Demonic Demoness Training Project

Is this a dream?

Countless thoughts flashed through Lu Li's mind. He vaguely remembered that he should be at Liubao River. He could still move his hands and feet, but he couldn't exert any strength.

Or perhaps, all that talk about a hundred spirit stones, a Qi-unifying cauldron, and an immortal grandmother was just a dream. In reality, he never left that thatched hut, never.

Everything was just his fantasy before he hanged himself.

Lu Li wanted to get down but found he couldn't. So he patted himself up and down to check his current situation. But when he touched his chest, he actually felt something soft.

Hey, hey, hey, are you kidding me? Is hers really that big?

Uh, it's not that big, but it doesn't look like a man's size at all. He... he really turned into a woman!?

Don't do this kind of thing!

boom!

Just then, the wooden door was pushed open, and a thin woman walked in. The woman had dark skin, carried firewood on her back, and had a few strands of grass stuck to her gray hair.

That's his mother.

"Ling'er!"

Ling'er? Is that someone calling him?

Lu Li was even more confused, because Ling'er was his younger sister's nickname; her real name was Lu Ling, and she had been frail and sickly since childhood.

The woman rushed over in a panic, hugged herself, and then lowered her from the roof beam, slapping her across the face, the pain stinging.

"You silly child, are you trying to drive me crazy? Why aren't you lying in bed properly? Why are you ruining yourself like this?"

Lu Li was about to open her mouth, but her mouth was out of control, and a childish, weak voice with a sob came from her throat.

"Mother, I am a burden."

"You silly boy, what nonsense are you talking about?"

pat~

The warm, moist touch slid across Lu Li's cheek, but she didn't know why she was crying.

"Mother, do you think if I die, we'll have money to send my brother to school?"

Upon hearing this, the woman bit her lip and slapped Lu Ling across the face again. Then she pointed at Lu Ling, trembling with anger, unable to speak for a long time. Finally, she pulled Lu Ling into her arms and wept uncontrollably.

"You foolish child, why are you doing this? What good will it do you even if you die?"

“Mom, I remember Dad bought me an insurance policy before. If I die, you will get the money. Anyway, my illness can't be cured, so I might as well die sooner. My brother has been smart since he was a child. As long as he has a school to study, he will definitely become a skilled pliers master like Dad in the future.”

Chapter 21 My Most Admired Older Brother

After hearing the girl's words, the woman was taken aback. She raised her hand to strike again, but her calloused hand remained suspended in mid-air, unable to fall.

"Cough cough cough..."

Then, the girl coughed violently. She covered her mouth with her hand, and the woman gently patted her back to help her catch her breath.

A strong, fishy smell spread along the tip of my tongue, and when I looked up again, I found my palms covered in bright red blood.

“Mother, I’m going to die anyway, but my older brother is different. He’ll definitely make something of himself in the future and become a fitter.”

"So what if you become a fitter? You'll still end up like your deadbeat father, busy for days and nights without coming home, only to end up in bed, abandoning the three of us."

"No, I think my brother can become a top-grade fitter. Father once said that once he becomes a top-grade fitter, he won't have to sit on the assembly line all day."

“Your brother doesn’t have that ability. Your old man has been tinkering for half his life and he’s only reached the Earthly Realm.”

"I believe my brother can do it. After all, he has always been the brother I admire the most."

The woman pulled the girl into her arms again, and after an unknown amount of time, she suddenly said:

"Ling'er, I've found you a place to go."

She paused, avoiding the girl's clear eyes, her gaze falling on her slender shoulder, as if she had made up her mind, her tone soft to the point of pleading:

“That family is well-off. Once you get there, focus on getting better. You won’t have to suffer with your mother anymore, and don’t worry about home…”

The girl seemed to have guessed something, and simply nodded slightly as her vision gradually blurred.

"Mother, after I'm gone, please don't donate any more money to the Tongxian Sect, okay?"

"I won't donate anymore, Mother won't donate anymore. It's all Mother's fault, it's all Mother's fault..."

……

The scene flashed by rapidly, with countless bizarre and wonderful sights before her eyes. When her vision cleared again, "Lu Li" found herself tied to a cold bed.

