ready to go back and mince that bandit into stuffing when one sentence from the garment cultivator stopped him. “Senior, Fire Rat Kings are far more valuable than ordinary Fire Rats. One Fire Rat King is worth twenty thousand spirit pearls! Making clothes for the two of you would require only about ten Fire Rat King pelts. Would you like to sell the rest?”
Elio’s Notes: Xia’s threat to chop the bandit into fine mince echoes a famous scene in the Chinese classic Water Margin, where Lu Da, the character later known as Lu Zhishen, orders a butcher to cut meat into fine mince before their confrontation. The phrasing makes Xia’s sudden murderous outrage deliberately theatrical.
Xia Yunzhao’s mind filled with the clatter-clatter of spirit pearls dropping. Ninety-six minus ten made eighty-six, and eighty-six times twenty thousand was… one million seven hundred twenty thousand!
Half a month’s expenses were covered!
The garment cultivator watched as the handsome senior broke into a smile like melting spring snow. Xia Yunzhao said, “Aiya, that really is wonderful… What I mean is, make the clothes first, and use the highest possible standard. Sell whatever’s left afterward.”
The garment cultivator scratched his head. “Sure. Come back for the clothes in two days.”
The two turned around and went back into Yanhuo Studio.
Yanhuo Studio was unexpectedly lively that evening. More than ten tables in the main hall were completely full, and the place buzzed with voices.
Chang Sanbao darted between the tables like a little lark, serving dishes and pouring wine, busy and delighted.
When she saw them return, Chang Sanbao lit up. “The two seniors are back! Did you settle everything?”
Xia Yunzhao smiled. “It’s all settled. Don’t worry.”
Chang Sanbao’s delight turned to shock. “A-all of it? Then the person in the back…” Her eyes drifted toward the rear courtyard.
Xia Yunzhao said solemnly, “That man is my dearest friend and closest kin. With a single sentence, he helped me earn more than 1.7 million spirit pearls… Find somewhere to bury him.”
Chang Sanbao: “…Right away!”
Xia Yunzhao added, “We’ll go upstairs first. Bring us something to eat later.”
Once they entered the room upstairs, Xia Yunzhao first took out the Green Bamboo Carriage, enlarged it slightly, and brought Xiao Qing and Xianchan out from inside.
This was something he had only discovered a few days ago. Storage pouches could not hold living creatures, but if he placed Xianchan inside the Green Bamboo Carriage, shrank the carriage, and then put the carriage into a storage pouch, there was no problem at all.
For Xianchan, it was no different from being left alone to play inside the carriage.
Xia Yunzhao had been afraid something dangerous might happen at Cold Crow Stronghold, so he had left the kitten inside the carriage for the day. Xiao Qing had volunteered to stay and keep Xianchan company.
The jar and cat had both been cooped up inside all day. The moment they were released, they began racing around the room. Xianchan seemed to have grown a little more recently, and its destructive power had increased accordingly. There was no wall or roof it would not dare climb.
Xia Yunzhao felt as though he had released a golden little burglar. The moment he let go, it disappeared.
He hurriedly shouted, “No scratching things! If you break anything, I’ll deduct the cost from your dried-fish allowance!”
Xianchan flattened its ears as though it had not understood, yet quietly retracted its tiny claws and continued smacking things only with its paw pads.
Shang Shuangze brought Xia Yunzhao a cup of hot tea so he could moisten his lips. “Xianchan is already very well behaved.”
“Well behaved?” Xia Yunzhao pointed at the kitten, which was moving so fast its shape could barely be seen. “You call that well behaved? Don’t spoil them too much.”
Shang Shuangze shook his head. It was difficult to tell who exactly was spoiling whom.
After two cups of hot tea drove away the chill in his body, Xia Yunzhao rubbed his hands together again. “Now let’s see what good things Cold Crow Stronghold gave us.”
He swept a hand through the air. Clatter! More than two hundred storage pouches fell to the floor like a heap of sandbags.
Whoosh! Xiao Qing instantly appeared and sat with perfect dignity beside the pile, its attitude clearly saying: I’m only looking. I never said I wanted to eat anything.
Xia Yunzhao patted its lid. “Don’t worry. Once I finish sorting everything, I won’t forget your share!”
The whole family had become practiced at sorting supplies. Before long, everything had been arranged neatly. Items with little spiritual energy that were difficult to process were piled to one side for Xiao Qing to inspect at leisure.
“Two million eight hundred thousand spirit pearls in total. The ordinary materials are worth a little over nine hundred thousand. More than a hundred pills, and excluding the ones I don’t recognize, the rest are worth at most another hundred thousand or so. There are plenty of magical artifacts, but none suit us. They should sell for more than four hundred thousand…” Xia Yunzhao calculated mentally. “Not bad, not bad. This haul is worth around four and a half million spirit pearls!”
Four and a half million spirit pearls would be an enormous fortune in the hands of any Foundation Establishment cultivator, yet Xia Yunzhao merely called it “not bad, not bad.”
He moved on to the high-level and special materials and immediately spotted an old acquaintance. “Huh? A Black-Skin Stone Gall?! Which storage pouch did this come from?”
