noffsinger Chapter 63 Look—this is what you call professional!
Chapter 63 Look—this is what you call professional!
Before Xiao Cai could speak, the old man surnamed Han came up behind Zhu Que and touched Zhu Que's back with one hand.
"Don't be shy, come on, let me touch you properly again..."
"Holy crap!"
Zhu Que shuddered, retreating in fright: "Senior! This junior really doesn't have that kind of fetish!"
Seeing his face full of resistance, the old man surnamed Han, Xiao Cai, Wu Qing and the others burst into laughter.
"Ha ha ha ha--!"
"Pfft, hahaha—!"
"This is hilarious, hahaha!"
Seeing them laughing so hard they were doubled over, Zhu Que asked, somewhat puzzled, "Are you guys kidding me?"
Just then, the old man surnamed Han slowly raised his hand and gently wiped his aged face.
The next moment, his facial features, skin, and appearance began to wriggle and change.
Silver hair turned black, wrinkles disappeared, deep-set eyes became lighter, and even body shape changed.
Half a minute later.
Zhu Que was extremely surprised to see that the old man with the air of a hermit had actually turned into Boss Meng.
"Boss Meng??"
"Hahaha, how's my disguise?"
Old Master Meng laughed and asked, "Didn't you want someone to impersonate your master? Did I look like a reclusive master just now?"
"The appearance is similar, as long as it's not too outlandish, it's really hard to tell the difference, but can this fool Su Zhen?" Zhu Que said.
"Don't worry, Su Zhen definitely won't be able to see through my disguise. Do you know why?"
Why?
"Because I've lied to her several times already."
Meng raised an eyebrow and gave a sly smile.
"In that case, I'll leave it to you, Boss Meng."
Upon hearing this, Zhu Que was immediately relieved.
Having Boss Meng impersonate his master is indeed much more reliable than finding a stranger.
After all, he and Boss Meng had a shared interest and knew each other well, so he didn't need to worry about being betrayed by her for no reason.
"It's nothing, we'll check the information later." Boss Meng waved his hand.
"By the way, Boss Meng."
Zhu Que suddenly remembered something and asked seriously, "There's something else I hope you can tell me the answer to."
"What is it?"
Who was the buyer of the Object Manipulation Gauntlets?
"I definitely can't tell you that. Buyer information must be kept strictly confidential; it's industry practice."
Meng Laoda refused him without hesitation.
"Boss Meng, you must tell me this time, otherwise I will not be able to continue supplying you with the Artifact Control Gauntlets."
Zhu Que immediately pulled out his trump card: as the supplier of pirated magical artifacts, he had a great deal of initiative.
Seeing that Zhu Que didn't seem to be joking, Boss Meng also realized that something was wrong.
"Can you tell me why?"
"Xiao Cai told you about my kidnapping yesterday, right?"
"Yes, Xiao Cai just told me."
"Last night, the magical artifact used by the kidnapper leader Qiao Kun was the object-controlling gauntlet that we made."
Are you sure?
Meng Laoda was slightly taken aback.
"I'm 100% certain I couldn't possibly be wrong!"
Zhu Que spoke with absolute certainty, and he thought to himself, "Even the side effects match, how can I be unsure?"
"Do you think that magical artifact was sold to Qiao Kun by the buyer?" Boss Meng asked.
"No, Qiao Kun is most likely the buyer's subordinate."
Zhu Que shook his head and said with certainty, "The mastermind behind yesterday's kidnapping was most likely the buyer, and Qiao Kun was just the executor."
"By thwarting the kidnapping, I have completely offended the buyer, and they are very likely to retaliate against me."
"So I need to know who the buyer is and make some preparations in advance, for my own safety."
"Otherwise, I would be selling weapons to the people who want to kill me."
After listening to Zhu Que, Meng Laoda, Wu Qing, Xiao Cai and the others suddenly realized what was going on.
"Let me think..."
Meng Laoda frowned slightly and fell into deep thought.
She glanced at Wu Qing and his subordinates beside her, then at Xiao Cai, and showed a hesitant expression.
According to regulations, the buyer's identity must be kept strictly confidential; otherwise, it would damage her business reputation.
But what Zhu Que said also makes a lot of sense.
Moreover, Zhu Que is her important business partner. If Zhu Que stops supplying goods, her source of income will be cut off.
After weighing the options for a moment—
"Okay, I'll tell you who the buyer is, but you must keep it strictly confidential! Absolutely no one can tell!"
She stared intently at Zhu Que.
I will never tell anyone.
"Come here."
Meng Laoda pulled Zhu Que to a corner.
Xiao Cai curiously went over, but was glared at by Boss Meng and sent back in an annoyed manner.
"Get out of my way, I definitely can't let that blabbermouth know."
"They're very tight-lipped, okay?"
