Chapter 20

In the darkness of the night, Xu Qing’s figure was like a cat. He proceeded forward nimbly and silently.

His hand pressed against his mouth occasionally as he forcefully bore with the impulse to cough.

During the first few times of this process, it was still tolerable. However, as Xu Qing continued moving, as well as with his many times suppressing the impulse, his lungs gradually felt like burning, and this caused his countenance to become paler and paler.

Luckily, this place wasn’t far from his residence. Besides, the campsite wasn’t very large, so Xu Qing saw Captain Lei’s courtyard not too long later.

He didn’t directly rush in. Instead, he stood at his original location and breathed deeply, trying his best to make himself seem somewhat more normal. Only then did he reduce his speed and proceed forth in a manner that was neither hasty nor slow.

He pushed open the courtyard’s gate. After that, Xu Qing’s gaze swept through the surroundings, and he slowly entered the little house.

The instant he entered, Xu Qing couldn’t endure it anymore and directly coughed up a mouthful of blood. The blood was black in color, and when it landed on the ground, it actually emitted a sizzling sound.

As he coughed up this mouthful of poisoned blood, Xu Qing’s countenance turned somewhat more normal compared to the paleness earlier. He panted heavily and sat down cross-legged as he began to use his breathing technique.

It was only a long time later that he opened his eyes. The color of his face had now recovered completely.

“What a fierce poison!” Xu Qing mumbled.

That breath of poison mist unleashed by Fat Mountain at the end contained extremely high toxicity.

However, in that situation, if Xu Qing had chosen to dodge, the other party would have surely fled immediately while calling for help to attract attention. At that time, things would become much more complicated if he wanted to handle things.

Besides, even if he pretended he was injured, it would most probably be very hard to swindle the cunning Fat Mountain.

Ever since Fat Mountain sensed he was being followed, everything he did was to mask his intentions. His only miscalculation was his wrong estimation of Xu Qing’s strength.

So, at that crucial moment, Xu Qing had chosen to believe in the recovery prowess brought about by his purple crystal. He forcibly endured the invasion of the poison mist as he decided to push ahead and finish the fight quickly, taking his target’s life with a single blow.

From the looks of things now, his choice wasn’t wrong.

The purple crystal indeed possessed a very strong recovery characteristic against the invasion of poison.

On his way back, the burning feeling in his lungs and the impulse to cough were actually his recovery prowess taking effect.

“There are indeed no simple people among scavengers. Most probably, if it wasn’t for me being quick enough during my attack on Horse-Four and not giving him time to retaliate, he was going to be very hard to handle as well.”

Xu Qing silently mused as he started to analyze the aspects where he was insufficient during these two battles.

A long time later, Xu Qing inhaled deeply and lowered his head to look at his leather pouch. A strange light then gleamed in his eyes.

“Fat Mountain was moving about alone because he wanted an item from Horse-Four. So, he was preparing to counter-hunt me and take away the item belonging to Horse-Four from me.”

Xu Qing opened his leather pouch and poured everything belonging to Horse-Four out, including the spirit coins. He then arranged the items before him.

His gaze swept through the items, and he examined them closely.

Ultimately, he eliminated the possibility of all other objects and stared at the metal plate. He frowned and couldn’t be sure.

In reality, Horse-Four’s items were all very common. Hence, this metal plate could be considered to be somewhat out of place and unknown when compared to the other items.

“Is it this item? But there doesn’t seem to be anything marvelous about it. Could this be a very valuable ingredient?”

Xu Qing pondered as he kept it carefully. He prepared to find a chance in the future to find out about the origin of this item.

After that, he took out Fat Mountain’s leather pouch and inspected it.

There were no white pills inside, but there were plenty of spirit coins. Xu Qing also found many bottles of poison. However, since he didn’t know the art of poison, he didn’t dare to carelessly open them.

Finally, he took out the amber that was filled with cracks, recalling the appearance of that fatty who was clutching it before he died.

“What’s this item then…it seemed that the fellow was about to crush it before he died.” Xu Qing was puzzled. He felt that he lacked the relevant knowledge, so he put it away after thinking about it.

After he finished doing all these, he closed his eyes and continued to cultivate.

During these few days, Xu Qing discovered that after he broke through to the second level of Qi Condensation, the duration of his sleep didn’t need to be as long as in the past. He would be able to regain his energy in just roughly two hours of sleep.

So, he spent the vast majority of his time immersed in his cultivation.

Moreover, because he didn’t have any targets he needed to follow today, he cultivated even longer. In fact, he cultivated the whole day. However, when the night just descended, Xu Qing sensed something, so he opened his eyes and looked outside his house.

The moment he glanced over, he heard Captain Lei’s voice coming from there.

“Kid, come to the courtyard.”

Upon hearing this, Xu Qing sat up and silently walked over as he looked at Captain Lei who was in the courtyard.

There was a large table in the courtyard with some meat dishes and wine. Moreover, there were a total of six chairs and six sets of chopsticks and bowls. Captain Lei was sitting there, and he waved his hands at Xu Qing when he saw him.

When Xu Qing swept his gaze across the table and sets of tableware, he had a guess in his heart. He then walked over lightly and sat beside Captain Lei.

“Have you gotten familiar with the campsite during these few days?” Captain Lei glanced outside the courtyard. His attitude was casual as he spoke to Xu Qing.

“Relatively so,” Xu Qing replied. His gaze then swept past the food on the table.

Maybe it was because he had cultivated for an entire day, or maybe the fragrance of the food was too tempting, Xu Qing soon felt his stomach making grumbling sounds.

Captain Lei who was at the side laughed when he heard it.

“Don’t rush, wait for them.”

“Are we waiting for the people from the Thunder Team?” Xu Qing had long since guessed some things in the past. Hence, he took this opportunity to ask about it.

The old man nodded and just when he was about to speak, he seemed to sense something and turned his gaze outside. At the same time, Xu Qing also sensed the same thing and followed his gaze.

Outside the courtyard, in the dim streets, the figure of a burly man appeared.

This burly man’s muscular figure even surpassed Broken Ox. His entire person was like a small mountain, and the muscles of his body were extremely pumped, emitting a compelling aura. He carried a gigantic finesteel shield on his back and a mace that was even taller than Xu Qing in his hand. He was striding over with large steps.