39: I am Zhang Jiu, isn’t it normal to have rice and meat in the talisman water?

After drinking the talisman water, Li Yan waited for the System to prompt him about side effects.

In his imagination, this was certainly a Jianghu swindler, merely tricking villagers out of their money.

However, after drinking this bowl of talisman water, no sound rang out in Li Yan's mind.

This talisman water… has no side effects?

He didn't feel any discomfort after drinking it; not only did it quench his thirst, but Li Yan also felt the Blood Qi in his body flow much more smoothly.

This was somewhat beyond Li Yan's expectations.

Having been conned and swindled before, Li Yan was extremely wary.

Yet, he didn't expect that this talisman water, which looked like a scam at first glance, actually had no hidden ingredients.

Li Yan initially even hoped this Jianghu sorcerer, from a small workshop, would add potent ingredients and give him some side effects.

Who knew that the talisman water this person gave could actually cure the common folk?

Seeing that the Heavenly Master Zhang before him had no ill intentions, Li Yan cupped his hands: "Many thanks for Fellow Daoist's talisman water…"

Before Li Yan could finish speaking, several cold voices suddenly came from afar.

"Taoist Zhang, why is it you again? Without the Venerable One's permission, who allowed you to unilaterally distribute porridge here?"

Li Yan followed the sound and saw several martial monks dressed in grey robes, holding staffs.

They were sternly driving away the surrounding villagers, while pointing at Taoist Zhang beside Li Yan.

Facing the martial monks' accusations, Taoist Zhang laughed heartily, stroking his long beard as he unhurriedly explained.

"Great Masters, you have misunderstood this humble Daoist."

"This humble Daoist, Zhang Jiu, is merely distributing talisman water here to pray for blessings and drive away illness for the common folk."

"How can you say this humble Daoist is distributing porridge?"

The martial monks exchanged glances, then stepped forward and kicked over Zhang Jiu Daoren's wooden bucket.

The talisman water in the wooden bucket spilled all over the ground, revealing a layer of rice grains and fatty meat at the bottom.

The so-called talisman water was all white porridge boiled with fatty meat.

Li Yan suddenly understood when he saw this; no wonder his Blood Qi became smoother after drinking it.

The martial monk pointed at the rice and meat at the bottom: "Taoist Zhang, how do you explain this?"

"The Venerable One has repeatedly ordered that no one within Mi Mountain City is allowed to set up a small stall for almsgiving without authorization."

"If you wish to give alms, you must report to the Abbot Elder at Pudu Temple."

Li Yan silently retreated to the side; he did not want to get involved in strangers' affairs.

After absorbing the memories of Old Daoist Xuanwang and others, he understood very well that in a world rampant with demons and ghouls, the cost of acting heroically was too great.

To knowingly invite trouble upon oneself and still do it, that would be foolishness named recklessness.

Facing the aggressive martial monk, Zhang Jiu still maintained a smile.

"But this humble Daoist, Zhang Jiu, is giving out talisman water. As for the rice and meat in this wooden bucket, perhaps a kind-hearted villager poured it into the bucket, wanting to gift it to this humble Daoist."

This Taoist Zhang truly spoke nonsense with his eyes wide open. The villagers were all impoverished; the common folk in this outer city had been squeezed dry. Where would they get rice and meat to give as gifts?

But facing the excuse Taoist Zhang found, the martial monks were also speechless.

"You…"

"What a glib-tongued Taoist Zhang, fine!"

"Next time we catch you unilaterally distributing porridge again, we will definitely lock you in the pagoda!"

After uttering a harsh threat, the monks glared fiercely at Taoist Zhang, then turned and left.

Only then did Taoist Zhang begin to squat down and clean up the mess that had been knocked over.

Li Yan stood silently to the side, glanced at the scene, and then prepared to leave.

However, he heard Taoist Zhang speak from behind him, reminding Li Yan.

"It's getting dark."

"Fellow Daoist, don't stay at an inn outside the city. Just find an uninhabited place to set up camp."

"The people outside Mi Mountain City are even scarier than monsters."

Li Yan was slightly startled when he heard Taoist Zhang say this.

Facing the other party's kind reminder, he cupped his fists in thanks: "Many thanks, Fellow Daoist!"

