Chapter 268: Wooden Ruler’s Secret
Having heard this, Bing Yuxia couldn’t help but murmur: “The inscription’s meaning is fundamentally meaningless…”
“Little Girl, don’t be cross-dressing all day long. A girl should be a girl, don’t try to be a man! Don’t be like your Matriarch who lived alone for the rest of her life!” In the end, Li Qiye said with some emotions, then he turned away and left.
Upon hearing this, Bing Yuxia suddenly became shocked. She looked up to find Li Qiye, but he had already left the pavilion so she couldn’t see his expression.
In the end, Bing Yuxia left along with the female disciples of the Ice Feather Palace. Before leaving, she closed the fan in her hand like a gentle young noble and smilingly said to Li Qiye: “If Fellow Li is interested, I will connect your red strings in the future and introduce a few princesses from Ancient Kingdoms to you.”
Li Qiye could only force a smile at Bing Yuxia’s still-not-caring-for-the-world appearance. When he was watching her back during their departure, he couldn’t help but to softly sigh.
Although she looked nothing like Immortal Emperor Bing Yu, her charm reminded him of Immortal Emperor Bing Yu, the arrogant little girl! Even though he did not train that little girl in the past, he was the one who led her to join the War God Temple.
Unfortunately, the old men from the War God Temple could not grasp the opportunity in the end, and they couldn’t do a good job of training her to become an Immortal Emperor. Ultimately, that little girl left the temple and proudly traversed the Nine Worlds by herself to finally become an invincible Immortal Emperor.
The proud and cold-as-ice girl was always domineering and arrogant. She had one life of invincibility, yet she became alone for the rest of her life. That girl… In the end, Li Qiye silently lamented. That girl must still be hating him more or less in her heart. 1
“She left already, what are you still looking at?” Seeing Li Qiye’s expression of being at a loss, Chi Xiaodie looked at him and said with disdain.
Chi Xiaodao also curiously asked: “Brother Li likes Goddess Bing?” He had always wanted to hook Li Qiye up with his sister, but if Bing Yuxia wanted to join in, then his sister really couldn’t compete with her.
“Like?” Li Qiye smiled and said: “That little girl is not bad, I can accept her as a maid.”
“A toad trying to eat swan’s meat!” Chi Xiaodie angrily exclaimed: “Do you know who she is? Yet you still dare to say things such as wanting her to become your maid! You really do not know the height of the sky and the vastness of the earth!”
“She’s only the descendant of the Ice Feather Palace. Even the female successor of the Soaring Immortal Sect is nothing too great; she only barely qualified to be my maid.” Li Qiye said without a care in the world: “My two maids are not any worse compared to any saintess or princess in this world.”
Li Qiye’s words left the Chi duo in silence. What could they do in front of such outrageous arrogance? It took some amazing skill to be able to say such words in this world.
Meanwhile, Sikong Toutian looked at Li Qiye with a strange expression. If other people said that they wanted the Ice Feather Palace descendant to become their maid, he would laugh at it. Who in the Eastern Hundred Cities would be able to take such a high-above person in as their maid?
However, when Li Qiye said such words with all the calmness in this world, it caused his heart to shiver. It was as if this impossible matter was completely trivial to Li Qiye! His attitude bore no sense of arrogance nor ignorance.
“Oh, ah, ah, three fellow daoists, even if the mountains do not move, the rivers will. We will meet again in the future; see you again.” At this time, Sikong Toutian wanted to slip away. He was still very wary of Li Qiye and didn’t want to stay any longer.
Li Qiye glanced at him and didn’t intend to make him stay. This allowed Sikong Toutian to finally take a sigh of relief.
However, Chi Xiaodao, on the other hand, jumped up and said: “Hey, little thief, you still haven’t given me back my medicinal materials!”
“Of course I will return them, of course I will.” Sikong Toutian immediately swore: “Next time, I will bring Brother Chi’s materials to the Lion’s Roar Gate; not even one branch will be missing.”
“Let him go.” Li Qiye smiled and said: “I trust that he will pay you back.”
“Thank you for Brother Li’s trust.” Sikong Toutian thanked Li Qiye, then he immediately ran off.
Li Qiye didn’t say anything else and went back with the Chi duo to the Lion’s Roar Gate.
“Take it and prepare the materials carefully, I will change your Fate in three days.” After they got back to the gate, Li Qiye threw the pot of Rotten Underworld Beans to Chi Xiaodao and said.
The moment Chi Xiaodao caught the pot, he puzzlingly said: “But, but, this is yours from winning the auction ah.”
Finest grade Rotten Underworld Beans such as these — on the market — were worth millions. Not to mention, regarding this type of finest grade beans, even if others had it, they wouldn’t necessarily be willing to sell it.
“Consider it our meeting gift, lest your sister continues to suspect me of swindling your materials.” Li Qiye laughed and turned around to enter the room.
Chi Xiaodao was quite stunned for a bit. One had to know that Li Qiye had already given him a meeting gift, the Heavenly Stone Golden Turtle!
