Chapter 56 - 56: Wuxin Clan"s Spy
Early the next morning, the dumbfounded Chen Chen remained stuck in a daze.
At that moment, Hu Xian"er walked out of the study embarra.s.sedly. As a demon, she had already been missing sleep for a long time but somehow, she had fallen asleep last night.
Important to her, she had previously realized that she was drooling as she woke up.
"Master must have seen that. How embarra.s.sing!"
"Good morning, Master..." Hu Xian"er greeted him to hide her embarra.s.sment.
Hearing her words, Chen Chen muttered, "I have a piece of good news and a piece of bad news for you. Which one do you want to hear first?"
"Huh?" Hu Xian"er was stunned. Then, she subconsciously exclaimed, "The good news!"
"There"s no need for you to take care of the medicinal herb field in the future."
Hu Xian"er did not rush to rejoice. Instead, she asked cautiously, "What about the bad news?"
"You have to teach it to talk!" Chen Chen said solemnly as he pointed to the medicinal herb field.
Hu Xian"er looked at the spot that Chen Chen was pointing at, only to be confronted with a shocking scene.
In the middle of the medicinal field, there was a one-foot-tall 10,000-year-old Ochre Yellow Spirit that was wrapped in a bandage and plowing the soil while releasing some ethereality into it.
Apart from that, the morning glory was also trembling with its flowering branches and making a series of sounds.
"Good morning, good morning, good morning!"
"Have these two gained sentience?" Hu Xian"er asked in shock.
"Right? The Ochre Yellow Spirit is still a true demon but the morning glory seems to have the ability to speak and enjoys imitating human speech. Teach it to speak when you have extra time. By the way, it seems to have a special ability that allows treasures in the medicinal herb field to ripen."
Chen Chen explained with a helpless expression.
"Kekekeke!" The morning glory made a sound.
Hearing the odd sound, Hu Xian"er remarked in disbelief, "Talent divine ability... I never expected this little morning glory to develop such an amazing talent divine ability like catalysis..."
In legends, the ability to catalyze the ripening process was possessed only by the experts in the Primordial Spirit realm, and it carried a huge price. However, the little demon which had yet to transform, actually managed to develop the ability. If word about such a rare occurrence were to spread, it would probably cause a lot of people to covet it again.
Right after Hu Xian"er spoke, the morning glory fell silent while the ten-thousand-year-old Ochre Yellow Spirit buried itself into the ground.
Suddenly, a gentle, female voice sounded at the door.
"Is Senior Brother Chen Chen here?"
Hearing her voice, Chen Chen sobered up and stood up.
He had yet to get to know a few of his Junior Sisters since he had joined the Tianyun Clan. Yet, there was one looking for him now. Was she just attempting to gain favor because he was the future clan master?
Thinking of the possibility, Chen Chen cleared his throat and tried to answer with a tone of austerity.
"Yes, please come in."
Moments after he spoke, a gorgeous woman wearing a long yellow dress walked in. The moment he saw her, Chen Chen found the woman to be familiar-looking.
Before he even asked any questions, the woman in the yellow dress introduced, "I"m Zhao Xiaoya, an inner clan disciple. Greetings, Senior Brother."
…
Although Zhao Xiaoya was smiling on the surface, her heart was bitter.
It was her first time in the courtyard of the main peak and the intensity and richness of ethereality had really given her a great shock. The ethereality was at least three times greater than at her cultivation area!
Even her grandfather"s cultivation residence, the Tianyun Clan"s Elder Xing Fa, couldn"t compare to this place!
"Oh? What, are you looking for me for?" Chen Chen asked indifferently with the demeanor of a Senior Brother.
Needless to say, Zhao Xiaoya was there to find out more about the Tianyun Divine Thunder Technique. For the sake of doing so, she even decided to take out an extremely precious thousand-year-old red ginseng from her collection as a gift.
She had witnessed the events that took place between Chen Chen and her Junior Brother, which in her opinion, was a blatant hint for everyone to give him gifts.