Xiao Cai pouted, unconvinced.
"The buyer is..."
Meng lowered his voice and slowly said, "Black Lotus Guild."
Black Lotus Guild...
Zhu Que was slightly taken aback.
This name was not unfamiliar to him.
In Jinfeng Town, he saw many of the Black Lotus Guild's properties, such as clubs, bars, entertainment centers, gyms, and so on.
The Black Lotus Guild's symbol is a black lotus flower, which is very recognizable and he has seen it in many places.
He originally thought it was a legitimate chamber of commerce involving many industries, but he never expected that it was doing such shady things behind the scenes.
"However, I must say that the Black Lotus Guild is extremely powerful."
Meng said in a serious tone, "If they really wanted to take revenge on you, you would probably be dead several times over by now."
Zhu Que nodded slightly: "Yes, those robbers who were captured alive by the police last night were all silenced on the way."
Meng Laoda continued, "Moreover, if the Black Lotus Guild really wanted to kill you, they wouldn't need the Artifact Protection Gauntlets at all."
"That's true..."
Zhu Que frowned slightly.
Since the Black Lotus Guild has connections in both the legitimate and criminal worlds, killing a fifth-rank cultivator like him would be a piece of cake.
There's no need for any magical artifacts or protective shields; any Foundation Establishment stage expert could easily outwit and kill him.
"So, whether or not to continue supplying goods is your choice; I'm not forcing you."
"Old Meng looked at him and said."
"..."
Zhu Que fell silent immediately.
His path of cultivation is extremely expensive.
Whether it's buying the spirit cores needed for the Time-Sequence Secret Realm Pod or various injections, it all requires a large amount of spirit coins.
In any case, this way of making money must not be cut off!
Zhu Que took a deep breath and finally made a decision: "I've thought it through. Let's continue supplying them."
"That's right!"
Boss Meng immediately beamed with joy, patted him on the shoulder, and said, "No matter what, we still have to make money."
She smiled and said, "Since we're continuing our cooperation, I won't charge you for impersonating your master."
"Huh? Was there supposed to be a charge?" Zhu Que was taken aback.
"Of course I'd put on an act for you for nothing!"
Old Meng rolled his eyes with a laugh.
After the matter was settled, Zhu Que looked at Xiao Cai and asked, "Sister Cai, where is the person you arranged to exorcise evil spirits?"
"You're too late. They waited for two hours, but had to leave. I'll make an appointment for you tomorrow," Xiao Cai said.
"How are the fees calculated?"
"The fixed appearance fee is 3000 spirit coins. If the exorcism is successful, 3 spirit coins will be paid. If it fails, no money will be charged. The exorcism fee is also the same."
"No problem." Zhu Que readily agreed. "We don't need to meet tomorrow, let's go straight to the site."
"Okay, I'll tell them."
Xiao Cai immediately took out her phone.
Just then.
Zhu Que's phone also rang. He took it out and saw that it was a call from the town government office.
"Hello there."
"Excuse me, is this Zhu Que?"
"Yes."
"When would be a convenient time for you to come and collect your reward?"
"Let me think... I have some things to take care of tomorrow, how about the day after tomorrow?"
"No problem, let's set the time for 2 pm the day after tomorrow, that way we can also film the documentary at the same time."
"OK."
After hanging up the phone, Zhu Que left Wildfire Shop.
He returned to the junkyard, retrieved some remnants needed for replicating, and then went back to the intermediate cultivation room to continue his all-night cultivation.
The next day, at eight o'clock in the morning.
Zhu Que met the "expert in exorcising evil spirits" that Xiao Cai had invited.
He originally thought that the so-called "expert in exorcising evil spirits" should be an old Taoist priest with a refined and otherworldly air, holding a peach wood sword and wearing a Taoist robe.
But the three people in front of me were completely different.
Three young men in suits, with neatly combed hair and gleaming leather shoes, each carrying a black toolbox.
"How is it?" Xiao Cai covered her mouth with her hand and asked softly, "Looks very professional, right?"
"It's a little different from what I imagined," Zhu Que said.
"You can rest assured about the person I found!"
Xiao Cai confidently stated, "Exorcism and ghost-slaying are now industrialized and standardized; they're all done by professional teams!"
"……All right."
Zhu Que was somewhat skeptical.
Afterwards, the group arrived at the cave on the southwestern outskirts. Zhu Que and Xiao Cai stood at a distance, observing quietly.
The entrance to the cave.
The three-person team stood in a row and cautiously approached the cave entrance to sense the intensity of the malevolent energy.
They exchanged a few words in hushed tones, then opened the black toolbox and took out various tools for warding off evil spirits—
Talismans, seals, jade, bronze mirrors, compasses, incense burners...
It has everything.
