The display of power made Liu Xing's heart beat rapidly. He knew he could also disperse the black cloud, but not with such effortless ease. This indicated that the being before him possessed a far higher cultivation than his own. What was particularly concerning was his inability to gauge her realm. It was as if he was an ant trying to understand how a grand castle was built. This realization dawned on Liu Xing: he was in the presence of someone who could kill him as easily as stomping an ant.

The woman became more defined. Her blue eyes, once glowing like blue fires in the pitch-black night, began to recede, softening into two gently glowing blue eyes. Her form became clearer as a purplish color coalesced around her, forming a well-defined silhouette of a girl in flowing purple robes. Her skin was as dark as the night sky, dotted with stars, as if she were a galaxy transformed into a girl. Soft pink lips shaped into a gentle smile, and Liu Xing's heart could not help but skip a beat. She was ethereal, and her appearance was almost reminiscent of Nui, almost.

"It's nice to see that I'm still beautiful enough to make a man awestruck like that," she laughed softly, using her wrist to hide her smile.

This comment made him realize that he had been mesmerized and frozen for a few seconds. As this realization dawned on him, Liu Xing knelt down and clasped his hands.

"This junior greets the esteemed Senior," he said. Then, remembering her comment about having sat in her favorite spot, Liu Xing added, "I have unknowingly trespassed and humbly seek your forgiveness."

"You don't have to apologize. This place is special because I like the view. If people like the view, it's okay. I can share it with them from time to time." The woman smiled brighter. "You can call me Moon Flower. I'm technically from the Purple Moon Sect, so you're right to greet me as a senior, but you don't have to be too polite. I won't smite you or anything."

"Thank you for your understanding," Liu Xing said.

"That's okay, it's rare that I meet another person, and sometimes this place, though beautiful, is boring. If you could move to the side, we can enjoy the view together."

"Yes," Liu Xing said automatically. "But so as not to disturb you further, I can go."

"No," the girl smiled. "Watch the view with me. And in case you are stupid, my appearance is no coincidence. I would like to talk to you about something."

Liu Xing stood and moved to the side. The ethereal girl floated to his side, and as she sat and patted the ground beside her, he understood his cue and sat cross-legged there. The view was admittedly beautiful, but he could not focus on it, instead he focused all his senses to observe the senior beside him, who began to hum a cheerful, melodious song.

Truth be told, after cultivating, he had intended to contemplate the mission Elder Zhang Zhenking had given him. But the woman beside him occupied his entire focus. Who was this girl? Why did she look so ethereal? And what did she want to talk to him about?

"Ah, I forgot to ask your name," Moon Flower said.

"My name is Liu Xing."

"Liu Xing, a good name," she smiled. "You're a Purple Moon Sect disciple. Since you're at the Core Splitting realm, I assume you're an inner disciple? Who is your master?"

"I'm still an outer disciple, so I still have no master."

"Is that so? Has the Purple Moon Sect changed that much? In the past, people under twenty and already at the Core Splitting realm would be inner disciples. Let alone those with two cores."

"It's still the same," Liu Xing answered. "Coincidentally, I just recently broke through to the Core Splitting realm. I'm on my way to the sect to register to become an inner disciple."

Registering to become an inner disciple was actually his second priority at the moment. The first was still delivering the scroll from Emperor Yang Jinyan. But he decided to omit that detail. Moon Flower was friendly, but she was stranger and much stronger than him. He didn't want to risk it.

"A cultivator needs to experience the world to advance. Not just sitting in a cave. My friends always told me that my thinking was wrong, but it seems the Purple Moon Sect has been shaping up to be a good sect." She sighed a little. "I wonder whether my little cave is still vacant or if someone is occupying it. Anyway, you must be wondering what I want to talk about, right? And since you seem to be in a hurry, I can go straight to the point."

"I appreciate it," Liu Xing replied. He was indeed quite in a hurry.

"It's actually about the mission you received from the sect," she said, her long ethereal hair waving like a river of stars, "You need to go to the Wild Tide Region, right?"

Liu Xing nodded. Her knowledge of the mission meant that she had watched him meet with Wang Miau and use the token, which meant that she had been watching him even before the recent fights. He deduced that she must have either been following him or had eyes sharp enough to see from this mountaintop. Given her obvious power, he wouldn't be surprised if she was watching him from right here.

"Yes, indeed. Elder Zhang Zhenking had given me a mission to go to the Wild Tide Region and retrieve a treasure there." He decided to take out his token from his spatial bag. He sent some qi into it, and instantly, a screen hovered above the token. Formerly, the token had only two pages: the treasure list and the leaderboard. But currently, the default page when he opened it was a third page. It was quite a simple page.

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Title: Special Mission to Retrieve Heavens Severing Pill

Description: This mission is given to the disciple named Liu Xing to retrieve a pill called Heavens Severing Pill. The mission was issued by Elder Zhang Zhenking. The reward for completing the mission is a favor from Elder Zhang Zhenking.

Location: The Heavens Severing Pill is located in the Wild Tide Region, specifically in a small city called Water Tower City.

Parameters: To complete this mission, disciple Liu Xing needs to retrieve the pill within two weeks from the day the mission was issued. The pill needs to be intact, or if it's impossible to retrieve it in intact condition, it needs to be brought back to the sect with at least half of it.

Punishment on Failure: Disciple Liu Xing's sect points would be deducted by five hundred points, and promotion to the Inner Court would be denied for at least forty years.

