Lin Xi who was still hiding among the shadows, waited until it was dark all around before daring to come out of her hiding place. She had been trying to avoid any mistakes in order to not give away her position to any of the monstrous existences in front of her
As soon as she ran out, she darted towards the farmland where Zhang Jian and Wang Yan had been working the whole day. She could immediately smell a refreshing scent coming out of the soil. The qi here was even purer and denser than that in the immortal palaces of the Immortal World.
This confirmed her guess that Zhang Jian was up to something here. She dug up a portion of the soil and took out a seed from under the ground and could immediately sense a strange energy from the seeds. The energy seemed both ethereal and real at the same time. The amount of qi in the single seed was more than ten times that in the most potent medicinal pill of the Heavenly Pill Sect.
She wasn't satisfied with a single one and immediately dug out a dozen more seeds greedily. After putting the seeds in a sandalwood box she glanced around and found some immature vegetables in a nearby field. She couldn't stop herself from digging out some of those vegetables since the medicinal energy in these vegetables alone was more than an ocean worth of qi. As these looked even more valuable, she was content after taking out a couple more of them before sneakily retreating back into the shadows.
If someone could have seen the mighty Lin Xi digging out seeds and vegetables with a jovial smile on her face at that moment like a dirty commoner, they would have jumped out of their skin in shock.
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Early morning the very next day when Zhang Jian woke up, he went for a walk in the fields as per his daily routine. He was shocked to find that the fields had been dug out.
The dug out holes were even suggesting human involvement but there were no families around the hut; not even close to the hut.
"It couldn't have been a while animal, could it?" Zhang Jian thought that it might have been some wild animal like a pig or some rodent, after all these animals were considered to be the worst enemies of farmers back home other than locusts and other crop ruining insects.
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Xiao Luo had been caught up in troubles and sinister plots from all sides. The spies in the sect had been causing troubles and playing schemes against the sect disciples. There had been many deaths of the loyal disciples within the sect which had spread hysteria among the weaker disciples. Some of them had even opted to leave the sect, to which Xiao Luo had readily agreed so as to not harm them inadvertently. Amidst the chaos Lin Xi had also been planning an assault on the Purple Sect as a means of distracting the Immortal World from her true objective which was to release Yin from its seal.
There was also the threat of nearby sects turning on the Purple sect due to greed. The Purple Sapphire of the Purple Sect was a treasure that had been the foundation of the sect form many millennia. It had accompanied the sect through its ups and downs. It had been the embodiment of the karma of the Purple sect for many a millennia.
Xiao Luo figured that various sects would definitely be eyeing the Purple Sapphire and would not hesitate to kick the Purple Sect while they were down. As such he decided to devise some counter measures of his own.
Xiao Luo could somehow feel that his tiny Purple Sect was not deserving of so much attention from such powerful enemies. Even the Immortal World had suddenly warned them to be careful in the near future which had forced him to raise his guard even more.
As such, he was sure that a much bigger game was afoot; a game in which his Purple Sect was worth no more than a sacrificial pawn at most.
Xiao Luo knew that neither the Immortal World nor the Devil World had their best interest at heart. They were only concerned with preventing the opposing party from gaining any advantage over the other.
Xiao Luo decided to play it safe through the help of the most powerful master that he was familiar with, Zhang Jian.
He decided to beg Zhang Jian to accept the Purple Sapphire for safekeeping thinking that there couldn't have been a safer place for their sect's foundational treasure.
Xiao Luo believed that as long as the Purple Sapphire was in safe hands, the Purple Sect could be revived anytime even if their sect was to be destroyed in the coming calamity. Also the looming threat could have been decreased in intensity by giving away the treasure that countless sects had been salivating after.
As Xiao Luo arrived at Zhang Jian's residence, Wang Yan immediately ran towards him and bowed to show her respect.
Seeing her run over Xiao Luo was overjoyed to see her. He asked her to accompany him to meet Zhang Jian.
"Old man, you are here. How have you been?" Zhang Jian asked courteously.
"Heavens have been gracious to me so far." Xiao Luo replied tensely.
Zhang Jian could see that the old man was itching say something so he said jokingly, "Old man, what is it that you want to talk about. Spit it out."
Listening to his words, old man knelt down on his knees and offered a sandalwood box with both hands.
Seeing as how serious Xiao Luo looked, Zhang Jian thought that the old man wanted to return the favor of taking care of the girl Wang Yan.
"Old man, get up first." Zhang Jian said while extending his arms in order to help him get up. Seeing such an old man bow towards him made him feel embarrassed.
Zhang Jian wanted to refuse the gift after seeing how pained Xiao Luo looked while handing over the gift. It obviously was very important to him. Therefore Zhang Jian intended to refuse the gift politely but before he could do that Xiao Luo immediately took out a bottle of ambergris with a heavy heart and put it on top of the sandalwood box.
Seeing the hesitant look on Zhang Jian's face, Xiao Luo deduced that even this great master did not want to involve himself in his mess and decided to raise the stakes by offering a bottle of ambergris as a gift. It was a priceless treasure which could help any cultivator breakthrough a minor stage no matter how high the cultivation base.
Seeing the effort that her master was putting in for the sect even Wang Yan decided to plead with Zhang Jian by kneeling down in front of Zhang Jian.
Zhang Jian figured that even Wang Yan herself wanted to show her gratitude to him and wanted him to accept these gifts.
He took the gifts from Xiao Luo in order to appease both him and Wang Yan. Even after he had taken the box Wang Yan continued to kneel until Zhang Jian forced her up.
Zhang Jian was feeling a little guilty inside as the major reason that he had accepted their gift was due to the incense that had been offered by Xiao Luo afterwards.
Yes! The rare and priceless ambergris had just been treated like cheap incense by the great Zhang Jian. To be fair, neither did he understand its true value or purpose nor had someone explained it to him.