Free from the Curse?
The Red Earth Black Market was rumored to be founded by a powerful expert who had entered the foundation stage. Since entering the foundation stage was difficult except with those with powerful background or a miracle. There was only a handful that was in the foundation stage. Although, it was much simpler to reach a physical base of silver. Someone who trained their body into the silver stage can defend themselves against someone the foundation stage. But it was harder kill someone in the foundation stage than someone with a physical base of silver. Thus, foundation stage was more respected in the Abandoned Continents.
Rumoured said that the founder of Red Earth Black Market was someone in the foundation stage. The founder origin was unknown and not many information circulated about the founder. Not even the founder's gender.
Wu Xinyi thought he will able to gather more information about the founder, but he did not expect there was basically nothing about that person expect his strength.
Long Xiuying and Wu Xinyi were to gather as much information before executing their plan. They wanted to know the strength, weaknesses, who were affiliated with them, and even information of who visit this place.
However, Wu Xinyi was intimating that not many would want to approach him. He decided that he should ask one of the attendances to trade in his fancy outfit for something plainer.
'I wonder what is Long Xiuying doing?' Wu Xinyi thought to himself as he wondered if Long Xiuying had better luck.
Long Xiuying walked out of the black market into a large passageway that connected to somewhere deeper in the cave. The light coming from the black market was getting dimmer. He kept going until it was almost complete darkness.
"How far are you willing to follow me?" Long Xiuying spoke out loud but there was nothing that could be seen around him. He inspected the cores with no intention to hide it as if he was provoking someone.
"How do you know I'm here?" A skinny man wearing a white wolf mask with one eye appeared.
"If you are going to ambush someone at least hide your killing intent. Otherwise, it is pointless no matter how good your stealth technique is, am I right?" Long Xiuying smile playfully while tossing his core up and down before he stored it away. "How about this, why don't you drop everything you have and maybe I let you leave?"
"Are you crazy, kid? Just hand over the cores and the stuff you bought. There is no one here to help you to you." When he said that, four more men came out from the darkness. All of them wore a wolf mask. "If you want to live, then it is best to listen to us. In this place, no one would care if a nobody went missing." He could feel that the young man was a mortal, thus, boosting his confidence.
"You are right. Nobody would care." With that said, Long Xiuying donned his Pelt of the White Bear King. The second it touched the air, the dark spiritual energy came rushing in making the once white fur to a dark purple hue.
"He-He is in the final qi condensation stage. No matter, we have numbers." The group of men only average around initial qi condensation stage. And all their physical base strength were around copper.
They drew their weapons to prepare for the attack.
Long Xiuying stood their calmly. He was outnumbered but that does not mean he was at a disadvantage. He wanted to end this quickly so he materialized the Chaotic Forest Monarch Centipede Whip. With one swing, he cut three of them in half leaving behind him. The last person standing fell on the ground due to fear. He was covered in blood from his companion.
"What are they to you?" Long Xiuying asked with cold eyes.
"Stop, the-the enforcers will-" A crack from the whip interrupted his speech.
"I said it once again, what are they to you?" Long Xiuying asked again but he gave off a pressure that was almost suffocating.
The man in the wolf mask gulped before he answered.
"We don't really know each other." Another crack of the whip echoed in his ears. Long Xiuying pointed at his mask.
"You all wore the same mask. Are you lying?"
"It is true. We were all recruited for a price. Someone in a white mask came and handed us hundreds of qi condensation cores as long as we listen to him. He wanted us to gather as many poisons as we can. The others happened to see you buy a poison. And along with the quality of the cores you pulled out, you were the first one to get targeted." Long Xiuying suspected that they were a typical group of bandits, but now it seems that someone else was pulling the string.
'Why use some strangers, much less a group of bandits, to do his bidding. Can it be a decoy? Just by buying a large amount of poison can attract the attention of the higher-ups. There had to be an interior motive. If there was one, it might hinder his plan later on.' Long Xiuying did not understand the white mask intention.
"Listen here. Gather any pieces of information for me of anything that sound useful, got it?" Long Xiuying replaced his whip with the Black Bullet Double-Edge Lance.
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Black Bullet Double-Edge Lance
GRADE:
Rarity: Rare
Cultivation Base: Mid Qi Condensation.
Physical Base: Silver
DESCRIPTION:
-A lance that was formed after the death of the Black Bullet Queen's Ant. The blades are made from the tough mandibles of the Black Bullet Queen's Ant and sharpen that it can cut anything that stands in its way.
MAGICAL PROPERTIES:
-Once per day sends any spiritual attack back two-fold.
-Those who are struck will be tracked for twenty-four hours in a range of 5000 meters.
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He scratched the man arm so he can be tracked. The singularity system now allowed him to track the wolf mask and then feed the information into Long Xiuying mind. It was weird for Long Xiuying because he felt that it did not require any spiritual energy to track him.
"Don't try to run away. If you do I will come after you, and tear out your limb one by limb." With that said the man got up and quickly bow before he dashed into the light of the black market. Long Xiuying was not going to torture him. He only said that to scare him, but Long Xiuying will end his life if necessary.
"I will have to recall my Prime Sovereign's Shadow now." Long Xiuying was anxious that someone else was up to something. It might not be something that Wu Xiyin and he can handle currently. Long Xiuying decided to head back to his room to recall it after he placed his pelt and weapon back into the link storage.
He told the attendance that no one should disturb him.
Soon after, he recalled the Prime Sovereign's Shadow.
The second he does, he once again bore through the pain. The rush of intense pain almost killed him before the immense amount of spiritual energy flow into his body.
'What? This feels different…' Due to the Abandoned Continent properties of how it affected spiritual energy. All the spiritual energy that flowed into him were dark spiritual energy.
Long Xiuying was able to feel his cultivation base breaking through once again.
Initial Qi Condensation…
Mid Qi Condensation…
Final Qi Condensation…
And finally, Absolute Qi Condensation…
The dark spiritual energy was denser or else he would have entered the foundation stage.
Nonetheless, the dark spiritual energy power was stronger than the blessed spiritual energy that he was used to in the other continents.
Long Xiuying was waiting for the ritual inside his body to activate but it did not happen. There were no signs of leakage of spiritual energy coming out. He was able to temporarily break free from his cursed.
He was not sure that it was the dark spiritual energy or the abandoned continent that prevented it.
As long as he does not cultivate outside of the Abandoned Continents, he was able to finally gather his strength.
'I am finally able to catch up to my brother and will eventually surpass him. And when we meet, I will take back what I lost and more.'