What if I don't want to ascend to immortality?

Chapter 22 Pulu
Following the true name, Meng Qingtong was not only able to sense the origin of the evil, but also to obtain more extensive and accurate information than before.

Without much effort, she pinpointed the hiding place of the woolen fabric and the individual strands of its clones that were futilely trying to escape.

It was a translucent sheet formed by countless tiny filaments of light crisscrossing, which in my spiritual vision resembled a piece of silk supported by ocean waves, constantly rising and falling with the tide.

Normally, if this woolen creature refuses to leave on its own, it would be an extremely difficult task to force it out without damaging Ya Ya's soul.

But Han Jie had already told Meng Qingtong that his Night Sorrow skill was perfect for dealing with this kind of cowardly, hiding trash. If this thing really didn't know what was good for it, Meng Qingtong would stabilize Ya Ya's soul while he cleared a path with his sword and dug it out directly.

Meng Qingtong concentrated her divine sense to try to convey the meaning from this side. After a moment of stalemate, she shook her head helplessly and said, "It's more difficult than I imagined. It may be related to the type of origin. This guy is also quite withdrawn."

"Is it?"

Han Jie chuckled and flipped his right wrist. In an instant, a patch of darkness flowed from his chest, carrying shimmering starlight, like a piece of the night sky torn off, enveloping his five fingers.

He raised his arm and clenched his fist, a long sword cleaving through the black waves, absorbing the starlight onto the sides of the slender blade, which was about one and a half fingers wide.

The sword's edge was jet black, with starlight shimmering faintly on it, reflecting the gentle crescent moon hanging beneath its tassel. It was none other than Night Sorrow, one of the three immortal swords he had set his sights on.

The several transparent ropes on the left palm sensed Ye Bei's desolate killing intent and twisted and struggled wildly, trying to escape to where the main body was hiding.

Han Jie casually released the five fingers of his left hand, breaking the shackles on his spiritual power.

The long ropes rushed towards Ya Ya's back at lightning speed. When they were still half a foot away, they had already turned into phantoms, as if they had vanished into another space.

That's a sign that you've already connected with the target's soul.

At this moment, Han Jie casually waved his right hand, and the black sword blade that shimmered with starlight seemed to turn into nothingness. It looked like it had cut diagonally across Ya Ya's lower back, but in reality, it didn't even move the blanket wrapped around the child.

A faint scream came from the intersecting spatial dimensions, and several slender ghostly flames rose above Ya Ya and disappeared in an instant.

Meng Qingtong chuckled, "Well, you scared it so much that it curled up into a ball."

She focused her attention for a moment and said softly, "It's a little better than before; I'm starting to respond."

Han Jie held Ye Bei's hand and said, "Do we need to scare her a little more?"

Meng Qingtong shook her head, "Let's not go yet. We don't know if this little thing has any trump cards up its sleeve. If it goes crazy and accidentally hurts Ya Ya's soul, that would be bad."

With that sword strike, Han Jie had casually opened a passage in the soul space. Although it was only a very thin crack, it was still enough for him to see what Pulu looked like at that moment.

Just as Meng Qingtong said, the little magic carpet had completely lost its shape as a carpet. All the long cords and threads had been retracted, turning it into a ball that looked like a crumpled piece of paper.

At this point, Han Jie could easily dig the woolen fabric out of Ya Ya's body. With Ye Bei in hand, he could slice it or carve it as he pleased.

So he could relax for a while and see just how far Meng Qingtong could go in communicating with the demons.

In the past, even if demons took the initiative to communicate with him, he was too lazy to pay attention. In fact, he had only spoken a few words to the Demon Emperor. Now he should reflect on whether he had killed too many people and spoken too few words.

Even when it's a cat catching a mouse, you have to play with it a lot to understand the mouse's habits.

After a long while, Meng Qingtong finally breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the glistening sweat from her forehead. "Finally, we've made some progress. The magic carpet is still too weak. It can't even communicate directly. It relies entirely on various scene fragments as language, like playing charades. It's incredibly tiring."

"result?"

"We've obtained some information about the web weavers."

Although she turned her head to speak, her hand remained on Ya Ya, and her spiritual energy did not diminish in the slightest. Seeing her cautious actions, Han Jie nodded slightly and asked, "Was it effective?"

“Yes…” Meng Qingtong quickly relayed the information she had learned.

Judging from the images conveyed by the woolen cloth, Song Huiping's unusual behavior must have occurred before it appeared. However, Liu Song, busy with work and oblivious to the situation, simply assumed it was a pregnant woman being irritable and continued to eat, drink, and have fun outside.

