Chapter 27

After his calls, silence fell. Only the clear cries of birds and insects sounded around him; otherwise, all was still.

Chi Yu called a few more times when a complaining voice suddenly reached his ears. "Hey, you! Could you stop making so much noise?"

Startled, Chi Yu quickly turned to look. Two cultivators with loose hair and matching uniforms stood in a tree, looking down at him.

Chi Yu smoothly apologized, then said, "Two of my friends have disappeared. I'm looking for them. Have you seen a red Soul Pearl earring?"

"No," the cultivator said. "Look, stop shouting. We're waiting for a Five-Colored Lotus to bloom. It's extremely sensitive to sound. Any noise delays its blooming, and your voice carries so clearly that it's already reached over there."

"Oh, oh, sorry." Chi Yu lowered his voice and continued, "Do you have time right now? Could you help me look for a red Soul Pearl earring?"

"Hey, didn't you hear me? I told you we're waiting for a Five-Colored Lotus to bloom. Is there something wrong with your brain?"

Chi Yu held out two Top-Grade Spirit Stones. "Help me find the red Soul Pearl, and these two Top-Grade Spirit Stones are yours as payment."

"..." The two loose-haired cultivators immediately changed their tune. "Then again, helping one another is a virtue. We'll take the job."

One of the cultivators jumped down from the tree and reached for the spirit stones in Chi Yu's hands. Chi Yu immediately pulled his hands back. "Find it first, then I'll pay."

"That works too. A red Soul-Guarding Pearl, right?" the cultivator said. "You're already a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Why aren't you using your divine sense to search instead of sticking your butt in the air and looking around all this time?"

"I haven't learned that yet," Chi Yu said bashfully.

Mainly, although he still looked like he was at Foundation Establishment, he was actually only at Qi Refining. And since he was afraid of reaching Golden Core, he barely cultivated anymore.

It was a little dim, and only when the two cultivators came closer did Chi Yu realize they looked exactly alike. He couldn't help asking, "Are you twins?"

"That's right! I'm the older brother."

"I'm the younger brother! Come on, let's help you look. We still have to get back to waiting for the Five-Colored Lotus to bloom."

With that, the two cultivators spread their divine sense, searching every inch of the flowers and grass.

A few breaths later, they said, "Nothing. There's nothing within ten li of here."

Chi Yu sucked in a breath. "What?"

The older brother asked, "Which Chan sect are you from?"

Chi Yu was confused. "What Chan sect?"

"Aren't you a disciple of a Chan sect?" the younger brother asked.

"No, I'm not!" Chi Yu answered.

The older brother looked thoughtful. "You should stop searching. This secret realm has always been unstable. One little mishap could send something outside. Your Soul Pearl probably isn't in the secret realm."

Chi Yu: "..."

He was feeling rather down, but the younger brother still coveted his spirit stones. He came over and slung an arm around Chi Yu's shoulders like they were old pals. "Hey, we may not have found your Soul Pearl, but this secret realm only opens once every fifty years. It's a rare opportunity. You can hire us to protect you until the secret realm opens again. How about it?"

"I only want my Soul Pearl," Chi Yu said gloomily. "Since it isn't within ten li, let's search the whole secret realm."

He gritted his teeth and committed a fortune. "Four Top-Grade Spirit Stones."

Four hundred million yuan, deployed!

The two cultivators exchanged a look and transmitted their voices to each other. "Well, well! A big spender!"

"If he has four Top-Grade Spirit Stones, that means-"

"He owns more than four Top-Grade Spirit Stones!"

"Maybe even more! A dozen, twenty-something, hundreds! Anything's possible!"

"Who'd have thought our luck would turn and we'd finally meet a wealthy patron! We couldn't latch onto that little crown prince, but we can find someone else!"

"Fantastic! We're going to be rich! Who gives a damn about the Five-Colored Lotus? It'd only fetch 120 middle-grade spirit stones at auction anyway. Forget it! We're helping the young master find his Soul Pearl!"

Their exchange concluded, the brothers became even more enthusiastic. The younger brother took Chi Yu's hand and said warmly, "Well, we'll find it for you. This secret realm is pretty big. Just stand behind us, and we'll take you searching."

"What if someone else took it?" the older brother asked.

Chi Yu was afraid of that too. "Then snatch it back. Four Top-Grade Spirit Stones should be enough to get you to fight, right?"

"Absolutely, absolutely!" The brothers beamed.

"Oh, right. My name is Suoluo."

"My name is Qiye."

Suoluo was the older brother, and Qiye was the younger. Qiye asked, "How old are you?"

"I'm fourteen," Chi Yu replied.

"Huh?" Qiye said. "I checked your bone age. You should be seventeen, shouldn't you?"

"Huh?" Chi Yu froze for a moment. He opened his system panel and only then discovered that the number fourteen had changed to seventeen.

He realized it was because of Xie Xiyi's formation. In just a few brief seconds, he had aged three years. That showed how terrifying the Forbidden Curse was.

Chi Yu felt a little upset, but he wasn't surprised. Theirs had never been a relationship in which they could get along peacefully.

