Chapter 20. A Peak Full of Salted Fish
Note: if you rarely read translated chinese novels, salted fish is a slang usually used to describe languish and sluggish person.
_(:z」∠)_
Hearing the confident tone of Medicine Peak Master, aunt Zhang sighed in relief. Aunt Zhang and Medicine Peak Master are fellow disciples from the same master. During her early year of apprenticeship, Medicine Peak Master has been helping her quite a lot.
So, although aunt Zhang called him old fogey, old fart, old guy that smells like soils, half buried guy, and other nicknames. She still thought of him as family.
"Are you sure you could successfully refine that life-extending medicine? After All, it's a recipe from the ancient era and most of the plants used have gone extinct already."
Hearing her words, the white haired elder just smiled.
"Don't worry. I have already thought of a substitute for all of those plants and collected all of them except for this Moonlight Glow Flower. Whoever found this flower is incredibly lucky. If they found it several days later, this flower might have reached maturation and would have been in danger of being eaten by the beast guarding it."
"Well, then I will be going. Good luck, old fogge *cough* senior brother."
Answering aunt Zhang, medicine peak master just waved his hand.
Returning to her refining room, aunt Zhang could still see fatty walking around touching many things.
"Fatty, do you have anything else you want to say? Also, stop touching my things!"
"Aunt, shouldn't you reward me with anything?"
Fatty asked while looking a bit embarrassed. Listening to fatty's words, aunt Zhang fell into thought.
"I will give you medicine to help condense your innate energy once you reach peak Martial Grandmaster realm. Now, scram!"
Listening to his aunt's words, fatty Zhang immediately ran back to his tavern. Finally left alone, aunt Zhang continued her work.
"Soon, my aphrodisiac will be ready~"
Aunt Zhang seems to be in a good mood as she continues to craft her suspicious medicine.
***
Upon leaving from fatty's tavern, Ren Qingquan returned to his room. As the place has been left alone for 2 months, it is currently filled with dust. So, Ren Qingquan activated [Devour] while only targeting the dust. In just a second, his whole room has been cleaned.
Opening the list of available peaks, Ren Qingquan started to read through them. Seeing as no peak has made him interested, he finally decided to choose the same peak as his third uncle. At least, he might get some help or two.
Having made his decision, Ren Qingquan just lay on his bed until tomorrow. After living in the wilderness for weeks, he misses the feeling of sleeping in a safe room. Furthermore, due to the deadline given to select a peak which lasts for three whole days. Both things combined make Red Qingquan's procrastination disease to relapse.
Waking up feeling refreshed, Ren Qingquan placed all of his belongings in the room into system storage. Because, once he selected a peak, he would need to stay there and leave this residence in the outer sect area.
Returning to the exchange hall, Ren Qingquan went to the information department and told the person in charge yesterday about his choice.
Hearing the peak Ren Qingquan had chosen, The person in charge looked at him with a weird eye.
"Are you sure you want to choose this formation peak? I will tell you this, there is no such thing as formation in the current world. In ancient times, those might have existed. But, nowadays we can only see books about formation from ancient ruins. So, if you entered the peak trying to learn formation, please reconsider your choice."
"Senior brother, thank you for your caution. But, I chose that peak because there is already a friend waiting for me there."
Ren Qingquan lied about the friend part. Afterall, telling others you chose a peak for easier nepotism is embarrassing.
"Alright then. Please give me your disciple badge."
The senior brother quickly stamped many documents using a jade seal before stamping a golden symbol on the backside of his disciple badge.
"I have marked your badge with the symbol for formation peak. Also, you could follow this map here to look for it."
After stamping his badge, that senior brother also gave him an additional map with the location of formation peak marked in a circle.
"Thank you, senior brother."
Ren Qingquan thanked him and left in satisfaction. If there is a rating and review system, he would have given that senior a five star and good review.
'System, mark the location of this place.'
[Location has been marked.]
Opening the system map, Ren Qingquan could see a new symbol located at the border of his map as the formation peak is far beyond the system map's boundary.
'It seems upgrading the system's scan must be done asap. Having such a small map is inconvenient.'
Following the guide from the system map, he soon arrived at the Formation Peak. When he looked at the peak with extremely beautiful scenery akin to a scenic spot that contributed to 20% of a city's GDP, Ren Qingquan felt he had made the right choice.
Walking up the white stone stair, Ren Qingquan soon found a male disciple pruning some plants there. Activating [Scan], Ren Qingquan could see the status of that male disciple.
[Human: ???
Age: 31
Realm: Martial Grandmaster (Fifth Stage)
Technique: ???
Please study more about martial arts,anatomy, and other arts related to humans for further details.]
After scanning him, that disciple seems to realize Ren Qingquan's presence and calls him.
"Hello, are you a new disciple joining our formation peak?"
"Hello there, senior brother. I have indeed just joined the peak."
Upon hearing his word, that disciple's face soon looks happy.
"That is good! I will help to introduce you to our peak."
"Then, I will apologize for bothering my older brother."
"It's not a bother, I am currently free and have nothing to do. I will first introduce you to some areas in the peak."
Ren Qingquan followed that senior brother for the entire day to explore around the place before both of them finally stopped at the residential area and dispersed.
"Well, that is almost everything. Tomorrow, I will bring you to the peak master. Coincidentally, tomorrow is the peak's monthly meetings."
