Returning from the abyss

Chapter 1336: All Calculations
Lu Ning still had to admit that Zhao Yuqiao was not a good guy. If she had known foresight, she probably wouldn't have fallen into the current predicament. Even if this kind of experienced tourist put his calculations on the table, people would ignore the real problems.

However, I did not know this yesterday, which was the first day of the Water and Land Dharma Assembly.

With such a convenient thing as the Demon Eye, and a certain range, it was not that difficult for Lu Ning to find the third demon that was causing trouble. It was a wax figure of the Fire Element, usually lying in the garbage dump. No one noticed it at all, and even thought it was just a broken stone.

When Lu Ning approached, it finally made a slight movement. Perhaps it was because of the demon eyes, or perhaps it had the innate ability to detect that someone was coming for it. In any case, when Lu Ning approached, the demon suddenly jumped up, then turned around and ran away!
It was the first time that Lu Ning encountered a demon that ran away when it saw people, so she was thinking about how to fight it all the way and she didn't react for a moment.

But then, Lu Ning chased after him. There was no one in this place now, so she didn't need to worry about accidentally hurting anyone, so she grabbed a flying knife from her arms and threw it out. The flying knife she customized was hollow and could emit needles during flight. It was not very powerful, but it could be poisoned.

However, Lu Ning has not had the chance to find a suitable poison yet. The poison Zhao Yuqiao just gave her naturally had no time to be applied to the needle in the flying knife, but she also had a better way to use it.

When the wax figure was halfway through its run, it saw the silver needle falling, but it was not worried at all. After all, as a body made of wax, any knife cuts or needle pricks would have no effect on it.

Several needles pierced its back, but the wax figure was completely unaware and continued to run very fast. Even though Lu Ning used her Qinggong skills, she still couldn't catch up with it.

"bingo."

While Lu Ning continued to chase, he pulled out a knife coin from his lapel and threw it up gently.

The wax figure in the distance suddenly stumbled, as if it had lost the ability to run, and fell headfirst to the ground, even sliding a distance, leaving a white wax mark.

At the same time, Lu Ning felt her speed suddenly increase, and she almost couldn't control it. However, Lu Ning was already familiar with how to quickly master some sudden abilities. After adjusting for a moment, she rushed to the wax figure with this sudden speed.

The demon also suddenly jumped up, and its arms had expanded into two huge balls of wax skin like a cattail leaf fan, and they covered Lu Ning. However, Lu Ning's speed did not slow down, and he turned behind the wax man in a flash. The wax man missed, and when he turned his head, Lu Ning cut off his head with a sword.

The wax figure's head was not a vital point, but Lu Ning also used a little innate purple qi in this sword. The destructive energy of the innate true qi attached to the sword edge, and the wax figure felt pain instantly. It could not maintain its human form and immediately fell to the ground, becoming a squirming wax ball. Lu Ning did not approach, but waited for a while beside it, until the wax ball gradually began to calm down, then he took out the bottle Zhao Yuqiao gave him and carefully poured a pill on the wax ball.

The moment the pills came into contact, the wax ball turned from white to black and gray and became completely motionless. Lu Ning pulled a piece of rag from the side, scooped up the wax ball, and rushed to the door of Zhao Yuqiao's shabby house, throwing the bag of things directly into the courtyard wall.

Then she ran to the man's house without stopping. Before the magic pearl could seduce the next person, Lu Ning broke into her through the window, pressed two teacups that were coated with poison inside, sealed them with mud, and took her away without her even having a chance to struggle.

With such efficiency in "catching monsters", by the time night fell, Lu Ning had only the Iron Leaf Bodhisattva left to deal with, and he was probably the most troublesome one.

The wax man and the demon bead only used their demonic powers to influence ordinary people, and they had not yet reached the point of releasing demonic energy, while the Iron Leaf Bodhisattva had already turned the room into his own domain, just like the Drowned Shadow. Lu Ning could not judge the level of the demon, but she knew intuitively that the Iron Leaf Bodhisattva was more difficult to deal with.

When she returned to the hut where Iron Leaf Bodhisattva was causing trouble, the man who had gone to attend the water and land ceremony had also returned, and was now grabbing the boy's hair and cursing loudly.

