Liu Yunqing arrived at an inopportune time; Daoist Mingzhao was busy in his seclusion room, and Jian Xing was the one who received her.

"Master calculated that you will most likely be coming over in the next few days."

So, it seems Jian Xing was waiting for her here specifically, which made Liu Yunqing feel a little embarrassed.

She didn't want to waste time with small talk, so she quickly took out the array diagram that Daoist Yinian had entrusted to her and handed it to Jian Xing.

"This is a formation diagram I obtained from Daoist Yinian. I would like to trouble Senior Brother Jianxing to give it to Daoist Mingzhao for me. If it is of any use, I will trouble him."

“My friend is in Tai Xuan City to attend an auction and will be away from the peak for the next few days. If Senior Brother Jian Xing needs to contact me, he can send me a message.”

As Liu Yunqing spoke, he handed over his communication jade slip, exchanged it with True Person Jianxing, and after a brief exchange of pleasantries, left Mingzhao Peak.

Seeing that Liu Yunqing had someone accompanying him, Master Jianxing did not insist on following him. He simply gave Liu Yunqing a temporary access token for Mingzhao Peak, offered a few words of concern and advice, and then went to attend to other matters.

As the weapon-refining peak of the Tai Xuan Sect, Mingzhao Peak has a considerable number of matters to handle every day.

Unfortunately, the eldest brother of the Immortal of Simple Life is currently in seclusion, attempting to break through to the Nascent Soul stage, while the third junior sister and the fourth junior brother have gone out on a training trip together, and it is unknown when they will return.

As the master of Jianxing Zhenren, Mingzhao Daojun had not cared about worldly affairs on the mountain for many years. Apart from occasionally guiding his disciples in cultivation, he spent the rest of his time either in seclusion or studying the methods of weapon forging.

So, apart from before he started cultivating, Jianxing was really busy all the time.

As for Meng Shu, who was clamoring to go together, it wasn't that she didn't want to come, but rather that she had been temporarily assigned a mission and was not within the sect.

Even so, she didn't forget to send a message to Liu Yunqing, telling him to wait for her return.

Liu Yunqing shook his head with a wry smile and left the Tai Xuan Sect alone.

...

The grand auction held by Qingquan Pavilion every five years makes Taixuan City exceptionally prosperous and crowded.

When Feng Piaopiao received Liu Yunqing's message, he originally wanted to go to the city gate to greet her, but the city was so crowded that he had to give up the idea.

When Liu Yunqing found the Shangqing Sect's outpost by following Feng Piaopiao's directions, Feng Piaopiao was almost asleep from waiting.

"You've finally arrived! Any later and we would have missed getting in."

Liu Yunqing looked around the room and saw that there was no one else besides her and Feng Piaopiao, so she knew that everyone else must have already gone to the auction.

Without saying anything else, the two rushed to the auction.

Instead of using the regular entrance, the two used the VIP entrance, which led directly to a private room belonging to the Shangqing Sect on the third floor of the auction house.

The private room is not a small room, but a spacious suite expanded using spatial arrays.

The largest room in the suite serves as the living room, and one entire wall of the living room has a huge mirror, reflecting a clear view of the auction floor.

At this time, the auction had not officially started yet. There was only one display stand on the auction stage and some noisy ordinary seats on the first floor.

What remains are two small cubicles on the left and right.

Liu Yunqing glanced at these scenes casually before heading towards Jinghui Daojun, who was seated at the head of the living room.

"Greetings, Daoist Jinghui. I apologize for disturbing you."

Daoist Jinghui smiled kindly, looked Liu Yunqing up and down, nodded and praised him, and then let Feng Piaopiao take Liu Yunqing to play by himself.

Feng Piaopiao was already used to his master's attitude. All he wanted to do now was go back to seclusion after the auction.

He refused to believe that his mutated spiritual root could be much less powerful than Liu Yunqing's fire spiritual root.

Liu Yunqing was unaware of Feng Piaopiao's thoughts, only feeling that her friend had been acting strangely after their recent meeting.

"Has anything happened recently?"

Liu Yunqing showed concern on her face, and asked questions in a tactful manner.

Feng Piaopiao shook her head, glanced at Liu Yunqing, and forced herself to remain calm, saying:

"It's nothing, what could possibly be wrong with me?"

Liu Yunqing raised an eyebrow. The two had been friends for many years. Although Feng Piaopiao tried to remain calm, she instantly understood what was going on with her.

With a slight smile, Liu Yunqing did not expose Feng Piaopiao, but changed the subject and asked about something else.

Have you found out who it is?

Feng Piaopiao straightened her expression, led Liu Yunqing to a small cubicle to sit down, released an isolation array, and then handed a jade slip to Liu Yunqing.

"This is from Qiu Zhengping, who asked me to give it to you."

Liu Yunqing took the jade slip but did not immediately examine its contents. Instead, he inquired about the specifics.

Feng Piaopiao watched as Liu Yunqing put away the jade slip, and replied with some disappointment:

"I was supposed to go and inquire about him, but actually he was the one who came to me."

"The very night I received your message, that senior silently appeared at the inn where I was staying. Can you imagine how terrifying that is!"

Seeing that Feng Piaopiao was about to digress again, Liu Yunqing quickly interrupted, saying:

"Besides asking you to hand over the jade slip, did Senior Qiu say anything else?"

The wind gently pulled her wandering thoughts back, and she continued:

"He didn't say anything special, just told me not to let anyone know I'd seen him, and that you shouldn't deliberately look for him. If anyone asks, just say you're not familiar with him."

After saying this, Feng Piaopiao thought about it carefully for a moment, and then shared her feelings.

“That senior is clearly a Nascent Soul cultivator, but I observed that he was extremely cautious in his actions, as if he was guarding against someone, and he always came and went in a hurry.”

Even the high-level cultivators who frequently travel outside the Sun Realm are only Nascent Soul cultivators.

Although Nascent Soul cultivators can be seen, they rarely venture out, and even less so do they easily get into conflicts with others.

So why is someone with such powerful cultivation, who could practically do whatever they want, being so cautious?

If he really encountered a powerful enemy, why didn't he return to his sect?

It seems the answer lies in that jade slip.

Liu Yunqing asked Feng Piaopiao to inquire about Qiu Zhengping. Apart from feeling that he was a good person after they had met and having a faint intuition deep in her heart, she didn't think about anything else.

Now that Qiu Zhengping has taken the initiative to come to her and left her a jade slip, Liu Yunqing can no longer feel that she and the other party are just strangers who met by chance.

Feng Piaopiao had obviously thought of this as well. After answering Liu Yunqing's question, she turned to ask:

"What's your relationship with Qiu Zhengping?"

"When you went out to gain experience, wasn't I present for most of the time? How do you have connections that I don't know about?"

Liu Yunqing didn't go into details, only briefly mentioning that the two of them had teamed up to explore the ruins once.

"Don't ask me what happened next, because I don't know either. I woke up back on the ground."

After saying this, Liu Yunqing pointed to the screen in the living room and said:

"The auction is about to begin, let's go outside."

Liu Yunqing wasn't very interested in the auction, but Feng Piaopiao was.

Although he was still curious, he rushed back to the living room as soon as the auction started. Liu Yunqing, on the other hand, strolled out and casually found a corner to sit down.

To everyone's surprise, Liu Yunqing, who was not interested, suddenly stood up from his seat when he heard about the first item and quickly put down a bid.