Chapter 92: Chapter 92: Banquet

“Master! This! It’s yummy!”

Yang Jing was in his Cave Mansion in San Yuanli, casting the Spiritual Rain Technique to moisten the Cyan Light Vine and Spirit Rice in his Spirit Field. Due to neglect, the Spirit Plants had inevitably begun to wither.

For the past few years, every single Spirit Stone he had was scraped together from these Spirit Plants. A wave of sentimentality washed over Yang Jing, so he cast a spell to remove pests and weeds before summoning the Spirit Rain to nourish them.

Hearing his disciple Chi Yu’s call, Yang Jing turned around, and his eyelid twitched violently.

He saw that she had caught a palm-sized Demon Insect from somewhere and had already chewed off half of it. Her mouth was smeared with green insect blood as she offered it to Yang Jing like a prized treasure.

Yang Jing had no choice but to take the Demon Insect, toss it aside, and wipe her mouth clean of the bloodstains. Only then did he pull out some tea snacks he had swiped from the Celestial Treasure Tower from his Storage Bag.

“Don’t just stuff anything you catch into your mouth. Eat this.”

Seeing Chi Yu squat quietly on the stone table and start eating the pastries, Yang Jing finally breathed a sigh of relief.

A few days prior, he had taken his third Five Elements Pill, and his Magical Power was now approaching the level of Fourth Layer Qi Cultivation Perfection. However, after consuming three Elixirs in a row, the resulting Elixir Poison in his Magical Power required even more time for the Five Elements Wheel to completely purge.

If he were to advance to the Fifth Layer Qi Cultivation before the Elixir Poison in his Magical Power was cleansed, it would take a hundred times the effort and Spirit Stones to remedy the flaw later on.

Yang Jing ate a few pastries with Chi Yu. These were the snacks prepared for distinguished guests, and they were indeed delicious. He had only abused his position to swipe a few boxes from the Celestial Treasure Tower because he’d seen Chi Yu constantly catching and eating small animals, always ending up with a face full of blood. He hoped this would change her eating habits.

After a short while, Iron Head and Yinjiao emerged from the spring. The two martial brothers looked rather disheveled. After transforming into their human forms, their shoulders drooped, and their bodies were covered in gravel and mud. They were so exhausted they didn’t even want to speak.

Yang Jing cast a Cleaning Spell to remove the filth from their bodies and beckoned them over for some pastries.

The two brothers were truly famished this time. They grabbed the pastries and stuffed them into their mouths. Even Yinjiao, forgetting his usual composure, devoured them wolfishly.

A Communication Talisman flew in. After catching and reading it, Yang Jing put away the pastries on the table and opened the Grand Array.

Li Jingjing walked in with a few maidservants and ingredients. She had a happy expression, and there was a bounce in her step. But upon seeing Iron Head, Yinjiao, and Chi Yu, she instantly froze, petrified.

“Brother… Brother Yang… Who are they?!” she stammered, barely able to form the words.

Yang Jing pinched Chi Yu’s chubby little cheek.

“Them? They’re the children of a distant cousin. He died in an accident while gathering Spirit Medicine in the mountains. His wife heard about the reputation I earned during the Autumn Defense, so she had someone send them over to me and then found someone else to marry.”

He had no intention of keeping his three disciples hidden. Now that they had achieved human Transformation, they were no different from ordinary people.

“See? Don’t they resemble me? I’ve already taken them in as my disciples.”

Li Jingjing stepped forward, wanting to pat Chi Yu’s head.

A fierce aura emanated from Chi Yu, but it was suppressed by a sharp glance from Yang Jing. She could only stand there stiffly and let Li Jingjing ruffle her hair.

“What are their names?”

Li Jingjing looked as though she believed him. The maidservants seemed to want to say something but held their tongues, and at the head servant’s direction, they began their work.

“This is the eldest, Yang Tietou; the second son, Yang Yinjiao; and the little sister, Yang Chiyu.”

Yang Jing pointed to the three of them, announcing their names one by one.

Li Jingjing took Iron Head’s hand, her heart aching with pity.

