CHAPTER 41: CHAPTER 41: THE NEW ARRAY FLAGS UNVEILED, TREASURE GIRL XIAO QINGYU_1

The morning sun had just begun to rise.

Wang Xiu exited the closed-door cultivation chamber, comfortably exhaling a breath of stale air. He glanced at the pond in the courtyard. The lotus seeds had already sprouted and were growing quite well, which proved his guess was completely correct. As long as water from the Yellow Springs was present, the Nourishing Soul Lotus would thrive anywhere.

He counted the days. There should be more than a dozen new mature lotuses on Mingyue Mountain. I’ll have to find time to harvest them. After all, a single Nourishing Soul Lotus was worth at least three thousand Spirit Stones, and it would be a huge loss if they withered after the flowering season.

BUZZ...

While Wang Xiu was making his plans, the Communication Token at his waist began to vibrate. It was Xiao Qingyu.

Wang Xiu formed a hand seal, and Xiao Qingyu’s cold, beautiful face appeared before him.

However, she appeared quite unhappy at this moment, her face shrouded in layers of frost. "You had better give me an explanation."

Wang Xiu had no idea what she was talking about.

Seeing his utterly confused look, Xiao Qingyu’s face radiated with intense killing intent. "Do I need to remind you?"

"Wang Xiu!"

"It’s one thing for you to be overdue on your own basic tasks!"

"The Divination Sect finally gets a new junior sister, and you’ve already led her astray! How could you let such a simple mission to perform salvation rites and a burial go overdue?"

"Landlord He has been waiting for you in Maple City for three whole days."

"If the Managing Disciple in Maple City hadn’t affixed an Ice Preservation Talisman to the corpse, his father’s body would be growing mold by now."

Looking at Xiao Qingyu’s frantic expression, Wang Xiu couldn’t help but twitch the corners of his mouth.

This is so embarrassing!

Previously, while taking on the Malicious Ghost mission at Mingyue Mountain, Wang Xiu had also accepted a task for Jiang Ling’er to handle the burial of Landlord He’s father in Maple City.

As it turned out, they ran into too many unexpected events: a Core Formation Stage Tiger Demon, the sealing of the Netherworld Passage, and even Ji Yan tearing through the void to send them home. One thing led to another, and the task for Landlord He’s family was inadvertently forgotten.

He could understand Xiao Qingyu’s anger, as this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened. Wang Xiu had failed many tasks before due to being overdue, but those were mostly because he failed to return to the Sect on time after completion. After reflecting on the issue, Xiao Qingyu began reminding Wang Xiu like an alarm clock before every mission, and he hadn’t been late since.

And look what happened now. She had just dealt with Wang Xiu, the "crouching dragon," only for a "fledgling phoenix" to emerge on Spirit Turtle Peak. A basic task was failed for the exact same reason: being overdue. But this time, it wasn’t because of returning to the Sect late, but because they had returned too early—they freaking came back without even completing the task.

Putting himself in Senior Sister Xiao’s shoes, Wang Xiu felt that even he would have the urge to commit murder right now.

"Senior Sister, please don’t be angry!" Wang Xiu wiped away a bead of cold sweat. "I’ll rush over to Maple City at top speed with Junior Sister Ling’er to perform the rites right away."

Xiao Qingyu shook her head. "No need to take her."

"To appease Landlord He’s anger, the Sect has decided to make an exception and arrange for a True Disciple to perform the burial rites for his father."

"Since this is your Divination Sect’s mess, you can go handle it personally! Besides, performing rites and burying people is nothing new for you; you’re quite skilled at it."

That’s true.

Wang Xiu grinned. "Alright then! Senior Sister, just you watch! This junior brother of yours will definitely not disappoint you this time!"

Xiao Qingyu huffed, her anger finally subsiding a bit. "Your attitude is good, I’ll give you that. Come to the Task Hall before you set off."

"Your Four Symbols Formation flags have been crafted. Maple City has been a bit unstable lately, so it’ll be safer to take the flags with you."

With that, the icy goddess snapped off the communication, clearly still quite displeased.

