He Lingchuan understood. It seemed Fang Canran had never underestimated the difficulty of collaborating with Juju.
"How much?" If it was too expensive, he couldn't afford it.
"A gift for your use," Fang Canran said, looking at the chain. "Back then, the seller told me no more than five sets of this treasure exist in the world. You'll make good use of it, won't you?"
He Lingchuan got the message: Fang Canran meant that since He Lingchuan couldn't afford it anyway, he might as well give it away for free.
After all, the mission came first; making money was secondary.
"Naturally," He Lingchuan said earnestly. "By the way, any news on the frost pellets?"
"Several expeditions have returned from the Fu Realm, but none brought back frost pellets." Fang Canran reached into his robes and produced an object. "However, I did get my hands on this."
At first glance, He Lingchuan thought he had brought out a piece of glass or crystal—transparent and colorless.
"Is this colored glaze?"
"Missing a character." Fang Canran handed it to him. "This is the glazed gold you wanted. Hold it up to the light in daytime, and the edges give off a faint golden sheen. By the way, what do you need it for?"
"You actually found some!" Overjoyed, He Lingchuan took it. It was about the size of a roof tile, irregularly shaped, and a little over an inch thick. There was no telling what magic artifact or structure it had been dismantled from.
"The eye of the Spirit Gathering Grand Formation is a magic artifact, made almost entirely of glazed gold. I need to find a way to break through glazed gold and get inside."
Fang Canran tapped his fingers twice on the glazed gold. "Just that simple?"
"When the time comes, there will also be a lightning ward on the outer shell of the glazed gold."
"The celestial gods are utterly shameless. The wards they set on Mount Xu are layer upon layer, endless."
Was Fang Canran speaking from experience? He Lingchuan smiled faintly. Who didn't love stacking buffs?
Fang Canran sighed. "I don't fancy your odds. If you get captured, I hope you won't give me away."
"Rest assured. Still, what benefit does my move actually bring you, Manager Fang?"
Fang Canran smiled slightly. "Throw Mount Xu into chaos, and you'll have my deepest gratitude."
***
The following morning, in a residence on Xiangmai Street in Lower Lingxu's main district.
The weather was unusually warm today. The servants were up at the crack of dawn, yawning as they began their chores.
This estate spanning three mu had just changed hands, though most of the servants had stayed on. The new master was a fur trader from out of town who had slogged away in Lingxu City for fifteen years just to scrape together enough for the down payment; the rest was covered by a loan from a native bank, to be repaid over ten years.
To own a home of one's own in Lingxu City was an immense honor.
Yet life was hard for the servants, as the new mistress of the household was rather difficult.
She could not stand the slightest flaw, demanding every corner be spotless. She complained that the cook's wages were too high while the food tasted mediocre, and that the steward spent too much on groceries for goods that weren't worth the price.
Her harshest scoldings, naturally, were reserved for servants slacking off, so she loved overseeing the work in person.
Just last night, the helper A'qing had overheard her complaining to her husband: "These paupers, these lazy wretches! If you don't keep an eye on them, they won't do an honest day's work!"
The fur merchant didn't care about such trifles. "Scold them less, or we'll have to hire people all over again!"
"You don't understand. Now that we've just moved in, we have to establish our authority! We must show these lowlifes who's master, lest they think we're easy to hoodwink and bully!"
Her husband eyed her sidelong. "Who could ever bully you?"
At early dawn, before the masters were even out of bed, birds were already chirping incessantly in the grand tree in the back courtyard.
This oak tree was two hundred years old, leafy and flourishing, with dozens of nests in its crown. Birds great and small squabbled every day over territory.
The new masters hated them and demanded the oak's crown be sawed off, but the servants were reluctant, so no one had taken an axe to it yet.
When A'qing relayed what she had eavesdropped on the night before, the servants were furious. One spat on the ground and grumbled, "Her family started out doing petty trade. All the chores we do, she used to do every day herself! How is it that the moment she becomes a lady of the house, she puts her hands on her hips and bosses everyone around?"
"What do you know? How else could she show she's nobler than us without throwing her weight around?" The cook, seated at the back trimming vegetables, didn't even look up. "I heard a storyteller at Gui Tower say that when a servant becomes a master, they act more like a master than real masters do."
Everyone burst out laughing; hearing those words was truly satisfying.
"How great the old master was—he didn't show his face twice in an entire year." That meant none of these unreasonable demands.
Someone remarked, "The old master wasn't from our Lingxu City. Seems he was especially short on money recently."
The cook said to A'qing again, "Didn't the mistress tell you to clear out the old belongings yesterday? If you don't get to it, she'll come scolding you again in a bit."
After the house changed hands, everything left behind by the previous owner had been moved to an empty wing room, waiting to be sorted through and dealt with.
The new mistress couldn't bear to throw everything away. Everything in Lingxu City was expensive, and they were saddled with a debt of forty thousand taels. Oh, wait—in ten years, that would be fifty-five thousand taels with interest.
Lingxu City: truly prosperous, but truly bloodsucking.
A'qing curled her lip, stood up, and went to the back wing room. Before long, she emerged carrying several drawers.
Inside was a jumble of odd knickknacks without any value. She had to throw them out quickly, lest she "waste the mistress's time."
