Chapter 169: Dao Comprehending Tea
Finally, the First Lady saw that Little Fatty did indeed have his own difficulties. Thus, she stopped the enraged sect master and said with a bitter laughter, “Forget it, Child, we will not force you now since we still have some time. A few days later, the Mystical Sky Branch will send someone to test HongYing’s talent. We will only leave after they verify her talent. I hope that you will think about it for these few days. We will ask you again the next time, okay?”
Actually, Little Fatty wanted to reject them right here and now. But, the First Lady was still his senior and had even said it in such a caring manner, so he could only give her face by acceding to her requests with a bitter laughter before leaving.
After he left the courtyard, Little Fatty returned to his Serene Cloud Yard. Now that he was bored and was looking for something to do, he had a sudden inspiration as he thought of the strange tea tree he had obtained in the Jade Green Screen.
Although they did not contain a large amount of spiritual Qi and could not be compared to the famous tea in the cultivation world, they grew naturally in the shape of a taijitu with a mysterious appearance. He thought to himself that although it probably was not any miracle medicine, it seemed to contain quite a bit of the heavenly laws. Perhaps he could use it for reference.
With this thought in mind, Little Fatty decided to take this opportunity to pick some tea leaves, making it his daily drink after drying them.
Of course, Little Fatty was not someone who knew how to make tea. But, this was something which would not pose a challenge to him because he had the Nine Beauties Painting! Being FenShen cultivators, they had lived for thousands of years already. After being alive for so long, their accumulated knowledge was just too scary. A mere skill of making tea was something which all of them practically knew. Obviously, the nine beauties were all tea experts when they were alive, with such a small task as such being unable to frazzle them.
With just a wave of his hands, they had settled the matter for him. In just a few days, they had made two taels worth of tea. But after the tea leaves were made, the nine beauties told Little Fatty that they seemed to have heard of this tea before, but yet also seemed to have no recollection of it, making them extremely confused.
Hearing that, Little Fatty decided not to treat this matter with much importance. After all, these nine beauties had visited plenty of places when they were alive, seeing at least thousands of different varieties of tea. It wouldn’t be too surprising if they had seen it before. As for being unable to explain it, it wasn’t anything surprising either. After all, they had been refined into a spiritual artifact for over thousands of years already and it would not be surprising for there to be some loss of memory.
Upon receiving his new tea leaves, Little Fatty immediately brewed a pot of tea. As he drank the tea, he could feel the lingering aftertaste on his lips. If he were to just talk about the taste of the tea, it was definitely much better than any other tea he had previously tasted before.
What surprised him the most was that he felt his thoughts to be extremely clear after he drank the tea. No matter what he looked at, he could feel that they contained a mysterious law, as though waiting for him to unravel their secrets.
Little Fatty was unaware of what that signified and only came to the conclusion that this tea was just a little special. As such, when HongYing came to find him for lunch the next day, he also recommended it to her.
Of course, in order to raise the value of the tea, Little Fatty would not dare to say that he picked this up in the wild. Instead, he used the Tu QianCheng’s name. Since Tu QianCheng left behind so many treasures, it would not matter if there was one more of this.
The moment HongYing heard that it was left behind by a YuanYing cultivator, she naturally paid attention to it. After tasting it, she immediately took a liking to it and asked Little Fatty to give some to her. Little Fatty would naturally not be stingy with her and gave her a box of it. That was the box used to store the Mystical Sky Fruit, which could be used to store a tael of tea leaves. HongYing also did not pay special attention to it, and immediately kept it. Then, she accompanied Little Fatty to play for the whole day.
Just like the saying, ‘happy days pass quickly’, 7 days passed by in a blink of an eye. Today, HongYing and Little Fatty found a scenic place and prepared to have their picnic.
Little Fatty was in charge of grilling the eyeless fish, spiritual mushrooms, and other food, while HongYing was in charge of brewing the tea.
Being a rich man, Little Fatty definitely would not mistreat himself. The tea set which he prepared was all made from jade, with beautiful engravings on it.
When the tea was prepared, the sight of the tea rippling in the pot was also extremely enchanting. After the tea was poured into the jade glass, a jade green flash could be seen. Being washed by the spiritual Qi within the glass, the tea became extremely fresh, as though it was water which fell from the heavenly river in the skies!
