Chapter 98: World Three [12]

After moving closer to observe for a moment, Jing Ke smoothly matched the formation to a certain trapping formation in her memory.

A trapping formation, as the name implies, is a formation used to trap a specific person or seal away a certain object.

A formation composed of twelve plum blossom trees was not very difficult to begin with, and with the addition of a thirteenth plum blossom tree, breaking the formation became even easier.

Under the slightly curious gaze of her little disciple, Jing Ke broke off a small branch from a plum blossom tree. After infusing it with Inner Strength, she directly inserted it into the Formation Eye.

Immediately afterward, one of the plum blossom trees suddenly snapped in the middle with a “Boom!”, and a large portion of its roots, originally deeply embedded in the soil, were exposed to the air.

“Master?” Luo Yuezhu watched this with wide eyes, a hint of fear in them, but more so curiosity. “What did Master just do?”

“Mm, I broke a small formation,” Jing Ke said. After using her Inner Strength to pull out the remaining half of the root, a rectangular object wrapped in oil-paper was revealed.

Jing Ke bent down to retrieve the entire item. Tearing off the outer layer of oil-paper revealed a small box locked with a mortise and tenon structure.

Jing Ke weighed it in her hand. For the sake of convenience, she directly destroyed the mortise and tenon structure with her Inner Strength and took out a piece of sheepskin stored inside the box. It seemed to have a map drawn on it.

Hmm? It’s not a martial arts manual? It’s a treasure map?

Jing Ke stared at it for a while. Seeing that her little disciple was also curious, she handed the sheepskin map over.

“Master, is this a Treasure Map?” Luo Yuezhu took it and examined it carefully, finding the terrain depicted on the map somewhat familiar.

“Master, the drawing seems to be of a place we just passed by,” Luo Yuezhu said.

“Is it?” Jing Ke wasn’t very sensitive to ancient maps or terrain and looked at her little disciple with slight confusion.

“Yes, it’s the place we passed when we met the woodcutter. According to what’s written on the sheepskin, it seems he hid something under a big locust tree?” Luo Yuezhu’s curiosity was piqued, remembering the storybooks she had read before.

“Master, do you think there might be some unparalleled treasure buried under the big locust tree?” Luo Yuezhu looked up at her Master. The rims of her eyes still held faint red marks, but the eagerness in her eyes was equally apparent.

Luo Yuezhu: “Master, should I go find it?”

“That…” Jing Ke said thoughtfully, “It’s possible, but as for what it is, Your Master can’t guess either. If you’re curious, go look for it.”

The difficulty of this trapping formation wasn’t high, and the location where the treasure was buried was so close. It was most likely just some family wealth or a cultivation method considered powerful in the eyes of ordinary people.

But her little disciple hadn’t started cultivating an Internal Cultivation Method yet. Whether she dug up a piece of gold or a mediocre Internal Cultivation Method, it would be something good for her little disciple.

Since the location the map pointed to wasn’t far anyway, Jing Ke let her little disciple follow the map on the sheepskin to hunt for treasure. Whatever she dug up in the end, she could handle it.

–

After staying in this sparsely populated little paradise for less than a Shichen, Jing Ke smoothed out the terrain she had damaged, and together with her little disciple, they took the carriage back to search for the treasure location.

Luo Yuezhu seemed to have an exceptional sense of terrain. It didn’t take long for her to find the large locust tree corresponding to the sheepskin map.

The large locust tree was at the entrance of a certain village. Because of the cold weather and considerable snow on the ground, not many people were out playing. Almost every household had their Main Entrance tightly shut, with only windows open for heating by fire.

The big locust tree was easy to find, but exactly where the so-called treasure was buried, Luo Yuezhu wasn’t sure. The map didn’t offer any additional tips.

With the soil covered by snow, no traces could be seen. Furthermore, judging by the year the sheepskin map was drawn, the item had been buried for at least five years. Even without the snow, any signs of disturbed earth would have long since vanished.

“Master, where should I start digging?” Luo Yuezhu asked, holding a shovel the Servant Boy had bought from a villager, feeling she had no clue where to begin.

She couldn’t just dig up the whole big locust tree, could she? Even if she could, the villagers probably wouldn’t let her wreak havoc on this tree that looked to be nearly a hundred years old.

Jing Ke pinched the little tuft of hair on her little disciple’s head and reminded her, “Do you still remember those twelve plum blossom trees?”

“I remember,” Luo Yuezhu nodded.

“Recall their positions, and think about which plum blossom tree the item in your hand came from.” Jing Ke didn’t give the answer directly, only offering enough hints.

Positions and the plum blossom tree’s location? Luo Yuezhu instinctively started recalling.

After passing through the gap, she should have been facing north. The plum blossom tree her Master destroyed was ahead and to her right, which should be a north-by-northeast direction.

If she applied that specific position to the locust tree, it should be…

Luo Yuezhu quickly found the correct spot and tentatively dug two shovelfuls. Seeing that her Master just smiled without stopping her, she continued digging downwards.

