I Only Want to Lie Flat But Am Forced to Cultivate Immortality-Chapter 98 - 74 Practice Cooking More_2

The Gray Immortal in his arms couldn’t sit still anymore. It poked its head out and started to shriek in a flurry. Xu Qing couldn’t quite understand, but he felt that the curses it spat were even filthier.

"As long as there’s breath in this old man, I won’t allow you to..."

Before the other could finish speaking, Xu Qing saw that dawn was breaking and there were more pedestrians around. Thus, he controlled the puppet, hefted the old man, and bolted on his feet.

Not far away, the girl who was preparing to chant the Assist Soldier Spell for the second time was left standing there, dumbfounded. It took her a while to come to her senses.

She shouted "Grandpa!" and without thinking through why the other person had kidnapped her grandfather, she drove her donkey cart and chased towards the direction where the puppet vanished.

Outside Baima Temple, in an inconspicuous corner.

Xu Qing looked at the old man who had been tormented quite badly and felt a little guilty.

He couldn’t help desiring the old man’s skills.

Back at the temple fair, he saw the old man use the Gray Immortal’s possession to see objects from afar, and also perform the Mouse Moving Wealth spell and the art of divination. That caught his interest.

As for the Mouse Moving Wealth and divination, he wasn’t too interested. What Xu Qing truly wanted to learn was the skill of "Guessing Objects Through a Partition".

In his own Funeral Shop, there were two coffins placed there whose backgrounds he wasn’t sure of.

Now that he had finally found the skill to see and take objects from a distance, he couldn’t let the opportunity slip.

After all, only by knowing what was inside those two coffins could he find peace of mind.

In the corner, the chubby gray rat started bowing to Xu Qing. Xu Qing didn’t know what it was saying; he could only feel that the big rat wasn’t as loud as before and even had a hint of obsequiousness.

Xu Qing, wearing a human skin mask and draped in the bamboo cloak given to him by the Wang family’s little sister in Wanshou Village, looked every bit the wandering vagabond of the martial world.

The old man initially thought Xu Qing was going to forcibly abduct a woman and was completely panicked.

"What on earth do you want?"

Xu Qing didn’t waste words and got straight to the point: "Your Galloping Immortal skills are pretty good. I want to learn. Teach me."

"..."

The old man was stubborn and didn’t want to teach him, thinking that this wasn’t any way to ask for help.

But the Immortal spirit, while flattering Xu Qing with its bows, turned and cursed at the old man, urging him to quickly teach the Immortal-summoning skills to Xu Qing.

The Immortal spirit defected first, becoming a traitor. So what choice did he, the Galloping Immortal Disciple, have?

Unwillingly, he imparted the method of setting up the Immortal summoning altar to Xu Qing.

In the end, the old man felt helpless.

The Immortal spirit he worshipped had been passed down for three generations. It was more cunning than anyone, not only good at divination but also very shrewd.

For it to go out of its way to flatter someone, that person was definitely not an ordinary Martial Master.

After memorizing the detailed method for summoning the Immortal, Xu Qing was worried the old man might conceal something, so he took out a Truth Pill and made the old man ingest it.

With both verifications, there wasn’t much discrepancy. The old man answered every question, and Xu Qing learned a lot about the shady professions.

For instance, there were civil and martial methods to summon the Immortal. The civil method involved beating waist drums or playing flutes, shaking rattles, chanting folk songs, divining with yarrow sticks, and burning incense.

The martial method was more violent; it involved using Immortal Summoning Whips, Willow Wood Circles, and the Ten Thousand Immortals Banner. All disciples running the shops as Galloping Immortals, with the Immortal spirits as hired hands, were considered martial methods.

Some even had the Immortal spirits sing little ditties or warm their beds.

These were all underhanded and crooked practices, favored mainly by people who raised Willow Immortals, Hu Immortals, and Tragic Immortals.

Willow Immortals were originally snake demons and mostly served as House Guardian Immortals. Males were usually handsome and literate, while females were gentle and often repaid kindness.

Hu Immortals were foxes. They were not only martial methods but also heavy users of civil methods.

Xu Qing learned from the old man that Galloping Immortal Disciples typically had short lifespans, with Hu Immortals’ disciples often having the shortest. The specific reasons were only known to the individuals involved.

The last category was Tragic Immortals. These martial methods also tended toward double-dealing, and there were fewer Galloping Immortal Disciples because Tragic Immortals were ghosts with heavy yin energy, often affecting the disciples when possessed.

