Green Gourd Sword Immortal - Chapter 19: A Sudden Change Arises
-Thank you DCRangeRange, Dean Dexter and Cannedbread
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On the morning of the third day, Liang Yan had already washed and dressed neatly, waiting early before the gate of Lin Fei’s courtyard.
When Lin Fei came out, he saw Liang Yan already waiting at the door. He gave him a slight nod, then flicked his sleeve, and a mechanical wooden turtle flew out from within. In midair, with a series of ka-cha, ka-cha sounds, it instantly grew to the size of a rooftop.
The mechanical wooden turtle crouched on the ground. Lin Fei brought Liang Yan and jumped onto the wooden turtle. With a pinch of a hand seal, the wooden turtle rapidly crawled forward, and in the blink of an eye arrived at the valley entrance. The wooden turtle then transformed into a wooden boat, carrying the two as it floated onward.
Liang Yan was no longer the same person he had been years ago. He naturally knew that the waterfall and river he had seen when first entering the valley were both part of the sect-protecting formation. Therefore, no matter how the surrounding scenery changed, he would not be as anxious as he had been back then.
After the two left Cloud Screen Mountain, Lin Fei immediately manipulated the wooden turtle to rise into the air and sped toward Green Mountain.
Seven days later.
The two landed at the summit of Green Mountain. By then, several people had already been waiting nearby. These people were all Qi Refining cultivators. When they saw Lin Fei approaching, they hurriedly bowed respectfully and said, “Thank you for taking the trouble to make this trip, Senior Uncle.”
Lin Fei nodded amiably and said, “It’s all just a sect mission.”
After saying that, he did not linger. Instead, he directly brought Liang Yan to the auction venue—the very cave where Liang Yan had bought the wooden fish back then.
After Lin Fei led him around for a circle, he stopped at the cave entrance and asked with a smile, “How is it? Are you confident you can set up a formation here?”
Liang Yan already had ninety percent confidence in his heart, but he still said, “This disciple will certainly do his utmost.”
“Then begin your preparations. The auction will be held at the hour of Zi on the night after tomorrow. The time left to you is not much. As for the formation materials, rest assured. Whatever you need, just ask those people from before.”
(TL Note: Zi is 11pm-1am)
Liang Yan nodded and said yes. Lin Fei glanced at him and said no more. He returned to the large vermilion courtyard at the summit and sat quietly to rest and recover.
For an auction like this, generally he did not need to do anything. All related matters were completed through the joint efforts of the sect’s branch courtyard here and some small sects nearby. What he had to do was appear at the auction site when the time came and overawe any troublemakers or those with ill intentions.
After Liang Yan asked the branch courtyard’s people for all the materials, he also began setting up the Heaven Eye Formation.
As the name implied, the Heaven Eye Formation required a spirit artifact with detection ability to serve as the formation eye.
Liang Yan chose a Bagua treasure mirror. Around it were carved the Daoist Eight Trigrams symbols, and in the center was inlaid a small mirror.
Formations differ in arrangement according to the different timing and terrain. Liang Yan set up the formation according to the terrain, taking two formation beads and eight formation flags, and carved formation patterns on the ground.
What he adopted was precisely the “Wind over Earth, Observation” hexagram among the Yi hexagrams.
This hexagram is formed by the stacking of different trigrams: below is Kun, above is Xun; wind moves over the earth. The Observation hexagram and the Approach hexagram are mutually inverse hexagrams, used alternately. Symbolic meaning: those above observe the world with insight; those below submit and follow.
In other words, the treasure mirror hung high at the entrance within the formation was like a supervising envoy of the upper position; those who entered the formation were like subjects of the lower position. The upper observes with insight, the lower submits and follows.
For anyone who entered the formation, all concealment methods would have nowhere to hide beneath the treasure mirror.
Although the Heaven Eye Formation was not an extremely profound formation, it was by no means simple to learn.
Liang Yan had studied formations for a long time, and with his natural intelligence, what he had learned and thought had actually already reached an astonishing level; it was only that he himself did not yet realize it.
At this moment, he slightly modified the Heaven Eye Formation and arranged it according to the terrain. If a formation master had been present, they would certainly have been startled by him.
On the afternoon of the next day, just as Liang Yan finished carving the last formation pattern, a voice of praise came from behind him: “I never expected Worthy Nephew Liang to be so extraordinarily gifted, to have such achievements in the formation lineage.”
Liang Yan turned to look. The speaker was none other than Lin Fei.
It turned out that he had nothing to do, so he came to the venue to inspect it.
When he saw the Heaven Eye Formation laid out by Liang Yan, although he himself did not understand formations, he could clearly feel that this formation gave him a sense of surveillance and detection.
It was actually not easy even for him, a cultivator at the mid Foundation Establishment stage, to deal with.
“Good, good, good! With such talent, Worthy Nephew Liang, I see the six-year agreement is extremely simple for you.”
“Senior Uncle Lin overpraises me. In truth, this disciple does not have much confidence in the six-year agreement.”
Lin Fei waved his hand and said with a smile, “There isn’t much time left. You’ve worked hard setting up the formation alone. Come back to the branch courtyard with me and rest for a day. Tomorrow night at the hour of Zi, I hope Worthy Nephew Liang can gain something here.”
