The two of them clinked cups and called each other brothers, like a perfect example of turning conflict into harmony.
Halfway through the feast, Fu Dalü's younger sister, Fu Linglong, hurried over from home and arrived at the Ascension Pavilion. Fu Linglong wore a bamboo hat and a plain white palace robe. Her aura was ethereal and pure, looking more like an immortal from the Daoist sects than a nun from a convent. The white veil hanging from her hat occasionally fluttered in the breeze, revealing her stunning beauty and bright eyes as clear as moonlight.
"This is your sister?" Wei Tu was a little surprised. He really hadn't expected a notorious bandit from the Six Desires Sect to look like an angel.
But after a moment's thought, he let it go. If Fu Linglong had been chosen by the Jinglian Convent as a Buddha Maiden, she couldn't have looked fierce or vicious to begin with. Plus, with magic nourishing her, it would be weird if her looks weren't outstanding.
"Of course, this is my younger sister," Fu Dalü said proudly, straightening his back as if making a solemn declaration. Fu Linglong had always been the pride of both him and the Fu Clan. In all of Liao Prefecture, everyone knew that the Fu Clan's Buddha Maiden was famously beautiful—the number one beauty in Liao Prefecture.
"Elder brother, is this Master Fang?" Fu Linglong looked at Fu Dalü, curiosity in her eyes, like it was her first time meeting Wei Tu.
Getting Fu Dalü's confirmation, Fu Linglong smiled gently. She softly called "Master Fang," offered a formal salute, and then sat down. The whole process was elegant and well-mannered, with none of the arrogance or willfulness people gossiped about in town.
Wei Tu, however, felt that if he could cut open this Buddha Maiden's heart, he'd probably find it completely black inside. Forget the wanted order for Yi Yun for now—he'd forced Fu Linglong off the Ascending Cloud Flying Boat, using her as a scapegoat. If Fu Linglong didn't hold a grudge, that'd be odd.
But as for Fu Dalü's attempt to pressure him into staying with the Fu Clan, if Fu Linglong, a Golden Core bandit, wasn't involved, Wei Tu would never believe it.
"This time my brother was reckless and offended you, Master Fang. Please don't hold it against him… If you must blame someone, blame Linglong alone…" Fu Linglong noticed Wei Tu was a little dazed by her beauty. Her eyes shifted, she sighed softly, and apologized with a look of regret.
"This is a small matter, Miss Fu. No need to blame yourself. Your brother has already offered me a gift to apologize. The whole thing is already settled, and we owe each other nothing," Wei Tu replied with a calm smile, completely unconcerned.
After spending so much time around Bai Zhi, he'd long since mastered how to deal with "white lotus" types. Compared to that little demon, Fu Linglong's tricks were still too clumsy.
"But that was my brother's apology, not Linglong's," she said, shaking her head. With a turn of her hand, she took out a jade flute and handed it to Wei Tu. "I haven't saved up much after years of practice in the convent. This jade flute is something I carved myself a few years back. I'd like to give it to Master Fang as my apology."
Actually, this jade flute was something she'd taken from a hapless person's storage pouch during a robbery.
Fu Linglong knew how men thought. Some would get all excited and sleepless after getting a gift from a female cultivator they admired.
"Alright," Wei Tu nodded, casually accepting the jade flute and tucking it into a corner of his storage pouch. No reason not to take a free gift. Even though the jade flute was only a rough magic tool without engraved runes, it was already a third-rank, mid-grade item—a real treasure.
Since arriving in Peach Immortal City, the Fu siblings had given him gifts three times as apologies, worth a total of twenty or thirty thousand spirit stones… Something Wei Tu never expected.
That was even more profitable than alchemy!
After giving the gift, Fu Linglong exchanged a few polite words, then got down to business.
"The Fu Clan has built up quite a stock of spirit herbs in Peach Immortal City over the years, but under the Righteous Alliance's rules, all purchases of third-rank herbs have to be registered with real names. Because of this, it's almost impossible for us to sell these herbs in bulk…"
"Now that Master Fang is here, Linglong has a small favor to ask. Would Master Fang be willing to help?"
Fu Linglong smiled as she spoke.
Hearing this, Wei Tu finally understood why the Fu siblings were so eager to keep him in Peach Immortal City and then so quick to repair their relationship with him after the earlier tension. They wanted him to "launder money."
Wei Tu didn't even need to guess. Most of those herbs were probably loot from Six Desires Sect robberies.
There were only two ways to turn that kind of loot into cash. One was black market trading, which didn't require real names. But since the sect robbed mostly commercial goods, not rare herbs, moving large quantities through the black market would take too much time.
The other way was to use an alchemist to "launder" it by turning it into pills. Robbed goods were easy to trace if sold openly, but pills were different. Even if the original owner saw the pills, they'd never know they were made from their stolen herbs.
Plus, no matter how much third-rank herbs they had, once refined into pills, it was a lot less product, and much easier to sell.
As for why the Fu siblings wanted him in particular, there was a reason. The main buyers of cross-border herbs were major sects—scattered cultivators didn't have the resources. If they used local alchemists, those people weren't fools. They'd recognize the herbs as the very batch originally meant for their sect's caravans.
But Wei Tu was different. He was a third-rank alchemist from another kingdom. With him refining pills, there was no such risk.
Though Wei Tu did misjudge one thing. Fu Linglong had thought all this through, but Fu Dalü only realized what she was planning after the fact. He never expected his little sister to be so sharp—using Wei Tu's identity as an alchemist to clean up the Six Desires Sect's mountain of stolen herbs.
