Harvest

Was this the most secret thing you had hidden away?

Liang Yue could not help feeling a little emotional.

Yu Wenlong had lived very close to this place, ensuring that if anything went wrong, he could come here first, take these items, and then flee the divine capital.

Yet he had been caught committing evil while following Divine General Ling on the expedition to the Eastern Sea, and his identity had subsequently been exposed.

When he had risked his life to return to Dragon Abyss City and had nearly succeeded, he had instead been exposed and captured by a twist of fate, ultimately dying.

He had left his only clue to his lover, yet he had not expected his Nine Yang accomplices to notice that their relationship was far more than ordinary affection. Fearing that he would leak secrets, they had long prepared to eliminate Phoenix Butterfly.

In the end, the one who had come here and obtained his belongings was Liang Yue, the Imperial Capital Guard who had caused his exposure from the very beginning.

What went around came around.

It truly was a cycle.

Liang Yue wrapped the bundle back up, climbed back to the surface, shut the mechanism, and restored everything to its original state before cautiously leaving. Even if someone came here in the future and cracked the same line of thought, they would no longer be able to obtain these things.

He returned home before curfew and slipped into his little room before finally beginning to inspect the items.

The first thing he picked up was the banknote.

Liang Yue did not like money. He had absolutely no interest in money.

The reason he examined this one first was because it was the easiest to understand. He only needed to look at the bank and the amount.

This was a two-hundred-tael banknote issued by Yongshun Bank. There was no issue with its authenticity. It was probably the travel money Yu Wenlong had prepared for his final escape.

A full two hundred taels.

Other than at the Zhen family last time, these two hundred taels were already the most money he had seen in this world.

He carefully folded it up, afraid of creasing it even slightly, and tucked it close against his chest. Liang Yue planned to keep this money for emergencies as well, and absolutely could not touch it lightly.

There was no helping it. Poverty had frightened him too badly.

For a family like theirs, two hundred taels was enough to count as becoming rich overnight!

After putting away the banknote, he picked up that strange piece of leather.

It was a damaged, irregular piece of ancient leather, like sheepskin, yet it gleamed with golden light beneath the lamplight. It was palm-sized, thick and solid, and heavy in his hand. The reason it was strange was that it looked extremely ancient. One glance was enough to sense the weight of ages upon it, yet when it was exposed, he could still smell the blood on it.

Dark golden patterns covered the front of the leather. Pieced together, they vaguely formed the character "Dou," though it did not seem entirely like the modern character. It resembled more the sort of sigil-pattern drawn on talismans.

Most crucially, as Liang Yue looked at it, he felt as though he could sense a will that wanted to burst out through the leather. The Dao resonance within seemed extraordinarily intense.

Could this also be a visualization diagram concealing profound mysteries?

Liang Yue considered it and decided to try visualizing it later. First, he would examine the next item.

He took out the long saber with its ebony handle.

This saber also looked exceedingly ancient and was probably quite old. The lower half of the blade was caked with dried mud. Yu Wenlong had not even bothered to wipe it clean.

He looked it over from top to bottom and found no name or marking, so he decided to draw it and take a look.

Then something bizarre happened.

His left hand held the scabbard while his right gripped the hilt. He exerted a little force, but the hilt did not budge, remaining firmly lodged in the scabbard.

"Hm?" he wondered.

He put in a little more strength, using the force Da Chun used to eat sweet potatoes.

"Ha... ah!"

In the end, Liang Yue used all his strength, yet still could not draw the saber.

"Truly strange."

He turned the ebony-handled saber over in his hands. It felt very light, and the material did not look particularly valuable. Why was it so difficult to draw?

Driven by curiosity, he simply took the saber out with him and walked a few steps to Pang Chun's home.

"A Yue?" Pang Chun, who had already gotten off duty, immediately came out to greet him when he saw him. "What's wrong?"

"Help me with something." Liang Yue handed him the saber. "See if you can draw it."

"Hehe, this little thing? Wouldn't that be easy as pie... ngh, ngh..." Pang Chun took the saber and was about to pull it out casually when he found his hands tightening. He actually could not draw it.

"Wait a moment. Let me change positions."

Pang Chun refused to accept this. He dropped into a horse stance, spread his arms wide, and mustered every ounce of bull-like strength to try again.

Liang Yue sat on the stone steps beside him and watched him strain. In terms of pure strength, even people one or two major realms above Da Chun might not surpass him. If even he could not draw it, then this saber was truly not something Liang Yue could consider using.

"Ah..." Da Chun was continuously exerting force when a ripping sound suddenly rang out, followed by his startled cry. "It opened!"

"Let me see!" Liang Yue immediately stood and leaned closer. The scabbard was still sealed tight without the slightest gap. Frowning, he asked, "What opened?"

Pang Chun replied in a muffled voice, "My crotch split."

The story ended with Da Chun clutching his crotch and running back into the house in the posture of someone desperate to pee.

And that ebony-handled saber still could not be drawn.

Liang Yue returned home in frustration and could only put the saber away for now, intending to try again once his realm was higher.

But this instead proved one thing: the saber was certainly no ordinary object. The things Yu Wenlong had hidden away so carefully truly did possess some mystery.

The last thing Liang Yue opened was that letter.

The envelope paper still looked quite new. Yu Wenlong had probably put it in there not long ago. When he opened it, the handwriting was rather elegant.

