Chapter 214: Chapter 180 Consultation
Offering fifty taels of Fine Gold as a reward to hire people to investigate the case.
Fifty taels of Fine Gold was no small sum; even an Academic Palace Doctor would be tempted.
Li Ang paused. It just so happened that he had run out of Special Metal and needed a replenishment.
But the question was, could someone who could afford such a price lack their own network of contacts? Or was the task so difficult that it had to be publicly offered in the Ghost Market?
He flipped through the booklet. The details of the bounty were written on the back of the page.
A month ago, a young man named Chu Haoman had disappeared accidentally while conducting Golden Stone Study research in a village near Dingzhou. His life lamp showed he was still alive and somewhere around Dingzhou, but his exact location was unknown.
It was likely he had been drawn into some kind of unusual incident.
The bounty was offered by Chu Haoman’s fiancée, a legitimate daughter of the Taiyuan Wang Family.
The requirement was to find and rescue Chu Haoman or, at the very least, bring back his body.
There was one month left before the bounty expired.
It all seems very suspicious, Li Ang thought to himself. The Taiyuan Wang Family, ranking among the Five Families and Seven Hopes, was a first-class Gate Valve aristocratic family in the Yu Country. With their manpower and resources, how could they possibly fail to find someone?
Moreover, Dingzhou was not far from Taiyuan Prefecture. A trip by a Cloud Patrol Realm cultivator would take only half a day. Why would they need the help of outsiders, bringing potential dishonor to the family?
Li Ang had his doubts but maintained a poker face, planning to inquire more later.
An hour later, the auction house had prepared the Demon Blood in a Jade container. Li Ang declined the boat offered by the auction house. Instead, carrying the heavy Jade container, he directly entered a Dark River.
In the dark, lightless part of the river, he transformed into his Mo Si form, swallowed the Jade container, and returned to the cave where the Red-eyed Purple Lady Bee eggs were located.
After setting the Demon Blood aside, Li Ang controlled the Mo Si Clone to visit the underground palace and excavate some Royal Jelly. Then, following the Hundred Beasts Studies, he prepared the incubation liquid to soak the bee eggs.
As for whether they would hatch successfully, he would leave it to fate.
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"Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. This is roughly where the Qi Sea is located. Do you feel anything?"
"...Le Ling, your hand is so cold, soft, and comfortable."
Inside the mansion in Golden City Square, Li Leqing pressed on Chai Cuiqiao’s abdomen, the two girls facing each other.
With only ten days left until the retest, and considering Chai Chai’s initial ranking of over four thousand, further studying was likely pointless. Therefore, the best solution was to improve her cultivation level as much as possible.
"Each year, during the re-examinations and final exams, the Academic Palace offers at least two paths to success to recruit the most outstanding students."
Li Leqing withdrew her hand, saying somewhat worriedly, "If you can’t break through to the Qi Sensing Realm before the retest, it could be dangerous."
"Mm..."
Li Ang pondered. Chai Chai’s Spiritual Vein Talent was outstanding, but her literary foundation was weak.
The "Shangqing Linggan Chapter" was an intrinsically metaphysical Cultivation Technique focused on the level of consciousness. If she couldn’t understand and perceive its spirit through the text, she wouldn’t be able to activate her Qi Sea. This would render her Spiritual Vein Talent ineffective.
The Imperial Palace Tributor brought in by Li Leqing also had no good solution.
"I read that some individuals with exceptional Spiritual Vein Talent don’t need to accumulate initial Spiritual Energy. They can directly break through to the Qi Sensing Realm."
Li Ang thought for a while and asked, "Le Ling, when you broke through to the Qi Sensing Realm, did you have any sort of insight?"
"Eh? Me?"
Li Leqing blushed slightly, waving her hand embarrassedly. "My breakthrough to the Qi Sensing Realm was rather natural. I simply woke up one day and found I could cultivate."
Li Ang was startled. Is the Li Family’s cultivation talent so excellent that one can make a breakthrough simply by sleeping?
Seeing his reaction, Li Leqing quickly added, "It might be related to the medicinal ingredients I consumed."
"Medicinal ingredients?"
"Er, yes, things like Fire Phoenix Essence, Heavenly Fragrant Purple Perilla, Dan Yang Fruit, Bodhi Fruit..."
Li Leqing listed a series of exotic and rare flora, saying embarrassedly, "When I was a child, I was frail, so Father and Mom followed a family recipe to gather some medicinal ingredients."
