Chapter 119: The Albizia Flower
“Impossible,” Madam Mei muttered to himself. “Impossible to find it so quickly…”
Lu Yingqi glanced at him sideways, and Madam Mei shut his mouth again.
“What evidence is this?” Shen Bingsi’s gaze moved from the infant’s sleeping face to Rong Xie. “Since when do you know how to hold a baby?”
Rong Xie’s posture holding the baby was actually quite standard. Although Shen Bingsi didn’t know exactly how one should be held, he had seen pigs run even if he hadn’t eaten pork; those young mothers held children just like this. The key was the gentle aura radiating from him, which someone who didn’t know how to hold a child couldn’t imitate.
“I held them when I was young,” Rong Xie said. “When I helped Mother look after children.”
“…” Shen Bingsi recalled. Rong Xie’s “Mother,” Nanny Wang, had the profession of wet nursing, so Rong Xie had likely held quite a few babies.
“Cough, where did this kid come from?” Shen Bingsi asked. “You didn’t pick him up from the bottom of the well, did you?”
“I did pick him up from the bottom of the well,” Rong Xie said. As he spoke, he looked up, his gaze fixing on the panic-stricken Madam Mei.
“Impossible…” Madam Mei’s voice suddenly rose. “Impossible! There are no children under the well at all!”
“Is that so?” Rong Xie asked. “Are you sure there are no children under the well?”
“…Such a small well, how could there be children down there? You must have brought him from some unknown place to frame us!”
“Oh?” Rong Xie said unhurriedly. “Why would there being a child under the well be framing you? This child is clearly alive and well; what is there to frame? Or have you already admitted that there is something on him that serves as sufficient evidence?”
“You!” A look of ferocity appeared in Madam Mei’s eyes. “You are trapping my words?”
“I didn’t trap your words; you said them yourself,” Rong Xie said indifferently.
Madam Mei let out a strange dry laugh from his throat, seemingly a laugh forced out when he had nothing left to say.
“Fellow Daoist Rong, don’t beat around the bush. What exactly is wrong with this child? You say he is evidence, there should be an explanation,” Lu Yingqi asked.
“I just went down with my men to investigate,” Rong Xie said, omitting the identity of Captain Zhao and the others to avoid future trouble. “The ground below is built with stone. Although the space isn’t large, it has all the furniture for daily living, and there are many special items needed for raising small children.”
“So what? Our Spirit Spring Well is meant to cleanse the meridians and marrow of children and shape root bones suitable for cultivation. It’s normal to have children’s utensils,” Madam Mei insisted stiffly. “Besides, having children’s items doesn’t necessarily mean this child was brought out from below.”
Rong Xie noticed he adamantly refused to admit the child was brought up from below, increasing his certainty of victory. He didn’t argue with Madam Mei about the child’s origin but continued, “But there is no Spirit Spring down there. If we talk about water, there is only a bucket of clear water, obviously not springing from the well bottom but lowered from the windlass.”
“…” Madam Mei was silent for a moment. “If Spirit Springs gushed out that easily, children all over the world could come to cultivate.”
“But strangely, there are vessels, bedding, and even toys for children down there, yet the only thing missing is food. Even that bucket of clear water isn’t for drinking, but raw water for watering flowers,” Rong Xie continued.
“Because there are no children down there at all! The Spirit Spring is in a dormant period; why would we put children down there?” Madam Mei was getting increasingly annoyed by Rong Xie’s unhurried attitude.
“But if you don’t put children down there, what about the newly born young masters and misses? I heard the Fourth Madam of the Lu family is heavy with child and near her due date. The villagers within ten miles all know about it and are watching their own children closely. Unable to find suitable candidates immediately, you could only reach out further away. Having finally bought a few children with the hope of being trained as attendant boys, how could you let the Spirit Spring Well sit idle? After all, raising a child capable of cultivation takes time.”
“…What nonsense are you talking about!” Madam Mei glanced at Lu Yingqi, seeming to suspect he had leaked the news.
Lu Yingqi remained expressionless; in fact, he didn’t even know the Fourth Madam was about to give birth.
“This matter is also easy to prove. Just invite the Fourth Madam out for a look. However, I think there’s no need to prove it anymore. Since everyone knows perfectly well, why bother a pregnant woman about to go into labor?” Rong Xie said. “As for how I know, there is no wall in the world that doesn’t leak wind. You’ve been plundering children here for so many years; did you really think that by bribing the government to suppress the news, you could hide it forever? Did you think that just because the villagers within ten miles couldn’t speak out, you could pretend nothing happened?”
Madam Mei gritted his teeth, his cheeks bulging.
“You haven’t been doing this for one or two years, but for decades. Since your Qilin Young Master was born, and even earlier. perhaps at first you were adopting children others didn’t want or couldn’t afford to raise. Later, you tasted the sweetness and began to actively demand children to feed the flowers. Even if they couldn’t be refined into the constitution you needed, they could be kept as menial servants. What’s more, those with poor health were killed and disposed of by you…”
“These are all your malicious speculations, spitting blood on people!” Madam Mei shouted angrily, cutting off Rong Xie. He grabbed Lu Yingqi’s sleeve with both hands. “Young Master Qi, don’t listen to his nonsense! He is spreading demonic rumors to confuse the public without a shred of evidence, ruining our Lu family’s reputation! We absolutely cannot let them walk out of here so easily! Arrest them quickly!”
