Chapter 91
Translator: T_Fan
Crackle.
Purple lightning flickered beneath the cloud.
Lee Hyun opened the lid of the pill furnace.
A pill slowly rose from within. Spiritual qi swirled over its round surface, while slender flame threads coiled around it.
‘A pill tribulation really is coming….’
The corners of his mouth lifted slightly.
Hundreds of years ago, while watching Chen Xiaoying’s demonstration, he had wished he could make a pill like that himself someday.
Back then, it had only been a vague hope. Now that it was happening before his eyes, he was delighted, but also a little bewildered.
Lee Hyun let his smile fade and focused on his fingertips.
Then it happened.
Boom.
‘Hm?’
Spiritual pressure comparable to that of an early Golden Core cultivator erupted in the distance.
He turned to see a black speck rapidly growing larger in the sky across the valley.
Lee Hyun used the Farsight Art, gathering spiritual power into his eyes.
Spirit light flowed between the feathers of its outstretched wings, and its eyes flashed silver.
‘A Silver-Eyed Sea Eagle?’
It was a Tier 3 demon beast with keen eyesight!
‘Of all times to show up… I checked the surroundings thoroughly before I started the alchemy…’
The dark cloud summoned by Lee Hyun’s pill tribulation was only a little over one zhang (about 3.3 m) across. It neither darkened the entire sky nor shook the mountains and rivers.
Only a few flashes of lightning had appeared beneath the cloud as it hovered dozens of zhang in the air.
Yet from beyond the reach of his divine sense, the bastard had apparently spotted the pill tribulation’s flashes with its exceptional eyesight.
Six blue-green shield plates immediately flew out of Lee Hyun’s storage pouch and took position around the pill furnace.
The Six-Leaf Shield’s shield plates hovered low, their edges overlapping at an angle to enclose the sides and bottom.
Only the top was left open so the lightning tribulation could descend.
The Threefold Shield’s two plates rose outside them, followed by the yellow Mountain-Suppressing Seal and the Sinking Moon Sword.
Lee Hyun checked the direction from which the Silver-Eyed Sea Eagle was approaching.
He could not move the pill furnace while the tribulation lightning was descending.
Unlike in the past, a mere Tier 3 demon beast no longer frightened him, but he did not want to lose this chance to refine a Dao pill.
‘I just have to hold it off for a little while!’
The Threefold Shield’s two plates flew forward first.
At that moment, the dark cloud in the air contracted, and the spiritual qi circling the pill suddenly surged inward.
‘Here it comes!’
A slender bolt of purple lightning shot down from beneath the cloud.
Lee Hyun sent three flame threads upward.
The first to make contact scattered instantly, and the next flame thread snapped in the middle.
His fingertips stung.
But the last strand grazed the tip of the lightning and curved toward the side of the pill.
In that brief instant, Lee Hyun shifted the medicinal strength inside the pill.
He recalled the sight of flames splitting apart at Chen Xiaoying’s fingertips hundreds of years ago.
Why had she left an opening in the pill when it was nearly complete?
‘I see. If the tribulation lightning strikes a fully sealed pill head-on, it won’t be able to withstand the impact, no matter how evenly the medicinal strength has condensed. She left that opening on purpose.’
Lee Hyun adjusted his fire control to lower the heat.
As one of the interlocking currents inside the pill loosened, the third flame thread curved through the opening.
The tip of the lightning touched the pill.
Bzzzzzt!
Purple light spread across its surface, sending the medicinal strength surging violently.
At the same time, a piercing cry rang out from beyond the valley.
Screeeech!
Dozens of deep-blue wind blades came pouring down, tearing through the air.
The first Threefold Shield plate blazed with spirit light and met them head-on, but it was not enough to stop a Tier 3 demon beast’s attack.
KABOOM!
The wind blades that swept past gouged chunks out of the valley’s rock walls, and the flying fragments battered the Six-Leaf Shield around the pill furnace like torrential rain.