Liang Yan smiled slightly and said, “Then I’ll borrow Senior Uncle Lin’s auspicious words.”
The two returned together to the branch courtyard at the summit.
Liang Yan sat in meditation in his own room to rest.
Unknowingly, a day passed.
When night came the next day, Liang Yan followed Lin Fei to the auction venue.
Lin Fei enjoyed a VIP seat at the auction venue. After entering, he greeted Liang Yan and then left. Liang Yan alone found a seat near the front.
The number of people attending this auction seemed to be quite a few more than the previous one.
As the auction was about to begin, people at the entrance continued to stream in without end.
After some more time, when the hall was almost full, Lin Fei flew out from the VIP seats and landed on the square platform in the center of the venue. Just like the last auction, he gave a brief introduction and then withdrew.
Only, the person in charge of hosting the auction next had changed from the red-nosed old man of last time to a dark-faced man.
“Everyone,” the dark-faced man cleared his throat and said loudly, “I won’t waste words on idle chatter. The first item of today’s auction is a mid-grade spirit artifact of the Confucian school, the Mountains and Rivers Fan!”
As he spoke, a female cultivator dragged a treasure box onto the stage. The dark-faced man opened the treasure box and took out the Mountains and Rivers Fan. With a riiip, he unfolded it, and upon it was painted, in ink-wash style, a majestic great mountain, with rivers flowing through nine regions, vividly lifelike. Waves of extraordinary spiritual energy fluctuation emanated from it.
The dark-faced man did not speak. With a surge of spiritual power in his hand, he struck the trial stone used for demonstration in the venue. Instantly, fierce wind howled, and an aura of mountains and great rivers surged out, leaving the trial stone covered in pits and hollows.
Seeing the spirit artifact’s power, everyone below secretly nodded. They knew the trial stone was made of special materials; normally, a single strike from a Qi Refining cultivator could not leave the slightest trace on it. The dark-faced man had not refined the treasure fan, yet merely casually activating a single fan strike possessed such power. How could they not be moved?
After one strike, the dark-faced man put away the Mountains and Rivers Fan and said lightly, “Mountains and Rivers Fan. To activate it requires the cultivation of the seventh layer of Qi Refining. Starting bid: three hundred spirit stones. Each bid increase must not be less than twenty spirit stones.”
The crowd below immediately began wildly raising the price. Only Liang Yan closed his eyes and rested, as if he had not heard. The goal of this trip was only one thing: the Barrier-Breaking Pill. He was determined to obtain it!
One auction item after another was won by the crowd. In the blink of an eye, more than twenty items had passed. Liang Yan could not help but feel slightly impatient. ‘Could it be that there really is no Barrier-Breaking Pill at this auction?’
Just as he was feeling anxious, he heard the dark-faced man on stage say, “The next item is one everyone will not be unfamiliar with. It is a pill that we Qi Refining stage cultivators can all take—Barrier-Breaking Pill!” As he spoke, he took a small white jade bottle from the female cultivator who came on stage. He took out a white pill from the bottle and displayed it to everyone.
“It really is a Barrier-Breaking Pill!”
“This Barrier-Breaking Pill is quite helpful for breaking through a realm bottleneck. It might be worth getting.” The crowd below discussed noisily.
“One Barrier-Breaking Pill. Starting bid: fifty spirit stones. Each bid increase must not be less than five spirit stones!”
“I’ll take it for fifty spirit stones!” Someone immediately shouted below.
“I bid fifty-five spirit stones!”
“Sixty-five spirit stones!”
Just as everyone was raising the price, a youth’s voice suddenly said, “I bid one hundred spirit stones!”
As soon as these words came out, the bidding voices below immediately stopped. They knew that although the Barrier-Breaking Pill was good, a price of one hundred spirit stones had already somewhat exceeded the pill’s value, and the bidder clearly was determined to obtain this pill.
This bidder was none other than Liang Yan. He thought, ‘In any case, I must win this Barrier-Breaking Pill. Rather than that, I might as well strike first to seize the initiative and directly call one hundred spirit stones, avoiding some people’s desire to compete.’
Seeing that the crowd below no longer made bids, the dark-faced man waited a while, then said, “Since no one else bids, then…”
Before he finished speaking, someone suddenly called out, “One hundred fifty spirit stones!” The voice was crisp and pleasant; it was actually a woman.
Liang Yan frowned and turned to look. In a corner of the hall sat a white-clad young woman, with a slender figure and skin whiter than snow. Although her face was covered by white gauze, one could still sense that she was a beauty capable of toppling cities and kingdoms.
Liang Yan was secretly annoyed. After hesitating for a moment, he still called out, “One hundred sixty!”
“Two hundred sixty!”
This time the woman did not pause at all. She immediately followed Liang Yan’s bid, and moreover added another one hundred spirit stones on top of his bid.
Liang Yan turned his head and glared angrily. The woman was not afraid in the least, looking back calmly. In her eyes there was even a trace of teasing.
-Thank you DCRangeRange, Dean Dexter and Cannedbread
Follow me on Patreon via Linktree https://linktr.ee/Mnotia-