He Lingchuan searched his memory. It was a small island of about one qing, roughly sixty thousand square meters. Two islands separated it from Longji Island, but it was only a fifteen-to-thirty-minute row away.
"All right, you can be the acting island lord."
Dong Rui looked at him with skepticism. "Just like that?" That was uncharacteristically generous for He Lingchuan. "No strings attached?"
He finished this cup of wine, and suddenly he was an island lord?
"Of course," He Lingchuan patted him on the shoulder. "However, when you actually become island lord depends on when I completely purge the fiend energy from the island."
"Can't you just go stand on the island yourself?" The guy was practically a humanoid black hole. The yin fiend energy everyone else avoided like the plague vanished into thin air the moment it touched him, which was frankly absurd.
Dong Rui secretly suspected this had something to do with the treasure He Lingchuan had stolen from Zhaixing Tower in the Heavenly Palace.
"The yin fiend turbidity surges up from the leylines every seven days." He Lingchuan shook his head and sighed. "And I can't split myself into pieces."
Forty-two islands—there was no way he could purify them one by one. With a new surge every seven days, was he supposed to spend the rest of his life chained to the archipelago?
"You have a way around it, don't you?" Dong Rui wasn't going to fall for his act. "Otherwise you wouldn't have spent a fortune buying those islands!"
"Well, there is a way." He Lingchuan picked up a piece of lobster meat and chewed it slowly. "I need to refine several magic artifacts to suppress the islands. Their effect will be just like me being there in person."
"Can they absorb the yin fiend too?"
"They can."
"Then when do I get my island?"
"Depends on when the artifacts are refined." He Lingchuan shook his head. "Before a vile thing like yin fiend is cleaned out, would you dare set foot on the island?"
Dong Rui took a sip of wine. "So the snag is refining the magic artifacts?"
"Bingo."
So this was where the trap lay. Dong Rui sighed. "What are you short of this time?"
"I knew I could count on your good sense!" He Lingchuan beamed. "I can get my hands on the other materials with a bit of money and effort, but divine bone is the one thing I really can't procure."
"Divine bone again?!" Dong Rui frowned. "How much?"
He knew it. Any pie falling from the sky was bound to hit him hard on the head first.
Judging by Dong Rui's words and manner, half of He Lingchuan's worries evaporated. The rascal really did have more!
Back in Lingxu City, he had insisted he had given away every last scrap and had no stock left. As expected, that was all a lie.
He Lingchuan held up his pinky finger and wiggled it. "A piece the size of a little fingernail."
Dong Rui breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, that wasn't much.
Little did he expect He Lingchuan's very next sentence:
"I need forty pieces."
*Pfft!*
Dong Rui sprayed a mouthful of wine.
He Lingchuan's martial arts training hadn't been in vain. Before the spray could reach him, he snatched up the plate of stir-fried crab and darted five feet away.
"Mind your manners, will you? I still want to eat this!"
"Forty pieces of divine..." Dong Rui fumed. "Why don't you just go rob someone!" He knew this meal wouldn't go down easy.
"Isn't that just it..." Nowhere to rob, right? Newly arrived, he had no clue where to find divine bone around Bailie territory. "Shouldn't I turn to my own people for help first?"
"I don't have any!" Dong Rui flatly refused.
"Think about it. With Alfalfa Island, you can conduct your experiments out in broad daylight, completely undisturbed. Without your permission, no one can easily step onto the island," He Lingchuan persuaded. "As a fugitive from Lingxu City, where else could you find such safety, comfort, and peace?"
Dong Rui's Adam's apple bobbed. He truly had been on the run for too long and yearned for a taste of ordinary mortal peace.
"That's still way too much."
"The larger islands will need two or three artifacts," He Lingchuan said solemnly. "Forty pieces of divine bone—I haven't asked for a single piece more than I need."
"No way!" Dong Rui snapped. "You want to trade a desolate, godforsaken island for my divine bone? In your dreams!"
Did he take him for a fool who couldn't do math?
He Lingchuan had anticipated this reaction. "Then how about I sweeten the deal? I'll give you a ji beast."
"A ji beast? It's not like I haven't seen one before." Dong Rui was somewhat tempted. His demon puppet research was built on ji beasts; having more specimens might spark further inspiration.
"A living one." He Lingchuan pointed at the table. "Kept fresh—fresher than this lobster was before it hit the pot."
Dong Rui froze. "Where is it? Don't tell me it's tucked away in some secret realm, and I'll have to bust my gut to catch it?"
"Would I swindle a friend?" He Lingchuan thumped his chest. "If you agree, I'll hand the ji beast over to you right away."
Were ji beasts dried goods? This guy could just pull one out whenever he pleased?
Dong Rui shot him a suspicious look, but recalling that the man was indeed true to his word and never made empty promises, he sank into thought.
He Lingchuan didn't rush him, casually drinking, dining, and watching the opera.
After a long while, Dong Rui finally asked, "First tell me clearly: where did this ji beast come from?"
He knew there were ji beasts in the Heavenly Palace, but during He Lingchuan's operation there, Dong Rui had merely served as the driver waiting outside Mount Xu to provide backup, so he had never witnessed the giant ji beast, Chenyuan, controlled by the Chief Duyun Emissary.
Later, when He Lingchuan and Zhu Daniang talked about it, he had been green with envy, repeatedly exclaiming, "You two sure have all the luck."
"It was brought out by He Jing, a Duyun Emissary of the Heavenly Palace. There were four in total, originally attached to human hosts and only released during battle." He Lingchuan picked up a piece of spicy shredded chicken. "For some reason, this one just refused to come out."
"Hidden inside a human body? Brilliant. Otherwise, those things are unruly and hard to transport over long distances." Dong Rui's eyes lit up. "Tell me, what kinds of ji beasts were there?"
He Lingchuan recounted everything truthfully.
In the Panlong Realm, He Jing had summoned four ji beasts to aid him, but only three had emerged. Even after the battle ended, the last one remained hidden inside an unconscious Heavenly Palace acolyte.
Storing the acolyte inside the mirror world had only been an expedient measure; He Lingchuan had assumed that once the person died, the ji beast would burst out of the corpse. Yet after observing for months, he discovered that although the acolyte was brain-dead, his physical body retained vitality—whether that had to do with the ji beast or not, he couldn't say.
To prevent any mishaps during the sea voyage, he had even used Origin Nourishing Pills and other medicines to sustain the life of that physical vessel. Thus, the ji beast had slumbered until now, waiting for its destined one—
Dong Rui.
Dong Rui's eyes were practically gleaming. "You mean its species and appearance are completely unknown?"
"Everything is unknown," He Lingchuan encouraged him. "You have no idea what kind of ji beast you're going to get."
"Then... then..." Dong Rui grimaced, relenting grudgingly. "Fine, deal."
All for his island, alas.
"Good brother!" He Lingchuan immediately poured him wine. "Come, bottoms up!"
"All right, all right. Once I've cut and measured them, I'll give them to you in a few days."
He Lingchuan was curious. "Where did you get so much divine bone?"
Divine bone and divine blood had always been taboos of the celestial gods. Even the dignitaries of Lingxu City barely dared touch them. How did this fellow seem to have an endless supply?
Dong Rui rinsed his mouth with wine. "I happened to stumble upon an ancient battlefield. You could call it a tomb of the gods if you prefer. The remains of the celestial gods were remarkably well-preserved, and many still retain their vitality."
Chapter 902