Former Sweetheart

Chapter 16 Part 1: “Dear friend, do you want a heart demon keychain?”

Based on her appearance, the unconscious girl ought to be only fifteen or sixteen years old. With no True Energy in her body at all, she was just an ordinary mortal. She had probably been knocked unconscious by the resulting vibrations from You Jiang and Fu Hongye’s battle.

With a musical instrument as his choice of weapon, Qiu Yuebai was best at using spells that could calm one’s soul. Lightly fiddling with a string of his qin, the resulting sound became the cry of a phoenix. In response, the unconscious woman’s mind was immediately roused, and she slowly opened her eyes. 

“This……what happened to me……Mansion Master Qiu?”

Cultivators cultivated purely all year round, so they rarely appeared on the streets. Qiu Yuebai, as one of the ten great cultivators of the Heavenly Alliance, was even more-so a noble existence that ordinary people could only catch a glimpse of from afar. Thus, when the girl saw such an important person like this, even her speech became a bunch of stammers.

Qiu Yuebai was used to a reaction like this. Upon seeing how Fu Hongye had no intention to speak, he acted on behalf of the Alliance Leader to ask, “Who are you? How could you faint here?”

The Azure Sky Mansion kept watch by the entrance of the Rain Monarch Cave day and night, so it was impossible for a normal woman to sneak in. Thus, everybody there was seriously observing the girl’s every action.

Ordinary people were completely incapable of withstanding such pressure from the finest cultivators in the world. The woman didn’t dare to lie, so she immediately said in a flustered tone, “This ordinary girl is called Wang Caihe, one of Rain Monarch Cave’s tea-picking women. I……” 

Her expression was filled with hesitation as she spoke about her origins. Upon seeing this, Qiu Yuebai merely said, “I have long prohibited any common people from approaching the Rain Monarch Cave. I ask the young miss to please tell the truth, and to not make things difficult for the Azure Sky Mansion.”

The warm and gentle personality of righteous cultivators, who would amiably discuss things no matter what they encountered, truly did not suit You Jiang’s temper. 

Thus, when he saw how that woman was still hesitating to begin, he finally spoke with a sneer, “If she doesn’t want to talk, let’s just throw her into the river. This lord wants to see if the renowned spiritual water will teach her how to speak.”

The underground water was ice-cold and bone chilling, with an innumerable amount of coral reefs hidden in its depths. If a normal person fell in, they definitely wouldn’t be able to survive.

You Jiang’s gaze, which regarded human life as grass, hadn’t been faked. The moment he looked at Wang Caihe, she began trembling from head to toe. The woman immediately began confessing in full detail.

“My lord, please forgive me! I originally didn’t want to come, but the spiritual tea plants in my home are already dim with no glow. If we don’t water them with spiritual water, I’m afraid they will completely lose their efficacy.”

“This ordinary woman’s mother and father have fallen ill. If we do not sell the tea leaves this year, we won’t have enough money for their medicine. It’s truly because of how human life is beyond value, did I take this risk out of desperation ah!”

The Coloured Glass Tea from the Rain Monarch Cave can only be transported out by a Nascent Soul cultivator. Thus, it has always been managed by the Azure Sky Mansion.

As for the common people, they merely established tea plant farms on the mountain to grow a slightly inferior species called the Exquisite Immortal Tea. Although it was not as precious as the Coloured Glass Tea, the selling price was also considerable.

However, immortal tea only matured once a year. Thus, the harvest this autumn would become the common people’s annual salary they depended on for the entire year. 

If the Rain Monarch Cave continued to be sealed off, at least thirty-percent of the people living in Mingchuan City wouldn’t be able to get through the winter. As for the remaining richer households who could rely on their savings to withstand this misfortune, their days wouldn’t be pleasant either.

The Azure Sky Mansion had protected Mingchuan for a hundred years, so Qiu Yuebai was more familiar with these problems than anyone else. Thus, he didn’t care about the complaints the common people had about him, nor did he suppress the criticisms within the city by force.

However, he still couldn’t open up the Rain Monarch Cave. The customers of these tea leaves were either righteous immortal sects or famous prestigious families. The moment that demonic thing did something to the water, it would become a calamity for the entire world.

What Qiu Yuebai was worried about was, if the demonic thing was truly the one recorded in his family history, then it definitely wouldn’t leave anyone in the entire Mingchuan City alive.

But the common people didn’t understand matters related to gods and demons. As long as the demonic thing didn’t appear in front of their own eyes, they would think there were no problems with the water. 

Instead, they believed that the Azure Sky Mansion was just being overly suspicious, causing them to lose out on their earnings. Thus, even though they had sealed off the Rain Monarch Cave, there would occasionally be people who wanted to secretly draw water. 

There were even some people who thought, who cared about what happened to the people who drank their tea? It was fine as long as they themselves could make money.

Qiu Yuebai had been worried about these restless people for countless months. Despite his good temper, now that he saw someone who still hadn’t listened to his advice, his tone had also became strict.

“I already said before that the water here was contaminated by a demonic thing. Even if you succeeded today and stole some water for your spiritual tea plants, if someone drank your tea and had a problem, would you be able to shoulder the responsibility?”

A severe tone like this made Wang Caihe scared. With You Jiang’s threat still ringing in her ears, she immediately knelt on the ground to cry, “This ordinary woman is stupid. Mansion Master, please spare my life!”

With Azure Sky Mansion’s consecutive orders, how could Wang Caihe not know the dangers of the water here? Of course she knew. However, to save her own family, she decided to let their customers take the risk.

The majority of the people in the world only cared about their own interests. A person like Fu Hongye would forever stay in the minority. The stronger ones would live a while longer, while the weaker ones would have long been cheated to death.

Thus, You Jiang would never believe in human nature, nor would he ever shelter someone unrelated to him.

That woman cried extremely miserably, but You Jiang didn’t care about her at all. Instead, he still spoke in an indifferent tone, “If you want to live, confess exactly how you managed to enter this place. If you say a single lie, this lord will let you know what it means to live worse than death.”

You Jiang was serious when he said these words. The moment he spoke, Cun Jie had already hid a Gu insect1 at his fingertips. He only needed a single command from his Leader, and this woman will experience how it would feel to have her bones rot as something nibbled away at her heart.

Luckily, Wang Caihe wasn’t very courageous. Only a single glare from the demonic cultivator was enough to make her confess everything.

“It’s Red Apricot Tavern’s shopkeeper Wang. He’s a distant relative of my family. When he heard of my parents’ situation, he said he knew a secret path that would lead into the Rain Monarch Cave. He told me to quickly draw some water to save them.”

“In order to obtain the information of the secret path, this ordinary woman even gave him all my savings accumulated from doing needlework jobs. Now, there is only a few days worth of rice left in my home. If I can’t go back, my parents will starve to death. I beg all the lords here to give my family a way to survive!”

It had been over a hundred years since the Rain Monarch Cave was developed into its current state. Unexpectedly, there was actually a hidden path even the Azure Sky Mansion didn’t know about.

This information caused Fu Hongye to furrow his brows. Looking toward You Jiang, he said, “Red Apricot Tavern, that’s the one we went to before?”

If this was truly the case, then he was afraid……the way shopkeeper Wang had smeared the Azure Sky Mansion’s name in front of them had actually been intentional.