Young Noble Be Monster Slaying

Chapter 55: Purchasing Koi Fish

If someone were to do a proper analysis, they would realize that the divine envoy's combat power was nowhere near that of the Tiger King. It was just that unlike Yun Chaoxian, the divine envoy was rather cunning. Yun Chaoxian would have been able to defeat the divine envoy alone, but it would have taken him a bit longer to do so.

With a swing of his halberd, Yun Chaoxian cut up the tree demon into pieces. Its enlarged branches and plants quickly wilted and withered, leaving behind a big mess.

Chu Liang looked around and extended his divine sense in search of items with a spiritual nature that might have been left behind.

However, demons were generally not adept in utilizing enchanted cauldrons, and they usually didn't possess many valuable items. So, after a careful search, he found only two potentially useful items.

The first was the bronze mask that the divine envoy had worn. When Chu Liang's divine sense passed over it, he faintly sensed it contained some spiritual energy. It seemed like it might have some special properties, so he picked it up.

The second item was a green leaf the size of his palm. The ground was covered with fallen leaves, but this leaf was extremely different from the others. It shimmered lustrously with dense spiritual energy.

"The divine envoy's a tree demon, so this seems to be a Lifeforce Green Leaf that he refined," Chu Liang remarked. He examined it, flipped it over, and examined it thoroughly before concluding, "It can't be used in its current state, but it will be an excellent material for making an enchanted tool. I can take it back to the mountain and have someone turn it into an enchanted artifact."

The Hall of Weapons had specialized services for making enchanted tools. As long as Mount Shu disciples provided the materials and a certain amount of sword coins, they could hire the Hall of Weapons to make an enchanted tool for them.

Yun Chaoxian, who was topless, walked over while carrying his halberd upside down.

"Hehe. This time as well, it was all thanks to you helping me, Brother Chu," Yun Chaoxian said, not minding what Chu Liang was doing.

They had agreed earlier that any profits that arose from fighting the divine envoy belonged to Chu Liang, so Yun Chaoxian had no objections regarding Chu Liang picking up the fallen items. Yun Chaoxian was simply feeling free and happy from having just killed a foe he'd hated.

"Even if I hadn't come with you, he wouldn't have been a match for you, Brother Yun," Chu Liang replied.

"Naturally. But if you had gone all out, I'm sure he would have died with a single strike. Instead, you deliberately spared him to let me deal the final blow..."

Yun Chaoxian felt quite moved.

In his view, if Chu Liang had unleashed the Ten Thousand Swords Seal from that day, the divine envoy might not have been able to withstand it even if he were to defend with all of his might. However, Chu Liang had used the much weaker Hundred Swords Seal instead.

Does he lack the ability to do so? Of course not!

It must be because Brother Chu knows I've been chasing this treacherous evildoer for many days, so he didn't want to steal my thunder and deliberately left it to me to deal the killing to the demon.

Brother Chu truly... moves my heart.

Chu Liang could only smile politely in response. "Haha."

He was actually thinking, Deliberately let someone else take the credit...? Wouldn't that just make me a big fool?

Once Chu Liang was done searching there, he turned and went back up to the terrace on the second floor to search the clothes of the malevolent shamans he'd defeated earlier.

The malevolent shamans had quite a few miscellaneous, but they were all somewhat dark and creepy. For example, there was a set of flying knives that required the wielder to cut themselves first before they could throw the knives... There was also a blood-drinking skull that almost bit Chu Liang... a little straw man that had someone's birth data written on it... and metal nails that were dipped in some mystery blood...

Most of the items were already bound to the malevolent shamans and needed to be nourished by their blood. The spiritual nature of those items disappeared with the death of the malevolent shamans.

Some items retained their spiritual nature, but those items were inexplicably strange.

It seems that they're not usable. I'll turn them in when I return to the mountain.

The most valuable item was a brocade box Chu Liang found among the old man's clothes. It contained a treasure of nature.

The Nethersea Golden Lotus?

This treasure that Fiend longed for had actually fallen into Chu Liang's hands. It was quite a valuable item. If nothing unexpected happened in the meantime, then this Nethersea Golden Lotus would be Chu Liang's greatest gain this time.

Chu Liang persistently looked around a few more times to make sure he hadn't missed anything.

Then he stood up, exhaled a long breath, and said, "Let's report this to the authorities."

...

It appeared that the Mount Shu Sect and the Great Astral Sect still had prominent reputations, as Chu Liang and Yun Chaoxian were warmly received when they went to the Kaoshan City's government office.

The two of them explained that the demon divine envoy was the perpetrator of the tragic massacre.

