Strange Tales: The Seventy-Two Arts of the Earthly Fiends

Chapter 63 Mountain Oyster Offering Treasure

Song Quyou held the yellowed, tattered booklet carefully, afraid to use too much force for fear of damaging it.

He looked up at the old ape, whose wrinkled monkey face held a faint smile, as if he had finally fulfilled a wish.

"Senior, this flying sword technique is far too valuable."

The old ape waved his hand, tore off the thin skin of the persimmon in his hand, revealing the soft, golden flesh inside, took a sip, and mumbled:

"Swordsmanship is something that must be passed down; there's no use in me guarding it."

The monkeys around me are too unruly and difficult to train with. After much thought, I've decided to give them to you and your senior sister to practice with.

"However, as someone who has been through it, I must advise you: forging a flying sword is a slow and meticulous process. It requires a fine sword blank that needs to be nurtured daily. Before the sword is finished, it must not be used, otherwise years of hard work will be wasted and you will have to start all over again."

……

Song Quyou bid farewell to the old ape and carefully tucked the yellowed booklet away from his body.

When they returned to their lodgings, it was still early. Su Tang was sitting at a stone table that had appeared in the courtyard, looking through account books.

"Has the matter on the mountain been settled?"

"It's settled."

Song Quyou sat down on the stone bench, took out the booklet from his bosom, placed it on the table, and said, "The old ape has given us the method to forge flying swords."

Su Tang raised an eyebrow, took the booklet, and flipped through it, her expression gradually becoming serious:

"This old ape actually possesses such precious magical techniques."

However, to forge a flying sword, it would likely take at least ten years of dedicated practice.

"Senior sister, the sword embryo mentioned above is only described as a spiritual embryo sword. Do you know what that is?"

Su Tang thought for a moment and said, "This sword blank is extremely rare. Ordinary iron swords need to withstand countless battles on the battlefield before they can begin to possess spirituality."

If ancient sacrificial gold artifacts are used as materials, or even naturally occurring spiritual materials, to forge the sword blank, much of the work can be saved. There's no need for countless battles; simply nurturing it daily is sufficient.

After a moment's thought, Song Quyou placed the long sword at his waist on the table.

Su Tang paused, then looked at the azure longsword on the stone table. "This sword of yours can be used as a sword blank, but if you use it to forge a flying sword, wouldn't you be cutting off your own arm when facing enemies in the next few years?"

Song Quyou shook his head helplessly. It seemed that his dream of becoming a sword immortal would have to be put on hold.

"By the way, Senior Sister, why haven't I seen Senior Brother today?"

"My senior brother said he's going to see an old friend, and I don't know when he'll be back."

Song Quyou nodded, carefully put the booklet away, and then asked:

"How did the purchase of the mountain land go, Senior Sister?"

Su Tang closed the account book and said with a faint smile:

"I've already sent people to handle it. Those mountains are in remote areas and not fertile land, so the government shouldn't encounter much resistance."

……

During the conversation.

In the bamboo forest behind the mountain, a red figure, sneaking around and carrying bulging, tattered bundles, passed through the bamboo forest.

Looking at the house in front of him, he stopped in his tracks and sniffed the air.

Excitedly, they prancing about, each running its own way, shouting in their annoyingly loud voices:

"You silent devil, I've found you."

Upon hearing the sound, Song Quyou thought it was a hallucination and didn't pay much attention until a red wild boar ran out from the backyard.

Shocked, Song Quyou slapped his forehead, feeling a sudden headache.

"Silent gourd! Silent gourd! Silent gourd!"

The mountain worm hopped and skipped around Song Quyou in circles.

Su Tang, standing to the side, smiled and recognized the object as the "mountain oyster" recorded in ancient books. It was known for its foul language and vulgarity, which made it unpopular with many.

How did you find this place?

"I remember the smell on the silent gourd."

Last time you wouldn't let me come with you, probably because you humans looked down on me. I didn't bring any gifts, so this time I searched for a long time on the mountain and found many glittering things.

As he spoke, Shan Gao straightened up, letting the bundle on his body slip to the ground.

"If you take them, you can't kick me out."

The gorilla used its long trunk to arch around the package, find a vulnerable spot, press down with its hooves, and rip open a large gash with its sharp beak.

It revealed the filthy contents inside: half-eaten fruit, grass roots with teeth marks, pebbles covered in dirt, and greasy chunks of meat.

Song Quyou sighed helplessly, squatted down, and gently patted Shan Gao's head, saying, "Since you're here, stay here and make sure you don't talk to outsiders or swear, or I'll make sure you can never speak again."

Shan Gao nodded obediently, "I understand, you silent devil."

Su Tang, standing to the side, didn't say much, quietly looking at the things that Shan Gao had brought.

She crouched down, picked up a pebble from among the mud-covered stones, and gently wiped it with her pale fingers.

The surface of the pebbles was dusty, but after wiping away the loose dirt, a layer of shimmering silver light shone through, like solidified moonlight.