Clang! Clang-clang!
Even as the storm shook everything around him, Lee Hyun’s eyes remained fixed on the pill.
He was growing anxious, but his extraordinary mastery of the Flame-Threading Art kept the flames moving exactly as he intended.
Wherever the lightning passed, the medicinal strength unraveled, then condensed again.
At that moment, the bastard swooped down and crushed the first Threefold Shield plate in its talons.
Crunch!
Before the shield fragments had even scattered, the bastard drove its talons down again without losing any of its ferocious momentum.
The remaining Threefold Shield plate tilted at an angle, forcing the fellow’s vicious strike off course.
Bang!
Thrown off balance, the bastard was shoved sideways, sending an enormous wing crashing into one of the rock walls. As rocks tumbled down, the Silver-Eyed Sea Eagle savagely drove its beak through the second shield.
Crack!
The shield’s light went out.
‘Now.’
Lee Hyun poured spiritual power into the Mountain-Suppressing Seal, exceeding the limit the magic tool’s restrictions could withstand.
The patterns on its surface blazed, and the yellow seal swelled to the size of a house before hurtling forward.
The Mountain-Suppressing Seal caught the Silver-Eyed Sea Eagle just as it spread its wings and slammed mercilessly into its chest.
KABOOOM!
A deafening crash echoed through the valley as the demon beast was driven deep into the rock wall. Pushed beyond its limit, the seal shattered as though it had self-destructed, spraying yellow fragments in every direction.
“Krrk! You think that pathetic rock can stop me?!”
‘It can talk?’
Just then, the lightning rampaging inside the pill completed one final circuit.
Lee Hyun curled his fingers, closing the opening he had left in the flow of medicinal strength.
Hummm–
The light flashing over the pill’s surface sank inward.
A single silvery-purple tribulation marking remained on its round surface, formed from the fusion of lightning qi and medicinal strength!
‘Success! I made a Tier 2 one-mark Essence-Cultivating Dao Pill!’
He wanted to admire it a little longer, but overhead, the demon beast was already roaring as it burst back through the collapsed rock wall.
With lightning-fast movements, Lee Hyun opened a jade bottle, placed the one-mark Essence-Cultivating Dao Pill inside, and affixed a Spirit-Sealing Talisman.
He then gathered the five pills left in the pill furnace into another bottle.
After stowing the pill furnace in his storage pouch as well, he looked up to find an enormous talon filling his vision.
…
The Silver-Eyed Sea Eagle thought the human before it was as good as caught.
Two shields had shattered, and even the seal that had flown at it with considerable force had broken apart.
Every trick its opponent had used was pathetically weak!
With the human distracted by something, this was the perfect chance to devour him, bones and all.
When sword light surged toward its neck, the Silver-Eyed Sea Eagle twisted its wing almost mockingly and launched a wind blade.
It happened at that very moment.
Something invisible stabbed into its mind.
“Kree!?”
The Silver-Eyed Sea Eagle’s wings faltered. The demon power it had been gathering dispersed, and the wind surrounding one wing vanished for an instant.
Light flashed in that fleeting opening.
Shhk!
The feathers at the base of its wing were sliced apart, and blood sprayed out.
The Silver-Eyed Sea Eagle hurriedly folded its injured wing and twisted in midair. Terrified, it tried to put some distance between them, only to find the sky overhead already suffused with gold.
A gigantic palm.
The golden light forming the palm and fingers knit together seamlessly.
The Silver-Eyed Sea Eagle desperately opened its beak and spewed demon power, sending a whirlwind spiraling upward.
But the golden palm crushed through the gale of demon power and plummeted like a meteor!
KABOOM!
The Silver-Eyed Sea Eagle slammed into the valley floor.
Rock split apart, and clouds of dust erupted into the air.
The golden palm did not disappear.
The center of the palm bore down heavily on its back, while the five fingers clamped around its wings and neck, pinning it firmly to the ground.
