Chapter 225

Chapter 225 – The Marquis House's Phantom Demon

Although Liu Ming did not know the underlying reasons, he still felt like he should keep a respectable distance from this “Senior Ye”

After all, his body still concealed the even more strange mysterious bubble. If the crystal level expert uncovered this, who knows what kind of consequences it may lead to.

Even though there was no way of telling whether the bubble would bring him fortune or misfortune, just the fact that it purified his Fa Li and was able to pull his consciousness into a mysterious space showed that this was an item with great history. It was an item that, naturally, must not be shared with another person.

However, this time, even though he was unable to get what he really wanted from Ye Tianmei’s hands, he gained the notes for sword cultivation. He imagined that, in the future, if he were to try to compact his Sword Spirit Embryo or start to walk down the path of sword cultivation, he wouldn’t have to walk around in circles.

After all, the Great Symbol Sword he carried was indeed overly mysteriously. Besides a general cultivation direction, it didn’t have any practical experience with it.

With Ye Tianmei’s sword cultivation notes, as well as the random related books that he got from the market, he should be able to master sword cultivation.

It’s important to know, Liu Ming had a deep appreciation for the real flying sword techniques. Now, with this opportunity to train for this type of cultivation method, naturally, he couldn’t just give it up.

The only troublesome thing was that the Great Tungsten Steel required to complete the great symbol sword embryo was difficult to obtain. He didn’t know that the Great Iron Tungsten was actually an extremely high-quality material for refining a flying sword. Thus, the usual methods one would usually take to obtain it were impossible. One must go through special routes to get their hands on it.

This time, he achieved a fair amount of merit for his competition with the Sea Race. Spirit Master Lei wasn’t stingy with his reward and gave Liu Ming several bottles of Spirit Pills and three thousand Contribution Points.

Even though Du Hai was also rewarded, the difference in the reward was quite large.

With his remaining time, Liu Ming stayed on the bone ship and trained whilst he waited.

Spirit Master Lei and Lin Caiyu from the Barbarian Ghost Sect didn’t dispatch him on any more missions.

This lasted for two days when Spirit Master Lei returned to the Bone Ship with huge killing intent and called to see him.

However, Spirit Master only gave him brief instructions with a list of evil cultivator yet to be found. Then, the Spirit Master allowed Liu Ming to return.

After a day, Liu Ming a new explosion. When he stepped out of the cave and looked up at the sky, the giant gray barrier that covered the entire Xuanjing had surprisingly disappeared without a trace.

Not only this, he received a message that Ye Tianmei, the Spirit Master Lei and others had already left Xuanjing to return to their individual sects.

Meanwhile, in Xuanjing, all of the moderately large underground forces were almost completely wiped out. Practically a fifth of the cultivators were wiped out by the two sects. The majority of those that were left fled the city after the barrier was lifted. They didn’t dare stay in Xuanjing any longer.

With this, only about a quarter of Xuan Jing’s cultivators stayed behind. Each and every one, honestly, didn’t dare to risk causing any trouble.

……

In the next month. News of the newly crowned Empress and old emperor passing away spread across the Da Xuan Country from Xuanjing.

As the Supervisor Disciple of the sect, Liu Ming naturally blended into the crowd on the day of the coronation. He watched as the newly crowned Empress completed the ceremony.

Under the work of many Gold Spirit Guests, the coronation went abnormally smoothly.

This so-called “Empress” was but a scrawny thirteen or fourteen year old girl with a childish face.

But what really surprised Liu Ming was the appearance of Qiu Longzi, the leader of the Gold Spirit Guests who Liu Ming had thought was dead, at the ceremony.

The Qiu Longzi before him looked slightly pale but didn’t have a single scratch on him. At a time of great change in Xuanjing, he did seem fazed, but rather in high spirits.

Naturally, Liu Ming didn’t seek out a meeting with the only survivor and leader of the Gold Spirit Guests. Instead, he waited until after the coronation to quietly return to his dwelling.

A few days after the coronation, Hu Chunniang arrived at the cave and eventually took Qian Ruping with her.

According to her parting words, her role as the Supervising Disciple of Xuanjing had come to an end, and she was due back at her sect. She came to bid her farewells and to take the girl with her.

Finally, when the moment came for Qian Ruping to really leave Liu Ming’s side, she broke down before him and expressed her true feelings of dependence.

She did so with such intensity that, when Liu Ming closed his eyes, the memory of her looking back at him with tear filled eyes resurfaced every time.

However difficult it was to part ways, this girl certainly had an extraordinary talent in the Path of Formations. In addition, after all, she would be going to the largest sect in the Da Xuan Country. Even if she was unable to become a Spirit Apostle in the future, at the very least, she would be well protected.

With this, he could say that he did justice on his promise to Uncle Qian.

During this time, he still went to the Qian House and Fan Baizi.

At both places, the changes in Xuanjing had next to no effect on their livelihood.

