Chapter 77

Delivering Treasures Over Ten Thousand Miles

With the sound of a gong, a jade boat sailed from somewhere amidst the thick sea of clouds and approached the pier. This pier stood in the void, high in the sky, with only thick clouds below. But the high sky was also filled with dense cloud layers, and when the sun occasionally peeked through, it illuminated everything, making the two layers of cloud seas colorful and shimmering like precious light, making the white jade pier look like a fairyland on earth, and the jade boat sailing from afar looked like a divine boat from mortal legends ascending to heaven.

However, the reality was far from so dreamy. As soon as the gong sounded, the merchants on the street near the pier seemed to have received some order and closed their doors and windows one after another, and even the pedestrians hurried away. The jade boat slowly approached and soon settled at the pier. The boatmen threw out magic treasures to set up a wooden bridge, and the cultivators on the boat climbed out of the cabins, but they could not leave just yet; they were blocked on the pier. Several cultivators did not retreat but advanced, sweeping over from afar, and in the blink of an eye, they were close by. One middle-aged scholar stroked his beard and said, "Is this the poison ship?"

The boatman bowed from a distance and said, "What the senior said is correct. There are only twenty passengers left on the ship; the other nine hundred and eighty disciples have all turned into pus and died. The fifty boatmen are all fine—our ship's honored True Person Wen is casting spells in the cabin and will be able to explain the details to you shortly."

The middle-aged scholar laughed and said, "No matter, no matter. Whether True Person Wen comes out or not doesn't matter; we are just being cautious. These few little friends can just be illuminated by my precious pearl, and then they can go."

Two other cultivators beside him also laughed, "The Poison Sect is truly remarkable this year. It's nothing that they killed so many people, but just seeing how they can release and retract their power, and not a single boatman was harmed, shows their skill."

"If their miscellaneous sect disciples manage to achieve something, they will be very difficult to deal with. I think this trip to the Hengze Heaven this year is likely to have many variables."

Over nine hundred lives, yet they treated them as nothing while chatting and laughing. The scholar held up a precious pearl, which cast a beam of light into the air, and beckoned to the Foundation Establishment cultivators on the pier who were standing far apart and clearly very wary of each other, saying kindly, "Everyone, come over and be illuminated. This pearl can ward off dust, poison, and miasma; it will be of some benefit to you."

He was very polite to these cultivators and did not look down on them because of the difference in cultivation; on the contrary, he even showed a hint of appreciation and care. After all, cultivators who could survive on a poison ship created by Poison Sect disciples were either well-connected, experienced in the world, had unique constitutions, or were simply lucky. These were qualities worth valuing in the Langhuan Zhou Tian. Even a sect as strong as the Qinglingmen had cultivators who specialized in cultivating the lineage of good fortune, as good fortune was a power that could not be ignored in this universe.

"Little one, how did you escape the poison?"

The first to step forward was a young child wearing a floral jacket, looking as cute as jade and snow. The cultivator was quite fond of him and asked gently. The child, however, rolled his eyes and replied unceremoniously, "Little one? When have you ever seen a 'little one' walk to Yiyunbei alone to take a boat? With your discernment, I'm afraid you're just a new disciple who just started working for some Grotto-Heaven sect. Hehe, if my true body were here, you would already be dead for those three words alone."

The middle-aged cultivator's expression changed slightly. He stared at the child, took a step back after a moment, and said in a low voice, "So it is a senior's avatar. I apologize for my disrespect."

The child put his hands behind his back, hummed with an air of seniority, and swaggered through the pearl light. The pearl light did not change in the slightest. Ruan Ci watched him walk past the railing with curiosity, then he put away his old-fashioned demeanor and skipped away. She transmitted her voice to ask Qu Tanyue, "Is he also an avatar of some old monster?"

To be able to simulate an avatar and allow it to act so far away from the main body, one must be at least a Nascent Soul cultivator. Qu Tanyue nodded and said, "Avatars are different in spiritual sense and energy. That person at Baoyun Ferry is a Jin Dan cultivator; he should have noticed immediately."

He did not continue, but Ruan Ci understood the meaning and could not help but laugh, "Exactly. Besides, if a child is out walking the world, no one would dare to underestimate him; on the contrary, they would be doubly wary. How could this person really treat him like a child? No wonder disciples of the Great Sects are not allowed to have too many guards after they reach Foundation Establishment and go out to do errands. This person cultivated to Jin Dan in the sect, yet every move he makes is so childish, it's laughable."

