fairy family

Chapter 18: Life-saving puppet, beating the flower lady

Yu Que sat cross-legged in the smoke, thinking in his heart: "The hair-tying, burning armor and body-replacing ritual is also a ritual..."

The so-called rituals refer to the rituals of fasting and offering sacrifices, and praying for blessings. In short, they are the rituals and ceremonies performed by immortals.

It can achieve the effects of calling ghosts, practicing magic, communicating with demons, increasing power, refining treasures, etc. through a series of complex steps, such as stepping on the magic circle, opening the altar and giving alms.

Compared with the magic arts that rely directly on household gods, the ritual performance process is complicated, often requiring the establishment of an altar and formation, and requires various offerings and magical instruments. Sometimes it also requires prior abstinence and purification, as well as helpers such as golden boys and jade girls.

However, its power is often much more comprehensive and magical than that of the immortal arts, and it can be deployed in advance to take effect.

For example, the inheritance of the alchemist that Yu Que has been thinking about is actually a kind of ritual.

Now that he has inherited another ritual, he is very happy.

Especially when Yu Que carefully read through the arrangement process and function of the "Knotting Hair Fever Armor Substitute Ceremony", his expression was even more delighted:
"I didn't expect this item to be a life-saving ritual!"

According to the information conveyed by the bookworm ghost, this ritual is to take the hair and fingernails of the practitioner and tie them into a small hair puppet to serve as a substitute.

If there is a thief trying to murder the caster, especially using evil magic, such as nightmares, black magic, etc., the tied hair puppet will protect the caster from disaster and give a warning.

If one encounters danger outside, the caster can also insert the villain in the place, impersonating himself, to confuse demons and thieves, and then he can take the opportunity to escape like a cicada escaping from its shell, thus saving his life.

"Good, good, good!" The more Yu Que pondered over this thing, the more he felt that this ritual was truly amazing.

According to the description of the ritual, as long as this item is successfully refined, it can block all evil spells from demons and ghosts below the ninth level.

If the quality of the magic is intact and the substitute puppet has been with the caster for a long time, some eighth-grade evil magic of demons and ghosts can be resisted.

"It can even partially resist an eighth-grade demon ghost. No wonder this thing is passed down by an eighth-grade book ghost."

The more Yu Que thought about it, the more he wanted to try it. He immediately made up his mind to refine this thing and wear it on his body day and night.

However, the effect of the "Knotting Hair Fever Armor Substitute Ritual" is so miraculous that the cost of refining it is naturally not low.

If you want to refine this thing, a "hundred-year-old ghost" is the most basic material. Other materials such as gold wire, silver wire, red mica, etc. are also expensive.

Moreover, even a hundred-year-old ghost may not be successfully refined. The success rate of refining a puppet depends on the skills of the refiner.

Therefore, in the eyes of ordinary people, using a hundred-year-old ghost to resist the murder of a ninth-grade demon ghost, and the need for more than one hundred-year-old ghost, this deal is not very cost-effective.

But this problem is not a problem for Yu Que.

He pondered over this flaw and almost wanted to laugh out loud.

After all, he now has the black gourd in his hand. He lacks everything else, but he has the opportunity to obtain the century-old ghost.

"This ritual is quite suitable for me!"

Yu Que was still thinking that if he used ghosts that were over a hundred years old to offer sacrifices, he would have a great chance of being able to refine the excellent hair puppet in the "Hair-Knotting and Armor-burning Substitute Ceremony" that could resist the eighth-grade evil magic.

No, to be precise, it can definitely be refined.

If a hundred-year-old ghost didn't work, he would try using two hundred, three hundred, or even nearly a thousand-year-old ghosts. In this way, as long as the method worked, he would eventually get a high-quality substitute puppet.

In the underground Zen room.

If he hadn't even stepped into the threshold of becoming a refiner yet and had no materials at hand, Yu Que would have wanted to try refining it right now.

After all, the sooner this thing is refined, the sooner his safety will be guaranteed. He won't have to be so nervous every time he goes to the Ghost Gathering like he was tonight!

Yu Que was happy for a long time before he finally broke away from the puppet.

"Eh." Then he suddenly thought of this:
"That's why Ma Yinglong insisted on taking the Hundred-Year-Old Ghost as a bargaining chip... It turns out that he didn't do this to break through the bottleneck and refine an eighth-grade household god, but also to refine this substitute puppet?"

