Chen Ming watched the fight ahead when a streak of sword energy suddenly flew toward him.
Chen Ming hurriedly rolled aside, tumbling three times before stopping, then stood and brushed the dust off himself.
Watching the battle ahead, he thought, Being a spectator munching on melon seeds wasn't so easy either. One careless moment, and I could get hurt!
Suddenly, a figure darted back with a broad smile on his face. It was none other than Liao Kongchen, who had charged down in a fury earlier.
"Fellow Daoist Liao, did you find some treasure?"
Seeing Liao Kongchen return in high spirits, Chen Ming asked with a smile.
"Not bad! Not bad!"
Liao Kongchen replied with a grin.
This fellow hadn't gone to help at all. Seeing the two sides locked in fierce combat, he had slipped behind them to loot the corpses. After picking up twenty or thirty storage bags, he had been spotted by members of the Azure Wolf Gang, who mistook him for someone from Ten Thousand Swords Manor. Only after they chased him with blades swinging had he run back.
"Come on! Fellow Daoist Chen, let's head back to Blackstone Market."
Liao Kongchen looked at Chen Ming and hurriedly spoke.
Chen Ming glanced at him and thought, A gambling addict will always be a gambling addict. The moment he gets a few spirit stones, all he can think about is gambling. Chen Ming ignored him and simply turned back to watch the battle in silence.
A whistling sound pierced the air as a dark figure swiftly approached and began attacking the patriarch of Ten Thousand Swords Manor.
"This is bad! Run!"
Seeing this, Chen Ming hurriedly brought out his Flying Sword and called to Liao Kongchen.
When the two sides were evenly matched, there was nothing wrong with watching the show. But if you kept watching once the battle became one-sided, that was no different from courting death.
Before long, the two returned to Blackstone Market. Chen Ming watched Liao Kongchen have two jade stones cut open, then lost interest and left.
Chen Ming returned to the Five Elements Sect and began refining pills again. Lighting the fire and starting the furnace went smoothly in one continuous motion, but before long, an explosion rang out. The furnace had blown up.
The furnace exploded, bringing down the entire house. Chen Ming emerged from the wreckage.
"Junior Brother Chen, you blew up your furnace again!"
A group of people spoke as they watched Chen Ming stumble out of the ruins, his face covered in dust and dirt.
"Junior Brother Chen, could you please not refine pills at such a lovely time of day next time?"
Li Mei, who had been admiring the beautiful sunset there with Tang You, had indeed received quite a fright from Chen Ming's exploding furnace.
Several other fellow disciples who had also been startled by the explosion nodded in agreement.
Chen Ming repeatedly apologized and promised not to do it again, then began cleaning up the shattered wooden house.
The next day.
Chen Ming casually put together a small wooden house much like the previous one. Once he had finished, he brought out his Flying Sword and headed down the mountain.
As soon as he arrived at Blackstone Market, he saw Liao Kongchen still gambling on stones. It seemed he had won quite a lot yesterday.
Chen Ming found a secluded spot and, after making sure no one was around, put on his mask and headed to the Auction House!
After collecting his spirit stones and removing his mask, he flew off on his sword and arrived beside a river. On the near bank stood a market called Qinghai Market.
Qinghai Market primarily dealt in trade. After entering the market, he went to the Treasure Gathering Pavilion, bought a new Alchemy Furnace inside, and left.
Just after leaving the Treasure Gathering Pavilion, he felt two pairs of eyes watching him from behind, but when he turned around, he saw nothing unusual.
He took to the air on his sword just outside Qinghai Market. Upon reaching a mountain forest, he looked back and saw two cultivators following him!
Chen Ming cast his newly learned spell, the Explosive Flame Technique. A pale blue fireball appeared in his palm, and he flung it toward his two pursuers.
Boom!
The defining feature of the Explosive Flame Technique was that the cultivator could detonate it at any moment. Seeing it about to reach the two men, Chen Ming immediately set it off.
