Chapter 11: A Lucky Break

  "You don't need to know me, nor do you need to know too much. You just need to know that today you will be taught a lesson, and in the future, don't be too arrogant!" A figure in the shadows said in a low, gloomy voice.

  He held a dagger in one hand and gazed at the figure, saying softly: "If you want to teach me a lesson, be prepared to be taught by others."

  "Haha, truly the ignorant are fearless. Can't you see the purple sandalwood dagger floating in front of your eyes? I can attack you without even touching you, how can you possibly teach me a lesson? We cultivators, aren't we existences that someone like you, a mere mortal, can provoke?" The figure in the shadows sneered.

  Just as Shi Sheng was about to speak, the wooden dagger suddenly trembled slightly and then shot towards him. Shi Sheng narrowed his eyes, but thanks to his preparedness, he didn't panic.

  His figure flashed quickly, and with a swish, the wooden dagger almost grazed Stone's scalp, leaving a burning pain. Although he dodged the attack, the object controlled by Xiū Niàn Zhě could change direction in mid-air, so it wasn't safe just because he had dodged.

  Shi Sheng apparently knew this, just as the wooden dagger shot again from behind his head, Shi Sheng rolled on the ground, no longer caring about his image, and dodged another blow.

  "Huh? So agile? It's as if I've seen a cultivator before?" The figure in the shadows was somewhat taken aback, and then with a stir of his mind, he prepared to continue making his move.

  "Ah......" Suddenly, the black figure let out a miserable cry and jumped up with a "splat", covering his buttocks with one hand, his face twisted in agony.

  "How dare you look for trouble with me? It seems that you don't know my true identity, let me teach you a lesson!" Shi Sheng shouted from afar.

  Before the black figure came to his senses, he was pricked by a few more needles on his buttocks. The black figure jumped high and turned around, and an embroidery needle reflected in the moonlight was firmly stuck on his forehead.

  "What? What's your identity? Xiū, xiū niàn zhě, you're also a xiū niàn zhě, which sect are you from?" The black figure spoke while moving its internal energy, forming an invisible force that countered the embroidery needle.

  Like this, no matter how hard Shi Sheng urged, the embroidered flower needle could no longer attack the black figure. The latter hastily made a single-handed move, and the wooden dagger in the distance trembled slightly before falling into his hand with a whooshing sound.

  A black figure holding a wooden dagger fled in disarray without looking back, seemingly caught off guard by the cultivator and ambushed, not knowing the depth of Shi Sheng's situation, it was better to leave.

  Bang!

  After the black figure ran far away, Shi Sheng sat on the ground with a limp body, panting heavily, his forehead sweating profusely, and his face pale, looking extremely weak.

  "It's okay, I finally managed to bluff my way out of it!" Shi Sheng felt a bit drained, and in the end when they were at a stalemate, he had expended a huge amount of mental energy, and almost lost control of the needle.

  "My mental strength feels about the same as his, but why am I exhausting so quickly? That kid seems to still have some energy left!" Shi Sheng was somewhat perplexed.

  But it's too late to think about that now, this place is not suitable for staying for a long time. He abandoned the embroidered needle that had made many achievements and dragged his tired body back home without even noticing Bai Ming, running away in disarray.

  ……

  "Asheng, what's wrong?" Lin Wan'er saw that Shisheng's face was pale and his body was covered in mud, so she quickly helped him sit down on the bed and then fetched a bowl of water.

  Shi Sheng gulped down the drink, wiped his mouth: "Wan'er sister is fine, I'm afraid of the dark, it's raining at night, ran too fast and fell a few times!"

  Lin Wan'er took out a handkerchief and carefully wiped Shi Sheng's face: "Ah Sheng, you're all wet, go change your clothes first!"

  Shi Sheng opposed it for two sentences, but Lin Wan'er's attitude was firm. She was worried that Shi Sheng would catch a cold. In the end, Shi Sheng took off his long gown. Since ancient people wore inner garments, Shi Sheng didn't feel embarrassed at all. However, Lin Wan'er felt a bit uncomfortable and her face turned slightly red. Then she found a clean set of clothes for Shi Sheng to wear.

  "Wan'er is really considerate!" Shi Sheng looked at his long gown and felt that having such a fiancée was not bad.

  "Stop being poor-mouthed, tomorrow Ah Sheng will go to Wang Bo's house to learn the basics by himself. I'll go to Wu Aunt's house to find some work, or else that little money will be spent soon. I'll go earn some money and try my best to repay Wang Bo's twenty taels of silver!" Lin Wan'er said resolutely.

  "Make money?" Shi Sheng's mouth curled up: "Sister Wan'er didn't remind me, I almost forgot!" As he spoke, Shi Sheng took out the long gown he had taken off and flipped out a purse, smiling as he weighed it in his hand, making a crisp sound.

  "Wan Er sister, guess what this is?" Shi Sheng laughed and said.

  "What? You didn't win the silver, did you? But it's not possible to have so much, this doesn't feel like ten taels!" Lin Wan'er held the money bag and weighed it in her hand, feeling its heaviness.

  "Not bad, there are forty taels of silver inside!" Shi Sheng laughed with a "ha ha".

  "Forty taels? How is that possible?" Lin Wan'er was immediately shocked, her whole body stunned, and before she could come to her senses, Shi Sheng added another blow.

  "Plus forty taels of silver notes!" Shi Sheng said, Lin Wan'er immediately showed a puzzled gaze, pulling on Shi Sheng's arm.

