Chapter 119 Albizia Flower:
"Impossible," Mrs. Mei murmured to herself, "It's impossible to have found it so quickly..."
Lu Yingqi glanced at him sideways, and Madam Mei shut her mouth again.
"What kind of evidence is this?" Shen Bingsi's gaze shifted from the child's sleeping face to Rong Xie. "When did you learn how to hold a child?"
Rong Xie's posture in holding the child was quite standard, to be honest. Although Shen Bingsi didn't know exactly how she held the child, she had seen how a pig runs even if she hadn't eaten pork. That's how young mothers hold their children. The key is the gentle aura she exudes, which is something that people who don't know how to hold a child can't imitate.
“I held them when I was little,” Rong Xie said, “when I was taking care of my mother’s children.”
"..." Shen Bingsi recalled that Rong Xie's "mother," Wang, was a wet nurse whose full-time job was breastfeeding, so Rong Xie must have held quite a few children.
"Ahem, where did this child come from?" Shen Bingsi asked. "Did you pick him up from the well?"
“I picked it up from the bottom of the well,” Rong Xie said, raising his head as he looked at the flustered Madam Mei.
"Impossible..." Madam Mei's voice suddenly rose, "Impossible! There's no child down in the well!"
"Really?" Rong Xie asked. "Are you sure there aren't any children in the well?"
"...How could there be a child in such a small well? You must have brought him from somewhere and framed us!"
"Oh?" Rong Xie said unhurriedly, "Why is finding a child in the well considered framing you? The child is clearly alive and well, what is there to frame? Or are you admitting that there is something on him that can serve as evidence?"
"You!" A ferocious glint appeared in Madam Mei's eyes. "You're trying to trick me into revealing information?"
“I didn’t trick you into saying anything; you told me everything yourself,” Rong Xie said calmly.
Madam Mei let out a strange, dry laugh, as if she had forced a laugh because she had nothing else to say.
“Fellow Daoist Rong, stop beating around the bush. What exactly happened to this child? You say he is evidence, there should be an explanation,” Lu Yingqi asked.
“I just went down there with my men to investigate,” Rong Xie said. He did not mention Captain Zhao’s identity to avoid any trouble later. “The ground down there is made of stone. Although the space is not large, it is fully furnished with furniture for living, sitting and sleeping, and there are also many special supplies needed to raise children.”
"So what? Our Spirit Spring Well was originally designed to help children cleanse their marrow and cultivate their physique for cultivation. It's normal for it to have children's utensils," Madam Mei insisted. "Besides, the presence of children's items doesn't necessarily mean that the child was brought out from below."
Rong Xie noticed that he was adamant about not admitting that the child was brought up from below, which gave him an even greater sense of victory. He didn't argue with Madam Mei about the child's origins and continued, "But there's no spiritual spring down there. If we're talking about water, there's only a bucket of clear water, which obviously didn't come from the bottom of the well, but rather came down from the windlass."
"..." Madam Mei was silent for a moment, "If spiritual springs were so easy to appear, all the children in the world could come and cultivate immortality."
"But strangely, there are utensils and beds that a child would need down there, and even toys, but there is no food. Even the bucket of water is not for drinking, but raw water for watering flowers," Rong Xie continued.
“Because there are no children down there! The spiritual spring is in a period of depletion, what’s the point of sending children down there?” Madam Mei was getting increasingly annoyed by Rong Xie’s unhurried attitude.
“But if we don’t let the children go down, what will happen to the newborn young masters and misses? I heard that the fourth wife of the Lu family is quite pregnant and about to give birth. The surrounding villages all know about it and are keeping a close eye on their own children. Since you can’t find suitable candidates right away, you have to reach out to more distant places. You finally managed to buy a few children who have the potential to be raised as servants. How can you let the Spirit Spring Well sit idle? After all, it takes time to raise children who can cultivate.”
"...What nonsense are you spouting!" Madam Mei glanced at Lu Yingqi, as if she suspected that he was the one who leaked the information.
Lu Yingqi remained expressionless; in fact, he had no idea that his fourth wife was about to give birth.
"This matter is easy to prove. We just need to bring out the fourth wife and we'll see. However, I don't think it's necessary to prove it. Since everyone knows the truth, why bother a pregnant woman who is about to give birth?" Rong Xie said. "As for how I know, there are no secrets in this world. You've been abducting children here for so many years. Do you really think that bribing the government to suppress the news can keep it a secret forever? Just because the villagers in the surrounding area can't speak out, does that mean nothing happened?"
Mrs. Mei gritted her teeth, her cheeks puffing out.
"You haven't been doing this for a year or two, but for decades. You've been doing it since your young master was born, or even earlier. You may have started by adopting children that other families didn't want or couldn't afford to raise. Later, you tasted the benefits and began to actively demand children to feed your flowers. Even if they couldn't develop the physique you needed, you could keep them as lowly servants. What's more, you even killed and disposed of those who were physically weak..."
"These are all your malicious speculations, slanderous lies!" Madam Mei rebuked, interrupting Rong Xie, and grabbed Lu Yingqi's sleeves with both hands. "Young Master Qi, don't listen to his nonsense. He's spreading rumors and misleading the public. He has no evidence whatsoever and is ruining the reputation of our Lu family. We absolutely cannot let them leave here so easily! Arrest them immediately!"
