Chapter 56: Otaku's Beautiful Encounter Continues

  He had made a small fortune behind his back, but he did it very cautiously. Even with over 200 junior brothers and sisters, they would only ask him to refine materials in front of the crowd on Mount Jiuhua. No one could see any underhanded dealings, and on the surface, he was an honest worker! But behind closed doors, he would often be seen hunched over, wearing a necklace made from a small girl's clothing button, accumulating small spirit stones one by one in his small hut.

  One winter, on this day, the little loli ghost Ice suddenly appeared and brought many good things to Xiaodou. Clumsily, she put down a big pile of small boxes and coquettishly called out:

  "I'm exhausted, little bean, come have a cup of tea"

  Qian Xiaodou poured a cup of tea and handed it over, saying with a puffed up face: "Ice, you haven't come to see me for so many years, not very brotherly at all!"

  Bing'er finished a mouthful of tea, habitually rubbing her small face and saying: "Where am I not being brotherly? All these years, every day busy to the point of exhaustion, it's like my feet are kicking my own backside! It's all about life and death, just around Nine Flowers Mountain here, there are so many people dying every day, I've lost count. Every day is just leading souls into the underworld, not a bit of fun in this world, I'm collapsing!"

  Qian Xiaodou sat down and shook her head, saying: "How come you have time to find me today? Are they done fighting?"

  "I'm telling you, I've heard from my seniors that there's going to be a final showdown between the two sides. They're both gathering their strength now, and then they'll have an all-out battle. But that's not my problem anymore, since the battlefield won't be in my area of responsibility. Anyway, Xiao Dou, I came this time to bring you some good stuff! Here, these are all internal elixirs and refined blood from thousand-year-old or ten-thousand-year-old zombies that my colleagues and I exchanged for. If you eat them, not only will you not die, but your magical powers will also increase greatly!"

  Qian Xiaodou happily accepted it and smiled foolishly: "I have you as a friend, if I really become an undead, I'm probably invincible now, okay, I'll take it!"

  "Bing'er suddenly remembered something and shouted loudly: 'Ah, look at my memory, Xiao Dou! This small black bottle of essence blood should be used sparingly. It's said that this is the essence blood left behind by a Blood Domain Overlord-level zombie from the Upper Realm for future generations. You, use it sparingly, or else you might really become a zombie! I still like your sunny and cheerful personality, being able to eat over ten bowls of rice in one sitting, and your silly self!'"

  Qian Xiaodou nodded, smiling and saying: "Don't worry, I have a Tianren period great master as my teacher, he will give me some guidance. Ha ~ Ah, good Ice Child, Shui Xian and the others went on an expedition, got some yin ling materials, and refined two bottles of Qing Ming Dan for you..."

  "Whoa~" A gust of cold wind blew by, and Bing'er suddenly jumped up from the stool, her big eyes staring at Nan Fang Jiao: "There's another large patch of corpses, no way, Xiao Dou, I've got to go busy, oh~ what kind of ghostly medicine did you leave for me? I'm leaving first~"

  As she watched her miraculously break through the space-time boundary and disappear, Qian Xiaodou also felt a pang of loss in his heart. This Bing Er was after all one of his few good friends with whom he could speak from the heart. However, recently they had been fighting battles continuously, and as such, they hadn't spent much time together, which made Qian Xiaodou feel quite unhappy. He carefully gathered up his things and placed them in a small cave on the wall of Xiao Nei Valley, an eternal ice coffin that he had opened up himself, before returning to continue refining his equipment.

  The next morning, in the winter, the sky was a bit late to brighten up, and the rooster hadn't crowed yet. Xiao Ying led several sisters, with red eyes, to find the door, and when they saw Qian Xiaodou, they cried and shouted loudly:

  "Little Bean Shibo, can't you just refine more Dao instruments? On the battlefield, without shield-type Dao instruments, my fellow disciples have to use their bodies as shields. Without flying swords, they have to use ordinary iron swords to fight. Without bows and arrows, they have to use big rocks to smash. Because we don't have enough equipment, we can't defeat demons of the same level. Some even self-destruct after cultivating for hundreds of years to get a Golden Elixir, forcibly increasing their strength tenfold for a short time, fighting desperately with the enemy... only to be killed by demons in the end. It's just too tragic! What's even more infuriating is that yesterday, a little demon girl from the Demon Gate used an Exterminating Magic Thunderbolt that was a hundred times stronger than your Flame Bomb to kill so many of my fellow disciples... Waaahhh... Even good people like Elder Tian are dead now..."

  Xiao Dou's face was filled with a mix of sadness and elegance as he said, "Xiao Ying, you also saw it. For decades, I have been working tirelessly, exerting my utmost effort. The things I've created can kill tens of thousands of people, isn't that enough to defy the heavens? Although it pains me, we must calm our hearts and keep our minds clear at all times, so that we can make greater contributions to our sect!"

  Sakura didn't stop saying: "Anyway, I just don't want to see so many people die anymore. The detestable alchemists, talisman makers, pill makers, formation masters, puppeteers, and blacksmiths of the sect are all not as good as Master Xiaodou. They only know how to cultivate all day, only care about their own lives, and don't care about the life or death of the sect. Hmph! Heartless and unrighteous, just like beasts!"

