Chapter 3 — The Secret Behind the Jade

A cold snort rang out like thunder in my head, without warning! Cold, stern, carrying an irresistible pressure! My whole body stiffened, my mind went blank. The piece of jade trembled, the air that emerged immediately retracted, the temperature also dropped rapidly, becoming cold. It was as if he was scared to death. "Okay." The person sitting at the top of the main hall, who had been keeping his eyes closed until now, with the vaguest aura - a middle-aged Taoist monk - slowly opened his eyes. His eyes passed over me blandly, as if looking at a speck of dust. "This girl's spiritual roots are mixed, almost non-existent. Trieu Phong, you are dizzy. Bring it down, arrange it according to the category of miscellaneous disciples." One sentence, decides everything. Senior Brother Zhao's face was bloodless. The other elders also withdrew their gazes, no one looked at me anymore. I was like a lost soul being taken out of the main hall. The piece of jade on his chest was as cold as ice, like a block of dead stone. From the blue clouds falling straight to the mud, just one sentence is enough. Senior brother Trieu was completely cold towards me, even somewhat angry. Manager Truong's smiling face disappeared, his eyelids drooped again. My private room with a small yard was also confiscated, and I was stuffed into a cramped, smelly service dormitory. The job assigned to me was the heaviest and dirtiest: cleaning the area where the beasts were kept. The spirit beast area is very large, raising all kinds of spirit beasts for riding, guarding, and even fighting. Feces, hair, rotting food scraps... the stench rises to the sky. Every day you have to get up before dawn, use a large broom and specially made tools to scrub away the sticky dirt, until it gets dark. The female housekeeping disciples in the same room looked at me with eyes that were both mocking and pitying. "I thought it was a heavenly spirit root, but it turns out it's just trash!" "That's right, being scolded for harming senior brother Trieu is really unlucky!" "Looking at its dirty appearance, it's only worthy of cleaning up animal feces!" I worked silently, not arguing back. I'm used to it. Compared to when I was in the village, hungry and cold, and being scolded for being a comet, here at least I have food and a place to sleep. Just a piece of jade on my chest, still cold. No matter what I said in my heart, it didn't respond. As if falling into a deep sleep. I know, it's all because of that voice in the great hall. That scary voice… scared it. Day after day passes. I worked at the spirit animal park for three years. Eighteen years old. The person is a little taller, but still skinny. The skin is dry and rough from the sun and wind. Every day, I repeat the work of scooping manure, cleaning the cage, and washing away all the dirty things. My only "friend" is an old blue unicorn horse that lives in the spirit animal garden. It is so old that its teeth cannot bite, and it cannot run. None of the disciples in the sect wanted to use it, so it was left here, waiting to die. Every time I move to its cage, I will secretly take the soft lingonberry I saved and feed it to it. Its cloudy eyes will gently look at me, then use its rough tongue to gently lick my hand. I call it “Lao Thanh”. At night, lying on the rock-hard dormitory bed, I would touch the cold piece of jade, then tell stories to him and Lao Thanh. "It's too sunny today, Lao Thanh seems to be eating a little better." "The manager has cut down on the grocery rations again, that's really too greedy." "The Fire Bird in the cage next door spit fire and injured people again, luckily I dodged quickly..." The jade piece still didn't move at all. But I'm used to talking to myself. At least that way, it feels a little less lonely. The incident happened after I was assigned to clean up. That day, I had to go to an abandoned animal training school behind the mountain to clean up. I heard this place used to be used for training

ferocious beasts, then abandoned long ago. That area was very large, overgrown with weeds, the corner of the yard was filled with rusty animal cages and damaged equipment. I put my mind to work, just hoping to finish cleaning up and leave. Suddenly, my foot slipped! The rotten floor could not bear the weight and suddenly collapsed! I screamed and fell straight down! Below is a very deep hole, pitch black. I fell to the wet and cold ground, my whole body feeling broken. I staggered to my feet, the surroundings were dark, only a little light shone from the hole above my head. The air smelled of mold... and the smell of blood? I groped in the dark, trying to find a place to climb up. My hand touched something hard and cold like metal. Thanks to the weak light, I could see clearly — It was a dark iron box, about the size of a palm, half buried in mud. The box is filled with intricate patterns, exuding an indescribable sense of antiquity. The strong smell of blood was coming from this box. My heart was pounding. My intuition told me — this is not good at all. I plan to stay away from it. But at that moment, the piece of jade on his chest - which had been silent for three years - suddenly became hot! It was so hot that it almost made me scream! Right after that, a powerful stream of thoughts, never seen before, suddenly hit my head! Not a voice, but an extremely clear, extremely urgent thought: "Pick it up! Quickly! Pick it up!" I was stunned by that shock. It's been three years, it's finally responding! But why do you ask me to hold that strange box? “This thing… isn't very good?” I muttered, hesitantly protesting.