Immortality begins with meditation puppets

Chapter 292 The Nascent Soul Palace, where heroes gather

Su Qing spoke frankly, and the witch stared at him for a long time, her beautiful eyes flickering, before she whispered:
"Yun'er has no need for the spiritual items here. I only hope that Fellow Daoist Su is truly not interested in the Immortal Ice and Crimson Jade. As for the inheritance of the Talisman Dao Sect, I imagine there are few people vying for it. Yun'er can help Fellow Daoist Su try to compete for it."

"Fellow Daoist, rest assured, my ambitions are not in the Immortal Ice or Crimson Jade. I will certainly not cause you any trouble!"

Su Qing reiterated his assurances, and Liu Yun'er, seeing that his words and expression did not seem to be feigning, nodded slightly.

Su Qing was relieved to find that the woman had no interest in the Immortal Ice or the Jadeite.

The reason why the two of them acted this way.

Because they all understand.

The most valuable item in this cave is the complete Five Elders Dao Pattern—the Immortal God Ice, the Demon Cultivator, the Evil Cultivator, Huang Song, Gao Erqiang, and Tong Laodao all came for this.

Besides, apart from Master Tong who might not be interested in the Nascent Soul Spirit Object, everyone else, including Gao Erqiang and Huang Song, harbored a great desire for it.

If he and the witch want to compete for these two spiritual treasures, they will inevitably have to become enemies with all the cultivators, facing unpredictable dangers and a slim chance of survival.

Conversely, if one is without desires or wants, at most one might be interested in the talismanic tradition, which is of least interest to most cultivators.

Instead, they could stand by and watch while the cultivators fought over the Dao patterns and spiritual objects, waiting for an opportunity to kill Huang Song and the Joyful Old Demon!
Su Qing and the witch thought so.

When they arrived at the Talisman Hall, the scene they saw was exactly as they had expected.

Outside the main hall, groups of three or five had already divided themselves into camps based on their different stances.

There were also blood clots and flesh scraps on the floor of the palace, as well as traces of the surge of Taoist magic.

Clearly, a fierce battle had already taken place here before the two arrived.

Tong Laodao stood alone on the far left, holding a fourth-tier summoning talisman in his hand, looking as if he would summon a god on the spot if anyone dared to provoke him.

Standing next to Tong Laodao was Gao Erqiang, who had a half-smile on his face. When he saw the two of them coming over, he nodded to them as a perfunctory greeting. Su Qing had not seen many evil spirits, and this one was the most polite of them all.

In contrast, the three evil cultivators from the Demon Tree Immortal Kingdom to Gao Erqiang's right were quite impolite. Their eyes, visible through the black cloth, had black pupils and a fierce look on them. They glared at the two of them, which made Su Qing roll her eyes and glare back at them in anger.

That'll scare him to death!

This glare was actually Lu Wu's True Eye, which saw through the black cloth to the true face of the evil cultivator. His body was like a withered old tree. It was said that this cultivator from the immortal kingdom had dedicated his soul and body to the Earth Demon Heaven and was given an evil tree body by the Earth Demon Heaven. After seeing the truth, it was indeed so. He was more like a tree spirit than a human. In short, he was even less human than the dragon-snake wood spirit he had refined.

The three evil cultivators had ugly appearances under the black cloth and were not very polite, but Su Qing did not want to be enemies with them. She gave them a polite glare and then turned her gaze away.

It fell to the lonely Master Xiashan. No one knows what this master was thinking. The entire sect had almost been devoured by the old evil spirit. Even though they hadn't been turned into evil spirits by the old evil spirit, they were still willing to be the old evil spirit's lackeys and serve the old evil spirit.

Originally, there should have been two or three Golden Core cultivators and many Foundation Establishment cultivators behind him, but now all of them are dead, and no one knows where they died or who killed them. All that is left in front of Su Qing is him alone.

