Chapter 64: The Diligent Xu Qing

Cultivation requires resources.

Especially with the arrival of the God's remnant face, which has caused all things to be invaded by strange substances, obtaining resources has become extremely difficult, and most of it is stained with blood.

A look of contemplation appeared in Xu Qing's eyes; the quantity of spirit stones and materials he needed was vast, and the harvest from refining White Elixirs was far from enough.

"The Homicide Department pays three spirit stones a month, and here with the White Elixirs... if I work hard, I should be able to earn twenty spirit stones a month. Calculating that way, that's twenty-three spirit stones a month."

Xu Qing frowned.

To maintain his current cultivation speed, he had to consume one spirit stone every day, and thinking back to the refining materials he saw at the Sixth Peak disciple shop, none were priced lower than several dozen spirit stones.

"The monthly berth fee is thirty spirit stones, so I need an income of at least sixty spirit stones a month to barely maintain my cultivation. If I want to refine a magic boat, the demand is even greater." Thinking of this, Xu Qing opened his storage bag to check.

At this moment, there were twenty spirit stones inside; this was the reward given by the Homicide Department after he killed Qing Yunzi.

"To obtain more, there are three methods: one is to hunt in the forbidden zones, another is to kill wanted criminals, and the last is to go out to sea and obtain materials through one's own strength."

Xu Qing thought for a moment. For the first method, he needed to take the path of the First Peak, because entering and exiting the forbidden zone next to the sect required a pass from the First Peak, and disciples from other peaks had to pay a certain fee to go there.

As for the third method, hunting at sea, it was naturally the most suitable, but besides the requirements for cultivation, there were also requirements for the magic boat. If it didn't reach a certain strength, he feared it would be a one-way trip.

Xu Qing considered his cultivation sufficient, but his magic boat was of too low a grade, and upgrading the magic boat required spirit stones and materials—this was a vicious cycle.

"Therefore, the fastest way is still to kill wanted criminals, or to plunder fellow disciples, so as to upgrade the magic boat and cultivation as quickly as possible, and then I can go out to sea to hunt, thereby letting everything snowball and become unstoppable!"

A cold glint appeared in Xu Qing's eyes. Compared to plundering fellow disciples who hadn't provoked him, he felt that killing wanted criminals was more appropriate.

After making his decision, Xu Qing sat cross-legged inside his level-two magic boat, added a spirit stone to the spirit-gathering array, and began to cultivate.

But he hadn't cultivated for long before Xu Qing opened his eyes, puzzled, and took out his identity token, upon which a voice message appeared.

"Junior Brother Xu Qing, I am Zhou Qingpeng. Was that you I saw at the pharmacy last time? You've changed so much; I thought for a long time before I figured it should be you. I see you seem very interested in that Ghost Desire Horseshoe Crab; I am familiar with this item, as my family deals in medicinal herbs. If you need it, I can entrust someone to help you get it, it's just that the price is slightly expensive."

After reading it, Xu Qing was thoughtful. He saw that Zhou Qingpeng wanted to earn some spirit stones from him, and he did indeed want a Ghost Desire Horseshoe Crab to study its poison, so he agreed.

Time passed, and six days went by quickly.

During these six days, every time Xu Qing went to the Homicide Department for his shift, he kept an eye on the list of wanted criminals, and his informants, at his request, paid more attention to this aspect as well.

It was just that... there were many people in the Homicide Department earning money this way, and such information was mostly kept secret by each individual, so when Xu Qing occasionally obtained it and went to investigate, he often found nothing.

This forced Xu Qing to change his method.

At the same time, following Xu Qing, new people had also arrived at the Homicide Department these past few days.

But this newcomer clearly had a background; he was not in the same department as Xu Qing, and upon arrival, he wasn't a team member but was directly appointed as the captain of the Third Team of the Earth Department.

And this person seemed to have some methods; less than two days after taking office, the twenty-plus team members under his command were all completely obedient.

However, the four departments of the Homicide Department, because they had different superiors, mostly operated independently in their daily affairs, except for coordinating on large-scale missions, and sometimes even friction would occur.

Therefore, the other departments just listened to the news of the Earth Department's Third Team changing captains and didn't really care, except that the arrival of this newcomer caused some ripples.

Because... this new captain of the Earth Department's Third Team was not of the human race.