Once the smoke and dust cleared, the two men had suffered little harm and hurried after Chen Ming!
Chen Ming paid them no heed, simply flying onward while flinging fireballs behind him.
Seeing this, the two men behind him attacked as well, sending one Ice Spike after another toward Chen Ming.
Chen Ming could only dodge left and right. Finally, upon entering a mountain range, he hurriedly lowered his flying altitude and plunged into the forest.
Just as the two drew closer and closer, Chen Ming took a packet of powder from his storage bag and flung it at them!
The powder struck both men in the face. They hurriedly stopped to wipe it from their eyes, while Chen Ming stopped as well and watched them.
Chen Ming had made this powder by grinding his previous Beauty Pills and Slim Figure Pills into powder, then mixing in seven-colored snake venom, Seven-Step Heartbreak Grass, and other ingredients.
Anyone struck by the powder would suffer a splitting headache, vomiting and diarrhea, weakness throughout their body, pale lips, and blood rushing to their head.
"Talk. Why were you targeting me?"
Watching the two men clutch their heads, fall to the ground, roll about, and fart nonstop, Chen Ming covered his mouth and asked in disgust.
Because cultivators ate only Grain-Banishing Pills rather than food, being struck by this powder would make them fart continuously.
In the end, the two passed out from their splitting headaches. Chen Ming picked up his Flying Sword and cut their heads off.
He found little when he searched them. Between them, they had only a little over a thousand spirit stones. Looking at their clothes, he felt he had seen them somewhere before!
"Oh! I remember!"
"Aren't these the people who attacked me for no apparent reason just after I entered Wangshui Kingdom and left Wu'an City?"
Chen Ming examined their clothes and slapped his thigh as he finally remembered. Previously, he had thought those people had mistaken him for someone else!
Because he had encountered Shen Gongbao not long afterward, Chen Ming had assumed they had mistaken him for Shen Gongbao and attacked him. Apparently, that wasn't the case!
Chen Ming thought, Could some organization have set its sights on me? Impossible! I'm not the protagonist! He pondered it for a long time but still couldn't figure out who would target him.
In the end, he could only leave, flying on his sword toward the Five Elements Sect.
Countless bolts of lightning writhed wildly through the dark clouds overhead. The entire sky had turned as black as thick ink, and the atmosphere had grown even more gloomy and oppressive.
Dark clouds blanketed the sky, and a fine, steady rain fell. Weather like this made even the morning seem dim and left people feeling thoroughly irritable.
Thunder crashed, and a bolt of lightning struck the somewhat distracted Chen Ming, knocking him straight out of the air.
With the Sect right before his eyes, Chen Ming turned and ran, because two people carrying umbrellas were coming down the mountain.
Chen Ming thought, If Tang You and Li Mei see me looking like this, they'll laugh about it for years. Without the slightest hesitation, he turned and ran!
He ran to a lake and jumped in, washed himself clean, and tidied his hair. Only then did he climb ashore, change into a set of Five Elements Sect disciple robes, and head back.
Suddenly curious about why Tang You and Li Mei had gone out at a time like this, he hurried to the foot of the Sect's mountain, but the two had already vanished.
Just then, an ominous sound came from behind him. Chen Ming hurriedly looked back and saw something resembling a wolf staring at him.
Just as Chen Ming was about to charge over, the figure vanished in the blink of an eye, leaving only a faint afterimage.
Chen Ming hurriedly used Shrouding Smoke Steps to pursue the afterimage. He chased it for who knew how long, until the sky had cleared and he reached a great mountain.
The figure had vanished without a trace. All he saw was a Cave Abode in the mountain ahead. It was small, seemingly only wide enough for one person to enter.
Throwing caution to the wind, Chen Ming approached the Cave Abode and cast the Fireball Technique, frantically bombarding the interior for about the time it took an incense stick to burn.
Chen Ming then used the Explosive Flame Technique to blast the interior again. Only when he thought that should be enough did he stop.
But just as Chen Ming was about to look inside...