Chapter 65: Exorcism, Enemy

Chapter 65: Exorcism, Enemy

Chapter 65: Exorcism, Enemy

Ning Jiaqi kowtowed, and Wei Zhong accepted this little guy. However, he did not guarantee to accept him as a disciple, and Ning Cankun was very satisfied with this, and talked a lot with Wei Zhong.

The Ning family was hit by a business partner, and lost a lot of spiritual stones this year, and the cultivation of the children in the family could not be satisfied. At this critical moment, the various branches of the family began to fight for the last bit of family wealth left...
In short, it is a picture of the end of a family.

When Ning Cankun proposed to leave, Wei Zhong stuffed a storage bag into his hand, which contained spiritual objects such as spiritual stones and spiritual wine, which were nothing to Wei Zhong.

"This is a little gift from an old friend, please accept it, Brother Ning."

The corners of Ning Cankun's mouth twitched, the wrinkles on his face became tight, and he lifted his sleeves to wipe the corners of his eyes.

"Take care, Brother Chu!"

"Take care of yourself!"

Watching him leave, Ning Jiaqi knelt down and did not get up for a long time.

"This meeting is probably our last farewell."

Ning Cankun chose to entrust his son to someone else at this time, probably because he realized that his time was running out. It was inconvenient to involve Wei Zhong in the Ning family's affairs, so he only brought a younger generation of the family to entrust him here.

Wei Zhong was filled with emotion at the moment. His former friends left one by one as time went by, and he kept on living. Would he really end up being a lonely man in the end?

He turned around to look at Xie Linghua and Ning Jiaqi who was kneeling beside him.

"Get up. Since your uncle Ning has entrusted you to me, I will naturally take responsibility."

Wei Zhong took out a jade slip and a storage bag.

"This technique is called "Xuan Mu Jue", it is of the upper grade of the Yellow Rank, and can be practiced up to the late stage of foundation building. There are also some training resources in the storage bag. Don't let your uncle Ning down, and practice well."

After saying this, Wei Zhong handed it to him, who took it and kowtowed a few times.

Wei Zhong had no choice but to help him up: "No need to perform such a grand ceremony. I don't like to see people kowtow. This is what I should do as an elder."

"Linghua, find a place for him to live and settle down."

"Yes, sir."

Wei Zhong nodded and left.

Despite Ning Cankun's entrustment, Wei Zhong did not immediately consider accepting him as his disciple. Giving him a set of cultivation techniques and providing him with cultivation resources were already Wei Zhong's greatest kindness.

Of course, it is not ruled out that if he performs well in the future, Wei Zhongsheng will consider taking him as his disciple.

"However, the Fire and Wood Spiritual Roots are suitable for alchemy. Don't worry, consider his character first."

From that day on, Black Lake Island had a new member. When the servants heard that he was the descendant of the master's friend, they immediately became very enthusiastic about him. For a time, the half-grown boy became the most favored person on Black Lake Island.

The good times did not last long. More than a year later, the sad news of Ning Cankun's death came.

Wei Zhong took Ning Jiaqi to the Ning family to see him off. Seeing Ning Cankun lying in the coffin, Wei Zhong felt regretful.

Seeing that several branches of the Ning family were quarreling over the family wealth, he became extremely annoyed and suppressed all the troublemakers in the Ning family.

"No noise should be made at a funeral."

Intimidated by Wei Zhong's power in building the foundation, the Ning family, a Qi-refining family, finally stopped for a while and continued the funeral process.

The Ning family, who originated from the mortal world, have maintained their previous customs to this day, including keeping vigil, embalming, funeral procession, and burial in the Ning family's ancestral land.

Ning Jiaqi wiped his tears and accompanied him through his last journey.

"Is there anyone here that you care about?"

Ning Jiaqi nodded, then shook his head: "My parents died in the Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain Range when I was young, and it was Uncle Ning who raised me until now..."

Upon hearing this, Wei Zhong knew that he was not having a good life in the Ning family. All his direct elders in the clan had lost their lineage, and he was suppressed by relatives from all branches. He probably couldn't even enjoy the treatment that a young disciple in the clan should have. Only Ning Cankun occasionally supported him.

Now that Ning Cankun has left, he can be regarded as just a stranger from the Ning family.

Wei Zhong said no more, waved the green boat and took him back.

After returning to the island, he taught her the art of alchemy: "The island will only support you for ten years at most. You will have to work hard to earn all the benefits you will receive from now on."

