Chapter 37 Offering

Chapter 37 Offering

Chapter 37 Offering
As with the previous two times, he heard no answer.

But he felt emotions. The feeling of satisfaction and joy in his consciousness suddenly became stronger and then disappeared suddenly, like a candle flame that was blown bright by the wind.

Is this a hint? Joy and contentment?
Li Wuxiang asked himself to calm down. Putting aside this time, the two times the external evil appeared must have been due to some common factors... The first time, I wanted to help, and the second time, it was to help me?

Do you feel joy and satisfaction because you helped yourself?

Definitely not. But he felt that he seemed to be close to the correct answer...Think about the second time, when he was bewitched by Zhao Qi's drug - he called out to the evil spirit, and the evil spirit appeared. But at first the evil spirit was indifferent, and then what did he say?
"No matter who you are, if you help me this time, I can live in peace, learn some magic, worship you... and find tribute for you! What do you want?"

After saying this, the evil spirit immediately took action to restore his mind to clarity. It was still the same question, which sentence moved it?
Li Wuxiang's heart skipped a beat, and he was silent for a moment: "You...want a magical power or a spell as an offering?"

The darkness receded like a tide, and the light from outside suddenly came in through the cracks in the doors and windows. Li Wuxiang felt his body. But he still sat on the straw mat, motionless.

This was not because he had lost control of his body, but because he had a thought that made him "want" to sit here. This thought was not irresistible, nor did it have any clear malice, but was more like the sticky resistance that made him want to stay in bed for a while longer when he wanted to leave the warm bed on a cold winter morning with a howling north wind.

He understood it in his heart. He had answered a question correctly, which satisfied the evil spirit. But he was not completely satisfied yet, so he changed the harsh and brutal deprivation into gentle control, which was both a small reward and another kind of deterrence.

Li Wuxiang sighed inwardly. He originally thought that although there were many dangers around him after coming to this world, at least he had gained complete freedom. But the current situation has become a bit like the original world - demands, control, and gifts. The only good thing is that he has become accustomed to and good at handling this kind of relationship, and does not feel particularly angry or uncomfortable about it.

So he calmed his breathing, not fighting the thought that told him to continue sitting here, and said calmly in his heart: "Okay, let's talk now. I should have some common sense and memory that you gave me, and I guess you will have mine too, and know where I come from."

"Then you should understand that where I come from, people are not used to kneeling before the powerful, so you should also know that I will not be as respectful and respectful to you as other people in this world. It's not that I don't respect you, but it's a matter of habit."

"Well, can we discuss one thing - don't be a riddle man? No matter how you came to me, I feel that I must be very important to you now, and you should be very important to me too. So can we find a more convenient way to communicate? This way, no matter what you want in the future, I won't misunderstand. For example, now and before, you always make me remember something and understand something, but what if at some point, I misunderstood and thought it was my own meaning?"

He really wanted to hear a specific response from the external evil. A voice, an image, or some other concrete response, rather than the "feeling" he had now. This "feeling" was too high, too mysterious, too ethereal, and even made him feel that he was completely unable to resist, and he felt a subtle despair.

The external evil remained silent and did not give the response he expected. After a while, when Li Wuxiang was not sure whether it had left, he suddenly couldn't help but look at his left hand.

This was a pretty good hand, slender and strong, with distinct bones and muscles. Under the skin, which was no different from that of an ordinary person, there was a layer of net that supported the shape of the hand, and the tentacles below simulated the shape of blood vessels.

But when Li Wuxiang saw his hand now, he suddenly felt disgusted. There was no reason, but he felt that this hand was like a piece of shit that was forcibly connected to his wrist. He wanted to cut it off immediately and throw it away.

This is the feeling given to me by external evil!

When he realized this clearly, he couldn't help but stand up, pulled out a piece of firewood from the pile, and began to seriously consider how to get the hand off.

He immediately spoke in his mind: "Okay, I get it, I won't misunderstand you. I can tell whether it's my own thoughts or yours."

The left hand immediately stopped being annoying and became a familiar hand to him again.

Li Wuxiang put the firewood back in, was silent for a while, and exhaled: "What else do you want?"