As she passed beneath the old oak tree, a frantic, shrill racket of bird calls erupted right by her ear. Before she could tell what was happening, two balls of feathers slammed into her face.
It turned out to be a red-billed blue magpie and an Asian koel fighting tooth and nail, tumbling from the branches down to the ground, sharp beaks and claws tearing into each other.
Evidently, the koel had tried to sneak into the nest to lay eggs, only for the magpie to see through the scheme and chase it down with a fierce beating.
A'qing was caught in the crossfire. A sharp pain stung her face, having taken several pecks before she knew it. Fortunately, she closed her eyes in time, or her eyeballs might have been gouged out.
Startled and frightened, she shrieked and raised her hands to shield herself.
The drawers flew from her grip, and the jars and bottles inside crashed onto the tree roots, shattering with loud clatters.
The two squabbling birds flew off in a screeching blur. The other servants rushed over and asked, "Are you alright?"
Her heart still pounding, A'qing had several scratches across her face, though thankfully none were deep.
Looking at the drawers on the ground, she cursed, "Damned birds!" She would still have to clean up the mess.
Yet before she could even bend down, the ground two feet away suddenly churned. Something long and thick burst out.
She jumped back in fright, thinking it was a snake underground, but when she focused her eyes, it turned out to be a tree root?
Yet this root was rapidly thickening and lengthening, snaking out in all directions while sprouting massive burl after massive burl.
A'qing screamed and fled backward.
Good thing she was quick on her feet, for the changes to the tree trunk were far more terrifying:
Enormous boughs burst through the bark one after another, swelling into new trunks within a dozen breaths, the cycle repeating endlessly.
"Master, the master's house..." A'qing pointed toward the fur merchant's main building, her voice trembling.
The tree was growing horizontally, too. It had already stood close to the master and mistress's bedchamber, and as it bulged outward, the sturdy two-story building was swiftly crushed under its weight.
Everyone heard unearthly shrieks piercing through from inside.
Rescue them? Or not?
Several hired hands had the intention, but none possessed the courage to approach the mutated tree.
In mere breaths, the entire building was pulverized as if fed into a giant millstone. The screaming stopped.
Every witness turned and ran; no one dared linger.
When they reached the main front gate and looked back, they stood dumbfounded:
The old tree had turned into an enormously bloated, grotesque wooden mass. Not only had its height reached a staggering ten zhang, but its width spanned a full five zhang!
With their homes destroyed, the birds shrieked in terror, their cries audible three to five li away.
Shouting people, screeching birds, and collapsing houses created an immense clamor.
This was the bustling heart of Lower Lingxu. Neighbors stepped outside one after another, intending to complain, but the moment they saw the monstrosity, the words caught in their throats.
The strange tree was still growing, creeping toward the neighboring properties.
A neighbor stormed over to demand an explanation, but A'qing and the others were just as dazed. The neighbor barked, "Where is your master? Call him out to talk!" Get ready to pay until you're ruined!
"Dead," A'qing pointed at the monstrous tree. "The house was knocked down by it. The master and mistress were inside."
"..."
With such a bizarre incident unfolding, the servants dashed off to report to the authorities.
Just then, several shrieks erupted from a neighbor's house. A few people burst out the door, screaming, "The goat is eating people! Run!"
Before anyone understood what was happening, the courtyard wall shattered with a loud bang, and a colossal figure charged toward the onlookers.
It was a goat—or rather, it used to be a goat.
Yet its size now rivaled the wild ox demons He Lingchuan had seen in the Han River encampment, its bulging muscles popping out and blue veins throbbing beneath the skin.
A huge lump was swelling on its neck. With a wet pop, it burst.
Everyone thought it was about to die, but a second head sprouted from the rupture!
The creature's eyes were blood-red, blood spurting from its nostrils as it charged about, goring people with its pair of sharp horns.
It was worth noting that this pair of horns had originally been short, rounded, and blunt, but now they were a foot long and twisted into spirals, their tips as sharp as awls. A single thrust into a person left two bloody holes!
One youth was too slow to flee and was impaled from behind, the horns piercing clean through his back and out his front.
The giant beast hurled him against a wall with a wet thud, smearing blood down the masonry as he slid to the ground.
Without pausing, it went after the rest.
Pedestrians scattered like birds and beasts, while residents slammed their doors shut. But wooden doors were no match for the beast; with a resounding crash, it splintered right through them, rampaging inside in a slaughter!
After it had slaughtered seven people, two bear demons finally rushed out from nearby, attempting to team up and subdue it.
Who could have guessed that the thing's strength was terrifyingly vast—even the bear demons were battered down.
It rampaged across two whole streets before the authorities finally dispatched officers to the scene.
Yet the expected bloody battle never materialized. After toppling a stretch of courtyard wall, the goat demon suddenly collapsed to the ground without warning, twitching violently all over.
The tumors and veins across its body burst one after another. Within a dozen breaths, it drew its last breath.
What the officers found was chaos spanning two streets and utter wreckage everywhere.
Blood was everywhere, buildings lay in ruins, and not far away loomed a bizarre, monstrous tree.
This morning, Xiangmai Street had truly erupted into mayhem.
The magistrate's office immediately gathered everyone involved for questioning. The neighbor explained that after the old oak mutated, his household's goat demon—foolish as it was—had actually wandered over and taken a bite of the leaves.
Chapter 642