Jade token

"Oh? What is it?" Li Shi'an asked in surprise.

"Senior, please wait here for a moment. You can also go out for a walk and see if there are any differences between North Spring Mountain and before. It may take me some time."

Gu Yuan smiled and said something before returning to his room alone.

Li Shi'an sat in the courtyard, poured himself another cup of tea, drank it down in one gulp, and felt the Spiritual Qi within his body. He thought to himself, "This Spirit Spring Water is so much better than before! Even someone like me at the Dao Fire Realm would benefit from it."

"This mountain is truly extraordinary. If word gets out, I'm afraid any Cultivator would be tempted. No wonder Gu Yuanqing is unwilling to leave the mountain. If I were here, even I could glimpse beyond the Dao Fire Realm."

Li Shi'an then noticed a plum tree nearby in full bloom. This was not the season for plum blossoms at all; perhaps only in such a place full of Spiritual Qi could such Strange Phenomenon occur.

Gu Yuanqing was busy with something inside the room. At first, there was a faint but extremely oppressive aura emanating from it, but later Li Shi'an could not sense anything anymore. The aura inside the room became blurred, as if shrouded in layers of mist.

Li Shi'an waited patiently for a while before getting up and taking a walk in the courtyard. When he reached the water vat used for miscellaneous purposes, he fell silent.

"This... could it also be Spirit Spring Water?"

Being on someone else's territory, he couldn't use his mind to spy on anything, but even just his instinctive sense of this Heaven and Earth made him feel that this water was different from others.

He extended his True Essence and immediately sensed that the abundant Spiritual Qi mixed in the water was exactly the same as the water he had just drunk.

"Well, in these mountains, it's just him and an Old Servant. Perhaps it's because the Spirit Spring water is inexhaustible."

Li Shi'an explained it this way in his heart, but no matter how he thought about it, he felt it was too wasteful.

Then I saw a knife casually tossed under the eaves that looked familiar. Upon closer inspection, wasn't that Zuo Qiu's Yao Blade?

Seeing some wood shavings on the blade, I wondered if this Yao Blade had been used to chop firewood?

"Well, maybe he won't need this knife."

After wandering around for a while and not seeing Gu Yuanqing come out, Li Shi'an walked out of the Courtyard and strolled around the Mountain at will. He vaguely felt that the mountain seemed to be larger than before.

He arrived at the spring on the back mountain and saw the two Spirit Pool, as well as animals that came to drink from time to time. He finally understood why the water used to wash hands in the Mountain was Spirit Water.

"If all this Spirit Spring Water were used for cultivation, I'm afraid it wouldn't be long before our Great Qian could cultivate a group of experts. Not to mention Grandmaster Realm, at least Profound Martial Ninth Layer would be commonplace."

The thought flashed through his mind. Now that Gu Yuanqing was the master of this mountain, all these things required his consent. Even the emperor could not simply order Dao Fire Realm Cultivator to do something. The Imperial Court also had to think about what it would offer in exchange.

Li Shi'an also noticed the Transformation of the trees, flowers, and animals in the Mountain; the entire mountain was now different.

At the same time, he understood even more clearly that Gu Yuanqing's willingness to let him "see" the changes in the Mountain meant that he was not afraid of any outsiders knowing about the situation in the Mountain.

"Senior, you may return to the courtyard now." Gu Yuanqing's voice drifted back from afar.

Li Shi'an gathered his thoughts, used his movement technique, and arrived in the Courtyard in just a few steps.

"Young friend just said you wanted to give me something, and Old Man 've been eagerly waiting to see it," he said with a loud laugh as he entered.

Gu Yuanqing chuckled and said, "I apologize for keeping you waiting, senior. This is what I was referring to."

During the conversation, he handed over a jade pendant.

"When Eunuch Xu came to North Spring Mountain last time, he brought a piece of Jade Stone with him. I never expected it would come in handy today."

Li Shi'an took it and examined it carefully, but couldn't find anything special about it. He infused his True Essence essence with his thoughts and only sensed that there was a Array Formation inside.