…
"This matter, I'd like to help, but I actually came to Xiao Kingdom this time because I have urgent business at Shengya Mountain… If I get delayed on the road, that wouldn't be good," Wei Tu said, politely refusing.
He wasn't stupid. He knew that if he agreed to refine pills for the Fu siblings, he might end up in some shady underground workshop. If that happened, getting out could be harder than expected.
Bringing up Shengya Mountain wasn't just an excuse—it was also a way to make the Fu siblings wary. Shengya Mountain was the number one Daoist sect in the Xiao Kingdom, its power far above even the Myriad Buddha Monastery of Liao Prefecture.
"Shengya Mountain?" Fu Linglong was surprised. With Wei Tu's status and strength, heading to Shengya Mountain probably meant official business. She felt relieved that her brother's attempt to threaten Wei Tu had failed. If things had really escalated, Shengya Mountain's involvement might've exposed their past as Six Desires Sect bandits.
After all, this last operation had left a trail—Ji Zhang, the boss, revealed his identity by using the Purple Capital Thunderfire, and Wang Tianwu from the Shenjia Sect recognized him.
'Right, normally, a third-rank alchemist like Wei Tu wouldn't travel lightly, much less cross a border,' Fu Linglong thought.
Fu Linglong glanced at Fu Dalü. Fu Dalü immediately understood. He said, "Since Master Fang is going to Shengya Mountain on urgent business, our Fu Clan won't trouble you. But the journey from Liao Prefecture to Haizhou is long, and there are plenty of bandits along the way. Unexpected trouble is almost certain."
"I have some strength, and some friends in Xiao Kingdom, so I'd be happy to escort Master Fang along the way."
Even though Xiao Kingdom was large, with the speed of Golden Core cultivators, going from Liao Prefecture to Haizhou didn't actually take long.
Bandits? When he heard that, Wei Tu raised his eyebrows. No matter how tough Xiao Kingdom's bandits were, could they really be tougher than the cross-border Six Desires Sect?
"If you're this enthusiastic, I won't refuse, then. Thank you, Fu Gongzi," Wei Tu said with a smile, accepting the offer.
In Peach Immortal City, what he really feared was a Nascent Soul cultivator from Jinglian Convent, not the Fu siblings. If Fu Dalü wanted to play bodyguard, Wei Tu didn't mind.
"So it's true," the Fu siblings thought to themselves, exchanging glances. If Wei Tu didn't have confidence, he wouldn't have agreed so easily to Fu Dalü's offer.
…
Half an hour later, the feast ended. Fu Linglong gave a formal bow and left.
"Why was your sister still wearing a bamboo hat indoors? Is it inconvenient for her?" Wei Tu asked, casual as if he really saw Fu Dalü as a true friend.
"Well…" Fu Dalü hesitated, glanced around, then said, "My sister just isn't too comfortable, so she keeps herself covered." He couldn't exactly admit that his sister was bald after entering the Jinglian Convent and was too embarrassed to show her head in public.
At the same time, Fu Dalü was annoyed—why was Wei Tu so tactless, asking something like that out loud?
Meanwhile, Fu Linglong, who was secretly listening, felt pleased at Wei Tu's words. As expected, he'd focused on her the entire time.
Of course, if Fu Linglong knew that Wei Tu was actually the "Yi Yun" she'd been chasing, she'd never have thought that way.
…
Haizhou was located at the southernmost edge of Xiao Kingdom, facing the Chiming Sea of the Greater Cang Cultivation World. To get from Liao Prefecture to Haizhou, you had to cross several provinces of Xiao Kingdom—a journey of over ten thousand li.
Originally, Wei Tu planned to wait in Liao Prefecture's Great Sun Buddha City or Ancient Desolate Immortal City for three years and work with Sun Chixin to go after the Nascent Infant Pill, then head to Shengya Mountain to finish his business in Xiao Kingdom.
But the Fu siblings' interference disrupted his plan, and he had to go to Haizhou and Shengya Mountain first.
Still, the order didn't matter much—whether he went to Shengya Mountain first or chased after the pill after, it wouldn't affect him.
Two months later, with Fu Dalü guiding the way, Wei Tu arrived at the entrance of Xiao Kingdom's number one immortal sect, Shengya Mountain.
Wei Tu stopped, looked up, and through the fog that blocked spiritual sense, saw a giant spiritual mountain rising from a distant sea island.
The mountain reached the sky, with ancient trees and rare flowers all over it. From the base upward, nine white waterfalls flowed like dragons, biting into the cliffside palace perched a thousand zhang above.
Outside the palace, seven floating islands circled the mountain, each linked by jade bridges.
"So this is Shengya Mountain?" Wei Tu was amazed. After all his years of cultivation, it was his first time seeing such a paradise—a true immortal land on earth.
Compared to Shengya Mountain, the sects of Zheng Kingdom and Kang Kingdom were downright rustic.
"Shengya Mountain isn't just the top Daoist sect in Xiao Kingdom—rumor says… there's even a cultivator at the Divinity Transformation Realm within its halls," Wei Tu thought.
In Kang Kingdom and the three border countries, Divinity Transformation was practically a legend. Like the long-life gods worshiped by the tribes—the Sorrowful God, for instance.
Of the inland kingdoms, only Shengya Mountain was said to have such a cultivator.