"Do you have any evidence?" Lu Yingqi asked.
“This is the evidence.” Rong Xie lowered his eyes to look at the baby in his arms, who was still immersed in a sweet dream. “Senior Brother Lu, have you never doubted why the Lu family, which is located in a remote corner of the world, would possess a technology that can transform mortals into cultivators? Whether it’s a spiritual spring or something else, do you really believe that such a technology exists?”
As Rong Xie spoke, he looked up at Lu Yingqi.
A moment of hesitation flashed in Lu Yingqi's eyes.
Shen Bingsi chimed in from the side, "Could this be a lie?!"
"It's a lie. This child is just a mortal's son who has been transformed by the flower. If we were to test his spiritual root now, it probably wouldn't be able to be detected. Only when they grow up, undergo 'training,' and develop spiritual power within their bodies, coupled with the fake spiritual root that Madam Mei created for them, can they pass the spiritual root test, enter a cultivation sect, and become a sect disciple." Rong Xie said something astonishing.
Madam Mei's expression changed repeatedly, a hint of ruthlessness flashing in her eyes.
"A fake spiritual root?" Shen Bingsi had never heard of such a thing before. "Spiritual roots can be faked? Aren't spiritual roots the foundation of cultivation, which transforms natural forces into spiritual power? Can a fake spiritual root also generate spiritual power? Wouldn't that be no different from a real spiritual root?"
“No, a fake spiritual root cannot be converted into spiritual power; it is merely a forgery… used to pass the spiritual root test,” Rong Xie explained. “These children will obtain spiritual power in another way.”
"Another way?" Shen Bingsi asked, puzzled. "What other way is there?"
“Dual cultivation,” Rong Xie said.
"!!" Shen Bingsi's eyes widened, her face showing shock.
He didn't even consider that possibility.
Indeed, dual cultivation can obtain spiritual power. When Rong Xie had no spiritual power, the only way he could think of was dual cultivation.
But these are just children, who would teach children dual cultivation... who would do such a shameless thing?
Shen Bingsi turned his gaze to the Lu family. His righteous anger made his gaze somewhat frightening, and the Lu family members all avoided his gaze. Even Madam Mei, who was usually thick-skinned, shrank back.
“Those without spiritual roots cannot obtain spiritual power even through dual cultivation,” Lu Yingqi said calmly. “Since pseudo-spiritual roots do not have the same effect as true spiritual roots, your statement is untenable.”
“There is a type of person who can,” Rong Xie said, staring at Madam Mei, whose face was dark and inscrutable. “A furnace or cauldron.”
Upon hearing Rong Xie's words, not only Shen Bing Si, but even Lu Ying Qi, a powerful figure who remained unfazed even when the sky was falling, showed obvious surprise on his face.
“As long as we take this child to the Hehuan Sect and find that Elder Hong from your Xuantian Sect who was expelled from the sect, we can immediately find out whether he has been transformed into a furnace or not.” Rong Xie stared at Lu Yingqi, while making a gesture of cupping his hands forward.
Just then, a red thread shot out from Madam Mei's sleeve and headed straight for Rong Xie.
Rong Xie raised his eyebrows slightly. Before the red thread even reached him, it was sliced into pieces by several golden lights and fell to the ground.
Shen Bingsi reached out and the Shengxie Sword returned to his hand. His face was grim, more unpleasant than ever before. This androgynous old man in front of him embodied all the things he hated. If Rong Xie hadn't wanted to confront him, he would have cut this old monster into pieces right now.
"You...you wanted to show it to Young Master Qi, didn't you? Then bring it here!" Madam Mei tried to justify her actions. "Holding a child who came from who-knows-where and talking to yourself—do you think Young Master Qi will believe you like that? Elder Hong, whom you said was expelled from the sect long ago and is now at odds with the Xuan Tian Sect, how is our Young Master Qi supposed to find him? You're clearly just deliberately making things you can't do to buy time!"
“Madam Mei, there’s no need to worry. I’m just offering a method of proof. It’s alright if we can’t find Elder Hong,” Rong Xie said. “There is an even more reliable piece of evidence. In the room below this well, there is a flower that looks like a rose and smells like a rose, but is actually called ‘Hehuan’. This flower is the treasure of the Hehuan Sect, a sacred flower that can transform mortal bodies into furnaces.”
The surroundings were completely silent.
Shen Bingsi was at a loss for words to express his shock. He turned his head and looked at Rong Xie's face. He always knew that Rong Xie was knowledgeable, but Rong Xie actually knew about the obscure knowledge of the Hehuan Sect. He didn't even know that the furnace was made by modifying the Hehuan flower.
"Wait a minute," Shen Bingsi said, forcing out a question, "A year ago you didn't even know what dual cultivation was, how come you now know that the mimosa flower can modify the furnace?"
Rong Xie smiled and shook his head: "These are two different things. I don't have the token of Hongxianglou, so of course I don't know... cough, but I have read a lot of books on spiritual plants and medicinal herbs, and I know that there is a mimosa flower. The mimosa sect happens to be called that, so it's not surprising that I made a connection."
Shen Bingsi was once again stunned by Rong Xie's unorthodox sources of knowledge.
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