Chapter 145: Tiger in the Plains, Your Sister!

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Hearing Qin Haoxuan’s words, Xing shook his head like a rattle drum. “A formal challenge in a duel will definitely not work. He’ll be prepared and will be on guard against you trying to land a killing blow. Besides, he’s a Gray Seed; his cultivation speed is faster than yours. If he’s stronger than you in five months, won’t you be walking right into a trap?”

Qin Haoxuan heard this and felt it made some sense. Although Zhang Yang couldn’t compare to the Purple Seeds, he was still a Gray Seed. If he didn’t have any fortuitous encounters, his own cultivation speed certainly couldn’t match his. But he couldn’t just let the matter rest. This Zhang Yang was constantly scheming to harm him and Xu Yu. If he didn’t get rid of him, he would have to be constantly on guard.

“Since I can’t think of a way for now, I’ll just keep my distance from him and be careful. At the same time, I’ll go and let Xu Yu know. If her senior sister is protecting her, she should be safe.” After thinking for a long time, Qin Haoxuan still couldn’t come up with a solution. After all, within the territory of the Taichu Sect, it was nearly impossible to kill Zhang Yang without the sect’s all-powerful elders finding out.

Hearing that Qin Haoxuan was no longer planning to kill Zhang Yang, Xing became anxious. In his eyes, the Gray Seed Zhang Yang was tender and juicy and would surely be delicious. Furthermore, it was rare for Qin Haoxuan to show such killing intent; how could he let this opportunity slip away? He held his head in his hands and began to think desperately.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration went through his mind. “I’ve thought of a way!” he said.

“Tell me,” Qin Haoxuan said, lifting his eyelids to look at him. “If it’s some stupid idea, then don’t bother.”

“It’s absolutely a great idea! Do you remember that Aqueous Manor Token you got?” Xing said in a coaxing tone.

Qin Haoxuan nodded and rolled his eyes at him. Of course he remembered.

“We can use this token to lure Zhang Yang into the Aqueous Manor. Although the manor is in the Great Islet Mountain range, it’s not technically the territory of your sect, right? If we eat him inside the manor, no one will ever know,” Xing said, licking his lips as he spoke.

Qin Haoxuan rolled his eyes at him again. “You’ll be the one eating him. Don’t drag ‘us’ into it…”

He paused, then added, “But that’s not a bad idea. However, didn’t the token say that you can only enter once a month? We just got out, so we’ll have to wait until next month. And next month is when we ‘Enter the Mortal World,’ which means we’ll have to leave the sect’s territory anyway. So, as long as we’re careful this month, we’ll have plenty of ways to deal with him next month.”

Qin Haoxuan rubbed his chin. Having figured out a solution, he relaxed considerably.

After finding a way to eliminate Zhang Yang, Qin Haoxuan let out a relieved breath. “For this next month, I want you to monitor his every move. If he makes any trouble, tell me immediately. We’ll act next month.”

Xing could only nod helplessly in agreement.

Just then, Qin Haoxuan remembered the issue of nourishing the Thousand-Mile Mirror. Xu Yu had just delivered one thousand spirit stones that evening, and now they could be put to use.

“It’s a good thing you’re here; it saves me the trouble of finding you. I’ve prepared the spirit stones. You can set up the array for me now to nourish the mirror,” Qin Haoxuan said, presenting the bag of stones.

Xing said, “Nourishing an artifact isn’t as simple as just setting up the array. The infusion process will take a full night to complete.”

Qin Haoxuan thought for a moment. It was already late anyway. He decided he would take the mirror to the Immortal-Slaying Poison Valley tomorrow. “I’m not in a hurry,” he said. “You can start the infusion.”

Xing nodded and held out his hand. “Give me the one thousand low-grade spirit stones and your artifact. The Nourishing Array is my secret; I can’t set it up here. I’ll take them back to my room, and after I’m done, I’ll bring it back to you in the morning.”

Qin Haoxuan’s face darkened, his gaze becoming sharp, as if trying to see right through Xing. But Xing just puffed out his chest and said, “What? You don’t trust me?”

Qin Haoxuan nodded in a very cooperative manner. “I very much don’t trust you. What if you run off with my spirit stones and my artifact? Who would I go looking for?”

Being suspected, Xing looked displeased and said proudly, “What’s a mere thousand spirit stones? My demonic integrity is famous in the Netherworld. You can doubt other things, but you absolutely cannot doubt my demonic integrity! Never mind a thousand low-grade spirit stones; even a thousand first-grade spirit stones are not as valuable as my demonic integrity!”

Qin Haoxuan sneered. “Forget a thousand low-grade spirit stones; your demonic integrity isn’t worth a single stone. If you can’t set up the array in my room, then get lost. If you won’t help me, I’ll just have my master do it.”

