Chapter 69 – Misty Ship
After pondering for such a long time, Liu Ming finally thought of a method to deal with the mysterious bubble.
The first method was to imitate his most recent lucky encounter. This required him to borrow the White Bone Scorpion’s Miasma in order to overcome the suction from the bubble.
However, this method was extremely dangerous. If he was even the slightest bit careless, he could end up becoming a ghost.
Moreover, even if he was willing to take this risk, there were too many unknown factors about how the bubble operated.
For example, if he was able to predict when the bubble would break out, he had to have a close, large source of Miasma. Otherwise, if he were to solely rely on the small amount of Miasma within his Cultivating Soul Pouch, it would be far from enough.
Besides, how could he ensure that the White Bone Scorpion would emit its strange ghost face, allowing him to smoothly absorb Miasma?
All of these reasons made Liu Ming ponder for a while. He finally decided on using this as a last resort.
After considering his options again, he still felt that the most dependable method was to raise his own cultivation level.
Ultimately, every time he advanced a stage in cultivation, his Fa Li magnitude would increase in multitudes.
If he were able to advance and become a Late Spirit Apostle before the next bubble burst, the Fa Li in his body should be able to satisfy the engulfment.
Furthermore, if that bubble had enough Fa Li to devour, it would not take from his life force. This would allow him to re-enter the mysterious space where he could cultivate his various secret techniques for a great period of time.
However, advancing into a Late Spirit Apostle was not an easy task.
Even though Liu Ming had managed to profit from a disaster and his Fa Li had become much more pure as a result, he would still need nearly two years before he could advance another stage.
The amount of time between the bubble’s first two appearances was only half a year. Given this length of time, he would most likely not be able to accomplish his task.
If that were the case, he could only choose to increase his Fa Li by using medicine pills.
Although using external forces to obtain Fa Li would affect his future advancements, the bubble’s intrinsic effect would purify his Fa Li. Thus, this didn’t make him too worried.
Therefore, the only problem now was where he could find these medicinal pills to increase his Fa Li.
If he were to only use Contribution Points to trade for these pills, it would naturally not be enough. If he were to only trade contribution points for pills once, it would be fine. However, if he were to continuously make the trade, it would attract too much attention and bring him a lot of trouble.
In this way, the only options for him were to either go outside the sect to purchase pills, or learn the art of concocting pills himself.
Among these two methods, one could be used as a short term solution while the other was a long term solution.
Liu Ming thought of the former’s need to spend a plethora of Spirit Stones and the latter’s learning difficulty and he couldn’t help but produce a frown.
Especially regarding the latter option, alchemists were extremely rare and even though he wanted to learn the art, he had no teacher to learn it from.
However, this issue directly pertained to his life, so even if it was extremely difficult to learn, he had to try his best.
With this thought in mind, Liu Ming naturally did not stay in his room to cultivate. Instead, he went to Nine Infant Mountain’s peak.
Currently, the quickest way to earn Spirit Stones would be through sect missions.
Before starting missions, he planned on learning a few new techniques and then refining another, better quality, Soul Shackling Chain.
After all, in order to obtain more Spirit Stones, one must take on the sect’s more dangerous missions. Thus Liu Ming had to make some preparations in advance.
An hour later Liu Ming departed the peak of the mountain, he now had three more technique books in his possession. These were, “Spider Web Technique”, “Icicle Technique” and “Silt Technique”.
However, he didn’t immediately head back to his residence. Instead, he directly went to the sect’s main peak.
TL: He was at faction’s main peak
In a short while, he appeared in a large, black hall. He was standing in the center of the hall, in front of a gray formation and had just received his name plate back from a short and tall man.
“Remember clearly; you only spent twenty contribution points so you can only stay in the Soul Swamp for eight hours. If you do not come out within the allotted time, the price will be multiplied the longer you stay.” The skinny, tall man coldly said. He then thrust a ghost head medallion directly toward the formation.
Instantly, the entire formation produced a droning sound, and billowing wisps of black gas rose up.
Liu Ming didn’t respond; he merely strode into the formation.
Inscriptions appeared around the formation, and his silhouette disappeared into the smoke.
A second later, Liu Ming opened his eyes and found that he had astonishingly appeared in a large cave.
This cave was a hundred acres large, and in the center was a black pool that was wider than ten feet. Traces of black smoke unceasingly rose from within it.
Liu Ming let out a light breath. Suddenly, he smelled a familiar aroma.
He didn’t hesitate and started walking straight toward the Soul Pool. His eyes fell on the pitch black ink-like pool water and after a glance, he retrieved a fist-sized dark green stone. He then wrapped it in a sparkling rope and threw the stone into the pool. Finally, he sat on the edge quietly with a silver ring in his hand.
……
A few hours later, Liu Ming wore a face of satisfaction as he reappeared in the gray formation. Immediately, he walked out of the large hall and directly returned to his residence.
