456 As if the Dead Returned
At that moment, beside the Absolute Beginning Separation Pillar, the captain was squeezing through the crowd, wanting to find a better location to comprehend.
He hadn’t succeeded in comprehending the spirit marks in the past three days. He felt that the previous location was inauspicious, so he planned to get closer.
However, before he could find a good location, the captain suddenly had a bad premonition.
“My intuition is very accurate. Something’s wrong…” The captain fell silent and carefully recalled what he had done recently.
“The eye I left on the Ghost Emperor Mountain was discovered?”
“Has my informant from the Grand Affairs Immortal Sect been exposed?”
“The clone that was secretly placed on the Three Spirits Suppression Mountain has been found?”
“The person I bribed in the Litu Sect betrayed me?”
“The Flame Phoenix knows that I’m going to steal its nest?”
“Has my enemy in the Corpse Forbidden awakened?” After pondering for a while, the captain suddenly thought of something.
“Purple Mystic Fairy replied?”
The captain had a headache and didn’t know what was wrong. However, this premonition was very strong. Hence, he left the crowd warily.
He even concealed his aura and changed his appearance. However, he still felt uneasy. He directly left the vicinity of the Absolute Beginning Separation Pillar and found a remote tent at the edge of the city. He endured the pain and spent some money to carefully comprehend the spirit marks.
However, he felt that it was still not safe. Hence, he performed a series of hand seals and activated some secret art, concealing him further.
Not long later, Xu Qing arrived. He searched the vicinity of the Absolute Beginning Separation Pillar but couldn’t find any traces of the captain.
As for the shadow’s search, it was only limited to a certain range. This place was too big. Unless Xu Qing walked around the entire city, he wouldn’t be able to search accurately.
After failing to find anything, Xu Qing turned and left.
Very soon, several days passed. Seeing that everything was normal, the captain gradually relaxed. Although the concealment still existed, his body and mind were mostly immersed in comprehension.
However, Xu Qing didn’t give up. In these few days, other than comprehending the battle intent of the Absolute Beginning Separation Pillar and increasing the number of battle spirit marks in his sea of consciousness, he spent the rest of his time strolling around this city formed by countless tents.
There were many cultivators here, so many large and small markets were formed. The items sold there were all kinds of strange.
During these few days when Xu Qing was searching for traces of the captain, he saw a lot and also bought some poisonous grasses.
However, every time he went out, he would change his appearance and conceal himself.
In these few days, he had already received seven to eight challenges from the heaven’s chosen disciples of the various forces in the Yinghuang Province.
Many people already knew of his arrival. As someone who enjoyed the treatment of a Dao Child in this generation of the Eight Sects Alliance, his reputation had actually spread throughout the various forces.
After all, he had two life lanterns and an emperor-level cultivation art, and killed Saintly Star. All of this caused him to have a high status in the hearts of this generation of disciples from the various forces in the Yinghuang Province.
Now that the Sword Holder’s assessment was about to begin, most of those people who thought that their strength was good wanted to suppress the heaven’s chosens of large sects to attract the attention of the Sword Holding Court and gain points.
Hence, not only was Xu Qing challenged, but the other heaven’s chosens of the Alliance were also frequently challenged. It was the same for the other large forces. Every day, there would be battles.
Only one person was unchallenged. This person was the Dao Child of the Grand Affairs Immortal Sect, Zhang Siyun. He was also known as the number one person of this generation in the Yinghuang Province.
It was rumored that he already possessed the combat strength of six palaces at such a young age, causing the disciples of the various sects to not dare to challenge him.
He didn’t stay in the city either. Instead, he went deep into the icy plains. It was said that he wanted to make use of the environment here to temper his spells.
Compared to him, Xu Qing’s combat strength was at most three to four palaces in the eyes of outsiders. Hence, he naturally became the best target for cultivators who were inferior to the Dao Child of the Grand Affairs.
Among the people who challenged him, there were also people from the Grand Affairs Immortal Sect. Xu Qing wasn’t interested in such boring challenges at all.
