Ming Qing Pavilion (Seeking Readers)

Green Bamboo Mountain.

Fang Xi's figure appeared in the cellar, and he warily glanced around.

Seeing that the Protective Talisman on the wall was still intact, though its spiritual light had become incredibly faint, he immediately let out a sigh of relief.

"I was able to come back. It seems I can leave that perilous place easily."

As for trying to bring someone through?

Fang Xi did not have that thought in his mind at all!

His Golden Finger was of utmost importance. Even if everyone in Black Stone City died, he would never compromise on this point.

This time, he had used the search for supplies as an excuse to travel to an uninhabited corner before making the crossing.

At this moment, Fang Xi's expression gradually turned serious as he took a small jade bottle from his robes.

Inside the bottle was the blood of a demon-corrupted person!

"The demon of the Great Liang World... isn't the same thing as the demonic cultivators of the Cultivation World. At least, I haven't sensed the slightest trace of demonic qi. Yet judging from its manifestations, it's extraordinarily strange..."

After some thought, Fang Xi took out a jade plate, tipped the bottle, and let a drop of dark blood roll onto it.

Clang!

The blood bead landed on the jade plate and immediately made a sound like a pearl. It seemed to have already solidified.

Expressionless, Fang Xi sent wisps of Blood Qi Power into the jade plate.

A large number of vein-like patterns instantly surfaced on the plate's surface, winding round and round toward the blood bead.

Hiss, hiss!

Thin white smoke appeared. The moment those blood threads touched the bead, they turned into nothingness, evidently evaporated completely!

At this sight, Fang Xi's expression did not change. He merely changed the power he was sending in to true force.

Buzz, buzz!

The light of the blood threads in the jade plate suddenly blazed!

Wisps and strands coiled toward the blood bead.

The blood bead was half-wrapped and began to melt. Yet in the next moment, an astonishing scene unfolded—the inside of the blood bead began to seep out with one incomplete black tadpole symbol after another.

The blood lines formed from true force gave an overwhelmed groan when they encountered those symbols, then were slowly corroded away.

Watching this scene, Fang Xi's expression grew solemn.

"Leaving Blood Qi Power aside, even a Martial Artist's true force is still corroded when it encounters diluted Low-grade Curse Power?"

After testing it with the methods of a cultivator, Fang Xi immediately gained an understanding of Mu Canglong's condition.

That Martial Hall Master had previously said that a large amount of true force could resist it, but judging from the current situation, his death was probably not far off!

"Curse Power... the power of demons... a power that surpasses Blood Qi Martial Arts?"

Fang Xi thought for a moment, then circulated his cultivation art once more.

But this time, what he circulated was the Evergreen Art!

Wisps of cool, refreshing magic power seeped into the jade plate, transforming into Azure Threads that continuously stabbed toward the blood bead.

This time!

Even when the dark, incomplete tadpole characters surfaced again, the Azure Threads easily pierced through them.

Then the blood bead slowly melted and suddenly transformed into a wisp of azure smoke before dissipating...

"The magic power of cultivators can restrain Curse Power?"

Fang Xi's eyes lit up.

This was good news.

At least for cultivators, demons might not be immortal after all.

"Mu Canglong is about to die. I wonder whether that Clear Spirit Pill in my possession will work?"

As he thought, Fang Xi walked out of the wooden hut.

A note was conspicuously pasted on the door.

He picked it up and looked at it, immediately growing somewhat excited. "It's Chen Ping..."

Previously, he had asked Chen Ping to introduce him to a few circles. It seemed that he had finally gained something!

Half a day later.

Green Bamboo Mountain Market.

Chen Ping and Fang Xi arrived one after the other before a tall teahouse.

A trace of smugness colored Chen Ping's face. "Fellow Daoist Fang, rest assured. Fellow Daoist Shen and Yunmeng Fairy are both amiable people and never put on airs."

Fang Xi gave a wry smile. "That isn't what I'm worried about. Rather..."

He raised his head and glanced at the signboard.

The teahouse was called Ming Qing Pavilion and was famous for selling Spirit Tea.

This high-consumption establishment was somewhere the original Fang Xi had never even considered visiting.

Still, he had come shamelessly. After all, there was no harm in making friends with fellow cultivators.

Of course, this was also because Chen Ping had said the gathering place was inside the Market. If he had dared say it was outside Green Bamboo Mountain, Fang Xi would have turned around and left without another word, then severed ties with him.

"Oh, don't worry. Yunmeng Fairy has already paid the private-room fee this time."

Seeing what Fang Xi was worried about, Chen Ping offered a word of consolation.

"I see. Then what are we waiting for?"

Fang Xi immediately pulled Chen Ping into Ming Qing Pavilion.

The pavilion was decorated with elegant simplicity and contained a terrace where a Qin musician was plucking the strings with slender fingers.

Serene Incense rose in thin, curling wisps from the incense burners all around.

Though there were some guests, they spoke extremely quietly. It was truly an incomparably refined place.

Chen Ping seemed somewhat nervous as well. After confirming the route, he entered a private room.

Inside, a male and female cultivator were already seated on meditation cushions. Both were at the mid-stage of Qi Refining.

The male cultivator had a handsome, jade-like appearance and an unrestrained elegance. He wore a blue fox-fur coat and a jade crown, possessing an extraordinary bearing.

The female cultivator looked only fifteen or sixteen. She wore a pink dress, her skin as delicate as if it could be blown apart, her brows and eyes gentle as water, and her bearing dreamy and misty.

"Let me introduce everyone. This is Fellow Daoist Shen Haoran, and this is Yunmeng Fairy..."

