Since he was inquiring about baleful qi, it was only natural that she asked. Qian Chen did not mince words: "Shas such as Mysterious Yin Frost Sha, Extreme Yin True Sha, Nine Yin Nether Spring True Sha, Nether Deep Earth Sha, Five Directions True Sha, and Earth Pole Yuan-Magnetic True Sha are naturally top-grade. If there are shas of similar nature, they could also be considered, though it would inevitably be somewhat troublesome."
The moment these words left his mouth, Guan Pingxuan's expression shifted slightly.
"Everything Fellow Daoist has mentioned belongs to the varieties ranked among the Seventy-Two Earthly Baleful Shas in the Discourse on Primordial Qi..." Guan Pingxuan said. "Baleful shas of this caliber are extraordinarily precious. Even our White Deer Sect possesses merely a few veins, and most of them sit near the bottom ranks... As for Five Directions True Sha, which is the quintessential essence of the five elements, or Earth Pole Yuan-Magnetic True Sha, a rare primordial qi hidden deep within the earth's axis—those are subterranean treasures ranked at the very top.
"Forgive me, but my sect truly cannot produce them.
"Even mid-ranking shas like Extreme Yin True Sha, Nine Yin Nether Spring True Sha, and Nether Deep Earth Sha are incomparably precious... I wonder what rare treasure Fellow Daoist is willing to offer in exchange?"
Having learned his lesson from Daoist Zhen, Qian Chen refrained from offering his own spirit pills. Instead, he brought out Hong Sihai's divine weapon, the Azure Heaven Golden Wheel, and said, "If there is confirmed news of such baleful shas, I am willing to offer this implement embryo as reward."
Upon seeing the dazzling Azure Heaven Golden Wheel gleaming with a golden brilliance like the midday sun, Guan Pingxuan's expression softened. She reached out and tapped the golden wheel, listening to the prolonged resonance before nodding. "It is indeed a top-grade implement embryo. Using this to exchange for news of an Earth Baleful Yin Vein from the Seventy-Two Earthly Baleful Shas is fair enough."
Beside her, Junior Sister Yan Cai felt a little embarrassed. This Azure Heaven Golden Wheel had been forged by Hong Sihai from True Yang Divine Gold, also known as Three Yang Gold in the Central Lands. It was a high-grade spiritual material that could even be used to forge magic treasures.
If one were trading this implement embryo for the Earth Baleful Yin Vein itself, it naturally would not suffice, but offering it merely for information made it extraordinarily generous.
"If cultivators discover such precious baleful qi, they would naturally harvest it long ago! They might even relocate it to their sect using arrays, letting spiritual veins nourish it so that it continuously enriches other resources. Any that remain within the Jiuzhen Great Marsh today are naturally fraught with twelve parts danger..."
Junior Sister Yan felt sheepish, thinking her senior sister was opening her mouth far too wide with her demands. Furthermore, luring someone into such perilous waters under false pretenses seemed rather improper.
Baleful sha was either hidden—like the streak of baleful qi beneath the deserted residence where Qian Chen had once lodged;
Or it was perilous—like the Earth Baleful Yin Veins concealed within the Jiuzhen Great Marsh. The impure baleful qi in Sanyang Township had caught the eye of Daoist Zhen's master long ago, yet baleful qi of equivalent quality abounded everywhere in the Jiuzhen Great Marsh. Precisely because the marsh was so perilous, even though many wandering cultivators knew of the spirit herbs and baleful qi within, they dared not venture inside lightly;
Or it was both hidden and perilous.
Qian Chen had originally intended to enter the Great Marsh to search for precisely this kind of sha that was both hidden and perilous: because it was perilous, it remained relatively hidden, and because it was relatively hidden, it was not overwhelmingly perilous.
However, if cultivators like Guan Pingxuan were aware of it, it could no longer be considered hidden, yet that it still remained unharvested within the Great Marsh attested to the sheer peril involved.
Guan Pingxuan did know of a few relatively pure baleful shas hidden in the Great Marsh, but she had no idea of their specific varieties. After all, those places were exceedingly perilous, guarded by flood dragons and exotic venomous vermin. Ordinary cultivators would die one after another if they went. The White Deer Sect's Huandan cultivators naturally refused to risk penetrating the depths of the marsh for mere vague rumors.
