Yu Qing: “Is this mission difficult to complete?”
Sun Ping: “Most likely it won’t be that easy. If it were easy, it probably wouldn’t have been posted.”
Yu Qing: “Are there many people participating in this type of mission?”
Sun Ping: “It’s hard to say. There are definitely some participating, but not too many, because the success rate is too low. Some shops can’t be bothered to waste that time and energy.”
Yu Qing fell silent, saying no more.
Pairs of eyes all turned toward him.
They had all witnessed his previous scene of lacking money and borrowing. They all knew he now owed a pile of debt again. Now suddenly hearing this exchange, they probably all guessed what Yu Qing wanted to do.
Yu Qing seemed to be merely asking casually. He said politely to Sun Ping, “Thank you for your trouble.”
“It’s nothing, what should be done.”
Sun Ping also said something polite, seeing that she was no longer suitable to stay, so she took her leave.
With no outsiders present, Yu Qing’s gaze turned again to the writing on the You Cliff precipice, asking, “Old Seventh, Old Ninth, what do you think?”
Nan Zhu played dumb, “Look at what?”
Yu Qing: “The You Cliff mission, do you have any thoughts?”
Nan Zhu: “What thoughts could I have? No thoughts.”
Mu Aotie shook his head, “None.”
Yu Qing: “You mean the pile of debt I owe has nothing to do with you, right?”
Nan and Mu both wanted to say, when we were splitting money, why didn’t you say it had something to do with us?
However, considering Yu Qing hadn’t gained much money either, some words were too embarrassed to speak out. The matter of them taking benefits while letting Yu Qing owe money was also hard to mention.
Nan Zhu directly broke through, “Old Fifteenth, I say, you aren’t thinking of going to the extreme north to do the You Cliff mission, are you?”
Yu Qing: “Apart from this method before our eyes, tell me, where else can we get that much money?”
Nan Zhu: “Shopkeeper Sun just said, missions are generally not easy to do, the success rate is too low. In the end it might not fall into our hands. The possibility of a wasted trip is very great.”
Yu Qing: “Even if the possibility is not great, we still have to try. Otherwise what can we do? Old Seventh, Old Ninth, I’m just asking you, are you going or not?”
Chong’er at the side suddenly spoke up, “I’ll go.”
“Your fur hasn’t even grown fully, what business is it of yours?” Yu Qing raised his hand and gave him a slap on the head, turned the person around with a push, then gave his backside a kick, “Told you not to wander around aimlessly, told you to go cultivate, didn’t you hear?”
Nan Zhu also waved his hand at him to indicate, showing it was none of his business, telling him to go to the side.
Chong’er put his hand behind his backside to shield it, lowered his head and quickly left.
With him stirring things up like this, there was no more business for the others. Yu Qing spoke up, “It’s decided then. The three of us will make a trip to the extreme north. As long as we find ‘Everbright Grass’, when we return and exchange it with You Cliff for money, after removing the debt repayment money, the rest the three of us will split equally. This matter should be done sooner rather than later. You go back and prepare, we set out as early as possible.”
The reason for bringing the two along this time was partly because one’s own people were reassuring. Another was that there was no danger either. It was just going to search for things. Naturally, for large-area searching, more hands were better.
Nan Zhu didn’t refuse, but only asked back, “Old Fifteenth, do you really think the most urgent matter right now is repaying money? Don’t you think the most urgent matter right now is racing against the preservation period of these immortal peaches?”
Mu Aotie nodded, “We must maximise the use of these immortal peaches.”
This was the greatest reason the two were unwilling to go.
Yu Qing fell silent, discovering he truly had been muddled by the pile of debt. Right now, seizing time to use the immortal peaches to raise cultivation was the most urgent. Otherwise, if they went back and forth to the extreme north and messed around, and the immortal peaches all spoiled, the loss in personal cultivation would likewise be enormous.
At the cost of one hundred immortal peaches equalling one Guangling Pill, if the three brothers went out and messed around for so long before returning, how many Guangling Pills would they lose?
The key point was, they might not necessarily retrieve the Everbright Grass either. The You Cliff mission might not necessarily be completed by them first.
Thus, the weighing of pros and cons became clear. First grasp the losses that could be avoided.
He turned his head to look at the words on the You Cliff mountain wall. After gazing for a long time, he said, “Then cultivation comes first.”
Thus, the five brothers, big and small, entered a state of comprehensive cultivation.
Tie Miaoqing was also withdrawn by Yu Qing. Yu Qing told her to also cultivate with peace of mind. Business was not good, there was no need to have two people guarding. For trade matters, Sun Ping alone was sufficient.
The atmosphere being so, affected by it, Tie Miaoqing also settled her mind to cultivate.
In the blink of an eye, three months later, early morning, Chong’er as usual steamed spirit rice.
Actually, it was just putting on a show, doing it for outsiders to see. It also provided an excuse for the brothers’ devoted cultivation.
The amount made was very small, and it was impossible to make more. If they were full from spirit rice, how could they still eat immortal peaches?
Making a small amount, then using large containers to pack it and send to the several brothers, to conceal from others.
These miscellaneous chores naturally fell to this little junior brother Chong’er.
When the spirit rice was cooked, he carried the things and walked to Yu Qing’s room door. Just as he was about to knock, he suddenly froze, feeling there seemed to be some strange sound inside the room. He knocked on the door and called out “Young Master”, but there was no response inside. Thinking something had happened, he immediately used magic to lift the door bolt.
