In the pitch dark night, torches were stuck into the ground for light.
The three martial brothers surrounded another tree. Pulling it up by the roots was a simple task for them.
Holding their swords, the three of them chopped around the base on the ground. They cut out a pentagon shape around the peach tree, severing the roots that spread underground in all directions. Then, channeling their energy, they pushed the tree over. With a loud crash, it fell to the ground, roots and all.
Yu Qing usually swung his sword twice more beside the hole to fill it back in.
After finishing one, the trio moved on to the next.
Just as they had felled another tree, Xu Juening’s loud shout suddenly rang out. “Stop, stop immediately!”
The three brothers looked back and saw the glow of torches, with about five or six figures approaching rapidly.
Yu Qing sighed. “I suppose we have reached our limit.”
Soon, the five or six people arrived. Both Xu and Tang were among them, along with members of Qianliu Mountain and the Daye Bureau.
A member of the Daye Bureau glanced at the fallen peach tree and pointed a warning. “From now on, no more digging is allowed.”
Yu Qing nodded immediately. “Understood.”
Another person warned. “If you dare to offend again, you will face the consequences!”
After a round of warnings and threats, the group gradually dispersed.
Xu and Tang were not in a hurry. Treating them as acquaintances, Xu Juening asked in confusion. “Yu Qing, what exactly are you trying to do? You are not planning to smuggle these things out, are you? I will give you some friendly advice. Stay within your bounds and do not joke with your own life.”
Yu Qing smiled. “You are overthinking it. Just ask yourselves how we could possibly take these things out if the former directors and masters do not allow it.”
Xu and Tang exchanged a glance, agreeing that the logic made sense.
“Sigh!” Tang Bulan suddenly sighed softly. “Yu Qing, we were the ones who brought you out of that small county town. We have watched you become famous across the land. If you refuse to walk the proper path, so be it, but do not always make things difficult for yourself. Truly, do not try to test the patience of Sinan Mansion. Do you know what it means to be unpredictable and volatile? By the time you regret it, it will be too late.”
Yu Qing clasped his hands in respect. “I appreciate your kindness and thank you for it. I would never dare to challenge Sinan Mansion.”
“I hope so. You have never been short of doing reckless things.” Tang Bulan left those words and turned away.
Xu Juening, holding a torch, patted Yu Qing on the shoulder and also turned to leave.
The two sides did indeed share some camaraderie, and everything was understood without words.
After everyone had left, Yu Qing turned back and asked. “How many trees have we dug up?”
Mu Aotie replied. “This is the three hundred and twenty third.”
Nan Zhu added. “When I was picking peaches earlier, I roughly counted them. There are over one thousand five hundred peach bearing trees in total. We have dug up about a fifth of them.”
Yu Qing said. “Fine. Since they will not let us dig anymore, we will stop. Let us go. Now we can focus on the carpentry work in peace. That is the task that truly takes time.”
The three brothers then went back up the mountain, lit their torches, and began working day and night.
One chopped the timber boards, while the other two assembled the pieces.
A few days later, Yu Qing carried stacks of boxes down the mountain and began packing the peaches from the ground one by one. Nan Zhu and Mu Aotie continued their crafting work up there.
Two more days passed before the three brothers finally finished packing all the peaches on the ground. They secured every box with rattan strips and gathered them at the foot of the mountain outside the cave entrance.
Nan Zhu began counting the boxes one by one.
Yu Qing, sitting on the terrace by the cave entrance drinking water to rest, chimed in. “No need to count. Each tray holds exactly five peaches across and five down. Five trays make one box, so each box contains one hundred and twenty five peaches. There are nine hundred and fifty one boxes in total here, amounting to one hundred and eighteen thousand eight hundred and seventy five immortal peaches. Look, there is still a tray and a half left here. We cannot fill a complete box.” He smacked his lips, indicating they would eat them later.
Over one hundred and ten thousand, nearly one hundred and twenty thousand immortal peaches?
Upon hearing the exact number, Nan Zhu and Mu Aotie were stunned. In their year of cultivation, they had not even used ten thousand peaches combined, yet they had both broken through to the high martial arts realm. What a massive amount of cultivation resources this represented!
Nan Zhu leapt to the cave entrance and squatted beside Yu Qing. He whispered. “Fifteenth brother, tell me honestly. Are you really confident that you can smuggle out so many immortal peaches and keep them for ourselves?”
Given that question, and the fact that they had worked together to this point, Nan Zhu actually held quite a bit of hope in his fifteenth brother.
It was not that he considered the fifteenth brother entirely reliable, but how to put it. Since the brothers had left the mountain, they sometimes had to admit that the fifteenth brother really knew what he was doing in certain situations.
Of course, if it were him in that position, he would never dare to think along those lines or act on them, simply because he had no certainty at all.
Yu Qing stayed silent for a moment, then shook his head. “I said from the beginning that this is a gamble. There is a small chance and a bit of certainty. I will only see the true picture after I meet Tian Yu, Meng Po, and Xiang Lanxuan, the three people who can make decisions. To be precise, these three might not be the final decision makers either. The person in charge might already be waiting outside the Little Cloud Realm.”
Nan Zhu paused slightly, then asked in surprise. “Do you mean Di Mu and the others have arrived?”
