Looking for a place with heavy resentment and Yin energy?
Lu Li frowned. "Why would he look for such a place?"
"I-I don't know either. I am merely a Rogue Cultivator who wanted True Essence Pills... Senior, spare my life, please spare my life!"
Lu Li fell silent for a moment before asking, "What did that person look like?"
"I... I'm not sure. He was dressed entirely in black and wore a mask..."
"Not sure?" Lu Li asked, slightly suspicious. "You agreed without even seeing his face?"
"H-he gave me a hundred True Essence Pills as a deposit, so... so I agreed."
A hundred pills?
Wasn't that a bit too... outrageous?
On second thought, Lu Li found it understandable.
This man was only at the second layer of Qi Refining, and a Rogue Cultivator at that. For an ordinary Rogue Cultivator, obtaining True Essence Pills was incredibly difficult. A hundred pills was already a substantial fortune, let alone the thousand more the person promised upon success.
Despite this line of questioning, Lu Li failed to glean any truly useful information. Fortunately, this fat man had not yet passed on the news of finding the Liu Manor to his employer, so it was unlikely anyone else would target the property for now.
Thinking for a moment, he asked, "Since he gave you True Essence Pills, you must have a way to contact him, right?"
"N-no, we don't. He told me to seek him out in the Eastern Province Great Marsh once I found a suitable location... He said that aside from True Essence Pills, he would give me another Reward..."
"The Eastern Province Great Marsh?"
"Yes. Right, he also gave me this... He said that if I brought this to the Great Marsh, he would know I had arrived." As he spoke, Mr. Mo hurriedly pulled a palm-sized, dull gray jade plaque from his Storage Bag. The plaque was etched with strange, ancient patterns.
Lu Li took it. He felt that the icy aura emanating from the jade plaque was somewhat familiar, but he couldn't recall where he had encountered it before. He casually stored the plaque away.
He did not know why the owner of this jade plaque was searching for a gathering place of vengeful spirits, but he vaguely sensed that this person was harboring ill intent.
After some thought, Lu Li asked, "What of this person's cultivation?"
"Cultivation..." Mr. Mo recalled for a moment before answering, "He didn't make a move, so I couldn't tell. But... I felt his aura wasn't as strong as yours, Senior."
In the cultivation world, those at lower realms could not use their Divine Sense to probe the realms of those stronger than themselves, but they could make a rough judgment based on the other party's aura.
Generally speaking, as long as the opponent was no more than three minor realms higher, one could judge their strength through their aura. If the gap was too wide, however, it was impossible. When encountering such an expert... it was best to stay as far away as possible.
If this fat man's senses were correct, it proved the person he traded with did not have a high cultivation. Of course... this did not rule out the possibility that the other party had intentionally concealed their realm.
In that case...
It seemed that after refining the Piercing Acupoint Pill, he would have to make a trip to the Eastern Province. Otherwise, that person might suddenly get another whim and return to disturb Liu Xinyu's grave.
"S-Senior, I've told you everything I know. So you see..." Fatty Mo looked at Lu Li with a pleading gaze.
Lu Li smiled. "Of course. I will... give you a quick end!"
"Qui... qui..."
Mr. Mo's expression turned to one of sheer terror. Before he could even finish the word, an axe had already chopped toward his neck.
"Thud." The plump head rolled onto the floorboards.
Lu Li withdrew his smile, stood up, and turned to walk toward the side hall.
In the side hall, Wang Qitai sat blankly on the ground, not daring to move half a step... The miserable screams from outside made his hair stand on end.
The sudden sound of footsteps echoed within the hall. Wang Qitai jolted in fright, dragging his body as he crawled toward Lu Li. "M-My Lord... spare me, spare my life!"
Lu Li cast an indifferent glance at Wang Qitai. With a casual wave of his hand, he stored away the three large chests, then said, "I am buying the land of the Liu Manor. As for the price... it will be that banknote for a thousand taels of silver. You have no objections, do you?"