Whenever the demon beast struggled, the golden light blazed brighter, holding the fellow firmly in place.
It was the Sumeru Mountain-Suppressing Seal.
Maintaining his hand seal, Lee Hyun took a step forward through the thick dust.
The Silver-Eyed Sea Eagle opened its beak in one final, desperate attempt to resist.
As the glow of demon power gathered inside, the Sinking Moon Sword flashed through the air and came to rest against its throat.
“Give up.”
The Silver-Eyed Sea Eagle’s neck went rigid as sharp sword qi bit into its feathers.
A moment later, the light inside its beak gradually faded.
The Silver-Eyed Sea Eagle turned its silver eyes toward Lee Hyun.
“What was that thing you threw first?”
“The Mountain-Suppressing Seal? It’s a magic tool.”
“You had a technique like this all along… Krrk. Did you throw that pathetic yellow rock first to trick me?”
“I was planning to destroy it anyway.”
That was the truth.
To stop a Tier 3 demon beast’s charge even briefly, he had needed to sacrifice something on the level of the Mountain-Suppressing Seal.
Losing it was a pity, but his first Dao pill was worth far more.
Besides, ever since learning the Sumeru Mountain-Suppressing Seal technique, Lee Hyun had found the Mountain-Suppressing Seal magic tool a little irritating. Their names were too similar.
Such things were hardly rare in the cultivation world.
Even trivial techniques learned by Qi Refining cultivators often had grandiose names about overturning the heavens or suppressing mountains. In different regions, pills made from different pill recipes and having different effects were sometimes given the same name.
Lee Hyun put those thoughts aside and carefully assessed whether the Silver-Eyed Sea Eagle still had any means of counterattacking.
“I have a few questions.”
The fellow’s beak clicked shut.
“You think I’ll answer?”
One finger of the Sumeru Mountain-Suppressing Seal pressed harder against the Silver-Eyed Sea Eagle’s neck.
“Krrrk…. Enough… I’ll answer.”
“Why have guys like you been appearing in Yunzhou more often lately?”
The reports he had received through the Two Heavens Society had contained similar stories.
Cultivator markets along the coast had been attacked by demon beasts, and demon beasts native to the sea had been spotted on spiritual mountains inland.
The Silver-Eyed Sea Eagle opened its beak.
“Where is Yunzhou?”
“The place you’re pinned to right now.”
“I don’t know what this place is called. I only came looking for somewhere with spiritual qi.”
“The sea must be far larger.”
The Silver-Eyed Sea Eagle’s eyes widened indignantly.
“There’s nowhere to build a nest!”
A harsh metallic edge crept into its voice.
“Those bastards from the human race have set up camp on every island. They drive pillars into underwater spirit veins and send ships out whenever we get close. The big guys steal the little guys’ nests, and the little guys get driven farther out.”
“Were you driven out too?”
Its beak clacked together.
“Hmph! I merely left to find a better nest!”
“I see. Why not go to the Cangmang Forest? I heard it’s the domain of demon beasts.”
The feathers on the back of the Silver-Eyed Sea Eagle’s neck bristled.
“That rotten forest…. The ones inside won’t let us in!”
“Why?”
“They called us uncivilized. Some worthless bastard I could kill with one peck shoved a stone tablet in my face and told me to turn back!”
“A stone tablet?”
“It had marks carved into it like trails left by crawling insects. Whose land it was, who could come and go, what we weren’t allowed to eat… Krrk! It rattled off all sorts of pointless nonsense!”
Lee Hyun’s interest was piqued.
‘Demon beasts can write?’
“Was that guy as strong as you?”
“No!”
“Even a demon beast that weak could speak?”
“Even the weak guys in there can chatter away. They can learn to speak, maybe because their spiritual intelligence awakens when they’re young. They imitate the culture of the feeble human race. They carve marks into stone, read them, and pass them back and forth.”
The Silver-Eyed Sea Eagle’s talons scraped the ground.
