Gou Zai Yao Wu Simulated Immortal

The insect puppet then raised its two front legs towards Li Qian.

He immediately shrank back and slipped into the crack in the wall, following the shadow under the table leg.

Li Qian didn't linger any longer and turned to leave the courtyard.

The sky outside on Heiqu Street was already dark, and the long alley was narrow.

"interesting."

No sooner had Wen Qianji left than something began to target him.

A yellow talisman quietly slipped from Li Qian's sleeve, which he crumpled into a ball between his fingers.

Li Qian walked out along the way he came, but his mind was already listing out the things that would follow.

The talisman spontaneously combusted without fire, turning into a speck of ash that fell into the crack in the ground.

He blended into the crowd, walking at a moderate pace.

After walking through three alleys, he stopped for a moment in front of a stall selling old Buddhist artifacts and casually picked up a broken copper bell to examine it.

The reflection of the street corner behind them was seen on the inner wall of the copper bell.

There was a man in gray clothes there, bending down and picking out talisman paper.

Li Qian put down the copper bell and turned into another alley.

Half an incense stick later, the man in gray followed him inside.

At the end of the alley, there was only a dead wall covered in moss.

The man in gray paused.

There was no one in front of the wall.

His expression changed slightly, and just as he was about to turn around, a gentle voice suddenly came from behind him.

"Fellow Daoist, are you looking for me?"

The man in gray froze.

Li Qian had appeared behind him unnoticed, still clutching the broken bronze bell in his hand.

The man in gray forced a smile and said, "Fellow Daoist, you misunderstand. I was merely passing by..."

Before he could finish speaking, a talisman was already stuck to his chest.

The gray-clad man's expression changed drastically. As soon as his spiritual energy surged, he felt a sudden tightness in his chest and abdomen, as if his meridians were being nailed shut by several iron nails.

Li Qian patted him on the shoulder.

"Don't panic, it's just a calming talisman, it won't kill you."

The man in gray was sweating profusely. "Fellow Daoist Li, what is the meaning of this?"

Li Qian's smile faded slightly.

"You recognize me."

The man in gray immediately shut up.

Li Qian looked at him, his eyes showing no emotion whatsoever.

"Who gave you permission to follow?"

The man in gray gritted his teeth and remained silent.

Li Qian was not in a hurry; he simply shook the broken copper bell gently.

The bell was silent.

The man in gray suddenly widened his eyes, as if he had heard some extremely piercing sound, and his whole face contorted.

After a few breaths, he finally spoke, trembling, "I... I was just doing a favor for the spirit stones."

"Who gave you the spirit stones?"

"I didn't see anyone, I only received the message talisman."

Li Qian asked, "What did I call you to do?"

"Keep an eye on you. If you go to see Wen Qianji, pass on the message."

"To whom should it be handed?"

The man in gray moved his lips, about to speak, when suddenly a black spot bulged in his throat.

Li Qian's eyes narrowed, and he raised his hand to slap an evil-repelling talisman against Li Qian's throat.

But it was still a minute too slow.

The gray-clad man made a strange gurgling sound in his throat, his eyes rolled back, and he fell straight down.

He stopped breathing after only a few breaths.

Li Qian squatted down and pried open his mouth.

A black worm the size of a grain of rice crawled out halfway from the base of his tongue, and had already been burned to charcoal by the talisman fire.

"They were swift in silencing him."

Li Qian removed the storage bag from the corpse and searched it casually.

Inside were only a few spirit stones, a stack of low-grade talismans, and a crushed message talisman.

The remaining scent on the message talisman was very faint.

Li Qian remained silent for a moment, then took out a fire talisman and burned the corpse to ashes. He then used a cleansing talisman to wipe away the traces.

Only after doing all this did he turn and leave.

He originally thought it was just Wen Qianji's own troubles... but it seems that the fire has now spread to him.

Thinking of this, he quickened his pace.

When we returned to Baixifang, a sliver of the setting sun still lingered on the horizon.

Li Qianjing went to Guanju Alley.

