บท 13: Chapter 13: Brother! What a Bargain for You!_1
"You are leading these students astray!" shouted an agitated middle-aged man clad in the attire of a teacher from the Immortal Cultivation Taoist Institution of the Hundred Peaks Sect, pointing at Ling Xi. "This is fraud! I'm going to report you to the Sect Leader!"
Behind Ling Xi stood Yan Yourong and others from the courtyard with distressed expressions. Meanwhile, Ling Xi was bowing repeatedly to the shouting man, apologizing incessantly, "Please don't be angry, how much money? We will compensate, we will double the compensation..."
"Compensate? Do you think you can afford it?" The middle-aged man's face contorted with rage. "These children are the future pillars of our different Peaks! And you've been teaching them to concoct pills all wrong! If they really follow the pill prescriptions you've given them in the future, wouldn't that just waste a huge amount of materials? It could even kill someone!"
Chen Shizhi? A smile involuntarily crept onto Cao Zhen's face. This was a former classmate and desk-mate from his time at the Immortal Cultivation Taoist Institution, and one of the few with whom he could engage in congenial conversation!
Back then, when Chen Shizhi didn't make the cut, Cao Zhen was down for several days, mourning the loss of this rare companion with whom he could find common ground.
"Master Chen, this was our fault, and we admit it," Ling Xi said, taking a glass of water from Little Beiyan and handing it to Chen Shizhi with both hands. "Please, calm down a bit."
"Don't give me that act!" Chen Shizhi knocked the teacup to the ground with a swipe of his hand and shouted toward Cao Zhen's room, "Call out the Peak Master! He must apologize to me in person today!"
Underneath Chen Shizhi's angry expression was a hidden smugness. Over the years, every time he recalled the day the master of Four Treasures Peak chose Cao Zhen instead of him, he would grind his teeth in hatred.
Chen Shizhi could not understand it. He had drugged Cao Zhen before the assessment that day, and he had clearly won the competition in spellcasting! So why did the master of Four Treasures Peak choose Cao Zhen? Leaving him to just be an Assistant Teacher at the Taoist Institution and an Outer Sect Disciple.
Over the years, Chen Shizhi devoted himself to diligent practice and, through various means, finally became one of the teachers in the Immortal Cultivation Taoist Institution, thus, an Official Disciple of the Hundred Peaks Sect.
The moment Chen Shizhi became a teacher, he immediately planned to seek out Cao Zhen and tell him that even if others pitied him, allowing him to become an Official Disciple, he too could achieve the same status.
However, just as Chen Shizhi intended to look for Cao Zhen, he heard that the other had become the Peak Master of Four Treasures Peak.
At that moment, Chen Shizhi felt despair, thinking he would never get the chance to avenge the stolen position.
Until today! Having seen the coursework the students handed in and heard their responses, Chen Shizhi knew his opportunity had arrived! The Hundred Peaks Sect placed great importance on the teaching of the Immortal Cultivation Taoist Institution! It was indeed possible for a Peak Master to give guidance, but not to recklessly meddle! Something like fabricating false pill prescriptions constituted a serious offense!
Before coming to Four Treasures Peak, he had already planned it all out! He would just need to slap the label of misleading the young by tampering with pill prescriptions on them, and Cao Zhen would surely be so terrified that he'd wet his pants. Then he would pretend, owing to their past as classmates, that a compensation of fifty Spirit Stones would suffice to settle the matter. Afterward, he'd file another hidden complaint against him! Let him be punished!
All of his plans were perfect! Chen Shizhi arrived at Four Treasures Peak with great anticipation, and to stand out, he did not use the Hundred Peaks Sect's public Immortal Cloud Carriage; instead, he rented a private Immortal Cloud Carriage at his own expense.
Yet, to Chen Shizhi's disappointment, even though he made such a high-profile appearance at Four Treasures Peak, Cao Zhen actually hid and didn't show up to see it!
Therefore, Chen Shizhi decided he would extort a hundred Spirit Stones from them this time!
"Call out your Peak Master! Otherwise, I will go see the Sect Leader right now!" Chen Shizhi yelled at the top of his lungs. "My patience is limited!"
"Old classmate! Long time no see!" Based on the memories he knew, Cao Zhen believed he had a good relationship with Chen Shizhi, but he had no idea that this was what the former, naive Cao Zhen had thought.
Because of the memory discrepancy, Cao Zhen felt he should act enthusiastically at this moment. He quickly opened his arms, stepped forward, and gave the other a big hug.
Chen Shizhi was completely stunned. He had come with a fierce attitude to create trouble. Why was Cao Zhen so warm? Had his training damaged his brain?
"What are you looking at me for? I am the Peak Master of this place!" Cao Zhen said passionately, pulling Chen Shizhi's hand and heading toward the living room. "It's been many years since we met, right? Let's have a good catch-up this time! Have a few drinks together..."
Ling Xi, seeing her master had returned, turned deathly pale. If the master had not come back, this matter might have had no proof. But now that the master was here... what to do?
Chen Shizhi followed Cao Zhen towards the living room like a puppet on strings, filled with question marks in his head. This wasn't going according to script! Weren't they competitors back in the day, fighting for the position at Four Treasures Peak? Shouldn't he know I came here to start a fight?