In this chaotic world, Li Yan had never before met someone who purely did good deeds without wanting his money or his body.

Moreover, because of this world where people were devoured and used for Alchemy, Zhang Jiu Daoren's good deeds seemed out of place among other Cultivators.

It even made him feel like a freak.

However, Li Yan still listened to Zhang Jiu and chose not to stay at an inn. Instead, he found a secluded dense forest.

Li Yan raised a hand, driving his Blood Qi to move his five fingers, twisting tree vines into ropes from a distance and setting up a hammock in the tree.

At the same time, he looked through his Storage Ring: "Old Daoist Xuanwang's Storage Ring should have many treasures. Hmm? Got it!"

Li Yan saw that Old Daoist Xuanwang's Storage Ring contained stealth banners.

With a wave of his hand, four stealth banners were inserted into the four corners, forming a barrier.

This way, he could minimize the leakage of his aura and block internal sounds.

To outsiders, this place would just be an ordinary small forest, and no one would expect someone to be camping here.

After doing all this, Li Yan lay on the hammock woven from tree vines, looking at the red sunset glow reflected by the setting sun.

Recalling the thrilling experience in Broken Sword Valley, Li Yan murmured: "Within the Ten Thousand Mountains, ancient ruins are everywhere, and all sorts of strange creatures are hidden everywhere."

"Now I've encountered Mi Mountain City being sealed off. Since things have come to this, I'll Cultivate first."

Lying on the hammock, Li Yan took out the ancient demonic Sacred Artifact—the blood glass treasure lotus lantern.

Holding the lamp handle, Li Yan began to silently recite the Cultivation Technique he had haphazardly learned.

"Dead Yin, blood glass… Seven orifices condense blood into lotus form."

[Detected that the Host has begun to practice a Cultivation Technique haphazardly, with extremely strong side effects, transforming into a hundredfold increase in Cultivation speed!]

As a faint white light began to emanate from Li Yan's body, two shadows also appeared on the ground.

The two shadows sat cross-legged, seemingly also following along in Cultivation.

Meanwhile, Corpse Puppet Su Mo instinctively stood up at this moment.

She was seen cutting her own arm with her evil bone greatsword, dripping Dead Yin blood onto the treasure lotus lamp.

Blood dripped, and the candlelight blazed!

The blood glass treasure lotus lantern emitted an even more eerie, more crimson light, reflecting on Li Yan's face.

In an instant, Li Yan felt his Cultivation speed surge, and the Blood Qi in his body boiled.

[Detected that the blood glass treasure lotus lantern has lit the 'Yin Candle', with extremely strong side effects, beginning to absorb side effects and convert them into Yin Qi.]

The crimson light emanating from the scarlet Yin Candle permeated Li Yan's body through his skin, transforming into golden threads within his body and injecting into his Dantian.

That bloody Dantian was wrapped in golden threads, and Li Yan's Dantian appeared to be the color of a Golden Core, like that of an ancient immortal Cultivator.

Li Yan, who could clearly feel the changes within his body, secretly sighed: "Ban Xue Realm leads to Blood Core Realm, others form a Blood Core, but I've become a Golden Core instead?"

Watching his Dantian change little by little, his Realm also increased from Ban Xue Realm first layer to second layer.

As the golden threads wrapped around layer after layer, he finally Breakthrough to the third layer of Ban Xue Realm!

After an unknown amount of time, Li Yan felt his body sink, as if something was pressing down on him.

When he opened his eyes, he found Corpse Puppet Su Mo's delicate body slumped on him.

"This girl… she drained her own blood again to help me Cultivate."

As Li Yan chuckled and stroked Su Mo's head, the Corpse Puppet, whose intelligence was only that of a few-year-old, had a pale face and weakly called out.

"Master, hungry."

Li Yan sat up, with a doting smile, just as he was about to feed Su Mo some spiritual liquid.

He seemed to hear something.

"Shh, listen!"

Li Yan gestured for silence and looked around.

It was already midnight, yet firelight appeared in the forest like scattered stars.

Looking closely, large groups of villagers were holding torches, searching for something in this dense forest.

These villagers had haggard faces and vacant eyes, like walking corpses, like puppets on strings.

The villagers seemed to be searching for Li Yan's tracks.

Then, recalling Zhang Jiu Daoren's advice not to stay at an inn…