Beneath the great plum tree outside Sanyang Village, a crowd of villagers held their torches high, casting a crimson glow over the ground. The lad from the Shi family raised his voice. "A great serpent was hidden inside this plum tree! It nearly took the Jiang boy's life, and it killed my father. Even though an immortal has eliminated the serpent today, leaving this tree standing will only invite disaster sooner or later."
"We should have chopped this cursed thing down back when my father died!"
"Yet the village elders insisted that its canopy spread like a carriage roof and would bless our village with high nobles..."
As the Shi lad spoke, he drew back his arm to hurl his torch and light the brushwood piled at the base of the tree. Just then, someone sneered coldly, "Refuse the counsel of the old, and hardship will take hold. If you burn this fengshui tree, just wait for your homes to be shattered and your kin destroyed!"
The Shi lad flared with rage, looking left and right. "Who is that? Who said that?"
From the direction of the voice, the villagers turned their heads and stepped aside. Before long, a Daoist in black robes was revealed. His brow ridges were remarkably high, jutting forward as though two horns sprouted from his forehead, and his hair was snow-white, with a long beard trailing down to his chest. His right hand gripped a black streamer inscribed with the words "Six Jia, Odd Gates..." and atop his head rested a tall cap shaped like a peacock's fanned tail.
This attire of an itinerant practitioner instantly intimidated the villagers. In an instant, everyone grew hesitant, none daring to step forward to kindle the pyre.
Seeing this, the Shi lad's tone weakened somewhat, though he still stiffened his neck and demanded, "Who are you? What business of our village gives you the right to meddle?"
"The poor Daoist is no one of consequence," the Daoist replied, spreading his hands. "I simply cannot bear to watch your reckless impulse bring ruin upon a whole village of innocent people, so I stepped forward to speak out of justice. Why has this plum tree grown so remarkably? Have any of you ever seen a plum tree so tall anywhere else?"
The villagers began to murmur among themselves.
"A plum tree this large is truly rare. Otherwise, we wouldn't have been so reluctant to cut it down."
"Now an expert has stepped in to stop us. Could it really be a fengshui tree?"
Stroking his beard, the Daoist chuckled. "If it did not stand upon miraculous ground, how could such a wonder take root? And since such a wondrous tree stands here, how could it not be bound to your village's fortunes? As the saying goes, 'With scholar trees before the gate, ministers enter halls of state; when the canopy spreads wide as a cover, nobles shall arise.' With such an extraordinary tree behind your village, why do you not cherish and protect it, instead of setting a fire to burn it down?"
"Doing so will only bring sudden catastrophe..."
"What do you know?" the Shi lad retorted furiously. "There was a snake inside this tree! It poisoned my father to death and nearly devoured a child..."
A strange glint flickered across the Daoist's eyes. Feigning bewilderment, he pressed, "Oh? How could that be?"
The surrounding villagers all chimed in at once, recounting everything that had transpired during the day.
A cold sneer surfaced at the corners of the Daoist's mouth, vanishing in the blink of an eye. He feigned calculating on his fingers, shaking his head knowingly. "So that was it. No wonder your village possessed such a wondrous tree yet failed to flourish—its fortunes were being stolen away by that vicious serpent! Consider this: if not for the fortune nurtured by this miraculous tree, how could that great serpent ever have attained such might?"
"Are the remains of that great serpent still here? If the skeleton of that creature—one on the verge of turning into a flood dragon—is still around, I could cast a spell to elevate your village's fortunes another level. Within three generations, you would surely produce princes, marquises, and high ministers!"
The village head's eyes brightened, but he quickly put on a look of regret. "The immortal took the serpent's carcass away. Alas... it seems we simply lacked the affinity for it."
"Then do you know where the immortal went? What was his background?" the Daoist asked with feigned enthusiasm.
