Chapter 191: Spirit-Startling Incense, Heavenly Emperor Pill

"Brother Taibai wants to sweep through Changancheng, but it's likely too late!"

Sima Chengzhen and Seeing Yan Shu and the others ascended the Great Wild Goose Pagoda, leaving the group of Daoist priests to patrol beneath the pagoda. Those Daoist priests were perhaps enjoying their first chance to throw their weight around inside a Buddhist temple, and they were all very excited. Some were searching through the rubble of the walls after the great battle, and occasionally, when they found a broken feather of a Garuda, they would shout and scream.

Sima Chengzhen saw the rustic appearance of the Daoist priests he had brought and scratched his face. He said to Qian Chen, "There was such a big commotion here, with sword light piercing the sky for three thousand zhang; I'm afraid even Great Ming Palace saw it. Zhong Kui probably won't be able to suppress it anymore! It's likely that ghosts will come to greet us in a moment..."

"Fortunately, nearly half of the demons in Chang'an have been purged, so ensuring the safety of the array eyes is no longer a problem!"

Qian Chen pondered, "It's been a long time since so many gods and demons practiced swordplay with me! For a moment, I forgot to restrain myself... Is it because the commotion was too big? Can we change to a method with less commotion..."

"For example, alchemy or poisoning? I've already thought of a few recipes that guarantee those demons will die silently!"

Sima Chengzhen's eyelids twitched, and he braced himself so that his expression wouldn't change for the worse. He thought to himself, "Is this the true face of Master Qian? It's just as the legends say—he stops at nothing. As a senior of the Daoist sect, he talks about poisoning without any scruples. Looking at the expressions of Master Yan and Master Ning, they seem accustomed to it. No wonder he could pacify..."

At this moment, Qian Chen had already taken out the Kinnara's head and was measuring the single horn on its head. The Erdao Shen touched its little belly with a shocked expression. It looked at its bulging little belly a few times, then looked at the Kinnara head in Qian Chen's hand, its mouth wide open in a 'I'm stunned' little expression.

Ning Qingchen found it funny and picked it up.

The Erdao Shen struggled, clawing at Qian Chen, babbling, as if calling out, "Give me back my treasure!"

Qian Chen cut off a section of the Kinnara horn and pried open the stone Buddha's skull, taking three liang of the green stone marrow from its brain. He said, "The ingredients and main materials are all complete. There is a niche pill in the alchemy classics called Spirit-Startling Incense, which is a legacy of ancient alchemy."

"In ancient times, alchemy was not prosperous, and it was mostly used by living beings as offerings to gods without physical bodies."

"At that time, all kinds of spiritual materials, the most precious spiritual medicines, had to be sacrificed to the gods. So, wizards would combine the spiritual medicines and burn them with fire, rising up as medicinal smoke and pill mist for the gods to enjoy. This is one of the origins of alchemy... Without the Supreme Dao Ancestor, we living beings would probably not even have the qualifications to take pills."

"Later, this kind of sacrificial spiritual pill, after the changes made by the Supreme Dao Ancestor, became a relatively rare alchemy—Incense Alchemy!"

"There are three types of Incense Alchemy: Heavenly Incense Alchemy is for divine pills offered to gods; Earth Incense Alchemy is the way of sacrifice; Human Incense Alchemy nourishes the soul and is an alchemy technique for refining the spirit and nourishing the soul."

"This 'Prayer-Invoking Incense' of mine is a supreme-grade incense pill from the Heavenly Incense Dao; it is of such quality that even offering it to the Heavenly Court's Emperors would not be a disgrace. It is the finest tribute for the Buddhist sect to offer to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, for the Demon sect to refine divine and demonic manifestations, and for the Daoist sect to pray for the descent of divine registers. If I slightly alter the pill formula..." Qian Chen, while using the method of pill energy transformation recorded in the *Supreme Pill Scripture* as if working through a formula, replaced several of the main ingredients in the Prayer-Invoking Incense.

He calculated the monarch, minister, and assistant ingredients all over again, then took out three liang of Gandharva remains and ground them finely, saying, "This Gandharva is of poor quality, and I'm afraid it won't poison a demon god at the level of an Immortal God and Demon. If I could replace it with a Gandharva that has attained the Immortal Body of Gods and Demons, this Spirit-Startling Incense would definitely be able to poison ninety percent of the ghosts and gods in Changancheng!"

"Even if Zhong Kui came! He would also fall under my unique pill recipe!"

Qian Chen said confidently, "Don't be afraid of the commotion being too big. I guarantee that next, they will die silently and leave very peacefully!"

Sima Chengzhen was already wiping the non-existent cold sweat from his forehead. He grabbed Qian Chen's hand and advised, "Brother Taibai, Fellow Daoist Taibai, calm down! Forget it! Let the remaining demons go! Don't treat the other gods in Changancheng as if they aren't gods!"