Xu Qing had seen him from afar once and immediately recognized that this newly promoted captain of the Earth Department's Third Team was the young alien who had stood behind the Third Imperial Prince when he returned many days ago.

That day, the alien youth had looked at the Third Imperial Prince holding his two fellow clanswomen with disdain, which Xu Qing had noted.

His identity was also quickly dug up by those in the Homicide Department who were paying attention. Xu Qing had heard the members of the Sixth Team mention it and knew the other party was of the Merman race.

Although the Merman race was an alien race, they were allies with the Seven Blood Eyes and had many trade dealings with each other, and this person was said to have a noble status within the Merman race.

After being brought back by the Third Imperial Prince, because he intended to join the Seven Blood Eyes, he was placed in the Homicide Department under the Third Imperial Prince's arrangement.

As for the identity of the Third Imperial Prince, Xu Qing had his guesses and had also asked others, confirming his thoughts.

The Peak Master of the Seventh Peak of the Seven Blood Eyes had three personal disciples, two men and one woman.

Each of these three was a figure like a Crown Prince or a Grand Princess within the Seventh Peak; a single word from them could make countless disciples of the Seventh Peak bow their heads, and it was the same throughout the entire Seven Blood Eyes.

They belonged to the personal disciple sequence of the Seven Blood Eyes.

And because the Peak Master of the Seventh Peak himself had astonishing talent, his fame spread throughout the entire Nanhuangzhou, his combat power was overwhelming, and his influence was the same, so as his personal disciples, their sequence within the Seven Blood Eyes was also extremely high.

Among them, the First Imperial Prince had been in seclusion for years to break through a bottleneck and hadn't been seen for many years, but when Xu Qing heard his teammates discussing him, they said this First Imperial Prince was extremely mysterious, and his combat power was even more terrifying.

During the Foundation Establishment stage, he had once killed many people in the same realm and slaughtered several small alien tribes; looking at the entire Seven Blood Eyes, the First Imperial Prince's sequence ranked second among the personal disciples of all the peaks.

During the discussion, the captain of the Sixth Team, who was eating an apple on the side, hit the nail on the head.

"Generally speaking, such people are mostly not bloodthirsty, but rather have extremes in their personalities; if their reverse scale is touched, they naturally must kill."

Xu Qing heard this and deeply agreed.

As for the Second Senior Sister, when the teammates mentioned her, their expressions were all somewhat fearful. Compared to the mysterious First Imperial Prince whom few had seen in these years, too many people had seen the Second Imperial Prince.

She would stroll around the harbor on normal days, her personality was very strong, her actions were decisive, and she was known for being overbearing. Yet, she possessed strange strength; once she flew into a rage, even the Elders of the Seventh Peak would have a headache.

"That's an illness of hers; it needs to be treated," the captain on the side said in a low voice.

And among the Peak Master's disciples, the most popular was the Third Imperial Prince.

Aside from being lecherous, the Third Imperial Prince had almost no shortcomings. He was always smiling, had no airs toward the disciples, and was extremely generous.

He also tried his best to solve the requests for help from the disciples, especially regarding his relationships with those foreign races on the sea, which were very familiar; he was even called the diplomatic ambassador of the Seventh Peak by many disciples.

And his romantic affairs were also hotly discussed by the disciples.

The captain of the Sixth Team was eating an apple and seemed to want to comment, but not knowing what he thought of, he ultimately didn't speak, just took two more bites of the apple in his hand and looked at everyone with a smile.

Although Xu Qing listened carefully to the discussion of his teammates, he didn't pay too much attention; whether it was the Merman youth or these three princes of the Seventh Peak, none of it had anything to do with him.

Xu Qing's focus during this period was on wanted criminals, and as for the method of finding them, he had also found a direction for change.

That was to wait for the rabbit to hit the tree stump.

This night was Xu Qing's night shift.

The night was dark and the wind was high, the moonlight was thin, and the sea breeze carried moisture into every corner of the city, as if to witness all kinds of darkness happening in the city at night.

Gambling dens and brothels also opened busily in the night, with people coming and going in an endless stream, and occasionally one could see some figures in night-traveling clothes leaping over roofs and walking on walls across various buildings.

In the alleys, spiritual energy fluctuations would occasionally emerge, as if with the moonlight, all kinds of demons and ghosts were slowly descending into the human world.