Lu Chenchuan's courtyard remained unchanged, with the door half-closed and the shadows of locust trees covering the ground.

Li Qian raised his hand and knocked on the door.

Soon, Lu Chenchuan's indifferent voice came from inside: "The door is unlocked."

Li Qian pushed open the door and entered, only to find the man still sitting on the old mat, fiddling with the sand tray, as if the sky falling down was nothing more than adding a pinch of ash to the tray.

Lu Chenchuan didn't even lift his eyelids, only saying, "You're back? You're quite efficient."

Li Qian didn't beat around the bush, "I have a business deal to make, please help me out, Fellow Daoist Lu."

"What kind of business?"

"Demon-Suppressing Corpse".

"Which level?"

"A near-second-tier dragon corpse."

Lu Chenchuan paused for a moment in his hand holding the copper needle.

"You really got it done."

Li Qian smiled and said, "Not bad luck."

Lu Chenchuan scoffed, clearly not believing in luck, but too lazy to delve into it further.

He said slowly, "The fact that Wen Qianji dared to accept it shows that he is truly ravenous."

"He's in charge of mending bones and flesh, I'm in charge of maintaining order and stabilizing the situation. The method isn't unworkable."

Judging from his tone, Li Qian knew it was highly likely to work out, and promptly asked, "How much?"

"For an ordinary demon corpse, I charge fifty spirit stones for one night in my town."

Lu Chenchuan's gaze was flat, but his words were decisive.

"The dragon corpse is different."

"Jiao-type demons are born with a wisp of yin water vein. If their resentment lingers after death and they are forcibly turned into demon puppets, they are most likely to rise from the dead and turn against their masters."

"Besides, even after your dragon corpse is separated from its flesh and bones, it can still sense each other."

Li Qian did not deny the difficulty of the matter, only saying, "That's why I came to find you."

"Eighty spirit stones."

Li Qian had already anticipated that the price wouldn't be low.

When I actually heard that there were eighty, my eyebrows twitched slightly.

Li Qian looked at Lu Chenchuan.

Lu Chenchuan also looked at Li Qian.

After a moment, Li Qian sighed, "Fellow Daoist Lu, you don't seem like a formation cultivator."

"Like what?"

"Like a calamity cultivator."

Lu Chenchuan remained unfazed. "They robbed the cultivators and left. I take the money and do the job."

Li Qian remained silent for a moment, then nodded and said, "Alright, eighty it is, but it will be in three days."

Now that things have come to this, I have no choice but to wash my hair, which is soaked.

Lu Chenchuan waved for his guest to leave, saying, "If you can't produce the amount in three days, I'm leaving."

He wasn't annoyed, he just smiled and said, "When have I ever had the habit of owing money?"

When Li Qian bid farewell to Lu Chenchuan and came out of Guanju Alley, it was already dusk, and the lights in the neighborhood were beginning to come on.

He stood at the street corner, looked up at the night sky, and suddenly realized that each task at hand was more expensive than the last.

Fifty spirit stones is no small sum.

Fortunately, he is not alone now; he has two capable workers under his command.

Thinking of Lü Liang and Sima You, Li Qian's anxiety immediately dissipated somewhat.

After returning to his lodgings, he didn't delay and summoned the two people out of the Soul-Devouring Sword that very night.

When Lü Liang and Sima You saw his expression, their hearts sank.

Li Qian laid out paper, ink, animal hide, and spirit sand, and said in a very gentle tone, "I'm a little short on money lately, so I'll have to trouble you two to draw some more talismans for me."

He distributed a thick stack of talisman paper.

Now, their intelligence is no different from that of ordinary people.

Lu Liang stared at the stacks of blank talisman papers, his face turning deathly pale.

"Sword Master, how many...how many do we need to draw?"

Li Qian sat behind the table, his tone gentle, "Not much."

Lü Lianggang finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"I painted until dawn three days later."

Lü Liang's vision went black.

Sima You's lips twitched, but he didn't dare to say anything. He just sat down silently and ground cinnabar.

The only sound left in the room was the soft scratching of the talisman brush on paper.