Hence, they all remained untouched in the Great Marsh.
Guan Pingxuan was a true transmission disciple of the White Deer Sect after all, with her own pride and standing. Naturally, she did not expect to trade ambiguous, half-baked rumors for such a top-grade implement embryo.
At the very least, she needed definitive information before an exchange could be made.
Being a shrewd person, she thought things through further and said suddenly, "The item Fellow Daoist offers in exchange is quite valuable. I would be remiss to take it lightly! Allow me to return and inquire among several fellow daoists to verify the exact circumstances before informing Fellow Daoist. Otherwise, I could not take this in good conscience.
"However, listening to the types of baleful sha Fellow Daoist seeks, they seem to align remarkably well with a certain celestial gangqi..."
A thought stirred in Qian Chen's mind, and the urge to cast a lure rose once more. Smiling faintly, he said, "Fellow Daoist is indeed attentive. I do possess a portion of Ice Soul Cold Light Gang, which is why I set out to find a corresponding sha."
Guan Pingxuan was startled by this revelation, but she swiftly suppressed her surprise, demonstrating her shrewd composure.
She then conversed with Qian Chen for a time on philosophical principles and the Dao. Noticing that Qian Chen was unfamiliar with the fashionable discourses on the arcane and seemed ignorant of many popular tenets, she felt she had thoroughly sized him up. Beside her, however, Junior Sister Yan felt that although Qian Chen was unfamiliar with these refined discourses and had never read their scholastic treatises, his occasional remarks struck straight at the Great Dao, coinciding perfectly with the fundamental truths of metaphysics.
Clearly, he was merely unfamiliar with the formal conventions and empty trappings of contemporary debates, not ignorant of the Great Dao.
After chatting like this for a short while, Guan and Yan took their leave.
No sooner had they stepped out than Cui Dan apologized to Qian Chen. "Senior, perhaps I did not introduce you properly, which led my two senior martial sisters to be so presumptuous and impolite..."
Qian Chen smiled. "It is not that they were impolite, but that you are overly burdened with etiquette. Fellow Daoist Cui, I hold no exalted status, and when I associate with others, I care only for mutual affinity. Though you claim to be untrammeled and free-spirited, you still place too much weight on hierarchy and status... A mortal child or a noble lineage—does character have noble or base ranks?"
Cui Dan pondered for a long time before shaking his head. "None at all!"
Qian Chen nodded. "In that case, why burden companionship with excessive etiquette?"
Leaving the county yamen, Qian Chen rode the clouds and mused inwardly, "Normally, when away from home, one should not flaunt treasures lest they invite trouble. But right now, Miaokong is the greatest trouble of all; to refine the external dan, I cannot afford to be so cautious. Just now, my spiritual sense stirred faintly, sensing the stirrings of a calamity, so I took the initiative to trigger it. Calamity often accompanies opportunity; let us see if a turning point emerges.
"As for Guan Pingxuan, she appears shrewd, but her prejudices run too deep, which is detrimental to the Great Dao. She has cultivated a bellyful of untimely scheming.
"The Grand Supreme plagiarized from me: 'The Dao is in the excrement and urine!' This speaks precisely to freeing oneself from prejudice and maintaining an ordinary mind.
"Cultivation clans in these small sects inhabit circles that are far too insular, which warps their temperament over time... What my past life called 'fencing off a plot to indulge oneself' describes precisely people like them. Without experiencing the ways of the world and observing people of every stripe, how can one recognize the flaws in one's Dao heart and the shortcomings of one's character? How could one temper oneself? This woman is far cleverer than Daoist Zhen and closer to the righteous path. Yet when it comes to struggling for the Dao and enduring crushing blows with resilience, she falls short even of a wild weed like Daoist Zhen...
"Cultivators often speak of the heart of an innocent child, yet that newborn heart rarely resides within actual infants. That pure, simple innocence appears to be a child's heart, yet it cannot withstand contamination. Though both are luminous and pure, a true newborn heart is like diamond, while theirs is merely glass—similar in appearance, but fundamentally different within.
