Dragon Bridge Water House.
Gu Wen didn't return to his residence but came to the place where he usually worked. He had a small courtyard there, although it was only one room and one hall without an artificial hill or flowers, it was the place where he most frequently stayed overnight.
The residence was too big, too many people and too many eyes, everything required caution, and it wasn't easy to escape in case of trouble.
Gu Wen lacked a sense of security and preferred smaller rooms and the kind of environment where it was tough to be caught once he'd slipped into the alleys.
There just wasn't a place for his trusted aides to stay.
Looking at the relatively simple living quarters and then at the large shared sleeping area where the watermen stayed, these young soldiers all had ugly expressions, almost written on their faces.
But they couldn't ask Gu Wen to move back to his residence, as the arrangement was from the royal palace, further a decree by the immortals.
Gu Wen said, "This place is close to the Dragon Bridge, you all can stay around the Dragon Bridge. If anything comes up, I will have someone fetch you. If you get bored, you can play a few rounds at the gambling house."
The head of the trusted aides still had some professional integrity. As the leader, he had to take on more responsibility, he hesitated, "This doesn't seem quite appropriate, after all, we do have a mission."
"Just leave two people behind to keep up appearances for the royal palace."
"But it's not fair to make a few brothers do the work while we go off to have fun."
The head of the trusted aides was moved.
Gu Wen once again suggested, "We can take turns."
"That makes sense."
The trusted aides hooked arms and headed off to the brothel to listen to music, leaving behind two people with sour faces who were probably of lower status.
Gu Wen calculated inwardly, where there are people, there are circles. The trusted aides mostly came from the imperial guard, serving the Zhao family generation after generation. But while some came from families with commanding officers, others had only been soldiers their entire lives.
It wasn't worth it to take them under his wing, he didn't have the need to develop power, but he could win them over to get internal messages from the royal palace's trusted aides and news about the imperial guard's movements.
Gu Wen stood in front of the two men, asking with a friendly smile, "What are your names?"
"Underling Qin Mian (Rong Leng)."
The two said in unison, looking at Gu Wen with eager eyes, filled with admiration and longing for a powerful figure.
"You'll have to work hard in the future."
Gu Wen patted their shoulders, made small talk for a while before leaving, without saying much, as being too deliberate in courting support wouldn't be good.
Winning over people's hearts is like pursuing the opposite sex. It's always about attraction, prompting action only when there are no other options. A real hunter waits for the prey to come to them. If the prey doesn't bite, it means they were not the target.
In the blink of an eye, evening arrived, and still nobody came to take over, leaving Qin Mianrong with an extremely unpleasant look, but they could only continue to stand guard.
Gu Wen came out from the house and chatted with them a bit more, learning that they came from backgrounds without depth, not hereditary soldiers from Bianjing imperial guard, but brave soldiers who had killed enemies on the frontier and been transferred back.
He encouraged them a little, then left two heavy lumps of silver, ten taels for each, the equivalent of three months of their salary.
"Hard work, you two."
They were stunned for a moment, their gloomy expressions dissipated, and with joyful faces, they bowed with clasped hands, "Thank you, Marquis Wen."
Marquis Wen truly knew how to read people!
-----------------
An incense stick later, the sun set in the West.
Gu Wen stood in front of the Dragon Spring Well at the very center of the Water House.
The well of the Dragon Spring was five meters wide, with a bluish stone exterior wall, covered with moss on the rough uneven stone blocks. Above hung a large bucket big enough to hold two adults. An iron chain connected the large wooden bucket to a wooden lifting device, also called a windlass.
Four beams, each seven meters long, crossed above the well, with the iron chain leading up to the windlass on the right. An adult relying on it could lift as much as five hundred catties.
This well was Gu Wen's main means of earning money.
The well water was deep, revealing silver-white fish occasionally surfacing, and now and then, an old turtle could be seen swimming. The old turtle was to prevent someone from poisoning the water, while the fish were naturally present in the well.
It was presumed to be connected to some underground river, or perhaps what Yu Hua, the immortal, saw as a water vein.
Gu Wen glanced at the sky, calculating the time, estimating there was still a while before the sun completely set.
Whirl, whirl!
Suddenly, the well water churned, and more fish surged upwards.
"Has this happened before?" Gu Wen asked an old waterman standing by. The waterman replied, "For the past year, this happens every day at this time."
A strange phenomenon that had appeared in the last year.
Gu Wen's gaze sharpened, concentrating True Qi in his eyes, hoping to discern some clue from it.