The old man lived to such an old age due to worshipping the Gray Immortal.

Thinking about it, the big rat could probably transform into a form with sneaky eyes and brows. If it were a Hu Immortal maiden or a Hu Immortal gentleman, the old man’s grave would have been covered with tall grass long ago.

Fox Immortals were known to be affectionate.

After wringing every bit of knowledge from the old man, Xu Qing didn’t take advantage of him for nothing. He fed the old man some pills to restore his stamina and vitality and left some silver pieces before leaving Baima Temple without looking back.

Outside Baima Temple, the old man’s granddaughter couldn’t find her grandpa and had to return to Jin Sect to report to the authorities. After a day and night, her grandfather returned to the inn by himself, but he was no longer the same as before.

The old man looked ruddy and vibrant, and even his once-cloudy eyes had become much clearer, as if he had turned into a different person.

...

In Jinmen Prefecture, a carriage made its way through a maze of winding streets, finally stopping in front of an alley.

Xu Qing put on the human skin mask he got from Bai Luo, instantly changing his appearance.

He made his way to a courtyard at the end of the alley and knocked on the door rhythmically using the Celestial Heart Sect’s secret code.

A voice came from inside: "It’s the contact code. It must be Bai Luo Guardian. Quickly, open the door."

This courtyard was none other than a Celestial Heart Sect hideout Xu Qing learned about from Bai Luo’s Walking Lantern.

Inside wasn’t just anyone; it was Qing Luo, one of the Celestial Heart Sect’s Five Luo Guardians.

According to custom, when reading the life of the deceased, the most vivid and cared-about memories were the clearest.

Xu Qing, through reading Bai Luo’s life, found that although Qing Luo and Bai Luo didn’t meet often, every meeting was etched clearly in Bai Luo’s mind.

Now, as Xu Qing walked into the courtyard and again saw the cold beauty before him, he finally understood where this feeling came from.

The bride that Bai Luo strangled on his wedding night bore a seventy-percent resemblance to Qing Luo.

"Which faction are you from? Why do I find you unfamiliar?"

Qing Luo’s face was pale, and there was a strong smell of wound medicine. Clearly, her injuries hadn’t healed.

"Which faction I’m from isn’t important. What’s important is that Bai Luo is dead, and on his deathbed, he entrusted me with a message for you."

"What’s the message?" Qing Luo furrowed her brows, looking at the mysterious young man who approached her.

"How should I know? You’ll have to ask him personally."

Qing Luo, always cautious, had prepared multiple backup plans when the young man entered the room.

Seeing that Xu Qing wasn’t even pretending, she inwardly felt it was a pity.

If he took one step closer, she would have confidence in using the Sinan Sword Technique taught by Bai Luo to target his vital spots.

Even if the young man could react quickly, there was no way he could escape the sealed momentum of her sword.

Though she hadn’t gotten the best opportunity to strike, she still had backup plans to control the situation.

Qing Luo’s icy face grew even colder. Just as Xu Qing was about to launch a sleeve arrow at her, she threw out a handful of lethal poison needles.

Thud—

The sleeve arrow was struck down by Qing Luo’s water sleeves and fell to the ground.

At the same time, the sound of poison needles clattering on the ground was heard in front of Xu Qing.

"A Horizontal Martial Artist?" Qing Luo’s expression changed slightly. Fortunately, she had a way to deal with this.

The ears, nose, mouth, and eyes of a Horizontal Martial Artist were significant weaknesses. Qing Luo reacted quickly, pulling out a bag of poisonous powder from her sleeve and throwing it towards Xu Qing’s face.

Such despicable and sinister tactics!

Almost simultaneously, Xu Qing tossed out specially made lime powder, instantly enveloping them in a cloud of dust.

The entire room was filled with the acrid, throat-burning fumes of the poisonous powders.

A disciple who heard the commotion and rushed into the room fell to the ground before he could assess the situation.

Qing Luo never expected the young man to be equally unscrupulous, and his specially made lime powder was clearly more potent.

Even though she immediately took an antidote, it could only counteract her own poison powder.

Qing Luo gripped her long sword as her vision grew blurry.

Before losing consciousness completely, she used all her strength to ask, "Why are you unaffected?"

In the midst of the rainbow-hued dust, Xu Qing, covered in toxic powder, approached Qing Luo and grinned:

"Practice more if you’re weak!"