Chapter 110 - 101: Master of Overthinking

"Let me see just how much more meat you’re packing than I am." Luh Jingsun walked over, his face deadpan, muttering to himself for once.

Shao Jiefeng’s expression darkened. "Luh’s Facial Paralysis, don’t push it. If you piss me off, I’ll go find Master Guann tomorrow and drop thirty or fifty pounds just like that."

"Go ahead. I’ll be waiting," Luh Jingsun said flatly.

Shao Jiefeng: "..."

Continuing his rare bout of verbal sparring, Luh Jingsun asked, "What are you doing at Qingyou Pool?"

Shao Jiefeng shot Luh Jingsun a cool glance. "How could you not know why I’m here? Don’t tell me you really expect me to believe this is a chance encounter."

Luh Jingsun paused, stunned for a moment. "Is he just asking around, or is he actually going through with it?"

Shao Jiefeng looked at Luh Jingsun in surprise. "What’s the deal with this guy? Why are you so invested in him?

He barely finishes asking about his advancement, and the next thing you know, you’re running over here, all eager to ask what’s going on.

I thought your luck was off the charts and you’d already landed a huge backer.

Is there really someone else in the Little Hui Peak Outer Sect that you need to suck up to?"

Luh Jingsun fell silent for a moment. "Never mind all that. Just tell me: has he started, or was he just asking?"

Shao Jiefeng suddenly had a thought. "Holy crap, don’t tell me that matriarch of yours is the one backing this guy!

Hey, for the record, I didn’t get a single thing out of this deal. If you don’t believe me, you can check for yourself.

After all, you have access to browse our Resources Department’s internal system.

So don’t you go running your mouth in front of that matriarch of yours. The last thing I need is to get dragged into trouble."

Luh Jingsun’s face darkened. "Answer my question."

Shao Jiefeng paused. "Started? He’s way past that. If he weren’t still undecided on a Technique, I’d have thought he was hiding his Cultivation and getting ready to advance right now."

Luh Jingsun froze. "You mean...?"

Shao Jiefeng said, "Counting the things he’s looking to buy, he’s already gathered more than half the materials."

"What path did he choose?" Luh Jingsun asked in a low voice.

"Summoning. The Demon Spirit type. It’s the one that used to be Heroic Spirits before they were changed to Demon Souls. You can tell he’s an ambitious one.

Don’t worry," Shao Jiefeng replied. "He hasn’t picked a Technique yet. If he’s really being sponsored by your matriarch and she isn’t satisfied, it’s still early. He can easily switch paths."

But Luh Jingsun paid him no mind, simply turning and walking away.

"Hey, you’re leaving already?" Shao Jiefeng yelled after him.

"Something urgent came up. We’ll talk later."

With that, Luh Jingsun’s figure vanished from sight.

Shao Jiefeng turned to look toward Qingyou Pool and muttered, "Now this is getting interesting. If it really is her..."

...

After seeing off Shao Jiefeng and his companion, Zhang Deming brought the Soul Jade into his house.

He took stock of his Spirit Stones. He still had ninety left. This time, Zhang Deming had provided twenty-one Tier One Spirit Nurturing Pearls and three Tier Two Spirit Nurturing Beads.

Of course, because of the note Zhang Deming had left, the Tier Two Spirit Nurturing Beads likely wouldn’t be used carelessly.

But the Tier One items would fetch another one or two hundred Spirit Stones.

This batch would probably take around ten days to sell out completely.

Zhang Deming didn’t plan to keep grinding like this. From now on, he would probably maintain a steady and regular production rate of two per day.

Looking at the formula and setting aside the non-essential items, Zhang Deming was now only missing the Soul-Nourishing Fruit and the primary material.

’The back mountain should have that Soul-Nourishing Fruit.’

’But since it’s an advancement resource, it definitely won’t be easy to get my hands on.’

’Looks like I’ll need to find a party and team up.’

Trying to obtain advancement resources by himself would be too difficult for Zhang Deming.

However, his official Cultivation was only at the Intermediate Apprentice level, and teams that formed to gather resources were usually composed of Advanced Apprentices.

Some members were even Peak Apprentices, just one step away from a breakthrough.

’Under these circumstances, trying to tag along with a team would be rather difficult.’

Zhang Deming pondered for a moment, and then an idea came to him.

...