Chapter 478.1: The Sage Musters His Troops (1)

When Li Banfeng mentioned the price, Chu Shaoqiang felt something twist unpleasantly in his gut. He had used five Heavenheart Stones to lead Ghostblade Ridge toward Sage's Peak, only to have them stolen when he was almost there.

Those Heavenheart Stones had been given to him by the Sage, and they were worth a fortune. He had lost five of them, only two were being returned, and now he even had to pay to get them back. Whichever way he looked at it, the whole business made something sour twist inside him. But no matter what, there was nothing he could do about it. After all, he had been the one to lost the stones.

Chu Shaoqiang said to Li Banfeng, "You have the items, so name your price."

Li Qi shook his head. "First of all, I don't have the Heavenheart Stones. With what I am capable of, there's no way I could have stolen them from you. I simply don't have that kind of ability. And it's not just me. Even the local land deity of this territory couldn't have done it. Whoever took those Heavenheart Stones was obviously someone powerful."

Every word Li Banfeng said was true. There wasn't so much as a speck of falsehood in it. To activate Words Chiseled in Stone, he had to start with a little truth.

Chu Shaoqiang believed him completely. "I would really like to know who this powerful figure was. Just how capable is he?"

"I definitely can't tell you who he is," Li Banfeng said. "As for what he's capable of, I would say he's about on the Peddler's level."

Chu Shaoqiang shook his head. "Now that's a bold claim. As far as I know, whether it's the Inner Provinces, the Outer Provinces, or Puluo Province, nobody walking this earth would dare claim to be on the Peddler's level."

Li Banfeng merely raised his eyebrows and looked at him without saying a word.

Chu Shaoqiang froze for a moment. Then he seemed to catch what Li Banfeng was really saying.

Nobody walking the earth would dare claim to be on the Peddler's level. Is he talking about the one up in the heavens? Or is the person who stole the Heavenheart Stone the Peddler himself? But the one up in the heavens hasn't been heard from in years. Of the people alive today, who has even seen him? And with someone of his status, why would he need to steal a few Heavenheart Stones?

Whether it was the one up in the heavens or the Peddler, both of them were people that he couldn't afford to provoke. A moment ago, he had still been feeling hard done by. Now, thinking about it again, a chill crept over him instead.

He continued thinking, But is Li Qi telling the truth? Would someone of such lofty status really need to steal a few Heavenheart Stones?

Li Qi continued, "Ghostblade Ridge has been here for days, yet the land deity here has done nothing except order the aberrant creatures to step up their patrols. He hasn't dared make a single move beyond that. Can't you tell who this powerful figure must be?"

Chu Shaoqiang lowered his head and said nothing. He still had his doubts, but they no longer mattered. What mattered now was how much he would have to pay to make this deal happen.

"I wouldn't dare name a price," Li Qi said. "I don't have the judgment for that. I wouldn't know what sort of treasure could possibly tempt someone of that stature. You are the one this happened to. You can't afford to offend the Sage, and you can't let word of this get out. Your life is on the line too. Think carefully about what you are willing to offer."

Chu Shaoqiang lit a cigarette and started pacing back and forth. He was carefully pondering just how much he should offer. Money was out of the question. This was not the sort of deal that could be measured in cash.

Can I exchange with a few enchanted artifacts? Chu Shaoqiang thought. Obviously not! Their value can't be compared to Heavenheart Stones, and such enchanted artifacts are not comparable to the status of such a powerful figure.

The more Chu Shaoqiang thought about it, the more he realized that nothing he owned seemed worthy of such a person. So could this deal even be made? It could.

The first rule of doing business was knowing exactly who you were dealing with. Whatever sort of big shot Li Qi had been talking about, Chu Shaoqiang had never even met the man. And in any case, that wasn't the person he was actually doing business with.

He was doing business with Li Qi, which meant that whatever he offered only needed to be enough to convince Li Qi to say yes.

By the time he finished his cigarette, Chu Shaoqiang had made up his mind. He took out a yellowish-brown scroll and handed it to Li Qi.

Li Banfeng unrolled it and examined it, but he couldn't tell what it was made of. It definitely wasn't paper. It didn't look like cloth either, or hide, or anything of that sort.

He could put the question of what this was made of aside for now. The problem was that there was nothing on this scroll. There was no words or drawing, so what could this thing be used for?

Chu Shaoqiang explained, "This is a map of Inner Provinces."

"Did you take the wrong thing?" Li Banfeng said. He took the scroll up and shook it in front of Chu Shaoqiang, hinting that there was nothing on the scroll.