Inside the room, Yu Qing was still in a cross-legged meditation posture, but had already floated to a position three feet above the couch. The circulating qi energy on his body lifted the entire person up. Bones and tendons resonated together, tiger and leopard thunder sounds.
Chong’er, upon pushing the door and seeing, then knew Yu Qing’s cultivation had reached a critical moment. Fortunately he had not been disturbed by him, otherwise it would easily lead to qi deviation. He quickly closed the door and stood guard outside.
Shortly after, the movement inside the room disappeared. Not long after, Yu Qing’s voice came, “Come in.”
Chong’er then pushed the door and entered again. Upon entering, he saw Yu Qing’s face with divine aura not yet dispersed, his two eyes even more sparkling. He immediately ran over joyfully and asked, “Young Master has broken through Xuan?”
Yu Qing smiled, “Don’t spread it outside.”
“Mmhmm.” Chong’er nodded excitedly again and again.
Both feet stepping down from the couch, Yu Qing only felt refreshed in spirit and clear in mind, his entire body transparent. Looking at the filth expelled from his pores, he had Chong’er fetch water to wash.
After bathing, it was again Chong’er bustling about tidying up.
Chong’er had long since become accustomed to serving him. Like that little book boy of years past, as long as he was before him, he was meticulous in every way.
Yu Qing then stood before the window sill, staring at the two wrinkled, shrivelled peaches placed on the window sill. He reached out and picked them up, seeing the crack at the fruit stem. He broke them apart with both hands to look, discovering the flesh inside had already become dried fruit. Where was there any spiritual energy? It had long since dispersed.
A month ago, he had broken apart one. Although shrivelled, the spiritual energy was still sealed inside. Now it was already like this.
He broke apart the last one to look again. The same. Spiritual energy had dispersed from the crack at the fruit stem.
After brief calculation, these fruits were picked from the peach garden after dealing with Yun Xi. They were placed in the peach garden for nearly a year. Transport took several months. After arriving at Youjiao Port, they were stored until now. From picking until now was already roughly twenty months.
That is to say, after another year, all the immortal peaches would become like this.
Now the five brothers eating daily together, in one day they only consumed roughly fifty or so. Plus those sold out, there were still around seventy thousand left.
They couldn’t sell them anymore. Now they might not sell one in three days. Even if the five brothers tried hard to eat for another year, how many could they eat?
That is to say, after one year, there would still be at least fifty thousand plus immortal peaches.
Fifty thousand plus immortal peaches just wasted like this?
He turned back and took out all the silver notes to count. Total around thirteen million. This was the total income of these three months. In three months they only sold around twenty immortal peaches. One could imagine, and also see, that later it would become less and less.
After much consideration, he said to the busy Chong’er, “Bring in a large water vat, the biggest kind.”
“Mmhmm.” Chong’er acknowledged.
Yu Qing then went out, left Miaoqing Hall, wandered everywhere on the streets, and finally entered a Treasure Pavilion.
The shop assistant enthusiastically welcomed the guest, “Customer, what would you like?”
Yu Qing asked, “Do you have Ice Souls?”
“Yes yes yes, this way please.” The assistant immediately stretched out his hand to guide, bringing him to sit in an inner elegant room.
Shortly after, the assistant brought a fist-sized box. The moment it opened, dense cold air wafted out. One could only see on the soft cushion inside was inlaid a deep blue gem-like pearl, about the size of a quail egg.
This thing could not be faked. One touch and you would know.
Yu Qing took it in hand and felt the bone-piercing cold, asking, “Can one seal and freeze a large vat of water?”
The assistant said, “Seal it certainly can seal, even freezing a pool of water is no problem. But the key is it is hard to sustain. Take this Ice Soul, if it is carefully preserved like this, closed and sealed tightly, storing it for a thousand years is no problem. If used to freeze a pool of water, I’m afraid in about a month this Ice Soul would be consumed. Under the sun it would be finished even faster. For a large vat of water, how long it can seal and freeze, I also don’t know. Customer, you weigh it yourself.”
Yu Qing was silent for a moment, then asked again, “How many do you have here?”
The assistant immediately became spirited, “However many you want, if this shop is not enough we can borrow some from other shops at any time. As long as you want a lot, there will definitely be discounts. A hundred or so can still be obtained for you at any time.”
Yu Qing put the one in his hand back into the box, “How much is this one?”
The assistant: “This one is three hundred fifty thousand taels, no bargaining, all shops’ prices are about the same. If you want a lot, we can discuss.”
Yu Qing said no more, spent three hundred fifty thousand, bought this Ice Soul and left.
Now spending money so casually, even he himself felt toothache.
Returning to the shop, he also instructed Sun Ping, to have someone get a barrel of resin, and various glue-like things.
Sun Ping understood upon hearing, this was trying to preserve the immortal peaches, extending their selling time.
This was all easy to handle, as long as money was spent, naturally no problem.
Returning to his own room, Yu Qing picked out half a chest of immortal peaches, put them into the large water vat, then had Chong’er carry water to fill it.
After the vat was filled to eighty percent, Yu Qing took out the bought Ice Soul and threw it in, then found a wooden board to press down the floating peaches.
The water in the vat quickly turned cool, gradually congealing into ice.
After the vat of water slowly completely froze, Yu Qing found something to seal the vat mouth.
In a few days, Sun Ping also obtained various things like resin. Yu Qing together with her, did various sealing methods on a chest of immortal peaches, waiting to let time speak, to see which method had the best effect.