Chapter 25

Half an hour later, Qi Xiang drove back to the city smoothly.

At a corner of the street, Qi Xiang slowly parked the car. From here, it was just a few minutes' walk to his home.

"Boss Jiang, I'll get off here," Qi Xiang said with a smile, unfastened his seatbelt, and got out of the car.

"Alright..." Jiang Baiwan waved his hand and suddenly called out to Qi Xiang, "Brother, wait a moment."

"What's up?" Qi Xiang was a bit puzzled.

Jiang Baiwan thought for a moment and hesitated, "Nothing much... If you have time these two days, come over to my place for a chat."

"Oh..." Qi Xiang nodded, also feeling a bit bewildered.

After saying this, Jiang Baiwan drove away.

Watching Jiang Baiwan leave, Qi Xiang walked briskly to a nearby bank and cashed the check. It took some time to process the paperwork, but the one million yuan was smoothly transferred to his bank account.

As expected, money gives one courage.

With a fuller wallet, Qi Xiang's posture straightened, and he walked with a sense of authority...

He hurried home and quickly entered. He went straight to the kitchen to check the pot where the fragrant paste was simmering. After two days of cooling, the paste in the pot had solidified into a dough-like consistency, like a ball of dough.

Qi Xiang sniffed it, and the previously pungent and strong aroma had now faded, leaving only a subtle and elegant fragrance.

The fragrance floated, like clouds and mist, with a sense of etherealness.

Qi Xiang reached into the pot and poked the dough-like paste, feeling its elasticity and the fact that it was not sticky, much like pine resin, soft and pliable.

"Is this... a success?" Qi Xiang's face lit up with joy. He quickly took out the paste, pinched a bit, and kneaded it into a small ball the size of a lychee seed.

From the pot of paste, he only managed to make about thirty fragrant balls.

On average, each fragrant ball was worth at least ten thousand yuan. Thinking about this, Qi Xiang felt a bit heartache. But then he thought of the one million yuan that had just been transferred, and his mood improved.

"Right, there's also..."

Qi Xiang's thoughts turned to the one million yuan and then to the page of the letter on Chen Bixue's desk. Instantly, his heart stirred, and he held a fragrant ball, lost in thought.

"Should I give it a try?"

After a moment of deep thought, Qi Xiang made a decision and immediately returned to his room with the fragrant ball.

In the room, there was an electric incense burner he had prepared. After all, fragrant balls couldn't be burned directly; they had to be heated to release their fragrance.

He plugged in the incense burner and carefully placed a fragrant ball on the heating plate. The current heated the ball, and a fresh and pleasant fragrance began to waft through the air.

At that moment, Qi Xiang focused his mind, and a turtle shell, as beautiful as glass, appeared in his hand.

"How do I consecrate it? How do I refine it?" Qi Xiang recalled, placed a stand next to the incense burner, and put the turtle shell on the stand.

"Then... I need to draw blood..."

Qi Xiang swallowed, hesitated for a moment, and then, with determination, took a needle from the drawer and closed his eyes, pricking his ring finger.

"Ouch!"

Qi Xiang drew a sharp breath; it really hurt. He squeezed, and a drop of dark red blood welled up.

"Can't waste it."

Qi Xiang quickly dripped the blood onto the turtle shell, then squeezed his finger again, and another drop of blood splashed out. He hurriedly moved to a different spot and dripped the blood onto the fragrant ball.

"Sizzle..."

The blood on the fragrant ball quickly seeped onto the heating plate, immediately producing a wisp of white smoke.

Qi Xiang put down the needle, licked his finger wound, and watched intently.

The white smoke floated, like threads, twisting and swirling in the air. Suddenly, it seemed to be attracted by something, and its rising momentum changed, as if it were returning to its origin, gathering above the turtle shell.

As time passed, the fragrant ball gradually softened and shrank, while the greenish-white smoke increased.

A few minutes later, a mushroom-like cloud had formed above the turtle shell.

The cloud was white on the outside and green on the inside, appearing heavy. It slowly fell from the air and enveloped the turtle shell on the table.

Qi Xiang kept his attention focused. After a moment, the thick cloud quickly dissipated, and the blood he had dripped on the turtle shell suddenly became even more vivid and lustrous, like a ruby, emitting a brilliant light.

At first glance, Qi Xiang was a bit dazed. But when he saw the blood pulsating, as if it had a life of its own, gently trembling on the turtle shell, he immediately realized that now was not the time to be stunned; the consecration process was not yet complete.

"The final step..."

Qi Xiang held his breath and quickly dipped his finger in the blood, then slowly drew an indistinct pattern.