In fact, deep down, Chi Yu was secretly hoping he would die soon so that Chi Yu could complete his mission and go home without trouble.

He immediately tossed that fleeting bitterness to the back of his mind and calmly corrected himself. "I forgot. I'm seventeen."

The brothers held another private exchange. "Foundation Establishment at seventeen. You know what that means, right?"

"We have to latch onto him."

"We need to let everyone know we've found a wealthy patron, so those people who call us penniless wretches will see us in a new light!"

"Come on, we'll take you to find your Soul Pearl," Suoluo said with a smile.

Both of them were at the Golden Core Realm and perfectly capable of flying on swords, so they picked Chi Yu up, set him on a sword, and flew off with him.

As they flew, they asked Chi Yu, "Speaking of which, what's your name?"

Chi Yu was just about to answer when his eyes suddenly flickered. He stammered, "My name is Long Aotian."

Haha, fake name activated.jpg.

"Long Aotian? Wait, aren't you a Chan cultivator? Don't you have a Dharma name?" Suoluo asked.

Chi Yu was utterly baffled. "No. My hair's a little short, but I really am not a monk."

"That's not what I mean," Suoluo said. "This secret realm only opens to Chan cultivators. If you aren't one, how did you get in?"

"Uh." Chi Yu scratched his head. "A crack opened in the ground, and I got sucked in."

"Oh, I see," Suoluo said. "This secret realm is very unstable. That does happen."

After they had flown for a while, Suoluo said, "I can't keep going. My head hurts. Switch, switch."

Golden Core cultivators couldn't keep their divine sense extended for too long. Excessive depletion would damage their foundations.

So the brothers took turns like that, roughly sweeping the entire secret realm from their flying swords. In the end, they concluded, "Nothing. It really isn't in this secret realm. Of course, we can't rule out that you dropped it outside."

Chi Yu remembered the bloody mark on his ear. Had Xie Xiyi pulled it off while he wasn't paying attention?

He opened his panel to check Xie Xiyi's coordinates and discovered, to his horror, that Xie Xiyi's coordinates had vanished!

Chi Yu pounded the panel a few times, but it held firm and still wouldn't display them.

Chi Yu was furious. His stupid system was completely useless!!!

Watching Chi Yu punch the air, the brothers exchanged a glance and began another private conversation. "This is bad. There might be something wrong with his head. He got his age wrong earlier too."

"We probably won't get the spirit stones. What do we do?"

"What do you mean, what do we do? If we can't get them, we'll leave it for now. He's so wealthy. If we stick with him, why worry that we won't have good days ahead?"

With that, the brothers once again offered springlike warmth, accepting all of Chi Yu's unreasonable behavior.

The three days in the secret realm passed quickly. Chi Yu couldn't help making the unreasonable demand that they check everything again and again. They even grilled every passing Chan cultivator.

The Soul Pearl really had vanished without a trace. Chi Yu could no longer spend Ling Hezhou's assets with an easy conscience.

Still, although they hadn't found the Soul Pearl, Chi Yu paid the brothers five hundred middle-grade spirit stones.

After receiving their payment, the twins treated Chi Yu even better. Suoluo comforted him, "Why not find someone to divine where it's gone? You've come to the right place. Our Zizai Continent has plenty of extraordinary talents, and quite a few are skilled in divination."

Chi Yu froze, then asked incredulously, "Where did you say this was?"

Suoluo paused, then answered, "Zizai Continent."

Chi Yu: "..."

Where on earth had this brought him? Wasn't he on Wangxian Continent?

Suoluo wasted no time. As soon as they left the secret realm, he pulled Chi Yu along to find someone to perform a divination.

They rode their flying swords at lightning speed to the foot of a mountain, where someone was already waiting. He was very young, perhaps twelve or thirteen? Unlike the brothers, he didn't wear his hair loose, but tied it up in a high ponytail.

"Zhiguan, divine where his Soul Pearl has gone." Suoluo pushed Chi Yu forward.

Chi Yu gave Zhiguan a polite smile. "Hello. Do I need to provide anything?"

Zhiguan pressed his lips together, took out a disk covered in intricate engraved lines, and gestured with a knife.

Chi Yu understood. "Drip blood onto the disk?"

Zhiguan nodded.

Chi Yu took the knife, deftly cut his finger, and dripped blood onto the snow-white disk.

The blood quickly spread across it. The disk emitted a faint glow, and Zhiguan examined it closely, occasionally forming hand seals.

Chi Yu waited with bated breath. After a long while, Zhiguan finally raised his head, pressed his lips together, and began gesturing.

Chi Yu couldn't help looking toward the brothers. The younger brother stepped forward to translate. "Zhiguan means that the item isn't lost. It's been on you all along, but you'll need the right opportunity to get it back."

Zhiguan smiled and nodded.

Chi Yu was skeptical.

Perhaps his doubt showed too clearly, because Zhiguan's face reddened slightly, and he looked a little hurt.

Qiye spoke up for Zhiguan. "Don't dismiss him just because he's young. His family practices the Great Extrapolation Art, so he comes from a reputable orthodox lineage. His divinations have never actually been wrong. Why don't you show him something else, Zhiguan? Divine his circumstances for him."