Returning from the Immortal World
chapter-954

Chapter 954: Li Juren’s Choice

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

It is said that every man has a fool up his sleeve. It was exactly the case with Tang Xiu at the moment. Mo Awu’s reminder made him remember that all of them were cultivators and they could still move very fast at sea using their flying swords. Other than that, he could also refine some communication jade slips that wouldn’t be affected by any electromagnetic storm should it occur.

“You’re right, Awen.” Tang Xiu nodded and then asked, “Anyway, where’s Long Zhengyu? Tell him to come over. I have something to discuss with him.”

“Got it, Boss!”

Jin Shi immediately strode away after hearing that.

A few minutes later, Long Zhengyu was brought by Jin Shi. The former immediately said after he saw Tang Xiu, “Brother Tang, are we people who are very close?”

The question made Tang Xiu raise his brows as he nodded and answered, “We are; we have a very good relationship indeed.”

“If so, then why can’t you teach me cultivation art?” asked Long Zhengyu. “I used to be like a frog watching the sky while sitting at the bottom of a well. I never knew that people like you existed in the world. Now that I know about it, I’ve been imagining I’m like you, flying in the sky and having terrifying combat prowess.”

Tang Xiu himself had long guessed Long Zhengyu’s wish, so he already expected that he would request this. After thinking about it, he replied, “I believe you’re also clear on what’s going on here, Zhengyu. Although we’ve killed those two wizards, the problem is far from over. It is likely more experts from the Celestial Wizard clan will soon arrive to this island. Facing such an enemy now, let’s put aside the matter of teaching you cultivation art for now. I’ll definitely teach you cultivation art and help you embark on the path of cultivation once we’ve completely solved the crisis brought by the Celestial Wizard clan.”

The response made Long Zhengyu pleasantly surprised and he immediately said, “No problem. I’ll listen to you, Brother Tang. Also, I can’t help you in the battle, but tell me anything I can do in some other aspects if you need my assistance. I’ll do my best to accomplish it as long as it’s within my abilities.”

“I want you to pick up the pace of the construction project. It’s best if you can finish it within half a month,” said Tang Xiu. “I still have a big plan to implement once the construction team on the island has left.”

“A big plan?” Long Zhengyu was confused and asked, “What is it?”

“Let’s drop the subject regarding it for now. I just need your assurance whether or not you can finish the work within half a month,” said Tang Xiu.

Long Zhengyu pondered for a while and gritted his teeth before saying, “Completing the project within half a month is not a problem if we work overtime.”

“Alright.” Tang Xiu nodded and said, “Anyway, I asked you on the phone before to pass by Hong Kong and help me bring a batch of jade here. Have you brought them?”

Long Zhengyu zoned out for a moment and immediately said, “I brought some, but I heard from Hao Lei, the General Manager of Grand Fortune Jewelry, that she hasn’t gathered enough jade yet.”

Tang Xiu fished out his handset and dialed Hao Lei’s cell number.

“Hello, Boss.” Hao Lei’s voice came from the phone, though her voice was rather perturbed.

“What’s your current situation?” asked Tang Xiu in a deep voice. “You haven’t yet collected enough jade for me still?”

“I should’ve been able to get enough, Boss, but I encountered some difficulties,” said Hao Lei with a bitter smile. “Some people are also buying jade on a large scale, so its price has been ceaselessly rising. Our Grand Fortune Jewelry has made a fortune from the jade you previously gave me. But if we were to wantonly purchase raw jades at this time, we’ll have no profit at all.”

“Do you know who the other buyers are?” asked Tang Xiu.

“Yeah. I already sent some people to investigate it. It’s Li Juren from Hong Kong,” answered Hao Lei.

Li Juren?

Tang Xiu’s brows creased and he looked puzzled. Li Juren was just an ordinary person; this man bought some pills from him to increase his life expectancy. What does he wanna do by buying so many raw jades? After thinking about it but still not figuring it out, Tang Xiu decided to call Li Juren directly after he ordered Hao Lei to hurry and buy raw jade regardless of its price.