Chu Shaoqiang said, "You can only see the map of the Inner Provinces when you are in the Inner Provinces. You can take it with you first and show it to that powerful figure. If he knows his stuff, he should be able to tell whether it's real. I am sure he also knows how much a map of the Inner Provinces is worth. It's easily worth two Heavenheart Stones."

Heading this, Li Qi accepted the map and looked up. The sky had lit up. It was already dawn.

"Let's meet here again at noon. I will give you an answer then, whether the deal works out or not. If I can't make it happen, I will give you back the map exactly as I received it."

Chu Shaoqiang nodded. "I trust you. I will wait for you right here."

***

Li Banfeng went back into the Pocket Dwelling and handed the scroll to the Gramophone. "Wifey, do you recognize this?"

The Gramophone ran her needle over the scroll for a moment, then exclaimed in surprise, "This came from the Inner Provinces. There are Artificer Cultivator abilities embedded inside it."

"Chu Shaoqiang said it's a map of the Inner Provinces. Wifey, do you think it's real?"

"I can only tell that it came from the Inner Provinces. I can't tell whether it's actually a map. I only recently starting learning the skills of an Artificer Cultivator, so we will have to ask the Old Man about this."

Li Banfeng picked up the scroll and headed for the third room. His wifey reminded him, "Husband dear, the Old Man isn't in a very good mood. Be careful what you say to him."

Why is he in a bad mood? Li Banfeng thought. Is he worn out from building the station?

Li Banfeng entered the third room and called out, "Old Man, are you busy?"

After a long wait, he suddenly heard the Old Man sniffle. "Are you here for the stones?"

"What's wrong?" Li Banfeng said. "Didn't we already agree? Out of the five stones, we would use three to build the station and save the other two to send Ghostblade Ridge away."

The Pocket Dwelling sniffled again. "Those are my stones."

Look at the way you are saying this... How did they suddenly become yours?

"We found those stones. There were five of them, and you are already getting to keep three. That's a huge gain."

The Old Man was sobbing so hard he could barely speak. "They were all supposed to be mine..."

Glove poked his head out of Li Banfeng's trouser pocket and sighed. "Boss, you don't understand how hard this is for people in our line of work. Once something falls into our hands, giving it away again hurts like hell."

"This old man is not in the same line of work as you!" The Pocket Dwelling shouted. He was already a sobbing mess, yet he still didn't forget to snap at Glove.

Li Banfeng took out the scroll and placed it on the floor. "We are not giving those two stones away for nothing. They are offering us something in exchange."

"I am not trading them. Why should I? What could possibly be worth Heavenheart Stones that good? What gives you the right to just..."

His sobbing stopped abruptly. The Pocket Dwelling took the scroll, and his voice returned to normal. "Qi, where did you get this?"

Li Banfeng said, "The man who lost the Heavenheart Stones wants to trade this scroll for the two stones and take Ghostblade Ridge away."

"Only two?"

"That's what we agreed on. Just two."

"Hehehe!" The Pocket Dwelling suddenly burst out laughing. "Qi, that's a bargain! Forget two stones. Even if we gave him all five, it's not a loss!"

Glove said, "Old Man, you were the one who said the Heavenheart Stones can't be taken back out if they have been used to build the station. Now you are saying to give him all five. Something doesn't add up here..."

Smack!

A broom swatted Glove to the floor.

The Pocket Dwelling said, "Tell him he will find two Heavenheart Stones tonight, right where he lost them."

Li Banfeng asked, "Is this scroll really a map of the Inner Provinces?"

"It is. There's no mistake about it," the Pocket Dwelling replied. "Something like this is incredibly rare."

Li Banfeng now had a clear idea of the situation. "Sir, when you go to deliver the stones, you must be extremely careful. Don't leave any traces that could let the other side trace this back to us."

"Qi, you still don't trust me to handle something like this? HUEHUEHUE..."

Hong Ying was doing her makeup out in the main room and could not help complaining, "Good thing I am brave. That old man cries one moment and laughs the next. Just look at how creepy he is. If it were anyone else, he would scare them half to death."

The Gramophone watched Hong Ying for a moment. "How many times have I told you not to put your lipstick on so thick? It doesn't look elegant."

"Then what do you call elegant? I didn't even use this kind of thing back in my day!" Hong Ying washed the lipstick off the spearhead and painted herself a new mouth.

***

After receiving Li Qi's message, Chu Shaoqiang went back that evening to the place where he had lost the Heavenheart Stones. He set up his enchanted artifact and waited quietly.

He waited until midnight before the artifact finally reacted.

