Chapter 199 - Exchange
After the cold light of the cyan moon brushed past and the countless butterfly shapes all dispersed one by one!
‘Bang’, two cold light struck on the cyan moon ruthlessly but they were forcefully rebounded with a quiver.
With a blur of a certain part of the butterfly shadows, a shadow of a young woman appeared. She took a couple of steps back when she landed on her feet.
“You are holding the Cyan Moon Sword!” Hu Chunniang stared at the short sword in Liu Ming’s hand with a sense of surprise on her face.
“The true abilities of Fellow Hu is not this Butterfly Dream Technique but on the path of Sword Cultivation right?” Liu Ming asked frankly after the black tentacles dispersed.
“What path of Sword Cultivator! I don’t know what you’re talking about and you still haven’t answered my questions that I asked you before.” When Hu Chunniang heard this her face expression changed but she immediately changed it back to a calm state.
“In this case, does Fellow Hu know a disciple from Heavenly Moon Sect called Zhang Xiuniang?” Liu Ming smiled and asked again unintentionally.
“Zhang Xiuniang! Who are you!” This time Zhang Chunniang could not stay calm anymore and shouted after a flash in his eyes.
Then the lady shock her sleeves and two short white swords appeared in her hands. At the same time, a terrifying and extremely sharp aura erupted from her body.
"Hehe, It seems that I didn’t guess wrong. Fellow Hu is no doubt the supervising disciple for Heavenly Moon Sect in Xuanjing. No need to panic Fellow, let me show you something first.” Seeing this, Liu Ming instead clasped his hands he smiled. He moved his arms and a ray of silver light shot out.
Hu Chunniang’s expression twitched. One of her short swords slashed in front of her with skill and an invisible power surged out.
With a tremble, the ray of silver light paused before the young woman. It was actually the light silver token that Liu Ming was assigned to confirm his identity as the supervising disciple of the Barbarian Ghost Sect.
When Liu Ming first saw that Hu Chunniang was quite similar to the Heavenly Moon Sect’s disciple that had the Sword Communication Spirit Body, he started to suspect the true identity of Hu Chunniang.
Thus, he purposefully used the special effect of the Cyan Moon Sword and once Hu Chunniang recognized the sword, he was almost entirely sure of her identity.
“So Fellow Qian is the new Supervising Disciple of the Barbarian Ghost Sect. You gave me quite the fright. However, how did this Cyan Moon Sword end up in your hands and how did you meet cousin Xiuniang?” Hu Chunniang carefully looked at the silver token and her short swords disappeared. Then, she grabbed the token to examine before letting out a long sigh.
“It’s not too easy for me to talk about the Cyan Moon Sword. As long as you ask your sect, you should get the answer. As for Fellow Zhang, I met her a couple of times during the Life and Death Trials.” Liu Ming answered unhurriedly.
“Life and Death Trial! You must be a Core Disciple of the Barbarian Ghost Sect! However, for such a young Core Disciple of the Barbarian Ghost Sect, how would I not know you?” Hu Chunniang paused.
“Hehe, I recently became a Core Disciple in the sect and my appearance right now isn’t my true appearance. Fellow not recognizing me is to be expected.” Liu Ming gave a light cough as he replied.
“Keke, so Junior Qian’s real age shouldn’t be too large and you should be calling me senior. However, you seemed quite arrogant and experience and I didn’t see any flaws.” When the young woman hear this, she looked over Liu Ming before starting to laugh.
“Senior is giving me too much credit. I think that I merely have a bit of talent in camouflage. However, at this point, shouldn’t Senior Hu also let me verify your identity.” Liu Ming gave a smile.
“Hmph, your age might not be big but you are still quite careful. Here, this is my Supervising Token!” Hu Chunniang curled her lips before she took out a silver token and threw it over with Liu Ming’s token.
Liu Ming’s sleeve moved and grabbed both of the tokens. After lowering his head and making a quick check, he found that whether it was the make, style, material or weight, they were all the same.
Liu Ming’s fingers used some force and the Heavenly Moon Sect token was as hard as before without any damages.
With this, Liu Ming relaxed and said, “Thanks you.” He then threw the Heavenly Moon Sect token back.
“However, I’m a little confused! Junior confidently first revealed your identity. If you guessed wrong and I couldn’t take out my token, how would you have fixed such a wrong.” Hu Chunniang grabbed her token as she asked.
“That’s simple. All I needed to do was keep you here forever to not have any trouble.” Liu Ming gave a slight smile as he replied.