At that moment, he was walking in a large market. His gaze swept across the stalls, wanting to see if there was any special poisonous grass.
There were many cultivators here. Other than the local rogue cultivators, there were also some human sect disciples from everywhere. It was very lively.
Very soon, Xu Qing stopped in his tracks and his gaze landed on a stall.
The items sold here were alchemy and weapon refinement materials. There were also some herbs.
Among them, the five-line golden insect grass was considered a very good poison-melting conversion item in the pharmacopeia. Its medicinal properties were special and after it was dug out, it needed metal Qi to preserve it.
He walked over. Before he got close, he heard someone beside him talking about him.
“Have you heard? Li Ziliang from the Grand Affairs Immortal Sect has already accepted nine challenges and won all nine of them. He is a Golden Core with four palaces. Now, in the Grand Affairs Immortal Sect, his limelight is second only to their Dao Child.”
“This person is indeed extraordinary. Some time ago, he reached a height of about 5,000 feet on the Absolute Beginning Separation Pillar. It’s said that that’s not his limit.”
“He was born at the wrong time. If the Grand Affairs Immortal Sect didn’t have Zhang Siyun, this person might have been able to become their Dao Child.”
“I heard that he has already issued three challenges to Xu Qing, the quasi-Dao Child of the Eight Sects Alliance. That Xu Qing is clearly afraid. Most people from small places have such habits and don’t dare to accept challenges. Recently, various forces have been laughing and chatting about this.”
When Xu Qing heard this, he expressionlessly turned his head and glanced over. The ones discussing this matter were three disciples from small sects who were attached to the Grand Affairs Immortal Sect. Their cultivation levels weren’t high and they were only in the Foundation Building realm.
Xu Qing had seen many such people.
Their cultivation levels were clearly ordinary but they were very enthusiastic about evaluating experts. It was as though they could find their sense of existence by making bad comments.
Xu Qing’s gaze swept past the three people’s faces. After he retracted his gaze, he walked to the stall and pointed at the Five-line golden insect grass.
The stall owner was a bald cultivator. He was blind in one eye and his remaining eye emitted a cold glint. He lifted his head and swept his gaze across Xu Qing. With a wave of his hand, he swept up the herb and handed them to Xu Qing.
“This medicinal herb costs 2,000 spirit stones.”
Xu Qing held the grass in his hand and checked it. After nodding and handing over the spirit stones, he kept the insect grass and asked.
“Do you have more?”
“Yes!” The vendor’s eyes lit up. He then took out a small clay bottle and carefully opened it. After that, he took out three stalks of golden insect grass and handed them to Xu Qing.
However, Xu Qing’s gaze landed on the small clay bottle.
Generally speaking, the bottles used by cultivators to store items were either jade or metal. There were also wooden ones but it was very rare for them to be formed purely from clay.
Nourishing the five-line golden insect grass required gold Qi. This caused Xu Qing to be a little surprised. After taking a closer look, he discovered that there was a faint sharp aura emitted from this small clay bottle.
“It contains metal Qi?” Xu Qing pointed at the small bottle.
The bald cultivator swept his gaze across Xu Qing and grinned.
“Fellow Daoist, this isn’t ordinary metal Qi. It’s the imperial metal Qi emitted by the Absolute Beginning Separation Pillar. I obtained it by luck when I climbed the Absolute Beginning Separation Pillar.”
“This Qi can only be contained with clay. Generally speaking, it can be used to upgrade artifacts once. I don’t have a suitable magic artifact now, so I’m using it to nourish the insect grass for the time being.”
“You want to buy it? This thing is very expensive. 500,000 spirit stones!”
The bald cultivator licked his lips. He could tell that the person in front of him should be a sect cultivator. Previously, he didn’t bargain when buying the insect grass. He was definitely wealthy.
Xu Qing fell silent. He had heard a little about the Qi emitted by the Absolute Beginning Separation Pillar from his captain. It also contained the so-called imperial metal Qi.
