This girl is a streetwalker in the demon world

Shi Tongming only felt cold all over, as if he could not feel the existence of his body. He thought vaguely, this is what it feels like after death.

"Get up when you wake up." A female voice that was colder than his body suddenly sounded in the shop, startling Shi Tongming. He couldn't help but wonder: Is he not dead yet?

Shi Tongming opened his eyes quickly, and what came into view were the familiar shop beams and the spider webs that he had not bothered to clean. He raised his trembling hands stiffly, looked at An Ling in disbelief and asked, "Did you save me?"

An Ling leaned against the door with her sword in her arms, and peered at the Crescent Moon Pavilion not far away from her from behind the half-open door. She replied, "I found that something was wrong with the Crescent Moon Pavilion, so I came back to look for you. As a result, when I entered the door, I saw that you were unconscious, so I helped you lose some... well, true energy."

"Shi Tongming thanks you, great hero," Shi Tongming said to An Ling with a fist, "but it's a bit of a waste for you to waste your energy on someone like me... It would be better..."

An Ling sneered: "Anyone who wants to die over a disagreement is a true coward. Do you still remember the 'magic stone' in your store?"

The two words "sacred stone" hit Shi Tongming's skull like a heavy hammer, making it almost impossible for him to breathe.

"To make a long story short, I saw some strange ceremony in the Crescent Moon Pavilion. After asking around, I learned that you once lost a stone to the Crescent Moon Pavilion. I guess the stone in the Crescent Moon Pavilion should be your 'magic stone'."

Shi Tongming's lips trembled, and his whole body shook like a sieve. He hugged his head in pain and roared in despair: "Yes! You are absolutely right! The ancestor... was indeed defeated by the New Moon Pavilion by me..."

He seemed to have thought of something, and rolled down from the couch, raised his helpless eyes filled with bloodshot and tears, and crawled to An Ling's feet. Facing her cold expression with a little pity, Shi Tongming kowtowed to An Ling several times and begged, "Hero, please, tell me how the ancestor is now, okay? I beg you, I beg you..."

An Ling sighed, and gently lifted Shi Tongming up with the wind. She kept looking at Xinyue Pavilion without any emotion in her eyes. She whispered, "The answers to everything are hidden in the couplets in the shop."

"couplet?"

Shi Tongming turned around and looked at the couplets that were supposed to be hung on the left and right sides of Stone Patriarch, and he unconsciously recited the words on them:

"Without a heart and without feeling, a stubborn stone is ineffective. With emotions and wisdom, immortals can... become gods?"

"You mean, the Stone Ancestor, it is..." Shi Tongming gestured with his hands, not knowing how to describe it for a moment.

"Yes, it is a demon," An Ling said, "to be more precise, it is a spirit."

"And I have never heard that a stone can become a spirit."

Shi Tongming was anxious. His face turned red and he walked around the shop anxiously. After a while, he asked, "Can the ancestor understand human speech?"

"I'm not sure, but for a stone to develop consciousness... it would probably be extremely difficult." An Ling replied.

"Since you said it's a monster, it must feel pain!" Shi Tongming picked up the chisel and hammer at hand and said angrily: "I'm going to save my ancestors!"

An Ling asked curiously, "It's a monster! Why aren't you afraid?"

Shi Tongming swept away his decadent dejection, as if he had eaten ten kilograms of dynamite, and rushed out to fight the New Moon Pavilion. He shouted: "Our Shi family has served the ancestor for so many years, and it has never spoken to us! That proves that it is very satisfied with us! Now it has fallen into the hands of the New Moon Pavilion, I don't know what they will do to it, I want to save it!"

"Calm down." An Ling blew a breath at Shi Tongming and pushed him back several meters. She said calmly: "If violence can solve the problem, why do you think I came back to find you?"

"what?"

"The greatest help you can give to your ancestors now is to answer my questions honestly." An Ling said.

Shi Tongming felt that An Ling was very strange, but she was too strong and seemed to know a lot about these monsters and ghosts. So he calmed down, put down the hammer and nodded, saying, "Just ask, I will definitely answer them all."

"Well, first of all, what is the function of the magic stone?" An Ling's first sentence went straight to the point, just like running directly to the kitchen of an old restaurant that has been passed down for many years and asking, "What is your secret recipe for cooking?"

But Shi Tongming is not a sinister and petty person. An Ling saved his life, and now she is so enthusiastic about his ancestors, so it doesn't hurt to tell her.

He organized his words and said slowly: "The sacred stone can allow us craftsmen to touch the 'spiritual light'."

Aura?

An Ling had carefully looked through the Shi family shop before, and there was nothing there that had any spiritual energy, let alone the "spiritual light" that appeared when cultivators were refining magic weapons.

She did not correct Shi Tongming's words, but listened with great respect. Due to the huge difference in cognitive levels between mortals and cultivators, sometimes, even if a cultivator made a failed poisonous elixir while refining it, it would be greatly praised by the charlatan after being picked up because of its intimidating appearance. But in fact, if you just ask anyone who knows a little about Taoism to come over, this would not happen.

As for the examples of picking up even more embarrassing things and then treating them as treasures, I won’t go into details here.

Unlike those aloof monks who like to play tricks on mortals, An Ling has never forgotten where she came from.

"Before carving, we would bathe and change clothes, then soak our hands in water with leaves from the dead butterfly tree, and then we would pray to our ancestors for blessings."

"I have prayed many times, and every time I feel a kind of inspiration and enlightenment from my ancestors!"

An Ling thought of the main business of the Crescent Moon Pavilion - the Crescent Moon Immortal statue. It seemed that the reason for stealing the sacred stone was slowly coming to light.

An Ling asked, "Does your Shi family have any achievements in carving statues of gods?"

Shi Tongming exclaimed, "How do you know? We can complete most of the stone processing, but the one about carving statues..." He held up a finger, "If the Shi family says they are the best, no one dares to say they are second."

"Why do you say that? I don't know much about sculpture, can you explain it to me?"

"In fact, the carving of deities is just like the carving of ordinary human figures. It is just a matter of years of hard work. But what really distinguishes the best is the 'aura' on the statue."

There's this word again...

Shi Tongming saw that An Ling was a little confused, so he explained: "To put it simply, it's the difference between whether the statue is spiritual or not."

"The statues produced by Shijia Shop are mostly praised by the public as 'very spiritual', as if they were really facing a god. I have also seen statues carved by other craftsmen, and I can't say for sure, anyway, it just feels wrong."

An Ling's attitude suddenly turned cold, and she asked, "How many statues of these rural gods have you made over the years?"

"Ah... this..." Shi Tongming panicked. He said quickly, "Master, please don't be angry. Stone carving is the means of survival for our family. I can hardly remember the number of statues I have carved."

"So, the statue of your Shi family can accommodate faith? And this ability is actually attached to the sacred stone?"

Shi Tongming looked away in embarrassment.

"Hmph, no wonder, no wonder..." An Ling whispered, "Statues, beliefs, gods, immortals... they are nothing but things made up by those two guys. No wonder I stayed in Yuantai Town, no wonder I came here for trivial matters, no wonder I also encountered a stone spirit that is rare in a thousand years, so that's it..."

Shi Tongming looked at An Ling talking to herself and asked fearfully, "Hero, what's wrong with you?"

An Ling suddenly stared at Shi Tongming with a very cold smile. She said softly, "Don't worry, I will definitely help you solve this matter."

Shi Tongming was delighted and thanked An Ling profusely. However, An Ling did not look at him again. Instead, she cast her gaze towards the corner of sky exposed between the eaves. There was a gloom between her brows and no one knew what she was thinking.