Chapter 179: Blood Kong Flower

“Utterly alarmist talk!”

Shen Xu’s face showed a hint of embarrassment because her emotional outburst was so sudden that both Xiu Qingcheng and Meng Yingxing fell into a brief silence as they looked at her.

Shen Xu stared blankly for a moment, her gaze sweeping over the two of them, feeling that the surrounding air had slightly stagnated.

She hurriedly picked up her teacup again, blocking half of her face, and shifted her gaze away from Xiu Qingcheng and Meng Yingxing.

“Cough, sorry, I got too excited.”

Feeling she had lost her composure, Shen Xu said awkwardly.

“No harm.”

Xiu Qingcheng smiled and quickly lowered her head to eat.

Probably because she had calmed down, Xiu Qingcheng’s excitement was much fainter than before.

Meng Yingxing observed Xiu Qingcheng, feeling a trace of strangeness in his heart.

Usually, Master would have started pressing for more details after hearing Shen Xu’s words, so why was the current Master so quiet?

Meng Yingxing withdrew his scrutinizing gaze from Xiu Qingcheng and also smiled faintly at Shen Xu.

“Miss Shen Xu, why do you say the storyteller’s tale is alarmist talk? Could it be that this legend circulating in Yelan City is actually based on facts?”

“I didn’t expect you, Disciple, to be interested in these strange tales and anecdotes.”

Xiu Qingcheng’s voice sounded. Meng Yingxing turned his head, only to see Xiu Qingcheng eating with her head down, her lips shiny with oil.

“I just acted on a whim.”

Perhaps today’s Xiu Qingcheng wasn’t interested in these things, but Meng Yingxing had piqued a bit of interest.

Facing Meng Yingxing’s inquiry, Shen Xu gripped the cup in her hand tightly, lowering her head to bite her lower lip.

Her current bashful demeanor was nothing like her previous vigorous and swift self.

After a good while, Shen Xu nodded her head.

“According to my grandfather, the fact that the storyteller adapted it into a storytelling script is true.”

“But what my grandfather said is completely different from the story they adapted!”

Speaking up to here, Shen Xu’s voice became slightly louder again.

“That female general named Xie Yuguang was no witch! She was the guardian deity of Yelan City back then! She single-handedly founded our current City Guard Army, led the army to repeatedly repel enemies and demons invading Yelan City, and protected the peace of Yelan City for a lifetime!”

Xiu Qingcheng bit the tip of her chopsticks repeatedly, lifting her eyelids to see the girl before her with eyes overflowing with brilliance when mentioning Xie Yuguang.

Even brighter and more full of envy than when she learned she and Meng Yingxing were spiritual cultivators.

“Although it is a fact that she fell into the demonic path, she did so for the sake of this Yelan City!”

“I grew up listening to my grandfather tell stories about the general. She is my goal, which is why I joined the City Guard Army!”

With such a firm goal, it was truly a pity she wasn’t a spiritual cultivator.

Yearning for that female general was her desire.

Xiu Qingcheng’s thoughts drifted far away.

“If the version Miss Shen Xu heard is the correct one, then the story the storyteller told just now was indeed somewhat alarmist.”

After listening, Meng Yingxing first said a sentence that gave Shen Xu face.

“However, none of us are witnesses to the facts. As stories are passed down from generation to generation, changes are inevitable, not to mention the storyteller also made adaptations. Becoming like this… is truly a helpless act.”

Unknown when, Xiu Qingcheng was already lying on the table, her face turned sideways, occasionally cracking one or two melon seeds in her mouth, saying with a lack of interest:

“Dramatic interpretation is not talking nonsense, adaptation is not making things up randomly~”

Shen Xu sighed, her mood dropping a few degrees.

“Of course I know… I used to come to this restaurant often, but later I stopped coming. Out of earshot, out of mind!”

“I can’t change anything; as long as some things can be passed down, that’s enough.”

“Enough talk; you guys eat quickly. You’re not allowed to leave this restaurant until you finish eating!”

This girl was also a reasonable person.

Just as Xiu Qingcheng was thinking this, the chopsticks she had been biting were suddenly snatched away by Meng Yingxing.

“? What are you doing?”

Xiu Qingcheng raised her body and glared at Meng Yingxing.

She was biting the chopsticks quite happily!

“Master, be more steady.”

Meng Yingxing didn’t open his mouth; he spoke to Xiu Qingcheng in his mind, flipping his hand to return the chopsticks to her.

“If you bite again, I can feed you personally.”

“Mere disciple! Actually managing me, your Master?”

Meng Yingxing just smiled at Xiu Qingcheng.

Gritting her teeth, Xiu Qingcheng snatched the chopsticks back.

The taste of the dishes in this restaurant was indeed good; even Meng Yingxing, who usually ate very little, couldn’t help eating a bit more.

Not to mention Xiu Qingcheng; in her bowl, apart from what Meng Yingxing picked for her, just what she put in herself formed a small mountain.

“If you like it, eat more; if it’s not enough, we can order more!”

Shen Xu grinned, greeting Xiu Qingcheng and Meng Yingxing enthusiastically, while she didn’t eat much herself.

Although the little military funds Hong Chengliang gave were all spent, she was happy to use her own small treasury to treat them.

After Meng Yingxing had eaten his fill, he wanted to ask Shen Xu about something he cared about.

“I heard from the storytelling just now that Xie Yuguang had a Demon Sword in her hand. In the version Miss Shen Xu heard, was there really a Demon Sword?”

Meng Yingxing remembered Xiu Qingcheng was very interested in this Demon Sword, so he asked in passing.

Shen Xu thought for a moment, “Demon Sword… seems to have really existed. I heard them say this Demon Sword was called Duan Li, possessing the ability to break ten thousand armies with one strike.”