Eating the eyeless fish and spiritual mushroom while enjoying the tea fragrance was indeed a great pleasure. However, this mischievous HongYing had a habit, which was to use the tea to gargle her mouth before and after the meal. This made Little Fatty not know whether to laugh or cry. However, he could not be bothered to correct her. Since he had so much tea leaves, what was there to be afraid of?
Just when Little Fatty finished grilling two eyeless fish, HongYing immediately snatched it over. She first used the tea to gargle her mouth and was about to eat the fish.
It was precisely at this moment that Little Fatty and HongYing saw 4 lights flashing as 5 people appeared in front of them.
The appearance of these five people was extremely sudden, as though they appeared out of thin air(Duh). With one look, they could tell that it was definitely an extremely strong cultivator’s art.
The couple were caught unawares and momentarily thought that they were enemies. They immediately raised their guards, sending out the Five Element Essence Sword and Phoenix Crying Blade.
However, upon looking carefully, they immediately retracted their weapons. Of these 5 people, 2 of them were people they recognised. One of them was the sect master, and the other was ShuiJing. The other 3 people were all gentle looking old men dressed in green robes. They did not have any extravagant decorations on them and did not have a strong spiritual Qi surrounding them. Despite that, Little Fatty and HongYing still felt that they possessed something extraordinary.
The reason why they had this feeling was mainly because the sect master was actually respectfully standing behind these 3 old men. How did he look like a sect master? He looked like a child under the supervision of a strict parent. How could someone able to make the esteemed sect master look like that be an ordinary person?
Seeing these 3 strange old men appearing out of nowhere with the sect master and his wife, Little Fatty and HongYing could not help but be startled.
Seeing the situation, the sect master hurriedly said, “Why are you two spacing out? Come and pay your respects to the 3 seniors!”
Only then did Little Fatty and HongYing snap out of their daze. They hurriedly set aside whatever was in their hands and paid their respects.
At this moment, a strange scene was played out. The 3 old men completely ignored Little Fatty and HongYing and appeared in front of the teapot. All 3 of their eyes were then affixed onto the two cups of tea.
Seeing the scene, everyone present was at a loss for words. It was a given fact that even as elders they should still possess a sense of decorum when having juniors paying their respects, one has to at least acknowledge them before doing turning your attention elsewhere, how could an elder just blatantly ignore the both of them like that? Was this not as good as looking down on them?
Especially in a sect like the Mystical Sky Sect which boasts a history spanning hundreds of thousands of years, the rules were extremely strict. Particularly with regards to etiquette, everyone had to be on their best behaviour at all times, regardless of their status. Today, the 3 of their actions were a little bit overboard, and would definitely be criticized if this matter were to be spread out.
Despite having fear in his heart, the sect master could not help but feel a twinge of disappointment. As for Little Fatty and HongYing, the both of them got a little frustrated.
But just at this moment, the old man with a beard suddenly burst out into laughter while saying, “Ai yah yah, this old man lost myself for a moment there. I actually forgot about these 2 juniors. Goodness, I have been rude. Children, please get up!”
“Hehe, yes yes, we have been rude!” The other two also said amiably.
The moment the both of them replied, they hastily regained the demeanor an elder possessed. The sect master was naturally no longer displeased, and Little Fatty and HongYing’s faces looking better. They hurriedly replied, “It’s no big matter!”
“Haha, since you didn’t take offence, that will be for the best!” The other bald old man suddenly said, “Child, hurry up and say where you guys got this pot of tea from? Do you still have any? I will buy them at a high price!”
The words of the bald old man immediately caused Little Fatty and HongYing stare blankly as they thought in their hearts, ‘Does this elder have a problem? Who would ask to buy tea on the first meeting?’
Before waiting for either Little Fatty or HongYing to have a reaction, the other two also shouted out, “Child, don’t listen to him, I was the one who found this tea. You should sell it to me, I promise that I will offer the highest price!”
After speaking out, Little Fatty and HongYing got even more confused. However, the whole situation progressed to an even weirder state right after.
As they bearded old man heard that, he panicked and hurriedly interjected, “Children, children, don’t listen to the both of them! Such a good tea, how can you exchange it with spiritual stones? I will take out a magical artifact, no, a spiritual artifact! I will use a spiritual artifact to exchange for it!”
The moment the two words ‘spiritual artifact’ appeared, it rooted Little Fatty, HongYing, the sect master and ShuiJing on the spot with shock. Using a spiritual artifact to exchange it for tea leaves? Just what was going on?