Because of the low temperature, the top layer was frozen earth, making it relatively laborious to dig. She worked until fine sweat appeared on her forehead before she successfully excavated a pit about one meter deep and saw another object wrapped in oil-paper.

With a hint of anticipation, she opened the somewhat brittle oil-paper, and an Internal Cultivation Method with its name smeared out came into Luo Yuezhu’s view.

Luo Yuezhu flipped through a few pages casually. Finding that she couldn’t quite understand it, she immediately jumped out of the pit and walked over to her Master with the excavated Internal Cultivation Method in hand.

“Master, is this some very powerful martial arts secret manual?” Luo Yuezhu looked at Jing Ke with slight anticipation.

Seeing that her little disciple’s face, unknowingly smudged with dirt and looking like a little calico cat, Jing Ke couldn’t help but laugh. Before taking the manual, she first used her fingertips to wipe away the dirt stains on the other’s face.

“Let me see,” Jing Ke said with a smile. After flipping open and reading the first few pages, her eyebrows raised slightly.

“Master?” Luo Yuezhu blinked and asked.

Jing Ke flipped to the end, read for another moment, and summarized, “This is a rapid-progress cultivation method. According to this, one year of training can yield the Inner Strength that an ordinary person would gain from three years of bitter cultivation. However…”

Jing Ke closed the so-called martial arts secret manual. “However, the method’s drawback is also very clear: it damages one’s lifespan. Once cultivation begins, unless one reaches the tenth layer within ten years, when the ten years are up, all Meridians will be destroyed, resulting in death.”

“Then isn’t such a cultivation method very dangerous?” Luo Yuezhu frowned upon hearing this. Although she was young, she understood the concept of proportionate effort and reward. Rapid progress usually meant pulling up seedlings to help them grow.

“It is very dangerous, but it’s also very suitable for certain people who seek quick success,” Jing Ke said, narrowing her eyes slightly at the secret manual, unable to help suspecting in her heart whether the System (Rules) was behind this.

After all, this kind of cultivation method was most suitable for those desperately wanting to increase their Cultivation Base to avenge deceased loved ones.

If she hadn’t appeared, what kind of situation would await her little disciple? Would she drive away Third Master Luo to stay? Or would she be saved by the Martial Arts Alliance and taken away when encountering the first wave of assassins?

When her little disciple had gained some understanding of the Jianghu, would she revisit old haunts and discover the Plum Blossom Tree Formation, thus indirectly obtaining this very manual in her hand?

Jing Ke couldn’t be certain that things would definitely unfold this way, but based on current circumstances, the appearance of this cultivation method seemed slightly deliberate. For someone filled with hatred in their heart but lacking sufficient strength, it was simply too tempting.

Most importantly, the initial stages of this cultivation method were very easy to practice, giving one the illusion that continuing to work hard would surely allow a breakthrough to the tenth layer.

“Master, how should we deal with this cultivation method? If this method fell into the wrong hands, it seems quite serious,” Luo Yuezhu said.

Under Jing Ke’s careful guidance, although Luo Yuezhu now yearned for strength, she wouldn’t be tempted by such a sinister cultivation method.

After all, Luo Yuezhu had many paths laid out before her. Her Master, Jing Ke, had also clearly stated that as long as she worked hard for twenty years, she could become a master of the martial world.

Luo Yuezhu would only be thirty years old by then; she felt she could afford to wait.

“This is something you dug up. How do you want to deal with it?” Jing Ke asked, giving the decision-making power to Luo Yuezhu.

“Since it’s not a good thing, then destroy it, lest it be obtained by bad people,” Luo Yuezhu quickly gave her answer. “Master, I want to burn this secret manual with fire.”

“Alright, but today Your Master will teach you another method, with roughly the same effect as burning the manual,” Jing Ke said, handing the cultivation method back to her little disciple. “Hold it well.”

Luo Yuezhu pinched the spine of the book with slight confusion, then she saw her Master place a hand on her right shoulder.

“Focus your attention. Your Master will let you experience the many uses of Inner Strength,” Jing Ke said.

Then Jing Ke drew a strand of extremely pure Inner Strength from herself and injected it through the thick clothing from her little disciple’s shoulder.

After circulating it once through the main Meridians in her little disciple’s body, she let the Inner Strength burst out from her palm, directly shattering the cultivation method into fragments the size of rice grains, which fell like snowflakes onto the large pit.

“Master, you’re so amazing,” Luo Yuezhu exclaimed, looking at her own palm with slight novelty. “Master, when can I do what you just did?”

“Probably in about a year. You haven’t started cultivating an Internal Cultivation Method yet, so I only injected a tiny bit of Inner Strength into your body,” Jing Ke said.

“Alright, now your task is to fill this pit back up, and then we can take the carriage back.” Jing Ke casually patted her little disciple’s head.

“Yes, Master!” Hearing that she could become that powerful after a year of hard work, Luo Yuezhu felt filled with strength.

