CHAPTER 333: WINE GOURD

After Shen Xu and Zhen Yuan left the room, the masked man walked around the desk and sat in one of the two chairs.

"Jingyu, is it okay to leave it like this?" He asked, his brows creased in a frown.

Hearing the question, Jingyu, the mysterious young woman, also frowned but eventually nodded.

"Master asked us to deliver the bracelet. Everything else is up to fate." She said but the masked man was not convinced.

"How can we allow an unknown person to continue staying with our young master? What if he puts our young master in danger?" He asked and the young woman sighed before speaking.

"What do you suggest we do?" She asked.

"Kill." The masked man answered without hesitation.

However, Jingyu shook her head and began explaining.

"First, he and our young master have formed the one heart, one destiny, and one fate Taoist contract. This contract is too domineering and if we kill Zhen Yuan, our young master will undoubtedly die."

"That said, even if we can kill Zhen Yuan without affecting our young master, I don’t dare to do so."

"What do you mean?" The masked man questioned.

"I have met countless cultivators but this is the first time I have been completely unable to look into someone. I can’t gaze into his past, present, or future. Everything I know about him is what we have been able to gather from physically watching them."

"This..." The masked man frowned.

This was an unprecedented situation and he couldn’t help but feel uneasy.

"Could someone be targeting our young master?" He asked but Jingyu shook her head.

"I don’t think so." She said and quickly continued.

"No one within the six realms can escape my ability. I suspect Zhen Yuan is a being outside of the six paths."

"Outside of the six paths?" The masked man couldn’t help but be shocked.

The six realms - mortal, monster, ghost, demon, immortal, God – were the six forms of existence.

As long as a living being existed in one of these six forms, Jingyu could peek into their past, present, and future.

However, it had been more than seven hundred years since Jingyu began trying to peek into Zhen Yuan’s life, only to end up with nothing.

Thinking of this, she sighed and looked at the masked man.

"Master didn’t account for Zhen Yuan but his existence may not be a bad thing." She said, waved her hand and a bunch of tower tokens appeared on the table.

"Destroy?" The masked man asked and Jingyu nodded.

"Fortunately, the young master brought these things to us. Otherwise, he would unknowingly step into trouble." She said.

.....

Inside the space, Shen Xu looked at Zhen Yuan with a surprised expression.

"What did you just say?" He asked and Zhen Yuan sighed before speaking.

"I made a mistake." The man said and began explaining.

"When we first met the woman, I checked her laws and concluded she was a human cultivator. However, after taking a closer look, I realised she is a weapon spirit."

"Weapon spirit? How could you confuse her for a human?" Shen Xu asked in a shocked voice.

"Her laws are too complex, and I can’t understand most. I judged based on the few laws I could recognise, only to later realise that I made a mistake."

"Are her laws so complex? What level of weapon is she?" The double asked, but Zhen Yuan shook his head.

"Higher than the divine rank but inferior to my guan and the Qiankun formation flags." He said.

"This..." Shen Xu was shocked.

He and Zhen Yuan just discussed the possibility of a higher cultivation plane, but didn’t expect to encounter another clue so soon.

"Xiaoxu, let me see the bracelet." Zhen Yuan suddenly said, and Shen Xu nodded.

After getting the bracelet, Zhen Yuan fell into thought, but soon smiled.

"As I thought." He said.

"What is it?" Shen Xu asked.

"I felt the bracelet was familiar as soon as I saw it. It turns out it has similar laws to the pocket space we found in the Yunshan secret realm."

"You mean..." Shen Xu started, swallowed, and looked at the bracelet.

"It has something to do with my family? My father?" He asked, and Zhen Yuan nodded.

"The bracelet seems to contain a strand of your father’s hair."

Shen Xu was shocked when he heard this.

However, the bracelet didn’t repulse him but gave him a very warm feeling.

"Ayuan, what kind of person is my father? Why do we keep encountering clues about him?" He asked.

"I don’t know." Zhen Yuan said, but had a thoughtful expression.

"Everything is mixed up, but I sense no malice in your father’s intention. Also, although I can’t recognise or understand most of the laws on the bracelet, I sense its protective intent. You can wear it without worry."