The three worked together seamlessly, setting up a complex array at the cave entrance in a specific orientation.
"See—that's what you call professional!"
Xiao Cai pointed.
"..."
Zhu Que didn't say anything, thinking to himself, "I don't care if you're professional or not, as long as you can exorcise evil spirits."
He can't wait to build a replica of the Time-Sequence Secret Realm pod and start cultivating at lightning speed!
Although the trio of exorcising evil spirits and eliminating ghosts are quite different from traditional Taoist priests, they are very skilled in setting up formations.
They took off their suit jackets, rolled up their sleeves, and stood solemnly in three key positions.
"start!"
One of them gave a soft shout, and the three of them began to rapidly form hand seals, chanting incantations as their spiritual energy surged wildly around them.
"Buzz—"
A strange fluctuation emerged, and the various objects placed on the ground underwent different changes.
The talisman ignited with golden flames.
The jade shone with a bluish-green light.
The bronze mirror reflected a silvery-white luster.
Wisps of smoke rose from the incense burner.
As flames, radiance, and wisps of smoke intertwined, they gradually coalesced in mid-air into an illusory divine statue.
The statue was about three meters tall, with a solemn and dignified appearance, slightly closed eyes, and a red pearl between its eyebrows.
It was surrounded by a holy golden light, exuding an aura of inviolability.
"That's amazing..."
Xiao Cai exclaimed in surprise.
Zhu Que also opened his eyes wide in surprise.
The next moment, the three of them shouted in unison and clapped their hands together.
"I hereby command the Heavenly Generals to cleanse the demonic forces!"
"Vajra Protector, dispel the evil aura!"
"Thump—!!"
The statue rotated its hands and thrust out a palm towards the cave entrance.
In an instant, a holy aura surged forth, sweeping towards the gray-black malevolent energy.
"boom!"
A sacred aura clashed violently with a dark, malevolent aura.
The malevolent aura was steadily defeated, constantly suppressed by the holy energy, and was about to be completely purified.
Zhu Que, seeing this scene, thought everything was going very smoothly.
But the next second something unexpected happened—
"Buzz!!"
A strange, blood-red light suddenly appeared on the ground at the cave entrance.
The crimson light spread rapidly, outlining a pattern with interwoven crimson lines and a somewhat distorted shape.
"wrong!"
One of them's expressions changed slightly. "This isn't naturally formed malevolent energy; someone has set up a malevolent energy array at the cave entrance!"
A man-made array of malevolent energy?
Could there be other people in the cave?
Zhu Que was taken aback by what he heard, and then he heard a muffled thud!
"boom!!"
A surge of blood-red light erupted, surging back like a tidal wave, instantly dissipating the sacred aura.
"Snap!"
The statue shattered with a crash, turning into countless points of light that vanished into nothingness.
And those items placed there to ward off evil spirits—
The talisman burned to ashes, the jade shattered into powder, the bronze mirror broke into pieces, and the incense burner tipped over!
The three exorcists turned pale, their bodies trembled, and they staggered back a few steps, blood spilling from the corners of their mouths.
"What happened?!" Xiao Cai exclaimed in surprise.
"It seems it didn't work. Is this malevolent energy that strong?" Zhu Que asked, somewhat puzzled.
"I'm sorry, but we're not capable of handling this order."
The captain, who was in charge, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and explained to the two of them:
"The malevolent energy at the entrance of this cave is not naturally formed, but rather a malevolent energy array deliberately set up by someone."
There are three ways to break the evil energy formation.
"The first method is brute force; the second is using magical artifacts to break the formation; and the third is finding the flaws in the evil energy formation."
As he spoke, he helplessly spread his hands.
"But unfortunately, we are not strong enough, and we don't have any special magical artifacts."
"Although the third method is the simplest and least labor-intensive, it requires a lot of time to study the formation structure, and we don't have that time."
"So I'm very sorry."
The trio were very sincere and bowed to express their apology.
"It's alright. Since you've done your best, we don't blame you."
Seeing their sincere attitude, and knowing that the failure to complete the task was not intentional, Zhu Que didn't say much.
"Then we'll take our leave now."
The exorcising trio left the place.
"..."
Zhu Que and Xiao Cai stared at each other, and the atmosphere became a little awkward for a moment.
"Are you still professional?"
"Hehe, who knew it would be so difficult to handle..."
Xiao Cai scratched her head sheepishly.
"That person could be easily broken if we could find a weakness in the evil energy formation... We can start from that direction!"
Zhu Que pondered for a moment, glanced at her, and asked, "Do you have paper and a pen?"
"I have a small notebook, and as for a pen... would an eyebrow pencil be okay?"
Xiao Cai pulled a small notebook and an eyebrow pencil out of her bag.
"That's also acceptable."
Zhu Que accepted it.
