Chapter 81

Chapter 81: Fair Price

The light of dawn scattered down on the sea, illuminating the dark water and shining on Xu Qing’s solemn figure.

After a long while, Xu Qing breathed a sigh of relief. That terrifying existence at the bottom of the sea had completely disappeared from his vision once dawn arrived.

Xu Qing had no idea what that giant was, let alone whom the dragon carriage belonged to. The sea records hadn’t mentioned either of them. But just now, he had only glanced at the giant from far away and already felt an intense shock. Clearly, that huge existence at the bottom of the seabed had reached a terrifying level of power.

And for such a terrifying existence to actually be pulling someone else’s carriage… Xu Qing couldn’t even imagine how mighty the dragon carriage’s owner had once been.

Fortunately, the giant didn’t seem to have any ill intentions. Or rather, in the eyes of such an existence, an ant like Xu Qing might not even register, so of course it wouldn’t form ill intentions toward him.

“The Forbidden Sea…” Xu Qing muttered, his eyes revealing deep vigilance.

He had known before, but now he had personally experienced the endless danger of the Forbidden Sea. Thus, as he continued to sail, he became even more cautious and strictly followed the sea chart, not deviating in the slightest.

In the blink of an eye, several days passed.

During these few days, Xu Qing didn’t see anyone else, but he became more and more familiar with the Forbidden Sea. He had encountered many sea beasts and also took action to attack several times.

Every time he attacked, he obtained some organic materials of the Forbidden Sea beasts. His Forbidden Sea Dragonwhale made many contributions in his battles, and after multiple battles, Xu Qing became more familiar with fighting on the sea.

As for terrifying existences like that giant, Xu Qing did not encounter them again.

One day, the scorching afternoon sun beat down heavily, and the sea breeze carried heat and humidity. Xu Qing had just ended his cultivation and opened his eyes when he looked into the distance and frowned slightly.

This time, his destination was the Sea Lizard Island just behind the Western Reef Archipelago. According to the sea chart, he was still seven days away.

The sea region he was currently sailing through was recorded in the sea chart and should have been a relatively safe route leading to the Western Reef Archipelago. However, as he continued sailing, Xu Qing became a little confused.

In front of him, there was a large number of vines extending out of the surface. Looking deeper into the sea region, there were more and more vines, and at the other end, there seemed to be some boats trapped by the vines.

Unfortunately, the boats were too far away for Xu Qing to be able to see clearly.

At the edge of this sea region, there were relatively fewer vines.

It seemed that something had attracted the vines and caused them to extend out of the sea earlier. At that moment, they were slowly receding, as if it wouldn’t be long before they all sank back down.

But with the arrival of Xu Qing’s boat, these slowly sinking vines seemed to have found a new target. They rapidly approached Xu Qing’s boat at a rate visible to the naked eye.

Xu Qing’s vigilance increased. Standing at the bow of the boat, he formed a hand seal with both hands and the magic boat began to sail backwards, attempting to avoid the incoming vines.

Unfortunately, the vines were too fast. Although Xu Qing hadn’t entered too deep into the sea region and didn’t waste any time before immediately deciding to retreat, there were still a few vines that managed to get close and entangle the boat.

These vines were pitch-black and arm-thick, and sharp thorns grew all over them. Shockingly, these thorns seemed to contain some sort of suction force. As they entangled the boat, the power consumption of the magic boat instantly increased.

Fortunately, there weren’t many vines, and just these few couldn’t inhibit the speed of the magic boat. However, Xu Qing could clearly sense that to the boat’s power consumption seemed to be a result of spiritual energy being siphoned away.

A cold glint flashed through Xu Qing’s eyes. With a wave of his right hand, a dagger appeared, and he instantly leaped into action. Cold light flashed as the vines were sliced open one after another. Coupled with the magic boat’s rapid retreat, he gradually left the sea region.

After leaving far away, Xu Qing looked back at the sea region in the distance before lowering his head to look at the planks.

There, a few vines that he had cut off were twisting and writhing like sea snakes. Green liquid flowed out of the cuts, and it was apparently extremely corrosive, since sizzling sounds erupted as they touched the planks.

Looking at this scene, Xu Qing’s expression became a little ugly. When he was cutting the vines earlier, he had sensed that they were extremely tough. Even someone like him had to use all his strength to cut them.

