novelraw Chapter 320 : I Saw You When I Was Young
Chapter 320 : I Saw You When I Was Young
Ji Mo Shan didn't casually invite people to join the Yu family. The two had been observing Chu Sang for a long time. This person was not only strong and talented but also particularly... different from other deities who had ascended to the Upper Realm. If nothing else, her courage was truly great, daring to infiltrate the Quan family alone, and even having such a grudge with them!
As the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The great families of the Upper Realm all greatly appreciated talent, and the Yu family particularly needed this talent.
"I'm sorry, but I don't plan to join the conflicts between Upper Realm families," Chu Sang refused without hesitation.
She had other things to do.
"We respect your choice," Ji Bai Yu said with some regret. "But if you ever want to join, the Yu family will always welcome you."
Chu Sang returned the token to the two sisters, and Ji Mo Shan sent out an invitation card.
Chu Sang thought for a moment but didn't refuse, accepting the invitation.
Leaving oneself an escape route was never a bad thing.
After seeing the two off, Chu Sang smiled at Quan Yu, "I provided good cover, didn't I? Now we can properly discuss the matter between us. Do you need a human skin mask?"
He shook his head, "No one recognizes me."
In a private room of a tavern in Lin City.
At this time, the tavern was almost empty. To be cautious, Chu Sang still set up a blocking formation. She looked at Quan Yu, who was pouring her a cup of tea, thinking that this person had quite a good mentality. After experiencing so much in just one night, he hadn't asked about her identity at all and could still calmly enjoy tea.
She coughed lightly, curling her middle finger to knock on the table, "There's no such thing as a free lunch. I believe the Quan family's eldest young master should know this principle. I didn't rescue you for nothing. I need you to forge two divine artifacts for me."
"Alright."
She took out Karma Burns the Three Realms and Primordial Soul-Chaser. Quan Yu took the two divine artifacts and looked at them, saying, "These two divine artifacts are sub-divine artifacts from the lower realm. The original forging craftsmanship is already very high and doesn't need to be reforged. However, it's a pity that they're limited by the low energy content of lower realm materials. They can be reshaped and upgraded using Upper Realm forging materials, but forging divine artifacts requires a lot of precious materials. At present, I don't have many materials on hand."
"Whatever materials are needed, you can tell me."
Quan Yu nodded and wrote down the hundreds of required materials in a jade slip. "Most materials can be bought from markets, but the prices of precious materials are extremely high. Some special materials can't be found in ordinary markets and only appear at auctions held by major trading houses. In short, collecting these materials is not an easy task..."
"Don't worry about the materials. I will find all the materials. You just need to help me forge the artifacts."
She took the jade slip and looked at it. She didn't recognize most of the materials listed, but it didn't matter. She could go to the archive to specifically find and study classics on this aspect. Some of the basic materials came from fierce beasts and divine herbs. The classics introducing these had information on the areas where these fierce beasts appeared, where divine herbs grew, and the standards for divine stone mines. She could go for these materials herself.
In the following days, Chu Sang specifically delved into the habitats of fierce beasts, killing many of them, and collected divine herbs and divine wood in dangerous cliff and swamp areas.
Some materials were located in areas under the jurisdiction of other great families, where outsiders were not allowed to enter. These could only be purchased in the market.
Chu Sang's heart bled when she saw the prices listed for the materials.
It must be said, worthy of a top-tier artifact forger, the materials used were all top-grade goods, ridiculously expensive. Selling herself might not be enough to gather them all.
Some of these premium materials weren't even sold individually in shops. Even in large trading houses, extremely precious materials might only appear once or twice at auctions held every few years. Some materials were almost on the verge of extinction, with no purchasing channels to be found.
Both time and money were very unfriendly to Chu Sang. She considered for a while, then took out that invitation card again, considering whether to join the Yu family.
With her strength alone, it would take several years to collect these materials. At this time, the best way was to borrow the power of a great family.
The power of a great family could penetrate all aspects of Upper Realm forces. Collecting these precious materials would be easy for a great family.
In the Upper Realm, besides the Quan family, there was the Yu family.
As the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Joining the Yu family now was a good choice for her.
Joining a great family and receiving its protection was certainly beneficial, but correspondingly, one had to take on the responsibilities assigned by the Yu family. She was naturally free-spirited and hadn't wanted to join the Yu family before because she didn't want to be bound by the family's rules and regulations. But weighing the benefits, joining the Yu family was definitely more advantageous than disadvantageous for her current situation.
After all, Upper Realm families recruited many foreign cultivators from the lower realm every year. It was a mutually beneficial relationship, and if foreign deities didn't want to stay, they could directly leave the family.
