Chapter 21: Gold and Silver, Heaven's Currency
Si Zhanqing glanced sidelong at Fang Xun and let out the faintest, coldest of laughs. "Does County Magistrate Fang take me for someone who repays kindness with ingratitude, who kills without cause?"
Fang Xun gave a start and hurriedly replied. "This subordinate would never dare suggest such a thing!"
"I said there would be generous compensation upon completion and I never go back on my word." Si Zhanqing flicked a pale fingertip with idle grace. A tiny object blazing with golden light shot through the air and came to rest, hovering, directly before Fang Xun.
Fang Xun received it carefully in his palm. He studied it for a moment and then let out an involuntary, astonished exclamation: "True gold?"
The delight he could not conceal swept across his face. He tucked the gold away against his body with haste, then dropped into a long and reverent bow. "This subordinate is overwhelmed by the Marquis's generosity."
"One hundred taels of true gold as your reward. As for the laborers...
"Ten taels of white silver each, more than enough for them to buy their way out of the degraded registry and live out the rest of their days in ease." The words had barely left Si Zhanqing's mouth when twenty-three brilliant bursts of silver light flew forward like shooting stars and came to rest before Fang Xun.
"My business here is concluded. I will be departing before long. Distribute these rewards on my behalf." She gave the instruction in a tone of complete detachment.
At the news that Si Zhanqing was about to leave, a faint, brief wave of disappointment moved through Fang Xun. But in the face of the two hundred and thirty tael of silver before him, and the hundred tael of gold already safely in his possession, that disappointment evaporated before it could fully take shape.
Ever since the Qian Emperor had consolidated all the gold and silver in the world five hundred years ago and established the unified yuan currency, precious metals had rarely circulated in ordinary life, they were reserved for the most solemn and exceptional imperial bestowals.
Gold and silver, accordingly, carried extraordinary value.
And more crucially, true gold and white silver were of vital importance to every person in the world who cultivated the Twelve Perpetual Lives technique.
"The Changle Marquis truly gives without hesitation. Even setting aside the merit of capturing Xiong Jin, just these precious metals alone if spread in the right places, would be more than sufficient to smooth my path back to the Holy Capital." Fang Xun's heart was surging.
"Very well. You may go." Si Zhanqing dismissed him without ceremony.
After Fang Xun withdrew, the head of the handmaids leaned close and lowered her voice: "My lady, should we truly not—"
Si Zhanqing stood motionless, looking down over Lengshan County below. Her gaze seemed to pass through the layers of the aerial mansion as though they weren't there.
Whatever she was turning over in her mind remained unreadable. Those devastatingly beautiful eyes appeared still as standing water on the surface and yet in their very depths, something moved that defied interpretation.
"No need."
After a long silence, she said it quietly.
That same afternoon, the vast mansion hovering above Lengshan County broke silently through the sky and departed.
...
In the county Magistrate office's study, Fang Xun stared fixedly at the silver spread across his desk, a secret calculation taking shape in his mind.
"All this bright silver and I'm supposed to actually give it to those laborers? What a waste.
"I'll hold onto it for them.
"And that abandoned mine beneath Lengshan..."
His eyes moved. He summoned Wu Kuang at once and ordered him to reassemble all twenty-three laborers.
Three days later,
"You're certain this is the place the Changle Marquis came to?" Deep in the core of the decommissioned underground mine, Fang Xun stared at the passage ahead and asked in a measured, quiet voice.
Six of the laborers, Li Shun among them, examined the surroundings carefully and nodded in unison.
"In reply to His Lordship, this is certainly the place. Though...
"The feeling of it has changed somewhat from when we were here before."
They gave their verdict.
Fang Xun narrowed his eyes, dismissed his escort, and walked alone into the passage.
No different in appearance from any of the other ordinary mining tunnels nearby, he searched up and down for some time and found nothing remarkable.
"The underground of Lengshan is far less intensely yin than the legends suggested.
"And furthermore all the Lengshan Grass we passed on the way in was nearly dead. Has the Changle Marquis truly succeeded in absorbing that fallen ancient soul's remnant?"
In the darkness, Fang Xun's eyes moved with quiet calculation. "Without the remnant soul, the yin energy suffusing Lengshan will inevitably dissipate. And perhaps... even the Lengshan Grass may no longer be able to grow normally.
"The Lengshan Grass supply currently comes from two sources: the first is the unique natural environment near Lengshan County, which spontaneously produces new growth; the second is that fully mature Lengshan Grass has roughly a fifty percent chance of naturally propagating offshoots. The first source accounts for the overwhelming majority. Now that a change this drastic has occurred...
"Within a few years, the court's Lengshan Grass tribute quota will likely become impossible to fulfill."
The thought first tightened Fang Xun's expression and then he gave a cold, quiet snort. "In any case, I'll be transferred back to the Holy Capital by next spring at the latest. What happens after that is no concern of mine."
On the heels of that thought, his mind drifted, inevitably, to the [Lengshan Vessel] that had been stolen from him. A quiet pang of regret. "The Lengshan Vessel was already extraordinarily rare. If I'd managed to hold onto it for another few years, until Lengshan Grass had nearly vanished from the world...
"Its value would have risen to heights that defy imagination."
He forced the stray thoughts down and walked out of the passage, his gaze sweeping over the group of laborers still waiting anxiously where he had left them.
"Without Lengshan Grass to deliver, these laborers will eventually face a death sentence anyway. Saves me the trouble of dealing with them personally."
Thinking this, Fang Xun rearranged his expression entirely. "You may all rest easy! Your assistance to the Changle Marquis this time has been a meritorious service, the court will not treat you poorly."
...
The next day, Li Shun sat looking at the bolt of silk, three crocks of decent wine, and ten jin of dried meat from some unnamed creature that the Magistrate office had delivered and fell into a long silence.
He understood perfectly well that Fang Xun had pocketed the Marquis's reward entirely.
He found, to his own mild surprise, that he wasn't particularly bothered. The fact that he had come through this whole affair in one piece, without having to activate the Self-Reflection ability even once, was already far beyond what he had anticipated.
He genuinely had not expected it: neither the Changle Marquis nor Fang Xun had moved to silence anyone.
"Have I been thinking too badly of people in this world?"
He turned it over for a long while and still couldn't quite bring himself to believe it.
In the end he gave a self-deprecating shake of his head and let it go.
His spirit sense contracted and plunged inward into the Fangcun space.
The spirit field where the puppet Li Shun resided had undergone a transformation.
At its center, the Lengshan Vessel, resembling a radiant half-moon—sat high above, reigning supreme. Flanking it on either side, like the most loyal of palace guards, stood two enormous Lengshan Vessel-Grass plants. And around them in layer upon layer of encircling growth were more than eighty ordinary Lengshan Grass stalks.
The entire field presented a strangely majestic, vigorously alive hierarchy, strict in its order and teeming with life.
"Ever since acquiring the Lengshan Vessel-Grass some time back, I've been working on how to cultivate it.
"The attendant said that Lengshan Grass has only a one-in-a-hundred-thousand chance of mutating into a Vessel-Grass. But...
"I don't know if it was extraordinary luck, or whether the Lengshan Vessel at the center of the field nurtures the surrounding plants through some shared-origin resonance. Either way, I succeeded on the very first attempt.
"One result isn't enough to draw conclusions from. If it happens again, I can probably confirm it."
Li Shun watched the spirit plant currently germinating within the puppet's body and thought this through.
"I've at least begun to understand the cultivation method for the Vessel-Grass. But as for the Lengshan Vessel itself..."
...