She thought that a greedy hillbilly like him may reveal the Tianyun Divine Thunder Technique as long as she did something to please him.
After she thought about it, she then gazed over at Hu Xian"er who was standing behind Chen Chen.
Chen Chen immediately understood her intentions and said to Hu Xian"er, "Xian"er, you go take care of the medicinal herb field."
Hu Xian"er smiled and had no choice but to leave pretentiously. She didn"t dare to embarra.s.s Chen Chen in front of outsiders.
After following Chen Chen for so many days, she knew that her master valued his pride more than treasures.
"Senior Brother, you"re so wise and intelligent..." Zhao Xiaoya praised with a smile as her expression slowly changed and was replaced with a pitiful look.
"Senior Brother Chen, you have no idea. When I was a young child, my parents were killed by the demon clan so I set my mind to avenge my parents... Unfortunately, I"m too incompetent..."
Hearing this, Chen Chen frowned.
"What do you mean? Do you want me to avenge your parents?"
"But you"re not my wife, and I"m not the clan master. Why would I be bothered about such things?"
When she noticed Chen Chen"s changing expression, Zhao Xiaoya knew that he had misunderstood something. Hence, she explained, "I should be the one to avenge my parents but I"m just too weak now, I need..."
At this juncture, Zhao Xiaoya took out the thousand-year-old red ginseng from the storage bag.
The moment the red ginseng was taken out of the bag, a dense ethereality began to emanate.
Zhao Xiaoya was pained to see the red ginseng as the ethereality it contained was worth at least 500 Spirit Stones! If she was to completely absorb it, her status of cultivation would immediately increase.
However, if she couldn"t bear to pay the price, she wouldn"t be able to reap the greater benefits. If she didn"t fork out a good thing, how could she have the cheek to ask about the Tianyun Divine Thunder Technique?
However, after she took out the red ginseng, she failed to see the greedy gleam in Chen Chen"s eyes that she had expected. In fact, there wasn"t even a slight fluctuation in his emotions.
"What is going on?"
As she rea.n.a.lyzed the situation, a voice echoed from afar.
"Disciple, you"ve almost used up the 1,000 Spirit Stones I gave you last time, right? Come to my place later to collect another 1,000 Spirit Stones."
Hearing the voice, Zhao Xiaoya felt as if she had been struck by lightning.
"Is this how a successor is treated? The 1,000 Spirit Stones from last time..."
"But Chen Chen has only been in the Tianyun Clan for a few days!"
Looking at the red ginseng in her hand, Zhao Xiaoya was a little embarra.s.sed and couldn"t bring herself to present it.
When Chen Chen saw her expression, he linked it to his master"s words and immediately figured out what was going on.
In all likelihood, Zhao Xiaoya was going to make an excessive request!
"Is she here to confess her love to me? This, d.a.m.n it... it doesn"t seem too excessive! After all, she"s gorgeous."
"Forget it, I"d better trust Master."
At that moment, Chen Chen sighed in his heart and turned his head towards Hu Xian"er, "Xian"er, haven"t you always wanted that two-thousand-year-old demonic spirit flower in the medicinal herb field? Since I"m in a good mood today, I"ll give it to you as a reward."
Hearing his words, Zhao Xiaoya"s pupils constricted as she subconsciously turned to look at the medicinal herb field, only to get nearly blinded by the piles of treasures there, all of which were not inferior to the thousand-year-old red ginseng in her hand!
"This..."
Zhao Xiaoya"s body trembled violently. Within the courtyard, items of equal value to the thousand-year-old red ginseng, which she deemed as a treasure, were commonly found in the courtyard of the new disciple-c.u.m-successor of the clan who was right in front of her!
"Who could justify it for her?"
As she gazed at the courtyard, she simply felt that the thousand-year-old red ginseng in her hand was not much different from the gold that Sun Tiangang had offered the previous day.
After all, value is relative. 100 taels may be a ma.s.sive sum in the eyes of a pauper, but in the eyes of a tyc.o.o.n, it was just loose change.
However now, she was the pauper and Chen Chen was the tyc.o.o.n.
