Chapter 157

"This Earth-Fire is quite good!" Zhou Qingzhu said in surprise. "I'd never heard before that there was Earth-Fire here in Peach Blossom Spring."

"Is it acceptable?" Liu Xiaolou did not want to delay, so he sat directly beside the fire pit, preparing to begin refining.

"Of course it is." As she spoke, Zhou Qingzhu reached out to test the heat and said, "Is this Nine-Star Earth-Fire? The fire is a bit too fierce. When fusing, you cannot place it directly on the fire vent; it will affect the talisman seals already carved on the Heaven Plate and Earth Plate. When refining, keep it above the vent... about this high, around one foot. Don't get too close."

The method of fusing array plates is actually a technique of nesting a major array within a sub-array, which is quite common in many large-scale mountain-protecting arrays. Zhou Qingzhu had already taught this to Liu Xiaolou, and now it was time to watch him put it into practice.

Liu Xiaolou was a layman when it came to array techniques, but he had put in hard work on refining array plates, which Zhou Qingzhu had witnessed over the past month. Now, having accompanied him for a while and corrected two errors in his technique, she felt at ease and went out for a stroll.

Just as Liu Xiaolou had been when he first climbed the mountain, Zhou Qingzhu was moved by the scenery of Star Deshan. Such peaks, rising straight up like solitary bamboo with ten thousand fathoms of sheer cliffs on all sides, were indeed rare, and even fewer were those with Daoist temples built upon them. For a moment, she couldn't help but feel the urge to renovate this Star Virtue Temple.

There was a high-quality fire pit here, which would make a fine branch temple for her own Zhou Qingzhu Garden, though it would require quite a bit of effort. For instance, she would need to notify both the Green Jade Sect and the Heavenly Matriarch Mountain to obtain their approval, and it would be best to find out the whereabouts of the original owner, Lord Star Virtue. No matter where he had fled, it would be best to pay him a sum of money to avoid any inexplicable disputes in the future.

Thinking of these problems gave her a headache. The trouble made her hesitate, so she simply descended Star Deshan to observe the terrain and topography, considering it seriously.

The method of nesting array plates is a different technique compared to carving true qi and array talismans. The difficulty is no less, but the process is much shorter. Liu Xiaolou spent seven days finally fusing the two array plates together, stacking them into a two-layered array plate.

The lower layer is the Earth Plate, which is the base array, and the upper layer is the Heaven Plate, carved with the three wondrous talismans of the sun, moon, and stars. With this, the performance of the Abyss-Facing Profound Stone Array was significantly improved, gaining seasonal transitions and the alternation of day and night.

If Yun Ao were to enter the illusion array again, he would immediately discover that the time of day in the courtyard was different from before, and the illusions within the bed curtains had also changed from what he had previously seen. As for how they changed, that would depend on his own thoughts and reflections.

What is important is that every time he comes, it will be different.

Liu Xiaolou stroked the brand-new array plate, feeling great joy in his heart. He got up to find Zhou Qingzhu, wanting to invite her into the array to test it, but after searching high and low, he could not find her.

By now, the sky was growing dark, and the mountains were shrouded in shadows. Liu Xiaolou circled the cliff's edge, but could not see the situation below clearly. Just as he was about to return and wait, he suddenly saw a cluster of purple light faintly glowing at the foot of the mountain. This was usually the radiance caused by cultivators in combat, so his heart tightened, and he hurriedly leaped down the mountain in that direction.

Just as he reached the halfway point, he saw someone coming up the mountain with a graceful and swift movement. It was Zhou Qingzhu. She was not alone; she was carrying someone in her hand.

"What happened?" Liu Xiaolou hurried over to greet her.

Zhou Qingzhu said, "Let's go up and talk."

Returning to Star Virtue Temple and entering the east side hall, they lit the lamps. Liu Xiaolou carefully examined the person Zhou Qingzhu had thrown at her feet. The man had a full beard, an ordinary appearance, his eyes were tightly shut, his face was as pale as paper, and he kept spitting out bloody foam from the corners of his mouth.

Reaching out to probe his meridians, Liu Xiaolou shook his head: "He cannot be saved."

