Chapter 137: He Can Do Magic

"To be honest, when we first excavated this meteoric iron, we had no idea it was so large," Du Renzhi said with a laugh. "With a piece of meteoric iron this big, the absolute most we could carry away would be a washbasin-sized chunk. Even if I wanted to give you that much money for a washbasin-sized piece, you wouldn't have the face to accept it, would you?"

Indeed, out in the outside world, a meteoric iron of this size would easily be worth hundreds of millions. But this was a mystic realm after all; there were no vehicles here, and they were severely short-handed, making it completely impossible for them to transport it out.

"You could just ask Chu Tianfeng to make it disappear," the long-faced elderly man said vaguely as he chewed on eagle meat.

A thought stirred in Du Renzhi's heart, but outwardly he remained unperturbed, deliberately letting out a long sigh. "That brat is extremely cunning, didn't you hear? Xuan'er and Ming'er ate two of his pills, and he settled accounts with me immediately. Oh, forget it, forget it."

As he spoke, he continuously waved his hands.

"How about this, we'll knock off those five million, and just take fifteen hundred vital energy stones. That should be fine, right?" The long-faced elderly man wore an expression of utter frustration.

To everyone's surprise, Du Renzhi kept waving his hands. "Brother Li, the next time I stumble upon a washbasin-sized piece of meteoric iron, I'll definitely bring it over to the Qingcheng Sect to see if you guys would be willing to give me fifteen hundred vital energy stones."

The long-faced elderly man was choked with rage. He looked at the large rock beside him, then at the square-faced elder, and finally stamped his foot. "Fine! One thousand vital energy stones! Take it or leave it!"

Du Renzhi was blooming with joy on the inside, but his face remained calm. He pretended to ponder for a moment before looking up at the square-faced elder. "Brother Feng, what is your take on this?"

The square-faced elder sighed helplessly and tossed his iron pick to the side. "Forget it, take it all. I don't feel like digging anymore anyway."

Putting on a look of profound heartache, Du Renzhi slowly pulled the spiritual stones from his bag. "Sigh, I haven't even warmed these vital energy stones up yet, and now I've had to dig into my emergency stash."

Having finished paying out the spiritual stones, Du Renzhi didn't even have time to pack up his mineral water barrel before leaping into the air and hastily giving chase to Chu Tianfeng.

Fortunately, Chu Tianfeng needed to concentrate on probing for mineral deposits and was not traveling at full speed. It took Du Renzhi only a few minutes to catch up with him.

"Little Chu, as soon as you left, those two old geezers came to their senses. They want to sell the meteoric iron to you through me." Naturally, Du Renzhi wouldn't admit that he was the one reselling the stone to Chu Tianfeng.

Having practiced Taoism for over a thousand years, how could Chu Tianfeng fail to see through Du Renzhi's little scheme? However, he had no intention of bickering with him, so he casually remarked, "Those two stubborn old men—if they tick me off, I won't buy it at all and let's see how they plan to get it out."

"Little Chu, that's not right of you," Du Renzhi said with an earnest, fatherly tone. "I've already agreed on your behalf, and the price remains the same. You mustn't screw over your Uncle Du."

Chu Tianfeng wore a grimace shaped like the Chinese character for "distress." "Uncle Du, I don't want to screw you over, but I really don't have any vital energy stones left."

That previous transaction had practically exhausted all the spiritual stones he had dug up, plundered, or stolen from the mystic realm, leaving him with only a dozen or so.

"It doesn't matter, I have some vital energy stones, I can pay them on your behalf first," Du Renzhi said generously. "Don't you still have that formula for the Nine-Tails Life-Saving Pill? How about we offset it against the cost of that formula? What do you think?"

Du Sancai's attempt to transfer shares to Chu Tianfeng last time still caused him profound, aching regret, and he was constantly thinking of ways to nullify those shares.

Hearing him mention that medicinal formula, Chu Tianfeng chuckled inwardly. Putting on a grateful expression, he said, "Uncle Du, thank you so much then."

What he was really thinking was that since the main ingredient, the Flame Dragon Fruit, couldn't be found for that formula anyway, it was basically a useless scrap of paper. Being able to value it at several thousand spiritual stones made him quite happy, and even pleasantly surprised.

Thus, the two of them returned to the spot with a tacit understanding.

The four individuals were sitting together in a circle, washing down eagle meat with mineral water and chatting animatedly. It was a lively scene.