After thinking about it for a moment, Xu Qing suddenly made a hand seal. Immediately, the array patterns under his feet shone brightly, revealing the core of the Spirit Gathering Array.

Xu Qing looked at it and discovered that three of the spirit stones inside had dimmed, as if they had suddenly been sucked dry.

“As expected, they absorb spiritual energy.” Xu Qing felt a bit distressed.

There were over a hundred types of vines recorded inside the sea records, and most of them looked basically the same. Thus, it was difficult for Xu Qing to come to a conclusion immediately.

Moreover, this sea region had no records of these vines, whether on the sect’s sea chart or the one he obtained from the merfolk youth.

“If there weren’t any before, then it should be a kind of vine that can move on its own. Since it also likes spiritual energy, the only thing that fits the bill is the spirit-devouring vine.” Xu Qing recalled the information in the sea records and frowned.

“The spirit-devouring vine likes spiritual energy and can’t be damaged by spells. Only brute force can break it. It can devour the power of magic boats and even the spiritual energy of cultivators. Those who are entangled by it all die miserably. This thing is sensitive to heterogeneity and moves about randomly in the Forbidden Sea, often appearing in places with relatively little heterogeneity.”

Xu Qing fell silent and lifted his head, looking into the distance.

This was the shortest route to the Western Reef Archipelago. Going around it would take a long time.

Moreover, he didn’t know the exact range of these vines. According to the sea records, the spirit-devouring vine would often drift in groups and cover an extremely vast range.

“Going around will take too long and can only be a last resort. It’s not like I absolutely can’t deal with these spirit-devouring vines.”

Xu Qing pondered for a while and narrowed his eyes. He touched his storage bag, and a black-colored pill immediately appeared in his hand.

This pill was none other than the Black Pill that contained rich heterogeneity.

Holding the Black Pill, Xu Qing stood at the bow of the boat and controlled the magic boat to approach the vine-infested region again.

Soon, the surface of the sea churned, and a large number of vines broke out, greedily rushing toward Xu Qing’s magic boat at a high speed.

But just as they approached, Xu Qing calmly flung the Black Pill in his hand onto the surface of the sea. As soon as the Black Pill touched the sea, it melted and the heterogeneity in the area instantly became stronger.

Immediately, the vines that were spreading all around suddenly trembled in unison, as if they encountered something extremely disgusting. They instantly pulled back and retreated far away, allowing Xu Qing’s magic boat to proceed unhindered.

Xu Qing’s expression relaxed slightly as he controlled the magic boat to move with full speed. Although the sea region was filled with vines, as he threw out Black Pills one after another, all the vines that encroached on his boat revealed disgust and instantly moved away.

Just like that, Xu Qing’s magic boat continued to advance. As he continued throwing out Black Pills, dense heterogeneity surrounded the boat, and there was eventually no need for him to keep throwing out Black Pills. The vines all around him would instinctively make way wherever his boat passed.

As he advanced, Xu Qing’s magic boat got closer and closer to those boats that were trapped by the vines in the distance, and the sea breeze seemed to carry some voices over.

Although the voices were faint, a cultivator could still hear them clearly.

“Zhao Zhongheng, what kind of path did you lead us to!!”

“Senior Sister Ding, please calm down… There weren’t any vines in this region before. They must have migrated here recently, I can’t do anything about that. Don’t worry, I’ve already sent a message to my grandfather asking for help. Someone will definitely come to get us out of this mess soon…”

The person who was speaking was Zhao Zhongheng. At that moment, his phoenix boat was completely trapped, entangled by a large number of vines. It was barely able to continue moving forward slowly.

At the same time, all around him, his followers’ boats were also trapped. All of them had anxious expressions, but they had no choice bu to do their best and continuously cut the vines.

Zhao Zhongheng was quite vexed. He really hadn’t expected these vines to appear here. At that moment, he was controlling the phoenix boat to charge forward at full power and break out of the vines. At the same time, facing the dissatisfied expression of the senior sister beside him, he could only obediently apologize. On one hand, he was pursuing her romantically, and on the other, this Senior Sister Ding also had an extraordinary background.

Thus, he hurriedly took out a jade box and handed it over.

“Senior Sister Ding, don’t be angry. Believe me, everything is fine, and I’ll definitely bring you to the Western Reef Archipelago. This Clarity Pill is a rare and extremely valuable medicine that can nourish the soul. My grandfather gave it to me. I’ll give it to you as an apology.”

