Yu Qing and Mu Aotie were not blind. Combined with the gold bricks from earlier, the two of them could tell at a glance that what he held in his hand was gold sand.
Still, they both reached out to pinch some grains into their hands, and used their fingernails to pinch and check, confirming it was gold.
The gold sand was tossed back into his palm. Yu Qing squatted down and asked, “Old Seven, what are you doing crawling under the bed with both gold bricks and gold sand? How much private money have you hidden?”
Mu Aotie also squatted down to peer under the bed.
Nan Zhu, having taken back the gold sand, said disdainfully, “What kind of talk is that? No one can snatch away my money. What is mine is mine. Why would I need to hide private money?”
After a brief look, Yu Qing and Mu Aotie were somewhat stunned. They did not know what pit Nan Zhu was digging under the bed. It seemed he had dug a small pit under the bed. The light was poor, so they could not clearly see what it meant. The two looked at each other, both stood up, and pulled the bed frame directly aside with a clatter.
Nan Zhu, who was crawling under the bed, suddenly saw light and immediately twisted his head left and right to look up. “What are you doing?”
The two did not waste words with him. They walked directly over to see what was going on. They saw that indeed a small pit had been dug out. What had been scraped out was all gold sand and gold nuggets. Nan Zhu was still holding a small, gleaming golden box.
What made the two’s eyes go straight was that there was a golden area on the ground about the size of a washbasin. Outside the area were floor tiles, but inside it seemed to be all gold.
The two could hardly believe it. They immediately squatted down and reached out to touch and confirm. After confirming they had not seen wrongly, they were somewhat shocked. The main thing was that the transition of the floor tiles from half gold to half stone was too natural, as if it had been born that way.
They could not help but pick up a gradient floor tile to examine in their hands.
After a good while, Yu Qing could not help but pat the floor tile in his hand and ask, “Old Seven, what is going on?”
At first they had thought the fatso was hiding private money. Now, looking at it, it was clearly not that. One look and you could tell the situation was abnormal.
Nan Zhu had already knelt up. He pointed at the small box in his hand for them to see. “Look carefully.”
He slowly opened the golden box, revealing the golden egg inside.
The other two recognised it at a glance. It was precisely the fruit that the fatso had impulsively plucked from the golden orchid in the Golden Ruins. At the time he had been so scared he nearly threw it away, but failed to do so, and had brought it back.
“What are you looking at?” Mu Aotie asked.
Nan Zhu said in a low voice with excitement, “This box was originally a wooden box. Now it has turned into gold.”
“…”
Even though they had already suspected this, Yu Qing and Mu Aotie were still shocked into speechlessness.
Yu Qing then asked, “How could this happen?”
Nan Zhu: “I do not know. Look at this circle on the ground the size of a washbasin. With this fruit as the centre, the wooden box, soil, gravel, and stone slabs have all turned into gold. I only discovered it just now when I was digging up this fruit. It gave me a fright.”
Yu Qing: “You buried this fruit under the bed?”
What he meant was, was it necessary to hide it so strictly? Who are you guarding against?
Nan Zhu nodded. “I am now thinking about something. Do you think the reason that world in the Golden Ruins became a world of gold might be related to that golden orchid?” He pointed at the mutated pit in the ground.
The other two were silent for a moment, then shook their heads one after another. None could be certain.
However, Yu Qing still retorted, “The Golden Ruins is impossible. The general environment of the Golden Ruins is still land containing gold. The world inside the Immortal Palace is possible, though.”
Mu Aotie suddenly held up the gradient floor tile in his hand and said, “Does it not resemble the gradient on our cervical bones? Could our gradient be related to this golden fruit?”
Nan Zhu immediately denied it. “No. I have always buried this thing under the bed. We were so far from this fruit at the Sea Market, yet we could still feel the gradient in our bodies. Also, Second Brother also touched this fruit. How come he is fine?
The gradient on our bodies is still related to the Earth Spring. It is just that the Earth Spring affects people differently. Big Black’s father and his brother were two brothers. The eldest had impure intentions and turned into a demon. The younger was different and got golden bones and golden blood. That iron-masked man turned into a three-headed, six-armed creature. This shows it is indeed related to one’s nature. As for the three of us becoming like this, with our bones gradually turning to gold, could it be because we like…”
At this point, he was too embarrassed to continue. But Yu Qing and Mu Aotie actually, rather miraculously, understood. They knew he had reached the conclusion that it was because they liked money.
Nan Zhu also changed the topic. There, he began counting on his fingers. “From when we returned from the Golden Ruins, we stayed at the shop for several months before going to the Sea Market. Adding the journey back and forth, it was less than two months. After returning, we stayed several more months. All together, this fruit has been buried for less than a year.”
He also gestured at the gradient range on the ground. “Estimating like this, if we calculate a full year, it would probably only gradually turn into about two hundred jin of gold…” Calculating up to this point, he could not help but scratch his head. His previous excitement suddenly wilted a bit. He muttered, “Only this much?”
The other two followed his train of thought and understood his meaning. Two hundred jin of gold converted to silver would only be several tens of thousands of taels. To ordinary mortals in the human world, that was indeed a huge fortune, enough to spend a lifetime. But to cultivators, it was truly not much. It was not even enough for the travel expenses of a round trip to the Sea Market. Especially for people at their level of cultivation, it was too little. It could not buy much cultivation resources at all.
Speaking of cultivation resources, they currently did not need to spend much money. The shop still had a pile of frozen immortal peaches.
And speaking of immortal peaches, they were all nearly sick of eating them.