The crowd shook their heads one after another. The village head parted his lips to speak, but suddenly felt something was amiss. He thought to himself, *If I disclose the immortal's origin, there's no telling whether princes or high officials will really appear in my family within three generations, but I would immediately lose the chance to curry favor with the county magistrate and the immortal right before my eyes. Why should I trade a certainty within reach for some vague, uncertain fortune?*
*Besides, that immortal was so remarkably generous. If I have another chance to cross paths with him and ask for a dragon bone, along with a method to inter it in our ancestral graves to bring swift prosperity, wouldn't that be even better? I won't bother fighting the village over this big plum tree. If I have my own fortuitous encounter and claim a share of the serpent's draconic qi... that wouldn't be excessive at all!*
At once, he kept his mouth firmly shut, pretending to know nothing.
The Daoist held these ignorant peasants in utter contempt, so he failed to notice the village head's hesitation.
Having failed to pry out Qian Chen's origin and whereabouts, he assumed the cultivator who slew the serpent was merely a passerby, which only deepened his envy and resentment. *Back then, my master discovered the earth-fiend yin energy here, but lacked the means to subdue and refine it. He could only plant a blighted plum tree capable of warding off the fiend qi. Lacking the patience to spend a hundred and fifty years cultivating the plum tree into usable lumber, I found a secret method to nurture a venomous flood dragon using fiend qi. I sealed an exotic serpent within the tree's hollow, allowing it to absorb the fiend qi and grow in power. Once the serpent was on the verge of transforming into a flood dragon, I intended to use its flesh and blood as a ritual offering to temper this blighted plum tree.*
*By combining the dragon's bones with the plum wood in refinement, I would have forged an Earth-Baleful Dragon Snake Sword.*
*That serpent was in such a rush to devour humans and replenish its vitality because its transformation was imminent. Yet someone had to ruin decades of my careful scheming... Detestable! Truly detestable!*
*That person took the snake bones, leaving me no chance to salvage the plan... No, I must retrieve those bones. That serpent's cultivation was not shallow. Even if refining them alone into a magical implement won't be as wondrous as my original design, it would still become the item with the greatest potential in my hands. It would far surpass any Black Dog Nail forged from the pelt of canine ghosts born from nine puppies of the same litter forced to tear each other apart, or a coin sword assembled from hundreds of ancient copper coins spanning thousands of years of dynastic fortunes. It might even be forged into a flying sword!*
*With a flying sword for protection, why would I fear plunging into the great marsh to slay that vicious flood dragon I've been watching for so long? Once I seize its dragon pearl and refine it through my sect's secret methods, I will stand a chance of forming a middle-grade core.*
At the thought of just two magical materials, the Daoist's mind leapt to the glorious prospect of his future Core Formation, and an evil fire blazed within his heart.
His cultivation was respectable, and he carried several magical implements passed down by his master or painstakingly refined by his own hand. When traveling the Central Lands, even unorthodox sects like Mount Mei, Mount Zhu, and Mount Miao gave him some face, making him an outstanding figure among wandering cultivators. Although he had heard of the magical powers Qian Chen displayed in slaying the snake, he did not consider them particularly extraordinary—after all, mortals always loved to exaggerate.
Even if they witnessed two parts of skill, they would boast of it as ten.
Moreover, most of these villagers had not witnessed the scene with their own eyes, so their words carried little credibility. If the cultivator who killed the snake were truly someone remarkable, how could he have failed to perceive the oddity of this plum tree? To the Daoist's mind, a truly capable expert would have uprooted the plum tree long ago and refined it alongside the bones into a magical implement.
Anyone who gleefully walked off with the serpent as a prize while failing to notice the plum tree's peculiarities could not possibly be an expert of Core Formation, no matter how much magical power he possessed.
Pity the Daoist—he could never have imagined that in this world, there existed a treasure-laden scion with more magical implements than he could ever finish refining, someone who would simply find a new material too much trouble and leave it behind as a stroke of fortune for future generations.
Even when Qian Chen took the serpent's carcass, it was solely to prevent the villagers from coveting some supposed serpent elixir and causing disaster by recklessly consuming it.
As for the fiend qi beneath the blighted plum tree, it was roughly comparable to the mixed fiend qi in his Seven Baleful Banner. Not to mention alchemy, Qian Chen couldn't even be bothered to temper it into his banner.
Bewitched by the Daoist's words, the villagers immediately fell into an argument. Feeling that his dignity was being trampled, the Shi lad snatched an axe, gripped it tight, let out an enraged roar, and swung it toward the plum tree.
