Chapter 40: Half a Jade Pendant

  "Master!" Li Muran's face changed slightly, he had already seen that the one emitting a strong light was his master, Zi Xia Dao Ren - who was riding on the flying phoenix and flew extremely fast to this place, landing in front of Li Muran.

  "Nice to meet you, Master!" Li Muran bowed his head in respect, but he felt a bit uneasy in his heart. He had just killed Mo Shixiong and now his master appeared at this very moment, it was quite a coincidence!

  Zi Xia Dao Ren smiled slightly and looked around, somewhat surprised, saying: "That little thief surnamed Mo has already been killed by you?"

  "Master indeed knew!" Li Muran was shocked in his heart, but he didn't know the master's intention, so he could only pretend to be stupid and stood still on the spot without responding.

  "Why did you want to kill him? He is after all your fellow disciple!" Zi Xia Dao Ren said coldly, pointing at the broken storage bag on the ground that Li Mu Ran didn't have time to pick up.

  This storage bag has already explained everything, and it's futile to cover it up; Li Muran hesitated for a moment before saying: "I won't kill him, he'll kill me! Cultivating immortality is originally about contending with heaven for one's life, in order to survive, one must even fight against heaven, let alone people, let alone those who want to harm oneself! If the disciple is constrained by fraternal bonds and holds back, perhaps what the master sees now is only the storage bag left behind by the disciple!"

  Zi Xia Dao Ren heard this, his eyes coldly measured Li Mu Ran, his gaze sharp as a knife, as if wanting to pierce into the depths of Li Mu Ran's heart, giving him a chilling feeling.

  Suddenly, Zixia Daoist looked up at the sky and laughed loudly several times, saying: "Haha, well said! I didn't expect you to understand this principle at such a young age!"

  "Master doesn't blame his disciple?" Li Muran's heart slightly relaxed.

  "Of course not!" Zi Xia Dao Ren laughed and said: "I'm not one of those stubborn old men, don't I understand the harm in this? This little thief surnamed Mo, actually dared to secretly lay a hand on my disciple right under my nose, leaving behind magnetic powder marks. He's truly asking for death! This is enough to prove that he has evil intentions towards you, and you killing him would be justified, it's his own fault! Even if Hong Xia Shifu finds out about this in the future, I will argue on your behalf and ensure you won't be punished!"

  "Thank you, Master!" Li Muran let out a long sigh of relief in his heart. It turned out that the master had already discovered Mo's young man's ambition, so everything was easy to explain.

  Seeing Li Muran still having some doubts, Zixia Daoren smiled slightly and said: "You must be wondering why I didn't expose that Mo surname scoundrel's true face at the first opportunity?"

  Li Muran nodded, he indeed had this question. As the master of Zixia Dao, he didn't need to worry about anything and could directly use the crime of "having ulterior motives" to kill that Mo brother and clean up the door.

  Zi Xia Dao Ren said seriously: "At that time, I intentionally let him come to bother you!"

  "The world of immortal cultivation is not a benevolent place, where open and secret struggles occur from time to time. This is an excellent opportunity for you to leave a deep impression on the dangers of the world of immortal cultivation!"

  "To survive in the cultivation world, it's not enough to just have innate talent and work hard. One must also be able to respond to all sorts of threats. Day in and day out, decades passing like a single day, this is the cultivation world; these life-and-death conspiracies and traps are also a part of it! I think you're a promising student, which is why I intentionally let you experience this trial by fire. After all, opportunities to temper oneself through life-or-death experiences aren't easy to come by!"

  "Of course, I've been secretly keeping an eye on that Mo surname little thief. If you can't handle him, I'll immediately step in to help."

  "Disciple thanks Master!" Li Muran bowed his head and saluted, his words extremely sincere.

  Zixia Daoist nodded in approval and said, "However, I didn't expect that he hadn't even made a move before being instantly killed by you! With this decisiveness, from today on, I will look at you with even higher regard!"

  "You've only been cultivating for a little over a year, yet you've already reached the middle stage of Qi Mo, which shows that your innate talent is not bad; today, being able to decisively take the initiative to kill the enemy, shows that your wisdom surpasses others. With these two points, your future in the cultivation world will be boundless! Your master has very high expectations for you, don't let your master down!"

  "Yes, the disciple will definitely work hard to repay the master's kindness." Li Mu Ran bowed again, and he even began to think that this Zi Xia Dao Ren was a good master, but in his heart, he felt that things were far from being so simple.

  Zi Xia Dao Ren seemed to see through Li Mu Ran's thoughts, and he smiled: "The master has been cultivating you with all his heart, naturally there is also the master's purpose. However, rest assured that as long as you cultivate well in the future, help the master accomplish great things, and the master will not neglect your benefits after the matter is settled!"

  "Yes, I understand!" Li Muran nodded, and with Zixia Dao Ren clarifying the matter, he felt more at ease.

  It's hard for Li Muran to believe that Zi Xia Dao Ren doesn't have his own goals. Perhaps in the cultivation world, there are some masters who cultivate their disciples with all their heart and don't ask for anything in return, but such people are extremely rare, and it's highly unlikely that he would be so lucky as to encounter one. Moreover, if Zi Xia Dao Ren were truly that kind of person, news of it would have spread throughout the sect long ago, and all the disciples would be clamoring to become his apprentice, and it wouldn't have fallen to him.

