Chapter 314: Chapter 314

Li Xun caught Ming Ji giving him a tiny nod. The look in her eyes clearly said she understood . That put him even more at ease. He smiled and gave the fat man a small, polite bow.

Miaochang still had no idea what was going on. Even though the name Spirit Bamboo had startled him a bit, he was still wearing a baffled expression. The fat man stamped his foot in frustration and said, “Daoist friend, you’re really missing the point. This young friend Spirit Bamboo isn’t just skilled in exquisite swordsmanship and top-tier forbidden techniques. He’s also carrying that thing…”

With such an obvious hint, Miaochang finally caught on. He didn’t overthink it. And his face lit up with excitement. “You mean the Jade Bixie?” His gaze shot over, burning with intensity. Li Xun sneered in his head, but on the surface he glanced toward Ming Ji and Ming Huo, as if asking for their approval.

Ming Huo didn’t really understand the hidden maneuvering here. He only sensed that something felt off and hesitated. Ming Ji, on the other hand, was decisive. She raised her voice and said, “That’s right. The kid does happen to have such a treasure. They say it wards off evil and dispels poison, and it works quite well. If Daoist Miaochang doesn’t mind, he’s welcome to try using it.”

With the fat man’s firm confirmation, Miaochang immediately broke into enthusiastic praise. He turned back and told them to bring over two injured disciples. Ming Ji smiled slightly and gave Ming Huo a few quiet instructions, then waved for Li Xun to step out of the group.

Li Xun had barely moved when a hand pressed down on his shoulder. He turned his head and saw Wu Lingquan’s honest, calm face.

“Junior Brother Xun, something feels off here. Be careful.”

Li Xun smiled and nodded, then slowly floated forward. As he moved, true breath surged through his entire body, flowing like rolling beads. He had already activated the Bone-Meridian Heartlink technique at full tilt. Thanks to the time he had earlier to prepare, it felt effortless.

Now the fat man was rubbing his chubby hands together nonstop, grinning from ear to ear. When he saw Li Xun approach, he began thanking him over and over. Ming Ji, who stayed close at Li Xun’s side, also received a flood of gratitude. Judging by his attitude, he seemed even more eager than the people from the Boundless Heavenly Sect.

The two injured cultivators were quickly carried over. At a glance, Li Xun noticed their faces were deathly pale, their lips dark purple and almost black. Even the tiny blood vessels on their necks had turned an ashen gray. They were clearly suffering from severe poisoning.

When the fat man saw the injured brought over, an awkward look crossed his face. “Uh, about this… curing Soul-Binding Thread is genuinely tricky. Using the Jade Bixie to cleanse the poison is the best first step, but you also need a special treasure to dissolve the strands that have already seeped into the bloodstream. Daoist Miaochang, about that thing just now…”

Miaochang let out a cold snort and pulled out a small stone box. It was the very item the fat man had handed him earlier. Looking annoyed, he tossed it back. “If it can save people, what use do I have for this Ink-Silk Clam Pearl?”

Ink-Silk Clam Pearl?

Li Xun’s heart jolted, and his eyes lit up. How could something he had almost forgotten suddenly pop up like this? Was this one of those moments people talked about. Searching high and low for nothing, only to stumble onto it without any effort at all?

His eyes locked onto that stone box. He watched the fat man’s thick fingers flip open the lid, finally revealing the real face of the treasure inside. He’d known from Yin Wanderer that it was a living creature, but seeing it in person still gave him a small surprise.

The treasure looked exactly like a clam. Its two shells were snowy white, yet eight blood-red veins spiraled across the surface, giving it an extraordinary air.

The fat man used some unknown technique and tapped the shell. The clam immediately opened on its own, revealing jet-black, ink-dark flesh inside. Along the grayish white inner walls, countless fine black threads writhed and swam, making the sight dizzying and nauseating.

“This Ink-Silk Clam Pearl is valuable because of those ‘silkworms’ living inside its shell,” the fat man said. “When guided by true breath and sent into the body, they devour any foreign matter in the bloodstream, then spread throughout the limbs and bones. Not only do they leave behind no trace at all, they actually help refine and purify true breath.”

He went on, spraying spit as he talked. “The only drawback is that these little things are terrible at dealing with poison. That’s why the toxins have to be removed first.”

Having explained everything clearly, the fat man then shot a pointed look at Li Xun. The meaning behind it needed no explanation.

