Hu San waited for most of the day without seeing anyone arrive. He began to feel that Sun Guoshu was toying with him and was on the verge of turning hostile. Seeing this, Sun Guoshu glanced at him disdainfully, snorted in displeasure, and with a curl of his lip, told Hu San that this item was indeed for a Malevolent Spirit Sect cultivator. The young master was likely in seclusion or out on a trip, and the voice transmission talisman must have been out of range, which was why there was no reply.
These words left Hu San half-convinced. Seeing this, Sun Guoshu glanced at the sky. He didn't say much more, just threw out a thousand Spirit Stones and, with a pout of his thick lips, said that this was a deposit. Seeing this, Hu San's face lit up with a smile, and he nodded repeatedly in agreement.
Sun Guoshu was also extremely pleased with himself. He had been searching in the market for over half a year and, apart from finding two supplementary materials, had found nothing else. The prices of those two supplementary materials were not extremely high. After some consideration, Sun Guoshu decided it was not appropriate to notify Li Yan to come. That would make him seem too incompetent. He wanted to find a material that was specifically marked in Li Yan's jade slip, or collect more supplementary materials before notifying him. That way, Li Yan wouldn't have to make a trip for nothing, and his own competence would be demonstrated.
Unexpectedly, he had found a "Nine-Dragon Root" while searching the market today. This was one of the four key materials marked in the jade slip, and its age also met the requirements. This made Sun Guoshu ecstatic, and he immediately made a deal for it. It was just that the result was not too satisfactory. He had wanted to use this opportunity to show his face among the shops, but who knew that the master wouldn't reply. This made him a little regretful, but he believed that there would be a result soon.
But what Sun Guoshu never expected was that in the following days, he had almost used up all the voice transmission talismans Li Yan had given him, but they were all like a clay ox entering the sea, not making a single ripple. Gradually, Hu San became unwilling. He had also spent more than ten thousand Spirit Stones to purchase it. Keeping this thing in the shop also tied up a lot of his Spirit Stones for circulation, and he kept urging Sun Guoshu. At first, Sun Guoshu could still delay with various excuses, while secretly sending voice transmission talismans continuously. As the days went by, when he had used up all his voice transmission talismans and there was still no news from Li Yan, even he began to feel that Li Yan was playing with him. But fortunately, Sun Guoshu's belief in getting on the good side of the Malevolent Spirit Sect was firm, and he was still finding excuses to delay.
He didn't dare to go to the Malevolent Spirit Sect. How could any cultivator just casually go there? Any cultivator from another sect who went there without a token would likely be ruthlessly killed.
Finally, under Hu San's repeated urging, Sun Guoshu gritted his teeth and decided to spend all he had to buy this "Nine-Dragon Root" first. He was betting his entire fortune on this. But to his dismay, he found that he didn't have enough Spirit Stones, far from enough. The reason was that in the past few months, he had successively found several other supplementary materials from the jade slip. Unable to contact Li Yan, he had to buy them himself with his own Spirit Stones, which was like cutting off his own flesh. Now, all his belongings amounted to less than two thousand Spirit Stones. This left him helpless for a moment. With his reputation, he had plenty of fair-weather friends, but when it came to borrowing Spirit Stones, everyone was in the same business. Who could trust him enough to lend him Spirit Stones? He tried borrowing a few times, and although he managed to borrow some, he didn't even get half of what he needed.
Of course, Sun Guoshu was no fool. On the contrary, he was a veteran of the martial world. He still had all these things in his possession. As long as he was willing, he could sell them all at a higher price and wouldn't lose a single coin. But in that case, the hard-won opportunity would be gone, and who knew when the next one would come.
But this endless delay was something few shopkeepers were willing to put up with. Hu San's opinion of Sun Guoshu had gone from initial envy to half-belief, and then to deep suspicion. Hu San had also gradually found out about the incident in the free market nearly a year ago, where Sun Guoshu had tried to cheat a Malevolent Spirit Sect cultivator, only to be caught by another Malevolent Spirit Sect cultivator and lose a thousand Spirit Stones. Coupled with Sun Guoshu's recent behavior of borrowing Spirit Stones everywhere, Hu San was now certain that this Sun Guoshu had no connection to any Malevolent Spirit Sect cultivator at all. It was very likely that after offending a Malevolent Spirit Sect cultivator before, he wanted to buy a very precious material to give to them to atone for his past sins. But because he didn't have enough Spirit Stones, he wanted to buy time to raise them. Thinking of this, Hu San couldn't help but grit his teeth in hatred.
