Scouring the Daoist Temple

"Have you cleaned up Daoist Mu's corpse?"

"Yes. Just as you told us, senior brother, we chopped the corpse into pieces, burned it with oil, then smashed up what was left and scattered it!"

Liu Yu answered.

"Mm. What did you find on him?"

"Two low-grade spirit talismans, a handful of Iron Thread Vine seeds, a magic sword, a bottle of qi-replenishing pills with three left, a bottle of Essence Qi Pills, also with three left, and two low-grade spirit stones. I have them all on me."

Liu Yu patted his sleeve pouch.

Zhao Yi nodded. The two hurried to the temple entrance. Its gates stood wide open. They entered to find a scene of utter disorder.

Picking up the baskets and sundries strewn across the ground, Zhao Yi looked at the temple before him, a sense of familiarity and strangeness rising unbidden. When their master was alive, he had brought Zhao Yi and Liu Yu here as guests many times. Now the place remained, but the people were gone.

Without dwelling on it any longer, he went around the incense burner in the central courtyard and walked straight into the main hall. What greeted his eyes was a seated statue taller than a man-Immortal Venerable Yuanhua.

The Ancestral Halls and ancestral shrines of Beihai's many sects and Lineages all enshrined Immortal Venerable Yuanhua.

Zhao Yi and Liu Yu approached the incense table one after the other. Each picked up a stick of incense and rubbed his fingers together, raising a small flame to light it, then bowed respectfully.

After offering incense, they circled the main hall and found nothing unusual. They left and checked the side rooms on the left and right, which had been ransacked into a complete mess.

Behind the main hall was where Daoist Mu ordinarily rested, as well as where he received guests and spent time with friends.

They entered the rear courtyard through a small door on the left. It was not large, with two medicinal plots on either side of a narrow path. A dozen or so rows of herbs grew sparsely in the plots.

A pavilion stood on slightly higher ground on the eastern side. There were only three bamboo rooms in the rear courtyard, with a clump of bamboo planted in front and a vat of lotuses.

Zhao Yi and Liu Yu split up, with Liu Yu going to inspect the herbs in the medicinal plots.

Zhao Yi came to the bamboo rooms and examined the several dozen bamboo plants growing out front. Among them were three stalks of purple jade bamboo.

Purple jade bamboo was true to its name: its culms, branches, and leaves were all pale purple, translucent and lustrous as jade. Judging by their height, these three should have been over ten years old.

Twenty-year-old purple jade bamboo was a Low-Grade Spirit Material that could be used to craft magic artifacts or make talisman paper.

A foot of purple jade bamboo could sell for one spirit stone. A mature stalk would stand at least twenty feet tall, making it worth twenty spirit stones.

If twenty-year-old purple jade bamboo was left uncut to keep growing, it would become a mid-grade spiritual material at a hundred years old.

A foot could then sell for ten spirit stones. Hundred-year-old purple jade bamboo stood thirty feet tall, making it worth three hundred spirit stones.

In a few more years, once these three stalks of Purple Jade Bamboo reached twenty years of age, they would be worth at least sixty spirit stones.

These three stalks needed to be transplanted to Linghua Island and carefully cultivated. Perhaps they could grow into a grove of purple jade bamboo.

He stepped inside. The bamboo house was divided into three rooms: a sitting room at the entrance, a bedroom on the left, and a study on the right. Wang Qing was in the study, rummaging through the books on the shelves.

Hearing footsteps, he hurriedly turned around. "Eldest senior brother, how are your injuries recovering?"

"Mm, well enough."

"Wang Qing, you've read so many tales about killing people and hunting for treasure. Did none of them say you need an eye in the back of your head when searching a room for treasure? Exposing your back without the slightest guard like that-aren't you afraid someone might come in and kill you while you're not paying attention?"

Zhao Yi smiled faintly as he looked at Wang Qing.

"Eldest senior brother, I-I've never done this before. I got excited. I'll definitely be more careful next time."

Wang Qing spoke with a grin, and Zhao Yi could not be bothered to pursue it further.

"All right. Take it as a warning. You can't be so careless next time. Have you found anything?"

"Eldest senior brother, nothing at all. I searched the main hall and side rooms in the front courtyard, and this bamboo house in the rear courtyard. I haven't found any spirit stones, spiritual items, cultivation arts, or secret manuals."

Wang Qing slumped into the chair behind the desk and spoke listlessly.

