He must gather the resources for pill refinement at the Yin Gou Ward during this trip.
This great power owned the dragon lake for several thousand years now. It was mysterious with plenty of masters and everlasting legends.
“Feng Feiyun.” He was preparing a group to bring gifts to the dragon lake. Alas, he was stopped right on his track by a demon.
He sighed inside before turning around with a fake smile: “Your Excellency, are you having a good time here? Are the servants doing a good job?”
She was wearing an extravagant dress with a gold-inlaid belt now, accentuating her perfect features like jade-nose, tapered chin, and draping hair. It resulted in her being less aggressive and n.o.bler.
The artisan of the mansion personally spent three days to make this for her. She was obviously beautiful but there was an indescribable coldness before. Not to mention appreciating her looks, Feiyun became afraid just from a brief glance of her.
This change of style brightened his eyes with astonishment.
“Where are you going?” She stared at him with her starry eyes.
“A birthday party.” Feiyun answered.
“Whose?” She asked.
“Yin Gou’s fourth daughter.”
She closed her eyes to think. Recently, she has grown to distrust this guy more and more: “You’re not allowed to leave the mansion.”
“Why not?” Feiyun was almost speechless.
“You are certainly going to the palace to snitch.” She was cautious after being fooled so many times before.
To which Feiyun retorted: “I’m clearly going to a birthday party, if you don’t believe me, you can come with?”
“Alright.”
“....” He was only casually asking for fun but didn’t expect to cause unnecessary trouble with her agreeing.
Nevertheless, there was nothing he could do to escape this demon and could only bring her along.
2,000 spirit stones, 100 millennium flowers, 4,000 slaves, and 300 maids. These gifts have been prepared already; the caravan included more than one hundred carriages pulled by beasts with powerful armored guards.
Feiyun and the Evil Woman were sitting in a beautiful carriage. It flew above the clouds and headed for the lake.
She closed her eyes on board and began to cultivate while treating Feiyun as air.
Sacred spirits were all around her with countless celestial glimmers flas.h.i.+ng near her forehead. There was no trace of deathly energy so her evil affinity was virtually undetectable.
“Three Corpses Slas.h.i.+ng The Dao, looks like the evil corpse has gotten the body while the good corpse is inside her mind. This is a way to reach sainthood or a devil king path. This woman was definitely not simple in her previous life, understanding both the daoist and evil doctrines.” Feiyun glanced over and understood half of her cultivation method.
A fourth transformation corpse was identical to an Enlightened Being. She was still a bit away from being at the peak of this realm. Otherwise, she wouldn’t need to fear anyone in the Jin Dynasty, not even the emperor.
The dragon lake spanned for three thousand miles at the northwest region in the capital. It was long and narrow like a dragon with waves resembling scales - hence its name.
Of course, there were rumors about a heavenly dragon reaching the dao inside this lake in the distant past and ascended.
“Dragon lake for spanning three thousand miles; White Jade represents the Yin Gou!”
“White Jade” was an island on the river with a Yin Gou Ward on it. This was the meaning of the popular poem about this clan.
It was indeed the richest clan in the world - magnificent and extravagant without losing their main focus - cultivation. There were thousands of beasts near this river, enough for other clans to sigh and lament.
Many n.o.bles were on the invitation list along with other bigs shots. The lake was filled with carriages.
“Ah. Your Excellency, you’re finally here, may I show you around the lake?” Dongfang Yiye saw Feiyun coming and quickly abandoned his guests and went to greet the guy.
These two could be considered old acquaintances from their previous meetings. Yiye was a brilliant man and left a good impression on Feiyun.
“Manager Yiye, looks like you’re quite busy today.” Feiyun said with a smile.
Yiye was a bit plump with friendly features. He was insightful enough to notice something special about the woman behind Feiyun: “The Divine Queen isn’t with you today?”