“Do you have any evidence?” Lu Yingqi asked.
“This is the evidence.” Rong Xie lowered his eyes to the infant in his arms, still deep in dreams. “Senior Brother Lu, have you never suspected why the Lu family, residing in a remote corner, would possess a technology capable of transforming mortals into cultivators? Whether it’s a Spirit Spring or something else, do you really believe such technology exists?”
As Rong Xie spoke, he looked up at Lu Yingqi.
A moment of hesitation flashed in Lu Yingqi’s eyes.
Shen Bingsi said from the side, “Could it be a scam?!”
“It is a scam. This child is a mortal’s son modified by flowers. If we test for spiritual roots now, presumably none would be found. Only when they grow up, undergo ‘training’, and possess spiritual energy in their bodies—coupled with the false spiritual roots Madam Mei creates for them—can they muddle through the spiritual root test, enter cultivation sects, and become sect disciples,” Rong Xie said, revealing shocking words.
Madam Mei’s face changed repeatedly, a trace of ruthless cruelty flashing in his eyes.
“False spiritual roots?” Shen Bingsi had never heard of such a thing. “Spiritual roots can be faked? Aren’t spiritual roots the foundation of cultivation for converting natural energy into spiritual energy? Could a forged spiritual root also convert spiritual energy? Wouldn’t that be no different from a real one?”
“No, a forged spiritual root cannot convert spiritual energy. It is merely a fake… used to deal with the spiritual root test,” Rong Xie explained. “These children obtain spiritual energy in another way.”
“Another way?” Shen Bingsi was confused. “What other way is there?”
“Dual cultivation,” Rong Xie said.
“!!” Shen Bingsi’s eyes widened, showing shock.
He hadn’t thought in that direction at all.
Indeed, dual cultivation could obtain spiritual energy. When Rong Xie had no spiritual energy, the only method he could think of was dual cultivation.
However, these were children after all. Who would teach children dual cultivation… Who would do such a shameless thing?
Shen Bingsi’s gaze turned to the Lu family members. The fury of abhorring evil made his gaze somewhat terrifying. The Lu family members avoided their eyes one after another; even the usually thick-skinned Madam Mei shrank his neck.
“People without spiritual roots cannot obtain spiritual energy even through dual cultivation,” Lu Yingqi said plainly. “Since false spiritual roots don’t have the effect of real ones, your argument doesn’t stand.”
“There is one kind of person who can,” Rong Xie said. He stared at Madam Mei, whose expression turned dark and unreadable. “A Cauldron.”
When Rong Xie said this, let alone Shen Bingsi, even an Emotionless Dao master like Lu Yingqi, who wouldn’t blink if the sky fell, showed obvious surprise on his face.
“Just take this child to the Hehuan Sect and find that Elder Red of yours who was expelled from the sect, and you will immediately know if he has been modified into a Cauldron.” Rong Xie stared at Lu Yingqi, while simultaneously making a gesture of offering the child forward with both hands.
Just then, a red thread shot out from Madam Mei’s sleeve, heading straight for Rong Xie.
Rong Xie raised his eyebrows slightly. Before the red thread could reach him, it was sliced into segments by several beams of golden light and fell to the ground.
Shen Bingsi reached out, and the Shengye Sword returned to his palm. His face was darker than ever before. This old fellow, neither man nor woman, seemed to embody everything he loathed. If Rong Xie didn’t still need to confront him, he would have sliced this old monster into pieces right now.
“You, didn’t you want to show it to Young Master Qi? Then bring it over!” Madam Mei forced a sophistry for his behavior. “Holding a child from who knows where, talking to yourself there—do you think Young Master Qi will believe you? The Elder Red you mentioned was expelled long ago and is irreconcilable enemies with the Mystic Sky Sect. How could our Young Master Qi find him? You are clearly proposing something impossible to delay time!”
“Madam Mei, no need to be anxious. I merely proposed a method of proof. It doesn’t matter if we can’t find Elder Red,” Rong Xie said. “There is even more reliable evidence. In the room under this well, there is a pot of flowers that look like roses and smell like roses, but are actually named ‘Hehuan’. This flower is the treasure of the Hehuan Sect, the sacred flower capable of modifying a mortal body into a Cauldron.”
Silence fell all around.
Shen Bingsi didn’t know how to express the shock in his heart at this moment. He turned his head, his gaze patrolling Rong Xie’s face. He had always known Rong Xie was knowledgeable, but for Rong Xie to know such obscure knowledge as the Hehuan Sect—even he didn’t know Cauldrons were modified using Hehuan flowers.
“Wait,” Shen Bingsi suppressed his voice, squeezing out a question with great difficulty. “A year ago, you didn’t even know how dual cultivation worked. How do you now even know that Hehuan flowers can modify Cauldrons?”
Rong Xie smiled and shook his head. “That’s two different things. I don’t have a token for the Red Fragrance Tower, so of course I wouldn’t know… cough, but I have read many books on spiritual plants and medicinal ingredients and know of the existence of the Hehuan flower. The Hehuan Sect just happens to have this name; it’s not strange to make the connection, right?”
Shen Bingsi was once again stunned by the obscure source of Rong Xie’s knowledge.
Translator’s note: Rong Xie is the brain, and Shen Bingsi is just Shen Bingsi hahaha
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