Hearing that Qin Haoxuan no longer needed him, Xing’s face showed a hint of panic. He quickly said, “There are good and bad Nourishing Arrays, you know! Mine is the best in the entire Netherworld! It can perfectly infuse the spiritual energy from the stones into the artifact. Your master definitely can’t do that. Think of how much spiritual energy would be wasted!”

“Then do it. Set up the array,” Qin Haoxuan said, rolling his eyes. He knew he had to be constantly on guard with this creature, or he’d be cheated.

Xing held out his hand and made a gesture of counting spirit stones.

“You want a wage, is that it?” Qin Haoxuan glared at him with contempt.

Xing said with an expression of perfect righteousness, “Of course. I am a peerless genius of the Netherworld, and my demonic integrity is noble. For me to lower myself to do this work for you, you certainly must pay me. Otherwise, if word got out that I worked for free, the other demons would laugh their teeth out.”

Qin Haoxuan knew he was being extorted, but the mirror did need to be nourished, and bothering his master would take up his precious cultivation time. He relented. “To demand a wage from your savior, you are truly shameless. Name your price.”

Seeing that Qin Haoxuan had agreed, a smile blossomed on Xing’s face. “One hundred low-grade spirit stones!”

“One,” Qin Haoxuan replied without thinking.

“Your grandma! This again!” Xing leaped up, looking exasperated. “Fine, the old rule from the manor: ten low-grade spirit stones.”

“Two.”

Xing shook his head like a rattle drum. “Two spirit stones is absolutely impossible! My demonic integrity is noble! In the Netherworld, I give away two stones to beggars! For me to personally set up an array for you and only earn two stones is an insult! A great insult!”

Qin Haoxuan ignored his theatrics and glared at him fiercely. “It’s just an array; how hard can it be? Final offer, five stones. If you don’t want it, I won’t see you out.”

Xing thought for a moment and finally gritted his teeth. “Nonsense, setting up an array is very complicated… Aigh, fine. Out of consideration for our friendship forged in life and death, I’ll basically do it for free. Aigh, five low-grade spirit stones… Back in the Netherworld, I wouldn’t even bother to pick up five stones if I saw them on the ground! Your sister!”

Not bothering with his boasting, Qin Haoxuan took out the bag of spirit stones and the mirror and placed them in front of him. “Begin.”

Xing cleared a space and began to calculate the array’s position. After a full incense stick’s worth of time, he began to skillfully lay out the spirit stones in an irregular pattern, placing the Thousand-Mile Mirror in the center.

He then began to activate it, drawing golden inscriptions in the air with his fingers and sending them into the array. The Nourishing Array began to glow with a brilliant golden light.

Qin Haoxuan was startled. Thankfully, he had sealed the cracks in his doors and windows with cloth strips. If that light had leaked out, it would have caused a lot of trouble.

The light soon subsided. The inscriptions began to move like little dancing figures, forming a line that drew the spiritual energy from the stones and guided it into the Thousand-Mile Mirror. The mirror began to flicker, and Qin Haoxuan noticed that a very fine crack on its back was slowly being repaired.

He then looked at the bag of spirit stones and noticed that there were still three hundred left out of the original thousand.

He instantly understood why Xing had wanted to take the items back to his own room. To set up the array only required seven hundred stones. He had lied and said it needed a thousand, intending to pocket the extra three hundred. What a clever scheme, he thought.

Qin Haoxuan shot Xing a cold glare. The array was now running on its own, only needing to be monitored for problems.

Sensing his gaze, Xing understood that his little trick had been exposed. He said shamelessly, “Ahaha, when I first learned this array, it took a thousand stones. I didn’t expect my skills to have improved so much! Now it only takes seven hundred! How wonderful! Hey, I saved you three hundred stones. Not only are you not thanking me, but you’re looking at me like that? So ungrateful. Believe it or not, next time I’ll make sure to use all of your stones!”

Qin Haoxuan sighed softly. “I originally thought you had no demonic integrity, but I didn’t realize it was actually in the negative numbers.”

Xing’s old face flushed, but he argued shamelessly, “I said a thousand stones to be on the safe side! What if there weren’t enough? Not only would the nourishing fail, but it could have damaged the artifact! Besides, what’s the big deal? You always have to be prepared when setting up an array! If it had been your master setting this up, he couldn’t have done it even with fifteen hundred stones!”

No matter what Xing said, Qin Haoxuan now understood one fact: this creature had almost scammed him out of three hundred spirit stones.

Feeling uncomfortable under Qin Haoxuan’s all-seeing gaze, even with his thick skin, Xing gave him a few instructions on what to watch for, then made an excuse that he was tired and needed to rest, and scurried away.