Chen Ping introduced the three of them. "This is Fellow Daoist Fang Xi, my good brother who lives next door."

"Greetings to you both."

Fang Xi was somewhat surprised. He had originally thought that Chen Ping's connections consisted only of fellow cultivators in the early stage of Qi Refining. He had not expected him to have access to people of this caliber.

"Greetings, Fellow Daoist Fang."

Shen Haoran drank his Spirit Tea without a care and offered a casual greeting, appearing extremely unconcerned.

Yunmeng Fairy, however, rose and gave a graceful bow, displaying impeccable manners and upbringing.

But Fang Xi could tell that the more thorough the etiquette, the more distant it seemed.

"We're blessed today. Not only can we sample this Cloud-Mist Spirit Tea, we can also listen to Phoenix Qin Master perform."

Chen Ping sat down with Fang Xi, then smiled. "We must thank Yunmeng Fairy as well."

"It was beyond even this little girl's expectations that Phoenix Qin Master was willing to come..."

Yunmeng Fairy covered her lips and smiled.

Fang Xi did not join the trio's conversation. He merely concentrated on drinking tea and eating pastries.

He knew his position very well: he was merely an ornament and a backdrop.

Yunmeng Fairy and Shen Haoran were clearly not low-level Rogue Cultivators. The reason they valued Chen Ping might be because of his talent for crafting talismans.

By comparison, he had no special skill at all. It was better for him to honestly remain a little transparent.

For instance, this Spirit Tea was quite good. A single sip refreshed both body and mind.

The Spirit Food pastries were good as well. Not only did a bite leave their fragrance lingering between his teeth and cheeks, it also increased his cultivation.

Fang Xi even felt that if he could enjoy such spiritual delicacies every day, he might reach the peak of the third layer of Qi Refining within a month.

"Phoenix Qin Master is coming! There's another distinguished guest too."

Just then, a Sound Transmission Talisman flew in from outside.

Shen Haoran caught it, delight blooming across his face. At the same time, he glanced toward Fang Xi.

Fang Xi swept his gaze around and found that the private room seemed spacious with four people, but would be slightly cramped with five.

As the person with the lowest cultivation and weakest background, he needed to have some sense of propriety. He immediately rose. "Everyone, I just remembered that I have an urgent matter at home. I'll take my leave first."

"But Phoenix Qin Master is about to take the stage. Her Qin music is truly rare..." Yunmeng Fairy expressed a word of regret, but had no intention of keeping him.

Fang Xi bowed, then walked out of the private room.

From somewhere indistinctly, he could still hear Shen Haoran speaking to Chen Ping. "Fellow Daoist Chen, you'll be a talisman master in the future as well, so you should have some standing... Let me tell you, the distinguished guest who's coming is a great expert in the late stage of Qi Refining..."

"Oh? Then I'll have to ask Brother Shen to introduce me." Chen Ping's delighted voice rang out at the same time.

When Fang Xi walked out of Ming Qing Pavilion, he could vaguely hear a strand of Qin music drifting from the pavilion.

There seemed to be another graceful figure atop the high platform.

Unfortunately, none of these refined and elegant pleasures had anything to do with him.

Without enough strength, don't enter circles that are too high...

He soon adjusted his state of mind and returned to his own shack.

Bang!

A palm strike shot out like a gale and slammed heavily into the doors and windows.

White Cloud Palm!

Although he had failed to hear Fairy Phoenix play the Qin this time, he had at least mooched Spirit Tea and pastries.

It was precisely the perfect time to cultivate!

Only his Red Snake Leg had broken through to the Martial Hall Master realm. His White Cloud Palm was still a little short.

Crackling and popping!

He struck with both palms, beating out a chain of attacks, then condensed the nine Great Hand Seals.

In the blink of an eye, Fang Xi's pair of palms turned grayish-black.

Strangely, the gray was constantly receding while the black was expanding wildly.

"Huff!"

Fang Xi exhaled a long breath. The white vapor shot several feet into the distance.

He looked at his hands and confirmed that both palms had completely entered the Black Cloud realm—in other words, the level of a true-force Martial Artist!

The true force of White Cloud Palm mainly strengthened the hands. The improvement to the rest of the body was far inferior to last time.

"It broke through just like that..."

"Sigh... If only my talent in the Immortal Dao were as good as my talent in Blood Qi Martial Arts."

The Low-grade Spiritual Root aptitude of this body had always been a source of pain in Fang Xi's heart.

The next moment, as he sensed the changes in White Cloud Palm's true force, his expression gradually grew solemn.

Looking inward with Spiritual Awareness, he could see that when the Blood Qi throughout his body circulated, several more vortices had appeared, mainly located in his legs and palms.

Even more alarming was that these Blood Qi vortices seemed to tug at one another, causing the circulation of his Blood Qi to become somewhat chaotic.

"So this is... the burden Lu She mentioned?"

"What can I do? My Red Snake Leg had already broken through, and my Blood Qi was already mixed. There's no helping it if I practice one more martial art."

Fang Xi looked at his palms.

White Cloud Palm could be released or withdrawn. After retracting his true force, his palms were as white as jade, as delicate as the hands of a well-bred young lady.

No one could imagine that the power contained in these hands could already rival that of certain demon beasts.

"The true force of White Cloud Palm and Red Snake Leg is indeed somewhat incompatible. This must be resolved..."

"And then there's the realm afterward..."

A Body Cultivator merely equivalent to the early stage of Qi Refining was nothing remarkable. What Fang Xi valued was the progress and hope that came afterward!

"Fortunately... I heard that the trip to Yuan He Mountain didn't fall through either..."