[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-nothing-is-taboo":3,"chapter-nothing-is-taboo-nothing-is-taboo-chapter-61":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Nothing Is Taboo",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2310446,4514,"Chapter 61: Tai Sui Jade","nothing-is-taboo-chapter-61",61,"\u003Cp>“Good… Huh? What did you say? Which one did you choose?” Ma Tianshou had assumed Xu Yuan would pick the second option.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I choose the first. Please send someone to escort me home right away—it’s getting dark, and Lin… my mother must be waiting anxiously at home.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ma Tianshou grunted, as if wanting to persuade him further, but ultimately said nothing, rose, and walked off with his hands behind his back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yan Lao will be here soon. Wait a moment.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This time, Xu Yuan didn’t wait long—Yan Lao arrived and personally escorted him back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After delivering Xu Yuan, Yan Lao immediately went to see Ma Tianshou: “You’re just letting such a promising talent walk away?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ma Tianshou sat alone in the temporary study, having sipped his bitter tea for quite some time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the past, when the old lord pondered matters, he liked to drink alone with a jug of liquor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Later, his wife took away his liquor and warned him that drinking alone harmed his health—he was no longer allowed to drink.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The old lord dared not defy his wife’s orders, so he switched to drinking bitter tea instead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I also thought the boy would pick the second option.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Forget whether he’s young enough to have the patience to sit cooped up in the River Works Alley for three or five months—his temperament is clearly bold, meticulous, and willing to act.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, Chen Liangxuan’s case concerns his own safety—he fought his way out of Qihé Taizhen, and after that experience, he’ll surely believe more than ever that he must control his own fate—not sit idle in the River Works Alley, hoping we’ll save him.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He’ll suspect that even though you speak beautifully, what if you ultimately fail?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yan Lao shared the same view, and thus found it baffling: “Yet this boy chose the first.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I even doubted whether I’d misjudged him—but just as you came in, it suddenly occurred to me…” Ma Tianshou paused halfway through his sentence and lifted his teacup to sip.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yan Lao, on his way back, had also thought of a possibility and ventured: “Could this boy… be negotiating with us?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The noodles for dinner were in clear, watery broth—tasteless and bland.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His stepmother seemed distracted, so Xu Yuan had reason to suspect: “Lin Wanmo, did you forget to put salt in the food?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His stepmother glared at him, irritable: “If you think my cooking’s bad, make it yourself.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Yuan felt wronged: “I just gave the family a large sum of money yesterday, and today you feed me this?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His stepmother was indeed at fault, but she would never admit it or back down.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She put down her chopsticks and bowl, refusing to eat, and asked: “What did the Purification Office want with you?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Yuan had no intention of hiding anything—he recounted the day’s events in full, then added: “Old Lord Ma Tianshou asked me to deliver a message to you: Over a hundred years have passed; few in the court still remember the so-called ‘Six Villages’ rebels’—Lin Wanmo, what does that mean?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His stepmother’s expression turned grave: “The Purification Office has indeed set its sights on you. Mao Si came back today and told me you killed two Seventh-Rankers alone—I knew then they wouldn’t let you go.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Yuan grew impatient: “I asked you a question—answer me first.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His stepmother let out a cold scoff: “He’s just a deputy commander of the Jiaozhi Southern Office—how dare he say such a thing? Hmph, let him earn the right to enter the Imperial Astronomical Bureau’s ‘Forbidden Star Tower’ and check the old archives—he’ll see how ridiculous he sounds.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Yuan was about to ask again, but Lin Wanmo shoved her bowl and chopsticks aside: “Wash the dishes. I’m going to bed.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hey, explain yourself properly—”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lin Wanmo slammed her door shut with a bang.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You’re all so fond of speaking in riddles, aren’t you? Only I’m expected to answer directly.” Xu Yuan stood outside her door and shouted: “Fine, next time you ask me something—I’ll only answer half, hmph!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Yuan went to wash the dishes, clattering pots and pans loudly in the kitchen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After finishing, he returned to his room to rest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had firmly refused Ma Tianshou because he truly wanted the first option.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This matter was clearly complicated—if he could simply hide and avoid it, that would be best.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Xu Yuan feared… he couldn’t avoid it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In a world teeming with evil, there’s a saying: “What you fear is what comes.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Yuan’s real decision was: If he truly couldn’t escape, then he must negotiate the terms of joining the Purification Office.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Look at the Demon Extermination Army—General Zheng Rongkui came to recruit me on behalf of my second uncle, painting me picture after picture of glorious prospects.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If I agreed, they’d surely offer generous terms.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ma Tianshou’s promise—to petition the Son of Heaven for a pardon, erasing the criminal record of the River Works Alley—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Yuan was deeply tempted. That imperial pardon might resolve the hidden crisis Lin Wanmo had always refused to speak of, the one tied to the Xu family.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But that’s all future talk.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Right now, it’s about him—no promises before joining; once you join, you lose all leverage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If they won’t even promise terms before you join, it means the Purification Office doesn’t value you at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After reconsidering the matter, Xu Yuan began sorting through the gains from today’s battle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had killed Xing Guolong and Old Ba during the day, and casually taken Xing Guolong’s sword pellet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a fine item—far superior to the sword pellet he’d used before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Yuan “fed” the sword pellet, refining it with the fire in his dantian.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But it didn’t go smoothly. This sword pellet belonged to a seasoned Seventh-Ranker; after over an hour of refining with his internal fire, Xu Yuan could barely control it—not even close to the fluidity of extending his will, and the transformation from “pellet” to “sword” was painfully slow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Yuan exhaled, and a wave of heat burst forth, raising the temperature of the entire room.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’ll take several more days of work before I can truly wield it.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before the “illegal” aura dissipated, Xu Yuan had already ransacked both Seventh-Rankers for anything useful to him—this was now second nature to him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From Xing Guolong, he also found a palm-sized iron box.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Inside lay a smooth, lustrous jade, emitting a faint medicinal fragrance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a rare spiritual herb called “Tai Sui Jade.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In truth, it was the flesh of a giant deep-sea mollusk.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hunting such giant mollusks was extremely perilous, and only this single piece could be used to craft the spiritual herb.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The refining process was exceedingly complex, with an abysmal success rate, making this herb extraordinarily expensive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xing Guolong’s piece was either a gift from Old Master Chen or plundered from a victim.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The herb's use: it could attract nearly all types of cursed insects.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Yuan weighed it in his hand and smiled inwardly: If he dropped it in Ghost Locust Mountain, even the old locust’s entire family would fight each other to claim it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But for cultivators, the herb’s greatest use was: breaking curses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If someone had been cursed, this herb could draw out the cursed insects on its own.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With only a handful of exceptions, no cursed insect could resist the lure of its fragrance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Yuan tucked it away—it might prove immensely useful later.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1246,"2026-06-20T12:07:23.516Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","c50ba040cad7cf53889d32209cb180bf801e8d13b44eb9c3fab49e009a4e00a8","nothing-is-taboo-chapter-62","nothing-is-taboo-chapter-60",413,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fnothing-is-taboo-cover.jpg"]