"Don't you know where your mother is? What do you do for a living? I raised you to this age and you ended up raising a fool? I asked you to look after the house, but you can abandon her?"

The boy just cried but said nothing. The man slapped the boy angrily, threw him to the ground, and then walked towards the house.

He ignored the Bodhisattva statue standing at the door, walked around it automatically, and walked into the house. Lu Ning stood outside the door and clearly saw the Iron Leaf Bodhisattva looking up at him.

Lu Ning would not avoid it, she was originally coming for the Iron Leaf Bodhisattva. To be honest, she had not defeated a big demon or a demon general level demon head-on so far. Of course, it was estimated that these specially selected ones were all evil spirits.

Now that she has accumulated enough things, she really wants to try out how big the gap in strength is between herself and the demons.

The moment Lu Ning stepped through the door, she was pulled into the realm of Bodhisattva Tieye. She immediately drew her sword and looked around vigilantly.

The original small courtyard has expanded to the size of a city. The sky above the city is filled with dark clouds that seem to never disappear, and the source of these dark clouds is the incense and candles lit by every household in the city. Lu Ning saw that all places were filled with the evil spirit of the gold element. Unlike the drowned shadow, this demon spread his magic power throughout the domain.

But there was no trace of Iron Leaf Bodhisattva in the city.

"Soul separation syndrome... it's all here."

There are many people in this city, each of them kneeling in their own home, murmuring constantly. Their souls are detained in this area, chanting constantly, providing strength for Iron Leaf Bodhisattva. Perhaps when it really gathers enough people to chant for it, it will turn into a demon king.

However, Lu Ning was basically immune to the chanting sounds. As a tourist, her original mental resistance plus her attainments in the spiritual field were enough to ignore similar weak interference. After all, the chanting sounds were actually not much different from the whispers that the demon eyes brought to her mind.

"Aren't you coming out?" Lu Ning walked to the street and looked around. Every household was indoors and Iron Leaf Bodhisattva did not appear in front of her in person.

Probably before, Bodhisattva Tieye relied on chanting scriptures to brainwash people, and at the very least, people would be affected. But this was the first time he had seen someone like Lu Ning who didn't take it seriously at all.

Lu Ning broke open the door of a house, forced her way in, and then kicked over the incense table in the house. No one in the room made a sound, only the Iron Leaf Bodhisattva statue she kicked down was shattered into a pile of mud.

Then, she tried many methods, whether it was burning or chopping off the head of the statue, none of these brought any effect. Finally, Lu Ning took out a statue from a house, placed it directly in the middle of the street, sat cross-legged, took out the knife coin, and began to recite in a low voice in front of the Iron Leaf Bodhisattva.

Demons are different from real gods and Buddhas. They don't need people's sincere belief at all. Iron Leaf Bodhisattva is just a title. Lu Ning's chanting soon took effect. A void channel began to form in her spiritual sea. She could vaguely see that the invisible pipes in the fragrant mist pierced into everyone's mind and extracted something from their brains.

Now, this tube has also pierced into Lu Ning's mind, and some things are flowing out of her. However, taking anything away from Lu Ning requires a price, unless the gap in strength is so great that the price can be ignored.

Lu Ning's vision suddenly changed to the sky, overlooking the entire city. What she exchanged in return was the vision possessed by "Iron Leaf Bodhisattva".

The vision itself was useless to her, but it could directly reveal the location of the Iron Leaf Bodhisattva. If she hadn't seized this vision, how would she know that the sky was actually very low?
Lu Ning retracted her sight, flew onto the roof, poured innate purple energy into the sword, and threw the sword directly into the air. As the sword tip with a ray of purple light nailed into the sky, a large number of cracks appeared in the field, accompanied by the sound of metal collapsing, the small courtyard reappeared in front of Lu Ning, and the Iron Leaf Bodhisattva had already extended his palm in front of her.

Cracks appeared in her rusty palms. Lu Ning was still standing at the door, and the sword in her hand had already pierced into the chest of the Iron Leaf Bodhisattva. There was no expression on that iron face, but Lu Ning could feel the disbelief in its spirit.

Almost.

