Chapter 68: The Credit Peddler

Imperial Consort Chun's impending visit to the Baosu Marquis Residence was a monumental event for Yuanjiang Prefecture.

Today, the Yuanjiang prefecture lord, Chu Jizhe, had personally come to the residence to inspect how the preparations in the East Courtyard were coming along.

Wearing a sapphire-blue straight robe beneath a large fox-fur cloak, he stepped through the moon gate of the East Courtyard with his hands clasped behind his back, trailed by seven or eight subordinate officials and guards.

Lin Longyue accompanied him. County Princess Yunhe happened to be at the residence as well, so they walked through the East Courtyard together.

Several stewards, including Liu Que from the West Courtyard and Wang Chu from the South Courtyard, followed behind these important figures. They kept their hands lowered and their heads bowed, not daring to overstep in the slightest.

The prefecture lord looked somewhat similar to Chu Linzi. His eyebrows slanted upward, the outer corners of his eyes tilted slightly, and his jawline was sharp and rigid. Yet he appeared quite young, his fair, beardless face making him look no older than thirty-seven or thirty-eight.

His gaze was deep as he swept a look around the courtyard, though he wore a smile. He gave Lin Longyue a slight nod and asked, "And where is your brother, Lin Suri, today?"

Lin Longyue stood before the steps, just about to answer, when Chu Jizhe spoke again. "I hear he hasn't reported to the Provincial Military Command for over a month. Cultivation is important, but he still ought to request a formal leave of absence from the imperial court."

He spoke mildly, but the underlying meaning was clear.

Lin Longyue stayed silent for a moment before shifting her gaze to Wang Chu.

Wang Chu was the steward of the South Courtyard; naturally, she should be the one to answer for Lin Suri's affairs.

Catching the hint, Wang Chu stepped forward and bowed respectfully. "To answer the prefecture lord, my young master is currently in secluded cultivation. He is on the verge of breaking through to Silver Bone Consummation.

He indeed has not left his quarters lately, nor has he gone to sign in at the military command.

The young master said that once his breakthrough is complete, he will retroactively submit his leave of absence documents to the court."

Chu Jizhe frowned but did not press the issue, only saying mildly, "Silver Bone Consummation. Truly extraordinary!

In that case, let him cultivate in peace. Just make sure he doesn't neglect his proper duties."

Lin Longyue gave her assent.

Right at that moment.

Rushed footsteps suddenly echoed from outside the corner gate. Heavy and fast, they clattered against the bluestone slabs, arriving in the blink of an eye. A black-robed yamen runner rushed through the moon gate, failing to brake in time as he reached Chu Jizhe. He dropped to one knee, nearly slipping.

"Prefecture Lord!" The runner's voice trembled, his face deathly pale. "Something has happened at the Qingjiang Villa!"

The courtyard plunged into sudden silence.

Lin Longyue and County Princess Yunhe's expressions both changed.

Chu Jizhe furrowed his brows. "Speak."

The runner gasped for air, taking several breaths before he could force out a complete sentence. "At the Qingjiang Villa, Young Master Yang has been killed—and every other martial artist there was slaughtered alongside him."

County Princess Yunhe's face instantly went deathly pale, and even Lin Longyue could not help but frown.

"Yang Zhuri is dead?" Chu Jizhe took a deep breath and asked again.

The runner nodded. "It's said the killer wore a mask and a black robe, carrying a saber at his waist.

He only killed the martial artists; the servants and retainers were spared. The head constable has already interrogated a few of them at the scene."

Hearing this, Wang Chu's expression shifted slightly.

A Ghost Face Mask, black clothes, a long saber at his waist—

An image instantly surfaced in her mind: the figure she had seen that day in the East King Palace on Cuojin Mountain.

That man had opened his mouth and spat out a streak of purple light, killing a bearded man at Silver Bone Consummation in the blink of an eye. Even the scholar Mohe Envoy had not dared to speak out of turn in front of him.

'General Zhiling!' Wang Chu whispered to herself.

Chu Jizhe's face darkened. He looked at the runner and ordered, "Lead the way."