Hearing this, Ning Jiaqi seemed to have put down the heavy stone in his heart and bowed down:

"Thank you very much for your teachings, Master Chu. Jiaqi will definitely live up to Master Chu's high expectations."

Then I heard Wei Zhong's voice: "It's a little early to call you Master now. I'll consider it after you become famous."

When he looked up, Wei Zhong was nowhere to be seen.

In the cave, Wei Zhong held the spirit wine and murmured, "I didn't expect the little guy to be so straightforward and unwilling to owe anyone a favor. He is mature and may be able to go further in the future."

The method of alchemy was passed down by Wei Zhong purely by accident. The art of alchemy can only be learned through inheritance and self-study without a master to guide the way, which is very difficult.

After expressing his feelings for a few moments, Wei Zhong immersed himself in cultivation again.

The long period of practice this time seemed to bring Wei Zhong back to the time when he was farming in Qingmu Sect. It was peaceful and harmonious, with no one disturbing him.

Until one day, a letter came from Qingmu Zong, which interrupted Wei Zhong's practice.

It is not a compulsion, but a warning.

"The evil cultivators in Mangyuan Prefecture are rampant, and the situation is getting worse. I hope all cultivators will be careful when traveling to avoid falling into the hands of the evil cultivators..."
I also want to invite fellow Taoists to jointly form an exorcist team to be responsible for the safety of a nearby area."

"Is Qingmu Sect irritated by the demon cultivators? Are they going to completely clear out the surrounding areas?"

After calling Xie Linghua, I learned how serious the situation is. Not only have there been more demon cultivators in Mangyuan Prefecture, but there have also been a lot more calamity cultivators.

In the past few years, Black Lake Island went to the market to sell its spiritual objects several times, but was stopped by robber cultivators every time. Not only were all the spiritual objects taken away, but even the cultivators in charge of transportation ended up dead. As a result, the operation of the spiritual island was disrupted.

"It seems that I have no choice but to take action. Looking at my cultivation level of the middle stage of foundation building, Wei Zhong felt relieved. As long as he didn't encounter a Yuanying cultivator, he would be safe."

[Cultivation: Foundation Building Level 31 (%)]

【Shouyuan: 167/275】

Eleven years have passed since Wei Zhong went into seclusion. During this period, Wei Zhong successfully broke through to the middle stage of foundation building, and thus increased his lifespan by twenty years.

This made Wei Zhong more confident. With the third level of the Taoism of Time, he could reach the middle stage of the Core Formation, which was enough to deal with all the forces in Mangyuan Prefecture.

Just when Wei Zhong was considering the affairs of the exorcist team, he heard Ning Jiaqi asking for a meeting.

In eleven years, the latter had grown from a child to a young man. When he saw Wei Zhong, he bowed and saluted. Then he held out a pill bottle in his hand.

"Like Uncle Chu expected, Jiaqi is now able to refine Qi-nourishing pills."

Wei Zhong was slightly surprised. He took the pill bottle, opened it and found that it actually contained Qi-nourishing Pills, and they were of mid-grade quality.

Seeing Wei Zhong's expression, Xie Linghua beside him also chuckled: "The master really had foresight when he taught the alchemy method back then.

Jiaqi's talent in alchemy is beyond ordinary people. It only took him five years to refine the simplest blood-strengthening pills and fasting pills and then successfully refine the Qi-nourishing pills. Now he can steadily refine medium-quality Qi-nourishing pills, adding another source of output to Black Lake Island."

'I didn't expect that my unintentional work would actually bear fruit.'

Although Wei Zhong himself had successfully refined Qi-nourishing Pills, they were not stable. To say that he could succeed once out of ten times was a compliment to Wei Zhong.

Moreover, the difficulty of the Qi-nourishing Pill was not low among the first-level pills, and it was about medium difficulty. Now that he could stably produce medium-quality Qi-nourishing Pills, he could be called an alchemy genius in the outside world, no, even in the Qingmu Sect, a Dan-forming Sect.

After observing his cultivation again, I found that he had reached the third level of Qi Refining, and it seemed that he was not far from the next level, the fourth level of Qi Refining.

Wei Zhong coughed twice, put the pill in Xie Linghua's hand, and turned to look at Ning Jiaqi: "Although the alchemy skills are good, the cultivation can't be slowed down. In the end, the cultivation world still relies on strength."

