Everyone knew Qiao Qie’er was wealthier than them. They had seen it in the secret chamber on Horseshoe Island. She had over a million taels in cash, plus some items collected in the secret chamber that also seemed worth quite a bit.
Qiao Qie’er, walking over to this side, sensed something was wrong. Especially seeing Nan Zhu fleeing. That fatty often did not speak kind words. Though they had not spent much time together, she had already grown accustomed to it.
She walked over and asked, “Is the money not enough?”
Yu Qing very much wanted to deny it, but knew that as long as those two fellows were unwilling to pay out of pocket, this matter could not be denied. Moreover, even if those two did pay out of pocket, the travel expenses to Yin Country might still not be enough.
Without Qiao Qie’er it should have been enough. With the added round trip travel expenses for one more person, it was truly tight.
He could only chuckle and say, “I will not stand on ceremony with you. None of us are wealthy people. We are a bit short.”
Qiao Qie’er immediately untied her waist pouch, took out a stack of silver notes, and gave them all to him. “This is about all the cash I have.”
Yu Qing received them. “Well then, when I have money later I will pay you back double.”
“Pay back?” Qiao Qie’er asked back once, quietly gazing at him, her bright eyes flickering, seeming slightly annoyed. Only after making Yu Qing realise he had spoken wrongly did she softly remind him, “I am also yours.”
The meaning was also simple. Between you and me there is no such thing as paying back or not. Even I myself am yours.
Understood, understood, understood. Yu Qing immediately burst into joy, stuffed the silver notes into his bosom, and reached out wanting to hug and embrace her again.
Again? Qiao Qie’er was slightly startled, hurriedly stepped back to avoid him, and looked around. Sure enough, she saw Nan Zhu and Mu Aotie watching from the hillside. When they saw she had noticed, the two grown men immediately turned their heads, pretending not to see.
She also turned her head and left.
Rift Valley Manor was located in the western region of Yin Country.
All the way was desolate, all the way was sparsely populated. The group of four emerged from the road between two mountains, then reined in their mounts. The mounts were all panting heavily.
Looking out, vast stretches of green. The boundless land was filled with vegetation. It was grapes.
Grapes were Rift Valley Manor’s main business, used to brew grape wine. Rift Valley Manor was also one of Yin Country’s largest grape wine brewers, and at the same time a rare family style sect in the cultivation world.
At the end of that plain filled with vegetation was a transverse mountain. Looking from afar, in the middle of the barren mountain there seemed to be a crack, as if forcibly torn apart. The uncanny workmanship of nature.
And that crack, in ancient times was once called Golden Valley, and was also the origin of the present name “Rift Valley Manor”.
“Go.” Yu Qing called out, first spurring his horse to run down the slope.
Nan Zhu, Mu Aotie, and Qiao Qie’er followed together, spurring their horses to charge down.
The group charged onto the main road in the middle of the grape plantation. People pruning fruit vines on both sides rose to look from time to time. All along the way people kept popping up to watch them leave.
On the way here, when approaching this area, the three senior brothers had already made some inquiries. This place looked dry, but in fact many underground hidden channels had been excavated beneath. Melting snow water from distant snow mountains continuously flowed here underground, nourishing the crops of this place.
Qiao Qie’er did not know why they had come to this place, but she noticed one thing. The places they searched before and after all had one thing in common, they were great canyons.
It was said that Rift Valley Manor was at the foot of the mountain near that rift valley.
As the saying goes, mountains can make horses run to death. Looking at the distance it did not seem far, but running it truly took some time.
After arriving beneath an archway resembling a mountain gate, the three senior brothers almost simultaneously reined in their mounts.
The three’s actions were completely without warning, causing Qiao Qie’er to run past the archway before reining in. She turned her head to look at the three, feeling their reactions were abnormal.
On the tall archway were carved four characters, Rift Valley Manor.
The problem was there were also carved patterns on the archway. On both sides of the four characters were cloud pattern carvings, and within the cloud patterns each had a special design, a halberd.
It was a single edged halberd, set off by cloud clusters.
The three senior brothers looked at each other. In their minds it was almost the same scene, the content on the jade page in the iron house in Little Cloud Space: Golden Valley, halberd bearer.
Whether it was a family or a sect, how could they coincidentally use a halberd pattern as their emblem? Looking at it, this seemed like the clan emblem of Rift Valley Manor. Otherwise it should be unlikely to place such a special emblem on both sides of the name.
And precisely by coincidence, the former name of this canyon was Golden Valley. Yet a family with a halberd as their clan emblem appeared here. This should not be a coincidence.
The three senior brothers had the same intuition. The entrance to the Golden Ruins was right here.
Qiao Qie’er drove her horse back and asked the three, “What is it?”
Yu Qing: “Nothing. Just feel this family’s clan emblem is a bit strange.”
Clan emblem strange? Qiao Qie’er turned her mount, looked up, and saw that halberd. She slightly frowned. Strange? It was strange to say so, but it should not count as very strange. They were willing to use it themselves. Outsiders could not interfere. Moreover it was not anything particularly bizarre.
She turned her head again to look at the three’s reactions, and said, “Using a halberd as a clan emblem might be expressing the intention of ‘esteeming martial prowess’, right?”
The three senior brothers looked at each other without speaking, all secretly puzzled. If Rift Valley Manor truly had the ability to open the entrance to the Golden Ruins, could they later resist not opening it?
Yu Qing raised his chin. The group passed through the archway and continued forward, arriving at the end of the main road.
