Chapter 345
Chapter 345: “Coincidental meeting”
Translated by Rachel of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Taking advantage of a crisis for personal gain was a skill!
The second day, You XiaoMo and Ling Xiao changed back into their original clothing. They intentionally left the restaurant earlier than BaiLi TianYi to loiter around the prearranged meeting point, preparing to stage a coincidental meeting later on. It was as if they were serial stalkers. You XiaoMo felt especially guilty.
However, after walking around, You XiaoMo started to shop around instead of stalk. The Boundless Town had developed differently from Yan City. They started off developing their economy from seafood and it hadn’t changed till now. As a result, most of the goods sold in the town were related to the aquatic creatures that dwelled in the depths of the Boundless Ocean. In all their sales, seafood took up as much as seventy percent, whereas the rest were hunted from the mountains.
An hour later, the both of them walked towards a large harbor where they guessed BaiLi TianYi and his group would be heading to. The fisherfolk of Boundless Town were already there early in the morning, setting up their stalls and laying out their catch to sell. Those that were selling the seafood were mostly ordinary people, while those setting sail out to sea to catch demon beasts were clearly practitioners with the exception of a few mages. Due to the recent incident regarding the Leyline, there was an increasing number of people heading out to sea. Those dependent on catching demon beasts from the sea for a living were more or less affected.
“Do half demon beasts like the water demons live in the Boundless Sea?” Along the way, You XiaoMo discovered that there were a lot of aquatic demon beasts, most of them he hadn’t seen in his scroll.He couldn’t help but thinking about the water demon live in the Shallow Shore, they also seemed like the type of demon beast spending their life away under water.
“No, water demons can only survive in ten thousand year old frozen lakes with ice poison in them.” Ling Xiao explained. “Water demons are a highly contagious species, even if they existed in the Boundless Sea, it would soon be obliterated by the strong fighters of this area.”
You XiaoMo took a look around. Not even a single thing sold at the harbor caught his interest. High and middle level demon beasts generally could not be found at the stalls.You XiaoMo suddenly tugged at Ling Xiao’s sleeve. “Do you think I can contract an aquatic demon beast?”
Ling Xiao gave him a side glance. “The demon beasts that you have contracts with, which one of them doesn’t know how to swim?” Especially PiQiu and MaoQiu, they had fun daily in the lake. He reckoned it wouldn’t even be a problem to get them to dance on water.
T/n: It’s a wordplay. 水性(shuixing) can mean aquatic or 懂水性(know how to swim). In this case, LX thought he meant the latter meaning.
You XiaoMo ignored his teasing and immediately started correcting him.
“I’m talking about the demon beasts that live in the water. It would be easier to go to places with oceans in the future.”
“Then we’ll do something about it when the time comes.” Ling Xiao replied.
“You XiaoMo, fellow Ling?” A voice behind them called out in surprise.
You XiaoMo jolted to his senses. He unknowingly forgot his objective of coming here in the first place. He was so engrossed in shopping that it became BaiLi TianYi finding them first instead.
You XiaoMo turned around and smiled brightly at them.
“What a coincidence! What are you guys… ah?” He greeted them, only to be stopped halfway through his speech when Ling Xiao gently pinched his waist.
“What?” BaiLi TianYi raised his eyebrows slightly.
You XiaoMo hurriedly slapped Ling Xiao’s hand away and replied, “Nothing, I’m just being weird. Why are you guys here?”
Gao Yang’s loud laughter could be heard from the back.
“If we didn’t come, how would we know you two came here on your break. But I didn’t expect you two to return so early. In fact, you guy came back right on time.”
Dao Xin Academy didn’t really restrict its students’ movements. Those who wanted to take the opportunity to train and level up could sign themselves up. Tempted by this rare opportunity, Gao Yang and his group came over. Yin Ge and the rest also walked towards them. He slightly nodded his head in acknowledgment of You XiaoMo and Ling Xiao.
An XinRui had her eyes trained on Yin Ge whereas Chen Zhao, the top on the list of the hundred strongest Mages, had his eyes on her. Both of them did not speak.
Realising that a few people were missing from the group, You XiaoMo was surprised. He asked, “The academy only sent you guys here?”
Not getting the message, Gao Yang replied, “Not only us. Shifu and a few elders will be bringing the others over to meet us. There’s other fellow schoolmates, but they have places to be at.”
You XiaoMo nodded in understanding. He knew the Academy’s underground Leyline was already reaching it limit, so obtaining the Elemental Essence was absolutely necessary. To ensure that the Academy could secure the Elemental Essence, Yan Fa was personally attending to the situation. As for the schoolmates, most likely Teng ZiXin and the rest, they were probably heading back to their clans. Which was a good thing as they wouldn’t have to face them later on.