With the internal recommendation of the two sisters, Chu Sang went to the Yu family branch to meet the managing elder. She didn't need to waste time going through new recruit testing and elimination matches with other deities. Skipping the written test and going straight to the interview, the content of the interview was simple. First, she chose a profession. Whether in the lower realm or the Upper Realm, sword cultivators were overly abundant, cheap labor indeed. The principle of rarity being valuable applied everywhere.
Chu Sang thought for a moment and still chose the identity of a talisman master. The family arranged for a talisman master elder to discuss talisman theory face-to-face with her. After three hours of discussion, the old man came out crying, exclaiming that this child had the potential to become a great emperor.
The managing elder didn't believe it and arranged three more elders who interviewed intermediate talisman masters for her. Before half a day had passed, they also came out from the interview early.
The elder then arranged a high-level talisman master elder for her.
Chu Sang felt she couldn't be so high-profile anymore, so she stopped rushing to answer and honestly answered step by step. In the end, she successfully passed the high-level talisman master test with a score just barely above the passing line.
Upper Realm families and lower realm families were completely different systems. In terms of specifications and management methods, these great families of the Upper Realm were actually comparable to the Immortal Sects of the lower realm. Apart from important high-level positions within the family being mostly held by clan members, there wasn't much difference from large sects.
Disciples received the protection of the family and generous resource support, while they also needed to complete tasks for the family, taking pride in enhancing the family's honor and influence.
Disciples usually obtained resources within the family through point exchanges.
Disciples could earn corresponding points by completing tasks issued by the family.
Artifact forgers, pill refiners, and talisman masters were relatively rare even in the Upper Realm where talents gathered. Chu Sang could attract quite a lot of work with her identity as a talisman master. There were also tasks issued within the family that could be exchanged for points. With her 996 work system that could work people to death without compensation, she completed in a short month what would take other talisman masters nearly a year. She quickly attracted the attention of the main family and was even recruited to the Yu family's main house, honored as a specially appointed talisman master.
The family head also gave her a purple-gold token containing a huge amount of points. The Yu family was connected to nearly half of the Upper Realm's trading houses. With the purple-gold token in hand, she could directly negotiate with the owners of trading houses, mobilizing their power to search for missing materials. These materials could also be purchased through the back door using family points in the trading houses.
In just a few short months, Chu Sang successfully gathered the materials for forging divine artifacts. Quan Yu also kept his promise and helped her forge and refine the two divine artifacts. When she received the finished products, Chu Sang couldn't stop touching them, loving her two new divine artifacts immensely.
The artifact spirits were also successfully awakened again.
Both artifact spirits had upgraded forms.
The flame-formed skirt of Karma Burns the Three Realms was even more radiant, no longer just red but with flowing golden light. At the bottom of the skirt were curling, shattered fire patterns, incomparably sacred and beautiful.
The killing intent surrounding Primordial Soul-Chaser was even stronger. Its silk-like luxurious black hair dissipated into black mist at the ends. The black mist around its body seemed to have fused with it, making it even more eerily beautiful in its ghostly form. The invisible yet sharp black sword qi swirling around could easily tear a person into pieces.
Chu Sang noticed that the biggest change in the two divine artifacts was an intentionally crafted gap in the center of their main bodies, each inlaid with an ancient divine stone containing extremely pure and powerful energy. This was the true reason for the rebirth of the two divine artifacts.
"I didn't purchase these two divine stones, did I?" she asked.
"The biggest difference between Upper Realm divine artifacts and lower realm divine artifacts is their artifact core. When I forged Mystic Spirit back then, I had already built in a sword core for it, but these two divine artifacts still didn't have their own artifact cores," Quan Yu said. "These two ancient divine stones were something I obtained by chance before, but they didn't match my power, so I had set them aside. They match your two divine artifacts well, so I might as well give them to you, miss."
Chu Sang knew his words were somewhat euphemistic, just politeness. She lowered her head without speaking, examining the divine artifacts twice before returning them to her dantian. Then she raised her head to look at him, saying rather meaningfully, "Helping me so much, just because I brought you out of the Quan family? Repaying me for saving your life? Are you sure you don't need any other payment?"
She wasn't some great benefactor. Rescuing him naturally had her own plans. On one hand, she wanted to extract some information from this Quan family eldest young master's mouth, and on the other hand, she wanted him to help her forge artifacts. But she hadn't expected Quan Yu to even give artifact cores for free... Chu Sang even began to doubt whether it was her own charm or if the other party was a pure fool.
"It's considered repaying a debt of gratitude, but not just for this time."
Quan Yu's facial expression changed, his voice becoming gentler, seemingly containing a different kind of admiration, "Don't you remember? We... have met long ago."
Chu Sang was stunned for a moment, raising her head to look at him, meeting the man's gentle and harmless smile.
"I saw you when I was young."