Chapter 511: Unstoppable Bad Luck! Major Meeting! Top Student Xiao Ran! Increasing Fortune!

“Eh, what’s going on?” Li Yanchu was a bit surprised.

“Daoist Master Li, am I still going to be okay?” Liu Jun panicked the moment she saw the serious look on his face.

“Your case is rather unusual. It doesn’t look like ordinary misfortune, and I can’t find any obvious problem,” Li Yanchu explained.

“Ah!” Liu Jun cried out, her face turning pale.

“Then what should I do?” she asked nervously.

“I think... we need to hold a meeting to study this matter,” Li Yanchu said.

Hearing his response, Liu Jun stared in confusion.

***

Thus, late that very night, the first official meeting jointly convened by Qingyun Temple and Taiping Inn got underway.

On Qingyun Temple’s side, those attending the meeting were Li Yanchu and Cuihua. From Taiping Inn, the participants were the innkeeper, Fang Qinglan, Lady Yun, and Xiao Ran.

Lady Yun had been here for a long time and was already accepted by everyone, but Xiao Ran and Cuihua had only been around for a short while.

Xiao Ran in particular came across as far too sharp, wearing a look that seemed to eye Li Yanchu like a tiger stalking its prey, which stirred some dissatisfaction in the innkeeper. Fortunately, during this period she had been running errands for the innkeeper and working hard around the inn, so she had managed to get by fairly well.

If others knew that this renowned beauty from the Daoist sect of Kingdom of Qian was running errands at the inn, they would be completely shocked.

Li Yanchu didn’t want to ask everyone individually, so he decided to have everyone discuss the matter together at night.

“I think there’s about an eighty percent chance there’s no hope. Her qi luck is nearly gone... can a person survive like that?” Cuihua said slowly.

“Exactly.”

“I think so too.”

“When qi luck is gone, it means this person’s proof of existence in the world is gone. There’s no hope left.”

Just a few sentences and Liu Jun felt utterly crushed, and tears began to flow uncontrollably down her face.

Wasn’t this supposed to be a discussion? Yet, now they had already declared her situation hopeless.

“Her case is strange. It doesn’t look like ordinary misfortune, and there’s no yin qi on her, but her qi luck keeps depleting. That’s why her streak of bad luck keeps happening, I think it looks like some kind of witchcraft.” Xiao Ran cleared her throat and offered her opinion.

“Witchcraft?” Li Yanchu glanced at Xiao Ran. She looked so young, yet clearly knew a lot.

“Exactly,” Xiao Ran nodded. “Witchcraft is currently active in the Liaodong region, but its origins can be traced back to ancient times. And the origin of witchcraft comes from the Witch God, though they disappeared long ago in the ancient era.

“Judging by how Liu Jun’s qi is vanishing, it looks like a technique used in ancient witchcraft. Back then, the Witch God competed with extraordinary beings for human qi luck.”

“Witch God... do they really exist?” Li Yanchu asked, curious.

The mythology of Kingdom of Qian differed from that of his previous life and was largely based on folklore. Most of it came from common legends, and sometimes the versions didn’t match.

After all, this was an era when divine traces had almost vanished; the marks of immortals were barely left.

“Like the figures in those mythological tales, maybe they existed, maybe not. Perhaps they were extraordinary cultivators, later turned into gods through oral tradition.”

“I’ve seen descriptions of this witchcraft in ancient texts. Liu Jun’s case seems to be caused by some powerful spirit that’s targeting her. This thread is the channel connecting her to that spirit.”

“Is there any way to fix this?” Li Yanchu asked.

𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

“Those spirits are, in a sense, created by the Witch God. They have no physical form, or they exist in deeper layers of space. That’s why we cannot remove them. Unless the spirit is killed, neither Buddhist nor Daoist methods can sever the connection,” Xiao Ran explained. “There may be another approach: increase Liu Jun’s qi luck massively so that the spirit can’t drain it all in the short term.”

The second method was nearly impossible to implement, as qi luck was far too intangible and elusive. No one had ever heard of anyone being able to deliberately increase their qi luck.

But Li Yanchu’s eyes brightened when he heard this.

“Qi luck can’t be directly increased for her, but we can try another approach,” he said.

Li Yanchu reached out and summoned the Dao Dust Bead.

“Dao Dust Bead!? This is a magical artifact from Mount Qingcheng!” Xiao Ran exclaimed in surprise.

Li Yanchu handed the Dao Dust Bead to Liu Jun. “This pearl can be used to pray for blessings. Try it and see if it works.”

From Xiao Ran’s astonished expression, Liu Jun realized this pearl was definitely no ordinary item. She pressed her lips together, nervously taking the pearl.

At first, she didn’t notice any immediate effect. But when Li Yanchu used the Eight Trigrams Mirror on her again, Liu Jun’s nearly depleted qi luck was suddenly enveloped by a faint, glowing light.

“This should work!” Xiao Ran said, excited.

“This Dao Dust Bead is a treasure for offering prayers. It can’t directly increase qi luck, but it can enhance blessings, and to a certain extent, protect Liu Jun.”

Liu Jun’s injuries had already been healed by a single Mount Jinting jujube given to her by Li Yanchu. For an ordinary person, these injuries were not serious.

“Alright, run down from the second floor and see if you break your leg this time,” Li Yanchu suggested.

Hearing this, Liu Jun froze. Everyone else was shocked, but on second thought, the idea made sense.

Given how unlucky Liu Jun had been recently, if nothing changed, running down from the second floor would almost certainly break her leg, or maybe even her neck.

“Go on, be brave, young lady. With so many people here, you won’t just fall to your death,” Li Yanchu encouraged.

With no other choice, Liu Jun steeled herself, ran to the second floor, and dashed down. As she ran, her twin ponytails bobbed wildly behind her. Unfortunately, her figure wasn’t particularly full, or else this daring run would have been even more eye-catching.

In the end, she made it down safely. She stumbled slightly but managed the descent without serious harm.

“It really works!” Xiao Ran laughed.

At the Taiping Inn, her presence was barely noticed. Who would pay attention to someone doing menial chores? The most frustrating part was that she was a Daoist prodigy and a famed beauty, yet even here, her status seemed meaningless...

This moment, however, allowed her to demonstrate her extensive knowledge and insight, finally earning her some approval in front of Daoist Master Li.

“How do you feel?” Li Yanchu asked Liu Jun.

Liu Jun thought for a moment and answered seriously, “I still get that heart‑pounding feeling from before, but it’s much weaker. I was being very careful while running, yet my leg still inexplicably went soft for a moment. Thankfully, it wasn’t too severe.”

Now that Liu Jun had experienced it firsthand and described it herself, everyone had something to compare against.

The Dao Dust Bead seemed able to protect Liu Jun to a certain extent, but no one knew how long that protection would last. And as her qi luck continued to drain, it was unclear whether the Dao Dust Bead would still be able to shield her in the future.

“This treats the symptoms, not the root,” Li Yanchu said, a contemplative look in his eyes.