"It's fine, it's fine!" Qian Chen pulled away Sima Chengzhen's hand that was blocking him and said, "It won't be a problem. This Spirit-Startling Incense was realized by me through the way of Supreme Supreme Tian Mo dance and music, and it targets the demonic nature inherent in demons. It hooks into the various resentments that inevitably remain when gods and demons are refined, as well as the spiritual consciousness of the gods and demons before they died. It uses the way of using demons to control demons. The incense will only poison the gods and demons of the Demon Dao... It will never harm an innocent ghost or god in the slightest..."

"What you said earlier about poisoning Prefecture Magistrate Zhong Kui—was that not a lie?" Sima Chengzhen asked nervously.

Qian Chen shook his head: "That was just the effect of the God-Killing Incense I am currently conceiving; I just said it casually."

"Fellow Daoist Li, do you think about these things all day long? And why are you conceiving such deadly poison?"

Sima Chengzhen watched Qian Chen grind various spiritual medicines and remains of gods and demons into powder, skillfully preparing the divine incense, and thought to himself in terror, "Could it be that he wants to have another Battle of the Gods in the Great Tang?"

Qian Chen picked up some incense powder and saw the Erdao Shen in Ning Qingchen's arms making a fuss, so he rolled it into a sesame-sized incense pill and brought it to the Erdao Shen's nose.

The Erdao Shen curiously sniffed the incense pill at Qian Chen's fingertip, then suddenly kicked its legs, and the whole creature fell into a deep coma.

Ning Qingchen was startled. She looked at Qian Chen with an accusatory gaze, never imagining that Qian Chen, who was obsessed with alchemy, could be such a ruthless person.

Ning Qingchen carefully held the Erdao Shen to the side for rescue. Qian Chen looked at the incense pill on his fingertip and nodded with satisfaction, saying, "The medicinal power is very strong!"

Sima Chengzhen whispered, "Didn't you say, Fellow Daoist, that it would only be effective against the gods and demons of the Demon Dao? Why couldn't that little thing withstand it?"

Qian Chen looked at him with surprise and said, "When did I say it would only be effective against demonic path gods and demons? What I said was that it would only poison demonic path gods and demons to death... Gods and demons are things that arise from thoughts; therefore, to poison them to death, one must first make them enter a dream state where their thoughts are most difficult to grasp. Thus, this 'Spirit-Startling Incense' is, first and foremost, a highly potent hypnotic incense for deities, and even for any ghosts, spirits, or thought-based beings that lack the protection of a physical body."

"Only after being hypnotized by the incense and falling into a dream does the medicinal effect of hooking into the foundation of the god's thought power take hold. A righteous god will dream of the various thoughts of believers and be momentarily confused by them, but gods and demons will have their thoughts from before they died hooked. The methods used to refine gods and demons are extremely cruel, so hooking into the original consciousness of the gods and demons before they died will inevitably conflict with their demonic nature and demonic thoughts, and will even backfire on the master. This will inevitably trigger the prohibitions of the Demon Dao, causing the gods and demons' thoughts to split and die!"

"So..." Sima Chengzhen said, "Prefecture Magistrate Zhong Kui will?"

"Have a good dream!" Qian Chen didn't care at all.

"What kind of good dream can I have?"

Accompanied by a burst of laughter, Zhong Kui, with his ugly and hideous face, yet extremely generous and straightforward manner, appeared in the Great Wild Goose Pagoda.

His aura was extremely powerful. Although he restrained it, combined with his height of over a zhang, he brushed against the ceiling of the highest and widest floor of the Great Wild Goose Pagoda. Looking at Sima Chengzhen and Qian Chen and the others, they all had to lower their heads, which was very intimidating.

But Zhong Kui, who had a big beard, was very familiar with Sima Chengzhen. He laughed, "Sima Chengzhen, you've been exposed! You led this group of Daoist sect members of unknown origin, violated the night curfew, broke into a Buddhist temple, and slaughtered wantonly, even killing countless ghosts and gods enshrined in the temple. According to my rules, I should dip you in leek flower sauce and eat you raw!"

He saw Qian Chen lowering his head to fiddle with bottles and jars, pounding a pile of powder, and he also felt a bit mischievous, saying, "And you, how many ghosts and gods have you killed? Do you know..."

Qian Chen raised his head, looked at Zhong Kui, and reached out to flick a wisp of green smoke to the tip of Zhong Kui's nose.

Zhong Kui was a bit puzzled. Why did this person look so dull and sluggish, completely lacking the heroic spirit of killing demons and chanting poems earlier? He touched his chin and thought to himself, "It was so hard to pick someone who didn't look too annoying for my sister, so why is he a bit dull-witted?"

Just as he was thinking this, a sudden rush of energy went to his head. He swayed and said, "I... why is my head a bit dizzy!"