While they were talking, the twenty people stepped through the pearl light one after another. Many cultivators had dull poison colors rising from their bodies in the light. The cultivator told them to stand still and wait until the poison was removed before leaving. He said, "Although you were well-protected and not poisoned yourself, you are carrying poison on your bodies. If you go outside and it spreads, the damage will be truly deep."

These cultivators had not been poisoned and originally thought they had protected themselves very well, and they felt the person in charge of Baoyun Ferry was making a fuss. If they had been poisoned, they would have died during the twenty-day voyage; those who survived naturally were not poisoned. Unexpectedly, when the poison was removed at this moment, they realized they still had poison lurking in their bodies, and they all changed color and bowed to thank the middle-aged cultivator.

At this time, only a few people including Ruan Ci remained on the scene. Qu Tanyue took Ruan Ci's hand and walked forward. Ruan Ci was a bit unaccustomed to it and wanted to struggle, but she endured it in front of others and followed Qu Tanyue with her head lowered. The middle-aged cultivator looked at the two of them closely, his expression changed slightly, and he bowed again. Clearly, after the child just now, he had become serious and recognized that Qu Tanyue was also a Nascent Soul avatar.

"This ship is truly full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers. Senior, this is—"

Qu Tanyue nodded at him, which counted as returning the salute. He looked back at Ruan Ci with a loving smile and said, "My new little wife hasn't received all her betrothal gifts yet, so I thought I'd come to Baoyun Ferry to do some shopping and see the sights. How about it, do you have any good goods for sale recently?"

As he spoke, he pulled Ruan Ci along and walked through the pearl light together. Neither of them was stained with a speck of dust. The middle-aged cultivator was not surprised and laughed, "A talented man and a beautiful woman, truly a good match. In that case, I won't disturb your leisure, Senior—Junior Brother."

A cultivator in a precious blue Daoist robe beside him also understood, turned around, and led Qu Tanyue toward the city, asking if he had found an inn, if he had been to Baoyun Ferry before, and so on, serving them very diligently. Qu Tanyue chatted happily with him and asked, "How is it, has the Hengze Heaven not opened yet?"

The Daoist-robed cultivator smiled and said, "The pier hasn't drifted yet, which shows that the changes in spiritual power haven't reached their peak, but it shouldn't be long. The city is already bustling with noise, and I don't know how many merchant firms have rushed over. Various precious materials are also gathered here. I heard there are some exotic medicines and materials unique to the southern continents, which were obtained by various sects during the Sky Boat trip eleven years ago and are only now being released. Would you like to take a look, Senior?"

Qu Tanyue turned his head and asked, "Wife, what do you think?"

The little wife was a bit shy, shook her head, and said, "So many people died on the boat, and I've been on edge for twenty-something days, so I'm a bit tired. I want to rest first."

Qu Tanyue apologized to the Daoist-robed cultivator, "I appreciate your kindness, fellow Daoist, but my wife has been pampered since childhood and is not used to these things. I'd better accompany her to rest at an inn for a few days."

He was full of smiles, clearly doting on this little wife. The Daoist-robed cultivator could not help but smile knowingly, but since they were not familiar, he didn't tease them, introduced them to an inn that still had vacancies, and took his leave.

As soon as he left, Ruan Ci wanted to pull her hand away, but Qu Tanyue refused to let go and whispered in her ear, "Be careful, although he has left, his spiritual sense has not yet relaxed its monitoring."

This made sense, so Ruan Ci had to be led by Qu Tanyue into the inn, where they booked a grotto-dwelling. Once inside, she shook off Qu Tanyue's hand and said unhappily, "Anyway, you're going to use sound-transmission, so why did you lean into my ear? And you even blew a breath, making my ear turn red!"

Qu Tanyue was amused by her again, "I didn't know that a breath I blew casually contained magic power, and could actually make our wife's invulnerable ears turn red."

He raised his hand and asked, "Or, should I rub it for you?"

Ruan Ci covered her ears and hurried to the other side of the room, shouting, "I don't want you to rub it!"

She had some indescribable feelings in her heart and wanted to get angry at Qu Tanyue, but then thought, "The love seed might have started to backfire; he might be doing this uncontrollably... Hmm, I can't be too unkind to him at this time. If he notices that I'm not affected by the love seed, that wouldn't be good."

She held it back, but in the end, she couldn't hold it all back, and with a blushing face, she finally shouted, "You are truly annoying; you were clearly taking the opportunity to tease me just now!"

Qu Tanyue smiled and pressed her onto a chair, but stopped 'teasing' her and behaved himself, his hands not touching her. "How could I be so childish—do you think I'm you? Didn't you notice? Except for the Nascent Soul avatar, the other Foundation Establishment cultivators were all more or less stained with poison. You are a Foundation Establishment cultivator, yet you weren't stained with anything. If I didn't bring myself up, it would probably be hard for you to pass. Since I had to come forward anyway, it was better to do it naturally."

