The moment the words left Xu Qing’s mouth, the Captain turned and saw the wardrobe and all the glittering clothing. His eyes went wide.

There were dozens of garments, each one hanging neatly in place, folded and unwrinkled. They were hanging in such orderly fashion that not one garment touched another. Merely looking at the wardrobe, it was obvious that the owner was very fond of these outfits.

The majority of them were dresses. One of them was an emerald green muslin gown embroidered with rough silk crafted from immortal jade. It featured a large peony flower and was decorated with immortal gold that draped all the way to the floor. The hem was decorated with a pink narcissus flower motif, and overall, the garment was stunning. It was paired with a gauzy green and gold veil that, even if it were to be worn by an ordinary woman, would be completely dazzling.

There was also a cyan court garment, a sleeveless blouse with violet and blue butterflies embroidered on it. Occasionally, extremely life-like illusory projections of the butterflies would flutter around the dress. Beneath the blouse was a pleated skirt decorated with flowers and mist, with sea grass at the bottom hem. It was obviously intended to be form-fitting, and was clearly a shockingly precious item.

There was a plain white qipao spun from an unusual plant fiber. It was embroidered with branches full of blooming plum blossoms that emanated a faint impression of spirit energy. The garment also created the faint, illusory image of a strange beast.

There were dozens of precious garments, and each one was both unique and spectacular. They were obviously extremely expensive, but also emanated auras that caused the cultivation base to stir.

The Captain wasn’t the only one whose eyes went wide. Yanyan had been staring at them from the moment she noticed them. That said, all the Captain cared about was how much he could sell them for, or what they would be like if he ate them. Yanyan was just entranced by their beauty.

“It was worth it!” the Captain said. Swallowing hard, he rushed toward the wardrobe, grabbed one of the garments, and tried to stuff it into his bag of holding. The strange garment was incredibly resilient, and was difficult to get inside. “I knew this was going to happen. Little Ah Qing, once we get back, you need to smooth things out with the Dark Serenity Sect. I did that for the sake of this mission. I needed this snake tooth!”

With a flourish, he produced a huge snake tooth the size of a person!

Some parts of the tooth were stained the color gold, which emanated shocking fluctuations. All it took was a glance and Xu Qing knew it was the tooth of the demon snake. Yanyan had never seen the tooth before, but it was so incredible-looking that it caused her to inhale sharply.

Holding the tooth in his hands, the Captain smiled proudly.

As Yanyan winced painfully, the Captain slashed the tooth into the emerald green muslin gown. A loud ripping sound rang out, and the garment immediately became less brilliant. At the same time, a horrendous slash mark opened on the front of it.

The Captain seemed to enjoy the sound of the garment ripping, as he went on to slash the thing to pieces. However, he didn’t damage any of the decorations or the primary materials. Seeing how effective the snake tooth was made the Captain even more excited.

“Back when I first saw that shrew Nethersprite’s clothes, I wondered how I would rip them apart if I ever got my hands on them. With this tooth, I, Chen Erniu, will be able to rip apart any treasure in existence!” The Captain threw his head back and laughed long and hard. “Even if the Dark Serenity Sect wants to skin me alive, I could accept it!” 𝘰𝑣𝘭.𝗇𝓔t

Xu Qing blinked a few times, making himself look suitably moved. The Captain seemed very pleased by that. Meanwhile, Xu Qing took advantage of the moment to walk over and join the Captain in collecting the ripped-up items. There wasn’t any need for discussion; the two of them both knew that they had to work together.

After that, Xu Qing grabbed the clothes, opened them up, and revealed the most valuable parts. Then the Captain would use his snake tooth to rip those parts off.

Before long, loud ripping and tearing sounds filled the room. Off to the side, Yanyan looked like she was physically in pain. Though these clothes didn’t belong to her, she could imagine how violently August Spirit Nethersprite was going to react when she discovered what had happened to her clothing collection.

As she watched Xu Qing and the Captain working so hard, she quietly said, “August Spirit Nethersprite messed up by leaving her valuables out in the open for you to find. But when she finds out what happened, she’s going to be pissed…. Ripping up a woman’s clothing? You two are just too nasty!”

Hearing that, the Captain laughed sarcastically. “This is nothing! You should see me and little Ah Qing’s Master. Now he’s nasty! Back when the old man was young, I personally saw him get into a big fight with Mistress. She was so mad that she destroyed some of his favorite ancient records and jade slips.” Hefting the snake tooth, the Captain continued ripping apart clothing as he continued, “After that, Master casually pulled out a big pair of scissors and started slicing Mistress’ favorite dress apart. Right in front of her! When Mistress saw that, she was dumbstruck. But then she flipped her lid. After that, the two of them separated for three years.” 1

Xu Qing looked at the Captain. He didn’t say anything, but he had noted that the Captain mentioned seeing something Master did ‘when he was young.’ Master was already no youngster. And that seemed to indicate that the Captain must have restarted his cultivation quite a few times.

