Chapter 35

Ever since everyone reached a tacit understanding.

Louis's life suddenly became much freer. Burning incense, worshipping gods, refining secret oils—they completely turned a blind eye to it. They would even curiously ask what kind of god it was and if they could worship it too. However, David still kept a tight rein on him regarding his health and studies.

And Yulenka and her mother, Jenny, officially began their life in the new family.

Of course, it might be a bit bumpy.

Because Emma found them very unpleasant, especially Jenny, an adult who looked very pure. However, with the help of her daughter Yulenka, plus Louis's "correction" of Emma, which made her afraid to take lives at will, Jenny gradually gained a firm footing in the new family.

Under these circumstances, time passed slowly.

In the blink of an eye, a month had passed.

In the woods behind the house.

Louis, dressed in black, sat cross-legged on the ground. He opened his eyes suddenly, his glare fierce.

He opened his mouth.

Whoosh—

A red-yellow dot of fire appeared out of thin air, growing with the wind, and within a few breaths, it ignited the entire large tree!

Louis flicked his hand casually, and the violent flames became as docile as a dog in his hands, easily pulled into various shapes: trees, birds, tigers, arrows...

The next moment, Louis inhaled sharply, and the still-spreading flames were sucked into his mouth like a mud cow entering the sea, leaving nothing behind.

And his mouth, despite having direct contact with the flames, didn't even have a single burn mark, making one wonder if everything that just happened was an illusion.

Only the bare branches and the lingering smoke proved that it had indeed caught fire.

Louis breathed a sigh of relief. Among the three Strange Arts, the Dog Art focused on dog breeds, while the Fire Art and Hidden Arts relied more on one's own natural talent. His talent was decent, and after a month of cultivation, he had reached proficiency in the Fire Art, reaching the level of Fire-Manipulation Art.

He could enter fire without being burned, spit fire and inhale fire out of thin air, and play with flames at will.

The only drawback was that spitting fire out of thin air and being immune to fire for long periods required the use of magic power. Since he was a Side Path practitioner who hadn't even entered the Dao and didn't even have a cultivation method, he naturally had no magic power and could only use his body's Yang Qi as a lower-tier substitute, which consumed a lot of energy.

"Having family support is really convenient."

"It's a pity that buying large quantities of certain dog breeds takes a lot of effort and time, otherwise the Dog Art could have been practiced this month too."

Purebred Five-Black Dogs are extremely rare, high-quality Greyhounds are far overseas, and buying large numbers of fierce dogs like Pit Bulls is also not easy...

"Forget it, slow work produces fine products. Let's take it slow."

Louis sighed, walked to the other side, lit a few thin incense sticks, and inserted them into the incense burner.

He muttered to himself, "Please, Godfather, bless me so that everything goes smoothly from here on out."

In front of Louis, a small temple stood tall, and the one enshrined inside was none other than the Kitchen God!

Only now, the Kitchen God had undergone some changes. The original small clay statue had been replaced. After receiving the Godfather's tacit approval from the netherworld, the old statue turned back into clay powder and merged into the new one.

The new statue was taller and made of better material, and its eyes were even more majestic—it didn't look like an ordinary object at all. The Good and Evil attendants beside it, however, remained unremarkable.

The incense on the offering table was also endless, with smoke curling and lingering without dissipating.

The incense here was offered by people Louis hired to come and worship every day. Although he didn't understand the ins and outs of the Divine Path, the Godfather hadn't refused him in a dream, so he figured it must be somewhat useful.

As for preaching or anything like that, forgive him for being powerless. He was just a child now and didn't truly hold power. What else did you expect him to do!

After offering the incense, Louis glanced at the two Kano family members guarding the left and right of the temple, and then returned to the house.

Just as he entered, Louis saw Emma and Yulenka confronting each other, fighting over a piece of cake, with Angela beside them, her expression somewhat conflicted.

But it looked like Yulenka was at a disadvantage, because after a moment, Angela gave the cake to Emma.

As for Yulenka's mother?

She had been taken out by David to have fun and couldn't be bothered with her.

These two were now lovey-dovey all day long. David had a good personality, and Jenny was even more submissive. They were already preparing to hold a wedding soon, so they were basically never home during the day these days.

Emma looked at Yulenka triumphantly, deliberately licking her cream-stained lips with a look of enjoyment.

She loved this feeling of being the winner.

Just like those medals.

As for Yulenka, she looked at her expressionlessly, though her small chest was heaving up and down significantly.

Fine, fine, fine!

You just wait, when school starts...

Yulenka's greatest strength was still using her classmates, bullying and even controlling them to achieve her goals.

After a month of school, she had already become familiar with the class, and even successfully became the leader of her class under the guise of mutual help, with a large group of classmates following her.

By the way, although Yulenka looked small, she was actually ten years old, two years older than Emma.

Louis, who had just walked in, couldn't be bothered to care about this scene. From the day Yulenka arrived, he knew there would be trouble; it was impossible for things to be peaceful.

One innate evil child, one acquired evil child.

It would be strange if they didn't fight!

But it didn't matter.

Anyway, with him keeping them in check, whichever one dared to cross the bottom line, he'd slap them down, and they could go have nightmares and wail in pain for a few days!

Seeing Louis return, the two of them instantly went silent. Emma rolled her eyes and went straight to watch TV, while Yulenka ran outside to play with her classmates.

Louis didn't care and carried the newly arrived peach wood back to his room.

The door opened.

Inside, it was filled with peach wood artifacts.

Amulets, peach wood swords, peach wood pendants, peach wood ornaments—oh right, and a peach wood crucifix...

These peach wood items weren't simple either. Although they couldn't be consecrated, Louis had the Godfather. Every piece of peach wood was placed in the temple to be worshipped on the first day after being carved, and then moved to the room on the second day.

These peach wood items were naturally obtained by relying on the family.

You have to know that not all peach wood can have an exorcism effect. Only red peach wood that has been exposed to sufficient sunlight can have this effect, and red peach wood is mainly produced in Southeast Asia and Brazil, besides China.

There wasn't much effective red peach wood circulating in the American Chinatowns.

Louis, back in his room, didn't stop. The family had collected all the materials he wanted yesterday, and today happened to be a full moon night.

It was the perfect time to refine that body-enhancing witchcraft potion.

Before that, he had to prepare all the materials and practice, trying to minimize the chance of errors, since the materials were limited.

Soon, night fell.

Light the fire, add materials, add water, adjust the heat.

Various materials from Portugal began to be added to the crucible according to the steps: pine needle powder, holly oak, a black kitten's baby tooth, dried lizard...

Finally, add a drop of his own blood.

Drip!

Whoosh!

A burst of hot steam surged out from the crucible. The blood and the mass of blue-green liquid inside clashed rapidly. A few seconds later, the blood disappeared, and a hint of blood-red appeared in the blue-green liquid, and the color began to change rapidly.

After a few breaths, the light red liquid emitted a faint, quite alluring fragrance as it rippled gently.

"It's done!" Louis smiled.

This kind of witchcraft potion could strengthen a single organ, but this time he had practiced an all-around strengthening. He didn't expect to succeed on the first try.

According to the diary, Emilia had failed dozens of times before succeeding when she first practiced it.

Could it be that I'm actually more suited to the Western witchcraft system?

A warlock?

(End of chapter)