Zhou Qingzhu snorted coldly: "With such mediocre cultivation, he dared to fight me!"

Liu Xiaolou was surprised: "What happened?"

Zhou Qingzhu said: "I went to those mountains to the north today. When I returned, this person was acting suspiciously, circling around our Star Deshan. I stopped him to ask what he was doing. Who would have thought he would turn and run? When I caught up, he actually dared to resist. I trapped him with an array, but he didn't even last the time it takes to brew a cup of tea."

Liu Xiaolou had just probed the man's meridians and knew he had opened nine, making him a Qi Refinement Stage 7 cultivator. Yet, he couldn't last a cup of tea in Zhou Qingzhu's array. Curious, he asked: "What kind of array is it? Is it that powerful?"

Zhou Qingzhu said: "The Ten Thousand Sound Forest Array. If you want to try it, you can go in later. However, I haven't finished refining this array for long, and I'm not yet proficient in controlling it, so I can't operate it with ease."

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Not being able to operate it with ease meant she couldn't hold back her hand.

Liu Xiaolou said sheepishly: "Then never mind."

Sure enough, the man soon stopped breathing and became a corpse. After searching him, he pulled a crumpled letter from his waistband.

After reading the few lines of text, Zhou Qingzhu said: "No wonder he was hiding his head and showing his tail, acting with a guilty conscience. He was indeed plotting to murder for wealth. Who is this Zang Qianli?"

Liu Xiaolou said: "Have you heard of Goose Yangshan?"

Zhou Qingzhu gave an "oh": "The Zang family from Goose Yangshan? The ones who produce spirit rice?"

Liu Xiaolou said: "Yes, Zang Qianli is from their family. His elder brother, named Baili, is the head of the Zang clan. He himself is a Foundation Establishment cultivator and an inner sect disciple of the Zhanglong Sect. This fellow came to Peach Blossom Spring to deliver a letter, and I don't know to whom. To actually dare to conspire with an inner sect disciple of the Zhanglong Sect—he truly has the guts of a bear. We must hurry back and hand this letter and the corpse over to the Zhanglong Sect."

Zhou Qingzhu was indifferent and asked casually: "Is the Zang family very good to you?"

Liu Xiaolou said: "Good? They hire us loose cultivators at low wages and have us help harvest their fields every autumn. They also love to conscript us to do this and that on ordinary days... They are nothing but 'Zang the Skin-Flayer'!"

"Then why are you tipping them off?"

"No matter how much they flay us, they still give us a way to survive. Furthermore, if something happens to the Zhanglong Sect, we people of Wulong Mountain won't fare any better. We are able to gain a foothold on Wulong Mountain thanks to the secret support of the Zhanglong Sect. Now that some petty villains are plotting mischief, we must inform the Zhanglong Sect quickly."

"That's strange. I thought you all viewed the famous righteous sects as mortal enemies. Aren't you worried that this person's... companions, like the one who wrote the letter or the one receiving it, are your own people from Wulong Mountain?"

"Actually, it's the same everywhere. We may view the famous sects outside as enemies, but we cannot treat our neighbors and fellow villagers the same way. Therefore, the guys plotting this are definitely not from our Wulong Mountain."

"Alright... when are we going?"

"Now."

"What about the corpse?"

"Bring it along. Perhaps the Zhanglong Sect can find some clues from him."

"Then you carry it yourself."

They descended the mountain and traveled through the night, arriving at the foot of Zhanglong Mountain by noon the next day.

Zhanglong Mountain stretches over forty miles from east to west, with Goose Yangshan to the southwest. The Zhanglong Sect is located on the main peak of Zhanglong Mountain—the Great Floating Golden Shanfeng, which is also one of the blessed lands for cultivation in the world.

Zhou Qingzhu had no interest in such whistleblowing matters and let Liu Xiaolou carry the corpse in by himself. It was half an hour before she saw Liu Xiaolou come out from the mountain gate.

"How did it go?"

Liu Xiaolou said happily: "Elder Bai met me personally and took it very seriously. He rewarded me with two spirit stones. Come, I'll share one with you!"

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