Seven days later, he left his residence again. He had not only begun to learn the new techniques, but he had also refined another Soul Shackling Chain that was much darker and more lustrous than the previous one.
Liu Ming rode his cloud toward Duty Hall. After waiting in front of the announcement board for a moment, he went to the stone table and took three sect missions with decent Spirit Stone rewards. He subsequently left alone.
Half a month later, Liu Ming’s face was riddle with exhaustion as he entered the Duty Hall once again. Astonishingly, all three missions had been completed, and he received ten Contribution Points and a couple hundred spirit stones as his reward.
This instantly caused a small uproar around the nearby disciples.
However, Liu Ming did not bother staying and went directly back to his residence where he slept for two days and two nights. He then appeared in the Duty Hall full of vigor. Once again, he received a few missions with large amounts of Spirit Stones as a reward and flew out of the sect.
Liu Ming would pass his days like this. In the blink of an eye, five months had gone by.
In this period of time, Liu Ming had practically completely given up on cultivating. Instead he displayed a shocking efficiency in sweeping across the crystal monument’s various missions of different difficulties. Thus his contribution points and Spirit Stones rose at an insurmountable rate. Within these months of time, he had accumulated nearly six hundred to seven hundred contribution points and over three thousand Spirit Stones.
Although he had encountered danger many times, he always managed to retreat with strokes of luck somehow on his side.
It was the White Bone Scorpion and his complete mastery of the Wind Blade Technique that were his largest supporters in these difficult situations.
During this time, Liu Ming did not work with anyone and would complete all the missions on his own. Therefore, other than Jia Lan, who knew Liu Ming possessed a Warrior Level ghost, everyone else were extremely surprised by his rate of mission completion. They were also unable to tell his true strength.
Of course, there were many people who looked at him in a jesting manner and gave him a nickname: “Mission Madman”
In their eyes, if a new disciple did not cultivate with discipline and instead used most of his time to complete missions, this was an extremely idiotic method of ignoring the fundamentals and chasing the superfluous.
Liu Ming paid no heed to this. Aside from using the majority of his Contribution Points to purchase Fa Li increasing pills and compensate for his lack of recent cultivation, he had not used any of his Spirit Stones.
However, today, Liu Ming did not continue to complete missions. Instead, he left his dwelling and flew out of the main sect gate.
A short while later, he quietly descended on a small mountain top. There, a group of over ten male and female disciples were waiting.
Among the group, the majority of them were new apprentices who were not even twenty years old. Some of them wore excited expressions and were looking everywhere; however, one boy and one girl made Liu Ming’s gaze stiffen.
These two people were Lei Zhen and the other small girl from Heaven’s Secret faction.
They were whispering to each other and clearly did not pay heed to Liu Ming’s arrival.
Liu Ming would further not take the initiative and greet them. Instead, he silently stood to the side and waited like the others.
A moment later, a distinct bird cry suddenly sounded from far away in the sky. Subsequently, a humongous eagle flew toward them and within a short period of time, arrived above the mountain.
The humongous black eagle’s wings retracted and it created a gust of wind as it landed on the mountain top. A blue-robed and a green-robed girl jumped off of its back.
“Huh, why is Martial Uncle Zhang not here… Isn’t that the fifth ranked person on the Lunar Monument, senior Qian?!” After seeing the faces of the two girls, everyone was shocked and showed surprise on their faces. In addition, a couple of the older disciples started looking at each other after they realized the identity of the blue-robed girl.
When Liu Ming heard the words “Lunar Monument”, he also looked at the two girls in surprise.
He saw that the slightly older blue-robed girl had a very slender body. Her face was melon shaped and held a rather pretty complexion; on her back was a white longsword. Adjacent to her was the green-robed girl who looked about sixteen or seventeen years old. She had a doll face and pig-tailed hair, making her appear extremely cute. She was carrying a rectangular package in her hands that looked very heavy.
“Master Zhang has some important business at the moment and cannot personally bring you disciples. The sect has thus tasked us with the mission of bringing you all to Wei Zhou Market. Everybody has already paid their Contribution Points at the Duty Hall in order to participate in this trip. If one of you were to change your decision now, you can still receive half your Contribution Points back. If there is no one, then we can leave now.” The blue-robed girl’s eyes swept over the various people on the mountain top as she spoke indifferently. Although her voice was soft, everyone heard her clearly.
Apparently, this was the so called “Senior Qian”.
Everyone looked at each other, but there was naturally no one who was willing to stand out.
“Since there are no problems, we can leave right now. Cui Er, release the Misty Boat!”
“Yes, Senior.”
The green-clothed girl heard her senior and immediately replied in a crisp voice. She instantly dropped the package on the ground and took out a light yellow scroll from her sleeve. After opening it, she laid it flat on the ground.
Liu Ming watched with rapt attention. He saw that a vague large yellow boat had astonishingly been painted on the scroll. Steaming fog arose from all four sides, obscuring people’s vision.