Chapter 107: Junior Brother Xu Qing, Are You Around?
In the office, the Mute trembled while the Captain looked on curiously.
Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t say anything. However, what he did notice was that the Mute seemed to be looking with terror at his shadow.
As Xu Qing stared at him, the Mute trembled, clenching his fists tightly as beads of sweat popped out all over him. And popping sounds could be heard from his legs, as his muscles and bones grated against each other. It seemed like, on an instinctual level, he was ready for a deadly battle. As the moments ticked by, it seemed like he was undergoing unimaginable torment.
Eventually, Xu Qing looked away, clasped hands respectfully to the Captain, and then turned to leave.
As he walked toward the door, the Mute’s terror seemed to grow, yet he didn’t dare to back up. It was similar to how Xu Qing acted in the forbidden regions when he encountered a grue. As Xu Qing passed, the Mute’s terror reached a fever pitch. His mind screamed at him, and spittle appeared at the corners of his mouth. He was literally shaking.
Xu Qing frowned. He wasn’t unleashing any pressure or revealing any killing intent. After looking deeply at the young man one more time, he walked out of the room.
After Xu Qing was gone, the Mute’s terror finally subsided. He stopped trembling, and his facial expression returned to normal, leaving behind only a few traces of lingering fear. Clearly, he didn’t dare to look over his shoulder at Xu Qing.
Seeing all this, the Captain’s eyes glittered with curiosity. Munching an apple, he walked over to the Mute, circled around him a few times, then handed him an apple.
“You know him?”
The Mute shook his head.
“You don’t know him. Then why are you so afraid of him?”
The Mute had been in the Violent Crimes Division for about half a month. Similar to Xu Qing early on, he had killed a lot of criminals from the bounty list. He was like a wild dog, incredibly vicious, a person who looked at everyone with hostility and caution. In fact, this was the first time the Captain had ever seen him look so afraid.
The Mute heard the Captain’s question, but he kept his mouth shut.
However, that only got the Captain more interested in finding out the explanation for all this. Seemingly forgetting about the apple he was eating, his eyes glittered as he suddenly unleashed a shocking murderous aura.
As it spread out, it locked down on the Mute.
Upon sensing it, the Mute tensed. He turned a bit pale, and even trembled. However... there was no terror in his eyes, only an unbending strength. The Captain retracted his killing intent and sighed.
“If you tell me why you’re so scared of him, I’ll go talk to the director and have him promote you early. How about that?”
The Mute didn’t say a single word.
“Right, I forgot you can’t talk. How about you write it down?”
The Mute looked at him with a determined expression and shook his head. It seemed he would prefer dying to answering the Captain’s question. At that point, the Captain gave up. Waving the Mute away, he squatted back onto his chair and started eating his apple again.
***
A short distance away from the Violent Crimes Division, Xu Qing looked over his shoulder in the direction of the Celestial Bureau, then glanced down at his shadow. There was no question about it; the mute young man had been afraid of his shadow.
Could he sense it? His eyes turned cold.
Looking away from his shadow, he thought about what the Captain had said about owing him spirit stones. Xu Qing took out his bamboo slip, found the Captain’s name, and scratched out the question mark behind it.
He had already scratched out Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior, as well as the young merman. The innkeeper was still there. As for the Captain, he had a few scratched-out and crossed-off question marks after his name. Xu Qing looked at them, then went to Third Highness’ name and added a question mark.
Finally, he put the bamboo slip away and headed toward a medicine shop.
He didn’t go to the shop he usually frequented. Instead, he went to a much larger shop that he knew sold Foundation Establishment Pills. The prices were outrageous. Xu Qing was quite wealthy now, but even he sighed in disappointment when he saw how expensive they were.
100,000 spirit stones...?
He quietly walked back to his berth.
Although his cultivation base and battle prowess had reached a shocking level, he was as cautious as ever. Before taking out his dharmaboat, he inspected the entire area carefully.
After ensuring there was nothing suspicious, he took out the dharmaboat, stepped aboard, and activated the defenses. Then he entered the little medicinal plant laboratory he had set up and sat down cross-legged. A moment later, violet light spilled from his chest.
Without hesitation, he directed the power of the violet crystal to suppress his shadow. After exerting pressure three times, he stopped his efforts. That was his usual practice. He wasn’t sure what exactly his shadow was now, but that wasn’t important. To play it safe, he would keep his shadow suppressed.
Having accomplished that, Xu Qing started concocting poison.
The Seventh Peak’s Grand Competition....
As he concocted, he thought about the competition.
His cultivation base was in the great circle of Qi Condensation, and though he knew he could continue to cultivate the Seaforming Scripture, he also knew that he should start collecting the items he would need to break through to Foundation Establishment. He didn’t know a lot about Foundation Establishment, but he did know that having Foundation Establishment Pills would increase the chances of success when attempting the breakthrough. And having one pill wasn’t enough.