He immediately strode out the corner gate. The subordinate officials and guards hurried after him, their footsteps echoing in a chaotic clatter through the corridors.

County Princess Yunhe's expression hardened just as much. She stood in silence for a moment before turning and leaving quickly as well.

The stewards and servants left in the courtyard exchanged bewildered glances.

Lin Longyue shook her head. To think there was an expert in Yuanjiang Prefecture who actually dared to kill Yang Zhuri.

After a moment of silence, she ordered, "Tighten the guard. Summon all the scattered guest ministers back to the residence."

Liu Que acknowledged the order.

Lin Longyue looked toward the East Courtyard garden and instructed Liu Zhu, "Bring out all the flowers Chen Lingxi has arranged recently. Tend to them carefully; don't let them die."

That night, a cold moon hung high in the sky.

Chen Lingxi sat cross-legged on the hard wooden bed in his servant quarters. Sinking his consciousness into the Divine Chamber, he activated the Vision Wander divine ability.

Now that he had reached the Qi Circulation 4th Floor, the range of his Vision Wander encompassed four thousand zhang in every direction. His perspective floated out of the residence's high walls along with a wisp of smoke, crossing the city limits to land directly on Ancestral Mountain to the west.

'Lin Suri is going to Ancestral Mountain?' Chen Lingxi was surprised.

Thick fog churned.

Deep in Ancestral Mountain, Lin Suri's figure wove through the jagged rocks.

Borrowing Lin Suri's perspective, Chen Lingxi took in the surrounding sights.

The jagged rocks jutted out like beast teeth, while towering ancient trees blotted out the moon. The fog was so thick it was almost tangible, drifting sluggishly on the night wind.

But in the very next moment, Lin Suri's figure vanished.

'He stepped out of the Vision Wander's range!'

'I am inside the Baosu Marquis Residence; my Vision Wander cannot cover all of Ancestral Mountain.'

Chen Lingxi immediately withdrew from the ability.

He opened his eyes, his mind racing, and abruptly stood up.

Moving quickly, he slipped out of the Baosu Marquis Residence, crossed the silent streets, and rented a room at an inn in the western part of the city.

Yawning, the inn's attendant gave him the most secluded room they had.

He shut the door, sat cross-legged on the bed, and entered the Vision Wander state once again.

A searing pain struck him.

'Even though that last use was extremely brief, triggering Vision Wander twice in a single day... is still a crushing burden...'

Chen Lingxi's head felt like it was splitting open.

His vision blurred, his temples throbbing wildly, but he clenched his jaw tight and pushed his focus to the absolute limit.

The perspective shifted again, and he saw what Lin Suri saw.

Lin Suri was walking through the dense fog, beneath the empty sky.

The surrounding rocks were tightly swathed in fog; anything beyond a few paces was an illegible blur.

Yet Lin Suri's pace was neither hurried nor slow. He strolled as casually as if he were wandering through his own back garden.

An unimaginable aura blossomed from his body. It did not erupt outward, but remained deep and restrained, like a bottomless, frigid abyss—calm on the surface, yet harboring a force of ten thousand jun surging quietly below.

'This is the Qi Circulation 6th Floor!'

In that moment, Chen Lingxi confirmed that Lin Suri had indeed stepped into the Qi Circulation 6th Floor.

Because of Lin Suri's overwhelming presence, every step he took pushed the dense fog three chi away, carving out a clear, empty circle around him.

What was more, compared to when he had just traded with the Time Candle and lost twenty years of his lifespan, Lin Suri looked even younger now.

The silver threads that had appeared at his temples were gone, and the fine lines around his eyes had been completely smoothed out. His entire face resembled top-grade mutton-fat jade soaked in clear water, radiating a chill yet possessing a gentler, more lustrous sheen than before.

'Where is Lin Suri going? Is he trying to find the maternal qi?' Chen Lingxi wondered.

He watched as Lin Suri walked onward, the thick fog parting for him of its own accord.

He walked for a long time until he arrived in front of a rock.

The rock was about half the height of a man and completely dusty gray. It looked like any ordinary stone found in the mountains, utterly unremarkable.

But Lin Suri stopped and stood before it, watching it quietly.

