Good Things Must Come in Pairs
He did not mind Yang Chen taking any of his items, as long as it wasn’t one of his magic weapons or the few good wines he had collected. It was indeed odd that Yang Chen just took a wooden tablet but this made him feel at ease now. He had never gone against his own words before.
He did not care what use the wooden tablet had. His eyes were still fixed on the jade flask in Sun Qingxue’s hands. His desire for it shown on his face was beyond words could describe.
Sun Qingxue was an extremely intelligent person as well. She knew that the reason Yang Chen gave her the remaining wine was so that she could exchange it for something else from the Wine Immortal. She rolled her eyes and immediately thought of something. She opened up the lid of the flask and sniffed it. Shaking her head, she then said, “Brother Yang, are you saying that if wine is used to dilute it, the taste will be even more enjoyable?”
“That’s for sure!” He knew what she was up to after hearing her question, hence his answer.
“If that is the case, it’s really unfortunate for this wine.” She shook her head and pretended that she was going to pour away the wine while saying, “Then I better not drink this wine. I’ll just wait for you to ferment the wine.”
“Girl, if you do not want it, give it to me!” When the Wine Immortal saw that the wine was at the verge of pouring out, his face turned pale instantly. He quickly dashed forward and bellowed, “You must not pour it away!”
When Sun Qingxue and Yang Chen were echoing each other, the Wine Immortal would have known their trickery already. But the taste of the wine indeed had too much of an appeal. With the alcohol tolerance of the Wine Immortal, the two cups of wine had barely given him satisfaction. How was he able to bear the absence of the wine which could quench his thirst?
“How about this, Miss? Tell me what you want and I’ll exchange it for the flask of wine.” Although he knew that she had been waiting for him to ask this question, he still threw the question at her. His addiction to wine could not be cured.
Her eyes rolled a little. Yang Chen did not hint at her that the Wine Immortal had anything valuable, so it seemed like there weren’t any items in the qiankun pouch that would suit her. She replied, “Senior, there’s nothing Junior wants from your qiankun pouch.”
After hearing what she said, he got into an awkward position. He had just handed his qiankun pouch to Yang Chen because he knew he did not store many valuable items inside. He was just afraid that Yang Chen would choose the items he had deemed valuable. Fortunately, Yang Chen merely picked a wooden plate, so there was not much for him to worry about. Sun Qingxue, however, did not take the bait, instantly forcing him to a difficult position.
He glanced at Yang Chen and realised he immersed in looking at the wooden plate. Yang Chen was not even looking at his direction which made him feel slightly less awkward.
He hung his head low and scanned his surroundings. After thinking for awhile, he looked towards Sun Qingxue who was smiling faintly. He took out a green branch reluctantly and handed it over. “This is the Wood of Eternal Youth which I had obtained while I was cultivating. Since you have a wood-attribute spirit root, this will be useful to you.”
The Wood of Eternal Youth was a valuable item. Sun Qingxue accepted the offer almost instantly while she smiled like a blooming flower. She did not refuse to give the flask and handed it over to him without any delay. She even thanked him respectfully, “Thank you very much Wine Immortal!”
“It’s nothing, it’s nothing.” He took the jade flask right away. Just when he was about to gulp the wine down, he suddenly thought of something else. He took the small jade cup that was on the table and poured the wine into it. He sniffed it for a long time only did he swallow it in one go.
He was reluctant to finish the rest of the wine. So, he carefully sealed the flask with a talisman and kept it away. He finally realized what Yang Chen was referring to earlier. After drinking the wine from Yang Chen, every other wine would be bland and tasteless. However, there was not much of it left even if he wanted more. To a person like him who drank wine like his life depended on it, it was no different from a torture.
If he had known earlier, he would not have made the bet. If he had not tasted the wine earlier, he would not have such a problem now. The most important thing was, he would not have to keep thinking about the wine. There was no going back. If he finished the flask of wine, how and where would he find more of it?
Suddenly, his eyes shone and turned to Yang Chen. The yeast of the wine was poured out from Yang Chen’s bottle gourd. There must be more inside it. Perhaps all he could do was forge a friendship between them and ask for more from him in the future.
“What is your name, Brother?” The Wine Immortal needed a favour from Yang Chen so he started behaving politely. He even addressed Yang Chen as his brother now, instead of a kid.
The onlookers could not control themselves either and put their hands over their mouths, giggling. The people who were queuing to buy the wine were slightly anxious. If he really wanted to get a taste of the wine ever again, addressing him as a brother would be considered a small matter. Everybody had their ears on the ground, curious about the name of the unfamiliar face.
