It wasn't long after Wei Tu started talking with Sun Chixin that he noticed several Fu Clan cultivators, led by a bald monk, heading straight for Wansheng Trading Company. After staying in Immortal Peach City for over half a month, Wei Tu already knew what the Fu siblings looked like. He recognized that the bald monk was none other than the Fu Clan eldest son, Fu Dalu, whom Sun Chixin had mentioned.
Wei Tu was confident he could fool the Fu Clan, so he didn't bother trying to avoid Fu Dalu. If he did, it would only make him look suspicious.
In no time, Fu Dalu arrived.
Fu Dalu gave Wei Tu a look and spoke quite politely: "A few days ago, my younger sister had some trouble with an outsider cultivator called Yi Yun… This visit is just a routine inspection. I hope Daoist Fang will cooperate."
"And what kind of inspection does Young Master Fu want?" Wei Tu raised an eyebrow, a little impatient.
Inspections like this touched on a cultivator's privacy and background, and were always a sensitive subject. The Fu Clan were just local bosses in Immortal Peach City. Even with Jinglian Convent behind them, they were only a Nascent Soul-level force. Almost every Foundation Establishment or Golden Core cultivator had their own Nascent Soul backer.
Most cultivators gave the Fu Clan some respect because 'a powerful dragon can't suppress a local snake'—no one wanted to start a real fight.
Fu Dalu wasn't surprised by Wei Tu's attitude. The past few days, some cultivators had been way ruder to him than Wei Tu was being now.
The only odd thing was—according to what Fu Dalu knew, 'Fang Hanliang' was just a late Foundation Establishment cultivator. This was the first time he'd met a Foundation Establishment cultivator who dared talk back to a Golden Core True Lord like him.
But since the Fu Clan was technically in the wrong here, and Wei Tu was renting a Fu Clan cave, Fu Dalu let it go.
"Just one check—the boat ticket," Fu Dalu said in a deep voice.
Big guilds like Canglang Chamber of Commerce used anti-counterfeit magic on their boat tickets. Faking one wasn't easy. Unless someone had a third-rank formation master, pill master, and talisman master working together, it was almost impossible.
Neither Fu Linglong nor Fu Dalu believed Yi Yun could pull off something like that, finding three high-level craftsmen on short notice to alter his ticket.
Hearing this, Wei Tu looked a bit more relaxed.
He calmly handed over the boat ticket he'd forged more than ten days ago.
"Fang Hanliang, luxury suite…" Fu Dalu checked all the ticket details, comparing them one by one. When he saw nothing matched what his sister had said about Yi Yun, he frowned deeper and deeper.
The ticket was fine, but the issue was—Wei Tu was the only suspicious person left. If Wei Tu wasn't Yi Yun, then where had Yi Yun disappeared to in Immortal Peach City?
"To prevent Yi Yun from using disguise techniques and someone else's ticket to slip past, Daoist Fang, this humble monk will now use a magic tool to check your real face."
Fu Dalu pressed his palms together and spoke solemnly.
"Every cultivator who gets checked has to go through this."
He added that detail.
Most cultivators felt uncomfortable about having their tickets checked, but usually agreed to avoid suspicion. Having your true face checked by a magic tool, though, was another story.
"This…" Wei Tu hesitated.
When using the Yi Yun identity, he'd also used a fake face, so he wasn't worried about this test. Just now, Sun Chixin had already quietly explained to him that Fu Dalu checked outsiders' faces this way.
But you couldn't agree too quickly, or you'd look suspicious.
"Does the Fu Clan plan to compensate us for this kind of insult? Otherwise, we outsiders might not come back to Wansheng Trading Company next time."
Wei Tu's voice turned cold.
"Five thousand spirit stones," Fu Dalu replied right away, not even blinking at such a high price.
That much spirit stone was pocket change for the Fu Clan—nothing at all for the leader of the Six Desires Sect.
When Wei Tu heard the offer, his expression softened and he nodded slightly, signaling Fu Dalu to continue.
"Jí!" Fu Dalu flipped his palm and took out a bronze mirror talisman decorated with a Vermilion Bird pattern. He injected several streaks of magic power into it and aimed it at Wei Tu.
A sharp beam of light shot out from the mirror.
Under the light, Wei Tu's face instantly shifted—from the yellow-skinned middle-aged 'Fang Hanliang' to an ordinary-looking young man.
"Not Yi Yun?" Fu Dalu's face turned ugly.
Most cultivators traveling outside disguised their faces at least a little, so this still wasn't solid proof that Wei Tu was Yi Yun.
Maybe Yi Yun's own face was disguised by someone else's spell, but… if that were true, this whole hunt was pointless. It would all just be a farce.
It's impossible to actually lock up all the Golden Core cultivators in Immortal Peach City just because they're a little suspicious. If the Fu Clan really did that, they'd just make everyone angry.
"That's him? Wei Tu?" On the side, Sun Chixin froze the moment he saw Wei Tu's true face. He never expected that the 'Fang Hanliang' he'd introduced to black market trading would turn out to be Wei Tu, a fellow Golden Core cultivator from Zheng Kingdom.