A cold light flashed in the Daoist's eyes, his right hand secretly forming a hand seal within his sleeve.
The Shi lad's axe bit into the trunk, opening a wide gash in the wood. At that very instant, the Shi lad screamed in agony as a wound so deep the bone showed appeared on his own leg! Fresh blood gushed from the wound in the plum tree, scaring the surrounding villagers into backing far away.
"The great plum tree has become a spirit!"
"It truly is a fengshui tree—disturbing it brings disaster! Quick, carry Little Shi away! If this wound isn't tended carefully, he'll end up a cripple!"
Seizing the opportunity, the Daoist thoroughly terrified the villagers once more, ensuring that no one would dare touch his precious tree again. Then, paying no heed to the crowd surging forward to ask about wealth and pray for children, he strolled away with ease.
Pausing at the crossroads to reflect, he altered his course and headed toward Jiaobu Town.
***
Meanwhile, Qian Chen drifted above Jiuzhen Great Marsh on his Flying Cloud Pouch, peering downward to examine the vapors. Yet atop the great marsh, water vapors curled and dense mists swirled; looking down from above, nothing could be seen clearly. As he lowered his cloud slightly, he saw that the mist bore seven-colored hues, faintly laden with bizarre poisonous miasmas and even earth yin baleful qi.
He hastily raised his cloud higher... What a joke! Even bolstered by his external dan, Qian Chen possessed only the magical power of lower-grade Core Formation. Even with the Heavenly Net Umbrella shielding him, running into bizarre natural miasmas like the Vitality-Depleting Peach Blossom Miasma or the Hundred Poisons Cold Light Miasma would cost him a layer of skin!
Moreover, who knew what strange insects and vicious beasts prowled within those poisonous mists?
If he stumbled upon a twelve-winged heavenly centipede or a primordial plague locust, his physical body would be as good as gone.
"No wonder nobody flies through the skies of Jiuzhen Great Marsh to gather herbs, choosing instead to wait for the day of utmost yang when all poisons retreat to enter by dragon boat. The air above this marsh is practically more perilous than the depths below. Countless venomous creatures have breathed and spewed here for millions of years, mingled with yin qi, fiend qi, and all manner of bizarre primordial qi... truly terrifying."
"If someone could harvest the poison that has accumulated in the skies of Jiuzhen Great Marsh over countless ages, they might very well refine a magic treasure."
"No, a place of such bizarre venom must breed monstrously baleful entities—it could probably be forged into something on the level of a spirit treasure."
"Can't afford to provoke it, definitely can't... I had better stick to the water route!" Qian Chen obediently steered out of the marsh, intending to scout ahead in nearby Jiaobu Town and obtain a map of the marsh. At worst, he could pave the way with spirit pills to befriend the prominent local clans, or find trouble with the local gangs to seize the secret maps they kept in their vaults.
Cui Dan would certainly arrive here before the Dragon Boat Festival. When the time came, Qian Chen could easily use his prestige to board a dragon boat into the marsh.
Truth be told, a great marsh like this teemed with dragons, serpents, vicious beasts, and venomous vermin. Outside of an utmost-yang day like the Dragon Boat Festival, ordinary people could never penetrate its depths; even with a map, Qian Chen would only dare scout the perimeter. Given his prudent nature, he would never plunge recklessly into the interior without complete preparation. Since the utmost-yang day of the Dragon Boat Festival was just around the corner, why take such immense risks now?
Qian Chen planned to map out the outer marshes first to see if he could locate suitable fiend qi.
Only if he truly failed to find any would he board a dragon boat into the heart of the marsh during the festival. Even then, he would need to gather clues beforehand; venturing into the depths was not something to be done blindly. After all, no matter how potent the yang energy of the Dragon Boat Festival was, it would at most force the venomous insects, dragons, and serpents into dormancy for three days.
If he still failed to find suitable fiend qi within those three days, Qian Chen would have to choose whether to press on at the risk of encountering horrors like the twelve-winged heavenly centipede, primordial plague locust, or the Taiyin heavenly scorpion!
Chapter 51