Chapter 101: Scheming

“Wen Xuxu, what are you looking at?”

Since arriving at the Suitian Sword Sect, Wen Xu had received quite a few greeting gifts due to his seniority. Most were spirit stones, though there were also some strange and unusual magical treasures. For instance, back on the flying vessel, Zhi Lianshan had given him a treasure-hunting compass. Although it was currently of no use, it was said to be extremely helpful when exploring secret realms.

“A grand gift.” Wen Xu hefted the jade bottle in his hand. He had thought it was some kind of pill, but who would have guessed that inside this jade bottle lay a small secret realm? Although it was quite small, just over two mu, he had just tested it and found that the spiritual energy density inside was twice that of the outside world.

In other words, if he cultivated inside this small secret realm in the future, his speed would be twice what it was before.

However, artificial secret realms required spiritual energy to maintain. If Wen Xu wanted to use it for long-term cultivation, he had to be prepared to burn through spirit stones.

“What? You’re saying someone gave you a secret realm?” Bian Chunzhou lowered his voice in astonishment. “Can… can we even accept this? It’s not some kind of sugar-coated trap, is it?”

“Well, it was a gift from a friend of my master.”

Bian Chunzhou instantly relaxed. “Oh, then it’s fine.” The divine dragon’s friend was bound to have good intentions. To be so generous, he was practically crying from envy.

Wen Xu: Once again, he witnessed his friend’s blind trust in his master.

“This jade bottle is so unique. Even the inside of the secret realm is shaped like a jade bottle. It’s just completely bare in here. How do you plan to renovate it?” Bian Chunzhou walked from one end to the other, thinking to himself that this was exactly like the legendary portable spaces. “Look, should we dig a spiritual spring here and plant some spiritual herbs? Preferably the kind that can nourish the secret realm in return, so you won’t have to worry about cultivation consuming too much spiritual energy, right?”

Sometimes, Wen Xu was amazed by Chunzhou’s quick-wittedness, just like now. “You’re right. When we return to the sect, I’ll ask the senior brothers at Lingyao Peak to help think of something.”

…Lingyao Peak, the bane of his existence. “Don’t mention Lingyao Peak, and we can still be friends.”

“Actually, the senior brothers of Lingyao Peak…”

“I don’t want to hear it, I don’t want to hear it.”

Chen Zui walked in carrying his saber. “What don’t you want to hear?”

“Lingyao Peak…”

The moment Chen Zui heard the words “Lingyao Peak,” he turned around and walked out without a shred of hesitation.

Seeing this, Bian Chunzhou immediately pointed out, “See? See? Wen Xuxu, admit it, you’re the exception!”

Wen Xu remained noncommittal. He put away the jade bottle and was about to speak when a knock suddenly sounded at the door. Bian Chunzhou stood up to open it, only to find a Foundation Establishment senior brother who guarded the mountain gate of the Suitian Sword Sect.

“Senior Brother, what brings you here?”

“Junior Brother Bian, is your sect’s Little Grand-Uncle Master inside? Outside the mountain gate, there is someone claiming to be from the Zhou Family of Nanfeng City. He has brought gifts to apologize on behalf of his son. His son seems to be that young cultivator who rudely questioned the Five Great Sects in the secret realm.”

Although he used the word “seems,” cultivators rarely mistook someone’s identity. Since the other party had come to apologize of their own accord, there was no way the Suitian Sword Sect would have mistaken them.

“Zhou Ji’s father? Why didn’t Zhou Ji come himself?”

Bian Chunzhou muttered under his breath, thinking to himself how spineless the guy was. Getting his parents involved when trouble arose… wasn’t he forty-two years old? A forty-two-year-old giant baby?

Wen Xu did not feel much about it. After all, back in Bizhou Prefecture, cases of seventy-year-old mothers cleaning up the messes of their fifty-year-old sons were a dime a dozen; it seemed the cultivation world was no different. Besides, the other party was an established family after all. Since they had come to the door so openly, and considering what he had said in the secret realm back then, it would actually be difficult to refuse them.

“In that case, please invite him in, Senior Brother.”

The Suitian disciple thought to himself that this Little Grand-Uncle Master of Yonglu Mountain was indeed good-tempered. Without hesitation, he sent a flying message to his fellow disciples to bring the man in, then took his leave to return to the mountain gate.

Father Zhou had not expected his trip to go so smoothly. He had been fortunate enough to visit the Suitian Sword Sect once in his youth, and he had never expected to be allowed inside again today.

Since this was a great sect, Father Zhou naturally did not dare harbor any underhanded thoughts. He followed the guiding disciple all the way to the Guest Peak, where the Yonglu Mountain group was staying. A great sect was indeed a great sect. In the past, he had also thought of having Zhou Ji try out for the Five Great Sects, but unfortunately, they had missed the chance every time due to various coincidences. The great sects only recruited disciples once every six years, and they had strict age limits. Yonglu Mountain had the most lenient conditions, yet they still only accepted Qi Refining cultivators under the age of thirty.

Zhou Ji was forty-two years old this year, having long surpassed the age threshold for recruitment by the Five Great Sects.

Zhou Zhongling was extremely polite. Upon meeting, he immediately apologized on behalf of Zhou Ji, explaining that his son was obsessed with cultivation and ignorant of worldly affairs, which was why the misunderstanding had occurred. He added that he had already severely disciplined his son after the secret realm competition ended.

These words sounded incredibly familiar to Wen Xu. When he had first entered the academy, he was often bullied by the children of wealthy landowners and local gentry because of his background. When the academy’s master found out, he would call the elders of both sides, and those wealthy landowners would use this exact same rhetoric.

“True Monarch Zhou, there is no need to be so polite. In that situation, anyone would have misunderstood. Your son has a sincere heart, so how could I possibly blame him? I really do not deserve these gifts.”