He seemed to feel that something was wrong when he said this, so he said to Xie Linghua: "The second-level spiritual objects on the island should be opened to him appropriately. I believe that he has reached the stage of studying the second-level pill formula now."

Hearing Wei Zhong's words, Ning Jiaqi bowed again and said, "Thank you, Uncle Chu."

Xie Linghua tugged at Wei Zhong's sleeve and whispered, "Jiaqi is already quite old, do you want to arrange a marriage for him? I think Senior Li's disciple is a good choice."

Wei Zhong was stunned. Ning Jiaqi was only in his twenties. Considering his extraordinarily long lifespan, he was just a young man.

'Are you starting to think about his marriage now?'

As for the disciple of Senior Li he mentioned, it was a girl who was accepted by Li Haowen a few years ago. She had three spiritual roots, among which the golden spiritual root was of middle quality.

Compared with Ning Jiaqi, he is about the same age, only one or two years younger.

"Let the young man handle this matter himself. If the two of you agree, I will help you take charge of it on behalf of the elders."

Ning Jiaqi smiled when he got the answer, it seemed that this was almost true.

Afterwards he stepped down, Wei Zhong exchanged a few words with Xie Linghua and others, then left the island.

Outside the island, Wei Zhong lowered his hand slightly, and the lake suddenly became windy and waves, and a round black bead flew out from it.

It was the Yuanshuizhu that Wei Zhong had been refining for many years.

Holding the bead in his hand and feeling its weight, Wei Zhong knew that the grade of the Yuan Shui Bead had now reached the middle grade of the second grade, and was not too far from the top grade.

With a wave of his sleeve, he accepted it. This time he was going to exorcise the demon, so he had to be fully prepared.

After taking a glance at the nine colors in the cave, Wei Zhong gave up his plan to travel on it.

'It's better to keep a low profile.'

Hiding his cultivation to the early stage of foundation building, Wei Zhong released the green boat and rushed towards a place.

The destination of this trip is the Chen family’s residence on the edge of Haiyue Lake. The Qingmu Sect’s foundation-building team, which has been in charge of exorcism matters over the years, is stationed here.

When Wei Zhong arrived, there were already many people waiting.

"Meet Elder Xu! I didn't expect that Elder Xu is in charge of exorcising demons here."

The man was none other than Elder Xu, who had invited Wei Zhong to become a guest of the Qingmu Sect. The latter was not surprised to see Chu Zhong's face, and it was obvious that he had already found out a lot of information about Chu Zhong.

"Fellow Daoist Chu, you arrived a little late. Let me introduce them to you," Xu Changjun pointed at the other seated people and began to introduce them one by one from left to right.

"This is Fellow Daoist Li Haowen from Haiyue Lake. I believe Fellow Daoist Chu is already very familiar with him," and then pointed to the second person, "This is Fellow Daoist Chen Guisong from the Chen family."

The third person is a female Taoist: "This is my Qingmu Sect's guest official Wan Xiu'e. This time, the exorcism of Haiyue Lake and its surrounding areas will be carried out by the five of us."

When Xu Changjun introduced several people to Wei Zhong, Fellow Daoist Chen stared at Wei Zhong coldly. After the introduction was finished, he suddenly said:
"A hundred-year-old turtle has sneaked in among us cultivators. I just hope you won't be afraid of death and bring trouble to us."

Wei Zhong frowned, not understanding why he was hostile to him.

"Ahem," Xu Changjun coughed twice. "If Fellow Daoist Chen and Fellow Daoist Chu have any personal grudges, you can resolve them privately after this mission is over. We will have to work together later, so it's better not to say anything that will affect unity at this moment."

Chen Guisong naturally did not dare to displease Xu Changjun who was in the late stage of foundation building, so he stood up and bowed: "I am sorry for my words."

He turned around and looked at Wei Zhong, who didn't look happy either, and sat down directly.

Wei Zhong sat down and heard Li Haowen's voice transmission. He then learned that it was Wei Zhong's protection of the Li family in the past few years that made the Chen family unhappy.

Now that the Chen family heard that Wei Zhong’s backer in Qingmu Sect had fallen, they revealed their malicious intent.

Wei Zhong turned around and memorized the face of the cultivator named Chen, thinking of teaching him a lesson later when Xu Changjun was not around.

Seeing that Wei Zhong did not get angry on the spot, Xu Changjun nodded and took out a map.

