Anti-fraud manual for the cultivation world

It was late at night in the backyard of the Jiangzhou government office.

Li Gu, Zheng Xiaodong, and Zhang Yi sat around the stone table, their expressions somewhat serious.

Li Gu whispered, "It seems that the four people that Prefect Hong deliberately sent out to create a diversion have already been found by the Demonic Sect. Hua Qianfang has finally decided that the four of us are hiding in Jiangzhou City. This time, they spent a lot of money to ask Ghost City to help make corpse puppets, and they are determined to find us."

Zheng Xiaodong pouted: "The four of us aren't important people, is it necessary to be so ruthless? When I was a kid, the pig my family raised ran away, and my dad just looked for it casually. If he couldn't find it, he let it go. It wouldn't matter if it became a wild boar."

Li Gu said in a low voice, "Hua Qianfang doesn't care about the four of us. What he cares about is the [Hidden Flower Heart Technique] that the four of us have learned. He doesn't want anyone who knows this technique to escape the control of the Demonic Sect."

Zheng Xiaodong scoffed, "A precious martial arts technique passed down only to sons? I don't care at all."

Neither Zheng Xiaodong nor Zhang Yi knew that the true name of the [Hidden Flower Heart Sutra] was the [Common Path Demonic Codex], which possessed the special function of "merging similar items." If the Demonic Sect allowed those who possessed the [Common Path Demonic Codex] to roam the martial world, it would be tantamount to planting a time bomb for themselves.

This person could become an assassin who "hunts down disciples of the demonic sect and absorbs their cultivation" at any time.

That's right, Li Gu had the idea of ​​developing in this direction!

He didn't know whether he should tell Zheng Xiaodong and Zhang Yi about it.

After a few seconds of consideration, he thought to himself, putting aside the fact that his cultivation level was now only slightly higher than Zheng Xiaodong's and Zhang Yi's, what if they found out about this and, unable to withstand the test of humanity, joined forces to plot against him and absorb his essence? The possibility was extremely slim, but he still had to be wary of it.

However, we can't keep this from them.

As their skills continue to improve, they will one day realize that their cultivation has advanced by leaps and bounds, and they will also know about the absorption function of the [Common Path Demonic Scripture] sooner or later.

At that time, Zhang Yi will assume that Li Gu's sudden increase in cultivation level was due to absorption, and she will question Li Gu about why he knew about the special ability of the [Common Path Demonic Scripture] but did not tell them.

The friendship will surely be broken because of this!

Li Gu decided that after he took a few more pills and reached the Foundation Establishment stage, his cultivation level would be much higher than theirs, and then he would find an opportunity to tell them.

Li Gu said in a deep voice, "Junior Sister Meng Ting works odd jobs in the kitchen and hardly ever leaves the yamen, so there's no need to worry about her. However, the three of us might leave the yamen to run errands. If we're spotted on the street by Zhou Shijie and Brother Ouyang's corpse puppets, we'll be easily recognized."

People who don't know you can easily fool you by just putting on a fake beard.

But for people who know you well, disguise is useless. They don't need to see your face; they can recognize you just by looking at your back or your walking posture.

Li Gu still remembers those years when masks were mandatory. He would run into acquaintances and friends wearing masks on the street, and both of them would recognize each other at the same time. Back then, he even mocked the absurd plots in some novels where the protagonist could change his appearance so much that even his parents wouldn't recognize him.

Zheng Xiaodong frowned: "What should we do? We can't stay indoors all the time. If we keep hiding in the yamen, it will arouse suspicion from the other yamen runners."

Zhang Yi also fell into deep thought...

Li Gu said in a low voice, "I've thought about it carefully. There's no such thing as being able to guard against thieves for a thousand days without doing so. If we always have to be careful to avoid the corpse puppets, we won't be able to walk on the streets of Jiangzhou. Walking on the street, we'll never know if there's a corpse puppet watching us from the alley next door. How can we live like that? So we must take the initiative."

Zheng Xiaodong looked bewildered: "Take the initiative? How do I do that?"

Zhang Yi's eyes lit up: "Hua Qianfang made three corpse puppets, so he must have them scattered throughout the city to search for them, preventing them from coming together. Given Hua Qianfang's status, it's impossible for him to be walking around the streets with the corpse puppets all the time. He will definitely have those six disciples of the Demonic Sect divided into three groups, each carrying a corpse puppet to search in Jiangzhou... So we have a chance to get rid of the corpse puppets without directly confronting Hua Qianfang."

