Our group followed several foot soldiers to the mountain stronghold. Before me stood two large chests. What a headache—these big chests were always the hardest to deal with.
"Where is Master? Where has my master gone?" Li Da asked anxiously. Zhang Yu beside him was equally puzzled, but he kept staring at me. Could he have seen through the fact that this child before him was their master? Impossible. How could he possibly see through a secret technique of my Tianxin Sect? (Actually, it was a secret technique from the Cultivation World, but since I was the only cultivator in this world, I could say it belonged to whoever I wanted.)
I smiled, and my body gradually changed until I became Sword God Sui Yu. Li Da stared at me blankly from the side.
"Master? You're Master?"
"That's right!" I looked at him with a smile.
"Ahhh... My master can use magic! My master is an immortal..." Li Da jumped and shouted at the top of his lungs, drawing the gazes of some nearby stronghold soldiers. Sweat! Why was Li Da's reaction so vastly different from Sister Yu's and the others'?
"I just saw a child turn into that swordsmanship expert! Hey, really, I really saw it!" One soldier who had witnessed my transformation tried to show off to his companion. But the result... his companion simply walked away, wearing the expression of someone who had never known him.
"A-Yu, why were you staring at me just now? Did you figure out that I was your master?" I asked my third disciple. This question had been puzzling me all along.
"How could this disciple possibly see through such immortal magic? It was only because, when we were at the foot of the mountain, Master wasn't in the carriage at first—there was only a child. Later, the child vanished and Master appeared. Just now, Master vanished and the child appeared again. That was why I became suspicious, though it was still hard to believe that such immortal magic truly existed in this world." My third disciple wore a look of utter worship.
I was quite proud to make my third disciple look at me like that, but I immediately remembered our purpose and asked.
"How did the search for the money go?" I looked toward my eldest disciple.
"Master, we've sorted out the stronghold's communal property. There's roughly three hundred and fifty thousand taels of silver in total." Li Da said with a proud expression.
"Why is there nothing else? Robbery couldn't have brought in only money. What about all the gold, silver, and jewels?" Sister Yu asked, her face full of confusion.
"Need you ask? They must be in Li Si's private treasury. I had my second brother watching the place. Come on, let's go see what treasures are in there!" That brat Li Da actually took the lead without waiting for me. He had no respect for his master at all.
"Li Da, I haven't even started walking yet!" I looked at him with a cool expression.
Seeing my expression, Li Da thought to himself, Oh no. I forgot to let Master walk in front. What do I do now?
Li Da's tiny eyes blinked, and he immediately said respectfully, "Master, I was leading the way up ahead for you, so you wouldn't take any wrong turns!"
When I heard that, it actually made sense. I truly had no idea where Li Si's room was.
"Li Da, you're not bad after all. Once we reach the capital, Master will teach you peerless martial arts. Lead the way, then," I declared loudly. Once we reached the capital, I had planned to teach them the Taiji Yin Yang Art anyway. It was no loss to me.
"Thank you, Master! Thank you, Master!" Li Da immediately went a step further, running even more joyfully in front...
A bamboo hut, no different from the other houses, appeared before us. It seemed Li Si was not too foolish. He knew how to use this trick to confuse his subordinates and make it seem as though he was the same as them.
"Master, I've been keeping watch here. No one could possibly have entered the private treasury." Li Er rushed out from Li Si's inner room, proclaiming his great achievement to me with his chest puffed high.
"Second Brother, let me tell you, our master is an immortal! I just saw him turn from a child into what he looks like now!" Li Da immediately began boasting to his younger brother about the secret he knew.
"Big Brother, you don't have a fever, do you? Were you so happy today that your brain got muddled? You can even say Master is an immortal? I really am pitiful, having such a foolish older brother." Li Er began sighing long and short.
"I really don't have a high fever. I'm perfectly fine! I truly saw Master change from a child into what he looks like now. Sigh, you still don't believe me. Master, tell him—is what I said true?" With no other choice, Li Da could only ask me, the person involved, to prove it.
I looked at these two living treasures and smiled helplessly. What else could I do? I was their master! I circulated True Primordial Energy, slowly changing from Sword God Sui Yu's appearance back into my original form. Shaking my head, I walked into the room. "A-Yu, hurry up and come in!" I said lightly.
Li Er was left dumbfounded, while Li Da looked utterly pleased with himself. A-Yu and the others, however, showed no surprise at all as they followed me into Li Si's house.
I entered Li Si's house. Wow! It was extravagantly luxurious, no ordinary place at all. As I stepped into his inner room, a bed of an utterly plain design, yet made from Purple Dragon Wood, lay across the room. I glanced beneath the bed and smiled faintly. Father, you never expected your son's first pot of gold to come so easily.
