Chapter 263 – Untitled
Translated by Gumihou
Edited by Gumihou
Gumi will not be able to access the wifi for the whole week (maybe).
So, please have this week’s chapters in advance! See you next week~
Shiyu studied the barrier thoughtfully. This thing could not possibly be completely closed off since these precious medicine needs to absorb Spiritual energies from the atmosphere to properly grow. Therefore…
Shiyu took out the jade bottle with the tiniest trace of the Qi of Origin and whispered to the Demon Vine, “Try and use the Qi of Origin as cover and sneak inside.”
A barrier is made out of a series of seals that are put together into a formation. In other words, this barrier is built from the five elements of the world. The Qi of Origin is an amalgamation of all five elements, therefore it stands to reason that it would not be rejected by the barrier.
After receiving the Qi of Origin, the Demon Vine fell off her wrist and [1] wriggled forward like a little worm. The front bit of the vine shone with misty grey light. As Shiyu watched, the Vine touched the barrier and the light dissolved a little hole in the barrier allowing the Devil wine to creep in.
Shiyu settled back. It’s all up to the Demon Vine now.
She squatted next to the little hole in the barrier for nearly a quarter of an hour before Demon Vine finally wriggle back. It looked much thicker than before and was covered in a weirdly creepy glow. Its movements were a little sluggish as well, as though it had gorged itself too much.
Shiyu quickly scooped up the fat little vine and flashed out of the Ge Estate. It was much easier to sneak out of the estate than to sneak in.
Once they were a good distance from the Ge Estate, Shiyu was about to ask Demon Vine if it managed to get hold of any Qi of Origin when it suddenly struggled and slipped out of her hands and disappeared into the darkness.
“… …”
For a moment, Shiyu could only stare stupidly at her empty hands before blinking exasperatedly at the direction where the Vine had disappeared to.
“I have you a chance.”
As soon as she spoke, the Demon Vine came wriggling back, [1] frantically rolling on the ground trying to put out the fire that was burning over its scorched body.
Shiyu slowly crouched down and said, “What a cunning thing you are. I thought you were a little too quick to agree to help me and had Ocean Heart Flame leave a bit of his fire inside your body. Luckily, you know to come back, otherwise, you’ll be nothing but a pile of ashes now. Enough, spit out the Qi of Origin and I’ll call off the flames.”
This Demon Vine is too cunning for its own good. However, as long as she could directly suppress it with absolute power, it will be obedient to her. For cunning beings like Demon Vine, it’s best to dominate them with your fist.
Sure enough, in order to survive, Demon Vine immediately squeezed out the Qi of Origin it had swallowed. The whisp of light was as thin as a small strand of noodle. Although it was not a lot, there was much more of it compared to before.
Shiyu collected the Qi of Origin into her jade bottle and smiled, “Isn’t this good?” She also called Ocean Heart Flame off the Demon Vine. “You can keep the rest of the essence as your reward.”
After all, they could be considered partners in crime from now on. It would not be good to oppress this cunning vine too much. Moreover, she has plenty of precious herbs that could be processed into essence and would not covet what the Demon Vine had collected.
She picked up the sad little Vine and had placed it on her wrist. After it had obediently shrunk into a vine bracelet, Shiyu made her way back to the College. Once there, she entered the Saint’s Dwelling to ask Fat Cat if the Qi of Origin collected was enough to repair the <<Soul Drawing Book>>.
Unfortunately, the answer was no. The amount of Qi of Origin needed should at least be the size of an Eastern Pearl [3].
Shiyu thought for a moment and decided to target another noble house tomorrow night. For the next few nights, Shiyu busied herself in the kitchen during the day and disappeared from the College at night. No one knows where she went.
Her disappearance soon attracted the attention of the others. Normally, she would seclude herself inside the Villa like a shut-in and not leave the place at all. Even if she did leave the house, she would usually be back a little after midnight.
Recently, however, she had been leaving the house after evening fell and would only be back just before morning.
“Do you think she encountered some kind of difficulty and is trying to solve it herself without involving others?”
“Unlikely. She’s not injured and there’s no blood on her clothes. In fact, I say she looks very excited whenever she goes out. It feels like… she’s out picking up silver or something.”
“… …”
Dong-Fang Zhen suddenly recalled that time Shiyu asked him to inquire into the houses of the nobility in the Capital.
Since they were friends and he owed her a lot, Dong-Fang Zhen did not feel comfortable questioning Shiyu’s movement. However, he still had people inquire into the Ge Estate quietly. That way, he could check on things without stepping on anyone’s tails.
As a result, the news he received was… the Ge Estate’s medicine field had been raided! In fact, the entire field of medicine had disappeared without a trace! As one of the older noble families, the Ge Clan’s medicine field contains some very old and valuable herbs of incredible value. More importantly, several special herbs had been specially nurtured for the Cultivation of the younger generations of the Ge Clan. Now that they have all disappeared, how could the Ge Clan not be angry?
Patriarch Ge was so outraged that he was making a ruckus all over the Imperial Capital, making it very easy to find out what a certain someone had been up to.
Later, five or six other noble houses also reported the same loss. Their medicine field had been broken into and their precious herbs snatched. However, rather than ‘broken into’ the culprit somehow managed to get into the fields without breaking down the barriers and stolen all the precious herbs inside.
If Shiyu had not asked Dong-Fang Zhen to provide her with maps of these noble houses, he would have suspected that these noble clans had gotten together to fabricate some outrageous story to make trouble.
