Chapter 89

Chapter 89: Stalwart Alliance

Sometimes, actions alone were sufficient to replace words.

Xu Qing sat cross-legged on top of the tree. Whether it was his movements or expressions, he looked exactly the same as before he left previously. However, the attitudes of the cultivators around the basin were completely different.

Those who were afraid before were now even more afraid.

Those who ignored him earlier now looked at him extremely seriously.

All of this contributed to a suffocating atmosphere around the basin. Finally, two sea lizards at the eighth level of Qi Condensation staggered up from the foot of the mountain.

The appearance of these sea lizards attracted the gazes of every cultivator there. However, even after the sea lizards crawled into the basin and finished shedding their skin, the cultivators around the basin didn’t dare to make a move. They could only watch as five people form the Sea Ghost Association entered the basin to collect the lizard skins.

Only Xu Qing was different.

As soon as the two sea lizards finished shedding their skins, Xu Qing opened his eyes and got up.

The moment he got up, everyone in the surroundings immediately looked over.

Ignoring the gazes on his body, Xu Qing calmly jumped down from the top of the tree. As soon as he touched the ground, his whole body turned into a blur as he headed straight for the basin at an astonishing speed.

Even though there were already cultivators from the Sea Ghost Association in the basin, Xu Qing directly ignored them and went straight to a lizard skin. There was a Sea Ghost Association cultivator next to the lizard skin whose face sank when he saw Xu Qing arrive.

His eyes flickered as he raised his right hand. Suddenly, his nails lengthened, slashing towards Xu Qing like sharp blades.

“Friend, this lizard skin belongs to my Sea…”

Before the alien cultivator could finish speaking, Xu Qing grabbed the claw-like hand, pulling the alien cultivator close and smashing his chest fiercely with a knee strike.

Crunch! The alien cultivator’s chest suddenly sank in, and cracks formed all over his body. With a bang, his entire body shattered and collapsed onto the ground.

But what shattered was not flesh and blood, but pieces of wood.

Clearly, the alien cultivator wasn’t a real person but a puppet.

The expressions of the Sea Ghost cultivators in the basin changed one after another. As they put up their guards, Xu Qing had already taken away a lizard skin, looking at them coldly from a distance.

Not far away, the seated cultivators of the Sea Ghost Association all stood up one after another. Their expressions contained dread, but a ruthless aura emanated off of them.

The two sides stared each other down for a while.

In the middle of the Sea Ghost Association Group, there was a tall, burly man who had his chest bared. Suddenly, the flesh and blood in his chest squirmed and turned into a ferocious face.

This face was like that of a newborn baby. Although it was full of wrinkles, there was a faint vitality radiating off of it. Its red eyes stared at Xu Qing as it suddenly spoke.

“Friend, you destroyed my toy. Well, I won’t take you to account for that, but as for the sea lizards here… Half will belong to my Sea Ghost Association, how about it?”

Xu Qing glanced at the face but didn’t reply. Sea lizard skin in hand, he turned around and returned to the top of the tree, sitting down cross-legged and continuing to meditate.

This time, he had come to Sea Lizard Island to get sea lizard skins, not to kill people. Of course, if anyone stood in the way of him getting the skins, that was another matter.

But he wasn’t excessively greedy.

Xu Qing knew clearly that the current state of affairs was actually beneficial to him. After all, with the Sea Ghost Association deterring others from competing, he could get more sea lizard skins with less effort.

Although he had powerful battle prowess, these outlaws who lived life on a knife’s edge most certainly had their own trump cards. Fighting with them unnecessarily was meaningless to Xu Qing.

Since he could still achieve his goal, he naturally wouldn’t disagree with the Sea Ghost Association’s proposal.

Just like that, three days passed.

During these three days, Xu Qing took half of the sea lizard skins without any issues. However, he still had some doubts. Just this wasn’t enough to explain the Sea Ghost Association’s arrival or why the surrounding cultivators hadn’t left yet.

These doubts only intensified when the night of the third day arrived. A huge boat appeared in the distance, and it seemed to be heading towards Sea Lizard Island.

This boat was hundreds of meters long, and its entire body was pitch black. Its shape was different from the magic boat of Seven Blood Pupils, looking somewhat like a maple leaf. The strangest thing was that when a person looked at the boat, their hearts would feel a chill. There was a strange feeling similar to that of a forbidden area coming from the boat.

The reason for this feeling was the paint on the boat.

The pitch-black paint wasn’t something natural. It was clearly some sort of blood, and it was this blood that gave Xu Qing that strange feeling.

“Departurist Church!”

“They actually came, too!”

Since the basin was at the peak of the entire Sea Lizard Island, the people there had a comprehensive view of the sea outside. Just like Xu Qing, they quickly noticed the approaching black boat. Some people immediately shouted in fear-filled voices.

The dozen over cultivators from the Sea Ghost Association had solemn expression on their faces. They muttered to each other in low voices, looking as if they were facing a great enemy.

Xu Qing narrowed his eyes. He was no stranger to the Departurist Church.

In the scavenger camp, he knew a little girl whose brother was the captain of a Departurist Church law enforcement team.

Back when the little girl was taken away by her brother, Xu Qing had heard a scavenger talk about the Departurist Church. According to that scavenger, the Departurist Church was a bunch of lunatics.

