Chapter 48: The audacity!!

"Oho….look at that girl behind your sister." Ming Jiu leaned sideways and whispered in An Lin's ear. Just by hearing his tone, An Lin knew that his brother had once more found another girl to drool upon.

"Of course, I can see that insolent girl." An Lin scoffed and gave a hateful look at Le Fangling.

At that moment, he thought about his embarrassment upon meeting her at the pond of Sasha and even wanted to dig a hole to bury himself out of embarrassment. It was technically his fault but not his at the same time; after all he was a young and healthy boy with dynamic and colorful mind whose heart craved for love.

"Sometimes my boy, insolence is also a charm." Ming Jiu supported his arms on his shoulder and gave a smug reply.

"What?" An Lin looked at him with disbelief evident in  his eyes.

"Shh, nah nah.. let me show you how." Ming Jiu cut off An Lin even before he could speak something. His eyes skimmed over his classmates and junior sister and landed upon a purple flower that a girl was wearing.

He was going to show to An Lin, the way to a maiden's heart through his insolence.

'Nice hair and nice flower.' He commented internally and made sure in his heart about her being the target of his affectionate demonstration.

"Hey, beautiful junior sister." He called her as he with a flick of his finger,  pulled the flower on her hair to his hand and caught it in an elegant manner.  Even the way he supported himself on An Lin was all about looking cooler but little did he know that he looked like a spider hanging on to its thread for its dear life.

Looking at this embarrassing behavior of his so-called best friend, An Lin wanted to dump him here and go somewhere else.

He was rather willing to accept  death than suffer this humiliation along with his friend.

"Mind if I sniff it?" He asked as he placed the nose on his flower and took a sniff which was lous enough for almost everyone on that area to hear.

The girl to whom the flower belonged to was none other than Qiqi, who was in a very bad mood. Hearing herself being addressed like that made her feel much angrier than before.

She gave a sharp turn around and stared at him for a while, making Ming Jiu shudder like in a winter season.

'Oh, it's her from the alchemy class.' Ming Jiu quickly recognized her as he rarely saw any student in alchemy field. Most of them wanted to do something cooler and powerful like fighting, sword fights and exorcism and so alchemy was on decline.

Qiqi was one of the very few that had enrolled as alchemist in the sect and so, he had good impression on her. Personally, he had never talked to her but he did know that she was pleasant scenery to the eye and of course, a good student.

"Yes sure, go ahead." Qiqi smiled as she answered him back. Even her eyes squinted in a friendly manner that could make any people let down their guard down.

"Oh my, thank you." Ming Jiu had not expected her to agree with him just like that. She was a lot friendlier than he had expected her to be.

"Are you sure?" He asked as his eyes travelled from the flower on his hand to Qiqi's smiling face. He felt there was something wrong.

"Of course, just don't blame me later if you get swollen bumps inside your nasal cavity." Qiqi shrugged her shoulder nonchalantly.

"What do you mean?" Ming Jiu asked cautiously as he recognized some of the herbs and chemicals that the flower as emitting as its scent.

"This is the…" Ming Jiu suddenly got cautious and threw away the flower from his hand. It fell on the grouns right at his feet. Without even waiting for a moment, he lighted the flower and it burned with purple flame. Within a few seconds it turned to purple ashes.

The smoke that was about to emit from the burnt masses was immediately purified by An Lin who had sensed that something was wrong.

"What are you doing brining such dangerous flower inside here?" Ming Jiu lost all of his chivalrous behavior and the aura around him turned serious. He no longer had the drooling expression on his face like he did before.

"Please senior, don't blame me. I am not doing anything wrong." Qiqi stood up from where she was standing and turned to look at Ming Jiu without even a hint of guilt on her face.

'There are much more dangerous people walking around here.' She commented inwardly looking at Le Fangling who had just passed by her.

"What do you mean junior? Are you saying you are not going to accept that it is your mistake?" Ming Jiu thundered at her, his eyes emitting menacing aura.

He turned to look at the ash on his feet. The flower was seemingly harmless but once it was made to grow along with the liquid that was extracted from a typical dead insect's carcasses, it completely changed its composition and characteristics.

The smell of the flower, if inhaled could make people develop sore spots on their nose which will later burst resulting in discharge of white sticky liquid from them.

But what was surprising was, the wounds healed automatically after a week as if nothing had happened in the first place.

Since it carried no importance as a medical plant or neither as poisonous herb, this plant was already forgotten.

It was not that unheard of but never did he think that one day he will witness someone bold enough to actually grow this flower and even have the audacity of bringing it to such an important event like the welcoming and assessment ceremony!!

It was genius move but the display of the talent was in totally wrong place and at wrong time. It was as if she was here to pull a prank on someone but who? His eyes skimmed over the queue of the new disciples until he thought of something.

'The Le Fangling girl?' Ming Jiu thought as he turned his attention to the stage on the middle of ground where the sect leader, Mo Tian Yu was standing.

Everyone stopped their chattering and waited for him to commence the orientation ceremony.

Looking at the new 20~21 new disciples present with a solemn expression, the sect leader announced in a loud voice.

"Let the ceremony begin!"