Chương 105: The Golden Bone Fruit

The unnamed mountain, the Black Iron Stronghold headquarters. In a room midway up the mountain, Nie Feng continued reporting to Song Que.

"Young Master, there is one more thing. This place actually sits atop an iron mine, and both the reserves and the quality are highly impressive! Many of the non-combatant personnel in the stronghold are skilled in forging weapons!"

"Xu Shicai himself was also a master blacksmith! Their Black Iron Stronghold can actually forge weapons independently and sell them to the various factions around Eagle's Sorrow Ravine!" Hearing this, Grandee Song was suddenly enlightened! No wonder these bandits were so rich! So this was their path to wealth! Old Xu was truly a talent! He deeply understood the principle of 'not putting all your eggs in one basket', expanding his business on all sides, keeping his hands in both the black and white markets!

How convenient for me! Old Xu was such a good guy!

"Old Nie, quickly select a new group of leaders to help with management. The stronghold's operations must continue as usual. You can appropriately increase their benefits. Try your best to prevent the news from leaking and attracting the covetous eyes of others."

"Understood, Young Master."

"Old Nie, I have a very important task to entrust to you." Carefully observing their surroundings to ensure no third person was present, Grandee Song finally lowered his voice and spoke solemnly.

"Please speak, Young Master." Seeing his serious demeanor and knowing it was important, Nie Feng instantly put on a serious face.

"I need you to carefully guard a certain place! This place is directly related to whether or not we can quickly achieve your revenge! You must be extremely careful!" Mentioning his revenge, Old Nie's eyes lit up, and he solemnly swore:"Young Master, please trust me! I will use my life to protect this secret!" Looking deeply at Old Nie, Song Que nodded:"Follow me." If you suspect someone, don't use them; if you use them, don't suspect them!

Having interacted with him over the past few days, Song Que felt quite at ease with this former Young Master Chen; he was someone who could be trusted. Moreover, he wasn't completely washing his hands of the matter. For something this important, he naturally had additional supervisory measures in place! Grandee Song was confident Old Nie wouldn't disappoint him.

Following the trail winding around to the back of the mountain and carefully observing their surroundings, Song Que finally led Nie Feng inside, replicating Xu Shicai's method.

"Young Master, this is...!" Seeing the object inside the cave, Nie Feng couldn't believe his eyes and blurted out.

"Hehe, that's right! It is the Golden Bone Fruit! Furthermore, there are three of them—just enough for the three of us!" Thinking of how his Young Master had expended an unknown amount of miraculous panaceas and immense effort to heal him, and now, even with such a treasure, there was still a share for him, Old Nie couldn't hold back his tears! He suddenly fell to his knees!

"Young Master's kindness to me is as heavy as a mountain! I, Nie Feng, swear to be loyal to you unto death, for generation after generation! If I violate this oath, may I be struck by heavenly lightning, my soul scattered, and never reincarnated for all eternity!" Seeing Nie Feng suddenly kneel, Song Que was also startled. Old Nie is far too emotional! Grandee Song only laid out a few basic moves, and he's already moved to tears like this! Song Que hurriedly helped him up.

"Old Nie, there's no need for this. Since I brought you here, it naturally means I trust you completely! From now on, guarding this place will depend entirely on you!"

"Young Master, anyone who wishes to approach this place will have to step over my dead body! I, Nie Feng, pledge my life on this!" In this situation, actions spoke louder than words. Song Que patted his shoulder to express his trust. Once his excitement passed, Nie Feng thought carefully and asked solemnly:"Young Master, this item has been here for a long time. I don't know who else might know about it. Do you think we should perhaps... deal with... the people in the Black Iron Stronghold?"

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. If it had been in the past, Nie Feng would never have entertained such thoughts! But people change, especially someone like him who had experienced consecutive massive tragedies. Right now, his mind was filled with nothing but revenge and serving Song Que. His former moral boundaries had been pushed far behind him. Grandee Song had pondered the issue of secrecy for quite some time.

Given how meticulously careful Old Xu was in his actions, it was highly unlikely a third party knew of this secret. But to ensure absolute safety, backup measures were still necessary. Thinking this, Song Que spoke:"There is no need for that. It's unlikely anyone else knows about it. But just in case, you need to be much more careful in the coming days, Old Nie." Nie Feng wasn't inherently a bloodthirsty person. Saying those words had caused him quite a bit of internal struggle!

Now that the Young Master didn't deem it necessary, he also breathed a sigh of relief and immediately patted his chest to guarantee:"Rest assured, Young Master, I will use..." How many times had he said those words already?! Song Que laughed out loud and patted his shoulder, signifying his trust.

"No need to be so tense! I'll leave Xiong Ba here to help you for these few days. Also..." Song Que said this, waving toward the cave entrance. Immediately, a sparrow the size of a fist flew in. He placed the sparrow on the Golden Bone Tree and said:"It's called the Mountain Sparrow. Much of the intelligence regarding the Black Iron Stronghold was provided to me by it! From now until the fruit ripens, it will stay here and stand guard. Do not disturb it."