  "You're a clever person, that's good!" Zi Xia Dao Ren said: "Talking to clever people is always pleasant. Let's just forget about the Mo surname little thief's affair as if it never happened. But I hope you remember what I've said today and keep it in your heart!"

  Zi Xia Dao Ren said, and with a light tap of his foot, he turned around on the flying phoenix and left, disappearing into the darkness in an instant.

  The tattered storage bag left behind by the young man with the surname Mo didn't even warrant a second glance from Zixia Dao Ren - which wasn't surprising, as the wealth of a mid-stage Qi Mai disciple couldn't possibly catch the eye of a mid-stage Shen You like Zixia Dao Ren. Moreover, these leftover items should have been taken over by Li Muran anyway, and he didn't want to fight with his disciples over them either.

  Watching Master Purple Cloud's figure disappear into the darkness, Li Muran slowly let out a breath.

  Li Muran stood there for a while before shifting his gaze back to his surroundings.

  "Let's clean up here first." Li Muran retrieved the remaining poisonous liquids and gases around the symbol array, as well as the triggering mechanisms. These things were all prepared by him according to the records of "Thieving Classics", and he didn't expect them to be useful so soon.

  Then Li Muran glanced at the broken storage bag and the treasures that had fallen to the ground.

  Almost all the Dan medicine, talismans, talisman papers, and classics were destroyed together, leaving only a dozen or so low-grade spirit stones and a poor-quality talisman sword - this kind of talisman sword was not even worth looking at by Li Muran. In the daytime when his magic power was stagnant, it might still have some effect, but in the nighttime environment, his magic power flowed smoothly, and he was familiar with the ritual of offering sacrifices to the talismans, so this talisman sword had no effect on him whatsoever.

  "There's still a half piece of jade pendant!" Li Muran found another treasure, and when he saw the semi-circular jade pendant for the first time, he had a familiar feeling. After thinking about it briefly, he immediately remembered.

  He hastily took out a half-piece of jade pendant from his own storage bag in his bosom, which was also semi-circular.

  Li Muran pieced together two pieces of jade pendants, the gaps matched perfectly, and indeed formed a complete circular jade pendant.

  "It turned out to be a Book Jade Symbol!" Li Muran carefully examined it for a moment before quickly recognizing the origin of this jade pendant.

  Shu Yu Fu is also a kind of jade quality symbol, and it's the simplest jade symbol, even simpler than the transmission symbol.

  The jade symbol on the book only has a single seal, and once the seal is opened, the jade symbol can be used. Therefore, its use is relatively simple. Its sole function is to store graphic information, similar to how yuanqi symbols store yuanqi.

  The Shu Yu Fu has a more commonly used colloquial name, called the Jade Strip, which is usually used by high-ranking cultivators to record their skills and scriptures. It's very simple to use, just unseal it and you can see the text and images stored inside. Copying it is even more convenient, just place an empty Jade Strip next to it, cast a spell to unseal both strips, inject some spiritual energy, and the empty strip will automatically copy the information from the other strip in an instant.

  The beautiful jade used to make the jade slips is not cheap, so a blank jade slip sells for ten pieces of low-grade spirit stone. This amount doesn't mean much to high-ranking cultivators, but low-ranking cultivators rarely use jade slips - ten pieces of spirit stone are also not a small sum for them.

  "Xiao Shixiong's death is indeed related to that Mo surname!" Li Muran said with a stir in his heart.

  The two halves of this jade tablet, one comes from a young man with the surname Mo; the other comes from the treasure left behind by Xiao Shusheng.

  Xiao Shusheng carefully designed the will left to Li Muran, Xiao Shusheng and Mo Shixiong leaving the sect together but only Mo Shixiong returning injured, and Mo Shixiong taking over the Cangshu Pavilion with injuries, as well as Mo Shidi's three attempts to harm himself. Li Muran connected these events together, thinking carefully, and roughly understood what had happened.

  "Brother Xiao, if I'm not mistaken, I unwittingly avenged you today!" Li Muran cupped his hands and bowed upwards in a distant tribute to Xiao Shusheng.

  Li Muran thought that it was Xiao Shusheng and Mo Shixiong who had fought each other at first, resulting in one death and one injury. However, Mo Shixiong did not find the treasure he wanted among Xiao Shusheng's belongings, so he strongly demanded to take over the Cangshu Pavilion, hoping to find clues about the treasure there. Of course, Mo Shixiong couldn't find any clues because the will had been discovered by Li Muran one step ahead. In the end, Mo Shixiong suspected Li Muran and tried to deal with him - although Mo Shixiong guessed correctly, he ultimately brought about his own downfall.

  "What information is recorded on this jade pendant? Why did it split into two halves? Why were they obtained by Xiao Shixiong and Mo Shixiong respectively? Why are the two willing to kill each other in order to obtain the other half of the jade pendant?"

  Li Muran's heart was filled with even more doubts.

  "Look and you'll know!"

  Li Muran carefully looked at the jade slips pieced together and muttered to himself with some confidence:

  "This jade slip is not difficult to repair, just need to merge the two halves of the jade pendant and re-write the seal engraving. As for the information recorded in the jade slip, it should not be lost either."