Making Friends at Night

It was a cold night, but Xueming did not light up a bonfire. If a wild animal invaded, he was sure that he could fight it or perhaps turn it into breakfast. On the contrary, setting up a bonfire could scare wild animals but at the same time attract a demon beast—which would be more problematic. The lowest level demon beast would be equivalent to a self-trained person with the third level of Qi energy. If Xueming who had a very low Qi energy level—only at the top of the first level of the basic Qi cultivation—encountered a demon beast, he would undoubtedly become its late-night meal.

At this point, despite his degraded cultivation level, Xueming still didn't give up cultivation. When the moon disappeared from the mouth of the abandoned cave where he lived, Xueming sat down in a meditative position. In the Yong family compound, the Magic Zone Formation was set to increase the power of attracting natural Qi for internal usage. Yet, it was considered inferior to meditation amid this rich deserted forest.

But then, while Xueming could smoothly absorb the Qi, his left eye--with a black stone stuck on it—became burning hot. Consequently, the Qi that Xueming had been trying to accumulate over the course of several days was completely sucked into the left eye. Then, the pain that attacked him made him exclaim “Ouch!” before things calmed down.

... “This crazy stone has sucked up my Qi again.” Xueming used his fist to smash hard at the black stone on his eye, but it was intact. Now it looked like the stone had already become one with Xueming's flesh and blood.

CRACK…!

The sound of footsteps on the dry leaves was heard from outside. On a quiet night like this, there shouldn't be any common people traveling, thus making Xueming extremely cautious. Before Xueming could sneak out to look outside, a thin figure in the pitch-black cloth dashed in a shadow form—blocking the moonlight for a moment—and stopped to stand at the mouth of the cave. The cool breeze from outside the cave carries a pleasing scent to the inside. Xueming sensed the fragrance that the cool breeze blew and got carried away for a moment.

“Who’s that?” A girl loudly asked in a sweet voice when she sensed that there was someone living inside the abandoned cave.

The loud question completely destroyed Xueming's enchanted atmosphere. Xueming stammered as he quickly answered it. Then he showed good intentions by slowly raising his hands over his head as he walked before slowly stepping out to stand still in front of the unknown girl who owned the sweet voice.

“Are you a cultivator or a hunter?” With her round big eyes, the girl looked at Xueming intently.

“Well…” When he clearly saw the face of the girl, all of a sudden Xueming's blood was pumping hard. Her beauty, despite being obscured by a dark veil, made Xueming’s heart pound, not to mention the strange fragrance emanating from her.

…What was this feeling? Why was my heart beating so fast like this?

Xueming stood still looking at the beautiful face of the girl as if being spellbound.

“What are you looking at?” The girl frowned before pulling the veil down to cover up her face more.

"Oh ... I'm sorry. I just woke up and still feel sleepy. My eyes may be somewhat hazy, so ... "

The young girl nodded her head, showing that she understood him. Yet, she still used one hand to hold the veil to where it was. "Are you a hunter or a cultivator?” The girl's voice now was slightly harsher than the previous, but to Xueming’s ear, it was still sweet and captivating.

“I…” When there was a beautiful girl in front of him, he wouldn’t dare giving an answer that lowers his dignity. "I am a cultivator."

The girl squinted her eyes and gazed closely at Xueming until the young man unconsciously blushed. "You have thoroughly hidden your power." Her compliment made Xueming freeze because, in fact, he did not hide his power at all. The young girl could not sense his power simply because of his current weak skill. For this reason, Xueming was embarrassed by being praised for his weakness.

“Well… not that… thoroughly.”

“Shh…” The girl suddenly changed her gesture—putting her index finger across her lips to hush Xueming—and dragged him into the cave with a light footstep, like the little girl was hiding from someone. "You have to be careful out there. The bad guys are hunting after the Inferno Ginseng. But what's worse is that I got separated from my Master. That’s why I ran to this place to hide and wait until dawn to find the Master again. "

“The bad guys are looking for the Inferno Ginseng. What does it have to do with you?” Xueming asked with curiosity.

“They don’t want anyone to compete for the Ginseng with them. If they see you and me…” She moved her hand to make a throat-slitting gesture.

“Are the bad guys that skillful?” She nodded in return. “What about your Master?”

"My Master is surely much better. If it weren't for that crazy Ginseng that ran away quickly, I could have brought it back to the academy and turned it into medicine"

“The Ginseng could run away?”

“Of course… The Inferno Ginseng was developed from a ten-thousand-year ginseng that had absorbed the earth flames swirling beneath the earth until it became alive. If it is used to turn into magic medicine, it will be the most precious thing."

"The most precious? What if compared to this guy?" Xueming handed the last tablet of the Qi nurturing medicine that he had ever gotten from the Yong family to the girl. In his heart, it meant that this would look precious to her eye because it was the best medicine that he had ever received.

The girl took it and smelled it. Then, she rubbed her nose a few times. "What medicine is this? Why is the smell so pungent? And I can't even sense the power flowing in the pill.” The girl stared at Xueming with her big and round innocent eyes.

"It's just a trashy, low-grade energy medicine." Xueming took his own precious pill and clutched it in his hand before deciding to throw away, hitting one side of the cave wall. "I just want to test your knowledge." But in his heart, he secretly memorized the exact spot to which the pill was tossed, hoping that when the girl was gone, he would search for it and bring it back.

"You are strange and also have a pill that I have never seen.” The little girl didn’t get angry at Xueming but became more interested in him. The two were having fun chatting for a while. "You have any other cool stuff? ... Ning Xian was always in her academy. This is her first time traveling to the outside world. "

…Ning Xian, what a beautiful name. It would be so nice if I could see the girl’s face more clearly.

“Yeah, sure. Even though I’ve just started my own cultivation journey, I do have a few magic items.”

"Hmm ... Great. If you have other exotic magic items, could you please show me some of them? Because when I see my Master, I’ll ask for medicine and magic items from him and bring them to show you."

“Alright then.” Xueming took out the only treasure he had.

…A droplet pendant, the only item he received from Yong Mei Hwa.

The light blue beam of the droplet pendant that glowed in the dark looked so mysteriously beautiful that Ning Xian had a big gaze of excitement. She unconsciously reached out her two hands, hoping to grab hold of the droplet pendant. Now she already forgot about holding the veil. Without a hand holding, the black veil came off, hanging down… Now she didn’t care about it anymore.

"How beautiful." Her warm white hands stretched out to touch the droplet pendant. Then, something unexpected happened. Suddenly, there was a warm white vapor bursting out of the magic pendant. After that, a strange cold wave flashed into Ning Xian's fingertips. The girl's body turned to a halt and then collapsed immediately.