"Twenty portions of rare ten-thousand-year spirit materials?"
Yao Ranran froze. Had she heard that right?
Ye Yuze's eyes glimmered with pride. "That's correct, twenty portions of the rarest ten-thousand-year spirit materials in this world!"
"Are you out of your mind, offering my Master only twenty portions of ten-thousand-year spirit materials?"
Nie Rong snapped out of his shock. Yuchi Hai was dead beyond saving, yet this so-called Ye family Ancestor only offered Fairy Yao twenty portions?
Ye Yuze was briefly taken aback. Why was this man's voice so loud? For them to get so excited over a mere twenty portions of spirit material, weren't they clearly just pauper loose cultivators?
"Hahaha, this old man is Ye Yuze, Ancestor of the Ye family. Since I have promised twenty portions, I will certainly deliver them!"
"Bah, Master, I say we just kill this brat Ye Nantian right here and now!"
Nie Rong immediately drew his sharp sword and suspended it above Ye Nantian's head.
Ye Nantian, already reeling from disbelief, was utterly stunned. He stared in horror as the sword was about to hack down toward his neck. Ye Yuze's face darkened instantly.
"Fellow Daoyou, stay your hand! If twenty portions of spirit materials do not satisfy, this old man is willing to add ten fifth-tier spirit treasures!"
Nie Rong's sword paused, and he turned back to ask, "Master, are fifth-tier spirit treasures acceptable?"
Yao Ranran shook her head. Why was he offering her such worthless trinkets?
She couldn't even be bothered to resell them!
"No need, even those above fifth-tier are of no use to me."
After her overnight fortune in Qingshui, her blacksmith shop could continue its upgrades. Common treasures no longer moved her heart.
Seeing Nie Rong halt, Ye Yuze thought he had succeeded in appeasing them. Inwardly, he lamented that loose cultivators these days were harder to fool than in the past, always looking for an opportunity to extort more!
"G–Grandfather…" Ye Nantian's mind cleared somewhat amidst their conversation.
He stammered out the word.
Ye Yuze lightly patted his head. "Do not worry, grandson, as long as grandfather is here, all will be well."
Ye Nantian felt the warmth on his head. But after this moment, perhaps in this lifetime, he would never again feel his grandfather's love…
Nie Rong's eyes widened in surprise. "Above fifth-tier treasures are useless… could it be that Master…"
Before he could finish, Yao Ranran already understood.
She nodded, confirming his thought.
Nie Rong drew in a sharp breath. Among refiners who could forge beyond fifth-tier spirit treasures, he had seen only three in his lifetime, and each one was a decrepit elder with dwindling lifespan!
Zhou Lili and Meng Xiangxiang, standing at the side, also overheard.
The two exchanged glances, their eyes overflowing with admiration.
Ye Yuze, unaware of what they were thinking, smiled. "Fairy, take your time to consider. If you can safely escort my grandson back to the Ye family, my clan will be willing to worship and honor you for a thousand years, until your ascension to the Spirit Realm!"
Zhou Lili's eyes immediately turned wary. Yet another one trying to cling to Fairy Yao's thigh!
Bringing his whole family along too—did he even deserve that?
Ye Yuze, oblivious to their contempt, radiated faint arrogance.
Once Ye Nantian escorted this supreme spirit vein back to the Ye clan, their power would surpass both the Yuchi and Xing families!
Nie Rong, however, had no interest in such chatter. With one motion of his sword, he hooked Ye Nantian's collar and sneered. "Ye family brat, your grandfather's offers don't matter. When will you hand over the half of your clan's treasure stores that you promised?"
Ye Nantian's lips trembled. He dared not meet Ye Yuze's gaze, his eyes shifting as he quickly covered his words. "First return the supreme spirit vein to the Ye family, then I will naturally have men deliver what I promised you."
"Fairy Ranran, this one intends to renege on his debt!" Zhou Lili whispered, having seen Ye Nantian's guilt and fear plain as day.
Yao Ranran also caught the dodge in his words.
"Promised treasures? My grandson is a grateful and dutiful child. Just follow his words, escort him and the spirit vein back to the Ye family," Ye Yuze said.
He had no issue with Ye Nantian's promise. For such great clans, generosity and knowing how to conduct oneself were considered true abilities.
In fact, he was pleased with Ye Nantian's actions. This young woman was extraordinary. To kill Yuchi Hai in one strike meant her cultivation was likely nearing Divine Transformation. Such talent, he would gladly pull into the Ye family's power.
