-MMP

After buying the phone, beauty anchor Dong Keyan still wanted to treat Li Bai to a meal, but the Great Demon found an excuse to slip away.

With a girl this clueless, she could grow old alone in Germany!

As soon as they got home, Qingyao, just like any other young girl, snatched the phone box from Li Bai and happily started fiddling with her new phone.

High tech was so much fun!

There was nothing this good in the otherworld. There were phone games she'd never get tired of, forums where she could read the news, and people she could flame whenever they got on her nerves. She could do whatever she wanted.

The world was so big, with plenty of room for this Demoness to run wild.

Ding-dong!

Li Bai picked up his phone to check the text message he'd just received.

"MMP!"

What the hell? Which bastard sent this?

When he saw who it was from, the Great Demon's face darkened like the bottom of a pot. It was Qingyao Demoness's phone number, the family plan's short number, 662.

Anyone would send something the first time they got a phone of their own, but what was this MMP supposed to mean?

Then he looked at that little Azure Flood Dragon who was begging to be thrashed. She was hiding behind the big screen of her Note, pretending to be busy!

Li Bai had a nagging feeling that buying the Demoness a phone on a moment's whim had been a mistake—and the beginning of the end.

There was no reasoning with this monster. Li Bai snorted and went back to his room to cultivate.

But not long after he sat down on the bed, something stirred in his heart. He opened his eyes, sensing that something was amiss, and saw the two-foot-long Azure Flood Dragon curl around her phone and hop onto the bed after him.

"What are you doing?"

Not knowing what this Demoness was up to now, Li Bai glared at her.

Qingyao said meekly, "I'm out of money!"

"..."

There was no telling whether this was a good time to say MMP.

She didn't need money for food, and a dragon's body had no use for cosmetics. No matter how hard he tried, Li Bai couldn't figure out how the Demoness had managed to blow through an entire month's allowance in such a short time.

"What did you buy, exactly?"

Li Bai took the new phone she'd been fiddling with.

In the blink of an eye, she'd filled it with all kinds of apps. The phone had plenty of storage, so she'd stuffed it with everything she could find.

Oh, she even knew how to shop online. She'd linked the bank card she'd just received to an Alipay account.

Li Bai quickly found the order. It turned out to be a 300-yuan piece of raw moonstone. He grimaced. She'd spent her entire allowance in one shot. Just because she had money didn't mean she could waste it like that.

Thinking of his own nearly empty wallet, he realized that raising a monster really wasn't easy. He had no choice but to transfer another three hundred yuan to the Demoness's Alipay account. "I'll get your cultivation resources from now on. Don't do this again. No buying random things."

Moonstone wasn't particularly expensive among natural gemstones, but the Demoness's cultivation still came with hefty expenses. Li Bai figured that instead of ordering online, he might as well find a chance to visit the source and dig up ten or twenty tons himself. After all, he had a storage artifact and dragon scales, so he could carry it all away.

The Demoness couldn't have cared less. She hugged her phone, now topped up with belief, and happily went back to browsing Taobao.

When it came to earning money, Li Bai had options. Among the local specialties he'd brought back from the otherworld were not only artifacts and pills, but plenty of gold and silver jewelry, copper coins, and unredeemable flying notes.

He could sell the gold and silver jewelry through the proper channels, but he'd recently been implicated in Yao Donghu's Major Smuggling Case and was still on file at the Public Security Bureau. If he suddenly had hundreds of thousands, or even a million, yuan in cash and started spending more, it would probably attract the task force's attention. Then he'd be in trouble no matter what he said.

His friendship with Old Zhang and the others was one thing, but if he crossed the line, those veteran detectives would turn on him without hesitation. The task force was even prepared to go after a major figure this time. What did a few casual encounters mean in comparison?

Until he had a good reason, he couldn't touch those otherworldly goods just yet.

Second Month Second. The Dragon Raises Its Head.

The morning mist had yet to clear. The black eaves inside the Taoist temple's snow-white walls remained faintly visible, while roosters crowed back and forth from the farmhouses in the distance.

The diligent young Daoists worked together to pull open the massive, unpainted solid-wood gate. They had deliberately left it unoiled, so it creaked and groaned with a desolate rasp.

Bentleys, Rolls-Royces, business vans, and luxurious coaches were parked outside, taking up nearly half the parking lot.

Everyone waiting there was impeccably dressed. Some even had entourages. They didn't all rush inside at once, but politely yielded to one another as they entered Qingliang Temple in turn.

The tallest main building in the temple, the Three Pure Ones Hall, echoed with chanting. The three Daoist Masters in charge of most of the temple's affairs—Zhao Wendao, Li Jin Dan, and He Xunxian—were holding morning service with a group of disciples.