Especially HongYing, her eyes were open so wide, it seemed as though her eyeballs were about to pop out and could not help but ask, “Senior, such a lousy tea can’t be used for anything other than gargling your mouth. Why are you guys fighting over it?”
Never in her life did HongYing think that after this one sentence, all three of the old men faces actually turned red with anger. They immediately screamed out loud, “Gargle your mouth? Goodness, you actually used the Dao Comprehending Tea to gargle your mouth?”
When hearing the words Dao Comprehending Tea, HongYing, and Little Fatty did not have any reaction because they had not heard about it before. But the sect master and ShuiJing behaved differently. The two of them who were usually calm could not help but let out a shriek in front of the seniors present.
Seeing the situation, Little Fatty naturally realised that the tea tree he obtained was definitely not an ordinary plaything. He took the chance to hurriedly ask, “What is the Dao Comprehending Tea?”
“It is precisely this tea which you are drinking now!” The bearded old man spoke.
“The tea is said to allow the person who drinks it to comprehend heavenly laws with greater ease. The stronger the cultivator is, the deeper the person can comprehend. It is extremely useful to FenShen cultivators to make a breakthrough. I have already been stuck at this bottleneck for over a hundred years, and I am in need of this thing!” The red faced man despairingly said.
“It is just a pity that this thing is so rare. In the market, there is only demand and no supply for this item. Thus the price would also be exorbitantly high, which makes it impossible to trade for unless with precious items. Occasionally, if it was traded with spiritual stones, it would also be an exorbitant price!” The bald old man said, “Usually, it would require this amount of spiritual stones in order to change for a minuscule portion!” As he said that, he used his fingers to form a 10.
(CCT: 10 in Chinese is written as ‘十’ hence his fingers)
As Little Fatty saw that, he immediately understood and said, “10,000 spiritual stones?”
“That’s right, a whole 10,000 spiritual stones!” The bald man replied.
As Little Fatty heard that, he could not help but curiously ask, “10,000 spiritual stones doesn’t seem to be very expensive right?”
Indeed, while 10,000 spiritual stones may be a lot to an ordinary disciple, it was a paltry sum to this Little Fatty. As for these FenShen cultivators, they would probably not treat 10,000 spiritual stones like anything much!
As the 3 old men heard that, they all revealed looks of disdain. The bearded old man then said while sniggering, “We do not use the low-grade spiritual stones which you do, our trades are conducted using the high-grade ones!”
“What? 10,000 high-grade spiritual stones?” Hearing that, Little Fatty was stupefied. It was a common fact that as the grade of a spiritual stone changes, their values will differ greatly as well. A piece of high-grade spiritual stone would be worth over tens of thousands of low-grade spiritual stones. If 10,000 high-grade spiritual stones were to be exchanged to low-grade spiritual stones, that was worth at least 100 million spiritual stones! Such a frightening amount could probably form a mountain on its own, and one could probably be able to use them as materials to rebuild the whole Mystical Sky Yard with some leftover. From this, it can be seen how big a sum that is.
Plus, the bearded old man added another sentence, “That is only the price of a tenth of a tael in weight. If it was half a tael, spiritual stones would be insufficient. Only spiritual artifacts of precious materials would be considered for trade!”
At this point, Little Fatty and HongYing’s spirits had already left for another world. Only now did they realise just how precious the tea was. Actually, this was also considered normal. A bottleneck is considered the greatest barrier to all cultivators. All cultivators deeply hated it but were helpless towards it. This was especially true for the stronger cultivators, it was perfectly normal to be trapped at a bottleneck for hundreds or even thousands of years. In fact, the reason why most cultivators die while seated in cultivation was because they could not breakthrough their bottleneck before their mortal time ran out. Thus, they placed great importance in anything which could help them in making a breakthrough. Added to the fact that such items were so rare, thus the extremely high price.
Hearing how the tea leaves were actually worth a fortune, Little Fatty was extremely excited in his heart despite his calm appearance. He actually had a live tea tree! Even if it were to grow slowly, he would still have 2 taels of tea leaves every year at least. This was like an inexhaustible gold mine!
As for HongYing, she immediately said with a face full of amazement, “Goodness, I have been using such a precious tea to gargle my mouth these few days. Just how much did I waste?”