Yin Yang Soul Searcher

As dusk fell and the sky began to fill with countless stars.

In his previous life, living in a concrete jungle, Bai Jueming hadn't seen a sky full of stars for a long time.

Inside the room, Bai Jueming lay down on the bed like an old man, and casually reached into his pocket, only to find that he didn't have any tools for watching short videos.

I've been in this world for several days now, but I still haven't fully adjusted to life without short videos. Since giving up short videos, time seems to pass so slowly; I use all my fragmented time for thinking.

Since we can't go back to our original world, we need to focus on our cultivation from now on.

The original owner risked his life to work in the black market precisely to improve his strength and provide a better life for his family. Let me inherit the original owner's will.

The original owner had spent years struggling in the black market, barely managing to raise his strength from the ninth rank to the eighth. And that was without any bottlenecks. Now, with the imperial court backing him and so many peers to learn from, he couldn't possibly progress in strength slower than before.

I'll ask Brother Shan at work tomorrow how to quickly improve my Onmyoji cultivation level. I always have to ask for help; it's so frustrating! I'm a very competitive person!

With that thought, Bai Jueming stretched out his legs. See you tomorrow!

A cool night breeze swept through the capital city, into the artisan's hall in the northeast corner of the outer city.

Inside the compound, the various houses, divided like a chessboard, were brightly lit.

The many disciples of the Craftsmen's Hall were working diligently to forge magical artifacts, striving to complete the task assigned by His Majesty the Emperor.

Occasionally, explosions would be heard from within a few houses, indicating errors in the forging of magical artifacts. Immediately afterward, a bright light would illuminate the outside of the houses. This was because an array had contained the aftershocks of the explosions caused by the failed artifact forging within the houses themselves.

This caused great suffering for the disciples of the Craftsmen's Hall who were still refining weapons inside. The aftershocks of the explosion rippled through the formation, causing the disciples to scream in agony. Fortunately, the formation was very humane, equipped with a soundproofing device, so it wouldn't disturb the other disciples who were continuing their weapon refining.

Disciples capable of weapon forging are generally tough and resilient martial artists, so these aftershocks cannot pose a life-threatening danger to them.

Inside the third-floor pavilion of the Craftsmen's Hall, there was still a pill furnace occupying a third of the room. It was golden all over, with dragons and phoenixes carved on it, and the raging fire inside the furnace looked as if it wanted to devour people.

On the prayer mat, a wide black robe covered Qiao Shou's entire body. At this moment, the veins on his forehead were throbbing, and the whisk in his arm would sometimes fly up and sometimes fall down. Cheng Yanbing stood to the side with his eyes closed, out of sight, out of mind.

Before them stood a paper figure with the appearance of a child, dressed in an indigo tie-dyed long robe with a diagonal opening. Its face was deathly pale, and its cheeks were flushed with two sickly red patches.

The nose was simply outlined with black lines, and the black pupils seemed to be breaking free of their sockets, bulging out straight out.

In this pitch-black night, an ordinary person would feel a chill in their heart just by looking at it.

Such paper figures can be easily bought at coffin shops outside. That's right, this is a paper figure used for sacrificial purposes! But at this moment, it has inappropriately appeared in the room of Qiao Shou, the number one weapon refiner of the Great Xia Dynasty.

At that moment, the paper figure opened its mouth, and a young man's voice came from inside: "Master, what do you need me for?"

Seeing the paper figure begin to speak, Qiao Shou, his face dark with anger, finally snapped, "Your real body, get over here right now!"

Immediately afterwards, the whisk at his arm flew high and struck the paper figure directly, sending it flying into a shower of paper scraps.

This paper figure was bought by his second disciple from a coffin shop. Because his second disciple was particularly skilled in formations, he bought a bunch of paper figures and used formations to give them the ability to move, so that they could help him do some trivial things.

At that moment, in a room within the courtyard, Luo Wuju, who was refining a weapon, calmly stood up and sighed, "Why is Master so angry again?"

Immediately afterward, Luo Wuju snapped his fingers. The door opened, and four paper figures, identical to the previous ones, walked in. The difference was that these four paper figures carried a chair on their shoulders, with long bamboo poles on either side of the chair weighing down their shoulders. He had bought these things wholesale from a coffin shop...

Luo Wuju sat on the chair carried by the paper figures, and the four paper figures carried the chair toward Qiao Shou's room. As they passed Cheng Yanbing's room on the second floor, Luo Wuju tilted his head and looked into the open window.

There was only one alchemy furnace in the room, with a raging fire inside. "Isn't that idiot who only knows how to refine pills here?" Luo Wuju shook his head, not paying any attention, and manipulated the paper figure to walk up to the third floor.

The door to the third-floor room was wide open, and Cheng Yanbing, dressed in a white robe with an unremarkable face, stood in front of Qiao Shou: "That's how it is. According to Bai Jueming's analysis, the Minister of Works was apparently killed by a courtesan. And it was through miasma poisoning."

After listening to Yan Bing's analysis, Qiao Shou frowned and kept muttering the word "miasma".

Just then, in the cold moonlight outside the door, four pale-faced paper figures were carrying Luo Wuju, trying to bring him inside. No matter how Luo Wuju tried to manipulate the paper figures, they wouldn't step into the room... This eerie and unsettling scene didn't seem like they were seeing Luo Wuju off, but rather like they were coming to pick up the old man inside...

The master wouldn't let him in. Luo Wuju had no choice but to reluctantly step down, stand before his master, and bow: "Master, what did you want to see me about?"