Then, looking at the Desire Demon Sect, one sees Shi Lijing with a cold expression and Shi Zhifang with bloodshot eyes. Behind these two, there are seven Golden Core elders and a mere twenty or thirty Foundation Establishment demon cultivators.

Compared to their imposing presence before entering the cave, the cultivators of the Desire Demon Sect now showed signs of dejection and resentment.

"The witch's substitute is gone!" Su Qing whispered to the witch.

Not only was the witch's substitute gone, but even the old demon Huanxi was not currently in the Desire Demon Sect's camp. He was standing with Huang Song, with a third-level Golden Guard general leading a squad of Golden Guards to each of them, blocking the hateful gazes of the Desire Demon Sect cultivators.

It seems that the old demon Huanxi suddenly launched an attack, joining forces with Huang Song to outwit the Desire Demon Sect!
Su Qing knew all along that the old devil Huanxi was going to betray her.

But I never expected them to turn against me so soon!

Moreover, it seems that these two, working together, not only killed four Golden Core cultivators from the Desire Demon Sect, but also managed to make Shi Lijing and his disciples temporarily put up with it.

This level of strength far exceeded Su Qing's and the witch's expectations; at least Su Qing believed that neither he nor the witch possessed such abilities.

Right now, his biggest worry is that the old demon has discovered that the witch's substitute is not right, which will affect the witch's ability to plot against the old demon in the future.

Little did they expect that the witch had no intention of plotting against the old demon at all.

When all the cultivators outside the hall turned their gazes to the phoenix and tiger that had suddenly appeared.

The witch immediately dropped the pretense of a showdown.

She briefly removed the Phoenix Armor, revealing the enchanting face of the witch herself.

The cultivators present were all astonished and filled with doubt.

"Yun'er, Yun'er, is that you? Wasn't that you just now? You're not dead? That's so good!"

Shi Zhifang was the first to react, his hands trembling with excitement, almost dropping the Soul Refining Banner.

Besides him, other Foundation Establishment disciples who were familiar with Liu Yun'er, such as Xu Huaiyi and Tang Li, were also overjoyed.

Even the sect leader of the Desire Demon Sect, who had been paying homage, released a demonic shadow. Upon seeing the demonic shadow nod at Liu Yun'er, he relaxed.

"I hope the sect leader will forgive me. Yun'er had long suspected that her master, Jia Chunqiu, was in cahoots with the Penglai Sect, so she used a false body to deceive this fiend and secretly cultivated to the Golden Core realm in the Hundred Beasts Mountain Range."

Therefore, this Fiend had accumulated considerable power within the sect for a long time. Yun'er feared that the sect leader and elders would be biased towards this Fiend and disregard her own words. Thus, she was anxiously waiting outside the cave, but dared not speak out. However, after the sect leader and elders entered the cave, Yun'er worried that this Fiend might harm the sect within, so she rushed here to warn them!

Su Qing swore that Liu Yun'er's lies were full of loopholes. They would not only fail to fool the cunning demonic cultivators, but would also be extremely difficult to fool the likes of Shao Delong and Wei Debao.

But before Shi Lijing could speak, Shi Zhifang and the other elders and disciples, including Xu Huaiyi, began to speak.

"Yun'er has keen eyes. This Jia Chunqiu is indeed harboring evil intentions. He has somehow joined the Huang family of Penglai Sect and is willing to be their lackey. Just now, he joined forces with Huang Song to suddenly attack our sect's elders and disciples. He even ruthlessly attacked the substitute that Yun'er had prepared. I risked my life to save her, but I still couldn't save her substitute!"

"Senior Sister was on good terms. Ever since that old demon returned to the sect from Baiyun Immortal City, he has been looking for Senior Sister under various pretexts. If it weren't for Elder Master lending Senior Sister his own cave dwelling to heal her and block that old demon, Senior Sister's substitute would probably have already fallen victim to that old demon's poisonous hands!"

"It's all thanks to the amazing substitute prepared by Senior Sister that we didn't even notice. I wonder which puppeteer was behind it. I'd really like to get to know her, but not to refine Senior Sister. I mainly want to refine a substitute for myself!"