Entering his room, Ren Qingquan started to sort his thoughts. From that senior brother's explanation there are only several things to note.
First, Formation Peak is much much more deserted compared to other peaks. Including the elders and the peak master, there are only 8 people in it. Including him, a recently arrived disciple, there are 9 people. Compared to the hundred of people in other peaks, it is indeed deserted.
Second, just like previously said. Although there are many formation books, there is no one capable of making a formation in this world. So, the job of Formation Peak is merely to help do some feng shui calculation according to the knowledge in those formation books when the sect needs to open a new city or selecting the location to build the main branch of their business. But, things like opening a new city might not even happen once in a decade which make people in Formation Peak only getting a minimum resource most of the time.
Third, due to that extremely free schedule. Formation Peak turned into the gathering place of salted fish. From the disciple to the peak master, everyone is throwing their responsibility around toward each other. That senior brother is even nice enough to tell him some technique to evade his responsibility.
Last, the Formation Peak is a recently created peak built by a Martial Emperor currently staying in the Central Peak of the Martial Spirit Sect at the inner section of Endless Mountain. It is unknown what kind of brain fart the emperor got to build such a useless peak. But at least, due to the backing of that Martial Emperor, the salted fish at Formation Peak could live a happy and carefree life.
'It seems I somehow joined a weird peak. But the situation of this peak is exactly to my liking.'
The next day, Ren Qingquan followed that senior brother and went to visit the peak master.
Near the meeting hall, Ren Qingquan could hear many faint noises coming from inside that soon subsided.
Entering the meeting hall, he could see 7 people sitting. Including him and the senior brother, everyone in Formation Peak actually gathered together. Which shows just how free they are.
From one of the seats, Ren Qingquan could see an old man sitting in the center seat which is slightly more elevated compared to the rest. Next to that elderly man, his third uncle sat with a slightly blank face seemingly falling into thought. There are also 5 other unfamiliar people sitting around, 3 female and 2 male.
Activating his [Scan], Ren Qingquan couldn't help but be amazed at the average level of this Formation Peak. Except for the senior brother standing next to him, there is only another female Grandmaster. As for the other people, they are all above the Martial Saint realm. Ren Qingquan even sees three Martial Lords with his uncle being one of them.
'It seems the third uncle has just advanced. I guess I need to congratulate him later.'
While he is lost in thought, Ren Qingquan doesn't forget to greet the others, especially the elderly man that sits in the middle in an elevated seat which shows his status as a Peak Master, all while following the senior brother toward one of the empty seats.
"Ren Qingquan greets Peak Master."
"Hello there, no need for such a formality. You could just call me Fen Yundao or Peak Master Fen. All of us have heard of you from elder Ren, but you seem to be even more talented than what we heard."
"Thank you for your praise, Peak Master Fen."
After saying that, Peak Master Fen continued while glancing at the senior brother next to him.
"It seems that guy has already brought you to the surrounding areas. So, i will just talk about the main points here. Every month, Formation Peak will have a meetings to decide future plans. Unless you have extremely important matters to tend to, I hope you could spend some time gathering here as this monthly meeting is also the time when formation peaks give everyone's share of training resources . Except for the monthly meetings there is also time when the Martial Spirit Sect need some people to do some mission. At that time, i will send the news using an information bird that has detected your aura. If you fail to attend it, you are almost guaranteed to be listed to join that mission. Except for those two meetings, you are free to do anything on your own. Do you have any question? *Pant* *Pant*"
After saying all of those words at once, Peak Master Fen seems to be out of breath and his face paled. Looking at his pale face, Ren Qingquan felt even if he had a question he wouldn't dare to ask here, afraid that the peak master might faint.
"I don't have any question. Ren Qingquan thanks Peak Master Fen for his explanation."
*Pant* "Mhmm. Good." *Pant*
It seems one of the elders is annoyed by the Peak Master's panting sound as she immediately spoke.
"Damned old fart! Cut it out with your fake panting. That guy already has no intention to ask questions. Your old trick could trick that newbie but we all already know each other's trick like the back of our palm."
"Hehehe. Okay then, let's continue our previous topic. When are we selecting a new Peak Master! I have been working as a Peak Master for 30 years! 30 whole damned years!"
Answering Peak Master's tantrum is a middle aged woman. She is one of the Martial Lord Ren Qingquan detected.
"No can do, Peak Master. You are the only one at Martial Lord realm in this peak. According to the sect rule, only Martial Lord and above could take the seat of peak master."
Glaring at her, Peak Master spoke slowly through gritted teeth.
"Anyone else could say it except for you! Do you think I forgot that time you flew to capture your precious bird that had just escaped? Only skill in the Martial Lord realm could achieve flight!"
"How many times have I told you, I am gliding! Gliding!!! Couldn't you differentiate gliding from a flying damned old fool!? If you don't believe it, you could check my realm using your eye skill."
Soon, the hall turned into a noisy mess. Except for his third uncle, him, and the senior brother, Ren Qingquan could see those people screaming and throwing the position of Peak Master toward each other. It continued until noon when all of them suddenly stopped.
"Alright, it's noon already. Let's disperse."
With that word coming from Peak Master Fen, everyone suddenly turned silent and immediately left their seat, leaving dumbfounded Ren Qingquan that soon followed suit.
Realizing he has nothing to do now, as even that senior brother has left because his job is done.
Ren Qingquan decided to meet his third uncle and congratulate him for his increase in realm.