Chapter 662 Price of greed (12)
"What he did aside, his skills as an alchemist are the real thing. Dealing with the poison of the tricolored white-eyed tortoise needed astronomical skills, especially considering how far it had spread to our bodies and the tortoise sacrificing its blood essence to make it more potent.
His skills were worthy of our respect as those who know how hard it was to pull off what he did.
Sharing a few alchemy recipes and a botanical report isn't considered much. We would not lose what is contained in them just because we handed them out.
We would still retain the wisdom contained within them, but gifting the two objects to him is our way of showing respect to him as juniors on the same path.
The recipes and the report would achieve so much more in his hands than it would in ours. Who knows some never-before-seen legendary alchemical discovery may come out of what we just shared.
Sharing the recipes and the botanical report was our way of entrusting our hopes to Long Zemin and also thanking him.
But his actions afterward with what he did to our bodies, it was like spitting to our faces. It's the part I can't forgive, even though just like Wu Shen, some part of me is grateful to him and even respects his achievements as a healer, as a fellow practitioner myself.
I can't understand it,...why he did what he did, it just doesn't add up. Why would someone skilled enough to detoxify the venom of a tricolored white-eyed tortoise go through the trouble of healing four strangers from the brink of death, only to do something to their bodies after?
Maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part, but I want to know why he did what he did.."
Ling Qi paused as he turned to face Yang Qing with a solemn expression.
"I beseech for the Order's help in the matter. An answer to why Long Zemin did what he did.."
"We will do all we can.." answered Yang Qing.
"Thank you all for your testimonies. I still can't come to a verdict yet as the other half of this equation is still missing.
But worry not, a colleague of mine is working on it. In the meantime, you can relax as we wait for her, while I make a call..." Yang Qing said as he waved his sleeves and a few lotus cushions appeared in front of the four cultivators who cupped their fists in gratitude.
"By the way, where was your sect master in all this? " Yang Qing suddenly asked, directing his question to Ling Qi.
"Earlier you said it was the vice sect master who went to meet up with Long Zemin. If a figure of such skill appeared in your sect, especially after revealing a token from the Ocean Refining Crucible Pavilion, even if you were not sure if it was real or not, by virtue of the importance of such a matter your sect master should have been the one to meet with Long Zemin after making the appearance.
You also said the method used to contain your poison was done by one of the supreme elders, which seems to elude to the fact that your sect master was absent. Where was he?" asked Yang Qing with a slight glow in his eyes.
Ling Qi looked slightly startled by the question before he answered,
"Our sect master had already left the sect a few months before, to help a friend in handling a complex ingredient.
He wasn't sure how long it would take, he had therefore delegated his duties to the vice sect master and the supreme elders.
When we got stuck by the poison he still wasn't back.."
"Is that so?" Yang Qing ominously asked with a small smile.
"It is.." Ling Qi answered as he tried to hide how nervous he felt beneath Yang Qing's piercing gaze.
"Okay, thanks. You can all rest for a bit. Su Jinjing shouldn't be long.." Yang Qing casually said as he took out his communication talisman.
The four cultivators exchanged glances before they took seats on the futons Yang Qing had provided.
They all simultaneously chose to rest their eyes even though they couldn't meditate.
..
"Yang Qing, this is strange, after you graduated, you rarely call. What is it? Your grandfather isn't looking for more samples from my garden, is he?
Tell him the last batch I gave him six months ago was the only one i had ready. If he wants more he will have to wait for four more months until the next samples are ripe for harvest, not a moment sooner.
I could have gotten him the samples sooner, but a certain someone is swimming in merit points now, and thus no longer has the time to assist me.."
"Grandpa?!... Wait, Instructor Lu Bei, you mean to tell me Grandpa has been coming to you for those experimental plants?!"
Yang Qing's voice suddenly raised a bit before he hurriedly toned it down while setting up a sound barrier around him and Luo Meili.
"He didn't tell you? I have been supplying him ever since your days at the Institute..."
"Did he tell you what it was for?!" Yang Qing fearfully asked the owner of the voice at the other end of the communication talisman.
"What else if not for his body refinement experiments? He said he noticed my spiritual plants seemed to blend well with other natural stones and minerals they use in the soaking brew. That discovery has helped increase the odds of achieving the gold body.."
"I knew it.." Yang Qing said as he leaned back in his seat with a deflated expression.
Only his grandfather would be crazy enough to use some experimental spiritual herbs grown using refined spiritual metals as fertilizers.
Yang Qing in all his gluttony and natural immunity to poisons was wary of eating even a single fruit from said plants but his grandfather seemed to have been using it for years, and by the looks of it, in large quantities at that.
"Doesn't the Medical Valley monitor what he does? I already told them how dangerous he is." Yang Qing fearfully thought before he decided to push that matter to the back of his mind.
"So if you didn't call about your grandfather, what are you calling about?"
Yang Qing snapping back to reality said,
"I was sent to the Deer Mountain Range to fill in as the temporary Branch Chief.."
"So it was you they sent.." Lu Bei said with a sigh.
"Yes, though it's only for a month before the Judicial Committee decides what to do next after Branch Chief Li Wan and the rest become stable.."
"I don't know much about Li Wan but I have heard he has a will as strong as an immovable boulder. He will likely come back, Hao Da too, I feel, but the last surviving inquisitor, I don't know...it's not easy.."
"That it isn't.." Yang Qing said.
"So what is it you wanted?"
"I have a case that may or may not have ties with the Ocean Refining Crucible Pavilion. I remember you saying you knew one of their founders. I was wondering if you could confirm something for me.
I have two names here, one of them is Long Zemin, and the other is Shi Huan. I wanted to confirm if they are from the pavilion.."
"What did they do?" asked Lu Bei.
Yang Qing went on to explain the gist of the matter as per the testimony given.
"The ambitious heart of cultivators sometimes invites their doom if they blindly follow it... Long Zemin, Shi Huan, there is no one by that name there, but it does have ties to someone there.."
As Lu Bei was talking the doors of the courtroom opened and two figures walked in. One of them was a young lady with short hair, an ordinary-looking face with unique soulful eyes, and a crudely crafted spear in her hands. Next to her, was a middle-
aged man with long flowing silver hair, a genial smile, and an air of nature to him.
The four cultivators sensing the disturbance, looked behind them, and their bodies instantly froze when their gaze fell on the middle-aged man.
"I was told in passing that one of their founders by the name of Li Yao uses those names to roam around the continent. Long Zemin is the name of his junior apprentice-brother, and Shi Huan was the name of their deceased master.
He uses the name Long Zemin to flash out his apprentice brother who curses him out in every book, scroll, talisman, cafe, and inn all over the continent every chance he gets.
They have quite a dysfunctional relationship, those two..
Long Zemin goes around badmouthing Li Yao for ruining his chances with a certain lady, while Li Yao goes around doing all sorts of wonderous deeds under his junior brother's name knowing it will tick him off. I was told it has been going on for almost 2,000 years now," Lu Bei said with a light chuckle.
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