Immortality begins with meditation puppets

Chapter 66 Demonic Shadow
"All the spoils are mine? That won't do! How could I, Su Qing, take advantage of my friends? Eighty percent, and the remaining twenty percent are yours!"

"I have no way to repay your life-saving grace, fellow Daoist. How could I dare to accept any more spoils of war? Please do not flatter me further."

"How about I give you 10%? Look at all the dead and wounded you've been through a lot. Go back quickly, this place is not safe. Once you get to the front camp, everything will be fine!"

"It's been a few months since we last met. Fellow Daoist, you've managed to control so many puppets. You were hiding something from Wanqing before. Aren't you being honest with yourself?"

"You're not much better, Tang Wanqing. You've been hiding your dual cultivation of body and spirit quite well!"

Along the way, Su Qing rode Fire Egg, with Tang Wanqing flying on either side, and a group of puppets dragging monster materials that couldn't fit in their storage bags. The group returned to the forward camp in a grand procession.

Tang Wanqing was instructed to take her outer disciple token and negotiate with the disciples of Yunshan Sect stationed there.

He led a group of female cultivators, carried Sun Yan and several other seriously injured people, and headed straight for Guo Qiaolian's clinic.

Today, the defense line of Aishan has completely collapsed, and the scattered cultivators who managed to escape to the front camp were all more or less injured.

So much so that Su Qing, who originally thought Guo Qiaolian was extravagant for using a mortuary as a mobile clinic, was surprised.

Now I can only lament that my knowledge was still too shallow. The huge funeral parlor was now crowded with wounded people, leaving only a narrow passageway for people to pass through.

Guo Qiaolian, along with several hired spiritual medicine apprentices, was extremely busy when she heard that Sun Yan was Su Qing's friend. Looking at the group of female cultivators surrounding her, she glared at Su Qing inexplicably.

"You fix the broken leg yourself, the rest of you come with me!"

Although Guo Qiaolian was not very tall, she inexplicably exuded a certain air of authority in the clinic at that moment.

The group of female cultivators were like headless flies, completely following her commands, leaving only one female cultivator to stay beside Sun Yan, waiting for Su Qing to make her move.

Su Qing found a corner and calmly took out two legs from her storage bag.

"The Lotus Root Legs will allow you to continue your cultivation. They are long and white, but have no other functions."

"The Azure Steel Legs can greatly increase your combat power. If you coat them with a layer of platinum, they will become longer and whiter, but you will not be able to cultivate afterward."

"I suggest you choose the Spirit Lotus Legs. Your wound is the freshest I've seen recently. If you switch to the Spirit Lotus Legs now, you can always switch back to the Azure Steel Legs if you think they're cooler in the future. But if you switch to the Azure Steel Legs, you won't have the chance to install the Spirit Lotus Legs."

Su Qing bluntly stated that he had recently acquired quite a few legs, and the loss of a cultivator's leg no longer stirred any emotion within him.

But this is Sun Yan's first time breaking her leg, and the decision she faces now is still difficult for her.

To Su Qing's surprise, after hesitating for a moment, Sun Yan actually chose the Steel Leg.

"It was never going to be possible for my innate talent to reach the second level. Whether I can continue to cultivate is not important to me. On the contrary, this forward camp will soon have to deal with the beast tide again, so it's always good to have more combat power."

Sun Yan's choice was both helpless and realistic. Su Qing nodded silently and said no more.

Sun Yan didn't need to draw the picture herself. Su Qing had previously used her as a template to create a witch puppet, so he probably knew her body proportions better than Sun Yan herself.

In just over an hour, a pair of long, shiny white legs were installed on Sun Yan's body.

By the time Tang Wanqing returned after dealing with a bunch of trivial matters, Sun Yan was already able to swing her long legs and rush off to take care of the other seriously injured female cultivators.

"After several months apart, Fellow Daoist's skill in puppetry has become somewhat beyond my comprehension."

Tang Wanqing tucked a stray strand of hair that had fallen across her forehead behind her ear and exclaimed in genuine admiration.

