Chapter 33: Crafty Old Timers!
Furrowing his brows slightly, Luo Qing was about to say something when he suddenly turned his head to look at the baby sleeping beside him, and with a smile, he said, "Old man, pretending to be asleep for so long and wanting to leave without saying hello, isn't that too rude!"
Wang Zijia was stunned by his words, completely dumbfounded, and turned his head to look at the baby he had placed aside.
To his surprise, with Luo Qing's words, a phantom goat-headed monster emerged from the baby's body.
It was none other than the one that had exploded the day before!!!
"How did you break my arrangement in the Eastern City? The entire labyrinth disappeared without a trace, not even a bit of effect was achieved. It was all in vain, and it directly led to me being discovered?" The other party appeared abruptly and spoke without preamble. It seemed that the two knew each other, or at least knew of each other.
"I'm also curious, but unfortunately, I didn't find it!" Luo Qing glanced at Wang Zijia, then replied, "But if it weren't for this, when things got noisy, you might have managed to sneak away with the child using your sneaky methods."
The goat-headed monster remained silent for a moment, wearing a bitter expression as he said, "Luo Qing, this seat has no grudges with your sect, nor have I done any evil in this city. Why do you force me like this?"
"No evil in the city? Heh, rare spiritual roots that appear only once in a decade or even several decades were wasted by you. Isn't that considered evil in our sect?" Luo Qing looked at the three-year-old child, his expression slightly angry.
"This is a body this seat found by itself. What does it have to do with you? For the sake of a child, not only did you kill this seat's true body, but you also relentlessly pursue me. Are you bullying me because I have no one to rely on?" The goat-headed monster roared angrily, his voice fierce, but his actions remained still, giving off an air of weakness.
Hearing this, Luo Qing sneered and said mockingly, "Hmph. If you had someone to call, you should have done so. Your junior on the next street is probably almost done for. If you don't hurry to shake someone up, it might be too late."
The goat-headed monster's face turned ashen, and then in a flicker, his ghostly body exploded and scattered.
"Heh, using such means in front of me, who do you think you're looking down on?" Luo Qing waved his hand, and strands of white mist appeared, turning the dispersed phantom orbs into solid ice blocks that fell to the ground.
Luo Qing raised an eyebrow in surprise and said, "Did you leave no trace of power at all? Does that mean yesterday's strangeness was quite powerful?"
With that, he waved his hand and collected the ice blocks. Then, he looked at the baby on the ground, furrowing his brows slightly, sighed, and also collected it.
Then, he turned to look at Wang Zijia, who was still dumbfounded.
So those two villains last night, that second-hand inheritance, weren't remnants left by a dying master?
The big explosion that seemed to result in mutual destruction was the first layer of cover, the thrown-out garbage inheritance was the second layer of cover, and today's events were the third layer of cover?
Are all these big shots so cunning?
"Now that you know how dangerous it is outside, let me teach you something today. Anything contaminated with sin should not be touched lightly." Luo Qing smiled and said to Wang Zijia, who was staring blankly at the baby.
"Uh, disciple will remember the lesson!" Wang Zijia replied respectfully.
"Alright, today's work is considered satisfactory." With these words, he looked at Wang Zijia and said seriously, "Although at your age, you should have more courage and vigor, it's better to be cautious with sin. Although the your earth-based Qi has some resistance, it's almost negligible."
"Disciple has remembered!" Wang Zijia replied respectfully again.
"Okay!" With that, he didn't say anything else and disappeared directly.
Wang Zijia let out a long sigh of relief and without any hesitation, turned and ran straight home, not delaying for a moment.
It was too scary, with two old monsters suddenly appearing, catching him off guard.
He didn't do anything all night, just slept honestly.
The next morning, when Wang Zijia went to work, he found that the city was starting to return to normal, with no more hurried patrols.
The streets were also lively again, with less fear and more calmness.
Wang Zijia completed his shift as usual, but shortly after starting work, he received another summons from the shopkeeper Xiang Ji.
"This old man, could he really have taken a fancy to me!"
Wang Zijia noticed a change in attitude from the old man, especially after he began to contemplate on the techniques of symbols/talismans. It seemed like the old man was now showing interest in both the sect's entrance token and Wang Zijia himself. However, for Wang Zijia, this wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Now that he had spiritual roots, he could consider taking advantage of the situation without fear of detection.
With these thoughts in mind, Wang Zijia arrived outside Xiang Ji's office.
"Come in!" Without waiting for Wang Zijia to knock, Xiang Ji's voice came from inside.
"Did you summon me, Manager?" Wang Zijia asked with a slightly calm demeanor.
He needed to gradually change his attitude to give the impression of becoming more open-minded. Otherwise, it wouldn't be beneficial to continue with his current approach.
Xiang Ji, busy with something, glanced up at Wang Zijia and then continued without much interruption, "How's the progress with your comprehension of talisman technique? Any results?"
"It's going okay, just tinkering around on my own," Wang Zijia replied vaguely.
"Well, don't be discouraged. Among the myriad disciplines of cultivation, mastery of any one is quite challenging. Among them, alchemy, artifact forging, formation arrays, and symbols/talismans are the most difficult. But once you master them, they'll benefit you for a lifetime and even bless your future generations" Xiang Ji paused and continued, "Symbol/talisman making does require quite a bit of investment, though. If you're short on money, you can come to me. At the very least, I can advance you a year's salary or something."
'Why does Xun Chenglin always manage to turn borrowing money into a topic of conversation? Can't there be some small secrets between colleagues?' Wang Zijia thought to himself.
"Okay, I understand," Wang Zijia replied weakly.
"Rewards from above have arrived," Xiang Ji suddenly changed the subject, stating the purpose of Wang Zijia's summons.
"Rewards?"
What kind of reward could it be?
Wang Zijia was a bit puzzled.
Xiang Ji continued, still focused on his work, "Although the information you provided wasn't particularly useful, it did have some effect. Since the higher-ups also encourage such things, they've allocated some rewards for you."
Wang Zijia suddenly realized what this was about—it must be about the incident with the dog.
"At first, I intended to allocate you the basic techniques of our sect. After all, you left a good impression on Captain Mengbei," Xiang Ji paused, looking up at Wang Zijia and continued, "But since your father must have already prepared the techniques for you, I guessed it wouldn't make sense for me to allocate them again. So, I decided to hold off and ask you: what do you want?"
Wang Zijia looked at Xiang Ji and asked, "Can I choose a technique?"
"You can, as long as it's roughly equivalent. But forget about the secret techniques of our sect!" Xiang Ji nodded.
"Symbolic Perception. I want the technique of Symbolic Perception!" Wang Zijia almost didn't hesitate and directly voiced his request.
Becoming a symbol master had three prerequisites: the ability to make symbol papers (which was optional), Symbolic Perception (the core foundation), and any other technique that could be turned into symbols.
What he lacked right now was this core technique: Symbolic Perception.
[Symbols=Talismans]
(End of this chapter)