At the end stood a flag fluttering in the wind. Painted on the flag was also the single edged halberd set off by cloud patterns, further proving it was a clan emblem.
On the stone platform beneath the flagpole squatted a filthy old man. His clothes were dirty to the point of shining. Grey white hair was messy under his leather cap. His eyeballs were cloudy. He held a dry tobacco pipe, puffing away, basking in the sun, sizing up the several visitors.
This was a gentle slope at the foot of the mountain. Many large and small earthen houses were scattered in a disorderly manner. That kind of yellow mud adobe house. Some houses were surrounded by a circle of mud walls. Wooden houses were rarely seen. Among them were also mixed earthen houses built of stone and mud.
It was impossible to count how many there were. At a rough glance there were over a thousand. And this was Rift Valley Manor. The so called manor was actually this village of the surname “Wu”. The earthen houses scattered here were all residences, the homes of the Wu clan members.
It was said the entire manor’s Wu clan members numbered over ten thousand. There were no other surnames locally. Women who married in also took their husband’s surname. All were surnamed Wu.
Do not look at this place as rustic and poor. In fact there were many women outside who wanted to marry in. Moreover it was not that whoever wanted to marry could marry in. The Wu clan members were very picky, because here as long as one was not lazy, there was food to fill one’s stomach.
What kind of world was it outside? For example, what Yu Qing had experienced: a disaster, refugees displaced. Only a few million or ten million was needed to give countless refugees a way to survive. Yet the imperial court and government actually said they could not produce this money. Yet the wives and daughters of some powerful officials spending money on jewellery might not cost less than this amount.
Those cultivators spent money even more readily in the millions. To buy a useless peach they could casually spend several hundred thousand. Yet no one pitied those refugees.
Because the people who could produce that money were not as foolish as Yu Qing. Because they were very clear that even if they produced it, it would be a drop in the bucket. Because money could not truly play a role, could not truly reach the refugees’ hands. Doing what Yu Qing did, directly giving money to refugees’ hands, was blocking others’ path to wealth. Not everyone could have the background of “A Shiheng” and the fame of a third rank scholar to prevent being bitten. Not treating great disasters as opportunities to make great fortunes, not taking the chance to drive up prices, not forcing others to sell their children was already good enough.
In such an absurd world, in this desolate place where crops did not flourish, living was even harder. That Rift Valley Manor could have food and clothing without worry, one could ask how many people longed for it. Not only women outside yearned to marry in, women of the clan were also unwilling to marry out. Most engaged in internal marriage with those beyond three generations.
Of course, Rift Valley Manor was not all as rustic as it appeared before their eyes. These people living in earthen houses basically worked in the grape fields. The clan members who participated in brewing were relatively higher class, basically living in hollowed out mountain bodies.
Inside the transverse mountain body, not only did people live, but large quantities of grape wine were also stored.
Just as the group was sizing up the environment here, the filthy old man squatting beneath the flagpole tapped his pipe, refilled the tobacco bowl with tobacco, bared a mouthful of yellowed large teeth, and asked, “Where from?”
Nan Zhu laughed and said, “Old sir, we are cultivators travelling the world. We heard there are ten thousand mu of vineyards here, and specially came to broaden our horizons. By the way we also came to see that whatever demon of yours, to see if we can conveniently help you eliminate the evil creature causing trouble.”
The situation here at Rift Valley Manor was a bit special, related to the fifty li agreement between the human world and the demon realm.
First, this place was relatively desolate. Outside the manor, apart from the areas leading to towns and villages, the other directions were uninhabited. Either barren mountains or gobi wastelands. It was a place where even demon cultivators were unwilling to settle.
Long ago, Rift Valley Manor in order to expand their business, along the terrain here infinitely opened up grape plantations on both sides.
When demon cultivators discovered this situation, they used the fifty li agreement as a pretext to extort. The extortion of wealth failed, and in shame and anger they committed acts of capturing people, cutting out their hearts and drinking their blood. Rift Valley Manor naturally resisted fiercely. Both sides fought fiercely, neither able to win. The final situation was similar to facing off in court.
The demon cultivators sued Rift Valley Manor for trampling the fifty li agreement, while Rift Valley Manor said they had not overstepped, saying the expanded areas were originally places where people lived.
This matter had both sides claiming reason. The key was this desolate place where birds did not defecate. Neither the demon realm nor the human world had previously paid attention. Neither side could produce real evidence to support their own side.
But the adjudicators on both sides also stood by their own people. Dragging it out back and forth, in the end it became a situation without resolution.
When those above could not make a ruling, those below acted on their own.
Rift Valley Manor mobilised people to cross boundaries and eliminate demons. The demon realm turned a blind eye and did not interfere. And when demon cultivators crossed boundaries to sneak attack Rift Valley Manor, the human world also pretended not to know.
Both sides killing each other back and forth happened several times every year, becoming a generations old feud.
Up to now, demon cultivators still occasionally sneaked into the village to suck human blood and cut out human hearts to eat.
And the bounty for Rift Valley Manor seeking external help had always been posted. Whoever could kill one evil creature would be rewarded one hundred thousand taels.
However, few people came to this desolate place to earn bounty money by eliminating demons. Yu Qing and the others had precisely heard of this situation, and used it as a pretext to directly barge to the front.
“Oh, you have come to fight demons. There is also a woman.” The filthy old man sized them up and shouted, then stood up, looking very happy. He turned his head and shouted, “Stone, heroes who fight demons have come. Take several heroes to the inner manor to discuss matters.”