55. The Fire Crystal Stones of Mount Fire Dragon

This imaginary mouse had thoroughly ruined Xie Wuji’s mood. He was still regretting that bowl of white fungus and lotus seed porridge, but meanwhile, in the storeroom of the county office, Shi Zhentian was forcing the last remnants of the drug’s effects out of his body.

If not for this, given the potency of that pill, it might have taken three days and nights to wear off. But as a cultivator at the Golden Core stage, Shi Zhentian naturally had ways to neutralize such toxins.

Yet the harm to his spirit was unprecedented.

“Xie Wuji, you beast!” Shi Zhentian sobbed, biting his lip and hugging a wooden post. “You actually prepared such an ugly woman beforehand to deal with me. I… I will never forgive you!!”

Elsewhere, Xie Wuji sneezed, glancing around. “Who’s cursing me?”

“Master Xie!” It just so happened that the maid Xiaohong was passing by.

Xie Wuji smiled gently. “Ah, it’s Xiaohong. How are you feeling now?”

Xiaohong replied with a smile, “Thanks to your help yesterday, Master Xie, I feel completely recovered.”

Xie Wuji was about to say something when he suddenly noticed a fiery red crystal hanging around Xiaohong’s neck. He walked over and reached toward her rather modest chest.

Xiaohong was startled, her heart thrown into chaos. Could it be that Master Xie wasn’t interested in my lady because he’s fallen for me? True, I’m not ugly, but I’m just an ordinary girl, and Master Xie is a disciple of the Danxia Sect—I could never afford to offend him…

Steeling herself, Xiaohong tightly shut her eyes, her heart pounding wildly.

But Xie Wuji simply picked up the pendant, pinching the crystal. “Xiaohong, may I ask you something?”

“Huh?” Only then did Xiaohong realize Xie Wuji was looking at her pendant. “Oh… ahem, Master Xie, if you’re interested in this necklace, I’ll give it to you. I picked up this stone on the mountain and thought it looked nice, so I brought it back.”

Xie Wuji, a man of discernment, immediately recognized the stone as fire crystal—the very material used to make his bracers. This fire crystal rivaled metal in hardness, was rich in fire-aligned spiritual energy, and was a rare treasure.

“No, no, that’s yours. I don’t want it. I just wanted to ask, from which mountain did you find this stone?”

“What other mountain? Fire Dragon Mountain, of course!” Xiaohong answered.

Xie Wuji gazed off into the distance, pondering. Fire Dragon Mountain had the fire python and now fire crystals—did that mean the fire python guarded the crystals?

“Weren’t you afraid of the fire python when you went up the mountain?” Xie Wuji asked.

Xiaohong grinned. “Actually, the fire python sleeps by day and comes out at night, so going during the day is fine.”

“I see,” Xie Wuji said, narrowing his eyes, his mind already plotting. Fire crystals were extremely useful to him. The Phoenix Immortal Art he practiced was fire-aligned, so the fiery spiritual energy in the crystal would greatly benefit his cultivation, and the crystal might even help him form his own golden core in the future.

“Brother Xie!” Without his noticing, Dongmen Qianyun had appeared behind him. When she saw Xie Wuji reaching toward Xiaohong’s chest, she was instantly displeased. “You shameless man! How could you lay hands on a maid?”

“Qianyun, you misunderstand. I was just looking at her necklace,” Xie Wuji replied awkwardly.

“You scoundrel! If you really want to, you can touch mine. Why would you go after a maid?” Dongmen Qianyun huffed.

“I didn’t touch her, I just… handled it a bit,” Xie Wuji explained. “Handled the necklace, to make it smoother, to give it a patina!”

“Miss Dongmen, you’ve misunderstood,” Xiaohong chimed in. “At first, I thought Master Xie wanted to handle me, but he really was just interested in the necklace. He even asked where I got it. Is this red stone really valuable?”

Dongmen’s eyes widened in sudden realization. “That’s a fire crystal—heavens, such high purity!”

“Is it worth much?”

“Are you joking? That fingernail-sized fire crystal could fetch at least fifty taels of gold from someone who knows its worth!” Dongmen Qianyun looked at Xie Wuji. “So your lecherous boldness isn’t as great as I thought…”

“Come, come, let me handle this bluestone slab for a while—I guarantee it’ll develop a patina by the afternoon!” Xie Wuji teased as he moved closer.

Dongmen Qianyun’s cheeks flushed red. “Get lost! Get lost and don’t stop!”

After the meal, Xie Wuji planned to stroll about with the others, enjoy a couple of days in Fire Dragon County, and then return to report. But just as he was about to leave the county office, he found Dongmen Qianyun missing.

He searched everywhere, inside and out, but couldn’t find her.

At that moment, Xiaohong approached. “Master Xie, perhaps Miss Dongmen has gone to Fire Dragon Mountain.”

“What?”

“Isn’t there fire crystal on Fire Dragon Mountain? Miss Dongmen said that fire crystal was excellent for your training, so she asked a lot about it, including the fire python’s movements,” Xiaohong explained.

A vague sense of unease crept into Xie Wuji’s heart.

Meanwhile, Dongmen Qianyun, dressed in a crisp short outfit, had arrived at Fire Dragon Mountain. With a small bundle at her waist and a pickaxe in hand, she smiled to herself, “Scoundrel, just wait till I bring you a haul of fire crystals—you’ll see how good I am!”

With that, Dongmen Qianyun slipped past the cordon around Fire Dragon Mountain and started up the slope.

The temperature on Fire Dragon Mountain was high—at the foot, it was about ten degrees, but the higher she climbed, the hotter it became. Dongmen Qianyun moved carefully, muttering, “Could the fire python be nearby? Why is it getting so hot? But Xiaohong wouldn’t lie to me—the fire python sleeps by day and only comes out at night.”

She crossed one hill after another, venturing deeper into the mountain.

At this time, Dongmen Jianhao had also arrived. He was sipping tea in Fire Dragon County, puzzled. “Why are Xie Wuji and the others still not here? Could my sister and the rest be in danger?”

He had stationed informants all around the county, but little did he know there were none in the county office where Xie Wuji was staying, leaving him entirely unaware of their situation.

Dongmen Qianyun, meanwhile, had taken a mountain path outside the county, as the main route had been closed off due to the fire python’s recent rampage.

But she ran into trouble—she got lost.

After searching for an entire day, she found no fire crystals. All around her grew nothing but weeds. Her stomach grumbled with hunger.

She sat down on a large rock, pouting. “Who would have thought there’d be so many peaks on Fire Dragon Mountain? I forgot to ask which one it was! Now night is falling and I can’t get back—what do I do…”

She took out a flatbread, bit into it, but it was so dry it scratched her throat. She immediately went to look for water, but realized she was out.

Holding her water pouch, she went to a stream nearby to refill. As the sun dipped, her mind heavy with worry, she glanced aside while drinking and spotted something not far away.

Curious, she went to investigate, but what she saw made her face go deathly pale.

In a patch of grass lay a corpse, burned to charcoal. The lower half was gone, and the upper half had been scorched beyond recognition, the features twisted and unidentifiable—a horrific sight.

Dongmen Qianyun had never seen anything so terrifying. She screamed and ran for her life, her heart pounding ever faster.

Could it be the fire python was already near? How unlucky could she be? Damn you, Wuji! Wicked Wuji! Hurry and come—I’m scared!

Tears streamed down her face as she fled. She had only wanted to pick a few fire crystals for Xie Wuji, since he seemed so taken with her necklace earlier.