It seems this commandery truly hides dragons and crouching tigers.
Zhao Ya secretly marveled at this, but didn’t think too much about it.
After all, people’s personalities vary, especially those who practice martial arts, who have distinctive personalities. So it’s not surprising to have someone like Nie Jingnian.
After finishing the meal, everyone went their separate ways.
Once Zhao Ya returned home, he didn’t rest but continued to practice martial arts.
In the blink of an eye, another month passed, and before he knew it, green appeared on the branches.
On this day, after finishing his daily lessons, Zhao Ya furrowed his brow slightly.
With no suitable Exotic Beast Dried Meat left, his progress had slowed significantly lately.
Zhao Ya found this quite troublesome.
He had already pressed Celestial Wave Meat Shop, but finding high-grade dried meat wasn’t easy in a short time.
Even if Zhao Ya was willing to pay a high price, it was no use.
This couldn’t go on, so Zhao Ya had to seek out his master, Lu Dingtai, to see if he had any solutions.
But Lu Dingtai was also helpless in this matter.
Only a few could provide the level of Seven-Star Blood Eel dried meat, each backed by powerful forces, and even Lu Dingtai didn’t dare to underestimate them.
He could only try to get more quotas and distribute extra dried meat to Zhao Ya.
Yet it still wasn’t enough.
After unlocking two major organs simultaneously, Zhao Ya’s demand for flesh increased again.
The extra dried meat wasn’t enough to even fill the gaps in his teeth.
So Zhao Ya had been racking his brains, calculating where to source high-grade dried meat.
At this point, an unexpected visitor suddenly came by.
"Senior Brother Nie... why are you here?" Zhao Ya exclaimed in surprise.
The visitor was none other than Nie Jingnian from the Ren Yong Martial Arts Hall.
He nodded in thanks to Zui’Er, who brought over tea, then got straight to the point, "I have something I’d like to cooperate with you on."
"What is it that you want to cooperate with me on?" Zhao Ya was somewhat confused.
"I got a reliable message that a rare Exotic Insect has appeared in a secret Earth Cave outside the city. I want to work with you to find this Earth Cave, and we can split the insect eggs in half after capturing it. How about it?"
Exotic Insect?
Hearing this news, Zhao Ya couldn’t help but feel invigorated.
Exotic Insects are known to be even rarer than ordinary Exotic Beasts.
The key is that the eggs they produce often contain strong Qi Blood, and they are easy to cultivate.
Not needing the complex Meat Fields required for rearing other Exotic Beasts, they were perfectly suitable for Zhao Ya, who was currently in a Qi Blood predicament.
However, Zhao Ya was not overwhelmed by this sudden good news and instead cautiously asked.
"Why me? You know I’m only a half-step into the Fourth Realm right now, and with your connections, finding a few Fourth Realm Martial Artists shouldn’t be difficult, right?"
"Because I need your mind," Nie Jingnian admitted freely.
"I’ve already searched in the forest for more than a month with no success, so I thought of you."
"Oh? Does Senior Brother Nie really believe I can find it?"
"Of course." Nie Jingnian nodded and added another sentence.
"Because I also once tried to find that Jade Butterfly but failed."
Zhao Ya found this amusing yet wasn’t in a position to refuse the invitation; after considering it briefly, he nodded.
"Okay, I’m willing to cooperate."
"Great, here is the Secret Map showing the Earth Cave location, though I couldn’t make it out."
Seeing Zhao Ya agree, Nie Jingnian wasted no time and handed over a piece of parchment from his chest.
Zhao Ya reached out to take it. Opening it, he found the drawings crude, filled with confusing lines, with only a silhouette of a city in the center, labeled as Yunxiao County.
The Earth Cave’s position was marked at the lower left corner of the map.
After studying it for a while, Zhao Ya asked, "Senior Brother Nie, are you sure this map is real?"
"Of course, you don’t need to worry about the map’s origin, but I can assure you the Earth Cave and Exotic Insect are real."
