Technique

"I ache all over today. I'm not in the mood," the woman said. "If you're so eager to get to work, wait a couple of days. If you really can't wait, I'll go fetch Second Aunt and Fifth Aunt." Wei Yuan hastily replied that there was no need. That night, the bonfire blazed merrily. The woman stripped off her clothes to mend by the firelight—Wei Yuan couldn't see anyway. While she was at it, she stitched together the wolf pelts that had dried for a day, making Wei Yuan a new fur coat. Wei Yuan, meanwhile, groped about the room to butcher the snow leopard. He manifested several small knives, flaying the hide and carving the meat before drawing out the leopard sinew. After treating the sinew with Dao power, he shaved down some timber and assembled a hand crossbow, which he tossed to the woman and taught her how to use. Feeling increasingly close to her, Wei Yuan no longer hid things from her. His sole focus was to recover as swiftly as possible and leave this place. Still, the cottage was pleasantly warm, peaceful, and serene; it felt as though living like this indefinitely would not be bad either. Wei Yuan suddenly asked, "What is in the forest?" "A temple." "Shall we go take a look tomorrow?" "All right." This time the woman agreed readily, evidently having gained confidence in him. According to her, walking through the woods for just under an hour would bring them to the temple. However, they had to retreat from the woods before midday ended, or else they would encounter the undead monsters. Just as midday arrived the following day, the two entered the woods. Wei Yuan had recovered a bit more, and his pace could now easily keep up with the woman. She led the way holding his left hand, guiding him through the trees. The wolf pack and a snow leopard had already been slain, so the trek went exceptionally smoothly without a single obstacle. For Wei Yuan, however, this was not good news. He was blind and his divine sense could not extend far; he could only rely on fierce beasts throwing themselves into his net. Deer and the like were far beyond his ability to pursue. The two soon made their way through the forest and arrived at the temple. The so-called temple was actually a natural cavern. At the entrance, the villagers had assembled a gateway out of stone blocks and timber. When Wei Yuan had entered the woods two days earlier, he had faintly sensed something here calling to him. Now that he stood at the entrance of the temple, the sensation grew even clearer. Before entering, the woman lit a torch and asked, "You can't even see. What did you come here to look at?" Wei Yuan froze. Indeed, he couldn't see anything, so why had he been so eager to come? But naturally he would not show weakness so easily, replying calmly, "I can feel around with my hands." The woman fell silent, then said, "Count yourself lucky. The murals here are carved." Not far into the temple, the space opened up. Murals were carved into the rock walls on both sides. Wei Yuan touched them carefully. The stone carvings were remarkably primitive and crude, devoid of refined technique, resembling the ancient murals he had read about in historical records. The first mural depicted a colossal beast that had just died, its body fracturing into multiple pieces as it plummeted from the sky. In the second mural, fire meteors rained down from the heavens, transforming upon hitting the ground into various creatures—some humanoid, some beast-like, and even some grotesque aberrations. In the third mural, these beings born from the fire meteors began battling fiercely; the defeated were devoured, while the victors grew ever stronger. In the fourth mural, one life-form born of the fire meteors was exceptionally weak. It hid deep in the mountain forests, in stream valleys, and among herds of wild beasts. By hiding all along the way, it managed to survive the initial melee. Soon, however, the ultimate victor tracked it down. No matter how it fled or hid, the hunter drew ever closer. As Wei Yuan stroked the carving, he surprisingly felt the small creature's despair, helplessness, and regret. Had it taken part in the battle from the very beginning, the hunter would never have grown to such terrifying heights. Wei Yuan paused, stirred by the sentiment, and only then felt his way toward the next mural. This time, his hand touched another hand—slender, emaciated, its knuckles broad and powerful. Wei Yuan was educated in the six gentlemanly arts and had dabbled in zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting. Once his fingers touched it, he could hardly pull them away. Caressing it in detail, he marveled inwardly that the ancients truly possessed masters among them. The transition from mural to high relief bore no trace of chisel work, and the craftsmanship was nothing short of miraculous. Every detail stood up to the most meticulous scrutiny; the dry, hardened, rough texture of the skin felt astonishingly lifelike... The woman cried out in horror, "Stop touching it! That's an undead monster!" Wei Yuan's scalp instantly went numb. The belated sense of danger exploded through him, and in a flash he realized his life was on the line! The woman grabbed his hand and bolted outward, but the heavy thuds of footsteps behind them drew ever nearer. She suddenly said, "Carry me! I'll guide you!" Wei Yuan scooped her up at once. "Ten zhang forward... Don't run, jump!" Wei Yuan immediately switched to hopping on one foot, clearing two zhang with each leap, which vastly increased their speed. "Five to the left, thirteen forward, four to the right..." The woman continuously called out directions and distances. Coupled with Wei Yuan's divine sense outlining their immediate surroundings, the two finally escaped the cavern. A sharp, agonized screech echoed behind them. The moment the midday sky's light shone upon it, white smoke hissed from the undead monster's entire body, and it retreated back inside. Having escaped with their lives, their panic gradually settled. Wei Yuan asked, "Didn't you say the undead monsters can't come out at midday?" "How should I know? Usually they hide deep inside the temple. For some reason, one came out today. It wasn't moving at first, but you just had to keep holding and rubbing its hand..." Wei Yuan pondered for a moment, then said, "Let's head back for today, make some preparations, and return