"Is that so?" Shen Xu asked, took the bracelet and wore it on his left wrist.

However, as soon as the bracelet was around his wrist, it shrank and could no longer be removed.

"What a trick!" The double cursed.

"Ayuan, this is too much. Will I be forced to cut my arm if I want to remove the damned thing?"

Hearing this, Zhen Yuan smiled and rubbed his lover’s hair.

"Just wear it for the time being. We will find a way if you really want to remove it." He soothed.

After that, the topic shifted from the bracelet to the wine gourd.

"Ayuan, do you think that stall owner will want to kill himself if he finds out he sold an immortal weapon for one hundred thousand spirit stones?" Shen Xu asked with undisguised schadenfreude.

"He will probably lead a group to kill and rob us." Zhen Yuan chuckled, looking at the gourd.

"Contract it." He said, and Shen Xu nodded.

A moment later, the double cut his palm and dripped blood on the gourd.

Simultaneously, the gourd began to change.

It originally was an ordinary brown.

However, after the blood landed, it flashed different colours and eventually settled on royal purple.

"How beautiful." Shen Xu exclaimed with a happy expression.

"What’s the name of the gourd?" Zhen Yuan asked.

"It’s the qi gourd of the Qiankun wine gourd."

"Qi gourd? Qiankun wine gourd?"

"The Qiankun wine gourd is an ancient treasure. It’s made of three separate gourds – qi, soul, and body." Shen Xu started and soon continued.

"Each gourd has countless spaces for storing wine. However, storing wine is only their basic function."

"What do you mean?" Zhen Yuan asked in a curious voice.

Compared to tea and other drinks, he preferred wine.

Because of this, he was particularly interested in the Qiankun wine gourd and couldn’t wait to know everything about it.

"First, the time in the Qiankun wine gourd flows differently from the outside world. One year outside is one hundred years inside." The double said, and Zhen Yuan nodded before speaking.

"Wine becomes more potent and delicious with age. This time function is really good." He said.

"I think so too." Shen Xu agreed with a thoughtful expression.

"What are you thinking?"

"Ayuan, do you think the time function will stack up with the time in the space? If it does, one year outside will be three thousand years in the gourd. We can drink three thousand-year-old wine in just one year!"

Zhen Yuan smacked his lips when he heard this.

He and Shen Xu had drunk ten thousand-year-old wine.

However, ten thousand space years was more than three hundred real years.

With their cultivation speed, three hundred real years were enough to advance several realms.

As a result, the ten-thousand-year-old wine they previously drank was low-level and not suitable for their cultivation realm.

Thinking of this, Zhen Yuan glanced at the surrounding peach trees and other fruit trees, looking forward to drinking level seven or higher, ten thousand years old wine in three to five years.

Seeing Zhen Yuan’s expectant look, Shen Xu smiled and continued.

"The qi gourd has countless ordinary and elemental spiritual veins. Because of this, the stored wine is not only delicious but also rich in qi. Depending on how long the wine is aged in the gourd, it can be used for cultivation in place of spirit stones and treasures."

"This is a good thing." Zhen Yuan said, and Shen Xu nodded.

"The three gourds are individually precious and when combined, the whole becomes a priceless treasure." He said.

"Does the gourd have other functions?"

"Mmh." The double nodded and revealed everything.

From what Shen Xu learned after contracting it, the gourd could also purify wine and enhance its beneficial properties.

Most importantly, it hid a brewing inheritance for qi-related wines.

Not only did the inheritance include brewing techniques, but it also contained recipes and a compendium of wine-making ingredients.

’I will be a master brewer after studying this inheritance.’ Shen Xu thought and subconsciously chuckled.

Fundamentally, the Chaos Flame Space, library, and simulation room were biased towards alchemy.

Because of this, other inheritances were present in the space library and simulation room, but they were not as detailed or profound as the alchemy inheritance.

After getting the qi gourd, Shen Xu felt he would soon be able to fill some knowledge gaps and brew better wines.

’I can’t wait to brew better wine for Ayuan.’ He thought with a doting expression.