Chapter 29

This day, Ting Yu, who had lived in Purple Soil since she was a child and found it hard to know the hardships of the world, had a dream.

In the dream, Chen Feiyuan was fiercely making things difficult for Xu Qing, and she was very angry.

Until dawn, Ting Yu, who woke up from the dream, felt a little different from usual. After arriving at Master Bai's tent, when she sat there reciting the Pharmacopoeia, she was also somewhat absent-minded, looking up at the outside of the tent from time to time.

Until she saw... Chen Feiyuan.

Ting Yu rolled her eyes, remembering yesterday's dream.

Chen Feiyuan yawned, rubbed his eyes, lifted the tent, and sat down, just about to sit beside Ting Yu, when the next moment the cushion was moved away directly by Ting Yu.

Chen Feiyuan was stunned and looked at Ting Yu.

"What are you doing?"

"You sit there." Ting Yu couldn't be bothered to pay attention to Chen Feiyuan and pointed to where Xu Qing usually sat.

"Why!" Chen Feiyuan immediately refused, his eyes widening.

"Just because you don't study hard, and because you often ask for leave during this time. I'm annoyed by you sitting here, is that enough?"

Ting Yu's almond eyes widened, and her speaking speed was fast, making Chen Feiyuan stunned there again. After a while, he muttered a few words, seemingly afraid to provoke the other party, and sat in Xu Qing's seat with frustration.

"Sigh, Ting Yu, you..." After sitting down, Chen Feiyuan just started to speak, but before he could finish, Ting Yu's eyes revealed unkindness.

"Don't say the word 'sigh'. If someone hears it and misunderstands, what should we do?"

"Ah? What's wrong with the word 'sigh'?" While Chen Feiyuan was blank-faced, the tent door was opened, and Xu Qing walked in.

Seeing Xu Qing, two shallow dimples appeared on Ting Yu's face, revealing a smile, and she patted the cushion beside her that originally belonged to Chen Feiyuan.

"Little Junior Brother, you sit here."

Xu Qing was stunned, and Chen Feiyuan was dazed for a moment.

"What are you still dazed for? The teacher is coming, hurry over here." Ting Yu urged.

Xu Qing was a bit hesitant, looked at Ting Yu, and then looked at Chen Feiyuan, who was sitting in his seat and dazed.

It was indeed the time for Master Bai to arrive, so Xu Qing could only walk to Ting Yu's side and sit in the seat that used to belong to Chen Feiyuan.

Until, in this cold wind, he saw a staggering figure walking from afar against the wind and snow. The moment the figure pushed open the courtyard gate and appeared, a voice filled with laughter broke through the wind and snow.

"Shut up!"

"I haven't even spoken yet." Chen Feiyuan was about to cry; he felt it was unfair. Just as he was about to continue speaking, the tent door opened, and Master Bai walked in.

Chen Feiyuan could only hold back what he wanted to say and sat there angrily. On the other side, Ting Yu seemed very comfortable. As for Xu Qing, he was somewhat uncomfortable, like sitting on pins and needles.

And Master Bai, who walked in, after seeing the seat Xu Qing was sitting in, looked at Ting Yu and Chen Feiyuan, who looked like a punching bag, and a trace of a smile appeared on his face. He didn't interfere and began the assessment.

As always, Chen Feiyuan was scolded for stuttering, while Ting Yu proudly completed the assessment and looked at Xu Qing with anticipation.

And Xu Qing's answer was perfect, and he even asked about some of his own questions during the assessment.

The whole process made Chen Feiyuan's frustration reach its limit.

So when the lesson of the day ended, he was the first to run out of the tent; he felt that he had been discriminated against today.

Xu Qing also felt uncomfortable sitting there during this lesson. At this moment, he stood up, bowed to Master Bai, and was about to leave, but was stopped by Ting Yu.

"Little Junior Brother, why is your face dirty again."

Ting Yu took out her handkerchief and was eager to try. Xu Qing frowned slightly, immediately avoided her, and hurried away.

Until he left, Ting Yu's expression was somewhat aggrieved, and she looked at Master Bai, who was watching the fun on the side.

"Teacher, why is this little kid dirty every day? I'm helping him out of good intentions."

Master Bai laughed, touched the girl's head dotingly, and spoke softly.

"Because, for people living in hardship and danger, being overly conspicuous is not a good thing."

Ting Yu was thoughtful and nodded.

Xu Qing didn't hear Master Bai's words, but what he thought in his heart was the same as what Master Bai said.

Having grown up in the slums, he knew very well that the less conspicuous he was, the safer he would be. And since the people around him were mostly dirty, if he were different, he would be like a torch in the dark night, increasing danger in vain.

This was his survival rule from childhood to adulthood. As for those who didn't do this, unless their strength was extremely high, most of them wouldn't live long.

It was precisely because of this that Xu Qing developed the habit of not cleaning himself. He needed to blend into the environment and make himself inconspicuous.

Like a hidden hunter, only when he strikes is the moment his edge is revealed.

At this moment, Xu Qing, who had left the camp and arrived at the boundary of the forbidden zone, was the same. He picked up some rotten leaves from the forest, rubbed them, and smeared them on his body, trying his best to blend himself into nature, and slowly stepped into the forbidden zone.

Although Lei Ting had gone to live in the city, Xu Qing did not give up looking for the Heavenly Fate Flower.

And the improvement of his cultivation, the increase in his strength, combined with his increasingly rich experience, his knowledge of plants, and his usual vigilance, made the danger he encountered on the outskirts of this forbidden forest forest a little less.

Thus, the range of Xu Qing's exploration slowly stopped being limited to the temple and began to grope slowly toward the depths.