Li Xun smiled and reached into his robe, drawing out the Jade Bixie. The instant the treasure left his body, the flow of energy through his meridians shuddered slightly, then quickly settled again. The faint blood-tainted aura buried deep in his flesh did not leak out in the slightest.

As if sensing the presence of malevolent poison, the Jade Bixie began to hum softly. A hazy blue-green mist seeped out from between Li Xun’s fingers, drifting down in thin strands like a handful of fine sand. Miaochang paid no attention to the Ink-Silk Clam Pearl, but when it came to the Jade Bixe, he couldn’t help but exclaim sincerely, “It really is a remarkable treasure.”

Li Xun bowed politely to Fat Ji. “I honestly don’t know what we should do next,” he said mildly. “I’d appreciate it if Pavilion Master Ji could give us some guidance.”

Fat Ji’s gaze swept over the Jade Bixie. For the moment, there was no obvious change in his expression. He chuckled. “With a treasure like that, things get a lot easier. I’m sure young friend Spirit Bamboo knows how to use it to draw out poison, so I’ll trouble you to cleanse the toxins from both of them.”

The answer was genuinely unexpected.

Li Xun froze for a moment before it sank in. He glanced over at Ming Ji, then stepped forward. He sent his true breath into the Jade Bixie, which spilled forth a soft, luminous glow. The clear light seeped into the disciples’ skin through their pores. Wherever the light touched, the poison was quickly driven out. Their complexions and skin returned to normal, prompting Miaochang to gasp in admiration again and again.

Fat Ji, meanwhile, looked completely confident. Once the toxins had been cleared, he used some unknown technique. From inside the shell of the Ink-Silk Clam Pearl, hundreds upon hundreds of “silkworms” shot out, about a tenth of them at once. They turned into two streaks of black light and slipped in through the injured disciples’ mouths and noses. Miaochang shuddered, far more tense than he had been when Li Xun was purging the poison.

That said, Fat Ji’s method worked just as fast. In only three to five breaths, the injured cultivators opened their mouths and eyes and came back to themselves. They were still dazed and confused, with no idea what had happened.

With that, the sudden farce finally came to an end. Li Xun gave the fat man another glance, then tucked the Jade Bixie back into his robes, where it sat embedded against his chest as before.

Normally, once matters were settled, everyone would go their separate ways. But Fat Ji suddenly took an interest. When he learned that everyone was headed for the Water Mirror Sect, he immediately raised his voice and proposed that the three groups travel together, saying it would be livelier on the road.

It was an awkward suggestion to refuse outright. The people of the Boundless Heaven Sect had just received a favor and could hardly speak up, and Li Xun’s side could not openly turn him down either. With the fat man enthusiastically pushing the idea, everyone ended up lumped together without really knowing how it happened, a crowd of several dozen people setting off in a grand procession.

Li Xun knew perfectly well that Fat Ji meant no good, but he could not catch him in anything concrete. A slow burn of irritation started building inside him. The angrier he felt inside, the gentler and more agreeable his expression became. Paired with the fat man’s constant broad grin, the two made quite a sight. The fat man was sharp-eyed enough to decide that, among all these cultivators, Li Xun was the easiest to talk to. He promptly sidled up to him and struck up a chat about this and that.

The gap in seniority between the two of them was actually enormous, but one never mentioned it and the other played dumb. After a few rounds back and forth, they somehow found each other remarkably congenial. They were like old friends who had known each other for years. Almost at the point of swearing brotherhood on the spot.

Everyone else watched in confusion. Only Ming Ji, standing off to the side, smiled with her lips pressed together. Her gaze was lingering on the two of them most of the time. As far as Li Xun was concerned, though, this “Fairy with the Ruthless Hand” was probably just sizing up Fat Ji’s ample flesh… wondering where best to cut.

The topics Li Xun and Ji found agreeable circled around the Tongxuan Realm seven or eight times over. Another day passed, and the group was now only half a day’s journey from the Langya Water Mirror Heaven. Cultivators from the Mingxin and Boundless Heaven sects remained politely distant, neither warm nor cold, while Li Xun and Fat Ji were so close they might as well have been one person.

Below them, green-gray mountain ranges rose and fell in endless waves, snaking away for thousands of li with no end in sight. All of a sudden, Fat Ji’s spirits lifted. He yanked the conversation back from the far western Vast Sea and pointed down at the mountains.

