Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, but Thunderbolt Taoist Sect

As the old woman and Liu Qingyuan exchanged greetings, Xiao Cui bypassed them and headed towards the half-open door.

"Hey, what are you looking at?"

The person behind the door saw Xiao Cui coming and tried to pull back and close the door, but the other person noticed in advance, grabbed the door frame, and even peeked inside with a grin.

Of course she knew that it was Yingning peeping from behind the door. In recent days, a group of Taoist priests had come to the town at the foot of the mountain, and there had been traces of the Painted Skin Ghost in the mountains. Yingning had a special identity, and her adoptive mother was afraid that something would happen to her daughter, so she wouldn't let her leave the house.

After several days of this, the girl must have been feeling bored at home, which is why she didn't sleep at night when she should have been, and instead hid behind her adoptive mother, peeking through the crack in the door.

After all, no matter how special Yingning's background is, her situation is not much different from that of ordinary people. Her adoptive mother and the people around her do not sleep because they are ghosts, and Xiao Cui does not sleep because she is a fox spirit. Normally, Yingning would be asleep by now.

"Staying up at night until the wee hours, aren't you afraid of ruining your face?"

Xiao Cui was indeed a cunning fox; a small crack in the door couldn't stop her. She twisted and squeezed in, talking as she reached out to pluck a few small flowers from Ying Ning's hair.

The flowers were freshly picked. Xiao Cui was certain that this girl hadn't gotten up in the middle of the night, but hadn't gone to sleep at all.

If someone were to observe carefully, they would notice that the flowers Yingning brought for herself were clearly from different seasons. In this small village, there were also some out-of-season flowers along the roadside.

"It's just one night, it's not as serious as you're making it out to be."

Seeing that the person had already entered, Yingning changed her previous evasive behavior and took the initiative to link arms with Xiaocui.

"I've heard it from the sparrows in the trees; the immortal outside is a man of great supernatural powers."

"It's those chattering sparrows again!"

Since she had already said all that, she must have said other things as well. Thinking of the noisy, chattering sparrows, Xiao Cui's anger began to rise.

"Their tongues aren't even as long as my fingernails. They don't know any cultivation; they've used all the little human language they've learned to talk to their tongues. Wait a few days, Sister Cui will treat you to roasted sparrows."

After Xiao Cui went in, she closed the courtyard gate behind her. However, the two girls inside were only separated from the outside by a wall, with no other soundproofing measures. Their laughter and chatter could be heard clearly by Liu Qingyuan and the old lady outside.

"I'm sorry for making a fool of myself, Immortal Master."

Hearing her daughter and Xiao Cui laughing, the old woman smiled helplessly.

"Although my daughter is intelligent, she lacks proper guidance. She is always laughing and carefree and is not good at manners."

"A cheerful disposition is not a bad thing; it makes one's heart pure and one's mind pure, and one is surely a blessed person."

Liu Qingyuan wasn't lying. Yingning was famous not only for her beauty but also for her cheerful personality. This girl not only married into a good family but also helped move her adoptive mother's grave, and the whole family lived happily together.

After entering the courtyard, Xiao Cui and Ying Ning had run off to play somewhere. Liu Qingyuan followed the Ghost Mother into the reception room. The path was paved with white bricks and lined with red flowers. The interior was bright and clear, with crabapple trees surrounding the windows. It was very different from what she saw from outside the courtyard.

From the outside, it looks like an ordinary courtyard in a small village, but from the inside, it's like being in a fairyland. Liu Qingyuan knew that this was an illusion created by magic. As long as he didn't actively expose it, the scene in front of him would be real.

The reason for inviting him was simple: when Liu Qingyuan entered a state of enlightenment, he disturbed the spiritual energy in the mountain, which was felt by the surrounding spirits. Because the commotion was quite loud, and there was a bunch of sparrows chirping and exaggerating, everyone in the mountain couldn't figure out who this deity was.

On the other hand, the Ghost Mother had Xiao Cui as a connection, and she trusted Xiao Cui's judgment of people. The main purpose of inviting people here was to make friends, which suited Liu Qingyuan's wishes perfectly.