Although the crisis was greater, this kind of tempering also made his combat power continuously improve, and his harvest of plants was also richer.

It's just that, like the outer area, although there were more medicinal herbs in the depths, most of them were still evil and poisonous herbs.

And the abundance of poisonous herbs also made Xu Qing's knowledge of plants mostly focused on the preparation of poisons. While becoming more refined, he also had a few more types of poison powders.

For this reason, he specifically went to a clothing store and bought a jacket full of pockets, with different poisons in each pocket.

As for the black gloves obtained from the Blood Shadow Captain's leather bag, they were also worn by Xu Qing, and he gradually felt more and more comfortable with them.

These gloves could not only make his fist more lethal but also possessed a certain degree of poison resistance, so together with the dagger given by the cross, they became his daily weapons along with the iron skewers.

At this moment, as the sunset was about to fall, Xu Qing, who had finished a day of tempering and poison research, walked out of the small pharmacy in the canyon, tidied up his weapons and poison powders, and with a sway of his waist, headed straight for the temple.

Every time before leaving the forbidden zone, he had to go to the temple to look for the Scar-Removing Stone.

Although he had gone many times before without success, he had inquired about this kind of stone and knew that it was naturally generated, with seven colors, and occasionally visible, so he persisted until this time...

After arriving at the temple, under the afterglow of the sunset, he saw a glimmer of seven-colored light shining on the position of the center of the eyebrows of the stone statue's head in the distance.

Xu Qing's eyes narrowed, he quickly checked the surroundings, and checked his previous hiding arrangements. After finding them intact, he jumped to the top of a temple and squatted down to observe again.

Finally, he confirmed that there was really no danger here, and only then did he sway and head straight for the place where the stone statue's head was located.

After arriving, he saw a seven-colored stone growing in the crack between the eyebrows.

This stone should have been ordinary, but in this mysterious temple, washed by the years, on this day, it became different.

Xu Qing hurriedly took it down and quickly searched around again. Until he had searched the entire temple complex, he had found six such stones.

Looking at the stones in his hand, Xu Qing let out a long breath. The Heavenly Fate Flower and the Scar-Removing Stone, he had finally found one of these two items.

Carefully putting away these six small stones, Xu Qing took a deep look at the temple complex, bowed, and then left at high speed, disappearing into the forest in the distance.

Galloping all the way, Xu Qing's figure jumped and fluctuated on the treetops one after another.

With the arrival of the dark night and the echo of the roars of fierce beasts, his pace remained unchanged, his speed was sometimes fast and sometimes slow, and he was getting closer and closer to the edge of the forest.

Not long after, when Xu Qing jumped onto a tree trunk and wanted to borrow strength to move forward, suddenly the mud on the ground beside him exploded, and a giant horned python rushed out, opening its big mouth and swallowing toward him suddenly.

Its body was even larger than the one he encountered in the camp that day.

Facing this kind of surprise attack, Xu Qing's expression did not change in the slightest, he just raised his right hand and flicked a finger, pointing at the head of the giant horned python that was swallowing toward him.

With a bang, the giant horned python could not bear it, and the miserable roar stopped abruptly as soon as it came out. Its tough skin could not block the power from Xu Qing, and its head was torn apart, and its flesh and blood collapsed.

This collapse spread to the whole body in the blink of an eye, until it became a mass of blood mist.

Only its gallbladder... was preserved intact, falling from the blood mist, and was grabbed by Xu Qing in his hand, and he left with a sway.

Just like that, at dawn, Xu Qing walked out of the forest and returned to the camp.

In the pitch-black camp, there were few lights at this time. Xu Qing walked among them, and the mood of getting the small stones also became low as he approached his residence.

His residence was also pitch black, only the dozen or so wild dogs wagged their tails on the ground after detecting his return.

Xu Qing, who walked into the courtyard, habitually looked at Lei Ting's former room and walked into the kitchen silently.

He heated up the leftovers from yesterday, swallowed them just to fill his stomach, and after tidying up and returning to the room, he sighed softly.

"I don't know how Lei Ting is doing in the city. It should be very good. If I still can't find the Heavenly Fate Flower in the end, I will save up more spirit coins and go buy a spot."

Xu Qing murmured, closed his eyes, and let himself sink into cultivation.

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

Ting Yu became normal, but the seat was still reserved for him, and Chen Feiyuan also accepted his fate, looking eagerly at Xu Qing sitting in his original seat.

As the lesson ended, Ting Yu no longer opened her mouth to wipe his face, and there was a little more understanding in her eyes.

Xu Qing felt this understanding, he lowered his head slightly and bid farewell to Master Bai.

When leaving the tent, Xu Qing touched the small stones in his leather bag and walked toward the grocery store where the little girl was.

But before he could get close, he saw from afar that there was actually a group of strangers outside the grocery store!

Their clothing was very special, with a blood-colored sun embroidered on their black robes, and a sense of killing and bloodiness was also particularly obvious on them.

I want to share a true experience from my childhood with everyone. I don't know why, but I still remember this thing to this day. Maybe it's because I was confused for too long at the time, and I even went home and asked my parents...

That was when I was in the fourth grade of elementary school. My deskmate was a girl. One morning, I don't know why she found me particularly unpleasant. I remember deeply that I said to her at the time: "Sigh, so-and-so, lend me your homework."

Then she looked at me fiercely and said to me: "Don't say the word 'sigh', if someone else hears it and misunderstands, what should we do!" After speaking, it seemed that she also turned her head and swept a glance at a male classmate in our front row...

A true experience. Later, when I grew up and had a class reunion, I talked about this with a smile, but my old deskmate didn't admit it...