Anti-fraud manual for the cultivation world

Li Gu carefully examined his cultivation level. It had improved considerably, but it was still not enough to break through a new realm. Moreover, he could not freely control the cultivation he had just acquired.

He also needs to expand his meridians and learn to manipulate these newly arrived true qi flexibly.

This reminded him once again of the Star Absorbing Skill from "The Smiling, Proud Wanderer." Ren Woxing practiced this evil skill and ultimately killed himself, while Linghu Chong was saved by the Yi Jin Jing.

I hope my [Hidden Flower Heart Sutra] won't have any similar effects? Heaven help me, I hope it has no side effects like the [Northern Darkness Divine Art].

When Li Gu stepped out of the room, he saw Zhang Yi practicing his external martial arts, wielding the iron ruler that every constable of the Six Doors carried, leaping and twirling in the courtyard.

Several years ago, after Zheng Xiaodong became paralyzed, Zhang Yi stopped cultivating. His cultivation level remained at the fifth level of Qi Refining, and his external skills also became rusty. Now that he has picked up external skills again, his movements appear quite stiff.

Li Gu only glanced at her twice before realizing that she wasn't practicing the [Gale-force Soul-Severing Blade] taught by Hua Qianfang, but rather a set of external martial arts she had never seen before. This set of skills was perfectly suited to the iron ruler, as if it were created specifically for the iron ruler.

Seeing that Li Gu had woken up, Zhang Yi temporarily stopped his moves and nodded to him: "I was practicing my family's ruler technique."

Li Gu nodded: "It's right not to practice swordsmanship."

Smart people don't need to spell things out; both of them understood that the [Gale-force Soul-Severing Blade] could no longer be used.

Anyway, Hua Qianfang didn't teach seriously, and everyone learned in a mess, so it's not a pity to abandon it.

"Junior Brother Li, do you want to learn this?" Zhang Yi said, "My family's ruler method isn't anything special, I don't mind teaching it to others."

Li Gu said happily, "Of course I'm willing to learn. I'm just worried about what skills to use when facing an enemy."

Zhang Yi nodded. She had witnessed the entire "literary contest" between Li Gu and Ma Zhi yesterday, and she could easily guess why Li Gu didn't want to have a "martial contest." That's why she offered to teach Li Gu the ruler technique.

The two of them, one teaching and the other learning.

Soon after, Zheng Xiaodong and Meng Ting also got up and joined in, learning the ruler method together.

Li Gu has an exceptional learning ability. In no time, he learned more than a dozen simple moves. All he lacked was proficiency. He would practice for a while every morning and evening and soon become proficient.

However, Zheng Xiaodong and Meng Ting were not good learners and couldn't even master a few simple moves.

Just as he was getting into the swing of things, Li Gu suddenly felt something was wrong. Following his intuition, he looked to the side and saw that Prefect Hong was standing under a tree in the corner of the courtyard. He didn't know how long she had been standing there watching.

Li Gu quickly stopped practicing, clasped his hands in greeting, and said, "Good morning, Prefect."

Governor Hong's face remained expressionless: "This last-minute, crammed training won't change your situation. Even if you train like this for another ten thousand years, you'll still be doomed against Hua Mingyuan. He has an entire Flower Valley helping him train, so his cultivation speed is more than a hundred times faster than yours."

All four of them were stunned.

Prefect Hong continued, "When you arrived the day before yesterday, the four of you entered the city together, and then the four of you entered the yamen together. Your actions were far too careless. The Demonic Sect has been searching all over the city for 'four traveling strangers, two men and two women.' In just two days, they have already found out your whereabouts. Last night, there were already members of the Demonic Sect loitering outside the yamen."

The four were shocked, especially Meng Ting, whose face turned pale with fright.

Li Gu and Zhang Yi both sighed. Both of them were very clever. Before entering the city, they had considered whether to split up and disguise themselves. However, none of the four of them had high cultivation levels. They had long heard that Jiangzhou City was a mixed bag of people, so how could they dare to separate? Knowing that this would leave hidden dangers, they could only bite the bullet and act together.