Yu Qing replied. “If they did not come for such a major event, what else could possibly move them? I feel that they probably arrived the moment we entered the Little Cloud Realm. If the entrances and exits were kept open and not sealed while these pathfinders came in to investigate, they might have already entered the realm as well.
On the other hand, with the situation unclear, they would not dare to enter. What if it was a trap? Would they not be trapped here until death? With the next opening period approaching, they have probably reached the outside of the Little Cloud Realm to await the results. Of course, this is all just my personal speculation.”
Nan Zhu looked at the piles of boxes and sighed. “In that case, it really is a gamble.”
“As long as the three decision makers here agree, we will be more than halfway to success.” Yu Qing put down his stone cup and stood up again. “Enough talk. Do not worry about the rest. I will handle it. Let us get back to work for now.”
Mu Aotie looked up from below.
Nan Zhu, who had also stood up, asked in astonishment. “Work? What work is left?”
Yu Qing pointed at the uprooted peach trees. “We still need to go cut more vines. We must wrap the soil clumps around the roots tightly together with the roots. Otherwise, when we carry them later, the soil will easily break apart. Without the soil, it will be hard to water them. If the journey takes too long, the trees will easily die. We have done everything else properly. We cannot let the final step ruin it.”
Nan Zhu and Mu Aotie had nothing more to say. Time was running short, and they had to hurry.
So the three of them went out again to chop large quantities of vines, bringing them back in piles to tightly bind each tree.
Experience comes with practice. At first, the three simply tied things together randomly. Later, they figured out how to weave the vines into large mat like sheets, wrap them completely around the entire root ball, and finally knot the ends tightly.
Having already done a fair amount of carpentry, the three brothers now taught themselves the skills of a bamboo weaver.
Weaving over three hundred large mats in the last few days was no easy task. The trio worked day and night without sleep once again.
When the final day arrived, in the afternoon, the treasure hunting forces of the three factions finally began their full retreat.
They were clearly bringing back a great deal of loot, all wrapped up tightly. None of the three factions knew what the other two had acquired.
A large crowd quickly passed along the main road outside the peach orchard basin. Three individuals broke away from the group and flew directly over the orchard, looking down at the scene below.
The three brothers were still busy in the orchard. They still had dozens of trees left to wrap, and they had to finish before the exit opened.
The wrapped large trees had all been carried to the cave entrance and leaned against the rock wall.
Mu Aotie had just hoisted a wrapped tree onto his shoulder and was about to leave when three figures landed with a swift sound. Meng Po and his two companions had arrived.
Yu Qing and Nan Zhu were working together to place the roots of a tree onto a rattan mat. Hearing the noise, they turned back, quickly let go, and bowed in respect. Mu Aotie also hurriedly put down the peach tree he was carrying.
Meng Po and the other two looked at the wrapped roots, then at the rattan mats beneath them. Seeing it with their own eyes left them somewhat speechless.
The appearance of the three brothers was indeed quite poor at that moment. It was not just that they were dishevelled. Their clothes were as dirty as beggars. Their long robes were missing half their length, and every pair of their shoes had exposed big toes.
They also had messy beards. Yu Qing’s moustache had been growing freely for a long time. He simply trimmed the parts that got in his mouth with his sword. Their hair was casually tied back as if it were a bundle of straw. Fortunately, they were so used to seeing each other like this that they did not feel it was particularly improper.
The problem was that their daily supplies had been destroyed by others. During the earlier clashes between the three factions, they had been caught in the crossfire and ruined.
Fortunately, they had managed to borrow trousers and shoes. Although they were old and unwanted castoffs, they at least had some worn shoes to wear. They were just a bit more torn now after the brothers daily practical sparring matches.
Not to mention the other two. Seeing a renowned top scholar reduced to looking like a beggar made the corners of the three experts mouths twitch involuntarily.
The three experts naturally understood that it was precisely because someone here had secretly destroyed the trio basic living supplies that they were now in such a sorry state.
“Who told you to pick peaches and dig up trees?”
Meng Po was the first to question them.
Yu Qing replied in confusion. “No one told us to. We just picked up things that no one wanted. In the presence of the mighty figures from Sinan Mansion, the Daye Bureau, and Qianliu Mountain, what else would we dare to do besides collecting discarded items?
Just as we finally learned the location of the Little Cloud Realm from Yun Xi, you chased after us. When the realm opened normally, it was your due. If it had not opened, you would have taken our lives. Would we dare to say a word?
Although we found the Little Cloud Realm, you declared that the treasures here belonged to you and were not for us to touch. We immediately kept our heads down and stayed to the side. For a whole year, we did not dare to wander anywhere and isolated ourselves here. We only started collecting these things because we saw you did not want them. When your people said these trees could not be dug up, we would not dare to object and stopped at once.
The three seniors might as well look and compare. Even when digging up these trees, we would not dare touch the large ones for fear of upsetting you. We only dared to dig up some small ones on the edges. We do not dare touch what you want. Is it not acceptable for us to take a little of what you do not want? Your three factions have always said that heavy rewards would be given for providing clues to immortal caves. Could you not just treat this as a reward for us?”
Xiang Lanxuan smiled faintly. “Oh, listen to how aggrieved the top scholar sounds. Are you trying to win our sympathy? Think clearly. It is only because we entered that you three are still alive. We saved your lives! Enough of playing the victim here. You have already admitted that you want to take these things out. What are you going to do with them once they are out?”