"You are not allowed to use paper figures to travel in the Craftsmen's Hall from now on!" Qiao Shou didn't say anything, but instead gave his disciple a severe scolding.

Cheng Yanbing, who was standing to the side, thought that his master was right to reprimand him, as he had long disliked these underworld creatures.

"Why?" Luo Wuju asked, looking indignant. "I'm just practicing the formation I just studied. Why can't I use it?"

Qiao Shou snorted coldly, and the whisk at his arm flew up on its own, circling behind Luo Wuju. He made a gesture as if preparing to strike.

Cheng Yanbing couldn't help but smile, his heart overflowing with joy. "Hit him! Hit him! Master, beat him up already!"

Luo Wuju's expression changed drastically when he saw the whisk fly up. He quickly said, "No need, we won't need it anymore. Master, please stop." Seeing the whisk fly back to its original position, Luo Wuju breathed a long sigh of relief.

Cheng Yanbing felt a little regretful...

Seeing that his second disciple had agreed, Qiao Shou then said, "From now on, you will take over from your senior brother in crafting magical artifacts for military use. He has other things to do."

Luo Wuju glanced sideways at the alchemy idiot beside him, wondering why his master had asked him to take over. However, excitement still shone through his brow: "No problem, Master, you can rest assured and leave it to me. It's a piece of cake." Luo Wuju patted his chest to assure him.

Seeing his disciple's confident expression, Qiao Shou's face darkened: "You are forbidden to forge weapons from paper!"

Luo Wuju once forged a weapon from paper and sent it to a small-scale battlefield. Later, some of these paper weapons were captured by the enemy forces, who discovered the weakness of the paper weapon formation, rendering the weapons useless. The enemy was prepared; they were confident that their soldiers could destroy the paper weapons using specific methods once the battle began the next day.

Thanks to a secret agent from the Great Xia who discovered the enemy's actions and risked his life to report the news, a major disaster was averted.

Otherwise, with thousands of soldiers wielding paper weapons, they would surely be annihilated. Even if the iron weapons were captured by the enemy, they wouldn't bother to study and destroy the weaknesses of the formations, because this formation had been used for so long that it had almost no major weaknesses. Besides, even if the formations were destroyed, the iron weapons could still kill. Furthermore, the captured weapons could be used by their own men.

Luo Wuju shrank his neck: "I was just trying to save the imperial court materials... Besides, my refining method has been upgraded, and I'm confident that the paper weapons have no weaknesses..."

"Does our Great Xia lack your materials? Such a big matter as waging war against the demon race is not a place for you to study paper weapons!" Cheng Yanbing didn't need his master to speak; he directly confronted his second junior brother from the perspective of righteousness.

"Last time, your paper weapon was only spared punishment because your master persuaded His Majesty. You're still not satisfied?"

"How dare you criticize me?" Luo Wuju retorted. "Others have the right to question my formation, but Cheng Yanbing has the right to question me?"

"I wonder who refined the elixir and had it stolen using an array. In the end, wasn't it Master who pleaded for you and spared punishment?"

Sparks flew between them as they faced off, neither willing to back down. They were practically ready to roll up their sleeves and fight. Both were of the same rank and neither feared the other, but they had become disciples at different times and had different interests: one specialized in formations, the other in alchemy.

"Enough!" Qiao Shou shouted, realizing they were about to fight if he didn't stop them. "Starting tomorrow, Luo Wuju, you will take over your senior brother's duties and properly lead the disciples in weapon forging. Just follow the steps!"

"Cheng Yanbing, go and research elixirs to cure the miasma poison. The phenomenon of people flocking to the city in large numbers to buy medicine to treat the miasma must never happen again!"

"Fine." Luo Wuju curled his lip, too lazy to argue with Cheng Yanbing, who simply didn't understand the greatness of formations.

"Fine." Cheng Yanbing shook his head, too lazy to argue with Luo Wuju, who simply didn't understand the greatness of alchemy.

"There's one more thing. Luo Wuju, go and check the array formation at Yang Yongyuan's residence. See if there's anything that can be improved so that this kind of thing can be avoided in the future," Qiao Shou said calmly.

"That formation is already perfect enough, why change it..." Luo Wuju didn't finish the last word because he noticed his master's expression wasn't good. He changed the subject, "Then let me take another look..."

After accepting the task, the two men, shoulder to shoulder, squeezed out of the door simultaneously. Then, with a flick of their heads, one went left and the other right, parting ways.

A moment later, Luo Wuju sneaked to the door again, and seeing that his master wasn't paying attention to him, he instantly jumped onto the chair carried by the paper figures. The paper figures then carried him back to his room at an incredible speed... He should listen to his master, but not everything.

Inside the room, Qiao Shou let out a long sigh. Neither of his two disciples was easy to deal with... There was only one thing they agreed on and would defer to each other: neither would inherit the position of Palace Master... Everyone said that inheriting the position would hinder his research into formations and elixirs...

These two accounts are now useless.

Fortunately, he had taken in an obedient girl named Tang Weiwei. Although her talent in weapon crafting and alchemy was somewhat lacking, she was fortunate to have his two senior brothers to help and teach her. Everyone in the Craftsmen's Hall doted on this junior sister. Thinking of this, Qiao Shou was very gratified.

"Bang!" Just then, an untimely explosion rang out from the second-floor room, followed immediately. Qiao Shou looked out the window and saw black smoke rising from below. If nothing unexpected happened, Tang Weiwei's weapon-refining had gone awry again...

"Sigh," Qiao finally let out a long sigh. The futon he sat on spun around on its own, turning its back to the door. The whisk in his arm flew up and closed the door. Out of sight, out of mind.