Chapter 352: As If an Old Friend Returned

At this moment, beside the Taichu Liyou Pillar, the Captain was drilling around in the crowd, wanting to find a better position to sense.

Having not sensed successfully for three days, he felt it should be that the position was not auspicious, so he planned to get closer.

But before he could find it, the Captain suddenly had a bad premonition in the dark.

"My intuition is very accurate, something is wrong..." The Captain pondered, carefully recalling the things he had done recently.

"Was the eye I left on the Ghost Emperor Mountain discovered?"

"Was my informant in the Taisi Immortal Sect exposed?"

"Was the clone I secretly placed in the Three Spirits Town Dao Mountain found?"

"Did the person I bribed in the Litu Sect betray me?"

"Does Yan Huang know I want to steal his house?"

"Did that enemy of mine in the Corpse Forbidden wake up?" Thinking back and forth, the Captain suddenly remembered one thing.

"Did Zixuan Shangxian reply?"

The Captain had a headache, not knowing where he went wrong, but this premonition of heart palpitations was very strong, so he left the crowd incomparably vigilant.

He even covered his aura and changed his appearance, but he still felt uneasy, so he left the vicinity of the Taichu Liyou Pillar, found a remote tent at the edge of the city, paid some money painfully to rent it, sat there, and sensed cautiously.

But he felt it was still not steady, so he formed seals with both hands and unfolded a certain secret technique to hide himself deeper.

Not long after, Xu Qing came, searched for a circle near the Taichu Liyou Pillar, but didn't find the Captain's trace.

As for the shadow's searching, it needed a certain range. This place was too big. Unless Xu Qing walked the entire city, he couldn't search accurately.

Searching without result, Xu Qing turned and left.

Soon a few days passed. Seeing everything as usual, the Captain gradually relaxed. Although the concealment always existed, his body and mind were mostly immersed in sensing.

However, Xu Qing didn't give up. In these few days, besides going to sense the battle intent of the Taichu Liyou Pillar to make more battle spiritual seals in his sea of consciousness, the rest of the time he was wandering in this city composed of countless tents.

Because there were many cultivators here, many large and small markets were formed, and the things sold inside were varied, mostly peculiar.

Xu Qing saw many during the process of looking for the Captain's trace these few days, and also bought some poison grass things.

However, he changed his appearance every time he went out and carried out some concealment.

It was really because in these few days, he had already received seven or eight challenges from heaven's pride disciples of various sects in Yinghuang Prefecture.

His arrival was already known by many people, and as the one in the Eight Sect Alliance who enjoyed Daoist treatment in this generation, his fame was actually spread in various sects.

After all, two life lamps and imperial-level techniques, and beheading Sheng Yunzi, all of this made Xu Qing's share in the hearts of this generation's disciples of various sects in Yinghuang Prefecture not low.

Now that the Sword-Holder trial was imminent, those who thought their strength was okay all wanted to reveal the momentum of suppressing large sect heaven's pride figures here, so as to attract the attention of the Sword-Holding Court and add points for themselves.

So not only was Xu Qing challenged, but other heaven's pride figures in the Alliance were also frequently challenged, and other large sects were the same. Every day, people took action to spar.

Among them, there was only one person who no one dared to challenge from beginning to end. This person was the Daoist Zhang Siyun of the Taisi Immortal Sect, who was also hailed as the first person of this generation in Yinghuang Prefecture.

Rumors outside said he already possessed the combat power of the Sixth Palace. At this age, reaching such a degree made disciples of various sects not dare to fight, and they were all in awe.

And he didn't stay in Taichu City, but went to the depths of the ice plain, said to be using the environment here to hone his own techniques.

Compared with him, Xu Qing, who looked at most like the combat power of the Third or Sigong in the eyes of outsiders, naturally became the best challenge object second only to the Taisi Immortal Sect Daoist.

Among those who challenged him, there were also people from the Taisi Immortal Sect, and Xu Qing didn't have any interest in this kind of tasteless challenge.

