Chapter 54

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The man gave a cold laugh. "You can find someone else if you want. My prices are low enough; if you want a rank three, they charge sixty Stones at under forty percent success rate, and those in rank four—with only a fifty percent success rate—charge at least a hundred Stones. As for those in rank five, heh, for them to—"

Fang Xing waved his hands and interrupted the man"s speech, "Enough. Tell me, how much does it cost for someone with a hundred percent success rate?"

The man gave a blank look before soon laughing coldly at Fang Xing. "Within the entire Danxia Valley, the only disciple with a hundred percent success rate to make a cauldron of this pellet would be none other than s.h.i.+jie Linyun. One of her attempts will cost at least thirty Stones—"

"Thirty? Then what do I need you for?" Fang Xing laughed while once again interrupting the man. "Tell me where she lives!"

"Thirty Stones of the middle grade!" the man frigidly responded.

"Mid-grade Spirit Stones?" Startled by what he had just heard, Fang Xing felt a sense of humiliation and anger. "Why doesn"t she just go rob someone?"

Mid-grade Spirit Stones were spiritual minerals that contained a larger volume of Qi and at more condensed amounts than a regular, low-grade Spirit Stone. A single mid-grade Stone was equivalent to that of one hundred ordinary Stones, so in other words, to achieve a one hundred percent success rate and have Xu Linyun craft this Poji Pellet would require the equivalent of three thousand Spirit Stones, enough to purchase three Poji Pellets at the Qing-Mu Hall.

"Whatever. It"s up to you." The man turned his head and began to completely ignore this country b.u.mpkin in front of him.

"Sh*t, you idlers are even more arrogant than I am…." While Fang Xing muttered soft curses to himself about these alchemists, he felt a strong urge to bring about justice to these people. For the prices they charged with such low rates of success, this banditry was even more than what real bandits would resort to. Fang Xing quietly decided that he would visit these bandits one day….

The other, perhaps main reason was due to how easily they were able to earn Spirit Stones. All of them must have quite a considerable amount of savings, and as Fang Xing thought about it to himself, he headed back towards the Yunyin Summit to think up a detailed plan.

What he did not know was that soon after he left the Danxia Valley, a beautiful woman began to tail behind him.

The woman was dressed in white, with flawless skin like that of jade and a graceful posture that showed a lean, yet tall stature. Twin peaks stood proudly atop her chest, and her hips added another alluring curve to her figure. As she walked beneath the moonlight, a light gust of wind made her look even more incomparably attractive, just like that of an angel.

Upon closer look, someone might be surprised to find that her eyes were filled with tears. Along with the wind, teardrops rolled gently over her lightly pinked cheeks and onto her white dress.

"How could you die just like this?

"I was in seclusion[1] with my dear s.h.i.+fu[2]. I thought I was going to be able to see you return from the Duty Talisman as soon as I was out...

"But why? Why have you not returned? Perhaps you"ll never return….

"You clever and proud man. How could you not complete such a simple mission…?

"Didn"t you say that once you"d entered the inner court or even become a core disciple, you"d take me as your bride?

"Do you know how many times I have dreamt of this? Of becoming your wife? Of doing alchemy for you and you alone? But you…."

The woman walked in a daze as she murmured to herself, her tears flowing uncontrollably in her grief. As she approached the Yunyin Summit, she gently swept her gaze across before walking inside.

Fang Xing lay across his bed—his mind wondering about the different methods he could use to rob these rich alchemists of the Danxia Valley—before he sensed an intense danger surrounding him. He immediately opened his eyes and fixed them right on his door, and it was at this exact moment that the wooden door was slammed open by a violent burst of wind. Alongside the wind was a woman in a white dress, and her gaze towards Fang Xing had been muddled by moisture, as though she had been weeping.

"Hrm? Who is this woman? Why is she looking at me as though I have stolen her man?" Fang Xing was startled and alarmed at the sight of this woman. With a look of confusion, he asked, "Dear s.h.i.+jie, you are...?"

The woman did not reply. Some time later, she slowly opened her mouth, "Were you the one Hou Qing took along with him to slay the beast?"

Fang Xing"s heart sank; he could somewhat guess who this woman was now. However, he continued to pretend being confused. "Uhh, yes, I am. And you are…?"

The woman ignored Fang Xing"s question and gave a cold demand, "How did he die? Tell me everything, and do not leave out a single detail!"

