Lizard Warrior

Although he was immensely eager for the Meditating Doll, Su Qing also understood that his Immortal Path Rune was still far from Tier 2, while his Intelligence Rune lacked sufficient refinement. Forcing himself to grind out a Meditating Doll directly would be an utterly brainless move.

"The best approach is to refine Lizard Warriors as a transition. Refining this puppet requires four types of runes: Tier 2 Biomimetic, Tier 2 Intelligence, Tier 1 Combat, and Tier 1 Immortal Dao.

"During the process of refining these puppets, I can gradually grind my Intelligence Rune up to Tier 2 and my Immortal Path Rune up to Tier 1. Then, when I refine the Meditating Doll, the success rate will rise dramatically.

"Besides, Lizard Warriors won't be hard to sell. At most, I'll need to put in some investment at the start. Once my Proficiency rises, I can use them as income-generating puppets to raise puppets with puppets. They should be enough to cover the costs of refining Meditating Dolls afterward."

At the dining table, Su Qing stuffed a mouthful of steaming Bear Blood Curd in spicy red-oil broth into his mouth. The deliciousness sent a shiver through his whole body. The Wood Spirit Servant's cooking was as reliable as ever. He had merely entered recipes vaguely recalled from his previous life into the Intelligence Rune, yet the Wood Spirit Servant could roughly recreate all sorts of flavors from that life.

The reason they could not be completely identical was not an issue with the Wood Spirit Servant, but the disparity between the ingredients of the two worlds.

"Ironback Bear blood has a somewhat overpowering taste, but once the spice covers it up, it has a flavor all its own. The key is, this stuff is seriously nourishing!"

He cleaned out a whole basin of Bear Blood Curd along with two or three bowls of rice cooked from Spirit Rice.

Surging energy coursed through his limbs and bones, forcing him to practice the Five Animals Skill seven or eight times before he could fully digest it.

After soaking in a hot bath, he took out a bronze mirror and examined himself.

The figure reflected in the mirror looked like a young man in his twenties or thirties. His features were delicate, his appearance above average. He was not as burly as a body cultivator, but neither was he as terrifyingly gaunt as when he had first transmigrated here, nothing but skin stretched over bones.

"I look like a normal person now. Seems all that Spirit Rice and beast meat lately wasn't eaten for nothing!"

Su Qing was fairly satisfied with his current physical condition. He did not make his living by relying on his body anyway. As long as it did not affect his lifespan, being a little thin was nothing.

Besides, with his current financial means, his meals would not be lacking from now on. If he kept nourishing himself for another year or so, he ought to make up for his previous deficits.

"If it really doesn't work, I'll find a Rune Engraver and have them do something vicious to my body. Then who could be more robust than me?"

Rune Engravers were a profession capable of branding runes onto the human body, allowing the body to borrow the power of runes.

Su Qing talked about wanting a Rune Engraver to put some runes on him, but in truth, he was just talking big. If it actually came down to it, he would not have the slightest bit of courage.

Because Rune Engravers, like Artifact Refiners, Talisman Masters, and puppet masters, all had a certain probability of failure when crafting runes, regardless of their rank.

When other professions failed at rune crafting, they would at most lose some materials.

But when a Rune Engraver failed, the unlucky person being inscribed might lose an arm or a leg, or suffer heart-rending injuries—and that was considered a good outcome. For those cursed with truly abysmal luck, having their physical bodies disintegrate was entirely normal.

Therefore, only desperate fugitives with nowhere left to turn would patronize Rune Engravers.

Someone like Su Qing would never use his own body as practice material for a Rune Engraver.

After tidying himself up, he pushed open the courtyard gate. He intended to make a trip to the Market's Central District, first handing over some Demoness Puppets to Shopkeeper Liu so that he could move the goods as quickly as possible.

As a guest of the Hundred Treasures Pavilion, his arrangement with Shopkeeper Liu differed from everyone else's.

Shopkeeper Liu provided both labor and materials and paid him a monthly wage. When refining puppets, they agreed beforehand on how many sets of materials would produce how many puppets. If the success rate was low, that meant his skills were lacking, and he would have to make up the difference himself. If the success rate was high, Shopkeeper Liu would not demand more. All leftover materials were his to handle as he pleased.