“When I tried to kill that bastard, a bigger guy appeared from behind.”
“I see.”
Lee Hyun recalled the demon cores he had seen at Baoguang Temple.
But he had never heard that those demon beasts could read, establish rules, or buy and sell goods.
When Lee Hyun asked about that, the Silver-Eyed Sea Eagle snorted harshly through its nostrils.
“The guys living outside the forest were driven out. How could they be the same as the ones inside?”
“Are their bloodlines different?”
“They boast about their noble blood. Something about ancestors who descended from the heavens…. Hmph! Those bastards would bleed the same red blood if I drove my beak into them, yet they act as though they’re so special.”
‘A bloodline from the upper realm? I doubt any bloodline that extraordinary exists in the human realm… Perhaps they’re just glorifying their ancestors.’
In any case, it seemed the highly intelligent demon beasts within the Cangmang Forest really could speak and had rules and a culture of their own.
“How vast is the Cangmang Forest?”
“I don’t know.”
“What else do you know about the interior?”
“I don’t know.”
“How far in did you get?”
“The outskirts! Krrk!”
The Silver-Eyed Sea Eagle watched Lee Hyun warily, then opened its beak slightly.
“I’ve answered your questions. Now take your talons off me.”
It seemed to be asking him to release the Sumeru Mountain-Suppressing Seal.
Lee Hyun spoke.
“I understand your circumstances. But that doesn’t change the fact that you attacked my pill furnace. You’ll have to pay for the magic tools you broke. More importantly… I suspect letting you go would spell trouble for anyone from the human race living nearby.”
“You bastard…!”
The Sinking Moon Sword moved.
…
Lee Hyun removed the Silver-Eyed Sea Eagle’s demon core first.
It belonged to an early-stage Tier 3 demon beast and was completely undamaged.
‘If I use this to refine a Golden Core Condensing Pill ahead of time, its medicinal strength will dissipate… I’ll have to exchange it for spirit stones again.’
He also collected the talons and beak separately.
He planned to use a few of the large wing bones in his research on bone puppets. The rest could be sold along with the demon core.
The Threefold Shield and the Mountain-Suppressing Seal were ruined, but a Tier 3 demon beast’s corpse was worth more, so he had actually come out ahead.
Lee Hyun reopened the jade bottle and admired the Essence-Cultivating Dao Pill, its tribulation marking glowing softly.
“Ah…”
Lee Hyun burned away the bloodstains and scattered feathers. He also cleaned up the torn ground, broken rocks, and scattered fragments of the destroyed magic tools. After checking outside the valley once more, he descended underground and traveled on, changing direction along the way.
***
A few days later, in Tunnel No. 3.
Lee Hyun took the Essence-Cultivating Dao Pill from the jade bottle, swallowed it, and set the Primordial One-Qi Art in motion.
The medicinal strength released in his dantian spread throughout his body.
Compared with an ordinary Essence-Cultivating Pill, its medicinal strength was far more concentrated, yet it flowed smoothly through his meridians.
He had expected its effects to be harsh after it absorbed the lightning tribulation, but the opposite was true.
Moreover, the medicinal strength was astonishingly pure!
It was not entirely free of pill toxins, but compared with an ordinary Essence-Cultivating Pill, it contained next to no impure qi.
‘It certainly deserves to be called a Dao pill!’
…
The next day.
Lee Hyun examined the spiritual power throughout his body.
The increase was tiny, but his capacity for spiritual power had definitely grown.
Cultivating his entire body was so difficult that he could barely feel any difference after taking a single ordinary Essence-Cultivating Pill. Yet after just one Dao pill, he could actually feel a slight improvement.
‘That’s about ten pills’ worth!’
He seemed to have gained nearly as much medicinal strength as he would from ten ordinary Essence-Cultivating Pills of comparable quality.
The medicinal strength of Essence-Cultivating Pills was too fierce for him to take them frequently.
Over the past twenty years, Lee Hyun had adjusted his intake several times.
