Chapter 14 : The Last Day

Chapter 14: The Last Day

The next morning, Long Tao did not need to look into the Water-Mirroring Mirror to know that his face must have looked terrible—after all, he had barely slept through the night.

But thinking that today was most likely the last day he would be able to live freely, he still patted his cheeks, wanting to make the day mean something.

Just as he finished dressing and was about to push the door open, he heard the conversation of the spider siblings outside the room.

“Brother, if you can’t find it, then forget it. There’s no need to go out every day just to be met with cold stares.”

“Yusi, this time I really did find it, but that person… when he saw what I looked like, he deliberately raised the price by several tenths. He was obviously bullying me!”

“Sigh… with how we look… we were bound to be disliked from the start. It’s better to focus on cultivation. Stalactite Milk isn’t some rare treasure—there will always be a way…”

Stalactite Milk? Long Tao remembered that among the heavenly materials and earthly treasures Nan Yuchen had given him yesterday, there had been a small bottle of this stuff.

It was not particularly high-grade, but within the territory of the Nine-Xia Heavenly Sect it was relatively rare, so it mainly relied on imports.

For outsiders without connections, getting hold of it was indeed quite troublesome.

At this moment, a “I’m going to die soon anyway, what’s the point of keeping it?” kind of self-destructive impulse rushed straight to his head.

Coupled with the fact that the siblings had treated him quite well, he rummaged through the box, found that small bottle of Stalactite Milk, pushed the door open, and walked out.

“Daoist Long, you’re awake.”

“Mm.”

Long Tao’s thoughts were in complete disarray, and he had no mood for polite small talk.

He directly stuffed the small bottle into Luo Yunluo’s hands and said, ignoring the other party’s astonished expression,

“This is Stalactite Milk. I don’t know if it’s enough—take it for now.”

“W-wait… Daoist Long, this… what does this mean?”

Luo Yunluo was clearly unable to make sense of the other party’s intentions.

With less than two days of neighborly acquaintance, there was no reason to be giving away materials of this level.

Long Tao’s mind was a tangled mess, and he just wanted to find a quiet, deserted place to calm down.

So he casually said,

“Just treat it as a housewarming gift.” His tone was flat, his gaze sweeping past Luo Yusi’s face at the side, landing precisely on that row of six slightly trembling compound eyes.

“And… I think your sister’s six eyes look very nice. They’re pleasing to look at, so take it as a bonus.”

After saying that, he ignored the siblings’ strange and shocked looks and walked straight out of the courtyard gate.

……

All the way down the mountain to Qixia Town, he recalled that the basin of bamboo shoot soup with White Knife Fish Nan Yuchen had treated him to yesterday had been truly delicious.

He wondered whether to go eat it again, treating it as a last meal, but then felt it might be better to try more things he had never eaten before.

So he wandered as he walked, eating various snacks he had previously been unwilling or uninterested to buy, slowly making his way to the largest market.

Shouts, bargaining voices, and the glow of artifacts interwove and collided, a wave of noise rushing toward him.

Unfortunately, he had no mood for shopping at the moment.

This task was different from the last one; it wasn’t something he could cheese through with equipment and items.

In some novels from his previous life, there were plots where slipping some drug could take down Golden Core or Nascent Soul cultivators? Here, that didn’t even count as a fool’s dream—it was simply a desire to die faster.

The dazzling array of talismans, artifacts, and pills in the market all became useless decorations in his eyes.

He might as well buy some toys and handicrafts.

If he died later, he could at least leave them to that younger sister of his.

With that thought… his steps finally gained some direction.

He strolled into a carving shop, his gaze idly sweeping over the displays: ferocious demon beasts, exquisitely crafted immortal palaces and towers, wooden Cloud Vessel models, and a pile of statues of great cultivators with all kinds of poses and imposing titles.

Almost at first glance, his sight was seized by a white jade female cultivator statue about one chi tall.

That figure, that artifact… there was no mistake.

He leaned in to look at the inscription on the base, and sure enough: True Person Mingzhu.

“Little brother, interested in this statue of True Person Mingzhu?”

