He lived in peace for over a month. Today, Wen Jing left the stone house in preparation to head out to the vegetable garden. Lowering his head, he saw a sinister black thing crawling on the open space.
On a closer look, this thing had a shell, four short limbs, and appeared gentle and harmless.
……unexpectedly, it was only a tortoise.
The tortoise was about the size of a washbasin, deep green, with thick shell, and a very small round head. At the moment it wasn’t making any movements.
Wen Jing was slightly distracted: Whose tortoise is this?
The tortoise had no fear of people. Seeing Wen Jing come out, it only turned its head to peer at him with a pair of fixed black beady eyes. Wen Jing paid no further attention to it and yielded to the impulse to feel its shell with his hand as he walked past it along the mountain path towards the vegetable garden. Glancing back, he only saw a small tortoise also looking back, still seeming somewhat foolish but still without movement or reaction.
Seeing the clear boundless sky, his mood, like the sky, was good. Wen Jing arrived at the fence to the vegetable garden only to distantly hear Gu JinPing’s angry voice: “That thing showed up again, drive it out!”
He quickly entered and looked around, slightly astonished.
A row of vegetables leaned unsteadily from side to side. It seemed something had crushed them as it passed leaving an unbearable mess. The field of spirit grass was a tragic sight. Over a tenth of it was bitten in pieces leaving everything broken and in disorder another wide expanse was dead.
A golden little beast was standing in the middle of the grass still eating while disregarding the chaos around it.
The air was filled with the remnants of spiritual energy, causing heartache to those nearby.
Mo ShaoYan calmly fired a weak green ray of light from his hand, hitting the small beast’s body like a stone. The little beast didn’t dodge and was struck by his spiritual energy. Unfortunately, there was no effect and the beast remained unscathed. There was only the loud sound of a collision against metal.
Thus, it didn’t even raise its head and continued to eat.
Mo ShaoYan had used all of his abilities. Standing in front of the fence he very slowly said: “There is nothing else I can do.”
Gu JinPing, also out of options, angrily said: “I’ll go call for eldest senior brother.”
After saying this, he left the garden.
Wen Jing looked at the golden skin covering the beast and quietly exclaimed: “Gathering spirit beast!”
This thing was something raised by the demonic beast handlers in Tian Heng peak. From time to time it would run over to Hui Shi peak and wreak havoc in the spirit grass fields.
Everyone was helpless and didn’t dare kill it for fear of provoking a disturbance.
The body of this demonic beast was covered by a hard outer layer. Unless one used a sharp blade, it was impossible to cut. But it had a fatal flaw, it feared vinegar water.
There was a small kitchen in the vegetable garden where the three caretakers would gather together to prepare their meals. Wen Jing ran like a gust of wind and grabbed a bottle of vinegar.
Just then, an arrogant voice could be heard from the garden: “Eight Winds, go!”. The small golden beast came to a stop and then sprang into motion and rushed out of the garden.
Wen Jing and the others hurried out of the garden only to see a tall and thin disciple sitting cross-legged on a block of stone. He appeared older and little ugly, he had a pair of eye-catching eyebrows that fell in the shape of an eight (八) and wore a somewhat anxious expression.
This face reminded Wen Jing of a particular person. This person sitting here was one of Tian Heng peak’s disciples, Wu Ying.
Wu Ying had an average aptitude. he was already over thirty years of age and was very concerned about still being in the Qi Refining stage. In order to increase his cultivation he had decided to raise a gathering spirit beast.
Gathering spirit beasts can accumulate spiritual energy for a cultivator to absorb. It was an extremely useful type of demonic beast but it was addicted to spirit grass and was extremely destructive. It was a pain in the neck. Wu Ying raised this demonic beast but didn’t dare allow it to run amok in Tian Heng peak, so from time to time he would bring it to Hui Shi peak.
Gu JinPing, acting the hero for his own side, didn’t dare make a fuss in front of an outsider and only frowned at Wu Ying.
Mo ShaoYan slowly said: “Senior brother Wu, are you unable to stop your demonic beast from periodically running over to Hui Shi peak?”
Wu Ying didn’t look at the three of them but bent his head to pat the demonic beast: “Did you eat your fill? I asked you to stop coming over to pilfer the spirit grass of other people’s dwellings, why don’t you listen?”
Acting spoiled, the demonic beast rubbed its head against Wu Ying’s leg.