The sect had records with information about Foundation Establishment, but they weren’t public. You needed to spend a huge amount of merit points to gain access. If you didn’t get that information from the sect, you would have to buy it from someone else.
After thinking about it for a while, he decided that he should pick a good time to wake up Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior and ask some questions.
Foundation Establishment Pills are just too expensive. I definitely can’t afford to buy them. I guess that means I’ll have to go win some in the Grand Competition. Having made his decision, and considering evening was falling, he finished his poison concocting and started working on his cultivation.
Outside, the setting sun spread a saffron gauze out over the port. The structures in the Port District looked like parts of an ink painting, and the clouds in the sky were bright red.
In that evening light, a beautiful young woman appeared, clad in a pale violet daoist robe, her hair in a ponytail. She had an ancient bronze sword strapped to her back as she walked in the direction of Harbor 79. She was slim and pretty, and her ponytail and ancient sword made her seem valiant and heroic. She looked just like a conclave disciple should look, and even radiated a dashing aura. Wherever she went, the surrounding disciples would bow their heads and clasp their hands in greeting. Many of them felt their hearts pounding as she passed.
She was in a good mood. Whenever disciples offered greetings, she would nod back in acknowledgement. Eventually, she reached Harbor 79, where she stopped for a moment, her face flush and her heart racing a bit.
After taking a few deep breaths, she kept walking... right up to Xu Qing’s berth.
When she saw the familiar dharmaboat there, memories came flooding back. Raising her voice, she said, “Junior Brother Xu Qing, are you around?”
Harbor 79 wasn’t usually a very loud and bustling place. People didn’t come around very often, and therefore, someone with a pale violet daoist robe would stand out a lot. As a result, this young girl had already captured a lot of attention. And when the disciples realized she had come to Xu Qing’s dharmaboat, their eyes went wide.
The fading light of the setting sun shone down on her, her long hair streaming behind her in the breeze and her daoist robe rippling around her curvaceous form.
It was hard to say if her face was naturally flushed in this moment, or if it was the sunlight shining on her. Either way, her eyes seemed to flash with liveliness and spirit.
“That’s conclave disciple Elder Sister Ding Xue!” [1]
“What is she doing over here...? Is she here for Elder Brother Xu Qing? Ai. If only she’d come here looking for me.”
As the surrounding disciples looked on jealously, Xu Qing sat in his dharmaboat cross-legged. When he heard her voice, he frowned slightly, then walked out and saw her standing on the shore.
“Elder Sister Ding,” he said by way of greeting. Truth be told, he didn’t like it when people interrupted his cultivation.
“Junior Brother Xu Qing, I returned to the sect recently, but when I came to visit, you weren’t here. I’m sorry to inconvenience you by showing up unexpectedly, but I have a lot of questions about plants and vegetation. Could you help me out a bit?” Suddenly, a spirit note appeared in her hand as she continued, “Sorry for the trouble, Junior Brother Xu.”
Xu Qing was originally planning to refuse. But after seeing the spirit note and thinking about how many things he needed to prepare for Foundation Establishment, he changed his mind. After all, even a hundred spirit stones was a hefty sum.
Nodding, he lowered the dharmaboat’s defenses. He didn’t feel completely safe outside. But on his dharmaboat, with the blessing of godliness it contained, and all of his poisons present, he felt very safe.
Ding Xue seemed very pleased to see him open the defenses. Stepping aboard gracefully, she walked over to him. She smiled. “Junior Brother Xu, where have you been recently? I heard you got back to the sect a while ago.”
“What questions do you have about plants and vegetation, Elder Sister Ding?” Xu Qing didn’t dislike Ding Xue. When they were on the open sea together, she had worked hard to learn from him. However, he still felt it was best to keep some distance.
She didn’t seem to care that he was on guard, and went right into the questions she had prepared.
Xu Qing listened and answered accordingly. For a hundred spirit stones, he felt she deserved very detailed answers. As the sea breeze blew, and the evening light covered them, the two of them made a very charming image. It was a scene that made all the surrounding disciples very jealous, including nearby cultivators on patrol.
Meanwhile, some distance away in the city was a young man in a pale violet daoist robe, rushing anxiously toward Harbor 79, seemingly unconcerned that his actions were not befitting of a conclave disciple.
Elder Sister! How could you be so foolish? You and I have been getting along so well! Y-y-you... you really didn’t need to look for him, did you?
This person was none other than Zhao Zhongheng.
He really was full of anxiety, especially when he thought back to how Elder Sister Ding looked at Xu Qing back when they were out at sea. And when he thought about how Xu Qing eventually stopped charging money to give advice, his heart started pounding.
It was obvious Xu Qing was about to make a move. And that made Zhao Zhongheng extremely nervous.
I can’t let this happen. I have to hurry!!
1. Ding Xue met Xu Qing in chapter 80. When they parted ways in chapter 84, she promised to come visit him when they were both back at the sect. ☜