My family tree hollow connects to the modern era : Chapter 24

Bai Zhizhi was a fox who always dared to act and take responsibility. If no one noticed his actions, he would of course keep them quiet, but once discovered, he disdained to lie.

So when Jiang Lin put it that way, even though he knew Jiang Lin was just testing him, Bai Zhizhi did not speak up to deny it.

What started as a teasing probe had unexpectedly met with the little fox’s silence, and so, Jiang Lin fell silent too.

Lin Xiaoyang, who had just returned from seeing the guests out, had one foot inside the living room. But seeing Jiang Ge and the little fox staring at each other with an atmosphere so intense that they seemed to see no one else, he silently pulled his foot back. Along the way, he intercepted and dragged away Yue Zhihuan, who was heading toward the living room carrying a fruit platter.

Yue Zhihuan was confused: “???”

Lin Xiaoyang whispered: “The vibe is bad, retreat quickly!”

Glancing at the fleeing Lin Xiaoyang, Jiang Lin pulled up a chair and sat back down: “What exactly is going on? Why did you burn He’er’s painting? Are you still holding a grudge over him offending you at Sunset Creek last time?”

Bai Zhizhi said: “It is not like I did it on purpose. Who knew the painting would catch fire?”

Jiang Lin asked: “What do you mean?”

Bai Zhizhi explained: “I was just curious about what a painting he spent so much money on looked like. I sent out a wisp of divine sense to secretly check if there was anything special about it. In the end, I did not do anything at all, and the painting just caught fire on its own.”

Since Bai Zhizhi had admitted to the act, there was no need to lie and hide anything else. Jiang Lin believed he had not done it on purpose. It was highly likely there was some sort of restriction on the painting of the lady, and when Bai Zhizhi probed it with his divine sense, he triggered the restriction, causing the painting to self-combust.

Jiang Lin said: “Do not mention this to anyone else. I will keep a close eye on the Tang family’s side to make sure He’er does not go and cause trouble for them.”

Bai Zhizhi looked at Jiang Lin: “That is it?”

Jiang Lin was puzzled: “What do you mean ‘that is it’? What else?”

Bai Zhizhi was somewhat surprised: “I ruined someone else’s painting, and you are just acting like nothing happened?”

Jiang Lin smiled: “You did not do it on purpose. If it were anyone else, I would naturally have a proper talk with the original owner, taking you along to apologize and pay compensation. But as for He’er, let us forget about it. You two already have bad blood. If he knew you broke the painting, he would never believe it was an accident. It would only deepen the grudge. Let the matter end here. He offended you twice, and now you have destroyed his eighty million. Let us call it even, okay? Do not hold a grudge against him anymore. If he does not do anything to offend you, just ignore him. If he offends you again, for the sake of the eighty million, spare his life?”

Bai Zhizhi shook his head: “It might not be possible to let it end here.”

Now it was Jiang Lin’s turn to be confused: “Why? Is burning one of his paintings still not enough to get it out of your system?”

Bai Zhizhi took out the sheet iron key: “This was inside the painting. When the painting caught fire, this flew out from within. Originally, it was two pieces of white jade, which were the ones hanging from the waist of the lady in the painting. I saw that there seemed to be something hidden inside the jade, so I broke the outer shells. After injecting spiritual energy, the thing inside turned into this.”

Jiang Lin got up and walked over: “Can you let me have a look?”

Bai Zhizhi handed it directly to him, saying generously: “Go ahead.”

Jiang Lin took the key and examined it closely. He also tried to coat it with his spiritual energy, which was quickly absorbed by the key.

Jiang Lin was startled and immediately withdrew his hand: “Perhaps this is the treasure the Tang family ancestor spoke of. As for the ancestral home worship, maybe the place that truly needs to be worshipped is not the ancestral home itself. The shape of this thing looks like a threaded key used to open something.”

Seeing him observe it so closely, Bai Zhizhi suddenly leaned in, tilting his head to look at him: “Want to collaborate?”

Jiang Lin looked at Bai Zhizhi: “Collaborate?”

Bai Zhizhi pointed at the item in his hand: “I obtained this thing, so it is mine. Besides, you must have noticed that this thing devours spiritual energy. Perhaps when it is filled with spiritual energy, some other change will occur. My ancestors left me plenty of treasures, so topping up the missing spiritual energy inside is absolutely no problem.”

During his time here, besides playing around and gaming with Lin Xiaoyang, he had also probed a lot of information out of him.