He didn't know what the pattern specifically meant, but he followed the instructions on the letter, drawing what seemed to be a Daoist talisman, or as the common people called it, a ghostly symbol.

The talisman was complex, and Qi Xiang, being a novice, drew the lines crookedly and poorly.

Moreover, for some reason, while drawing the talisman, he suddenly felt extremely fatigued, his mental strength draining, leaving him weak and powerless.

"What's going on?"

Qi Xiang felt something was wrong, but he also vaguely realized that it might be related to drawing the talisman.

"Can't give up halfway..."

Qi Xiang clenched his teeth, mustered his strength, and with his last bit of energy, completed the final two strokes of the talisman.

The talisman was formed, and the blood-drawn talisman covered the turtle shell, affecting its appearance. After a bit of smearing, the originally gem-like red blood became dark and dull.

Qi Xiang looked down and noticed that the turtle shell showed no signs of movement, making him doubt whether the consecration had failed.

In an instant, the blood, which had become dry and dull, suddenly burst into a brilliant light.

The light was intense, like the sun, blinding.

Qi Xiang instinctively closed his eyes, but in a daze, he noticed that the brilliant light of the talisman instantly penetrated the turtle shell, intertwining with its own glass-like luster.

Suddenly, the turtle shell shrank into a point...

A point of light, like a meteor, rushed to Qi Xiang's forehead and disappeared.

"Boom!"

At that moment, Qi Xiang's body and mind were shaken, and he was drenched in sweat.

After a moment, a bright light appeared on his forehead, faintly shining. The light rippled like water, constantly intertwining, spiraling, and swirling, changing shape...

After a long time, Qi Xiang's expression was calm, and a smile of satisfaction appeared on his lips. He finally understood the origin of the turtle shell.

He was also a bit grateful. Thanks to the consecration method on the letter, he had finally mastered the turtle shell and incorporated this extraordinary treasure into his use. The previous situation of it being sometimes effective and sometimes not would no longer occur.

With a thought, the turtle shell immediately appeared, as if it had always been in his palm.

However, at this moment, the shape of the turtle shell had changed. The beautiful glass-like luster had become subdued and natural, with a hidden radiance.

Additionally, the size of the turtle shell had shrunk from the size of a matchbox to that of a peanut, easily overlooked.

"It can get even smaller..."

With another thought, the turtle shell emitted a soft light, and its size reduced by half. It continued to shrink, eventually becoming the size of a sesame seed.

At such a size, to see the details of the turtle shell, one would need a high-powered magnifying glass.

Qi Xiang knew that the turtle shell could shrink even further, becoming as small as a speck of dust, or even disappearing. However, with his current abilities, he couldn't achieve this.

Under Qi Xiang's control, the turtle shell returned to its normal size. The smooth luster was very pleasing to the eye. In his perception, the turtle shell was like a part of his body, sharing the same blood and inseparable.

However, it was a pity that, just as he didn't fully understand his own body, he was also in the stage of knowing the what but not the why regarding the turtle shell.

Anyway, Qi Xiang was clear that the turtle shell was not the final form of this extraordinary treasure. Or rather, the turtle shell was just one form of the treasure, and there were other forms...

Qi Xiang held the turtle shell, and with a slight movement of his hand, the hard turtle shell suddenly softened, like a ball of dough, slowly changing shape.

"Puff!"

Before the change was complete, a brilliant light flashed, and the dough returned to its turtle shell form.

"Sure enough, it doesn't work..." Qi Xiang wiped the sweat from his forehead, his expression full of regret and disappointment. At that moment, a strange sound reached his ears, making him pause.

His heart stirred, and he immediately put away the turtle shell and went to the window to look out.

It was already night, the sky pitch black and gloomy, with no moon, as if it were about to rain.

The dark night and high wind could conceal many traces.

However, Qi Xiang's hearing was exceptionally sharp, and he caught some sounds that ordinary people couldn't hear. For example, it seemed that someone was climbing the wall outside his house.

Standing at the window, he saw a dark figure silently climbing down in the dim courtyard.

With the help of the dark figure, two or three more people climbed over the wall and entered the courtyard.

"Thieves?" Qi Xiang frowned, feeling that these thieves were too bold, daring to break in when someone was still in the house. Was this stealing or robbing?

Qi Xiang considered whether to call the police and rally the neighbors to catch the thieves.

Suddenly, the people in the courtyard gathered together, whispering to each other.

"Seems no one's home..."

"So late, and they haven't returned yet?"

"Are they sleeping?"

"Let's go in and check..."

"If someone's there, we'll attack directly. If not, we'll hide and wait for them to come back."

"Good idea..."

After reaching an agreement, they tiptoed toward the room.

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