When he joined Seven Blood Pupils, Xu Qing looked through the information at the Homicide Department and found out a little more about the Departurist Church.

The Departurist Church was one of the four peak-level forces of South Phoenix continent’s human race alongside Purple Earth, Seven Blood Pupils, and Word of Truth. This church believed in the ancient sovereigns and overlords that had left the Endlands long ago.

They preached that the Holy Land created by the ancient sovereigns and overlords was a paradise. In the Holy Land, there was no hunger, no cold, and no killing, and the air was filled with pure spiritual energy.

Furthermore, they proclaimed that in the future, the door of the Endlands world would open and all believers of Departurism would be brought to the Holy Land.

This was the faith of the Departurist Church. In the eyes of the church, everyone who didn’t agree with this faith was a heretic who should be punished and deprived of their right to live.

This kind of extremist doctrine naturally led to the creation of a group of lunatics.

“I wonder how she is right now.”

Xu Qing muttered internally. He recalled the piece of candy that the little girl had given him, but quickly awakened form his reminiscence. Staring at the boat of the Departurist Church in the distance, Xu Qing’s doubts grew deeper and deeper.

“What’s going to happen on this Sea Lizard Island?”

Meanwhile, the old man from Banquan Road behind the boulder sighed when he saw the Departurist Church arriving.

“It’s all over. The Sea Ghost Association and Departurist Church showed up one after another this time… they must have the same goal as me.”

The old man pinched his forehead in distress. Beside him, the big snake made gurgling sounds. The old man turned to look at the big snake and pondered for a moment.

“You have a point.”

The old man suddenly stood up and walked right over to the tree that Xu Qing was sitting on. The big snake followed behind him excitedly, although few people would be able to recognize its excitement.

His sudden movement immediately caused the cultivators around the basin to glance over.

The Sea Ghost cultivators also looked over, but the Departurist Church was about to arrive, so they weren’t in the mood to do anything about him.

Thus, as Xu Qing narrowed his eyes and glanced at the old man’s neck, the old man soon brought the big snake to a spot thirty meters away from Xu Qing.

“Boy, let’s talk it out, don’t use your poison. Dispel the poison around here and I’ll tell you something.”

Xu Qing looked at the old man and could roughly guess the other party’s purpose. He waved his hand as if dispersing the poison.

Seeing Xu Qing’s movements, the old man heaved a sigh of relief and stepped closer.

When he reached a spot three meters away from Xu Qing, he stopped and spoke in a low voice.

“Boy, do you know why the Sea Ghost Association and the Departurist Church are here?”

“I won’t speak nonsense, I’ll tell you directly. According to some calculations, there’s a high probability that there will be Foundation Establishment sea lizards coming here to shed their skin this time. The value of a Foundation Establishment sea lizard skin is astonishing. If it’s from an early-stage Foundation Establishment sea lizard, it’s worth two thousand spirit stones. Middle-stage is five thousand, and late stage is at least tens of thousands of spirit stones.”

“This old man is alone and weak, so I came to form a stalwart alliance with you. You and I will join forces to snatch the lizard skins, entrusting our backs to each other. We’ll split the gains 50-50.”

The old man from Banquan Road gave an impassioned speech as soon as he opened his mouth and looked at Xu Qing expectantly. However, his expression soon changed and he quickly took out several pills, swallowing them all at once before pointing at Xu Qing and cursing angrily.

“Brat, didn’t I tell you not to use poison!!”

“I didn’t use poison. It was already here earlier.” Xu Qing thought about the old man’s speech as he explained off-handedly.

"Fuck, then why did you wave your hand just now!" The old man became even angrier.

“You were the one who asked me to dispel the poison.” Xu Qing frowned.

"... Then did you dispel it?" The old man glared.

“My poison cannot be dispelled.” Xu Qing felt a little impatient. The other party was someone on his bamboo slip. If it weren’t for the situation making it inconvenient for him to take action, he would have already tried to kill the old man.

The old man was speechless. He looked at Xu Qing for a long time before letting out a sigh.

“Can you even communicate properly? What you mean to say is, you can’t dispel the poison, but you pretended to anyway to comfort me?”

Xu Qing looked at the old man coldly and said nothing.

Blue veins bulged out on the old man’s forehead. The big snake on the side hurriedly gurgled a few times when it saw this scene.

The old man gritted his teeth and swallowed another handful of pills before glaring angrily at Xu Qing.

“Alliance, agree or not?”

“Alright.” Xu Qing agreed without hesitation.

Seeing Xu Qing agree so quickly, the old man sighed and was about to speak. But at that moment, the Departurist Church’s boat finally arrived at the shore.

Seven or eight people exited the boat and stepped into the jungle.

Under the moonlight, these people couldn’t be seen clearly. All that could be seen was that their robes were black and even their heads were covered. A bloody killing intent rose from their bodies as they moved rapidly. Once they stepped into the jungle, all of them headed straight for the basin at the top of the tallest mountain.

“The Departurist Church is a bunch of lunatics. There have always been rumors on the sea that they secretly control some islands and are even conducting some sort of strange research. However, these locations are extremely well hidden, so very few outsiders have been able to reach them." The old man from Banquan Road spoke with a grim expression.

Xu Qing narrowed his eyes and looked over.

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