But this was the other party's own business. The two of them had just settled the matter and had nothing to do with each other. Yu Que merely sighed and wondered why this ritual would require a century-old ghost. Then he was too lazy to think about it anymore.

He came to his senses and found that he had received two surprises in succession. This was indeed another day worth celebrating since he started practicing Taoism.

Especially when he thought that he finally had the inheritance of alchemy, he would be able to start alchemy soon, and when his skills were proficient, he could get a certification as an alchemist.

In this way, his small county school will be completely safe and worry-free!
This really excited Yu Que. He felt that the future was promising and that he could learn to become an immortal. He even wanted to stand up and dance.

With this joy in mind, he stayed in the underground Zen room, and for a moment even the moans outside the wall seemed cute to him.

Until dawn.

When Yu Que walked out of the underground Zen room, although he had not slept all night, he was still in high spirits. After checking out of the room, he hurried back home.

Go home.

Yu Que happened to arrive at the time when his family was having breakfast.

When his uncle, aunt, and two cousins ​​saw him come back, they greeted him and continued to eat, completely unaware that Yu Que had made quite a harvest last night.

When Yu Que saw the peaceful atmosphere at home, the excitement in his heart gradually subsided. He took a long breath and blended into the dining environment with ease.

The following days.

Yu Que's life was going relatively smoothly. He continued to do hard labor in Zheng Laohei's ghost shop. At the same time, he used the materials in the shop to secretly study his own refining skills and contribute to his career as a refiner.

But in this way, his daily tasks became more and more complicated, and it was like he had to do the work of two people, and his energy was greatly depleted.

Especially Zheng Laohei. His attitude towards Yu Que and Fang Mulian was to use them to death as long as they could survive. He didn't care about their life or death at all.

Even with Fang Mulian's expert craftsmanship, she nearly fainted in the frying pan twice. Fortunately, Yu Que had been working with her to fry the fried monsters, so he reminded her in time and restrained her.

Otherwise, Fang Mulian would be exhausted and fall into the oil pan. Even if she was not disabled, she would have a serious illness and would have to stay in bed for a month.

Fang Mulian felt uncomfortable, and so did Yu Que.

If he hadn't found the time to sell a few ninth-grade resentful ghosts at the ghost market and bought a lot of tonics, such as deer antlers, ginseng, and wolfberries, he would have eaten them until he died.

Yu Que really couldn't survive in the store.

Fortunately, while being in such a high-intensity training and miscellaneous work, his study on the matter of training became deeper and deeper.

Just when he thought that his life would be busy and packed, yet full of hope until he became a master, something suddenly happened.

………………

This evening.

Yu Que lazily got up from the bed, yawned, and pushed open the door.

The house is empty. My uncle hasn't finished work yet. He might be working overtime to clean up a street.

My aunt was not in the room either, perhaps she had gone to visit the next door, but the food had already been prepared and was still in the lunch box on the table, as usual.

What surprised Yu Que a little was that his two cousins ​​were not in the house either. The eldest sister, Fu Yun, had been busy with schoolwork recently, and would go to her friends in the building to review her lessons from time to time, so it was normal for her not to be in the house.

But the younger sister Fu Yuan was still young, only seven years old. Although she was already in school, she did not have much homework, and was forbidden by her uncle and aunt to go out at night.

Yu Que glanced out the window and found that the sky was not yet pitch dark and the sunset was brilliant. He thought that this damn girl might be trying to be smart and sneaked away to play near the building, so he didn't pay much attention to it.

Yu Que put on his robe, picked up the lunch box on the dining table, and planned to drive the ghost cart to Zheng Laohei's shop to work.

But when he was about to close the door, his brows furrowed and his nose slightly raised.

"Is this the scent of the longevity cream?"

Yu Que actually smelled a hint of Fu Shou cream at his doorstep.

This made him frown, wondering if he had smelled it wrongly, or if someone in the building had been to Heping Lane and forgot to deal with it before coming back, so he brought some back with him.

He even had some vague thoughts, wondering if this smell was brought back by his uncle.

But Yu Que's heart suddenly sank again. He looked back at the empty room and some bad thoughts arose in his mind.

However, he thought to himself, "This is the Fu family's territory, and those who come and go are all family members. My elder sister and younger sister wouldn't go out of the territory to play, so there shouldn't be any problems."

He walked out of the room silently, closed the door, and planned to put aside these distracting thoughts and catch the bus to go to work.

But the next moment.