Are those even medicinal ingredients? That’s a fortune in gold and silver! Li Ang massaged his temples, gaining a newfound appreciation for Li Leqing’s wealth.
Alright, with her parents owning the entire Yu Country, she could certainly afford to spend extravagantly.
"Eldest Son, what about you?" Li Leqing asked. "You also seemed to have broken through to the Qi Sensing Realm pretty quickly, right?"
"Well, erm, I just went with the flow, I suppose," Li Ang waved his hand dismissively. In truth, he had no actual insight—it was all thanks to Mo Si that he qualified for cultivation, a path he had paved with gold.
The three of them—one raised on nature’s finest treasures, one who paid her way with gold, and one with Spiritual Vein Talent but unable to comprehend even the beginner texts—exchanged glances and fell into an odd silence.
"Should we go ask an Academic Palace Doctor?" Li Leqing hesitated before suggesting. "If it’s just about how to activate the Qi Sea, that shouldn’t count as breaking the rules, should it?"
To prevent injustice during the exams, the Academic Palace had established rules. From the preliminary to the final exams, candidates and their family members were forbidden to visit or distract the Academic Palace Doctors, much less give them gifts.
Violators, in the most severe cases, could be stripped of their examination qualifications.
However, simply asking about how to activate the Qi Sea should be fine.
No sooner said than done, the three of them boarded a carriage and headed to East City. From a distance, they saw two familiar figures—Ren Xin and Sui Yi, both Academic Palace Instructors, sitting on a roadside stone bench, looking completely dejected.
"Senior Brother Ren, Senior Sister Sui." Li Ang dismounted the carriage and asked curiously, "What’s going on with you two?"
Sui Yi sighed deeply, and Ren Xin waved his hand with a wry smile. "Don’t mention it. We lost a fortune at horse racing."
It turned out Ren Xin and Sui Yi had been conscripted by the Sacrificial Officer during their time off. Their task was to find candidates with exceptional Spirit Veins in Chang’an City before the preliminary exams, which meant working overtime with extra pay.
After enjoying themselves for a while, they had spent most of their overtime pay on their respective hobbies: Ren Xin liked to collect precious weapons, and Sui Yi favored rare wines. Consequently, they began to plot ways to make some quick money.
So, they participated in Chang’an’s horse racing betting, thinking their extraordinary vision as cultivators would ensure a profit.
But things didn’t go as they wished. Their favored horses either unexpectedly lost, jumped the gun and were disqualified, or even suddenly fell ill and had to withdraw from the race. In three days, their last bit of overtime money was gone.
"Gambling is a surefire road to ruin," Ren Xin shook his head and sighed. "Indeed, hard work is the only way to wealth."
Sui Yi lamented, "Don’t talk about it. Of the five Dao Paths—Talismanic Magic, Sword, Mind, and Body being prominent examples—Talisman Masters make money the quickest. They can earn seven to eight hundred strings of coins just by writing a few talismans at home every day. It’s so easy and carefree.
"Alas, why was I so foolish to listen to my teacher and choose the Sword Path? All that talk about Sword Masters becoming more valued with age and finding good jobs after graduation—it was all lies..."
The two instructors wallowed in self-pity by the roadside for a while before they composed themselves and asked Li Ang where he was going.
"Oh, I’m off to East City to see Dr. Su Feng."
Li Ang briefly explained Chai Cuiqiao’s situation.
Sui Yi pondered for a moment before saying, "Dr. Su Feng isn’t in Chang’an right now. He’s gone back to his hometown to deal with family estate matters and might not be back for about a month.
"Hmm... you want your little girl to advance to the Qi Sensing Realm quickly, right?
"Perhaps you could ask He Fanshuang about this."
"Her?"
"Yes. Her Spiritual Vein Talent is also excellent, and she reached the Qi Sensing Realm before the final exams. If you want to ask for advice, she’s the perfect person."
"I see. Thank you very much, Senior Brother and Senior Sister."
Li Ang hesitated, then nodded. He Fanshuang’s personality wasn’t as cold as it appeared, and she was also friends with Li Leqing. Asking her for help should be acceptable.
He climbed back into the carriage and instructed the coachman to change direction, heading for He Fanshuang’s home.
Once the carriage was far enough away, Sui Yi sighed and stood up, turning to her companion. "Old Ren, how much money do you have left?"
Ren Xin rummaged through his money bag. "Seventy-six coins."
"Alright, then together we have seventy-six coins. Let’s go get some pastries to eat."
"???"