Chapter 150: Song Weimin Shows Up

In midair, the Floating Light Sword emitted a dazzling white radiance as its blade began to transform, the rust gradually diminishing, revealing a faint silver-gold hue.

A quarter of an hour later, the rust had completely vanished, and a silver-gold longsword appeared before Hua Changxi's eyes.

The Floating Light Sword had absorbed so much spiritual energy just to reveal its true form; this was undoubtedly a high-grade spirit sword. Hua Changxi pricked her finger and flicked out a drop of essence blood, which merged into the sword.

However, the Floating Light Sword was unwilling to absorb the essence blood, emitting white radiance to resist its penetration—until a tiny firebird flew out from the essence blood, plunged straight into the sword, and only then did the essence blood merge with the Floating Light Sword.

Watching this scene, Hua Changxi was somewhat amazed but not particularly surprised.

What amazed her was that a Vermilion Bird shadow could actually fly out from her essence blood and even break through the white radiance of the Floating Light Sword.

As for the Floating Light Sword's reluctance to absorb her essence blood, she wasn't surprised because if anyone could make the Floating Light Sword recognize them as master, with so many cultivators in the Embroidered Uniform Guard, it would never have fallen to her.

She guessed that Pang Shaoyu was willing to give her the sword not only out of urgency to save someone but also because, more likely than not, no one in the Embroidered Uniform Guard could use the Floating Light Sword.

As a Nascent Soul cultivator, the spiritual energy accumulated in her body exceeded ten billion points, and even she was almost drained dry, let alone others.

After the Floating Light Sword absorbed the essence blood, Hua Changxi became connected to the sword. With a wave of her hand, the sword fell into her grasp.

Hua Changxi examined the sword, now brand new in her hand. On the scabbard, the three characters "Floating Light Sword" were conspicuously engraved; just these three characters gave a sense of extraordinary quality.

Hua Changxi was delighted at obtaining a high-grade spirit sword, but the next moment, the smile froze on her face.

She exerted all her strength, even using her last ounce of effort, yet she could not pull the sword from its scabbard.

"What's going on?"

Hua Changxi frowned, tried to draw the sword for a while longer, confirmed that she really couldn't pull it out, and then picked up the sword technique manual to read it carefully again.

Perhaps, with the help of the sword technique, she could draw the sword?

With this assumption, Hua Changxi held the unsheathed sword and, following the sword technique, practiced it line by line.

Meanwhile, on the fifth floor of the training hall, Yun You and Su Yu simultaneously walked out of their training rooms and looked up at the main hall at the highest level.

Su Yu: "What do you think that white radiance just now was?"

Yun You: "The white radiance must have been created by the Hall Master. Since it concerns the Hall Master, you and I should not inquire."

Su Yu glanced at Yun You, a flicker passing through his eyes, then he put on an apologetic expression: "I was thoughtless. Thank you for the reminder, Manager Yun."

Yun You frowned at his address: "Manager? The Hall Master only put me in temporary charge of the Medicine Hall, not as a manager. Just call me fellow Daoist."

Su Yu showed a look of chagrin: "I misspoke. Please don't take offense, Fellow Daoist Yun."

Yun You glanced at him, said nothing, and turned to go back to her training room.

Su Yu called her to stop: "Fellow Daoist Yun, wait. I see many training rooms are occupied. How many Vermilion Bird Army members are there now?"

Yun You stared at Su Yu: "Fellow Daoist Su, this is not your concern." Having said that, she directly returned to her training room without giving Su Yu any chance to react.

Seeing this, Su Yu glanced toward the main hall and muttered under his breath: "We're all comrades—just asking casually, what's the harm?" Saying so, he let out a disappointed sigh.

The Floating Light Sword Technique was very difficult to practice. Hua Changxi practiced it several times but still stumbled through it. When she stopped to rest, she happened to notice the conversation between Yun You and Su Yu.

Hua Changxi had no particular reaction to this, but the two left a slightly deeper impression on her.

That evening, Hua Changxi stayed in the main hall to recover her spiritual energy. By the next morning, all the spiritual energy absorbed by the Floating Light Sword had been fully restored.

[Realm: Nascent Soul 18.0750 billion / 10 billion; Divine Sense: 110,000+]

Hua Changxi looked at her current realm data. Including the spiritual energy replenished by the third-grade Fire-Returning Pill taken earlier, the Floating Light Sword had absorbed nearly twenty billion spiritual energy points from her in total.

Consuming that much spiritual energy just to reveal the sword's original form—no wonder the Floating Light Sword had been left gathering dust in the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Then, Hua Changxi set aside the matter of the Floating Light Sword and turned her inner sight toward the Nascent Soul above the Qi Sea.

