I Got Together with the Goddess [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 55

After Shui Mingsheng exchanged greetings with Elder Xin Fang, she went to the pine tree to find Jiang Yiqing. Although Jiang Yiqing possessed invisibility talismans, it was hard to guarantee that there weren’t certain specialized or obscure gu insects capable of detecting her presence. Therefore, Shui Mingsheng did not dare to take risks and did not let Jiang Yiqing move alongside her in front of the crowd.

“Yiqing, what do you think we should do next?”

Shui Mingsheng felt that her ability to make it this far was largely due to Yiqing’s strategizing. With Yiqing’s brilliance, perhaps she would have a perspective different from her own.

“Now, anyone who possesses a King Gu can participate in the next stage of the competition; everyone is searching for a King Gu,” Jiang Yiqing said. “Mingsheng, your King Gu was purchased from the merchant. Although he agreed at the time not to leak the news, once this matter becomes known, all the recent anomalies will once again be blamed on you. When that happens, the trouble will be immense.”

“Yiqing, your mind is truly meticulous.” Thinking it over, Shui Mingsheng realized it made sense. The reason the crowd did not suspect her was that they were ignorant of her true strength. But if they knew she had obtained a King Gu so early on, they would assume she had accessed even more opportunities to acquire new, unknown powers. Even though she now possessed the White Emperor Dream Bright Gu and could hold her own against a Great Gu Master, being exposed too early would put her in a passive position.

“That’s not even the most critical part,” Jiang Yiqing added. “The biggest problem now is finding a way to save Teacher Xia. We negotiated a ten-day deadline with the Tree Gu, but now we don’t even know exactly when the next stage of the competition will begin.”

“I once heard the elders say that the legacy left by the Saintess tests not only strength but wisdom. I think she must have considered everyone’s unique circumstances and left behind some secrets for those with a discerning mind to crack,” Shui Mingsheng said. “Yiqing, you are wiser than I am. Let’s think of a way together.”

Jiang Yiqing felt shy being praised so highly. She gazed down at the numbers on the Boundary Stone; the count had expanded to a staggering figure of over a thousand people. It seemed everyone had come to meddle in the business of the legacy. Since Daobei Ridge was the place where the Saintess left her inheritance, it couldn’t be as simple as just finding a wooden box; there must be other designs in place.

Jiang Yiqing could still see the prompt: “Boundary Stone Fragments × 10.” Last time she left this place, she was in a hurry and surrounded by people, so she hadn’t tried anything. This time, she stepped forward and attempted to collect the Boundary Stone.

She was only trying it out, but to her surprise, the Boundary Stone was actually gathered into her system space. With the disappearance of the stone, the entire Daobei Ridge began to experience an earthquake.

Rocks split from the mountains and tumbled to the ground; trees exposed their roots from the soil, and the ground beneath their feet began to tremble.

“Yiqing?” Shui Mingsheng quickly grabbed Jiang Yiqing’s hand, fearing she might fall.

“Let’s go back to the pine tree.”

Shui Mingsheng carried Jiang Yiqing and leaped to the entrance of the Daylight Portal. Jiang Yiqing scattered a bag of sleep powder, and the two entered the Daylight Portal.

“Mingsheng, try using your White Emperor Dream Bright Gu,” Jiang Yiqing reminded her.

Jiang Yiqing had been wondering: would the Sunlight Gu have a mysterious reaction with the Daylight Portal?

Shui Mingsheng reacted immediately and activated the White Emperor Dream Bright Gu. As a result, unlike before when she would fall into a deep sleep, she remained conscious inside the Daylight Portal just like Jiang Yiqing.

Jiang Yiqing placed the Boundary Stone inside the Daylight Portal.

Whenever the Daylight Portal attempted to transport them back to Jiang Yiqing’s dormitory, Shui Mingsheng would use the White Emperor Dream Bright Gu again to extend the duration of the daylight. Jiang Yiqing saw the numbers on the Boundary Stone begin to shatter, its surface revealing multicolored patterns.

Repeating this multiple times, they continuously traversed through several “daylights.” The two of them managed to gain eternal time together within the Daylight Portal.

The Boundary Stone was also affected by the time conversion of the Daylight Portal. When they returned to the spot beneath the pine tree, external time had not changed at all.

Jiang Yiqing discovered that she could now freely manipulate this Boundary Stone. She set it upright in its original place again. This time, it no longer displayed the number of people; instead, it began a countdown.

60, 59, 58, 57…

A domain-wide transmission activated: “A total of one thousand and thirty people are participating in the competition for this legacy. Among them, ten Gu Masters possessing King Gu will be selected as the best. These ten individuals can become the heirs to the treasure. After the countdown ends, the ranking order of the ten heirs will be revealed on the Boundary Stone. Twenty-four hours later, the Gu Master ranked first will directly obtain the treasure.”

As the Boundary Stone returned to its position, the earthquake in Daobei Ridge ceased, and everything returned to normal operation. The crowd watched in shock as the numbers on the stone gradually turned into a “1.”

“What’s going on? Are my eyes playing tricks on me? Didn’t I just see the Boundary Stone fly away and now it’s back?”

“Wasn’t everyone supposed to go look for King Gu? Why is the competition starting now?”

