Chapter 28

Chapter 28: Walking in the Dark without Light

That night, Tingyu, who had lived in Purple Earth since she was a child and knew nothing of the hardships of the world, had a dream.

In the dream, Chen Feiyuan was causing problems for Xu Qing, making her very angry.

That morning, Tingyu woke up with in a different sort of mood. After arriving at Grandmaster Bai’s tent, as she sat inside reading her medicine books, she was also a little absent-minded. She looked up from her medicine books from time to time to check outside the tent.

Soon, she saw… Chen Feiyuan.

Tingyu rolled her eyes as she remembered the previous night’s dream.

Chen Feiyuan let out a yawn, rubbing his eyes as he walked into the tent. He was about to sit next to Tingyu when she suddenly pulled away his seat.

Chen Feiyuan was taken aback and stared at Tingyu.

"What are you doing?"

"You, sit over there." Tingyu didn't bother paying attention to Chen Feiyuan’s question, pointing over to where Xu Qing usually sat.

"Why?" Chen Feiyuan’s eyes widened.

“Because you never study hard, and you’re always asking for leave recently, so I’m annoyed by you sitting here. Is that enough?”

Tingyu glared at him with her almond-shaped eyes and spoke very fast. Chen Feiyuan muttered a few words, but after a while, as if he didn’t dare to offend her, he acquiesced and gloomily sat down in Xu Qing’s seat.

“Sigh, Tingyu…” After sitting down, Chen Feiyuan had just opened his mouth, but before he could finish speaking, Tingyu shot him a glare.

“Don’t sigh! What if someone overhears you and misunderstands?”

“Ah? What’s wrong with sighing?” As Chen Feiyuan looked puzzled, the flap of the tent opened and Xu Qing walked in.

When she saw Xu Qing, two dimples appeared on Tingyu’s cheeks as she smiled. She patted the seat next to her that originally belonged to Chen Feiyuan.

"Junior Brother, you sit here."

Xu Qing was taken aback, and Chen Feiyuan was similarly stunned.

“What are you waiting for? The teacher is coming, sit down quickly.” Tingyu urged.

Xu Qing hesitated, looked at Tingyu, then looked at his usual seat, which was occupied by Chen Feiyuan.

It was indeed almost time for Grandmaster Bai to arrive, so Xu Qing could only walk over to Tingyu’s side and sit in the seat that used to belong to Chen Feiyuan.

Chen Feiyuan was dumbfounded. He pointed at Xu Qing and was about to speak when Tingyu turned her head and shot him a fierce glare.

"Shut up!"

"I haven't even said anything yet." Chen Feiyuan was about to cry. He felt that this was unfair, but just as he was about to continue talking, the tent flap opened and Grandmaster Bai walked in.

Chen Feiyuan could only hold back his words and sit there stewing in his anger. On the other hand, Tingyu seemed very satisfied, while Xu Qing felt a little uncomfortable, as if he was sitting on pins and needles.

When Grandmaster Bai walked in, he saw where Xu Qing was sitting, looked at Tingyu, then looked at the despondent Chen Feiyuan. He smiled, not bothering to mention the new seating, and started the assessment.

As always, Chen Feiyuan stuttered with his answers and was reprimanded, while Tingyu completed her assessment proudly and looked at Xu Qing with some anticipation.

Xu Qing’s answers were perfect as usual, and he even took the chance to ask some of his own questions during the assessment.

All of this made Chen Feiyuan extremely depressed.

So after the day’s lecture was over, he was the first one to run out of the tent, feeling like he had been discriminated against today.

Xu Qing had also felt uncomfortable as he sat there during class. He stood up and bowed to Grandmaster Bai, about to leave, but Tingyu stopped him.

"Junior Brother, why is your face dirty again?"

Tingyu eagerly took out her handkerchief again, but Xu Qing frowned slightly, immediately dodging and leaving the tent in a hurry.

After he left, Tingyu turned to the amused Grandmaster Bai with an aggrieved look.

“Teacher, why is Kid so dirty every day? I’m trying to help him with good intentions.”

Grandmaster Bai laughed and dotingly patted the girl’s head before speaking softly.

“For people who live in constant hardship and danger, attracting attention isn’t a good thing.”

Tingyu nodded thoughtfully.

Xu Qing didn’t hear Grandmaster Bai’s words, but his thoughts on the matter were exactly this.

Having grown up in the slums, he knew very well that the less attention he drew to himself, the safer he would be. Most of the people around him were covered in dirt, so if he was any different, he would attract danger like a torch in the dark night.

Blending in was rule of survival ever since he was a child. As for those who didn’t do this, unless they had great personal strength, most of them wouldn’t live too long.

Because of this, Xu Qing developed the habit of keeping himself dirty. He needed to blend in with his environment and make himself inconspicuous.

He was like a hidden hunter, only revealing his sharpness when he made his move.

Soon, Xu Qing left the camp and arrived at the border of the forbidden area. According to this habit, he picked up some rotten leaves and crushed them, slowly smearing them on his body. Trying to blend in with nature as much as possible, he slowly stepped into the forbidden area.

Although Captain Thunder had gone to live in the city, Xu Qing didn’t give up his search for the Destiny Flower.

