Nascent Soul Oddity Lu Qingshan

Great King West Rat stared at the thoroughly deceased Cry Soul True Person.

Its eyes were wide and unblinking.

Everything had happened too fast.

Lu Qingshan had only given it a brief instruction: when he needed it, activate the Soul Loss Technique to cooperate with him, and then he had charged headlong towards Cry Soul True Person.

It hadn't even had time to react, only subconsciously cooperating with Lu Qingshan to cast the Soul Loss Technique.

By the time it came to its senses, Cry Soul True Person was already a corpse.

???

This was a Foundation Establishment cultivator, how could he have been killed by a single sword strike?

Great King West Rat gradually began to doubt its own existence.

At the same time, it felt fortunate.

Thank goodness I backed down quickly back then, otherwise I'd probably be a dead rat right now.

"I'm leaving," Lu Qingshan called out to the stunned Great King West Rat.

Great King West Rat snapped back to reality, hurriedly hopping onto Lu Qingshan's shoulder, acting all docile.

Lu Qingshan's figure flickered, and he quickly left the area.

Inside the inn where Lu Qingshan was temporarily staying.

"What are we doing here now?" Great King West Rat asked, looking at Lu Qingshan, who had been drinking tea by the side after returning to the inn, feeling confused.

Seeing Lu Qingshan's demeanor, he must have something on his mind.

"Waiting for someone," Lu Qingshan replied.

"Waiting for someone? Who are you waiting for?" Great King West Rat's confusion deepened.

"Don't rush, they should be here soon." Lu Qingshan poured himself another cup of tea.

Knock—

A knock sounded at the door.

Great King West Rat's heart leaped. Someone was actually coming?

"Is Lu Qingshan inside?" A voice, clear and cold, yet incredibly pleasant, called out.

"Come in."

The room door was pushed open from the outside.

The door hadn't been locked at all.

Two cultivators, a man and a woman, entered. The female cultivator was dressed in white, with peerless beauty and a cold, aloof aura, like a snow lotus on a heavenly mountain. It could only be Tantai Qingrun.

As for the male cultivator, he looked like a middle-aged man, but his hair was a mix of black and white, as if it had been streaked.

Tantai Qingrun had clearly noticed the detail that the door was unlocked and gave Lu Qingshan a meaningful glance. "You've been waiting for us for a long time, haven't you?"

Lu Qingshan shook his head. "Not long, not long at all. You were quite swift."

"Not only did you not make any attempt to hide your tracks, but you deliberately left Cry Soul True Person's corpse behind. If we couldn't quickly figure out the whole story and track you down from this, then Yuanshan Tower would be no different from trash." Tantai Qingrun did not appreciate Lu Qingshan's compliment.

The destructive power caused by cultivators' battles was too terrifying, often affecting innocent people.

Therefore, the Great Xia Imperial Family strictly prohibited cultivators from fighting within human cities, nor did they allow cultivators to act rashly and kill people within the city.

After Lu Qingshan killed Cry Soul True Person, he did not dispose of the corpse, leaving it exactly as it was at the scene. Wasn't this precisely to allow Yuanshan Tower to quickly find him?

Lu Qingshan remained noncommittal about Tantai Qingrun's words. He took an item from his storage ring and placed it on the table, then turned to the middle-aged male cultivator and said, "Guardian Qi, you came for this, didn't you?"

Because every use of [Observe Heaven] incurred a cost in lifespan, the stewards of the Heavenly Mystery Temple were all white-haired even in their prime.

With such obvious characteristics, coupled with his ability to walk alongside Tantai Qingrun, it wasn't difficult to guess the middle-aged male cultivator's identity.

Of course, Lu Qingshan didn't rely on these alone to deduce Qi Yuan's identity.

Qi Yuan was an important NPC in the Corpse Puppet Uprising version. As a veteran player, how could he not recognize him?

Qi Yuan looked at the item Lu Qingshan casually placed on the table, a barely perceptible glint of joy flashing in his eyes.

The item Lu Qingshan had taken out was precisely a Heavenly Mystery Mirror Fragment.

Among the two storage rings found on Cry Soul True Person, one of them was found to be hiding the Heavenly Mystery Mirror Fragment.

"What do you want?" Qi Yuan said in a deep voice. "Spirit Stones, cultivation methods, or spirit artifacts?"

