Hide in the world of gods and demons

Chapter 110 What is Open-mindedness?
"It seems it has truly turned into an evil spirit!"

These claw marks were clearly not human; they even exuded a chilling aura that sent shivers down one's spine.

Thinking of the evil spirits that had been lingering near his house last night, Chen Li's heart began to race: "Luckily, I was careful enough."

He pushed open the gate of the Bai family courtyard, went inside, and checked the exorcism talismans left inside. He found that the spiritual power contained in them had been damaged to varying degrees, but fortunately the damage was not great. The one with the most damage had only lost one-fifth of its power.

It can last for several more times.

When he walked into the master bedroom, he saw the bundle that Bai Jinwang had left behind.

"This should be considered unclaimed property, right?"

Chen Li, unconcerned about the bad luck, put the bundle into his storage bag and then searched the entire house. Unfortunately, apart from a little bit of spirit rice in the rice jar in the kitchen that was worth some money, there was nothing else of value.

He quickly headed back home.

Close the courtyard door.

Zhou Hong hadn't gotten up yet, so he went to the kitchen to get some water to wash up.

Then I went into the talisman-making room.

Take the bundle out of the storage bag and untie it.

Five bottles of fasting pills, five bottles of qi-boosting pills, two water bags, more than twenty talismans, a compass, and a book on astrology and divination.

In addition, there are seven mid-grade spirit stones and more than two hundred low-grade spirit stones.

Chen Li first picked up the compass and examined it carefully. He found that it was just a low-grade magic tool, probably used to find auspicious feng shui sites.

Judging from this luggage, Bai Jinwang was indeed preparing to travel far away and live out his remaining years. However, circumstances could not keep up with changes, and he had already turned into a monster before he even set off.

only……

A cultivator at the ninth level of Qi Refining.

They're so poor!
Although Chen Li knew that most of a cultivator's wealth was in protective items, such as magical artifacts and robes, each of which was quite expensive, he also knew that Bai Jinwang had spent a lot of money visiting relatives and friends and making arrangements for his funeral these days, even giving away his maids and concubines.

Even so, it's still far too little.

There weren't even ten mid-grade spirit stones.

Chen Li picked up a bottle of fasting pills; he had never taken this before.

It is said that eating one can stave off hunger for three days.

Of course, the price is not cheap either. In the pill shop of Luanluo City, a bottle costs five low-grade spirit stones. Few independent cultivators buy it. It is generally used when food is inconvenient while traveling.

He uncorked the bottle and poured out a capsule, immediately releasing a rich, pleasant fragrance. He hesitated for a moment, then put it back.

It's best not to take other people's elixirs.

Especially since the original owner was an evil being.

……

After Zhou Hong got up, Chen Li recounted what he had discovered that morning. Zhou Hong exclaimed, "How could it be so fast!"

“There were signs before, but we were a bit careless.” Chen Li sighed and said, “Now this evil thing is blocked by the exorcism talisman and has disappeared. I don’t know if it will come back. I’ll go outside and check the situation. I guess someone else has died.”

"Then be careful," Zhou Hong advised.

"Don't worry!" Chen Li nodded.

He changed his expression, walked out the door, and hadn't gone far.

I saw a house surrounded by a crowd of people.

"All four members of the family have turned into mummies, it's so tragic!"

"Such things happen quite often in the secular world, but how could they happen here?"

The crowd was abuzz with discussion and a sense of unease.

Chen Li stepped forward.

The door to the house was wide open. He went inside, and there were even more people watching the spectacle.

People come and go, come and go.

It was noisy and bustling, like a vegetable market.

He went to one of the bedrooms and saw two mummified corpses, a man and a woman, lying on the bed. They were called mummified corpses because they had almost lost all moisture, their skin was dry, and their muscles were extremely atrophied, making them look like two skeletons.

What's even stranger is that each corpse had its mouth wide open and its eyes glaring angrily, but it was almost impossible to tell that any battle had taken place.

It seemed as if there was no way to resist.

"Huh, why does this dress look so familiar?" Chen Li noticed a dress in the bedroom: "Wait, one of Bai Jinwang's concubines seems to have one like this too!"

"Could it be..."

"Fellow Daoist, do you know the name of the owner of this house?" Chen Li asked the cultivator watching the commotion.

Seeing Chen Li dressed in a high-class robe and exuding an extraordinary aura, the cultivator beside him dared not be negligent and quickly cupped his hands in greeting: "Greetings, fellow Daoist. I live nearby and happen to know this family. The head of the household is named Qi Feng, a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator who is quite famous in this area. I never expected to encounter such a thing."

Qi Feng!

Right.

This person was Bai Jinwang's close friend during his lifetime.

When Bai Jinwang took a concubine, Chen Li even drank the wedding wine with him.

Thinking of this, he felt a chill run down his spine.

One of the deceased was a close friend, and the other was a former concubine.

He had previously said that Bai Jinwang was open-minded and easygoing.

Looking back now, that was hardly magnanimity.

They all hold a grudge.

Otherwise, why would they have come here immediately after transforming into something strange?

I suppose the family that died the day before yesterday was the same one.

After watching for a while, Chen Li quietly left the place. He then wandered around and inquired everywhere, eventually confirming his guess: the people who had died in the past two days were all Bai Jinwang's former friends, and all of them had taken in his concubines.

All of them were entire families that perished.

