The First Demon of the Chan Sect-Chapter 144 - 90: Duo Bao and Li Qingming

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(PS: Thanks to the ultimate freak King for the reward of 100 Qidian Coins! Please favorite, recommend, and click!)

Kunlun Mountain, Hall of The Three Pure Ones.

"Big Brother, it’s been over two thousand years since Third Brother went out, and he has yet to return. Is it really that difficult to get the first disciple?" Primordial Venerable sat upright on a meditation cushion, with a row of juniors kneeling respectfully on the cushions behind him.

Laozi managed a strained smile, thinking to himself, "A full man does not understand the plight of the hungry."

Helplessly shaking his head, Laozi said, "I have traveled among the Human Clan for more than a thousand years and have not acquired even one disciple. You and I, Saints, are free from disaster and calamity, it’s only a matter of spending a little more time, no serious harm!"

Upon hearing this, Li Qingming’s eyebrows raised slightly, and he said, "Master has a point! Maybe Uncle Tongtian is planning to take ten to eighteen thousand years to find some more disciples to bring back! As the saying goes, ’The disciple does the heavy lifting.’ With more disciples, wouldn’t it save you some trouble?"

Primordial gave Li Qingming a faint glance and said, "You lazybones! Your words sound nice, but why have I never seen you doing anything for your master?"

Li Qingming pouted, thinking to himself, "Before becoming a Saint, you spent your days leisurely discussing the Tao with Master and Uncle, completely at ease. What kind of troubles could you have? After becoming a Saint, things only intensified; I was hardly needed at all!"

Just as Li Qingming was about to retort, he heard Tongtian’s hearty laughter coming from outside the hall.

"Ha ha ha! My brothers have been enjoying themselves quite leisurely!" Tongtian entered the Hall of The Three Pure Ones with a relaxed stride.

"So you knew to come back!" Primordial said sternly, looking at Tongtian. But his expression softened slightly when he looked at the dozen or so disciples following behind Tongtian.

"Second Brother is right to admonish me, during my journey seeking disciples, my heart longed for my brothers. So, I just found these few and hurried back! Come, pay respects to your two Masters!" Tongtian directed the group of young men and women behind him to pay respects to Laozi and Primordial.

Primordial also had his fifteen newly accepted disciples pay their respects to Tongtian.

Li Qingming hid behind his junior disciples, sneakily observing Tongtian’s disciples.

The first thing he noticed were the extraordinarily gorgeous female disciples under Tongtian, beautiful as heavenly immortals. What, you say beasts? This has nothing to do with being a beast; which normal man doesn’t take a second glance at a beautiful woman on the street? Unless he’s a man with an abnormal sexual orientation.

This time Tongtian’s expedition brought back three female disciples. They were the Golden Spirit Saint Mother, transformed from the God-slaying Golden Cicada; the Wudang Saint Mother, transformed from an Innate Spirit Snake; and the Han Zhi Immortal, transformed from an Innate Han Zhi.

The three women gave off distinctly different vibes: The Golden Spirit Saint Mother exuded an aura of mature femininity, yet her demeanor was charming and cute; the Wudang Saint Mother, amidst her seductive charm, radiated a sense of sanctity; the Han Zhi Immortal seemed like a banished immortal, untainted by worldly smoke and fire, her ethereal aura dissipating all worldly thoughts in an instant.

And there was Ci Hang, a girl from the Human Clan and a disciple of Primordial, who without makeup or ornaments, had a natural neighborly beauty that was pure and moving.

Having seen the world’s pleasures in his past life, Li Qingming mused to himself: "Cultivating and practicing Qi in such an environment doesn’t seem too bad indeed!"

Then, Li Qingming saw a slightly immature but plump, round face brimming with smiles. This chubby kid was naturally Duo Bao Taoist.

When Li Qingming spotted Duo Bao, he suddenly found the little chubby boy quite amusing. So he stepped forward, extended his hand to tug at Duo Bao’s chubby face, and said, "Master Uncle, what’s with this little fatty? His body is slightly plump, yet his face is even chubbier than his belly!"

Everyone laughed heartily at his words.

Duo Bao indignantly swatted away Li Qingming’s hand and said, "Who are you! How rude to insult me with your words, I! I demand a duel with you!"

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Tongtian was taken aback, Laozi was taken aback, Primordial Venerable was taken aback...

Looking at Xuan Dou and a group of young boys and girls from the Human Clan, they were watching Duobao with a "you’re going to be in big trouble" look in their eyes. The hall fell into silence for a moment.

