My Scales Can Make Equivalent Exchange
Chapter 443 - 403

Chapter 443: 403

"No harm done, I’m still teaching my disciples! Each one of them is as stubborn as dead wood and utterly clueless," Lei Wenyan said nonchalantly.

"Lately, the most talked-about person in the entire Outer Sect has been you. Tell me, how did you, Ruoguan Daoshi, manage to get by? Let the old me share in your admiration."

"······"

After a long and intermittent chat, Wang Zijia finally revealed his intention.

"You want to search for the small circle among the Pill Cultivators?" Lei Wenyan asked in surprise.

Wang Zijia nodded in response.

"You want to obtain a Spiritual Object that aids in the coalescing of an Infant God?" Lei Wenyan continued to inquire.

Upon seeing Lei Wenyan’s expression, Wang Zijia asked in confusion, "Is there a problem?"

"Do I have that kind of access? Do you think that I, a majestic Third Grade Peak Alchemist, would still be stuck in the Outer Sect looking after your daily needs?" Lei Wenyan glared at Wang Zijia and retorted.

"Um..." Wang Zijia felt a bit awkward and said, "I heard that among your small circle of pill cultivators, you possess the most resources. Senior Brother, you’re the only high-level Alchemist I’m familiar with, so I wanted to try my luck!"

"You’re here for revenge, aren’t you? Just because you’re a genius, doesn’t mean you’re all that!" Lei Wenyan glared at Wang Zijia and stated offhandedly.

"······"

After some aimless chit-chat with Lei Wenyan, Wang Zijia ended up empty-handed.

Well, not completely empty-handed. He did gain access to two small circles, one gathering of Pill Cultivators, and another circle of disciples from the Pill, Artifact, Array, and Talisman courts.

Flying back into the sky, Wang Zijia pondered if the Outer Sect had such circles when he clearly couldn’t find one with Lei Wenyan. Should he grind away time, spending decades trying to find a needle in a haystack?

But Wang Zijia couldn’t accept such aimless searching. With the current state of affairs, who knew what tomorrow held!

After some hesitation, Wang Zijia used his identity card to bypass the protective shield of Qifeng and headed straight for Thick Virtue Peak and the Inner Court of the Pill Institute.

Not too familiar with the bigs shots of the Pill Institute and with limited connections, Wang Zijia could only search in places like Pill Pavilion.

As he expected, he didn’t find traces of the Infant God Spiritual Object.

An Infant God was indeed a Big Shot to Wanyu.

Therefore, Spiritual Objects related to its breakthrough were absolutely considered super precious, akin to strategic resources.

Within a short period of time, it would be difficult to find a reliable source, even if Infant God great cultivators were involved!

"······"

After thinking for a while, Wang Zijia headed straight to Baitai Peak.

He first arrived at the Task Hall, not searching for ordinary disciples in the hall or looking for Luo Yongyang, whom he was most familiar with, but he headed straight to the headquarters of the Task Hall.

Following a Senior Brother, he met the God Monarch who oversaw the daily affairs of the Task Hall.

Xiao Weisheng, Daoist name Fuyang, known as Fuyang Divine Monarch.

With a mid-stage Infant God cultivation, over six hundred years old, he belonged to the Taoist Fire Spirit Vein.

He was a practitioner of the Art of Combat, which complemented the academic faction represented by Wang Zijia’s Chuan Dao Tower.

His combat power was extremely strong, and he was rumored to have slain a peak-level Infant God Demon.

Upon being ushered into a simply furnished study room, the disciple who led the way retired.

"Respectful greetings to you Martial Uncle Fuyang!" Wang Zijia immediately paid his respects.

Xiao Weisheng did not immediately respond. Instead, he put down the object in his hands, stood up, came to Wang Zijia, scrutinized him for a while, and then said,

"Such solid fundamentals, it has been a few years since I’ve seen the likes!"

"Thank you for your praise, Martial Uncle!" Wang Zijia immediately bowed again in respect.

Xiao Weisheng did not continue with the pleasantries but rather abruptly asked, "What brings you here? Are you thinking about issuing a special task?"

"Yes, it is somewhat of a special task." Wang Zijia paused for a moment, expressing, "Disciple is thinking about putting up a substantial reward in hopes to observe a Spiritual Object that aids in the coalescing of an Infant God."

"What do you mean by ’observe’?" Xiao Weisheng asked in confusion.

"Just to take a look, erm... may need to hold it in hand and draw out a few strands of aura for examination." Just as he finished, Wang Zijia showed an apologetic smile, adding,

"Having reached the stage of True Person in the Lower Realm, due to constraints at the time, I had no choice and took a somewhat unconventional path. As a result, because of the peculiarities of my approach, I currently don’t know which path to take when attempting to coalesce an Infant God."

"Hence, I want to observe more Spiritual Objects to determine what resonates with me before deciding which path to follow!"

"Ha, that’s odd. People usually determine their Spiritual Object according to their inheritance. But you, you’re doing the opposite also, not worrying..." Halfway through his sentence, he suddenly stopped and remembered,

"I almost forgot about your reputation as a prodigy. That’s right, with your age, it’s not too late to tailor your Dao according to the Spiritual Object. It’s an interesting approach, considering how difficult it is to take the step toward being an Infant God."

Wang Zijia’s eyes twinkled slightly. He did not reply but tacitly agreed to what his Martial Uncle suggested.

"How high of a price are you willing to offer?" Fuyang’s interest was piqued.

"As a disciple, I can provide jade talismans or pay a high price just to take a look, as I only need to draw out a few strands of aura for inspection." Wang Zijia replied as such.