Hong Kong.

Li Juren was reading a stack of documents in his office. In front of him were two tall middle-aged men in Chinese tunic suits, each carrying a long sword and looking straight at him.

“Alas…”

After spending a long time reading, Li Juren put down the documents in his hands and looked up at the two middle-aged men. Forcing a smile, he spoke, “Two gentlemen, frankly, I really don’t have the means to gather the raw jade you need in a short time. The number you need is too many, after all. More so with the current situation where it is quite scarce in the market, leading to its soaring price. Its current price has even reached higher than it ever has in the past.”

The middle-aged man standing on the left shook his head and said, “Money is nothing in our eyes; we don’t care about the price, Mr. Li. We urgently need a lot of raw jade now, so I hope you can help us. We can accept your grandson as our in-name disciple so that your Li Family can have a cultivator in the future. That’s the sincerity we can offer you.”

Li Juren’s eyes, however, fell back on the documents on the table. Some of the contents written on it made him very cautious because it involved Hong Kong’s Grand Fortune Jewelry. It may be unknown to others who ran this business, but he was clear about it.

Grand Fortune Jewelry had been buying raw jades on a large scale for some time. He could tell that it was Tang Xiu who was in urgent need of it. If he were to choose to compete with Tang Xiu for raw jade at this time, he was afraid that he would offend him. Yet, he wouldn’t be able to fulfill the agreement with the two men in front of him should he back away from the battle to purchase the jades in the market with Grand Fortune Jewelry.

This was simply a headache and a dilemma for him!

Li Juren rubbed his temples and was about to talk when his phone on the table suddenly rang. He swallowed back the words and his expression changed after he saw the caller’s name on his phone screen.

Tang Xiu is calling me now? His men should’ve investigated that I’m the one who’s been buying a large amount of raw jade on the market, right?!

As he thought up to this point, Li Juren immediately looked at the middle-aged men dressed in Chinese tunics, saying, “Two gentlemen, can you give me some more time to think about it and find the solution? Also, I’d like to invite you to dine at the Everlasting Feast Hall tonight; I’ll give you my reply at that time. How about it?”

The two middle-aged men exchanged glances and immediately nodded. After rejecting Li Juren’s offer to send them off, they left the office directly.

Li Juren then picked up the call and spoke, “Hello, Tang Xiu.”

“Elder Li, I need an explanation from you,” said Tang Xiu.

“I know what explanation you want from me, Tang Xiu.” Li Juren bitterly smiled and said, “I hope you don’t take it as an offense since I didn’t know before that your Grand Fortune Jewelry has been buying raw jade as well. Two mysterious men came to me ten days ago. Their true identity is of cultivators, but I still have no idea about their origins. I made a deal with them to accept my grandchild as their disciple and thus learn cultivation art in exchange for my help in buying them raw jades. They were standing in front of me just before I picked up your call, asking me to keep buying raw jades.”

“You really don’t know who they are and why they need to buy so many raw jades?” asked Tang Xiu.

“I really don’t know about it,” confirmed Li Juren.

Tang Xiu was silent for a short while and said, “Old Li, I urgently need raw jades. I must get enough jade within 15 days to carry out one of my major plans. Therefore, I hope you can give up your continuous purchase of it. I’ll also teach your family a cultivation art as your compensation.”

Li Juren’s eyes lit up since he could pull out another meaning from Tang Xiu’s words. The previous two cultivators only promised to accept his grandson as an in-name disciple. There was another request from them that his grandson was forbidden to impart the cultivation art to someone else. But Tang Xiu’s words didn’t have such a meaning. He would impart the cultivation art to his Li Family, meaning that once his family obtained it, they had the right to decide who could learn it.

One person compared to the whole family!

It was easy for Li Juren to make up his mind in an instant. Then, he said in a deep voice, “Tang Xiu, most of the raw jade I’ve bought have already been handed over to the other party, but I still have some of them stored in my warehouse. I’ll secretly send them over to Manager Hao at Grand Fortune Jewelry later. Also, I’ll stop buying raw jades for at least half a month.”