Amidst the discussions of the crowd, the names of the ten heirs and their King Gu emerged on the stone.

“No. 1 Wu Xing: Scarlet Flame Jade Emperor Gu. No. 2 Wen Qing: White Emperor Dream Bright Gu. No. 3 Xu Shou: Corpse King Gu. No. 4 Ning Xue: Chimei King Gu. No. 5 Li Shi: Red-Eyed King Gu. No. 6 Bai Mei: Eagle King Gu. No. 7 Xin Fang: Ice Silkworm King Gu.”

Once the rankings were revealed, the crowd erupted in a frenzy again.

Xin Fang and the others rushed over upon hearing the news. The Great Gu Masters of the Miao Frontier, who had been conversing amicably earlier, were now extremely wary of one another.

“Xin Fang, you really do have a King Gu. You wouldn’t admit it when I asked you earlier,” Bai Mei said.

“Well, you didn’t tell me you had an Eagle King Gu either,” Xin Fang countered.

“As expected, the Scarlet Flame Jade Emperor Gu belongs to the Sect Master. But who on earth is this, Wen Qing? Wasn’t she in the first place in the last ranking? She’s actually ranked above the Sect Master?” Bai Mei asked.

They naturally didn’t know that this “Wen Qing” was a name fabricated by Jiang Yiqing. Since she could control the Boundary Stone, she had altered the rankings after learning them but before they were publicized.

She had lowered the ranking of the White Emperor Dream Bright Gu and changed “Shui Mingsheng” to “Wen Qing” to distance the identity from her as much as possible, preventing anyone from making the connection. Originally, Jiang Yiqing wanted to lower the White Emperor Dream Bright Gu’s rank even further, but people wouldn’t believe it. When a King Gu is cultivated to the peak, its name changes to include “Emperor” or “Jade,” so second place was already the limit of plausibility.

As long as they maintained the top positions without being discovered by anyone, they would automatically obtain the treasure in twenty-four hours.

Immediately upon receiving the news, Li Shi had purchased a Red-Eyed King Gu from a Gu Master at a high price to squeeze into the rankings. He had originally intended to enhance the strength of the Red-Eyed King Gu, but he hadn’t expected the competition to start so suddenly.

This was very abnormal.

In fact, ever since the day the path up Daobei Ridge opened, strange things had been happening.

According to his statistics, among Bai Mei’s group at that time, only five people had King Gu. Ning Xue was a mysterious female Gu Master of the Miao Frontier, so it was normal for her not to have appeared. The Sect Master, being stationed at the Tiantong Academy in the center of the Miao Frontier, also understandably didn’t come. As for Xu Shou, even if he had arrived, there was still one person missing. This person was almost certainly the obscure but second-ranked Wen Qing.

The appearance of Wen Qing had opened the path up the ridge; this was an almost deducible fact. But no one had seen Wen Qing, and no one knew her. If this Wen Qing was the one who dug the giant pit and caused the number on the Boundary Stone to decrease by two when leaving Daobei Ridge, it meant she had an Invisibility Gu and a companion.

Who was the most suspicious?

To deduce this, one had to start with the King Gu.

“Merchant, when I tried to buy a King Gu from you, you said you sold it to someone else, which is why I bought the Red-Eyed King Gu from someone else. Who exactly did you sell your King Gu to?”

“For us businessmen, the most important thing is maintaining credit,” the merchant said. “I cannot tell you who I sold it to, but I can tell you that the state of that King Gu wasn’t good. I estimate it died later, which is why that person’s information didn’t appear on the leaderboard.”

“What if that King Gu was combined with other powerful insects to synthesize an incredibly formidable Gu?” Li Shi asked. “Like the White Emperor Dream Bright Gu?”

“That’s impossible,” the merchant said. “The White Emperor Dream Bright Gu was an insect that previously suppressed the Sect Master. To compete with it, the Sect Master invested a massive amount of insects to finally cultivate the Scarlet Flame Jade Emperor Gu. Who else could have a foundation deeper than the Sect Master?”

“Fortune is a hard thing to predict,” Li Shi asked. “From your tone, you certainly don’t believe that buyer had such capability?”

“Indeed. If it were true, it would be too terrifying.”

The merchant had been to Qingfeng Village.

The merchant left, and Li Shi did not stop him. Originally, he wanted to use some “methods” to make the merchant speak the truth, but doing so would break the iron rule of the Miao Frontier against attacking merchant caravans, making him a target for everyone. It wasn’t worth it.

Most importantly, based on the information the merchant revealed, his suspicion of Shui Mingsheng grew deeper. It was said the merchant made a big deal in Qingfeng Village. What if it was really Shui Mingsheng who bought the King Gu?

Shui Mingsheng received a phone call.

She picked up the phone, and Zhao Xiran said anxiously on the other end, “This Li Shi—I happened to hack into his personal devices and found he’s been investigating you! Things about the merchant caravans, the King Gu… he even recorded your accounts.”

Shui Mingsheng was startled, thinking of the traces of spying at Qingyu Building. She said, “That piece of trash. He’s probably about to discover that I am Wen Qing.”

After all the efforts to hide it, she still couldn’t keep the secret? It seemed a direct confrontation was inevitable.

“Zhao Xiran, do me another favor. Go to Yushan Village and help me pick up Xiao Zhi.”