"Hey, you little wench..."

"ban."

Before the spiky could finish speaking, its mouth was sealed shut.

"No swearing! If you do it again, don't even think about opening your mouth again."

With that, he waved his hand and untied the scrambled mountain oyster, who had become obedient.

Su Tang wasn't annoyed; she simply held the pebble in her palm and presented it to Song Quyou, saying:

"Look, these aren't ordinary pebbles."

Song Quyou rubbed the pebble in his hand, feeling its cool touch. The silvery light shone faintly under the stone's surface, like the shimmering moonlight shrouded in a veil.

Song Quyou murmured, "The pure white light reflects on the empty curtain. Is this pure white silver? It is a precious material recorded in the 'Record of Spiritual Materials' for refining magical artifacts."

Su Tang's eyes shone with joy. She squatted down and picked out a few more similar pebbles from the pile of "junk" on the ground. Each one, after being wiped clean, revealed the same silvery light.

"With these pure silver stones, the sword blank for the flying sword has been found."

"Sister, this is for the taciturn guy."

Seeing the sweet-smelling yam, Su Tang smiled faintly and reached out to touch it, saying:

"Don't worry, I'll forge a beautiful sword blank for your taciturn self, and I'll use the rest, okay?"

"Then, sister, you have to give me a plate of those fragrant little pancakes on the stone table."

Su Tang turned and went into the kitchen. When she came out, she was carrying a plate of osmanthus cakes, which were golden, soft, and sweet.

The mountain worm's eyes immediately glued to the plate, its four hooves started running off on their own again, and its nose twitched wildly.

It darted to Su Tang, whimpering anxiously, but because of the rude words it had just uttered, it awkwardly turned its head to the side, glancing sideways at the plate of cake.

"Here you go." Su Tang placed the plate on the ground.

Without a word, Shan Gao buried his face in the plate and began slurping away, crumbs flying everywhere. He ate haphazardly, muttering incoherently as he ate:

"It smells so good...it smells so good...your sister's cooking is amazing..."

Su Tang chuckled softly, then squatted back down in front of the pile of tattered packages and began to carefully rummage through them.

The more she read, the more alarmed she became. The text described Shan Gao as only good at cursing and had no talent for treasure hunting.

But inside this filthy package, besides the pure silver, there was also a section of "jade bamboo shoot root" about the length of a middle finger, warm and smooth like cream, which was a top-grade ingredient for making healing pills; a piece of yellow jade essence covered in soil, with an outer skin like ginger and a lustrous interior, which had the effect of strengthening the body and increasing power; and a variety of miscellaneous fragments of artifacts, whose nature was unknown, but which showed that they were quite old.

"Did you find all of these on the mountain?" Su Tang couldn't help but ask.

Shan Gao lifted his crumb-covered face from the osmanthus cake dish and hummed smugly twice:

"I wandered around in the mountains for nearly two months, and my nose was almost bald from all the rummaging. I managed to dig a hole at the foot of the mountain, and that's where I took out the rocks and fragments."

I wanted to take more, but there was a really fierce person sleeping inside, and I didn't dare mess with him, so I took a little and ran out.

Song Quyou frowned slightly, fiddling with the fragments of artifacts, and asked in a deep voice, "That person was sleeping? What did they look like?"

The galangal licked the bottom of the plate and mumbled:

"I didn't look closely. In the dark cave, the person was sitting on a futon against the stone wall, covered in dust, like a stone statue, completely still."

I picked up a few stones, grabbed some fragments of what he probably didn't want in front of him, and his eyelids seemed to twitch. I grabbed a few more things and ran away as fast as I could.

Song Quyou and Su Tang exchanged a glance, both seeing a hint of seriousness in each other's eyes.

After all, there is such a cave in the mountains, where people are sleeping and many spiritual objects are hidden. There must be more secrets inside the cave.

"Where is that cave?" Song Quyou asked.

"I forgot. I only know that it took me a month to get here after I left there."

Su Tang carefully sorted through the scattered items on the ground and said softly, "A cave that can store spiritual materials like Pure Soul Silver and Jade Bamboo Shoot Root is most likely related to a cultivator. The person who is sleeping is probably that cultivator."

After licking the plate clean, the scrambled egg found a corner and started snoring. It must have been exhausted to find its way here.

Song Quyou pieced the fragments together into a disc shape according to the crack. The disc was covered with crisscrossing fine lines that subtly followed a certain pattern.

"Senior sister, look at the pattern on this plate, doesn't it look like an array?"

Su Tang frowned slightly, looked at the round plate on the ground, and after a moment of contemplation, said:

"This plate should be a protective array plate for the cave. No wonder Shan Gao was able to enter that cave; it's because this array plate was broken. But the cultivator was asleep, and he said the array plate was something that was in front of him..."

"Either he was seriously injured, or his lifespan was coming to an end, and he sealed his cave on his own."

Song Quyou took over the conversation, his brows furrowing even more deeply.

"In either case, we should avoid going if possible. Even if a cultivator's cave is filled with countless treasures, it's not something we can touch right now."

