Of all the Nine Provinces, none surpassed Lizhou in prosperity.
Thirty-six prefectures under its administration, every one of them stable and secure.
At its eastern edge stood an unremarkable little mountain, but the ordinary township at its foot was no less flourishing than Lizhou City itself.
The people passing through all carried formidable presences.
Sellers of rare medicines. Men hauling demon carcasses over their shoulders. It had the unmistakable look of a settlement built by and for martial cultivators.
Lizhou’s Implement Sect.
In raw strength, perhaps not the very pinnacle — but when it came to wealth, its name was known across Great Qian.
Supplying treasure artifacts to the War Temple as tribute meant the court’s protection, and virtually no one dared pick a quarrel with them.
And yet.
Right now, at the mountain’s peak, on the edge of a deliberately carved hollow, a small thatched cottage sat quietly.
Outside it, an old man and a middle-aged man were engaged in a game of chess.
“The Sect Master’s mind doesn’t seem to be on the board.” The middle-aged man had a pale, beardless face with phoenix-shaped eyes. Though he wore a pale blue long robe and carried an almost ethereal air, something faintly off-putting seeped through all the same.
“One always worries a little when a treasure is in the process of advancing in grade. A jest from the Perfected Master.” Lin Jingyi forced a somewhat strained smile.
“Oh?”
Perfected Master Hu glanced toward the hollow where pale smoke drifted thickly, and said with an air of amusement, “The treasure is right here, and yet the Sect Master’s thoughts are somewhere to the north…”
He drew out the syllables. “That appears to be the direction of Great Qian’s imperial capital.”
At those words, the tip of Lin Jingyi’s finger trembled. The chess piece in his hand clattered down onto the board, spinning in a small circle.
He adjusted his expression quickly. “The Perfected Master is having fun with me.”
Perfected Master Hu gave a noncommittal smile. “Well, I’m feeling a touch tired today. Sect Master, you should rest as well.”
“Then Lin shall take his leave.”
Lin Jingyi rose and made his way down the small path off the mountain, his expression growing grimmer with each step.
The old fox — it had been the one who used the Lizhou Implement Sect’s name without authorization.
And somehow he was the one feeling guilty.
He’d only wanted to invite it over to study together how a superlative-grade artifact might be elevated further — to see whether a true spirit-treasure could actually be forged.
And yet the fox had dared to meddle in Great Qian’s affairs on its own initiative. This violated Qingqiu’s own rules.
What on earth had that letter sent to Qingzhou contained?
He didn’t dare ask. He could only hope that the people sent to inform the capital had moved swiftly, and that the Implement Sect wouldn’t end up tainted with the name of colluding with demons.
This so-called Perfected Master Hu — dressed up in robes, wearing a human face — was a Qingqiu Perfected Master that even the War Temple would need to receive as a guest.
But take those robes off, and it was a genuine, full-blooded demon king.
After the Sect Master had gone.
Perfected Master Hu collected all the chess pieces back into the jar with a relaxed air. From within the cottage emerged another figure.
“Elder, have the Implement Sect’s people already found out?” The two looked close in age, but the newcomer’s face was all deference and respectful formality.
“And what of it? When Qingqiu acts, do we owe anyone an explanation?”
Perfected Master Hu put the board away and took a sip of tea. “Your master and I have a good relationship, and this matter touches on Qingqiu’s dignity besides. I’ll see to it that Great Qian gives you an answer… heh — first a disciple disappears, then a retainer loses contact. Does Great Qian think it’s some dragon’s pool or tiger’s den, swallowing up Qingqiu’s people one after another?”
“Elder, both my junior brother’s disappearance and the Red-Eyed Retainer’s loss of contact trace back to a young man called Shen Yi.”
The young fox demon was somewhat puzzled. “Why send a letter to Qingzhou at all — and hand them a piece of intelligence about a rare treasure for free?”
“Since this Shen fellow is the Inspector, there had to be some reason to draw him here. The entire Qingzhou Demon Suppression Division has sealed its mouth shut — clearly they regard him with the utmost importance, treat him as their lifeline, and anything that comes up they’ll certainly bring to him first in the capital.”