Wen Jing coldly snorted and said: “You just need to tie it up with a leash at Tian Heng peak, how can you not control it?”
Wu Ying lifted his head, glanced at him, and said: “A demonic beast is just an animal, wouldn’t tying it up all day be a great cruelty? It has no intelligence, it only knows to fill its belly. Don’t tell me you’re making a fuss about such a small animal?”
Wen Jing responded icily: “Then why don’t you raise it in Tian Heng peak and see what your bellow senior brothers in charge of the spirit grass have to say and if they make a fuss about it.”
Wu Ying stood up and laughed: “I’m not interested in raising it in Tian Heng peak. What are you going to do about it? Why don’t you set up a formation so that my demonic beast isn’t able to enter. No money for formations and no resources to resist Tian Heng peak, what can you even do?”
The three mean were speechless with anger.
Wu Ying touched the head of the demonic beast and turned around to leave, saying: “Little darling, just wait I’ll get you something delicious to eat.”
The small beast rubbed against his leg and followed behind as they swaggered away.
Wen Jing’s complexion paled. Opening his system, he inspected that man’s moral standing and immediately raised his eyebrow.
[Moral standing: 341. Acts on his principles. Will become a very capable person.]
This kind of hoodlum had a moral standing of 341, almost the same as Liu QianMo?
In the end, what basis did the system use to measure moral standing?
Gu JinPing said: “What should we do? Do you want to inform eldest senior brother?”
Mo ShaoYan calmly and unhurriedly said: “We must tell eldest senior brother, otherwise how would we explain the disastrous condition of the vegetable garden?”
Wen Jing hesitated: “Eldest senior brother is bound to become angry about this matter.
Can no one in Tian Heng peak manage this Wu Ying?”
Mo ShaoYan looked at him: “Eldest senior brother has brought this up with Wen RenMu of Tian Heng peak many times. Wen RenMu has promised many times to do something, but up until now there’s been no result.”
Gu JinPing resentfully said: “Wen RenMu has over two hundred junior brothers, how do you expect him to control so many? The best you can hope for is for him to admonish Wu Ying. This demonic beast only pilfers spirit grass. He doesn’t cause any injuries. It’s only natural no one cares about this issue.”
Mo ShaoYan slowly said: “They may think it’s nothing but a trifle, but this is dozens of spirit grass. This spirit grass can be refined into more than ten medicinal pills and can be sold for twenty spirit stones. This provides our ten people over a month worth of food.”
At wits end they continued to sigh.
Suddenly, a rustling could be heard from a patch of underbrush not far away. Apparently something was crawling over. Wen Jing was startled, thinking that the small golden beast was returning. Immediately becoming silent, he stared in that direction. Whatever it was moved very slowly.
Wen Jing frowned. Shortly after, a very small head emerged from the underbrush and peered at Wen Jing. Following the head there came a huge shell as it slowly crawled out.
Gu JinPing was relieved: “Ah, it’s only a tortoise.”
The tortoise crawled over to Wen Jing at stopped at his feet looking rather foolish.
Wen Jing couldn’t help to think it was a little ridiculous and he squatted down to stroke its head. The tortoise didn’t avoid the touch and allowed him to continue touching him.
Wen Jing asked: “This is a wild tortoise?” It was foolish and cute. It would be good if he could take it back home with him.
Mo ShaoYan looked at the tortoise and slowly said: “This is senior brother Jun’s demonic beast. It doesn’t cause any problems and spends its time randomly wandering around.”
Wen Jing suddenly realized something.
《A Calamity for All Living Things》had mentioned that Jun YanZhi had raised a demonic beast but it had never been specific on what kind it had been. As it turns out, it was this tortoise.
Wu Ying was disagreeable and so was his demonic beast. Jun YanZhi was as gentle as jade and had also raised a well behaved sensible pet.
Sure enough, nurture determines a person’s character and people are drawn to those most like themselves.
Feeling gloomy, the three individuals stopped paying attention to the tortoise and returned to the vegetable garden to clear up the mess. Continuously uprooting the remnants kept them busy until nightfall. After eating their evening meal and returning to the field, they saw the tortoise was still foolishly squatting in the same spot. Apparently it had not moved at all. Wen Jing squatted down and touched it for a moment and then went home.
Along the way, Wen Jing bowed his head in thought.
《A Calamity for All Living Things》had only mentioned the spirit gathering beast once.