After some investigating, the authorities confirmed that was indeed the case. Seeing as the culprit had already been killed by Chu Liang and Yun Chaoxian, the authorities could finally close the case. Putting the city on lockdown to catch the killer had placed immense pressure on the government office, so everyone was elated now that the matter was finally resolved.

The government office publicly commended Chu Liang and Yun Chaoxian and rewarded each of them with five hundred taels of silver. This small amount of money wasn't even enough for the Money-Eating Curse Beetle to have a meal though. Nevertheless, cultivators wouldn't normally care about any of that.

In any case, this incident had a huge impact on the city, so the public commendation helped Chu Liang and Yun Chaoxian become a little more famous.

Yun Chaoxian wanted to give his share of the reward to Chu Liang, but Chu Liang immediately refused and told him to use the money to buy more clothes instead.

After leaving Kaoshan City, the two men had to go their separate ways. However, Yun Chaoxian was reluctant to part with Chu Liang.

"Brother Chu, the world is so vast. After parting here, who knows when we will meet again?"

"Brother Yun, don't worry. If fate allows it, we will meet again," Chu Liang replied, cupping his hands together sincerely.

"That's right. It will be next year at the latest. After all, you'll definitely be representing Mount Shu Sect in the Grand Competition of Immortal Sects that's being held in the capital city. We will certainly see each other again then," Yun Chaoxian said with a smile.

"Yes," Chu Liang agreed, nodding.

Simultaneously, he thought, Well, you'd better be able to see me then.

The Grand Competition of Immortal Sects was conducted every twelve years in the capital city of the Yu Dynasty, and the various immortal sects would send out their most outstanding young disciples to participate in it. The rankings of the results held a rather significant meaning for the sects.

However, for a disciple to represent the Mount Shu Sect in the Grand Competition of Immortal Sects, they had to first perform exceptionally well at the Mount Shu Summit this year. It was hard to anticipate who would emerge as the representative.

After bidding farewell to the "super smart" guy, Chu Liang set out on the journey back to Mount Shu.

Just as his flying sword was about to reach Mount Shu, he made a controlled descent onto the outskirts of a small town—Yunhua Town. It was the first town at the foot of Mount Shu, and Mount Shu's disciples often went there to purchase goods.

Despite being a small town, Yunhua Town was bustling with activity. Chu Liang went for a stroll through a market that sold flowers, birds, and fish, which was located in a corner of the town.

He paused in front of a bird-seller's stall.

Chu Liang asked, "Sir, I want to buy a koi fish for feng shui purposes. Where should I go to find a good one?"

That's right. A few days ago, when he received the reward from Kaoshan City's authorities, he thought he should buy a koi fish. Now that he had money in his pocket, he was ready to put his plan into motion.

Yet, after looking around, he didn't see any koi fish of excellent quality.

The bird-seller pointed enthusiastically and said, "You should go have a look at Shopkeeper Chen's fish store on the street corner. He has koi fish from the Bombax River, and the quality has always been the best."

"Great, thank you," Chu Liang replied.

He turned and walked to the street corner, where he found an inconspicuous shop front. Upon entering, he saw that it was empty of people.

"Is the shopkeeper here?" Chu Liang asked.

"Oh, dear..." a groan rang out from the inner room of the store. "Has a customer arrived? Please come inside to talk."

"Hmm?"

Chu Liang was a bit puzzled as he walked into the inner room.

He saw a middle-aged man in an undershirt lying on a bed. Half of the middle-aged man's face was extremely swollen and red, and there was a patch on his leg that was swollen and bruised. He seemed to be in a great deal of pain.

"I've been unwell lately. Please forgive me, dear customer," Shopkeeper Chen greeted. "We're all neighbors. Just go have a look around. Whatever you want to buy, take it out yourself and show it to me. I'll tell you the price."

"Shopkeeper," Chu Liang said, "I want to buy feng shui koi fish, but I don't think I saw any outside earlier..."

"Oh..." Shopkeeper Chen couldn't help but groan again when the topic of koi fish came up.

It seemed to be a painful topic for him.

"I don't dare to sell koi fish now," Shopkeeper Chen replied.

"But... everyone outside says that the koi fish here are of the best quality," Chu Liang stated.

"That was before. I'd caught all of the koi fish in my shop from the Bombax River, so naturally, they were of the best quality," Shopkeeper Chen explained sorrowfully. "But two days ago, a swarm of venomous bees suddenly appeared out of nowhere at the Bombax River. Look at me now. I was stung by those bees. It's already been five or six days, and I've seen the doctor, but no medicine seems to work. It's extremely painful.

"With those venomous bees there, who would dare to go fishing?"