Chapter 1583: Yunmen Qianfan
Editor: Atlas Studios
Three days pa.s.sed in the blink of an eye.
Cloud Gate Clan, Ninth Peak, inside the array formation.
After a year of healing, with the help of the dense spiritual energy in this place and the power of the purple crystal, Xu Qing finally fully recovered from the Dao injury within his body.
The moment he opened his eyes, the pallor of his skin was replaced by a healthy flush.
The sickly aura that had plagued him vanished completely.
The persistent cough that had lingered for a year finally ceased, and the feeling of clarity in his body with each breath made Xu Qing’s once-clouded eyes clear again.
Along with this came the vigorous surge of his cultivation within, and a profound sense of understanding and depth from the past year’s reflection on his Dao arts.
Compared to a year ago, the changes were extremely great.
If Xu Qing from a year ago was like a sharp dagger, then after a year of healing and reflection, he had transformed into a heavy sword.
Moreover, it had a scabbard!
It could hide the edge.
“It’s time to leave.”
Xu Qing looked at the sky.
Everything was normal. The three cultivators outside the array formation were still meditating.
In the final three days, there were no sudden decisive battles between the two clans, nor did any unexpected powerful figures appear.
In Xu Qing’s perception, the Cloud Gate Clan’s ancestor was still struggling at death’s door.
As for Xu Qing’s true combat strength and the fact that he had a qualifying token, it wasn’t exposed.
‘The purple crystal is truly a huge help.’
Xu Qing sensed the purple crystal and muttered inwardly.
When he was recuperating in the swamp, he had tried to use the purple crystal to shield his qualifying token from being detected by others.
In reality, after he fused with the qualifying token, he had tried to do that many times but he had failed.
Both sides seemed to reject each other.
The material of the Immortal Capital’s Token was extremely unique, seemingly having a mysterious connection with the Fifth Star Ring.
Finally, in the swamp, Xu Qing came up with a barely satisfactory method.
The principle was the relationship between Little Shadow and the purple crystal.
He turned Little Shadow into a thin membrane that covered his skin. After that, he used the suppression power of the purple crystal.
In this way, suppressing Little Shadow meant suppressing him as well.
With the continuous suppression, he indirectly achieved the effect of preventing others’ perception.
However, there were also flaws. On one hand, Little Shadow kept on sending crying emotional fluctuations every day.
On the other hand, it was consumption.
Continuing to activate the purple crystal consumed a lot of Xu Qing’s soul energy.
If the other token’s perception range was inferior to his token, Xu Qing could still withstand this consumption.
However, if the other token’s perception range surpa.s.sed his own, it would be difficult for him to maintain it. Even if he forcefully maintained the perception block, Xu Qing wouldn’t be able to withstand the instant consumption and Little Shadow wouldn’t be able to withstand it either.
He was still too weak in the end.
Fortunately, the range of Xu Qing’s token wasn’t small. Although there were people who had tokens with higher perception range, in this laid-back Western Starfield, most cultivators tended to avoid getting too close unless a confrontation was absolutely necessary.
After all, it wasn’t time for the second stage to be intense yet.
As for the Cloud Gate and the Earth Spirit Clans, the perception range of their token holders was inferior to Xu Qing’s. Hence, under the perception blocking shield, they couldn’t sense that Xu Qing was a token holder as well.
It was also because of this that Xu Qing chose to join the Cloud Gate Clan when they were recruiting outsiders.
The battle between the two clans also caused the number of outsiders here to be low and most of them avoided coming near this battlefield.
This allowed Xu Qing to have a relatively safe period of time.
Today, he had completely healed the Dao injuries on his body.
“Although there were no accidents in these three days, there was a mission that came from the Cloud Gate Clan…”
Xu Qing narrowed his eyes and retracted his gaze from the sky, landing on a jade slip in front of him.
This jade slip had arrived yesterday.
It a.s.signed a mission to Xu Qing.
Escort a Cloud Gate clansman to Black Cloud City. The sooner they set off, the better.
“This mission arrived when the final battle of the Cloud Gate Clan is about to start…”
Xu Qing fell into deep thought.
“This is bait.”
“However, the conditions given are pretty good.”
Xu Qing’s divine sense landed on the jade slip. It told him that the reward for completing this mission was the soil that contained spatial ability that he had been searching for this past year.
For there to be such a coincidence, it was natural the clan had already planned this.
Clearly, the merchant group of this clan hadn’t only found clues of the item but had long found the item itself. It was just that they didn’t tell Xu Qing.
If his injuries hadn’t recovered, Xu Qing wouldn’t have accepted this mission even if he really wanted to obtain that item.
But now…
Xu Qing thought about it and pointed at the jade slip.
As the jade slip shone with a halo, an hour later, a rainbow rushed toward the ninth peak from the core mountain of the Cloud Gate Clan.
Its speed wasn’t slow, emitting the fluctuations of a third stage Nihility cultivator.
Soon, they arrived at the top of the ninth peak.
The three people sitting cross-legged here had strange expressions as they stared over.
The person who came was a woman.
The woman, dressed in white, exuded an aura of purity. Her clothes also bore gray patterns that subtly shimmered, emanating the energy of a formation.