Liu Xing scanned the page and could see several additional details, but the most important information which Liu Xing had memorized was the location, parameters, and the punishment for failure. He grimaced slightly when he saw the punishment and the time limit for completion, but for now, he set aside that emotion and showed the page to Moon Flower.

Moon Flower leaned forward slightly to see his interface more clearly, which he thought was probably just an act. After all, she had already said that she knew about the mission. Besides, with her perception, he knew that she would see it even if she closed her eyes. Still, it would be polite to show her his mission.

As the ethereal girl observed his assigned mission, he observed more closely this being who seemed far from human and wondered what she truly was. Was she a cultivator who had a unique cultivation method that made her appearance like this, or was there something deeper and more profound? As he observed her, he could hear a faint sound of a burning hearth as well as the fresh smell of flowers.

"A mission straight from an elder, I think this mission is a test for you, Liu Xing," she said.

Wang Miau had told him as much, and he was inclined to believe it. After all, he was in the middle of a race to gather treasures. And yet, the elder had given him a specific pill that he needed to retrieve. This meant that the elder had given him special treatment, which could easily be deduced as a test. The rewards were also generous. A favor was always better than physical things. He could ask the elder to become his master, to help him in a tight situation, or many other things. But one of the best ways to utilize a favor was not to use it at all, but rather to use the possibility of using it to intimidate his enemies.

"You can close that screen," Moon Flower said. He did so, and she continued. "About a year ago, there was a man who came to this mountain. He was a cultivator, yet his talent was so poor that at the age of thirty, he was still at the second stage of Lock Opening realm. But, while his talent was bad, his character was good. His goal in climbing this mountain was to find a rare flower. This flower can only grow on the top of a mountain surrounded by dense qi and a criteria so difficult to meet that only a few places can grow this flower. Are you interested in this criterion?" Moon Flower smiled at him, yet her smile did not reach her eyes, as if she smiled to hide pain.

Upon seeing that smile and hearing the question, he realized that she actually wanted to talk about it, so he nodded. "What is the second criteria, Senior?"

"It's a troublesome one. You see, this flower is called a Spirit Flower, and to grow, it needs to be guarded by a spirit." She then pointed at herself. "What do you think I am?"

Liu Xing's eyelids closed and opened rapidly for a moment, as if a strong gust of wind had smashed his face. His brain tried to decipher what she had said like a machinery with several gears working together, and when he came to a conclusion, his eyes widened. He had thought that the girl was a cultivator who cultivated using some kind of esoteric method that turned herself into her current appearance, but it seemed he was actually way off from reality.

"You're... a spirit," Liu Xing stated. Which meant she was actually a human who had died and turned into a ghost.

Moon Flower smiled cutely, pointing both of her index fingers to her cheeks. "Indeed I am, though sometimes to console myself, I convince myself that I am a fairy."

His heart thumped faster and faster. There are many kinds of ghosts and spirits. There are vengeful spirits, lingering spirits, bounded spirits, chained spirits, and many more. Yet, all of that he had heard merely from rumor. He had never purposely searched for ghosts and spirits, but he knew that ghosts and spirits were so rare that a cultivator could live their entire life without meeting one. Yet, he had already met two spirits in a short time. The girl at the bottom of the lake looked and felt like a proper spirit, but Moon Flower was not; aside from her appearance, she was closer to a human than a spirit. He didn't know much about why that was, but he hypothesized the reason: It was because when she lived, she had been a cultivator of a high realm.

"Are you surprised?" the girl smiled widely. "Don't worry. I'm not going to haunt you. I'm bound to this mountain. You can contemplate my existence later. As I said, there was a man looking for this Spirit Flower on this mountain about a year ago, and he found it. Truth be told, that blue flower was so beautiful that I hesitated to give it to him, but something unexpected happened after I let him take my flower."

"What happened to him?" Liu Xing asked.

"He suddenly dropped and died. I was actually really surprised. I did nothing to him. I didn't even show myself, yet he clutched his chest and died."

"What? Was it a heart attack?" Even as he said it, he knew there was no way it was a heart attack. What kind of cultivator died from a heart attack?

"Why he died is still a mystery to this day, but to be honest, I'm not that curious about why he died. Perhaps he had been poisoned before he got to this mountain, perhaps he had an illness, whatever the reason was, the fact remained that he died. But before he died, he actually cried for three days straight, as if he didn't believe he had truly found the Spirit Flower. His crying was so sincere that even my heart, which is nonexistent, fluttered a bit. He said that this flower would save his wife and his son."

"But then he died," Liu Xing said.

"Indeed, after he plucked the flower, he died," the spirit sighed. "He died right after finding his goal, yet, it seems the heavens didn't want him to succeed. I witnessed his demise with my own eyes and vowed to help him."

Moon Flower stretched her ethereal hands in front of her, and a blue flower began growing on her palms. It bloomed, emitting a refreshing scent all around the mountaintop. The blue flower was encased in a blue barrier, as if it was a flower that had been encased in a bubble. He could sense that the qi emanating from the flower was quite abundant, which meant this flower was probably a high-quality herb.

"The reason I'm talking to you is because I want you to deliver this flower to this man's wife, as well as his necklace," a small necklace suddenly appeared from behind the flower, like a shy child emerging from its hiding place. "He happened to be from the Wild Tide Region, the place you are going to. If you accept my request, I will give you two generous reward that you cannot refuse. Your Heaven Grade technique is rather shabby and imperfect, and I can help you improve it into a technique that can make your opponents tremble with fear. How about it?"

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