“I am Yang Chen from the Pure Yang Palace!” The Wine Immortal was polite, so was Yang Chen. He cupped one of his hands in the other in front of his chest while announcing his origin.
When the crowd heard he was Yang Chen from the Pure Yang Palace, everybody began to discuss spiritedly. The name Yang Chen was well known and many people from the Clear Sky Sect had heard of it before, especially after the incident in Hundred Thousand Mountains. The Heaven Seizing Pill was just a myth among the high-level officials, but the thunder pomegranate had a respectable reputation among the people. During the Hundred Thousand Mountains’ fight, Yang Chen had used hundreds of them to break the Seven Star Godly Thunder Spell. Many people had been paying close attention to him because of that.
“So, you are Nephew Yang.” He immediately started trying to get on close terms with him by calling Yang Chen his nephew. He behaved like he had a close relationship with a senior back at the Pure Yang Palace. He then exclaimed, “One day, I will visit the Pure Yang Palace’s court as a guest! I’m afraid that I may cause trouble you by then.”
“On behalf of the palace, we welcome you, Senior.” Yang Chen also started talking with good manners.
The Wine Immortal’s aim was to know Yang Chen’s origin so that he would know where to look for him next time. Once he had achieved his purpose, he did not say much more. He then returned to his restaurant after bidding farewell politely. The others had also kept Yang Chen’s name in mind. After this news was spread, some alcoholics would surely come and pay him a visit.
Sun Qingxue was delighted that she got the Wood of Eternal Youth. She could not take her hands off the branch and showed it off to Yang Chen. “Brother Yang, why did you just pick the wooden tablet? If I knew he had such a good item, I would’ve asked for more.”
“Hehe, you should learn to be grateful.” Yang Chen chuckled, at the same time he was happy for her. He suddenly recalled something and reminded her, “If you use this Wood of Eternal Youth together with the Undying Wood, the effect would be even better.”
[TL note: We replaced ‘immortal liang tree’ from c99 to ‘Undying Wood’.]
“I know,” she replied as she kept the branch away carefully. With a smile on her face, she added, “You told me yourself that we must be grateful. Having this is already enough. Moreover, it is not easy to get hold of the Undying Wood. For the time being, I will not ask for more.”
Seeing that she was so joyful, Yang Chen was gratified. It was like as long as she was happy, he would feel so too. He could not bear it anymore and said to her, “It is indeed difficult to get the Undying Wood. However, you can consider yourself lucky, Little Xue. I just happen to have one those.”
Yang Chen did have an Undying Wood. After the incident at Desolate Valley, it was a gift from Greatest Heaven Sect as compensation for protecting Chu Heng. As Yang Chen already had the PengLai Divine Wood at that time, he did not care too much about it.
The Undying Wood and the Wood of Eternal Youth belonged to the immortal tree species. However, one was living whereas the other was not. One was Yin, and the other was Yang. Both incorporated each other and were perfect when used together. It was the ultimate supplement for cultivators with wood spirit roots. The combination of the two would help peak foundation building cultivators reach the Jindan stage more easily.
Sun Qingxue had taken a third-grade foundation stage pill before. The first wood spirit power had contained the presence of the PengLai Divine Wood. If the Wood of Eternal Youth and the Undying Wood were combined together, they would form the best supplement for her dan congealment.
After hearing what Yang Chen said, she jumped for joy. He had come to see her three times already and never failed to give her a surprise. The first time he came he had saved her life. The second time, she had become the disciple of Elder Hua. And this time, he brought her the Undying Wood and the Wood of Eternal Youth. It seemed as if Yang Chen was her good-luck charm.
If no one was around, Sun Qingxue would have embraced Yang Chen’s neck and cheered loudly. Good fortune was vital in the journey of cultivation, while Yang Chen had continuously given her this fortune. Even if this meant that she was turning against Shi Shanshan, she would still stand firm in her position and compete with Fairy Shi for her dao companion for dual cultivation.
Yang Chen had no clue that his concern for others was actually just making his problems worse. The girl whom Yang Chen had treated as his little sister, had now become more persistent than ever.
They had wanted to buy the ingredients in the market to brew the wine, but they did not foresee such a thing to happen. Of course, Yang Chen felt that a drop of yeast in exchange for the Wood of Eternal Youth and a strange-looking wooden tablet was quite worthy.
Other people could not discover the use of the wooden tablet, but why wouldn’t Yang Chen? That was clearly a key for a secret location. The Wine Immortal had treated it as an ordinary item and even let Yang Chen pick it out. If he were to know the truth, perhaps he would be regretting it now. He would probably be stomping his foot and thumping his chest.
