Chapter 228: The Most Dangerous Place

Venerable Lingquan glared at Lin Jing with an incredibly dark expression and said, “Little fellow, so you didn’t give up on the struggle for the heavenly treasure, but instead slaughtered your competitors and obtained the final treasure?”

Lin Jing spoke helplessly, “The grotto’s rules—it was merely legitimate self-defense.”

“Senior Lingquan, what do you think of the matter I mentioned—” He firmly believed that these days, those who owed money were the ones in charge.

As long as the money hadn’t been repaid, the person most afraid of your death was the creditor.

And right now, he was the debtor in charge.

Venerable Lingquan was the creditor.

Venerable Lingquan shook his head and said, “The grotto descended upon the commercial street of Tianqing City, and the Qingming Chamber of Commerce even blockaded the street.”

“Any random Cultivator in Tianqing City could guess that you must have had some contact with the Qingming Chamber of Commerce…”

“If I let you go, it would be no different from slapping Bai Xuan Venerable’s face, making him hold a grudge!”

“This Taixuan Sect’s overall strength is not inferior to the Qingming Chamber of Commerce; it is the leader of the Sects in Taixuan Province, with a Void Profound Old Ancestor in seclusion. This Bai Xuan Venerable is even one of the Taixuan Eight-Colored Venerables, so—”

“You’ve got to pay more!” He looked at Lin Jing. “Letting you slip away secretly is no problem, but you still owe Medicinal Pills and will bring a certain amount of trouble to this old man. It wouldn’t be right without some compensation!”

“This old man won’t ask for much. As long as you promise to return the owed Medicinal Pills within one year, for every year you are late, the number of Medicinal Pills owed will double!”

“What kind of ghost interest is that?” Lin Jing’s mouth twitched.

“How about it?” Venerable Lingquan stared at Lin Jing. Compared to the Taixuan Sect, he still valued the market value of the Taotie Pills more.

In truth, letting Lin Jing go didn’t really matter much.

But compared to the questioning from the Taixuan Sect, he was more worried that if Lin Jing left, he wouldn’t come back, running away with the debt.

The owed Medicinal Pills for an Advanced Exotic Fire didn’t really matter; the main thing was that he wouldn’t be able to get the subsequent selling rights for the Taotie Pills, which made a merchant like Venerable Lingquan very uncomfortable.

In his view, as long as he could get the subsequent selling rights for the Taotie Pills, it was worth offending Bai Xuan Venerable.

After all, offending Bai Xuan Venerable was equivalent to befriending Lin Jing. For a Genius who could fight his way out of the Treasure Celestial Grotto, regardless of his own abilities, the Pill Venerable Master standing behind him was certainly no simple character.

Between an ordinary Soul Transformation Cultivator and a Pill Venerable, Venerable Lingquan understood very well who could bring greater benefits.

The condition he proposed for letting Lin Jing go was actually trivial; it was just sending a friendly signal to Lin Jing.

Furthermore, having Lin Jing make a promise rather than sign a Contract was also an expression of goodwill, mainly to make Lin Jing remember that there was still a lonely old merchant waiting for him in Tianqing City.

After a slight hesitation, Lin Jing said, “I can do that.”

Repaying it within a year would be fine.

As for now, he indeed didn’t have many Taotie Pills.

The two parties completed the transaction, and Venerable Lingquan flew away. “Taixuan Province is far from Qingming Province, and Qing Province has no spatial Teleportation Array. Even with a Soul Transformation Stage cultivation, traveling at full speed will take some time. Take care of yourself,”

“And leave this region as soon as possible…”

After seeing off Venerable Lingquan, Lin Jing entered the pill pavilion with a sense of loss and began packing his bags. “Leaving is impossible.”

Immediately afterward, he condensed a phantom image, transforming it into his own likeness, and flew out of the pill pavilion, flying out of Tianqing City in full view of everyone.

As for his true body, he didn’t leave Tianqing City at all but instead escaped into the Hourglass of Time, vanishing from the outside world.

He and Senior Brother Ouyang had agreed to meet on this commercial street; if he traveled far away, how could they meet? Since they were going to meet sooner or later, he might as well just not leave.

“The most dangerous place is the safest place. As long as many people see my phantom leaving Tianqing City, even when those Taixuan Sect Cultivators arrive, they will be misled!”