To his eyes, the well water suddenly shimmered with rainbow colors.
"Fetch a bucket of water up here," he ordered decisively.
Splash! A large wooden bucket plummeted, creating a massive spray and startling the fish in the water. The colorful substance also came up with it. Gu Wen leaned in for a closer look and found that the color was just a thin layer floating on the surface, like an oil film.
But it definitely shone brightly.
The watermen around showed no change in expression; apparently, they couldn't see it.
Gu Wen took a small sip with a spoon, his Fate Diagram trembled, and at the same time, his True Qi began to sizzle within.
The increase in True Qi activity was likely due to the well water indeed containing Spiritual Energy, which was conducive to cultivation. However, the Fate Diagram shouldn't react to Spiritual Energy, meaning that there must be some special substance in the well water.
Upon introspecting his Fate Diagram, he froze—it was actually…
"Imperial Nectar"!
Although there was very little, not even amounting to one unit, it was at least a known means of acquisition.
He hurriedly took two more sips. The colorful substance vanished, and the disturbance in the well ceased entirely.
He was still about one-third short of one unit of Imperial Nectar, and its scarcity was disappointing. However, considering that he could drink it every day, that would amount to twenty units in a month.
The uses for Imperial Nectar... The Fate Diagram vibrated, and streams of messages came through, which should have turned into something he could understand. But for some reason, it was fleeting and distorted, blurred.
Meaning, Gu Wen's own understanding didn't particularly fit the uses of Imperial Nectar.
His understanding of Heavenly Marrow was to fill the top of the head, but for Imperial Nectar, it was just a Jade Pendant.
A stone Jade Pendant, his family heirloom.
It was an encounter with an Immortal, meaning that the purpose of Imperial Nectar was to encounter Immortality. The distortions and blurriness this time were probably because I was already without such an encounter.
But besides the family heirloom, where could I find such an Immortal encounter?
Gu Wen suddenly lost interest. He had never considered taking back the Immortal encounter from Zhao Feng as his ultimate goal; if conditions didn't allow, he planned to give it up due to the high risk and would just temporarily set it aside.
Half a two hours later, Jiang Fugui brought the second batch of magical fruits, a total of one hundred, all of varying quality.
A balance of eight thousand five hundred Silver, deducting two thousand, leaving six thousand five hundred, receiving Heavenly Marrow for two years.
"Heavenly Marrow for Two Years"
Under the bright moon, Dragon Bridge on the other side of the river became lively.
Gu Wen dismissed the remaining two trusted aides, who left very straightforwardly without even wanting any benefit, which was a statement of sorts.
He returned to his room in the small courtyard and sat down to meditate, occasionally taking a sip of Dragon Spring water to speed up his progress. Although it paled in comparison to the enlightenment from Heavenly Marrow, an extra bit was still beneficial.
-----------------
Under the bright moon, a figure more beautiful than the moon itself floated gracefully into the courtyard.
Yu Hua entered the room and was surprised to feel a faint pulse of Spiritual Energy inside.
One had to understand that in the Immortal Land, the flow of time was restricted and manipulating Spiritual Energy was akin to moving a mountain, so cultivating required a foundation in the Dao. The aura in the room, which beckoned the Spiritual Energy of heaven and earth, indicated that the Gu descendant had formed the difficult Yuqing Daoji of the Three Pure Sect. At the very least, he had the talent and resilience to endure the time constraints and cultivate.
Yu Hua acknowledged his resilience, sturdy enough to declare, "Heaven gives the great task to the man." Also, because of this saying, she had been paying attention to Gu Wen.
A man who had his Immortal encounter snatched away yet still maintained a heart of perseverance. Someone who had been through suffering yet still treated the world kindly.
Ah...
The elders inside the house had done something truly distasteful.
Yu Hua decided to give the Gu descendant a hint once more; even if he would have to ask the Three Pure Ones for a recompense in the future, it was what the sect owed him.
She went to the door and knocked gently.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
For a long time, there was no response from inside, but the Spiritual Energy pulsation had disappeared.
Gu Wen opened his eyes, his expression uncertain; in the middle of the night, who would normally be knocking?
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Yu Hua knocked again; still, no response came from inside, but there were some faint noises. She suddenly had a bad premonition, and then a thought came.
'The best plan is to get away when thirty-six others fail.'
Bang!
The door was pushed open, and Yu Hua only saw a figure escaping through the window, a vein throbbing faintly on her forehead.
This guy was truly like an eel reincarnated!