This secret location was similar to the Secret Pavilion at the Pure Yang Palace. It was a restricted area. The patterns on the key were from thousands of years ago and were extremely rare. Yang Chen had first come across the similar patterns on a jade slip in the QingQiong Mountain’s legendary abode.
This was a secret location of a small sect. The sect had vanished for a long time but the secret location had not. Whereas the key had been circulating around, and now it had finally fallen into Yang Chen’s hands with ease as nobody was able to recognize its worth.
Even if it was a small sect, occasionally it would have items that would surprise people as well. Furthermore, even if there was nothing else there, it would still have some legendary herbs aged more than tens of thousands of years, wouldn’t it?
Of course Yang Chen would not reveal all of these good things on the spot earlier. This secret locations key had also given Yang Chen a purpose to train with Sun Qingxue. Putting that aside, he still needed to complete the instruction given by the Palace Master Zhang Jiao first.
It was not a big trouble to purchase the raw ingredients needed to brew the wine. With his earlier performance, everyone knew Yang Chen was going to brew a specially made wine to dilute the yeast, which everybody had high expectations for.
The only problem was that the quantity he needed was substantial. He had cleaned out all the stocks of the shop in the market. People were astonished at the volume of wine he was going to brew.
“I am not just brewing one type of wine,” Yang Chen explained to Sun Qingxue.
“Oh…” She did not look into it further and just agreed with him. She was still full of happiness after getting her hands on the Wood of Eternal Youth and the Undying Wood.
Compared to the huge volume of yeast, even if Yang Chen were to empty all the raw ingredients in Clear Sky Sect, it would still be insufficient. There were many other things to consider as well. For example, brewing the wine required water of high quality. This meant that Yang Chen would need to search for a suitable water stream to brew his wine. Of course, these were in the later part of the story.
After circling the market once, they returned to Sun Qingxue’s yard. He then gave the Undying Wood which he had kept all along to her. Holding both the rare woods, she jumped up with excitement. There were no outsiders here and only Yang Chen was here. She was not afraid for Yang Chen to witness her act of losing control.
“What is it that you are so happy about?” A stern voice interrupted her craze and a shadow instantly emerged at her yard.
“Master!” She was not frightened by the voice at all. After seeing the silhouette, she threw herself into the open arms. After acting like a spoiled child for a moment, she presented her treasure and asked, “Master, guess what I got today?”
“How are you, Senior Hua?” Yang Chen had already stood up. As Hua Wanting had appeared, he had to show some manners to her.
Hua Wanting nodded her head slightly towards Yang Chen but she did not walk over. She was just looking at her disciple with a pampering look.
“You used Yang Chen’s wine to exchange for a Wood of Eternal Youth from the Wine Immortal?” After Sun Qingxue had finished acting like a spoiled child, Hua Wanting then answered her smilingly.
“Master, you know about it already ?” Sun Qingxue was slightly displeased. She could finally brag a little in front of her master but her attempt had failed.
“The things happening in the market spread like wildfire.” Hua Wanting then turned to Yang Chen and said, “My sect’s Stream of Clear Sky Immortal has become just an ordinary wine overnight. It is difficult for me not to know about it.”
“Senior, I was just trying to cheer Little Xue up. It was the Wine Immortal who refused to let the matter slide!” Yang Chen could only spread both of his hands and pretended to be innocent. Honestly speaking, it was him who had destroyed the reputation of the Stream of Clear Sky Immortal.
“It is a small matter. It’s just wine after all.” Hua Wanting was a Dacheng expert and she would definitely not take this small matter into heart. She just came by to see how her disciple was getting along with him.
“Master, you surely won’t be able to guess what else I have gotten,” said Sun Qingxue. She wanted her master to guess what other valuable item had she obtained.
“You’re still not satisfied about getting the Wood of Eternal Youth?” Hua Wanting then criticised her with a smile, “You wouldn’t happen to be thinking of getting an Undying Wood as well, would you?”
“Ah?” Sun Qingxue was stunned. Looking at her master like she was an alien, she then asked, “Master, how did you know that I have also gotten an Undying Wood?”
“What? You really got an Undying Wood?” Hua Wanting was shocked. Did she really get an Undying Wood? How is it possible? she thought.
With the Wood of Eternal Youth and the Undying Wood, it would be an easy feat for Sun Qingxue to congeal a dan. This matter could not stop her master from being happy for her. So the reason she had been so happy was because of this.
“Brother Yang gave it to me,” Sun Qingxue answered cheerfully, giving Yang Chen credit in front of her master once again.
On the other hand, Yang Chen realized Hua Wanting’s gaze towards him felt much gentler, as if she was looking at her son-in-law.