Jade Pendant

Ye Qin held the palm-sized jade pendant and examined it.

The pendant had an archaic design, a pale green hue, and a considerable weight. It was clearly an old piece.

Of course, its appearance wasn't important. What mattered was that he could vaguely sense familiar spiritual energy within the green pendant, much like the spiritual energy of Cyan Rock.

"This jade pendant was purchased from a down-and-out wanderer in Ping Province. The rules of my Treasure Gang are not to ask where things come from. This pendant is quite unusual. When placed in water, it produces hazy, illusory images, making it very pleasing to look at. I'll have someone bring in a basin of clear water so you can see it for yourself, young Ye."

Seeing Ye Qin pick up the pendant, Elder Huang explained its origins, then clapped his hands. A brawny man in a short jacket stood outside the door. Following the order, he soon carried in a basin of clear water.

Elder Huang smiled. "Please put the pendant in the water, young friend!"

Ye Qin did as asked, lowering the jade pendant into the wooden basin and watching with interest. After a short while, the ripples had completely settled. Sure enough, a faint, misty shadow appeared in the clear water, seeming to waver incessantly.

Even Ye Qin, usually so composed, couldn't help exclaiming in admiration.

Elder Huang explained with a hint of pride, "The remarkable thing about this jade pendant is that it can produce a misty shadow in clear water. A jade that floats a shadow of mist signifies that it possesses rare spiritual properties. Even at a glance, it's clearly no ordinary item, and it's highly ornamental. This jade pendant is easily worth a dozen or two Gold Leaves."

Ye Qin pondered briefly. Whether it looked good or not didn't matter; he used Spirit Stones to cultivate spirit herbs anyway. He weighed the jade pendant in his hand, decided to take it, and said, "Then I'll exchange that Clear Heart Pill for this jade pendant. I wonder if Elder Huang has any other pendants like it?"

Elder Huang shook his head. "A piece of such unusual jade is rare enough. Where could I possibly find a second one?"

A trace of disappointment passed over Ye Qin's face, but he quickly recovered. Finding a piece like this was already good enough. If he had gone searching for jade in the remote mountains himself, he might have spent a month or two without finding anything like it.

Elder Huang had always considered himself fair in business. He wanted to make money, but only what he was entitled to. In terms of price, the jade pendant was worth ten Gold Leaves at most, nowhere near the hundred-plus Gold Leaves that a Clear Heart Pill was worth.

Exchanging a jade pendant worth ten Gold Leaves for a Clear Heart Pill worth over a hundred meant a tenfold price difference. He, Huang Jinhu, couldn't bring himself to take such advantage of a seller. Usually, he made no more than double or triple his money.

Elder Huang continued, "Since you've taken a liking to this jade pendant, I'll value it at twenty Gold Leaves and sell it to you. As for the Clear Heart Pill, I'll buy it for fifty Gold Leaves. That leaves a difference of thirty Gold Leaves. Would you like to pick another small treasure, or would you rather take the money?"

Ye Qin hadn't taken a liking to any of the other treasures. He handed Elder Huang the bottle containing the Clear Heart Pill, then unhesitatingly took the small purse holding thirty Gold Leaves from him.

Elder Huang was delighted. He had made a full sixty Gold Leaves on this exchange. It was unusual to make so much on a single deal.

But Elder Huang had no idea that Ye Qin was even happier than he was. To anyone else, the jade pendant might have been nothing more than a beautiful piece of green jade with little use beyond its ornamental value. But Ye Qin urgently needed it.

Ye Qin estimated that the jade pendant could cultivate at least several dozen stalks of Dew-Falling Grass, enough for ten days to half a month. At last, he could resume the second level of the Sitting-in-Forgetfulness Sutra: Sitting and Forgetting Selflessness, which he had been forced to stop practicing for several days.

Ye Qin slipped the jade pendant into his pocket and adjusted his bamboo hat. "Elder Huang, if you come across any other jade containing spiritual energy, whatever its kind, please set it aside for me. I'll come trade more Clear Heart Pills in the future. I won't let you take a loss!"

Elder Huang was taken aback. "What? You still have Clear Heart Pills?"

Ye Qin replied calmly, "That's right. I never said I only had one."

Elder Huang immediately felt a wave of regret. If there was only one Clear Heart Pill, it could easily sell for over a hundred Gold Leaves. But if several more appeared, the price would plummet.

After all, it was merely a top-grade medicine for regulating the breath and treating cultivation deviations, not a sacred medicine that increased internal power.

Only a handful of large gangs would buy a Clear Heart Pill to keep in reserve.

Medium and small gangs used the middle- and high-grade medicines made by the Medicine King Gang to regulate the breath, while ordinary wanderers mostly used the low-grade kind. So if there were too many Clear Heart Pills, they wouldn't fetch a high price.

