Chapter 4305 — The Lost Brothers

Better to believe it exists than not—with a selection of such consequence looming, plenty of people took exactly that view, and so the fellow's business was brisk indeed. A hundred spirit jades apiece was no great sum, but gathered from a crowd this size it mounted up; even if only three in ten bought, that was still three hundred thousand spirit jades—an astronomical figure by any measure.

"A sure-pass guide for the assessment? Can that thing really raise your odds of passing?" Wei Zhao muttered, puzzled. His doubt sprang mainly from watching the buyers, each one poring over his copy with relish, as though the thing were genuinely substantial.

These were Golden Core cultivators, no easy marks to fool. Had the pages held nothing but idle scribbling, they would have spotted the fraud long ago and raised a hue and cry.

Which meant the so-called sure-pass guide must actually contain something of substance—at the very least, it should be worth its hundred spirit jades.

"Hey, you make it sound awfully grand—is this guide of yours real or fake?" Before Wei Zhao could ask, the yellow-hatted man seated ahead of him had already spoken up.

"Ha? Doubting my goods are fake? Who doesn't know my reputation—Ge Wei, the South Continent's own Ge the Inquisitor! Decades in this trade, and my word is my bond. Ask any of them who've bought—is there one who'd say it wasn't worth a hundred spirit jades?" The man answered without so much as turning his head, still hawking to the crowd.

Ge Wei? Wei Zhao blinked, then it struck him—no wonder the man's manner had seemed familiar. This was the same trade as Ge Xian back in the mortal world!

And both surnamed Ge. Could there be some blood tie between them? Surely they weren't brothers separated for years?

While Wei Zhao was still turning this over, Ge Wei had already come striding over—and with a most unfriendly look, murderous intent fairly rolling off him, bearing straight down on the yellow-hatted man.

Wei Zhao and everyone around them froze. What was this? The yellow-hatted man had done no more than voice a doubt—surely there was no need for such deadly grudge, for silencing a witness?

"Heh heh, cousin, cousin, I was only joking with you! Spare your little brother's life, spare it!" the yellow-hatted man hurriedly begged, all grins and ingratiation.

Only then did the onlookers understand—so this was the very cousin the man had been boasting of earlier. Just two cousins having their fun.

"No. Not sparing you today. Carry this sack for me—stuffed with spirit jades, heavy as it is. You're just the man for the hard labor!" Ge Wei shot him a sour look and tossed a large sack at his feet, crammed with the spirit jades just taken in.

"Can't do that—I've still got the selection to sit!" The yellow-hatted man stamped his foot.

"Give it up, and be quick about it. The likes of you, they won't look twice at. Waste of effort. Better prospects as my errand boy." Ge Wei curled his lip in disdain, and seeing his cousin about to argue, went on: "Are you thick, boy? If you're really sitting the selection, just go up when your turn comes. The thing costs no effort at all—how would it hold you up?"

"Well... all right then..." The yellow-hatted man supposed there was something in that, and meekly agreed.

"I'll take one of those sure-pass guides," Wei Zhao said suddenly.

He had just said he wasn't sitting the selection—why buy a guide to passing it? Huang Xiaotao gave him a curious glance but said nothing. Wei Zhao had his reasons.

True enough, as he had said, Wei Zhao had no intention of entering the selection; still, he didn't mind spending a little spirit jade on a copy to have a look. Who knew—there might be something in it to make his eyes light up.

"Coming right up!" Ge Wei answered briskly, squeezing his way over, while his cousin had no choice but to trail behind lugging the sack.

Wei Zhao reached for the pack behind him and drew out a pouch of spirit jades. He weighed it briefly in his hand—a hundred or so, by his estimate—and handed it to the approaching Ge Wei.

Ge Wei took it, glanced inside, and his eyes lit up at once.

"Young master, these are all top-grade spirit jades—rich in spiritual energy and a size larger than ordinary ones. Seventy of these will be plenty." Ge Wei praised them, and at once moved to return thirty to Wei Zhao.

For a peddler of back-alley rumor, he does business honest and true! Wei Zhao nodded to himself. There was reason, it seemed, that Ge Wei had made the name of Ge the Inquisitor across the South Continent.

"Heh, no need. Keep it as it is," Wei Zhao said with a faint smile, waving him off. One who held the Heavenly Pill Pavilion and took in tens of thousands a day had no lack of spirit jades; haggling back and forth over thirty was more trouble than it was worth.

And truth be told, these jades were windfall besides—even the pack on his back had been taken off Chu Bubai's person back in the Rufeng Forest, and it had held no small store of spirit jades.

"Oh, then I'm much obliged for your patronage, young master." Ge Wei, nothing loath, nodded to Wei Zhao and went on threading through the crowd, crying his wares.

Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao took the little booklet he handed them and began leafing through it. At the first rough glance, Wei Zhao knew the hundred spirit jades had not been wasted.

To call it a sure-pass guide to the assessment was, of course, overstating matters—a marketing gimmick, and everyone knew it.

Yet the information recorded within was genuinely rare and precious to outsiders like Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao, blind newcomers that they were.

The booklet held not only an introduction to Morning Star Academy but a good deal of general cultivation lore besides—lore that many of insufficient rank had never even heard of, and which happened to answer the very question Wei Zhao had been puzzling over.

The East Continent Morning Star Cultivator Academy stood in the Gaolin Sea region of the East Continent. Renowned across the whole Eastern Continent, it was a Yellow-Rank academy of the first water; every cultivator admitted for advanced study there was, without exception, a prodigy sought after wherever he went.

In selecting disciples, Morning Star Academy had always set the highest store by innate aptitude—but there was one precondition: however heaven-defying one's talent, to enter the academy one's strength must reach at least the Golden Core Stage. Otherwise, going up was mere self-exposure, a court of humiliation. (To be continued...)