"Old An, don't curse me."
Old An smiled wryly, "I'm not cursing you. This isn't just my personal concern."
Yes, his outing this time was primarily after everyone had discussed it, and he was chosen as their representative to persuade him.
It wasn't that they thought Li Chonglou could help them achieve their dreams again by returning to the ranks of cultivators, but rather they were simply afraid of Li Chonglou's luck.
It seemed as if he could never truly escape his connection with cultivators.
But after this conversation, Old An understood that this matter couldn't be rushed. Moreover, he had no idea how to recover his destroyed meridians and resume cultivation; it wasn't as simple as wanting to return.
After some thought, Old An couldn't help but change his approach.
However, whether Li Chonglou would agree to this idea was uncertain.
"How about this, I'll try to find a way to merge with you, a normal person, through soul fusion. If it succeeds, at least you'll have a place when facing cultivators."
"You can try, but I probably can't reveal too much in the short term," Li Chonglou said in a deep voice, still worried about what he had said earlier. If he attracted too much attention in the world of cultivators, there was a risk of exposure.
The most stable approach now was to hide himself, ideally not even interacting with martial artists!
"Perhaps I should leave Shangjing for a while?"
The thought flashed through his mind, but Li Chonglou quickly dismissed it.
He only had about half a year left, and his master wouldn't be able to hold on for much longer. Therefore, the early stages of planning were crucial.
In fact, he had quite a few trump cards. One was Zhou Tong. In terms of business, his company had been the most successful.
Zhou Tong's foresight had also yielded immense returns. Even if he couldn't integrate into the top circles, in the ordinary business world, Tonggu Mingjin Company was now flourishing, considered a large enterprise.
There were no major issues with funding, at least.
Another trump card was Hei Dao.
He should have secured a position within the Green Gang. After all, with the assistance of the Sen Lang brothers, if he couldn't climb up then he wouldn't be worthy of being his subordinate.
The final trump card was Yue Hai and his group.
Before the incident, he had separated these three groups. His initial thought was to deal with the minor movements of the Commoner Association, but unexpectedly, it turned out to be useful against higher-level individuals.
As long as he could utilize these three forces effectively, Li Chonglou believed that even without re-entering the ranks of cultivators, he could still find Shi Boqiong!
At that time, the main factor was how Li Chonglou would operate.
What he needed to do now was to make himself as transparent as possible.
"Let's deal with the current trouble first," Li Chonglou sighed. He still owed that young master tens of thousands. Fortunately, he had received quite a bit of money from Da Bao earlier and went to a bank in a small town to handle the transaction.
Half an hour later, Li Chonglou walked out of the bank, holding his bank card.
"It's truly back to square one."
Da Bao wasn't exactly wealthy, and the money he got from him was basically all spent.
Upon returning to the car wash, everyone had resumed their usual routines, except that everyone except Qiu Yuan was wrapped in bandages.
"Brother Hua, why don't you go rest? There aren't any jobs at the car wash right now," Qiu Yuan proactively approached Li Chonglou.
"Um, I plan to go out tomorrow and might be back in a few days."
"You're going out?" Qiu Yuan was taken aback, then worriedly asked, "Brother Hua, is it about the money?"
Li Chonglou shook his head, "Don't worry, I've already transferred the money to him. The previous matter should be considered settled."
Qiu Yuan breathed a sigh of relief, then patted Li Chonglou's shoulder and smiled, "Brother Hua, from now on, you don't need to ask for my permission for what you do. Just inform Sister Feng."
The other employees in the shop were technically his subordinates, but Li Chonglou was personally assigned by Sister Feng. His direct superior, strictly speaking, was Sister Feng, not him.
Li Chonglou nodded.
His departure this time was mainly to resolve Da Bao's matters. It had been two or three days since he returned to Shangjing. Counting the time, Da Bao's antidote should have run out, and the remaining amount was still in his possession.
Besides that, Li Chonglou also needed to verify the existence of the pervert mentioned by Da Bao.
Li Chonglou still had a vivid impression of the dead body in the room that died with eyes wide open. Since he had promised to help her get justice, this matter needed to be addressed.
If Da Bao was lying, he would directly send him to meet that innocent woman.
If Da Bao was telling the truth, Li Chonglou didn't want such a pervert to remain in this world! After all, he had friends who were ordinary people, and Li Chonglou didn't want them to encounter such a beast in Shangjing.
After a simple preparation, Li Chonglou called Sister Feng.
"Where are you going, and what are you doing?" The consecutive questions from Sister Feng made Li Chonglou frown slightly. However, thinking that Sister Feng wasn't that kind of person, she was likely concerned about the matter with Young Master Qing.
With this thought, Li Chonglou couldn't help but explain, "I'm just going to take care of some personal matters. It has nothing to do with Qingniao."
There was a long silence on the other end of the line, and finally, a few words were uttered.
"As long as you understand."
*Snap.* The call was immediately hung up. Li Chonglou held his phone, lost in thought.
Why did it feel like she wasn't in a good mood?
On the other side, in a dimly lit room, after Sister Feng hung up the phone, a hoarse voice came from behind her.
"Sister, perhaps we should give up on this person? The higher-ups are already quite displeased with him."
Sister Feng said with a look of frustration, "Consider it my bad luck. I didn't expect to recruit such a troublemaker."
When she learned that the young master of Qingniao had mobilized a large force to come through her territory to capture someone, her first reaction was confusion.
This was because the Green Gang and Qingniao had never had any friction. They had always kept to themselves, with neither interfering with the other. Now, for them to directly cross into her territory and try to capture her person was, in a sense, a provocative declaration of war!
The Green Gang was also not in a peaceful state internally. Although Qing Longfei later left with his own men, this incident had also significantly impacted her reputation.
Now, some of the higher-ups had begun to question her capabilities, saying she couldn't even protect her own people.
But that person was the young master of Qingniao. His status was similar to hers, perhaps even slightly higher. How could she possibly protect him? Declare war directly? If she truly did that, Sister Feng believed that her position would be usurped by someone else before the next day.
This matter was eventually resolved after she sacrificed some concessions, and with Qing Longfei not capturing the person, it was smoothed over.
Therefore, when she heard Li Chonglou say he was going out just now, she was genuinely a little flustered. He was someone she had just recruited and hadn't even had the chance to utilize yet, and he was already getting himself killed. Was there any logic to that?