After all, who would believe a story where whole fields of medicinal plants of several noble houses disappear with the barriers still intact? Isn’t that just too incredible of a story?
However, Shiyu had specifically requested for [3] detailed maps for these specific households. Now nearly all those households suffer from mysterious break-ins. It doesn’t take a genius to guess what must have happened.
Nevertheless, it did not lessen the shock of discovery, ah!
That Shiyu is too bold!
Even though a noble family is not as prestigious as the royal family, many of them have very deep backgrounds.
To think that Shiyu actually dared to challenge these people alone. Although it was not quite Zhao Yun’s Seven In & Seven Out [4]. Her fierceness was no less than a first rank general against a powerful enemy.
After all, medicine fields are usually very heavily guarded places where very few people could approach and fewer people could enter. Moreover, in addition to barriers, there are all kinds of talismans rigged to alert the guards.
Shiyu seemed to have found some way to casually dive in and out of places where very few could even access…
Luckily, she’s not targeting the Imperial Palace’s medicine fields. Otherwise…
The people around [5] Dong-Zhang Feng noticed his slightly constipated expression and all eyes zeroed on him.
[5] “Dong-Fang, didn’t Shiyu ask you to do something for her?”
“Do you know what she’s doing?”
“If you know just spit it out so we can all stop worrying about it.”
[5] Dong-Fang Zhen stared at the uncompromising faces before him
[5] He actually took a step back and thought about not saying anything when he suddenly wanted to knock himself in the head. [5] After all, if Shiyu had wanted to hide her movements, she would not have openly left the house every evening. With her ability, she could easily sneak out of the Villa without anyone noticing.
[5] Since it was like this, he shrugged and said, [5] “All I know is Xiao Shi asked me to provide her with detailed maps of certain households. Specifically on the location of their medicinal fields. Anyway, the first time she disappeared with the map of the Ge Estate I had some people make inquiries to the Ge Estate and it turned out that the Ge medicine field had been completely plundered.”
[5] He stared at them in the eye. “Not only that, several other noble houses who stand against the Imperial Family had also suffered similar incidents after I provided her with maps of their estate. However, whether these incidents are related or not…”
Everyone fell silent for a moment.
Finally, Feng Luo touched his chin and said, “Surely she’s not thinking that our progress is too slow and decided to plunder other people’s medicine field…”
[5] “It’s not unlikely, she had been working with beast core and beast meat, she should be able to work with rare herbs too.”
Another silence fell as they contemplated the amount of effort Shiyu put in to raise their Cultivation.
Finally, Qi Chuyun said, “I’m ashamed to say this. We have received a lot of profit from her but never return the favour. Isn’t this just taking advantage?”
Whether it was beast core, beast meat or even that special medicinal wine, it was all good things that probably cost hundreds of thousands of silvers at least as basic materials.
After Shiyu had processed them, their value would have skyrocketed.
The favour they owe to Shiyu was incalculable.
[Gumihou: Ahh, a Shiyu-is-so-awesome-yay chapter. I don’t really mind it, but please keep it somewhat realistic]
We now have Glossaries for Character, Cultivation Terms, Clan Names, Restaurants & Places
[1] Additional Description for Dramatic Purpose: Extra descriptions on the Vine to make it creepier.
[2] Eastern Pearls: They’re mentioned in Chapter 248 of The Feast
Eastern Pearls – Aren’t actually that large and are less beautiful than sea pearls since they are freshwater pearls. They gained prestige because, during the Qing Dynasties, only the top royal families are allowed to wear these pearls and thus driving up their value…
http://www.jd-tv.com/photo/46044.html
Gumi has a feeling that ‘Eastern Pearl’ is used here because it sounds awesome. Furthermore, ‘Eastern Pearls’ is a term used for pearls found in the lower reaches of the northeastern Songhua River. All pearls, large and small, perfect and imperfect from this river are ‘Eastern Pearls’.
Therefore, Fat Cat’s as large as an ‘Eastern Pearl’ description is actually… useless.
[3] Additional Details for Logistic Purpose: Give details to back how Dong-Fang Zhen knows things.
[4] Zhao Yun’s Seven In Seven Out – General Zhao Yun was a very fierce soldier. When he’s young there’s no one as fearless as him and he’s famed for fiercely charging in and completing his objective. Under Liu Bei, he performed seven distinctive merits swiftly and efficiently:
4.3 As the Administrator of Guiyang
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhao_Yun
Sadly, even brave and powerful Zhao Yun eventually grows old…
https://daydaynews.cc/en/history/194763.html
However, to compare Shiyu’s grand theft to a great general’s achievement is kind of… like praising a kid who cooked their first bowl of instant ramen without burning down the kitchen to a 5-star chef’s achievements…
Author should have compared Shiyu to a ninja or something. Though I guess that’s not very Chinese nationalistic…
[5] Adjusted Details for Dramatic Purpose: Make Dong-Fang Zhen’s interrogation more realistic and give him a stiffer spine instead of just ‘saw… there was nothing to hide, so he said everything he knew.’
It’s just another gimmick to make Shiyu appear impressive anyway, but this wishy washy attitude is unnecessary.
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[DEMON VINE has used AVARICE!]
[OCEAN HEART FLAME has used WRATH!]
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Okay, so you’re telling me Shiyu plundered the fields for days, but after the first one went down no one else thought to increase security, they just left it to the barrier AI…which already failed??
You immediately spotted the loophole. I’d have stationed humans with human eyes to watch the field and to protect it against Shiyu.