Chapter 58

Chapter 58: Birthday

With the blowing of the night wind, light waves gently bumped against the dark awning boat, creating grayish-black sea foam as it crashed against the hull.

The boat swayed and creaked slightly with the waves.

Underneath the boat’s dark awning, Xu Qing’s expression was serious as he began refining pills.

Picking out medicinal herbs one by one, he smoothly plucked their leaves, squeezed their juices, or pulled out their pistils. Under his skillful treatment, more and more medicinal liquid gradually appeared in a stone bowl.

After checking and adjusting the ratio, Xu Qing began to add the seven colored grass. Finally, when midnight arrived, Xu Qing carefully dripped the juice of the Spirit Congealing Leaf into the black medicinal liquid.

There was an ear-piercing hiss, and green smoke rose up from the bowl before being scattered by Xu Qing with a wave of his sleeve. The black medicinal liquid inside the stone bowl immediately congealed into a white jelly-like substance, and there seemed to be a faint light within.

Success on the first try.

After carefully inspecting it, Xu Qing took out the medicinal jelly and kneaded it into several pills that he put aside to dry. Looking at the pills, his eyes revealed a sense of satisfaction.

“I’ve finally refined White Pills!”

The scenes of studying with Grandmaster Bai appeared in Xu Qing’s mind, which made him remember everything that happened in the scavenger camp.

All of this made the youth’s heart slowly feel a little restless on this special day.

After a long while, Xu Qing sighed softly and looked outside the boat. The night sky was pitch black.

However, the sparkling sea reflected the bright moon hanging high in the sky.

Everything was silent. The lightly blowing sea breeze brought a hint of coolness as it lifted Xu Qing’s hair.

"Grandmaster Bai should have returned to Purple Earth a long time ago."

"I don't know what Cross and Luan Ya are doing right now..."

"I wonder if there are weeds in front of Captain Thunder’s tomb..." Xu Qing whispered softly.

"And I haven't found the Destiny Flower yet."

Even though he was used to loneliness, even if he had adapted well to his new environment, Xu Qing was just a youth, after all. Sitting there silently, his mind returned to the residence in the scavenger camp where he ate snake meat with a familiar old man.

He listened to the old man talk about random gossip going around the camp, and watched the old man smoking a pipe and drinking wine.

The image in his memory was very clear.

Xu Qing's eyelids drooped slightly.

“The teacher from back in the slums said that when a person starts reminiscing about the past, it means they’re growing old…” Xu Qing murmured as he took out a jug of wine from his leather bag.

He’d bought this wine during his patrol during the day.

Holding the jug, Xu Qing looked up at the bright moon in the sky. After a long time, he lifted the jug and toasted the moon before taking a gulp of the wine.

Looking from afar, the youth on the boat raised his wine to the bright moon and drank one gulp alone.

The main city’s wine was stronger than that of the scavenger camp. It was extremely hot as it entered his mouth and seemed to turn into a flame once it reached his stomach. Heat filled Xu Qing’s whole body, making him breathe a little heavily. A long while later, he took another big gulp.

“I wish Captain Thunder’s spirit a safe journey up to heaven.”

“I wish Grandmaster Bai a long life and good health.”

“And I wish myself… a happy birthday.”

Xu Qing muttered and took another gulp.

Today was his birthday.

Xu Qing, who seemed to be sixteen or seventeen years old, had actually just turned fifteen. Compared to his peers who had grown up in safety, all his experiences forced him to mature quickly.

Today, he silently wished himself a happy birthday all alone, just like he had done every year for many years.

This year, he was accompanied by a jug of wine.

After draining the jug, Xu Qing thought of his family.

Even though he tried his best to remember, the memory of his family was still blurry. This kind of blurriness made Xu Qing very uncomfortable. He didn’t want his memories of them to fade, but… some things were uncontrollable.

He sat there for a very long time.

“Are you all alright…” Xu Qing lowered his head and murmured.

The sea breeze blew by, lifting his hair and blowing on his face. The slight coolness gradually pulled Xu Qing out of his reminiscence, and his eyes regained their sharpness. The expression on his face returned to a cold and indifferent one.

"Live."

“I want to live a better life. If I have the chance to see my parents… that would be even better.”

“So, I have to become stronger!” Xu Qing raised his head slowly, and his figure under the moonlight was like a solitary wolf as he stared into the distance.

After a while, he turned and walked back into the cabin, sitting down cross-legged and beginning to cultivate.

Time flew by.

After his birthday passed, Xu Qing fell into a daily rhythm. Over the next few days, apart from patrolling the port area every day, he would also practice alchemy and cultivate every night.

Although he continued to spend spirit stones, his cultivation of the Sea Transforming Scripture gradually slowed down, and he only recently broke through to the seventh level.

As his cultivation base became higher and higher, his speed of cultivation slowed down. However, this was only relative to his astonishing progress before. In fact, compared with others, Xu Qing’s cultivation speed was still incredibly fast.

At the same time, once the Sea Transforming Scripture reached the seventh level, Xu Qing clearly sensed that his battle prowess was worlds apart from where it used to be. He had full confidence that, if he faced himself from before he came to Seven Blood Pupils, he would easily kill himself within thirty breaths of time.

