Chapter 329 – Steamed Pork with Rice Flour (b)

Translated by Gumihou

Edited by Gumihou

 

Snarky Gumi: Pffffttt!!! Kekeke

Gumihou: … there’s a… sort of an omake in the footnotes, so please enjoy it.

 

Luo Dongting still has some power within the Grand Martial City. After receiving Shiyu’s request, he did not ask additional questions and had people look out for the desired properties.

It was quite easy to locate the land. The suburbs beyond the wall of the Grand Martial City were filled with vacant courtyards belonging to various families. So long as one did not lack money, it was easy to purchase a cluster of properties belonging to a group of bankrupt families [1a].

It was not difficult to get hold of a good seal master either. There was one elder at Grand Martial Palace who was proficient with seals.

However, Luo Dongting was still too green to approach this elder, let alone invite him for a job. Just when Luo Dongting was at a loss, something unexpected happened.

His grandfather, the Luo family patriarch, unexpectedly appeared.

Grandfather Luo has certain prestige within the Grand Martial City. As expected, when Patriarch Luo made the request, the Seal Master Elder agreed to help.

Although, Luo Dongting was still puzzled over why his grandfather would come forward…

A Seal Master and an Illusion Master have a lot of similarities but the former did not have the mental powers of the latter. Therefore, an Illusion Master is still more unique but even so, an Illusionist has to study seals too.

Now that both land and person have been found, Shiyu came with Luo Dongting to inspect both. The land was made up of several courtyards [2] and open land with rolling hills and plenty of water sources. The lower lands were all fertile fields while the hills were planted with fruit trees.

In the end, Shiyu chose a courtyard situated in the middle of a valley and asked the Seal Master to set up the formation around the property.

A good array could hide the space within this place, making it so that others could not trace this place.

The key to a powerful formation were beast cores. The higher the beast core level, the more powerful the array. 

Shiyu has plenty of beast core at hand, quite a few Level 4 cores as well as the one Level 5 core from Patriarch Ling.

An array made with a Level 5 beast core would withstand the eyes of Cultivators at Divine Transformation realm and below. Therefore, it was the perfect moment to make use of it.

Shiyu stood just beyond the valley, [1b] watching as the Seal Master busied himself for three days and three nights. On the morning of the fourth day, the valley courtyard had changed.

The original valley, which had been a deep depression in the landscape with a few small trees had completely transformed into a dense forest.

However, when she stepped past the trees, she found herself in the very same valley as before. Nothing had changed.

“How curious, to think there’s such a subtle [1c] way of hiding a location from the eyes of others.

The Seal Master came over with obvious pride and some regret on their face.

“If a master of illusion were to cast their spell, not only would outsiders see the jungle but would also experience the sensation of having entered a forest. A pity this old man did not have this luck.”

Master of illusions could use their mental power to create incredible fakes. The more advanced the illusionist, the more detailed the environment they could create.

Some could even be trapped in the fantasy world for decades, until the end of their lives.

When Shiyu heard this, her understanding of Master of Illusions deepened. Who knows when Master will return and guide me down that road?

“This is already very good, many thanks, elder,” Shiyu took out the reward with a smile. “Please take this as your reward.”

The elder waved his hand, “No need for such courtesy. I only have one request. I have no need for the reward, however, I do hope you could grant me this request.”

Shiyu could not help her curiosity. “Please speak.”

“If you happen to encounter a Level 6 beast core in the future, I do hope you could let me have it,” said the Seal Master eagerly.

Although the other party was young, her Cultivation was strong enough that he could not discern it. Moreover, she was able to produce a Level 5 beast core. He was sure that she would one day get her hands on a Level 6 core in the future.

The Seal Master’s request was quite unexpected. Seeing the yearning in the Seal Master’s eyes, Shiyu could not help but nod, “Alright… I promise. However, you must still accept this reward from me.”

Who would have thought that this little girl would actually make this promise? Excited, the Seal Master nevertheless still declined the original reward. Therefore, Shiyu could only note down this favour privately.

For now, matters regarding the property could be considered half-finished.

Before they could commence with the next step, Shiyu, [3] Luo Dongting and the others would have to return first.

[3] After they stepped out of the formation, Shiyu and the Seal Master said their goodbyes to Luo Dongting and Old Master Luo and left first.

Old Master Luo was a relatively old fashion person. There was no one the Luo clan feared more than the venerable old Patriarch and Luo Dongting was no exception. Therefore, the fact that his grandfather would even help him out voluntarily was a great surprise to him.

“I have no idea what you are so busy with these days. However, I trust you know how to handle your own affairs. I cannot hand over the Luo Clan to you, however, if you can find your own way, I am willing to assist you,” said Old Master Luo suddenly.

Hearing this, Luo Dongting felt very relieved for some reason.

As someone without a spiritual vein, he might as well be a cripple in a world filled with powerful Cultivators. Though he might be talented, having him as the head would eventually cause the Luo Clan to fall into a storm. Therefore, he knew from the start that this would be the result. Nevertheless, he still wished to fight for his sister and himself.

“Do you think I am denying your ability?” asked the Old Master.

Luo Dongting said nothing.

