Taking an Oath

These two had some dealings with him in the past. Even though he hadn't fully grown into his height back then, his appearance hadn't changed much.

Originally, upon hearing that Yuan Qing had been expelled from his sect, Lin Xiao didn't think too much about it. He just felt that for this trip to the Talisman Master Conference, doing a good job with their disguises would be enough.

But now that they were taking Yuan Qing along and would have to interact with his sect, they had no choice but to make him swear a Heavenly Oath to guarantee their own safety.

Yuan Qing never expected that this would be what he asked for.

After all, a year had already passed since that incident. Furthermore, in his view, Lin Xiao had saved him and his trapped fellow disciples; no matter how you looked at it, there shouldn't be a need for him to carefully hide and avoid them, right?

However, he didn't ask any questions, nor did he intend to overthink it. This was his lifesaver who had unconditionally rescued him twice.

So, with Lin Xiao's help, he immediately got out of bed, stood straight on the ground, raised his right hand, and squeezed a drop of essence blood from his index finger. Then, pressing that index finger with the drop of essence blood against his forehead, he began to swear the Heavenly Oath according to Lin Xiao's requirements.

He had originally lost too much essence blood and had barely recovered a little over the past few days. Now, after squeezing out this drop, his face turned deathly pale once again.

"I, Yuan Qing, swear here and now..."

Lin Xiao and Jiang Youfu were both seeing someone swear a Heavenly Oath for the first time. Extremely curious, they stared fixedly at him, observing every single detail.

What if they needed to use it in the future?

As he spoke his oath word by word, the drop of essence blood on his finger turned into a faint red mist that gathered in front of his forehead, gradually forming the shape of a round bead.

"...If I violate this matter, may heaven and earth destroy me."

When Yuan Qing finished speaking, Lin Xiao and Jiang Youfu saw that the drop of essence blood on his finger had completely turned into a small, bright red bead floating in front of his forehead. Then, they saw him take the blood bead and swallow it in one gulp.

Seeing this, Lin Xiao and Jiang Youfu finally understood.

So the bead formed from swearing the oath had to be swallowed by the person themselves?

The two felt they had broadened their horizons and said with satisfaction:

"Then you wait here for a bit, we'll go buy a boat ticket for you."

Saying that, the two were about to head out to buy him a ticket.

"Please wait a moment, you two fellow Daoists!" Yuan Qing hurriedly called out.

They stopped in their tracks and looked at him with confusion in their eyes.

Yuan Qing quickly took out a very exquisite small blue pouch from his waistband, then pulled out a pile of spirit stones from it. Placing them on the table, he said to them:

"These are all the spirit stones I have on me. What I said earlier about covering all the travel expenses for this journey was not just polite talk. I hope you two fellow Daoists will kindly accept them."

The pile of spirit stones on the table wasn't large in number, but Lin Xiao could tell that many of them were different from the ordinary spirit stones they usually used. The spiritual energy contained within them seemed to be much, much denser.

He instantly thought, could these be mid-grade or top-grade spirit stones?

Seeing that Lin Xiao wanted to say something, Yuan Qing hurriedly added:

"Fellow Daoist Lin, please do not refuse. I have been saved by you multiple times, and I have no way to repay the gratitude in my heart. This small amount of spirit stones cannot even repay a ten-thousandth of your kindness. Just treat it as a small token of my appreciation. Please do not refuse..."

Lin Xiao: ...I wasn't, I didn't. You are coming with us, so it's only right that you pay.

Hearing him say this, Lin Xiao, who had no intention of refusing in the first place, swallowed the question of whether these spirit stones were the legendary mid-grade or top-grade ones. He could only close his mouth, nod in silence, and sweep all the spirit stones on the table into his pocket.

He felt too embarrassed to ask now; it would be better to just use the system to appraise them later.

Jiang Youfu, on the other hand, didn't notice the difference in these spirit stones. He only saw that the quantity didn't seem to be very large, so he didn't say anything either.

Seeing Lin Xiao accept the spirit stones, Yuan Qing felt a bit relieved. Due to his lack of physical strength, he staggered back two steps and sat on the edge of the bed, smiling weakly at the two of them:

"I have truly... troubled you two fellow Daoists..."

Jiang Youfu tugged at Lin Xiao's sleeve and said to Yuan Qing:

"Hurry up and get some good rest. We'll bring you something delicious later."

After saying that, he dragged Lin Xiao out the door.

It wasn't until the two of them left the inn and were walking on the main road that Jiang Youfu sent a voice transmission to Lin Xiao as they walked:

"Brother Xiao, how about I find a place to cook something for him later? When the time comes, we can just say we bought it outside. Otherwise, seeing how weak he is, I'm really afraid something might happen to him on the road."

Hearing this, Lin Xiao thought about Yuan Qing's physical condition. Going out like that would indeed be troublesome and a bit conspicuous, so he said:

"Yeah, we'll just tell him we bought it from a mobile street vendor outside."

Although they still had some pills refined by Sun Yigao on them, they couldn't use them all on him. What if the two of them needed them later?

Naturally, it was best to save as many as possible; using spirit food as a substitute was the best option.

Lin Xiao knew that Jiang Youfu had brought two storage bags with him on this trip. One contained various snacks prepared by his grandmother and his three-piece spirit chef set, while the other storage bag was completely full of ingredients.

His monthly spirit stone stipend only occupied a very small corner of his storage bag.

The two quickly bought the boat ticket.

Then they ran to a desolate wilderness outside the city to set up a stove, mount a pot, and start a fire. After confirming that there was no one around for tens of miles, Lin Xiao set up an isolation array in the surroundings, and Jiang Youfu began to cook seriously.

Of course, he didn't just make one portion for Yuan Qing.

He made a whole pot.

Liao Pantu also came out from the Soul Nourishing Jade Pendant to take a stroll.

Once the food was ready, the three of them first enjoyed a hearty meal next to the simple earthen stove. After packing up their things and cleaning up the traces left behind, they returned to Yuanling City with the only remaining portion of spirit food.

Lin Xiao also took the time to appraise those spirit stones.

Most of them were mid-grade spirit stones, fifty in total, and the remaining dozen or so were ordinary spirit stones.

On the way back to the inn, Lin Xiao sent a voice transmission to Liao Pantu:

"Senior, how many ordinary spirit stones can one mid-grade spirit stone be exchanged for?"

Liao Pantu also knew about Yuan Qing giving the spirit stones earlier. Hearing him ask now, he replied:

"The ordinary spirit stones you speak of are actually called low-grade spirit stones in the cultivation world. Generally, if someone says spirit stones without specifically mentioning mid-grade or top-grade, it defaults to representing low-grade spirit stones.

In fact, there is no precise exchange rate between the two. It all depends on how much the person exchanging is willing to offer, but it is generally around one hundred, and the discrepancy won't be too far off from this number. However, this does not mean that the density of spiritual energy contained in a mid-grade spirit stone is a hundred times that of an ordinary spirit stone; in reality, it's only about fifty times.

It's just that the spiritual energy of a mid-grade spirit stone is much milder than that of an ordinary spirit stone, making it easier to absorb and refine. If one cultivates using mid-grade spirit stones, the rate of wasted and consumed spiritual energy will be much lower than with ordinary spirit stones."

When it came to answering questions, Liao Pantu had always been quite patient, and he explained it to Lin Xiao in great detail.