Young Noble Be Monster Slaying

Chapter 94: Fish-Dragon Dance

Chu Liang, who was standing behind them, couldn't help laughing and shaking his head as he listened to their ridiculous conversation. If their merits were to be evaluated according to what they were saying now, then Di Nufeng would be the greatest contributor, followed by Lin Bei, and then Chu Liang.

Of course, Chu Liang was just silently complaining to himself. He would let them continue their little act since his teacher liked it. Chu Liang still had other matters to tend to anyway.

It wasn't within the Mount Shu Sect's disciples' scope of responsibilities to deal with what followed after resolving the main issue. So, Lin Bei proceeded to volunteer to liaise with the city's chief official and other authorities and have them take over the responsibilities of appeasing the public, sending the rescued women home, and investigating the facts of the matter.

Lin Bei had spent a lot of time mingling with the city's officials during the last couple of days. So, when he made his offer to help Di Nufeng, he did so with gusto.

Lin Bei confidently patted his chest and said, "We're all brothers after all!"

He was indeed well-versed in the life skill of making connections.

The House of the Mountain-Subjugating Marquess had been involved in such illicit activities for quite some time without running into trouble with the authorities. It was likely that it had the protection of some influential figures in the bureaucracy.

Nevertheless, that wasn't of much significance, as there was so much noise about the matter that it would soon become widely known all over the world. After that, the imperial court would certainly forcefully intervene.

In any case, the mastermind of the illicit operations had already been executed, and the young lord had been captured. This meant the remaining involved parties didn't have the freedom to act recklessly anymore.

Di Nufeng and Lin Bei were done dealing with official business, so they headed back to the concert venue to resume attending Xue Lingxue's concert.

In the meantime, Chu Liang took some time and left the group temporarily to attend to his personal affairs. His condition had stabilized, so he had no problems moving about on his own.

Chu Liang returned to the riverbank where he'd met with Xia An during the day. It was where Chu Liang had used the power of the Crimson Executioner to kill Master Lu, a powerful sixth-realm cultivator.

Master Lu wasn't a conventional cultivator, but he should still have some valuable possessions after that many years of cultivation, right?

After killing Master Lu, Chu Liang had been urgently trying to kill the young lord too, so he'd forgotten to search Master Lu's corpse.

Now that peace had returned, Chu Liang wanted to rush over and ensure that the equipment of the person he'd had exhausted painstaking efforts to kill hadn't been taken away by someone else.

It was fortunate that Xia An's intention had been to kill Chu Liang and Liu Xiaoyu'er, so the location he'd chosen had been a desolate riverbank where few people passed by.

When Chu Liang returned to the riverbank, everything looked the same as when he'd left. He arrived at the huge pit that his attacks had made and checked if there was anything that could be salvaged from Master Lu.

Firstly, he ruled out Master Lu's corpse itself.

Normally, sixth-realm cultivators would have cultivated a transcendent form, so their physical body would be far superior to that of ordinary people. However, Master Lu's transcendent form had prioritized concealment, which meant his physical body wasn't as strong as that of most sixth-realm cultivators. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been so easily killed with a single strike of a sword.

Master Lu had been incinerated by the immensely amplified power of the Dual Talismanic Swords of Wind and Fire, so his remains were long gone. A careful search might reveal some ashes though.

Similarly, the items he'd carried with him had disintegrated, leaving pretty much nothing behind. However, this meant that anything remaining was undoubtedly a valuable item.

The first thing that Chu Liang found was a jade slip concealed under the remaining half of Master Lu's scorched black robe.

Chu Liang picked up the jade slip and examined it. It seemed to be the kind of jade slip that was used for storing information. Aside from having been made with an excellent base material, there didn't seem to be anything particularly special about the jade slip.

He gently probed it with his divine sense and checked out what was stored inside. What he found were streams of white light with words and illustrations. There was a significantly large amount of information recorded in the jade slip. Surprisingly, it was a complete cultivation legacy!

"The Seven Killings Star cultivation technique..." Chu Liang muttered with wide eyes.

He only took a cursory glance at the information, but he could tell that this was a complete technique for cultivating the Heavenly Star Unusual Art. Furthermore, this was quite possibly the only copy of the legacy in existence. This was obviously a rare and valuable cultivation legacy, but it wasn't of much use to Chu Liang.

After all, Chu Liang didn't need a cultivation legacy. As a conventional cultivator, it was natural that he was able to easily acquire new realm-specific cultivation techniques from his sect each time he advanced to a higher realm of cultivation. This was actually a blessing that only conventional cultivators enjoyed.

There were many unconventional cultivators in this world who, upon reaching the peak of a realm, had to do extensive searches for realm-specific cultivation techniques for their next realm. In fact, some cultivators couldn't have a continued path of cultivation using the techniques developed by their sect; they had to cultivate whatever they could find, forming their own cultivation path with techniques from various sources. For such cultivators, they would undoubtedly be overjoyed if they were to obtain such a complete and formidable cultivation legacy.

In addition to the cultivation technique, there were divine skills mentioned in the manual. Nevertheless, Chu Liang couldn't use them either because the Mount Shu Sect utilized the orthodox Daoist techniques of cultivation, which differed greatly from the Heavenly Star Unusual Art. They couldn't be integrated.

Prior to reaching the seventh realm, cultivators of the Heavenly Star Unusual Art generally progressed faster than cultivators of the three conventional schools of thought, Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism.