Seeing Chu Tianfeng and Du Renzhi approach, Long Yuanhua and Feng Piaopiao both stood up to greet them, while the other two old men remained seated as before, not even sparing Chu Tianfeng a glance.

"Little Chu, this rock is all yours now." Fearing that too much talk would expose his lie, Du Renzhi jumped straight to the point.

As it happened, Chu Tianfeng didn't wish to linger either. After greeting Long Yuanhua and Feng Piaopiao, he leaped down into the pit.

To prevent others from seeing the specific details, he still pulled out a red cloth and draped it over the stone.

Then, with a flick of his right hand, the stone was absorbed into his ring.

"Very well, the transaction is complete," Du Renzhi clapped his hands. "Little Chu, I hope we can continue cooperating next time."

In truth, he was worried that Chu Tianfeng might stay behind to chat and inadvertently expose his stone-reselling venture, which was why he was so eager to usher him away.

Chu Tianfeng knew the score perfectly well, but he still cupped his fists in salute to Du Renzhi. "Uncle Du, thanks!" Then, turning to the others, he added, "Everyone, farewell!"

Long Yuanhua and Feng Piaopiao both waved in farewell, while the other two old men acted as if they hadn't heard a thing, keeping their heads down to gnaw on their eagle meat.

After Chu Tianfeng left, the five of them sat down again, using water in place of wine to continue their eagle feast.

"How come he didn't give you any vital energy stones?" Long Yuanhua asked, looking at Du Renzhi's shrunken pack with deep suspicion.

"Don't bring it up, that brat is too treacherous!" Du Renzhi feigned anger. "Dammit, he said my daughter ate a few of his pills too, and insisted on settling accounts with me."

"Outrageous!" Long Yuanhua slammed his bowl down. "This kid goes too far! Charging money even when his own wife eats a little something!"

Good grief! This guy just had to touch upon the sorest of subjects, instantly igniting Du Renzhi's temper. "Brother Long, if you say another word, don't blame me for falling out with you!"

That was his bottom line! This was Du Renzhi's ultimate bottom line!

He was utterly furious about the affair between Du Jingjing and Chu Tianfeng. If it were possible, he would rather keep Du Jingjing unmarried at home like an old maid than let her marry Chu Tianfeng.

Realizing Du Renzhi was angry, Long Yuanhua had no choice but to turn to Feng Piaopiao. "Sister Piaopiao, it's a good thing your daughter's fancy is set on Wang Lianchang instead of Chu Tianfeng. Otherwise, I imagine the Feng family would sooner or later have to change its surname to Chu."

Feng Piaopiao almost spat out her mouthful of mineral water. "Brother Yuanhua, are you trying to offend all of us or what?"

"Sister Piaopiao, what kind of talk is that?" Long Yuanhua protested loudly. "I'm just feeling a bit of pity for you, sister. Think about it, how many people have been scared away by the matrilocal marriage requirement for such a fine young woman in your Feng family? Otherwise, my little Fei would have had a chance too, wouldn't he?"

"Oh, give it a rest. With your little Fei acting like such a prodigal son, I'd rather marry my daughter to Chu Tianfeng," Feng Piaopiao retorted unceremoniously.

"Cough, cough!" Long Yuanhua was nearly choked by Feng Piaopiao. "Chu Tianfeng is Brother Du's..." He originally wanted to say that Chu Tianfeng was already taken and was Du Renzhi's prospective son-in-law, but seeing Du Renzhi's ugly expression, he corrected himself. "Chu Tianfeng is actually not bad either, haha, haha."

"Not bad?" Du Renzhi glared at him. "Then why didn't you hook your Long Yue up with Chu Tianfeng?"

Long Yuanhua shook his head smugly. "Sigh! Our little Yue has too high of a standard; she looks down on ordinary young fellows."

The unspoken implication was that Chu Tianfeng was too substandard, and only a girl from Du's family could possibly fancy him.

Feng Piaopiao seemed not to catch the subtext in Long Yuanhua's words and also sighed, saying, "Indeed, my girl Mingsuang is the same. She looks down on this one and despises that one, and to this day she hasn't had a proper relationship."

"I'd rather my daughter never have a relationship," Du Renzhi said gloomily, taking a bite of an eagle leg. "Dammit, that kid Chu Tianfeng really has some tricks up his sleeve. This roasted eagle meat actually tastes pretty decent—fragrant and crispy."

