Five days later, little Jiang Shang, who had only just received his formal name, went hopping and skipping toward the back of the village. A few days ago, his comatose, frail state had terrified his entire family. Though an immortal had cured him, he had still been watched over strictly for several days. Only today, seeing that he could run and leap and looked even sturdier than before, did his family finally allow him out the door...
Little Jiang Shang had long wanted to revisit the great plum tree that had come back from the dead—the very tree said to have been revived by the immortal's magic, which in turn had saved his own life.
Thus, the moment he was let out of the house, he seized the opportunity to run off in that direction...
The great plum tree had already become a sight known throughout the surrounding townships. Over the past few days, after bowing in reverence, the villagers had originally intended to build a shrine beneath it to worship the immortal, but the village head, understanding the gravity of karmic ties, had stopped them. Even so, people still came by to burn incense and kowtow beneath the tree.
When Jiang Shang arrived beneath the great plum tree, the worshippers were gone, but he spotted a filthy, disheveled beggar sprawled beside the trunk, clinging to his last breaths. Jiang Shang was truly a kindhearted boy. Stepping forward, he gave the beggar a gentle shake and called out, "Wake up! Wake up!"
The beggar opened his eyes, but his vision was blurred, unable to make anything out clearly.
As he opened his mouth, a foul stench wafted out. Jiang Shang coughed twice from the odor, yet he still helped the beggar sit up. Looking around and finding no grown-ups nearby, he asked, "Are you so sick that you came here to pick plums?"
"These plums really can cure illnesses..." Jiang Shang said. "I was terribly sick before too, but then my daddy begged for a plum from here, and I was healed!"
He stood on tiptoe, gazing up at the towering canopy, and muttered blankly, "It's so high! I can't climb up there!"
Lowering his little head, young Jiang Shang was earnestly pondering how to pluck a plum to treat this man when a branch of the great plum tree dipped slightly. A faintly yellow plum slipped silently from the bough and dropped right in front of him.
Jiang Shang picked up the plum, his mouth falling open as he stared at the great plum tree.
Somewhat baffled, he wiped the plum on his sleeve, bowed to the tree, and said, "Thank you!" Then, he fed the yellow plum to the beggar...
Sucking on the sour juice in his semiconscious state, Daoist Zhen suddenly felt a surge of strength return to his body. He did not know whether it was the final radiance of a dying ember or the sourness reviving his spirits.
Mustering what strength he had, Daoist Zhen opened his eyes, wanting to see who was feeding him.
His vision cleared somewhat, only to reveal Jiang Shang's familiar little face... Daoist Zhen froze. He stared at Jiang Shang in a daze, and only after a long while did a bitter smile surface on his face...
"Retribution, is it?
"The Supreme One said: 'Misfortune and blessing have no doors; men invite them upon themselves. The recompense of good and evil follows as the shadow follows the form.'
"Truly so! Truly so..."
In that instant, Daoist Zhen sensed that his end was near. Struggling into a cross-legged position, he leaned against the great plum tree to keep from collapsing. With great effort, Daoist Zhen drew a yellow pouch from his bosom and said to Jiang Shang, "This thing... is for you!"
Jiang Shang took the yellow pouch blankly, not knowing what the beggar meant to do.
"I spent half my life toiling, only to end up like this, mostly brought upon myself. But my lineage is passed down to a single heir; it must not end with me. If you are willing to learn my spells, just kowtow to the portrait of the Patriarch inside the Qiankun bag... If you are unwilling to enter my sect, you may still study the spells within, so long as you find a successor for me.
"After I die... the ghastly thing inside my body will come out... Get far away from me, quickly!"
Daoist Zhen waved his hand to shoo away Jiang Shang, who was still dazed and had no idea what was happening. The little boy looked back every few steps, completely bewildered...
Zhen Chengjiao gradually calmed, a faint smile gracing his face. "Half a lifetime ground into dust; in extinction at last, the heart finds ease... Gone now... gone!"
