Chapter 386 - 225: Qing Dai Went to Prison
As Jiang Man stepped out of his room, he saw three people standing at the door.
They were the same three he had encountered at the very beginning.
"Junior Brother," the heavyset man said politely. "We’ve been waiting for you for a long time."
Jiang Man asked, perplexed, "What are you waiting for me for?"
He truly had no idea.
’Logically, I should count myself lucky they weren’t here to cause trouble. So why were they waiting?’
’Do they have too much time on their hands?’
The heavyset man gave the more refined-looking man a light kick and said, "Hurry up and explain things clearly to Junior Brother Ah Niu."
The refined-looking man who had been kicked lowered his head, walked up to Jiang Man, and bowed respectfully. "Senior Brother Ah Niu, I’m sorry. I was the one who reported you, and I disturbed your Cultivation.
"This is a small token of my apology. I hope you can forgive me."
With that, he handed over three hundred Spiritual Source.
Three hundred Spiritual Source was a considerable sum for someone in the Qi Refining realm.
Jiang Man recalled that in the past, it would have taken him many days to earn three hundred.
Besides, he had given Steward Hu two hundred, and now he was getting three hundred. He’d definitely come out ahead.
He took the Spiritual Source and said calmly, "This will do, I suppose."
’I’ll let them off the hook for now,’ he thought. ’I need to focus on improving my Cultivation first.’
Just then, the heavyset man nudged the refined-looking man aside, approached Jiang Man, and said, "We only just found out about this ourselves. That’s why we immediately came here to wait for you to come out and offer our apologies, Junior Brother.
"I know this is no small matter and must have caused you a significant loss, Junior Brother.
"A mere three hundred Spiritual Source is nowhere near enough for you to forgive him.
"Even if you do forgive him, that would be a testament to your magnanimity, Junior Brother. It would have little to do with him."
With that, the heavyset man produced a thousand Spiritual Source. "This is the Spiritual Source we’ve pooled together. We hope you’ll accept it, Junior Brother."
Jiang Man immediately took the Spiritual Source and said earnestly, "We’re all neighbors here, Senior Brother. You’re being too formal. It was just a small matter of being reported. There’s no need to blow it out of proportion and create a rift between us brothers.
"I was in the wrong, too. I shouldn’t have been cultivating in secret and causing you all to worry."
Jiang Man’s sudden warmth made the heavyset man wonder if he’d offered the wrong amount of Spiritual Source.
’How did a thousand Spiritual Source get the reaction you’d expect from five thousand?’
’One thing’s for sure,’ he thought. ’The guy is dirt poor.’
’All the better.’
Then again, it was normal to be poor. Why else would anyone come here?
For a moment, he was convinced the fellow truly wasn’t anyone special.
’If he were special, why would he grovel like this for a thousand Spiritual Source?’
’Pathetic.’
Jiang Man didn’t overthink it. A thousand Spiritual Source.
For a Qi Refining Cultivator to obtain a thousand Spiritual Source was an incredibly rare event.
Of course, these men weren’t Qi Refining Cultivators.
But that didn’t matter.
It didn’t stop him from being happy.
Besides, when does a fox ever guard the henhouse with good intentions?
These men certainly had something they wanted from him.
But for him, that was a problem for later.
Whether he’d even have time to deal with it was another question entirely.
So, naturally, he was happy.
"By the way, Junior Brother, are you free anytime soon?" the heavyset man asked.
Jiang Man was a bit surprised. ’Are they getting to the point this quickly?’ he wondered.
He immediately asked when.
"We’ve accepted a mission that goes deep into the Sect. I heard we’ll be able to get near the Sect’s ancient Divine Object, but it requires four people. Right now, there are only three of us, so we wanted to ask if you’re free, Junior Brother. If you are, with your strength, it would be best if you came with us." The heavyset man paused before continuing, "The mission is basically to clean up some things inside. It’s tedious and carries some risk, but the reward is extremely generous.
"You can get a Spirit Sword."
Hearing this, Jiang Man froze.
’A Spirit Sword?’
’A Spirit Sword? The kind that costs at least ten thousand?’
’Are the Forging skills of the Ancient Cultivators really that incredible?’
"What kind of Spirit Sword?" Jiang Man asked.
"That we don’t know." The heavyset man shook his head, then added, "It should be a Spirit Sword suitable for combat. But a better reward means a harder mission. We might be in there for a year or two."
"Can we come out midway through?" Jiang Man asked.
’If I can stay inside peacefully for a while, that would actually be great,’ he thought.
’Of course, what exactly are these ’depths’?’
’Will I be able to touch the Divine Object?’
If it was possible, he really did want to go in and give it a try.
"As long as we clear things out fast enough, there will naturally be time for breaks," the heavyset man said.
Hearing this, Jiang Man nodded. "When do we go in?"
"May first," the heavyset man said.
After a moment of mental calculation, Jiang Man said, "I can do that."
’It’s almost April, so I have a little over a month.’
’Although I won’t be able to advance to the Middle Stage of Spirit, I can still improve a lot.’
’Most importantly, if I can touch the treasure and unlock my Magic Skill Talent, my Magic Skill Cultivation will become twice as effective with half the effort.’
’My combat prowess will also increase rapidly.’
’I’d finally have some power to protect myself.’
The three men were quite pleased to hear Jiang Man agree.
They expressed their thanks.
Afterward, Jiang Man left, planning to find Zhuo Qingcheng and the others.
He would also tell them about the clean-up mission.
He’d made some progress, after all, and was about to get a look at the mountain’s core.
He might even run into the Sect mole who was here before him.
Of course, all of that was secondary to him.
What he truly wanted to do was touch the Divine Object.
As long as he saw it, he would find a way to sneak over and give it a touch.
It wasn’t that he looked down on the Ancient Sect.
It was just that so far, he hadn’t encountered anything capable of stopping him.
「That afternoon.」
Jiang Man wandered around the Outer Sect for a while and found Zhuo Qingcheng and the others.
He quickly gave them the items and told them about his upcoming trip into the depths.
Zhuo Qingcheng was rather surprised. They had been here for three months and still hadn’t found a way in.
Yet Jiang Man, who had been focused on his Cultivation, had managed to do it.
’The gap between us is pretty big,’ she thought.
"Be careful. We still haven’t made contact with our people in the Sect, which is a bit unusual," Zhuo Qingcheng reminded him. "Logically, if they were able to send out a distress signal, they should have left some other clues. But there’s nothing at all, which is suspicious.