Chapter 86 - 54: Accident

Chapter 86: Chapter 54: Accident

On Bamboo Forest Peak, inside the guest room prepared for Li Yinsheng by the Huang Bamboo Temple, Li Yinsheng sat on a bamboo chair, marveling at the emerald tea in his cup.

"How does this Huang Bamboo Temple even grow tea leaves that look like bamboo leaves? I have to admit, though, it smells quite fragrant..."

After the initial introductions and pleasantries, he had separated from the crowd and led Mu Xiaoyu to his guest room.

Bamboo Forest Peak was extremely remote. Usually, only a small number of Huang Bamboo Temple disciples took turns garrisoning here, so there were very few habitable houses. The hired Patrol Disciples and Demon Extermination Disciples were squeezed several to a room. Their lodgings were hastily built using locally sourced materials. However, considering how generous Huang Bamboo Temple was with their pay, not many people voiced any complaints.

But no matter how crude the disciples’ lodgings were, an expert like Li Yinsheng, who had come to oversee the situation, could not be subjected to such hardship. Each of them had a Bamboo House pre-built at the summit. They weren’t made of Cloud Bamboo, which bore Cultivation Fruit, but an unknown species of bamboo that far surpassed ordinary mundane wood. Living in it offered a refreshing fragrance, warmth in winter, and coolness in summer. The house was even partitioned into several rooms, furnished with desks, and disciples delivered fresh tea and pastries daily. Even these temporary houses were decorated with calligraphy, paintings, porcelain, and bookshelves filled with scriptures.

Mu Xiaoyu absolutely loved the room and outspokenly asked Li Yinsheng a question. "Senior Brother, are these really temporary builds? Why do they feel better than some of the houses back at our Xuanzhen Temple?"

In response to his junior sister’s curiosity, Li Yinsheng gave her a grand reward—he sent her halfway down the mountain to live with the other Patrol Disciples.

Li Yinsheng had his own deep considerations for doing so. First, it wouldn’t sound good if rumors spread about a single man and woman sharing a room. Second, his junior sister had to go on daily patrols, which all departed from the dormitories. If she lived with him at the summit, she couldn’t possibly run all the way down to the mid-mountain every morning just to join the patrol, could she? Plus, that would mean waking up extra early every day just to leave time for hiking.

Therefore, after Li Yinsheng’s proposal, despite her reluctance to leave the Bamboo House, Mu Xiaoyu tearfully chose to stay in the dormitories. Besides, she did want to make some friends among her Fellow Daoists. She had been in the mountains for so long, and other than him and her Martial Uncles, she hadn’t met anyone else. However, before leaving, she was determined to eat all the tea and pastries in his room!

While Mu Xiaoyu stuffed her face, Li Yinsheng simply shook his head from the sidelines. With the way she ate, if he hadn’t supervised her Cultivation every day, she would have grown as round as a ball long ago. He wondered if she had eaten like this before coming up the mountain, and if so, how she managed not to get fat.

Just as Li Yinsheng shook his head, Qi Jiushan’s voice rang out from outside the Bamboo House. "Li? May I come in?"

Li Yinsheng nodded. "Come in, Qi."

Qi Jiushan pushed the door open and quickly walked up to Li Yinsheng, hurriedly bowing in salute. "Li, I am extremely sorry about what happened today! Please accept my apologies!"

"There’s no need for such formalities, Qi," Li Yinsheng said, helping him up.

"You did great today, Li! Slapping that guy surnamed Xu down five times on the way here was incredibly satisfying! You really helped me vent my frustration!" Qi Jiushan laughed heartily.

Li Yinsheng asked curiously, "Qi, from the looks of it, your relationship with those two from Shouyi Temple doesn’t seem very good. Why would you invite them?"

"Don’t mock me, Li. With your sharp eyes, can’t you tell they came uninvited?" Qi Jiushan smiled bitterly.