“If so, then you have my thanks, Old Li,” said Tang Xiu with a satisfied smile. “I’ll visit Hong Kong after some time; I’d like to invite you for a drink to express my thanks.”

“This is nothing to speak of. We’re friends, and I’ve previously gotten a lot of benefits from you,” said Li Juren with a chuckle.

Nine Dragons Island.

Tang Xiu hung up the phone and looked at Mo Awu. “Call Xiaoxue. Tell her to pass my message to Ji Chimei to suspend her tasks in Jingmen Island and rush over to Nine Dragons Island. My current power is still weak and I am probably not a match for Nascent Soul Stage experts should any of them come here. This place is our base; I need her to take command here.”

“Affirmative!” replied Mo Awu with a nod.

As the next day came, Tang Guang and Tang An arrived on Nine Dragons Island with Singluen under their protection, along with the petite female and five guardian elders of Singluen. After receiving them, Tang Xiu placed them in one of the newly built buildings on the island. In order to avoid troubles, however, he didn’t tell them anything about the situation on the island and even asked them to stay in the assigned building cluster and not stroll around the island at will.

On the third day, a group of 80 experts from the Everlasting Feast Hall arrived. Under Tang Xiu’s arrangement, they were scattered throughout the island and were on security duty. To prepare for the upcoming battle, however, Tang Xiu took his time to teach them many magic spells, though he spared himself from finding out how much they could manage to grasp in such a short time.

Additionally, Tang Xiu also assigned a team of peripheral members to be stationed on 16 small barren islands within 200 nautical miles. They were responsible for monitoring the situation of the surrounding sea, reporting to him at once should they spot any suspicious vessels or people.

Time fleeted by and fourteen days passed in the blink of an eye. At the moment when the first beam of sunlight rose from the East, Tang Xiu, who was sitting cross-legged atop the palace roof, heard Long Zhengyu’s shout to him.

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Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

After floating down from the palace rooftop, Tang Xiu landed on the ground and stood in front of Long Zhengyu, asking, “Is there something?”

“The work is all done as per our agreement,” said Long Zhengyu with a smile. “We can take all the workers to leave Nine Dragons Island today, while all the machinery can be transported within 3 days.”

“Leave some of the machinery here in case we’ll need them in the future, though,” said Tang Xiu. “I’ll arrange Awen to settle the accounts with you. Also, Zhengyu, you’re one of us, so I hope you keep the existence of this island a secret. Even those workers who have worked here must maintain the secrecy of this project.”

“I already gave them some money to seal their mouths,” said Long Zhengyu with cold eyes and a deep voice. “You can rest your worries about that. Those workers are very clear about what can they spit out and what they cannot since I have shown them some bloody shits should they violate it. I also planned to assign some men to list their addresses and residences, as well as that of their relatives and friends, to threaten them. They won’t dare to disclose anything if they don’t wanna die.”

Tang Xiu nodded in satisfaction and patted his shoulder. ” Nine Dragons Island will be my home base in the future will be guarded by a lot of armed personnel. No outsider is allowed to land here without my permission. Though, you’re always welcome here at any time.”

“You treat me as a brother, and I’ll treat you as my blood relative,” said Long Zhenyu smilingly.

“I’ll hold on to your words, brother,” replied Tang Xiu smilingly. “Alright, go pack up your things and take care of the workers of the construction team then! I’m afraid the island won’t be peaceful any time soon and I don’t want you to get implicated.”

“You just said that we’re brothers, Tang Xiu. I can’t just stand by and watch you deal with everything by yourself here,” said Long Zhengyu sternly. “Tell me what you want me to do. I’ll cooperate with you to the best of my ability.”

“I can’t, brother.” Tang Xiu shook his head and said, “Ordinary people staying on Nine Dragons Island will be more of a burden to me than help. Just listen to me and hurry up in leaving. Wait for me to return to the mainland and gather there.”