He hesitated for a moment. "Forgive my Old Man eyesight, but I don't know what this thing is used for."

"It's nothing Exotic Object; it simply contains the power of one of my attacks. It can be activated with True Essence, and perhaps it can be of assistance to you, senior."

Gu Yuanqing smiled. This method was modified from a Secret Method of the Nine Nether Purgatory Scripture. The so-called power of a single strike was not the power of an ordinary True Essence strike, but rather the Dao Embryo Green Mountain Intent was also imprinted in it. This power was too strong. Even with the Array Formation to maintain it, four of the jade tablets that the Jade Stone was divided into shattered because they could not bear this power.

Two pieces were successfully made; one has been given to Li Shi'an, and the other is to be kept for future use.

Li Shi'an's smile faltered slightly. A single strike? They were all Dao Fire Realm Cultivator; how effective could such a strike be?

If this item were given to some younger generation as a protective charm while traveling the Martial World, it would naturally be an excellent treasure. However, using it against Zuo Qiu might be...

Not wanting to refuse Gu Yuanqing's kindness, Li Shi'an forced a smile, "Thank you for spending so much time creating this treasure. With this help, I am more confident in dealing with Zuo Qiu. However, Old Man can only express my gratitude another day. Now I should take my leave. Zuo Qiu may come to the capital at any time, and I need to go back and prepare for the situation."

"Then I won't try to keep you any longer. When you're free from worldly affairs, you're welcome to visit North Spring Mountain again."

Li Shi'an returned the greeting with a bow and then drifted away.

Gu Yuanqing could tell that this Senior Li seemed somewhat dissatisfied, but Gu Yuanqing didn't care too much about what others thought. This was all he could do. As for the jade token, whether Li Shi'an could seize the opportunity to use it well was up to him.

Not long after Li Shi'an left, a large pile of things was delivered from the foot of the mountain. The leader of the group was the eunuch who used to frequently deliver things to Gu Yuanqing.

Upon seeing Gu Yuanqing, he immediately knelt down and kowtowed. "This servant greets Young Master Gu."

Gu Yuanqing teased, "Young eunuch, can I speak to you now?"

The young eunuch quickly kowtowed again, saying, "Young master, you can just call me Little Li. It wasn't that I deliberately didn't speak before, but that I was too afraid to."

"Little Li? That name sounds familiar. Get up."

Little Li stood up and bowed slightly, saying, "This servant will have someone take these things back to the young master's courtyard..."

Gu Yuanqing was about to speak when he suddenly looked up into the distance.

That was on a mountaintop in the Guiyun Mountain Range North Spring Mountain. From this mountaintop, one could see Within North Spring Mountain in the distance.

There, Zuo Qiu stood atop the mountain, carrying a long sword on his back, his expression cold and stern.

His gaze toward North Spring Mountain was filled with resentment. This was where he began to stumble during this trial. If he had the Blood Tiger Yao Blade and all his trump cards, he should have already marched into the capital.

Now, the only option is to carefully plan and look for opportunities.

"Young Master Gu, what's wrong?" Little Li called out softly when he saw that Gu Yuanqing hadn't spoken for a while.

"It's alright, you can just leave your things in my yard."

Gu Yuanqing responded and then turned his gaze back to where Zuo Qiu was.

He frowned. Zuo Qiu was too far from North Spring Mountain; borrowing North Spring Mountain's power from twenty miles away would be extremely weak.

"If he were within eight miles, no, within ten miles, I might have a chance to kill him in one fell swoop!"

Zuo Qiu did not take a single step forward. The sword strike that day had robbed him of the courage to venture into North Spring Mountain again. He came here on his way to take a look at North Spring Mountain, just to remind himself that he should never be careless or underestimate anyone he encounters in the future.

After a long pause, he turned and looked towards the capital, his eyes filled with a mad, bloodthirsty killing intent.

"Only a Great Sacrifice can possibly make up for the losses!"