Hidden within the dimensional space of the Hourglass of Time, Lin Jing could peacefully wait for Senior Brother Ouyang to return to Tianqing City.

In a void world filled with sand, Lin Jing felt no different from the outside world after entering. If he had to say something, it was that the Spiritual Qi was even denser, far exceeding the beast-taming spaces of the Pine Leaf Squirrel and Dragon Carp, as well as the academy’s Immortal Cave.

As for the flow of time, as the Master of the Hourglass of Time, he could see the outside world. Everything outside appeared extremely slow, forming a sharp contrast with the world inside the sandglass.

“Good stuff—” Lin Jing whispered to himself, feeling his safety greatly enhanced. This time, unless it was a Void Profound expert who specialized in the Path of Time, no one could hope to find this place.

“Now I have more time.”

“I’ll just wait for him here slowly until it’s time for the agreed meeting with Senior Brother Ouyang.”

“Dao of Beast Taming Spells, Illusion Dao Spells—forget it, I’ll try this; I can’t let it go to waste.”

Lin Jing sat cross-legged amidst the sand, took out the Three Heads Six Arms technique he had obtained from the Demon Ancestor Relic, and began to Cultivate. He also summoned the Pine Leaf Squirrel to have it plant trees and create forests, slightly changing this desolate environment.

Meanwhile…

After some time, a giant bird arrived at Tianqing City from the boundless heights. Atop it were Ouyang Hao and Xu Qingyao, who had come with him.

Because Xu Qingyao had come along, the two of them rode a Soul Transformation Demon Emperor, and their speed was much faster than Senior Brother Ouyang had anticipated, arriving far earlier than the agreed time.

“Holy crap, what happened? Where’s the shop? Where’s the person???”

The commercial street was open again, but Ouyang Hao, leading his Senior Sister, stood before the Nameless Pill Pavilion and fell into deep thought, because the pill pavilion where Lin Jing had been was now covered in sealing strips.

The walls of the pavilion were also covered with Taixuan Sect’s wanted posters, and the person being hunted was exactly the alchemist image Lin Jing had transformed into.

“Hmm?” Xu Qingyao glanced at Ouyang Hao, seemingly wanting an explanation.

Seeing this, Ouyang Hao immediately went to a nearby shop and asked, “Fellow Daoist, do you know what’s going on with this Nameless Pill Pavilion? Their Contraception Pills were quite good; I wanted to buy a few more.”

“Why is he wanted? Could it be that his Medicinal Pills killed someone?”

The False Core old man in the shop next door was taken aback and said, “Fellow Daoist might not know, but not long ago, the owner of this Nameless Pill Pavilion was drawn into a grotto. Inside the grotto, he killed a True Disciple of the Taixuan Sect, and now he’s being wanted by the Taixuan Sect. As for the man himself, he fled at the first opportunity!”

“How did he enter a grotto again? Someone like me hasn’t even entered one once.” Ouyang Hao muttered to himself as he ran back to report to Xu Qingyao.

“What a troublemaker.” Xu Qingyao’s mouth also twitched. His real identity was wanted, and now his fake identity was forced into exile. How could this Saint Child of the Beast Control Sect be so unlucky?

“What do we do?” Ouyang Hao was also speechless.

Xu Qingyao said, “What else can we do? We don’t know where he’s hiding. Come on, that whatever Bai Gei Venerable should still be in Tianqing City. I sense two Soul Transformation auras in the city. We’ll go give this Taixuan Sect Soul Transformation Cultivator a beating,”

“Make him cancel the wanted poster and spread the word. That way, the kid should dare to come back, right?”

“A struggle in a grotto is not malicious harm. If someone died because their skills were inferior, what’s there to seek revenge for! It made me come all this way for nothing and even waste time waiting!”

After saying that, she rolled up her sleeves and, ignoring Ouyang Hao’s stunned gaze, turned into a streak of light and flew toward where the Soul Transformation aura was located.

“Wait, Senior Sister, wait, wait!!” Senior Brother Ouyang was lost. He felt like someone else was about to suffer. Since joining the Demon Court, his Senior Sister’s temper had become increasingly violent, gradually becoming more like a Yao Beast.