"Alright, I’ll study this map closely first, and tomorrow we’ll head out of the city to search for the Earth Cave."
"Sounds good."
Nie Jingnian agreed and left.
Watching his retreating figure, Zhao Ya suddenly realized he was an intriguing person.
He did things straightforwardly without any pretense.
The key was that Zhao Ya realized Nie Jingnian’s situation was probably similar to his own; both came from humble beginnings, without family support, relying solely on themselves to get to where they were now.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t be so interested in the Exotic Insect.
It seems I’m not the only one worrying about Exotic Beast Flesh.
Zhao Ya thought to himself, then began to study the map closely.
The map-making technology in this world was quite backward; forget about scales or even clear direction markers at times.
But Zhao Ya had heard that major families often possessed well-crafted maps.
However, these maps were closely tied to each family’s trade routes and were top secret, not easily shown to others.
Thus, Zhao Ya had never seen one.
But clearly, the map before him didn’t match craftsmanship.
The parchment itself wasn’t even well-made; some parts still had residual sheep wool.
Zhao Ya studied it under the lamp, hoping to find some clues.
But apart from the chaotic lines, he saw nothing.
Unwilling to give up, Zhao Ya tried using water and fire methods, yet the result was the same.
"Strange, if this thing is real, why doesn’t it have any markings at all? Could it be the map’s creator intended it to be unreadable?"
Zhao Ya muttered to himself, finding it unlikely.
If they didn’t want it found, they wouldn’t leave a map at all, sparing the trouble. Why go through so much effort otherwise?
That would be akin to pointless labor.
Feeling increasingly frustrated, Zhao Ya sighed, put the map back on the table, and planned to go with Nie Jingnian outside the city tomorrow to try his luck.
"Ya, have some water first; I’ve just brewed some pear soup, it’s so sweet," Zui’Er brought over a steaming bowl of pear soup.
Lately, she had fallen in love with making drinks, spending her days in the kitchen experimenting with various fruit soups.
Zhao Ya naturally became the first to taste them.
Fortunately, Zui’Er’s skills were quite good, except for a few drinks that turned out poorly, the rest were delicious.
Zhao Ya took the pear soup and sipped it slowly.
Zui’Er curiously looked at the parchment on the table.
"Ya, what are you looking at?"
"Nothing, just trying to find clues in the map."
"Did you find any?"
"Not yet, these lines are too chaotic. I even suspect someone’s tampered with it."
Zui’Er became interested too and began circling the table.
Zhao Ya didn’t stop her, only pondering which direction to search first tomorrow.
Just then, Zui’Er suddenly exclaimed.
"Hey, Ya, doesn’t this look like a mountain?"
Pointing a finger, Zui’Er urged him to look.
Zhao Ya followed her gaze to find that Zui’Er was pointing to the area next to the Earth Cave.
But from Zhao Ya’s perspective, it still looked like a mess.
"Does it?"
"Yes, but you have to see it from my angle."
Zhao Ya got up and stood behind Zui’Er, and indeed,
from that angle, the chaotic lines became clear and formed the shape of a mountain.
Zhao Ya felt delighted.
With this mountain as a marker, finding the Earth Cave would be much easier.
After all, there were only a few mountains outside the city, he could just search them one by one.
"Zui’Er, you truly are my treasure!" Zhao Ya couldn’t help but hug Zui’Er and kiss her hard.
Zui’Er blushed but felt happy to have helped Ya.
The next day, Nie Jingnian arrived early.
"So, have you found any clues?"
"Yes, I found some hints," Zhao Ya said.
Nie Jingnian’s eyes lit up, "I knew I picked the right person. Since we’ve found clues, let’s head out now."
"Alright."
Zhao Ya grabbed the necessary items and followed Nie Jingnian out of the commandery and into the forest.
With a general location, they soon arrived at the forest southwest of the commandery.
But upon arrival, all they found was endless forest, with not a hint of a mountain in sight.