Demons Beside You

“I don’t want it,” Fali said. “You keep it. You go through so much danger all the time. You need it more than me.”

“I obviously have one too,” Chen Zhao said, taking out a gold coin.

“The pattern on it looks different.”

“Every substitute coin is different,” Chen Zhao said. “Put it somewhere safe. I hope you’ll never need to use this.”

“Okay…”

One hour later

“Chen, if you don’t stop, the coin will be used right now.”

…

“Kyla, I produced the ointment. Do you and Fanny still need it?” Chen Zhao was calling Kyla.

“Yes, how many bottles did you make? I want it all.” Hearing Chen Zhao’s words, Kyla bought it all in excitement.

Even though it was very costly, she definitely wouldn’t lose anything by buying it.

She could use it herself or give it to her family.

The ointment had a great effect.

Plus, it was very rare. You couldn’t buy it just because you had money.

Having a few bottles with her, it was better safe than sorry.

“I’m sorry, I can only sell you two bottles,” Chen Zhao said.

“Why?” Kyla asked. “Did you only make two bottles?”

“You want to heal the burn on Fanny’s hand, right? If she uses it, she only needs one bottle.”

“It’s not enough at all,” Kyla said. “Her burn needs at least three bottles.”

“Just using the ointment constantly, you’ll definitely need three bottles,” Chen Zhao said. “But you can pair it with my treatment and save two bottles.”

“How much will your treatment for Fanny cost?”

“Two bottles of ointment and the treatment for Fanny, $500,000 in total. Can you accept that?”

“Sure,” Kyla answered easily.

When she’d visited Fanny a few days ago, she’d been frowning at her burned hand.

She kept asking when Chen Zhao could produce the ointment too.

“Are you at home tonight? Fanny and I will come over.”

“You want to come over?” Chen Zhao asked. “It’s not that troublesome. It’s just acupuncture to stimulate the pores on the palm to absorb the ointment. You don’t need to stay the night.”

“It’s okay. Fanny and I don’t have much to do these days.”

“Then, sure.”

Chen Zhao put down his dumbbell and then swam to the internal alchemy in the center of the lake. He sat down to meditate.

He would practice the Qingyi Manual whenever he had time.

He hadn’t come into contact with other cultivation techniques before, so he didn’t know if they were similar to the Qingyi Manual.

The cultivation process was a process of converting your own spiritual power to Spiritual Qi in the air and back.

In modern terms that everyone could understand:

It was like a fund. Your spiritual power was your capital. The Spiritual Qi in the outside world was a company’s funding.

The richness of Spiritual Qi was like how rich the company was.

If you invested your capital in a fund that lacked money, you might not even get your capital back, or just earn it back after a long time.

The rich Spiritual Qi around Chen Zhao’s house was like a well-funded company.

The rewards were also obvious.

In the entire Mirror Lake region, there would be the most Spiritual Qi around the internal alchemy.

Of course, the Qingyi Manual was one of those slow and steady investments—no, cultivation techniques.

The short-term returns weren’t obvious, but it was steady.

As long as he didn’t do anything stupid, he wouldn’t lose anything or hurt his original capital… spiritual power.

Actually, the River Map was the best place for cultivation.

Unfortunately, there was an ancient turtle there.

Old Turtle never let him cultivate in peace whenever he went.

If he was the old grandpa type who could help him cultivate, Chen Zhao would tolerate him.

However, he was the type who was really powerful but completely unreliable.

This was why you couldn’t become a teacher just because you were smart.

As for the River Map, anyone could see that it was a great treasure passed down from ancient times.

But there wasn’t much use…

It really was useless. Before, Chen Zhao had wanted to relax in there.

But ever since Old Turtle forced him to play games for three days and nights, Chen Zhao gave up.

Old Turtle had been stuck in there for thousands of years. Now, there was finally someone who could eat and play with him.

So, every time Chen Zhao went in there, Old Turtle would annoy him in every way possible.

Okay, he had to care for the lonely senior occasionally.

After cultivating, Chen Zhao entered the River Map.

“I wish I could date.” Old Turtle was feeling sad about himself again.

This was what Chen Zhao couldn’t stand.

Where’s your dignity as a strong cultivator?

You’re so powerful, but you just have to act like a middle schooler all day long.

You want this today and that tomorrow.

And everything else is fine, but why do you want to date?

You want me to get you a little turtle?

Please, they’d be dead if I bring them in.

“Old Turtle, did you watch some movie recently?”

“Love is Not Blind.”

“How about you transform yourself? You can date yourself.”

“No, I can’t use transformation after cloning. I can’t clone myself after transforming.”

“Then use your own face. Dating yourself is interesting too.”

“I’ve tried. I want to throw up after looking at myself for ten seconds.”

Chen Zhao felt like he didn’t have to come to visit at all.

Old Turtle actually had fun by himself.

“Here.”

Chen Zhao found a magazine and cut out a person’s face, taping it to Old Tortoise’s face.

“Now it’s okay.”

“Hey, it might work.”

Old Turtle cloned himself again.

Chen Zhao sat on the ground. He drank alcohol while watching Old Turtle act by himself.

“What scene are you acting?”

“Titanic.” Old Turtle hugged his other self from the back.

“Jack.”

“Lucy…”

“Blech… This alcohol is too much.”

Chen Zhao very rarely threw up from drinking, but he really vomited after today’s drink.

“Didn’t I bring this in? How come it’s so strong?” Chen Zhao asked, holding up the beer.

“Just as humans are the top of all spiritual creatures, alcohol is the top of all spiritual water. It also absorbs Spiritual Qi. The more Spiritual Qi a place has, the stronger the wine produced there.”

“But I didn’t brew the beer here. I brought it in from the outside.”

“Of course, but it was here for almost 15 years. It’s already come into contact with the Spiritual Qi.”