Fang Xing was the one to incite Ying Qiaoqiao and Elder Moye to take over a cottage. Although he was confident this was necessary to pa.s.s the trial, he still wasn"t completely certain, and what they"d done might actually ruin his plan of sneaking into the Melodic Ice Palace alongside her if it turned out he was wrong. For that reason, Fang Xing decided to instigate everyone else to take cottages as well; it would be difficult for the Melodic Ice Palace to place any blame or fault on a single group if everything was in chaos.
Just as before, Fairy Fang wore a long dress and swung "her" bottom from side to side while visiting the cottage doors to retrieve all of the Black Ice Orders. There wasn"t any doubt, but even if there was, the dress and nameplate in his hands were genuine. He wasn"t afraid anyone would be able to see through him, and even the people with some suspicions would reluctantly hand over their Black Ice Order in the end.
If someone truly didn"t believe it, all Fang Xing would have to do is take out that one-legged-man lance at his back and knock them unconscious before taking the order. In any case, Cold Soul Valley had already started to become disordered, and numerous people had already started to act—no one would pay any mind to what he was doing now….
His "insider information" had already caused a huge uproar within Cold Soul Valley. In truth, there were indeed some clever people amongst these cultivators, and when they saw how many people were here for the same apprentices.h.i.+p and how so few cottages had been prepared, they had naturally formed some suspicions—they just couldn"t decide on a course of action. Once Fang Xing"s advice began to spread, these people no longer showed restraint and began to act in earnest. By the time Fang Xing had taken ten or so Black Ice Orders, several other groups within Cold Soul Valley had become eager to start some fights.
As for Fang Xing—the person who"d caused all of this in the first place—he snuck back into the spirit s.h.i.+p, changed into his original clothing, and looked at the near-dozen Black Ice Orders in his hands with joy. He then asked the Peng King to come out from the Flag of Ten Thousand Spirits to offer some insight.
Fang Xing had discovered these Black Ice Orders had some special properties thanks to the Book of Revelation, but the only things he could be absolutely certain of was these orders were crafted from a mineral called the Serene Ice Jade, and that the jade had an abundance of cold energy which had some power to counteract the demonic spirit"s malicious energy. As for the rest, he didn"t have a single idea, so he called the Peng King—a knowledgeable Golden Core beast king—to help him with a.n.a.lysis and appraisal.
"Serene Ice Jade?" The Peng King spoke in an odd voice after hearing the entire story. "I"ve traveled undaunted throughout this realm in my past. I wouldn"t dare say I"m an expert, but I do know of or have heard about most of the rare treasures in this world. How could I have never heard of such a precious jade before?"
"You"ve never heard of it before?" Fang Xing was dumbstruck to hear the Peng King had never heard of such a treasure. "Maybe the name is different? Look, it"s this jade!" He took out one of the Black Ice Orders for the Peng King to have a look.
The Peng King manipulated a strand of his Qi to coil around the Black Ice Order. After some time, he shook his head. "I have indeed never seen it before. In fact, this piece of jade is extremely muddled, impure, and lacking in Qi. Generally speaking, for cultivators, this is nothing more than a rather inferior piece of jade that can"t even be used for weapon refinement. The cold energy inside doesn"t seem too out of the ordinary, either; for it to be able to suppress the Demonic Qi inside you is indeed rather strange…."
"Let me show you!" Fang Xing had the Peng King move inside his Sea of Consciousness before inhaling a strand of cold energy. After Fang Xing demonstrated firsthand how the energy suppressed the Demonic Qi, it seemed as though the Peng King had a flash of comprehension. "It seems as though you"re correct. Although this sort of jade is inferior in quality, the cold energy within does seem to have some curious properties. To not know the Melodic Ice Palace had something good like this, it was I who was lacking in knowledge…."
Fang Xing gave a slight nod in understanding. The world was so vast with all sorts of abnormalities and an endless amount of precious materials, all with their own unique traits. Let alone the Golden Core Stage Peng King, even someone in the Budding Soul Stage or Tribulation Stage wouldn"t dare to say they knew every cultivation resource within all the world. Even for Fang Xing, figuring out this unique property was because of the Book of Revelation. The Book of Revelation was extremely mysterious and could seemingly identify nearly anything, but this shouldn"t be mistaken as commonplace.
"Help me study this a bit. Can this type of jade resolve the demonic spirit?" Fang Xing asked with deep concern. His knowledge of the demonic spirit wasn"t as in-depth as the Peng King"s. "If this quant.i.ty isn"t enough, I can get a bit more!"
After some studying, the Peng King muttered, "Although this type of cold energy does have an effect on the demonic spirit"s malevolent Qi, it is only to suppress, not resolve. Preparing some more wouldn"t be a bad idea though—it would at least help you increase the time before that demonic spirit of yours breaks free from the seal. The cold energy isn"t of very high quality, however, and resolving the issue completely would be much more difficult…."
Fang Xing recalled the comments on these jades from the Book of Revelation and nodded with deep thought. "Mm. These are low-grade Serene Ice Jades, after all. If they were high-grade, perhaps there might be a way…."
