Mount Wuling Area, Western Hunan.
It was the Qingming season again, the time when Second Chief Shi's Water Gang caravan returned north from the south.
Second Chief Shi had extensive connections and plenty of nerve. His caravan always let people find the goods they wanted. Word had it that this journey south had taken him deep into the Southern Wastes. The only question was whether he could bring back some of the "purple fire rotten peach baleful intent" unique to that region. That kind of miasmic baleful intent would surely be useful in Mount Wuling.
The cultivators along the lower Yuan River waited eagerly.
At that moment, the caravan they were awaiting had indeed not disappointed them. It was making its way down the Yuan River, with goods piled like mountains atop the Mountain-Bearing Turtles and River-Drinking Toads.
On the head of the leading River-Drinking Toad, Second Chief Shi had brought out his treasured tea set again to entertain a guest.
The man looked not yet thirty, with handsome features and a pair of phoenix eyes. Those eyes alone gave him a somewhat unrestrained, haughty air.
He wore striking purple robes and had all the bearing of a wealthy nobleman. A longsword hung at his waist, silver in color, with a lotus-shaped guard and carp carved into its scabbard.
Viewed from afar, his robes resembled a bank of purple mist setting off a white lotus, making the lotus seem aloof and lofty, and the man all the more mysterious.
"How could I accept a gift from you at our first meeting, Daoist Ye?"
Shi Buyu repeatedly waved his hands at the brocade box the purple-robed man offered him.
The man smiled.
"What do you mean, Chief Shi? My Daoist brother Xinzhan told me there was nothing in this world you