Ruan Ci hadn't considered this layer. She had originally intended to use the Heavenly Fate Cloud Seed to muddle through, but she wasn't sure about it herself, so Qu Tanyue's arrangement couldn't be called wrong. She said, "That's true. If I hadn't been stained with any poison, I would have had to reveal my identity as a Shangqing disciple."

"Exactly, otherwise you would have become a scapegoat for the Poison Sect disciples, and after entering the Hengze Heaven, you would likely be the first to be besieged to death." Qu Tanyue smiled, "But if you had revealed your identity as a Shangqing disciple, you would also have been a target. So I did everything for your sake, and you still want to scold me. What am I supposed to say?"

Ruan Ci made a face at him, "You just use your silver tongue. I don't believe you had to hold my hand to tell a lie."

Qu Tanyue said, "I didn't lie. Which word I said wasn't true? Aren't you my wife, and haven't the betrothal gifts been incomplete?"

As they were speaking, there was a sense of movement outside the magic array. Qu Tanyue released the restriction, and a small person wrapped in a veil hat walked in. Once inside, they lifted the hat, revealing a boy of eleven or twelve, whose appearance was very similar to Xiunu, like what he would look like when he grew up. He bowed to Ruan Ci and smiled, "Xiunu greets the Young Madam."

This person should have Jin Dan cultivation; otherwise, he couldn't have traveled to the Baoyun Sea from elsewhere. Ruan Ci smiled, "Xiunu, hello. So, do you decide your age based on your cultivation?"

Xiunu's figure fell downward, like dense dust falling for a moment, but in the blink of an eye, he condensed back into the appearance of a child and giggled, "No, it's just the avatar appearance we like the most. It's easy for people to remember when walking on the street, so sometimes we disguise ourselves as adults when we go out."

He took a Qiankun bag from his waist, looked at Qu Tanyue for instructions first, and after Qu Tanyue nodded slightly, he presented it to Ruan Ci and smiled, "Young Madam, this ring, mirror, and candle are the gifts carefully selected by the Young Master to offer you as a gesture of good luck."

Ruan Ci opened the Qiankun bag and poured out the three treasures. The jade ring was pale green and shimmering with precious light. With a slight input of magic power, it spun around and around, and its size could be changed at will. Xiunu said in a sharp voice, "This ring can trap enemies and protect the body, entirely according to the Young Madam's will. If used to trap an enemy, the enemy cannot use any magic power at all, and they will be stained with a special aura. Even if they escape later, the Young Madam can use this insect to sense their whereabouts. This is a secret transmission from the true outside; the methods of miscellaneous cultivation cannot eliminate this special aura. The Young Madam can keep this insect well. When you need to use it, just urge it with this mental method, and it will naturally point out the direction."

He handed a bottle of small insects to Ruan Ci and taught her the mental method to control them. Ruan Ci smiled, "Good, no wonder many cultivators also practice an external path; it can indeed be used as a surprise attack sometimes. That cultivator in Yanshan was a body cultivator who almost made me suffer a small loss."

Xiunu was praised by her, so he puffed out his chest and stomach, feeling very proud, and pointed to the mirror, "This mirror can defend against enemies and also set up magic arrays. It can absorb the magic power attacked by the enemy and reflect it back to the source. If you set up a magic array, there are eight array flags embedded behind the mirror, so this mirror can be used as an array disk and can form an Eight Trigrams Mirror Array. Ordinary enemies who fall into it will find it very difficult to escape."

Ruan Ci picked up the mirror and looked at Qu Tanyue. Qu Tanyue smiled slightly and sent a burst of magic power at her. Ruan Ci raised the mirror to reflect it and absorbed it. After a while, she shot a beam of light at Qu Tanyue. Qu Tanyue cried out, slumped on the table, and made an unbearable look, shouting, "Terrible, mercy, Madam, I'm going to die."

Ruan Ci was amused by him and put away the mirror. Xiunu handed a bottle of medicinal powder to Ruan Ci and said, "This candle is made from the brain marrow of an exotic beast from the West Sea and also has several uses. The candlelight can illuminate illusions and calm the mind, but it can also cast illusions. After the candle wick burns, a colorless and odorless smoke will be emitted. This smoke touches the nose and can invade the sea of consciousness, creating various illusions. The Young Madam is the owner and will not be affected. This medicinal powder is for others to use. If you don't want someone to inhale the smoke, just let them apply this powder."

