Pagoda Peak.

This was a place where Chu Liang often met with Sister Jiang in private, so he was naturally a bit familiar with it. Apart from the Water Curtain Cave, there were many other places on the mountain.

The most conspicuous was a pit valley, which was said to be the previous location of the Demon Suppression Tower. After the pagoda was lost, only a huge pit remained here. Over time, it gradually turned into a valley. It was believed that the majority of Shu Mountain disciples had come here to pay their respects to the relics.

The second clue was located in a place that looked almost identical to the scenery in this valley.

Chu Liang landed and began to look around for the location, slowly moving forward with his divine sense spread out.

Finally, in the middle of the dense forest, he found the approximate exact location. There was a huge stone here that seemed to need to be pushed away.

Chu Liang braced his arms against it and effortlessly pushed the huge stone away. The stone was heavy, and for a cultivator at the third realm, this might pose some difficulty. But for Chu Liang, not only had his cultivation greatly increased, but even his physical strength alone was enough to move this stone.

With a rumbling sound, the stone was moved.

Sure enough, a dark hole was revealed inside. The surrounding soil was soft and black, it seemed to have been dug out not long ago, probably in preparation for this Mountain God Festival.

Just as he was about to step inside, he heard a “hurrah” sound from not far away. A flash of silver light rushed over like lightning, about to hit him.

Swoosh—

The lightning stopped abruptly just before it hit Chu Liang, recognizing his face. It skidded to a halt, leaving two deep tracks on the ground.

“Why is it you?”

Chu Liang caught the young Hakutaku that had crashed into his arms and asked curiously.

“Hurrah!” The young Hakutaku raised its head and called out, looking proud.

Chu Liang looked at it and laughed, “Did the elders arrange for you to guard the third clue? Isn’t this a bit too much?”

This was indeed a big problem.

As soon as the stone was pushed away, the young Hakutaku would appear to block the way. Those ordinary disciples in the third or fourth realm would not be a match for the young Hakutaku. Even if many people joined forces to deal with it, who would dare to be ruthless towards the divine beast of Shu Mountain?

Or perhaps this was the intention of the person who set the question…

They didn’t want a single team to get the next clue, so they arranged for the young Hakutaku, which required many people to drive away, to be here, forcing several teams to join forces to get the third clue.

Fortunately, this challenge posed no difficulty for Chu Liang.

He pointed lightly at the entrance of the cave and said, “Lead the way!”

The young Hakutaku immediately let out a “hurrah” and happily ran forward, betraying its duty without hesitation.

With it leading the way, the journey deep into the cave was extremely smooth. Some minor traps and formations crackled on the young Hakutaku’s body, but it walked in as if strolling in a leisurely courtyard.

The higher-ups of Shu Mountain probably didn’t expect that the second challenge they set up would personally destroy the third one.

When they reached the deepest part of the cave, there was a wall made of jade.

On the wall was another picture, depicting a crescent moon hanging in the middle of the sky, and within the moon was a transparent white cup.

The White Jade Liuli Cup.

What did this picture mean?

Was it saying that the White Jade Liuli Cup was on the moon?

Chu Liang knew that this was the third clue. If he could decipher it, he should be able to find the final White Jade Liuli Cup. But this clue was indeed more elusive than the previous ones.

After pondering here for a while and making sure there were no other clues left behind, Chu Liang decided to leave the cave.

Before leaving, he could have destroyed the jade wall. In that case, he would be the only one in the whole Shu Mountain who could get this clue.

But he didn’t do that.

…

Two days later, the entire Shu Mountain was caught in a frenzy.

That was to analyze the second clue of the Mountain God Festival and to think about what the four chaotic pictures pieced together meant.

At first, those who got the clue thought it was a secret and studied it quietly. But soon, someone found out that almost all the teams participating in this Mountain God Festival had bought this scroll.

But it didn’t matter, everyone having it made it easier to discuss. Most of the people who should have been eliminated early on had the fun of participating because of this.

In the history of the Mountain God Festival, there had never been a time when no one was eliminated in the first round and everyone entered the second round. All of this was thanks to a handsome guy who contributed selflessly.

“Wow… so many sword coins.”

The members of the Mountain God Festival team gathered together, exclaiming at the mountain-like pile of sword coins. Almost all the teams in Shu Mountain bought their clues this time, and they collected almost seven thousand sword coins in total.

This was more than Chu Liang had imagined.

The credit for this achievement had to go to Lin Bei, who sold more than half of the clues alone. Some teams that were not very interested in this, who had already determined their failure at Cloud Remote Peak, were sold by him when he went door-to-door for the second time.

Looking at his excited expression, Chu Liang felt that if this guy went into real estate, he could probably support a whole property development by himself.

