Chapter 159 True and Fake Lyu Liang
Lyu Liang was stunned at first, and then he looked at the interrupter from head to toe. This man was quite robust, wearing a cyan embroidered robe, and had bushy eyebrows, big eyes, a straight nose, and a wide mouth. All of these features combined together shared some similarities with the whiskered man, Lyu Liang’s disguise. As for the man’s cultivation, it was indeed at the Peak of Void Return.
“Excuse me, first come, first served! I’ve already paid for the treasures. You just can’t bid against me for them!” Lyu Liang grabbed the man’s hand, smiled and said quite calmly.
“Taoism peer, such treasures are so hard to find that I must contend for them. I’m willing to trade them for 120 thousand upper-grade Primordial Stones. Please!” The man pulled back his hand and seemed somewhat anxious, as he pleaded in an almost begging tone.
As the saying went, never hit a person who is smiling at you. Although the man had behaved rashly, he didn’t mean to wrest the treasures earlier. As such, it seemed that he indeed needed them.
“White, what are these three incredibly expensive branches for? This man seems to be really in need of them. What about giving him one?” Lyu Liang had to consult White first, before making the decision.
“Well, how should I say it? In principle, you need all of them. But before you reach the Tao Master level, you only need one of them. So if you want, you may give him the smallest one! Such treasures are rare in the Mortal World. This shop clearly doesn’t know their value. In the Heaven Realm, it might cost 100 thousand upper-grade Primordial Stones. However, even if the price increases 10-fold, someone will definitely buy those three branches, regardless of the price!” It was rare for White to say so much at a time. “This fatty guy needs them badly. With them, he can stimulate his potential power at a faster pace, and then you will have a new terrible opponent. How great it is! I advise you to ask this guy what he’s going to do with them. If he really knows their value and needs them, then you may consider giving him one of them. If he is trying to cheat you, reject him directly!”
Lyu Liang understood White’s intention and asked the man at once, “If you can answer my question truthfully, I may consider giving you one branch. My question is, what are you going to do with them?”
The man was delighted at first, and then he was stunned. He scratched his head, seemingly becoming melancholy at this question. At last, he knelt directly in front of Lyu Liang and said, with tears in his eyes, “I have no idea of what the treasures will be used for. I am buying them for a powerful figure. With them, I can trade for the panacea to detoxify my mother! So whatever it is, I want to get at least one of them. Please help me! I, Kong Niu, now kowtow to you!”
After he had said this, the man began kowtowing ceaselessly, which made Lyu Liang very embarrassed. Lyu Liang lifted the man up immediately and found it quite hard to make a decision.
The man’s answer was totally out of his expectation—it was truthful, and yet didn’t meet the conditions, to gain the branch. However, seeing that the man was so tearful and anxious, he couldn’t help but ask, “Is there any alternative, besides this treasure, to trade for the panacea?”
The man wiped his tears and pulled a ragged scroll from his breast, on which there seemed to be something written. He handed it to Lyu Liang and said hastily, “Yes! Any item on this list will do. But I’ve never heard of these items. And when I finally found these branches, you bought them ahead of me…”
Lyu Liang glanced at the scroll and frowned. There were no less than 10 items on the list, each seemingly a rare treasure. Except for the Devil Spirit herb, which he had once obtained from the Virtual Land, he had never heard of the other items.
While Lyu Liang was poring over the list, White spoke seriously in his Divine Soul, “Boy, it’s impossible to find the listed items in the Mortal Realm. Even if they do exist here, one can only obtain them by sheer chance. So that’s almost an impossible task!”
Hearing what he said, Lyu Liang thought for a little while and decided not to concern himself with the man’s business. After all, the founding father of Sword Character and other people were waiting anxiously for him. However, even if the man’s cultivation was higher than Lyu Liang’s disguised one, in order to save his mother, he was willing to kowtow to Lyu Liang, which showed his sincerity and purity. Seeing that, Lyu Liang would feel sorry if he didn’t offer help.
