Immortality begins with meditation puppets

Chapter 14 Lizard Warriors
Despite his immense anticipation for the meditation doll, Su Qing knew that with his immortal runes far from reaching the second tier and his intelligent runes lacking maturity, directly grinding for the meditation doll would be an extremely mindless act.

"The best way is to refine lizard warriors as a transition. Refining this puppet requires four types of runes: second-order bionics, second-order intelligence, first-order combat, and first-order immortality."

During the process of crafting this puppet, I can gradually upgrade the intelligence runes to level two and the immortal runes to level one. After that, the success rate of crafting the meditation doll will increase significantly.

Besides, the lizard warriors won't have to worry about sales. At most, there's an initial investment, and once proficiency is gained, they can be used as puppets to generate income through puppet-to-puppet training, which should be enough to cover the costs of crafting meditation dolls later.

At the dinner table, Su Qing stuffed a steaming bowl of bear blood curd with spicy red oil into his mouth, feeling a shiver of pleasure throughout his body. The Wood Spirit Servant's cooking skills were still as reliable as ever. He had only followed the vague recipes from his previous life and entered them into the intelligent runes, and the Wood Spirit Servant was able to roughly replicate the various flavors from his previous life.

The reason they can't be exactly the same isn't due to the Wood Spirit servants, but rather the difference in ingredients between the two worlds.

"Ironback bear blood, although it has a strong taste, has a unique flavor after being masked by spiciness. The key thing is, this stuff is really nourishing!"

He ate a whole pot of bear blood curd, mixed with two or three bowls of rice cooked with spirit rice.

The surging energy coursed through his limbs and bones, forcing him to practice the Five Animal Frolics seven or eight times before he could fully digest it.

After taking a hot bath, he took out a bronze mirror and examined himself.

The figure reflected in the mirror was a young man in his twenties or thirties, with delicate features and above-average appearance. His physique was not as imposing as that of a body cultivator, but it was also no longer the terrifyingly emaciated man it had been when it first transmigrated.

"He's acting like a normal person again. Looks like all that spirit rice and beast meat he's been eating lately hasn't been for nothing!"

Su Qing is quite satisfied with his current physical condition. He doesn't rely on his health for a living anyway, so being a little thin isn't a big deal as long as it doesn't affect his lifespan.

Moreover, given his current financial situation, his meals will be quite good from now on. If he makes up for his previous losses within a year or two, he should be able to make up for them.

"If all else fails, I'll find a tattoo artist and get some serious tattoos done on my body. Then, who can outmuscle me?"

Rune Master: A profession that can imprint runes onto the human body, allowing the body to utilize the power of the runes.

Su Qing said he wanted a rune master to apply some runes to him, but in reality, he was just talking nonsense. He didn't have the courage to actually do it.

Because, like weapon refiners, talisman makers, and puppeteers, rune masters, regardless of their rank, have a certain probability of failure when drawing runes.

For other professions, if a talisman drawing fails, the worst that happens is that the participant loses some materials.

If a talisman artist fails to draw a talisman, the unfortunate person whose talisman was drawn will either lose an arm or a leg, or be heartbroken. In extreme cases, it is quite normal for their physical body to disintegrate.

Therefore, only desperate fugitives with no other options would patronize the business of a talisman master.

Someone like Su Qing would never use her body as a practice subject for a talisman master.

After tidying up, he pushed open the courtyard gate and prepared to go to the city center to hand over some of the witch puppets to Manager Liu so that he could ship them out as soon as possible.

As a guest retainer of the Hundred Treasures Pavilion, his transaction with Manager Liu was different from that of others.

Manager Liu handles the labor and materials on a monthly basis. When crafting puppets, both parties agree on the amount of materials and the number of puppets to be produced. If the success rate is low, it's because he's not skilled enough and he has to pay out of pocket. If the success rate is high, Manager Liu doesn't ask for more and he can handle the remaining materials himself.

In this cooperative arrangement, he sometimes had to pay out of pocket before he had mastered the craft. But once he had mastered the craft, and since Manager Liu didn't know his exact success rate, the remaining materials, when converted into spirit crystals, would generate a very considerable profit.

So much so that Su Qing cared more about his shipment volume than Manager Liu. The faster the witch puppets were produced, the more orders Manager Liu would place, and the more spirit crystals Su Qing could earn.

"I can't be too greedy. This time I'll talk to Manager Liu and say that my strength has improved. In the future, I'll make seven sets, no, eight sets. Eight sets of materials will be enough to make a witch puppet!" The branches of Baibaoge are all over the West Sea. With Baibaoge's guest badge, you can get along well anywhere.

Because of his past experiences at the Yunshan Sect, Su Qing was reluctant to join any sect. Therefore, cultivating a good relationship with an organization like the Hundred Treasures Pavilion was a good option for him.

"In addition, although most of the remaining witch materials are first-tier general-purpose materials that can be used to make battle lizards, the magic lizard claws and black iron crystals are essential for making battle lizards. We must purchase a batch to prepare for the next refining."

If I have enough time, I'll set up a stall for a while. If I can sell a few witch puppets at a fraction of the cost, I'll consider it a profit.

On the way to the central area, Su Qing pondered and observed the surrounding environment.

After returning to the residential area from Gejia Village, he never left his home.

As soon as I stepped outside, I noticed that the atmosphere in the living area was different from before.

Each cultivator was in a hurry, some even holding magical artifacts in their hands at all times.

Every now and then you could hear a few complaints, saying that a few days ago people from the central area came and said that while they were going to raise the rent, the cultivators living here would also have to pay an extra 500 spirit crystals per month as a security fee for the market to send experts to patrol the living area.

As Su Qing walked, her brows furrowed deeper and deeper.

Clearly, the incident of the demonic cultivators entering the formation and killing people last time had a certain impact on the living area, making this originally peaceful area now tense and turbulent.

As for the rent increase and the 500 spirit crystal security fee, they are nothing to him now.

What annoyed him was that he didn't see any law enforcement teams patrolling along the way.

"Taking money and not doing anything, these people in the market are utterly shameless!"

Su Qing was not surprised by this. You see, the demonic cultivators who dare to enter the formation to kill people are at least late-stage Qi Refining demonic cultivators. They have high-level Taoist skills, excellent magic weapons, and unpredictable methods. To defend against them, the inner disciples of Yunshan Sect have to step in.

The inner disciples of Yunshan Sect are so pampered, how could they possibly patrol for their rogue cultivators?

The so-called security fee is nothing more than a means for the big shots in the city center to exploit the rogue cultivators.

Although I expected it, I still have to criticize them.

Su Qing's spirit crystals weren't easily obtained; it was rather unpleasant to give them to these good-for-nothings.

Complaining about how those important figures behaved so badly, he stepped into the Treasure Pavilion.

A moment later, amidst a warm farewell from Manager Liu, he left the Treasure Pavilion with an order for twenty witch puppets, over sixty demon lizard claws, and nine hundred catties of black iron crystals.

"Hey, that old Liu is so cunning. He won't place an order until he sees the finished lizard warrior. Otherwise, if he gave me the materials, I could save on the cost of materials for the lizard warrior!"

Su Qing cursed under her breath for Manager Liu's refusal to act until she saw the profit, and then turned and walked to another shop that was directly competing with Baibaoge.

He wanted to resell some of the materials he had just obtained from Manager Liu for making witch puppets, but he didn't dare to resell them all, because he knew that this business couldn't be kept from Manager Liu. If he resold too much, Manager Liu would inevitably calculate his success rate in making puppets, which would be troublesome.

(End of this chapter)