Daily Intelligence: From Miner to Dao Ancestor of Alchemy and Talismans

Xu Yuan returned to the house and closed the door.

He took out the thick stack of talismans from the cabinet and counted them one by one.

Fifteen Blade Talismans, eight of which are of high quality; twenty Explosive Flame Talismans, ten of which are of high quality; ten Earth Talismans, five of which are of high quality; and five Wind Walk Talismans.

He also had a full porcelain bottle of Exploding Spirit Pills and hundreds of high-grade Yuan Qi Powders; he already had quite a few trump cards in his hand.

But Xu Yuan still felt it wasn't enough.

The surprise attack three months later will be a large-scale battle. The bandits of Black Wind Stronghold, the demons of Blood Fiend Sect, and the internal strife of the Zhao family will turn the market into a living hell. You can never have too many trump cards.

He spread out the talisman paper, picked up the wolf-hair brush, concentrated his mind, and began to write again.

He wanted to draw stronger talismans and refine stronger pills to break through to the sixth level of Qi Refining as soon as possible.

Only strength is the sole reliance for survival in this chaotic world.

The sky outside the window gradually darkened.

The lights in the market town lit up one by one, and the scene was still bustling with singing and dancing.

But no one knew that a storm that would sweep through the entire Qingyafang was quietly brewing.

Xu Yuan sat at his desk, poured himself a glass of cold tea, and drank it down in one gulp, suppressing the turmoil in his heart. He looked at the stacks of drawn talismans on the desk and the rows of porcelain bottles filled with pills in the cabinet, his eyes growing increasingly determined.

Having spent ten years in the underworld, his greatest skill was planning ahead. Even if disaster struck tomorrow, let alone three months, he was confident he could fight his way out.

Just then, hurried footsteps suddenly came from outside the courtyard gate, even more frantic than when Qian Shi came during the day. The banging on the door was like drumming, making the door panel rattle.

Qian Shi's voice came through the door, filled with barely suppressed panic, almost cracking: "Brother Xu! Brother Xu! Open the door quickly! Something terrible has happened! Something terribly terrible has happened!"

Xu Yuan frowned, got up, strode over, and pulled open the door latch.

As soon as the door opened, Qian Shi staggered in, his hand gripping Xu Yuan's arm icy cold and covered in cold sweat. His voice was hoarse as he shouted, "Brother Xu! That brat Zhou Chengxian is finished! His spirit wine business has offended the Black Wind Stronghold's cultivators to the core! Those ruthless killers have declared that they'll take his dog's life and seize his spirit wine inheritance within three days!"

Xu Yuan, his arm being pulled, didn't even flinch. He simply turned around, closed the door, and knocked off the protective barrier in the courtyard. His tone was as calm as still water: "What's the panic? The sky isn't falling."

He pulled Qian Shi to sit down at the stone table, poured him a cup of cold tea, and handed it to him before slowly saying, "Tell me in detail, how did you offend me?"

Qian Shi gulped down the herbal tea, finally calming the burning sensation in his throat. He hurriedly said, "What else can I do? His spirit wine is selling too well. Even the people from Black Wind Village came knocking, demanding he hand over the recipe and give them 30% of the profits every year. That Zhou Chengxian kid is getting too cocky now. He cursed them back on the spot, broke the legs of the two cultivators who came to deliver the message, and threw them out of the market!"

At this point, Qian Shi slapped his thigh, his face turning pale: "Brother Xu, that's Black Wind Stronghold! Countless wealthy cultivators in the market wouldn't dare mess with those murderers. How could a rogue cultivator who just got a bit of luck dare?! Now the whole market is buzzing with the news that the leader of Black Wind Stronghold has declared that he'll take his head within three days, and anyone who tries to stop him will be killed!"

Xu Yuan listened without showing any emotion, tapping his fingers lightly twice on the stone table without saying a word.

Expected.