  "Asheng, you wouldn't have gotten your hands on ill-gotten gains, would you? We may be poor, but we absolutely can't do something like that!" Lin Wan'er recalled the disheveled state Asheng was in when he first came back, and her suspicions grew stronger, as if Asheng had been in a fight with someone.

  "Wannier sister rest assured, I am not that kind of person, these silver are all my legitimate winnings!" Shi Sheng said roughly, Lin Wannier was numb again.

  "Alright, I believe Ah Sheng. However, these silver coins are all being saved for you, and from tomorrow on, we'll be eating plain rice, and only giving you congee in the morning!" Lin Wan'er was indeed a thrifty and frugal good wife, immediately thinking of their household expenses.

  "Alright, sister Wan'er, from tomorrow on, we'll buy whatever you want to eat. As long as we can afford it, that's all that matters. This bit of money is just the beginning, I'll earn more later. Tomorrow, when I have time, I'll take you to buy some clothes and accessories, and I'll definitely dress you up beautifully!" Shi Sheng said seriously, remembering his promise to Lin Wan'er.

  Lin Wan'er didn't expect happiness to come so quickly, and for a while, she found it hard to adapt: "Ah Sheng, don't waste money, just save it, what if we need it in the future? Sister Wan'er looks good in anything." Although she wasn't planning on buying anything, Lin Wan'er was still very happy when she heard Shi Sheng's words.

  In this way, the two chatted for a while, and finally Lin Wan'er brought up the dishes. Shi Sheng wolfed down his food, and after eating his fill, Lin Wan'er let him rest early and returned to her room alone.

  ……

  He sat quietly on the bed, staring at a distant place with an absent-minded expression, lost in thought.

  "It was a close call today, that person didn't seem calm and collected enough, probably didn't expect me to be a cultivator and was caught off guard, plus my previous words of deception, they escaped in shock."

  "If it really comes to a showdown, I'll definitely lose. It seems like tomorrow I should go ask Wang Bo and make preparations early, otherwise if that person finds me again, I'm afraid I won't be so lucky." Although he didn't know who the person was, Shi Sheng still had some vague guesses in his heart.

  After a moment of contemplation, Shi Sheng closed his eyes and began to meditate. After more than an hour, he felt that his mental strength had recovered somewhat, so he controlled the two wooden sticks on the ground again, once more training his mental strength.

  But after a while, the mental energy was exhausted, and Shi Sheng felt somewhat tired. He stopped meditating and let his mental energy recover on its own, although this would take much longer. However, Shi Sheng could use this time to do other things, so it wasn't a waste of time either way.

  Wang Bo's wooden box was opened, and Shi Sheng took out the ancient scroll, carefully unrolling it under the dim light.

  After more than two hours, Shi Sheng had a general idea of the ancient scroll and finally understood some of the ways of symbol medicine, and also learned about the origin of these talisman tools.

  Brush, ink, paper and inkstone are not ordinary objects, but sacred instruments used by doctors of Chinese characters.

  The divine brush is made with a tiger bone as the handle and lion's tail hair as the tip, but both animals are not ordinary beasts. Moreover, when making the divine brush, one must carve talismans and infuse mental power, and there may even be times of failure, in which case the divine brush becomes an ordinary brush, and the drawn talismans will have no spirituality.

  Lingmo is made from the blood of a spiritual silver fox, Sanyanghua flowers that are over three years old, and a kind of silver-colored liquid called 'Yin Yin Ye', which is blended with mental power. It is said that Yin Yin Ye is usually found in caves and is extremely rare. However, this formula also belongs to the lowest level of Lingmo, and can only be used to draw low-level talismans.

  Talismans, on the other hand, come in a variety of styles, mostly made from animal hides that have been processed. The processing is somewhat complicated, requiring not only cleaning and natural drying but also soaking in a substance called "Tianshanlu" to restore softness. There is also a certain failure rate during production, but it's said that the better the quality of the animal hide and the higher its spiritual energy, the higher the success rate of refinement will be.

  The material and production of the inkstone are simple, with a white elephant ivory as the base, carving some special symbols and infusing spiritual power to make the inkstone have spirituality. However, this white elephant is not an ordinary one, its species is extremely rare, so the value of the inkstone is usually very high.

  "Forty taels for a divine brush, twenty taels for divine ink, five taels per sheet of talisman paper, and fifty taels for an inkstone? Is this old man trying to rob me?" Shi Sheng couldn't help but silently curse Wang Bo as a cunning old fox, and asked about his entire family.

  "I had just gotten my hands on eighty taels of silver and thought I was going to be a small tycoon, but in an instant I'm penniless!" Shi Sheng couldn't accept it and secretly wondered if Wang Bo had predicted that he would make eighty taels of silver today.

  But thinking carefully, Sheng let it go, these things are not ordinary objects, they must be expensive, it's just that now Sheng is not very used to it, originally thought he was still on top of Wang Bo's twenty taels, the serf turned over and sang a song, but now the landlord didn't make it, can't even afford to buy these spiritual instruments, it's really been thirty years of hard work, back to before liberation.

  "Ah, it seems that this bit of silver can't be wasted after all. Never mind, I'll think of a way to earn more silver slowly. For now, let's study how to draw talismans!" As he spoke, Shi Sheng didn't dare use the spiritual ink, and instead dipped his spiritual brush in water, practicing strange symbol-drawing techniques on ordinary paper. (End of this chapter, next chapter will be even more exciting!)

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