“Iron Head, you must have suffered a great deal,” she said. “Just look at your hands. You must have had to work all day, every day. But now that you have Brother Yang as your master, you won’t have to work so hard anymore.”

The three disciples surreptitiously exchanged glances with Yang Jing, who simply pretended not to notice and took a sip of his tea.

Before long, the guest he was expecting arrived. It was the Scribe who had exchanged his Merit Points for him that day.

“Brother Zhang, you’ve arrived!”

“You’re too kind, too kind!”

Zhang Wenchun looked utterly flattered as Yang Jing led him to his seat.

The maidservants Li Jingjing had brought began to serve the dishes.

“My apologies for the humble accommodations, Brother Zhang. I was only able to prepare some simple dishes and common wine.”

“Not at all. I’m just from a branch of the Chen Family, and a very distant one at that. In my generation, the best I can do is muddle along as a Scribe in the Marketplace. What is there to be particular about?”

The Scribe raised his cup and drained it in one gulp.

“You, on the other hand, Little Brother Yang, have a boundless future! You’ve caught the eye of a senior cultivator from the Taixu Sword Sect and are about to enter the Outer Sect of the Five Elements True Spirit Sect. Truly, a boundless future!”

“Brother Zhang, you flatter me. The entrance ceremony for the Five Elements True Spirit Sect is no simple matter. I’m not entirely confident I’ll make it.”

The two of them exchanged a round of flattery before Yang Jing finally got down to business.

“Speaking of which, while I did achieve great merit during the Autumn Defense, I also made an enemy of the Wu Family. The Wu Family is a major clan in the Dark Spring Demon Sect, after all. I’ve been living in seclusion for the past month, afraid they’ll come seeking revenge.”

When it came to investigating the Wu Family, Yang Jing’s own identity was actually more suitable than Wang Tong’s. Because his conflict with the Wu Family was so well-known, his inquiries wouldn’t arouse any suspicion.

As expected, Zhang Wenchun showed no suspicion. He took out two Jade Scrolls and handed them to Yang Jing.

“This one is the list of Wu Family members registered in the Marketplace. The other Jade Scroll details the properties the Wu Family has acquired in the Chen Kingdom over the years. Most of their people have already been thrown in jail, but a dozen or so did manage to escape the Law Enforcement Team’s raids. Their Direct Descendant, Wu Yanlu, is especially dangerous, and his whereabouts are still unknown. You really must be careful, Little Brother Yang. They can’t get revenge on a true disciple of the Taixu Sword Sect, but causing trouble for you would be all too easy.”

As a Scribe in the Marketplace, it was child’s play for Zhang Wenchun to copy an internal record. He was already keen on befriending the promising Yang Jing, so when Yang Jing merely hinted at it in a Communication Talisman, he readily agreed.

He knew Yang Jing wouldn’t treat him poorly.

Yang Jing nodded repeatedly, discreetly passing a Storage Bag filled with Spirit Stones to Zhang Wenchun.

“Sigh. From now on, I’ll just be sure to steer clear of the places and people on this list. I just hope I can lie low for two years and make it to the Five Elements True Spirit Sect’s entrance ceremony.”

The host and guest were both pleased. They tacitly avoided any further discussion of the Wu Family, and it wasn’t until the table was a mess of empty cups and plates that a drunken Zhang Wenchun finally departed.

Yang Jing satisfactorily placed the two Jade Scrolls into his Storage Bag. The information within was more than enough for him to report back to the Demon a dozen times, creating the illusion that he was busy gathering intelligence on the Wu Family.

Li Jingjing and the three disciples sat at another table. The dishes were the same, only without the Spirit Wine.

She held Chi Yu in her lap, feeding her pieces of food.

“Brother Yang, are you finished with your business?”

Yang Jing nodded.

“Brother Yang, Chi Yu and the others are so young. Would it be alright if I came by often to help look after them?”

Li Jingjing said, lowering her head.

“Haha, you’re still just a little girl yourself. I’ll take good care of them.”

Yang Jing replied with a warm smile.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep