Chapter 134 (Patreon)

Thanks to the buzz of activity that enveloped the entirety of Reservoir Town and the Garrison, they were forced to postpone their leaving out of caution. They didn’t stay in their original inn. However, instead moving to another out-of-the-way inn favored by merchants and far away from where they met Xi Wangmu. It wasn’t a complete guarantee that they were hidden from the Peach River Sword School’s prying eyes. It was unknown just how much they’d penetrated the ranks of Reservoir Town, but it offered them peace of mind at least.

Chen Haoran and Bao Si had stayed holed up in the room for the most part, sometimes descending to listen in on the gossip of the merchants. Xie Jin, on the other hand, was out in the town trawling for information on the fight that had occurred. The details came to light in the following days. A group of Liquid Meridians had successfully discovered an old ruin in the jungle and walked away with a fortune. They’d gone to have a party when a disagreement had flared up amongst them about the distribution of loot which had attracted the attention of less-than-savory listeners who’d been dining and some Imperial officers. The flare-up left twenty people dead and resulted in the entire dining pavilion being burned to cinders.

Chen Haoran was content to leave sleeping dogs lie while he waited for an opportunity to leave Reservoir Town. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the best idea to test the attentiveness of law enforcement in the wake of a large incident like this. Xie Jin meanwhile became possessed with some manic energy that saw him leave early in the day and return late at night. He didn’t spare a word to Chen Haoran or to an increasingly frustrated Bao Si. The allowance of patience she decided to give him in the aftermath of their fight eventually ran out.

“Xie Jin,” Bao Si said through gritted teeth as Xie Jin burst into the room with tired eyes and ink blotches on his cheeks. His arms were full of rolled-up papers. “If you can’t give me a good explanation for staying here, then don’t blame me when I stop being nice about it.”

Xie Jin blinked. Despite how red his eyes were, there was a liveliness to them that couldn’t be hidden. Chen Haoran hadn’t seen him this excited since their journey to Zumulu. “Do you understand what’s been happening in Reservoir Town the past few days?” Xie Jin asked her.

“I know that it’s none of our business,” Bao Si snapped. “We have to return and report back what’s happened here to Grandpa Xie and the Elders.” She narrowed her eyes. “Or have you forgotten that?”

Xie Jin brushed off her accusation. “The Grand Shaman obviously wasn’t contacting the tribe at Xi Wangmu’s behest. Now that the meetings have been had, how long do you think she’ll remain out of contact? We might go back and find out they’ve already been told about the situation.”

“What they might learn from my Master and what they might learn from me are—” Bao Si took a shuddering breath. “—two different things now.”

“Do you want to return empty-handed?” Xie Jin speared Bao Si with bright eyes and halted the rest of her argument. “Is bringing back bad news the only thing you want to do.”

Bao Si grimaced. “It’s not only bad news. At least Grandpa Xie will get a Longevity Elixir.” Despite saying that, she didn’t look very pleased. She shook her head. “Anyway, what are you implying? What have you been doing these past days?”

Xie Jin walked past her and spread the papers he’d been carrying across the table. “Okay, so a new ruin was discovered, right? The location was leaked after the original explorers fought. Wandering cultivators and Garrison soldiers have been rushing from Reservoir Town to it the last few days.”

“What does this have to do with us?” Bao Si asked. “If there were real value in those ruins, then it’d be monopolized by Crystal Transformation Realms. There’s no place for us to intervene.”

“You would think that,” Xie Jin said, spreading open a map of Zumulu and using a curious Phelps to weigh down one side of it. When Chen Haoran peered over to look at it, he found a complicated jigsaw of what looked like tribal boundaries and the Empire’s zones of control. “Except we’ve already gotten word back from the Crystal Transformations that got there first. The whole ruin is surrounded by a formation that prevents any cultivator above the Liquid Meridian Realm from entering.”

“So instead of the Crystal Transformations, it will be the Empire that monopolizes it. What’s your point?” Bao Si’s tone was sardonic.

“Except they can’t,” Xie Jin said. He pointed to a black circle on the map. Next to the circle was a large shaded area that Chen Haoran couldn’t make heads or tails of. “Because it’s here.”

Bao Si frowned, obviously, the map made more sense to her. “You mean to tell me it’s right next to the Tenth Green Hell?”

“They can’t do anything to the formation because if something goes wrong, it could trigger a reaction from the Green Hell,” Xie Jin excitedly said.

“So what if they can’t break it?” Bao Si scathingly replied. “All they need is one or two Crystal Transformations to keep watch, and it will be out of our reach all the same.”

“If it were just some tomb or the remains of a school, then yes,” Xie Jin agreed. “But it isn’t. It’s a trial ground, and it won’t open up without a minimum number of participants. The Empire can’t devote that much power that deep in the jungle for too long, and when the trial ground was discovered, it activated a countdown. They don’t have time to call up troops stationed in other cities. If the Empire wants to get in, they need other cultivators to make up the number.” Xie Jin spread another roll of paper across the map. A red peacock symbol was stamped on the bottom left corner. “I talked up a clerk who copies letters for the Pacification Committee, and she gave me this. This notice is being sent out to friendly forces and allies in Reservoir Town to gather at the trial grounds.”

Xie Jin spoke with such forceful exuberance that Bao Si could only pause to collect her words. Chen Haoran took this time to finally interject. “Xie Jin, that’s all well and good, but you haven’t explained why we’d want to get involved in this.”