“Well, these three branches are important to me, so I can’t give them to you. But I have the Devil Spirit herb, which I came by accidentally. It’s of no use to me, so you can take it. You don’t need to pay me in Primordial Stones. I just hope that you can trade it for the panacea you need.” Lyu Liang took out a herb, exuding thick Devil Qi and a black glow, and then handed it to the man, without hesitation.
The man stared at Lyu Liang, took the Devil Spirit herb, with quivering hands, and carefully put it into a rectangular wooden box in his breast. Then, he made three firm kowtows, and with a wave of his hand, a soul from his head appeared in front of Lyu Liang.
Lyu Liang was stunned—this was a Life Soul! Then, the man said sincerely, “I have nothing to repay your kindness. And you don’t seem to be lacking in Primordial Stones, so I can only give you my Life Soul! After I save my mother, my life will belong to you! No matter where you go, I will follow you and protect you!”
Looking at this earnest man, Lyu Liang was rendered dumbfounded, but internally, he had a favorable impression of the man—this was a grateful man. The man’s cultivation was close to the Fairy Immortal level, which was much higher than the Late-stage Nascent Soul level, of Lyu Liang’s disguised one, but he had never thought of bullying the weak. For Lyu Liang, such a show of filial piety and purity were already highly honorable.
With a wave, Lyu Liang put away the Life Soul. He smiled and said, “If that is so, I’m very lucky!”
Lyu Liang said this, but he had a different plan inside. His cultivation was much higher than Kong Niu’s, and it was not necessary for him to take this Life Soul. As such, he planned to return it secretly. After all, he would be leaving the next day, and Kong Niu wouldn’t be able to find him, so he would just do a good deed this time.
Kong Niu expressed a thousand thanks before he left joyfully and mumbled, “Senior Lyu will be satisfied to see this, and I can finally save my mother!”
“Wait! What did you say? Which senior Lyu?” Lyu Liang heard the man’s words by chance and suddenly became alert. His intuition told him that he had to figure out what was happening!
The man was stunned and replied subconsciously, “Eh? Who else could senior Lyu be? He’s the hero Lyu Liang!”
Lyu Liang was furious now. This was precisely what he was worried about—that there would be someone duping others by using his name and somehow bullying people in need. It seemed that he had to intervene, in order to solve this problem.
Within a second, Lyu Liang’s face was calm again. He stepped forward and asked with a smile, “Is it really senior Lyu Liang! I’ve heard a lot about him but never had a chance to meet him. Could you please take me with you to visit him?”
“No problem! But the journey is a bit long, and it may take two days to fly there. Is that okay? My hometown is in Fog Country, next to Vine Country, and senior Lyu is there now.” Kong Niu didn’t think much about this and agreed gladly, immediately.
Then, the two left Vine Treasure Pavilion and set off to Fog Country. At the same time, Lyu Liang messaged the girls that they could stay for another two days at the inn until he came back. Black returned to Lyu Liang and left with him.
Along the way, Lyu Liang managed to learn something about the fake “Lyu Liang,” only to find that he was quite a generous and courageous person.
According to Kong Niu, this “Lyu Liang” came to Fog Country a year ago, when many people there, somehow suffered from toxication. Both mortals and cultivators started dying, although cultivators could hold on for a bit longer.
And according to a survey carried by a powerful local figure, there existed in the fogs in some area, some unknown poison that could erode the Divine Soul, and the source was from a deep pool.
There were many deep pools in Fog Country, and the one that released the poison looked very normal. But since people started getting poisoned, the water there had turned to a weird, red color.
A master at the Peak of Almighty Immortal once dived into the pool, but he came up half an hour later, badly wounded. He said that there was a blood-red Field Domain below that constrained his cultivation, and inside the domain was a powerful snake-like monster. That was why he was sure that the poison came from there.
Just then, “Lyu Liang” appeared. After he learned what happened, he took out panaceas to cure those poisoned and dived into the pool several times to kill the ringleader. And within a year, all the patients were cured. Although the pool water was still blood-red, no poison was released anymore.