Fang Xing wasn"t too concerned. Since these jades existed in the Melodic Ice Palace, it only meant he"d found the right place. Nowhere else had these jades, meaning it was a specialty of the Melodic Ice Palace alone, and for it to have low-grade Serene Ice Jades naturally meant there must be high-grade—or perhaps even supreme-grade—jades as well. If the low-grade jades couldn"t resolve his demonic spirit, then perhaps a higher grade one would?
In this regard, Fang Xing was rather optimistic!
By now, the fighting over cottages had started to become more and more intense. Aside from the two in the deepest parts of the valley, every single remaining cottage had received some manner of provocation. Everyone had held back at first and controlled their fights within the range of a polite duel, but when they noticed that the Melodic Ice Palace disciples who occasionally pa.s.sed by showed no attention to their battles, they threw away all of their concerns and turned these clashes into full-on brawls.
Those without a cottage would do everything they could to force out those inside before setting into a hard battle. The victorious bird would take over the nest, while the defeated would have to seek out a turtledove that was even weaker to claim their nest instead.
Successfully taking over a cottage also depended on timing, however. The Myriad Beasts Sect had fortunately had the chance to take over a small cottage before anyone else had realized what was going on; it only became more and more difficult as time went on and news began to spread. Those who had control over a cottage by now were either far too powerful for others to try to fight against, or were weak but had closed their doors tight with the resolution to never open them even if the Celestial Emperor himself appeared.
For this reason, such fights lasted for only most of the night before things were settled once more. Many of the groups who had the battle prowess to fight didn"t have any options once everyone had closed their doors shut. The doors were connected to restrictive formations, making them extremely difficult to forcibly open from the outside; if the door wasn"t opened by those within, how could anyone else get in?
As the fights in Cold Soul Valley began to gradually reduce, Fang Xing—who"d been hiding inside the spirit vessel to watch this drama unfold—could no longer restrain himself. He was someone who wished for the whole world to be in chaos, so when he saw so many groups having trouble getting others to open up their cottage doors, he changed back into his servant clothing, grabbed a stick, and put a small flag at the top with an advertis.e.m.e.nt—"Unique secret door opening technique! Being sold for one high-grade Spirit Stone! Guaranteed opening upon use!"—printed for clear view. He then began to stroll around the valley with his banner in hand, catching the attention of many groups of people.
"The kid over there, come over here!" an elderly man in mid-Foundation Stage called out to Fang Xing from just outside a small cottage. He"d been quite vexed about how to push open these doors and get inside. "You"ve got a way to get them to open this door?"
Fang Xing laughed. "Easy!"
"Tell me about it, then!" the mid-Foundation elder sternly commanded.
Fang Xing pointed to his flag. "One high-grade Spirit Stone! Offering genuine service to young or old!"
The elderly man"s eyes glistened. He wasn"t afraid of Fang Xing lying to him and so tossed over a purple spirit stone. "Now tell me!"
Fang Xing smirked. He beckoned the elder to lean down so he could whisper into his ear.
The Foundation elder"s expression gradually changed as the whisper was given. "That"s… not really proper, is it?" he muttered.
"It works!"
The elderly man slapped his own thigh before making up his mind. He pointed to a few of the servants from his clan and ordered, "You guys, come over here!" After the elder shared some words in a low voice, these servants quickly lined up in front of the cottage, rolled up their sleeves as though preparing for a fight, and began to yell towards the cottage.
"Qinhe Kingdom"s Miao clan, back in the days when your grand-elder pursued Qing-Yun Sect"s Elder Qin"nyao, he nearly begged on the ground yet she didn"t even so much as look at him! How shameful is that? Did you know your grand-elder had the nickname of "Nitwit Qin"?
"Aaaaagh! Old Meng, it would have been fine if you said I didn"t dare to fight you, but how dare you insult our grand-elder! We Miaos will fight you Mengs today. Open the d.a.m.n door, I"m gonna chop this old mutt into minced meat…."
A loud growl came from the cottage as the wooden doors swung open and murderous intent rushed out from inside. As the Miao clan roared and dashed forward, Fang Xing simply laughed and carried his banner elsewhere.
His method was simple to the core: stand outside and verbally abuse them. Weren"t declarations like "your ancestor once watched their neighbor Widow Zhang bathing in secret", or "your servant"s dog bit a little beggar just pa.s.sing by" all shameful enough to cause the entire clan to lose face? Weren"t they going to protect the name and pride of their ancestor, or of that dog? Then rather than hiding like a turtle, come out for a battle!
All said, these clans knew each other"s secrets rather well. It wasn"t difficult to infuriate each other, and the valley that had somewhat finally settled became bustling in mere moments.
At this precise moment around a hundred miles away from the valley, a righteous-looking middle-aged man stood airborne with his hands folded against his back. Behind him stood five Foundation Stage cultivators both young and old, and everyone wore clothing characteristic of the Melodic Ice Palace. Their gazes were all directed towards Cold Soul Valley, and when traces of Qi began to shoot up into the sky with murderous intent, the middle-aged man finally began to show a faint smile.
"They"ve already started their fights. That means the cultivators of this realm still have some bloodthirst within them!"
"Sect Master, this seems to be a bit different from what the grand-elder ordered, though…" an older Foundation Stage man with a pale and aged appearance spoke up from behind the middle-aged man.