Chapter 95

Chapter 95: The Creditor Visits

The noon sun hanging high in the sky was so strong that ordinary people couldn’t even look at it directly.

And Gu Muqing, standing beneath that sun, was similarly radiant, even more beautiful than an immortal maiden.

Although the light orange Daoist robe covered her body, it couldn’t completely conceal the slight curves that protruded out here and there, whetting the imagination.

Her soft, jade-like arms exposed outside her sleeves, her beautiful and smooth neck, her silk-like black hair cascading down like a waterfall, her exquisite and smooth skin… she could truly be considered a peerless beauty.

As Zhang San looked at her, he became a little dazed and his face turned a bit red. On the other hand, Xu Qing’s expression didn’t change at all, and his eyes were ice-cold as he stared at her neck.

This woman’s beauty didn’t matter to Xu Qing at all. What was important was that this wasn’t the first time he had seen her. He didn’t meet many core disciples down in the main city in the first place, so he immediately recognized her as the one he had met outside the pharmacy a few months ago.

That day, they had only brushed past each other, but now she actually called out his name. This put Xu Qing on high alert, and he immediately started to judge whether or not she could pose a threat to his life.

After taking a look, Xu Qing determined that if really attacked, he would be able to kill this woman very quickly. Her cultivation base wasn’t bad, but in terms of her vigilance and demeanor, both were inferior to those loose cultivators on Sea Lizard Island.

But when he thought about the other party’s identity as a core disciple of the Second Peak, which was full of alchemists, Xu Qing instinctively checked the surroundings for any traces of poison.

“Junior Brother Xu Qing, don’t be surprised. Senior Brother Zhang San didn’t tell me your name, I just heard it by accident.” Gu Muqing smiled sweetly, and her clear voice was pleasing to the ear.

Zhang San’s heartbeat quickened as he listened to her words. He thought to himself that this girl in front of him was indeed worthy of being the one beloved by the entire Second Peak. Just her way of calling him Senior Brother made him feel extremely comfortable.

He smiled and was about to speak, but Xu Qing’s calm voice suddenly rang out.

"I'm not surprised."

“Uh…” Zhang San glanced at Xu Qing and sighed in his heart. He thought to himself, Xu Qing, oh Xu Qing, she’s being so forward, so why don’t you have any reaction? If it was him, he would definitely immediately go forward to chat with her and invite her out afterwards. Wasn’t this basically a fated meeting?

Hearing Xu Qing’s words, Gu Muqing just smiled lightly. She took out a pill and handed it to Xu Qing.

“Junior Brother Xu Qing, I’m the owner of the shop that you sold all your White Pills to. I’ve studied your pills for a long time, and I’m very curious how you managed to get their purity so high.”

Xu Qing took a look and instantly recognized it as his own pill. After thinking for a while, he didn’t answer Gu Muqing’s question but instead took out some sea lizard skins.

“530 spirit stones for an eight-level Qi Condensation sea lizard skin, 960 spirit stones for a ninth-level, and 1430 spirit stones for a peak-level. How many do you want?”

Xu Qing’s offer was the same as the selling price of those shops. If he sold the skins directly to the shops, he felt that they might not buy it for this price. Since Gu Muqing wanted to buy sea lizard skins, it was more profitable to sell them to her.

Gu Muqing’s eyes lit up as she looked at the sea lizard skins, but she didn’t immediately take out money to buy them, instead returning to the topic of pill purity. It was apparent that after recognizing Xu Qing, her interest had shifted from the sea lizard skins onto him.

Xu Qing frowned slightly. Thinking about how her shop had bought so many of his White Pills and that she was about to buy his sea lizard skins in a moment, he opened his mouth to reply.

“Adding the proper amount of Night Corpse Morning Glory in the mixing stage will increase the purity.”

Gu Muqing turned thoughtful when she heard his words. After a while, she asked another question. She was extremely polite, but irritation rose in Xu Qing’s heart. After all, from his point of view, knowledge wasn’t something that could be obtained for free.

The other party’s actions were a bit over the line.

