Capítulo 1373: Paying respects to the ancestors
Yang Qing’s left brow raised slightly at the remark. He was filled with equal parts puzzlent, excitent, and fear.
Especially to soone like him… Those words replayed over and over in his mind, and with each repetition, he felt a twinge of wonder, excitent, and fear. Being associated with a mysterious Purple Grade potion tied to a long-forgotten behemoth that had made its na in alchemy and herbology wasn’t a bad thing in itself.
But given the relentless string of bad luck that had hit him over the past few months, Yang Qing wasn’t ashad to admit he was more than a little worried about his life and future, especially now that he had realized one of the Instructors he feared most had been sneaking around his abode for the past fifteen months without his knowledge.
If things continued like this, who knew how much worse things could get for him? To protect his fragile mind, he couldn’t help but blindly hope that so good luck was due to co his way.
The world was said to be fair in its scales, right? After months of endless bad luck, even almost dying in a few of those instances, wasn’t it about ti for things to start working out for him?
As such, despite having no connection to the Purple Grade alchemist and herbologist, Yang Qing’s desperate mind couldn’t help but twist Dean Zhu Lao’s statent in his favor. Crazy assumptions began to take root, such as Song Quan being a Yang clan ancestor who had been watching all these years for a worthy successor from his line to whom he could bequeath his entire inheritance.
Yang Qing had seen such a thing play out many tis in prestigious clans, where a powerful ancestor faked their disappearance to see how the clan would adapt and if any worthy descendants would erge. Matters of succession and continuity weren’t exclusive to kingdoms and empires.
Besides, the more Yang Qing thought about it, the more his guess didn’t seem completely outlandish. His clan specialized in body refinent, but for you to make any inroads and advancents in it, you needed to be good at other fields, one of which, to no surprise, was alchemy. How else would you concoct the bath solutions needed to refine and strengthen the body?
Not to ntion his clan was both poor and eccentric, with eyes only for the path of body refinent. As such, they had little contact with the world outside their mountain.
So how does such a clan, with no ties and connections, get the necessary ingredients to produce no less than ten gold body refinent users each year?
The ingredients needed for such a venture were no less than what Foundation Establishnt cultivators needed. In the early stages of body refinent (iron and bronze), you could get away with cheap ingredients, but from silver onwards, you needed resources in both quantity and quality.
So how did his clan afford it? They cultivated it themselves. Three-quarters of the plants they used, they cultivated themselves, and three-quarters of the potions they used, they brewed themselves. Not to ntion, they even modified or invented so of their own.
Knowing all that, was it really preposterous for Yang Qing to think that maybe, just maybe, there was a chance Song Quan was a long-removed ancestor of theirs? They shared a common interest in herbology and alchemy. Not to ntion Song Quan also had the eccentric personality of the Yang clan, where they would do anything for their obsessions.
Yes, Song Quan may not have the Yang surna, but that wasn’t a deal breaker for Yang Qing. His father had changed his surna for a while after leaving the clan, and he refused to be called by his full na by his children and wife. And Yang Qing himself had been tempted to switch his surna when he left, wanting to wash away the mories of his past, especially those dark traumas.
The more he thought about it, the more Yang Qing believed Song Quan was his ancestor. And if he was…
As far as he knew, alchemy was one of the richest professions. Following that vein, how rich would a Purple Grade alchemist be? Probably rich enough that his great-great… (a few greats descended) very handso and talented grandson would not have to work a day in his life.
Yang Qing could retire. HE COULD RETIRE.
“What’s with your grin?” Dean Zhu Lao asked mirthfully.
In hasty surprise, Yang Qing touched his chin, and his eyes widened when an unconscious trace of his finger confird he had indeed been grinning.
“I was thinking about my ancestors,” Yang Qing said, smiling sheepishly in embarrassnt.
“Talented and filial. If I had a daughter, I wouldn’t mind playing matchmaker,” Dean Zhu Lao said, laughing, as his gaze drifted aningfully to Yu Long.
“My daughter already has soone,” Yu Long tiredly replied.
“You said the potion Senior Song Quan is making is of importance to —how?” Yang Qing asked, hurriedly pulling the topic back. After all, it potentially involved his inheritance, and that inheritance equaled freedom from bitter, hard, slave-like labor for a pittance.
His freedom and future were at stake here. He had already chosen the incense stick to worship his new ancestor.
Dean Zhu Lao’s eyes glead as they narrowed before he broke into a rambunctious laugh. “You were right,” he said, addressing Yu Long between laughs.
“He is predictable that way,” Yu Long said, smiling.
