Chapter 143: Pitch-Black and Sunless

Chu Liuxing cast a faint glance at Liu Huo, as if saying: You brat, do you even dare to watch your master make a fool of himself?

Seeing this, Liu Huo immediately stopped trembling and stood upright with a stern and solemn expression, fixing his gaze on his nose and heart, not daring to laugh anymore.

Gu Weiyu’s lips curled slightly. She turned her head and instructed Yunyao and Xiaoguo, "Next time Elder Brother Chu comes looking for me, you should come upstairs and let me know."

Swishing his folding fan, which reeked of opulence, Chu Xingyun shook his head and said, "Don't bother—don't bother—brother here was just terribly bored, it's nothing much..."

Gu Weiyu sat down opposite Chu Xingyun. "That won't do! Elder Brother Chu is different!"

Seeing that Gu Weiyu treated him with such exceptional distinction, Chu Liuxing felt immensely pleased.

Recalling what happened yesterday, he snapped his folding fan shut. "Brother Feather, my father said, as long as the medicinal pills are refined by you, the more the better, and the spirit stones will definitely satisfy you!"

Hearing this, Gu Weiyu felt a weight lift from her mind. She took out a storage bag and handed it to Chu Liuxing. Inside were the pills she had refined the previous night:

"Elder Brother Chu, these pills were just refined by me. Have a look..."

Chu Liuxing took the storage bag, swept his divine sense inward for a brief scan, and a look of surprise involuntarily crossed his face. He had not expected Brother Feather to be so "prolific"!

"Liu Huo, make a trip to the Treasure Pavilion in Qin County and send these pills back to Danyang," Chu Liuxing instructed Liu Huo.

"Yes!" Liu Huo stepped forward, lowered his hands with lowered brows, received the storage bag with both hands, and turned to walk outside.

"Elder Brother Chu, you've been in Qin County for two days now, and I haven't even had the chance to take you out for a stroll..."

Gu Weiyu said apologetically, feeling she had failed to fulfill her duties as a host in the slightest.

Chu Liuxing stood up and said, "That's easy! There's no time like the present. Shall we go out for a stroll today?"

Gu Weiyu nodded readily. The spiritual herbs had not yet been delivered, so she could take this opportunity to rest and continue refining afterward.

Gu Weiyu led Chu Liuxing to some of the places she used to frequent.

To be honest, she wasn't particularly familiar with Qin County either; most places she had visited were with Ninth Sister, Twelfth Brother, and the others.

Before the Guyue Studio, Gu Weiyu’s gaze fell upon those pastries, and involuntarily, memories of the past began to surface in her mind. Suddenly, she found it hard to tear her eyes away.

Chu Liuxing, standing beside her, assumed Gu Weiyu was simply craving them. He waved his folding fan with a lavish air and said, "Brother Feather, which kind of spiritual food do you want to eat? Brother is treating!"

Hearing this, Gu Weiyu shook her head in a trance. "There's no need to spend so much..."

Before she could finish her sentence, Chu Liuxing reached out, grabbed her sleeve, and strode directly into Guyue Studio.

"Young fellow, bring your master one portion of every single signature spiritual food your shop has!"

Chu Liuxing commanded with a grandiose wave of his sleeve.

The young shop assistant at Guyue Studio almost went crazy with joy. Where on earth did this scion of a cultivation family come from? He was far too wealthy!

"What are you standing around for? Hurry up and serve them to Your Lordship!" Chu Liuxing pulled up a chair and sat down imposingly in the shop.

Three or five assistants at Guyue Studio sprang into action, bustling about to wait upon "Grandpa Chu."

"Elder Brother Chu, what are you doing?" Gu Weiyu finally snapped back to her senses, feeling quite amused yet helpless.

"Rest assured, brother simply has an abundance of spirit stones!" Chu Liuxing assumed she was worrying about the cost of spirit stones. But they were merely spiritual foods; to him, it was a piece of cake!

Gu Weiyu: "..."

Could she tell him that she had already undergone Inedia and long since lost interest in worldly cravings?

