Chapter 185: Mooncake
Translator: Subudai11 Editor: Chrissy
There were several ways for Yuanying Stage to advance to Deity Stage. One of them was avatars’ experiential learning, which was used by Xiao Qi; of course, this was considered as dishonest way. Although Wang Lu understood, for a moment, he didn’t think it through.
"However, since your main body is an expert of peak Yuanying Stage, as long as you call back your main body, wouldn’t you be able to trample this Grand Cloud Mountain Division in mere seconds?"
Xiao Qi said, "Because it’s inconvenient to call my main body back, so I have to ask for your help. Right now, I could be considered to be in the middle of tribulation to turn into Deity Stage; because my main body is divided into many, it is currently somewhere in between existing and not existing. It’s just that in this current tribulation, my body is not present, so…"
Wang Lu sighed. "So, simply speaking, you’re now just a weak chicken of middle-level Jindan?"
"... You, a middle-level Foundation Establishment actually have the nerve to call me weak?"
"At least I know myself enough to not provoke an opponent that I could not afford to provoke."
"Was it me who pointed people at their nose and scolded them just now?"
"If you hadn’t sent me the wrong message, I would’ve already run away."
"... Forget it, I’m not going to quarrel with an ignorant junior like you. In short, since we have the same goal, then… what should we do next?"
Xiao Qi said and then looked at Wang Lu expectantly, as if she was looking for his input.
Wang Lu was extremely flattered. "Hey, you, a high and mighty senior, want me to show the way!?"
"Since you’re Wang Wu’s, that person’s disciple, your way is definitely better than me, so wouldn’t it be better if I trouble you to think about it directly? Moreover, I’m the kind of person who never put on airs, so you definitely don’t need to have a psychological burden."
"... No, my burden is definitely not because of your airs." Things have come to this point, so Wang Lu found it harder to trust this staff wielding, expectant looking high and mighty senior. But then again, no matter how unreliable she was, the fact of the matter was she was a spiritual treasure wielding peak Yuanying Stage with current real power of a Jindan. Her real strength was much more powerful than that of Wang Lu and Liu Li combined. Just now, if there were no home base advantage for the Beast Master School, if she clashed directly with that cat girl, the outcome would still be unknown.
Moreover, though they had met with a small setback on the Grand Cloud Mountain, Wang Lu didn’t intend to stop. On the contrary, seeing that scene on that level area, his idea to punish this Division became even more intense.
Actually, though the behavior of the Beast Master School has trodden the evil way, in the grand scheme of things in the Nine Regions, it was not that extraordinary. All the famous upright sects have, more or less, done the same in secret. For example, the Shengjing Sect which was known as the head of the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals, hadn’t they had Daoist Master Zhifeng and his deed in Blue River Region? Sometimes, the way of handling things by Beast Master School in the Southern Heaven Region was even hundred times fiercer than this. And their individual cultivators sometimes even prohibited ordinary people from eating meat—the meat of their beloved type of spirit beast—killed a person and even the entire clan. It was basically an out and out evil way. However, so what? The killer cultivator just needed to compensate monetarily, give an apology and then live in seclusion until things died out. Since the individual responsible had settled the account, who would look for trouble anymore?
This included when Wang Lu established his Wisdom Sect. Although it walked on the upright path and had become a lot formal right now, in its initial development stage, the use of Heaven Burning Blood Technique was a fact that they could not erase.
This kind of thing was not unusual in the Immortal Cultivation World, however, conversely, this kind of giving-people-a-headache problem was also normal. Daoist Master Zhi Feng met with Wang Wu caused his years of painstaking effort to go in vain. Wang Lu’s Wisdom Sect, on the other hand, was a lot luckier. In its initial development stage, it never encountered any busybody expert. If they ever met, Wang Lu had to think of a way to deal with that senior. Now on this Grand Cloud Mountain, Wang Lu very much wanted to meddle in other people’s business.
He wasn’t an expert senior, but he might not necessarily need the mean of a highly skilled expert to meddle in this business of others.
"Speaking of which, Beast Master School collect spirit dogs to refine spiritual treasure so that they could catch a young immortal beast. So what kind of immortal beast exactly is that?"
Xiao Qi said, "It’s unclear. At present, no one is clear about it. Even Beast Master School can only judge its level; approximately comparable to peak Xudan Stage cultivator. However, they don’t know which type of breed or species… However, most of the world’s immortal beasts are so unique. What’s wrong, are you interested in it too?"
Wang Lu chuckled and looked back at the distant Grand Cloud Mountain. "For a year, Beast Master School has been operating on this Grand Cloud Mountain; changing its Feng Shui lines, establishing spirit pool and arrays. How much do you think all of that cost them?"
Xiao Qi calculated, "Not counting the manpower, it’s about one or two million spirit stones.
"Correct. Their time here hasn’t been long, so they have yet to invest too much. Thus, even if their place is razed to the ground, they’re not going to suffer too much… However, on the other hand, what do you think is the value of an immortal beast?"
Xiao Qi was startled, and then she immediately said with a smile, "It’s basically priceless."
A genuine immortal beast possessed a high stage that nearly exceeded the upper bound limit of the Immortal Cultivation World in the Nine Regions, equivalent to the upper bound of true immortal. Which was the stage that the leader of the Union of Ten Thousand Immortals Daoist Master He Tu strove to achieve. When the Nine-Tailed Fox came to the Spirit Sword Mountain that year, it was barely managed to get it sealed with a lot of effort and resources. Therefore, its high value was not difficult to imagine. If it were a quasi-immortal beast like Fenrir, its value would at least worth hundreds of millions of spirit stones. A genuine immortal beast could no longer be valued in terms of spirit stones.