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After the two settled into their seats in the living room, Ling Xi quickly stepped forward and whispered, "Master... Please don't anger this Master Chen; he has leverage over you with those pill prescriptions you've recklessly modified."
Chen Shizhi was also a cultivator of the four seats at the Taoist institution, with his ears focused he could hear Ling Xi's words clearly and his heart suddenly surged with excitement! That's more like it! This was the correct way for the script to unfold! Would the other party immediately kneel or stubbornly resist?
Yan Yourong appeared behind Ling Xi with a cold face and spoke even more softly, "Master, why don't we just kill him and be done with it? Four Treasures Peak is so vast, we can bury them anywhere."
Cao Zhen immediately felt a headache coming on; what on earth did his second disciple's family do before she started her cultivation on the mountain? Why was her mind filled with thoughts of fighting and killing?
"You Rong, your thoughts are very dangerous!" Cao Zhen said, holding back Yan Yourong's hand that was about to draw her sword, "Can we not resort to drawing swords whenever we face an issue?"
Yan Yourong tried to push Cao Zhen's hand off her own, saying earnestly, "Master, don't be scared! If they really find out, I'll take the blame! I absolutely won't implicate anyone from Four Treasures Peak."
"What on earth is in your head?" Cao Zhen slapped Yan Yourong's forehead lightly and laughed, "Are you a gangster? Can we not draw our swords at the drop of a hat? Besides, Old Chen isn't an outsider!"
Yan Yourong was surprised to find that she couldn't push away Master's hand pressing on the back of her own. In the past half-year, she was very aware that her cultivation base had surpassed her master's, theoretically, she should have been stronger than him.
Chen Shizhi felt a bit awkward about the situation and couldn't help but cough a few times to remind them that he was the protagonist of this matter.
"I got so caught up talking to these two disciples that I've neglected Old Chen." Cao Zhen took out forty spiritual money from his coin pouch, then put back ten, thought about it, and put back another twenty before saying to Bei Yan, "Disciple, go and buy wine with ten spiritual money."
Everyone present, except for Xiang Ziyu who was absorbed in his book and hadn't noticed the shift in the situation, was befuddled by Cao Zhen's actions.
Chen Shizhi felt his head buzzing; he suddenly realized Cao Zhen had long figured out he was here to make trouble, so he intentionally humiliated him like this! What's the use of ten spiritual money's worth of wine? It'll be gone after a few cups! How is this offering someone wine? This was outright humiliation! Saying he's only worth ten spiritual money!
"Let's skip the wine, I'm here for serious business." Chen Shizhi's face darkened as he raised his hand to indicate stoppage.
Hearing Chen Shizhi say there was no need for wine, Cao Zhen happily pocketed the ten spiritual money. Right now, at the time when he was about to go to the gambling house and bet on his own victory, saving ten spiritual money was ten spiritual money, after all; former classmates knew how to be considerate! Even helping him save money.
"Old Chen, what brings you here? As long as it's not about money, feel free to ask," Cao Zhen said, leaning close to Yan Yourong and whispering, "You Rong, could you check the tea caddy again, is there really not a single leaf left? If there's none, just pour hot water into the tea caddy, that should make some water with a hint of tea flavor."
"Heh..." Chen Shizhi, hearing this, felt so angry his lungs were about to explode; first taunting him as only worth ten spiritual money for wine, and now mocking him as only worth some tea dregs?
"By the way, Old Chen," Cao Zhen leaned in towards Chen Shizhi and asked, "Have you heard about our Four Treasures Peak's formation match against Starshine Peak?"
Although Chen Shizhi had wanted to get straight to the matter of the fraudulent pill prescriptions, when he heard Cao Zhen suddenly mention this topic, he subconsciously responded, "I know, what about it?"
"You must have saved up some money these past few years, right?" Cao Zhen said excitedly, "Here's a chance to make a fortune! Out of consideration that we are old classmates, I'll give you a discount! Take all your savings and bet on me to win at the gambling house!"
"Bet on you to win? Alright..." Chen Shizhi chuckled dryly, cursing in his heart—did Cao Zhen really take him for a fool? Bet on him winning? That's like throwing money into the sea, right? He dreams of getting his hands on the spirit stones I've worked so hard to save over the years! He'll see; I'll take all my spirit stones and bet on Starshine Peak to win! The odds may be low, but I'll make some profit!
Spirit stones! They are an unavoidable path for cultivators! They are used for cultivation, artifact refining, setting up formations, and sometimes even alchemy, and every time they are needed, it's always in large quantities.
As a Taoist institution master like Chen Shizhi, his monthly stipend wasn't much. If he were to go to the gambling house and make such a bet, the earnings could actually be quite substantial.
In Cao Zhen's memory, Chen Shizhi had always smiled at him like this during their time at the institution. If someone else smiled in that way, he might think they were coldly mocking him, but with Chen Shizhi, based on past memories, he took it as a sincere smile, as if Shizhi had taken his words to heart.
"So, what did you want to ask me about?" Cao Zhen asked again.
Upon hearing Cao Zhen's question, Chen Shizhi couldn't help but show a smug smile. He thought, finally can't hold back from asking? Good! This runaway script, should it now follow the path I wrote before?
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