Chapter 296: Tears Ran In My Life
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
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“How is it, Green Spirit, what price do you think is right?!”
“A Pure Yang Celestial Device is a losing business no matter what price you charge. Instead, you’d better refine it for your own sake. The Octupole Exquisite PaG.o.da was made by refining the essence of the eight mountains, and the strongest Pure Yang Celestial Device in the world. The boy was unable to develop his full force or even didn’t know how to use it, otherwise, it wouldn’t be so easy for you to defeat him and got a bargain!”
“I want to keep it as well, but you have to understand that the biggest tragedy in life is possessing something unsuitable with one’s own strength. Possessing only one Pure Yang Celestial Device for me right now is, within my capacity, through which I might even deter others. But if I have two, and one of them is obtained from the Royalty, then it is a crime and disaster. This matter is simply not worthy of others.” Junior Leopard said with a sarcastic smile. “Although I have a deeper relations.h.i.+p with the Immortal Palace, they will never breach the rules established by several hundreds of thousands of years and openly give it to me. Therefore, the Eight Immortals Exquisite PaG.o.da is a root cause of trouble in my hands, so send it out as soon as possible!”
“It makes sense for you to think like this, like an Innate Green Lotus Seed. Isn’t because your Air-frozen Bead processed materials are missing? Why not exchange the PaG.o.da for the materials with Li Family? It’s okay that they may not provide us with all the materials at once, but we can ask as much as it can be changed!”
“Well, it’s fine. To lose a Pure Yang Celestial Device openly and to exchange one secretly in return is indeed a good bargain!” Zhou Bao nodded. “By the way, The Immortal Palace members have arrived already. It seems that the palace has attached great importance to this Azure Secret Area. Besides the Golden Rooster, there are another two experts. Currently, there are three experts in my territory which is enough to build a great defense here!”
“Your territory only has a radius of 300,000 meters, which is too wasteful to use three experts. But…it’s much safer anyway!”
“I’m going now to look for them, and talk about their situation, and to see if there is any place to look out for! The Immortal guys are highly skilled, but too troublesome sometimes!”
“You are now a member of the Immortal Palace, but I feel like you’re always thinking of how to use their ideas. That’s really bad!” Green Spirit reminded him.
“Yes, I know. I do have the idea of taking advantage of them and I know that’s very bad!” Zhou Bao answered and rushed straight to his villa in a flash.
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“Junior Leopard, come, let me introduce you!”
At this moment, the group of the three guys headed by Golden Rooster was looking for something at the place where Zhou Bao entered into the Azure Secret Area. Seeing Zhou Bao coming, Golden Rooster started the introduction promptly. “This is Moon Deer of Extended Net. You’ve met each other before. This one is the Sun Rat of Emptiness and you can call him Mouse. His best technique is to dig holes and set formations!”
With a smile, Zhou Bao cupped his hand in front of the Sun Rat of Emptiness. “I’m Zhou Bao, the Water Leopard of Winnowing Basket among the 28 constellations. I’m honored to see you here!”
Seeing Zhou Bao’s courtesy, the Sun Rat of Emptiness smiled as well. “Everyone is a family and doesn’t need so much devotion. But, don’t be rude as Golden Rooster!” He glanced at the Golden Rooster fiercely while saying that.
If at other times, the Golden Rooster would have already answered back. But today, he got a great deal from the Sun Rat of Emptiness, for which his mind also became broader. He made a look that was saying “I’m not at the same level as you,” leaving no chance for the Sun Rat of Emptiness to unleash his anger.
“Junior Leopard, we won’t be guilty of you!” The Golden Rooster laughed for a second and then his expression turned serious. “I guess you know our purpose this time. The exit of the Azure Secret Area is of great significance, even the Immortal Palace have to be very careful about it! The Mouse is the most proficient in setting formations among the 28 constellations. And this time, he has brought a Pure Yang Celestial Device—the Universe Wheel in order to protect the gateway. However, it takes some time to set the formations and fuse the Universe Wheel with the gateway. During this time, no one is allowed to disturb him. That’s why Moon Deer of Extended Net and I came here as well and we are here to protect the mouse. Although we’ve got enough defensive force, but we hope we could take every care just in case. It’s your territory after all. Therefore, we need your help and we won’t let any accidents happen!”
“Certainly, you are in my territory. I will be responsible for your security!” Junior Leopard nodded, and then smiled again. “But…how could it be unsafe with you guys sticking together to set the protection.”