Meanwhile, Yanyan was thinking about what that event must have felt like. After all, men usually analyzed things logically, while women would consider feelings. As a result, Yanyan could easily imagine how Xu Qing’s Master’s wife must have blown her top all those years ago.

“So nasty….” Yanyan muttered. Then she rushed inside and started helping out.

Working together, they gradually ripped apart dozens of garments. That said, the material the clothing was made of was spectacular and full of immortal energy. Plus, August Spirit Nethersprite was physically huge. As a result, each destroyed garment created a massive pile of items.

They couldn’t take everything, so they had to pick and choose between the best things. Before long, there were random bits of cloth everywhere. Some looked like blank curtains, others were full of holes and looked like the clothing of a beggar.

Around then, the booms from outside grew more intense, and the ground started shaking violently.

Noticing that, Xu Qing said, “We need to get out of here. If we don’t, we’re going to be in danger!”

Suppressing his greed, he turned to leave. Yanyan hesitated briefly, then made to join him.

The Captain had originally not been ready to give up, and had been planning to do another pass, or maybe start prying up some of the spirit jade tiles from the floor. But seeing that Xu Qing and Yanyan were about to leave, he thought back to the Seazombie incident and how he had ended up taking the blame for everything. Taking a deep breath, he gritted his teeth and rushed after Xu Qing and Yanyan as they left the mansion grotto.

Quit while you’re ahead. Quit while you’re ahead! I have to get out of the habit of being too greedy. I can’t push things too far this time!

Before long, they were out of the cave. Cloaking themselves again, they hurried down the mountain.

***

Shortly after they left, a red shadow blurred toward the mansion grotto.

It was a lithe young woman in a red garment with a white mask on her face that covered her facial features. Resting across her shoulders was an enormous, black-colored, evil ghost sickle that exuded gruish fluctuations.

As she neared the mansion grotto, she sized up the area, then chuckled.

The Church elders said that of the Three Spirits, August Spirit Nethersprite has the biggest collection of treasure. I need to take this opportunity to see what exactly they were talking about!

She entered the cave, stepped into the mansion grotto, then looked around. All she saw was empty space.

There’s a big battle going on outside, and half the mountain collapsed. But strangely enough, this place seems neat and tidy.

Then she looked more closely at the walls, and was stunned. There were numerous empty notches in the wall that seemed like they had once contained pearls. After a moment of hesitation, she went further into the mansion grotto. As she searched the various rooms, her expression turned increasingly unsightly. Even most of the furniture was gone.

Finally she found the location with all the shredded clothing, and she inhaled sharply.

/p>

Someone beat me here! Whoever they were, did they shapechange into a rat? Or maybe they have a personal grudge against August Spirit Nethersprite? I can’t believe they destroyed her clothing.

Turning, she raced away with her guard up.

***

Further down the mountain, Xu Qing, Yanyan and the Captain were racing away, cloaked and invisible.

Their bags of holding were full, and Xu Qing didn’t want to stick around. That was especially true when he thought about all the loot they had. He didn’t want to re-experience what had occurred in Seazombie territory.

As for the Captain, he looked regretful, as if he wasn’t satisfied yet.

“We didn’t get into any trouble this time, little Ah Qing!” the Captain said.

Xu Qing didn’t like the sound of that. Keeping his guard up, he pulled Yanyan along and hurried forward.

The Captain lagged a bit. Sighing, he looked up at the second mountain peak. Then he licked his lips.

“Maybe we should just go look at the second mountain peak.”

Xu Qing was about to respond when, all of a sudden, a shocking boom rang out from up in the dome of heaven.

The sound was so intense that Xu Qing, Yanyan and the Captain, despite not being very close to it, were shaken to the core. Blood sprayed out of Xu Qing’s mouth, several defensive jade slips on Yanyan shattered, and she also coughed up blood. A tremor passed through the Captain and blood sprayed out of his mouth. All three of them looked up in shock.

They saw Nethersprite’s three clones fighting the three swordsages. One of the clones had just been stabbed in the chest by her swordsage opponent, then punched in the abdomen, and finally, hit with a huge sealing mark that emanated terrifying fluctuations. The clone’s abdomen and chest exploded, and she screamed in agony. Then the sealing mark slammed into her. Obviously the sealing mark was something that had been prepared in advance specifically to deal with Nethersprite. Though it wasn’t a fatal blow, it did sever her connection with the clone.

As a result, the clone tumbled out of the sky, slammed into the side of the third mountain peak, then toppled onto the ground below with a rumbling boom. There, the clone lay, apparently unconscious. The open wounds on her didn’t reveal flesh and blood underneath. Instead, her innards were pure immortal energy.

As the dust settled, Xu Qing looked surprised and Yanyan seemed jumpy. The Captain, however, had a very crazy look in his eyes.

1. After years of avoiding “Mistress” as the obvious translation for the common word that means “wife of Master” … I’m just done. I’m using it. Henceforth in my translations the capitalized Mistress means the wife of someone’s Master. 👈