Chu Hao and Chu Tian
Qi Meng cultivated diligently everyday. No matter how ardous this task is, he had never considered doing any shortcut. Only with perseverance can he reach the apex without any mishaps.
Meanwhile, one day, outside the Qi Clan's Palace, there was a carriage pulled by 2 horses, which was adorned by golden markings and earthly beasts graven image at each side. In front was an old driver and inside the carriage was an old man and a middle age man. The palace gates opened and the carriage went in.
"Greetings! Sect Master Qi and Elders." The 2 men folded their fists together as they smile in front of the Qi Clan's elders and sect master.
The Qi clan's representatives smiled back and returned the gesture. "Greetings Sect Master Chu Hao and Elder Chu Tian. Please come in."
At the hall, everybody is sitting around a table drinking wine and eating some delicacies.
Sect Master Qi cheerfully said, "It is our honour to have both of Chu clan's respected sect master and elder. Please enjoy yourselves."
"You flatter us too much Sect Master Qi. Thank you for your generosity and warm welcome. It is our good fortune to be here with Qi Clan's respected sect master and elders." Sect Master Chu Hao nodded and cheerfully replied.
The Chu sect master continued to say, "We are here today to congratulate Sect Master Qi on having your first child and also the Qi Clan for having your prime disciple. Please accept our simple congratulatory gift."
The Chu sect master stretched both his hands as he offer a box decorated with golden runes. Elder Chu also cheerfully smiled.
The Qi sect master bowed as gesture of thanks and said smilingly, "Thank you."
A moment later, Elder Chu opened his mouth and say, "Aside from sending our congratulations, we are also here for another reason as mentioned in our letter of visit."
Everyone from the Qi Clan was serious this time and the Qi sect master said, "We sincerely understand your predicament. But at this moment, honestly speaking, there is not much we can do to aid you in your request. We hope that the Chu Clan understands our clan's situation and give us more time to prepare before giving our final answer."
"We also have not much time left. The other party keeps putting pressure on our clan and we had no choice but to respond to them in one month's time. We hope that the Qi Clan does not blame us for this when the time comes." Sect Master Chu responded in a sad and awkward manner.
"Our clans had known each other for a long time and been through many struggles in the past. We believe that there is still hope for this matter. We shall give you our answer before the deadline." Sect Master Qi cupped his fists together slightly bowed as he promised. The Qi Clan's elders nodded in agreement with their sect master.
"Alright! We won't be staying any longer as we needed to report back to our ancestors as soon as possible. Thank you for your hospitality. If you have the time, please come and visit us. We would be glad and flattered to play as the host at that time." Sect Master Chu also cupped his fists as he bowed slightly and then left together with Elder Chu.
The Qi Clan's representatives walked them out and looked out as the carriage drove away. They sighed and went back inside.
"What are the ancestor's opinion about this elders?" The sect master asked.
"Well, in their point of view, it is the best if we could still fulfill the pact made by both of our clan's progenitors. It is a lifelong pact between our two clans that needs to be fulfilled in every generation."
The prime elder responded gently and continued to say, "If we could only get that item or an item with equivalent strength and value so that we can fend those third party bastards off."
The prime elder said in a furious manner. The rest sighed as they heard of this.
The sect master went back to their courtyard after the meeting was over. He brought out the box gifted by the Chu Clan from his storage ring and handed over to his wife.
"What is inside of this box?" Qi Zi curiously asked.
"I haven't seen it, it was gifted by them and was not appropriate to check it due to the situation. Open it." Qi Yu replied.
Qi Zi opened the box with care and there was a fragrant smell coming out from it.
"Is this a thousand year old herb ginseng?" Qi Zi was surprised. They also have this type of medicinal herb but due to its scarcity and the clan's decline, there was only one left and is currently placed in the clan's treasury vault.
"Well, it is indeed a thousand year old ginseng herb. The Chu Clan has really thought it through. This will be helpful to Meng'er during his coming of age ceremony." Qi Yu smiled lightly and sighed as well thinking about the dormant issue they need to face.
Qi Zi comforted by hugging him with an arm while the other carrying the innocent looking Qi Meng.
"If only they could settle for emperor grade treasures, it will not be an issue as we still have a bunch of them. But earthly treasures you say, uggh..., at this time it is indeed really precious to our clan."
Qi Yu sighed again and again as he spoke.
During the ancient past, the Chu clan and the Qi clan had no lack of earthly treasures. But after their progenitors were both killed at the Great War, both clans started to decline and lost mostly of their treasures. The Chu clan was not doing better than the Qi clan.
At the least, the Qi clan still had their last single earthly treasure kept in their treasury vault. Unless called for the situation, they won't trade it or even touch it. This earthly sword dao treasure is the only thing left from all the earhtly treasures they inherited from their progenitor. Of course, the Chu Clan does not know about how many earthly treasures the Qi Clan actually have.
As for the Chu clan, if not for one of their direct disciple being insensibly arrogant and acting stupid while outside of the clan, they won't be needing for an earthly treasure at the moment. However, given the circumstances, they cannot do anything as the other party offended by their direct disciple is already at their door front demanding for an earthly treasure as compensation.
Otherwise, the clan shall be forced to marry off their prime female descendant to the other party and consider the earthly treasure as the other party's dowry when the time comes. If the other party was just any ordinary clan, it would not be a problem for them to retaliate.
However, the other party is not that simple. They belonged to a major sect called Immortal Sect and a lineage with two Immortals at that. Although Immortals are rumored to have transcended to the Immortal Plane and had left the mortal plane forever after their ascension, mortal clans like theirs would still not have the courage to go against this Immortal Sect due to the sect's inheritance.
How can they fend off such a monstrous sect? So their only way out is to request the aid from their lifelong friend Qi Clan an earthly treasure and shamefully asked it as the dowry instead for the future marriage of their prime descendants.
The Chu Clan knows that the Immortal Sect is doing this on purpose as everybody knows that the declining clan does not have a single earthly treasure at this instance. But in the end, what are they supposed to do? Go against this monstrous sect and invite them to wantonly destroy their clan? No clan would allow such a tragedy to befall them just because of a single earthly treasure.
Treasures are classified as follows: Mortal Grade, Saint Grade, Emperor Grade, Earthly Treasure, Immortal Treasure, Heavenly Treasure. Each treasure quality are sub-classified into 3 tiers namely: lower tier, middle tier and top tier.
Apart from these treasures, there is one type of treasure that only appears once in each and every era, this treasure is called the legendary treasure. Nobody knows what it is and where it came from. It is only acquired by the fated one. And the odd thing is that, it can only be utilized once and would return to its birth place immediately after usage and would only descend to this world again in the next era.