This reminded him of his iron stick.
Hence, after pondering for a moment, Xu Qing took out a jade slip and assumed an inquiring posture. After that, he shook his head.
“I’ve asked around. Many people have sold this Qi over the years. I can buy it for 50,000 spirit stones. I won’t buy it if it’s beyond that.”
The baldy had a displeased expression. Recently, he had been in dire need of spirit stones to buy alchemy pills and was preparing to break through the three fires Foundation Building realm and step into the Golden Core realm. He felt that Xu Qing was rich, so he named the price.
However, Xu Qing’s counter offer made him feel like he was joking. Hence, just as he was about to shake his head, Xu Qing glanced at the bald man and suddenly spoke.
“I still have a Palace Nourishing Pill.” As Xu Qing spoke, he took out a pill bottle. This was something he had bought before he advanced to the Golden Core. However, he didn’t need to use it. Its value was also about 300,000 spirit stones.
This pill was somewhat helpful in advancing to the Golden Core. Moreover, only large sects sold it and rogue cultivators couldn’t buy it directly.
The bald cultivator’s expression froze. After taking it, he opened it and took a sniff. His expression changed slightly and he hesitated for a moment before nodding.
“Deal!”
As he spoke, he passed the small clay bottle to Xu Qing and immediately packed up his stall and left.
Xu Qing held the small clay bottle and kept it after shaking it. He planned to return to the encampment and see if it was effective on the iron stick.
At that moment, as he was walking toward the encampment, waves of commotion suddenly rang out from the direction of the Absolute Beginning Separation Pillar.
Xu Qing lifted his head. On the towering Absolute Beginning Separation Pillar, someone had climbed over 5,000 feet.
This person was none other than the heaven’s chosen from the Grand Affairs Immortal Sect he had seen when he arrived here. He was the Li Ziliang that those people were talking about earlier. He had challenged Xu Qing several times but Xu Qing ignored all of them.
At that moment, he had surpassed his previous limit and reached 6,000 feet, causing the discussions of the cultivators near the Absolute Beginning Separation Pillar.
Huang Yikun and some of the heaven’s chosens from the Alliance could only reach a height of about 2,000 feet.
Right now, regardless of whether it was the Eight Sects Alliance or the other forces, Li Ziliang who had climbed the highest and suppressed the disciples of the various sects, was instantly in the limelight.
Xu Qing’s expression was as calm as ever as he retracted his gaze.
He didn’t care about this and left the market. When he was getting closer and closer to the Eight Sects Alliance’s encampment, Xu Qing saw a Dao altar.
There were many Dao altars in Absolute Beginning Separation City. Most of them were places that talked about cultivation methods and were set up by the Sword Holding Court.
Occasionally, a Sword Holder would come and personally give a lecture. Although it wasn’t for free, it was only a symbolic fee of one spirit stone.
At that moment, there were dozens of rogue cultivators outside the Dao altar. There weren’t many of them, so what they were talking about wasn’t cultivation methods but the Dao of plants and vegetation.
From afar, a hoarse and ancient voice rang out from the Dao altar.
“Green Lotus Flower Dew, also known as Green Lotus Dew. It’s the flower bud of the water lily family. Coupled with the fragrant water obtained by using a special heating method, it has the function of calming the lungs and treating coughing of blood…”
“Goldturn grass, also known as…”
Xu Qing stopped in his tracks. He was extremely familiar with these two sentences. It was the records of medicinal herbs in the herb books, word for word.
With a thought, he turned his head.
With this glance, Xu Qing’s entire body trembled and his eyes revealed a bright light.
He saw a thin old man.
This old man wore a gray robe. Although there were many wrinkles on his face, his eyes were bright and filled with vigor. There was a deepness in them, as though they contained wisdom. His voice was pure and gentle.
He was similar to Grandmaster Bai, but wasn’t him.
Xu Qing’s eyes dimmed a little. He stood there and listened for a while before leaving silently.