Plate after exquisitely crafted pastry was placed before Gu Weiyu and Chu Liuxing, numbering well over a hundred.

There was no way Gu Weiyu could eat so much, and Chu Liuxing wasn't particularly enthusiastic about spiritual food either. In the end, the two of them had no choice but to pack the remaining snacks into a storage bag to be eaten another time.

"Elder Brother Chu, I'll pay for the spirit stones. You're the guest, how could I let you spend your money?" Gu Weiyu said, feeling rather guilty.

Chu Liuxing cast a sidelong glance at her and waved his hand impatiently, as if swatting away a fly. "Go on, step aside. Brother simply loves the feeling of spirit stones flowing like water!"

With that, he pulled out a spirit stone pouch and tossed it forward, letting it land right in front of the assistant responsible for settling the bill.

The assistant deftly swept the spirit stone pouch with his divine sense. After deducting a portion of the spirit stones, he said respectfully,

"Esteemed Young Master, your total expenditure in this shop comes to one thousand and five spirit stones. The remainder is in the pouch. Please check if the amount is correct."

Chu Liuxing took the spirit stone pouch, glanced at it casually, and tucked it into his robe.

He glanced at Gu Weiyu. "Let's go, shall we walk around some more?"

Gu Weiyu smiled and nodded, accompanying Chu Liuxing for another stroll before finally returning to the Gu Residence.

When she returned to the Verdant Bamboo Courtyard, Xiaoguo immediately hurried out to meet her, holding a storage bag as she said, "Mistress, the spiritual herbs have been delivered."

Gu Weiyu took the storage bag and stepped into the bamboo building. "I have some spiritual food from Guyue Studio here. Would you and Yunyao like to have some?"

As she spoke, she took four or five dishes of the unfinished spiritual food and placed them on the table.

Spiritual food from Guyue Studio?

Xiaoguo subconsciously swallowed hard, then trotted with pounding footsteps up to the second floor to call Yunyao down to share the spiritual food.

Gu Weiyu also went up to the second-floor quiet room and once again immersed herself in refining medicinal pills.

---

Within the gloomy and unfathomable deep mine tunnels, the sound of spiritual shovels striking ore echoed throughout the entire cave.

The ores within the mine were exceptionally hard, and the miners were all low-tier Qi Refining cultivators.

Only by channeling spiritual power into their spiritual tools could the miners barely manage to strip the ore away from the hard rock layers.

The heavy, ragged breathing of the miners mingled together, carrying an oppressive sense of suffocation.

In one of the corners, Gu Qingyun swung the spiritual tool in his hand mechanically and numbly, digging without rest.

From the beginning, when he was so exhausted he felt like a dead fish, to now, when he was as mechanical as a wooden stake, fully two years had passed.

Deep inside, he had transformed from initial reluctance and the expectation that clansmen would come to rescue him into despair and numbness.

Yet deep down, a sliver of hope still remained within him. He had to survive—only by staying alive would there be hope!

Soon, his forehead and the tip of his nose were densely covered with bead-like sweat, and the spiritual power within his body was nearing exhaustion.

After striking the rock a dozen more times with feeble arms, he had no choice but to stop, pack the excavated ore into the storage bag at his waist, and sit cross-legged right where he was to recover his spiritual power.

In the dim light of the mine cave, a thin figure could be vaguely seen sitting quietly and cross-legged in the corner.

Due to prolonged labor and malnutrition, the cheekbones on both sides of his face jutted out prominently, and there was hardly any flesh left on his entire body.

Half an hour later, his spiritual power was finally mostly restored. Gripping his spiritual shovel, he resumed digging for ore with all his might.

Trapped inside the mine tunnel, digging for ore day after day without seeing the light of day, and without a single medicinal pill to rely on, he could only rely on his own cross-legged meditation to recover.

A low, hoarse voice sounded behind Gu Qingyun:

"Twelfth Brother, have you mined enough for today?"

Gu Qingyun’s hand paused mid-swing. Rather surprised, he turned his head back to look. "Still a bit short. Eighth Brother, why are you here?"