Of course, on Fenrir’s classification, many in the Nine Regions were partial against the product of the Western Continent, it didn’t necessarily mean Fenrir’s strength was not comparable to the standard immortal beast. However, after all, there hasn’t been any actual fighting example, so there wasn’t enough convincing argument against that.
The reason why Wang Lu raised this immortal beast issue was naturally to make a fuss over this. Right now, the Beast Master School was trying their best to catch the young immortal beast—perhaps, in fact, that spirit dog wasn’t comparable to the standard immortal beast, and it might as well be a quasi-immortal beast. However, since Beast Master School attached great importance to it, making it a target, it would be in vain if Wang Lu’s party didn’t target it too.
"So, what exactly do you want to do?" Xiao Qi completely gave up on thinking as she looked expectantly at Wang Lu, waiting for an answer.
Wang Lu also did not hesitate. "There are two ways. The first is very simple. As long we spread the word to everyone that Beast Master School is trying to catch a young immortal beast, naturally, there would be large numbers of troublemakers coming here to join the fray. We just need to look from the sideline. When there’s a chance, we can take action and fish in troubled water. It would save a lot of trouble for us."
Xiao Qi clapped to praise him. "Oh, this method is good."
"However, there’s a problem with this method. This gimmick of young immortal beast is too loud, and Beast Master School can be considered as a high-rank sect; they have powerful strength, good reputation, and they are determined enough for this. Once the affair is open to the public, they could fly in several Yuanying and Deity Stage cultivators from their main base in Southern Heaven Region to suppress the scene. By then, it would be even more difficult for us to fish in troubled water."
"That makes sense. After all, this is a young immortal beast we’re talking about."
Wang Lu said, "Therefore, the second method is to quietly make our move, so that when people of this division, those losers, finally respond, it would be too late because the fact has already been established. Then, if nothing else, at least we can use the reputation of my Spirit Sword Sect."
Xiao Qi asked, "The fact has already been established, what do you mean by this?"
"Because Beast Master School has yet to capture this young immortal beast, therefore, at present, it is still unowned, and in theory, it’s finder’s keeper. Cloud Region is a chaotic place. Even Beast Master School has yet to establish an unbreakable reputation in this Grand Cloud Mountain. At the very least, Union of Ten Thousand Immortals has yet to withdraw from it. Otherwise, any resources of this land are unowned unless you get your hand on it. Of course, this theory wouldn’t work for your run of the mill sects because to them, it’s might makes right rules; if they capture the young immortal beast, Beast Master School would immediately seize it away by force from them. However, would they dare to make trouble for Spirit Sword Sect?"
Xiao Qi’s eyes lit up; her face was full of appreciation. "I never thought you’d thoroughly studied these set of rules."
"Humph, this is a must have quality for a professional adventurer." Wang Lu was not in the least bit polite. "Therefore, for us few people, our action should be very simple. As long as we find that young immortal beast before Beast Master School, then I’ll activate my Heavenly Talisman to return to the mountain. Afterwards, they could only cry at their misfortune because they have no place to complain."
Xiao Qi was even more excited. "Well said. But, how would we find that young immortal beast? As far as I know, though it’s not strong, it has a special magical ability so that those professionals at Beast Master School could do nothing but to resort to creating a spiritual treasure of spirit beast collar. If it’s that easy to find, they wouldn’t be forced to put those spirit dogs into inhuman treatment."
"About this, we’ll have to see first," Wang Lu said and then gave the stupid dog a kick, "this one is at least a quasi-immortal beast, so it should be able to look for its little friend, right?"
Xiao Qi was startled. "The resonance?"
"Yes. In the book, the more advance the spirit beast is, the more likely it will resonate with each other. For example, if there’s an ancient treasure that came into being, the nearby spiritual treasures might be induced to resonate. Although this stupid dog is stupid, it is, after all, a quasi-immortal beast, so it should have a resonance function right?"
"Em…" Xiao Qi was a bit unsure as she looked at Huahua on the ground. "Are you sure this thing could do it?"
"No problem, if it can’t find it, we simply don’t give it food."
"Woof!?"
Feeling the impending crisis, the stupid dog has never been more anxious. Its pair of dog eyes were staring wide open. Its nose violently twitched as it incessantly sniffed.
This pretending look was similar to other dogs when they tried to smell something, but on this occasion, no one could take it seriously. And for Xiao Qi who was well acquainted with the dog’s behavior, she simply found it funny. "This animal is very clever."
However, the next moment, Xiao Qi’s smile froze.
Huahua said some human words, "Be quiet, I seem to sense something."
Xiao Qi was incredibly surprised, "It could talk!?"
Wang Lu was also surprised. "Is it something new!? It’s not dog meat, right!?"
Huahua ignored the two people; while sniffing, it earnestly said, "On this Grand Cloud Mountain, everywhere there is a strange smell. Before this, I hadn’t really thought about it, but after you said it… It’s probably a similar smell."
Wang Lu asked, "Can you make further judgments?"
"It’s very difficult. Its smell is very loose. In the five hundred kilometers radius around Grand Cloud Mountain, its smell is everywhere. I simply couldn’t lock its position at all."
"No problem, it’s as expected." Wang Lu nodded his head. "If its so easy to find, Beast Master School people would’ve already succeeded. This time, we have time on our side. Five hundred kilometers radius around Grand Cloud Mountain is not that big of an area. If we sweep the area once, we would definitely find some clues."
Huahua sniffed again and then said, "There’s also some kind of moon smell."
Wang Lu was startled, casually fished out a piece of mooncake and threw it to the stupid dog. "You can smell this!? Is this the moon smell that you refer to?"
Huahua gawked for a moment, but immediately bit the mooncake and then vaguely said, "Probably."
After a while, the dog spat out the mooncake. "This is meat stuffed moon cake!"