Chapter 91: The Guixu Scam
Lu Qingyang squatted in front of a fortune-telling stall in the East Sea Market. The 'Guixu Treasure Map' spread before him still had fish bones from last night's meal stuck to it. He jingled the silver bell he'd 'borrowed' from Miaojiang and winked at a passing female Cultivator: "Fairy, there's a malevolent aura between your brows; perhaps you're in need of a Dual Cultivation Dao Companion..." Before he could finish, the Qingming Sword suddenly unsheathed itself, deflecting an incoming poisoned dart.
"You, Lu!" A scar-faced Cultivator, a subordinate of Immortal Master Chijiao, stomped on the stall table, shattering it. "You sold fake water-repelling talismans in the black market, causing my Junior Brother to get stuck in a clam spirit's shell for three days!" Amidst the onlookers' laughter, Lu Qingyang grabbed his banknotes and stuffed them into the sole of his shoe: "That was for his calcium! Didn't you see I drew a tortoise on my talisman?"
As seven soul-locking hooks tore through the air, he flung out a 'Heavenly Fragrance Soft Bone Talisman'. The talisman paper exploded in a pink mist, and the scar-faced Cultivator suddenly twisted his waist, breaking into an alluring dance. Lu Qingyang stepped on the other party's shoulder and leaped onto the eaves: "Everyone, watch closely! This is the Red Serpent Gate's secret 'Carp Leaping' technique!"
When he escaped to the docks, the black lotus on his arm suddenly burned with pain. He stumbled into a painted boat, landing right in the arms of a Mermaid playing the zither. The Mermaid's ear fins glowed blue, but her tail scales bore the unique crimson markings of the Blood Maple Forest: "Young Master, what a heavy witch's curse..." As her jade fingers brushed his neck, the Qingming Sword suddenly hummed a warning.
"How much is the beauty's consultation fee?" Lu Qingyang pulled out a dud thunder pearl, "Or I could use this as payment..." Before he finished, the Mermaid took the thunder pearl into her mouth. Her crimson lips parted, exhaling a wisp of green smoke, actually transforming the thunder's malevolent Qi into pure spiritual power: "Fellow Daoist Lu, do you know that the entrance to Guixu requires a living sacrifice?"
At the time of the midnight high tide, Lu Qingyang squatted on a reef, tinkering with his homemade compass. The starfall iron needle suddenly turned towards the seabed. He pulled out a bronze talisman he'd 'borrowed' from the fortune-telling stall: "Guixu's treasures, Grandfather Lu is coming..." The reef beneath his feet collapsed with a rumble, and three hundred black-scaled warships emerged from the towering waves.
"Hand over the bronze talisman!" Immortal Master Chijiao stood at the bow of the ship, with Cultivators behind him forming a Nine Heavens Thunder Array. Lu Qingyang flung out ten 'Fart Escape Talismans', and the explosive air current propelled him into the whirlpool. As the lightning pursued him, he threw the 'East Sea Beauties Scroll' from his embrace over his shoulder: "Catch! It's a portrait of your Dao Companion!"
In front of the bronze gate at the entrance of Guixu, Lu Qingyang ran his hand over the grooves on the gate, troubled. The scale left by the Mermaid suddenly glowed. He gritted his teeth and inserted the Qingming Sword into the gate crack: "On credit! I'll pay you back three times the incense later..." The sword spirit let out a Dragon's roar, and the Chaos Qi gushing from within the gate actually blackened his Nascent Soul.
"You're courting death, young man!" Immortal Master Chijiao came crashing through the waves, summoning his Lifebound Treasure, the Sea-Burning Halberd. Lu Qingyang suddenly grinned, flinging out seventy-two Replicator — each one depicting Immortal Master Chijiao in women's clothing. Taking advantage of the other party's exasperation, he bit his tongue and spat out a mist of blood: "Heaven and Earth Bank, loans are no problem!"
The bronze gate, propelled by the blood curse, burst open with a roar. Lu Qingyang tumbled into a secret vault filled with Spirit Stones. Just as he was about to bag them, the starfall compass in his embrace suddenly played a recording of him peeking at the Mermaid bathing: "Do not look at what is improper! Do not look at what is improper!" He angrily smashed the compass: "I had my eyes closed!"
When Immortal Master Chijiao pursued him, Lu Qingyang was hugging a bronze coffin and gnawing on Spirit Stones: "Share half?" The coffin lid suddenly exploded, revealing a Witch Clan female corpse lying inside, seven-tenths similar to the Mermaid. The bronze talisman around the female corpse's neck perfectly fit the fragment in his hand, and the black lotus mark suddenly grew wildly to his heart.
"Three hundred years ago..." The moment the female corpse opened her eyes, Lu Qingyang's past life memories surged forth like a tide. He saw himself plunging the bronze talisman into the Witch Clan Saintess's chest: "A'Yue, I'm borrowing your life soul to suppress the sea eye..." At this moment, the female corpse's fingertips pierced his chest, but gently hooked at his Nascent Soul: "It's time to repay the debt."
As Guixu began to collapse, Lu Qingyang surfaced, clutching half a coffin lid. Immortal Master Chijiao had been corroded into white bones by the Chaos Qi, and the Sea-Burning Halberd was stuck in the reef, sizzling. He pulled out the storage ring from the white bones' embrace and laughed towards the rising sun: "I'm taking a thirty percent interest; Mr. Lu is benevolent enough, wouldn't you say?"
Thousands of miles away in the deep sea, the Mermaid smiled lightly, looking at the dissipating blood curse in her palm. She shed her fish tail and transformed into human form; the silver bell on her wrist perfectly matched the one Lu Qingyang had 'taken'.