With this form of cooperation, he sometimes had to pay out of pocket when his Proficiency had not yet risen. But once his Proficiency increased, as long as Shopkeeper Liu did not know his exact success rate, converting the leftover materials into Spirit Crystals would yield extremely considerable profits.

This was why Su Qing cared even more about Shopkeeper Liu's sales volume than Shopkeeper Liu himself. The faster the Demoness Puppets sold, the sooner Shopkeeper Liu would place more orders, and the more Spirit Crystals he could earn.

"I can't be too greedy either. This time, I'll tell Shopkeeper Liu that my ability has improved. From now on, seven sets—no, better make it eight. Eight sets of materials can produce one Demoness Puppet!"

The Hundred Treasures Pavilion had branches throughout the West Sea. With the guest elder badge of the Hundred Treasures Pavilion in hand, one could get by anywhere.

Because of what the previous owner of his body had experienced at Cloud Mountain Sect, Su Qing wanted nothing to do with joining a sect. Therefore, building a good relationship with an organization like the Hundred Treasures Pavilion was a good choice for him.

"Also, although most of the remaining Demoness materials are Tier 1 common materials and can be used to make Combat Lizards, Demon Lizard Claws and Mysterious Iron Crystals are indispensable for making Combat Lizards. I have to buy a batch to prepare for the upcoming refining.

"If there's enough time, I'll set up a stall for a while. If I can sell a few Demoness Puppets individually, that'll count as profit."

On the road to the Central District, Su Qing pondered while observing his surroundings.

Ever since returning from Ge Family Village to the Living Area, he had not gone out.

Now that he had just stepped outside, he immediately sensed that the atmosphere in the Living Area was different from before.

The cultivators all hurried along, and the more cautious ones even kept Magic Artifacts clenched in their hands at all times.

From time to time, he could hear complaints that people from the Central District had come a few days ago to announce that, while rents were being raised, the cultivators living here would also have to pay an additional five hundred Spirit Crystals every month as a security fee for the Market to send skilled hands to patrol the Living Area.

As Su Qing walked, his brow furrowed ever more deeply.

Clearly, the previous incident in which a Demonic Cultivator had entered the formation and murdered people had affected the Living Area, turning this once peaceful district into a place where every rustle of wind and cry of a crane set people on edge.

As for the rent increase and the five hundred Spirit Crystal security fee, they were nothing to him now.

What annoyed him was that he had not seen the so-called Enforcement Team patrolling anywhere along the way.

"Taking money and doing no work—aren't the Market people shameless!"

Su Qing was not surprised by this. Demonic Cultivators who dared to enter a formation and kill people were at least Demonic Sect Cultivators at the Late Qi Refining Stage. Their Daoist arts were superb, their Magic Artifacts finely made, and their methods uncanny. To guard against them, Cloud Mountain Sect's Inner Sect Disciples would have to step in.

And how precious were Cloud Mountain Sect's Inner Sect Disciples? How could they possibly come patrol for Rogue Cultivators like them?

The so-called security fee was merely a means for those big shots in the Market's Central District to squeeze the Rogue Cultivators dry.

Though he had expected it, he still had to curse them.

The Spirit Crystals of he, Su Qing, had not fallen from the sky either. Handing them over to these corpse-fed, grain-wasting parasites truly displeased him.

Complaining about how ugly those big shots' greed was, he stepped into the Hundred Treasures Pavilion.

A short while later, under Shopkeeper Liu's warm send-off, he left the Hundred Treasures Pavilion carrying an order for twenty Demoness Puppets, along with over sixty Demon Lizard Claws and nine hundred jin of Mysterious Iron Crystals.

"Tch, that Old Liu is sly as a ghost. Without seeing a finished Lizard Warrior, he just won't loosen his grip and place an order. Otherwise, if he supplied me with the materials, wouldn't I save the cost of materials for the Lizard Warriors!"

Su Qing secretly cursed Shopkeeper Liu for refusing to act until he saw the rabbit, then turned and walked into another shop locked in fierce rivalry with the Hundred Treasures Pavilion.

He intended to resell some of the materials for making Demoness Puppets that he had just received from Shopkeeper Liu. He did not dare resell all of them, because he knew he could not hide this business from Shopkeeper Liu. If he resold too much, Shopkeeper Liu might calculate his puppet-refining success rate—and that would be troublesome.