Shang Shuangze smiled and pointed to one of the pouches.
Xia Yunzhao’s memory was exceptionally good when it came to things like this. “That’s the Second Chief’s storage pouch. He was late Foundation Establishment, so anything he kept with him has to be good! Too bad we don’t have a stone knife right now.”
Xia Yunzhao held the stone gall and examined it from every angle. The last Black-Skin Stone Gall had yielded the Li-Fire Banner, still one of his most useful magical artifacts. He wondered what this one would contain.
Seeing the Black-Skin Stone Gall reminded him that he had actually obtained a bowl of Rootless Water together with the previous one! So many good things came afterward that he completely forgot about it. He still had no idea what would happen if he drank it.
He made a mental note, then continued examining the loot: the partial corpse of a Snowshadow Demon Fox, one Snow-Soul Crystal, an enormous chunk of Frost-Patterned Copper, and an Iceheart Snow Lotus!
The instant Xia Yunzhao saw the snow lotus, his pupils contracted. He grabbed it and inspected it closely… After a moment, he sighed. “It’s only an ordinary Iceheart Snow Lotus.”
Shang Shuangze gently drew him into an embrace. “There’s no rush. We’ll find it.”
Xia Yunzhao sighed. How could he let Shang Shuangze be the one comforting him? Why had he become so excited? Because the Myriad Spirits Pharmacopoeia recorded that once an Iceheart Snow Lotus absorbed enough ice-attribute spiritual energy, it could transform into a Snow-Soul Lotus, and Innate Snow Essence condensed upon the stamens of a Snow-Soul Lotus.
They had traveled ten thousand li from home and spent half a month on the road. At last, they had found the faintest trace of Innate Snow Essence. It also proved that their direction had not been wrong. Innate Snow Essence truly existed somewhere on this icefield.
Xia Yunzhao cupped Shang Shuangze’s cheeks and rubbed them under his helpless gaze, grinning. “As long as we’re heading in the right direction, there’s nothing to worry about!”
He then examined the Snowshadow Demon Fox. The fox’s body was pure white, with only the tips of its ears and tail carrying a lively ice-blue tint. Its beautiful eyes looked almost alive, but another beast had torn open the area in its chest where the beast core had been, leaving an empty cavity.
The Snowshadow Demon Fox was a Level-Three slaughter beast specializing in illusions and was extremely difficult to deal with while alive. Even now, dead and missing its beast core, it still gave off pressure at the peak of Level Two. The partial corpse was extremely valuable. Xia Yunzhao could only wonder what level of slaughter beast had been capable of eating its core.
He stored the corpse separately and had no intention of selling it. Once they found Innate Snow Essence, he could save the fox corpse for Shang Shuangze to use in body tempering.
The Snow-Soul Crystal, meanwhile, was a top-quality ice-attribute material containing abundant ice-attribute spiritual power. Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze had no use for it themselves, but to a cultivator who practiced ice-attribute spells, it would be worth its weight in gold. As long as they chose the right moment to sell, it would certainly fetch a high price.
Finally, the Frost-Patterned Copper… Frost-Patterned Copper was not particularly rare and was a relatively common ore in the north. What was rare was the sheer size of this piece. Xia Yunzhao took it out to compare and found it was larger than the table.
For a spirit ore, that qualified as an “extra-large serving.”
More importantly, Xia Yunzhao happened to need Frost-Patterned Copper.
He possessed an artifact blueprint he had never refined, the growth-type magical artifact called the Seven-Star Ring. It required a large number of materials and was difficult to refine.
Xia Yunzhao had been gathering the blueprint’s materials for a long time. He had accumulated most of the assorted auxiliary materials and even many of the materials needed to advance it from Level One to Level Two. Only two main materials had remained missing: Frost-Patterned Copper and Starfire Iron.
Now he had found the Frost-Patterned Copper. He still had no idea where to find Starfire Iron.
Naturally, this piece was not for sale either, so he stored it carefully.
Once every spirit item had been sorted, Xiao Qing immediately jumped up. Next comes Xiao Qing time!
Unfortunately for it, someone knocked on the door at that exact moment. Chang Sanbao had arrived with their food.
Xia Yunzhao could only continue patting Xiao Qing’s head while Shang Shuangze opened the door for Chang Sanbao.
Dinner was plentiful that night. Besides the charcoal-roasted Red-Tailed Lamb they had eaten the day before, there was Spirit-Potato Beef-Bone Soup, stir-fried icefield seasonal vegetables with offal, and a plate of spirit-wheat cakes.
Xia Yunzhao instantly decided that culinary cultivation was the Dao tradition most deserving of widespread promotion in the entire cultivation world!
Chang Sanbao smiled as she set the dishes on the table, then said, “Senior, quite a few cultivators came to Xiangqu today. A lot of them ate at the shop, and they mentioned some news.”
Xia Yunzhao finally dragged his gaze away from the food. “What news?”
Chang Sanbao looked puzzled too. “They said the lord of Xuanshuang City has sent invitations far and wide, inviting every cultivator in the north to enter that small secret realm together!”