"Junior Sister, what do you mean by giving me this red ginseng?" Chen Chen turned around and looked at Zhao Xiaoya with a smile on his face.
"No... it"s nothing, it"s just a small token of mine, take it as a meeting gift. Sorry to have embarra.s.sed myself with such a paltry gift." Zhao Xiaoya said fl.u.s.teredly as she placed the red ginseng in Chen Chen"s hand.
The more frightening thing for her was that the clan master had spoken just now, which meant that he had seen all her actions.
As the second Senior Sister of the inner clan, she had never faced such a situation before. She now believed that she had incurred a double loss.
"Is the strength of all the capable cultivators who are at the pinnacle of the Core Formation realm this terrifying? Despite being seated thousands of meters away, he can still hear and see everything that happens here clearly..."
When she thought of this, she dared not stay any longer, and instead hurriedly bade farewell and left the courtyard of the main peak in a panic.
"Junior Sister Zhao, I"ll accept your ginseng. From now on, I"ll take care of you in the Tianyun Clan. If you encounter any trouble, just report my name!"
Chen Chen"s voice came from behind her, but Zhao Xiaoya didn"t hear him at all.
At this moment, all she had in mind was, "The clan master won"t let me learn the Tianyun Divine Thunder Technique!"
Thinking about the fact, Zhao Xiaoya began tearing up subconsciously.
It was true that she wanted to avenge her parents... Although she knew that the Tianyun Divine Thunder Technique might not be the most suitable technique for her, she couldn"t give up without taking a look at it.
Now, it seemed that there was no hope at all.
In a moment of bewilderment, Zhao Xiaoya soon left the main peak. Just as she was heading to the inner clan, a frivolous voice called out to her.
"Long time no see, Junior Sister Zhao!"
A trace of disgust and repulsion appeared in Zhao Xiaoya"s eyes when she heard his voice and the confusion and bewilderment on her face vanished, only to be replaced by endless indifference.
She then turned around and said, "Long time no see, Senior Brother w.a.n.g."
When "Senior Brother w.a.n.g" saw Zhao Xiaoya"s expression, he scrambled towards Zhao Xiaoya with possessiveness in his eyes which he didn"t even attempt to hide.
"Tsk, tsk, Junior Sister Zhao, you"ve changed so much over the past few days since we hadn"t seen each other! You"ve become more beautiful than before!"
"Please respect yourself, Senior Brother w.a.n.g!" Zhao Xiaoya took two steps backward, becoming more and more disgusted at his sight.
He was the only person in the Tianyun Clan who dared to blatantly flirt with her.
Some time ago, w.a.n.g Feng had gone to the mortal world for fun. She never knew that he had already returned to the Tianyun Clan.
Thinking about how he had pestered her in the past, Zhao Xiaoya"s became more and more annoyed.
"Hey, Xiaoya, after messing around in the mortal world, I realized that you are my true love!" w.a.n.g Feng had a lecherous look on his face, appearing as if he couldn"t wait to devour Zhao Xiaoya on the spot.
Zhao Xiaoya"s aura trembled, flinging w.a.n.g Feng seven or eight meters away and causing him to fall onto the ground.
"Great! Zhao Xiaoya, how dare you hit me!? The Tianyun Clan is getting out of hand!"
w.a.n.g Feng was lying on the ground with a face full of infuriation.
Zhao Xiaoya secretly regretted being so impulsive because of her foul mood.
The reason she couldn"t afford to provoke w.a.n.g Feng was not because he was extremely talented and had a high status of cultivation, nor was it because of how strong his backers were within the clan.
It was due to the fact that w.a.n.g Feng was the "exchange disciple" from the Wuxin Clan, the head of the 36 clans.
In name, he was an exchange disciple, but in fact, he was a spy that the Wuxin Clan planted in Tianyun Clan, and a blatant one at that. If w.a.n.g Feng were to go back to the Wuxin Clan and badmouth the Tianyun Clan, the Tianyun Clan would inevitably be targeted or even punished by the Wuxin Clan...