SWNOVELXO Chapter 337 Fourth Rank
Several days later.
On the mountainside of Mist Smoke Mountain, a corner of the plaza on the Fog Platform was a small building.
Sun Chengye frowned as he looked at the booklet in his hand.
"I asked you to find my brother's enemy, not these insignificant nobodies," he said.
Li Guangfu spread his hands: "But all these people had disputes with Deputy Director Sun."
"Cheating the Alchemist with the surname Chen from the Administrative Affairs Institute by selling a forged Pill Master's letter of recommendation, is this necessary to write?" Sun Chengye glared at Li Guangfu.
"It's just a little Daoist Cultivation, how could that start a big feud with my brother?!"
"Brother Sun, you are mistaken," Li Guangfu said earnestly. "Sometimes, a little Daoist Cultivation can be enough to make someone desperate!"
Sun Chengye looked skeptical: "You're not trying to swindle more White Jade Coins from me by recording these trivial matters, are you?"
Li Guangfu looked at Sun Chengye in disbelief: "How could you see me in such a way?"
"The people in this booklet, each and every one of them could be a potential murderer!"
"I'm recording all this in detail, it's all to help you find your brother's body," Li Guangfu stated confidently.
"Enough!" Sun Chengye waved his hand impatiently.
With a flip of his right hand, a Mustard Seed Talisman appeared.
He threw the talisman to Li Guangfu and said indifferently, "Our Sun Family does not lack White Jade Coins. It's up to you if you have the ability to earn them."
Li Guangfu caught the Mustard Seed Talisman and with a smug smile, he took out a folded pale yellow letter from the leather pouch on his waist.
Sun Chengye unfolded it with curiosity, on it were written seven or eight lonely names...
"Zhang Mukuai, Liu Xiali..."
"This is..."
Li Guangfu grinned: "These are the unlucky ones who were set up by Deputy Director Sun and lost a great deal of their fortunes."
Sun Chengye's eyes suddenly lit up.
"Now this is how you handle business!"
"If you succeed in finding my brother's body, there will be plenty of rewards for you," Sun Chengye nodded in satisfaction.
"But don't try to pad the numbers with insignificant figures like that Chen surname Alchemist."
It all depends on your sincerity.
Li Guangfu fondled the Mustard Seed Talisman in his hand, silent with a smile.
No amount of promises could match the tangibility of White Jade in hand.
...
"So the purpose of the Red Gourd Sword Box is to create Sword Pills?"
On the eastern side of Mist Smoke Mountain, within Chen Mu's bamboo building.
An insignificant figure was carefully reading the jade tablet about the Sun Family's Red Gourd Sword Box.
"The Flying Sword is a Flying Sword, and the Sword Box is a Sword Box, I thought they were one and the same," Chen Mu said, quite astonished.
According to the jade tablet, if one gathers minerals and absorbs the essence of Metal Geng, one could use the Red Gourd Sword Box to cultivate Sword Pills.
"In this case, the value of that Red Gourd just increased significantly!"
But upon closely reviewing the materials needed for the Sword Pills, Chen Mu felt disheartened.
"This is also a major gold consumer."
He suddenly realized that the box of ore Sun Wuhuan possessed was probably for nurturing Flying Swords.
"No wonder he only had a little over ten thousand White Jade Coins."
The Condense Aperture Secret Method used up a lot, and so did the Red Gourd Sword Box, to save up a little over ten thousand White Jade Coins was already a testament to Sun Wuhuan's talent at amassing wealth.
"That Red Gourd Sword Box, perhaps it doesn't need to be sold."
The Red Gourd Sword Box was conspicuous, the Sun Family could recognize it at a glance.
But the Magic Artifact Sword Pills were not unique and could be used freely.
"The Flying Swords Sun Wuhuan used seem to be mostly consecrated already, if I continue to refine it, maybe I'll quickly acquire a Flying Sword Pill!"
Chen Mu suddenly had the urge to dig up that treasure gourd right away.
"No, I can't take the risk!" he quickly suppressed his excitement.
If that treasure gourd was so valuable, what if the Sun Family had a contingency in place?
"Besides, my lucky chances aren't too bad."
Mana surged within the Jade Seed, stirring the Spirit Nourishing Curse.
A dark Yin error emerged, and with it floated a fist-sized hollow Bone Sphere, spinning steadily before him.