Based on his memory, he drew the blood-red pattern of the evil energy array, intending to study it carefully when he got back.
Although it was blocked outside by the evil energy formation.
But Zhu Que became even more curious about the cave—
This place is both one of the analysis nodes for super-large spiritual artifacts and a man-made array of malevolent energy.
This shows that...
What secrets might be hidden in the cave!
Upon returning to Jinfeng Town, Zhu Que immediately redrawn two more detailed and precise diagrams of the evil energy array.
I gave one copy to Xiaocai and asked her to help me find someone to study it.
He took another copy and went straight to the library, where he read through a large number of books about formations and malevolent energy.
According to the description in the book—
Different evil energy formations have different structures and completely different weaknesses.
He saw many different evil energy formations, but none of them were the same as the one at the entrance of the cave.
After studying it for a long time, I found nothing.
however.
What Zhu Que never expected was...
That very night, someone completely unexpected gave him a way to break the evil energy formation.
7 PM.
As promised yesterday, Zhu Que treated all the landfill employees to a meal out.
The food at the landfill was terrible, so everyone was wolfing down their food today, a rare treat.
Zhu Que, however, had no appetite.
He held a book titled "Complete Guide to Evil Qi Formations" and compared the patterns to the illustrations, trying to find similarities.
at this time,
Sun Zheng saw the pattern on the paper and asked curiously, "Huh? What are you doing researching evil energy formations?"
"You recognize this as a malevolent energy formation?" Zhu Que asked in surprise.
"Yes, I know him. I learned a little about it when I was a kid."
"I wanted to rent a place to use as a warehouse, but I got trapped in this evil energy formation. I'm just wondering how to find a weakness," Zhu Que said casually.
"Let me see."
Sun Zheng came over and took a closer look at the blueprints, then said, "I know this magic array; the method to break it is very simple."
"You know that??"
Zhu Que was stunned.
"Yes, I learned this evil energy formation back then."
Sun Zheng nodded slightly, "To crack it, you don't need any advanced methods, just three things."
"One is the blood of a black dog, a black rooster, and a black goat, mixed in a ratio of three to two to one."
"One method is to grind mugwort, cocklebur, and purslane into powder and mix them in a 1:1:1 ratio."
"The last part is a chanting of purifying Buddhist hymns, the eighteenth section of the 'Purification Mantra'."
Sun Zheng spoke with such seriousness.
Zhu Que immediately became interested and asked seriously, "And then? How exactly do you use these three things?"
"Very simple."
Sun Zheng said, "The first step is to splash the mixed animal blood onto the evil energy array."
"The second step is to play the eighteenth section of the 'Purification Mantra' on a loop about twenty times."
"The third step is to immediately sprinkle plant powder on the blood once it starts to smoke and corrode the evil energy array."
"Once these three steps are completed, the evil energy formation will naturally break."
"That simple?"
Zhu Que was a little stunned. If he didn't know Sun Zheng's personality, he would have suspected that Sun Zheng was joking with him.
"Of course, I might be mistaken."
Sun Zheng shrugged and said:
"After all, it's something I learned more than ten years ago, but you can give it a try. Anyway, it doesn't cost much, and the materials aren't expensive."
Zhu Que immediately dialed Xiao Cai's number and asked her to help prepare the materials.
Since we're at our wits' end anyway, we might as well give it a shot, no matter how credible it is.
……
The next day, at nine o'clock in the morning.
"Is this method reliable? Who told you about it?"
"My colleague."
"Your colleague? Your counterfeit factory is really full of hidden talents; they even know this kind of obscure knowledge."
Xiao Cai thought he was talking about his colleague at the counterfeit factory.
Then.
The two returned to the cave entrance, and Zhu Que, following Sun Zheng's instructions, began attempting to break the evil energy formation.
"Splash—!"
First, the mixed animal blood was splashed at the entrance of the cave, and then the eighteenth section of the "Purification Mantra" was played on a loop.
After playing it more than twenty times—
"Sizzle!!"
The blood suddenly began to react violently, churning and boiling, emitting plumes of bluish smoke.
Upon seeing this, Zhu Que immediately grabbed the powder of mugwort, cocklebur, and purgative grass and sprinkled it towards the area where smoke was rising.
"Hiss hiss hiss!"
The powder made a piercing sound upon contact with the smoke.
A moment later—
"Whoa!!"
As a wave arose, the gray-black malevolent energy began to shrink and dissipate frantically.
In less than five minutes, the malevolent aura completely dissipated.
"It worked?"
Xiao Cai slightly widened her eyes.
"Give it a try."
Zhu Que tentatively walked towards the cave.
He entered the cave step by step without encountering any obstacles or experiencing any discomfort.
Even that eerie and oppressive atmosphere has disappeared!
It actually worked!