The Fairy: From the Traveling Merchant

Chapter 771: Sacred Tree (Update)
"Cold Light of the Blue Sun" and "Fire Lotus of the Red Moon" are just spells after all. Even after obtaining the "vitality" of the empress, these two innate spells have undergone a certain degree of mutation and their power has greatly increased, but they still cannot be compared with magical powers.

Therefore, Zhao Chen could only combine his own knowledge of formations and the special abilities brought by "investigator" and "collector" to roughly study the formations and forbidden structures inside Mengxi Garden, but he did not dare to really crack them.

After all, doing so might very likely alert the actual controller of the formation.

However, even if it was just research, Zhao Chen was not without gain. He easily found the three places with the most stringent restrictions.

One is in the main house in the backyard, one is in a secret space underground, and one is on the tower in the garden.

"The 'Sky River Goddess Map' that Guan Si Niang mentioned should be in one of these three places... But now is not a good time to investigate, because I don't know what tricks 'Mr. Lingyun' has left.

"So, why not wait until Yan Ruyu takes action tonight, let her test me, and then I can take advantage of the situation..."

After making up his mind, Zhao Chen stopped investigating the restrictions in the yard, but he did not completely take back the "Cold Light of the Sun" and the "Red Moon Fire Lotus". Instead, he separated a small part of them and integrated them into the formation without anyone noticing.

This method is exactly the same as the effect of the talisman that Fu Shen just activated.

After doing all this, Zhao Chen let the hiding shadow return to the main hall, and then merged with Fu Shen's shadow again.

During the whole process, Fu Shen didn't notice anything.

……

Shenmu District, one of the five districts in the east of Beijing, is also known as the East Fourth District. It is named after a thousand-year-old sacred tree.

This sacred tree is not very tall, and is not much different from ordinary trees, but it is extremely strong and cannot be destroyed even by magical tools.

Its fallen leaves are natural materials for refining weapons. Not only are they sharp, they are also excellent media for many spells and prohibitions.

The largest gang in Beijing, the "Shenmu Gang", was originally formed by monopolizing the job of cleaning up the fallen leaves of this sacred tree.

——Although those fallen leaves have some value, they are not favored by big sects and prominent families.

The headquarters of the "Shenmu Gang" is not far from the thousand-year-old sacred tree, only separated by two streets. It is a large house with four entrances and exits.

At this time, Yan Hongxia came to the second floor of a restaurant not far from the mansion and found a seat by the window and sat down.

The name of this restaurant is "Qiuyexuan" and it is also owned by the "Shenmu Gang". As it was breakfast time, many disciples of the Shenmu Gang chose to eat here.

Yan Hongxia also ordered a few side dishes, plus "douzhi", the most distinctive food in Beijing's Shenmu District. Then, while tasting the food, she stared at the gate of the "Shenmu Gang" headquarters and eavesdropped on the conversations of the gang members in the restaurant.

She first took a sip of the so-called "bean juice" and found that it contained ingredients such as ginger, chopped green onion, sesame, kelp, and bean skin. The taste was like "Hu La Tang" with simplified ingredients. It was salty and fragrant, and quite good.

But the reason why this bowl of "douzhi" is sold for 180 coins is because the most important ingredient in it is the powder ground from the bark of the "sacred tree".

“It has some ‘soul-strengthening’ effects, which is useless to me, but if a cultivator in the Refining Acupoint Realm takes it for a long time, it will still help with their cultivation.

"For a warrior who is training his body, it can even help him achieve a state of tranquility.

"Of course, the effect is far inferior to the 'calming incense' that is specially used to help one enter a state of tranquility... but a 'calming incense' costs at least 700 to 800 coins per stick. "It is indeed a ten-thousand-year-old sacred tree. Even if it is 'junk' that some big sects don't want, it can still be considered a 'treasure'."

While Yan Hongxia was thinking, she suddenly saw a young man in his early twenties walking out of the Shenmu Gang headquarters and heading towards the "Qiuyexuan" restaurant.

This person was exactly her target, the youngest son of the leader of the "Shenmu Gang", Qiu Wufeng, nicknamed "Qianye Soul-Sucking".

According to the information obtained from Wang Qingling and Guan Si Niang, the person in the Shenmu Gang who is closest to Yan Ruyu is the young gang leader whose magical powers have reached the eighth level.

"Qiu Wufeng was an uneducated and unskillful playboy before he was 20 years old, but after meeting Yan Ruyu, he suddenly turned over a new leaf and his cultivation began to improve rapidly. In just a few years, he went from refining the orifices to his current level...

“Although this cannot be compared with Xiaochen, it is considered outstanding among ordinary cultivators.

"What's even more bizarre is that the other sons of the leader of the Shenmu Gang have met with accidents one after another in the past few years. Although it's not an accident, it's the trouble they brought upon themselves, but it's still a bit too coincidental..."

As her thoughts turned, Yan Hongxia saw Qiu Wufeng had walked into the restaurant, and many members of the Shenmu Gang in the building stood up and saluted respectfully.

Qiu Wufeng responded one by one with a smile, and went to the exclusive private room on the third floor alone.

Yan Hongxia had no intention of making direct contact with him right now. She just watched him pass the second floor and climb the stairs to the upper floor.

——The private room was right above where she was sitting, and she had made some arrangements there earlier so she could "hear" what was going on inside.

However, the guests that Qiu Wufeng was waiting for had obviously not arrived yet, so Yan Hongxia simply listened to the conversations of other "Shenmu Gang" members in the restaurant while eating and drinking:
"The young gang leader is humble, polite, graceful, and powerful. He is really not inferior to those disciples from big sects." Someone sighed.

"That's true... I heard that the old boss is planning to arrange a marriage for the young boss?" another person asked curiously.

"I've heard about this, too! It's said that she's a young lady from a noble family." The man whispered before.

"Really? But no matter how good our young master is, there's no way he can be worthy of a young lady from an aristocratic family, right?" another person said hesitantly.

"How is it impossible? The eldest daughter of the Zheng family can fall in love with the son of a rich country man! Compared with that guy, our young master is many times better." The man before said disdainfully.

"That's right... But I heard that the son of the rich man in the countryside is actually the current illegitimate son, and that's why the Zheng family's daughter fell in love with him." Another person's tone was full of envy when he said this, but he quickly "gossiped" and said, "By the way, do you know which lady the young gang leader is discussing marriage with?"

"I don't know about that...you know?" The man shook his head.

"If I knew, would I ask you?"

When Yan Hongxia was listening with great interest, her spiritual consciousness suddenly moved, and then she saw a young woman standing at the stairs, looking expressionlessly at the two gang members who were whispering.

She was wearing a white cloak, plain tights, an oval face, and no jewelry. She looked dignified and pretty. She seemed to be aware of Yan Hongxia's gaze and turned her head to look at the table next to the window.

It’s just that the position where her eyes were looking was somewhat different from Yan Hongxia’s seat.

(End of this chapter)