When he took large quantities for a while, his spiritual power increased rapidly.
Over time, however, his qi circulation cycles grew sluggish, and he absorbed medicinal strength more slowly. At that point, he had to stop taking the pills and eat Yin Water Lotus seeds to expel turbid qi.
Once he accounted for the time spent refining the medicinal strength and recovering, it was actually better to take roughly sixty pills a year at a steady pace.
Dao pills were different.
They gave him far more medicinal strength while leaving much less strain on his body. He could even take them during his breaks from ordinary Essence-Cultivating Pills.
‘This means… I could change my cultivation plan.’
Assuming he could continue refining Dao pills, Lee Hyun began calculating how long it would take to bring his entire body to Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment.
‘How many spirit stones will it cost to keep refining Essence-Cultivating Dao Pills?’
Lee Hyun walked through his spirit fields, checking his spirit plants against his ledger once more.
「Bone-Rot Flowers: 438 plants.
Medicine age around 870 years, with some over 900 years.
Yin Soul Grass: 1,160 plants.
Medicine age around 870 years, with some over 900 years.
Purple Poison Orchids: 310 plants.
Medicine age around 870 years, with some over 900 years.」
These were all that remained of the groups he had planted long ago.
Later generations of spirit plants, replanted in the spaces left after harvesting, were counted separately.
The Tier 3 spirit plants he had sold to help Wang Shulin were also recorded in the ledger: twenty-four Bone-Rot Flowers, thirty-six Yin Soul Grass plants, and eighteen Purple Poison Orchids.
Those were the combined totals of the few plants he had sold every few decades.
He had used others in his own alchemy and research or sold them in other transactions. A small number had also been spoiled during periods when he had not tended them properly.
Lee Hyun moved to another spirit field.
「Earlier planting of Spirit-Storing Ginseng: 532 roots.
Medicine age approximately 750 years.
Later planting of Spirit-Storing Ginseng: 276 roots.
Medicine age approximately 610 years.」
The number of older Spirit-Storing Ginseng roots had barely decreased.
By the time he had begun refining Foundation Establishment Pills in earnest, their medicine age had already exceeded the recipe’s upper limit.
The only roots he had sold were twenty during his stay at Baoguang Temple.
The later planting, on the other hand, had steadily dwindled as he refined Foundation Establishment Pills, Origin-Opening Pills, and Profundity-Penetrating Pills.
He had planted young Spirit-Storing Ginseng in those empty spaces as well.
…
Lee Hyun noted down estimated prices beside his ledger.
‘Based on past auction prices and recent trading reports…’
「Estimated market prices, in mid-grade spirit stones.
Bone-Rot Flower: 1,000.
Yin Soul Grass: 1,200.
Purple Poison Orchid: 900.
Spirit-Storing Ginseng, first planting: 750.
Spirit-Storing Ginseng, second planting: 450.」
If he sold all of them at their full value, his total wealth would exceed 2.5 million mid-grade spirit stones!
He already had around 8,000 mid-grade spirit stones on hand, making him extraordinarily wealthy compared with other Foundation Establishment cultivators. Yet even to him, 2.5 million was an unimaginable sum.
“….”
But if he harvested everything and put it all on the market at once, prices would plummet, and bandit cultivators would come after his wealth.
Besides, the plants would only become more valuable with time. There was no reason to sell more than he needed.
He excluded the Earth Vein Flowers from his calculations because uprooting them would weaken the spiritual qi in the spirit fields. As for the Yin Water Lotuses and Stone Honey Peaches, he was better off continuing to grow them for his own consumption.
After visiting the rest of his spirit fields and updating his ledger, Lee Hyun opened the pill recipe for the Essence-Cultivating Pill.
Essence-Cultivating Pills required Spirit-Storing Ginseng, but even the later planting in his tunnels was over six hundred years old and could no longer be used. The newly planted seedlings, meanwhile, still lacked the necessary medicine age.
Lee Hyun wrote down the ingredient costs.
‘Twenty-four furnace batches a year, 600 mid-grade spirit stones for ingredients and consumables, up to six pills per furnace batch… If I refine 130 pills a year, I can take sixty myself and sell the rest, with the Dao pills counted separately…’
A rough calculation put his annual costs, including other expenses, at 700 mid-grade spirit stones. Even after selling the surplus Essence-Cultivating Pills, he would still be about 300 short.
‘If I sell one Bone-Rot Flower, one Purple Poison Orchid, and two Yin Soul Grass plants every ten years, I’ll have more than enough to cover the shortfall.’
At that rate, he could keep going for hundreds of years without selling many of his old spirit plants.
The proceeds from selling his newly acquired demon core and materials could supplement his funds as well.
He could take occasional orders for Bone-Forging Powder, Poison-Warding Pills, Spirit-Calming Pills, Foundation Establishment Pills, and the like, but he left that income out of his calculations for now.
He needed to set aside additional spirit stones in case a good magic tool appeared at auction or some other opportunity arose.
…
With the spirit stone problem settled, he turned to calculating the time required.
His circumstances were different from when he had lived at Baoguang Temple.
If he simply moved between the Two Heavens Society’s vein seats and accumulated spiritual qi, it would likely take more than 2,000 years to bring his entire body to Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment.
He consulted his past cultivation records and compared the effects of the pills.
Adding the medicinal strength of Essence-Cultivating Pills to the spiritual qi he naturally absorbed would reduce the time required to roughly 800 years.
‘Now, if I factor in the effects of Dao pills…’
If he refined twenty-four furnace batches a year, a ten-percent success rate for Dao pills could shorten that period to 650 years, while a thirty-percent success rate could bring it down to 460 years.
‘What if I made more? If I refined forty-eight furnace batches a year and produced a Dao pill once every two furnace batches… Taking all of them could get me to Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment in just 250 years, couldn’t it?’
But doubling his alchemy would also double his ingredient costs.
Lee Hyun calculated again.
If his success rate for Dao pills reached fifty percent, he would be left with a little over 230 ordinary Essence-Cultivating Pills a year.
After setting aside sixty for himself, he could sell 160 of the remaining pills for 912 mid-grade spirit stones after brokerage fees.
With 1,200 for ingredients and another 100 for other expenses, his annual shortfall would be 388 mid-grade spirit stones.
‘Wait, even then I’d only need to sell four plants every ten years?’
Lee Hyun set up a new stone tablet and inscribed it with the Yang Metal Art.
「Goal: A fifty-percent success rate for Essence-Cultivating Dao Pills.」
***
One month later.
A small medicinal ingredient shop in eastern Xu Kingdom.
The cultivator wearing a Goose mask looked up from the jade slips Lee Hyun had presented.
“You intend to keep procuring this much? Even the Tier 2 Spirit-Storing Ginseng alone amounts to a considerable quantity.”
“Start by securing a year’s supply. If their medicine age is suitable and they’ve been stored properly, I intend to continue doing business with you.”
The cultivator in the Goose mask nodded, but inwardly grew nervous.
‘Is the Two Heavens Society finally making its move? If they’re doing this much business through my branch alone… could they be preparing for war?’
Lee Hyun slid another jade slip across the table.
It listed the types and estimated quantities of pills he would supply in the future.
The cultivator in the Goose mask lowered the jade slip from their forehead.
“If you entrust them to me, I can guarantee that they will all sell.”
“Good. There is also something else I’d like you to look into.”
Lee Hyun took out a small jade casket and opened the lid.
“This is… Tier 3 Yin Soul Grass!”
“Are there any Golden Core members who might be interested?”
“There are some.”
…
The Two Heavens Society had steadily grown in influence, and its members had spread to far more places than Lee Hyun had expected. For the past several hundred years, he had been able to sell his Tier 3 spirit plants within the society rather than put them up for auction.
