Chapter 3 Mission

  Nie Kong returned home to find Huamei busy at work, the sound of chiseling filling the courtyard. In addition to the half-finished product in her hand, there were also four human-shaped wooden carvings placed in front of her, all of which had just taken shape, and Huamei seemed to have intentionally left the final steps to be done together.

  Standing at the gate, Nie Kong quietly looked around for a while before walking in and loudly laughed: "Sister-in-law, I've bought some things back for you."

  "Huh?"

  "Are you buying something for me?" Huamei was taken aback for a moment, and after stopping what she was doing, she looked up at Nie Kong with a dazed expression. It wasn't until he walked in front of her that Huamei suddenly came back to her senses, wanting to get up and take the two cloth bags from Nie Kong's hands, asking puzzledly, "Uncle, what did you buy?"

  "Don't get up yet."

  Nie Kong said as he reached into a cloth bag and pulled out an exquisitely crafted, entirely emerald-green jade hairpin, which he flashed before Huamei's eyes. "Do you like it?"

  "Jade Hairpin?"

  Hua Mei didn't expect that Nie Kong had bought her a jade hairpin, and she blushed, shaking her small hand repeatedly, refusing, "Uncle, I already have a hairpin."

  Nie Kong chuckled and said, "Your wooden hairpin has already been broken once, it's time to throw it away and get a new one. Come, let me help you put it in."

  Nie Kong's body leaned in towards her, and Hua Mei's face grew even more flustered: "Don't, don't... Ah, Uncle, I'll do it myself, I..." Before she could finish speaking, Nie Kong had already unceremoniously removed the wooden hairpin from her hair and replaced it with that dazzling jade pin.

  Nie Kong took a few steps back, looked at Hua Mei with a critical eye, and soon nodded in satisfaction: "Very good-looking, I was worried that this jade hairpin wouldn't suit you, but now it seems my worries were completely unnecessary."

  Across from him, Huā Méi was like a startled deer, hastily jumping up, her face flushed red, so embarrassed that she didn't know where to put her hands.

  Nie Kong was already accustomed to Hua Mei's shyness, and with a slight smile, he stuffed both cloth bags into her arms. One bag contained clothes, while the other had some wooden combs and other miscellaneous items.

  Relying on the memories in her mind, as well as her understanding of these days, Nie Kong only discovered that for the past three years, Hua Mei had almost never bought anything new for herself. All her clothes were prepared when she got married, and even after her wooden hairpin broke, she continued to use it after repairing it, and although more than half of the fine teeth on her comb were missing, she couldn't bear to replace it.

  Nie Kong had gone out for a trip, so he might as well take the opportunity to buy some gifts for Hua Mei while strolling around the city center. He didn't stop until all the gold coins in his pocket were spent. This was still because the jade stones on the Tianling Continent were not as expensive as those on Earth; otherwise, those gold coins wouldn't even be enough to buy a hairpin.

  "Niangniang, from now on I won't need to buy medicine to cure illnesses, so you can't be too selfless like before."

  "Uh-huh."

  Her eyebrows stole a glance and saw that even the inside of the bag had them, her face was red, burning like fire, her head was also lowering lower and lower, her chin almost touched the chest in front of the towering jade peak, in her heart there was only one voice echoing non-stop: "How could Uncle buy these for me?"

  "Sister-in-law, I'll go cultivate first, don't wait for me for lunch, I just ate outside."

  "Uh-huh."

  Her voice was as soft as a mosquito's hum, and she subconsciously responded with a "yes", without even realizing when Nie Kong had left.

  It wasn't until much later that the turmoil in her heart finally subsided, and she opened the two bags one after another to take a look. She then reached up to touch the jade hairpin on her head, feeling an inexplicable mix of sweetness and bitterness in her heart. Unbeknownst to her, two misty tears had begun to well up in the corners of her eyes...

  ——————————————————————————————————————————————

  Southeast of the training ground.

  "Psst!"

  In front of the spinning top, Nie Kong mobilized every part of his body, with his feet rapidly crossing back and forth, left and right. His arms shot out swiftly at times, tapping on the iron pillar at the center of the spinning top before quickly retracting. The crisp, rhythmic clashing sounds drifted away in the wind.

  Since watching Mu Hongyan's demonstration the day before yesterday, he has been practicing against the top in front of him for two days. Generally speaking, Nie Kong's progress is still good, and it takes more than a dozen times to be clamped by the iron bar. Of course, this is still far from Mu Hongyan's "body like a spring" state.

  A person can't become fat in one breath. Nie Kong was still relatively satisfied with himself, at least in terms of speed and physical reaction, he had already improved by about a level compared to the day before yesterday.

  "Hiss! Hiss! Hiss......"

  "Crack!"

  Half of the right palm was pinched, Nie Kong's left palm patted the top of the iron pillar, pulled out his right hand and shook it a few times, continuing to open it up, with crisp sounds rising and falling.

