Poor Taoist Qiu Chuji

Chapter 392 Gold Mining and Ticket Sales

"No, why should I run away?" Qiu Chuji's first thought was to just fight head-on. Since entering the mythical world, before he obtained the lotus body and was reshaped by creation, he had to be more careful, since there were many people more powerful than him.

After a long period of cultivation, several major opportunities, and a complete transformation, he still had to be somewhat restrained in his conduct... So, didn't he waste his opportunities and cultivation?
As the saying goes, "Man fights for a breath, Buddha fights for a stick of incense."

If you lose your breath, there's not much point in living.

Besides, as long as the Golden Immortal doesn't appear, who is he afraid of, those ordinary immortals and Buddhas?

Let's fight then!

It's as if they've never been hunted down by the whole world.

But once his thoughts were no longer constrained, Qiu Chuji completely let go of his mind, and the sparks of his previously misguided thinking, as well as the wisdom that had been obscured by layers of information since coming to this world, were rekindled.

A somewhat absurd, yet potentially achievable, idea suddenly emerged.

It is known that he possesses the Qi of Creation, which may be able to resolve the pollution of 'divine matter'. However, his 'immortality' is insufficient, and once exposed, he will be targeted by countless gods and Buddhas. The path of ascending to heaven in one step, first becoming a Golden Immortal, then a Great Luo Immortal, and becoming invincible in the universe is also not feasible.

Therefore, the predicament he will face will have both external and internal causes.

If you intend to follow a single path to the end, you are destined to be killed every ten steps. The Golden Immortal Path is the Asura Path. Slay countless gods and Buddhas to seize 'immortality', and then try to cleanse everything through the tempering and struggle of blood and fire.

High returns, but also higher risks.

In that case, why not choose another path, pay a slightly lower price, but with much less risk and potentially greater returns?

"Do you desire the Qi of Creation?" Qiu Chuji asked Yang Jian.

Yang Jian looked at Qiu Chuji and nodded.

Of course!
Although his current level of contamination is not high, he has not yet escaped its effects. Moreover, if he continues to merge with 'immortality,' this contamination will intensify. Who knows when he will become completely corrupted and evil, just like his colleagues in the Heavenly Court.

The Qi of Creation is indeed the only known solution.

"Alright! Then I'll give it to you!" Qiu Chuji drew a wisp of creation energy from the Heaven-Mending Stone and threw it at Yang Jian.

Yang Jian swiftly grasped this wisp of creation energy in his hand, and after a moment's thought, he stored it in the fleshy growth that had grown between his eyebrows.

At an almost visible speed, the tumor actually shrank, eventually becoming a small, raised fleshy bump the size of a fingernail. Although it still looked a bit strange, it looked much more natural.

He has regained about 30% of his former handsomeness.

At this moment, Qiu Chuji spoke: "You were the one who helped me obtain the Heaven-Mending Stone, so I will extract three strands of Creation Qi for you every day for one hundred days."

Yang Jian regained more composure, realizing that this Qi of Creation would be very beneficial to stabilizing his state, so he asked, "And then? Do you have any other requests?"

Qiu Chuji held up two fingers and said, "Two requirements!"

"First, I still need you to protect me. If anyone tries to hit me, you fight them for me. If I want to hit someone, you fight them for me too!"

Yang Jian is quite a capable fighter!

Originally the number one war god in the Three Realms, he has now merged with the other self in this realm. Although his rationality has declined, his combat power may have increased.

As long as the Golden Immortal doesn't appear, the two of them working together can withstand any threat.

"Second, help me spread the word. Tell those gods, Buddhas, and immortals in the heavens that if they want to obtain a stable state of Creation Qi, they should exchange it for a three-for-one exchange of three well-extracted Undying Essences for one of my Creation Qis!"

Yang Jian immediately understood Qiu Chuji's idea. He admired Qiu Chuji's boldness, but he also had to admit that although it was like snatching chestnuts from the fire, it was a way to protect himself and obtain the greatest possible benefit.

As long as the initial pressure is withstood, with the formation of the interest chain and some immortals and Buddhas returning to reason through the Qi of Creation, many more people will unite around Qiu Chuji, deterring those who want to exploit others from acting rashly.

Qiu Chuji's method is actually similar to the business model of many gold mines, jade mines, and gemstone parks. He gave up one-off deals and chose a steady, long-term approach.

By offering discounts to the public, they gain even more.

The risks are all in the early stages; after that, it's all profit.

"Alright! I'll do a screening first and recommend those immortals who have more remaining rationality and outstanding combat power to you."

"However, you can't just sit idly by. Every time someone comes, you have to subdue them first, otherwise, given their current mindset, they won't be able to talk to you properly."

"Once you've gathered enough people, you can expand the scope of the transaction," Yang Jian said, filling in the small loophole in Qiu Chuji's plan.

"Alright! Then I'll have to trouble you, Brother Yang!" Qiu Chuji said, cupping his hands in greeting.

After saying this, Qiu Chuji extracted ten strands of Creation Qi from the Heaven-Mending Stone and handed them to Yang Jian, saying that this was the deposit to persuade the immortals to come. Yang Jian took the ten strands of Creation Qi, his eyes flashing with greed, but he still restrained the impulse driven by his instincts, nodded to Qiu Chuji, and then disappeared from the spot.