"Fellow Daoist Chu has just arrived and is still unclear about the procedures. I will explain it again. It is a routine inspection of the free Qi training juniors.

We who are building foundation only patrol once a year to solve problems that the younger generations cannot solve, or take action when the situation is serious."

Then he circled a large area on the map, including Black Lake Island.

The female cultivator named Yu at the side could not help but speak up: "Once a year? Isn't this frequency too high? It affects our normal cultivation."

Xu Changjun replied: "During this special period, I hope you can bear with me. If you find it hard to accept, we five can split into two teams.

In order to prevent you from being harmed by the evil cultivators and the robber cultivators, you must travel together on each patrol. The four Taoist friends are all in the early stage of foundation building, so at least three of you must travel together, and the remaining one can follow me.

This means it will be once every two years. Are you satisfied with this, fellow Taoist?"

Yu Xiu'e nodded when she heard this.

The remaining three people, Wei Zhong, naturally would not object.

"In that case, let's assign the team members. Would you like to join me, Brother Yu?"

The female cultivator named Yu nodded.

Chen Guisong, who was standing aside, was suddenly speechless.

It is naturally not as safe to stay with two people who are also in the early stage of foundation building as to follow Xu Changjun who is in the late stage of foundation building.

But who can blame him for being a guest of the sect? He is still half a family member after all.

Chen and Li are merely subordinate forces of the Qingmu Sect, and Wei Zhong is just an idle cultivator.

In comparison, Yu Xiu'e is closer to Qingmu Zong.

"Okay, the assignment is complete. The first patrol will be carried out by me and Fellow Daoist Yu. The three fellow Daoists can go back now. Prepare well these days and strengthen your own strength. Don't fall into the hands of the demon cultivators so easily."

Wei Zhong bowed, looked at Li Haowen, and left together.

"Fellow Daoist Chu, you and I must work together in the future."

"That's right. There is a rift between the two of us, so I'm afraid Chen Guisong is not very useful. I am obsessed with cultivation and neglect fighting. I'm afraid I can't compare with Taoist Li in fighting. I hope you can help me in the future."

"Brother Chu, your words are too serious. We should help each other..."

After some polite exchanges, we returned to the island together.

Xu Changjun's arrangement did not have much impact on Wei Zhong. On the contrary, avoiding this cultivator in the late foundation building stage made it easier for Wei Zhong to use his true skills.

"There is still a year until the next mission, so you should practice the Black Water Spiritual Robe more."

Less than a month later, Li Haowen brought Wei Zhong a piece of news that caught him off guard.

When Xu Changjun and Yu Xiu'e were exorcising demons, they encountered a hidden Jindan-level demon cultivator. After a resistance, they were almost killed. If the master of the Qingmu Sect's Dharma Hall had not arrived in time, they would probably have become the souls of the demon cultivator.

This made Chen Guisong and Li Haowen feel very fortunate. Fortunately, Elder Xu did not ask the three of them to patrol first, otherwise the three of them would probably have died directly at the hands of the Jindan demon cultivator and would not have been able to wait for the arrival of the Jindan Palace Master of Qingmu Sect.

"I didn't expect the situation to be so bad. Apart from the Qingmu Sect, is the Yan family not taking any action?"

Li Haowen shook his head: "In recent days, the Yan family has been hiding in their own territory, recuperating and has no intention of getting involved in this matter. Even the secret struggle with the Qingmu Sect has stopped."

Wei Zhong guessed that this was probably what the Yunji Chamber of Commerce meant. Since they would not help the demon cultivators, they would naturally not stop the Qingmu Sect from exorcising the demons.

"This is troublesome. How can we fight against the Jindan Demon Cultivator with our mere foundation building? Can Palace Master Yu kill the Jindan Demon Cultivator?"

"No, it is said that he was only injured. The Jindan demon cultivator was extremely cunning and had a good escape technique. He disappeared after escaping."

Wei Zhong held his forehead with his hand: "So, the seriously injured Jindan demon cultivator is hiding near Haiyue Lake. This is really a disaster, a disaster."

Li Haowen smiled bitterly when he heard this: "Brother Chu, don't worry. Palace Master Yu has been searching for this person nearby recently. He might find him and kill him..."

"Well, you and I should just hold on to the formation and wait until this matter is over before we do anything else."

The latter nodded: "Fortunately, I listened to what fellow Taoist said and purchased a set of formations, otherwise I really don’t know how to protect such a large area of ​​the Li family..."

