“Money?”
Xu Lingxin released a conciliatory chuckle, one not unlike those presented by adults when listening to a child’s boasts of their wealth. The temple maiden revealed a gentle smile and reached out to pat An Fei on the head, whilst shaking her head.
“Little Sister, the prices provided by the Violet Jade Pavilion aren’t anything any mortal can afford, especially not that of those who aren’t part of a large merchant guild or an aristocratic party…”
Alas, she was to be startled by An Fei’s flippant reply, and unfavorably so.
“I have money.”
“Like I said, Little Sister, ah…”
“Isn’t it just a few gold coins at the most? Surely the Violet Jade Pavilion retains some knowledge of the word ‘shame’?”
The temple maiden pursed her lips in consternation at An Fei’s obvious lack of care towards the matters of wealth, especially in the case of wealth exceeding the demarcation of silver coins. As Xu Lingxin parted her lips to rebuke firmly, however, she caught sight of a glint of dazzling yellow pinched between the young girl’s fingers, with a rich and densely concentrated lustre…
Wait, a golden lustre?
Retrieving her golden coin back into the satchel, An Fei began to observe the shocked countenance of Xu Lingxin with great interest. The young girl waved her palm before the temple maiden’s eyes, and quickly backstepped to avoid a pair of feminine claws.
“Little Sister! There… there wasn’t any mistake in what Elder Sister just saw, no?” Xu Lingxin’s voice trembled in great shock, and lunged after An Fei’s elusive figure.
“Come back! Elder Sister wants to have a good chat, a peaceful one!”
The young girl stepped from side to side as she dodged the temple maiden’s abrupt lunges. As she danced with the golden coin clenched in her hand whilst observing Xu Lingxin drool with insatiable greed, An Fei’s eyelashes abruptly fluttered at the unusual sensation arising in her chest.
There seemed to be a faint warmth rushing through her chest whenever she witnessed the temple maiden display behavior that couldn’t be considered ‘holy’ or ‘reserved’. It wasn’t the warmth she had felt when Wei Xuan lost his mind caring for her health, nor was it the sensation she had experienced when Sheng Miaolan displayed motherly concern.
It was completely foreign, and wasn’t necessarily pleasant. At the same time, she couldn’t find a reason to reject it either.
“Ah…”
In her momentary lapse of thought, Xu Lingxin had managed to wrestle the golden coin from within her grasp. An Fei could only watch as the temple maiden rubbed her cheek against the warm surface of the gold coin, her eyes curved into giddy crescents.
“Elder Sister…?”
“Little Sister, how many gold coins do you have?” Xu Lingxin’s heart fluttered with uncontrollable ecstasy.
“With thirteen gold coins, a spiritual artefact worthy of a Spirit Building Realm cultivator can be purchased! With thirty, any auction’s most prestigious object can be purchased with ease!”
Er…
The temple maiden continued to ramble to herself as she caressed the golden coin, pouring out her heart’s desire with the mighty force of an uncontrolled flood. An Fei could only comment to herself in secret at Xu Lingxin’s enthusiasm, only managing to return the latter’s attention to the matter at hand after wasting a sufficient amount of time.
“Where is this Plum Grove that the waiter talked about earlier? And what exactly entails the difference between shelters designed for cultivators and mortals?”
“That… the Plum Grove’s location is in the southern bloc of the city, and marked with a noticeable aura…” Xu Lingxin muttered in thought.
“As for the difference… Senior Sister mentioned that shelters for mortals grouped multiple people into a single room, without any concern for dignity or etiquette?”
The concept of men and women in a single room… would certainly break all notions of etiquette in ancient times…
An Fei nodded in understanding, not failing to notice the gold coin slipping into the temple maiden’s robes, never to emerge once again. The young girl clapped her hand to her forehead, and couldn’t help but raise a belayed response.
“…the Morning Star Temple doesn’t receive offerings?”
“We received offerings when accepting disciples, and when our disciples conducted purification rituals,” the temple maiden nodded with an awkward expression.
“However, in recent years… there really hasn’t been any offerings nor disciples that even my allowance is cut to a mere ten silvers a month – ah, here we are!”