“It’s just in case!” Golden Rooster shook his head and said, “It would be best to have your help. The formation settlement and the fuse of Universe Wheel take at least half a year, which accidents are absolutely not allowed. Of course, that’s good for you as well. No one in this world knows that Zhou Bao is the Water Leopard of Winnowing Basket from the Immortal Palace except our members. Once someone intrudes and find out that we all are in your territory, I think people can naturally relate us to the entrance which is guarded by you. Those with excellent imagination will then know the relation between you and the Immortal Palace, and then your second ident.i.ty may not be a secret anymore.”
“Are you scaring me?”
“I’m not scaring you. It’s a reality. So, you’d better stay within your territory during this period and don’t run around. Lest we get involved if anyone garners all his courage and makes a trouble in your territory, making your secret revealed in the end!”
“You’re right. In this case…I will stay here for half a year. By the way, does it only take half a year?”
“The duration is only our prediction. If everything goes well, five months is enough at most!” The Sun Rat of Emptiness added, “You don’t have to be too worried about our long stay!”
“I’m very glad to have you guys stayed here!” Zhou Bao chuckled and said. “Since then, let’s say it. Here is my territory. Inform me whenever you guys have any requirements, despite the opening. As long as I can do it, I must do it!”
“Don’t be so courteous. Golden Rooster will go for you whenever we need your help!” The Sun Rat of Emptiness nodded with a smile. “I have to stay here during the formation settlement. Moon Deer of Extended Net will be in trouble if he goes out, for he has made some troubles outside. So, Golden Rooster is responsible for the contact with you. Seal this place off after you leave!”
“Seal it off?” Zhou Bao was shocked. “Then, what about your basic supplies like meals and drink—!”
“I would open a new pa.s.sageway to the outside after that. It is much safer. We stay here for the formations while you build your yard outside. It’s a win-win scenario!”
“That’s alright. I’ll tell them to seal it off!” Zhou Bao listened with a sarcastic smile. “Those guys are too eccentric. Since they are fond of making holes and want to enjoy themselves to the fullest, there is no reason for me to refuse!”
The next day.
In the living room of the western yard.
Li Xiu wrinkled his beautiful brow and looked at the long list provided by Zhou Bao. “Well, what do you do? There are more than a half that I haven’t heard of, and a few that are almost legendary and…Well, are you making things difficult for me deliberately? If you do not want to give it out, you don’t need to embarra.s.s me!”
“Your words are unjust a little bit. Is it very easy to find a Pure Yang Celestial Device in your mind? Or is a Pure Yang Celestial Device not worthy of those materials? If you could meet my requirements easily, then, wouldn’t it be my disdain for the Li Family of Pingzhou?”
Zhou Bao smiled and raised his hand. And then, with a flash of yellow light, a Bronze PaG.o.da at the height of about one meter stood in front of him. “I’ll give you the Bronze PaG.o.da first. As for the stuff on the list, you have five years to look for them. You could give me whatever you find and for the rest, you should hand in things with the equivalent value instead. How about that?”
Seeing the Eight Immortal Exquisite PaG.o.da, Li Xiu’s eyes were totally hooked. He immediately took it into his arms and observed it up and down. After a while, his eyes moved away from the Eight Immortal Exquisite PaG.o.da and fell on Zhou Bao. “Okay, I agree with your conditions. Whether we can find them all or not, the Li Family of Pingzhou owes you a debt!”
“You guys…young aristocrats always speak in such a haughty way!” Zhou Bao waved his hands and said, “Well, I don’t need you to owe me anything. Just try your best to find those materials. You must spread the news that the Eight Immortal Exquisite PaG.o.da was in the Li Family’s hand in Jianghu, the instant when you return your place. I don’t want to be in trouble for it then!”
“Don’t worry. The Li Family of Pingzhou also needs a Pure Yang Celestial Device like this to suppress the fate!” Li Xiu smiled and said. “Over the years, we have always followed the rules obediently and did not make any astonishment. Some people are seeking the chance to go against us right now. So, we need something to hold them in awe. Obtaining a Pure Yang Celestial Device at this moment, enough of the people, is really frightening!”
“I don’t care what you like, but I don’t want to be an enemy of the whole world only because of one Pure Yang Celestial Device!” Zhou Bao smiled and sipped the tea. “That’s my difficulty…eh…you may know it!”
“I know that, of course. I’m not an idiot anyway!” Li Xiu smiled. “One Pure Yang Celestial Device can only arouse the suspicion of your mysterious background, but two will definitely help others unfold it. Too much is as bad as too little. I understand that as well!”
“Alright, then let’s take what we need respectively!”
“Okay!” Li Xiu greeted Junior Leopard for a while after getting the Eight Immortal Exquisite PaG.o.da and then rode on his Gang Qi to the southeast. Unexpectedly, a Pure Yang Celestial Device gained by chance, he must get back to his family as soon as possible because he couldn’t protect it by himself alone. Yan Fei left one day ago and the news that Zhou Bao had owned a Pure Yang Celestial Device already and took his Eight Immortal Exquisite PaG.o.da would be spreading out in Jianghu sooner or later. Li Xiu must settle it down before the news spread.
