"Thunder rolled all night again last night, but there was still no rain."
Jiang Yi stood in the courtyard with his hands behind his back. The cold wind swept up flying frost and drove straight into his lungs, leaving him thoroughly refreshed.
"The weather these past few days has been strange indeed."
Eight or nine days had passed in the blink of an eye since he descended the mountain from the Qianji Sect and came to Three Harmonies Ward.
During that time, Jiang Yi's life had been quite regular.
Every day, he meditated and practiced breathing in his superior room at Dai Tower, supplementing it with Spirit Rice to nourish his body;
whenever he had some free time, he strolled through the marketplace and bought a few exquisite trinkets as New Year gifts for everyone at the Large Compound.
Such leisure almost gave him the illusion that he had returned to his previous life in the blink of an eye.
No longer a blade of grass beneath the Demonic Dao's feet, a Mortal Laborer of a Dharma Lineage.
"No need to work, just passing the days at leisure. The more comfortable life is, the faster it goes."
Jiang Yi wandered along at an easy pace. His thoughts drifted, and he roughly estimated that his cultivation now stood at around "fifty-six or fifty-seven percent."
"I wonder how my cultivation will change once I reach the fifth level of Qi Refining and use the Inner Mansion of the Origin Gate to gather and refine Spirit Chance."
By now, he finally understood why the mighty immortals and demons in stories and storytellers' tales so often measured their seclusion in sixty-year cycles.
In the end, so-called bitter cultivation was simply accumulating cultivation day after day like this.
In a certain sense, it bore some resemblance to the Outer Sect's Mortal Laborers toiling to earn Talisman Money.
With the outcome of his Master-Inheritance opportunity to be revealed after today, the string stretched taut in Jiang Yi's heart for days loosened a little, and he wanted to go out for some fresh air.
As it happened, He Laohun had mentioned during their chat a couple of days ago that Three Harmonies Ward had a rather famous gaming garden worth visiting.
"Nothing to do today-off to the entertainment house to hear some songs!"
"Brother Yi, here we are."
Before long, a grand garden came into Jiang Yi's view.
Its vermilion-lacquered entrance spanned five bays and was extraordinarily imposing. A black plaque with gold lettering hung above the doorway. Who knew what brush and ink had written those characters? They seemed alive, winding and flowing, their strokes like soaring dragons and dancing phoenixes.
"Knowing Truth Garden."
Jiang Yi read it softly aloud.
"This garden is an old establishment."
As expected of an old hand who had spent years among the lowly cultivators, He Laohun spoke of such old stories in an unending stream:
"They say that some two hundred years ago, Three Harmonies Ward produced someone who reached Twelve-Storied Qi Refining, then finally condensed Gang and Baleful Intent and attained Foundation Establishment.
"That Foundation Establishment higher cultivator, nicknamed the 'Three Harmonies Lying Corpse True Person,' once owed his survival to the kindness of a noodle shop.
"Later, he captured the Five Ghosts to serve him, then used spells to whip mountains and drive stones. In less than half a day, he built this garden for that family."
Jiang Yi's heart stirred as he listened. Could a mire like Three Harmonies Ward actually produce a Foundation Establishment True Person?
It was as unbelievable as a tale from the Arabian Nights!
"Two hundred years! In plenty of places around Northern Mang Ridge, two hundred years would be enough for dynasties to rise and fall several times, yet this garden has stood firm all along.
"A Foundation Establishment True Person's word really is a purple-gold beam spanning the seas, a white-jade pillar holding up the sky! Solid!"
Jiang Yi wholeheartedly agreed.
The goodwill of a Foundation Establishment True Person still held weight after two hundred years of wind and rain.
It truly deserved to be called "face as vast as the heavens."
"Come on, let's go inside and have a look."
As Jiang Yi spoke, he paid three hundred Talisman Money apiece for the two of them and received two admission talismans. He handed one to He Laohun, and they stepped through the garden gates side by side.
Inside, the garden was lively, with people coming and going.
Jiang Yi walked about a hundred paces farther in and saw a spring-fed pool surrounded by many visitors, though he could not tell what they were doing.
He Laohun seemed widely knowledgeable, but this was actually his first visit too. The two went over together.