tomorrow." "Why are you so set on going into the temple?" "Those murals are extraordinary. I want to see what comes next. Perhaps it has something to do with how I ended up here. If I can unravel the secret, maybe I can leave this place." The woman said angrily, "You really are thinking of running away!" Wei Yuan hastily said, "Before I leave, I will definitely give the village a satisfactory explanation." "Really?" "Really!" "May lightning strike a liar!" Wei Yuan was struck speechless. Back in the stone cottage, Wei Yuan swept both hands outward, covering the ground with shattered stones. His primordial spirit was currently frail, making entering the Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains rather strenuous, so he simply brought the stone outside to process. He picked up a piece of rubble and gave it a casual pinch, shaping it into a flying sword about a chi long. Feeling it with his hands, however, he thought it wasn't quite large enough, so he added another piece of stone to lengthen it to a chi and a half. From there, Wei Yuan continued working, kneading out identical flying swords one after another. Other than carrying a faint intent of metallic edge, these swords possessed no unique traits whatsoever, representing a step further than the Great Bright Demon-Subduing Sword. At some point, the woman dragged over a stool and sat watching Wei Yuan handcraft the flying swords. In the blink of an eye, Wei Yuan had molded twenty swords, each identical down to the finest detail. Then he took another stone, infused it with the true intent of a cauldron, and turned it into a rectangular, four-legged ding with two loop handles. Wei Yuan pressed the flying swords into the ding one by one until the twentieth was inserted, filling it flush. Next, he molded another forty swords and two rectangular ding, filling both ding cases completely. After a moment of contemplation, he retrieved all the flying swords and attached a finger-thick disc to the pommel of each one. "What are you doing?" the woman finally asked. "A rather amusing little trick." Wei Yuan molded another disc, this one paper-thin. Activating it, a fireball the size of a peck basket suddenly flared in his hand. The woman seemed startled, and then she watched him continue adding discs to the sword pommels. Once all sixty swords were pressed back into the ding magazines, Wei Yuan manifested a large boulder and gradually worked it into a circular tube, its surface gleaming with a dark silver metallic luster. At the bottom of this tube was an opening. Wei Yuan took a ding magazine and slid it upward. With a click, the sword-filled ding magazine snapped into the tube, its two handles latching snugly into internal catches. Wei Yuan meticulously adjusted the dimensions of the tube until it fit the ding magazine seamlessly. He raised the strange implement and sighted along it before remembering he couldn't see. "What is this?" "Something to deal with the undead monster tomorrow." "Can I try it?" "You won't be able to use it," Wei Yuan said, yet he still handed the newly assembled weapon to her. The woman's hands went limp, and it dropped to the floor. Once manifested, the equipment weighed over a hundred jin; even with her sturdy physique, she could barely hold it aloft. "Let's get some sleep. We have a battle tomorrow." They lay down together. Wei Yuan suddenly asked, "What is your name?" After a pause, the woman said, "I have no name." Wei Yuan asked no further. Naturally embracing her, he buried his nose in her long hair and fell into a deep slumber. At daybreak, Wei Yuan awoke feeling his condition had recovered slightly more, accompanied by an itch on the left side of his chest. He reached over to feel it; a layer of new skin had formed over his previously hollowed chest, and the flesh beneath was knitting rapidly. Wei Yuan got up, pushed open the door, and stepped outside, inhaling deeply against the crisp morning wind. The Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains trembled faintly as sheets of pale flame spewed from the fissure in the earth, blazing furiously for a moment before descending back into the deep chasm. Before Wei Yuan's eyes, countless threads of karma seemed to appear once more. He saw the pale flames race along those threads, refining living, familiar figures into calamity ash. Those consumed by the pale fire turned into calamity ash—the remnant left behind after karma had been burned to nothingness, bound to dissolve into the void, shut out from the wheel of reincarnation with no afterlife. Not even Wei Yuan's Transmigration Across the Myriad Realms could save them. At this moment, Wei Yuan hardly dared to imagine: if he were to return to Qingming, how many people he knew would still be left? Over the past few days, partly due to unhealed wounds and grogginess, Wei Yuan had truly dreaded confronting reality. He had been like an ostrich, wishing to bury his head in the sand for a while so that the world's sorrows would cease to exist. Now, however, as his body recovered, Wei Yuan prepared to face the pain and meet reality head-on. *Still too weak... far too weak!* Wei Yuan thought. Subconsciously gritting his teeth, he heard a sudden crack—a tooth had actually shattered! The sharp agony dragged him back to reality, yet the ache buried deep in his heart did not diminish in the slightest. That helplessness before absolute power, that final moth-to-a-flame struggle—perhaps in the eyes of the exalted, it was thoroughly laughable. The woman asked, "What's wrong?" Wei Yuan took a deep breath, calmed himself, and said, "I was thinking of some friends, wondering how they are doing now." "You are in pain." "That was just now, and that was in the past. From now on, I will feel pain no longer. Let's go!" Wei Yuan flashed a brilliant smile and extended his left hand. The woman took it, and together they dashed toward the temple once more. Since he had not died, since Heaven had granted him a sliver of life, Wei Yuan resolved to face everything in the world directly from this moment on. He would harbor no illusions about his enemies, nor any expectations of the exalted. He would face problems, resolve them, and flatten every obstacle in his path. Even if the end arrived and catastrophe proved inescapable, if Wei Yuan had to die, he would die by his own hand, falling by his own decision.