At this moment, he was walking in a relatively large market, his gaze sweeping over the stalls on the left and right, wanting to see if there were any special poison grasses.

There were quite a few cultivators here. Besides local loose cultivators, there were also some sect disciples from all directions, very lively.

Soon Xu Qing's footsteps paused, and his gaze fell on a stall.

The things sold here were all materials for alchemy and weapon refining, and there were also some medicinal herbs inside.

Among them, a Five-Line Gold Insect Grass belonged to a very good poison-fusing conversion thing in Xu Qing's pharmacopoeia. Its medicinal properties were peculiar, and it needed gold Qi to be preserved after being unearthed.

Thus, he walked over. Before he got close, he heard someone mentioning his name beside him.

"Have you heard? Li Ziliang of the Taisi Immortal Sect has already accepted nine challenges, winning all nine. His Golden Core Sigong cultivation base is very formidable. Now in the Taisi Immortal Sect, his limelight is second only to their Daoist."

"This person is indeed extraordinary. Some time ago, he reached the height of five hundred zhang on the Taichu Liyou Pillar. It is said that that was not his limit."

"He is also born at the wrong time. If the Taisi Immortal Sect didn't have Zhang Siyun, this person should also be able to become a Daoist."

"It is said that he has already issued three challenges to the quasi-Daoist Xu Qing of the Eight Sect Alliance, but that Xu Qing is obviously afraid. The habits of people from small places are mostly like this, not daring to fight. Recently, various sects are laughing and talking about this matter."

Hearing this, Xu Qing turned his head and glanced expressionlessly. Those who were discussing this matter were disciples of three small sects attached to the Taisi Immortal Sect, and their cultivation was not high, just Foundation Establishment.

Xu Qing had seen many such people.

Obviously their cultivation was ordinary, but they were very keen on commenting on the strong. It seemed that in this commenting and the contempt of words, they could find their own sense of existence.

Xu Qing's gaze swept over the faces of these three people, and after withdrawing it, he walked to the stall and pointed at that Five-Line Insect Grass.

The stall owner was a bald cultivator with one eye blind. The remaining eye emanated cold light. He raised his head, swept over Xu Qing, and rolled up that medicinal herb with a wave of his hand, handing it to Xu Qing.

"This medicinal herb is two thousand spirit stones."

Xu Qing took the insect grass into his hand, inspected it, nodded, gave the spirit stones, put away the insect grass, and asked one sentence.

"Are there any more."

"Yes!" Hearing this, the stall owner's eyes lit up. He took out a small mud tile bottle from his body, opened it carefully, took out three more Gold Insect Grasses, and handed them to Xu Qing.

But Xu Qing's gaze fell on this small mud tile bottle.

Generally speaking, the bottles used by cultivators to contain things were either jade or gold and iron. Wood was also there, but a bottle formed purely of mud tile was very rare.

And nourishing the Five-Line Gold Insect Grass needed gold Qi, which made Xu Qing somewhat surprised. After inspecting carefully, he discovered that there was a trace of sharp aura emanating from this small mud tile bottle.

"Is what is contained here gold Qi?" Xu Qing pointed at the small bottle.

The bald cultivator swept over Xu Qing and grinned.

"Daoist friend, this is not ordinary gold Qi, but Shangzhang Gengjin Qi emanating from the Taichu Liyou Pillar. I obtained it when I was lucky when climbing the Taichu Liyou Pillar."

"This Qi can only be contained by mud tile. Generally, it is taken to refine weapons for one-time use. I don't have a handy magic weapon yet, so it was temporarily used by me to nourish the insect grass."

"Do you want to buy it? This thing is very expensive, fifty thousand spirit stones!"

The bald cultivator licked his lips. He saw that the person in front of him should be a sect cultivator. He didn't bargain when buying insect grass before, so he must have money.

Xu Qing pondered. Regarding the peculiar Qi emanating from the Taichu Liyou Pillar, he had heard the Captain say some things, and it also contained this so-called Shangzhang Gengjin Qi.

