Young Noble Be Monster Slaying

Chapter 7: The Seven Stars Gazette

"Mistress, you wouldn’t want your husband to end up losing everything too, right?" Chu Liang said as he looked at Mistress Ming, who was still bound with the red rope.

"Young Hero Chu... you're willing to request an official title for me?" Mistress Ming asked.

Official Ming might not have fully understood what Chu Liang meant, but Mistress Ming did, and she was greatly surprised. She couldn't believe that the young man before her was willing to help her.

She immediately wanted to kneel down with her husband to show her gratitude to Chu Liang. However, Chu Liang noticed that and quickly released her from the Demon-Binding Rope and put it away. Otherwise, that would make for quite a strange scene.

Requesting an official title wasn't referring to the ancient way of recognizing a demon as being more than just a demon. It meant requesting for an official title to be bestowed upon a benevolent demon—a title that would allow it to live freely in human cities, essentially granting it citizenship.

Demons without titles were like illegal residents. If they were to sneak into human cities and get discovered by cultivators, they could be killed on the spot. This was the reason why Mistress Ming had trembled with fear earlier; she was afraid that her true identity as a demon would be discovered.

The power to grant titles to demons was only held by the ruling dynasty of the human world and the immortal sects in the Divine Nine. Even the immortal sects in the Terrestrial Ten, which were only a rank lower than those in the Divine Nine, didn't possess that authority. So, obtaining such a title was an extremely challenging task for demons.

The currently reigning dynasty was the Yu Dynasty, and it had been in power for over six centuries, enjoying an era of peace and prosperity. However, every demon living in a human city was a potential threat to this era of tranquility. People often had the notion that those of a different race thought differently—let alone demons, who were of a different species.

Be it the imperial court or the Divine Nine, bestowing a title to a demon was akin to providing an endorsement for them. If the demon were to ever rebel in the future, the person that granted the title would have to take responsibility for the consequences.

Nevertheless, junior disciples in the Mount Shu Sect like Chu Liang did not have the authority to make such a decision. This matter had to be handled by his teacher, Di Nufeng.

A series of techniques would have to be performed, such as Qi-Reading and Mind-Reading, to confirm that Mistress Ming was indeed a benevolent demon who had never taken human life and that the likelihood of her rebelling in the future was extremely low. A title would only be granted once that was confirmed.

Afterward, Mistress Ming would need to regularly visit Mount Shu to pay her respects. Additionally, she would have to let the Mount Shu Sect cast a tracking spell on her.

Typically, disciples of the sects in the Divine Nine rarely bothered with such troublesome matters.

It made things much simpler to just slay demons and vanquish evil.

This method of resolving everything with the slice of a blade did mean that Chu Liang could save himself the trouble and effort of the whole process as well as avoid taking responsibility for the potential consequences. However, he couldn't stop the matter from weighing on his conscience.

Even after thinking it through carefully, Chu Liang still wanted to help them.

As for Official Ming's assets, Chu Liang obviously couldn't accept them.

Such an excessive expression of gratitude was unnecessary.

Later that day, Chu Liang took them with him when he returned to Mount Shu. Xingzhou City wasn't far from Mount Shu. Otherwise, Official Ming's plea wouldn't have made its way to the Sword Exchange Pavilion on Mount Shu.

Upon arriving at the mountain's entrance, Chu Liang headed to Silver Sword Peak and reported the matter to his teacher. There was nothing much that Chu Liang needed to do after that.

Di Nufeng was a hero of justice, so she praised Chu Liang's actions greatly. As for the matter of requesting a title for Mistress Ming, the Heaven Reaching Peak wouldn't dare to neglect the matter, as Di Nufeng was keeping a watchful eye on it.

Chu Liang then returned to his small wooden cabin on the mountainside. He relaxed into a meditative state, letting his consciousness sink and bring him into the White Pagoda. It was time to collect his rewards!

Inside a large iron cell, there was only the ethereal golden phantom of a Cat Spirit floating about.

Having done it many times before, Chu Liang pressed the word "Refine" without thinking.

Boom—!

There was a flash of red, and a ball of light flew out. Chu Liang caught it with his hand and realized the item was a talisman.

Simultaneously, a message appeared in his mind.

[Spirit Cat Leaping Talisman: When activated, this talisman allows a cat spirit to temporarily possess your body, greatly increasing your agility for fifteen minutes. If you lick your hand unconsciously, it is a normal side effect. Please do not panic.]

"A talisman?"

This was the first time Chu Liang had gotten a talisman as a reward. Pills and single-use talismans were certainly not as valuable as reusable enchanted artifacts. However, on second thought, he surmised that they would likely have greater effects since they were single-use items. They might even prove to be incredibly effective when used at critical moments.

With that in mind, he happily kept the talisman away.

...

"Kaaa~"

Just after Chu Liang had collected his reward, he heard the resonant bugle call of a bird from outside. He raised his gaze and looked out the window to find a massive white crane landing outside his cabin.

The crane was covered in snow-white feathers, without a single plume out of place. It stood taller than an adult man and had limpid jet-black eyes. With just a glance, it was obvious that this was an extraordinarily intelligent creature.

Hanging from the crane's long neck was a basket. The crane used its pointed beak to extract a booklet from the basket and place it on the stone table outside.