Over the past two months, while cultivating, she had noticed that the Nascent Soul was somewhat unstable, and the speed of cultivation had clearly slowed down.

Having experienced the disappearance of her Core Formation golden core, she knew that the instability of the Nascent Soul was likely because her current state of mind could not keep up with her cultivation speed.

Her experience and trials were still too few!

Hua Changxi thought of the Nine Nether Ghost Market. The Buddhist bead bracelet was still at Ox-Head Mountain—she had to retrieve it. She would need to find another opportunity to go to the Nine Nether Ghost Market.

Eunuch Lin of the Eastern Depot had invited her to go down to the Nine Nether together. She didn't intend to refuse. Compared to exploring the Nine Nether alone, having a guide would definitely help her understand and become familiar with the Nine Nether Ghost Market faster.

However, before that, she still had to make some preparations.

Since her cultivation speed had slowed down, she could reduce her cultivation time from now on and increase the time spent on alchemy. Before descending into the Nine Netherworld, it would be best to upgrade her alchemist rank to the fourth grade.

That way, she would be able to refine pills for cultivators at the Nascent Infant stage. Going to the Nine Netherworld Ghost Market would also come with multiple layers of safety.

The Medical Department had been taken over by Prince Shou, and the Qihuang Hall could no longer be entered freely. Hua Changxi didn't want to go back and planned to stay at the Lingguang Hall to continue refining pills, but at that moment, her communication talisman lit up.

"Changxi, your eldest brother came to the shop looking for you again. He said that on the twenty-third of October, he's going to announce his engagement, and he wants you to come home."

It was a message from Pucao. Upon hearing its contents, Hua Changxi fell silent for a moment. After a while, she still mounted her cloud and flew toward the capital.

After returning to the capital, Hua Changxi did not immediately go back to the Hua family. Instead, she first went to the Shennong Herbal Medicine Shop in Feng'an Ward. As soon as she arrived at the shop, she saw Pang Shaoyu.

When Pang Shaoyu saw Hua Changxi, his face lit up with joy: "Finally I get to see you."

Hua Changxi looked at him: "Did someone from the Brocade Guard get injured again?"

Pang Shaoyu didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "No one's injured. I came to apologize to you."

Hua Changxi was surprised: "What do you have to apologize to me for?"

Pang Shaoyu gestured for her to talk in the back courtyard.

Hua Changxi led him to the back courtyard: "Go ahead and speak."

Pang Shaoyu looked embarrassed: "My uncle has woken up. When he found out that I gave you the Fuguang Sword, he gave me a thorough scolding."

Hua Changxi raised an eyebrow: "What, do you want to take the Fuguang Sword back?"

Pang Shaoyu explained: "That Fuguang Sword is a malevolent sword. To be honest with you, back when we first got that sword, the Brocade Guard thought they had obtained some incredible divine sword. Many people fought over it, trying to make the sword acknowledge them as its master, but in the end, they were drained dry by the sword."

"This matter was covered up. I didn't know, which is why I gave the Fuguang Sword to you. I came to find you just to warn you not to mess around with it."

Hua Changxi nodded: "Alright, I understand. Is there anything else?"

Pang Shaoyu had originally thought Hua Changxi would take the opportunity to demand some other benefits, but he didn't expect her not to mention anything at all. Seeing her like this, he tested the waters: "My uncle said you can trade the Fuguang Sword for something else with the Brocade Guard."

Hua Changxi looked at him: "I am a principled person. Since we agreed on the terms for saving someone back then, we should stick to the original agreement. I accepted the reward you gave me at the time. Good or bad, I'll bear it myself."

Pang Shaoyu: "..."

Hua Changxi: "Is there anything else?"

Pang Shaoyu shook his head.

Hua Changxi: "Then I won't see you out."

Seeing that Hua Changxi was so blunt in dismissing him, Pang Shaoyu didn't feel he could stay long: "Remember what I said—that really is a malevolent sword."

Hua Changxi watched Pang Shaoyu leave. After he had gone far, she turned her gaze toward the tea house opposite the medicine shop and locked eyes with a middle-aged man sitting by the street.

After they stared at each other for a while, the middle-aged man got up and walked toward the medicine shop.

Hua Changxi looked at him: "And you are, sir?"

The middle-aged man: "Song Weimin."

Hua Changxi: "You were staring at me for quite a while. Is there something you need from me?"

Song Weimin nodded: "Did my senior brother come looking for you?"

Hua Changxi frowned: "Who is your senior brother?"

Song Weimin: "My senior brother is Cao Jun, the Prefect of Jingzhao."

As he said this, Song Weimin stared unblinkingly at Hua Changxi, trying to read any change in her expression.

Unfortunately, he saw nothing.