If anyone else had said this, Nie Feng probably would have slapped them! A sparrow told you?! Why don't you say the wind told you?! But regarding his Young Master, his trust was one hundred percent! Since the Young Master said so, then it was the truth! Furthermore, he had personally witnessed Grandee Song's ability to communicate with beasts; while this was a bit fantastical, it wasn't entirely impossible!

"Rest assured, Young Master, I will take good care of it!"

"There's no need to take care of it; it will find its own food. You don't need to manage it. Just pretend it doesn't exist."

"Also, don't come here too frequently, to avoid accidentally exposing it. The Mountain Sparrow will guard this place. If there is any unusual activity at the cave entrance, it will fly back to inform you."

"Understood, Young Master." Regarding Grandee Song's profound schemes, Nie Feng was completely filled with admiration and raised no objections. The two admired the Golden Bone Fruits for a while before quickly leaving. In the quiet, dark cave, only the solitary Mountain Sparrow remained, perched silently on a branch. Leaving the Mountain Sparrow wasn't solely for surveillance! The calculating 'Song Liang' (Zhuge Liang) knew that nothing could be taken as absolute certainty!

What if Old Xu had shared this secret with someone else?! That would be troublesome! Thinking it over, according to Old Xu, this tree still had half a year before it matured! Even if a third person knew, they would likely wait until the exact time to come, perhaps a month or two early at most! After all, before it ripened, the Golden Bone Fruit was no different from a lump of iron; eating it would have no effect!

Therefore, to prepare for this scenario, Grandee Song had no other choice but to accelerate the fruit's maturation! For others, this was impossible! But for Old Song, who possessed the Tesseract, it was as easy as flipping his hand! In his garden by Mirror Lake, plants infused with energy grew like bamboo shoots after a spring rain! Song Que already clearly understood the effects! He just didn't know how much he could shorten the maturation time of the Golden Bone Fruit.

Staying at the Black Iron Stronghold and discussing matters with Old Nie for a long time, it wasn't until dawn was approaching that Grandee Song bid the two farewell and returned alone.... After disguising himself, dodging and weaving along the way, Grandee Song stealthily returned home just shortly after Aunt Li opened her stall.

"Big Brother, you're back! Where's Xiong Ba? Is everything alright?" Having been reprimanded by Song Que previously, Li Xin also felt a sense of crisis. Afraid of being abandoned, he resolved to turn over a new leaf and act right! See? Without anyone supervising him early in the morning, he had gotten up to practice martial arts on his own! Noticing his Big Brother's return, he hurriedly ran over to ask.

"Mm. Good effort, not bad! Go fetch me some breakfast first; we can talk later."

"Wukong, brew me a pot of tea." Seeing that Grandee Song was in a good mood, Li Xin let his heart settle back into his stomach and hurriedly ran to the front gate to prepare a plate of pork offal for him. Becoming wealthy overnight, with over 10, 000 taels of silver stashed in his Storage Space, Song Que felt absolutely no fatigue! He sat leisurely in the courtyard, eating pork offal with Li Xin and sipping wine. Hearing the commotion in the backyard, Zhong Hong rushed over.

Seeing the two in this state, he laughed loudly, unceremoniously sat down, poured himself a cup of wine, and downed it in one gulp!

"That wakes a person up! A'Que, did the matter last night succeed?" Looking at their eager faces, Grandee Song didn't stall any longer. He smiled and recounted the story from beginning to end, naturally omitting any mention of the Golden Bone Fruit for now.

"... From now on, there is no more Black Iron Stronghold! Everyone can work with peace of mind. Furthermore, the harvest from this trip was quite good! We brought in over 20, 000 taels of silver! We don't have to worry about money for the time being!" Hearing his words, the other two were overjoyed and couldn't help but raise their cups together in celebration!

"Brother Hong, on my way back, I noticed a rather nice manor about ten miles northwest of the West Gate. Go find out who owns it. If possible, we can offer a premium to buy it."

"Right now, Nie Feng and Xiong Ba are temporarily controlling the Black Iron Stronghold, and that location isn't far from them. Living there will make it convenient for me to reinforce them if needed."

"No problem! I'll go find out later," Zhong Hong patted his chest and guaranteed.

"That manor looked quite large; its owner must be someone of status, so it shouldn't be too hard to find. Go ask Old Quan about it later and try to wrap this up quickly! If not, we'll immediately find a place to build our own manor!" Song Que added.

"Mm, understood."

"Have there been any developments on the other matters?" Asked about this, Brother Hong pondered:"The location for Aunt Li's branch stall has been selected, and renovations are beginning. If we have enough staff, it can open next week! Pockmark La and the other three are currently learning how to cook from Aunt Li. I believe they'll have no problem managing the branches when the time comes."

"As for the other matter, there's only a bit of progress so far. How about this: I'll go find Quan Wu for drinks later, and I can conveniently ask him about this as well."

"Alright, Brother Hong, use your discretion. Just let me know the results." Having work to do, the three didn't dally. Finishing breakfast quickly, Old Zhong took some silver and headed out. Song Que instructed Li Xin for a while before returning to his room to begin his cultivation.