People found afterward that the panacea given by “Lyu Liang” could tackle not only the poison in the pool but also other rare poisons.
So suddenly, more and more cultivators came to see the legendary, powerful figure, to ask for a panacea.
Kong Niu’s mother, also a cultivator, was the Supreme Patriarch of a mediocre sect, and her cultivation was at the Middle-stage of Xuan Immortal. In a fight several years ago, she was poisoned by a rare type of poison. Although she suppressed the poison in some way, she suffered frequent seizures afterward. It was said that when the seizure occurred, one would feel great anguish in his Divine Soul, which was worse than death.
Knowing that “Lyu Liang” might be able to save his mother’s life, Kong Niu resolved to trade the panacea, with all his savings. But at that time, “Lyu Liang” set a rule that only people who could give him any of the items listed could gain a panacea. And that was his story.
After hearing what Kong Niu said, Lyu Liang’s hostility toward the fake “Lyu Liang” was somewhat reduced. Although he was a fake, what he had done was quite admirable. According to Kong Niu’s description, Lyu Liang understood that such panaceas were undoubtedly rare artifacts. But this “Lyu Liang” not only gave them away generously to those in need but also killed the monster in the pool, which was enough to prove his chivalry.
Two days later, Lyu Liang and Kong Niu reached Fog Country. Then, they came to Kong Niu’s mother’s sect, which was called Fog-Moon Pavilion.
From the moment Lyu Liang entered Fog Country, all the way to Fog-Moon Pavilion, he heard people talking about “Lyu Liang’s” good deeds. As for trading a panacea with an artifact, everyone agreed that it made sense, because the panacea was undoubted, not something ordinary. After all, panaceas didn’t grow on trees. The savior had taken out a lot to save them, so it was quite reasonable for him to ask for trades now.
After knowing what happened, Lyu Liang didn’t want to fight against the fake anymore. Instead, he was curious about the kind of person the fake was, and who seemed to share some similarities with him. He felt privately that if he were in the same situation, he would have done the same thing!
Although Kong Niu was not a member of Fog-Moon Pavilion, it was evident that his status was quite high here. After all, he was the son of the Supreme Patriarch, so people naturally showed him due respect.
Lyu Liang made a great many turns following Kong Niu, before they finally stopped in front of a humble, shabby cave residence, in a remote place.
Before Lyu Liang could ask him, Kong Niu whispered in an admiring tone, “See? Such is the famous senior Lyu. He said that he was used to quietness and insisted on living here. What a great figure he is!”
Lyu Liang also admired this guy somehow—had this guy done any research on him? This guy was like him, not only in behavior but also in personality, which greatly raised his interest to see what kind of person this guy was.
“Is it Kong Niu outside? Please don’t come in yet, and let the guest beside you, see me alone. I have something to say to him.” A familiar voice sounded, which sounded exactly like the real Lyu Liang’s.
Both Kong Niu and Lyu Liang were stunned, but Kong Niu showed absolute confidence in the person inside and ushered Lyu Liang in immediately. And then, he stepped backward about 10 meters.
Without any hesitation, Lyu Liang walked into the house directly. Just as he entered, he was suddenly dazzled, and when he opened his eyes again, he was already in a space filled with stars.
When he was still in a state of confusion, a low growl sounded, “The ultimate Cause-Effect Destruction Law!”
When these words came bursting out, a strong gust of Death Qi rushed straight at Lyu Liang. Stunned, Lyu Liang used the Law of Field Domain to protect himself against the attack.
Only then did Lyu Liang see what was in front of him—a white-robed “Lyu Liang,” who was holding a bronze sword and exuding devil aura all over, smiling at him.
Seeing Lyu Liang staring at him, the fake had silver Spirit Armor emerge from him, which raised his aura suddenly to the Late-stage of Almighty Immortal. He said in a low voice, “If you don’t want to die, exert all your strength!”