Not a single one escaped.

“Oh right, there’s one more…” Chen Li said thoughtfully.

Unfortunately, his acquaintances with Bai Jinwang's friends were only casual acquaintances; he didn't even know their addresses.

For the next few days, people died mysteriously in the city, and the entire city of Luanluo was filled with panic. Even the law enforcement team of the Changsheng Sect in the city was alarmed and searched and patrolled every night, but still could not find any trace of them.

Stimulated by this, the price of talismans for warding off evil and dispelling evil in the city skyrocketed, more than doubling.

They even sold out completely.

Seeing the booming market, Chen Li thought it over and over again, and tried to hold back, but in the end he couldn't resist.

At the market for independent practitioners.

In just two hours, Chen Li sold thirty-eight exorcism talismans and one hundred and fifty warding-off talismans.

A total of 31 mid-grade spirit stones were sold.

They sell so well, everyone is scrambling to buy them, and they're almost always sold out as soon as they're put on display.

In the end, Chen Li, with his strong willpower, managed to restrain himself from continuing to attack and decisively withdrew.

"I only left five exorcism talismans at the Bai family's place, and that kept 'Bai Jinwang' out. I still have thirty-five exorcism talismans on me, and more than two hundred more at home. That should be enough!" Chen Li secretly calculated, "At worst, I can draw more exorcism talismans in the next few days!"

With this unexpected income, Chen Li's savings finally exceeded three hundred mid-grade spirit stones!
……

The training room is located underground.

A blurry figure rapidly changed position; an ordinary person in this situation would probably not even be able to spot it.

"Snapped!"

"Snapped!"

"Snapped!"

Chen Li would occasionally thrust out his sword, creating a deafening explosion in the air, accompanied by a miniature cloud of sonic cones that flashed by.

It has been a year since the last subsonic breakthrough.

Only recently has he managed to break through the sonic barrier, but this breakthrough is limited to thrusting attacks, and each successful attempt is extremely difficult.

A few minutes later.

He stopped, panting heavily, drenched in sweat, his muscles twitching, feeling utterly exhausted.

"I could only break through three times before I could stop. It was too exhausting. Breaking through the speed of sound felt like stabbing into a steel plate. If I hadn't been physically strong and had bones that were far harder than ordinary people, that one strike would have broken my arm and injured my internal organs."

He took out a piece of dried meat that he always kept in his storage bag, chewing it slowly to replenish his strength, while seemingly lost in thought:
"I wonder if such a purely physical attack can break through the golden light shield's defense in one strike?"

Then he shook his head.

He simply didn't dare to try!
The light pierced the air, and the terrible resistance caused the bones in his arm to ache faintly, as if they were about to break.

If you were to stab at the golden protective shield... you'd have to give up your hand.

"My body is still not strong enough. My explosive power is enough, but my physical strength can't handle it at all. Sigh, I'll take it slow."

He rested for a while, and once his strength was restored, he practiced again.

……

late at night.

It's approaching early morning.

Chen Li, who was fast asleep, was suddenly and inexplicably awakened, and immediately lost all desire to sleep.

Unable to fall asleep, he decided to stop sleeping altogether. He gently removed the arms and legs wrapped around his body, got up, put on his robes, went to the kitchen to wash up, and then headed to the talisman-making room. His research on invisibility techniques had made considerable progress these past few days.

We've reached a critical juncture.

Chen Li felt that it would take at most ten days to half a month to complete.

The scroll gifted by the Yu family patriarch was filled with dense annotations, saving him a lot of effort and preventing him from taking many detours.

Just then, he vaguely heard a slight noise and suddenly stopped.

He listened carefully for a while.

He seemed to have thought of something, and his expression changed slightly.

He quickly opened the door, took a few quick steps, and leaped onto the top of the wall.

My heart nearly skipped a beat when I saw it.

The night is like water.

A thin layer of mist hung over the ground.

A gaunt figure with disheveled hair and shrouded in a hazy shadow stood at the entrance of the Bai family's residence. At this moment, a pair of scarlet eyes were staring intently at him, and an eerie and sinister aura permeated the air.

The two faced each other in silence.

"Bai Jinwang!?" Chen Li exclaimed.

Bai Jinwang continued to stare intently at him, his eyes growing increasingly fierce.

Chen Li's heart pounded. Although he was somewhat wary of this thing, he wasn't afraid. Since it didn't dare to come forward, it meant it was afraid of him, or afraid of the exorcising talisman on his body.

A talisman for warding off evil appeared in his hand.

It was fired instantly.

The talisman for warding off evil quickly burned in mid-air.

A force that dispels evil swept outwards.

'Bai Jinwang' let out a low growl, its voice unlike that of a human, like the growl of a prehistoric beast, carrying a ferocious and terrifying quality. At the same time, Chen Li felt a blur before his eyes, and the other party turned into a blur, quickly escaping and disappearing without a trace.

"What an amazing speed..."

Chen Li didn't chase after him, nor could he catch up.

"It's an evil spirit, hurry!" The faint sound of hurried footsteps could be heard in the distance.

It was obvious that the night patrol had arrived.

Chen Li didn't want to see these people, so he jumped off the wall and went back inside.

Without the intervention of a Foundation Establishment cultivator, this evil spirit would likely be impossible to subdue.

"Has his strength increased this much after the transformation?" Chen Li wondered to himself.

(End of this chapter)