However, the Heavenly Star Unusual Art was a simpler cultivation path. So, it was likely due to this that cultivators with similar levels of talent would advance realms faster on that cultivation path than on the cultivation paths of the three conventional schools of thought. Despite that, the cultivators on the path of the Heavenly Star Unusual Art were generally weaker than conventional cultivators of the same realm.

Nonetheless, this situation would change once cultivators broke out of the Earth Gate. Cultivators of a cultivation level within the three realms of the Heavenly Gate primarily competed in the strength of their Dao, not the mastery of their cultivation art.

After storing away the jade slip containing the legacy, Chu Liang searched the scorched earth and found the blade of a saber—the saber that Master Lu had used to stab Chu Liang. The saber's handle had been destroyed, but its jet-black blade remained.

Chu Liang still felt a lingering fear even as he looked at it now. If Xue Lingxue hadn't been present, Chu Liang might have bled to death from the injury this very blade had caused.

He carefully wrapped the saber in a piece of cloth and put it away.

Looking around again, Chu Liang discovered a small violet gourd. One side of it had been scorched black, but aside from that, the gourd was totally undamaged.

"Hmm?"

Chu Liang's eyes lit up.

The material of this gourd was really sturdy. It had to be storing something valuable inside. Perhaps Chu Liang's biggest gain today would be the contents of this gourd.

He unsealed the gourd and found around five or six small black pills inside. Chu Liang gave them a sniff, but there was no discernible odor. He decided to keep them for now and have them appraised later at the Hall of Alchemy.

Chu Liang searched for quite a long time, but he couldn't find anything else.

It seemed that Master Lu hadn't had an abundance of valuable items despite his high level of cultivation. Nevertheless, this was the norm for unconventional cultivators. They were unlike the cultivators in immortal sects who could acquire the resources they needed at any time from their sect.

Of course, what was even rarer than that was having a mystical pagoda that could give its owner rewards without any restrictions.

Chu Liang stood up and carefully scanned the area with his divine sense to ensure he hadn't missed anything. Then he lowered his head and visually scanned the place again.

Chu Liang picked up the remaining half of Master Lu's black robe.

I almost left this behind.

How could cloth that managed to withstand getting incinerated by the Dual Talismanic Swords of Wind and Fire possibly be ordinary?

He put it away. Even if he were to bring it home and use it as a mere cleaning rag, it would be a pretty durable one.

Once he was done searching the area, Chu Liang took stock of his gains: a jade slip containing a cultivation legacy, the blade of a saber, a gourd containing pills, and half a black robe...

Lastly, although he didn't get an imprint in the White Pagoda after killing Master Lu, Chu Liang still benefited from Master Lu's death because it helped resolve his confusion regarding the imprints. It seemed that the White Pagoda only gave rewards when Chu Liang killed evil entities like monsters, demons, and ghosts... There were no rewards for killing humans.

After having spent quite a long while busily searching the riverbank, Chu Liang reluctantly stood up and finally flew back to the concert venue.

Even from a far distance, he could hear cheers so loud that they could shake the heavens!

...

"Xue Lingxue! Xue Lingxue! Xue Lingxue!"

Concerts normally ran for several hours, so it was unsurprising that Xue Lingxue wasn't going to be the only one performing for the entire duration.

Usually, the main performer would open the concert with a solo performance. Next, she would perform with other musicians. After that, she would be joined by an ensemble of musicians and their instruments, female dancers and singers, coming together to form a wonderfully vibrant concert filled with a variety of performances. This was the case for Xue Lingxue's concert too.

By the time Chu Liang got there, it was already the second half of the concert, and there was a lively and passionate atmosphere among the audience. They had long forgotten the incident that had occurred earlier.

Xue Lingxue was standing on the stage with her guqin set on a tall table. Her hands glided back and forth over the strings, plucking them continuously. Amid the melodic notes of the guqin, there was the buzzing sound of an electric dragon roaming about, accompanied by flashes of golden light.

This was a fusion of divine techniques and guqin-playing skills, and the music it produced was much more emotionally resonant than if she'd played the music without the divine techniques.

As the guqin's strings quivered, a gentle radiance fell over the venue from the sky. Under the shimmering starlit sky, countless birds flew over from the hills. They swooped and swirled in the sky as if in dance, highlighting the splendor of the stars.

Behind Xue Lingxue, her five accompanists were immersed in the performance as multicolored lights illuminated their presence. On their left was a golden dragon winding through the air, and on their right was a rainbow shooting over them.

The entire audience stood up and waved their arms along with the melody as they screamed Xue Lingxue's name. It was a lively and passionate atmosphere, so much so that it shook the surrounding area. Various phenomena filled the sky as the hearts of those present aligned with their Dao. This was the charm of the South Melody Conservatory!

In the mid-level premium compartment, Di Nufeng and Lin Bei were swaying along with the music too. Di Nufeng even occasionally whistled, displaying the demeanor of a rogue teacher of a sect.

When Chu Liang landed on the ground and saw the seat of people boiling over with excitement, he felt rather shocked.

"You're back!" Lin Bei yelled when he saw Chu Liang walk over. "Hurry up! It's the climax of the song!"

"What song is this?" Chu Liang asked.

"It's the Fish-Dragon[1] Dance'!" Lin Bei said, "It's a fusion piece that Miss Xue composed. It's quite an explosive piece!"

"Fish-Dragon Dance..." Chu Liang muttered with a smile. Then his smile suddenly disappeared. "Hang on... I seem to have forgotten something."

1. I think it's referring to the Dragon Gate myth about a koi becoming a dragon. ☜