The beautiful woman in the light purple Daoist robe at the side seemed to be on the verge of losing her patience. She frowned and looked at the jade box in Zhao Zhongheng’s hand, and in the end, she accepted it, forcing herself to calm down before opening her mouth to speak.

But at that moment, the whistling sound of a magic boat came from afar. The woman instinctively looked over and saw a magic boat in the distance, riding the wind and breaking the waves as it advanced.

On the magic boat, there was a person standing tall like a pine tree. His gray Daoist robe fluttered in the wind, and sunlight streamed through his long hair, causing a colorful halo to appear around him.

Beneath that halo was an immaculate cold face that was enough to make the hearts of the opposite sex beat rapidly when they saw it. Even the vines seemed to be moved by it, as if this man’s beautiful face turned them into harmless houseplants as they automatically made way.

This scene made the woman’s eyes shine brightly. A sweet smile appeared on her face as she called out to Xu Qing.

“Junior Brother, what method did you use to make the vines retreat? Can you help me?”

Her smile was sweet and her voice was affectionate. Her whole person seemed to exude charm and sweetness, making Zhao Zhongheng feel a little uncomfortable.

He had been exhaustively attentive the whole way, but he had never seen the woman smile or speak like this…

Zhao Zhongheng revealed an unhappy look on his face. Hostility appeared in his heart as he looked at Xu Qing.

With one glance, Zhao Zhongheng felt that the other party looked a little familiar, and in the next moment, he suddenly recognized him.

“It’s you!” If it was anyone else, Zhao Zhongheng might have forgotten their face a long time ago, but Xu Qing’s appearance was extremely memorable.

And after recognizing Xu Qing, Zhao Zhongheng immediately sensed that the spiritual energy fluctuations rolling off the other party’s body seemed to be much stronger than when they had last met. However, to a core disciple like him, his identity alone was enough to look down on the vast majority of mountain-foot disciples.

After giving Xu Qing a cold glance, Zhao Zhongheng spoke lightly.

“Come, use your method and open the way for us.”

Zhao Zhongheng was used to bossing gray-robed disciples around, and this time was no exception. Normally, when mountain-foot disciples saw him, they would all immediately obey with fear in their eyes.

Xu Qing had noticed the phoenix boat earlier and also saw the two core disciples in light purple robes on it. However, he directly ignored them and his magic boat sped past without changing its speed at all.

“Mm? Are you deaf? Didn’t you hear me?!” Zhao Zhongheng’s expression turned gloomy. With a wave of his hand, a large number of water droplets appeared and transformed into a water sword that headed straight for Xu Qing’s magic boat.

However, as soon as it neared, a water curtain appeared out of thin air and blocked it.

With a bang, the water sword directly collapsed.

The magic boat under Xu Qing suddenly stopped, and he turned around and looked coldly at Zhao Zhongheng. Far away, waves began to churn and the surface of the sea suddenly exploded. An enormous Forbidden Sea Dragonwhale leaped out from within, revealing half of its body in mid-air. Under the sunlight, it looked extremely dazzling.

It let out a shocking roar before slamming heavily back down onto the sea. It sank into the water, but a wild and violent aura spread out.

This scene instantly caused Zhao Zhongheng’s expression to change drastically. The eyes of the followers beside him also widened, and huge waves rose in their hearts. That senior sister’s expression also changed in an instant.

“Forbidden Sea Dragonwhale!”

Zhao Zhongheng took a deep breath and looked at Xu Qing with an expression full of disbelief. Althoug he was a core disciple whose status could crush normal mountain-foot disciples… this wasn’t absolute.

If a mountain-foot disciple could summon the Forbidden Sea Dragonwhale at the eighth level of the Sea Transforming Scripture, it meant that their aptitude was astonishing and they had a high chance of advancing to Foundation Establishment in the future.

Even core disciples wouldn’t want to provoke such a person, and they would even often try to befriend them. After all, once such a person advanced to the Foundation Establishment realm, even core disciples would have to pay respects when they saw them.

Xu Qing stared coldly at Zhao Zhongheng, whose expression was rapidly changing, and slowly spoke.

“One boat for 20 spirit stones. As for your boat, give me 100.”

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