During the chaos in Xuanjing, the Qian House gathered it’s people, shut the gates and turned a blind eye to anything beyond them. The owner and Old Mian survived through the calamity all safe and sound.

As a famous alchemist, Fan Baizi was unfazed even with the raids that were carried out on other influential forces by Spirit Master Lei. This “Master Fan” even reminded Liu Ming to come over on-time to study alchemy.

Naturally, Liu Ming promised to go.

…….

That day, Liu Ming examined a piece of paper he held in his hands, in the secret room of his dwelling. It appeared to have a few names and descriptions faintly written on it.

Liu Ming stared intensely at the top of the list where the three words, “Black Spirit Party” was followed by two names.

They were two of the three leaders of the Black Spirit Group, number one and two.

Ever since Spirit Master Lei and Spirit Masters from the two sects raided the Black Spirit Group’s secret lair, these two had not shown their faces. As for the person who only carried the title of the number three, he didn’t escape in time from Spirit Master Lei’s persecutions and was killed on the spot.

As for the true identities of number one and two, they were ultimately discovered after soul searching their henchmen.

Before leaving, Spirit Master Lei seriously ordered Liu Ming to take care of the two evil cultivators.

By this time, it was already confirmed that the previous supervising disciple was secretly assassinated by the Black Spirit Group. Even his corpse was already reduced to a shroud of flying ashes.

As for why the Black Spirit Group would ever dare do such a thing, people had different speculations. Even Black Spirit Group members themselves weren’t entirely clear. Perhaps, those who knew were limited to only the three leaders.

Unfortunately, Spirit Master Lei killed number three far too hastily, leaving no time to capture him alive for Soul Interrogation. Who knows? With him, perhaps everything would have been cleared up by now.

Liu Ming wasn’t too concerned about these two.

As long as the larger Black Spirit Group no longer existed, these two evil cultivators wouldn’t be able to play any more games.

But now, the Third Marquis has been abandoned. The only reason why Liu Ming had held back on taking any action was because he feared with the recent changes in Xuanjing, his actions would attract unneeded attention.

About a month had passed, the newly crowned Empress seized the Marquis’ houses everywhere and awarded to other ministers.

And so, he had no choice but to act now.

Liu Ming put away the paper in his hands and, in that instant, he was overcome with determination.

Time passed by and in the blink of an eye, it was three in the morning!

A faint figure rushed from the streets and alleys. It flew and darted around in a flash before gliding high above the walls of the Third Marquis House. Then, it silently fell into quite a large courtyard.

At that moment, the surrounding area fell silent. It was pitch black in the Marquis House. If it weren’t for the rays of moonlight that shone brightly from above, frankly, he wouldn’t be able to see his own fingers.

The figure who barged in was of course Liu Ming!

His eyes scanned the area around him. With a one handed technique, his eyes shone a faint crystal light. Suddenly, the dark surrounding became more clear.

Liu Ming slapped the leather bag on his waist. With a "pu", a black cloud rolled out from it and the White Boned Scorpion appeared before him.

This time, without giving any orders, the white bone scorpion swept it’s tail. It then burrowed into the ground and out of sight on its own accord.

Liu Ming pulled out a map from in his sleeves. He looked up at the constellations for guidance and planned his route ahead. Then, he shot through the deep and heavily constructed part of the Third Marquis.

After exactly a quarter of an hour, Liu Ming somehow he found a corner of the Third Marquis where a giant tree grew for an unknown time.

“Looks like this is the tree. It might also be just about time now.” He mumbled with a face full of joy. Liu Ming circled the giant tree a few times with his eyes, glancing at the surrounding earth. He moved swiftly, reaching the peak of the giant tree. From high above, he saw the pale shadows of the trees beneath the moonlight.

As time passed by, the blurry shadow of the trees started to sway towards a certain direction, gradually stretching out longer and thinner.

All of a sudden, a part of the tree’s shadow went completely dark. It was strangely condensed into the shape of an outstretched slender black sword.

Liu Ming’s eyes lit up in an instant. He looked in the direction that the sword pointed in, to over a hundred steps away.

He found an ordinary-looking building which stood not too far away.

He was extremely happy! But then, the moment he wanted to fly down from the trees above, his expression suddenly changed. He hurriedly pulled back and submerged himself deep into the leaves. His aura withdrew and started to fade away.

After a while, a piercing sound broke out and two dark shadows arrived in a flash. One was tall, and the other was fat. After they swayed, they actually stopped under the same giant tree.

“Move quickly and check. Is it still there?” They both carefully scanned the area as the taller dark figure said to his partner in a low voice.

“I understand, leave it to me.” Said the fatter dark figure. Then, he pulled out a disc from his sleeve and suddenly stuck it at the base of the giant tree trunk. With his other arm, he started to make various hand techniques.

"Bang!"

When the disc lit up, the fat dark figure pressed it’s palm through the disc and directly submerged it into the tree. Pulling back, he dug out a pitch black object.