A Pawn's Passage

Qi Xuansu did not know when he began to have faith in Madam Qi’s belief in the “conservation of luck.” What this meant was that one would encounter good luck after a streak of bad luck.

There was an old saying that good fortune lies within disaster, and disaster hides within good fortune.

Fortune and misfortune were interdependent.

Qi Xuansu believed in this due to his experience. For example, in the Yulan Temple, Monk Yan Xiu left him for dead under Wu Luo’s divine power. However, it was a blessing in disguise because this divine power activated the Xuan Jade of Life and elevated his cultivation. Thus, that was his stroke of luck.

He felt that his luck had not been great recently, so perhaps his fortune lay in these Mystery Jars.

After a moment of hesitation, Qi Xuansu said, “Alright, I’ll get one to test the waters.”

Su Yan reminded him. “The Mystery Jars are only sold within the Daoist Order, so there isn’t an internal discount. You can pick whichever you like for 500 Taiping coins each.”

Qi Xuansu had never done anything like this before. So he went up to the shelf and took a jar, first weighing it in his hand and tapping it with his fingers to listen for a sound, as if he were picking out a watermelon. He did this with several jars until he finally settled on a relatively inconspicuous jar.

These jars had probably been left in this corner for a long time because there was a layer of dust on the talisman paper.

When Qi Xuansu finally picked out the one, Su Yan said, “Just take off the talisman paper on the mouth of the jar.”

To be honest, she was also a little curious about what he would get from these Mystery Jars. After all, these jars had been piled here long before she became the superintendent of this branch. Since she became the superintendent, only five jars had been opened for fun by high-ranking Daoist priests. Without exception, they were all garbage.

Once, there was a vengeful ghost in one of these Mystery Jars that bared its teeth and claws as soon as it left the jar. Su Yan had to suppress it immediately.

There was another jar that contained a transporting talisman. The moment the Daoist priest opened the jar, this talisman teleported the person to the Sycamore Villa.

Another jar was maddening, as it was a nesting jar that had to be opened five times before revealing a questionable Blood Dragon Pill. The high-ranking Daoist priest who opened that jar did not care much and swallowed the colorful and irregular Blood Dragon Pill. As a result, his cultivation had improved. However, he was poisoned at the same time, causing half of his body to be paralyzed. In the end, he had to stay in Huasheng Hall for about half a month to recuperate.

Su Yan figured that the most valuable thing in these jars was the old version of a cash note worth 100 Taiping coins. Since the Mystery Jars had been in existence a long time ago, this cash note was no longer produced, so it became a collectible that could be sold for 200 Taiping coins, double its original value.

In fact, Huasheng Hall conducted a lot of research every year as the main successor to the innovation projects of the Daoist Order. These research projects bore many gains and losses. It was also inevitable for many useless or unusual things to be produced. Unlike Tianji Hall, where scraps could be recycled and smelted down in the furnace, Huasheng Hall’s products were mostly irreversible. Some were both dangerous and valuable, making them difficult to deal with.

Thus, a certain Huasheng Hall Master came up with the idea of these Mystery Jars. He put all these “scraps” into jars and threw in one or two items of value in the mix, attracting people who wanted to try their luck. This brilliant move relieved the pressure on the warehousing and financing issues that Huasheng Hall faced.

Of course, it was not a hoax that there was a treasure among these Mystery Jars. But whether one could get the treasure highly depended on one’s luck.

In the beginning, many people were indeed attracted by this new idea and bought these Mystery Jars. Huasheng Hall made a lot of money from them, so much so that each Huasheng Hall priest received an additional bonus.

It was all fun and games until one second-rank Taiyi Daoist Master decided to open nearly 100,000 Taiping coins worth of Mystery Jars in public. As a result, he got mostly garbage, and his 100,000 Taiping coins turned into 1,000 Taiping coins. The Sage even had to transfer out his residence in Taishang Place because he went bankrupt.

As such, this incident curbed the opening of these jars.

Later, another high-roller challenged the probability of a treasure being among these Mystery Jars. He spent 200,000 Taiping coins and gained three treasures. One of them was a top-grade treasure worth 50,000 Taiping coins. However, in total, the return on capital was only 80,000 Taiping coins, so he still sustained a huge loss of 120,000 Taiping coins.

