Chapter 70: Cui Er
The young girl called Cui Er mumbled to herself and suddenly smacked the scroll.
“Pu!” A great billow of yellow gas, mixed with multicolored inscriptions, rushed out of the scroll. It rose to a height of over one hundred twenty feet before it started whirling and solidifying; finally condensing into a large translucent yellow ship.
This ship seemed to be humongous, but it was extremely hazy, as if it had no entity or substance.
“Okay, all the disciples may board now.” Senior Female Apprentice Qian did not care about the startled expressions of the various disciples and flew up to the Misty Ship with the green-robed young girl.
The others looked at each other before they started boarding the ship in a flurry.
“Huh, it’s you again?”
Lei Zhen and the small girl flew onto the Misty Ship and walked around for a bit before finally noticing the not too distant Liu Ming; they were slightly surprised.
“I really did not expect to bump into Brother Lei here.” Since the other person talked to him, Liu Ming responded by nodding his head.
“If I remembered correctly, Junior Bai is a disciple of Nine Infant Mountain’s Master Gui. If you do not cultivate diligently in your sect and instead run all over the place, you may end up interfering with your cultivation!” Lei Zhen’s gaze flashed as he said this. He obviously knew of Liu Ming’s nickname and thought he understood the situation.
“Eh, Brother Lei has heard of this disciple’s nickname. I am going to the Weizhou Market to finish some pressing business. Even if I end up squandering some time, I cannot do anything about it.” Liu Ming was startled for a bit at first before he started laughing.
“I have heard that a “Mission Madman” recently appeared in the Duty Hall. Within the past few months, he has completed around forty to fifty missions. Apparently, he is also a newer disciple and his surname is Bai, is it you, Brother Bai!” When the girl beside Lei Zhen heard Liu Ming talk, she suddenly spoke while laughing.
“Hai! If there isn’t another newer disciple with the surname Bai, then it is most likely me. Recently, I have been under frugal conditions and could only complete missions to earn some Spirit Stones.” Seeing the opposition’s lack of malice, Liu Ming could only lightly cough and reply.
“It really is Brother Bai! Zeze, I too have heard some of the Senior Apprentices talk about you. The missions that Brother Bai completes are dangerous, even to some of the older disciples. You unexpectedly managed to complete them so quickly; could it be that there is a secret knack to completing missions? Oh, that’s right! I am called Ouyang Fei and am a disciple under the Heaven’s Secret Faction.” The girl spoke with a lot of emotion. She also smiled sweetly as she introduced herself.
“Junior Ouyang is joking. How could the sect’s missions have a secret knack to them? One only has to spend a bit of time and be equipped with enormous luck, then he or she will be able to complete this amount of missions.” When Liu Ming could offer a vague reply to the girl’s questions.
“Hmph, did you really think that I, Lei Zhen, would believe you? If we have the chance, let us compare skills. I believe that Junior Bai’s strength should give me some unexpected surprises.” Lei Zhen’s eyes stared at Liu Ming like lightning before he gave a harumph.
“Brother Lei is joking; you have a Nine Lightning Spiritual Pulse body. How could I be a match for you?” Although Liu Ming was somewhat surprised, he naturally shook his head.
“If we haven’t even compared skill before, how would you know that you aren’t my match? I have heard that you fought with Nine Enlightenment Mountain and even managed to defeat some of their genius disciples. There’s no way such information could be fake.” When Lei Zhen heard Liu Ming, a peculiar expression manifested on his face as he questioned Liu Ming.
“How does Brother Lei know about this?” Liu Ming was extremely startled by Lei Zhen’s dialogue.
“It seems that Brother Bai still doesn’t know that the news of your victory over Nine Enlightenment Mountain’s geniuses was spread around by a few Nine Infant Mountain disciples. This issue made your faction’s people gain quite a bit of face. Additionally, your recent sweeping through of the Duty Hall’s missions has pushed your fame even higher; your name in the sect really isn’t small.” Ouyang Fei giggled as she spoke.
When Liu Ming heard this, he could only bitterly laugh.
“Since Junior Bai does not wish to compare skill right now, we can just wait until the Large Competition in half a year. When that time comes, you cannot evade such a large event!” Lei Zhen indifferently said as he stared at Liu Ming.
“I naturally cannot skip the Sect’s Large Competition. However, this does not necessarily mean that I will come across Brother Lei in the competition.” Liu Ming could only forcibly laughed as he spoke.
“That is of no matter to me. All I have to do is watch you fight and I will naturally know your strength. I hope that you don’t disappoint me.” Lei Zhen’s said in a lofty voice before he left without saying anything else.
Ouyang Fei smiled apologetically at Liu Ming as she followed Lei Zhen.
Seeing this, Liu Ming could only shake his head.
Nevertheless, in his heart, his impression of Lei Zhen had improved a bit.
Although Lei Zhen seemed to be extremely arrogant and belligerent, his inherent nature seemed to actually be quite simple.
Since this was the case, the Heaven’s Secret Faction probably ordered Ouyang Fei to accompany him in case of any mishaps.
Liu Ming pondered for a while as the Misty Ship became shrouded in a faint layer of light. It cloaked everyone within and, after a vibration, flew off into the distance.
Liu Ming found an empty corner on the ship and stood there without moving. He then looked through the external cloak of light to determine the Mist Ship’s speed.
Although the Misty Ship flew several times faster than his Soaring Sky Technique, it was still far from the speed of the Flying Jade Spirit Boat.
It seemed like this wasn’t a flying totem but was instead a manifestation of some sort of technique coupled with a special Practitioner Weapon.
Liu Ming researched the secret of the Misty Ship while rubbing a small pouch in his sleeve.