“This is the Wuling Mountain Range,” he said. “It runs from west to east and almost cuts across the entire Tongxuan Realm. Four or five out of every ten of this realm’s spiritual veins are gathered right here. Especially Beiqi Mountain right beneath us,” he went on. “It gathers nearly a thousand spirit veins and naturally produces countless rare spiritual flowers and herbs… No matter which sect you belong to, if you want to refine pills, you simply cannot avoid this place. Tsk. It really is a marvel of heaven and earth, enough to make anyone yearn for it.”

What was he even talking about? Li Xun watched him wax poetic with a cool gaze, offering only a few perfunctory responses. Most of his attention had already been snagged by the name “Beiqi Mountain.”

Come to think of it, there was barely more than a month until the Razor Peak meeting. He needed to start preparing early.

As he was mulling this over, Fat Ji suddenly shifted gears. “But these things that grow naturally, nurtured by heaven and earth, are rarely usable right away. Only after passing through human hands, refined and pressed into pills, can they dispel evil, draw out poison, and save lives… Only then do those spiritual flowers and herbs deserve to be called ‘treasures.’”

Now that was an interesting way of putting it. Li Xun came back to himself and smiled. “As the master of the Thousand Treasures Pavilion, Pavilion Master Ji naturally has a unique understanding of what counts as a ‘treasure.’ But to ordinary people, the herbs down there already qualify as priceless.”

“Not so, not so,” Ft Ji shook his head vigorously. “Anything that’s born of heaven and raised by nature, no matter how rare or valuable it is, can only be called a curiosity at best. Take my Ink-Silk Clam Pearl, for example. It’s really just carrying an empty title. If you ask me, it ought to be called the Ink-Silk Clam Curio, or maybe the Curious Ink-Silk Clam. That would be more honest.

“Only when something passes through human hands, when it’s infused with human wisdom and skill, when people pour their minds and hearts into it and turn a natural object into something crafted, bringing out its full potential, can it truly be called a treasure. Otherwise, why would we even have the phrase ‘skill that rivals the work of heaven’?

“Look at the Jade Bixie you’re wearing, young friend. The jade itself goes without saying. It’s a rare and wondrous natural stone. But if a master craftsman hadn’t poured extraordinary insight into it, carved the patterns, awakened it, and woven subtle arts into it, how could it be worth even a fraction of what it’s worth today?”

So you really went through all that trouble just to get here. Li Xun chickled. He was about to probe a bit more when Ming Ji suddenly spoke up. “By Pavilion Master Ji’s reasoning, your sect collects treasures from all directions not because you value the objects themselves, but because you’re more focused on uncovering the supreme wisdom hidden within them… Is that right?”

Ming Ji quietly moved beyond casual conversation and pointed to something much deeper.

Fat Ji’s expression turn serious at once. “What the fairy says is exactly right. In truth, that is the very foundation on which our pavilion exists. Since this world was born of heaven and earth, countless senior sages and great predecessors have left their legacy behind. The treasures they passed down number not just in the millions, but far beyond that… Our humble pavilion may not amount to much, but in gathering these treasures, our aim is to analyze how they were formed and how they developed over time, to trace them back to their origins. By doing so, we can see the evolution of our cultivators’ divine powers over tens of thousands of years. This vast inheritance is a treasure far greater than the countless objects themselves.”

Hearing this, Ming Ji sighed with emotion. When she looked at the fat man again, there was a new light in her eyes, and he looked back at her the same way.

It would not be an exaggeration to say the two felt a sense of mutual understanding. And this quite understanding was far more genuine than the halfhearted rapport Li Xun had been maintaining with Fat Ji.

Li Xun stood off to the side, lost in thought for a moment. With his intelligence, he could understand the principles and inner logic Fat Ji was describing. Still, if Ming Ji had not voiced that insight aloud, he suspected he could have waited another thousand years without ever viewing Ji Bucuo’s words and actions from a cultivation-oriented perspective.

Thinking back on his encounters with Ji Bucuo, Li Xun realized his mind had been preoccupied with scheming and internal power struggles. Perhaps he had seen deeply, and perhaps he had seen far, but such thinking had still been too narrow. Was this what people meant when they said that the benevolent see benevolence, and the wise see wisdom?

Just as he felt he had gained something and was about to think the matter through more deeply, he suddenly heard Fat Ji snap back into his exaggerated manner and blurt out a line so absurd it was almost shocking.

“Huh? Did the sun rise in the north today?”

Li Xun did not even have time to laugh before a blinding red glare pierced his eyes. The side of his face was instantly washed in crimson. Startled, he turned his head and saw that in the northern sky, a band of scarlet light-clouds was spreading out from the horizon, flooding everything as far as the eye could see in the blink of an eye.