Lu Ning felt that the demon eye in his mind was getting excited, as if it felt that a demon had suffered misfortune, and it would be even happier. Lu Ning pulled out his sword with force, and the Iron Leaf Bodhisattva also trembled. Its cracked body was already difficult to move, and even if Lu Ning took out the poison and pressed it on its forehead, it did not react any more.

However, just when Lu Ning subdued Iron Leaf Bodhisattva, the poison pill suddenly burst into light, enveloped Iron Leaf Bodhisattva, and took it away in an instant.

Lu Ning was stunned, and then she realized that she seemed to have been deceived by Zhao Yuqiao - even after she had been prepared to a certain extent, this was still the case.

When she turned around, she saw two people standing outside the door. One was dressed in Taoist clothes with a look of surprise on his face, while the other was in a sky-blue robe. He was obviously an official and looked quite satisfied.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

"You are--"

"Girl, your performance is the most outstanding today. You will definitely be the first in this demon-slaying competition today." The man in the sky-blue robe clapped his hands and smiled, "Come with me to the palace today."

"Wait a minute, demon-slaying competition..."

Lu Ning did remember that there was such a competition, but she thought it was a competition of magic or something like that, and the document she had received previously did not provide any detailed description of what the content of the competition was.

Now that I think about it, there are still so many demons in the city that have not been caught. What was the purpose of the Demon Suppression Division patrolling the city before? These demons were probably left behind on purpose for the competition.

Thinking of this, how could Lu Ning not know that Zhao Yuqiao deliberately asked her to take the blame?

"Why, young lady, since you have defeated the demon in the competition, it is considered as part of the competition. You are not going to refuse, are you?" The man in the azure clothes waved his sleeves gently, "Don't worry, a young and capable person like you will definitely be valued by the emperor. After all, the emperor is eager to recruit talented people now."

Lu Ning had not yet planned to fall out with the Wei royal family, so she couldn't just turn against them now. The official's words were irresistible, and she seemed to have no choice.

"May I ask who you are..." Lu Ning bowed.

"Imperial Astronomical Observatory, Yu Zheng." The man smiled and said, "Come with me. We have prepared accommodations for all the talented people in the palace."

As for the Taoist priest on the other side, Yu Zheng didn't even look at him and just left with Lu Ning.

Lu Ning had never expected that she would be led in openly to the palace, which she had previously tried so hard to sneak into. Of course, she had memorized the layout of the palace, but now that she was led in, she realized that the level of security was very different from before the emperor came.

The fixed and mobile sentries took turns, and judging from their attire, they came from several different government offices. Lu Ning recognized the attire of the Imperial Palace, the Demon Suppression Division, and the Imperial Observatory, and in addition to these, there were several other different attire, and no one knew what they represented.

"Miss, you won the first place in the first test, so you are destined to be an official. If you can perform well in the competition in front of the emperor tomorrow and be crowned the champion, the emperor will certainly reward you generously. Just rest and recuperate. If you want to walk around, it's best to stay around your residence. After all, there are many people in the palace now, so you may have to be more strict. If these guards see suspicious people, they can kill them first and report later." Yu Zheng led Lu Ning to a row of small houses. This place was originally for palace maids and eunuchs to live in, but now it should be cleaned up to accommodate the people selected in various competitions.

"I wonder if there will be detailed procedures for the competition in front of the emperor tomorrow?" Lu Ning asked, "I am just a commoner, I am afraid I will be inappropriate in front of the emperor."

"Young lady, you are worrying too much. Even if we want to teach you etiquette, we have to wait until you enter the court and are given an official position. But now, the emperor wants to see your original appearance. The day after tomorrow, just wait for me to call you. Remember, I brought you in, and only when I call you can you go to the imperial court for competition."

"Yes."

"Very good. If you need anything, just call the eunuchs and palace maids outside. If it is reasonable, we will arrange it for you. In this case, I still have to report, so I'll say goodbye now." Yu Zheng bowed, put Lu Ning in front of a door, took the key from the windowsill and gave it to her, then turned and left.

After he left, Lu Ning's face darkened slightly. Yu Zheng had never asked her name along the way. Either her name was unimportant, which might be okay; or Yu Zheng already knew her identity and background, which was a worse situation.

However, she had no other good solution. Although she had some escape routes left before and could easily leave here, that would be equivalent to breaking up with the Wei court.

It seemed that there was nothing she could do except sleep.