Su Tang carefully put away the Pure Silver, glanced at the high sun in the sky, and said to Song Quyou, "Senior sister will take you to a place, a place where you can forge sword embryos."

……

Song Quyou followed Su Tang, bypassing Qiantang County and arriving in the deep mountains southwest of the city.

After walking along the mountain path for about half an hour, Su Tang stopped in front of a small mountain temple. She glanced at the incense burner on the ground, casually picked up a broken incense stick that someone had thrown away, stuck it into the burner, and continued along the path.

Russian.

A thin mist rose, and gradually, shouts drifted into my ears, long and ethereal.

As the mist dissipated, the world suddenly darkened, and just moments before they had been on a desolate mountain path, but now they were standing in front of a long street paved with bluestone slabs.

The street is paved with smooth stone slabs, and blue and yellow paper lanterns are hung on both sides of the shop entrances.

The streets were bustling with people, their shouts echoing through the air, and the yellowish-green light and shadows enveloped the entire street in a play of light and shadow.

"Is this a ghost market?"

Song Quyou looked around. The blazing sun in the sky had turned into a full moon. The mountain path he had come from was nowhere to be seen. Behind him, there were only layers of mist, like a soft wall separating the whole street from the outside world.

Su Tang's gaze swept over the flickering lights on the street, and she said softly:

"It's the Ghost Market. Back then, I was quite young and came here hunting with my family. I accidentally lit a broken incense stick and ended up in this Ghost Market. It was my master who saved me, and that's how I became a disciple of Shenxiao Temple."

As Song Quyou listened quietly to Su Tang's past, he looked out down the long street.

The street stalls displayed all sorts of things: worms with damp, clump-like pupae, bones covered in runes, old bamboo slips piled up like small mountains, and funerary objects that smelled of earth.

Of course, there were also some proper items, such as yellow talismans, swords, compasses, elixirs, jewelry... everything imaginable.

"Esteemed guests, take a look at this."

A thin stall owner next to him lifted a piece of coarse cloth on his stall, revealing a dozen or so small porcelain bottles neatly stacked underneath. "Neiyuan Pill, mild in nature, just right for strengthening the body and nourishing the vital energy. Three pills per bottle, enough for five years of life."

Su Tang shook her head, grabbed Song Quyou's sleeve, and continued walking forward.

The dim yellow light cast their shadows long and short.

The shouts of street vendors rose and fell, some shrill like the squeak of a mouse, others deep and muffled as if squeezed from a crack in the ground, sounding utterly inhuman...

"Senior sister, are all the stall owners in this ghost market...?"

"Some do, some don't," Su Tang said softly, her gaze sweeping over a stall selling dark red offal.

"The ghost market doesn't distinguish between humans, ghosts, or demons; it only recognizes buying and selling. Do you see that blue paper lantern? A blue lantern means the stall owner is a ghost, while a yellow lantern means a demon."

Song Quyou took a second look at the vendors on both sides of the street.

Sure enough, under the blue paper lanterns, some of the stall owners had faces as pale as paper, some floated in mid-air with their feet not touching the ground, and some simply wore thick, floating black robes, only stretching out a withered hand to fiddle with the goods on their stalls.

The stall owners under the yellow paper lanterns are mostly decent-looking, but there are always one or two oddities about them, such as horns on their foreheads, trailing tails on their backs, or being covered in fur.

"We're almost there. The place where the sword blanks are forged is just ahead."

(The sword embryo mentioned above refers to a rough, undeveloped flying sword.)

…………

Su Tang led Song Quyou to stop in front of an inconspicuous shop.

The shop had no signboard, only a blue paper lantern hanging under the eaves. The lantern's flame was an eerie blue color, reflecting a hazy glow in front of the door, like waves rising on the water.

The shop door was half-open, and there were no shouts from inside, only the rhythmic clanging of hammering.

Su Tang pushed open the door and entered, with Song Quyou following closely behind.

The shop was small, with all sorts of weapons and farm tools hanging on the walls.

There were newly shaped sword blades, broadswords with single blades, gleaming silver hooks, fist-sized cantaloupe hammers, as well as hoes, sickles, rakes... all sorts of farm tools.

A gaunt old man sat in the corner in front of an anvil, his face covered by a bronze demon mask, only revealing two deep-set, fiery eye sockets. He held a teapot in his hand and sipped the tea.

Before the anvil, a small hammer, unwielded, repeatedly struck a red-hot piece of iron. With each strike, sparks burst forth, like will-o'-the-wisps exploding before a desolate grave in the wilderness.

Su Tang took out the dozen or so pure silver coins from her sleeve and placed them on the stove next to the anvil.

"Uncle Tie, forge two swords."

The masked old man didn't get up. He glanced at the plain silver tea on the stove, wiped the black tea from the corner of his mouth, and said:

"The condition is not bad; a dozen or so pieces of pure silver can be used to make two swords."

"Girl, what kind of sword do you want?"