"Detail your mom, you think your grandfather Fang Xing is a storyteller for your amus.e.m.e.nt?" Although Fang Xing silently cursed her, he dared not to act blindly as he did not know her exact ident.i.ty, and he may as well continue with his confused act. "s.h.i.+jie knows s.h.i.+xiong Hou as well? Aii… s.h.i.+xiong Hou was such a great man. He had originally brought me along on the mission so that I could learn from the best, but… but when we arrived at Mount Miasma…"

Fang Xing"s voice was neither too fast nor too slow as he repeated the exact same story he had told at the Duty Talisman Hall. As he spoke, he took care to examine the woman"s reactions.

Fang Xing had already somewhat guessed who she was. When he had his hands on Hou Qing"s storage bag, there had been an abundance of spirit pills and pellet jars, all of which had a small "Xue" imprinted on the bottom. He had already thought at the time that Hou Qing must have had a friend inside the sect who was proficient in the art of alchemy, and even that Demon Pellet could have been from this person"s hands. Considering the woman had come to visit him in the middle of the night, Fang Xing was even more certain that Hou Qing"s friend was most likely this person in front of him.

"And so that was it. s.h.i.+xiong Lyu killed the toad, but he also died," Fang Xing slowly but coherently finished his story. The woman did not speak a single word during the entire process and had only quietly wept. Once Fang Xing had finished, he stopped speaking as well, only looking at the woman in silence.

It would be difficult to find any problems within his story, and even the three elders at the Duty Talisman Hall had been fooled.

"I don"t believe you." However, once the story had ended, the woman let out a sentence that left Fang Xing surprised.

The woman was mournful, as though speaking to herself. "I don"t believe he"d die so easily. He has two Flying Swords of great quality, and I"ve given him so many medicinal pills and pellets. I"ve even taught him Dragon Catching and he was quick to grasp it, too. How could he die so easily? I don"t believe it; I don"t believe you at all. Tell me, when he died, where did his belongings go?"

As she questioned, the woman"s expressions changed before she looked coldly upon Fang Xing"s face.

Surprised, Fang Xing answered without expression, "Most of them were lost. The rest, I"ve returned to the sect."

Suddenly, the woman let out a crazed laughter before bursting out into tears. It was an incredibly sorrowful display.

"s.h.i.+jie, no matter how much you don"t believe me, this is what happened. s.h.i.+xiong Hou was indeed extremely powerful, and I"ve seen him in action, it"s just that it was a fourth-tier Python Toad. s.h.i.+xiong Hou was not familiar with its habits and characteristics. It was unfortunate… but inevitable, from miscalculations…." Fang Xing tried to keep his words as calm and neutral as possible, so as to avoid invoking the madness of a woman in mourning.

"Miscalculations? Heh heh, how could he miscalculate? He told me that the bait was ready, too. He said it was going to be a cinch!" The woman began another round of laughter, before suddenly stopping to stare sharply at Fang Xing once again. "Since he died, why did you come back alive? You"re the bait, you"re the one that was supposed to die! Why did you hide behind the tree? You should have been eaten by the toad so he would have had the chance to kill it! It was all your fault! If you did not hide, how would he die?" The woman raised her voice and appeared to be on the verge of losing her mind. In a flash of the moment, she closed in on Fang Xing and moved to slap him upon his face.

Shocked by her sudden action, Fang Xing"s anger rose within him as he took a step back and narrowly avoided the slap. He then jumped up and sent his palm onto the woman"s face with a loud curse, "F*ck your mother! How dare you slap your grandfather?"

At first, Fang Xing had wanted to avoid trouble as much as possible by pretending to not know anything in front of this woman, as her cultivation level was higher than his and she was an alchemist. However, to sit and be slapped by her would be a totally different story; without a second thought, his body had reflexively slapped all five of his fingers against her face instead.

Of course, the fact that all five of his fingers had managed to imprint marks upon her cheek was slightly outside of even Fang Xing"s expectations.

Fang Xing did not know that even though the woman was in Spirit Stage tier four, she was muddleheaded and full of sorrow. She didn"t attach any importance to Fang Xing and did not expect him to dare avoid her slap, let alone retaliate. Hence, in that moment of carelessness, Fang Xing"s palm had struck right against her clear and delicate skin, leaving behind a mark of red.

NOTES

[1]seclusion: To go into voluntary seclusion is to try to block outside distractions for the sake of a specific goal in mind (such as cultivation), usually in a safe and private location.

[2]s.h.i.+fu: Teacher, master, or "sensei".

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