“Fool! A good man does not covet his family’s wealth. I earned that money and expect you to expand the family business. Though you have no spiritual vein you still have your brain and could still travel down a different road!”

At this, Old Master Luo did not bother with him anymore and flew off.

Leaving Luo Dongting in a daze [1d-please read the patch in the footnotes].

 

Please read this at kitchennovel dot com ~

 

Within the valley courtyard, hidden under the formation, Shiyu looked around the area once. Aside from herself, there was only Fat Cat and the Demon Vine with her. Fat Cat perched regally on her shoulder while the Demon Vine gambolled about on the ground.

“Is this good enough?” Before her was about 30 acres of land [1e]. The next thing she plan to do was to turn this entire space into a huge medicinal herb garden.

The medicinal herbs within the Saint’s Dwelling were at least a few hundred years old. In order to prevent any accidents, Shiyu planned to temporarily transfer a few of these first before slowly adding the rest. [1f]

“Just about. Any bigger it would call undue attention.”

“En,”

Shiyu nodded. Then, she took some Spring Water and threw it into the air. Suddenly, the surrounding living things became full of vitality. The slightly barren and dusty bit of land under her feet quickly changed. [1g]

Then, Shiyu searched through the hundreds of precious herbs within the Saint’s Dwelling for the herbs with the lowest year and took them out to be planted. It would be pointless to take out aged herbs. Moreover, if she planted those with too high a year count, they would attract undue attention from all over.

[4] Time was short and she only managed to fill the most middle part of the land with hundreds of medicinal herbs. [1g] [1i]

[4] Still, it would be too wasteful to plant precious herbs just in the middle portion of the land. Eventually, she would slowly plant other low year plants outside.

By having a medicinal herb garden here, when she leaves the Ninth Realm in the future. Their cooperation with the Feathered clan would not be affected.

Once she was done planting the medicinal herbs [1g], Shiyu invited the plump Queen Bee out [1h]. “If you assist me with one thing, I shall let you live here.”

 

We now have Glossaries for Character, Cultivation Terms, Clan Names, Restaurants & Places

 

[1] Plot Holes:

[a] the likelihood of having a bunch of bankrupt families owning a bunch of properties adjacent to each other is… yeah… only possible when the world is literally made for you.

[b] ‘watching Old Gu floating about erratically’ 

Most likely author just misremembered something since Old Gu should have gone to the Eight Realm by now with Lin Fan, because he lives inside Lin Fan’s jade pendant.

[c] …to think there’s such a subtle way of hiding

*cough* *splutter* wh-what?

…turning a valley into a dense jungle is not subtle. It’s using genjutsu as a sledgehammer. Like carving chicken meat with an ox clever. Sure it works but, that ain’t subtle or nothin’ lady

[d] Leaving Luo Dongting in a daze… in the middle of nowhere?

The following patch is credited to whynn who gave Gumi the suggestion in Discord. Thank you, whynn.

 

Once Luo Dongting came back to his senses, he realised that he had been left alone at the edge of a giant fake forest that had sprung up just a few days ago, courtesy of the Seal Master.

The problem was, this valley courtyard was situated in the middle of other private, half-abandoned courtyards, which Shiyu had bought. Whatever servants and residences have all moved away leaving him all alone right next to a 30 acres wide property owned by a Divine Transformation expert.

The people who came to witness the final touches of this sealing were all Cultivators except for himself.

All the Cultivators had left.

There was only him, the common guy with no spiritual vein.

A rustle in the nearby wood made him jump.

Even though these were former courtyards and manor houses. The lack of people made the whole place very eerie.

Why had all those $%^&$^ abandon him, ah!!

“Screw this,” muttered Luo Dongting as he reached for the emergency seal he had hidden up his sleeves just for this kind of occasion.

It took him a short time to light the seal, which shot into the sky to spell out a word in a cryptic language.

µ-β-ε-р

The words flashed in the sky with many colours for nearly a quarter of an hour.

Not long after that, a flying beast landed next to him, a green-clothed person bearing the same cryptic symbols on the back of his shirt waved at Luo Dongting.

“Yo! You called an Uber?”

 

[e] 30 acres of the valley courtyard or 30 acres in total? Also, did the Seal Master seal 30 acres of land or just a single valley courtyard?

Gumi has no idea but from the exaggerated description probably the latter.

[f] Gumi has a question. If 30 acres is made up of ‘several courtyards’ what happened to the buildings?

[g] Hundreds of plants, all by herself and within 2 hours, I’m sure.

[h] Queen Bee popped out from… a pocket dimension? Her space ring?

[i] …what happened to the trees in the hills and plants and flowers that were all over the place?

 

[2] Adjusted for Logistic Purposes: Description of land all over the place. Consolidated it into one coherent paragraph.

[3] Adjusted for Logistic Purpose: People popping into existence suddenly, disappearing, then talking to each other after one had left.

Shiyu + Seal Master > Shiyu + Luo Dongting leaving > Seal Master says goodbye > Leaving Luo Dongting (?) and Old Master Luo (when did you arrive???!!) > Old Master Luo flew away… Leaving Luo Dongting who has no Cultivation alone in the middle of nowhere?!?!?

Author-san, why are you so careless?!

[4] Added Details to make sense of the paragraph

 

 

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