Although there was still a gap compared with the Vajra Sect ancestor, Xu Qing already had a fair bit of confidence in a head-on fight.

“When I get stronger, I have to go and kill the Vajra Sect ancestor.” Xu Qing wouldn’t feel comfortable until the Vajra Sect ancestor was dead. Although he was now a disciple of Seven Blood Pupils and didn’t think the Vajra Sect ancestor would dare to openly move against him, the other party would almost definitely think of using a borrowed knife to kill him. Thus, Xu Qing knew that he had to hurry and improve his cultivation base in order to get rid of this threat once and for all.

Besides that, Xu Qing had also thoroughly researched the magic boat and repeated analyzed the contents of the jade slip. After completely understanding it, his control over the magic boat reached an extremely fine degree.

And he also decided which direction he would take his magic boat in. He chose sturdiness!

He would prioritize improving the boat’s defense when he upgraded his boat. One of the reasons for this was because once the boat’s sturdiness and defense were improved, it wouldn’t be as susceptible to wear and tear, which would reduce his need to pay for repairs.

Moreover, in this dangerous Seven Blood Pupils main city, the magic boat was the only place where Xu Qing felt relatively safe. He needed to cultivate, rest, and practice alchemy here.

Thus, he had to make sure this place had sufficient protective abilities.

Xu Qing had been busy refining pills in this period of time, and he didn’t refine only White Pills but also Black Pills.

In addition, he also used his previous methods to refine many of the poison powders that had been depleted.

Every time he refined pills, Xu Qing was extremely focused. Alchemy was a survival skill that he had always taken very seriously, and he engraved every single thing that he learned deep in his heart.

After each refinement, he carefully arranged the leftover herbs in the cabin, and his boat was soon densely packed with various herbs.

As for the poison powder, since there were too many people in the main city and it was troublesome for him to test things out, Xu Qing hadn’t refined any new poisons. However, he did accumulate many ingredients.

When he found the opportunity, he planned to head out and find somewhere secluded where he could research and refine the poisons all together.

Regarding the Homicide Department, after going there for several days, Xu Qing gradually became familiar with it. In the past few days, the whole department was still hunting for Night Dove strongholds, and a large number of clues were reported every day.

Xu Qing could feel that the department wasn’t far from closing the net.

Originally, Xu Qing wasn’t scheduled to patrol that night, but he took the initiative to swap places with someone else.

The Homicide Department’s responsibilities included night patrol, and every disciple would have their turn. However, every time they had night duty, all the disciples would be extremely vigilant.

As the sky outside darkened, Xu Qing tidied up his clothes. He hid poison powder in his sleeve and placed the dagger and iron skewer in a convenient spot before leaving the magic boat.

Outside, the sun had set and dusk was turning to night. Under the dark sky, the earth seemed to have lost all of its light, and drops of rain slowly began to fall on the main city.

Xu Qing’s figure walked in the dark. With rain falling all around, his whole body seemed to merge with the night as he sped forward.

At that moment, the wind blew, landing on Xu Qing’s robe and making a rustling noise. The wind was icy cold, and breathing it in gave a refreshing feeling.

This chilly wind dispersed the heat in the city, but it couldn’t disperse some special scents in the air.

As Xu Qing sped along, his clean boots made contact with the rain-covered blue stone bricks on the street, causing the sound of wet footsteps to ring out. From a distance, it seemed that every time he took a step, the puddles on the ground would ripple like lotuses.

Soon, it was completely dark and the rain grew even heavier. Xu Qing’s figure quickly flashed by alleys and closed shops, avoiding some scenes of carnage, until he finally arrived at Banquan Road at midnight.

Looking at the open inn in the distance, Xu Qing silently waited under the eaves in a corner as rain continued to fall all around him.

A few days ago, his informant had mentioned a wanted criminal named Master Azurecloud.

This person was recorded in the jade slip with all the bounties. He was a ninth-level Qi Condensation cultivator from the Azure Cloud Sect, a small sect affiliated with Purple Earth. He was cruel and lustful, having tortured and killed several female disciples of his sect. While he was being chased down, he committed many slaughters and raped and plundered villages on the way.

However, Xu Qing didn’t choose to arrest him because there was no enmity between them.

In this cruel and chaotic world, everyone had their own way of life, and Xu Qing wasn’t interested in controlling that.

But Qing Yunzi did one thing wrong.

Xu Qing’s informant should have appeared two days ago in that area where they had met for a second time, looking for him to detoxify her poison. But up to this day, she hadn’t shown up.

Thus, Xu Qing went out to look for her that day.

Although the wind was strong, it couldn’t disperse the unique scent of the poison powder that he’d planted on the spirit coin. Xu Qing easily found the woman’s residence, and he also saw traces of fighting inside. By following the traces of the poison powder, he eventually came to this inn.

After waiting all afternoon, he saw a person who smelled strongly of the poison powder enter the inn.

This person’s appearance was consistent with the records in the bounty jade slip. It was Master Azurecloud.

Thus, Xu Qing swapped his night shift with someone and came here today.

Naturally, he had to take care of his own informant.

Previous Chapter

Table of Contents

Next Chapter