Chapter 27 : I Survived Another Task Again!
Chapter 27: I Survived Another Task Again!
When Long Tao boarded the same battered Cloud Vessel he had arrived on, swaying unsteadily as it descended, even he himself could hardly believe it—this time, he had actually come back alive, and had even obtained a life-saving item and a piece of land.
Moreover, judging from the land deed Zhu Huaisu had given him, the location of the new town was not among the several places he had previously guessed.
If he and Dong Jiayuan had gambled and directly gone to buy land, they would most likely have lost so badly they would be crying to their grandmothers.
The Cloud Vessel finally came to a steady stop at the aerial platform on the Main Peak.
When his feet stepped onto solid ground, Long Tao still felt a little dazed.
Although he had only spent a single day at Moon-Washing Peak, it felt as though he had gone through a very long time.
For a moment, everything felt unreal—he even suspected that he was still on last night’s Moon-Washing Peak, having just been killed by True Person Mingzhu, and that what he was experiencing now was merely a deathbed hallucination or a final life-flashing-before-his-eyes scene.
“Hallucination or not, so what? I’ve already transmigrated—why would I care about this crap.”
He rubbed his slightly disheveled hair and prepared to return to the small house he was renting.
Suddenly, he found himself missing the six-eyed spider little sister, and that unlucky suicide note also needed to be dealt with.
“Long Tao?”
Just as he was about to step forward, a full-bodied voice called out to him.
Long Tao turned around and immediately broke into a rare, genuinely heartfelt smile.
“Elder Wu! What brings you out sunbathing today? What a coincidence.”
“What coincidence!” Elder Wu snapped.
“You brat just barely passed the Outer Sect test, and instead of thinking about going into seclusion and striking while the iron’s hot to break through, you’re loafing around here? What are you wandering about for?”
This Elder Wu was the instructor for the basic grand classes of menial disciples and Outer Sect disciples alike.
As such, almost every disciple could be considered his student.
Within the sect, he could be said to have disciples… uh… weeds, filling the world.
Moreover, the old man was straightforward and upright, warmhearted by nature, and never looked down on anyone because of their background.
When Long Tao previously took the test to advance to an Outer Sect disciple, Elder Wu had been one of the examiners.
Although he had not cheated, he had certainly let quite a bit slide.
Furthermore, when Long Tao broke through from Qi-Refining Second Layer to Third Layer, the protection during his breakthrough had been personally handled by Elder Wu himself, a Golden Core True Person.
It could be said that within Nine-Xia Heavenly Sect, this was the person most qualified to have Long Tao call him “Master.”
“I didn’t have much confidence before, but recently I gained a few small fortuitous opportunities and got my hands on some pills. I’m planning to find time to break through within this month.”
“Is that so!” Elder Wu’s eyes lit up.
“Good—so you haven’t lost heart. Your spiritual roots may be mixed, but your mind isn’t bad. If you work hard, Foundation Establishment won’t be a problem. If you can obtain further opportunities in the future, even Golden Core isn’t beyond dreaming of. I’ll be over at the pill chamber tinkering with furnaces all month. When you’re ready to push through, if you need someone to guard you, come find me.”
“Many thanks, Elder!”
Long Tao solemnly performed a salute, then watched Elder Wu leave the aerial platform.
After walking only a few steps, Elder Wu suddenly stopped, turned around, and looked at Long Tao’s retreating back.
Stroking his chin, he said with puzzlement,
“This kid… his divine soul seems a bit stronger than before.”
……
With light, post-disaster steps, Long Tao headed home, pondering whether to crawl back into bed for another nap or head to Qixia Town for a stroll.
Although he had just woken up, after all, he had been knocked unconscious last night, and his head was still feeling groggy.
The moment he pushed open the gate to the small courtyard, his steps halted, and he froze.
On the stone stool in the courtyard sat three “people”—two giant spiders, plus a man.
And all of them were familiar faces.
The spider siblings went without saying, but the man was actually Dong Jiayuan!
“Old Dong?” Long Tao shouted.
“Why are you here? I didn’t tell you my address, did I?”Three heads snapped around in unison.
Seeing that it was him, they immediately surrounded him, their eyes filled with worry that plainly said, “You’re still alive?”
“Why am I here?” Dong Jiayuan demanded right off the bat.
“You still have the nerve to ask! What was that suicide note on the table in your room supposed to mean? If it weren’t for the two Luo clan Daoist friends going through so much trouble to find me, I wouldn’t even know that you—what exactly did you go do yesterday?!”
Long Tao instantly understood.
Most likely, one of the spider siblings had entered his room, seen the envelope on the table, panicked on the spot, and then, following the “person entrusted with posthumous matters” written on the envelope, went to find Old Dong.