Clearly, the Qi of Creation that was previously incorporated was indeed very effective.

After Yang Jian left, Qiu Chuji looked at the immortal pill in the bronze cauldron again, and his previous impatience disappeared.

This exchange of immortality for the Qi of Creation was not only a relatively stable way for Qiu Chuji to obtain a large amount of immortality, but also a way for him to collect more samples of the Qi of Creation to neutralize, counteract, and subdue immortality.

Once enough information is collected and the patterns are summarized, the probability of Qiu Chuji overcoming contamination will increase significantly the moment he truly integrates with immortality.

Before Yang Jian returned with the other immortals, Qiu Chuji used the Jade Void Bell to return to his small world, where he perfected his newly summarized and refined battle tactics.

At the same time, place the Sky-Mending Stone in the void, draw primordial energy from the void, and replenish the Qi of creation in the Sky-Mending Stone.

The idea model and the temporary small-world model are fixed one by one, and the best combination is deduced.

The replenishment of the Qi of Creation also went very smoothly.

Time flew by, and two days later, Yang Jian arrived with the Barefoot Immortal and the Kitchen God.

Both of them are described as bizarre, lacking any of the elegance or solemnity of immortals or deities. They exude a sense of distortion and madness, clearly having absorbed a great deal of immortality and fallen into darkness and depravity.

Qiu Chuji fought against them one by one, and with the advantage of his thought clones and the home field framework of the small world, he won without any suspense.

After defeating them, a deal was made as agreed, and fifteen strands of immortality were obtained, all of which were temporarily stored in the bronze cauldron and integrated into the immortal pill.

The pills, which were originally crystalline in shape, have grown to the size of a longan, making them even more tempting to the body's instincts.

Qiu Chuji had to place this thing further away from himself, lest he be unable to withstand it and it melt in his mouth.

Another day, Yang Jian summoned the four demon generals and Lei Zhenzi.

Qiu Chuji defeated them one by one, and obtained twenty immortal essences through the trade. He then kept Lei Zhenzi by paying him one creation essence every ten days, and bribed him to become a protector of the Dao.

After such a leisurely transaction had been going on for more than ten days, a group of Western Arhats came over, intending to abduct Qiu Chuji and turn him into a tool for producing the Qi of Creation.

Their original gilded robes had become scabs on their festering flesh.

A third arm grows from the left shoulder of an Arhat statue, with fingers bent like spider legs and dark red blood stains embedded in the nail crevices.

His pupils split into three amber-colored lobes, swirling erratically in his sunken eye sockets. His upright, crimson eyebrows pierced through the rotting flesh on his forehead, with congealed black pus hanging from their tips.

In the northwest corner, a charnel house with a dislocated spine is curled up, with blue smoke constantly seeping from its seven orifices. Karmic fire surges in its swastika-shaped pupils. Half a Buddhist rosary hangs from its broken earlobe, with countless eyeballs protruding from the surface of each bead, opening and closing with its breathing.

The ugliest of them all is the Arhat Subduing the Tiger, whose neck is twisted 360 degrees and whose vertical eyes, split open at the Adam's apple, are dripping with a mixture of gold paint and blood.

His once imposing eyebrows had mutated into two centipedes, wriggling on his festering brow bone. Wherever his tentacles brushed, tiny fleshy sprouts would emerge from the rotting beams. His withered hands still maintained the Demon-Subduing Seal, but between his fingers crawled corpse beetles that were laying eggs.

These fallen Arhats maintained a strange synchronization; their festering vocal cords resonated with fragments of the Rebirth Mantra, and rotting lotus patterns undulated beneath their skin, as if countless maggots were crawling between their robes and flesh.

Even though Qiu Chuji had seen many terrifying images of deities who had turned to the dark side during this period, he was still shocked by the appearance of these Arhats.

This indicates that these Arhats not only fused with a large amount of unrefined 'divine matter', but also committed many acts that violated their original principles and precepts, resulting in the simultaneous degeneration of their primordial spirit and physical body, with an effect far exceeding one plus one.

Before Qiu Chuji could even make a move, Lei Zhenzi, Yang Jian, Wuqu Xingjun, Julingshen, and other bodyguards and thugs recruited by Qiu Chuji rushed forward.

Subsequently, some of the immortals and deities who had come to Qiu Chuji to make a deal also realized what was going on.

What's coming here isn't some Arhat at all, it's clearly a treasure delivered to our door.

Judging from their mutated appearance, if we were to sift through them... we could extract at least a few hundred strands of immortality, enough to make a hefty profit from Qiu Chuji.

Clearly, Qiu Chuji's strategy was beginning to show results.

The 'divine substance' from another realm nearly destroyed the original rules and structure of this mythical world.

Qiu Chuji, by using his own advantages and at the cost of some of his Creation Qi, reshaped some basic rules, naturally attracting those strong individuals who chose to abide by the rules to his side.

This is actually the most basic and simplest power and authority.

Having gathered some of the immortals and deities, Qiu Chuji might very well be able to call himself "Emperor" in this world.

(End of this chapter)