"Oh no! It's gone to my head! It's gone to my head!" Zhong Kui couldn't stand still. He stumbled a few steps, leaned against the wall to support himself, and sat halfway down, his height becoming the same as Qian Chen's.

He grabbed Sima Chengzhen and said, "Heavenly Master, this energy is very strong! What is this thing?"

Qian Chen observed Zhong Kui carefully for a moment, then shook his head and said, "The medicinal power is still insufficient. It should be that the Prefecture Magistrate's cultivation is even more powerful than I imagined. I'm afraid he has already reached the Yin Spirit Realm!"

Zhong Kui shook his head, only then did he regain some clarity, and suddenly realized, "It was that thing you let me smell..."

He stared with eyes as big as copper bells, looking at Qian Chen with great pressure. Just as he was about to stand up while leaning against the wall, Qian Chen reached out and flicked a bit of green smoke again. Zhong Kui was about to sway and fall again. This was repeated four or five times before Zhong Kui no longer had the strength to lose his temper. He sat halfway down and said weakly, "I, I won't argue with you anymore. Don't poison me anymore. Just tell me what's going on?"

Sima Chengzhen whispered to Seeing Yan Shu, "I've known him for so many years, and this is the best temper he's ever had!"

He immediately told Zhong Kui about Qian Chen's Spirit-Startling Incense plan. When Zhong Kui heard such a bold, lawless, and reckless plan, he couldn't care about arguing with Qian Chen anymore. He shook his head vigorously and said, "No, how can this be? As long as you give up this reckless plan, everything is negotiable, but this is absolutely impossible!"

"Old Thief Sima... why don't you control them!" Zhong Kui turned his head and complained to Sima Chengzhen.

Sima Chengzhen rolled his eyes silently and thought to himself, "Control them? Can I afford to control them? Am I worthy?"

"I am not worthy!"

He stared at Zhong Kui and suggested to Qian Chen, "Why don't we just kill the demons?"

Zhong Kui smiled bitterly and pointed at Qian Chen, saying, "I even wanted to marry my sister to you, but it turns out you're full of bad ideas. I won't marry her off! I won't!"

Qian Chen glanced at his appearance and thought to himself, "Then I really thank you!"

It was just that Zhong Kui didn't know what he was thinking; otherwise, the Prefecture Magistrate, who was obsessed with his sister, would have struggled to stand up and fight him to the death. Zhong Kui shook his head and said, "Earlier, a decree came from the palace, telling you to take it easy, Old Thief Sima. It's not that I don't care about our friendship, but this Prefecture Magistrate identity was obtained for me by Ye Fashan! But this time, you really cannot act recklessly anymore!"

Qian Chen thought for a moment and felt that while purging the gods and demons in Chang'an was important, maintaining a relationship with the Profound Emperor was also a key point of this mission. If they offended the Profound Emperor, they wouldn't even be able to enter the Thousand Autumn Banquet.

"How about..." Qian Chen pointed to the Spirit-Startling Incense on the table and said, "We still use poison?"

Zhong Kui widened his eyes: "How did you practice your swordplay? Do you only know how to use poison?"

"I can also use demons to control demons! I know a Demon Dao spell..."

Seeing Yan Shu hurriedly grabbed Qian Chen and said, "Junior Brother, we are here to stop the Supreme Supreme Tian Mo from destroying Chang'an, not to compete for the position of Great Supreme Supreme Tian Mo."

Qian Chen pondered for a while: "I have another kind of pill that can use Chang'an as a furnace and the common people as medicine. Using the Profound Emperor as the monarch, the hundred officials as ministers, and the common people in the city, both righteous and evil, and the high-level practitioners of the hundred schools as assistants. Refining a furnace of Heavenly Emperor Dragon-Governing Pills... It is born from the national fortune of the Great Tang and can enlighten the True Dragon protecting the country, equivalent to a god at the level of the Primordial Spirit. Sitting in Chang'an, all evil cannot invade!"

Zhong Kui looked shocked and inexplicable, Seeing Yan Shu's eyebrows twitched wildly, and Sima Chengzhen also felt a palpitation, looking around uneasily. Zhong Kui turned back to Sima Chengzhen and said, "Supreme Dao's?"

Sima Chengzhen said in horror, "If the name of this pill is spoken, it can induce the Supreme Supreme Tian Mo's induction. If this pill is really refined, even if Chang'an has no calamity, a world-shaking catastrophe will be caused!"

Qian Chen smiled slightly: "It's just inducing the Yu Yu Jiuyou Demon Lord to break the seal from the Yu Yu Jiuyou Rift and come to snatch this pill!"

"And I was just joking. This kind of pill is at least six-turn; how could I refine it? And the Great Tang's national fortune is not my family's!"

Sima Chengzhen's legs went soft, and he thought to himself, "Grandmaster, it turns out you really can refine it!" ===== CHAPTER 192 =====