Perfected Master Hu’s smile deepened. “Of course, I’m also doing an old friend a favor at the same time.”
An old friend? The young fox demon looked around in puzzlement.
No figure appeared — but a voice arrived first.
“My thanks.” A distant, almost incorporeal voice drifted over from somewhere far away.
“Think nothing of it. Your Xuanguang Cave is fighting life and death battles against the Thousand Demon Den at the front, while Great Qian scrambles to preserve its own strength at every turn — even an outsider from Qingqiu like me finds it hard to look away.”
Perfected Master Hu gave a slight inclination of its head.
From what their inquiries had turned up, Qingzhou had been on the brink of catastrophe, and yet had suddenly settled into perfect calm — utterly baffling.
The old wolf had vanished without so much as a whisper.
Even with Qingqiu’s connections throughout the demon world, no one could explain it.
Which meant the Howling Moon had certainly not died inside Qingzhou — any attack on a provincial city of that scale would have been impossible for other demons not to know about.
Dead outside… which meant Qingzhou had acquired at least one Mixed Origin Grandmaster.
That letter, full of obvious holes, had only been sent to probe things.
Anyone with ordinary sense would never believe it.
Only a genuine Mixed Origin Grandmaster would come anyway, without hesitation.
Just then, a dragon’s roar suffused with anger rolled down from the sky, and even across whatever great distance separated them, the authority in it didn’t diminish in the slightest.
Perfected Master Hu’s expression shifted faintly.
It rose to its feet in an instant.
“Old friend, there’s no need to rush — this is Xuanguang Cave’s business. Let me go take a look.”
The voice came again.
Perfected Master Hu hesitated briefly. However much it had coveted the Silver Moon Cold Lotus, it couldn’t very well refuse the man’s face outright at a moment like this, so gave a small nod. “Then I’ll leave it to Elder Brother.”
An old dragon matching an extreme-tier Mixed Origin Grandmaster — nothing about that would be easy to handle.
It had made its home in a cold abyss guarding the treasure, and only Perfected Master Hu had cultivated a long-standing acquaintance with it.
Now that its location had been exposed, even a fool could tell who had given it away.
Better to let someone else go and scout the path first.
With that thought, Perfected Master Hu walked slowly to the edge of the hollow and looked down into the dense white smoke at its center.
Finish the spirit-treasure, claim the cold lotus, swallow the white dragon… what exceptional fortune. All of it arranged for its own enjoyment.
Perfected Master Hu hummed quietly to itself and stood there. Five days and nights passed.
But it didn’t get the news back from its old friend. Instead, what came first were three clouds up in the sky.
The most vivid of them — the crimson one — drew every eye.
“Hm?”
Perfected Master Hu looked up.
And then a voice of commanding resonance blanketed the entire mountain, and the bustling township below it.
“The Demon Suppression Division’s Inspector arrives in person! Implement Sect disciples, come out to greet him!”
On his white cloud, Lin Qingyang bent forward in a deep bow.
As the Implement Sect’s most celebrated prodigy, a single word from him was enough for every disciple on the mountain to recognize him at once.
“Hah…”
Lin Jingyi came out at a brisk walk. His son, after all.
The moment he opened his mouth, he made sure to put distance between the Implement Sect and that fox demon.
This Inspector had been welcomed by the Implement Sect. He had not come on his own to conduct an unsolicited inspection.
And it carried the added benefit of putting some pressure on the fox demon.
Every disciple on the mountain set down their work and bowed in unison toward the crimson cloud above.
“…”
At the edge of the hollow, Perfected Master Hu stood with hands clasped behind its back, a faint quirk playing at the corner of its mouth, edged with a thread of contempt.
The young people of today — more swagger than ability.
Did he not worry about the weight of it breaking his back?
He’d arrived a touch earlier than Perfected Master Hu had expected — but that didn’t amount to much of a problem.
(End of Chapter 240)