Several breaths passed. The mountain wind sobbed as it blew through the crevices of the stones, and the fog drifted sluggishly between Lin Suri and the rock.

Suddenly, a soft chuckle came from the rock. "Young Master Lin has come to visit, and I have failed to welcome you from afar."

Then, an eerie scene unfolded.

A very faint ripple suddenly bloomed across the rock's surface, just like water disturbed by a pebble, with rings spreading outward layer by layer.

A narrow slit cracked open in the exact center of the stone. The slit grew wider and wider, leaking a ghostly green light.

Chen Lingxi was stunned.

The stone twisted from the inside out, kneading itself like soft mud. It constantly shifted shape until, finally, a person stepped out from within.

The man was dressed like a traveling peddler.

He wore a dusty gray hempen tunic tied at the waist with a simple rope, and a pair of battered cloth shoes on his feet. He carried a bamboo basket on his back, seemingly filled with an assortment of odds and ends.

He looked quite young, about twenty-three or twenty-four, with clear, handsome features. The corners of his lips were turned up in a slightly frivolous smile.

Stepping out of the stone, he patted some nonexistent dust off his hem, cupped his hands to Lin Suri in a bow, and said with a grin, "May I ask what Young Master Lin has come to my humble shop to buy?"

Humble shop?

Deep in the barren mountains and wild ridges, where the fog blotted out the sky, where was there any shop?

Yet Lin Suri, who had always carried himself with aloof pride, bowed respectfully to the peddler. "Greetings, Credit Peddler."

This man was the Credit Peddler? Chen Lingxi had heard this name in other people's conversations before.

When Lin Suri had been talking with the cultivator surnamed Chao, he had mentioned the struggle for Ancestral Mountain's maternal qi. He had said that aside from the government, the Lu Family, and Xuanhuo Temple, this Credit Peddler might also be coveting it.

At the time, Chen Lingxi had just assumed he was an ordinary wanderer of the martial world. He never expected the man to step out of a rock in such a bizarre fashion.

'I wonder what cultivation base this Credit Peddler has.'

Chen Lingxi thought to himself.

After bowing, Lin Suri spoke again, "I have ascended to the Qi Circulation 6th Floor. My master once imparted an array formation to me, named the Mountain-Refining Array.

One at the Sixth Floor can lay out formations. The Mountain-Refining Array can extract the spiritual essence of the mountains and rivers, and refine the spiritual qi of the great peaks.

However, in this land where spiritual essence has dried up, I have yet to find the materials needed to construct it.

Therefore, I would like to ask the Credit Peddler to find a few items for me, to be used in setting up this array."

Hearing this, the Credit Peddler tilted his head and looked at Lin Suri, a sly smile dancing in his clear eyes.

Then he extended his right hand, his thumb tapping swiftly across the joints of his index and middle fingers, like a seasoned accountant flicking the beads of an abacus.

He calculated on his fingers, his brow furrowing slightly before smoothing back out. Suddenly, he nodded and smiled. "I can find these array treasures for you, but I will need you to trade something in return."

"Trade what?" Lin Suri asked.

The Credit Peddler's eyes narrowed into twin crescents, the smile on his lips deepening. "I need the True Formulas of the Six Qi True Method."

At those words, Chen Lingxi's pupils shrank violently.

The True Formulas of the Six Qi True Method! How could there be such a coincidence in this world?

He had been using Vision Wander on Lin Suri for about a year now!

From the initial methods of breathing and channeling qi to the various insights into cultivation that came later, everything he had learned was merely the surface of the Six Qi True Art.

He had suffered from lacking the True Formulas; after reaching the Qi Circulation 4th Floor, he had no method to ascend any higher.

That day during the Thorough Awakening deduction, he had tried to trade with Venerable Cauldron using the Time Candle in exchange for the True Formulas, but Venerable Cauldron had told him he did not have enough lifespan.

Now, this Credit Peddler was proactively demanding the True Formulas from Lin Suri.

And it just so happened that he was right here, listening to every word loud and clear.

'Is it really just a coincidence?' Chen Lingxi marveled inwardly.