Chapter 139: A Ring

“The Tri-Hall Society? Never heard of it.” Zhang Pu adopted an indifferent tone.

Even so, his contemptuous manner chilled the three criminals to the bone. This master clearly did not care about the Tri-Hall Society at all!

The Pockmarked Man thought to himself: With the bizarre and terrifying methods this master had displayed, even his own godfather was probably no match for him. Naturally, the man would not take the Tri-Hall Society seriously. And even if the Tri-Hall Society managed to find some powerful backer, this master probably had connections of his own. Judging from the situation, he was completely unafraid.

The Pockmarked Man gritted his teeth and suddenly slipped a ring from his finger.

“I’ll give you this as well. Will that do?”

“You’re crazy! That’s…” The Bald Man saw what he was doing, and his expression instantly changed as though he had seen something horrifying.

Zhang Pu’s interest was aroused at once. Earlier, he had sensed a faint, unusual fluctuation, but when he searched his surroundings, he had found no extraordinary person. Since there was no extraordinary person, then there had to be some extraordinary object nearby. He had never expected it to be on the Pockmarked Man—and he had somehow failed to notice the man’s fingers before. This ring was clearly no ordinary object.

As for the Bald Man’s reaction, the Pockmarked Man merely wore the expression of someone who regarded wealth as something external. His meaning was clear: staying alive mattered most. If he lost gold, silver, or other treasures today, he could always find a way to get them back tomorrow.

The Bald Man was actually afraid of the Pockmarked Man. Perhaps the Bald Man had originally been regarded as the leader of their trio. Yet after the three of them came together, perhaps because of the Pockmarked Man’s connection with the Tri-Hall Society, or perhaps because he was far better at handling trouble, the Pockmarked Man had gradually and imperceptibly become the true leader. In the end, almost every important decision was left to him.

The Burly Man might have called the Bald Man “Big Brother” earlier, but that was probably only an old habit he had yet to break.

The Pockmarked Man’s ring soon found its way into Zhang Pu’s hands.

At first glance, the ring looked extraordinarily ordinary—duller and plainer even than the gold and silver rings worn by common folk. Naturally, it was not one of those spatial rings from the cultivation world. Yet after examining it carefully, Zhang Pu was immediately able to determine, with his incomparably keen senses, that there was indeed something unusual about it.

He then asked the Pockmarked Man, “Tell me the most important thing you know about this ring.”

The Pockmarked Man answered honestly without the slightest hesitation. “I only vaguely know that it is connected to a great treasure. Other than that, I truly know nothing. I… we were never able to discover anything else about it.”

The Pockmarked Man was telling the absolute truth. As a clever man, he understood that if he continued to be dishonest in front of a master like Zhang Pu, he would simply be courting death.

And the Pockmarked Man was far too intelligent to seek his own destruction.

Zhang Pu was quite satisfied with his answer.

Suddenly, Zhang Pu waved his hand, signaling that the three men could leave.

At that moment, another thought crossed the Pockmarked Man’s mind: You were the one who forced me to reveal the secret of this ring in front of everyone. If word gets out, you will be the one inviting trouble. The ring is in your hands now, after all! The more trouble you encounter, the more advantageous it will be for us when we try to take it back later. Farewell, then. The green hills remain, and the clear waters flow on. We shall meet again!

And so Zhang Pu casually allowed the three criminals to depart. Some people were naturally dissatisfied, but all the things the criminals had stolen had been returned intact, and Zhang Pu was the one who had made that possible. No one dared say anything.

The driver started the bus and continued along the road.

By then, however, the atmosphere inside the vehicle was utterly different from what it had been before the robbery.

After sitting for a while, Zhang Pu simply closed his eyes and went to sleep. He paid no attention to the passengers secretly watching him with the curiosity of a group of apes. Even though their curiosity was mixed with worship, it still left him feeling helpless.

Nothing else happened on the bus.

In truth, even after closing his eyes, Zhang Pu continued thinking about the ring.

If the ring really was connected to a treasure, then today had truly been a lucrative day. Had he not been eager to make money lately? Ha ha!

The Pockmarked Man had certainly been willing to part with it. But after Zhang Pu had frightened him so thoroughly, anyone—and most people in general—would choose to stay alive. After all, what use was money if one no longer had a life?

Zhang Pu decided that once he returned to his hometown, he would spend some of his free time studying the ring.

With his thousand years of experience in the cultivation world, Zhang Pu was certain that the Pockmarked Man had not deceived him.

The ring was simply too mysterious. For ordinary mortals like the Pockmarked Man, even racking their brains would never help them find a way in. They could only stare at it helplessly, like a man gazing across the sea. Zhang Pu, however, was different. Once he used a few techniques from the cultivation world, unlocking the ring’s secrets should not prove difficult.

The bus reached its destination safely. It seemed that, under the protection of Zhang Pu—the living bodhisattva—no one else dared cause trouble.

As soon as they arrived at the terminal, Zhang Pu cheerfully waved goodbye and left. Like an immortal who had descended to the mortal realm, he soon vanished into the sea of people.

None of the passengers dared stop him. They did not even dare ask him to leave behind a business card. In Zhang Pu’s presence, they felt reduced to specks of dust.

After getting off the bus, Zhang Pu transferred to another rural passenger vehicle heading toward the mountain forest leased by his parents. Even that vehicle could not take him all the way to his destination, so after getting off, he still had to walk a stretch of country road through the hills.

Zhang Pu had not told his parents in advance that he would be arriving that day. He wanted to surprise them.

He was his parents’ only child. Because managing the leased mountain forest kept them extremely busy, they had spent a large sum of money and called in favors to send him to the prefectural city so that he could receive a good education.

Zhang Pu wondered how delighted—and incredulous—his parents would be when he returned and told them that he had ranked first in his entire class.

He knew that his parents had once hoped he would get into an agricultural university after the national entrance examinations, learn something useful, and return to help them transform their leased mountain forest into a veritable gold mine.

But when Zhang Pu thought of that now, he smiled calmly. Agricultural university held no attraction for him anymore. He had no interest even in the finest universities in the entire country.

And if his parents learned that he had become the seed of an immortal, who knew how astonished they would be, standing there with their mouths hanging open? They would never believe him.

For now, however, Zhang Pu had no intention of telling them.

After getting off the rural bus, he walked alone at an unhurried pace toward the mountain forest where his parents lived.

The mountains in the south were green in spring and green in summer. Even in autumn and winter, much of the mountainside remained a stretch of green.