The Eight Immortal Exquisite PaG.o.da was grabbed by Zhou Bao from Yan Fei’s hands, which happened just because of Yan Fei’s deficient cultivation from the perspective of people in Jianghu. So he had no reason to complain about that incident which was totally due to his inferior cultivation.
However, it was more than a debt of Jianghu, because it involved the Royalty of Great Jin as well. To put it more seriously, Zhou Bao robbed what was bestowed by the Royalty, and that was the reason why Zhou Bao bore pain to give it up, though he knew how precious the Eight Immortal Exquisite PaG.o.da was.
If he kept it, the pressure he would face would come from not only the people in Jianghu but also the Royalty. Now, since he had given it out, the whole thing became more complex. Thanks to the Li Family of Pingzhou heading in front, his pressure was also lifted to a great deal.
On one hand, the Royalty of the Great Jin wouldn’t force the Li family to return the Eight Immortal Exquisite PaG.o.da to Yan Fei. It would be a totally unreasonable requirement because the Li Family got the PaG.o.da from Zhou Bao instead of Yan Fei. On the other hand, since Zhou Bao had sold the PaG.o.da out, he could make excuses that he was unable to take it back from the Li Family of Pingzhou and asked the Royalty to take up the matter by themselves.
The whole thing then turned into a Tai Chi activity or a football match, in which Zhou Bao was an expert in his previous life as a civil servant. Moreover, the PaG.o.da was grabbed by his own strength, thus, Yan Fei would not be in the right and self-confident on that matter.
So, this time, Zhou Bao is equivalent to throwing a hot potato and not only made a fellows.h.i.+p with the Li Family of Pingzhou but also gained many benefits from the bargain. The Li Family of Pingzhou also easily gained a valuable Pure Yang Celestial Device that no one dared to buy it. Thus, one would only be too glad to do it.
It was a win-win scenario!
As for the dispute with Yan Fei, Zhou Bao wasn’t much afraid of that, because there was no reason to fear a fellow whose cultivation just entered Level Seven.
The status of being in the imperial clan might frighten others but not Zhou Bao. Without the Pure Yang Celestial Device, they were just tigers without tooth. Once they caused him trouble, Zhou Bao would never mind humiliating the young aristocrat of the Emperor of Xining to the full.
It wasn’t a good habit to climb on the head of another person, but if you are pushed, Zhou Bao wouldn’t mind climbing.
For the sake of the security of the Azure Secret Area entrance, Zhou Bao had to stay in his fief for at least five months.
Five months!
Since he achieved a high cultivation, he hadn’t stayed in any place for such a long time except for retreats.
Now that his cultivation had already reached Level Seven, and to open his acupoints, his mind was always on those issues about acupoints. He kept constraining his strength and stopped practicing deliberately for fear that his Internal Qi might reach Level Eight unconsciously and would influence his further cultivation.
His body had been completely as strong as that of an Eighth-level expert. Meanwhile, he possessed an External Elixir, a Demonic Fire and a Pure Yang Celestial Device with an intelligent and pure Internal Qi. His Gang Qi had already been represented and had reached the requirement for the promotion of the Level Eight. However, he wasn’t willing to be promoted before the acupoints got open. He didn’t dare to practice anymore for fear of the accident promotion of his Internal Qi to the Eighth-level Realm and at that time, it would be too late for him to cry out seeing it happen.
“Oh, it’s such a tough world. Others are unwilling to make a progress while I’m making efforts to suppress my cultivation. If they know, they may scold me to death!”
After spending three days in his territory, Zhou Bao felt very bored and uneasy all over. “Green Spirit, is there any fun to make? I’m going to die soon since I haven’t practiced for 3 days!”
“You have to endure that. At this moment, your Internal Qi is buoyant and your blood level is high. You could easily reach the Level Eight at any time with your Internal Qi turning into Gang Qi and being condensed into the Real Essence Source. So it’s dangerous for you to even practice the punching. Let alone practice other serious martial arts. What’s more, stop studying the Yin and Yang Dust Formation. It contains the Great Ways and you would promote your cultivation accidentally during the study. Thus, if I were you, I would just think of the ways to open the acupoints here.”
“To open the acupoints is a fine art. It requires me to settle down for it, otherwise, I won’t even know the reason of my death if that happens!” Zhou Bao felt helpless and sat down. “The Golden Flame Mirror has been exposed. In the following days, this place won’t be peaceful and it’s impossible for me to calm down for opening the acupoints as well!”