Early this morning, Hu San had found Sun Guoshu and told him that someone else wanted the "Nine-Dragon Root," and given Sun Guoshu's repeated delays, the one-thousand-spirit-stone deposit would be considered as offsetting the cost for these four months. Sun Guoshu was furious upon hearing this. Not only had he failed to get the job done, but he had also lost a thousand Spirit Stones for nothing. This was something he could not bear. So he started arguing with Hu San in the shop.
"No matter what you say today, you can't argue with reason. I've waited for you for a full four months. Can you give me a definite answer today? When will your young master from the Malevolent Spirit Sect come? What time will he arrive? If you can tell me clearly, I'll see how long the date is, and you can pay a corresponding deposit, and then we can talk." Hu San looked as if he didn't want to delay any longer. He stuck out his goatee and looked at Sun Guoshu coldly.
"So you're not going to give the young master face?" Sun Guoshu's face grew even gloomier.
"Hehe, how have I not given him face? Hasn't it been four months already?" Hu San's eyes darted as he saw Sun Guoshu was about to turn hostile.
"How about this, tomorrow at the latest. How about it? There are fellow Daoists here to witness. It's not easy for a small shop to do business. Tomorrow, just tomorrow. As long as you can give a definite answer, we can discuss it again. Otherwise, after tomorrow, I will sell this 'Nine-Dragon Root,' and what will you have to say then?" Seeing Sun Guoshu being so persistent, Hu San couldn't help but feel a trace of doubt again. 'Could it really be that a Malevolent Spirit Sect cultivator needs it?' Besides, the price of this "Nine-Dragon Root" was not low. Although a cultivator wanted to buy it yesterday, they might have hesitated because the price was too high and said they would go back and consider it. But with Hu San's eye, he could still tell that there was a seventy percent chance that cultivator would buy it. So he had agreed to the deadline of tomorrow, thinking he could still delay with some random excuse today. He had room to maneuver on both sides.
Seeing that the conversation had reached this point, and that many cultivators around were watching, Sun Guoshu also knew that he was not in the right. All he had was the name of the Malevolent Spirit Sect. He nodded fiercely, turned, and left.
After leaving, he went around borrowing Spirit Stones again. But by midnight, all his belongings, plus what he had borrowed, only amounted to twelve thousand Spirit Stones. This made him so anxious that his eyes were bloodshot. As dawn was about to break, Sun Guoshu gritted his teeth, left the Peiyang Trading City, and flew directly toward the Malevolent Spirit Sect. He was really out of options and had to take a risk once. Besides, this matter was indeed true. He felt that the Malevolent Spirit Sect wouldn't just kill him on sight. As long as he was given a chance to speak, it would be fine.
He flew at full speed and arrived at the gate of the Malevolent Spirit Sect in more than an hour. But looking at the pressure of the sect-protecting formation at the gate made Sun Guoshu's calves cramp. The huge mountain gate looked like a bottomless giant mouth. Sun Guoshu couldn't help but hesitate, and he even regretted coming here so rashly. But at the same time, he felt it was a pity to leave. He couldn't help but pace back and forth in front of the mountain. His action had long been discovered by the patrolling disciples, and several of them came forward and seized him directly.
But everything was still fine. At least they didn't attack him immediately, but coldly asked him the reason. Sun Guoshu was waiting for this moment. He quickly brought up Li Yan's name and kept saying that Li Yan had instructed him that if he couldn't be contacted in case of an emergency, he had to come and notify him, and so on. The latter part was just nonsense from his mouth, but at this time, as long as he could see Li Yan, he believed that Li Yan would not blame him. After all, he was only saying this to get the job done.
After hearing this, the team of patrolling disciples was also half-convinced. But many of them had heard of Li Yan's name. After all, there were too few disciples on Little Bamboo Peak. One of them went to Little Bamboo Peak, but when he came back, his face was gloomy, and his eyes held a hint of unfriendliness. Li Yan was in seclusion and did not see any outside guests. Sun Guoshu's claim that Li Yan had sent him was clearly a deception.
