Immortality begins with meditation puppets

Chapter 257 Evil Things Suddenly Happen
It truly is a den of demons.

It had only been two months since the group meeting on the second floor.

Strange things began to happen within the White Cloud Immortal City.

Every night, the city is shrouded in mist, obscuring the sky and dimming the stars and moon.

Even the various Taoist arts used by cultivators, such as pointing and illuminating, seemed to be suppressed by the clouds and mist in the sky and were difficult to use.

As a result, the entire White Cloud Immortal City is shrouded in darkness at night.

It was so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, so the cultivators dared not go out.

Although it initially caused widespread panic, the presence of the entire Yunshan Sect and the continued presence of the Yunshan Palace, which shone with divine light every night, provided the city's cultivators with a sense of security and thus kept them at ease.

Only the noisy sounds of the spirit beasts of the various cultivators at night could irritate people's hearts.

What's even more frustrating is that after barking for only a few nights, all the guardian spirit beasts placed outside the spirit houses in the entire immortal city vanished into thin air overnight.

How these spirit beasts disappeared remains a mystery even to their owners who had a spiritual connection with them, let alone outsiders.

The high-ranking cultivators of Yunshan Sect remained unmoved, claiming that they were busy with various matters, such as fighting the Demon Sect and killing monsters, and had no time to help the rogue cultivators find their dogs and cats.

Yunshan Sect made no move.

The situation within the immortal city is becoming increasingly bizarre.

All the independent cultivators knew that trouble was bound to happen sooner or later.

But without the howling of the spirit beasts, and with the rogue cultivators having prepared exorcism and sedation talismans, they were full of energy and trembling with fear every night, and surprisingly nothing happened.

It wasn't until the cultivators and mortals who originally lived together in the Spirit Field District flocked to the center of the Immortal City for refuge that the situation changed.

Only the independent cultivators in the center realized that something had not happened.

Instead, the cultivators and mortals of the Spirit Field District shouldered all the burdens!
"They've disappeared! The entire village of Wangjia has vanished into thin air overnight. The whole village is like a dead place. Not only the people, but even the chickens, ducks, cats, dogs, and other living creatures have disappeared!"

"It's really strange. The old man's next-door neighbor was fine yesterday, but today the whole family is gone. However, there's still a lizard warrior in their house that's completely intact. I wonder what happened!"

"Who said we didn't invite the elders from Yunshan Sect to come and see? They came and then left, saying that these people fled to the Desire Demon Immortal City!"

"Don't we know whether they escaped or not? With our limited abilities, we can't even get out of the city walls, how could we possibly escape to the Desire Demon Immortal City!"

"It's evil spirits that are harming people. The Yunshan Sect doesn't value the lives of the villagers. Ever since their own immortals moved to the Immortal City, they've taken away all our spiritual fields. I've worked hard to cultivate the land for a year, but they haven't left me any of the harvest!"

"Those Yunshan Immortals also look very strange. If it weren't for the fact that they carry the aura of living people, their wooden expressions would make them look like puppets. Just looking at them for a few more seconds would send chills down your spine!"

Inside the Su family's shop, Su Qing received a group of people who had fled from Gejia Village and asked Qinghe to take them to the Baibaoge to purchase a spirit house so that they could settle down behind the shop.

Su Qing led Ge Changyuan's family, village chief Ge Shu, and several capable people from the village to the second floor.

From them, Su Qing learned about the current situation in Lingtian District.

The news he received made him rub his temples and remain silent for a long time.

In just two months, nearly half of the original population of Lingtian District, which numbered over 100,000 to 200,000, had disappeared.

Dozens of villages and seventy to eighty thousand cultivators and mortals vanished into thin air.

What else could be capable of doing such a thing but evil spirits?
He just wasn't sure whether the evil spirit was Gao Erqiang or some other new evil spirit at work!