Jia Chunqiu betrayed them first, and Liu Yun'er appeared later; it's easy to see who is loyal and who is treacherous.

Although Shi Lijing still had some doubts, he didn't want to delve into them at the moment, so he nodded to Liu Yun'er and said:
"Although Fellow Daoist Liu has arrived a little late, at this time when the sect needs people, Fellow Daoist Liu is still a member of my Desire Demon Sect. It is commendable that Fellow Daoist has achieved the Golden Core from the Foundation Establishment stage. He should be promoted from disciple to elder."

There are many inconveniences at this time. After returning to the sect, we will hold a grand Golden Core ceremony for you, and appoint you as a practical elder!

When Shi Lijing let Liu Yun'er join the team, Shi Zhifang, Xu Huaiyi and the others were overjoyed. That shameless Shi Zhifang even tried to reach out and hold Liu Yun'er's hand.

Su Qing could only watch helplessly as she stood in front of Liu Yun'er and slapped away all those groping hands.

"Yun'er, this spirit beast is so fierce!"

"I thought this tiger king looked fierce and menacing before, but after learning that it's Senior Sister's spirit beast, I find it rather cute with its tiger-like head!"

"Senior Sister is truly amazing! Not only did she cultivate to the Golden Core stage in seclusion, but she also managed to subdue such a fierce tiger demon king as her own spirit beast!"

"This spirit beast is lucky to have followed Senior Sister! We would beg for nothing to be able to spend time with Senior Sister like this!"

"Why is there an iron-eating beast following the Tiger King? Wasn't that beast already dead?"

"Buy one get one free won't do! Senior Sister has subdued the Tiger King, and the Tiger King has subdued the Iron-Eating Beast!" "Wow, so Senior Sister now has two Tier 3 spirit beasts serving her?"

"That's not it!"

The Demon Sect disciples have such low standards. She's just a demoness, how beautiful can she be? Yet they're willing to make her their spirit beast.
Not wanting to reveal his identity for the time being, Su Qing, who was temporarily acting as Liu Yun'er's spirit beast, looked down on the integrity of this generation of disciples of the Demonic Sect.

Using this identity, he easily sat down with a group of disciples and quickly extracted a lot of information from them.

"Was it not Jia Chunqiu and Huang Song who joined forces to kill all the elders and high-ranking cultivators of my Desire Demon Sect?"

"Of course! Even if these two suddenly make a move, with the sect leader, his son, his disciples, and a host of elders present, how could we allow them to gain the slightest advantage!"

"Then why are the two of them standing here perfectly fine, while many of our sect's elders and high-ranking cultivators have perished?"

"It was those three evil cultivators from the Demon Tree Immortal Kingdom who got involved with these two. The nameless old Taoist and the evil Gao Erqiang also seemed to be trying to weaken our sect. They attacked us just now, which is why our sect suffered a great loss!"

"So that's how it is. Little Tiger said that our sect's elders are highly skilled in Taoist arts and have many unique methods, so they would never be harmed by these two. It turns out that these evil cultivators and demons saw that our sect was powerful and joined forces to target our sect, which caused our sect to suffer losses. They are despicable and shameless, and truly hateful!"

"Fellow Daoist, why does your accent sound familiar? Have we met before?" Xu Huaiyi talked to Su Qing for a while, looking at its tiger head, but he couldn't remember when he had encountered this tiger king. However, its accent gave him a strange feeling that it was like meeting an old friend in person.

“When you were on a mission in the Hundred Beasts Mountain Range, Little Tiger followed behind its master and saw you from afar a few times. I guess you sensed Little Tiger’s aura and that’s why you felt it was familiar.”

Su Qing said without blushing or panting, "Liu Yun'er already has a legitimate identity within the Desire Demon Sect. She made contributions and shed blood for the sect during the great battle between the Desire Demon Sect and the Cloud Mountain Sect. Now, by taking off her phoenix armor and putting on the demon cultivator's identity, she can actually gain leverage from the sect."