Shortly after this incident, Fengxian Hall intervened in the investigation and arrested this high-roller. It turned out that the huge sum of 200,000 Taiping coins came from the misappropriation of funds from the Duzhi Hall.

Soon, the high-roller pleaded guilty and had all his property confiscated. Fengxian Hall went to Huasheng Hall to collect the stolen money, but the jars had already been opened, so Huasheng Hall was unwilling to provide a refund.

As such, the two halls filed a lawsuit against each other, which went all the way to the Golden Tower Council, but nothing came of it.

After this incident, the reputation of Mystery Jars went down the drain. Since then, the Mystery Jars were also dubbed the Stupid Jars.

With these precedents, whoever opened these Mystery Jars was indeed stupid. That was why these Mystery Jars had been piled up in a corner; no one wanted to buy them anymore. Their contents still remained a mystery.

There was a table in the warehouse not far away from the shelves. Qi Xuansu came to the table with his carefully selected Mystery Jar and placed it on the table. He slowly opened the talisman paper that sealed the mouth of the jar as if it were very fragile.

In an instant, the entire jar began to disintegrate, and a soft light began to spread from the inside out, illuminating their faces.

After a while, the light gradually dissipated.

At this time, there was an additional piece of clothing on the table—a woman’s dress.

The upper coat and lower skirt were mainly white. The collar was green, while the hem of the skirt and cuffs were adorned with delicate pleated light green ruffles, inspired by ancient embroidery.

Qi Xuansu did not know whether he should laugh or cry. After a long time, he muttered, “Does Huasheng Hall also provide tailoring services now?”

Su Yan stifled a laugh and coughed lightly. “No, Huasheng Hall does not provide tailoring services. But when designing clothing-related treasures or armor, tailoring skills are involved. This dress may be a practice piece. The craftsmanship is quite decent.”

Qi Xuansu was still in denial. “Since it’s a practice piece, is it a spiritual object?”

Su Yan took a closer look at the women’s dress. “The practice I’m referring to is tailoring practice, not the practice of making treasures.”

Qi Xuansu’s face turned stiff. “In other words, this is just an ordinary dress?!”

Although the Mystery Jar was dubbed the Stupid Jar among the elders of the Daoist Order, its mysterious contents still appealed to young people.

Su Yan also felt a little embarrassed, so she consoled him. “It’s certainly not ordinary. This is excellent material. At the very least, you won’t face quality issues. I can also guarantee that there are no second-hand items in these jars. Everything is brand new!”

Qi Xuansu laughed in exasperation. “Brand-new ordinary clothes.”

Su Yan kept quiet.

Qi Xuansu took a deep breath and comforted himself. I guess this can be a gift for Zhang Yuelu. After all, she gave me a cloak last year, but I didn’t get her anything in return. This will make up for it. Even though it is expensive at 500 Taiping coins, this dress is quite nice. It’ll definitely look good on her too.

With such thoughts, Qi Xuansu finally managed to calm down.

However, he regretted his decision.

That was 500 Taiping coins!

He could have used that money to buy a few pieces of decent furniture for his home in Jade Capital.

Qi Xuansu looked back at the pile of Mystery Jars, his mind still occupied with the idea of “​​conservation of luck.”

He thought to himself, If I have bad luck this time, surely good luck will follow, right? Won’t I be missing out on my fortune if I just give up now? Then that will truly be like losing 500 Taiping coins in vain! Well...I still have another 500 Taiping coins to barter.

Once again, Qi Xuansu fell into another dilemma. Should I try to make up for my losses? If I give it another go and succeed, I may be able to get my money’s worth! If I get really lucky, I may even make a small profit. If I give up now, I will lose 500 Taiping coins, but I can stop my losses in time.

Two voices were at war in his head.

—Be logical and walk away!

—Remember the conservation of luck; you might get lucky the next time!

After a moment of deliberation, Qi Xuansu made up his mind. “I’ll take one more.”

Su Yan was not surprised by this. She just smirked. “Good luck...”