After some discussion, Li Haowen left. Now that this Jindan demon cultivator had appeared, there was no need to mention the patrol mission anymore.

Wei Zhong held the formation tightly, but he was thinking in his heart:

"I hope that demon cultivator won't come to my Black Lake Island, otherwise I will have no choice but to kill him."

······
Surprisingly, the matter of the Jindan demon cultivator was like a stone skipping in a lake, causing waves and then disappearing without a trace.

Palace Master Yu of Qingmu Sect searched for many days but failed to find him, so he had to return.

The exorcism patrol continued, and this time the one leading Wei Zhong and the others was no longer Elder Xu, but an inner sect deacon of the Qingmu Sect who was in the middle stage of foundation building.

His name was Ma Yongzuo, an obese middle-aged man who was as cautious in words and deeds as a casual cultivator and was very careful about patrolling.

In two years, he led Wei Zhong, Li Haowen and Chen Guisong to destroy many hiding places of demon cultivators and killed several demon cultivators of the same level.

"These demon cubs are really hard to find. They are all hiding in these Qi-refining families," Chen Guisong waved his hand to kill a fleeing Qi-refining demon cultivator, and then said.

Wei Zhong replied: "It can't be helped. These Qi-refining families may not be able to produce a foundation-building genius in a hundred years. Therefore, in order to make further progress, it is reasonable to introduce the magic cultivation method."

The two have worked together and supported each other over the past two years, and have resolved a lot of their animosity and can be considered friends.

Ma Yongzuo burned the corpse with a fireball: "Fellow Daoist Chu has a thorough understanding of this, but no matter how much these people want to climb up, they should not practice the magic cultivation method. This is the bottom line for cultivators like us."

Wei Zhong was not surprised by Qingmu Sect's suppression of the evil cultivators. After all, as a righteous sect, it was their position to be hostile to them.

Moreover, the behavior of these evil cultivators is not pleasing to the eye. Some of their evil methods that harm other people's lives to finance their own cultivation also make Wei Zhong disgusted.

"Okay, after this trip, this area will be quiet for quite a while. If you three have anything important to do, please let me know. I will be returning to the sect now."

Ma Yongzuo bowed to the three people, then turned around and turned into a streak of light and disappeared from everyone's sight.

"Friend Ma is such a straightforward person," Li Haowen said after seeing him leave after leaving a few words.

"As a deacon of the Qingmu Sect, he is very busy. For his own cultivation, he has accepted many missions from the sect. This time, he came with the three of us to clear the area around Haiyue Lake. He came here because he made enough contributions."

Chen Guisong said so.

Ever since the Jindan demon cultivators appeared around Haiyue Lake, the number of cultivators traveling here has decreased significantly. Even the guest officials of Qingmu Sect are unwilling to take on the patrol missions in the surrounding area.

Only Ma Yongzuo, the inner door steward, took on the task and cleaned up the place with the three of them.

Fortunately, there had been no sightings of any Jindan-level demon cultivators in the past two years, and the exorcism operation by the four of them went very smoothly.

The most serious incident was when four people were ambushed by demon cultivators, but Ma Yongzuo used some tricks to lead the three of them to escape, and then killed the ambushers.

After the battle, the four of them only suffered some minor injuries, but they all recovered in a month.

"This cleanup is over, I will leave now," Wei Zhong bowed to the two and left.

Li Haowen looked at Wei Zhong's departing back and murmured, "Perhaps only cultivators like Fellow Daoist Chu who are not bound by sects and families can be truly free."

Upon hearing this, Chen Guisong lowered his head and remained silent. The two of them had different thoughts and then said goodbye and separated.

When Wei Zhong returned to Black Lake Island, his spiritual sense detected an obscure aura on the island.

He casually asked the servant beside him: "Are there guests coming to the island?"

The latter shook his head: "Since the master left, only Miss He came once, but she left some time ago."

The Miss He in his words was Li Haowen's disciple and Ning Jiaqi's sweetheart.

"Since there are no guests, the people hiding on the island must be enemies."

Following the sensed breath, Wei Zhong came to a cave.

There is a plaque with the three characters "Zhiming Cave" on it, which is the cave where Taoist Zhu once stayed.

Wei Zhong disliked the fact that this place never saw sunlight, so he abandoned it.

There is also a group of blood-eating bats there. I don't know why anyone would come here.

(End of this chapter)