A wooden raven hovered on her chest, its scarlet, menacing eyes fixed on her.

"Name: Lu Ling, age 15, physical quality: Grade D, lower grade, spiritual strength: Grade D, upper grade, spiritual root: mixed four-color spiritual root... Quack, preliminary judgment: extract soul first."

Not far from the window, two female disciples were whispering to each other.

"What a hassle. This little sister is quite pretty, but it's a pity she's only a Grade D upper-level soul. What use is a soul of this level, senior sister?"

"You don't understand. Although mortal souls are not as good as ours, they are still good spiritual materials. Low-grade Ding can be used to refine wooden crows, mid-grade Ding can be used to refine mortal puppets, and high-grade Ding can be used as weapon spirits to drive the first-stage, fourth-type spiritual core to refine first-stage puppets."

"Such a soul can't last long, can it?"

"Hey, they're all consumables anyway, but it's not absolute. These puppets with artificial spirits can autonomously cultivate and deeply deduce, so they might advance in the future."

"Is that so? What happens if you advance to a higher level?"

"At this point, we will take out the artifact spirit and transplant it into the second-level spirit core to refine a second-level puppet. Look, the third-level puppet in your uncle's hand was refined step by step from a top-grade Ding-level soul."

"Amazing!"

"However, don't get your hopes up too high. Most of the level D souls don't even last as long as a level 1 spirit core. They'll be completely destroyed in less than six months."

"Won't these puppets betray us?"

"You're so stupid! The process of extracting and refining the soul involves erasing all memories from one's previous life, although most of the time it's not completely erased, hehehehe..."

The female disciple covered her mouth and chuckled for no apparent reason, while her junior sister's companion looked puzzled and mechanically scratched the back of her head.

"Senior sister, what are you laughing at?"

“I remembered something funny. These puppets can cultivate like us, but they don’t know it. They mistakenly believe that they are disciples of the White Moon Palace, just like us. Last year, one of the puppets malfunctioned and ran around the sect, shouting crazy things like ‘It’s fake, it’s all fake,’ ‘I can’t tell, I really can’t tell.’”

"Hahaha, this is fun, this is really fun."

The junior sister also laughed. The two female disciples laughed so hard they were doubled over, their bodies creaking and groaning as if they might fall apart at any moment. It took them quite a while to recover.

"By the way, if the spirit is transplanted into the second-stage spirit core, what should be done with the original first-stage spirit core?"

"It can be sold as a second-hand item outside the sect."

"But I remember the academy elder saying that second-hand spirit cores have a shorter lifespan and will retain the obsessions of the spirit in life. If a cultivator installs a puppet made from a second-hand spirit core, he will be affected by these obsessions and will be prone to going astray in his cultivation in the future."

"That's right, it's not like you've gone mad, what are you afraid of... I'll stop here, I'll just tell you this, but whatever you do, don't let those lowly people know."

"Don't worry, there are only the two of us here. Those lowly people would never dream that they would sell their children and end up here with us."

“We will handle the soul extraction, but the soul refining will require an inner disciple. You first need to split open her skull, and then I will put her soul into this place.”

As she spoke, the senior sister shook the small wooden jar in her hand.

"it is good."

The junior sister picked up the axe and smashed it down on Lu Ling's head. The pain of her skull being torn apart jolted Lu Li awake from his nightmare.

……

"what!"

The dream shattered, and Lu Li screamed as he sprang up from the boat, his forehead hitting the roof of the awning.

Lu Li stared intently at the top of the boat. He knew it was a dream, but he had never seen a dream so real.

It was just a dream, hahaha. I knew it! How could I possibly be a woman? How utterly ridiculous.

Sure enough, dreams are always the opposite of reality.

Lu Li pondered for a long time, sorting through the details of his dream. He gradually understood everything. It seemed to be his sister's perspective, but he had no memory of it and didn't know that Lu Ling was so foolish as to try to commit suicide to collect insurance money so that he could support his studies.