And as his cultivation base improved, his strength increased. Combined with his richer experience, his knowledge of plants and vegetation, and his constant vigilance, he was mostly safe in the outer area of the forbidden area jungle.

Thus, Xu Qing no longer stopped at the temple, gradually exploring further into the depths.

Although the danger was higher, his battle prowess constantly improved under this tempering, and he also harvested more herbs.

But although there were more herbs in the depths, just like the outer area, most of them were still yin-aligned ‘evil’ poisonous plants.

Since there were so many poisonous plants, Xu Qing’s studies also veered in the direction of poisons. As he improved himself, he also concocted several more kinds of poison powders.

Thus, he went to the clothing store and bought a coat full of pockets, filling each pocket with a different poison.

As for the black gloves he got from the Blood Shadow Team Leader’s leather bag, Xu Qing was growing more comfortable wearing them.

These gloves didn’t just increase the lethality of his punches, they also protected against poison to some degree. The Blood Shadow Team Leader’s gloves and Cross’s dagger had become weapons that Xu Qing used every day, similar to the black iron skewer.

As the sun set, Xu Qing walked out of the small medicine house in the valley after a long day of tempering himself and developing poisons. He sorted out his weapons and poison powders before running straight to the temple complex.

Every time he entered the forbidden area, before leaving, he would go to the temple complex to look for the scar-removing stone.

Although he had failed to find it many times, he asked around and knew that this kind of stone was naturally formed. It shone with rainbow light and could be found every once in a while, so he persisted searching until...

When he came to the temple today, under the afterglow of the setting sun, he saw that there seemed to be a rainbow light shining between the eyebrows of a stone sculpture in the distance.

Xu Qing narrowed his eyes and quickly looked around, checking the hidden arrangements he’d made before. After making sure everything was normal, he jumped up to the roof of a temple and squatted down to observe again.

After finally confirming that there really wasn’t any danger, he ran straight to the place with that stone sculpture.

When he arrived, he saw a rainbow-colored stone growing out of a crack between its eyebrows.

This stone used to be an ordinary one, but after years in this mysterious temple complex, it had finally experienced a qualitative change today.

Xu Qing quickly took it down and searched around until he had looked through the entire temple complex. He found six of these stones.

Looking at the stones in his hands, Xu Qing heaved a sigh of relief. He had been searching so long for the Destiny Flower and the scar-removing stone. Now, he had finally found at least one of these two items.

After carefully putting the six small stones away, Xu Qing looked deeply at the temple complex. He bowed solemnly before quickly leaving and disappearing into the distant jungle.

Xu Qing leaped up and down on the treetops as he sped along.

As night fell and the mutated beasts’ roars echoed out, Xu Qing continued to move. His speed was sometimes fast and sometimes slow as he gradually approached the edge of the jungle.

Not long later, Xu Qing jumped up onto a tree trunk and was about to leap past when the mud on the ground next to him suddenly exploded. A giant horned python rushed out, opening its mouth wide in an attempt to swallow him.

It was a bigger python than the one he had killed in the camp back then.

Facing this surprise attack, Xu Qing’s expression didn’t change at all. He simply raised his right hand and tapped his finger on the head of the giant horned python.

The giant horned python’s roar stopped abruptly as soon as it started. Its tough skin couldn’t stop Xu Qing’s power at all; its head was torn apart, and with a bang, its flesh and blood collapsed.

This collapse spread throughout its body in the blink of an eye until it turned into a cloud of bloody mist.

Only its gallbladder was left unscathed. Xu Qing grabbed it as it fell from the blood mist and left in a flash.

When dawn came around, Xu Qing walked out of the jungle and returned to the scavenger camp.

At this time of day, the camp was still dark, with only a few lights shining here and there. As Xu Qing walked through the dark camp, his joy from finding the small stones dampened as he approached his residence.

His residence was also dark and uninhabited. There were only the dozen or so wild dogs laying on the ground that wagged their tails after noticing his return.

Xu Qing walked into the courtyard and glanced at Captain Thunder’s former house out of habit, then silently walked into the kitchen.

He reheated yesterday’s leftovers and swallowed them to fill his stomach. After cleaning up and returning to his room, he sighed softly.

“I wonder how Captain Thunder is doing in the city. It should be pretty good over there, right? If I end up not being able to find the Destiny Flower, I’ll save up some spirit coins and buy a residence qualification.”

Xu Qing murmured before closing his eyes and sinking into cultivation.

The next day, Xu Qing went to class as usual.

Tingyu had returned to normal, but she still reserved that seat for him. Chen Feiyuan was also resigned to his fate, watching Xu Qing with longing eyes as the other boy sat in his seat.

When the lecture ended, Tingyu no longer tried to wipe Xu Qing’s face, and she looked at him with a sympathetic gaze.

Sensing this sympathy, Xu Qing bowed slightly and bid farewell to Grandmaster Bai.

After leaving the tent, Xu Qing touched the small stones in his leather bag and walked towards the general store where the little girl worked.

But before he could get close, he saw a group of strangers from a distance standing outside the general store!

Their clothes were very special. There were blood-colored suns embroidered on their black robes that gave off a chilling and bloody aura.

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