"Fellow Daoist Su, we owe you a great debt this time. Otherwise, where would we find refuge in this Immortal City? We are not people who would eat and drink for free. Even if Fellow Daoist Su wanted to take us as his servants, we would have no complaints!" In just half a year, Ge Shu, who used to be quite energetic, is now like a candle in the wind, having lost his former spirit. At this moment, he bows deeply to Su Qing.

After Ge Shu finished speaking, Ge Changyuan and the others followed him in bowing. Their gratitude was beyond words, but they also asked Su Qing to protect them for a while longer.

They have no other choice.

Without the spiritual fields and their livelihood, they can still make ends meet for a while with the savings they have accumulated over the past year and a half.

However, if they cannot stay in the central city and are sent back to the Spirit Field District by the Yunshan Sect disciples, they will face the misfortune of disappearing at any time and losing their lives.

In fact, a few days ago, some cultivators from the Lingtian District came to the central city for refuge, and the few of them were fine.

However, once the number of people reached a certain level, they were driven back from the central city by the disciples of the Yunshan Sect.

The reason why Gejia Village was able to get in touch with Su Qing was because they frequently visited him and always ordered puppets from him, no matter how cheap the puppets from the Wang and Lin families were.

But how strong is this relationship, and can Su Qing's connections within the Yunshan Sect protect them?

They were also worried, fearing that Su Qing would make them stay here for a few days and then send them back to where they came from.

Su Qing looked up and saw that Ge Lingdu had lost her usual liveliness and was now following behind her father, cautiously waiting for her reply. Su Qing felt a surge of frustration and could only let it out.

Over the past two months, he has completed several orders for Yunshan Sect with high quality and quantity. Although he secretly consumed a lot of materials due to the low success rate, Yunshan Sect never expected that he could raise the success rate of the Lizard Knights to such an unbelievable level.

In their view, Su Qing, like other professionals in this immortal city, put in a lot of materials for every order he took on.

Even Yuan Tianye couldn't stand it and wanted to speak up for him, asking the sect to assign him fewer tasks.

Senior Brother Yuan truly cares about himself, but there's no need for him to be so kind.

Su Qing declined Yuan Tianye's offer and worked tirelessly to help Yunshan Sect refine puppets, taking into account her past identity and her relationship with Li Mubai, Yuan Tianye, and others.

Although he had never been to Yunshan Palace, his status in the Immortal City was somewhere between the inner disciples and the true disciples of Yunshan. Ordinary inner disciples of Yunshan would never dare to cause him any trouble.

Therefore, with his current abilities, protecting the thousands of people in Gejia Village should not be a problem.

Only a few thousand people!

The rest of them were either conscripted by the Yunshan Sect to the western battlefield or disappeared without a trace in the past two months. In short, the only people who need his protection right now are these few thousand!

"Village Chief, you flatter me. I don't need you all to be my servants. From now on, you only need to follow me in making puppets and help me process some materials. Fellow Daoists, please settle down behind this little shop!"

Behind Su's shop was originally the Yuan family's residence. After the Yuan family was wiped out by Gao Erqiang, this large area was tainted by evil spirits, and rogue cultivators avoided it, so it remained vacant.

This would be convenient to use as a place to settle the villagers of the Ge family.

"Fellow Daoist Su, Ling'er is not good at handling puppet materials. Could she come with Fellow Daoist Qinghe and help out in this little shop?"

Upon hearing that Su Qing had agreed to protect them, Ge Shu and the others breathed a sigh of relief and showered Su Qing with compliments and thanks.

Ge Ling's mindset also softened, and he said, "The little girl has grown another year older, and with the frequent events this year, she has matured a lot. Although it seems abrupt for her to speak now, she only dares to call him Fellow Daoist Su Qing, and no longer dares to call him Brother Su."

Su Qing looked at her increasingly striking figure and realized that this woman's talent for cultivation was truly remarkable. In just one year, she had already reached the fifth level of Qi Refining. If resources were plentiful, she might even be able to establish her foundation before the age of fifty.

His relationship with her was different from that of the rest of Gejia Village, and her request was not excessive, so he naturally nodded in agreement.

(End of this chapter)