As he looked at the eagle leg in his hand, his expression was one of mixed affection and resentment, as if the eagle leg were Chu Tianfeng himself.

"Indeed," Feng Piaopiao said, deeply sympathetic. "The game he roasts is the most delicious thing I've ever eaten in my life."

The square-faced elder from the Mount Hua Sect truly couldn't bear to listen any longer. He raised his bowl high. "Since Chu Tianfeng is so wonderful, then I wish that all of your daughters end up marrying him."

Hearing this, Du Renzhi looked ready to blow his top again.

Seeing this, the long-faced elder hurriedly stepped in to smooth things over. "Enough of that, let's drink... ah, drink water! Come, cheers!"

The others echoed in unison, raising their bowls to toast.

"Yo-ho, you folks are living quite comfortably here!" Suddenly, a vigorous voice drifted from afar.

The five of them looked toward the source of the sound and saw two gray figures bounding toward them like flying birds from dozens of meters away. In the blink of an eye, they had arrived right before the group.

It was none other than the two old seniors, Wang Caizhang and Mo Wannian.

Everyone hurriedly stood up and stepped forward to greet them one by one.

"Haha! Better to arrive early than to arrive by coincidence," Mo Wannian laughed. "What are you all eating? It smells so good!"

"They call it eagle meat," Long Yuanhua said, pointing to the ground. "Would the two seniors care to taste some?"

Mo Wannian stood on no ceremony. He boldly crossed his legs and sat down, picking up a piece of eagle meat to gnaw on. "Hmm, it really does taste like eagle meat."

Half-doubtful, Wang Caizhang bent down to pick up a piece of meat and examined it closely. "Even we wouldn't dare provoke those eagles. How did you manage to kill them?"

"Do you even have to ask? Guns, obviously," Mo Wannian said, taking a large bite of the eagle meat. "Mmm, quite delicious."

The two of them had once been chased by a pack of eagles until they fled in sheer terror, only escaping by the skin of their teeth after jumping into a ditch. Since the cultivation levels of Du Renzhi and the others were even lower than theirs, Mo Wannian refused to believe they could have killed the eagles in the Medicine Valley.

"Ugh..." The square-faced elder from the Mount Hua Sect glanced at Du Renzhi and rushed to answer, "To tell you the truth, these eagle legs were given to us by Chu Tianfeng."

Naturally, he knew why Wang and Mo had entered the mystic realm, and he was more than eager for these two old geezers to go stir up trouble for Chu Tianfeng.

"What?" Wang Caizhang pulled the eagle meat he had just shoved into his mouth back out. "You've seen him?"

"Yes," the long-faced elder from the Qingcheng Sect added, "Chu Tianfeng was right here just a moment ago."

The Qingcheng Sect also had quite a score to settle with Chu Tianfeng, so he naturally didn't want to miss this opportunity to use someone else's knife to kill.

"Is that so?" Hearing this, Mo Wannian quickly stood up. "How long ago did he leave?"

Talk about searching everywhere for something without finding it, only to stumble upon it effortlessly! Mo Wannian never expected that casually eating eagle meat would yield news of Chu Tianfeng.

"About half an hour ago," the long-faced elder replied respectfully.

"Haha!" Overjoyed, Wang Caizhang immediately set off. "He can't have gotten far. Let's hurry up and give chase."

Having just benefited from Chu Tianfeng's generosity, Du Renzhi felt too guilty to betray him, so the three of them maintained silence throughout.

Mo Wannian also started to move, but suddenly catching sight of the large pit nearby, he casually asked, "What is the meaning of this?"

"It's meteoric iron we dug up," the square-faced elder replied. "It weighs several dozen tons, but it was forcibly bought up by Chu Tianfeng."

"What? How did he haul it away?" Wang Caizhang stopped in his tracks, full of suspicion.

"He can do magic tricks," the square-faced elder continued. "The few of us saw it with our own eyes."

"Magic tricks?" Wang Caizhang didn't believe it for a second. He glanced at Mo Wannian, only to see ten thousand times more disbelief in Mo's eyes, prompting him to roar at the square-faced elder, "We're going after him first! If even half of what you said is a lie, I'll deal with you when I get back!"

With that, Wang and Mo stopped looking at the square-faced elder and the others altogether, leaping into the air and dashing off at high speed.