Even normal immortal peaches, eating so many every day, after eating for a long time anyone would lose their appetite. Let alone frozen, not fresh ones, and so large in size. That feeling, whoever eats them knows.
The problem was they still had about thirty thousand frozen immortal peaches on hand. This was after Wu Hei came and consumed the bulk of them.
If everyone in the shop ate freely together, the peak was consuming about two hundred in a day.
Later, as everyone’s cultivation improved, immortal peach consumption not only did not rise, but gradually declined. It was truly impossible to maintain long-term enthusiasm for gnawing so many aged frozen peaches every day. Each and every one of them really was eating until they wanted to vomit.
When they did not want to eat, Yu Qing and the others’ excuse was that they were saving them for Xiao Hei. After all, Xiao Hei was still building his cultivation foundation at the moment. Once he truly got on the path, he would need quite a bit of cultivation resources. These aged immortal peaches would be useful.
At this point, everyone realised that the “Guangling Pill” at the immortal pill level was still better. Eating one was worth many immortal peaches, and one was only that small.
They estimated that the immortals of that time also treated these immortal peaches as snacks. It was impossible to treat them as cultivation resources and eat until stuffed every day.
Thirty thousand plus immortal peaches, if they actually consumed them freely, would not last long now. They could finish them in less than a year. The problem was it would ruin their appetite.
There was one benefit to not being able to finish them for a long time. Occasionally, it could serve as a cover. When neighbours from left and right came over and saw a pile of frozen immortal peaches still unsold, every one of them had a face of secretly holding back laughter…
A few days later, after spending money to have “Wanglou” confirm the situation of the so-called Kunling Mountain of Shopkeeper Lin, the three fellow disciples, having made thorough preparations, set out once more.
This time it was not for money, nor to find someone. It was truly for the ailment in their own bodies. Only after the body has suffered great torment does one know what is more important. Of course, if they could conveniently make some money, that would be even better.
Before departure, Yu Qing found Wu Hei, who had remained noncommittal, to communicate. He hoped Wu Hei could go to Kunling Mountain together. This was not Gao the Second, who could not help and might even be a drag. Bringing an Upper Xuan realm expert along would be much safer. It would absolutely be a great help.
But Wu Hei refused. “My cultivation exceeds the participation conditions.”
“You do not necessarily have to register to participate. We can coordinate with each other.” After Yu Qing persuaded him once, seeing that he remained unmoved, he could not help but ask curiously, “Did you not always want Xiao Hei to change back to a normal person together with you?”
Wu Hei was silent for a moment, then slowly said, “If I had known the situation inside the Golden Ruins was like that, I would not have argued with my father. I would not have insisted on going in. If it were not for Xiao Hei, if it were just me alone, I would definitely go with you. You do not have children. You will not understand. The child has not grown up yet. He does not have a mother. My life is not mine alone. Besides, we still do not know what the situation is. Unless absolutely necessary, I will not easily take risks. Consider me selfish. You go scout the path first.”
Yu Qing nodded and smiled. “I understand. Staying behind to watch the house is also fine.”
Wu Hei: “Nothing will happen at Youjiao Port even if no one watches the house. Rather, it is you all. This time you are going to participate in the ‘Rising Sun Assembly’. The outstanding talents of the world are gathered in one place. Although you will be in high spirits, if there is martial competition, you still need to be careful. If you cannot do it, do not show off.”
Yu Qing laughed heartily. “Martial competition? That is not happening. We will sneak in. How dare we show off? Let alone other things, if the remnants of Zheluo Mountain find out, if any of them are nursing a grievance, they will definitely kill us. As long as we can register and sneak in, that is fine. No one said we cannot withdraw from the competition. Showing our faces before a crowd is out of the question. After all, our little lives are more important.”
Wu Hei: “That is true. Since you already have a plan, I will not say more. In short, be careful yourselves.”
Yu Qing: “Right, speaking of the ‘Rising Sun Assembly’, I thought of Ning Chaoyi. He was fifth place in the last session. Remember to keep in contact with him. You still need to contact him every so often.”
Wu Hei nodded. He knew what he meant.
They were indeed maintaining a certain secret contact with Ning Chaoyi on this side. The main reason was that the shadow of the mastermind from back then had always lingered in their hearts.
However, it was very strange. After the changes in the Golden Ruins, the mastermind seemed to have vanished into thin air. Ning Chaoyi and Shen Qingcheng were still living well at Lanbao Lake to this day, herding freely, with almost no disturbance. No one had come to threaten them with hostages again. Naturally, no one had returned the hostages to them either. They did not know whether the hostages were dead or alive, nor where they were.
In short, the mastermind had gone so quiet that they were left helpless. They could not find even a single clue to investigate.
Qiao Qie’er’s revenge, Yu Qing did not speak of it on the surface, but in reality he still bore it in mind…
At departure, unlike last time, Wu Hei first took Xiao Hei by the hand. This time he would not let Xiao Hei sneak away again.
And still like last time, they packed the people into boxes and sent them out.
After seeing them off, Gao Yunjie inexplicably sighed, “The hearts of men are not as they were in ancient times!”
There was some sadness in his expression. He was not stupid. He could tell that Old Seven, Old Nine, and Old Fifteen were wearing the same pair of trousers. None of them wanted him to go together.
Chong’er, who was cleaning the counter, was also somewhat dejected. He had pestered Yu Qing, begging to travel together. Instead, he was kicked on the backside by Yu Qing, who said to wait until his cultivation reached Initial Xuan peak…