"Grandson, what treasures have you promised them? Grandfather will summon the elders to prepare them for your return!"
"Excellent! Ye family brat, hurry and tell your grandfather, or else your whole clan will be finished!" Nie Rong urged, finally hearing what he wanted.
Ye Nantian lifted his head with difficulty. Ye Yuze was looking at him with a face full of benevolence.
"Grandfather… I… I…"
"Hm? Nantian, just speak. Do you think the treasures are too precious? Do you think grandfather would refuse?"
Ye Yuze chuckled indulgently and reached to ruffle his head, his tone gentle. "No matter. As long as you bring the supreme spirit vein back, you will be the next clan head of the Ye family. Everything in the clan will be under your control. Whatever you have promised, no matter how precious, is only right."
"Grandfather…" Ye Nantian's eyes reddened, mist gathering in their corners.
Only now did he realize how highly his grandfather valued him. So long as he returned with the supreme spirit vein, even if half the clan's treasure trove was lost, the Ye family would one day rise again.
Why had he worried?
Under Ye Yuze's encouraging gaze, Ye Nantian gathered his courage.
"Grandfather, believe in me. I will definitely make the Ye family flourish!"
"Yes, grandfather of course believes in you." Ye Yuze gently ruffled his hair. His child had grown so much.
Ye Nantian was deeply moved. But before he could voice more gratitude, Nie Rong's drawn sword pressed to his neck.
"Enough with the sappy nonsense. My Master is getting impatient!"
Ye Nantian glanced at the faintly impatient Yao Ranran and swallowed back his words.
"Grandfather…"
"Mm, good grandson," Ye Yuze said with a beaming smile.
Ye Nantian gathered his courage and declared in one breath: "Grandfather, I promised this Fairy half of the Ye family's entire treasury of spirit materials. I swore upon the lives of our entire clan to form a Heaven and Earth Contract!
If you wish to prepare the spirit materials ahead of time, please summon all the clan elders to deliberate, for I fear they may refuse to fulfill my vow!"
Ye Yuze: "…"
"Grandfather…?" Ye Nantian asked carefully.
Ye Yuze's smile vanished from his face.
Ye Nantian grimaced in pain, struggling as he clawed at the air. "Grandfather, it hurts! Your hand is crushing my head!"
Ye Yuze's expression shifted unpredictably, in the next instant dark as still water.
"Perhaps this old man should have crushed your skull the very moment you were born!"
===
Hey guys, just a quick heads-up about my recent activity. I've actually been caught up in a totally different project—fonts. Yeah, fonts.
So, on my Android phone I've been using Droid Sans since like ever. I used to be on Roboto back in my college days (around 2017/2018 when I got my first phone), but somewhere around then I switched over and just never looked back. Even when I change phones, I always reinstall Droid Sans because I've gotten way too comfortable with it.
Recently, I suddenly thought: "What if I make this my default system font on my laptop too?" Sounds simple, right? Well… nope. The font is smaller than the default, which meant I had to spend two whole days adjusting things—editing CSS through Stylus so websites like YouTube, ChatGPT, Claude, and Deepseek, etc, don't look microscopic, plus tweaking buttons, menus, and other elements. Windows Explorer was easy (thanks to Advanced System Font Changer), but websites were another story.
On top of that, Droid Sans doesn't support certain characters out of the box—no Hanzi, no Katakana, no Hangul. And don't get me started on Pinyin diacritics, which looked totally messed up since some glyphs were pulled straight from Calibri and slapped on without adjustments. The result? Absolute chaos.
I've been patching it together by pairing Droid Sans with Microsoft JhengHei for Hanzi, which looks way better now. But the real headache is editing and building the Pinyin glyphs manually so they actually match the font style. As I'm writing this (Sept 18 at night), I'm still knee-deep in glyph editing. My brain is fried, and all I can think about is fonts instead of translations.
Hopefully, I'll finish all this by tomorrow and get back to translating. If not… it'll mean I've gone four days without translate anything, which feels super long to me. Normally that's enough time to crank out a bunch of chapters, so yeah, I'm kinda anxious about it.
Anyway, I think I'll share some screenshots of the "disaster phase" (my cursed ChatGPT/Claude/Deepseek screens) and the CSS edits I made on the comment section. Wish me luck—I really love this font, but wow, it's been a ride.