"Hey, what is the meaning of this?"

A mellow yet loud voice echoed out, with a faint undertone of anger.

The owner of the voice belonged to the fair lady in dainty green robes, Senior Qin.

The target of her question was a wrinkly old man in yellow robes.

The old man gave a slightly troubled stare at the green-robed lady, but shortly afterward diverted his face as he proceeded to ignore her inquisition.

"Hmph!"

A short snort came off from Senior Gan.

"What! Gan Xinjian! Do you look down on me and everyone else here that much!?"

Senior Qin's voice raised even further as her gentle complexion was completely lost, signs of rage could be seen from her face.

One of her hands was grabbing against the hilt of her sword, the other was pointing directly towards Gan Xinjian.

Liu Xun looked at the current situation with complex eyes.

The other seniors and juniors were also keeping mum with troubled looks as they observed the argument between two of the senior cultivators in the group.

The source of the conflict lay behind Senior Gan's back.

They were round, yellow, and gleaming with faint blue qi.

It was a pile of golden qi-burst apples.

--

Initially, Liu Xun and Millie had still been at the northern part of the Small Blue Valley Spring.

He had been picking up a rare mineral that was familiar to him through the Guanxin Pill. The stone itself was dirty black, like an ordinary pebble. However, faint purplish-black qi ripples could be felt in its core. The official name for this stone was 'Chaos rippling essence fragment', otherwise known as the infamous 'low-grade demon qi spirit stone'. These fragments contain a demonic aura that is naturally formed, which is rather rare since most qi ingredients found in nature are usually neutral in nature.

Normally, righteous cultivators would disdain picking up such cultivating materials. Those who are seen with such an item are frowned upon and perhaps thought to be demonic cultivators. Demonic cultivators themselves are known to practice inhumane cultivation techniques that harm others and bring destruction and misery to their surroundings. Any items or equipment associated with them are thus given very poor evaluations by any of the moral societies.

Liu Xun had picked up this ugly black stone with a complicated look. He knew that this stone would be immensely beneficial towards the cultivation of his ax technique which was demonic and savage in nature. However, he was not sure if the others including Millie would find his behavior acceptable.

"Why not just take it first and consider whether to use it later?"

That was the silver-haired lady's casual reply.

Millie did not seem to mind his behavior of picking up such evil materials. She seemed to be more interested in Liu Xun himself, rather than whatever thing he took. She would often casually mention the locations of some rare items or herbs that were within the premise as they walk around the basin.

Overall, Liu Xun had a bountiful harvest. Much of the effort was due to Millie herself who actively led him around the place.

The day itself quickly passed as the group was busy gathering treasures. The excitement of picking things up while knowing that there was no risk, presented a thrill to all the cultivators present.

Senior Qin, Senior Gan, and Liu Five were filled with excitement as they grabbed herbs vastly beneficial to their cultivation. Langsheng, Ruoxue, and Waner were also returning to camp with bright smiles. It seems that their hauls were not too shabby either.

The group only finally met up again at the starting area when the sun was setting. It was where they had set up camp the night before.

It was at this point that the conflict had begun.

--

"It is because you are always like this that not many like to work with you! When will you learn to respect other's moral boundaries!"

An angry voice devoid of any grace reverberated to the surrounding crowd.

Senior Qin ruthlessly berated Senior Gan as he does not seem repentant of his actions.

"What I do is my business! It is not for you or any other cultivator for that matter to judge!"

He snapped back stubbornly.

"Why, you! I had known you were hardheaded, but I did not expect you to be this selfish!"

She argued further as her free pointing hand was now quickly shifting toward her silvery-white sword.

The tension was heightening to dangerous levels.

--

"Stop right there."

A calm yet pleasant voice sounded out.

It came from Liu Xun's side.

Millie stepped forth as her silvery-blue hair swayed by her side.

Ting-ling.

The bell at the end of her braid gently chimed as she walked.

She then stood in between both of the seniors who were in an argument.

"Lady Millie, please step back! It is my duty to correct this man's behavior. He is clearly violating our previous agreement! Look at those apples, he has clearly gone overboard!"

Senior Qin said out with a faint trace of rage hidden in her words.

The target of contempt gave a slight glare at Senior Qin before looking away again in silence.

"Relax, Lady Qin. Look at most of the materials Sir Gan has gathered. They are mostly pill herbs and qi gathering pill materials. Looking at the materials, golden qi-burst apples, white essence gourds, clear blue leaves...they are mostly ingredients to make qi expansion pills and essence gathering pills."

Millie mentioned in a relatively relaxed tone as she gave a light look towards Senior Gan. The man in question continued to avert his eyes, not daring to face the silver-haired lady.