Wang Qitai glanced back at the silver banknote under the large main chair. He shuddered and repeatedly said, "No objections, no objections. The Liu Manor belongs to Your Lordship from now on."
"Very good." Lu Li nodded and pulled Wang Qitai to his feet. "Draft a new bill of sale for me. If you dare to resell it again, you know the consequences..."
Wang Qitai felt as if he had been granted a general amnesty, repeatedly claiming he understood. Trembling, he drafted a new contract and stamped it with his official seal. Under the laws of the Great Qian Dynasty, the old Liu family residence now belonged to 'Qin Shouren'.
This was merely mortal law; it could not bind cultivators, but at least it would prevent ordinary merchants from targeting the Liu Manor.
With this matter settled, Lu Li flashed away, returning to the Tongwang Restaurant.
Early the next morning, after a simple meal, Lu Li departed once more, heading northwest.
Half a month later.
Amidst the mountains, at the foot of a somewhat desolate stone mountain, Lu Li finally came to a halt. He looked up at the jagged, craggy peak-roughly a hundred zhang tall-and let out a sigh of lament before dismounting from his horse.
Considering he might still need the beast later, Lu Li didn't set the fine horse free. He led it up a tiny, barely visible path winding between the strange boulders, slowly ascending the mountain.
When he finally reached the peak, a Daoist temple leaped into his line of sight.
He glanced up at the three characters reading "Qingliang Temple" above the entrance, then tied the large black horse to a jagged rock to the right of the gates before stepping inside. Although the mountain was mostly stone, there were plenty of wild weeds sprouting between the rocks; the black horse likely wouldn't starve.
The temple was entirely silent. The familiar scenery stirred Lu Li's memories of the past.
Glancing around, a sudden pang of sorrow gripped his heart. With a somber expression, he walked into the main hall.
Inside, aside from the pill furnace that had gone missing, everything else remained exactly as he had left it. The platform built specifically for pill refining still stood quietly in the center of the hall.
Fan Zhengping's corpse had already decayed into a skeleton. While cleaning, Lu Li gathered the remains. Pushing open the small door on the west side of the courtyard, Lu Li discovered the corpse pit entirely filled with skeletal remains.
"Sigh, what a sin."
Lu Li shook his head. He walked to a spot not far from the corpse pit, dug a grave, and buried Fan Zhengping's remains. No matter what, this man had once shown him kindness.
He stood in silence for a moment before returning to the main hall to sweep it. It took him a full half-hour to thoroughly clean the main hall and the two rooms to the east.
He walked outside, sitting on the stone steps in front of the hall in a daze for a while before finally beginning his preparations to refine pills.
First, Lu Li placed the bronze pill furnace he had obtained from Zhang Song atop the refining platform. The furnace was roughly the size of a mortal farmer's cooking pot, save for its three legs and the special patterns carved into its surface.
After setting up the furnace, Lu Li tested the earth fire. The valve for the earth fire was similar to the knob on a modern gas stove, except it did not require a spark to ignite. As he twisted the valve, the two partition plates made of special material over the earth fire vent slowly opened.
A cluster of bright red flames instantly flared out.
The temperature of the flames could not be low, considering that even Lu Li could feel the blistering heat radiating from it.
Seeing that the earth fire was still usable, Lu Li let out a sigh of relief. If the earth veins below had gone cold, this trip to Qingliang Mountain would have been entirely in vain.
With all this done, Lu Li retrieved a large jade plate from the offering table facing due north and set it on the platform. Then, he drew one stalk of Emerald Bamboo Grass, one stalk of Lightning Fire Orchid, one Scarlet Flame Fruit, and a bottle of earth milk essence from the pagoda, arranging them on the jade plate.
He did not dare take out too much at once. Since he did not yet know how long it would take to refine a single Piercing Acupoint Pill, he worried that leaving all the medicinal herbs out for too long might drain their spiritual nature.