My eldest disciple immediately rushed up from behind and shoved the large wooden bed aside. A chaotic "beautiful sight" beneath the bed appeared before us. Li Da gave a disdainful smile and swept away the clutter with one kick, immediately revealing a small iron ring.
My eldest disciple immediately turned to look at my cleverest third disciple. Zhang Yu glanced at Li Da, smiled, and walked from my side toward the bed. It seemed my third disciple was quite good after all. He was not always cold and aloof; he treated his brothers and me, his master, very well.
Zhang Yu walked to the iron ring, reached out with his right hand, and grabbed it. He turned it left three times, right four times, then left another four times. With a "creak, creak..." sound, a small stone chest rose from beneath the ground.
I stepped forward and examined it carefully. Looking at the stone chest's only defensive measure—a large stone lock—I smiled. My right hand lightly brushed past the lock. A flash of Sword Light vanished in an instant, and with a bang, the stone lock fell to the ground.
I looked at our people gathered around the stone chest and smiled. No one could escape worldly desires. Calmly, I lifted the stone lid and looked at what was inside. I appeared perfectly calm, but within the ocean of my heart, monstrous waves rose to the heavens. What was it?
Everyone stared at the contents. For a moment, it was utterly silent. Only after a long while did cries of amazement rise one after another. What was inside? Besides thirty banknotes worth ten thousand taels each, there was also the national treasure, Blood Phoenix—a treasure worth nearly a million. There were also several pieces of jade beside it.
They were all amazed by Blood Phoenix, but I had grown up in the Zhang Family and had seen countless treasures like it. Though Blood Phoenix was a peerless treasure and the token of an empress from the previous dynasty, none of it was enough to shock me as a cultivator.
What shocked me were these dozen or so pieces of jade. In the Zhang Family, I had already discovered that the crystals used in the Cultivation World for cultivation or replenishing True Primordial Energy were the jade of this world. Yet the finest crystal I had ever seen in the Zhang Family was only a high-grade crystal. I had thought this world possessed no supreme-grade crystals. But... but...
Among these dozen or so pieces were actually two supreme-grade crystals. Of the rest, five were high-grade crystals, while the remaining eight were mid-grade crystals. Heavens! Even in the Cultivation World, supreme-grade jade was exceedingly rare. Ordinary cultivators simply could not afford to use it. Only elders or sect masters of major sects, as well as the next generation of successors, were qualified to enjoy it. It also had an exceptionally special quality: normally, crystals drained of all their energy turned into powder. Only supreme-grade crystals, after all their energy had been absorbed, became Flawless Jade without a single blemish—though their hardness fell to the level of high-grade crystals.
I suddenly remembered that Zhang Yu's father was a renowned jade-carving master. Perhaps he knew where supreme-grade crystals could be found. I could no longer endure my anxious impatience. With a stretch of my hand, I took the pieces of jade into my grasp. (From now on, crystals in this story would all be called jade; the grades of jade corresponded to the grades of crystals.)
I looked at Sister Yu and the others, who were still examining Blood Phoenix, and said loudly, "Brother Wang, from now on, you'll be responsible for our finances. Put these things away first. Also, from this moment onward, we are one whole. If anyone has any difficulties, speak up. Remember, we are one whole."
"Yes, Master! Young Master! Second Brother!" Everyone looked at me with great happiness, because they all felt that they had a home. We were family.
Brother Wang immediately began gathering up all the property, and everyone helped move things.
"Zhang Yu, let's visit your father. I have some questions about jade that I want to ask Uncle, and we still haven't gone to visit him. That wouldn't be very good." I smiled at Zhang Yu.
"Alright, Master. I'll lead the way." Zhang Yu walked ahead with a calm expression, but inwardly he could hardly contain himself. The child beside him spoke to him in a master's tone, and on the surface it seemed rather funny. Yet whenever he faced Master, all he saw was Master's mountain-like figure. He did not notice in the slightest that Master was only a child. He became even more certain that he had not chosen the wrong master.
Following Zhang Yu, I crossed a small stone bridge. A bamboo hut appeared before us. In the open space outside stood a middle-aged man of around forty, splitting thin bamboo with a bamboo knife. The bamboo grew thinner and thinner beneath his blade, yet he continued splitting it without snapping the already extremely thin strip. I observed everything with Spiritual Sense.
He had no martial arts skills, so why did he possess eyesight even keener than that of martial artists? His knife was merely an ordinary bamboo-splitting knife, so why could he split bamboo in two with such effortless ease?
"Father, I brought my master to see you!" Zhang Yu shouted excitedly at the middle-aged man.
Oh, so he was Zhang Yu's father—the chief carver of the greatest jade shop under heaven. I looked at him and thought.
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