As the woman's abnormal behavior worsened, the live-in nanny became the first to bear the pressure.

But Aunt Wu was a hardworking rural woman. Judging from the whispered complaints she overheard, Song Huiping had treated her quite well in the past, so she didn't take these things to heart. She just muttered a few words behind her back to vent her anger.

When the pressure fell on Ya Ya, the woolen creature, which had been lurking nearby, finally found the perfect opportunity and successfully infiltrated the depths of Ya Ya's soul. At that moment, it realized that there was an even more powerful being in the house, but firstly, it was unsure of the other party's true location, and secondly, it also wanted to take more and become stronger, so it used all its skills to help Ya Ya resist the weaver's connections.

Unfortunately, demons naturally use demonic methods to accomplish their tasks.

Pulu was desperately resisting the web weaver for her own sake, and of course she didn't consider Yaya's condition. Therefore, those nightmares that made Yaya miserable and the intermittent whispers greatly increased Pulu's strength in a short period of time, and also caused Yaya's condition to deteriorate rapidly to the point that her father noticed it.

On the very night Liu Song released the commission, the net weaver finally managed to connect with him through the perfect opportunity between their pillows and mats.

This means that if the commission is delayed for a few days and no one accepts it, the weaver might be able to use Liu Song to withdraw the application, and this family will completely become a battlefield for two evil forces to fight for food.

"So, what will happen in the end? If no one takes care of it?"

Meng Qingtong tilted her head and thought for a while before saying, "The wool should be fine. Once it evolves into the Great Magic Carpet, it will need to find a more suitable host. The situation of the Web Weaver is harder to estimate. After all, it's a demon from the first fifty pages. If left unattended, it's definitely at a level where people will die."

"What are you going to do?"

"Let's take Yaya out to play for a few days first."

"Hmm?" Han Jie raised an eyebrow in surprise, puzzled.

"If we need to use this little magic carpet later, I don't want to burden Yaya too much. I'll take her around to play and meet her classmates first, and sort out the little magic carpet's loose fibers from the last spring outing. Once the child is in better condition and the little magic carpet is stronger, we'll go back to the Liu family and let the two demons confront each other."

"What are the benefits?" "Both of them are masters of soul possession, and they're incredibly difficult to deal with when they're hiding in their shells. But it's hard to take action when two turtles are hiding in their shells. If they start biting each other, they'll have to stick their heads out, right?" Meng Qingtong picked up a talisman and smiled. "We'll chop up the tougher turtle and make soup first."

Knowing that Han Jie had neither experience nor interest in coaxing or playing with children, she assigned her partner the task of using the karmic entanglements on Ya Ya to remotely monitor the Liu family's situation. If nothing went wrong, he could comfortably stay home and play on his phone to cultivate; if something did happen, he would notify her to go and rescue them together.

Just to be on the safe side, she will go to the Liu family to set up a few spirit arrays before she sets off tomorrow. She cannot let the weaver of the net discover the signs and escape, nor can she let it suddenly erupt and harm innocent people.

When she asked which of the several passive defensive spirit arrays was better, Han Jie casually compared them and then suddenly remembered something from the past and asked, "I remember you said that your ancestors were from Han Mengzhuang?"

"Yes, that's my hometown. Although no one wants to talk about my parents, and it's not in the family genealogy, people from my grandfather's generation all know me. There are also some distant relatives who don't acknowledge me but know in their hearts."

Han Jie's heart stirred, and he vaguely thought of the origin of that bloodline connection. He asked softly, "There should be a hidden spirit array in Han Meng Manor, which I set up before I went into seclusion. Now that you are so proficient in array formations, have you ever consulted it?"

Meng Qingtong looked up at him, a hint of joy flashing in her clear black and white eyes. "You really set it up? That spirit array is one of the founders of our spirit array system. The core technology of almost all adaptive, passive, and long-lasting spirit arrays can be traced back to this founder. It's no exaggeration to say that he has countless disciples. It's a pity... I haven't seen the real thing."

"Oh? Why don't you go take a look?"

She said with a hint of melancholy, "Firstly, the main structure is in the textbook on spirit arrays, and the photos aren't confidential documents; I've seen them many times before. Secondly, the land where the spirit array is located is private property. Although I can call people 'uncle,' they don't recognize me. They treat me like I'm a fly. What can I do? Last time I passed by there, a crazy old man even said it was my family's property. What's the use? I still can't even get through the door."

Han Jie thought to himself that she probably wasn't just passing by by chance, but was investigating his background. However, since she didn't say so, he couldn't ask too many questions, after all, it was her private matter.

Partners should still be cautious in their words and actions.