Wang Xiu coughed and scratched his head, feeling thoroughly embarrassed. However, that the Four Symbols Formation flags had been crafted so quickly was truly beyond his expectations.

Summoning the Black Tortoise Mirror, Wang Xiu shot toward the Task Hall. He soon found Xiao Qingyu in the True Disciple reception room, her face a mask of deep resentment.

"Senior Sister, please don’t be angry. There really was a reason for all this." Wang Xiu smiled, pulling a small bag of Spirit Stones from his robes and handing it to her. "For the sake of these Spirit Stones, you can forgive me, right?"

Hmph.

Xiao Qingyu took the brocade pouch of Spirit Stones and weighed it in her hand. There were at least several dozen inside, and her expression finally softened a bit.

WHOOSH!

Light flickered from the storage ring on Xiao Qingyu’s finger, and four flags shimmering with divine light shot out, landing before Wang Xiu. Clearly, these four flags were in a completely different league from Wang Xiu’s previous set. The flagpoles were forged from indestructible black iron essence, and the fabric was woven from the silk of a Golden Core Stage heavenly silkworm, exuding a sense of high quality at first glance.

As the array flags unfurled, the patterns of the Four Symbols Divine Beasts on them were so lifelike they seemed ready to leap out at any moment. Branded with endless laws, they were enough to daunt any onlooker.

"Your Nourishing Soul Lotuses were of excellent quality and superb efficacy," Xiao Qingyu said evenly. "I’ve traveled to many places these past few days and gathered a lot of information."

"It wasn’t just Elder Ouye from the Artifact Sect whose spirit was damaged. Elder Zhuge from the Formation Sect and Elder Gongsun from the Alchemy Sect have also suffered spiritual injuries in the past."

"Therefore, I discussed it with them and had Elder Gongsun ask the head of the Alchemy Sect, Elder Lu Baicao, to personally refine the Supreme Soul-Nourishing Elixir to heal the spirits of all three Elders."

"This way, the elixir’s quality can be raised to its peak, and the number of pills successfully refined can be maximized. Plus, it gave us an excuse to waive the labor fees."

Wang Xiu was speechless.

When it comes to getting the Alchemy Sect to do free labor, the Sect Leader’s lineage is truly experienced.

The distinguished head of the Alchemy Sect was just exploited like that, yet he couldn’t complain—after all, people from his own sect were getting a share of the elixirs. No wonder Elder Lu Baicao was always complaining, "It’s better to sell my ass outside than to sell medicine in the Sanqing Immortal Sect. This is purely for the love of the craft!"

"As for Elders Zhuge and Ouye, their connections also came in handy," Xiao Qingyu stated calmly. "The Artifact and Formation Sects have a long-standing cooperative relationship. Normally, crafting a set of array flags requires collaboration between them."

"Thus, the price of array flags is usually higher than that of ordinary Magic Artifacts."

"However, all three Elders hoped to secure a larger share of the Supreme Soul-Nourishing Elixirs once they were produced, so they were particularly enthusiastic when it came to crafting ’my’ array flags."

"Both the flagpoles and the fabric used were top-notch materials."

"Furthermore, the formation diagrams of the Four Symbols Divine Beasts were laid out by Elder Zhuge himself. He brought together more than a dozen of his available colleagues from the Formation Sect to jointly establish the formation."

"That’s why this set of array flags was completed so quickly. Each flag is the finest of the fine among Magic Artifacts, practically on the cusp of becoming a Spiritual Artifact."

"If we were to talk about price..." Xiao Qingyu stroked her fair chin, estimating, "Each flag is worth at least 8,000 Spirit Stones. As a set, their combined value is close to 40,000 Spirit Stones."

Forty thousand Spirit Stones!

That was an absolutely enormous sum, enough to take the breath away from countless cultivators. One must remember that the four Nourishing Soul Lotuses Wang Xiu had provided, even if each sold for 4,000 Spirit Stones, would only total 16,000 Spirit Stones.

From sixteen thousand to forty thousand... one can only imagine how much value had been added.

...

Senior Sister Xiao truly is a treasure.