Lu Qingshan calmly replied, "No reward is needed. It's merely returning it to its rightful owner."

Qi Yuan took the Heavenly Mystery Mirror Fragment and looked at the extremely young face of the youth before him. After a moment of silence, he said, "Consider it that I owe you a favor this time. If you ever need anything in the future, I will do my best to help you once."

This meant that he owed Lu Qingshan a favor.

Exchanging a Heavenly Mystery Mirror Fragment, which was useless to a Sword Cultivator, for a favor from the steward of the Heavenly Mystery Temple, a guardian of a prefecture.

This was naturally a profitable deal.

Lu Qingshan did not stand on ceremony with Qi Yuan, nodding in acceptance.

He didn't ask for any reward from Qi Yuan partly as a way to advance his own interests.

Of course, there was also a very important reason besides that.

He wasn't short on Spirit Stones right now.

The storage ring that contained the Heavenly Mystery Mirror Fragment held treasures far beyond his expectations.

A storage ring with such wealth could never belong to a Foundation Establishment Sword Cultivator.

If he guessed correctly, that storage ring should have originally belonged to a Golden Core cultivator.

Qi Yuan put away the Heavenly Mystery Mirror and turned to leave.

His sole purpose for coming this time was just to retrieve the Heavenly Mystery Mirror Fragment.

After Qi Yuan left, only Lu Qingshan and Tantai Qingrun remained in the room, along with a trembling black rat whose teeth chattered uncontrollably.

"Oh my heavens, what kind of people are these?"

The beast's incredible intuition allowed the Great King West Rat to sense a terrifying aura, as deep as an abyss, emanating from Tantai Qingrun and Qi Yuan.

Don't dare to move, don't dare to move.

Tantai Qingrun also remained silent, staring at the Great King West Rat without a word.

The Great King West Rat shivered all over.

"I just remembered I made plans with Afang from the kitchen, so I'll be going to meet her now." The Great King West Rat chuckled nervously and quickly scurried away, even thoughtfully closing the door behind him.

Lu Qingshan looked at Tantai Qingrun with a half-smile, "Does Sect Master Tantai have any other urgent matters?"

"Who are you?" Tantai Qingrun asked coldly.

"Didn't I tell you? Lu Qingshan from the Lu family. With Yuanshan Tower's capabilities, it shouldn't be difficult to verify my identity, right? Why does Tower Master Tantai still ask such a question?" Lu Qingshan's smile vanished as he replied seriously.

"Qi Refining eighth layer. Two days ago, you were still a Qi Refining second layer cultivator. How do you explain this?" Tantai Qingrun shook her head and questioned again, "Also, setting aside your cultivation skyrocketing in just two days, Cry Soul True Person was a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator. How did you, a Qi Refining eighth layer cultivator, kill him, and emerge completely unharmed?"

Lu Qingshan waved his hand, raising an eyebrow, "Just luck, nothing worth mentioning, nothing worth mentioning."

Seeing Lu Qingshan's nonchalant demeanor, Tantai Qingrun scrutinized him with a piercing gaze.

The atmosphere became somewhat strange.

"Before the Body Seizure, were you in the Nascent Soul stage, or higher?" Tantai Qingrun changed the subject and suddenly asked.

Lu Qingshan was taken aback, and then finally understood. Tantai Qingrun mistook him for an old Nascent Soul monster who had undergone Body Seizure.

Lu Qingshan chuckled, "What Body Seizure? I'm just Lu Qingshan."

"Since you're unwilling to say, I won't force you. But this cooperation has been pleasant. If you have any other information, feel free to approach Yuanshan Tower," Tantai Qingrun said, then turned and left.

Regardless of Lu Qingshan's true origin, at least for now, Lu Qingshan was on Yuanshan Tower's side. The benefits that could be gained from Lu Qingshan were tangible and real.

She had no reason to refuse cooperation with Lu Qingshan, nor any reason to rashly offend him.

"Yuanshan Tower Faction Favorability increased by 150."

"Zhishou Tower Faction Favorability increased by 15."

"Heavenly Mystery Temple Faction unlocked."

"Heavenly Mystery Temple Faction Favorability increased by 10."

"Yuanshan Tower: Enthusiastic (200)."

"Zhishou Tower: Friendly (20)."

"Heavenly Mystery Temple: Friendly (10)."