Chen Mu clearly remembered that when Sun Wuhuan first laid eyes on the Yang Chai, he shamelessly claimed that it was his Magic Artifact that he had lost.
It was obvious that he coveted the Bone Shield of Yang Chai and wanted to seize it forcefully!
"Once the Gourd Flying Sword is formed, its power is limited."
"But the inadvertently acquired Yang Chai can be strengthened and grown with the Spirit Nourishing Curse, making it more mysterious than the Gourd Flying Sword."
With that thought, Chen Mu completely regained his calm.
"I'd better honestly stick to studying Pei Wen."
Chen Mu called up a grey wall and stared peculiarly at the first two entries.
Writing: 4429/10000/Third Rank;
Drawing: 140/10000/Third Rank;
To gain experience, Chen Mu spent his days holed up in his bamboo hut, meticulously copying the Ge Family's Hundred Grass Annotations.
Not only did his writing proficiency rapidly progress, but his drawing ability, which had been dormant for five or six years, also unknowingly rose to Third Rank.
"That's an unexpected delight."
Chen Mu picked up a brush and quickly sketched onto a basin-sized white paper.
Before long, a pattern the size of a plate, composed of fine lines and dots, took shape.
"After all, it's not Pei Wen. Trying to depict a three-dimensional talisman on a flat surface will always be somewhat lacking."
"And this is just a simple Golden Bead Talisman. Trying to record the Netherworld Grand Summary with my drawing ability... difficult."
...
Evening.
Bai Xiuwen, carrying a large bamboo basket, walked into Chen Mu's bamboo hut: "Senior brother, are you still pondering over that Alchemist's notebook?"
"If I can figure something out, then wouldn't that be a profit?" Chen Mu said casually.
Very few people knew about Pei Wen. Chen Mu had no intention of disclosing more.
Standing up to take the basket, Chen Mu looked satisfied at the wild vegetables and Exotic Beast Meat inside: "For the upcoming half-month, I plan to seclude myself; I'll need to trouble you with the procurement of supplies."
He intended to max out his Third Rank writing ability in one go. Only when he had transcribed the Netherworld Grand Summary would he feel at ease.
"You should come every three days, and also update me about the changes on the mountain, or else I'll truly become deaf and blind."
As he spoke, he handed over the freshly drawn Golden Bead Talisman to Bai Xiuwen.
"This is…," Bai Xiuwen began to say, intending to be polite, but as he clearly saw the item on the paper, he suddenly became excited.
"A rough outline of the Golden Bead Talisman. With its help, it won't be long before you can fully master the Golden Bead Talisman." Find your next read at My Virtual Library Empire
"Thank you, senior brother!" Bai Xiuwen said, respectfully making a fist and palm salute.
Chen Mu, undisturbed, waved his hand dismissively: "Just keep me entertained with some interesting news."
Bai Xiuwen was well-informed.
He could provide real-time updates about the changes in Mist Smoke Mountain, especially the movements of the Sun Family.
"You won't be disappointed, senior brother!" Bai Xiuwen said earnestly.
...
It was not Chen Mu's first time in seclusion to raise his proficiency, and he had a wealth of experience.
Although he planned to tackle the Third Rank writing ability with all his might, he wasn't blindly immersing himself to the point of neglecting sleep and food.
In fact, he was even more regular and leisurely than usual.
He rose early and retired early each day, turning a deaf ear to the affairs outside the window.
Besides the habit of reciting the Spirit Nourishing Curse twice during his free time, he focused on imitating the Hundred Grass Annotations at all other times.
As proficiency increased, insights continuously flooded into his mind.
The Pei Wen that he used to be able to only read and not write was gradually being mastered by him.
More than ten days later.
Finally, a change appeared on the grey wall.
Writing: 107/10000/Fourth Rank;
Chen Mu recalled the information in his mind, his brow slightly furrowed.
He had learned Pei Wen, but not completely.
The Pei Wen records in the Hundred Grass Annotations included images, sounds, scents, and tactile sensations, much like the virtual worlds conceived in television dramas of a previous life, placing one right in the midst of the action.
The Pei Wen mastered in the Fourth Rank writing could only record three-dimensional images.
"Forget it, it's good enough if it's usable." Chen Mu decided not to continue training.
To avoid unforeseen complications, he planned to transcribe the Netherworld Grand Summary first.