“She’s busy with something else, I’m afraid she won’t make it.” Feiyun noticed his glance and introduced: “This is my older cousin, last name Xiao.”
“Ah, so you are Miss Xiao, nice to meet you.” Yiye smiled.
The Evil Woman did not respond.
Suddenly, rowdiness came from ahead.
“The youngest Divine Commander, Ling Donglai, has a ma.s.sive gift.”
“I heard it is an 8,000-year violet calamus. Eating this can let a cultivator at the end of his life have another hundred years, you won’t be able to find a second one in the Jin Dynasty.”
The older the spirit gra.s.ses, the rarer. 1,000-year was common but not 2,000 years. At 5,000 and up, they couldn’t be bought with spirit stones.
As for 8,000-year old? One wouldn’t appear in a century.
The Yin Gou Ward never had a lack of treasure but this was indeed special and required luck to find.
Using spirit gra.s.ses for longevity purpose was only effective once. Thus, the dying Giants and big shots would pick the most precious ones since this was a grave matter, relating to their life.
Some gra.s.ses extended life by a decade or two. For example, Princess Luofu gave the Divine King a 6,000-year old ginseng. This could extend life by fifty years. One would naturally pick the calamus over the ginseng.
“I heard the clan master’s lifespan is near the end so he needs a longevity treasure. Looks like Donglai brought just the right thing and will win his favor.”
“Everyone knows that he’s trying to court the fourth lady, I think he’ll try to propose tonight too.”
“He’s a rising star with peerless providence, if he marries the fourth lady, the clan will have a supreme lord protecting them after one hundred years.”
More chaos came about after the second news.
“Donglai just presented his second gift, a pseudo-fourth-ranked spirit treasure, an ancient artifact with an incomplete spirit but it is still as strong as before.”
“G.o.dd.a.m.n! A fourth-ranked treasure as a gift? Looks like Donglai is going all out for this marriage.”
Feiyun and Yiye were having a small chat while listening to the gossip. Virtually everyone was envious and impressed by Donglai’s great showing.
Yiye smiled and said: “Divine Commander Ling is truly in love with our Fourth Lady. He came here many times and the clan master is very happy with him too. The two of you must be the most exceptional in this generation.”
Feiyun only smiled in response.
“The commander is blessed with fortune, it would be hard to find someone luckier than him.” Yiye added.
Another news interrupted their talk, causing quite a stir.
“The second ranker on the upper list, Li Xiaoxian, is also offering an 8,000-year Spirit Parting, a true fate flower, capable of increasing lifespan by 120 years. Yea, it’s one level higher than the violet calamus.”
“His second gift is a True Buddhist Sarira from an Enlightened Being. It has the being’s dao so the value is not inferior to a pseudo-fourth-ranked treasure.”
“Looks like this prodigy from Sacred Spirit is also in love with the Fourth Lady.”
Cultivators began running for the island in order to meet this legendary second-ranker on the upper list. Before the appearance of the first on the list, he was the number one in Jin. Many young ladies considered him as the lover in their dream. The boys considered him to be their goal and role model.
They placed him on quite a high pedestal as a result.
“Looks like it’ll be fun tonight.” Feiyun laughed.
“Of course, of course. Everyone was a hot-blooded youth once, fighting and getting bloodied for the women they like without a word of regrets. One must compete and fight for women though, waiting for them to come? They’ll be someone else’s women by then.” Yiye smiled and said: “But why am I blabbering about this, showing my slight skill before an expert? Your Excellency is a master of love.”
“Manager, after you.” Feiyun was quite excited and gestured at Yiye, wanting to go deeper into the island.
“Your Excellency, please, this way. Oh right, the feast tonight is divided into two sections, one for the young generation and the other old, which one do you want?” Yiye asked.
Feiyun was still part of the young generation but his status was of the older generation so Yiye didn’t know how to arrange it.
“Youth gotta be with their peers, it’s no fun drinking with a bunch of old geezers.” Feiyun laughed.