It was getting late, and it was time for Meng Qingtong to train again. Han Jie stayed by Ya Ya's side, listening as she went next door, took out piles of spirit talisman materials from her backpack, and began her daily, frantic training.

This time, she even set aside about a third of her energy to expand her soul space.

The pain that is carved into one's soul is harder to bear than to be inflicted by someone else.

After it was over, she collapsed on the floor next to the bed, soaked in a small puddle, not wanting to move a single finger.

She took a rare moment of luxury, relying on a small talisman to catch her breath before slowly getting up. After struggling a couple of times, she sat down in a chair, panting, and whispered, "I can't go on. Today... I misjudged the situation and made a hole in myself. It hurts so much... Could you get me... some clothes? Thank you..."

Han Jie opened the door, looked at her disheveled appearance, shook his head with a complicated expression, handed her the pajamas he had dried with his spiritual energy, and said, "Why do this? Always being so greedy for quick success will not benefit your cultivation."

"Everyone says we misjudged today..." Meng Qingtong tilted her head back, pouting, her tone inexplicably like she was being coquettish, "It's just that I'm not very skilled the first time. Who becomes an expert as soon as they hit the road? I promise I won't need your help tomorrow. I'll just keep testing the limits of recklessness little by little."

He smiled and said, "As long as you can handle it, I'm happy to help you out."

Meng Qingtong shook her head stubbornly. "No, we have to listen to the principle that too much kindness can turn into resentment. If we can't even be fair on a large scale, we won't even be able to be friends when we stop cooperating in the end."

Have you ever suffered such a loss before?

She hesitated for a moment before reluctantly nodding, "Yeah. You learn from your mistakes. It's foolish to keep tripping over the same stone..."

Han Jie said softly, "If I'm not mistaken, you used to always let your partner take more benefits, and in the end, the other party became resentful."

Meng Qingtong looked away without saying a word, but nodded slightly.

"You're the one who benefits more now, will you blame me for that?"

"Of course not now," Meng Qingtong said softly without looking at him. "But who knows what the future holds? People's hearts are most vulnerable to tests. I don't want to test myself; I don't have that confidence."

Han Jie smiled and shook his head, then patted her sweaty head. His spiritual energy swept away the dampness. "I believe you."

"Why are you doing this?" she shook her head awkwardly. "She'll be eighteen after her birthday this year. Why are you still rubbing her hair? Go rub Yaya's hair next door. She's a real little girl."

Here we go again with that topic-changing tactic. Han Jie knew she had something on her mind, so he went along with it and said, "I'll keep watch over Ya Ya tonight, you can rest here."

"Mmm." This time she obediently responded and didn't insist.

Han Jie walked to the door, turned back and said, "If you're worried, I'll help you move the protective spirit array over here."

Meng Qingtong smiled gently, her tone carrying a subtle self-deprecation, "No need, even in my current state, you haven't taken advantage of me. Come to think of it, I'm not even a fraction of your age, and my strength is probably only a fraction of yours. Why bother guarding against those things? It's better to trust you."

Seeing that Han Jie was about to leave, she thought for a moment and couldn't help but say, "By the way, you used to know all the beautiful fairies in the cultivation world, right? So, do you think I'm rustic, unsophisticated, dark-skinned, ugly, and like a silly girl?"

"No," Han Jie said calmly. "I cultivate the sword of the heart, and I mainly judge people by their hearts."

She had just smiled contentedly again when she heard Han Jie add from outside the door, "So all I can think of you is a silly girl."

"Hey, I'm just not very good at studying, but I'm very smart. People who study spirit talismans and spirit arrays are all intelligent, don't you know that?"

Not hearing a reply, Meng Qingtong pouted, leaned against the wall to stand up, and struggled to change her clothes and rest.

Han Jie sat down next to Ya Ya, made a hand seal to release a bit of spiritual energy, and set up a perimeter for protection. He then closed his eyes to meditate and continue fighting the mountain of garbage containing gold in his sea of ​​consciousness.

The woolen fabric slowly unfolded its body, transforming back into a thin sheet. It cautiously floated to the side of the soul rift that had been cleaved open by Ye Bei's sword, tentatively extending a few thin threads.

Han Jie didn't even open his eyes, and simply said, "What, do you think I'm easier to deal with than that girl?"

The Night's Sorrow in this soul seemed to cast a cold glance at the Puffed Fleece in the other soul.

The little magic carpet, emitting a faint glow, froze instantly, then tumbled and rolled back into the deepest part of its soul, quickly curling into a round ball.

It seems this demon, which feeds on autistic tendencies, is destined to remain in seclusion for quite some time...

(End of this chapter)