Chu Shaoqiang pulled a trowel from beneath the hem of his trench coat and stuck it into the ground. The trowel began digging downward on its own. After digging more than twenty-three meters down, the trowel emerged from the earth again.

Seeing that the two Heavenheart Stones were down there, Chu Shaoqiang smiled.

With these two Heavenheart Stones and his Artificer Cultivator abilities, he could send Ghostblade Ridge to Sage's Peak.

The Pocket Dwelling had said two stones would be enough, so why did Chu Shaoqiang also need exactly two? Wasn't that too much of a coincidence?

Actually, it wasn't a coincidence at all. The principle was simple. Two Heavenheart Stones could form a straight line, which was enough to guide Ghostblade Ridge to its destination.

So why had he used five stones in the first place? That was because Chu Shaoqiang did not want to expose himself.

Of the five Heavenheart Stones, two were used to lock in the direction, while the other three handled the finer adjustments. That way, Chu Shaoqiang could leave everything alone and let Ghostblade Ridge make its way to Sage's Peak on its own.

Under those circumstances, even if the Inner Provinces discovered that Ghostblade Ridge had ended up at Sage's Peak, there would be nothing tying it back to Chu Shaoqiang.

However, that would no longer work now. Two Heavenheart Stones could only fix the direction. Chu Shaoqiang would have to handle the finer adjustments himself.

There were risks, but Chu Shaoqiang could not bother to worry about that right now. He had to finish what the Sage had ordered him to do as soon as possible.

Chu Shaoqiang proceeded with extreme caution. If Ghostblade Ridge was spotted by any of the Inner Provinces' informants along the way, he would be in serious trouble.

He trusted that there was nothing wrong with his Artificer Cultivator abilities, but the problem was that the Ghostblade Ridge itself was somewhat unusual.

As he continued moving Ghostblade Ridge forward, faint roars could constantly be heard from somewhere on the mountain. They sounded very much like the cries of the Toilblade Ghosts, but there was no rain on the mountain, which did not match their usual behavior.

Perhaps the constantly changing surroundings along the way were making the Toilblade Ghosts uncomfortable.

By the time they reached Vilefolk Hillock, the noises from the mountain had gradually died down, allowing Chu Shaoqiang to feel at ease a little more. When the Heavenheart Stones settled into place, Ghostblade Ridge landed beside Sage's Peak. Chu Shaoqiang then went to the Sage's residence to report in person.

The Sage was fairly satisfied with Chu Shaoqiang's attitude as he commented, "There were some setbacks along the way, but you got the job done in the end. Shaoqiang, I will remember this contribution. I will find someone else to deal with Ge Junma. You won't need to worry about that anymore."

Chu Shaoqiang thanked him. Before he left, he gave a warning, "The Toilblade Ghosts are behaving strangely. You should be more careful."

The Sage smiled and gave a slight nod.

Chu Shaoqiang added, "The climate changed somewhat along the way, so the Toilblade Ghosts' behavior might have changed as well. You should keep pay close attention to this."

The Sage said nothing, and his expression did not change.

Chu Shaoqiang continued, "Toilblade Ghosts are vicious and cruel. They are almost impossible to tame. If you want to make these Toilblade Ghosts your army, it's best if you think thrice before you proceed."

He meant well. He genuinely thought there was something unusual about the Toilblade Ghosts. However, the Sage was not happy about his advice.

"Don't you think you are overthinking this?"

Chu Shaoqiang fell silent. The Sage, however, gave him a reminder of his own. "The matter concerning Ge Junma no longer has anything to do with you, and neither does Ghostblade Ridge. You must absolutely keep this in mind."

Why was Ghostblade Ridge no longer any of Chu Shaoqiang's concerns? Because this matter concerned the Sage's reputation.

Chu Shaoqiang hiked down the mountain and made his way through Vilefolk Hillock. Before long, he understood why the Sage had given such a warning.

A new mountain had suddenly appeared beside Sage's Peak. There was no way the people of Vilefolk Hillock would not see it.

So where did this mountain come from? The Sage would need to provide a reasonable explanation, and his explanation would be that he had moved it there himself.

The roots of heaven and earth originated from the Sage's heart, and every change between heaven and earth began with a thought from the Sage.

The Sage's followers in Respect Virtues Village proclaimed, "With a single thought, the Sage can turn heaven and earth upside down. What's moving a mountain compared to that? He could bring one over with the blink of an eye."

The villagers believed it without question. Every day, they burned incense and kowtowed toward Sage's Peak, then turned and kowtowed once more toward Ghostblade Ridge.

Ghostblade Ridge had to have absolutely nothing to do with Chu Shaoqiang. It had to be due to the great power of the Sage.