Once they drew close enough to look, they understood immediately.
The spring pool looked as though it had been hollowed from a naturally formed piece of green jade. It held a pool of clear, emerald-green cold water, with a few water lilies floating on its surface and a hundred Copper Fish swimming below.
"So this is the 'Gambling Pool' they talk about! I hear visitors feed it Spirit Bait. After the Copper Fish eat it, some spit out things from their bellies in return, as little prizes.
"Hence the name 'Gambling Pool.'"
Wherever He Laohun went, he seemed able to blend in and make friends quickly, and he soon learned how it worked.
"Buy Spirit Bait, feed the Copper Fish, and try for a lucky prize?"
Intrigued, Jiang Yi spent eighty Talisman Money on two bags of Spirit Bait. There was not much-only a dozen or so pellets altogether.
Tempted by the "prizes," He Laohun circled the spring pool several times, searching for the best spot.
He tossed bait in several times in succession, drawing the Copper Fish into a scramble for food that sent up splashes.
Unfortunately, he won nothing, although a few Copper Fish did leap from the water and spit things out.
When He Laohun caught them and looked, however, he found only four little characters reading, "Thank you for your patronage."
"Aiya! Missed the prize!"
He Laohun beat his chest and stamped his feet as though he had lost a grand prize. To make matters worse, someone beside him won a fourth-class prize.
"Ah! I won! I won!"
The man danced with joy and immediately took it to exchange for five hundred Talisman Money.
That made He Laohun feel even worse.
"Brother Yi, hurry and try your luck too!"
Jiang Yi treated it as nothing more than a little diversion. He casually picked up a few bait pellets and scattered them into the pool without much thought.
Had he possessed the Heavenly Book at that moment, he could have humbly asked it a question. For now, he went entirely by instinct.
With a splash, the bait pellets hit the water, immediately drawing a school of Copper Fish to fight over them. Those mechanical creations were so lifelike that they were no different from real fish.
"I wonder how they made them."
Jiang Yi tossed in the last of the bait pellets in his hand, then suddenly saw a slightly larger Copper Fish leap out and open its mouth, releasing a streak of green light.
He Laohun was both surprised and delighted:
"Oh! Brother Yi, you won too!"
Jiang Yi caught it readily. It was a smooth, warm piece of green jade about the size of his thumb.
"Congratulations, honored guest."
An attendant had already come forward.
"This is a second-class prize. You may exchange it for one Hanyuan Pill!"
Jiang Yi froze. He could actually exchange it for a Hanyuan Pill, which even Senior Brother Xu of the Inner Peaks eagerly longed to taste?
Knowing Truth Garden was generous indeed!
"What's a Hanyuan Pill? It must be expensive!"
He Laohun looked happier than if he had won himself, even though he did not know what the second-class prize was.
Before long.
The attendant returned carrying a wooden tray, upon which sat a plump, translucent green Hanyuan Pill.
"All pills at Knowing Truth Garden are purchased from the Illuminating Nether Sect's Tiantong Marketplace. You need not worry, honored guest."
The attendant also knew that cultivators of the Demonic Path Lineage never casually ate pills without provenance, a name, or a guarantee, and thus offered an explanation.
"Our Knowing Truth Garden has stood for two hundred years. We would never ruin our own reputation."
Jiang Yi nodded slightly, his expression calm. He had not been worried about that in the first place; he could find out simply by humbly questioning the Heavenly Book.
"No one has won a second-class prize for a full fortnight!"
"A Hanyuan Pill must be worth at least tens of thousands of Talisman Money, right?"
"That shows how little you know! If you can buy one for tens of thousands of Talisman Money, buy me twenty. I'll eat them like candy!"
"Tsk! One costs this much, and you might not even find any for sale. Every Dharma Lineage keeps a tight hold on them..."
Jiang Yi's second-class prize set everyone talking.
Even he was quite surprised. He had never expected to get his hands on a Hanyuan Pill when even Senior Brother Xu of the Inner Peaks struggled to receive one.
He put it away in a jade vial and carefully tucked it into his robes, planning to have He Laohun notify Yang Xun later and return with Grandpa.
In a Demonic Path Lineage, cultivation naturally had to put "safety" first!
Before you continue