All he knew was that for a time his mother had been deceived by the Tongxian Sect. The people of the Tongxian Sect said that as long as she donated money, they could help cure her daughter's illness. This almost ruined the family fortune. One day when he returned home, Lu Ling, who used to lean against the kang (a heated brick bed), was not there. His mother was washing clothes and bedding with a gloomy face and threw two words at him: "Sell them."

He touched the wound on his chest. During the time he was asleep, the Qi-Harmony Cauldron had been running normally without stopping. Elder Duan had mentioned before that there was a Golden Spirit Core inside the Qi-Harmony Cauldron.

Golden Spirit Core...

A terrifying thought arose in Lu Li's mind.

No, no, this is just a dream. Maybe he just had a nightmare because he was thinking about his family.

Lu Li was somewhat uncertain.

"Old Duan, Old Duan, are you there?"

The next moment, Duan Lao's slow and deliberate voice rang in Lu Li's mind:

"Child, what's wrong? Why are you so anxious? Please tell me."

"Where did you get this Aikido pot from?!"

"I don't know about that. If you can really refine the Qi-Mixing Cauldron, then you're the one who refined it."

What are you saying?

"It means exactly what it says. If you succeed, then it will be something you forge in the future; you're just getting it ahead of time. If you fail, hehehe..."

What if we fail?

"Didn't I tell you that if we fail, the collateral will be confiscated, and you will suffer the consequences and die?"

Chapter 22 The Monkey King Attacks

The sun sets behind the mountains, and dusk deepens.

Lu Li got up from the awning. He felt a little dizzy. The images in his dream and Duan Lao's words gradually connected.

Master Duan said that if he succeeds, then this puppet will be his creation. In other words, the components inside are things he will come into contact with in the future, and they all actually exist in this world.

The two disciples in the dream said that using a second-hand spirit core could easily lead to demonic possession, because the spirit's obsession from its previous life remained in the second-hand spirit core.

Is it possible that the Golden Spirit Core in the Aikido Cauldron is actually the one Lu Ling used, and that the dream he just had was actually Lu Ling's memory from his previous life?

His mother was deceived into thinking that Lu Ling had been sold to a wealthy family, but in reality, she had fallen into the hands of the White Moon Palace. Lu Ling's soul was extracted and refined by the White Moon Palace, and she was turned into an artificial spirit.

Subsequently, this second-hand gold spirit core was discarded by the White Moon Palace and put back on the market. For some unknown reason, it eventually ended up in his hands.

Lu Li clenched his fist slightly, then relaxed it. Dragging his extremely tired body, he rowed the boat to search for minerals.

Immediately afterwards, Lu Li felt extremely frightened. If he hadn't chosen to take out a loan for the Qi-Melting Cauldron that day, and had instead been killed directly by the disciples of the Qingyang Palace, given his low-grade divine sense strength, he would most likely have been refined into a wooden crow.

At that time, he will forget his own name and wander the streets, selling all sorts of unscrupulous services to everyone he meets.

At this moment, Lu Li could no longer look directly at the wooden crow. Behind its opening and closing beak and its noisy chirping were living, breathing people.

These institutions are all alive; they are all forged from the souls of living people.

The sky had completely darkened.

Tonight, dark clouds obscured the moon, and the sky was pitch black, as if thick ink was pressing down on Lu Li, making it hard for him to breathe. After Lu Li pushed off in his small boat and left the crowd, he started operating the Qi-Harmony Cauldron.

Old Duan suddenly spoke:

"My child, did you perhaps sense something inside the Aikido cauldron?"

"how do you know?"

"Judging from your expression, it's written all over your face. Besides, I reckon you can probably only get a second-hand gold spirit core."

"Gudong~"

Lu Li swallowed hard. Duan Lao's hoarse voice sent a chill down his spine. It was as if the other party had seen through everything and understood what he was thinking.

Since the Golden Spirit Core is here, there are two possibilities: either Lu Ling's soul has already been obliterated, or Lu Ling's soul has completed a breakthrough and has been refined into a second-stage puppet.

Perhaps he will meet her in the near future.

At that time, he will pass by her without her noticing. Lu Ling will not remember him, and he will not recognize Lu Ling, who has become a puppet.

"After all, my older brother has always been the older brother I admire the most."