He'll be using other aliases in the future, and there will definitely be all sorts of exaggerated situations. He should let people know in advance so they can get used to it.

"I have heard that you intend to subdue those two cloaks. One of them has already infiltrated the city a few days ago, but the whereabouts of the other are unknown. This creature is good at disguise, so I hope you will be careful."

As for those two evil painted skins, the Ghost Mother naturally hoped they would die as soon as possible. Besides digging out people's hearts to eat, the painted skins would also kill beautiful young girls and skin them for their own use. Despite the exquisite illusions here, she was ultimately just a lonely ghost in the mountains. If she wanted to protect her adopted daughter, the only way was to keep her at home.

"Thank you, ma'am, for telling me."

Upon hearing that the Painted Skin had entered the city a few days ago, Liu Qingyuan felt a sense of foreboding. The other party might have already found a target and hidden in the victim's home. She didn't know if she could find any clues by tomorrow.

The timing of his arrival was too perfect. If he had arrived a moment earlier, he could have caught the masked man sooner; if he had arrived a moment later, the story might have ended. He arrived just as things were about to go wrong, instantly turning the relaxed atmosphere into one of tension.

It wasn't just Liu Qingyuan who felt the urgency of the situation. Compared to him, who knew the original story as a cheat code, the people who knew nothing felt even more pressure, such as the local Taoist priest who followed the demonic energy into the city.

What exactly happened yesterday?

On the street that Liu Qingyuan walked on yesterday, there was a middle-aged Taoist priest standing there. He was dressed in a simple Taoist robe, holding a whisk in his hand and carrying a peach wood sword on his back, which was the most traditional Taoist attire.

At this moment, he was calculating with his hands, and the more he calculated, the more sweat poured down his forehead.

Originally, he came to this town following the demonic aura. Because he was worried that there were monsters harming people, he stayed in the town, but he never found many clues.

Just yesterday, strange fluctuations suddenly appeared outside the city. It wasn't demonic energy, just a simple oscillation of spiritual energy. But that was still strange. Why would the spiritual energy suddenly become turbulent? He went outside the city at night yesterday to check, but there were no signs of any monsters causing trouble. Since ghosts and spirits were active at night, he had no choice but to return to the city.

Then early this morning, rumors started circulating inexplicably that immortals had appeared in the city, leaving the Taoist priest even more bewildered.

Where did this immortal come from? How come I, a legitimate cultivator, don't know him? White robes, white hair, and a youthful face? That can't be right, someone with that kind of appearance shouldn't be here, right? Someone with that level of cultivation should at least have one foot in the immortal realm.

For various reasons, the Taoist priest began to inquire everywhere and eventually found the place where immortals were said to have appeared, and began to try to explore it.

But here, the strangest thing happened. He was a proper cultivator with sufficient cultivation, yet he couldn't find any aura or calculate anything. If a Taoist who looked like an immortal had passed through this place, he would surely have left some information.

The Taoist priest's logic was not wrong, but unfortunately, Liu Qingyuan was not from this world, nor was Jianzi Xianji. Their cultivation systems were fundamentally different, so he naturally couldn't find anything by using local methods of investigation.

If he hadn't made it so natural for him to calculate everything as soon as he arrived at a destination, and instead used the most ordinary methods, such as asking people questions, he might have been able to get some clues, and even run into a few scholars who had seen Liu Qingyuan before.

As it turns out, this person was somewhat path-dependent, using the methods of local Taoists to explore the aura. Jianzi Xianji was "innate," neither a demon nor a complete immortal. In the end, he was just a monk using a comb, which was completely useless.

"What exactly is going on……"

From the initial speculation about the identity of that "immortal," to the doubt about the authenticity of the news, and then to the self-doubt due to the lack of results, a voice appeared from behind.

"Fellow Daoist, have you encountered any trouble?"

"It's nothing, I just...!!!"