"As I know what ingredients lay around this basin, I can tell that Sir Gan had definitely not overstepped his boundaries as he only took a small handful of essence foundation materials. This is definitely far less than what you or the other senior cultivators have gathered."

She continued on before turning back and walking towards Liu Xun, looking as relaxed as when she first intervened.

By this point, Senior Qin's hands were already off her sword as she flashed a look of surprise and bewilderment towards Senior Gan.

Even Senior Xuan and Liu Five were surprised, much less the juniors who looked at the scene with their jaws dropped.

What is this man thinking?

Was probably the thought that ran through most of their minds.

Even Liu Xun also entertained such a thought as his eyebrows were raised in surprise to Millie's accurate deduction and display of knowledge with regards to pill ingredients.

"But why would you...it can't be."

A voice filled with shock and dismay rang out from Senior Qin.

"Hmph...what about it. Can't this old man make extra pills for his trump card? Since this area also has many chances for this old man to practice his pill-making, he won't be generous. The pill-making dregs could be left for those juniors since there is an excess of materials."

He said in an annoyed tone.

The rest of the group looked towards the stubborn old man in yellow robes warmly as he turned around to hide his face. They could tell that he was just putting on a facade and was actually worried about the welfare of the group. The qi expansion pill was a useful pill that would help the group when they require that extra burst of qi during fights or shortly after fights if they had depleted their qi stores. In fact, Liu Xun was already given one while he had fainted after fighting the sanguineous centipede previously. It was of course one of Senior Gan's pills.

The qi gathering pills that could be made with the ingredients were also obviously for the Liu Family juniors since Senior Gan could easily just pick essence foundation materials if he wanted to practice and make pills that were more suited towards himself. This stubborn old man seemed to have a soft spot for younger juniors despite his snarky comments and occasional glares at times.

The sun had already set by the time the dispute had ended. It was great that there was no real tension developed between the group as they had yet to reach their destination which was the Yin Frost Basin. Disputes are definitely one of the greatest reasons why expeditions would fail as infighting and betrayals would become more likely. Everyone in the group would prefer to avoid such a scenario, especially Senior Qin who was the leader.

The green-robed lady was sitting by the corner of the fireplace with a disturbed expression. It seems that she had misunderstood Senior Gan's intentions and is currently troubled about how to resolve this conflict. Even though nothing serious had occurred, this did not change the fact that she had accused Senior Gan's kind intentions despite his weird secretive attitude.

All in all, the camp now had this awkward atmosphere that was hard to resolve.

Liu Xun looked over at the camp as he shook his head before walking towards the basin in the distance.

--

Tap. Tap.

Behind him, light footsteps could be heard. Liu Xun could already tell that the silver-haired lady with fur laced clothes was following by his back.

"So, what are you up to now?"

She questioned with a cheery tone as if everything that happened previously was just imagination.

"I just want to get away from that suffocating atmosphere. Also, I have yet to do my sign-in today."

A swift reply came back as Liu Xun stated his true intentions.

Despite knowing this lady for only the past two days, he could feel a faint sense of familiarity as Millie. She had been displaying her most sincere intentions without bearing even the slightest of hostile intention or even the intent of hiding anything from him. Even as cautious as Liu Xun thought himself to be, he could not deny that this silver-haired lady was starting to grow on him.

"Oh that announcement thing, huh. Sounds exciting!"

She said with a faint trace of expectation in her words.

"Usually most of the things I get from it are pretty useless, most often not worth the trouble that is brought due to it. Do not expect too much from it."

The young man said as he stated out the blatant truth behind the ruthless system. He had a slight feeling of apprehension and fear towards Millie's disappointed look once he pulls out another white mantou.

"No worries about that. Even so, this system announcement was the thing that brought me to you. Was it not?"

She replied back as she gave a happy smile towards Liu Xun.

Liu Xun was faintly surprised by her words as he turned back to face the silver-haired lady.

Her elusive violet eyes reflected the bright stars in the night sky as they stared directly back at him.

It was a momentary moment of eye contact between the two.

"A-anyways, I will go to the basin now! The items are likely to be of higher quality at better sign-in locations."

He mentioned in a hurried tone as he quickly looked away, a red blush could be seen on his cheeks as he hurriedly walks forward.

"Fufu~sure!"

A calm yet pleasant voice came from behind with a soft chuckle as Millie followed behind the young Liu Xun.

The only witness of this interaction between of young man and woman were the stars in the sky and the moon that was hiding embarrassed behind the dark grey clouds.

Mysticant

It feels like ages since I last did another sign-in. Well, it won't be this chapter that is for sure.