(Brendan POV)
I returned back to the Sect with Liehui, happy with our haul this trip.
"I apologise for not being of much help, Master Brendan," Liehui bowed her head.
"No need to worry, you're still new to field work after all."
She raised her head again to say something, but stopped herself and narrowed her eyes.
"Is that… Master?"
I turned to where she was looking and indeed, Master was standing at the gates of Heaven Sect.
Strange, shouldn't Master be in His courtyard training my senior sisters right now? What is He doing out here?
"Master?" I called out once we were in earshot.
Master looked up at me and smiled, "Oh, welcome back Brendan, Liehui. How did your herb collection go?"
"It went well, Master. Erm… What is Master doing out here?"
"Hmmm? Oh, some people came along to ask for directions, so I came out to guide them."
I blinked, "Couldn't they have asked for directions at the village instead?"
Master shrugged, "They asked for the way to Death Mountain Pass, maybe they don't trust the villagers or something. Not sure what they want so I sent them there."
Hmm… Something feels weird but I can't put my finger on it.
"Anyway, let's go back shall we? What did you two manage to get?" Master suggested.
"It's nothing much, just some Mana Grass, a few Herbal Ginseng, a handful of Astral Mushrooms, a few Phoenix Embers, a couple of Dragon Essences, several Flowers of Life and a bottle of Divine Water."
Master stared at me for a minute.
"Did I hear that right?"
I scratched my head, "Ah… Did I take something I'm not supposed to, Master?"
Master raised up his hand, "No, no, no. Did I just hear you say… Phoenix Embers, Dragon Essences, Flowers of Life and even Divine Water? You know, those supposedly extremely rare and expensive materials that you might not see in your lifetime?"
"Err… Yes, Master. Is there something wrong?"
"How… Where did you find them?"
I pointed to the forest below, "In that forest at the foot of our mountain, Master. They're growing quite abundantly even if I do say so myself."
"Those extremely rare and expensive materials… Are just growing abundantly at the foot of our mountain?" Master asked.
I nodded slowly.
"Show what you got to me," Master ordered curtly.
I brought out the afore-mentioned materials from my storage ring, laying them out in front of Master.
Master inspected all of them carefully, picking up each one to look at for a few seconds before placing them back down.
"This… Shouldn't be possible… Why are such rare materials growing there?"
I blinked, "It's natural, isn't it? Master is here so your aura would cause such things to grow naturally."
Liehui nodded beside me, "Master's aura is quite special, it is obvious that such things would grow around Master's home eventually."
Master scratched His chin, "If such things are growing just at our doorstep… I'm surprised this place isn't filled with alchemists and Practitioners trying to get their hands on them…"
I chuckled, "I think it's because this happened recently. I was only there for Mana Grass when I found all these growing alongside it. The forest just so happens to be behind Master's courtyard so it's quite obvious why this started happening."
"I… I see… Hmm… Ah, I understand now. With all the girls and you constantly releasing Quarks, some of it must have leaked out to the forest below and caused that growth. Mmm, mmm… That makes sense."
No, Master… That is completely not possible…
The fact that the entire Sect full of Practitioners did not cause this phenomenon anywhere else but only you managed to achieve this shows that Master was the root cause of it.
Oh, maybe Master is purposely saying that to hint me at directing the attention away from Him?
That would make more sense since it would be troublesome if other Sects started pestering Master to make such herbs grow near their Sects.
I apologise for my thoughtless words, Master.
He picked up the bottle of Divine Water, "But still… Divine Water… These things are full of both Yin and Yang energies and provide significant cultivation boost to any Practitioners who know how to use them… I never thought this would appear here as well. Isn't there only one known source so far and it's guarded quite jealously by the Eternal Life Sect?"
I nodded, "That is correct Master. It's a small fountain at the top of their Sect's mountain and they're currently the only suppliers for it. They would only put five vials of it up for sale at the Jin City's auction every three months and each of them can go up to a few hundred gold."
"And we have one such fountain of our own down there?"
I smiled, "We have an entire lake, Master."
"What? How?"
I scratched my head, "Well… If I had to guess… You know… When Master and senior sisters copulate… Your Yin and Yang energies do mix together and get released… With Master here, the energy is even more potent and I guess the lake in the forest absorbed it all…"
"Huh… I never knew that… Could you show me where it is?"
"Of course, this way, Master."
I stored all the herbs back into my storage ring and told Liehui to wait back in the alchemy room for me.
Master then followed me back into the forest where I led him to where I found the lake.
Along the way, we also passed by quite a number of the plants that I had gathered, including an entire ring of Phoenix Embers.
Master was making a complicated face at the sight of all these supposedly rare herbs.
Soon enough, we came to the edge of a clearing where the lake was located.
The lake itself was glowing slightly, a clear indication of it being Divine Water.
Master went up to it and knelt down at the edge, dipping his finger into it before bringing it up to his lips to taste.
"What the hell, it really is Divine Water… I never knew a pool like this could be created simply through Dual Cultivation…"
There's no way it's that simple Master, or else the Copulation Sect that focuses on dual Cultivation would have one of their own. It's definitely all because of Master.
Er… Right, Master wants to keep the fact that he's the cause of this a secret.
I guess we can always say that this was just a naturally formed lake of it?
Nah, that's not possible, it'll be obvious to anyone that it's because of Master that this place even exists. I guess the best way is still to hide it. I'll need to talk to my senior sisters about having people guard this forest from outsiders…
Master suddenly stood up and grinned at me, "Hey… Isn't this basically a gold mine?"
I blinked at Master, "I… I suppose?"
Master rubbed His palms together, "Hehehe… This gives me a great idea. Wanna make some big money, Brendan?"
Something tells me that Master's idea is going to be causing a lot of big things to happen…