Li Gu nodded: "That's right, the cultivation level of these three groups of disciples is at most the Qi Refining stage. Because cultivators above the Foundation Establishment stage should be considered important leaders in the Jiangzhou branch, and they can't just wander around the streets with their corpse puppets every day."

Zhang Yi frowned and said, "Junior Brother Li, Senior Brother Zheng, you two are at the sixth level of Qi Refining, while I am at the fifth level. Junior Sister is negligible... Hua Qianfang only needs to send two demonic sect disciples at the eighth or ninth level of Qi Refining, plus the corpse puppet's meager combat power, and that will be enough to deal with the three of us."

She was unaware that Li Gu had taken one "Liuwei Dihuang Pill" every night and had already reached the 9th level of Qi Refining. As for Zheng Xiaodong, he was only at the 5th level of Qi Refining when he first escaped from Flower Valley, but he hadn't wasted his time at the Jiangzhou government office. He had managed to break through the bottleneck and had now reached the 6th level of Qi Refining.

Her information was outdated, but the information from the Demonic Sect was also outdated, so Zhang Yi's analysis was very reliable.

Li Gu nodded, agreeing with Zhang Yi's analysis, and made a chopping motion with his hand: "Lure them into an empty alley, kill them, and then burn the corpse puppets to ashes so that the ghost city can never revive them again."

Zhang Yi said with a slight embarrassment, "If my analysis is correct, with two Qi Refining Level 8-9 opponents and a corpse puppet, we're doomed in a three-on-three fight. Not only are our cultivation levels inferior, but our external martial arts skills are also terrible. Hua Qianfang has never seriously taught us external martial arts. The only skill we have, the [Hidden Flower Sword Technique], is just a common, low-quality martial arts technique. I'm sure that the external martial arts skills practiced by those two true demonic sect disciples can easily defeat us."

That's right!

When their cultivation level is inferior to their opponent's, their only chance to turn the tide is through external martial arts. However, none of the three of them know any proper external martial arts. The Hidden Flower Sword Technique is something Hua Qianfang uses to fool livestock, and the Nameless Ruler Technique of the Zhang Family is also useless.

Li Gu thought to himself: The only way is for me to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage!

Once you reach the Foundation Establishment stage, you become a true cultivator, while those in the Qi Refining stage can only be considered "martial arts practitioners." Cultivators versus martial arts practitioners is a sure way to crush them. Even if you don't know any external skills, you can still win by relying solely on your cultivation level.

He is now only half a step away from Foundation Establishment, and he still has a Foundation Establishment Pill given to him by the Thirteen Gang in his pocket. If he takes the pill intensively for the next two or three days, he might be able to break through.

However, he didn't want Zheng Xiaodong and Zhang Yi to know that he was about to reach the Foundation Establishment stage. He needed to find a reason to convince the two that they had a chance to win. After thinking for a while, a lightbulb went off in his head, and he had an idea.

Li Gu lowered his voice and said, "I heard that the Thirteen Gangs have a medicine called 'Sad Breeze.' After smelling it, one's whole body becomes weak and unable to concentrate one's cultivation. I'll go to the Thirteen Gangs and ask for some. I'll lure those demonic sect disciples to a secluded place, let them smell this medicine, and then I can kill them."

Zhang Yi was overjoyed: "There's such a good thing? But it's so powerful, it must be the most prized possession of the Thirteen Gangs. Why would they give it to you so easily?"

Li Gu said in a low voice, "My relationship with the Thirteen Gang is pretty good now, so maybe we can get some. Once I get the medicine, the three of us will make our move. Before that, you two should keep a low profile and absolutely not wander around the streets. Just stay in the yamen and don't go out. If necessary, ask Prefect Hong for help and ask her to arrange jobs for you that don't require you to go out. She should be willing to help with that."

Zhang Yi nodded: "Okay!"

Zheng Xiaodong said, "After killing the corpse puppet, the Demonic Sect is even more certain that we are in Jiangzhou City, and they will bring in more people to intensify their search for us."

Li Gu gritted his teeth: "We can't worry about that now. We can think about the future later. We need to get through this first."