Path of the Sect Leader

Chapter 28: Reunion with Flowing Blossom

Qi South City rose like a jeweled mountain against the horizon—one of Qi Yun’s five great cultivation cities, second only to the capital in splendor.

By his own power Qi Xiu would have needed three sleepless days and nights to reach it. Wang Wan solved that with a single leaf-shaped artifact. Two hours after leaving Soldier’s Rest, the city’s towering walls already glittered below them.

Smaller than Qi Yun City proper, yet grander than anything Qi Xiu had seen since childhood. Palaces and pavilions climbed the slopes in glittering tiers; streets teemed with robes of every color. A colossal spirit vein pulsed beneath the earth, thick enough to taste. Within the walls, mortals outnumbered cultivators ten to one—servants, shop hands, porters—huddled in their own walled district like birds in a cage.

Qi Refining cultivators here were little more than greeters and errand boys. Foundation Establishment walked openly; rumors claimed even Golden Cores occasionally descended for auctions. The sight struck Qi Xiu like a homesick blow—too much like the Qi Yun City of his memories, too much like the Chu Qin Peak that no longer existed.

Wang Wan kept up cheerful commentary the whole way, even tried to offer casual pointers on cultivation. Qi Xiu’s answers stayed stiff and polite; his mind was already inside the coming negotiation. The old man’s enthusiasm gradually cooled.

The meeting was set in an elegant private room above a reputable artifact shop. The Flowing Blossom Sect Leader waited outside the door himself. When he spotted Qi Xiu at Wang Wan’s side, his smile looked painted on.

Inside, two others waited.

One was the middle-aged Foundation Establishment woman who had laughed loudest when Chu Qin fell. Today her face could have frozen wine. The array on the old peak had never worked right after they took it—only when Wang Wan’s message arrived did they learn two successive Chu Qin sect leaders had quietly pocketed the keystone disk. Paying spirit stones to the very man they’d ruined was salt in a very fresh wound.

The second was an old Qi Refining peak cultivator wearing the insignia of Myriad Treasures Pavilion—Qi South City’s largest artifact dealer. The Sect Leader introduced him as Steward Yu Tangjing.

Wang Wan stated his role plainly: witness and guarantor, nothing more.

The woman wasted no time. “My martial uncles have agreed: Myriad Treasures Pavilion will appraise the disk. Whatever price Steward Yu sets, we pay. Clean break, no further entanglement.” Her eyes flicked to Qi Xiu. “As long as you’re finally done hiding pieces of our inheritance.”

Qi Xiu kept his expression neutral. “Once the disk changes hands, Chu Qin and Flowing Blossom are strangers.”

Wang Wan stroked his beard. “Fair?”

Qi Xiu hesitated. A joint appraisal left too much room for collusion. Chu Qin’s coffers were bleeding; they needed every spirit stone this sale could bring.

Steward Yu seemed to read the fear in his silence. He gave a dry cough.

“Myriad Treasures Pavilion will issue two identical valuation certificates—one for each party. If either side believes the price unfair, bring the certificate to any branch. We compensate tenfold the difference. Satisfied?”

The room stilled. Ten-times penalty from Myriad Treasures Pavilion was as solid as heavenly oath.

Qi Xiu exhaled. “Agreed.”

He drew the red-jade disk from his sleeve and laid it on the table like an offering.

Steward Yu’s eyes sharpened. Tools appeared in his hands—mirrors, needles, tiny formation flags. He worked in silence, precise as a surgeon. Three sticks of incense burned down to ash.

Then he crossed his arms, closed his eyes for seven breaths, and snapped his fingers.

A faint crack sounded behind him. An ancient bronze mirror shimmered into existence—illusory yet solid, hanging in mid-air. A beam of pure white light speared from its surface and struck the disk.

Instantly the room drowned in crimson.

Runes ignited across the jade like molten brands, leaping off the surface as phantom projections. They spun, expanded, unfolded into a complete three-dimensional array diagram that filled the entire chamber—towering, complex, and unmistakably the missing heart of Chu Qin Peak’s former mountain-warding formation.

Qi Xiu’s breath caught.

“Natal talent!” he thought, stunned.

Steward Yu’s gift was the legendary Appraisal Mirror—capable of forcing any artifact to reveal its complete structure and true grade.

Even Wang Wan’s brows rose a fraction.

The female Foundation Establishment cultivator stared at the slowly rotating diagram, face pale. She finally understood exactly what they had lost.

And exactly how much it was going to cost to get it back.