"So they really were uninvited." Li Yinsheng raised an eyebrow. "I did suspect as much, but I wasn’t entirely sure. After all, showing up uninvited requires incredibly thick skin."

"There isn’t a single person from Shouyi Temple without thick skin!" Qi Jiushan said indignantly. "You don’t know this, Li, but in the past, whenever Huang Bamboo Temple harvested Cultivation Fruit, Shouyi Temple would come over and forcefully peddle their Talismans. We couldn’t exactly refuse to buy them. Fortunately, they didn’t go overboard before. Although they pushed their Talismans on us, the prices were slightly discounted, and the quality was no different from what you’d normally buy... But this time, they’ve gone way too far!" He clenched his massive fists, his chest heaving with anger.

"How so?" Li Yinsheng’s curiosity was piqued.

Qi Jiushan rubbed his chest. "Li, give me a moment to catch my breath, and I’ll explain it in detail... Those two you saw are Stewards from Shouyi Temple. Our Huang Bamboo Temple has never had much interaction with Shouyi Temple. Besides, they are domineering and endlessly greedy, so we’ve never invited anyone from there to oversee things.

"But just yesterday, those two showed up uninvited. Accompanying them was a Vice Temple Master of Shouyi Temple, demanding a private meeting with Liang.

"I don’t know what that Vice Temple Master said to him, but when Liang came out, his face was still flushed with lingering anger. Yet, he still agreed to let the Vice Temple Master and those two Stewards stay and oversee the area.

"Not only that, but the lists for Patrol Disciples and Demon Extermination Disciples had already been finalized with enough people, yet quite a few names of Shouyi Temple disciples were suddenly added.

"Furthermore, those Shouyi Temple disciples who were added to the list haven’t even arrived yet. They’re supposedly still on their way. Their names had to be added first, and they’ll be personally brought over on a Flying Ship by that Vice Temple Master tomorrow...

"Tell me, isn’t that just bullying honest people?!"

***

Meanwhile, in another Bamboo House.

As an Array Master, Meng Yu’s Cultivation was a tier lower than the overseeing experts, but her treatment was just as high, if not higher. She sat before a bamboo desk, upon which lay an unrolled Geomancy Map and an Array Deployment Map. However, she had no mind to examine them. Her cold, elegant brows were tightly knit. She never expected people from Shouyi Temple to show up. Earlier, when she had spoken to her master about Li Yinsheng, her master had reminded her not to spread word of him to Shouyi Temple, lest they take precautions. It would be best if they could secretly screw over Shouyi Temple.

But this time, Huang Bamboo Temple was in dire need of experts. She figured that overseeing the area wouldn’t take long and wouldn’t require showing his face in public, so there shouldn’t be any issues. Thus, she recommended Li to Huang Bamboo Temple. After all, the reward offered by Huang Bamboo Temple this time was truly generous. Although there weren’t many talismanic coins, a thousand Cultivation Fruits were virtually priceless and impossible to buy on the open market. While Cultivation Fruit had a clear listed price, most of it had actually already been pre-ordered in bulk by the Zhengyang Dharma Vein and a few other Dharma Veins. It would be delivered shortly after harvest. Because of this, Cultivation Fruit rarely circulated among the Daoist Temples. Although one hundred talismanic coins per fruit wasn’t expensive, and buying a few to taste was easy, buying hundreds or thousands at once was far from simple. A reward of a thousand Cultivation Fruits would be vastly beneficial to a Cultivator’s Divine Sense, and it would be a true pity to miss out on it.

Yet she never imagined that people from Shouyi Temple would forcefully barge in yesterday, offering their "enthusiastic help." As a result, it was highly likely that Shouyi Temple would discover Li Yinsheng’s presence. Logically speaking, bound by the precepts of the Dharma Veins, Shouyi Temple shouldn’t dare to go too far openly. However, they had grown increasingly arrogant and domineering over the years, making it hard to say what they might do.

After a moment of conflict, Meng Yu abruptly stood up. She thought, "No, I have to go see Li and warn him!"