Chapter 98: Warning
"I can’t believe it was all for nothing." Jiang Yue grumbled for the hundredth time.
Before the tree fruit disappeared, the two had risked injury and obtained three more fruits.
However, it was all for nothing.
The fruit looked like a melon and felt like a pumpkin, but they couldn’t split it to eat.
"Should we trade the extra three?"
Yu Nianzhen smiled when he heard that and then ruffled the other’s hair.
"Don’t be too discouraged. Maybe we will find a way when the inner region opens."
He couldn’t be sure, but Yu Nianzhen had a suspicion.
He had a nagging feeling that the fruits would transform or change somehow when the inner region opened.
"Alright, but..." Jiang Yue looked at the two women who were walking beside them.
"That Bai woman didn’t manage to get one." He whispered.
He was reluctant to give up a fruit, but would do so if Yu Nianzhen wanted to share.
"Don’t care about her."
"Okay."
Jiang Yue smiled, and his mood soared.
Although he knew Yu Nianzhen wasn’t interested in the woman, it made his heart feel better when the other didn’t care about her.
"You are right. We are just strangers on the same road and don’t need to do more than the minimum."
Yu Nianzhen chuckled and shook his head lightly.
In this life, he didn’t want to care about many things.
In their previous life, he had to care about the Yu family.
He needed to ensure that the family business was doing well and would continue to do so in the future.
Because of that, he barely had time to relax and enjoy his life.
After transmigrating to this world, Yu Nianzhen didn’t want to live like that.
He didn’t want too much responsibility, and he didn’t want to care about too many people.
For now, it was enough to care about his master and Jiang Yue.
Other people were passersby and not vital to his existence.
"We will be happy in this life." He muttered under his breath.
"What did you say?"
"We are about to reach the trade valley." Yu Nianzhen pointed at the valley looming a short distance away.
Jiang Yue stared at him for a moment, but didn’t insist.
"What do you think we will find there?"
The four had expected to see some people as they neared the trade valley, but that was not the case.
After a week of travel, they had yet to encounter anyone.
"I don’t know, but we have to be careful."
"You are right..."
"There is something over there." A voice suddenly said.
The two turned and saw Bai Ruyue pointing at a small tree.
At first, the tree looked like an ordinary herb tree that was a metre tall.
However, when they looked closer, they saw that the leaves were not ordinary.
"Are the leaves changing colour?" Jiang Yue asked.
None of the others said anything.
Instead, Yu Nianzhen grabbed Jiang Yue’s arm and led him toward the small herb tree.
The four surrounded the tree and began to examine it closely.
"It is an ordinary maidenhair tree, but the leaves have been tampered with." Wang Xue’er said.
A frown marred her face before she added, "there is writing on the leaves."
When they looked, they saw the tree had four leaves at the top.
This was unusual since an ordinary maidenhair tree had many leaves. However, this gave credence to their guess that the tree had been tampered with.
"Each leaf points to a direction." Yu Nianzhen observed.
"The eastern leaf points towards the trade valley."
Everyone focused on said leaf and saw the leaf turn black before some characters appeared on the surface, ’not safe’.
"The other leaves are the same, but there is something else on the Northern leaf."
Jiang Yue squinted his eyes and saw that on the northern leaf, there was more writing beneath the ’not safe’.
"Allies..."
After reading that, the four fell silent.
Initially, the situation in the secret realm was an assumption rather than a confirmed fact.
However, if the leaves were to be believed, everything was as they assumed.
"I don’t think we should believe these leaves." Wang Xue’er said.
The leaves were warning them of danger and pointing them to allies.
However, if they thought about it carefully, the leaves themselves were suspicious.
For one, who had left them?
Thinking about it carefully, anyone could have left them.
It could be a trap set by the enemy.
If they followed the suggestions and went north, they may fall into a trap and lose their lives.
On the other hand, the message could have been left by someone who truly wanted allies.
However, this message had not been cleverly hidden.
Anyone could have seen it and gone North.
In this way, there was no guarantee that there would be no enemies mixed up with the ’allies’.
"Jiang Yue?" Yu Nianzhen called.
After finding the leaves, Jiang Yue was a little distracted.
His eyes were a little hazy, and his face was scrunched up as if he was trying to think of something.
"I seem to know this writing..., no, it’s the qi presence on the writing."
He couldn’t place it, but he felt that he had come across it before.
His mind tried to place it, but the truth danced at the edge of his consciousness, and he couldn’t reach it.
"We should go North." Bai Ruyue said.
She hoped that other members of the Bai family or familiar faces from the Great Artisan city would be there.
Although she liked Jiang Zhen, she didn’t know much about him.
He had made it clear that he didn’t like her, and she worried he wouldn’t do his best to protect her when the time came.
"I think we should continue to the trade valley." Jiang Yue gave his opinion.
Until he recalled the qi presence in the writing, it was safer for them to follow their original plan.
If they discovered that the trade valley was as bad as the leaf implied, they would turn back and head north.
Either way, going to the trade valley wasn’t a loss.
Even if they couldn’t enter, they would have a little more information.
"I will follow your decision." Yu Nianzhen said without hesitation.
When Bai Ruyue heard that, her face scrunched up, and bitterness filled her heart.
During the time they were together, she noticed the person she liked always followed the other’s decisions.
As long as surnamed Yu wasn’t in danger, Jiang Zhen would follow all of his decisions.
"How is this fair?" She mumbled and couldn’t help the resentment that filled her heart.
She glared at Jiang Yue and then turned to Wang Xue’er.
She was now her only hope.
If Wang Xue’er chose to go north, they would be two against two.
However, if she chose to proceed to the trade valley, it would be three against one.
Just as she was thinking this, she remembered everything that happened as they travelled.
She couldn’t be sure, but she thought that surnamed Wang also liked Jiang Zhen.
This was the only explanation for why surnamed Wang kept looking at Jiang Zhen.
Bai Ruyue had even caught her once or twice trying to pull the man aside for a private conversation.
’Who is she to compete with me?’ Bai Ruyue stomped her foot and glared at everyone.
’Why is nothing going my way?’
"I also think we should go to the trade valley before we think about going north." Wang Xue’er interrupted Bai Ruyue’s spiralling thoughts.
"It doesn’t make sense to unconditionally trust this leaf warning. However, we should take more precautions before we enter the trade valley."
Bai Ruyue sighed and resigned herself.
Now that she was the only one who opposed the plan to head to the trade valley, her opinion would automatically be ignored.
She just hoped nothing would happen after everything that had already happened.
"You were previously in the trade valley. What can you tell us?" Yu Nianzhen asked and looked at Wang Xue’er.
The girl nodded and began to talk.
"From what I know, there are two main forces in the trade valley."
After that, Wang Xue’er told them everything she knew.
Although everyone was equal in the trade valley, it was inevitable for some forces to emerge in the valley.
The first major force was the border guards.
When the thousand herbs garden was about to open, each of the sixteen regional rulers received fifty placings each.
However, the border guards received two hundred placings which made the border guards the largest force in the thousand herbs garden.
Given that, it was only natural for there to be more border guards at the trade valley compared to other forces.
The other major force was the BlueStar treasure pavilion.
Although they didn’t have the same numbers as the border guards, the BlueStar Treasure pavilion was the richest group in the Cangxing world.
With each secret realm opening, cultivators from the BlueStar Treasure Pavillion would bring in a lot of treasures to exchange.
