#129 - Exotic Treasures

"Brother Xu, your name truly precedes you; I never imagined we'd have the good fortune to meet you here."

"Brother Xu's 'Butterfly Loves Flowers - Presented to Zhu Ci Ci' is exceptionally well-written. It's truly hard to believe that Brother Xu composed that poem at the tender age of eight."

"Especially Brother Xu's 'Memorial on Declining Marriage,' I've read it again and again. The writing is brilliant, the emotions genuine. This humble one is truly ashamed of my inferiority."

"Today, we were even saved by Brother Xu. We will certainly remember such a kindness!"

"I propose a toast to Brother Xu!"

"A toast to Brother Xu!"

In a restaurant, two scholars from White Deer Academy—Miao Feng and Yuwen Xi—were treating Xu Ming to a meal.

Although the two men were bruised and swollen, looking quite disheveled, they still carried themselves with scholarly grace.

Their injuries weren't too severe; after resting for two or three days, they would essentially be fine.

"You are too kind, both of you," Xu Ming responded with a toast. "My first teacher came from your esteemed academy. I have some connection to White Deer Academy. Seeing you two in distress, I naturally couldn't stand idly by. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to face my teacher later."

"May we ask who Brother Xu's teacher is?" Yuwen Xi inquired.

Xu Ming: "Xiao Mo Chi, Teacher Xiao."

"Oh, so it's Teacher Xiao," Miao Feng straightened up involuntarily. "Teacher Xiao is one of the three people I admire most in the academy."

"Is Teacher Xiao so famous in White Deer Academy?" Xu Ming hadn't expected this.

Xu Ming had thought that Xiao Mo Chi was just an ordinary scholar at White Deer Academy, perhaps with a bit of fame.

Yuwen Xi took a sip of wine: "Indeed, Teacher Xiao is a well-known character at the academy. Stories about him are still circulating. If we were to start telling them, we wouldn't finish in a day and a night."

"It seems Teacher Xiao has had quite a few romantic escapades," Xu Ming smiled. "Speaking of which, why did you two brothers come to White Wallow City? And how did so many cultivators suddenly arrive here?"

"Hmm?" Yuwen Xi and Miao Feng exchanged a glance, then looked at Xu Ming. "Doesn't Brother Xu know?"

Xu Ming was even more puzzled: "Know what?"

Yuwen Xi replied: "A rare treasure is about to appear in White Wallow City; we've all come to seek our fortunes."

"A rare treasure?" Xu Ming was stunned. "What rare treasure?"

Miao Feng smiled: "We don't know what kind of rare treasure it is; probably no one else does either. Not long ago, one of our academy's libationers divined that a rare treasure would appear in White Wallow City, so he sent the two of us. The elder seemed to place great importance on this treasure.

Now, almost all the other cultivators in White Wallow City have come for the rare treasure.

In comparison, Brother Xu, you don't know about the rare treasure. What brings you to White Wallow City?"

Xu Ming shook his head, casually making up an excuse: "I planned to travel the world a bit before the Rootless Mystic Realm opens, but I accidentally wandered in here."

Yuwen Xi was taken aback for a moment, then smiled and said: "I truly don't know if Brother Xu's luck is good or bad."

"Since a rare treasure is appearing and so many people have come, this treasure must be significant. Why aren't the sect elders coming instead of the disciples?" Xu Ming fully utilized his spirit of asking when he didn't understand.

Miao Feng smiled: "Brother Xu usually practices martial arts, so you may not be too familiar with the world of cultivation. In the world of cultivation, the principle is that all things complement each other, and cause and effect follow each other.

The more precious a spiritual medicine is, the more powerful the guardian beast around it will be.

Uh, my analogy might not be quite right.

But what I'm trying to say is roughly this principle.

When a rare treasure appears, the Heavenly Dao will maintain the area around the treasure, restricting cultivators of a certain level from entering, so as not to cause widespread devastation.

However, the correlation between the 'degree of preciousness of the rare treasure' and the 'level restriction' has yet to be figured out by anyone.

Of course, if you enter the Ascension Realm, you can naturally ignore most of the Heavenly Dao's laws, but which Ascension Realm ancestor would casually mobilize for a few rare treasures."

"And our libationer divined that the highest realm restricted around this rare treasure is the Ocean Gazing Realm," Yuwen Xi added, "We two just happened to be idle and are considered relatively capable in the Ocean Gazing Realm, so we came."

"I see."

Xu Ming nodded.

In his heart, Xu Ming was also wondering if Shen Sheng and his wife had entered White Wallow City to seek treasure back then?

But if Shen Sheng and the others were here to seek treasure, wouldn't cultivators have flooded in back then? Would they have waited until now?

Miao Feng sighed: "But now, we haven't found the treasure, and we can't even get out. I don't know what's going on with this White Wallow City."

Seeing Miao Feng and Yuwen Xi's melancholy expressions, Xu Ming didn't say much, simply drinking his wine in silence.

Half an hour later, Miao Feng and Yuwen Xi bid farewell to Xu Ming, and they informed each other of their residences so that they could help each other if anything came up.

Back at the inn, a reward popped up in Xu Ming's mind again—

[You defeated the Painting Scroll Rhinoceros (Ocean Gazing Realm Late Stage), Painting Scroll Elephant (Ocean Gazing Realm Late Stage), Strength +30, Deterrence +20]

Strength is physical power.

Deterrence is the ability to instill a certain degree of fear in the opponent through one's aura.

These were both ordinary attribute points, and Xu Ming didn't pay much attention to them.

But what did the words "Painting Scroll" mean?

Xu Ming opened the box that Shen Sheng had left behind, first taking out the letter. Tian Xuan'e leaned her head over to look at the letter together:

"When you see this letter, it means I am already dead.

I don't know who you are, but since you are able to see this letter, then I must have trusted you in life.

When my wife and I first arrived in White Wallow City, it was still an ordinary border town, with many humans inside. Although there were also many demons, most of the demons and humans were in a state of peaceful coexistence.

But inexplicably, one day, that blazing sun in the sky fell from the sky.

I felt like I was going to be burned to ashes.

But when I woke up, I found myself and everything around me intact.

The only change was that blood-red moon in the sky.

My wife and I soon discovered that White Wallow City had formed a barrier on its own, and we couldn't get out.

Fortunately, my wife is a direct disciple of the Heavenly Array Sect and has considerable knowledge of formations.

We settled here while searching for a way to break the formation.

Until one day ."