Chapter 15 : Moon-Washing Peak

Chapter 15: Moon-Washing Peak

When the sun sank toward the horizon, Long Tao had already wandered around the vicinity of the Main Peak for quite some time.

Carrying a heap of items he had purchased, he returned to his residence only to discover that the spider siblings were standing together in the courtyard, as if they had been waiting specifically for him.

“Daoist Friend Long, you’re finally back.”

The moment Luo Yunluo saw him, he immediately smiled and came forward.

Although those six spider legs still made one’s skin crawl at a glance, Long Tao nevertheless walked up politely.

“Mm, I’m back. Tomorrow… there’s a somewhat troublesome assignment. I might not make it back, so I lingered out a bit longer today.”

There was a trace of barely perceptible fatigue in his voice.

His gaze subconsciously flicked toward Luo Yusi at the side.

When the young woman noticed his look, a flush instantly bloomed on the cheeks of her human upper body.

Her six eyes darted away in a panic, and her slender spider legs rubbed restlessly against one another.

“So that’s how it is.” Luo Yunluo’s tone grew solemn.

“But no matter what, my sister and I must thank Daoist Friend Long again in person! That bottle of stalactite you gave us was of astonishing purity—truly rare. It genuinely resolved our urgent crisis! We will never forget this kindness!”

“That’s good.” Long Tao waved his hand.

“If it just sits there, it only gathers dust. Putting it to use is better than letting it rot at the bottom of a box.” These words were heartfelt, yet spoken at this moment, they carried a sharp irony.

“Daoist Friend Long, we met only by chance, yet you bestowed such a precious item upon us. Such a favor cannot be repaid with mere words of thanks. It’s just that my sister and I currently possess nothing of value and have nothing with which to repay you. However, if you encounter any difficulties in the future, please inform us without hesitation. We will certainly do our utmost to help.”

Looking at the two siblings full of gratitude, Long Tao felt bitterness well up inside.

Such a huge favor—yet he himself would never be able to make use of it.

In the next System Task, the two of them would be utterly unable to help at all.

Sigh… he had truly experienced that feeling of dying with money left unspent.

He tugged at the corner of his mouth, forcing out a strained, awkward smile.

Then he lifted that pile of “relics” and walked toward his side room.

The setting sun stretched his shadow long and thin, suffused with an air of desolation.

……

Early the next morning, just as a pale fish-belly white spread across the horizon, Long Tao painfully rented the cheapest small Cloud Vessel available.

The thing was so crude it looked like a flying bamboo raft, wobbling and swaying as it headed straight for Moon-Washing Peak.

There was no helping it.

Moon-Washing Peak was the private property of True Person Mingzhu and had nothing to do with the sect’s public Cloud Vessel routes.

As for Teleportation Arrays, he simply couldn’t afford them.

Pinching his nose, he had no choice but to pick this “king of cost-effectiveness.”

Moreover, Moon-Washing Peak was a floating peak—it didn’t touch the ground at all.

Want to get up there? Either fly, or keep dreaming.

His rickety little vessel chugged upward for a long while before finally trembling its way to the mountain gate platform of that suspended immortal mountain.

The moment he jumped off the Cloud Vessel, his feet still unsteady, the sight before him made Long Tao suck in a sharp breath.

True Person Mingzhu truly lived up to her reputation as a wealthy magnate who possessed two Spirit Stone mine veins.

The entire floating peak was practically the four words “obscenely rich” carved into the clouds! Along the outer mountainside, countless exquisitely crafted pavilions and towers clung to sheer cliffs in midair, their upturned eaves and bracketed roofs gleaming with molten gold under the morning light.

Streams formed from Spirit Springs wound their way down the mountain, transforming into cascading waterfalls that extravagantly poured straight into the sea of clouds below.

Not to mention that more than a dozen Cloud Vessels circled around the peak—whether they were defensive patrols or simply “private yachts,” there was no telling.

Long Tao subconsciously tightened his grip on his completely empty storage pouch, feeling that standing on this land of wealth made even his Outer Sect Disciple robes seem to reek of poverty.

At the same time, his curiosity deepened.

Just how precious was that Nine-Leaf Ganoderma he had found before, to the point that even such a wealthy Golden Core True Person could temporarily lack stock? No wonder Nan Yuchen had said that an entire box of treasures was far from enough to match the ganoderma’s value.

Now it seemed he hadn’t been exaggerating at all.

Like a country bumpkin entering the city, Long Tao walked and paused along the way until he finally reached the dazzling entrance of Moon-Washing Peak’s mountain gate.

Before he could step forward on his own, a beautiful Inner Sect female disciple wearing a cloud-patterned brocade Daoist robe drifted over gracefully.

With undisguised curiosity, she sized Long Tao up from head to toe.

“Junior Brother,” the female disciple spoke.

There was no disdain in her voice, only pure confusion.

“This is Moon-Washing Peak. You’ve come to the wrong place.”

Long Tao knew she wasn’t looking down on him.

It was simply abnormal for an Outer Sect Disciple to appear here at all, so an inquiry was inevitable.