After saying this, he thought of Zhao Qi, and then more thoughts jumped out of his head. Li Wuxiang's heart trembled, knowing that this must be the foreign evil answering his question, so he immediately let his thoughts run wild and spread out -

Zhao Qi is Zhao Kui's disciple. If Zhao Kui didn't lie, he was "about to form a pill", which means that he was in a similar state to his current state, the stage of "unlocking the Nine Palaces", the difference was that he only had the state but no essence. However, according to the Ranshan School's practice realm division, "foundation building", "refining qi", "forming pills", "returning to emptiness", and "integration with the Tao", Zhao Kui should be in the state of refining qi.

When Zhao Qi talked to him in the morning, he said, "Wait until I reach the realm of your master." According to his temperament, if he was also a great master of Qi Refining, he would definitely explain it. Zhao Xi said that it usually takes a year for ordinary people to build a foundation, or more than a month at the fastest. So Zhao Qi should also be a Qi Refining, but he is still far from a great master.

From this aspect, my master is actually at the same level as me.

But this only refers to the "realm".

For example, two strong adult men, the "adult" state here.

Strength is also the same. The "strength" here refers to the amount of energy in the same realm.

But one is an ordinary person, and the other has received long-term martial arts training and has a sharp knife in his hand. He knows how to use his strength. If they really fight, the winner is no doubt about the outcome.

Zhao Qi has been in the Ranshan sect for more than 20 years. He knows how to cast talismans, mix elixirs, understand kung fu techniques, and know sacrificial rituals. These are the real life-saving and killing skills.

The talisman technique was something he had to get. When Zhao Xi was killed, she had many talismans made of bamboo paper in her body. His current situation was similar to Zhao Xi's at that time. If he learned Zhao Qi's talisman technique, he could use that method to refine fake internal organs for himself. Although Guang Chanzi's Taoist book was about turning a person into a human skin, the body would look more like a human if the talisman internal organs were filled in. Zhao Qi had checked his pulse and could not see anything, but the cultivators with higher levels of Taoism were not so easy to fool. The talisman technique could solve this problem.

Mixing elixirs, kung fu techniques and the like are not very rare. If you can't learn them from Zhao Qi, you can always look for opportunities from others.

But the most important thing is the sacrificial ritual.

The eight mystical sects and even the various minor sects in the world all have gods they worship. The magic and supernatural powers of the Qigong practitioners and Taoists originally came from the gods they worship. Only by offering sacrifices to the master can the magic and supernatural powers become more effective, and only then can one ascend to the wonderful realm and be among the immortals when he finally attains the Tao. Even in more extreme cases, if one tries to invite the gods to descend to the world, one can also borrow their various supernatural powers.

But this kind of thing is only in the hands of the Eight Mysterious Sects, or more precisely, the Seven Mysterious Sects. The Taiyi Sect that worships Donghuang Taiyi has now split into thirty-six sects. Among these thirty-six sects, some do not know the proper rituals for praying to the eight spiritual gods.

But Ranshan Sect still knows, and Zhao Qi still knows!
The thought came to an abrupt end, followed by a strong sense of anticipation. "Okay, I get it. This is what you want me to do - get the talismans and sacrificial rituals of the Ranshan Sect." Li Wuxiang said in his heart, "But I have a small suggestion. If you know a little about my past, you should know that I need to be paid for my work. It is true that getting these things will benefit me, but the problem is that even if you don't ask me to do it, I will do it myself, so that I can know more and become stronger."

Li Wuxiang's thoughts paused for a moment, and since Waixie didn't give any feedback, he felt that this meant that the other party was not dissatisfied.

"Then you have to give me some reward. Do you have any powerful skills, magic weapons, or key information? Otherwise, how can I deal with Zhao Qi if something unexpected happens?"

After a moment of silence, he suddenly felt a sense of security. It was not warm, but rather a little cruel. In such a moment, he had a strong impulse - take a risk. Even if I fail, what's the big deal? I had already died once when I was in the stove, but the evil spirit saved my soul. Even if I die again, the worst that can happen is that I will be buried in the soil and slowly wait for a destined person, months, years, dozens, hundreds of years... I can wait slowly.

Then the impulse disappeared, and the sense of grandeur and emptiness also disappeared.

Li Wuxiang let out a sigh of relief, tried to walk slowly a few steps in the room, waved his arms, closed his eyes and thought about some random thoughts, and then made sure that the external evil had left.

The thoughts just now were "given" to him by the external evil, and at the same time, it also provided some things that he was not clear about. Through these thoughts, it made a request and put forward a clear and required target for offerings - the talismans and rituals for worshiping the gods that Zhao Qi mastered.

This thing... is quite interesting.

