Omnipotent Sage

The two continued eating and drinking. After a while, Jin Yao’s curiosity got the better of him. Munching a peanut, he turned to Zhou Bao and said, “Brother Jia, you’re so young, but what’s bothering you so much? Tell me, maybe I can help!”

“Well, it’s nothing, just a few trivia with regards to my family. I felt depressed for a moment and heaved several sighs. Please excuse my poor manners!” Zhou Bao shook his head reluctantly, putting on an embarrassed expression. “Unlike me, Brother Jin has traveled thousands of miles to get here, so you must be entertaining a lofty ambition!”

“Hee hee, not lofty at all. I’m just a man who is destined to have a life of toil!” Jin Yao gave a wry smile. “The main purpose of my coming to the Remote Red Star this time is to search for a man. But so far I haven’t found him, and now I have to go back and admit defeat!”

“Looking for someone? I wonder who you are looking for. Although I’m not very capable, I do know some people on this Remote Red Star. It won’t be hard for me to find this guy!”

“Haha, thank you, Brother Jia. But I already found out that the man I’m looking for has left the Remote Red Star. Even if you dig to the core of the Remote Red Star, you won’t be able to catch him!”Jin Yao laughed. “However, meeting you here is really a pleasant surprise!”

“Meeting me is a pleasant surprise?” Zhou Bao’ heart jolted as he gave him a startled look. “What is this about?”

“I will share a secret with you. I discovered a Hidden Treasure, but due to my limited strength, I came to this Remote Red Star to find my friend to help me check it out. However, that friend of mine is traveling around and has long left the Remote Red Star. That’s why I am here. But who knows I should run into you here. Brother Jia, I noticed that you have an extremely high cultivation at such a young age, so I guessed you must be quite remarkable. Then, from your worried face, I thought you might have some difficulties now, so I intruded on your quiet time and came forward to speak to you. I’m thinking if you would like to come with me to search for that Hidden Treasure. You can get some benefits and it will be something to distract your mind now. What do you say?”

Zhou Bao blinked, totally stunned by this!

He knew that this Jin Yao must have an agenda in mind when he approached him. But it never occurred to him that this sort of thing could happen to him. How weird it was! Could something like this really happen?

A man discovers a Hidden Treasure, but since he failed to find his friend to help him, he randomly picked a practitioner on the street and invited him to join him. How could this be true? This was not like the recruitment of soldiers described in the western fantasy literature, where you could drag any guy in the troop to go on missions.

Looking at Zhou Bao’s astonished and bewildered face, Jin Yao forced a smile and said, “I know. What I’m doing is a bit reckless. But I have my reasons for that!”

Yes, there should be reasons. Otherwise, this would be really ridiculous.

“I’m wondering what reasons you have in mind?”

“If I’m not mistaken, Your Excellency must be the young prodigy in the Jia Family, Jia Qingping. Am I right?”

“Right, I am Jia Qingping from the Jia Family, but I’m not a prodigy at all!” Zhou Bao answered, his mind racing. Zhou Bao was using the identity of Jia Qingping in the Infinite Star Sea, but he had never thought that someone could recognize this identity.

Did he find this out from Jia Huaiyu?

No, it could not be. After all, Jia Huaiyu could not be that silly, could he?

“I am seldom around in the Infinite Star Sea, but how did Brother Jin know of my background?”

“Well, as luck would have it!” Jin Yao smiled bitterly. “The Cumulus Star is a very large Trading Star in the Infinite Star Sea, doing business with loads of vast planets, including your Jia Family. In fact, your Jia Family has quite an influence on the Cumulus Star, and I have also socialized with some of the men working for them on that planet. 10 years ago, I heard that a genius practitioner came to the scene from a side branch of the Jia Family. He was named Jia Qingping. By persistent practicing, his cultivation reached the Level Two of the Individual Immortal Realm at the age around 20, which really made many people jealous. At that time, the supervisor of the Jia Family on the Cumulus Star was called Jia Kou. He used to take your picture out to show off before us!”

“So that’s how it came about!”

Zhou Bao began to understand what this whole thing was about. When he stole the identity of Jia Qingping and traveled in the Infinite Star Sea, Jia Huaiyu had transmitted his picture to the Jia family for the sake of convenience. But he did not expect that the Jia family would transfer this picture to its numerous branches scattered in the Infinite Star Sea. That was how his identity was disclosed and why he had been recognized on this Remote Red Star.

He found this a bit annoying, but he could do nothing about it now. “So Brother Jin has known about me for a long time. But you pretended you didn’t at first. Well, you have a drink a cup as punishment!” Zhou Bao said, laughing half-heartedly.

“Fine, fine, fine. I’ll drink up!” Seeing that Zhou Bao was not angry, Jin Yao drank three large cups in one sitting. Then, he said, “Young Brother Jia, you have been an outstanding figure since childhood. Of course, I remember you clearly!”

“Hey, no need to be so polite with me. Stop calling me “Young Brother Jia, just call me Qingping. Anyway, I think Brother Jia should be your senior!”