It turned out that this month's edition of The Seven Stars Gazette had arrived.

Chu Liang leaned out the window and expressed his gratitude, "Thank you."

The white crane raised its neck and let out another bugle call as if in response to Chu Liang.

"Kaaa~"

Then it flapped its wings and soared into the sky, heading toward its next destination.

The white crane was Mount Shu Sect's messenger bird. It had been specially trained to deliver letters to the many disciples living on the peaks of Mount Shu.

The thing that the crane had just delivered was this month's The Seven Stars Gazette.

Among the immortal sects in the Divine Nine, there was a sect named the Celestial Pivot[1] Pavilion.

The Celestial Pivot Pavilion's main business was in divination, making it the sect that was the closest to figuring out the mysteries of the future known only to the heavens. They were not adept in combat, but they had always been respected by the major forces. Their rank as one of the Divine Nine was the best evidence of this.

Their side business was to make compilations of fantastical stories of unusual happenings in the mortal world, which they distributed in the form of a monthly publication—The Seven Stars Gazette. It had been extremely popular all throughout the lands ever since its first publishing centuries ago. The Seven Stars Gazette appealed to a wide array of people, ranging from the immortal sects in the Divine Nine to ordinary children in the streets; all of them eagerly discussed the contents of the monthly gazette.

Chu Liang picked up the booklet, brought it into his cabin, and perused its contents.

The Seven Stars Gazette consisted of three sections: Uncommon Tales of the Martial World, Catalog of the Mortal World's Ten Thousand Treasures, and Chronicles of the Nine Provinces.

Among these, the Catalog of the Mortal World's Ten Thousand Treasures was a comprehensive ranking list of the world's treasures. There weren't many changes each month, but for the convenience of the readers, there was always an accompanying article on the ranking changes for the month. Most of the changes occurred in the lower rankings of the list. In the past several hundred years, the top-ranked treasures had very rarely changed in ranking.

For instance, the top-ranked treasure had always been the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda, a divine artifact of the mortal world. However, there was a line of text in small print after the Demon-Suppressing Pagoda's ranking that read: Originally belonged to the Mount Shu Sect but currently missing.

The Demon-Suppressing Pagoda was the whole reason why the Mount Shu Sect had been able to enter the ranks of the Divine Nine. They had even once held the prominent position as the top immortal sect and had become the leading role model for the right way to live. However, the Mount Shu Sect lost this supremely powerful divine artifact during a major upheaval five hundred years ago.

This led to the steady decline of the sect over time. At present, it was likely that the top-ranking sects in the Terrestrial Ten had already surpassed the Mount Shu Sect purely in terms of the power of their forces. Consequently, the voices in the martial world insisting that the Mount Shu Sect was unworthy of its rank in the Divine Nine were growing louder.

The treasure that was ranked second on the list was the Celestial Pivot Pavilion's Seven-Star Sword, an ancient divine sword known for its power to move mountains and drain seas.

However, the Celestial Pivot Pavilion had always stayed out of worldly affairs and seldom got involved in the conflicts of the martial world, so the Seven-Star Sword had not been wielded for many years. The last recorded use of the sword was a hundred years ago when the Monstrous Beast Sect, which followed the Diabolical path, awakened the ferocious beast Qiongqi[2] and attempted to attack the Celestial Pivot Pavilion. The Seven-Star Sword was unsheathed, suppressing the monster in one strike and slaying three hundred devils with a second strike. The branch of the Monstrous Beast sect was wiped out.

It was rumored that the Celestial Pivot Sect had to pay a tremendous price every time they used the Seven-Star Sword. However, the details of that price were secrets that were kept within the sect, so no one knew for certain what it involved.

The third-ranked treasure was the Divine Mirror of the Eight Trigrams, which belonged to the Fog-Hidden Mountain of Immortals. The mirror was a major gateway to divine power and could be used in boundless ways.

Just like the previously mentioned sects, the Fog-Hidden Mountain of Immortals was a sect in the ranks of the Divine Nine. The Divine Mirror of the Eight Trigrams was said to be a divine artifact that had fallen from the celestial realm. It was widely rumored in the martial world that the reason why the Divine Mirror of the Eight Trigrams ranked below the Seven-Star Sword was merely because the ranking had been decided by the Celestial Pivot Pavilion. There was no doubt that the Divine Mirror of the Eight Trigrams ranked higher than the Seven-Star Sword in terms of actual power.

These divine artifacts were treasures that Chu Liang would never come in contact with in his daily life, so they didn't mean much to him. Nevertheless, there was one divine artifact in the ranking that he saw very frequently. It was the one ranked at fifty-seven—the Phoenix Spirit Blood Jade.

The jade was made by condensing the blood of an ancient divine phoenix. Whoever wore it as an accessory would be supplied with warm and nourishing qi. Additionally, their divine power would be boosted with the qi from the divine phoenix's blood, greatly enhancing their combat abilities.

This precious item was currently resting on the bosom of Di Nufeng, Chu Liang's teacher.

1. It's referring to a star, Alpha Ursae Majoris. There are two names for it in Chinese, one of which is 天枢 Star of Celestial Pivot.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Ursae_Majoris

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2. 穷奇: One of the Four Great Beasts in ancient Chinese mythology. It was described as resembling a winged tiger the size of an ox. ☜