This made Long Zhengyu silent for a while before he nodded and said, “Then be careful. I’ll be waiting for you to return to the mainland so we can have some wine later!”

“No worries.” Tang Xiu nodded.

With the departure of Long Zhengyu and the construction team, Tang Xiu came to the reserve warehouse built on the island the next evening. The importance of the raw jade stored here made him arrange Mo Awu to guard the warehouse these last few days.

“Boss!” immediately greeted Mo Awu after seeing his arrival.

Nodding to him in response, Tang Xiu said, “I put the raw jade here since there were outsiders on the island previously. You don’t need to stay on guard anymore as I’m going to take them away. However, there’s a task I need you to complete.”

“What task is it, Boss?” asked Mo Awu.

“I want you to head to Clam Island personally and pick 3,000 of the best children there from the tens of thousands being trained,” said Tang Xiu. “Bring them here with utmost secrecy. Do keep in mind that nobody can know of your whereabouts; make sure to neutralize anyone who discovers you, whoever they are.”

“I’ll definitely accomplish that, Boss. Rest assured,” said Mo Awu with a solemn face.

Tang Xiu thought for a moment and added once again, “There are many convicts that I took out from the #1319 labor camp in Israel. They’re still in the screening and inspection phase and have yet to become members of our Everlasting Feast Hall. Hence, they must not find out anything about where the 3,000 children are heading to.”

“What should I tell them if they ask about it?” asked Mo Awu.

“Tell them that I ordered you to transfer 3,000 children to somewhere else,” said Tang Xiu. “Emphasize it to them that this is an absolute secret, and that I told you not to tell anyone.”

“I understand,” replied Mo Awu as he immediately left.

Tang Xiu then took away all the piled up raw jade into his interspatial ring and began to carry out his previous plan to lay out the Feng Shui array around Nine Dragons Island.

The array was called the Nine Dragons Alignment Array, a cultivation protection array he had once arranged in the Immortal World. Due to his limited power at the present, however, he could only lay out a simpler version of it. However, he believed that once this array was arranged, let alone experts at the Nascent Soul Stage, even those at the Soul Formation and Body Integration Stage wouldn’t be able to break it.

A full day was spent without eating, drinking, or sleeping as Tang Xiu arranged the geomancy array. After he successfully arranged it, a golden-colored energy shield covered the entirety of Nine Dragons Island. Countless quaint golden runes constantly wandering about the shield as the Heaven and Earth energy within 500 km was absorbed into it.

“The richness of the world energy here has increased more than 10 times. I can even feel such a dense world energy entering my body when breathing. This sensation… is truly wonderful.”

The same thought filled the minds of the hundreds of people on Nine Dragons Island.

****

Amid the vast sea, a medium-sized liner was swiftly cruising towards Nine Dragons Island. A graceful female Taoist in a blue robe was standing on the bow with a duster in her hand. Behind her were four beautiful girls in long white robes, ornamented with hairpins. From the looks of it, they were apparently immersing themselves inside the mysterious atmosphere of cultivation.

“What’s currently going on?”

Suddenly, the Taoist nun in the blue robe had her complexion changed. She could keenly sense the energy of the world in the surrounding was now swarming over towards the southeast like a tide. It was as though there was a black hole there that was currently devouring the world energy.

The four girls in white dresses also opened their eyes at the same time with a surprised look on their faces as they shifted their attention southward.

One of them paced two steps forward and respectfully spoke, “Master, the course of spiritual qi is aligned with our ship’s destination. Could it be heading to the Island where our Junior Brothers are?”

“You all stay on the ship. Keep exploring ahead and scout the situation for me,” said the female Taoist in a deep voice, “You all remember that I received your junior brothers’ message that they are on some barren island around Nine Dragons Island. The owner of this island assigned some of his men to guard these barren islands. Tell them your identity when you run into them and they won’t stop you.”

“Understood!” replied the four girls respectfully.

The female Taoist’s figure floated and disappeared towards the southeast. The jade hairpin under her feet kept growing bigger until it carried her away quickly to approach Nine Dragons Island.