He had thought it was already a stroke of luck to find one Clear Heart Pill in the hands of this black-clad man. He had never imagined the man had more than one—and from the sound of it, quite a few.

"I wonder how many Clear Heart Pills you have, friend? I'd be willing to buy them all at a high price!" Elder Huang said with a bitter smile. Even a hunter who had spent his whole life catching geese could get pecked by one now and then. If that was the case, he'd better buy up all the mysterious black-clad man's Clear Heart Pills and control their auction price.

"I have four or five more. They were handed down through my Lineage. They're of no use to me, so I'm trading them for other things. But I'm not after money. I want jade. I hope you won't take offense, Elder Huang. As long as you have jade like this, I'll trade you Clear Heart Pills for it."

Ye Qin didn't want Elder Huang to learn his identity, so he deliberately muddied the waters and made up a fictitious family background.

A Lineage? Elder Huang seemed to realize something. He gave a start, then looked hesitantly at Ye Qin. Was this black-clad man from some family in Ping Province?

"Very well. My Treasure Gang has no shortage of rare jades and stones. I should be able to find the kind of jade you want. I'll do my best to look for some. Here is a Treasure Token. Only our Treasure Gang's most honored guests may carry one. In the future, you need only bring it to me, or show it to any member of the Treasure Gang, and they'll bring you to see me."

Elder Huang seemed lost in thought. He pulled out a tiny, glittering gold token about the size of his middle finger. The air of superiority he had shown when speaking to a junior was already gone.

Ye Qin took the Treasure Token. As he was leaving, he added, "Elder Huang, aside from jade with spiritual energy, if you come across rare spirit herbs or recipes for them, I'll trade for those too. I'll be back in a while."

Not long after Ye Qin left, a young man and woman came out of the guest room on the left and entered Elder Huang's room.

The handsome young man in white, with his jade-like features, asked in confusion, "Master, why did you give the Treasure Token to that mysterious black-clad man? Even our gang only has a few dozen of these tokens. His martial skills looked quite ordinary. His steps were unsteady and weak; he seemed no more than a third-rate wanderer."

Elder Huang's expression had already turned stern again. He gave a cold snort. "A third-rate wanderer? Ma Yu, I've told you before that you lack experience in the martial world. Your master is a top expert, yet even I couldn't see through the depth of his cultivation despite his superb Breath Concealment Technique. And you judged him so poorly. Don't think that just because you're one of the ten great young masters of the Treasure Gang, you can look down on every hero in Ping Province. There are many experts you've never seen!"

"Could his lightness skill really be better than my Wind-Riding Art?" Hearing his master praise the black-clad man so highly, Ma Yu was clearly indignant. He immediately strode out of the room to follow Ye Qin.

"Don't be rash! Come back!"

Elder Huang's expression changed, and he shouted to stop Ma Yu.

But there was no stopping him. In the blink of an eye, Ma Yu had left the inn and vanished from sight.

The girl in red was puzzled too. "Master, is that black-clad man really that powerful? Senior Brother is a first-rate expert. Zhuqi County isn't anything special, so where would a top martial-world expert comparable to you come from?"

"There probably aren't any in Zhuqi County, but there are plenty throughout Ping Province. Our province's ten great gangs are filled with experts, but we're not powerful enough to lord it over all of Ping Province. That black-clad man kept his aura tightly restrained. I couldn't even sense any trace of his released true qi. He must be concealing a great deal of his power. I fear his true strength isn't much weaker than mine. Otherwise, would I have handed him a Treasure Token so easily? Hong'er, don't follow your senior brother's arrogant, reckless example, or one day you'll pay dearly for it."

Elder Huang shook his head worriedly.

Ma Yu had gone, and now he had returned. After the time it took to eat a meal, Ma Yu came back to the inn with a dark expression. One look at him was enough to tell that his pursuit had come to nothing and he had gained no advantage.

Elder Huang didn't reprimand Ma Yu. Instead, he carefully questioned him about the pursuit, scrutinizing every detail and weighing every little point. Ma Yu, embarrassed and ashamed, said he had followed the black-clad man to a small wooded grove southwest of the county, where the man had vanished. He had never figured out how the man shook him off.

Elder Huang's expression grew grave. He waved Ma Yu out of the room. Losing track of the black-clad man had been exactly what he expected.

He paced back and forth in the room, slowly sinking into thought.

The black-clad man had four or five top-grade Clear Heart Pills, claimed to belong to some Lineage, and asked to trade for jade with spiritual energy and rare spirit herbs. His whereabouts were extraordinarily secretive. It all seemed so familiar, stirring memories he had buried for twenty years.

Back then, he wasn't yet a Grand Elder of the Treasure Gang. He had only been an outstanding young disciple in the gang when he once accompanied the gang leader of that time to pay a visit to an extremely mysterious family in Ping Province.