Morning service would last an hour. Those who had come to the temple sipped the homegrown Daoist tea served by the young Daoists, chatted quietly, and waited patiently.

"Morning service is over. Let's go greet the guests."

With white hair and a youthful face, the Great Daoist Master Zhao Wendao flicked his whisk. With two disciples supporting him, he rose from his cushion and nodded to Second Daoist Master Li Jin Dan and Third Daoist Master He Xunxian.

"As you command, Senior Brother!"

The two Daoist Masters bowed in unison.

"Senior Disciple Brother, Second Senior Brother, today is Second Month Second!"

Third Daoist Master He Xunxian seemed to have remembered something.

"Indeed. Second Month Second, the Green Dragon Festival. Welcome prosperity and pray for peace. It's a good day to tear down houses and break walls; all other matters are best avoided. It's inauspicious to marry, move, open a business, or move into a new home!"

Great Daoist Master Zhao Wendao casually worked out the divination with his fingers, as if it came naturally.

"Exactly!"

Second Daoist Master Li Jin Dan nodded.

"Have you two forgotten something?"

Third Daoist Master He Xunxian looked puzzled. There was supposed to be something special happening today.

Great Daoist Master Zhao Wendao asked in confusion, "Oh? Is it the marriage compatibility reading for the son and daughter-in-law of Manager Ma from the Jinhe Coal Mine? Isn't that your job?"

Today's big client was supposed to be a coal tycoon from Shanyin Province. Third Brother was asking a question he already knew the answer to.

"That's not what I mean. Senior Brothers, someone is coming to challenge us to a spell duel today!"

He Xunxian was getting anxious. The two Senior Brothers weren't taking it seriously at all. After all, it was Second Senior Brother who had challenged someone on the "17th Floor" forum.

"Hahaha!"

Daoist Masters Zhao Wendao and Li Jin Dan looked at each other and laughed.

He Xunxian was baffled. What was so funny?

Seeing how disgruntled he looked, Li Jin Dan smiled and said, "Junior Brother, you're overthinking it. How can you take things said online seriously? They aren't going to come."

He Xunxian was taken aback. Doubtfully, he asked, "They won't come?"

"People talk big online, but most of the time they're just bluffing. Ten challenges, ten people just running their mouths. If you take them seriously—hahaha! It's a joke. I can't believe you were worried about it."

Li Jin Dan flicked his sleeve, dismissing the so-called challenge as completely unimportant.

That "Li Bai's Demoness" person had stood him up too, after all.

"Junior Brother, you're getting attached to appearances. Infinite Blessings Heavenly Venerable. Focus on Manager Ma's matter, and don't worry about trivial things."

Zhao Wendao stroked his snowy white beard, shook his head, and leisurely headed toward the back hall.

Third Junior Brother just couldn't see through things.

"I see!"

He Xunxian slapped his forehead. Senior Brother had a point. Maybe that psychiatrist had left him with some kind of psychological shadow, making him take this far too seriously.

A sudden commotion broke out at the temple gate. Then a crowd of Monsters and Ghosts surged in aggressively.

W-what the hell was that?

Naruto, Hatsune Miku, the Monkey King—fine, those were understandable, but why was there also Bald Qiang?

In the blink of an eye, peaceful Qingliang Temple had turned into a scene of monsters running amok.

A young woman dressed in a pale blue ancient-style outfit embroidered with gold, adorned with a gold hairpin and a fragrant fan, stood at the entrance to Qingliang Temple, speaking eloquently. A young man with a backpack held up a professional livestream camera and pointed it at her.

"Second Month Second, the Dragon Raises Its Head, also known as the Green Dragon Festival. Today, at Qingliang Temple on the outskirts of Huxi City, a rare spell duel is about to take place. I'm standing right outside the temple gates. The challenger is Second Daoist Master Li Jin Dan of Qingliang Temple. The one accepting the challenge is Li Bai, a doctor at Seventh People's Hospital Psychiatry Department with a master's degree..."

The Qingliang Temple disciples and Third Daoist Master He Xunxian looked as if they'd seen a ghost.

Second Daoist Master Li Jin Dan's face was full of disbelief.

The temple's leader, Great Daoist Master Zhao Wendao, stiffly turned around. His face darkened like the bottom of a pot, and the white horsehair of his whisk snapped one strand after another.

"Tyrant: Flowers incoming!"

"Cutie Cutie: Sending a plane, little rockets on standby!"

"Starry Sea Big Bunny: 666"

To do a good job, one must first sharpen one's tools. With fifteen-hundred-thousand-yuan livestreaming equipment, an indoor anchor had turned into an outdoor reporter, and the audience numbers were shooting up. All kinds of tips kept setting new records.