Zhao Yi nodded, looked around, and entered the bedroom on the left. It was extremely simple: just a bamboo bed, a small table bearing an incense burner, an oil lamp, and a book, and a fly whisk and wooden sword hanging on the wall. There was nothing else.

Zhao Yi first picked up the book on the table and began reading. The True Explanation of the Yuanhua Dao Text contained Daoist Mu's notes and reflections from his close study of the Daoist Script.

"Eldest senior brother, I searched the bedroom too. I didn't find anything. That's just a True Explanation of the Daoist Script, the same as the ones in our temple."

"Oh? But do the copies in our temple have so many notes and reflections? These are all Daoist Mu's insights. They're very useful."

Wang Qing flushed and scratched his head awkwardly.

Zhao Yi carefully leafed through the book, repeatedly rubbing the pages between his fingers, but found no hidden compartments.

Seeing what Zhao Yi was doing, Wang Qing suddenly understood, then ran to the study and began checking every page.

Setting down the book, Zhao Yi picked up the incense burner, opened its lid, and sniffed the ash. It held mind-calming incense, an inexpensive kind made by mortals.

He hefted the incense burner. It was much heavier than an ordinary one.

He pressed with his fingers, yet could not leave a mark on it. With an ordinary copper incense burner, Zhao Yi could leave fingerprints with only a little force.

There was something interesting about this incense burner. He tapped it a few times, producing a clear, pleasing ring. It was probably made of wind-milled copper.

Wind-milled copper was a Low-Grade Spirit Material that could be mined in large quantities. It was not particularly valuable, worth only one spirit stone per catty.

By weight, this incense burner was worth eight spirit stones. Fashioned into an incense burner, it could fetch ten. Unfortunately, it had neither restrictions nor runes.

He put down the incense burner and picked up the oil lamp. It was made of ordinary materials and was of little use.

Taking down the fly whisk, he examined it closely. Made from jujube wood and horsehair, it was not worth more than a few copper coins.

As for the wooden sword, judging by its material, it came from a peach tree no more than ten years old. Hanging on the wall, it was merely a decoration.

Just then, Liu Yu also entered the bamboo house.

"Senior brother, there are fourteen kinds of herbs in the medicinal plots. None are very old. The oldest is a thirty-year-old red ginseng, worth about three spirit stones."

"Mm. Liu Yu, help Wang Qing search the study carefully again."

Zhao Yi then lifted the bamboo bed and carefully tapped every inch of the floor and walls.

A moment later, a dull sound came from a hollow spot beneath the floor.

Zhao Yi remembered the location and continued tapping, finding another hollow spot in the wall on the other side.

He smashed open the floor with his fist. Inside was a wooden box. Standing to one side of it, Zhao Yi carefully pried it open with the wooden sword.

He waited a dozen or so breaths. No trap went off. There was only a book inside the box, and Zhao Yi lifted it out with the wooden sword.

Click!

A needle shot from the bottom of the box, flew straight for roughly ten feet, and embedded itself in a roof beam.

Zhao Yi remained silent, thinking, Daoist Mu, oh, Daoist Mu. Such scheming. Fortunately, I struck first.

Tearing off a piece of his Daoist robe and wrapping it around his hand, Zhao Yi picked up the book. Five large characters on its cover read: Azure Wood Pure Spirit Art.

A moment later, a trace of delighted surprise appeared on Zhao Yi's face. This should be Daoist Mu's cultivation art. It allowed cultivation up to the Spirit Attraction Stage and suited wood-attribute cultivators.

Setting the book aside, Zhao Yi picked up the wooden sword and smashed the wooden box to pieces with a forceful blow, checking for hidden compartments.

Clearly, there were none.

He smashed open the concealed cavity in the wall as well. It too held a wooden box.

Zhao Yi opened it using the same method. Inside was another book, Wang Xuanmu’s First Record of Beast Taming.

Upon leafing through it, he found a record of beast-taming cultivation, detailing the experience an unknown cultivator named Wang Xuanmu had accumulated over many years of raising spirit beasts.

Linghua Island had neither spirit beasts nor beast-taming cultivation arts. This record filled a gap in what the island possessed.

Having finished searching the bedroom, Zhao Yi glanced at Liu Yu and Wang Qing, who were still searching through the books. He placed the two books and the incense burner on the table, then left the bamboo house.