“Good, good. Young Bro…No…Qingping, you’re an outspoken man, so I won’t stand on ceremony with you!”

Zhou Bao beamed, nodding his head. “That’s great. Brother Jin, we don’t have to be so polite to each other. But what do I have to do with the Hidden Treasure you just mentioned?”

“This is a bit complicated!” Jin Yao forced a smile. “To be honest, it really has something to do with your Jia Family!”

“Our Jia Family is involved? Hee hee, rest assured, Brother Jin. Although I am one of the Jia Family, I am just a disciple of a side branch, growing up on this Remote Red Star and not closely related to the Jia Family. Therefore…”

“Well, I know that. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have come to you!” Jin Yao said with a smile. “Here is the thing. I’ve opened a store on the Cumulus Star. It’s not large, but enough for me to make a living as well as meeting my needs for practice. But half a month ago, my store received a deal, which was taken care of by one of my employees. This deal involved selling some low-level celestial devices discovered in a Hidden Treasure by several practitioners. The price those practitioners offered to me was quite high, but those were celestial devices, very easy to resell and gain some profit. Plus, one of those celestial devices really caught my eye, so I took them all in. However, who knew this led to a series of trouble…”

Indeed, he had incurred problems. Of course, at that point when Jin Yao took in all those celestial devices, he did not know that one particular celestial device would later attract his attention. This celestial device appeared to be a low-level device. But Jin Yao was not ignorant. After all, how could guys capable of doing business on the Cumulus Star turn out to ignorant? Very soon, Jin Yao detected that something was wrong, because the one which looked like an inferior celestial device was actually a Pure Yang Celestial Device; a highly famous Pure Yang Celestial Device—the Psychic Jade Talisman. This Psychic Jade Talisman looked very ordinary, but when some high-ranked practitioner pumps his Dharma power into it, a protective cover will be activated. This is no common cover. Thanks to the material of this Psychic Jade Talisman, the Dharma power injected in it will produce a wonderous mutation, enabling the cover to be immune to any Dharma power attack, unless your opponent is utterly superior to you or is a guy like Zhou Bao who wins by his pure force. Normal practitioners will find this cover extremely hard to break. As rumors have it, this Psychic Jade Talisman was able to resist three all-out strikes made by an Eight-tribulation Lord of Heaven. Look, an all-out strike of an Eight-tribulation Lord of Heaven! And it can fend it off three times! But what mattered most was that when the power inside it was depleted, only if a high-ranked practitioner replenishes it, then it could quickly function again. A celestial device like this one was naturally a treasure!

Precisely due to its worth, only the direct descendant of the Jia Family who was going to be the next Family Head was qualified to carry this Psychic Jade Talisman. Furthermore, this Jade Talisman contained an inhibition cast by an Elder in the Jia Family, which ensured that he could sense this Jade Talisman wherever it was so as to make sure the holder of this Jade Talisman was safe.

The fact that the Jia Family had this kind of treasure was widely known in the Infinite Star Sea. Thus, after a thorough examination, Jin Yao confirmed that this ordinary looking Jade Talisman was the Psychic Jade Talisman of the Jia Family, a purely defensive Pure Yang Celestial Device.

After discovering this, he was overjoyed. But soon his great joy transformed into great sorrow, for he found out there were more than one inhibition imposed on this Pure Yang Celestial Device, which meant more than one Elder was watching this Psychic Jade Talisman. At this, Jin Yao was afraid.

He did have some estates on the Cumulus Star, but they were in no way parallel to what the Jia Family had. Therefore, after the initial delight faded, he found himself in great trouble.

This Psychic Jade Talisman should have been worn by the most important disciple of the Jia Family, but now it fell into his hands. Then, where was the real owner of this Jade Talisman? Why was this Pure Yang Celestial Device sold to him as a tradable device, a low-leveled celestial device? What could all this mean?

Well, in the world of practitioners, even an idiot knew what all this meant. This must mean that the disciple of the Jia Family had been robbed. If it was merely his belongings that had been taken, it would be fine. But if this disciple was killed along the way, then, Jin Yao would be in real trouble.

Strength always prevailed in the world of practitioners. In their quest to dig out the truth, the Jia Family would certainly not listen to Jin Yao’s explanation. When something like this happened, the most convenient measure they would adopt was the Soul Searching—getting the information they needed right through your spirit. But as to whether this searching might harm Jin Yao in any way, they did not care.

In this case, the best solution Jin Yao could come up with was to throw the Psychic Jade Talisman away. But in no time, he found that this did not help the situation, because he had already left his brand on the Psychic Jade Talisman. Although he could cover up the spirit of the Psychic Jade Talisman for a short time, he could not hide its spirit for good. Hence, after thinking over the whole matter, he decided to leave the Cumulus Star and be on the run.

For an Independent Practitioner like him, this was indeed the best choice. He fled, making it hard for others to track him down for the moment. Along the way, he could take his time to work out a way to wipe off his brand on the Psychic Jade Talisman. And in the meantime, he also possessed a Pure Yang Celestial Device almost for free. He was only too glad to do so!

But unfortunately, this matter was not as simple as he had imagined.