After learning that Li Yan was really in seclusion and seeing the unfriendly gaze of the cultivator who had gone to report, Sun Guoshu trembled all over. In his panic, he couldn't help but think of Bai Rou. But he didn't know Bai Rou's name, which made him sweat profusely. Finally, after swearing to the heavens, he mentioned that Bai Rou was also present when Li Yan had asked him to do something, and he also described Bai Rou's appearance and her skill in puppetry. It had to be said that Sun Guoshu was lucky. Otherwise, today would have been the day of his death. Bai Rou's fame in the Malevolent Spirit Sect was actually lower than Li Yan's. She usually never left her residence. But it just so happened that in this patrol team, there were two disciples from Four Symbols Peak. After hearing Sun Guoshu's description, they knew that the person he was talking about was Bai Rou. Seeing Sun Guoshu swear such a poisonous oath, the patrolling disciples didn't want to kill the wrong person. If they did, and Li Yan and Bai Rou became dissatisfied, it would be bad. So a disciple from Four Symbols Peak flew toward Four Symbols Peak again.
At this moment, Sun Guoshu's spirit was almost on the verge of collapse. Under the continuous questioning and intimidation of several people, his mind was already a little blurry, and he was on the verge of a mental breakdown. But at this time, there was still a thought in his mind: he hoped that Bai Rou had not gone out or was in seclusion.
Perhaps his prayers really worked. Not long after, Bai Rou came to the mountain gate with a suspicious look on her face. She recognized Sun Guoshu at a glance. The moment Sun Guoshu saw Bai Rou, tears streamed down his face, and he almost knelt down to her directly. This stunned Bai Rou. How was this person the same arrogant and domineering Sun Guoshu from the market that day?
After figuring out the reason for Sun Guoshu's visit, Bai Rou, who had also seen Li Yan call Sun Guoshu to one side that day, knew that Li Yan was in seclusion and couldn't be called out. After a moment of hesitation, she actually proposed to go to the market with Sun Guoshu. This proposal greatly surprised Sun Guoshu. Li Yan was in seclusion. He had sought out Bai Rou to be a witness to save his own life. He didn't expect that she would want to go with him after hearing about it. He was overjoyed.
Bai Rou, on the other hand, thought of the matter of the giant ape puppet. And hearing that the item Li Yan wanted would be sold to someone else if not purchased today, she weighed the pros and cons and decided to make the trip. Although her heart was pounding with anxiety all the way, she arrived at the market safely under her careful guard. Then, with Sun Guoshu looking smug and Hu San looking fawning, she directly took out Spirit Stones and purchased that "Nine-Dragon Root." Although Hu San didn't know why the Malevolent Spirit Sect cultivator had changed from a master to a mistress, this was a genuine Malevolent Spirit Sect cultivator, and she was indeed brought here by Sun Guoshu. He couldn't help but take Sun Guoshu seriously.
Then Sun Guoshu also gave Bai Rou the storage pouch containing the several supplementary materials he had purchased. After asking the price, Bai Rou not only gave Sun Guoshu all the Spirit Stones for these materials, but after leaving the shop, she also gave him another five thousand Spirit Stones in front of many cultivators, telling him that one thousand was his reward and the other four thousand was still a deposit to continue doing a good job for Li Yan. If he had trouble finding Li Yan next time, he could contact her directly. After speaking, she even gave Sun Guoshu ten voice transmission talismans.
After receiving this large sum of Spirit Stones, Sun Guoshu was grinning from ear to ear. Especially in front of Hu San and some of the surrounding cultivators, he was beaming with pride. This let all the surrounding cultivators know that it was a fact that he was working for a Malevolent Spirit Sect cultivator.
Although Bai Rou rarely went out, she was extremely intelligent. The reason she did this in front of others was, one, to give Sun Guoshu an identity in front of outsiders so that he could better work for Li Yan; two, although the five thousand Spirit Stones she gave him was a lot, it was not too eye-catching. No one would risk offending the Malevolent Spirit Sect to kill and rob him for just five thousand Spirit Stones. That would only lead to being hunted down everywhere. These five thousand Spirit Stones were to tell some shopkeepers that Sun Guoshu would not be short of money if he bought things, and she hoped that a deposit would be enough to reserve things in the future.
After this matter was settled, Sun Guoshu, being a smooth operator, directly proposed to escort Bai Rou back to the sect. Bai Rou naturally nodded in agreement. The disciples who had seen her leave with Sun Guoshu all saw them together. She figured he wouldn't dare to have any ill intentions. Besides, she was also a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
These worries were, of course, unnecessary. Sun Guoshu carefully escorted Bai Rou back to the sect. Bai Rou told him that when Li Yan came out of seclusion, these materials would be delivered to him safe and sound. Only then did Sun Guoshu return to the market, full of satisfaction.
Bai Rou, on the other hand, floated gracefully into the sect.