“Oh… that thing…” Long Tao scratched his head and forced out a grin.
“I took on a job yesterday. There was just a tiny bit of risk involved. So, you know, in case something happened, I left a backup. I was planning to burn it as soon as I got back anyway. Heh.”
Seeing how carefree and nonchalant he looked, the three of them finally let their hanging hearts drop.
There were some sect tasks that sounded harmless on the surface, but if you were unlucky, they really could take your life.
Leaving behind a suicide note wasn’t all that rare.
“I… I’m sorry, Daoist Friend Long…” The spider little sister, Luo Yusi, spoke so softly it was like a mosquito buzzing.
Her six eyes blinked anxiously.
“I… I saw that you hadn’t come back all day yesterday, so I… I wanted to help you clean your room… and accidentally… saw the envelope on the table… that’s why…”
Long Tao did feel a bit displeased inside.
They had only known each other for a few days.
Even with good intentions, barging into someone else’s room showed a serious lack of boundaries.
But when he lifted his eyes and met those six eerie yet alluring eyes of hers…
Sigh.
The anger eased.
What could he do? That spider girl just happened to grow exactly on his aesthetic sweet spot.
“Ahem… it’s fine, it’s fine,” he waved his hand.
“That one’s on me for not explaining things clearly before I left. If my room isn’t convenient to enter in the future, I’ll let you know in advance.”
Both siblings let out sighs of relief.
This time, they really had meant well but ended up causing trouble.
After repeatedly promising never to barge into rooms again, they apologized once more and returned to their own place.
Seeing that nothing serious was wrong, Dong Jiayuan also completely relaxed and lifted his foot, ready to head back to the workshop.
Long Tao, however, called out and stopped him.
“Old Dong, wait. Come into the house with me—I’ve got something for you.”
Dong Jiayuan was a bit confused, but he didn’t ask much and followed him inside.
Long Tao’s eyes first flicked toward the redwood small box in the corner, which was practically equivalent to his entire net worth.
Good—completely untouched.
It seemed that the spider little sister, Luo Yusi, truly understood the rules and had only cleaned without touching anything.
He felt a bit more at ease.
Then, without the slightest hesitation, he pulled three bottles of pills and a chunk of tree root from the box and plopped them down on the table.
“Here. Take them. And don’t keep nagging me about repaying debts anymore, yeah?”
Dong Jiayuan stared at the items on the table, the shock in his eyes no longer concealible.
Those three bottles of pills—every single one was exactly the type he urgently needed at the moment, enough to almost push him straight to the threshold of Foundation Establishment! And that tree root was even more astonishing—it was a millennium-old yellow sandalwood root, an excellent tonic for stabilizing the foundation and nourishing vitality during the hundred days of Foundation Establishment!
These were things he had dreamed of obtaining.
Unfortunately, the prices were simply too scorching.
All he could do was grind away in the workshop, earning spirit stones bit by bit, while slowly tempering his Qi Refining through sheer patience, all to save a little on pill expenses.
But now…
Long Tao, this kid, had actually just casually taken out the things he had yearned for day and night?!
“You little—” Dong Jiayuan’s voice changed pitch.
“You didn’t really go do some head-losing business, did you?!”
Now that was the right reaction.
Long Tao grinned.
“Didn’t I tell you before? I ran into something good at Windless Cliff, but it wasn’t convenient for me to sell it myself, so I had to wait a few days. You even thought I was talking in my sleep.”
“Wait! You really ran into dog-shit luck?!”
“Hmph! The stuff’s right here on the table—how could it be fake?” Long Tao waved his hand.
“Hurry up and take it. Break through to Foundation Establishment early. That way I’ll have someone to rely on in the future too, won’t I?”
All the words of refusal and gratitude Dong Jiayuan had bottled up were immediately shoved back by Long Tao’s final remark about being a “backer.” He understood—this kid was afraid he would feel awkward, so he deliberately said the ugly truth first.
Warmth and helplessness mixed in his heart, and he could only give a bitter smile.
“Sigh… I’ve taken care of you like a younger brother for several years, and never thought I’d end up owing you a huge favor instead. Fine! I’ll take your good words to heart. I’ll reach Foundation Establishment as soon as possible and pay this debt back.”
After saying this, he seemed to recall something and asked with a hint of anticipation,
“By the way, Long Tao, didn’t you say before that a fortune-teller told you there was an opportunity at Windless Cliff? That jianghu… uh… that master—are they still around?”
Only then did Long Tao remember that, back then, in order not to expose the System Task, he had made up an excuse about a fortune-teller in front of Dong Jiayuan.
He hadn’t expected him to still remember it.
“Ahem… well, high-level experts are like that—divine dragons that show their heads but not their tails,” Long Tao waved his hand vaguely.
“When I went back to look later, they were already long gone.”