Li Qingming was first stunned, then burst into hearty laughter, "Xiao Pang! You say you want to duel with me? Hahaha..."

After all, he was gliding on a New Heavenly Treasure, and even the dim-witted Duobao understood that he was no match for this Daoist. Thinking it over, his best skill was artifact refining. With a twinkle in his small eyes, Duobao loudly declared, "I want to compete with you in artifact refining!"

This time, Xuan Dou was even more speechless, thinking to himself, "Poor child! Don’t you know that Master Uncle Primordial is best at artifact refining? And Master Brother Qingmingzi has even inherited Master Uncle Primordial’s mantle, with a profound mastery over the art of artifact making! This kid is hopeless!"

"Good!" Li Qingming laughed for a while and suddenly felt that Duobao had a lot of guts. He said, "Xiao Pang, if you win against me, I will kowtow and admit my mistake. If you lose, I will also call you Xiao Pang from then on! How about that?"

Not knowing that this was a pitfall, and a deep one at that, Duobao Xiao Pang happily nodded his head, "I don’t need you to kowtow and apologize, just promise not to call me Xiao Pang anymore!"

Primordial nodded to himself: "This little guy has a good disposition!"

Seeing that Duobao agreed, Li Qingming got straight to the point. With a flick of his wrist, he threw out the Qiankun Tripod, a palm-sized artifact that radiated an ancient Taoist charm. Invisible waves of energy spread out from the Qiankun Tripod.

Duobao’s eyes nearly popped out at the sight of the Qiankun Tripod, he opened his mouth wide and exclaimed, "Qi-Qi-Qi, Qiankun Tripod!"

Tongtian chuckled and said, "Duobao, my disciple, I advise you to just accept your fate! Not to mention the absence of this Qiankun Tripod, even just in terms of artifact refining technique, you are no match for Qingmingzi! Better not to disgrace yourself!"

Li Qingming gave Tongtian a sidelong glance, well aware that there was meaning behind his words. So, he put away the Qiankun Tripod and said, "Fine, I won’t use this Qiankun Tripod then! So that certain elders won’t accuse me of disrespect for bullying a junior!"

Tongtian grinned and took out thousands of human-head-sized stones from his storage space, saying, "Here, use these Chaos Spirit Stones, plucked from Chaos, as refining materials! There is no time limit, no shape requirement, and no function requirement. Whoever refines a higher grade Magic Treasure wins!"

Li Qingming smiled and sucked over a pile of Chaos Spirit Stones. Suddenly, a cluster of white flames appeared in the palm of his hand.

Starting to smelt the Chaos Spirit Stones, in the blink of an eye, they began to glow red and then the color of the flames slowly started changing—green, black, red, yellow—constantly shifting among these five colors, the stones inside shrank until they were the size of rice grains.

Then he started smelting another Chaos Spirit Stone. In just a quarter of an hour, thousands of Chaos Spirit Stones had disappeared! And a gray mass, like the color of a mountain rock, quietly floated in front of Li Qingming.

Remembering the famous Banishing Seal from later legends, Li Qingming smirked eerily, as a group of purple flames burned brightly. The dissolved liquid from the Chaos Spirit Stones now throbbed like a heart, looking incredibly beautiful. Under Li Qingming’s deliberate sculpting, an ancient-looking seal gradually revealed its charming appearance.

The small seal was only palm-sized, carved with towering mountains that soared into the clouds, seemingly endless. To everyone present, it clearly looked like a miniature Mount Buzhou. Two ancient Tao Runes marked "Sky Flipping" were inscribed at the base of the seal.

Li Qingming tossed the Banishing Seal to Tongtian, saying, "Limited materials, it can barely make it into the category of low-level Postnatal Spiritual Treasures! If some supremely heavy substances were added and reconstituted with the Qiankun Tripod, advancing to a high-grade Innate Spiritual Treasure wouldn’t be a problem!"

Gawk! Duobao Xiao Pang, who had already been left flabbergasted by Li Qingming’s series of actions, dropped his jaw. Just in this short while, a Postnatal Spirit Treasure was refined? Aren’t Spirit Treasures too cheap then!

"Hmm?" Tongtian examined the Banishing Seal up and down, saying, "It can be big or small, heavy or light. Light as a feather, heavy as Mount Buzhou. It’s actually a wish-fulfilling Spiritual Treasure! Not bad, Qingming!"

Duobao sat down on the ground with a thump, deciding not to refine any treasure, and lamented regretfully, "It’s over! It looks like the nickname ’Xiao Pang’ will follow me through a painful life!"

Everyone burst into laughter!