Fuyang shook his head and said, "What do you think an Infant God coalescing Spiritual Object is? Even to someone of my status, obtaining a piece of Fetal Spirit Heart Jade is extremely challenging. Do you think someone would brandish such a valuable item just for you to take a gander?"

"Is it really that valuable!" Although Wang Zijia tried to value the Infant God coalescing Spiritual Object highly, he still felt bothered.

"What do you think? In the sect, there are tens of thousands of True Persons, almost everyone can reach the late stage of cultivation. Among them, those who can coalesce a Middle Three Grades True Seed are not few but why are there less than two thousand God Monarchs?"

"Do you really believe that all those in the sect are just cowards who dare not cross that minor sky tribulation?"

"Most of them have spent hundreds of years searching, but haven’t even found a single Spiritual Object. In the end, they were forced to attempt to coalesce the Nascent Infancy at the brink of death, and failed bitterly!"

Xiao Weisheng said with deep emotion, "Our age of cultivation is so difficult! The laws of Dao are hard to transmit, spiritual objects are hard to find, as for Nascent Divinity spiritual objects, nearly all of them are non-cultivable! The heavens cut off our path!"

At his words, Wang Zijia was silent for a half-beat before saying, "I have some special artifact making skills. I can customize a magic treasure embryo specifically for my fellow brothers."

"A top-notch spirit tool grade of magic treasure embryo?" Xiao Weisheng asked, intrigued.

Wang Zijia nodded and answered, "Something like that."

"That does seem somewhat possible. Do you have any specific requirements for the spiritual objects?" Xiao Weisheng then asked.

Wang Zijia shook his head, replying, "Divine Soul path, Flesh Earth path, Artifact path, even Space path, I don’t mind. I don’t care about the purity or the integrity of the spiritual object, as long as it is visible."

"Hmm, in that case, there is indeed some hope." Xiao Weisheng began to create a task for Wang Zijia.

After a while, he finally said, "Alright, you can go back and wait."

"May I know, based on your experience, uncle, how long will it probably take for any changes to occur?" Wang Zijia asked tentatively.

"There’s no way to be certain. After all, Nascent Divinity spiritual objects are too valuable. In some respects, their value is comparable to fifth-grade treasure. There are too many uncertainties." Pausing, Xiao Weisheng then added,

"However, given the loose conditions you’ve set, according to the rate at which our sect acquires spiritual objects, in thirty to fifty years’ time, there should be one or two willing to let you see!"

Wang Zijia: "······"

Thirty to fifty years?

That’s fast?

What a truly Xianxia way of calculating time······

With a heavy silence hanging over him, Wang Zijia left the Task Court of Baitai Peak, feeling a jumble of emotions.

Once again, he had returned empty-handed. Drifting high above the seven peaks, he looked out over the towering mountains and the countless accomplished cultivators coming and going. For the first time, Wang Zijia realized that the Wanyu Sect didn’t seem as powerful and wealthy as he had believed.

At the very least, acquiring Nascent Divinity spiritual objects was extremely difficult!

Of course, a big part of that was that he hadn’t been cultivating for very long.

He didn’t have enough time to accumulate resources or expand his network.

But given the current situation, there wasn’t much time for him to accumulate either.

As his thoughts surged and swirled, Wang Zijia suddenly came up with an idea.

Opening his identity card, he began to search for someone while heading toward the main peak.

After a moment, Wang Zijia was surprised to find that the person he was looking for wasn’t on the main peak.

Without hesitation, he changed his direction and headed toward the foot of Qifeng Mountain.

······

At the foot of Qifeng Mountain, there was an area belonging to the Etiquette Institute.

Wang Zijia descended to the ground and arrived in front of a familiar large courtyard.

"Greetings to Uncle Wang!" A female disciple at the door greeted Wang Zijia with neither arrogance nor humility.

"Could you please inform Uncle Yuyu that Zijia is here to visit?" Wang Zijia politely requested.

The disciple glanced at Wang Zijia, then hurried into the courtyard.

Wang Zijia patiently waited. After a while, the disciple hurried out again, her demeanor much more respectful than before. "The Grandmaster is in the Central Lake Pavilion. He said you could find him there."

"Thank you!" Hearing this, Wang Zijia let out a sigh of relief while expressing his gratitude.

Stepping into the courtyard and relying on his memory, he crossed familiar landscapes until he reached Xu Yuyu’s courtyard, one of the largest he’d seen belonging to a true person in the Outer Court.

Of course, it was nothing compared to his White Peach Mountain, as that place was remote enough to accommodate his construction whims.

After a while, Wang Zijia arrived at the familiar small lake.

"Dong dong!"

The crisp and pleasing sound of a zither floated into his ears, its faint charm permeating the air.

Wang Zijia instinctively slowed his step, gently hovered above the ground, and made no noise.

In the pavilion at the center of the lake, Xu Yuyu was playing the zither, just as before, seemingly adapting to the changes since advancing to Nascent Divinity, and continuously adjusting himself.

Hearing the music, Wang Zijia respectfully walked half-way around the lake, then entered the pavilion via the wooden corridor.

"Look, it’s that kid who showed up last time!"

"Oh my, he’s really advanced to a true person!"

"Qingling (Xu Yuyu’s Taoist name), you’re not doing well. This kid jumped three or four levels in just half a year, while you’ve been dragging your feet for a hundred years and only advanced half a level!"

The moment Wang Zijia entered the special area of the central lake pavilion, he heard the familiar chirping of three bunting-like birds. They weren’t quarreling this time, but they were still chattering away.

The content of their chatter caused Wang Zijia, who had just entered the pavilion, to pause.

Xu Yuyu stopped playing, grabbed the three little ones in one hand, and stuffed them into his zither.

"Qingling, you’ve changed!"