Qing Ting was no fool; she immediately realized what was at hand when she saw her brother in full fury.
But… she really couldn’t help herself.
Whether it was on Earth or in the Hongmeng, shopping up a storm was something that women could never resist. Lu Yun had only needed to use a few tricks to fully win over Qing Ting after she was sent to surveil him.
He was at the Haotian Tower today not for himself, but also to take care of the Qing Ting issue.
It’d only taken a few purple crystals.
“We have no need to wait until we defeat the ghosts, I’ll duel you right now!” Azureclad shouted angrily. “Draw your sword, Champion Duke!”
“Brother…” Qing Ting said cautiously.
“Shut up!” He glared at her and continued addressing Lu Yun. “I don’t want your sword after I defeat you, just stay away from my sister!”
Qing Ting was ready to burst into tears; her brother had seriously misunderstood things! She just couldn’t control herself, and besides, the Champion Duke didn’t think of her that way.
“Gentlemen, gentlemen, please quell your anger!” Situ Qing reappeared and stood in front of Azureclad with an apologetic smile. “Azureclad Duke, our hospitality has been inadequate, how about we—”
“It has nothing to do with Haotian Tower. This lecherous scoundrel has designs on my sister! He’s a second Extraordinary Duke alright!” Azureclad hadn’t cared about the jewelry box of items adorning his sister, those were just king grade defensive trinkets. However, everything took on a different meaning when Qing Ting put on the king grade defensive dress and refined a high quality king grade flying sword.
A king grade defensive treasure and flying sword? He didn’t own a single one, much less a rare king grade flying sword!
Situ Qing snuck a careful look at Lu Yun; the latter’s expression was as if before.
“A strong man and beautiful woman is a match made in heaven, what’s wrong with that?” Lu Yun argued.
“Piss off!” Truly angered, Azureclad blasted out with a punch.
Lu Yun utilized the momentum to fly out a window, leaving behind a dumbfounded Li Zhen who’d stood next to him. The latter was now dressed in king-grade heavy black armor.
When Li Zhen digested the development, Lu Yun was already out of sight.
“…damn it, this was a trap!” Azureclad realized something was off when the kid exited the tower entirely. The brat had done this on purpose and spent a few dozen billion crystals to evade Qing Ting’s surveillance!
“Brother, I… I’m not.” Qing Ting looked piteously at Azureclad.
“I know you aren’t, I fell for that kid’s scheme. He used you to provoke me and extract himself from the situation!” he transmitted back to Qing Ting.
“Then do I catch up to him?” she asked quietly when she saw her brother calm down.
“Go on, and don’t fall for his plot so easily this time.” Azureclad breathed out easily.
“You’re the one who fell for a plot! Here, this is for you!” Qing Ting brought out a second king grade flying sword and handed it to her brother. “The Champion Duke’s already paid for it.”
She vanished in a cloud of faint fragrance, leaving Azureclad holding the sword with a rapidly shifting expression. He could tell that his sister had specifically chosen this one for him. It was worth more than the one she’d received and was perfectly suited for him.
It was like adding wings to a tiger with this flying sword in hand; his strength would advance to another level!
Despite his gains, he found himself at a bit of a loss. Not only had that kid gifted his sister a full set of king grade equipment, but the kid had also indirectly given him a flying sword?
“Heh heh, this flying sword comes from the hands of the Prime Weapon King himself. Its name is Dragonlake and it’s worth fifty billion premium purple crystals! If it was the Immortal Pagoda selling it, it’d cost at least one premium crystal vein,” Situ Qing explained merrily.
One small premium crystal vein contained at least a hundred million fang of premium crystals. One fang weighed roughly half a kilogram and was a standard unit of measure in the Hongmeng.
Any premium crystal vein that could be transported was a small one. The large ones were tightly connected with earthen veins and took the form of great dragons. They anchored the fortunes of a locale and were unmovable by regular kings.
“Of course, this is possible because the monopoly over supplemental dao has been removed. If not for that, not even a hundred premium crystal veins could purchase this treasure,” Situ Qing added. For some reason, he quite liked the Champion Duke—particularly the round of compliments the lad had offered for the Haotian Tower.
Azureclad fled with his tail between his legs; he was too embarrassed to remain where he was and he couldn’t bear to throw away the sword either. Though it wasn’t as powerful as the Stellar Sword, the latter wouldn’t be able to hack through it. Azureclad had yet to reach the realm of remaining stoic in the face of great treasure.
Li Zhen recovered as well and quickly left Haotian Tower to search for Lu Yun. He didn’t know either why he doggedly remained close to the duke. Since his clan didn’t like him and he had nowhere else to go in Cloudexit City, he might as well stick with the Champion Duke.
……
Outside Cloudexit City.
There was once a vibrant and lush forest here—animals abounded and all sorts of natural treasures could be found within. It was now a desolate wasteland after that battle—traces of war marked the land, as did the corpses of ghosts.
Ghosts had corpses too!
It might be more accurate to call them withered skeletons, or even unextinguished ghostfire. A certain type of black crystal debris was most commonly found on the battlefield.
Lu Yun had killed many ghosts in the confrontation, but none of them had become his Infernum. He’d given up on that goal and was inspecting the outskirts of the city.
“These crystals…” He picked one up. The crystalline residue could be seen everywhere in the Hongmeng after a ghost died. They were as useless as rocks, but a new thought struck him at this time.
A tiny silver flame appeared between his fingers—the flame of order. It was so minuscule that it was almost imperceptible between his fingers. One had to look closely to make out that there was fire there.
Lu Yun placed the black crystal on the tiny flame and saw it consumed without a trace in the next second. He frowned faintly.
“The flame of order hasn’t grown stronger, but a very slight change has taken place. The black crystal was too small, it’s not enough! I need more—the ones here haven’t been preserved very well and they’re already starting to dissipate upon the air…”
It’d been roughly half a month since the first offensive from the ghosts, which meant that the crystals left behind by the ghosts had mostly evaporated. If their crystals could be maintained in a storage treasure or seed storage, that would prevent them from eroding.
These crystals were unique to the Hongmeng as none of the ghosts in the world of immortals or chaos left behind black crystals when they died. The Meteorite King likewise hadn’t dropped these crystals when Lu Yun slashed him to death.
The fact that his presence of hell couldn’t control the ghosts here or that none of them turned into Infernum when they died likely had something to do with them.
“I can have the Immortal Pagoda issue a mission to collect these crystals and trade them for purple crystals!” A sudden idea struck him, but he subconsciously moved half a dozen kilometers to the left when his heart clenched.
Boom!
An enormous streak of sword light rushed through where he’d just stood. It created a crater half a kilometer in length while an indiscernible middle-aged man wielding a battle sword appeared next to it.