“Everyone has put in a lot of effort this time, so you each get twenty percent of the sword coins,” Chu Liang said.

The others were overjoyed at his words.

Twenty percent each, that’s equivalent to splitting it equally among five people, right? This was a huge sum of money.

But on second thought, they felt a bit embarrassed.

Especially Lin Bei, he had split the profits from Black Whale Mountain with Chu Liang last time and had made a fortune. It felt a bit too much to take advantage of this situation again.

He spoke up, “Is this okay? You’ve been leading the whole time, and we each get twenty percent. Isn’t that a bit unfair to you?”

“It’s nothing,” Chu Liang said with a casual expression. “I’m getting ninety-two percent, which is not a small amount.”

“…So that’s how it is.” Lin Bei immediately retracted his sense of shame.

Oh, so that’s how you guys at Silver Sword Peak divide the profits.

But even two percent was more than a hundred sword coins, which was not a small amount for a normal divine intent realm disciple. If it weren’t for following Chu Liang, it would take them a lot of time to earn so many sword coins.

One of the followers said, “Actually, we didn’t all contribute equally. Brother Lin Bei sold a lot more than we did.”

Lin Bei waved his hand, “Hey, hey, let’s not fuss over these things.”

“Yeah.” Chu Liang also said, “You three just need to try harder next time.”

“Um…” The follower nodded, suddenly feeling something was off, “What do you mean by next time?”

Just as they were happily dividing the spoils, they suddenly heard the cry of a white crane from outside, followed by another letter from Chu Liang from Tongtian Peak.

Chu Liang opened it and found that it was Master Shen calling for him.

Seeing the urgency in the message, and since everything here was already wrapped up, he hurried over.

Upon arriving at the Sword Exchange Pavilion, he saw Master Shen waiting there with a beaming smile.

“Do you know why I called you here?” He asked Chu Liang.

“I presume there’s another challenging task for me?” Chu Liang said.

“Smart.” Master Shen nodded, “This is no small matter. There are suspicions of traces of the Demonic Soul Sect in the city of Yanbo in the Eastern Sea. Nearly ten mortals have lost their lives, suspected to be the work of the remnants of the third realm of the Demonic Soul Sect. Therefore, we need a Golden Elixir realm disciple to lead a team to capture them, and I recommended you first.”

“Thank you for your recommendation, Master Shen.” Chu Liang quickly thanked him.

Chu Liang was not too familiar with the name Demonic Soul Sect, as it had been crushed hundreds of years ago, leaving only some occasional remnants. Once they showed up, they would be hit hard by the forces of the nine heavens and ten earths.

Involving the demonic sects harming ordinary people in human cities is absolutely a top-priority task. Shu Mountain has always advocated for the extermination of demons and protection of the Dao, and what they exterminate are precisely these demons.

Such an important task, recommending him indeed could let Chu Liang enter the vision of the higher-ups of Shu Mountain earlier. Although he had already entered their vision… in the way of following his master to extort and blackmail.

It can only be said that doing the task well is also an opportunity to improve his reputation…

“Do this task well. If you lead the team successfully, your treatment on the mountain in the future may be on par with Xu Ziyang and Jiang Yuebai.” Master Shen added.

Being on par with them naturally meant the treatment of core disciples.

“I will do my best!” Chu Liang declared.

“This task also requires two to three Divine Intent realm disciples to assist. Do you want to call them yourself or should I help you recruit?” Master Shen asked again.

Upon hearing this, Chu Liang couldn’t help but feel a bit emotional. Not long ago, he was the one assisting. Now, he had become the Golden Elixir realm disciple leading the team.

He thought for a moment and said, “I’ll call two fellow disciples myself. It’s easier to work with people I’m familiar with.”

“Good.” Master Shen agreed.

After Chu Liang returned, he called Shang Ziliang and Lin Bei.

“I’ve been assigned an urgent task from above, requiring two Divine Intent realm disciples. If you’re free, come with me.” He said.

Shang Ziliang was at the peak of the Divine Intent realm and was preparing to form his Golden Elixir, making him one of the top fighters among the Divine Intent realm disciples on Shu Mountain. Although Lin Bei was only in the late stage of the Divine Intent realm, he was extremely useful when out and about, and bringing him along could save a lot of trouble.

Since they were both familiar with him, Chu Liang chose them first.

Lin Bei readily agreed, while Shang Ziliang said, “Doing a task? Why don’t I bring my two brothers along, the more the merrier.”

“Um…” Chu Liang pondered for a moment, “With your two brothers, our combat power may not necessarily increase much, but the food expenses will definitely increase significantly. Let’s leave it for next time.”

Shang Ziliang could only nod, “Indeed.”

Good morning.

(End of Chapter)