Chapter 513: The Stake
"Ten-thousand-year sky-blue stone marrow is in the Tianji Pavilion of Central Continent." Xuanheng dispersed the star chart, and the main hall sank back into dimness.
"The Tianji Pavilion is famed across the world for divination. Its disciples rarely go out, they specialize in predicting fate and divining auspiciousness. These people are elusive and never trade lightly with outsiders. I have no deep ties with them," Xuanheng turned his head and looked at Su Ming.
"So, this last medicinal ingredient, you’ll have to find a way to get it yourself."
Su Ming’s brow tightened slightly. Go to the Central Continent? Cross a vast gap to ask a super sect known for divination for a medicine? The risks were almost incalculable.
If he went, he might not even be allowed through the gate, or those fortune-telling old fiends might see through him.
Besides, he didn’t appear to have any bargaining chip to sway the Tianji Pavilion.
Xuanheng saw Su Ming’s hesitation, and for the first time a faint smile flickered at the corner of his mouth.
"You don’t need to rush to the Central Continent," Xuanheng sat back down. "Coincidentally, our Cloud Hidden Sect has an elder who once came from the Tianji Pavilion and still keeps a tangled strand of old connections with them."
Su Ming’s eyes brightened. "Within the sect?"
"An idle elder in the outer sect. You know his two nominal disciples." Xuanheng lifted his teacup and gently blew on the drifting tea leaves.
"Qingfeng and Mingyue."
Suddenly everything made sense to Su Ming, that outer sect elder who rarely showed himself.
"Their master is Master Xuanming." Xuanheng set the teacup down. "You should go beg him, see if he can intervene and request the Ten-Thousand-Year Sky-Blue Stone Marrow from the Tianji Pavilion in Central Continent. What conditions he demands—that depends on your own fate."
"Disciple understands." Su Ming bowed deeply.
…
When he left Star Pivot Hall, the morning mist had completely dispersed.
Sunlight pierced the clouds at the peak of Formation Peak, scattering across the bluish-gray stone steps with flecks of gold.
Su Ming walked down the steps, his pace steady though his brow remained furrowed. In his sleeve, the two jade boxes holding the peerless main medicines weighed heavily, as if pressing down on his heart.
Ying wriggled out from his collar, shook its feathers, still feeling stifled by the oppressive aura that an advanced cultivator had accidentally emitted in the hall earlier.
Su Ming ignored Ying’s movements and quickly reviewed the information he’d just received in his mind.
"Master." Su Ming called into his Consciousness Sea.
Lin Yu’s soul body slowly emerged from the Xuantian ring; its glow was a bit brighter than before, clearly deep in thought as well.
"Master Xuanming, from the Tianji Pavilion." Lin Yu’s speech slowed. "Divination is the most troublesome thing in the cultivation world. These people are always cryptic, obsessing over destiny and karma. When dealing with them, the worst thing is lying or trying to be clever. Your every move—even whether you step out with your left or right foot first—may already be in their hexagrams."
Su Ming’s expression darkened further.
"So any disguise could be seen through?"
"Not necessarily everything will be seen through." Lin Yu paused. "You carry the Border Defense True Seal, and there’s my presence—that’s a variable beyond his level. He can’t fully calculate it, but precisely because he can’t, he will become extremely suspicious of you."
"People of the Tianji Pavilion value exchanges of benefit and karmic balance above all." Su Ming reached a fork halfway up the mountain and, rather than heading to his cave dwelling, turned toward the Purple Bamboo Sea where the outer sect resided.
"If he can divinate that I’ll come to him for this, and he agrees to meet me, he will certainly carefully calculate what he can take from me in return."
Lin Yu gave a low laugh inside the ring.
"A bargaining chip? You’re a Foundation Establishment little one. Besides those tens of thousands of spirit stones and a pile of formation runes, what do you have that would catch the eye of an elder skilled in divination?"
Su Ming did not stop walking; his gaze grew profound.
"That depends on what he wants. Without this medicine, my Dao foundation cannot be repaired and I will be stuck at Foundation Establishment for life. This medicine is absolutely necessary."
Lin Yu fell silent, his soul body bobbing twice in the void.
"But before that, you must first probe and uncover his bottom line." Su Ming added calmly. "Know yourself and know the enemy, then you can place your bet."
Half an hour later.
Su Ming appeared at the edge of the Purple Bamboo Sea of the outer sect.
Each bamboo stalk here was as thick as a bowl, the purple nodes faintly pulsing with spiritual energy. Deep within the grove, a few simple bamboo huts could be seen.
Su Ming arrived at the bamboo pavilion where Qingfeng and Mingyue usually received visitors.
"Master Qingfeng, Master Mingyue." Su Ming stood outside the pavilion and called out in a clear voice.
The wooden door creaked open. Qingfeng and Mingyue stuck their heads out; when they saw Su Ming their faces immediately lit up and they hurried out to meet him.
"Su Ming! What brings you here?" Qingfeng led Su Ming into the pavilion and helped him sit.
Mingyue brought out a tea set and began making a fire to brew tea.
Su Ming smiled and waved his hand, then took a delicate jade jar from his storage pouch and placed it gently on the stone table.
"A few days ago I went to Beast Peak. Senior Brother Qin Yi gave some fine Hundred Flowers Nectar. I tasted it and found it rich and good for nurturing the meridians, so I thought I’d bring some for you two to try."
Qingfeng’s eyes lit immediately. He stared at the jade jar and swallowed involuntarily.
"This… we shouldn’t accept this. Senior Brother, you’re too polite." Qingfeng tried to refuse but his hand betrayed him and reached for the jar. They had been savoring the last jar of spirit honey from that batch for six months.
"We’re family, no need for formalities." Su Ming nonchalantly pushed the jade jar forward. "Actually, I came today because I want to ask you two for a favor."
Qingfeng and Mingyue exchanged a glance and carefully put the spirit honey away.
"If it’s something we know, we won’t hide it." Qingfeng pounded his chest and promised.
Su Ming picked up the coarse tea Mingyue had poured and blew on the steam.
"I wish to go and pay respects to your master, Master Xuanming. Does the elder have any particular likes or taboos?"
At the mention of that name, the smiles on Qingfeng and Mingyue’s faces froze.
"Our master?" Qingfeng gave a wry laugh and lowered his voice. "Su Ming, it’s not that we don’t want to tell you. Our master’s temperament… is extremely strange."