In less than fifteen minutes, she filled the one-meter-deep pit back up, even meticulously using her own body weight to try and flatten the ground.

–

Realizing that the time to start cultivating an Internal Cultivation Method was drawing closer and closer, Luo Yuezhu’s sword-swinging movements also became more crisp and efficient.

Her dedicated progress was also evident. By mid-December, Luo Yuezhu had gone from being able to defeat only one Gatekeeper to being able to defeat the Gatekeeper and the Servant Boy simultaneously.

Such strength was considerably greater than that of an average adult male, and her reaction speed was almost comparable to the previous Low-rank Assassin.

As the time drew closer to Chinese New Year’s Eve, most pedestrians on the streets had changed into new clothes, preparing to welcome a brand new year.

In this atmosphere of family reunion, Luo Yuezhu found it easier and easier to think of her departed loved ones. She could only keep herself busy by practicing Sword Moves even harder and reviewing account books to avoid sinking into a state of sadness.

Perhaps because Jing Ke had taken Luo Yuezhu to deal with two wanted criminals at the end of the year, the Shopkeepers, having heard the news, all managed their shops extremely well. Not only were the account books error-free, but the year-end surplus was also half a percent higher than the previous year.

Luo Yuezhu followed her father’s past practice and gave some bonus money to the Shopkeeper and the staff below. Then she had Little Mu notify everyone that they would receive double their monthly pay for both December and January as a New Year’s benefit.

Luo Yuezhu’s intentions were easy to guess; she didn’t want others to miss out on a happy Spring Festival because of her.

While every household was putting up red lanterns, new Spring Festival Couplets, and new Window Paper-cuts, the Luo Residence only changed its couplets and didn’t decorate the courtyard too festively.

Jing Ke noticed her little disciple’s somewhat low spirits. However, she couldn’t bring the long-dead back to life, so she could only try to stay in the courtyard as much as possible and not go out, lest her little disciple feel too lonely.

Chinese New Year’s Eve required staying up late to welcome the new year. After simply eating some of the feast prepared by the kitchen, Luo Yuezhu began sitting in the courtyard in a daze, alternately looking at the moonless sky and the vegetation in the courtyard that hadn’t yet withered.

From the end of the You hour, Luo Yuezhu had been in the courtyard. After sending Little Mu back, she stayed there until the start of the Hai Hour when snow began to fall.

“It’s snowing,” Jing Ke appeared beside her little disciple without her noticing, holding an opened Oil-paper Umbrella in her hand.

“It’s very cold at night. Although your constitution is good, if snow falls on you and melts, you might end up lying in bed drinking medicine on the first day of the new year,” Jing Ke said, stuffing the Oil-paper Umbrella into her little disciple’s hand.

“Master…” Luo Yuezhu’s nose and eye rims were somewhat red, whether from secretly crying or simply from the cold.

“From tomorrow onwards, you will follow me in cultivating an Internal Cultivation Method. Before that, let Your Master first show you what Sword Moves with Inner Strength look like,” Jing Ke said.

Drawing the Long Sword hanging at her waist, Jing Ke placed the scabbard on the stone table in the courtyard. After walking a few steps away, she steadied her mind and began performing sword moves.

Inner Strength had many uses. If applied to a weapon, it could multiply the power of Sword Moves, even releasing Sword Qi externally.

Luo Yuezhu had experienced the attack power of Sword Qi long ago. The sword scars left by her Master when teaching the Martial Arts Alliance a lesson were still visible on the walls now.

However, this time Jing Ke didn’t release Sword Qi externally. She simply covered the Long Sword with Inner Strength, letting the sword aura swirl around her body, attracting large swathes of snowflakes to gather around her, increasing in number with her movements.

Luo Yuezhu watched her Master’s movements with wide eyes, a trance-like illusion arising in her mind.

Could her Master be a deity in the heavens who governs winter? How else could she make the snowflakes so obedient, fluttering around following her movements?

It seemed no martial arts master in the storybooks could do this yet.

Just as Luo Yuezhu’s mind was being drawn away by her Master, Jing Ke, for once, felt the urge to tease her little disciple a bit. She began slowly approaching her little disciple.

Then, when Luo Yuezhu was distracted thinking about other things, Jing Ke lightly swung out her sword, causing the snowflakes originally swirling around her to fly towards her little disciple’s head, then cascading down like sprinkling salt.

Fortunately, although Luo Yuezhu was distracted, she still firmly held the Oil-paper Umbrella her Master had given her. So the rush of falling snow only made the umbrella sway slightly, not allowing the snow to successfully ambush her.

“Master…” Luo Yuezhu called out with a hint of helplessness, feeling that her Master, who deliberately teased her like this, was a bit childish.

Jing Ke smiled, walked to the stone table to sheathe her Long Sword, and didn’t forget to dangle a big carrot before her disciple. “This move heavily tests a martial artist’s control over Inner Strength. If you practice well in the future, not only can you control snowflakes, but you can also control raindrops.”