This beast was a rarely seen creature, feared vinegar, but not much else was known. The final fate of this small beast was unknown. It was surprising that Liu QianMo had discussed the issue with Wen RenMu many times and yet nothing had been done about it.
Wen RenMu’s evaluation in Wen Jing’s heart promptly dropped another level. "Clean Record Virtuous Behavior, Deserves to be Admired By All"…… haha.
The system gave Wu Ying and Wen RenMu such a high evaluation. Why did he feel Liu QianMo was a much higher grade in comparison? Does it not see things in a comprehensive manner?
Returning to the stone house, Wen Jing was hungry again and so made himself a bowl of noodles to eat. Heading out to the side of the precipice to wash dishes, he turned his head and saw on the open area a black thing slowly crawling towards him. Feeling happy, Wen Jing stepped forward and squatted down.
“So you showed up again? Does your master mistreat you so that you don’t want to return home tonight?”
Wen Jing touched the head of the small tortoise and saw the slow reaction of the tortoise as it became motionless with a feeling as if it planned to spend the night there.
He promptly returned to the house and wracked his brains, not knowing what kind of things a tortoise would like to eat. Finally he cooked some corn, put the kernels in a saucer, and placed it in front of the tortoise’s beak.
The tortoise’s reaction was slower than usual and it stared foolishly at the corn for a while then bent its head to slowly bite.
Wen Jing sat at its side and waited for it to finish the kernels of corn.
In this fashion, it stayed in the open space in front of Wen Jing’s stone house for several days. It was not picky about its food and was rather well trained, finding underbrush before using the toilet and not leaving its waste all over the place.
After a few days, Liu QianMo had been informed of the matter of Wu Ying’s spirit gathering beast and although he was angry, he was helpless to resolve the issue and only called Wen Jing and the others to help repair the fence.
Establishing a formation could help prevent intruders, however formations required costly spirit stones and they couldn’t afford or justify the use for a single vegetable garden much less make a fuss over such a minor issue. Even those of the eight peaks with ample resources would not spend the eight pieces of spirit stone just to set up a formation to protect a vegetable garden.
Although every peak of the Qing Xu sword sect had defensive formations, they were only intended to protect against foreign invaders, not other disciples.
Liu QianMo felt that this matter wouldn’t be easy to resolve. Although they could complain to the clan head, they wouldn’t be taken seriously and possibly result in being mocked by the other peaks. In the future they might hear something like “Your shifu won’t deal with it” in a sneering manner.
He had repeatedly brought up the issue with Wen RenMu. Wen RenMu’s attitude was good and he was full of apologies, promising to thoroughly investigate the issue which left Liu QianMo with no way to escalate the issue.
Moreover, Qing Xu sword sect was strict about fighting within itself and if he provoked a disturbance, Hui Shi peak would lose even more influence. It was already difficult to be at their current disadvantage, more likely they would be held to be at fault, saying that they “didn’t care about injuring the sect for a mere few vegetables”.
In short, even though the pent up grievances were small, it was enough to be difficult to endure.
Wen Jing had no other choice but to scatter new seed. Day after day they worked very hard.
This evening, after a busy day in the vegetable garden he returned to his stone house covered in sweat. He saw a tortoise shell on the ground, limbs and head withdrawn, it seemed it was still sleeping.
He took off his dirty clothes and threw them on the ground. Using a ladle, he scooped up water from the cask of clear spring water and poured it on his body.
The cold wind blew on his body. Wen Jing closed his eyes and made a quick decision.
He lifted the barrel and with a splash poured it over the top of his head.
His ears were stopped up, but he could feel a faint feeling of spiritual energy filling the air.
He wiped the water from his face and opened his eyes. Without warning, not too far away stood a man in blue clothes. Red clouds were framed behind his back. It appeared as if he had floated down from the sky.
Wen Jing felt a quick glance sweep over his person.
Author’s notes:
Thanking readers.
Translator’s notes:
1. It’s described as “Color of nature, blue or green.” I have no idea what color he’s actually wearing.
I felt the chapter was a little boring, so it took longer to translate. In FFXIV I’m also in the post 50 funk where I’m running around doing all the boring pre-Heavensward quests. I’m dreading doing Garuda again, hate that trial so much. I’m also not looking forward to Alphinaud’s mess. Ugh. So I’m distracting myself with a Kdrama. So much secondhand embarrassment. “Don’t look into his underwear drawer!! Aargh… he saw you…”
【 TV 】 -o(.￣ ) …….. (/□＼*)・゜