This made him think of his iron skewer.

Thus, after pondering, Xu Qing took out the jade slip, put on a posture of inquiring, and then shook his head.

"I inquired, there should be many people who sold this Qi over the years. I will pay at most fifty thousand spirit stones; if it is more, I won't buy it."

The bald man's expression was displeased. He was also urgently lacking spirit stones recently to buy elixirs, preparing to break through the Three-Fire Foundation Establishment and step into the Tiangong Golden Core, and because he felt Xu Qing had money, he offered the price.

But Xu Qing's counter-offer made him feel like a joke, so he was just about to shake his head, but Xu Qing swept over this bald man and spoke suddenly.

"I also have a Yun Palace Pill." Xu Qing said, taking out an elixir bottle. This was something he bought before promoting to the Tiangong Golden Core, which he didn't use later. Its value was also around thirty thousand spirit stones.

This elixir had a certain help for promoting to the Tiangong, and only large sects had it for sale; loose cultivators couldn't buy it directly.

Hearing this, the bald cultivator's expression froze. After taking it and opening it to smell it, he was slightly moved, hesitated for a while, and nodded.

"Deal!"

Saying this, he handed the small mud tile bottle to Xu Qing, and then immediately closed the stall and left.

Xu Qing took the small mud bottle, shook it, and put it away; he planned to return to the encampment to try it out and see if it was effective on the iron skewers.

At this moment, as he was walking toward the encampment, a sudden burst of clamorous noise came from the direction of the Taichu Liyou Pillar in the distance.

Xu Qing raised his head. What he looked at was that on the heaven-shaking Taichu Liyou Pillar, someone was climbing to a position exceeding five hundred zhang.

This person was precisely that heaven's pride figure of the Taichu Immortal Sect he saw when he came here, and also the Li Ziliang mentioned by those people just now. He had issued challenges to Xu Qing many times, but was ignored by Xu Qing.

At this moment, he exceeded his previous limit and had reached the position of six hundred zhang, causing discussions among the cultivators near the Taichu Liyou Pillar.

Such as Huang Yikun and some heaven's pride figures of the Seven Blood Eyes, they were only at the position of two hundred zhang.

Now, whether it was the Eight Sect Alliance or other sects, the one who climbed the highest among the participants was him, suppressing the disciples of various sects. For a time, his limelight was unparalleled.

Xu Qing's expression was as usual, and he withdrew his gaze.

He didn't pay it any mind, and as he walked along, he left the marketplace. When he got closer and closer to the Eight Sect Alliance encampment, Xu Qing saw a Dao altar.

There were many Dao altars in Taichu Liyou City, mostly places for lecturing on cultivation methods, uniformly arranged by the Sword-Holding Court.

Occasionally, Sword-Holders would come to lecture personally. Although it was not free, it only charged a symbolic spirit stone.

At this moment, there were dozens of loose cultivators outside this Dao altar, not many, because what was lectured here was not cultivation methods, but the Dao of plants and trees.

From far away, a hoarse and vicissitudinous voice emanated from the Dao altar.

"Qinghe Flower Dew, also known as Green Lotus Dew, is the fragrant water obtained from the flower buds of the water lily family plant lotus, combined with a special method of warm fire. Its function is to soothe the lungs and treat fire-technique coughing blood..."

"Gold Button Grass, also known as..."

Xu Qing's footsteps paused. These two paragraphs were incomparably familiar to him; they were precisely the records of medicinal herbs in his pharmacopoeia, not a word off.

His mind moved, and he turned his head to look over.

Looking at this, Xu Qing's entire body shook, and bright light appeared in his eyes.

He saw a thin old man.

This old man wore a gray long robe. Although there were many wrinkles on his face, his eyes were bright and piercing, and there was depth within them, as if containing wisdom. His voice was gentle, carrying warmth.

He looked like Master Bai, but he wasn't.

Xu Qing's eyes dimmed a bit. He stood there and listened for a while, then left silently. ===== CHAPTER 353 =====