“Senior Sister’s insight is keen. I am Long Tao—Tao as in surging waves. Today I accepted a renovation helper assignment at the Spirit Spring Garden and have come to work. I trouble Senior Sister to verify the roster.”

The beautiful almond-shaped eyes of the female disciple widened instantly, as if she had heard something rare.

With suspicion, she turned back to the spirit-jade desk behind the entrance, picked up a jade roster, and flipped through it quickly.

After several pages, her fingertips stopped at the very end of the last page, on a line of small characters written in fresh ink: Long Tao, Outer Sect Disciple, Spirit Spring Garden renovation helper, menial labor.

“It really is there…” she muttered softly.

After carefully checking the disciple waist token Long Tao handed over and confirming there were no errors, she waved her hand, and a gentle spiritual light pushed open the restriction.

“Go in. Follow the cloud path on the right straight ahead and you’ll reach the Spirit Spring Garden. Remember, this is a True Person’s private territory—don’t wander off to other places.”

“Many thanks, Senior Sister.” Long Tao quickly lowered his head and hurried through.

He hadn’t gone far when deliberately hushed yet barely contained excited chatter clearly reached his ears from behind.

Without turning around, he knew that senior sister had already gathered with several other female disciples to start gossiping.

Long Tao paid it no mind and continued forward along the soft, cloud-like path beneath his feet.

After jogging for a little over a quarter of an hour, he reached the end, and his view suddenly opened up.

The Spirit Spring Garden.

This name was not an exaggeration in the slightest! At least a dozen streams from the surrounding mountains all converged into a single crystal-clear spring pool at the center of the garden.

From that pool, more than ten artificially excavated waterways wound outward like a network of meridians, delivering spirit-energy-rich spring water to every part of Moon-Washing Peak.

In other words… this place was very likely Moon-Washing Peak’s “water plant.”

At this moment, there were already at least a dozen Inner Sect male disciples busy at work in the Spirit Spring Garden.

Of course, they wouldn’t be hauling bricks by hand like menial disciples.

Instead, they used spells to relocate spiritual plants, courtyard walls, stone carvings, pathways, and the like to designated new positions—without damaging the objects themselves.

Though it was called a worksite, there wasn’t the slightest hint of dust or clamor.

Instead, it felt more like a training ground for these Inner Sect disciples’ techniques.

“Hm? Who are you? How did an Outer Sect Disciple get in here?”

A young senior brother with phoenix-shaped eyes noticed Long Tao and asked rather impolitely.

When the others heard this, they all turned to look.

Curiosity, scrutiny, disdain—among those gazes, there was not the slightest trace of welcome.

“Uh… greetings, Senior Brothers. I’m today’s new helper, Long Tao. If there’s anything you need, feel free to instruct me. This junior brother will certainly do his best.”

“Tch! Quite a bold name, but you’re only at the Qi-Refining Fifth Layer. What can you even do here?!”

He casually nudged a fragment of jade-like material at his feet that glowed with a warm spiritual sheen.

“See that? Any random stone here is a heavenly treasure True Person Mingzhu spent huge sums to collect! You think they’re like the dirt and rocks on the back mountain of your hometown, something you can just hack at with a hoe? If you damage something you can’t afford to compensate for, you’re done!”

At this point, Long Tao didn’t dare talk back.

After all, the other party wasn’t wrong.

Still, he certainly couldn’t leave either.

No matter what, he had to shamelessly stay—otherwise, how was he supposed to complete the task?

Just as the atmosphere grew stiff and cold and the disciples’ gazes became increasingly unfriendly, a gentle, clear voice sounded at the right moment, like a spring breeze dissolving rain.

“That’s enough, Junior Brother Su! Why be so aggressive toward an Outer Sect junior brother? Since he’s here, he must have accepted a task.”

A senior brother with refined features and a mild demeanor stepped out from the back.

That bearing, that voice, that appearance—it was practically the perfect senior brother straight out of a novel.

It even seemed a bit… too perfect.

“Senior Brother Zhou, I’m not bullying him, it’s just… we all put in so much effort to grab this task. This kid is only an Outer Sect disciple… he definitely used connections to get in.”

The surrounding Inner Sect disciples were clearly stirred by these words, and their gazes toward Long Tao grew even more unfriendly.

However, perhaps wary of the “connections” behind him, none of them spoke up in support.

“Where in the sect are there no personal ties? Besides… Junior Brother Long is just here as a helper. Don’t forget, this job pays according to how much you do. If he lacks ability, he naturally earns nothing. If he can truly contribute, what harm is there in him receiving more compensation? Junior Brothers, why get angry over this and harm our fellow disciples’ harmony?”

Senior Brother Zhou’s words left even the phoenix-eyed one momentarily speechless, though it was obvious they still weren’t fully convinced.

Meanwhile, Long Tao seemed to have noticed something.

Years of workplace experience from his previous life gave him an instinctive sense of wariness toward this perfect Senior Brother Zhou.

At the same time, those seemingly fair words that appeared to defend him just now made a thought surface in his mind.

Could the senior brother who had stolen Nan Yuchen’s credit be this very Senior Brother Zhou?