“Then do you know the whereabouts of the Demon Sword?”

“Hmm… I don’t know either…”

“Alright.”

Xiu Qingcheng lowered her head and ate fiercely, then suddenly choked and coughed violently.

“Miss Xiu!?”

“Master!”

Meng Yingxing and Shen Xu were startled simultaneously. Meng Yingxing hurriedly handed her the water in front of him and gently patted her back a few times.

“Cough, sorry.”

“Master, you seem a bit absent-minded?”

Xiu Qingcheng tried to save face, ignoring Meng Yingxing’s puzzled gaze and the voice in her head.

After the small interlude, Shen Xu became curious about why Meng Yingxing asked about the Demon Sword.

“So you two came to Yelan City to search for that Demon Sword?”

“You could say it’s one of the purposes,” Meng Yingxing said.

“No, our main purpose is to find the Blood Kong Flower.”

Xiu Qingcheng cut straight to the chase, meeting Shen Xu’s eyes.

“I wonder if Miss Shen Xu knows where else in Yelan City there are Blood Kong Flowers now?”

Hearing this, Shen Xu hesitated for a moment before speaking softly.

“It seems you know that in the past Yelan City, Blood Kong Flowers could be seen everywhere. But ever since Yelan City moved, Blood Kong Flowers have become rare.”

“Currently, the freshest Blood Kong Flower happens to be up for auction at the Anqing Auction House outside Yelan City in seven days.”

“So recently, there are quite a few more people in Yelan City who came for the Blood Kong Flower.”

Hearing this news, Xiu Qingcheng and Meng Yingxing frowned in unison.

“I originally thought getting the Blood Kong Flower would be easy once we reached Yelan City, but it turns out that even in Yelan City, the Blood Kong Flower has become so rare, and even has to be auctioned.”

“If it was just finding the Blood Kong Flower, perhaps there wouldn’t be much difficulty, but once it comes to spending money to obtain it, the difficulty rises geometrically.”

“No one knows what kind of sky-high price an item will be auctioned for.”

Shen Xu saw Xiu Qingcheng whispering to Meng Yingxing.

“Hey, Disciple, Disciple, how much money do I have left?”

“Disciple’s is mine”—Xiu Qingcheng using the word ‘I’ was very reasonable.

“…I didn’t get the reward for the previous mission because the Xu family was wiped out, but there was a separate reward from the sect.”

“Adding these to the monthly disciple stipend from the sect, there’s still over a hundred thousand taels of silver.”

Meng Yingxing calculated briefly.

“There should have been more, but he spent a lot buying various cultivation materials and buying all kinds of weird little gadgets for Xiu Qingcheng before.”

“Over a hundred thousand; not too much, not too little.”

Xiu Qingcheng’s frown deepened. She turned around and asked Shen Xu again: “Then the last time a Blood Kong Flower was auctioned, how much did it sell for?”

“Asking Shen Xu, so they can have a baseline in their hearts.”

Shen Xu indicated she didn’t know; she hadn’t cared about what was sold in the auction house or for how much before.

For her, the auction house was still a relatively distant place.

In front of the bulletin board at the entrance of the auction house.

After finishing the meal, Xiu Qingcheng and the group followed Shen Xu to the so-called Anqing Auction House.

Here on the bulletin board, they saw the items to be auctioned at the next session.

Among them, that Blood Kong Flower was impressively listed.

“Starting bid fifty thousand spirit silver? Seems okay?”

Xiu Qingcheng and Meng Yingxing stood side by side, supporting their chins in thought.

“Perhaps a hundred thousand spirit silver can take it down.”

Meng Yingxing agreed with Xiu Qingcheng’s view.

Two people who had never entered an auction house; their thoughts were truly too simple.

“Yo, Second Aunt Chen! Have you eaten?”

“Uncle Dong, going to the casino again? Better gamble a bit less, right?”

“Sister Nan, come to my house for a meal next time? My mom misses you!”

While Xiu Qingcheng and Meng Yingxing were studying the bulletin board of the auction house carefully, Shen Xu stood behind them and met eight people she knew in five minutes.

Xiu Qingcheng and Meng Yingxing looked at each other, then looked back at Shen Xu with expressions as if looking at a monster.

Shen Xu’s social ability was a bit too powerful.

“Hehe, don’t look at me like that. The folks in Yelan City are all good people; I deal with them often and know a lot of people.”

Shen Xu scratched her hair, a bit embarrassed by their staring.

Xiu Qingcheng rolled her eyes, a cunning plan forming in her mind.

“Then do you know the boss of the auction house? Ask him to directly give us the Blood Kong Flower.”

“Miss Xiu thinks too highly of me; the boss of this auction house… I happen not to know.”

Xiu Qingcheng’s shoulders drooped.

Sure enough, pies couldn’t fall from the sky.

“The auction is in seven days; how do you plan to arrange these seven days?”

Shen Xu asked with concern.

“No plans for the time being.”

Meng Yingxing shook his head faintly and replied.

“In that case, why not stay at my house? My house is very big and has empty rooms; if you are tired, you can sleep directly, it’s no problem!”

Shen Xu grabbed Xiu Qingcheng’s hands again.

She was still so enthusiastic, enthusiastic enough to send a chill down Xiu Qingcheng’s spine.

“L-Let’s see.”

Xiu Qingcheng hesitated for a moment.

After the three left the bulletin board, another man walked up to it.

Under the wide cloak, a pair of sharp demon pupils was revealed.

These demon pupils gazed at the three words ‘Blood Kong Flower’ on the bulletin board, lost in thought.

“Auction, a Blood Kong Flower rare in a hundred years?”

“Perhaps she would like it.”