Seeing their actions, a dark feeling of worry arose in Yang Qing as he felt his inheritance might be in jeopardy. That smile Yu Long showed was the cause of the alarm bells going wild inside him; he’d seen it many tis before, and it was never a precursor to anything nice. More often than not, it was tied to so slanderous rumor about him or signaled that he was about to be punished.
He was too grown to be punished. So that left…
The eagerness he had gave way to fear.
After he’d had his laugh, Dean Zhu Lao continued, “Well, the potion requires a lot of ingredients—at least close to a hundred.
Song Quan doesn’t have them all, so he put out a bounty. A very generous bounty for each of the ingredients needed, including even the ones he already has in supply. After all, no matter how skilled an alchemist is, they don’t always have a 100% success rate on every potion brewed, especially for a purple grade one.
The more surplus ingredients one has, the better.”
Yang Qing’s heart sank as his fears and suspicions about Yu Long’s smile were slowly vindicated.
Dean Zhu Lao smiled cheekily as he looked aningfully at Yang Qing. “Yu Long said you’re always looking for easy ways to earn a lot of spirit stones, which has gotten you into no small number of troubles,” he said, his voice lowering as if discussing so illegal matter.
“I was quite like you back in the day. It’s why I got into adventuring. It’s the fastest way to acquire resources, especially the rarer ones,” he said, smiling reminiscently. “And dangerous, too,” he added.
Yang Qing inwardly nodded, agreeing with that final part, before sighing in lant. I guess I have no rich Soul Formation Purple Grade ancestor to rely on. My streak of horrible luck continues.
It was now completely obvious what Dean Zhu Lao was hinting at.
“Here’s the list,” Dean Zhu Lao imdiately said, handing Yang Qing a weathered, rolled parchnt. “What he’s offering is generous. Just one bounty on even a secondary ingredient is sure to solve your resource troubles for years,” he added, smiling proudly as though he’d given Yang Qing the deal of a lifeti.
His smile faltered when he was t with Yang Qing’s forced smile, which was predominantly covered with fear and disappointnt.
Dean Zhu Lao may have thought he’d given Yang Qing a treasure map, but to Yang Qing, that parchnt was no such thing. It was a cursed scroll filled with lines of endless curses disguised as wondrous treasures. Every ingredient listed was a potential death trap.
He didn’t even dare look at it. He just thanked Dean Zhu Lao and quickly put the list away, fearing that knowing its contents would trigger that curse.
Yang Qing sighed inwardly in defeat, knowing he would eventually give in to that curse. He was too poor and too curious not to.
With everything he needed to discuss handled, Yang Qing exchanged a few more words with Dean Zhu Lao and Yu Long. The conversation primarily centered on his cultivation art as he shared so of his doubts and ideas, borrowing from their experience and insights. He had thought it would last a few minutes, but it ended up lasting close to two hours. It would have gone on longer had Dean Zhu Lao’s wife not passed by for a ‘visit,’ swiftly leaving not long after with her husband in tow. The Dean kept looking back pleadingly at Yu Long for help, only to have his pleas ignored as the Assistant Dean smiled warmly while his friend was ‘dragged’ away.
With everything handled, Yang Qing left the courtyard and made his way to the library to center his emotions with so light reading. Afterward, he borrowed a few books on Dream Ambrosia Bees before heading back to his abode to continue his research.
By the ti he arrived, it was close to midnight. The sky was clear and starry, accompanied by a crescent moon and a slight breeze.
…
“He’s already been taken,” Yang Qing wistfully comnted, sighing when he didn’t find Bolin around.
After saying a two-minute prayer for the rainbow mist toad, he poured himself a cup of the tea he’d pilfered from Ren Shu to calm his nerves and center his emotions. He needed to process the day’s events and information, his mind continually circling back to the details about Dean Zhu Lao’s brother.
It wasn’t lost on him that the Dean had avoided ntioning how his brother was injured, or what the injury even was. All Yang Qing knew was that his life was tied to Sage Mountain.
The one question that kept swirling in his mind was, Who injured him? Who could harm soone with a Paragon Domain? And not just anyone, but soone who even a fellow Paragon Domain holder judged to be more talented than himself.
Yang Qing was inclined to believe so, especially as soone who had been around Sage Mountain for a while now and knew how special that place was. But even without the mountain, his assessnt of Dean Zhu Lao’s brother would have remained the sa. Soone who could create three Purple Grade arts was a monster among monsters, and yet that person, despite his imnse talent, had been gravely injured.
“This world gets scarier by the day,” Yang Qing said wistfully, looking up at the starry skies with worry. What usually left him feeling tranquil now filled him with anxiety and a heavy heart, as if that dark blue expanse hid a calamitous entity within it.
His thoughts were pulled away when he felt movent from his communication talisman.
“Li Gang?” Yang Qing answered as he pulled out the talisman.
User Comments
0 comments from readers