Of course, there were still only a few Golden Core members.
That was unavoidable.
The Two Heavens Society had originally been founded so that cultivators could steal spiritual qi from other sects and cultivation clans to use in their own cultivation.
That was an appealing prospect for Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment cultivators, but it did not suit Golden Core cultivators.
For example, residual-vein pockets found around a Tier 3 spirit vein generally offered a cultivation environment comparable to only a Tier 2 spirit vein.
For a residual-vein pocket that could be approached in secret to offer conditions approaching those of a Tier 3 spirit vein, the main spirit vein would have to be Tier 4.
Outside Tier 5 cultivation nations, however, Tier 4 spirit veins were the most precious of all, and a Nascent Soul cultivator could be found at nearly every one.
So for a Golden Core cultivator to establish a vein seat and cultivate in keeping with the Two Heavens Society’s original purpose, they would have to steal spiritual qi right under a Nascent Soul cultivator’s nose!
Put simply, it was madness.
Nascent Soul cultivators had deep reserves of power and an enormous range of abilities, making them extremely difficult to predict.
Even if a Golden Core cultivator reckless enough to attempt it did exist, they would usually cultivate alone in a residual-vein pocket.
Only if several such Golden Core cultivators used the same residual-vein pocket and got in one another’s way would there be a need for mediation.
But how many such residual-vein pockets were there, and how often would Golden Core cultivators actually encounter one another in them?
Ultimately, even when Golden Core cultivators stole spiritual qi, they rarely needed an organization like the Two Heavens Society to coordinate their activities.
The few Golden Core cultivators who had joined the Two Heavens Society were less interested in its vein seats than in trading goods, sharing information, and finding the people they needed without revealing too much about themselves.
And they had the means to buy Lee Hyun’s Tier 3 spirit plants.
The cultivator in the Goose mask spoke.
“Our branch can contact only a few Golden Core members, but I believe we can find a buyer.”
…
Afterward, Lee Hyun visited several more contact points.
At some, he wore the Badger mask. At others, he wore the Cicada mask.
Following his prepared plan, he divided his pill sales among different outlets and placed orders for medicinal ingredients.
During these visits…
Lee Hyun noticed something strange.
…
A contact point in northern Xuan Kingdom.
A cultivator wearing a Mountain Goat mask sat across from Lee Hyun, who wore the Cicada mask.
After they checked each other’s jade tokens, the other cultivator took the initiative and offered him a jade slip.
“Someone has expressed interest.”
“A Golden Core cultivator?”
“Yes. They had no particular objection to the price, either. They did say it would need to be appraised first. And we’d like our side to handle this transaction through to completion.”
Lee Hyun looked up from the jade slip.
“Your side?”
The cultivator in the Mountain Goat mask hesitated.
“I heard you also placed requests with members of nearby branches.”
“Is there anything strange about asking around in several places?”
“That isn’t what I meant. It’s just that lately… the senior elders have been arguing over how transactions are handed off.”
‘Senior elders? What’s this about?’
“Senior elders? What are you talking about?”
“Which side arranged a transaction, who should receive a share of the proceeds….”
Lee Hyun set the jade slip down on the table.
He had established rules for dividing the proceeds precisely to minimize such problems.
Even when several members were involved, he had required them to agree on their respective shares before passing a request along.
“Can’t you simply divide the proceeds according to the established rules?”
The cultivator in the Mountain Goat mask fidgeted awkwardly.
“That was how things worked before, but some people now insist on taking affiliations into account…. As I understand it, Inspector, you do business with all sides. We have no intention of making things difficult for you.”
Apparently, factions he knew nothing about had formed within the Two Heavens Society he himself had created.
He eyed the cultivator in the Mountain Goat mask suspiciously.
Perhaps interpreting Lee Hyun’s silence differently, the other cultivator hurried on.
“You can trust us. The item is so rare that they said they would inspect it personally.”
“Who?”
“Society Head Badger.”
‘Huh?’
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