Chapter 1037: Just Great Liang's Lord Warden Commander
This time, Chen Chao had come to the Infatuation Daoist Temple thoroughly prepared. But for a young Lord Warden Commander whose cunning and scheming ranked among the best in the world, his first choice was naturally to avoid sacrificing his own face, and certainly not to part with anything of real monetary value.
After all, under the current circumstances, the Great Liang Dynasty was like a housewife carefully counting how many bushels of rice and how many strings of coins were left to keep the household running. Whatever could be saved had to be saved, because no one knew when her husband would next bring money home.
Yun Jianyue smiled. "Since I've become Temple Master, I ought to seek some benefits for the daoists of this temple. Otherwise, they'll be cursing me behind my back."
Chen Chao looked at Yun Jianyue and uttered two words. "Cloud Ridge."
Yun Jianyue was taken aback. Clearly, he had not expected Chen Chao to mention those two words. He looked at Chen Chao in disbelief, then with deep suspicion, before finally murmuring, "That can't be right. Chen Chao, you've never been the sort to leave empty-handed. Getting something out of your hands is harder than ascending to the heavens."
The words "Cloud Ridge" would leave not only Yun Jianyue momentarily stunned, but in fact every daoist in all of daoism upon hearing them.
It was a solitary mountain situated on the border of Qingshan Prefecture. Originally, there had been nothing remarkable about it, but during the reign of Emperor Taizong, after the climate changed, the mountain began producing a medicinal herb known as the Cloud Spirit Herb.
Although the Cloud Spirit Herb was only an ordinary medicinal herb and had little use on its own, many Daoist pills required it, especially the Tranquility Pills used by powerful cultivators during secluded cultivation. The herb was needed to bring out the pills' medicinal effects. As such, the Cloud Spirit Herb had always been quite valuable. Wherever it was produced within Great Liang, it was sold to Daoism, with every major sect competing to purchase it.
Cloud Ridge alone accounted for half of Great Liang's annual production of Cloud Spirit Herb.