When he first arrived here, he had not concealed his aura, which was detected by their technological instruments. Later, he realized this was not Qingqiu and was full of ordinary people, so he completely concealed his aura. He did not expect this would cause them to misunderstand.

The people here had never questioned his background, treating him as a small fox demon who had run out of his cave after successfully cultivating into human form.

Including Jiang Lin, they naturally assumed he was a demon native to this world, just like the ones they had discovered before who lived in seclusion to cultivate, took human form, and knew nothing about the human world. Thus, they brought him back directly, arranged an identity for him, and taught him common sense about the human world.

Of course, he would not tell them his origin. He simply went along with the identity they had imagined for him, which was also beneficial to him. For one thing, he did not have to worry about exposing himself when taking out things that did not exist in this world; he could just attribute everything to some non-existent ancestors.

For another, it served as a deterrent, letting them know he was not some small demon without a background, so these human cultivators would not think they could easily control him.

As for this so-called treasure, given the level of spiritual energy present in this world, it probably could not grow any formidable natural treasures anyway. There was a high chance he would not think much of it, so whether he got it or not did not matter.

However, since he had figured out a way to travel back and forth between the two worlds, he still wanted to play around here a bit more. Maintaining a good relationship was very necessary, and acquiring some assets in this world would not do him any harm.

Hearing that the little fox wanted to collaborate and looking at his cunning, lively eyes, Jiang Lin said at his leisure: “What kind of collaboration do you have in mind?”

Bai Zhizhi said: “I will fill it up with spiritual energy for you. You guys will be responsible for finding where the treasure is and how to get it. I want half of the things obtained from inside.”

Jiang Lin shook his head: “Half is too much. Finding where the treasure is and how to open the treasure site both require manpower to solve. At the same time, we have to hold He’er back and deal with the subsequent trouble brought by this key. How about a seventy-thirty split? We will give you thirty percent. When the remaining seventy percent is divided up, each person will not get much.”

Bai Zhizhi thought about it and felt this was acceptable. After all, he would get thirty percent for free without having to put in any effort. Moreover, he did not even know what was inside, or if there was anything at all. Overall, he was not losing out: “Fine, it is a deal.”

Bai Zhizhi took the key back from his hand, lightly tapped it with his fingertip, and released the seal on it.

He had placed this seal himself. When his father helped him fuse the two pieces of soft iron together, the spiritual energy inside had already been filled to the brim. A gentle tap from an upper immortal did not require much effort at all.

After breaking the seal, Bai Zhizhi handed the key directly to Jiang Lin: “Here you go. When you find the place where the treasure opens, you must tell me. I want to go and keep an eye on you guys.”

Seeing his actions, Jiang Lin knew he had already taken care of the key beforehand, only to temporarily seal it up to negotiate with him. Amused, he said: “As expected of a little fox, so good at negotiating, very smart.”

Bai Zhizhi was slightly proud: “Of course, we of the fox clan have always been smart.”

Jiang Lin called Qiu Yan over and told him to take turns with Lin Xiaoyang to keep a close eye on the Tang family recently. Qiu Yan had a similar cultivation level to Lin Xiaoyang, at the third level of Qi Refining. While his cultivation was not high, Qiu Yan was steady and smart, able to handle situations calmly, while Lin Xiaoyang had strong execution skills. The two of them pairing up to watch the Tang family was absolutely no problem.

He, on the other hand, took Bai Zhizhi toward Sunset Village.

Over at Sunset Village, after a period of carpet searching, they were about ready to lift the lockdown since they had not found a second envy fish or water spirit crystal. Once Jiang Lin arrived, he directly increased the intensity of the lockdown and even had Xiao Yu deploy an extra batch of personnel.

Yue Yanting looked at his captain’s actions with some confusion: “We have searched this place inside and out carefully several times, and indeed did not find any more envy fish or water spirit crystals.”

Jiang Lin said: “Just because there are none now does not mean there will be none in the future.”

Yue Yanting asked: “Eh? What do you mean?”

Leaving out the Tang family’s involvement, Jiang Lin briefly explained the matter of the painting: “The key was hidden inside the painting using a special method. The artist of the original painting was named Tang Mu, who suddenly settled and took root here three hundred years ago. After his death, he also requested his descendants to bury him here. Yet, envy fish and water spirit crystals just happened to appear here. This is too much of a coincidence.”

Yue Yanting exclaimed: “Oh boy! I was wondering why He’er looked so miserable after being beaten up that day, yet still left with a look that said ‘you guys just wait and see.’ It turns out he was waiting for this! He knew all along that there was a secret inside the painting of the lady, which is why he did not hesitate to bid a high price for it. If this key had fallen into their hands, we would have become a massive laughingstock!”