Su Qing, however, did not have this need. He was dressed in tiger puppets and draped in tiger skins, and he would be fighting as a tiger later, so he was very reluctant to take off this disguise.

After all, he had come to understand that this vast Desire Demon Sect, apart from those few old and frail Golden Core elders who were probably past their prime, was actually quite powerful.

The other strong young men probably all harbored inappropriate feelings for Liu Yun'er.

He approached the witch in his spirit beast form, and instead of being annoyed, they praised him for being cute. But if he were to stay by the witch's side in his true form, he would probably be courting death.

Su Qing didn't want to have a bunch of rivals for no reason. Seeing that she couldn't get any useful information out of Xu Huaiyi, she shook her head and pushed past Shi Zhifang, who was trying to get close to the witch.

The tiger rubbed its head against the witch's chest for a while, and only stopped after the witch gently patted it a few times. It then obediently lay down in front of the witch.

This scene made Shi Zhifang's eyes blaze with fury, and he immediately realized that this Tiger King was Yun'er's spirit beast, but not a proper spirit beast at all.

"How can you look at Yun'er's spirit beast like that, Elder Master? This beast has been cultivating in the demon kingdom for a long time. Even after Yun'er subdued it, it is still wild and untamed. If you anger it, Elder Master, it might really bite!"

Liu Yun'er was also extremely annoyed by Shi Zhifang's harassment. At this moment, taking advantage of the Fierce Tiger King, she pointed at Shi Zhifang and said.

"This little tiger is really cute!"

Shi Zhifang glanced at the Fierce Tiger King, then at the witch, and gritted his teeth.

We'll kill it sooner or later!
He was furious.

Su Qing completely ignored Shi Zhifang's resentful gaze.

He's just a loser who couldn't get what he wanted after trying to lick it!

He paid special attention only to the Joyful Old Demon, who was a hundred feet away.

"Old man, what are you looking at! Look again and I'll gouge out your eyes and rip out your heart. Don't blame your Tiger Grandpa for being ruthless!"

He spouts nonsense without batting an eye; Tiger King was born without manners!
The spit made Jia Chunqiu, who had been staring at Liu Yun'er, turn pale, but he didn't argue with it. He simply cupped his hands in a gesture of respect to Liu Yun'er from afar and said:

"Fellow Daoist Liu is exceptionally intelligent. Right under my nose, I have also laid the foundation for your Dao and opened the door to the Great Dao. However, without my Tongyang Talisman, and with only the Jieyin Talisman, the Yin-Yang Hexuan Pill you have condensed is not a complete one."

"Is it the Yin Xuan Pill? The Yin Xuan Pill is excellent! I was previously regretful that your false body hadn't yet condensed its core, and worried that when I obtained the Nascent Soul artifact, I wouldn't have anywhere to find the Yin Xuan Pill to complete my Yang Xuan Pill. Now that I've met you, I know that the union of Yin and Yang may be just around the corner!"

Jia Chunqiu's eyes were filled with lewd and ruthless intent. When they fell on Liu Yun'er, she felt a chill run down her spine. Suppressing her nausea, she spoke up and rebuked:
"Jia Chunqiu, more than a hundred years ago, my Liu family treated you very well. My father went against the opinions of others and not only gave you the position of guest elder, but also, considering that you have the blood of the Liu family, he gave you the Tongyang Talisman to observe for several months to help you raise the golden core in your body to the third grade and have the hope of becoming a Nascent Soul."

Such a great favor, and not only do you not repay it, but you also used evil runes to bewitch my Liu family members, causing my Liu family to be expelled from the entire Penglai sect by the Huang family on the grounds of being tainted by evil spirits, and to be relentlessly pursued by the Huang family to this day!

Liu Yun'er spoke excitedly, her delicate body trembling. Su Qing quickly stood up and supported her, inevitably receiving a few glares from Shi Zhifang, who was both envious and resentful.