For example, when he was with Senior Sister Ding previously, she would give him something every time she asked a question.

Thus, Xu Qing didn’t answer Gu Muqing’s question, instead responding with his own.

“Is there any way to make the Ghost Desire Limulus’ blue blood more toxic and preserve it for a longer time?”

Gu Muqing thought for a while and spoke with a serious expression.

“I’ve never thought about this. Master only teaches about medicine, not poison. Let’s see… If it were me, I would add the living tea and use its richness to increase the Ghost Desire Limulus’ toxicity.”

Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed when he heard her words. After pondering for a moment, he seemed to grasp something, so he asked another question.

“Living tea is used to neutralize poison, but it also contains a certain poison within itself. How can I turn the poison into a medicinal primer?”

“Ah, poison again? Let me think… maybe you can use goldbutton grass to force it out?” Gu Muqing’s tone was uncertain, but her words were enough to give Xu Qing some inspiration.

This made Xu Qing’s eyes light up, and he began to talk about medicine with Gu Muqing. Their conversation was a little strange – Xu Qing mostly asked about poisons while Gu Muqing asked about medicines.

But that didn’t affect anything. There was even a faint sense of affinity between them, and the more they talked, the more they were enlightened. In the end, Gu Muqing simply walked into the shade and continued talking to Xu Qing.

Time flew by.

The beautiful man and charming woman in the shade were like an exquisite painting under the sun. But in this painting, the farmer-like Zhang San seemed a bit out of place.

At that moment, Zhang San had a dumbfounded expression on his face as he stared blankly at Xu Qing and Gu Muqing. Sighing in his heart, he secretly thought that pretty boys had too big of an advantage.

His heart thumped again, wondering if the matter of him taking the Second Peak disciples out to sea was about to be called off. But he remembered that Xu Qing had just returned to the sect and most likely wouldn’t head out to sea again immediately, so his heart eased slightly. However, he still couldn’t help but speak up.

“Um… Junior Brother Xu Qing, why don’t you give me your magic boat first so I can repair it for you. It doesn’t look like you two will finish talking any time soon.”

Xu Qing cupped his fists at Zhang San and tossed over the vial with the skiff inside.

Zhang San instinctively raised his hand to catch the vial, and his eyes suddenly widened. He stared blankly at the dilapidated skiff inside the vial.

“What happened to the magic boat? Isn’t this the skiff I put inside your magic boat in case of emergency?”

“It’s gone.” Xu Qing replied calmly before turning around to ask Gu Muqing about poisons.

Zhang San inhaled sharply as he looked at the vial in his hand. He realized that Xu Qing had probably encountered a near-death experience on his trip out to sea.

Just like that, four hours passed.

The afterglow of the setting sun scattered down and the shadows on the ground blended with the light outside. Gu Muqing wasn’t satisfied yet, but Xu Qing ended their conversation and sold her the lizard skins.

“Junior Brother Xu Qing, thank you for clearing my doubts. It’s a bit late, so I’ll leave first. I’ll try the method you mentioned when I go back, but I think success will probably still be difficult. Actually, I’ve already tried many times on my own, but only occasionally have I been able to reach that level of purity.”

Gu Muqing spoke with a distressed expression.

Xu Qing fell into deep thought. On one hand, it could be related to the mixing method that Grandmaster Bai had taught him, and on the other, it could also be related to the lack of heterogeneity in his body.

When he refined pills, he didn’t give off any heterogeneity, so his pills would naturally be purer.

Of course, he wouldn’t say it out loud.

Gu Muqing shook her head and left, lost in thought.

Xu Qing watched her leave and bowed slightly. He had benefited a lot from their conversation. In his heart, he already had some ideas for refining new poisons.

Seeing Gu Muqing depart, Zhang San walked over to Xu Qing and sighed with a gloomy expression.

“Xu Qing, that boat of yours… isn’t easy to repair. I don’t have so many spirit stones to spend on it. I basically have to build you a new boat, it’s too expensive.”

Xu Qing didn’t speak. He looked around carefully before taking out one of the three divinity-touched lizard skins.