“Huh? What is that?”

Her eyes contracted upon seeing the golden energy shield that covered the entirety Nine Dragons Island. The scene sent huge ripples in her heart. She knew what it was, yet it was still shocking to her, causing her to be hardly able to believe it.

That was an array! More so, an array with peerless might!

She had seen a lot of array formations, and it could be said that she also had some mastery in it, yet she never imagined that she could actually see a mysterious array that produced such a gigantically powerful aura in her life.

“Who could it be? Who has arranged a geomancy array at this level? Not even the Mountain Guardian Array in the sect is as powerful as this one. Comparing the might is like the difference between night and day.”

As she came closer to the golden energy shield, the female Taoist didn’t rush to contact anyone on Nine Dragons Island, and instead flew around the island, circling it a few times to study it for more than an hour. Yet, she was still unable to see through the mysteriousness of this array. She had a feeling that not only would she not be able to break through it, she’d also be killed trying.

Ultimately, as the liner came over, she landed on its deck and shouted out, “Daoist Zixuan of the Whole Unitary Sect is paying a visit to the owner of Nine Dragons Island. I hope the Island Master will allow me to dock to have a meeting.”

“The array has just been activated and will need seven days to complete. The island’s array will completely take shape after the seventh day, so I’ll naturally open the array entrance for you to come inside. Opening it now would otherwise destroy it. I hope Daoist Zixuan can understand, and I do apologize if it’s slightly improper.”

The answer made Daoist Zixuan fall into silence for a long while. She then slowly replied, “If so, then we’ll wait for seven days.”

Atop the palace’s rooftop, Tang Xiu brought a lunch box and wolfed down his meal. He hadn’t yet had any grub or water for quite a long time due to him arranging the array, while at the same time he had spent a lot of energy, making him starving.

Ji Chimei behind him, however, had an amused smile sported on her face. She thought that it was interesting because she was perfectly aware of how high Tang Xiu’s status once was. Who could imagine that such a Venerable Supreme in the Immortal World paid no heed of his own image and just sat on a rooftop while casually wolfing down his meal and drink like this? If his present appearance were to be seen by the myriads of races and living beings in the Immortal World, they would probably be shocked with eyes staring wide.

“You should eat slowly, my Lord. I’ll go get some more for you if it’s not enough,” said Ji Chimei respectfully after enduring her smile for a long time.

At this time, Tang Xiu’s mouth was full of food, so he didn’t feel like speaking at all and just casually waved his hand. After he finished the second serving brought by Ji Chimei, he wiped his mouth and sighed, “It doesn’t matter whether you’re an immortal or not, everyone still needs to eat and drink, although the food might be different. I’m nothing but an ordinary man now, so grabbing some rice and bread to eat is indispensable… Nonetheless, having filled your belly to the max is a good feeling to have, though. Anyway, I’m gonna have some rest for a while, Chimei. Don’t disturb me if there’s nothing important.”

“As you will it, my Lord,” said Ji Chimei with a smile.

Tang Xiu then floated down. Just as he arrived at the palace, he saw the Whole Unitary Sect youths being led by Jin Chanzi who still stayed here. They hurriedly rushed over to him carrying their longsword.

“I know what you want to say to me. It’s not like I don’t have any hospitality, but your Master’s arrival is just bad timing. She came right after the island’s protection array was activated. Like I just said, I can’t deactivate the array for now, so she has to wait before she can come in seven days—otherwise, my hard work and the days I spent to lay out the array will be wasted.”

“Brother Tang, my Master can’t get inside. But how about us? Can we go out?” asked Jin Chanzi with a forced smile.

“You can’t go outside either.” Tang Xiu shook his head and said, “Unless you think you have the ability to do so, your only choice is to stay on the island for another week.”

The six youths exchanged glances and shook their heads with forced and wry smiles. They could sense how powerful the array that protected the island was. The knew the outcome if they were to forcefully break through it. Doing so would absolutely grant them a tragic death.