Impactful Acquaintance

About half an hour passed, and Chang Liuyun was still nowhere to be seen, but Lei Mingxing didn't worry about it too much.

Looking at the crowd outside the Mercenary Association, one could only fathom how it looked inside, so it would probably take quite a while for Chang Liuyun to return.

Instead of wasting this downtime, Lei Mingxing switched from examining the lotus candy and to occasionally igniting a small flame on her fingertips while patiently waiting. There was nothing else to do for her, she wouldn't traverse the streets without Chang Liuyun, especially since she didn't know the town's layout, and would, most likely get lost in a heartbeat.

But she didn't want to waste these minutes by doing nothing, so she started working on her manipulation of the fire Qi inside her.

She carefully guided a bit of the energy to her fingertips and drove it out. At first, a short-lived sharp flame erupted from her finger almost reaching her face, but before it actually came into contact with her skin it fortunately vanished. But this scary experience didn't faze Lei Mingxing in the slightest, instead, she felt dissatisfied and tried several times with the same result, before finally maintaining a steady and small flame.

This crimson flame dyed her hand and face a soft blood-red light, as she examined its changes carefully.

She had noticeably more inner Qi now, it was still not a whole lot, but she would be able to burn double the number of locks as before. This change wasn't only pleasant however, it also caused a bit of anxiety to rise in Lei Mingxing's heart.

The only way for her cultivation to improve was through meditation, which is just another way of saying that you needed to gather the elemental Qi around you and absorb them.

Unfortunately, gathering elemental Qi was something the Chaos Physique did automatically at certain conditions. This effect would be triggered when another person with a Chaos Physique meditated near you as well, it also helped increase the amount of elemental Qi even further. And for absorption, the body unconsciously absorbed the surrounding Qi at all times, especially while resting.

All this pretty much proved how dangerous the previous night had been and Lei Mingxing still felt some lingering fear thinking about what could have happened.

Fortunately, this slip-up didn't cause any serious trouble.

Thud!

Lei Mingxing flinched in surprise at this sudden noise and jerked her head to look at the source.

"Scram you dirty traitor! Go ahead and tell your Master that he has succeeded! My business is ruined, but I will never work for him as long as I, Jing Jiang, live!"

With these angry words, a man was thrown out onto the alley through a door not far away from Lei Mingxing. It was also the noise of this door being kicked open that had startled her earlier. The man fell on his hands and knees but quickly dodged as a foot appeared from the door, threatening to kick him. The man jumped up from the ground and hurriedly ran past Lei Mingxing with his head lowered, not paying any attention to her.

"Hahh, what do I do now? Even my last, most trusted apprentice betrayed me..."

After the man was successfully chased away, the formerly angry tone disappeared, only leaving frustration and desperation with a few very quiet sobs mixed in between the words.

Lei Mingxing awkwardly listened to the voice, unsure whether she should say something or just stay hidden. But the choice wasn't up to her, the owner of the voice suddenly stepped out onto the alley to close the door.

Their gazes met. The owner of the voice still had tears in his eyes while they both looked at each other equally surprised. Even his mouth was slightly agape from the shock.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?!"

The man hurriedly wiped the tears off his face and flusteredly questioned Lei Mingxing.

But before Lei Mingxing could say anything, the man focused on something on her hand and continued with an excited tone.

"Is that a flame on your hand? Are you a fire cultivator by any chance?"

Only then did Lei Mingxing realize that she was still maintaining the small flame on her fingertip, even if it wasn't so small anymore, almost the same size as her thumb. She hastily extinguished the flame.

But that only confirmed the man's guess.

"So you are! Are you looking for some work at the moment perhaps? Do you want to try your hand at forging artifacts and other magical items?"

The man had quickly closed the distance between them during his excited monologue, now standing only about two steps away from Lei Mingxing.

But before Lei Mingxing could even open her mouth, the man cut in once again, his enthusiasm and excitement abruptly turning into suspicion while scrutinizing her face.

"This isn't another of Suan Bi's tricks, right? He didn't just send you to incidentally appear at the right time, did he?"

Bombarded with questions, Lei Mingxing's head was spinning, she was only able to shake her head, before the man happily gestured for her to follow him.

"Great, let's see if you've got what it takes! My name is Jing Jiang, what's yours?"

Lei Mingxing unconsciously answered.

"Lei Mingxing?"

The man stood at the door and waved again toward the confused Lei Mingxing.

"Very beautiful name, come Lei Mingxing, let me show you the ropes!"

Hesitating for a moment, Lei Mingxing soon went after him. Even though it was probably foolish to just follow the man, Jing Jiang, like this, if what he said was the truth, this was actually a great opportunity for her.

Sure, it sounded too good to be true and this was also the main doubt in her mind, but if she wasn't bold and took some risks, how would she ever achieve her revenge?

Especially after the surprise encounter today, she felt like she had to hurry and do everything in her power to become stronger as fast as possible.

And learning how to make artifacts would only be beneficial to her in the future.

If it wasn't a trap, that is.

But, from what she could tell, Jing Jiang didn't really give her the impression of being deceitful, so she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt for now.

She would still stay cautious, however. Before she followed him through the door, she secretly stroked the wall with her finger, carefully controlling a tiny flame to scorch a line pointing at the door into the wall.

She glanced at Jing Jiang, he didn't seem to have noticed her small action and she tried her best to walk past him as calmly as she could, entering the building.

Small theater:

Jing Jiang: Dear Gods, you haven't abandoned me yet!

Lei Mingxing: ...I'm an atheist.