The Witch Fruit is a top-tier second-generation immortal, actually from the Puppet Liu family, one of the five great families of Penglai in the past. Once this was revealed, not only was Su Qing slightly surprised, but the entire Desire Demon Sect was also extremely surprised.

On the contrary, Jia Chunqiu, after being scolded by the witch, remained calm and shamelessly laughed wildly before clapping his hands and saying:

"It's good that the Liu family died. It would be better if they were all dead. The position of head of the family, Liu Chungang, should have belonged to me, Jia Chunqiu. My mother came from a humble background and was not only oppressed and bullied to death by his mother, but also secretly tried to kill me without the knowledge of the previous head of the family."

Fortunately, I was not destined to die. I was saved by the Huang family and cultivated outside until I reached the Golden Core realm. I used a Nascent Soul artifact as a stepping stone to re-enter the Liu family! If it weren't for that Nascent Soul artifact, how could your father, Liu Chungang, have allowed me to obtain the Yang Register, and how could he have made me a guest elder!
It's ridiculous! The direct descendant of the prestigious Liu family can't even stand the Yin and Yang talismans, and won't even give me the chance to combine the Yin and Yang. With such behavior, if he doesn't die, who should?

"My dear niece, remember this: not only were the evil runes and spirits of the Liu family my doing, but your father's death during his tribulation was also my doing. That Nascent Soul artifact contained evil runes and spirits—an evil entity that caused your father's soul to vanish, possessed by such a vile being!"

Jia Chunqiu seemed to be deliberately provoking Liu Yun'er's anger, speaking so directly that Liu Yun'er's body was filled with a chilling aura. Su Qing had a bad feeling; this scoundrel was probably deliberately provoking Liu Yun'er to trigger the cold poison in her body.

This won't do. The fight hasn't even started yet, and my teammates are already weakened by this old devil's mental attacks. What's the point of fighting then?

He spat out a phantom of a fiery phoenix to help Liu Yun'er suppress the cold poison in her body. Immediately, he took over the battle flag from Shi Zhifang, Xu Huaiyi and the others, and started exchanging blows with the old demon.

It's not really that hard to criticize.

After all, judging from the few words the two of them just exchanged.

Jia Chunqiu was wronged back then, and the Liu family was not very kind to him and his mother. They endured humiliation for many years and found an opportunity to wipe out his entire family. It was ruthless, but it was somewhat understandable and forgivable.
But criticizing others doesn't consider right or wrong, only their stance.

Su Qing, Shi Zhifang, Xu Huaiyi, and others took a very correct stance.

"Jia Chunqiu, you have committed countless evil deeds and are utterly devoid of conscience. Not only did you kill the entire family, but you also bullied a young girl!"

"Old man, look in the mirror at your ugly face, so ugly that even your own parents wouldn't recognize you. No wonder you were rejected by the Liu family and kicked out of their home back then!"

"How dare you call someone your niece? What kind of uncle would want to swallow his niece's golden elixir?"

"You're still taking your niece's things? What is that Tongyang Talisman? Hurry up and return it to your niece!"

The cultivators cursed for a while, but because some of their words were too vulgar and offensive, they picked and chose, and only these few sentences were acceptable to be written down.

However, the effect was not good. Jia Chunqiu was cunning and treacherous. Over the years, he had been wandering around several immortal kingdoms, doing all sorts of evil deeds that led to him being chased and insulted. He had heard all kinds of nasty things. The damage inflicted by the cultivators had no effect on him. He could even look at the cultivators with a cold smile, as if he was mocking them for doing useless work.

Who could tolerate such behavior?

"Let me go, I want to fight him one-on-one!"

"Release Elder Shi and let him fight this old demon one-on-one!"

"Plant the flag for Elder Shi, let Elder Shi plant the flag and fight that old devil one-on-one!"

"Make way for Elder Shi! Let Elder Shi quickly fight this old devil one-on-one!"

(End of this chapter)