However, all this noise became somewhat quiet with the passing of one figure.

It wasn't until the figure left that everything returned to normal.

This figure was none other than Xu Qing.

Ever since he dragged Qing Yunzi's corpse through half the city last time, it had been like this every time he was on night shift.

There were no secrets in the main city. Being able to capture Qing Yunzi, who was at the ninth level of Qi Condensation, alive—even if the other party was only a Qi Condensation cultivator from a small sect—and making him unable to escape and miserable, was enough to represent his strength.

And being able to leave safely after confronting the shopkeeper outside the Banquan Road inn, all this was enough to show that this newcomer to the Homicide Department could not be easily provoked.

This was also one of the reasons why Xu Qing hadn't encountered other wanted criminals afterward.

But it didn't matter; Xu Qing felt he had found a new method. At this moment, he was walking in the dark parts of the city, arrived at Banquan Road, looked at the inn that was open not far away, and stood motionless in the corner under the eaves.

His body seemed to have merged with the dark night, waiting silently.

Since he couldn't find clues or wanted criminals, it was better to wait for the rabbit to hit the stump and just wait.

Xu Qing was fully capable of patience. As for offending the old man at the inn by waiting here, Xu Qing had also considered it, but spirit stones were more important, and Xu Qing felt that his current combat power wasn't incapable of a fight.

Just like that, time passed. Two hours later... before the dawn broke, a figure sped over silently from the distance, and the target was the inn.

This person was a thin, dry middle-aged man with small eyes and a long beard, which made his already pointed chin look even more bizarre, making him look like a rat.

At this moment, his small eyes were filled with vigilance. Seeing that he was getting closer and closer to the inn's gate, his heart relaxed, and with a look of emotion on his face, he approached the inn quickly.

"The main city of the Seven Blood Eyes is truly wonderful, especially these inns that open at night; they follow the rules and provide shelter, which is perfect. It's just that it's damn expensive."

"Eighty on the first day, one hundred and sixty on the second, doubling every day... It seems I'll have to find a small city to pull a job in a few days. It's a pity that the ordinary people in those small cities, besides screaming miserably, don't have any savings." The thin, dry middle-aged man muttered to himself. He was only two zhang away from the inn and was about to leap across.

But just at this moment, a cool breeze suddenly blew from behind him, and a cold voice entered his ears.

"Rat Daoist?"

The thin, dry middle-aged man's eyes shrank, and the hair all over his body stood up at this moment. Without any hesitation, he swung his right hand backward violently, as if powder was scattering, and his body exploded with speed, dashing forward.

But it was still too late. Almost the moment his right hand was raised, a dagger appeared in front of his neck and slashed fiercely!

The next moment, as blood erupted, the thin, dry middle-aged man trembled all over, his limbs convulsed, and he made a wheezing sound in his mouth but couldn't speak. Struggling, he turned around and saw the expressionless Xu Qing behind him.

Those powders were of no use to Xu Qing.

"Rat Daoist, from the Litu Sect, skilled in bewitching drugs, with a twisted personality, enjoys slaughtering ordinary people for fun. Half a year ago, he was wanted by Purple Earth for a reward of fifteen spirit stones, announced throughout the entire Nanhuangzhou."

Xu Qing didn't look at the Rat Daoist who had lost his breath, but looked up at the old man standing inside the inn with a gloomy face, reciting the contents of the wanted jade slip.

"No need to recite, I know he is a wanted criminal," the old man said gloomily.

Xu Qing was silent. He cut off the Rat Daoist's head with one stroke, took his leather bag, and kicked the corpse.

With a bang, the corpse landed at the entrance of the inn.

"He didn't enter the inn, I didn't break your rules. You don't have to spend money to buy the corpse; I'm giving it to you."

Saying this, Xu Qing stepped back a few steps until he reached a safe distance, then carried the Rat Daoist's head and left quickly.

"This month, I'm still short forty-five spirit stones..."

Two chapters combined for over eight thousand words of updates~~~

Also, I see there seems to be a fanfiction competition in the book review section, winning the title of "Beyond the Light"? It seems the starting point currently only gives a few dozen title quotas?

Um, can I participate too? I'm a bit tired of the "Youth of Clear Wind" title. I want to change it. After all, when it comes to writing fanfiction for "Beyond the Light," I am the most skilled...