As for her appearance, it was quite beautiful, with a fresh and delicate quality, like petals in the early morning light.
There was also a gentle aura in her brow, as if her eyes could speak with countless unspoken words.
As she moved with a graceful step, her liveliness became even more apparent. Upon arriving at the ninth peak, she quickened her pace and respectfully bowed to Xu Qing, who was within the formation.
“YunmenO Qianfan greets Senior Flame Mystic.”
“The person I have to escort is you?” Within the array formation, Xu Qing’s gaze was like lightning as it landed on the woman.
Under Xu Qing’s gaze, the woman felt a pang of nervousness in her heart.
“Sorry to trouble you, senior.”
Xu Qing was expressionless. Just as he was about to retract his gaze, he saw the woman’s chest and his eyes narrowed.
“Interesting. Come in for a while.”
Xu Qing raised his hand and waved it, opening a gap in the array formation.
The woman became even more nervous when she heard this. However, she knew that this matter concerned her life and death in the future. Hence, she took a deep breath and walked toward the array formation through the gap and arrived in front of Xu Qing.
Looking at the middle-aged man in front of her, all kinds of information about him in the past year appeared in the woman’s mind. She sighed inwardly and wondered if her choice was right.
According to the clan’s arrangement, she had three possible escorts to choose from, but she ultimately gave up the other two and chose Flame Mystic.
The reason for this was her unique const.i.tution and her lifelong practice of divination.
After learning about the task she was about to face, she repeatedly attempted to divinate her fate, searching for a chance of survival. Ultimately, she found a glimmer of hope only in the presence of Flame Mystic.
However, this trace sometimes appeared and sometimes disappeared.
Yet, she was a decisive person. Since she had already made her choice, she displayed a resolute expression, bit her white teeth, and, before Xu Qing could ask, she quickly bowed to him and spoke.
“Senior, there is something important I need to inform you. This mission from our Cloud Gate Clan is not solely a.s.signed to you.”
“In reality, a total of fourteen a.s.signments have been issued!”
“Each a.s.signment designates a guest elder to escort a core clansman to different cities.”
“The reason for this is that among us, someone is carrying a secret key with a special method, which is crucial to the clan’s future rise.”
“However, even we don’t know who it is on. It might be with me, it might be with others, or it might be with none of us.”
“But no matter what, other than the person who really carries the secret key, everyone else is bait to attract the Earth Spirit Clan.”
Having finished speaking, Yunmen Qianfan let out a long breath. She knew she was taking a gamble, and since she was gambling, she had to go all in. She then raised her hand and retrieved a box from the spot Xu Qing had previously looked at.
She opened it.
Inside the box was a lump of fist-sized soil!
Waves of spatial energy spread out, distorting the surroundings.
This was what Xu Qing wanted.
According to the mission on the jade slip, he would only obtain it after completing the mission.
But now, the other party had taken it out in advance. Moreover, Xu Qing could tell that this item wasn’t sealed.
However, there were traces of a seal. It should have been unsealed not long ago and there was some blood. It seemed that the method to unseal it was through blood.
“This spatial soil is what Senior has been searching for this year. When I obtained it from the clan, it was sealed, and this seal is bound to my life and death. It can only be opened with my origin blood if I willingly choose to do so.” “After some thought, I wasn’t willing to use this method to threaten Senior and removed the seal.”
With that, Yunmen Qianfan respectfully handed it over. After that, she lowered her head and knelt down.
She had already told him what she shouldn’t say and destroyed the arrangement her family had set up for her survival.
She didn’t hide anything and didn’t guard herself either. She was completely honest as she knelt down and allowed Xu Qing to examine the item.
Xu Qing was calm as he looked at the soil. After confirming that there was no mistake with this item, he put it away and glanced at the woman kneeling there.
He calmly spoke.
“A person with a normal thought process would not act as you have.”
Yunmen Qianfan took a deep breath and replied in a low voice.
“My physique is unique, and I practice the way of divination. However, I did not attempt to divine your fate, nor did I dare to. Instead, I divined where I had to request help from, and the result pointed to nine.”
Xu Qing’s gaze darkened.
“What do you want?”
“Junior wants… to survive and reach Black Cloud City alive.”
The woman raised her head and spoke softly.
Xu Qing didn’t give an answer immediately. Instead, he pondered for a while before slowly standing up and walking out of the array formation.
With every step he took, the array formation would ripple.
Yunmen Qianfan was feeling uneasy. Just as she lowered her head and was worrying about gains and losses, Xu Qing had already walked past her.
“Follow me.”
As the voice rang out and landed in Yunmen Qianfan’s ears, her mind fluctuated intensely. She immediately stood up and followed behind Xu Qing.
The entire ninth peak suddenly shook.
As the array formation rippled, Xu Qing walked out of the array formation under the respectful gazes of the three cultivators.
With a step, he landed in the void, forming a ring-shaped energy that surged in all directions.
With the second step, he rose to the sky and advanced toward the distance.
Yunmen Qianfan followed closely behind, behaving like a maid. This would be her position for the journey ahead.
For her, having staked everything, she could only place her hope in this Flame Mystic, whom her divination had guided her to.