“There must be some gains and losses, and I can’t help you either. I need to concentrate on my practice to recover the Original Spirit. Don’t disturb me!” The voice of Green Spirit’s thoughts disappeared.
“Hey, hey, what do you say? You—!”
Screamed a few times, Zhou Bao got no response. And that green lamp turned into dim already, looking nothing distinctive at all. He knew that Green Spirit just went back for recovering its Original Spirit, so he could only complain bitterly to himself and yell no more.
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“d.a.m.n, these guys are really endless!”
Zhou Bao hadn’t had a good sleep for five consecutive days and the reason was very simple. The news that he owned a Pure Yang Celestial Device had spread all over Jianghu, arousing more and more martial arts pract.i.tioners to come here and spy on him.
From the beginning, they were masters of martial arts only at Level Four, Five or Six but until now, a quite few experts at Level Seven had appeared. Although there weren’t any signs of the emergence of Eight-level expert, but Zhou Bao believed that it wouldn’t take much time to see them.
After all, Pure Yang Celestial Devices were too tempting and no one was even clearer of that than Zhou Bao, who had owned one and developed the weapon’s power.
If at other times, Zhou Bao wouldn’t care about their visiting, but now things had changed a little bit. It was the time when his yard was under construction as well as the entrance of the Azure Secret Area.
Although the entrance to the mine vein had been sealed, but some who were curious about that would probably go there for an exploration. It would be better if their cultivation were low. But once their cultivation reached Level Eight, perhaps they would definitely see some flaws. Finally, after five-day patience, Zhou Bao couldn’t refrain from his urge and took action.
Although his territory was large, but what really arouse others’ attention was the small town centralization down from the Jilei Mountain and his yard under construction. One would naturally go to the two places instead of the barren land for the news, so it was quite easy for Junior Leopard to find them all.
Zhou Bao wouldn’t be too polite to them, instead, he would beat them black and blue and expel them all.
Soon he found that it didn’t work in this way. After expelling a Fifth-level expert, there would be a Sixth-level expert coming and then a Seventh-level expert. Five or six days had pa.s.sed, and Zhou Bao couldn’t bear the continuous troubles anymore. His intention of killing arose then.
“d.a.m.n! Does my benevolence stand for my cowardliness? Do I look like a plain doormat?”
Looking at the guys whose hands were tied behind their back, Zhou Bao was totally inscrutable. There were seven people kneeling down in the courtyard, most of which were with a cultivation from Level Five to Level Six, and there was one Seventh-level expert as well. They all belonged to different forces.
“Zhou Bao, what do you want? Do untie me right now! Who do you think I am?”
The Seventh-level expert looked rea.s.sured and emboldened. “I must tell you that I am Prince Ning’s…”
With a flash of a sword, this Seventh-level expert’s head was cut off. His warm blood spurted over ten feet high from his neck and his head actually carried an inconceivable gleam when falling on the ground.
“Hump!” Zhou Bao again snorted coldly after that. The cold and powerful spirit fluctuates instantly and violently, and tore the Seventh-level expert’s spirit into pieces with nothing left at all.
He then returned the sword to Zhu Ba standing beside him and fiercely cast his eyes on the rest six people with his face cold and grim. At last, his eyes fell on a Fifth-level master of martial arts at the age of about 30.
“You, also a Prince Ning’s subordinate, right?”
The man was obviously scared by Zhou Bao. He had never seen such a harsh behavior. That was a Seventh-level expert! Zhou Bao just killed him without any hesitation.
So as Zhou Bao asked him, he had been too scared to respond anything until a grim murderous intent hit him.
“Yes, yes, I’m Qin Lei, the guard of Prince Ning!”
“I won’t ask you why Prince Ning sent you here, but take the corpse to him and tell him that don’t send any subordinates here anymore, otherwise, I will kill whoever he sends!” Saying that, Zhou Bao paused and turned his head. He looked at the rest and said, “It’s the same to you guys. Go and tell your Masters that do not trouble me anymore. Otherwise, I won’t show any mercy. I will kill all of them!”
None of them replied, but their expressions were filled with a bit of fear and horror. Prior to Zhou Bao’s killing of the Seventh-level expert, they might think that Zhou Bao was merely frightening them. When the head fell on the ground, they had finally known that he wasn’t. This Seventh-level expert was not only highly skilled but also the subordinate of Prince Ning. Zhou Bao could kill him without batting an eye, so how could he scruple to kill them as they were with a low cultivation and not as powerful as Prince Ning?
At the moment, all of them became watchful and reverent. They even didn’t dare to give a heavy breath out of fear that Zhou Bao with an anger to kill the G.o.ds, would cut their hearts into two parts.