Prefect Hong said calmly, "Fortunately, I'm not that stupid. On the very night you entered the yamen, I dragged four prisoners out of jail—two men and two women—and sent them out of the city overnight. It will take the Demonic Sect about a day to find out about this, and then they will relax their surveillance of the yamen to track down those four people. Understand? For the next day, Li Gu and Zhang Yi, don't go out and wander around. Just sit in the Six Doors and drink tea."

The four were overjoyed, but after the joy subsided, they were slightly confused.

Li Gu clasped his hands and said, "Thank you very much, Prefect! I am humbled and dare to ask, since we have no relatives or friends here, why have you helped us to this extent?"

He finally got a chance to ask the question. Yesterday at Six Doors, when Kailong reminded him of it, he was filled with curiosity about this issue. He couldn't sleep well until he figured it out.

Prefect Hong tilted his head and glared at Li Gu, seemingly displeased with the intelligence of the question he had asked. But in the end, he sighed and explained, "If I don't protect you, my junior sister will get angry. And when she gets angry, I can't handle it."

Your junior sister?

Li Gu was stunned for a moment upon hearing this, but only for a second before he suddenly realized that his senior sister was named Bai Yan, and the prefect's surname was Hong. Red and white are both colors.

These two are fellow disciples!

"You've realized it now?" Governor Hong shook his head: "My junior sister says you're smart, but I think you're just average. When you delivered the letter for her, you should have realized this the moment you heard my surname was Hong."

Li Gu felt ashamed inwardly: I truly deserve to be despised.

Prefect Hong continued, "Encrypted letters are troublesome to write even one extra word, yet my junior sister wrote a long letter to me about a junior brother surnamed Li who is exceptionally talented and has a bright future, perhaps even destined for a righteous path. Moreover, this junior brother is very fond of her, always hovering around her, and frequently confessing his feelings to her openly and secretly. She was considering whether to elope with you, but you fell in love with my junior sister instead, causing all her tender feelings to be wasted."

[The Cultivation World Anti-Fraud Handbook Lv.1 reminds you: Hong Lin's statement earlier, "My junior sister wrote a long letter to me," is a lie. The letter was burned by Hong Lin long ago, and lies cannot be forced to become truth.]

"Huh?" Li Gu thought to himself: So the Prefect Hong's name is Hong Lin. What are you trying to do by telling this lie? Are you kidding me and my little sister? You, Prefect Hong, seem so cold and aloof, but you're just like Bai Yan, always playing pranks?

Sure enough, Meng Ting, who was standing next to her, clenched her little fists in amusement: "Senior Sister is talking nonsense. Senior Brother Li has never confessed to her at all! I've been keeping an eye on things. At most, Senior Brother Li just tells her jokes."

Zhang Yi and Zheng Xiaodong turned around and looked at Meng Ting with sympathetic eyes, as if to say, "Don't lie to yourself, Junior Brother Li might really have confessed to Senior Sister."

"etc!"

Li Gu said, "The letter didn't say any of that! You made it all up to tease us. Just now, you were standing in the courtyard watching us practice with the ruler, and you noticed that I was learning quickly, so you made up the story that I had excellent aptitude and a bright future. Then, you know Bai Yan's personality very well, and you know that she likes to play matchmaker. You also took into account my junior sister's attitude towards me, and combined all of that to create new content for that letter."

"Huh?" The prefect's expression changed abruptly. She had been indifferent to the four of them, but now she gave Li Gu an admiring look for the first time: "Not bad! Very good! It seems I didn't protect the wrong person."

After saying that, she turned and left.

Li Gu: "Prefect, you still haven't told us your real reason for protecting us. Don't try to fool us."

Hong Zhizhou kept walking, seemingly very slowly, but in reality, he was using the technique of shrinking the earth. With two lazy steps, he had already disappeared outside the courtyard.

The four people were left looking at each other, still unable to figure out what she was up to.