Under Xu Lingxin’s careful guidance, An Fei found herself staring into the grand entrance of a luxury suite. The entire building was a massive pagoda constructed almost entirely from jade, gold, and silver, with a foundation of tempered iron serving as the anchor. Two guards stood at either side of the gate, menacing spears clenched in their hands and swords sheathed at their waists.
Aided by the temple maiden revealing her identity as a cultivator with a simple release of her aura, An Fei and Xu Lingxin entered the base floor of the seven-storied pagoda of luxury. There, they found themselves standing in the middle of a massive reception hall of plated gold.
They stood at the center of an enlarged diagram etched into the surface of the gold bricks constating the floor, and an infinite orchid stretched from one side of the pagoda to the other. When An Fei craned her head upwards, she witnessed multiple layers of platforms, terraces, and balconies stretching over her head in rectangular blocks.
There were seven layers of platforms jutting from the walls, each representing a floor of the Plum Grove pagoda. Squinting her eyes, the young girl discovered the faint silhouette of a large teardrop constructed entirely from a single piece of nephrite jade through the square cross-sectional openings.
“Luxurious indeed…”
Simply on the lobby alone, everything that was allowed to exist was constructed from a rare material or precious metal. An Fei managed to regain her calm by herself in a short period of time, whereas Xu Lingxin had to be jolted awake by a faint, external aura jutting from one of the upper layers of the pagoda.
“Little Sister, the Violet Jade Pavilion truly has an astronomical wealth to its name…”
The temple maiden was utterly awestruck by the sheer quantity of jade sculptures, accessories, and decorations scattered throughout the interior of the pagoda.
Moreover, though the Morning Star Temple had some degree of prestige to its name, she and An Fei had been completely ignored by the remaining cultivators populating the ground floor.
The majority of the cultivators present on the ground floor were either discussing amongst themselves, or reserving rooms with the servants and clansmen of the Violet Jade Pavilion stationed at the corners. Xu Lingxin and An Fei had been inside the pagoda for longer than an incense stick’s worth of time, but their presence as well as entrance had been unnoticed by the throng of prestigious cultivators.
It was a surreal experience for the Spirit Building Realm cultivator Xu Lingxin, for she could aptly sense threatening auras emanating from every crevice and corner. As a result, the temple maiden’s body had stiffened in apprehension and involuntary panic, her nerves on fire in anxiousness.
“Elder Sister… are you alright?”
An Fei raised her eyebrows as she witnessed the usually talkative and cheerful Xu Lingxin transform into a shell-shocked young lady. Clearing her throat and patting the latter on the back, An Fei sighed and turned around to face the massive doors leading outside of the pagoda.
There were too many cultivators present for her to feel reassured as well.
“There should be a better option than this…”
The young girl grasped the temple maiden’s hand and pulled her, step by step, out of the pagoda whilst eluding any curious gazes of nearby cultivators.
Three meters away from the double pair of gates that would allow Xu Lingxin to escape her frightened state of facing numerous predatorial cultivators, An Fei heard a youthful voice resonate throughout the ground floor behind her.
“Ah, if it isn’t the young lady! It’s truly been a long time since we met!”
She didn’t understand the content nor the meaning behind the speaker’s words as her knowledge of Bei Tang’s language was still considerably lacking, but she clearly recognized the voice. At the same time, An Fei wondered whether their second encounter was truly due to coincidence.
“Many thanks for Sir Wen’s guidance earlier. As a result, junior was able to complete his training much earlier than before,” Sima Ji-Hu lowered himself into a respectful bow.
“However, may this junior ask, where is the young lady’s husband? He… seems to be absent?”
It was due to catastrophic fate that Xu Lingxin chose this exact moment to recover from her moment of sheer terror and fright, much to the young girl’s utter dismay. The temple maiden’s eyes reflexively frowned at the sight of an exquisitely dressed youth bowing before her, and her ears twitched as the seemingly foreign set of words registered one by one.
“Young lady… Sir Wen… husband…” Xu Lingxin murmured as she glanced over towards An Fei’s back.
“You know this young man – wait! Little Sister, when were you married!? What husband? Where’s the husband!?”
