Lu Chen didn't reach for the money pouch. He merely looked at Foreman Wang, at the face twisted by fear. After a moment, the corner of his mouth lifted in a cold curve.
"Steward Wang, you're too kind."
He stepped past Foreman Wang and walked straight into his courtyard. His voice drifted out leisurely from behind the door.
"I appreciate the thought. You'd better keep the money..."
BAM!
The courtyard gate slammed shut.
Foreman Wang stood frozen in place. The pouch in his hand dropped to the ground with a thud, spilling gold and silver everywhere.
His face, pale as chalk a moment ago, turned ashen. Then a shadow of gloom crept across it.
He knew there was no room for reconciliation left between him and this young man.
It was either his death or mine.
Inside the courtyard, Lu Chen dismissed his subordinates and went alone into the quiet room.
He didn't hurry to count his gains from this trip. Instead, he first took out the two ink-black Annihilation Demon Eyes.
The beads felt icy in his hand. Though the bizarre power that specifically tainted the spirit had fallen dormant, they still emanated a chilling unease.
Lu Chen drove his newly acquired trait, Eye of Delusion Breaking, to its utmost.
A faint, clear light seemed to flow through his eyes.
When he looked again, the scene inside the demon eyes suddenly came into sharp focus.
He saw countless twisted spiritual imprints, layered like chains around the core of the demon eyes, forming an extraordinarily complex and vicious curse.
These things couldn't be absorbed directly, much less refined carelessly.
"What a treacherous demon." Lu Chen gave a cold snort in his heart and put the demon eyes away again.
He had to find someone who knew how to handle them, and he already had the perfect candidate in mind.
Without delay, he changed into ordinary menial's clothes and slipped out of the Imperial Guard Camp's grounds. He headed straight for the most remote, least frequented corner of the Bureau: the storeroom.
It was still the same counter, and the same old clerk dozing over it.
Lu Chen gently set a square box wrapped in thick oilcloth on the counter.
"Clerk Chen, I've come to hand over some... special materials."
Clerk Chen lazily raised his eyelids. When his gaze fell on the box, his cloudy eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly.
He didn't open it right away. Instead, he rose unhurriedly, went to the door, and closed the battered wooden door with a creak. Then he bolted it from the inside.
Only after that did he return to the counter and reach out with a gaunt hand like a chicken's claw, slowly peeling away the oilcloth.
When the two ink-black Annihilation Demon Eyes, exuding an aura of deathly stillness, were exposed to the dim lamplight, an invisible mental shock burst forth, powerful enough to make an ordinary person lose their senses in an instant!
Yet when that force struck Clerk Chen, it was like a breeze sweeping over a mountain ridge, stirring not the slightest ripple.
For the first time, Clerk Chen's face took on a grave expression.
He didn't touch them. He merely leaned closer and examined them carefully with his cloudy old eyes, as if admiring a rare treasure.
"The innate demon eyes of a Stone-Skinned Soul-Peering Demon... and still alive, with their spiritual essence intact."
Only after a long while did he speak. His voice was hoarse, tinged with an inexplicable emotion. "Kid, your luck this time is better than you could ever have dreamed."
Lu Chen stood to one side without a word.
Clerk Chen looked up and gave him a long, searching glance. "These things are both immensely ominous and immensely nourishing. What do you want in exchange?"
"This junior doesn't know their value. But right now, I lack a proper method for drawing talismans, and a decent set of tools for making them," Lu Chen said evenly.
He knew that in front of a master like Clerk Chen, any pretense or scheming would be futile.
"Drawing talismans?" Clerk Chen's eyes flashed with surprise before understanding dawned. "No wonder... no wonder you were able to break the illusion array at Ghost Face Slope. So you're following the path of dual cultivation in talismans and martial arts."
He fell silent for a moment, as if weighing something.
"So be it." He nodded. "Dual cultivation in talismans and martial arts is a rugged, perilous road, with death lurking at every turn. But you're a tough one, kid. Maybe you really can carve out a path of your own."
With that, he carefully put away the two demon eyes, turned, and disappeared into the darkness at the storeroom's deepest reaches.
This time, he was gone for a long while.
When he came back, he was holding an antique sandalwood box.
He set it on the counter and pushed it toward Lu Chen.
"These demon eyes are priceless. Trading them for what you asked for means you're getting an enormous bargain."
Lu Chen opened the box.
Inside lay three items.
A talisman brush made entirely of some unknown warm jade, its bristles faintly golden.
A piece of top-grade Fire-Washed Vermilion, blood-red in color, with what seemed like magma flowing inside.
And a book bound in silver threads, warm and smooth to the touch, its pages completely blank... the Wordless Heavenly Tome?
"What is this?" Lu Chen asked, puzzled, looking at the last book.
"This is a rubbing of the Divine Firmament Induction Chapter." Clerk Chen sat back in his chair and took a sip from his wine flask before explaining leisurely. "The true path of talismans isn't about drawing talismans. It's about the Dao and principles of heaven and earth. This Induction Chapter has no words in it. What you cultivate isn't a technique, but the mind."
"You must use your own spiritual power as a guide and merge it with the book. Only then can you sense the spiritual imprints hidden in its pages, left behind by the great masters of the ancient talismanic Dao. How much you comprehend depends entirely on your own insight and fortune."
"As for this Golden Bristle Jade Brush and this earthfire vermilion, they're both rare treasures. They should serve you well until you reach Entry Grade."
Lu Chen's heart hammered wildly at that moment.
How was this getting a bargain? It was as if a gigantic pie had fallen straight from the sky!
The three items were probably worth enough to buy ten Foreman Wangs!
"Thank you, Clerk Chen, for making this possible!" Lu Chen suppressed his elation and gave Clerk Chen a deeply respectful bow.
"No need to thank me." Clerk Chen waved a hand. A complex, unreadable light flickered in his cloudy eyes. "I'm just a decrepit old man who watches over a storeroom. I just... don't want to see some promising young sapling cut down before it has a chance to grow."