Xie Jin locked eyes with Bao Si. “Those Liquid Meridians who first found it only explored the outer edges. They never went into the trial grounds, but they came back with Liquid Core Fruits.”

Bao Si’s breath hitched.

“What are those?” Chen Haoran asked.

“Remember the Heavy Core Pill you used before? Liquid Core fruits are the natural version and better in every way. They’re not limited by element and increase your qi while condensing it to practically guarantee advancement to the Liquid Meridian Realm.” Xie Jin ground his fist into the circle mark on the map. “And those were just what was found around the perimeter. What’s inside has to be even better.”

The look of temptation Bao Si had disappeared. “Is this your sense of adventure speaking, Xie Jin? Our tribe is facing an impending crisis, and Chen Haoran has to leave Zumulu, and you want to go galavanting for treasure?”

“I’m doing this because I’m weak,” Xie Jin said with a serious look. “Do you think we’d have suffered like we did meeting Xi Wangmu if we were at all stronger? Especially now that the tribe is in danger. Can we afford to remain weak anymore?”

“We don’t need to risk our lives for treasures,” Bao Si bit out.

“So you’ll get the resources you need to advance from your master?” Xie Jin rebutted. “So I should take more resources from the tribe that others could use? If we advance on our own and bring treasures back to the tribe to help strengthen the others, then why shouldn’t we do it?”

“If,” Bao Si emphasized. “Not only does this require Chen Haoran and I to agree for you to have a chance at getting any treasure, but even if we are lucky to find something valuable, we’ll have no guarantee of being able to leave with it.”

“Bao Si,” Xie Jin said, “I know what you think about me, and you’re right. Going into a forgotten ruin of our history is something that has me giddy from head to toe. For me, this is an adventure, but it’s also me wanting to repay the tribe for everything it’s done for me. If we’re lucky, we might even find something grandfather can use. You know a Longevity Elixir alone isn’t enough to make up for all the time he’s lost.”

“Repay? Xie Jin, stop treating the tribe like you’re in some kind of contract. You can’t just give some payment and call it even.” Bao Si’s words had bite, but there was a distinct lack of venom in them. It was obvious the picture Xie Jin was painting was tempting her.

Chen Haoran couldn’t lie, even he was feeling a little tempted. If the ruins limited entrance to the higher realms, then that had to mean there’d be something good for Liquid Meridians in there, right? There might even be something in there to help Phelps advance. At least those Liquid Core Fruits sounded like they could do it.  He glanced at his gluttonous pet, who’d decided Xie Jin’s papers were boring and curled up into a ball on the table. To his sense, Phelps was absolutely filled to the brim with qi. It was honestly a surprise that he hadn’t advanced after eating the Banquet Peach.

“This is our moment Bao Si,” Xie Jin pressed. “We won’t have another one better than this. With how close the trial ground is to the Green Hell, there’s bound to be a poisonous environment in there. We’re two shamans, and Brother Chen can punch ridiculously above his level. We have the perfect group to get in there and get out. Even if we have to pay a tithe to whoever the Empire has stationed there, the trip will have been worth it.”

“Forgetting something?” Chen Haoran motioned to his face. “I’m a little screwed if a Crystal Transformation is there.”

“You wouldn’t be the only one wearing a Human-Skin Mask there,” Xie Jin said. “It’s just good sense. We’ll wear them too. There’s no way a Crystal Transformation Realm will unmask everyone for something as small as this.”

Chen Haoran drummed his fingers against his leg as he weighed the pros and cons. Bao Si bit her lip as she did the same.

Xie Jin sighed. “I know it’s risky. But we’re cultivators. Would we have come as far as we have today without taking risks?”

“Easy for you to say,” Bao Si darkly muttered.

“Don’t think you’re that much better,” Xie Jin rebuked. “You’re the one who barged into the Elder’s council to demand the Grand Shaman take you as her apprentice.”

“It was already a done deal. It was a calculated move on my part to show the Grand Shaman who I was.”

“I’m sure being made to stand facing a corner for three days as punishment afterward was also calculated.”

Bao Si flushed. Chen Haoran stood there in disbelief. It was a reaction he’d never seen from Bao Si before. It seemed even she wasn’t immune to embarrassing childhood memories.

Xie Jin gathered up his maps. “Listen. I know you guys are interested in this. Let’s do it this way. We’ll go to the ruins and scout them out. If the situation looks good, then we can go in, and if it doesn’t, then we’ll just leave. At the very least, we should scout it out and make the decision ourselves rather than let time do it for us.”

In another life, Xie Jin could have been a salesman.

“Okay, I’m in,” Chen Haoran said. “I’m a little nervous now to leave on the official road anyway.”

Bao Si looked between Xie Jin and Chen Haoran before sighing. “Fine. We can scout it out. However, I will be the one deciding if we go in or not.”

Xie Jin smiled brilliantly. “Trust me. I’m a history genius. Once I see those ruins for myself, I’ll probably find some ancient secret that’ll let us run away a mother lode.”

Bao Si buried her face in her hands. “I’m already regretting my decision.”

“Right,” Chen Haoran said. “You said the trial has a time limit, right? How long do we have to get there?”

Xie Jin’s smile immediately became sheepish. “Ah…right.” He held up his hands placatingly. “Now, don’t be startled, but…”

Ah, his bad feeling indicator. Chen Haoran had wondered where that went.

“…we should probably leave right now.”