After the “coincidental meeting”, You XiaoMo and Ling Xiao started tagging along with the rest of the group. Gao Yang and the rest had their minds set on training themselves as those who were vying for the Elemental Essence were at least Imperial level or above. If they were to compete with those superpowers with their current level of cultivation, there was no doubt they would be crushed in an instant. In order to prevent unnecessary casualties, Yan Fa had already warned them long before they set off.
When they were returning to the inn, You XiaoMo purposely walked beside BaiLi TianYi.
“Where’s Tang YuLin? He didn’t come this time?”
BaiLi TianYi couldn’t help but sigh when he was reminded of Tang YuLin. “I did drag him here, but he’s cultivating in the inn now.”
You XiaoMo couldn’t hold back his snort. From a money addict to a cultivation obsessed fellow, You XiaoMo could already predict this outcome when he persuaded Tang YuLin. Tang YuLin’s personality was honestly easy to understand. He was both devoted to and perseverant in achieving his goals. Once he had his mind set, unless there were better reasons to convince him otherwise, he would not budge despite reaching dead ends.
“Stop laughing already. Do you have any ideas on how to make him not so obsessed with cultivation?” BaiLi TianYi responded.
In truth, BaiLi TianYi was quite grateful to You XiaoMo. Compared to being a money addict, he’d much rather Tang YuLin become a cultivation fanatic. But that didn’t mean he should cultivate till no end. If this continued, BaiLi TianYi couldn’t hold it in much longer.
“Oh…” You XiaoMo smiled knowingly. “It’s actually very simple.You just have to tell him the flaws of cultivating in isolation for a long period of time and lie a bit. If not you can always think of another way to raise his level without cultivating in isolation.”
For example, Dual Cultivation.
However, You XiaoMo was not so kind as to reveal this to him.
BaiLi TianYi looked at him skeptically. Levelling up without cultivating in isolation, he must be joking right?
He probed, “What methods do you have?”
“What methods can I have? I’m just giving you suggestions, you think for yourself.” He answered straightforwardly. You XiaoMo could tell BaiLi TianYi about Dual Cultivation, but being a bottom himself, he didn’t want BaiLi TianYi to take advantage of a fellow bottom so easily. What he didn’t think off was that the more a man was pent up, the one who gets hurt was most definitely the one at the bottom. But now, You XiaoMo didn’t think that far ahead. He had unwittingly made the situation worse for Tang YuLin.
When they finally reached the inn, the sun had almost set. You XiaoMo and Ling Xiao pretended that it was their first time in the inn. Having checked out of their rooms when they left in the morning, they had to check in to a new room again. Luckily, the innkeeper did not recognise them. Most probably it was because many people were entering and leaving the inn in a day and they even made the effort to disguise themselves.
“You’re only getting one room?” Gao Yang looked at them in disbelief.
Ling Xiao turned back and replied, “Yes, we can save on Crystal coins like this.”
Finishing his sentence, Ling Xiao walked into his room and shut the door in Gao Yang’s face.
Gao Yang was still in shock. He originally wanted to say “I can help you pay for it” but didn’t have the chance to get the words out of his mouth. Thinking about it, those words felt inappropriate and he eventually gave up on saying them.
Zhan YuXuan had observed everything at the back. He chuckled and spoke to Yin Ge who was beside him. “I didn’t expect Gao Yang to be such a naive person. They were already being painfully obvious and he still didn’t get the message.”
Yin Ge just glanced at You XiaoMo’s and Ling Xiao’s room before returning to his own without a word.
It wasn’t the first day Zhan YuXuan knew him, he understood his personality and stopped speaking. Zhan YuXuan couldn’t help but be reminded of Feng ChiYun. Whenever Feng ChiYun was around, Yin Ge seemed to talk more?
By nightfall, everyone stayed in their own rooms.
The next day, everyone gathered punctually in the lobby. As there were many people in the group, they were split up into three tables. An XinRui hadn’t given up at this point, she followed Yin Ge and shared the same table with him. Yet, the latter showed no change in his expression. Clearly, he couldn’t be bothered. Chen Zhao chased after An XinRui and went over to that table.
At that table sat four people, the fourth being Zhan YuXuan. You XiaoMo found the relationship between them very intriguing indeed. An XinRui liked Yin Ge and Chen Zhao liked An XinRui, but Yin Ge didn’t reciprocate An XinRui’s feelings. Their relationship felt like a marathon. It was a simple concept, but the people involved never seemed to notice or understand.
When breakfast was served, You XiaoMo ate and watched Ling Xiao enquire about information of the Elemental Essence from GaoYang and his group discreetly. However, it was a pity that even the insider information that Gao Yang and his group had was not very clear. Nevertheless, Gao Yang was the only disciple of Yan Fa, he would still know about things that others didn’t. For example, the Flying Fish Sect Leader who discovered the underground leyline. Despite him being hidden by the superpowers in the Boundless town, their actions were still found out by Dao Xin Academy and the Academy was able to track down the whereabouts of the leader.
“Shifu only told me to not go near the Mirage Sand Sea. I believe the the Elemental Essence should be there.” Gao Yang recalled.