  Qian Xiaodou smiled with a clear and elegant face: "Let's not care about others, come, this is the Taoist instrument I refined in the past half month, you take it and quickly distribute it to the brothers and sisters on the front line, let them die a little less, suffer a little less!"

  Little Sakura nodded with red eyes, then beckoned everyone to transport the magic tools refined by Little Bean once again, and they were all taken away without leaving a single one.

  Watching them leave, Qian Xiaomei suddenly appeared from behind and chuckled: "No wonder Shui Xian said that you little guy, apart from being softhearted, has a more profound and clever mind than her. Seeing that you've had Master Yuanfei's guidance, your progress is indeed getting more and more remarkable."

  Qian Xiaodou smiled and said: "The right path in the mortal world is vicissitude, now they have a bit of an alchemist's attitude, after this period, the sect will be giving them small shoes to wear, and I just want to get more materials to practice my skills, so that I can go on for a long time!"

  Qian Xiaomei shook her head and sighed, "Others may not have the demeanor of a Refining Master, but they can't be as overzealous as you! After all, everyone is cultivating, who would think that you could pass through five layers in one go? It's been a hundred years already, and you still haven't made any progress. What's going on? Don't say you've become stupid from refining, we know you're actually a greedy official who only cares about appearances, but in reality, you're just a big corrupt official! You haven't even fallen behind in your cultivation for one day, how is that possible? Have you run out of elixirs or something? If so, then say it!"

  Qian Xiaodou shook his head and said, "The elixirs you and the sect provided are not only enough for me to eat, but I also listened to Shui Xian's words. From the Qi Refining stage to the later stages of Dan formation, another batch of elixirs was prepared in advance, just in case. However, breaking through this thin membrane at the Houtian stage is really difficult to handle. Now, apart from my profound magical powers, I don't have any other good methods!"

  Qian Xiaomei smiled and said: "Well, practice hard then! You still have a hundred years left. We'll work hard on our end, and you should too, hehe ~ do you know? Now no one is worried about you, this guy, always scaring people to death, but in the end, you always manage to live through it with a smirk on your face. None of us think you can be defeated now, haha ~"

  Qian Xiaodou scratched his head in embarrassment and said, "It's all of you who created this atmosphere that scared me. Actually, I'm very confident. Even if there's no hope at all, I won't be afraid. Thinking of Xiaofei in my heart, I can get through any difficult situation!"

  "Speaking of Bai Xiaofei," Qian Xiaomei said with a somewhat uneasy expression: "Shuixian has already planted informants beside Xiaofei and her fiancé, Meng Xuetian. In the future, if those informants can successfully advance, you appear and say the password, they will help you even if it means death. This is one thing I have to admire about Shuixian's ability to use people, understand people, and control people!"

  Qian Xiaodou said with a gloomy face: "Although I don't want to play any tricks, thank you for helping me deal with Shuixian. Unless it's absolutely necessary, I still don't want to use this method to get Xiaofei, I will treat her well!"

  "Then I'm relieved!" Qian Xiaomei nodded and said: "Hmm...the materials for the treasure I recently obtained have been processed, you can use them to practice your hand. Still the same words - don't have any psychological burden! Whether it's your hundred-year progress speed or the difficulty of making it, they have already far surpassed us three girls!"

  Qian Xiaodou turned around and glanced at the pile of precious materials on his desk, sighed and said: "It's that comforting phrase again, and another big pile of precious materials. Among them, there isn't a single piece that isn't a rare treasure worth a city. The way of refining equipment is indeed a heart-wrenching thing. But Xiaomei, you guys believe me, no matter how much pressure I have, I will always face the challenge and never give up!"

  "It's just you who can bear it!" Qian Xiaomei said with a bitter smile: "If I were the one carrying everyone's hopes, I would have collapsed long ago. Here is a letter from Shuixian to you, I'm leaving, time to assemble!"

  After seeing off Qian Xiaomei, Qian Xiaodou finished reading Shui Xian's letter and couldn't help but shake her head, sighing with a bitter smile:

  "Openly competing and secretly snatching, indeed has a much higher success rate than me being silly and confessing, really looking forward to future developments!"

  On the way back to Xiao Nei Valley, Xiao Dou suddenly felt an unusual aura, and instinctively drew out his new top-tier Daoist artifact - Wind Chasing Flying Sword. His left hand secretly grasped two incendiary bombs, and with a quick scan of his surroundings, he discovered that on the edge of Xiao Nei Valley's mountain cliff, someone was lying in the snow?

  A small bean artist with a big heart and boldness walked out to take a look, and what caught his eye was a girl with stunningly beautiful long purple-red hair, a fair-skinned small face, all-black clothing, a sexy figure, extremely dazzling, a beautiful girl!

  The girl held a crystal long sword, and from the bloody magic power emitted by the sword's edge, it was clear that she was a demonic cultivator. If she were still standing at this moment, Xiaodou would have definitely knocked her to the ground, interrogated her thoroughly, confiscated all her treasures, and then handed her over to their master. But now she was covered in blood, and had fallen headfirst into the snowy ground below the cliff.

  A beauty is ahead, what to do?