After learning the art of talismans, one can disguise oneself better among the crowd - this seems to be for one's own good.

But if we consider the requirement of "sacrificial ritual"... is it planning to force itself to use this method so that it can occupy this body?

No, Zhao Kui had said something about the external evil when they were trapped: the external evil would help people practice, but would eventually drive people crazy, so it shouldn't be in a hurry to do it now. And as long as it knew itself a little, it should know that when that time came, its choice would be exactly the same as when it was trapped - at worst, everyone would die together.

What is that for? Does this external evil enjoy helping others? Or is it keen on emotional value?
Li Wuxiang exhaled. There were still some questions that needed to be clarified... For example, whether it was monitoring his every move, whether it knew his every thought. If he could figure out these questions, he would have——

Stop. He didn't let the second half of this thought come out. That might be the only means he could use when facing this external evil that could manipulate people's hearts in the future, and he didn't know whether the external evil could see into his thoughts.

However, it was comforting that it gave me a guarantee of safety... although the end would be tragic. Wasn't this evil a little stingy?

Li Wuxiang spent the next whole day meditating in the woodshed. Although the energy gained from breathing exercises was only a drop in the ocean, it would eventually pay off. He took two breaks and found that Xue Baoping seemed to have barely memorized the fifty-three words, so he tried to teach her thirty more words, but this time she couldn't remember them no matter how hard she tried.

It's not that she has a bad memory, but her comprehension - the contents of things like the Daoist books have magical powers. Whether or not one can remember these things is a test. But Li Wuxiang was very happy to see this result. Her aptitude and comprehension were not good enough, but she was not completely unable to practice. That way, she would not have the opportunity to cause too much trouble in the future, but she could strengthen her body. For an ordinary person, this should be enough.

When it was dusk, Li Wuxiang came out of his meditation again and walked into the yard. Xue Baoping was preparing dinner. She loved the fish noodle dish she had made two days ago, so she was making it again today. Li Wuxiang looked into the pot, poured a basin of cold water for her, and said, "I'm going to Chen's house."

Xue Baoping looked at him worriedly: "What happened?"

Li Wuxiang smiled and said, "It's okay. Remember I told you that I had almost figured out Zhao Qi's personality this morning?"

Xue Baoping thought for a moment: "You said he got angry with you. He must be a little jealous of your talent. But then he sighed inside... He must have felt that he shouldn't have gotten angry and was a little out of control. And... well... you said that people like him care so much about what others think of him. Maybe he's not such a bad person and has a soft heart."

Li Wuxiang nodded: "So if he is really such a person, he would feel a little guilty about what he did in the morning. Maybe it's just a little bit in his emotions. This little bit is very subtle. If it's earlier, he will not want to see me even more. If it's later, he will feel that it's nothing. But now is just right, the most suitable time to increase my favorability."

"To increase...favorability?" She frowned and tilted her head, then looked at Li Wuxiang's face, "You...seem a little happy."

"I'll usually be happier once I know what to do. Let's go. Wait for me."

"Hey……"

"Ok?"

"I've been wondering, do you mean... is Zhao Qi a good person?"

"Most people are not bad at heart. But Zhao Qi, his master is Zhao Kui, I'm not sure. Let's go."

This was the first time he walked into the town at dusk. He thought that in this era, there should be a lot of people on the street at this time, but he didn't see people holding bowls, eating and chatting on the street. Instead, it was quiet and there were almost no people. Occasionally, those who saw him didn't look at him as brazenly as they did a few days ago, but immediately avoided him and watched him secretly.

Maybe it was because people had already known that he had been accepted as Zhao Qi's disciple, which had caused him to feel a little awe... It seemed that the status of cultivators in this world was even higher than he had imagined before.

When he arrived at the gate of Chen's house, the guards did not stop him as usual. But at this time, he found that the guards looked at him a little strangely - he came to learn from his master during the day, and then had dinner at Chen's house and went out, so the guards looked at him with a little more respect. At this time, when Li Wuxiang wanted to say hello and nod to the two people at the door, their eyes were also retracted, and they even straightened their bodies slightly.

What happened in just this whole afternoon?

He walked into the yard and found that there was no light in the main hall, but the light was on in Zhao Qi's room. He wondered where the three members of the Chen family had gone.

He walked to Zhao Qi's door, called "Master" through the door, and then knocked three times gently.

　Two chapters have been combined into one. The first two days were all about transitional plots, and today I'm done with the transitional plots and will be almost finished.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)