Jiang Lin said: “Thanks to the club owner, I managed to find out a few rumors on my side. They say a treasure is hidden in the painting. Currently, no treasure has been found, only this key. Combining this with the appearance of several spiritual items here, the so-called treasure is very likely something belonging to a cultivator, sealed away using a special method. It is just that three hundred years have passed, and perhaps the former seal has loosened, allowing some of the things inside to escape.”

Xiao Yu, who had been listening quietly on the side, fixed his gaze on the key: “I also heard about He’er’s eighty million. How did this end up in your hands?”

Jiang Lin glanced to the side. Xiao Yu followed his gaze and saw Bai Zhizhi holding a wooden stick, squatting by the creek and poking at the fish inside.

The rest of the words naturally did not need to be said. Xiao Yu could not help but say with a tinge of envy: “How come all the good things fall to your East District?”

Hearing this, Jiang Lin smiled and said: “Am I not looking to collaborate with you guys now? However, I agreed with Zhizhi that if we really find the treasure, he gets thirty percent.”

Xiao Yu nodded: “That is only fair.”

If not for Bai Zhizhi, the key would probably have fallen into He’er’s hands by now. To be able to get the lion’s share thanks to the little fox was already a great bargain.

After speaking, Xiao Yu scanned the surrounding environment: “But with such a vast mountain, how do we find it? Carry the key around to sense it?”

Jiang Lin replied: “Among the limited information I obtained, one point mentions that before Tang Mu died, he told his descendants to take the painting to the ancestral home to worship when they reached a dead end.”

Xiao Yu stroked his chin: “Worship, ancestral home. Where is Tang Mu’s ancestral home?”

Jiang Lin said: “It was demolished long ago. I heard that back then, their family was wealthy and the entire mansion was built of golden thread phoebe wood. During times of unrest, how could such things be preserved? They were completely dismantled.”

Xiao Yu clicked his tongue: “No matter. We have plenty of people. Since we are certain there is something here, I will dig it out even if I have to turn the earth three feet deep!”

Xiao Yu immediately went to arrange the personnel, while Yue Yanting said: “I will go find Old Ren. Old Ren went into the mountains today. I will follow him and search again.”

After the two left, Jiang Lin walked over to Bai Zhizhi’s side: “Zhizhi, do you sense anything special about this place?”

Bai Zhizhi turned his head to look at him: “Finding the treasure is your job. You cannot expect me to do everything.”

Seeing that he was unwilling to expend energy to investigate, Jiang Lin naturally did not force him. Watching him poke at the fish in the water, he asked: “Do you want to eat fish? Shall I grill one for you?”

Bai Zhizhi asked: “You know how to grill fish?”

Jiang Lin replied: “No, but I know how to catch them, and there are cooks here. Are you eating?”

Bai Zhizhi threw down his small wooden stick and stood up: “I am eating!”

The movements at Sunset Village had been watched by certain people all along, especially since they had increased the intensity of the lockdown around the area. Such a large movement could not go unnoticed.

The scout sent the news back. Ike, whose face was disfigured and still covered with gauze, frowned and said: “Could they have discovered the altar?”

He’er sneered: “How could they discover the altar? The entire altar is right in front of their eyes. These past days, they have been searching back and forth for spiritual items. What could they possibly find? Without the painting, the altar will not manifest at all. Instead of worrying about this, we should have the higher-ups put some pressure on their country. We can offer more spiritual soil to exchange for the water spirit crystal in their hands.”

At the thought of being one step too late, and that the water spirit crystal could have been theirs if they had been just a little bit faster, He’er was so angry he wanted to spit blood.

Turning around, he saw the treasure hunting mouse fast asleep in its nest. He wished he could squeeze the little thing to death. It called itself a treasure hunting mouse, yet it only found useless weeds. It actually failed to notice such a large water spirit crystal in the water!

Hearing about the water spirit crystal, Ike was also filled with resentment. He had heard that the spiritual energy in the water spirit crystal was extremely abundant. Although it was water-attributed and incompatible with his fire system, having such a good item outside their hands was highly frustrating, especially because of that cheap-species Chinese demon.

Thinking of that demon, Ike touched his gauze-covered face. This trip to China had truly been nothing but trouble!

While he was harboring hatred in his heart, a phone call came through. After Ike picked it up, his expression changed drastically: “He’er, they found the altar!”