Father Zhou naturally knew that Yonglu Mountain would most likely not accept his gifts. However, since he had managed to get inside, it would be best if he could strike up a connection. If not, leaving a good impression was also a decent outcome.

“Actually, these things aren’t worth much. They are just some unique spiritual fruits and seeds from our Nanfeng City. I heard that the Little Grand-Uncle Master enjoys tending to spiritual plants, so perhaps these might be of some use.”

In the end, Wen Xu only accepted some of the spiritual seeds. Once the visitor left, he put them away in the depths of his storage ring.

“Why do I feel like Zhou Ji’s father…” Bian Chunzhou murmured, “…is rather off-putting?”

“We are not of the same kind. Father and son are cut from the same cloth; it’s best to have as little to do with such people as possible in the future.” Wen Xu was not very interested in anyone outside of Yonglu Mountain. Once they returned, whether it was Nanfeng City or Beifeng City, it would have nothing to do with him.

“I’ll take your word for it. But counting the days, the Five Sects Conference is only a few days away. I just went to check the status of the sect tournament. Unsurprisingly, our Yonglu Mountain is at the bottom of the Five Great Sects again.”

Wen Xu asked, “Why?”

“For all sorts of reasons. Anyway… it’s quite hard to explain in a few words.” Their individual tournament results were clearly excellent, but as soon as it came to the collaborative sect tournament, all kinds of situations would crop up. Their luck was so bad that Bian Chunzhou even felt like going to Foguang Temple to burn a stick of incense on Yonglu Mountain’s behalf.

*

Father Zhou had two objectives in coming to the Suitian Sword Sect: first, to apologize on the surface, and second, to fish for news about the Tianji Pavilion.

Unfortunately, neither of these objectives went very well. As for the former, that Little Grand-Uncle Master of Yonglu Mountain, who was barely in his early twenties, was as slippery as an eel. As could be seen from the incident in the secret realm, this youth lacked nothing in talent, comprehension, and intelligence, making him a true favorite of heaven. Having dealt with him face-to-face this time, Father Zhou felt this even more deeply.

It was only those blind eyes of his, likely related to his fate, that had allowed him to catch the eye of that Divine Venerable.

As for the latter, let alone the Little Martial Uncle of Tianji Pavilion, he hadn’t even run into a single disciple of Tianji Pavilion. He didn’t know what kind of dumb luck his foolish son had run into to actually meet the Little Martial Uncle of Tianji Pavilion under those circumstances.

After reaching the mountain gate, Father Zhou led his waiting housekeeper back to Sifang City. However, he did not expect to hear the housekeeper cry out in surprise while they were queuing to enter Sifang City.

“Why are you in such a panic?”

The housekeeper’s face was filled with panic, and it took him a long moment to snap out of it. “So alike… they look too much alike! Master, look over there!”

Father Zhou focused his gaze and saw a young woman wearing the robes of Tianji Pavilion. She looked to be around twenty years old, with a cold, aloof countenance that perfectly fit his stereotype of their female cultivators.

For some reason, the more he looked at her, the more familiar she seemed.

“Who does she look like?”

“It’s Miss A-Yu, the girl the eldest young master brought back! They look so much alike, as if poured from the same mold. I refuse to believe they aren’t related. It’s just that their temperament… is slightly different.”

Miss A-Yu always spoke softly, her eyes and brows filled with warmth and gentleness. But this female cultivator from Tianji Pavilion practically had “keep away” written all over her. Even just looking at her back made one feel she was unapproachable.

Father Zhou understood now. If even the housekeeper could recognize the resemblance instantly, it was no wonder his son cared so much. Unfortunately, he had never spared a glance for that mortal girl in the past. Even if she had saved Zhou Ji, so what? How could a woman of unknown origin ever become a daughter-in-law of the Zhou Family?

Looking at it now, he had been short-sighted.

“Do you really think they look alike?”

“It’s not just alike. They are completely identical.”

Father Zhou’s thoughts began to drift. When did his son’s obsession with love begin? It must have been during that beast-hunting competition eight years ago. Zhou Ji had been severely injured, and by the time the family’s protectors found him, a beautiful, orphaned girl was by his side.

The girl was beautiful but had forgotten her past, showing closeness only to Zhou Ji. Even after Zhou Ji recovered from his injuries, he remained inseparable from her, and he had even named her A-Yu.

He had originally thought she was just an ordinary orphan girl who couldn’t stir up any trouble. He never expected that an insignificant grain of sand could shake the entire board. He had exhausted himself for the sake of the family, yet not a single person stood by his side.

“Find a way to have someone disguise themselves as Zhou Ji and go test her.”

If it really was A-Yu, given their tangled romantic history, he didn’t expect the two of them to reconcile. What Father Zhou was thinking was that Tianji Pavilion’s cultivation methods were unique. Although he didn’t know the specifics, they ultimately required a stable Dao Heart. His son owed her a debt of love. If he played his cards right, even if he couldn’t achieve his ultimate goal, he could still leverage this connection to exchange for some cultivation resources from Tianji Pavilion.

“Yes, Master.”

Father Zhou thought for a moment, then whispered a few more instructions to the housekeeper. Soon, Zhou Ji, who was under house arrest, learned that his father intended to test Tianji Pavilion’s Little Martial Uncle. He panicked instantly, thinking to himself that he could never let his father get to A-Yu again.

Even if it wasn’t A-Yu, he didn’t want… anyone who looked like A-Yu to be harmed.

When Zhao Ruowu appeared carrying the spiritual medicine, she saw Young Master Zhou with an earnest look on his face. She was all too familiar with that expression. Her heart skipped a beat, and a very bad feeling washed over her.