Bang!

He threw the lunch box in his hand directly to the door, and suddenly jumped down from the fourth floor like a ghost.

After coming downstairs, Yu Que burned all his energy and captured the remaining smell of longevity ointment in the air.

Because the cat-faced house god was not good at tracking smells, he flipped his palm and several silver needles appeared in his hand.

Yu Que inserted the silver needle into his face with no expression on his face, but his senses instantly became stronger. The strong smell of longevity cream in front of the building entrance immediately entered his nostrils.

There was a coldness in his eyes and a murderous look on his face.

"You are looking for death!"

Yu Que immediately followed the remaining breath.

It wasn't long before his little sister got out of school, and when he was resting in his room, he heard the noisy voice of this damn girl, so she should have left home not long ago, and there was still a chance to catch up with her!

as predicted.

When Yu Que followed the scent of the longevity paste all the way to the outskirts of the Fu family's territory, the remaining smell of the longevity paste became stronger.

But this also caused a wave of irritation in his eyes, and his mood became even gloomier.

Because the aura outside the clan's territory is mixed, if the other party has already gathered in a place with a large crowd, Yu Que would probably find it difficult to capture the aura even if he stimulated his senses.

Fortunately, as soon as he left the clan territory, he found that the remaining breath had turned a corner. The other party did not take the main road, but walked towards the alley, and the breath was extremely strong, as if it had just passed by in the previous breath.

This made Yu Que's eyes brighten to the extreme, and he quickly jumped onto the roofs in front of him.

And this time.

Seven-year-old Fu Yuan was holding her small cloth bag, her face pale with fear and resistance, but her body couldn't help but follow the skinny figure in front of her.

With the sound of footsteps.

The person in front of Fu Yuan was an old woman dressed in ordinary clothes. There was a pleasant fragrance on her body that was constantly emanating from her and entering Fu Yuan's nose.

"Girl, follow me. I will take you to a good family. Then you will have endless blessings and snacks to eat."

The old woman held Xiao Fuyuan's hand and chattered on and on. She had a kind look on her face, as if she was taking her own granddaughter out.

Occasionally, someone passed by in the alley, but because it was dark, the passers-by could not see that there was anything wrong with Xiao Fuyuan, so they ignored him.

"Don't, don't..."

Fu Yuan was extremely frightened. She wanted to stop her legs very much, but her body seemed to be hooked by the fragrance. She could only move forward. Her voice was hoarse and she couldn't shout.

Seeing the two people about to walk out of the alley and get farther and farther away from home, Fu Yuan was so frightened that he could not bear any more. His mind was filled with stories about human traffickers, beggars, and even horror stories about sexual dismemberment that his family had told him.

Wow!

Suddenly, Fu Yuan's body spasmed and he could no longer bear it. He spit out something as red as blood while walking.

This made the old woman's face suddenly nervous. She looked around, then lowered her head, and the kind look on her face disappeared instantly.

The man had a fierce look on his face. He suddenly pulled Fu Yuan and cursed, "You are disobedient, kid!"

Crack!

The old woman slapped Fu Yuan on the face, making his face bright red and visibly swollen, and even his consciousness became blurred.

But it was this crisp sound in the alley that instantly attracted a grayish-white figure to the two of them.

A cold wind blew, bringing with it a strong murderous aura and ill intentions.

The old woman who was patting the flowers was alarmed. She was so shocked that she let go of her hand instantly and pushed Fu Yuan hard in the direction where the coldness came from.

With a thud, Fu Yuan fell heavily to the ground, but did not hit anyone.

The flower-patting woman estimated the direction wrong. The figure did not come out from the front or back of the alley, but fell from the eaves with a bang, and landed right between her and Fu Yuan, separating the two.

The two sides stood face to face.

The person who came was Yu Que. He chased after her madly and finally caught up with her. His pupils were cold and he stared at the old woman.

The flower-patting lady's pupils shrank slightly, and she instantly realized that she had been discovered.

Cold sweat immediately broke out on her back, and she quickly turned her head to look in front and behind her to see if anyone was surrounding her.

To her relief, the alley was not blocked, and there was only one person coming, who was thin and just a big child.

The old woman's face immediately showed a look of relief.

But just as she was feeling relieved, an unscrupulous voice rang in her ears:
"Goodbye old man!!"

Yu Que's face suddenly appeared in front of the old woman, with a hideous smile on his face.

(End of this chapter)