Back when Qingzhu Mountain hadn't yet withdrawn from Zheng Kingdom, news of Wei Tu breaking through to Golden Core spread everywhere and was a big deal at the time.
Of course, Sun Chixin didn't know that Wei Tu was also the one he'd been desperately hunting for as his son's killer. Sure, Wei Tu had a grudge with Sun Yu, but a 'second-generation cultivator' like Sun Yu had offended countless people in Zheng Kingdom. To Sun Chixin, whatever happened between Wei Tu and Sun Yu wasn't a life-and-death feud—just some small matter about bullying rogue cultivators.
"Young Master Fu, have you finished your inspection?" Wei Tu's voice was slightly impatient.
"Thank you for cooperating, Daoist Fang." Fu Dalu nodded and put away the bronze mirror artifact. Now, his attitude toward Wei Tu became more equal. That mirror not only showed Wei Tu's real face, but also roughly revealed his cultivation level—mid-stage Golden Core.
Only now did Fu Dalu understand why Wei Tu had the guts to talk back from the very beginning. With his bone age, he did have the qualifications. Not even three hundred years old and already mid-stage Golden Core—he'd be considered a genius anywhere.
"Here's some spirit stones as compensation from this humble monk." Fu Dalu pressed his palms together and chanted a Buddhist mantra, then handed Wei Tu a storage pouch from his sleeve. After that, he led the Fu Clan cultivators out of Wansheng Trading Company. Wei Tu was safe and sound.
After Fu Dalu left, Sun Chixin walked over to Wei Tu with a complicated expression and a wry smile. "Daoist Wei, you really fooled me for so long." The territory of Zheng Kingdom is about as big as Liao Prefecture in Xiao Kingdom. It's a small country, and all three major sects' Golden Core True Lords are well known among Zheng cultivators. Sun Chixin didn't believe for a second that Wei Tu wouldn't recognize him.
Now that he thought back to when Wei Tu approached him half a month ago, it was easy to see that Wei Tu wanted him to help with smuggling and as an informant exactly because he'd once been a Qingzhu Mountain True Lord—someone with a less-than-clean background. Otherwise, why pick him to smuggle spiritual herbs? For his old age?
"Daoist Sun, when I came here and saw your cultivation had fallen, I was going to ask about it… but then I accidentally learned the Fu Clan was hunting for Yi Yun, so I gave up on that idea." Wei Tu just chuckled and dodged the question, but with this, he neatly shifted the topic to Sun Chixin's fallen cultivation, which was something the two couldn't avoid talking about. After all, for a once-proud Golden Core True Lord to end up as a small shopkeeper, there had to be a story behind it.
"After Zheng Kingdom was overrun by demonic cultivators, Qingzhu Mountain, like the other two sects, migrated to the four inland countries. Qingzhu Mountain chose Xiao Kingdom…" Sun Chixin's face was complicated as he recalled the past.
With Qingzhu Mountain's Nascent Soul ancestor present, the borders of Kang Kingdom and Zheng Kingdom were basically meaningless. Ancestor Red Snake led the elite cultivators from Qingzhu Mountain south, seeking refuge with their main clan—the Mingwang Sect in Feng Prefecture, where the sect originated. But after so many years, the once-glorious Mingwang Sect had already fallen far behind, not even as strong as Qingzhu Mountain's branch sect. In truth, Qingzhu Mountain only wanted the Mingwang Sect's fourth-rank spiritual land, not their actual strength.
When the vassal is strong and the lord is weak, trouble is sure to follow. But this time, it was the main Mingwang Sect that struck first, not the branch. Mingwang Sect set their sights on all the resources Qingzhu Mountain had gathered in Zheng Kingdom over the years, especially the Nascent Transformation Pill needed to break through to Nascent Soul.
So, under Mingwang Sect's schemes, the migrating Qingzhu Mountain cultivators were all poisoned with a mysterious deadly toxin, and many of them had their cultivation plummet. Sun Chixin was one of those unlucky ones, falling from mid-stage Golden Core all the way to late Foundation Establishment.
"This toxin can only be cured by a Mingwang Sect technique called the Great Ming Tiger-Subduing Skill. With it, Mingwang Sect wiped out more than ninety percent of Qingzhu Mountain's cultivators…" Sun Chixin sighed. "I was just lucky my poisoning was mild, so I managed to fight my way out."
At this point, Sun Chixin glanced at Wei Tu and, after thinking a moment, said, "Since you have this kind of strength, Daoist Wei, why not join me in seeking that Nascent Transformation Pill? I don't want the pill itself—just Mingwang Sect's Great Ming Tiger-Subduing Skill so I can cure my poison."
From everything he'd deduced so far, Sun Chixin was sure that Wei Tu was the Yi Yun who'd offended the Fu Clan's eldest miss. If Wei Tu could offend a late-stage Golden Core like her, he definitely wasn't an ordinary mid-stage Golden Core cultivator.
Nascent Transformation Pill? Wei Tu's expression became interested. Right now, he already had a sentient item. All he needed was a Nascent Transformation Pill to have everything necessary to break through to Nascent Soul. In other words, this Qingzhu Mountain Nascent Transformation Pill had appeared at exactly the right time.