“Egomaniac!” Chi Xiaodie grumpily stomped her foot and then left in anger. Back at the grave auction, she had to play along with him yet, at this moment, this egomaniac was looking down on her!
As for Chi Xiaodao, he could only gently sigh. He really wanted to pair the two of them together, but it seemed like Li Qiye did not think highly of his sister at this moment.
After the Chi duo left, Li Qiye then solemnly took out the wooden ruler he obtained from the grave auction. He, once again, meticulously analyzed every single detail of this thing.
20,000 Virtuous Paragon Refined Jades — even if they were of the lowest grade, it was still a monstrous sum to any cultivator. Even a sect would have a difficult time producing 20,000 Virtuous Paragon Refined Jades.
For some people, it was complete insanity to use this amount of jades to buy a memento. Even the most prodigal son wouldn’t be this wasteful.
However, Li Qiye clearly knew that this was not a memento. Bringing up this so-called Harmonious Ghost Tree was just his attempt at tricking the Inheritance Ancient Pavilion.
Yes, the wooden patterns of this ruler did resemble the ones of a Harmonious Ghost Tree. However, it was not made from a Harmonious Ghost Tree; Li Qiye was absolutely certain of this as he held the ruler in his hand. This wooden ruler was made from Ghost Ancestral Wood; there was only one Ghost Ancestral Tree in the entire Nine Worlds!
Li Qiye did not lie entirely back at the time of the grave auction. This item truly had something to do with the ghost race and even its origin!
There were three claims to the origin of the ghost race. The first was the theory proposed by the ghost race themselves; and it was also the most credible theory. This theory stated that the ghost race’s Progenitor turned from a ghost into an immortal and finally left behind descendants in this world. Afterwards, one hundred tribes were established, resulting in the current ghost race of today. Because of this theory, the ghost race was also called the Ghost Immortal Race.
Another theory was that this Progenitor was a True Ghost. By combining with a mortal woman, he finally gave birth to descendants which resulted in the current ghost race.
There were both skeptics and believers regarding this theory within the ghost race. The majority did not deny nor admit this claim.
The last theory had always been vehemently denied by the ghost race. The ghost race was also called the hundred races with many side branches; however, all of the branches essentially denied this last theory.
It stated that the Progenitor was a corpse that eventually gave birth to a soul and became alive; then it bred with a mortal woman and its descendants became the current ghost race.
Any believers of this last theory would be considered heretics within the ghost race.
Future generations did not know why the ghost race was so antagonistic to this theory. In fact, even the ghost race themselves did not know why. The denial of this claim had existed since the Desolate Era and had continued up til now.
However, Li Qiye had lived for countless years and knew some inside stories regarding this last theory; it was indeed not an aimless arrow! In a very far and ancient era, an ancient corpse coming to life did appear. No one in this world knew how long this ancient corpse had lived before this!
As for this corpse giving birth to a soul, future generations could not find out whether it was the Progenitor of the ghost race or not.
However, Li Qiye knew a secret unbeknown to the future generations! The origin ground of the ghost race had a Ghost Ancestral Tree. It was the one and only tree of its kind in this world; it was absolutely worthy of being referred to as a supreme Immortal Tree or peerless God Tree!
This Ghost Ancestral Tree — to a certain extent — was related to the origin of the ghost race! In an extremely ancient era, legend has it that the ghost race’s Progenitor left behind a key, and it could unlock the secrets of the ghost race’s origin. This key had a lot to do with the Ghost Ancestral Tree!
This key was called the Ghost’s Origin Ancestral Key, and it had a heaven-frightening secret embedded within.
In a future generation, Li Qiye, as the Dark Crow, heard of another rumor. A certain alchemist clan at Eastern Descent City became in-laws with a ghost tribe. People said that this ghost tribe once had an unfathomable character, and there were whispers of him being a True Ghost.
Unfortunately, this ghost tribe believed in the third theory of the ghost race’s origin which eventually led to the tribe’s complete destruction. And this grand character, who was possibly a True Ghost, was able to escape into Eastern Descent City and hid in the alchemist clan to escape this calamity!
This time at the grave auction, after looking at the geography of the burial ground, Li Qiye felt that this had a chance to be the land of the alchemist clan in the legend.
After opening the coffin and seeing the pitch-black corpse, Li Qiye was sure that this was not the coffin of a Legendary Alchemist, it was merely using this name to bury someone else. He was the grand character of the ghost tribe. Moreover, he had underwent suppression when he was alive, so his divinity withered away!
1. The word hate here is 恨: hatred, dislike; resent, hate. It is different from the regular word “hate” that is more similar to our western usage of the word. It has a stronger emotion to it, not just a casual hate, but the meaning of this particular usage is that it is a hateful resentment out of endearment. When a girl uses this word to say “I ‘hate’ you”, it means that she has some feelings for you to an extent. Of course, this is just the usage of the word; I’m not making any assumptions about their relationship.