As soon as the lizard skin appeared, Zhang San’s entire body trembled. In an instant, all his worries disappeared, and his eyes widened. He inhaled sharply as he looked at the golden light coming from the lizard skin.

“This is…” Zhang San instantly grabbed Xu Qing and went straight to his warehouse. After entering the warehouse, he took the lizard skin with trembling hands.

He examined it carefully as if looking at a treasure, and his breathing became more and more rapid. After a long time, he suddenly raised his head to look at Xu Qing.

“Divinity-touched lizard skin!”

“It’s also a Foundation Establishment lizard skin, and it even has a hint of Gold Core aura. This thing is way too valuable, and definitely set off a slaughter when it appeared. How did you get it?!”

“I snatched it. Is it enough to build a new magic boat?” Xu Qing asked serenely.

Looking at Xu Qing’s expression, Zhang San’s eyes narrowed. He could sense a thick bloody intent from these words and finally knew why Xu Qing had returned in the skiff without his magic boat.

“It’s enough. The magic boat built with this will definitely be astonishing. I need some time to prepare. You can come pick it up tomorrow!”

Zhang San’s eyes glowed as he looked at the divinity-touched lizard skin. The magic boat he would build with it would definitely be his most outstanding work in the past years.

Xu Qing nodded and took out 5,000 spirit stones’ worth of spirit tickets. After setting them aside, he thought a little more and took out the rest of the spirit stones from his storage bag. Altogether, it was tens of thousands of spirit stones.

And many of the spirit stones were stained with blood.

Zhang San’s pupils contracted and his expression warped in shock. He couldn’t help but open his mouth.

“How many people did you kill?”

“Not many.” Xu Qing shook his head.

“Using all these spirit stones to refine a magic boat, what about your own cultivation? And… you trust me this much?” Zhang San looked at Xu Qing.

“Someone still owes me some thousands of spirit stones, so I’ll go and get them tonight. As for trust, I think Senior Brother Zhang San has more wealth here than what I obtained this time.”

Xu Qing cupped his fists towards Zhang San and left.

It was already dusk outside, and the world was gradually turning dark. Zhang San looked at Xu Qing’s departing figure with waves of emotion stirring in his heart.

“Someone actually dares to owe you spirit stones? Well… since you trust me so much, I guess I won’t embezzle anything. Since I’ve already invested in you, I’ll keep going!”

At the same time, in the inn on Banquan Road, the old man was happily smoking his pipe with a smug expression.

“What a haul. A lizard skin from a mid-stage Foundation Establishment is worth 5,000 spirit stones. It’s too bad that I couldn’t get the divinity-touched lizard skin, though.”

“But that poisonous brat probably isn’t having a good time. Maybe he even came out empty-handed.”

“When I think about him ending up with nothing, it makes me so happy, haha. The inn’s been closed for a few days, so there’ll definitely be many customers tonight. Even better.”

Just as the old man was feeling smug, a strong force rushed toward him.

It was the big snake. It smashed into the old man’s body heavily, gurgling with grief and indignation.

The old man glared and was about to teach it a lesson, but when he saw the big snake’s despondent expression, his heart softened and he sighed.

“Sigh, that kid is very cunning. If the situation looked bad, he could just run away. Don’t worry, he won’t have died.”

When the big snake heard this, its expression eased a little. However, it was still a little forlorn and curled up in a corner.

The old man felt distressed and continued to comfort it. Soon, the sky completely darkened, and the figure of a guest appeared in the distance, approaching the inn with quick steps.

“I’ll get you some snacks later, let’s not talk about it for now. We’re about to open.”

The old man hurried out and smiled at the guest in the distance. But in the next moment, his expression changed drastically.

A daggers shining with cold light shot over like lightning, piercing through the neck of the wanted criminal who was about to reach the inn and nailing it to a wall.

The powerful impact caused the walls of the inn to shake, and blood splattered everywhere.

Screams rang out, but they abruptly stopped a moment later!

The sound of gentle footsteps gradually approached from the darkness.

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