Although it was sudden, Xu Qing had already ingrained a sense of vigilance in his soul. Almost at the instant the bolt of lightning arrived, he quickly retreated and dodged.
As he watched the lightning bolt streak past him and crash into the ground, Xu Qing's expression turned grim as he gazed up at the sky.
His eyes were illuminated by the lightning in the sky, reflecting a sharp light.
Dark clouds filled the sky and thunder rumbled. There didn't seem to be anything too abnormal except for lightning swimming around. Everything seemed to be a coincidence.
"Something's wrong!"
Xu Qing's expression was gloomy. Regardless of whether it was the scattering of the Sword Holder's sword lights earlier or the lightning this time, it was too much of a coincidence.
This made him instinctively think of D132 and what the middle-aged Pawn, Old Li, had said.
"More than half of its previous guardians died mysteriously outside."
Xu Qing's expression was gloomy. With a step, he arrived at the edge of the county capital. He retracted his gaze from the sky and looked at the ground below.
Although it was night and dark clouds were everywhere, with the help of the dazzling light from the lightning streaking across the sky and his cultivation base, Xu Qing could still see the Prison Department on the ground clearly.
The two coincidences caused him to fall into deep thought.
As he pondered, Xu Qing walked into the county capital and spread out his perception.
"Not everyone guarding D132 died."
"Only a portion of them died accidentally."
"The Palace Master should know the secrets inside."
"Then why did he arrange for me to be there… Is it a test or something else?"
Questions surfaced in Xu Qing's mind as he walked toward the medicinal shops.
Thunder rumbled endlessly in the sky and the rain seemed to be accumulating the power to descend. There were very few commoners on the streets and most of the pedestrians were cultivators.
An hour later, Xu Qing saw a medical shop. His body swayed and he quickly approached. When he stepped in, Xu Qing frowned.
There were seven to eight cultivators buying medicinal herbs and pills in the shop. Among them, Xu Qing recognized a woman wearing the Daoist robe of a Sword Holder.
It was Qing Qiu, who was carrying the evil ghost scythe.
Qing Qiu had planned to buy some pills here before returning to the Sword Pavilion. After noticing Xu Qing, her beautiful brows under the mask furrowed slightly. The sound of the evil ghost inhaling echoed in her mind.
"This Xu Qing is like a lingering ghost, he seems to be following us. We won't take this path in the future. I think this Xu Qing is too dangerous, and we should steer clear of him. Otherwise, I fear that you won't be able to control yourself and end up perishing together with him!"
"It's not worth it to perish together with him. It's better to use this mutual destruction on others, such as the Mad Dog."
Xu Qing's gaze swept past Qing Qiu but he didn't care. When he walked straight to the counter, the voice of the Diamond Sect's ancestor rang out in his mind.
"Master, I have something that I wanted to tell you before."
Xu Qing's expression was as calm as ever. After telling the shopkeeper about the herbs he wanted to buy, he calmly spoke in his mind.
"Shoot."
"Master, that red woman's scythe has an artifact spirit."
"This artifact spirit didn't sense me, so every time it sees Master, it's cursing. It thinks that Master can't hear it, but it doesn't know that as a high-level lightning soul, I can sense it."
The Diamond Sect's ancestor had actually heard the divine sense of the evil ghost beside Qing Qiu a long time ago, but he didn't say anything. He originally planned to reveal it at a critical moment as a sign of contribution.
However, the incident in the cell made him uneasy and he was worried that he would be thought to be useless. Hence, he hurriedly told him about this.
"I eavesdropped on that ghost's words. It seems like they have a way to perish together with others. Master, you have to be careful when you kill this red woman in the future."
Xu Qing fell into deep thought and glanced at Qing Qiu's scythe.
"He's looking at me! His gaze is wrong, very wrong!" In Qing Qiu's mind, the evil ghost screamed.
"Let's leave quickly. I have a bad feeling. This Xu Qing seems to have sensed something. After all, he was personally appointed by the emperor and now, he's also the edict bearer of the Palace Master. We can't afford to offend him. Moreover, I feel that there's something wrong with his body. It gives me a very bad feeling."
As the evil ghost screamed, the voice of the Diamond Sect's ancestor echoed in Xu Qing's mind again.
"Master is mighty. With that glance, the other party's tiny artifact spirit was frightened to death. Master, don't worry. In the future, I'll help you keep an eye on this imp. Hmph, it dares to have ill intentions against You Lingzi's master. This imp has a death wish. With me around, no evil spirit can harm my master. It has to get past me first!"
"Also, Master, I think you can actually show your domineering aura occasionally. Uh, that's what it says in the book. The king of kings is domineering. I think Master can use that to frighten that imp artifact spirit."
"After that, I'll find an opportunity to instigate a rebellion. In that case, we'll definitely have no problems killing the red woman."
The Diamond Sect's ancestor quickly spoke, showing his value.
Xu Qing fell into deep thought.
At that moment, the shopkeeper had already taken out the medicinal herbs he needed. When he was settling the bill, Xu Qing thought of the plain pills and asked.
"Do you have any plain pills?"
The shopkeeper smiled and nodded. He then took out a pill bottle from under the counter and placed it in front of Xu Qing.
"One spirit coin, ten plain pills."
Xu Qing was a little surprised. This price was already extremely low. One had to know that in the Yinghuang Province, even the white pills were much more expensive than this.
"The Deputy Governor is wise and kind. He developed this pill of boundless merits so that the people in the county could be protected from the invasion of anomalous substances. Hence, this price is basically just the minimum cost required to preserve the pill's potency. It's not much different from giving them away for free."
Xu Qing praised the Deputy Governor inwardly. He gave out a spirit coin and kept the pill bottle. He planned to go back and study the plain pills to learn the Deputy Governor's alchemy method.
After buying them, Xu Qing turned and walked out of the medical shop.
Qing Qiu saw the scene of Xu Qing buying alchemy pills and some memories of the past involuntarily rose in her mind. She thought of the scavenger campsite in the Nanhuang Continent.
She recalled her time as a shop assistant in the general store at the campsite. A small and skinny figure in a large leather coat with a dirty face had walked up to her with caution, keeping his distance from all outsiders, to purchase white pills.
Qing Qiu frowned.
She didn't understand why the memory of her Brother Kid, who represented beauty in her life, surfaced when she saw that disgusting Ghost Hand buying pills.
In her opinion, this was a form of blasphemy.
Hence, she cast an even more disgusted glance at Xu Qing's back view. She then picked up the medicinal pills she had bought here and left. She flew out of the county capital and headed toward the ground.
She didn't stay in the Litu Sect's branch in the county capital and didn't have a good impression of the Litu Sect. Hence, in comparison, she preferred the Sword Pavilion.
However, before she could get close to the Sword Pavilion, she frowned again.
"Ghost Hand again. He's haunting us like a ghost. Could it be that he's here to harm us!" The screams of the evil ghost rang out in her mind, its voice filled with horror.
"I understand. He glanced at me just now and discovered me. He's here to perish together with us!"
"Shut up!" Qing Qiu gritted her teeth and felt frustrated. She turned her head and her gaze was filled with ferocity as she looked at Xu Qing who was flying over from afar.
