Chapter 148: Untapped talent
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——(POV third person, unknown location)——
In a well-lit room, a couple of figures could be seen looking at the only person in the room who was sitting.
"Did you find out what the Xu family is up to?" Asked the one who was sitting on a chair.
"Not yet, leader." Answered one of the subordinates.
"…And why is that?" The one who was called the leader asked back as he gazed at the ones who were standing.
The subordinates looked at each other and the one who answered the leader at first, opened his mouth to speak.
"We have been facing some problems as the floating mask has been looking for our operators. We had to lay low for a while as his reach is far and wide." The subordinate answered. The other subordinates were quivering in fear of the leader's anger, but this subordinate who seemed older than all of them combined didn't show even a shred of fear as he was waiting for the leader's reaction.
The leader kept looking at the old subordinate for a few seconds and nodded lightly.
"I see. Look into ways that we can contact the floating mask without seeming hostile. Also, check to see if you can find any relations between the Li family and the floating mask before making any definite moves." The leader ordered and all of the subordinates bowed and cupped their fists.
"The Xu family is not to be trusted, they are a means to an end, eliminate them when we are sure that they are going to betray us." The leader continued.
""Yes, leader."" They said in unison. Everyone started to leave the room, except the older subordinate who looked at the leader for a few more seconds. He bowed deeper this time and left the room.
The leader kept looking at the moon from the window of the room, as he was touching the right side of his neck.
——(POV third person, five river city)——
Li Huang and others were walking in the city after they said their farewells to the elders. As the elders from the heavenly sword sect and the Li family, they had to go to some customary meetings as they were invited by the city lords. Youngsters like Li Huang were exempt from these meetings so they could enjoy their free time.
"Big brother Huang, is it true that you and big sister Wanrou have built a fortress in the eternal wail trial?" asked Li Lan. He was ten years old and he heard about this from his teacher in the family. The Li family didn't waste any time in promoting their young genius after it was known that Li Huang was the one who planned the fortress. The fact that Li Huang and others could stop something that wiped a generation of geniuses years ago, was something that brought a lot of prestige to Li Huang and anyone who got out of the trial. Well, it would be some time before Li Huang gets to know about this.
"Yes, we did. Everyone from the seven holy lands and the smaller sects helped to build it as it was not something easy to do." Li Huang nodded and explained. This boy was so excited about this that Li Huang felt that he needs to give him the full story.
Li Huang then pointed at Hu Anjing.
"Do you see that big sister there?" Li Huang said and Li Lan nodded, "She was the one who was in charge of overseeing the construction." Li Huang didn't miss this chance to tease Hu Anjing.
"Wow!" Li Lan said. He was curious about how they could build a fort in such a short time.
"You can tell him about me too." Cai ZhenKang nudged Li Huang. He tried to sound uncaring about it but he was looking for praise deep down.
Li Huang couldn't believe that Cai ZhenKang was looking for a child's praise, he was about to ignore Cai ZhenKang that Li Lan spoke.
"What did this big brother do?" Li Lan asked enthusiastically. Looking at Cai ZhenKang's muscles and how confident he was, Li Lan thought that he should have at least built a quarter of the fort.
Li Huang couldn't ignore Cai ZhenKang anymore and he answered Li Lan.
"He helped us by collecting wood." Li Huang said and downplayed Cai ZhenKang's part as much as he could while being truthful.
"Huh?" Li Lan muttered.
"And…And also helped build the wall!" Cai ZhenKang added hastily.
"Really?" Li Lan said as he was interested again.
"Of course! I was so fast that the beasts were not even gathered to form a group by the time we were done with the wall, much less a horde!" Cai ZhenKang said as he puffed out his chest.
Li Huang and others were hardly stopping themselves from laughing but Cai ZhenKang and Li Lan were not paying attention to them. Cai ZhenKang was showering in praises, and Li Lan was fanboying over him.
…
"And don't underestimate the materials! It is important to choose the best materials to have a good final result." Cai ZhenKang explained like a master to his disciple.
Li Lan nodded and took note. Others let them be as Li Lan was having fun and Cai ZhenKang was not teaching him something weird or else, Li Wanrou would have asked him to slam his head to her spear. They couldn't fight in the city so this was the logical method that Li Wanrou thought of.
Li Huang too couldn't believe that this Cai ZhenKang is the same one who asked him to spar with him, when he didn't even know the simplest of Qi meditations.
"Look at these woods and tell me what you think about them." Cai ZhenKang took 10 wood logs out of his storage ring and showed them to Li Lan. Everyone else couldn't help but be shocked that Cai ZhenKang had logs in his storage ring, only Li Huang had this thought that Cai ZhenKang might like wood cutting a bit too much…
Everyone was so absorbed in hearing Cai ZhenKang's wisdom that they forgot that they were in the middle of the street and everyone around them could see them. Cai ZhenKang and Li Lan were in their own worlds so they didn't even notice everyone's gazes on them.
"…I don't know, big brother ZhenKang." Li Lan said after a few seconds. In these past minutes that they talked Cai ZhenKang told him that he can just call him big brother ZhenKang.
Cai ZhenKang nodded a couple of times as he expected such an answer.
"Well, if you interact with enough logs, you can hear the wood talking to you." Cai ZhenKang said.
Li Huang was about to call bullshit that a middle-aged man got close to Cai ZhenKang and cupped his fists.
"Forgive my intrusion young master, are you perhaps interested in selling these logs?" the middle-aged man asked Cai ZhenKang. Li Huang stopped himself in time as it seemed that either Cai ZhenKang was right about these logs, or this middle-aged man was nuts too.
Cai ZhenKang looked at him for a moment to make sure that the middle-aged man was talking to him, and then he spoke.
"Would you be willing to sell your child?" Cai ZhenKang asked back. Now more people were gathering around the group as this middle-aged man was a well-known merchant here.
"My child for these ten logs or only one of them?" The middle-aged man asked back. Cai ZhenKang and he looked at each other for a couple of seconds. Cai ZhenKang burst out laughing and the middle-aged man followed soon after.
"HAHA, old man I like you! Tell me why you want these logs." Cai ZhenKang said after he calmed down a little.
"This log is from a tree that at least aged more them 900 years." The middle-aged man said and Li Huang couldn't believe his ears. He closed his eyes and checked the logs with the peeping eye of heaven and although he couldn't figure out the tree's age he could estimate and the merchant was right. He felt stupid that he didn't think about using the peeping eye of heaven on these sorts of things.
"I did not know that! I have a couple of logs like this, take this one as my thanks." Cai ZhenKang said and offered the log to the merchant.
"I can't just accept it, let me at least offer you one of my children!" the merchant said.
"Not interested. Show me your shop." Cai ZhenKang said flatly and they walked together inside the merchant's shop.
Others were standing in the same place as they couldn't believe that Cai ZhenKang could really detect high-grade wood without prior training.
"Well, that was certainly unexpected…" Li Huang said and others could only nod.
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