She had braved wind and rain, faced countless life-and-death situations over the past few months, and thought she had left Su Qing far behind.

But when they met again, he found that the other person was doing much better than him. Even his martial prowess, which he relied on, seemed to be nothing compared to Su Qing's puppet army.

Proud as she was, her heart was filled with complex emotions at this moment. She was happy for him, but also felt lonely and defeated. "I am not like you, fellow Daoist. You have made a name for yourself in the hunting area with your combat skills and Dao techniques. If I don't study puppetry, I might not even be able to eat one day."

Su Qing waved her hand, seeing that there was no need for her here, and led Tang Wanqing back to her spirit house.

The two sat facing each other in silence for a moment before asking about each other's situations.

"The low mountain defense line is good in every way, except that the occasional strong winds are unpleasant. They've even made my skin a bit rough."

"Not at all, not at all! You are as beautiful and radiant as ever. I never imagined that you would have the ability to lead a team to defend a low mountain!"

"I'm just being forced into this situation. Sigh, if nothing unexpected had happened, I could have gathered enough spirit crystals for the Foundation Establishment Pill in another month or so. It's such a pity."

"Another major battle is about to break out at the forward camp. Fellow Daoists, the team is still intact, and the future looks promising!"

"Why does Fellow Daoist Su only know how to flatter me?"

"Is it flattery? I genuinely think so."

The two chatted back and forth from noon until nightfall.

Su Qing learned of the hardships Tang Wanqing had been going through recently and felt a sense of admiration for her.

Tang Wanqing was extremely envious when she learned that Su Qing had been living a happy life recently.

After overcoming the initial awkwardness of their long-awaited reunion, the two began discussing serious matters.

"So, the Yunshan Sect intends to make use of your team, and has given you the status of an outer disciple, allowing you to lead the team to continue fighting against the demonic beasts at the front-line camp?"

After learning about Yunshan Sect's arrangements for Tang Wanqing and the others, Su Qing said thoughtfully.

It seems that Yunshan Sect is truly overwhelmed by the Desire Demon Immortal Kingdom and cannot spare much manpower to protect Baiyun Market. They are even resorting to issuing outrageous outer disciple tokens to keep the rogue cultivators willing to risk their lives.

"The lives of us rogue cultivators are inherently worthless. The Yunshan Sect is not bad this time; at least all the spoils are ours. In your opinion, can this forward camp hold off a small beast tide?"

Tang Wanqing resignedly smoothed her hair, raised her willow-leaf eyebrows, and asked Su Qing.

Su Qing didn't understand any of this. He only knew that if he couldn't hold the line, the Fire Egg's dog nose could break through the fog array behind him, which wouldn't stop him from making a quick escape if things went wrong.

But where can they escape to? To Baiyun Market, which is still Yunshan Sect's territory. To Yunluo City? They wouldn't even know how they died!

He had recently overheard some of Yuan Tianye's conversations with other disciples, and he knew much more about the Yunshan Sect's deployment at the front-line camps than Tang Wanqing did.

After a moment's thought, he replied:
"There should be no problem. The second-tier Earth-Separating Formation alone is not something that demonic beasts can easily break through. The other magical artifacts and puppets are also more abundant than those of the Low Mountain defense line."

With a steady stream of independent cultivators arriving from the market, as long as no second-tier demonic beasts attack, holding this camp shouldn't be a problem.

Upon hearing this, Tang Wanqing nodded slightly, but then, as if suddenly remembering something, she couldn't help but remind her:
"The second-tier formation is indeed remarkable. The fact that we were able to hold out at the low mountain defense line for so long is largely due to the Thunderfire Formation."

However, before this small-scale beast tide attack, the Thunderfire Array seemed to have encountered problems. All the fellow cultivators guarding the array plate died under a demonic blade, and there were also signs of deliberate damage to the array plate.

This is definitely not the work of a demonic beast; I suspect it's the work of a demonic cultivator!

Tang Wanqing recalled the deaths of those fellow Daoists, which further confirmed her judgment, and she nodded emphatically once again.

"I'm certain, that was a demonic cultivator's method!"

(End of this chapter)