“Hmph, your tone is worthy of a Core disciple of the Barbarian Ghost Sect. However, since you were able to survive the Life and Death Trial, it looks like you have some skill. However, let me warn you! Don’t think that because you are a Core Disciple of a large sect, you can rule over loose practitioners of the same level. These loose practitioners might not have foundations that are as solid as sect disciples but in order for them to stay alive to such a point, they are all extremely powerful people. When fighting, they won’t be like us sect disciples who will be bound by rules. If there’s a sliver of a chance, they will use any method to fight. They are not our opponents but in a life or death fight, us sect disciples are usually the ones at a disadvantage. In addition, these loose cultivators usually are quite old when they have cultivated to that level. Whether it's the accumulation of Fa Li or fighting experience, we cannot compare with them.” Hu Chunniang said seriously.
“Thank you senior for your guidance. I was indeed quite arrogant.” Liu Ming felt a fear within his heart as he stiffened his expression and bowed to say thanks.
“Yes, looks like you aren’t really arrogant. That’s good! If it was the previous Barbarian Ghost Disciple who did not know the difference between the heaven and the earth, I would have left right away.” Seeing the humble manner of Liu Ming, Hu Chunniang nodded his head in satisfaction.
“Hu Chunniang approached the senior for my sect?” Liu Ming heard this and suddenly thought of something.
“I know what you’re thinking. However, you don’t need to ask much. I never made contact with the previous supervising disciple. After seeing that he wasn’t someone to be working with, I didn’t appear before him with my identity. Up until his disappearance, he didn’t know that I was in the Heavenly Moon Sect.” Hu Chunniang saw the thought of Liu Ming and gave a smile.
“As the Supervising Disciple of the Heavenly Moon Sect and staying at Xuanjing for so long, senior should have some sort of clue about my senior’s disappearance.” Liu Ming blinked before laughing.
“It would be impossible to say that I have not a single thread of evidence, but why should I tell you?” When Hu Chunniang heard this, she gave a Liu Ming a slanted glance.
“To have senior give information without any compensation is indeed a little too much. How about this, I will exchange information with senior. This way, we will both benefit.” Liu Ming paused before replying.
“Exchanging information? How long have you come to Xuanjing so what kind of information do you have?” Hu Chunniang said with disdain.
“If I say that I know where the root of Xuanjing’s confusion is, would you be interested?” Liu Ming touched his chin before giving a smile.
“You know the root? You are joking right. I have only barely gotten information about this matter!” Hu Chunniang was shocked after hearing such a thing and stared into the eyes of Liu ming.
“How about this, we will both write a name and show each other. Checking if they are the same.” Liu Ming said with patience.
“Each write out a name? Alright, that’s a solution. If junior really knows the information about the root, there will be value in exchanging information.” Hu Chunniang’s expression moved before she nodded.
In the next time, each of two of them took out a Glyph Pen and some silver powder to write a couple of words in their palms. Then, they made fists and gradually brought them together before opening them.
In the end, Liu Ming wrote out “Royal Family” in his palm while the young woman had “Government”.
Seeing this scene, Hu Chunniang’s expression changed.
“Looks like Junior Qian does have some skill to have already gone that far in so little time.”
“It was also a coincidence for me to gain this information.” Liu Ming’s face didn’t change but his heart loosened.
Although he knew that the current emperor was a monster, whether or not he was the actual root of change in Xuanjing, it was only a guess.
“Alright, since junior really does have some information, you have qualification to exchange information with me. For fairness, we’ll each ask one sentence. What do you want to know the most of right now?” The young woman put on a serious expression.
“Looks like senior really doesn’t want to have any losses! What I want to know the most right now is whether senior knows what faction is responsible for my senior’s disappance. When I came, I was ambushed by a group of people and hearing their words, it should be the same faction.” Liu Ming also became serious.
“Junior was ambushed? Those people really do move fast. When your previous Supervising Disciple went missing, if I’m not guessing wrong, it was because of the Black Spirit Group.” The young woman frowned before regaining composure.
“Black Spirit Group did this? How do you know?” Liu Ming show much surprise.
With how mysterious the Black Spirit Group was, they were one of Liu Ming’s suspects.
“Wouldn’t this be the second question? It’s time for me to ask.” The young woman gave a white eye before speaking.
“Hehe, I am being impatient. Senior can ask away!” Liu Ming paused before giving a bitter smile.
“Among those who ambushed you, was there a Late Spirit Apostle or Black Spirit Messenger.” Out of Liu Ming’s expectation, the young woman didn’t ask about the government but rather about what he was ambushed before.
“What are Black Spirit Messengers? I only know that among those that ambushed, most of them were normal practitioners and only two were true cultivators. One was a Middle Spirit Apostle and the other was a Late Spirit Apostle.” Liu Ming’s thought turned as he slowly replied.