"Only by being tempered by countless worldly experiences, having witnessed human joys and sorrows and vicissitudes of change, yet still preserving a heart like an innocent child—sincere and unadorned—is it a true newborn heart... It is just like the innocence of an elder versus the innocence of a child: one has never known the world, while the other has returned to simplicity and truth.
"Though I possess the Dao Dust Pearl and need not fear inner demons, I should still temper my mind and character in this manner.
"My time in Louguan Dao seeing those seekers of the Dao broadened my horizons, which is a good thing. But I must never, like Daoist Zhen and this woman, shut myself inside the cage of my own preconceptions, creating manifold hindrances. Since ancient times, folly has often sprung from stubborn adherence to what one knows... Little do they realize that borrowed Dao qi remains merely borrowed. Only by turning inward to temper oneself, allowing this Dao qi to seep from what is seen and heard into one's very bones, sprouting a Dao heart from one's true nature, is the proper path to tempering the mind."
Upon returning to their lodgings, Guan Pingxuan pondered for a moment before taking up a brush to write message talismans, sending them to her circle of close friends to inquire about baleful shas.
Junior Sister Yan remarked, "Among the baleful shas Fellow Daoist Qian mentioned, the Jinchuan Sect seems to possess one... However, that sha is kept within the Jinchuan Sect's mountain gates, reserved exclusively for their own disciples' cultivation. Fellow Daoist Qian likely has no chance! I heard senior brothers and sisters from the Jinchuan Sect mention that it seems to be Extreme Yin True Sha..."
"It is indeed Extreme Yin True Sha!" Senior Sister Guan nodded. "I have already sent a letter to Senior Brother Pei of the Jinchuan Sect to see if I might act as a middleman."
"Senior Brother Pei is proud and haughty. Why would he come so readily?" Junior Sister Yan laughed. "Besides, that Extreme Yin True Sha is a prized treasure of the Jinchuan Sect... How could Fellow Daoist Qian afford to purchase it?"
"He cannot afford Extreme Yin True Sha... but Senior Brother Pei can certainly afford Ice Soul Cold Light Gangqi!" Senior Sister Guan laughed.
Junior Sister Yan was startled and dismayed. "Senior Sister, you told Senior Brother Pei that Fellow Daoist Qian possesses Ice Soul Cold Light Gang? How could you do such a thing? Fellow Daoist Qian shared that information with us in confidence—how could you casually tell an outsider... Isn't that inviting disaster upon him?"
Guan Pingxuan gave her a strange look. "Senior Brother Pei is a relative of my family by marriage, and the Jinchuan Sect has always maintained good ties with ours. How is he an outsider? That wandering cultivator Qian is the outsider. How could there be any sense in helping an outsider while keeping secrets from our own kin? When Senior Brother Pei arrives, I will naturally mediate for that man... I certainly won't let him suffer a loss. I imagine I still have enough standing with Senior Brother Pei for that much."
Junior Sister Yan shook her head. "Senior Sister, you have acted wrongly in this!
"Gang-sha qi is exceedingly precious. Earlier, when Fellow Daoist Qian asked, even though the Jinchuan Sect's Extreme Yin True Sha is hardly a secret and many fellow disciples know of it, we did not mention it to him. That was precisely because one should not lightly disclose another party's private affairs. I thought you refrained from mentioning it for the very same reason."
"Junior Sister..." Guan Pingxuan was not angry at Yan Cai's words. She merely patted her head and said, "There is a distinction between insider and outsider, between close relations and strangers... Once you have seen more of the world, you will naturally understand the reason for what I do."
Yan Cai let out a sigh and prepared to write a message talisman... Senior Sister Guan quickly caught her arm and said, "You are not permitted to send a message to Magistrate Cui."
Yan Cai dropped her talisman brush and said, "Does Senior Sister realize now that this is improper?"
Guan Pingxuan merely smiled and shook her head, showing no regret whatsoever. Seeing this, Yan Cai sighed, thinking, 'Acting like this is truly without reason! Does Senior Sister truly take such bullying of the weak for granted?'
Chapter 69