Magic treasures of the Demon Sect were indeed all insidious and cunning, but they happened to suit Ruan Ci's taste. She liked these three magic treasures very much, played with them in her hands, and seemed to be much kinder to Xiunu who brought the treasures, smiling, "Thank you for bringing me such useful things. It's just that my pockets are empty, and I have nothing to reward you with, only a piece of news—there might be something you love to eat in Biyuan Mountain."

She told him the speculation she and Qu Tanyue had made. Xiunu rubbed his hands wildly and his feet rubbed against each other, looking at Qu Tanyue urgently and accusingly. Qu Tanyue smiled, "What's the rush? Linu's avatar only has Foundation Establishment cultivation, and she left twenty days early, and she doesn't run as fast as you. Go."

As soon as the word "go" was spoken, a strong wind flashed through the room, and the child Xiunu had turned into was gone. In Ruan Ci's sense, his energy was already ten miles away, almost at the edge of her perception. Ruan Ci was dumbfounded and looked at Qu Tanyue. Qu Tanyue shrugged his shoulders and smiled, "No way, Blood-Line Golden Insects are all this gluttonous."

He pouted again, "And why are you thanking him? Xiunu follows my orders to do things, and aren't the gifts all things I picked out for you? If you want to thank someone, you should thank me."

Ruan Ci knew that this was not a good topic to pick up, but she did indeed like these three magic treasures and knew that Qu Tanyue had put his heart into it. After her trip to Huang Shoushan, she reflected on herself and saw magic treasures from Chi, Li, and Meng, and felt that besides offensive treasures, she also needed a few auxiliary magic treasures for trapping, illuminating, and arrays. Everything she thought of, Qu Tanyue had thought of for her. If it wasn't that he could read minds with his Foundation Establishment ability, then he had indeed listened carefully to Ruan Ci's adventure story and had put himself in her shoes to think about what magic treasures she was still lacking.

Such thoughtfulness was rare in Ruan Ci's life, and his generosity was greater than True Person Wang's. So at this moment, her pretty face was slightly red, and she still generously said, "Thank you, husband, I love and respect you even more."

Qu Tanyue said aggrievedly, "Is it just talk? You gave Xiunu such good benefits..."

These benefits were actually a favor done with the current. For Ruan Ci, whether Linu ate or Xiunu ate, wasn't it all eating? Whether she said it or Qu Tanyue said it, wasn't it all said? So naturally, it was better for her to do this favor. This intention could not be hidden from Qu Tanyue. Ruan Ci's face turned even redder, and she hummed, "Then what do you want?"

Qu Tanyue pointed to his cheek and smiled, "When we were bowing to each other, what did you say to me, Madam? Hmm?"

As he spoke, he half-jokingly leaned his face over, with a teasing and impatient look...

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Updated, sorry for the wait, everyone. This chapter is an update from the draft box, because I should be out at 12 o'clock.

I read "Flower of Dust" yesterday. The writing is quite good, and the characters are good, but I think the plot is a bit flat. The early stage was still quite gripping, but later when the war started, I kept skipping chapters. What made me more tired was the controversy about the male lead in the comments. I think it's fine to be with anyone, but I feel that 80% of the comments are discussions and mutual attacks around the male lead stocks, which is meaningless... Several male leads have their own advantages and disadvantages. I feel that what readers want is a perfect male lead in the JJ sense, *wipes sweat*. As for me, I think that kind of perfect male lead is particularly meaningless.

Ah, it's not good to complain about other people's articles, it's just a feeling. Well, I'm leaving!

. Thanks to the little angels who gave me overlord votes or poured nutrient solution between 2020-09-04 12:14:30 and 2020-09-05 07:33:22~

Thanks to the little angels who cast landmines: Rice-white sofa (5); Scenery, Literary Rabbit (2 each); Yu Wanyao, Lychee whose account was stolen, The Delusion of Time (1 each).

Thanks to the little angels who poured nutrient solution: Xiaoxiao Xieyu (80 bottles); Luoxue Shengqing (50 bottles); Hengdi Chuiyue (48 bottles); Amisyou (45 bottles); Full Moon (20 bottles); I and Linu don't go out (18 bottles); Yu Wanyao, Rice-white sofa, Yan Yan, Istari, Lazy Cancer Late Stage, Youwu, Ye Yinchun Houzhang (10 bottles each); doris7788, sidewalker, Cuttlefish Bacteria Porridge, Summer Flower, pia (5 bottles each); Yearning (3 bottles); Sandwich Cookie (2 bottles); Cheng Bi, Spring Water Dingdong, aria, baby Le Yao, Peach Elf (1 bottle each).

Thank you all very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!