The voice behind him was calm. Although the person appeared suddenly, there was no sign of anything bad. The person addressed him as a fellow Daoist, and since he wasn't the only cultivator in the city, he didn't think much of it and assumed it was just an ordinary fellow cultivator. He turned around without any mental preparation.

As expected, he was startled by Liu Qingyuan.

"...Is this reaction uniform across the entire city?"

Liu Qingyuan had lost count of how many times this had happened. Every time he spoke up from behind, the people in front would turn around and be startled when they saw him. Their eyes would widen and their fur would stand on end, making him look quite frightening.

"you you you……"

The middle-aged Taoist priest in front of him looked on in disbelief and kept backing away from Liu Qingyuan. When he turned around, he thought he would see a Taoist priest who was a little younger than himself. But when he turned around, all he saw was white. His hair was white, his eyebrows were white, his clothes were white, but his face was young. Caught off guard, he was really startled.

He had seen people with strange appearances before. The person in front of him was dressed in pure white and indeed looked like an immortal. However, there was no immortal aura or demonic aura around him, so he could not tell what kind of cultivation he had. Because of his special attire, he looked out of place with his surroundings.

“My name is Jianzi Xianji. I see you have been standing here for quite some time. Have you encountered any difficulties? As fellow Daoist cultivators, you may speak with me.”

Although this reaction is exaggerated, from Liu Qingyuan's perspective as the person who was surprised, this scene is still quite interesting.

After receiving news about the Painted Skin Ghost, Liu Qingyuan re-entered the city at dawn and, unsurprisingly, heard rumors about herself beginning to circulate.

However, this did not affect him much. It was his innate ability to move freely in the city without attracting attention, whether it was lightness skill or light transformation. As long as he did not turn on the fan and lights and recite the poem when he appeared, no one could see where he was going.

Because a disguised human has already hidden in the city, and this thing looks no different from an ordinary person when it puts on its skin, he plans to find the Taoist priests in the city first without alerting them, and see if he can cooperate with them.

As it turned out, it was found on the very road I had walked yesterday.

"...Fellow Daoist?"

After calming down, the Taoist priest took a closer look at the person in front of him. From some details, the other person did indeed look like a Taoist priest, but the biggest problem with the other person was his attire.

Wearing all white is nothing unusual; commoners often wear simple white clothes. He himself sometimes just throws on a white robe for convenience. But this other person's white robe had many details added to it, with layers of fabric and a very long hem that almost touched the ground.

The other person wore a wide-sleeved robe in the most plain and common colors, which was comparable to a formal dress. If I'm not mistaken, there was also a long cape of the same color attached to the back of the other person.

To put it bluntly, this person's attire doesn't resemble that of a Taoist priest traveling outside; rather, it's more like that of a royal advisor who is supported in the palace and specializes in performing sacrifices.

What did he just say his name was? Sword Immortal Traces? It didn't sound like a personal name or a Taoist title; rather, it sounded like a pseudonym used in the martial arts world.

"Don't look at me like that, fellow Daoist."

Liu Qingyuan was helpless.

"I am really just an ordinary Taoist cultivator. Compared to my friends, I am very insignificant."

"Fellow Taoist, you are joking."

Perhaps it was because the other person's face was extremely righteous, and no impropriety could be found in his appearance, and his attitude showed no malice. Among cultivators, a more idealistic judgment is more useful, and the middle-aged Taoist gradually lowered his guard.

To say he's unremarkable is an understatement; objectively speaking, the person in front of you perfectly fits the world's definition of an immortal, and would be absolutely eye-catching wherever he goes.

But there was one thing he still couldn't understand: why did this person in front of him have no aura at all? Even if the person's cultivation was so profound that they had returned to simplicity, they shouldn't be completely unaware of anything when the other person was standing right in front of them.

"If you are an ordinary fellow Daoist, then others probably wouldn't even know how to conduct themselves."

With white hair and a youthful face, ethereal as a fairy, how dare this person say he is ordinary?

If this is considered ordinary, then what about my appearance? Just beginning to take human form?