  Nie Kong stopped only when he was drenched in sweat.

  "Ah......oh dear......"

  In the Jade Pool Cave, Xiangxiang weakly called out in a low voice. Nie Kong furrowed his brow slightly, and after a short while, the little guy had withered away even more.

  Yesterday, there was no spiritual energy for Xiangxiang to absorb. Nie Kong still expected that when the little guy was extremely hungry, it would be interested in the dark green blood in the Yaochi Cave. If it could absorb the dark green blood like it did when recognizing its master, it would also help Nie Kong get rid of a hidden worry.

  Unfortunately, the little guy didn't absorb a single drop of blood.

  At this point, Nie Kong had always been puzzled. To think that the little guy was able to successfully recognize its master only after absorbing the dark green blood. Nie Kong could be certain that aside from the hidden strange power within the dark green blood, there must also be something else that strongly attracted the Purple Luo Phantom Fragrance. Otherwise, when he forcibly moved the little guy to a secluded cave last night, it wouldn't have returned to the Jade Pool Cave with such tenacity.

  But what exactly is that thing, Nie Kong couldn't even sense it now, even with his spiritual connection to Xiang Xiang.

  "It's been more than half a day, Lingbao Pavilion has probably given up searching, it's time to go buy some herbs. If we wait any longer, the little guy will really have problems."

  In an instant, Nie Kong strode out of the Spiral Region with large steps.

  "Idle and bored little guys, all gather here, there's a task!" Suddenly, a loud shout spread throughout the entire training ground.

  The speaker was a stout and robust man like a mountain of flesh, who paused for a moment before shouting loudly: "This time's task is very simple, it's just to find someone in Jicheng City."

  Mission? Find someone?

  In the training ground, those young boys and girls who were either resting or strolling around, each had sparkling eyes. These guys have been undergoing dull training every day and have long wanted to find something to liven things up. As soon as they heard about this simple and harmless task, they immediately became excited.

  Looking for someone!

  At the sound of these two words, Nie Kong, who was about to leave, felt a stir in his heart and quickly walked towards the muscular man in the center of the training grounds. By the time he arrived, hundreds of people had gathered around the muscular man, with the vast majority being under twenty years old, and even some eight or nine year old kids.

  A sturdy Han man smiled and held up a portrait, saying: "The one you're looking for is this guy, over twenty years old, medium build, yellowish complexion, thin face, hoarse voice, with the local accent of Jiyang..."

  This errand of finding someone, it turns out to be me?! Go to hell! Is the Lingbao Pavilion never going to end?! Hearing the fat man's description, Nie An cursed in a low voice, but his heart was somewhat crying and laughing, he didn't think that after searching around, they would finally implicate the Nie family as well.

  At this time, a hubbub of voices surged out: "Uncle Bronze, what is this person doing? Is he also a spiritual master? How is his cultivation?"

  "Really, really, is there a reward after finding him?"

  “……”

  "Quiet! Quiet!"

  Nie Qingtong took a big gulp, the fat on his face trembling. "If you find him, there's no reward, but if you don't, you won't be punished either. Remember, once you've found him, don't make any rash moves, just send the message back immediately. Oh, and according to reliable sources, this person has a spirit card with 16,000 gold coins stored on it, so everyone should pay close attention to shops in Jicheng City that can exchange for gold coins or accept direct payment with spirit cards."

  "Do you all remember?"

  "Got it!"

  "Alright, let's go!"

  Nie Qingtong's right palm waved like a copper fan, and hundreds of people shouted and rushed out of the training ground. Seeing this chaotic scene, Nie Qingtong shook his head with a smile and hurriedly followed suit. As soon as they left, the training ground became empty, with only a few cultivators remaining unmoved around them.

  Nie Kong stood rooted to the spot, his face ashen and his heart suffocating with rage. He silently cursed the eighteen generations of ancestors of the "Lingbao Pavilion" several times: Focusing on stores that can exchange gold coins and use spirit cards for payment, if I go to buy medicine, isn't that equivalent to delivering myself to their doorstep? Lingbao Pavilion, you are really sinister! Fortunately, I am a member of the Nie family, otherwise this time I would probably have fallen into a big trap.

  The spirit card is now unusable, I need to find time to buy a transfer device and a new spirit card, and then transfer the gold coins out to use. However, these two things together cost over a hundred gold coins, which is temporarily difficult to get... It's really troublesome, can't even buy medicine, how can I provide medicine for the little guy? Nie Kong furrowed his brow, pacing back and forth. After a while, Nie Kong suddenly lit up, today is October 1st, how could he forget such an important day!

  PS: Three more to go... About Huā Méi, let me explain a bit, she's a very important character and her future won't be just a vase, uh, in the first volume, I've already laid down several foreshadowing, I reckon some careful friends have noticed^^....

  ……