Seeing Long Tao’s gaze glued to it, the shop owner smiled and asked.

“Yes. Although there’s a slight flaw, it’s indeed very good. But with this level of refinement, it must have been specially commissioned by someone, right?”

When he heard the words “slight flaw,” the shop owner’s brows furrowed a bit, but he still answered honestly,

“That’s right. That’s why it’s just displayed here to draw some attention. It’s not for sale.”

Looking at the lifelike statue, Long Tao thought that if just taking a look at this could count as completing the peeping task, how great that would be.

But since it wasn’t for sale, he couldn’t be bothered to ask more.

Just as he was about to turn his head to look at something else, a light, agile female voice sounded behind him,

“You said there’s a flaw? This statue of True Person Mingzhu was ordered by me. Tell me—what flaw is there?”

Long Tao turned around to look.

It was a girl who looked about fifteen years old, finely dressed and with an extraordinary bearing.

However, since she wasn’t wearing sect disciple robes, her identity was not obvious.

When the shop owner saw her, he hurriedly came out to greet her.

“Miss Zhu! You’re here. This statue of True Person Mingzhu was made with this shop’s utmost effort—there’s absolutely no such so-called flaw.”

Only then did Long Tao understand inwardly.

Great—he had just pointed out a problem with someone’s merchandise right in front of the customer.

The fact that the owner hadn’t thrown him out on the spot really showed good restraint.

Feeling a bit apologetic and not wanting to ruin someone’s business, he quickly explained,

“It’s not that there’s any flaw in the statue itself. It’s just that True Person Mingzhu’s face is a little off.”

“Oh? Have you seen her real face?”

The girl showed no displeasure, only asking out of simple curiosity.

“I haven’t seen her up close, but I’ve seen her from afar several times during sect events. The real person’s face has a girlish quality to it. This statue… perhaps to highlight her dignified bearing, the nose and face were made slightly longer. Of course… it’s still very good overall. If you didn’t want it, I would buy it myself.”

Both the shop owner and the girl were somewhat surprised.

They hadn’t expected Long Tao to actually articulate something substantive.

The girl squatted down, staring at the statue’s face carefully for quite a while, before sighing and saying,

“You’re not wrong. The face is indeed a bit long. But it doesn’t hurt the overall effect. Shopkeeper… I’ll still take it. Please wrap it up for me.”

Hearing this, the shop owner finally let out a sigh of relief.

Even if the other party hadn’t wanted it, this item certainly wouldn’t be hard to sell, but it would still sound bad if word got out.

After the girl left with the item, Long Tao cupped his hands toward the shopkeeper with slight apology.

The shopkeeper didn’t take offense; instead, he asked with interest,

“Daoist friend knows True Person Mingzhu so well. Are you an admirer?”

“Of course. I have always believed that True Person Mingzhu is the number one beauty of the Nine-Xia Heavenly Sect. Only True Person Zhiying can compare with her. As for everyone else…” Long Tao, of course, didn’t dare say anything that would offend people in such a crowded place, so he stopped and smiled casually.

The shop owner also showed an “I understand” smile.

However, discussing sect beauty rankings here was simply asking for trouble, so the two of them tacitly said no more.

After leaving the shop, Long Tao was also a bit curious about the identity of that Miss Zhu.

Under normal circumstances, he would definitely have chatted more with the shop owner, but he was in no mood now and soon tossed the thought aside.

After that, he casually visited a few more shops, buying some small toys and handicrafts, as well as a Cloud Vessel model more than one chi long.

Damn it… he couldn’t afford the real thing.

Buying a fake before dying to satisfy his eyes wasn’t bad either, and he could even add another line to his will, telling Dong Jiayuan to burn this thing for him.

Passing through the market, he walked all the way to the southern gate of Qixia Town.

From here, going straight ahead would lead directly to the sect’s main mountain gate.

After leaving there and walking another hundred-plus li, he could return to his hometown, Qinglin Town.

Unfortunately, the damn System didn’t even leave him time to go home and say goodbye.

If it could have notified him of the task half a month in advance, at least he would have had plenty of time to prepare his affairs.