The pouch contained thirty abnormally clear crystals; these were the middle level Spirit Stones that Liu Ming had obtained from the sect and were the fruits of his completed missions.
Otherwise, he would have had to carry a large bag with over three thousand low level Spirit Stones in it.
The reason why Liu Ming was willing to spend over a hundred Contribution Points to go to Weizhou Market was so he could exchange his Spirit Stones for pills that could increase his Fa Li.
After all, the interval between the mysterious bubble’s flare up was only half a year.
Thus, he had to take advantage of the time in between the flare ups and increase his cultivation before the bubble appeared again.
According to what he understood from others, if he were to not consider the quality of the medicinal pills, he should be able to buy a plethora with how many Spirit Stones he had.
However, the quality of medicinal pills was extremely important for a cultivator.
Using high quality medicinal pills would not only increase one’s Fa Li, the interior medicinal quality was purer and the impurities fewer so it would lessen the buildup of the user’s resistance to the medicinal powers.
After all, once a cultivator’s body developed too high of a resistance against the medicine’s powers, using similar pills would no longer have much of an effect.
The higher the level of medicinal pills, the more quality was emphasized.
Ultimately, if one’s cultivation level was low, only a few Fa Li increasing pills would let his or her cultivation increase. On the other hand, once one became a Spirit Master or reached an even higher level, one would have to take tens or hundreds of medicinal pills to advance just a small step.
When one reached this stage, consuming higher quality medicine would help one be able to consume more medicine which meant that one’s Fa Li could increase much more.
Identically, there were some medicinal pills with special effects that would be more effective if the pill was of a higher quality.
Therefore, the price of higher quality medicinal pills could be almost ten times the price compared to pills of regular quality; this happened quite often in the cultivation world.
Nonetheless, this sort of situation was too far away from Liu Ming current self.
Presently, he was only a Middle Spirit Apostle, so he did not have to pay much heed to this issue.
Liu Ming gazed outside of the Misty Ship and sighed as he thought about this.
His heart stirred and he suddenly turned around.
He saw that, several meters adjacent to him, the young girl named Cui Er had unknowingly appeared. Her eyes resolutely stared at him. No, it would be more accurate to say that she was staring at the black leather bag on his waist.
“Does Senior have anything to tell me?” Liu Ming was scared by the opposing party’s gaze and forced a smile as he asked a question.
“This aura is not wrong; it really is a Cultivating Soul Pouch. Junior, I want to consult something with you, how about you sell your Cultivating Soul Pouch to me?” The green-robed girl heard Liu Ming’s question and her gaze reluctantly left the leather bag. She immediately asked a question as she rushed toward Liu Ming with a face full of smiles.
“Unfortunately I will have to disappoint Senior. I cannot sell this item.” Liu Ming shivered and immediately shook his head as he responded.
“Junior’s answer shouldn’t be so resolute, how about I use a top quality Practitioner Weapon to trade… That won’t do… How about two!?” The green-robed girl subsequently said.
When Liu Ming heard this, his expression couldn’t help but slightly freeze.
This Cultivating Soul Pouch was a treasure that was nearly equivalent to a totem. The opposition unexpectedly wanted to trade two Practitioner Weapons for it, what kind of idea was this? Could it be that she was planning to forcibly steal it from him?!
However, looking at the green-robed young girl’s cute and beaming expression, that was most likely not the case.
Liu Ming remained vigilant as he subsequently shook his head.
The green-robed young girl quickly raised her offer to three Practitioner Weapons. She had an extremely persevering spirit.
“Cui Er, what are you doing? Quickly come here.”
Just at this time, a cold voice resounded from another direction.
Liu Ming raised his head and saw that Senior Qian had walked over. She spoke expressionlessly to the green-robed young girl.
“Huh, why is Senior not controlling the ship? We had better not fly in the wrong direction.” When the green-robed young girl saw that Senior Qian walked over, she immediately walked over to her as if her butt had been set on fire. Simultaneously, she apologetically smiled as she talked.
“Hmph, I let Liu Zhu temporarily help me control the flying ship. On the other hand, you are continuing to assault people. Once you see something you like, you endlessly pester people until you get your way. This Junior, please do not mind her. Cui Er, this girl does not have any malicious intentions. It is only that her natural disposition is quite naughty.” Senior Apprentice Qian harrumphed and scolded the young girl before turning and speaking unhurriedly to Liu Ming.
“It’s okay, Senior Cui Er did not do anything excessive.” Since Liu Ming was facing one of Barbarian Ghost Sect’s top five core disciples, he did not dare disregard anyone as he spoke.
“One more thing. What is Junior’s name? And what faction are you under?” Senior Apprentice Qian nodded her head, but as her gaze swept across the leather bag on his waist, she asked another question.
“My surname is Bai and I am the disciple of Nine Infant Mountain’s Master Gui!” Liu Ming did not know the opposition’s intention, but did not plan on hiding anything.
“Eh? You are under Master Gui. It seems that your Cultivating Soul Pouch was not conferred to you by the sect. I am going to suggest something to Junior. If you do not want this item to be easily recognized, you should probably rub it with red paint. By doing so, only a trifling amount of people will be able to recognize it. After all, there are lots of gossipers in Weizhou Market so it would be better to be careful.” Senior Qian insipidly said.
“Thank you for Senior’s advice. I know what to do now.” Liu Ming was slightly startled, but immediately expressed his thanks.
Senior Qian nodded her head before bringing the reluctant green-robed girl with her to leave.
“Junior Bai, think about it some more. We can still negotiate the price!”
Cui Er’s voice suddenly resounded in Liu Ming’s ears; this made him completely speechless.