He had long seen through Zhou Chengxian's true nature. He was originally a farmer, but once he gained power, he had no background or backing, yet he used the spiritual wine inheritance that could make him rich every day to openly amass wealth in the market, which was no different from waving gold in front of a bandit's den.

The Zhao family didn't touch him because they thought he was still useful and wanted to assess the value of the spirit wine first. But the bandits of Black Wind Stronghold didn't have such cunning; if they wanted something, they would just steal it.

Zhou Chengxian dared to break someone's leg. What else could this be but courting death?

"Brother Xu, what do you think... should we remind him?" Qian Shi looked at Xu Yuan, his face full of struggle. "No matter what, he's from the same village. You were the one who brought him out of the village back then. He's just blinded by greed. If we remind him, we can tell him to hide quickly, at least he can save his life."

Xu Yuan looked up at him, shook his head directly, and said in a tone that left no room for negotiation: "I'm not going."

"Huh?" Qian Shi was stunned.

"He's riding high right now, making a fortune from spirit wine. Who in the market doesn't call him Boss Zhou?" Xu Yuan's voice was calm, but every word hit the nail on the head. "If you remind him now, he'll only think you're jealous of his good fortune, that you can't stand to see him doing well, and that you're even in cahoots with Black Wind Stronghold, trying to scare him and shake his morale."

He paused, recalling Zhou Chengxian's arrogant demeanor at the Drunken Immortal Pavilion last time, and Liu Yue'er's words, "Only Brother Xu, you're still standing still." A faint smile curved his lips: "Besides, have you forgotten how he taught me a lesson at the dinner table last time? This kind of person won't turn back until he hits a wall, and even then, he'll only blame the road for being uneven, not his own blindness. If we go over there, not only will we not be able to save him, but we'll also get ourselves into trouble and unnecessary karma."

In the world of cultivation, the least valuable thing is the bond between people from the same hometown, but it is also the most deadly.

If Zhou Chengxian were truly killed by Black Wind Stronghold, the mere fact that they warned him today would be enough to link them to the matter in the future gossip in the market. If Zhou Chengxian were to survive by sheer luck, he would only resent them for "watching the spectacle" today, and would not hold a grudge against them whatsoever.

Xu Yuan never does things that are thankless and exhausting.

The first principle of the Way of the Gou is to avoid unnecessary trouble and not to save those who deserve to die.

After listening, Qian Shi was stunned for a long time. The struggle on his face slowly faded, and finally he sighed heavily and nodded: "Brother Xu, you are right. I was thinking too simply."

He had known Zhou Chengxian for ten years and knew the man's character all too well. When he was poor, he could at least pretend to be honest, but now that he'd gained power, his arrogance and pettiness were long gone. Trying to advise him now would be like offering a cold shoulder, only to get themselves into trouble.

"Let's pretend we don't know anything about this." Xu Yuan picked up his teacup, took a sip, and said, "Those who need to cultivate should cultivate, and those who need to draw talismans should draw them. If the sky falls, the tall ones will hold it up."

Qian Shi nodded heavily, keeping the matter to himself. He then told Xu Yuan about the movements of the Blood Fiend Sect spies he had gathered in the past two days before hurriedly taking his leave to return to his cultivation.

His mind was now filled with thoughts of the surprise attack three months from now, and his thoughts were filled with Xu Yuan's instructions to "break through to the fourth level of Qi Refining within three months." Compared to him, Zhou Chengxian's life or death was indeed insignificant.

After seeing Qian Shi off, Xu Yuan closed the door and went back inside to continue drawing talismans.

The tip of his brush was dipped in cinnabar, and spiritual energy transformed into threads that flowed slowly along the patterns of the talisman paper. Each stroke was steady as a mountain. The hustle and bustle of the market outside the window, as well as the uproar about Zhou Chengxian and Black Wind Village, were all separated from him by a thin layer of paper, and could not disturb his mind in the slightest.