"Sans i."

"May you be safe upon opening this letter."

"I heard that you are about to set out for the Eastern Sea. Though Haiyue Kingdom is small, you must not be careless. The edge of war is perilous; I only hope for your swift return."

"Yang Land has been cold lately. The area around Illusion God Peak is already frozen over, with no beasts in sight, making correspondence difficult. The winter of Nine Yang is far beyond comparison with that of the Yin Dynasty, while its scorching summers are far hotter still. Its jungles and wilderness are dangerous, and its miasma has lingered for ten thousand years without dispersing. It truly cannot compare to the lands of the Nine Provinces."

"Yet I was born here, and there is nothing to be done. I only hope winter passes soon and spring flowers bloom warm. Do you still remember? The day you and I met was also in the spring of the third month, when green grass blanketed the mountains."

"Oh, right. The matter I mentioned last time has finally yielded a result. That object is about to emerge. It seems to be somewhere south of Dragon Abyss City, following the flow of the earth veins, appearing and vanishing from time to time. Several priests have attempted divination, yet none could calculate it. I think that even the Heavenly Questioning Tower of the divine capital or the Hemp Robe Vein of the Mystic Sect would be unable to determine its location."

"They always want me to help, but I have already grown so much white hair. I do not wish to meddle in these matters. My willingness to remain on Illusion God Peak is already my greatest repayment to Nine Yang. I truly loathe the priests' contempt for life."

"If there were no more wars between Nine Yang and the Nine Provinces, and everyone in the world could love one another, how wonderful would that be?"

"Respectfully written by Xian Le."

Liang Yue read it through from top to bottom, folded the letter paper, tucked it back into the envelope, and put it away again.

The "Sansi" in the letter, who had gone to war in the Eastern Sea, needed no further thought. Naturally, he was Ling Sansi, the youngest divine general ever produced by the Yin Dynasty's army, who was now being heavily promoted.

The letter had been sent in winter, when Ling Sansi had been leading troops on an expedition against Haiyue Kingdom.

And that "Xian Le" was likely a woman. Moreover, she was on Nine Yang's Illusion God Peak, so she was definitely no ordinary person.

Illusion God Peak had been cut down from the heavens by Chu Saint in ancient times. It was later regarded as a sacred mountain by the ancient Yang Kingdom, and even now was revered by all the Nine Yang tribes. Only priests could live upon it.

The priests of Nine Yang were similar to the divine officials of the Yin Dynasty. All were Mystic Art Masters with exceptional talent, and one could scarcely be found among a million people.

Such a woman had written a love letter to Ling Sansi...

The amount of information was a little overwhelming.

But how had this letter been intercepted by Yu Wenlong?

Still, he had indeed served under Ling Sansi and was a Nine Yang spy. It was possible that he had discovered some clues.

He had probably hidden it away to use later to blackmail Ling Sansi or that woman. After all, both sides held high status and great power. Once collusion with the enemy was exposed, the consequences could be extremely severe.

"Hiss..." Liang Yue suddenly thought of a possibility.

Yu Wenlong had already been captured in the army, yet he had managed to escape while being escorted to the divine capital. Though his cultivation was not weak and he was sinister and cunning, could the contents of this letter have played a part as well?

It was better not to think too much about such things.

In any case, he did not intend to meddle in other people's affairs, nor did he have any thoughts of blackmailing anyone.

Aside from that piece of gossip, what caught Liang Yue's attention most in this letter was the treasure that was said to be about to emerge.

What sort of thing could make even distant Illusion God Peak in Nine Yang care so deeply and conduct repeated divinations?

And it was south of Dragon Abyss City...

South of the city again. Why had the south of the city been so lively lately?

Wait...

If that was the case, had this woman not sent the letter at precisely the time the Heaven-Piercing Tower's location was decided? Could the two be related?

Liang Yue inexplicably felt that these matters, one after another, seemed like a great net wrapping the entire area south of Dragon Abyss City tightly within it.

"Forget it, I won't think about it." After a while, he smiled and shook his head. "No treasure would fall into my hands anyway, unless it burrowed up from beneath my house."

After looking through everything again and again, the only truly useful thing was that banknote. The remaining items did not seem to hold any practical value for now.

Eh, he had nearly forgotten.

Liang Yue took out the Dou Character Ancient Leather, gathered his Divine Sense, and attempted visualization.

He focused his gaze and Divine Sense upon the ancient leather, stared at that character, and slowly sank in...

Boom—

In a single instant, the Dao resonance within surged toward him like a flood. No, it was like a mountain collapse and a tsunami! Even a hundred cultivation-art visualization diagrams combined could not compare to this intensity.

It came too fiercely. Liang Yue could even hear a howling in his ears.

Suddenly.

His consciousness appeared within a chaotic, pitch-black space. Or perhaps the world was not actually like this, and his Divine Sense was simply insufficient to form its full appearance.

In the darkness, a voice filled with the majesty of great bells and grand drums rang out, shaking like thunder.

"Dou!"

Another boom sounded, and Liang Yue's vision went black. He fainted cleanly and decisively.

"Young man, welcome to the Realm of the Nine Secrets."

Good morning.

I originally wanted to write a purely plot-driven story, but it felt a little difficult. Maybe my skill is still not enough, so I temporarily added a setting. Let's see how it works.