Chapter 23

Chapter 23: Big Rewards

[What is wrong with Li Shuang today?] Ye Zhao Zhao stared hard, tracking her every move.

After a solid half hour, Li Shuang had touched every stone on the table. Steward Qiu, tired just from watching, finally asked: “Have you chosen, Immortal Maiden?”

“Wait,” Li Shuang said calmly.

She had touched each stone here. She already had a sense of their values.

But where was the one worth a hundred top grade spirit stones? It didn’t seem to be among these.

She rested her hand on the tabletop.

Suddenly, the Heaven and Earth Furnace’s progress bar jumped up by twenty points.

Li Shuang looked down in surprise. The table? She moved along and touched other parts of it, but the bar didn’t change.

Only that one small spot made the progress bar react.

Li Shuang couldn’t help smiling.

She began to search the table carefully, top to bottom.

Watching her movements, Steward Qiu broke into a sweat: “Immortal Maiden, you…”

“Found it,” Li Shuang said, pressing a hidden button tucked away out of sight.

A secret compartment popped open on the table, and inside lay a single stone.

Her strange actions had already drawn a crowd. Seeing the compartment, people gasped. Someone cried out: “A secret compartment? Why is there a secret compartment? What’s going on with that stone?” Another muttered: “The Treasure Pavilion is famous for fairness. Would they really use tricks?”

The muttering swelled into a wave of voices.

Sweat dripped from Steward Qiu’s forehead.

He tried to speak: “Immortal Maiden, that stone, it…”

“I choose this one,” Li Shuang said, her voice even.

Steward Qiu’s face turned instantly pale. The biggest draw of this game was the final grand prize. As long as it stayed unopened, people would keep streaming in to play. He had planned to slip this stone onto the table only at the end, so a planted shill could win it. That way the Pavilion wouldn’t lose anything.

But now Li Shuang had found the secret compartment in full view of everyone. He went rigid. This wasn’t only about a hundred top grade spirit stones. It was about the century old reputation of the Treasure Pavilion.

His mind went blank.

Right there in front of the crowd, Li Shuang opened the stone.

Inside lay a finely carved jade pendant.

Someone shouted at once: “Clearheart Jade Pendant! Worth one hundred top grade spirit stones! The grand prize is out!”

At once, people surged in around them.

Li Shuang smiled and tied the pendant at her waist: “Steward Qiu, I’ll accept the prize. Only, you hid it a bit too well. If I hadn’t been lucky enough to find the secret compartment, everyone else could have cracked stones till dark and still never drawn the grand prize.”

Her words made the onlookers catch on. They turned on Steward Qiu in anger. One snapped: “Nice trick, Steward Qiu!” Another scolded: “You said it was pure luck, but you hid the final prize.” A third yelled: “We joined because we trusted the Treasure Pavilion’s name. Play us like this, and your hundred year reputation is gone!”

Steward Qiu’s lips trembled: “Everyone, please calm down. I can explain…”

But the crowd’s fury drowned him out.

Holding the jade pendant, Li Shuang quietly slipped away.

Among today’s stones, a few were worth more than the five middle grade entry price. If she had taken all of those, she could have made a big profit.

But she chose to take only the grand prize.

It wasn’t that she feared offending the Treasure Pavilion. It was that grabbing too much would look strange and might expose the fact that she carried a mysterious treasure.

“Junior Sister, nicely done,” Luo Ming Yue said with a thumbs up.

Li Shuang smiled: “Just lucky.”

“If your luck is this good today, let’s hit the bargain market,” Luo Ming Yue said with a grin.

That market was full of mixed goods. Even sellers didn’t always know the real value. Some people paid high prices for junk. Others bought great things for cheap. It all came down to one’s eye.

For Li Shuang, that market was perfect. With the Heaven and Earth Furnace, she wouldn’t misjudge.

But the Furnace was her greatest secret. She could show off the wonders of the Supreme Emotionless Art in public, but not the Furnace.

She decided to buy a mix of things, some good and some average, profit in the end, and avoid drawing attention.

Before leaving, Li Shuang cast a calm glance at the second floor.

It was already empty.

A small smile touched her lips.

Just now, her spiritual power had grown a little for no clear reason. In the past she hadn’t known why. Now she had a guess.

The person upstairs held a huge amount of malice toward her. It surpassed Steward Qiu’s by a thousand times. She had only ever felt malice like that from Ye Zhao Zhao.

So the person above had to be Ye Zhao Zhao. Today’s setup was likely her scheme to trick Li Shuang out of her wealth.

But Li Shuang hadn’t stepped into the trap. She had turned it back instead.

Ye Zhao Zhao must be seething with hate.

She remembered that the last sudden rise in her power had also been tied to Ye Zhao Zhao. After Li Shuang won their match, Ye Zhao Zhao’s face had been very ugly.

[Could Ye Zhao Zhao’s hatred be making my cultivation grow? Why would that be?]

She couldn’t sort out the reason yet, but she didn’t worry. With more cases to compare, she would figure it out.

Li Shuang went on to wander the market.

Ye Zhao Zhao, however, rushed back to the Sword Sect. She had made the Treasure Pavilion lose both spirit stones and reputation today. Steward Qiu would not treat her kindly. Better to leave quickly.

From now on, she couldn’t meet Steward Qiu under this identity. Her cooperation with the Treasure Pavilion had to end here.

Otherwise, Steward Qiu was the type to risk life for money. He would never let her go.

Ye Zhao Zhao fled in a hurry, her face full of spite. The trap she had set with such effort had been broken in the strangest way. [How did Li Shuang even think to look for a secret compartment!]

The System’s cold voice sounded in her mind: “Host, part of your spiritual power has been lost again. If you keep being this useless, I won’t mind erasing you and finding a better Host.”

Ye Zhao Zhao’s heart lurched, and she stammered: “This is only the start. I still have ways to deal with Li Shuang!”

“It had better be so,” the System said, then went silent again.

Ye Zhao Zhao bit her lip hard. [Li Shuang! You should have stayed at the bottom. Why climb back up!] She couldn’t let her own cultivation fall again. She had to find a way to stomp Li Shuang under her feet as soon as possible.

Back at the Treasure Pavilion, Steward Qiu’s face was ashen. To calm the angry cultivators, he had handed out many benefits. Even so, the blow to the Pavilion’s name was devastating. A small steward like him couldn’t cover it up. The Treasure Pavilion valued its reputation most of all. News would reach headquarters soon.

When it did, his end would not be good.

“Steward, that Miss Ye has already left,” someone reported.

Steward Qiu’s expression twisted: “She thinks running solves this? She really believes I don’t know who she really is? Come. Call Guest Elder Hong. We’re going to the Sword Sect.”

If he had to suffer, Ye Zhao Zhao would not escape either.