As the final words left him, his head slowly drooped. He exhaled his last breath, devoid of all life.
In the distance, Qian Chen held a peach-wood bow. Having bent a peach branch, tied hemp cord for a bowstring, and shaved three jujube branches smooth, he had fashioned a simple bow and arrows. Drawing the peach-wood bow, he released an arrow toward the distant plum tree. The unfletched jujube arrow streaked obliquely across dozens of yards, flying toward Daoist Zhen's corpse beneath the great plum tree.
At that moment, a stream of red vapor shaped like an infant burst from the corpse's nostrils. Before it could flee, the jujube arrow pinned it beneath the great plum tree, prompting a shrill, piercing shriek.
Another stream of azure vapor and a stream of white vapor, both likewise shaped like infants, darted out from Daoist Zhen's mouth and ears, only to be shot and slain by Qian Chen one after the other.
The red vapor was called Ju.
The azure vapor was called Zhi.
These were the Three Corpse Spirits escaping in their threefold division. For Qian Chen, the greatest gain from refining such a sinister entity as the Three Corpse Spirit for the first time was that, in the process of alchemy, he had grown familiar with certain methods of the demonic path and comprehended the principle of subduing demons in reverse.
As the saying went, demonic arts were easy to acquire, but methods to subdue demons were hard to come by. Demonic sects often disseminated various demonic spells far and wide, but the secret of using demon against demon, controlling one's inner yin demons, and subduing external demons remained closely guarded secrets within the sects.
Consequently, when wandering cultivators practiced demonic spells and ran into true disciples of demonic sects, they were often subjugated in turn. Even if they never encountered a demonic disciple, once they reached the advanced stages of those spells, they were bound to fall prey to the fiends concealed within the arts.
Refining the Three Corpse Spirit had not been overly difficult for Qian Chen. What was truly rare was that, while refining the fiend from all manner of murky, foul evils in heaven, earth, and the human heart, he had maintained a heart of demon subjugation at every moment, deducing the art to counter the Three Corpse Spirit. Only because of this had he been able to bind and seal the Three Corpse Spirit inside Daoist Zhen's body the moment it was born, preventing it from harming anyone else.
Now that Daoist Zhen was dead, Qian Chen had worried that the Three Corpse Spirit, having stolen all of Daoist Zhen's cultivation, would transform into a demon and wreak havoc. Thus, he had appeared here once more, witnessing the final karmic tie between Daoist Zhen and Jiang Shang, and shooting dead the Three Corpses as they departed the body...
With the Three Corpses slain, Daoist Zhen's cultivation dissipated.
Yet the great plum tree turned ever more verdant. Most of Daoist Zhen's cultivation had been absorbed by the jujube arrows, which pierced into the plum tree. Though leaving three scars, they transferred that cultivation into the tree itself.
Qian Chen gathered the primordial essence of the Three Corpse demonic spirit, which had dissolved into primordial qi... This, too, could be considered a secret demonic art of the demonic sects. Were it refined into the Seven Baleful Banner, even if it could not form the Seven Emotions Secret Demonic Banner that best suited its nature, it could still produce a Three Corpse Seven Baleful Banner... Its might would not be inferior to the former, only slightly lacking in spirituality.
Yet Qian Chen had not captured this fiend to forge a magical implement; he had another purpose in mind.
That White Bone Relic had been a thorn in his side for a long time.
Previously, Qian Chen had only wished to find an opportunity to obliterate it. But now that he had refined an external dan and his strength had advanced another step, a different thought had occurred to him... Perhaps he could use this to plot against Miaokong.
Over by the tree, once Jiang Shang discovered that the beggar had died, he cried out in fright and ran home to fetch the adults of the village.
Having no intention of meeting the villagers, Qian Chen lowered the peach-wood bow, turned, and left...
Three months later... the villagers of Sanyang Village were astonished to discover that the great plum tree had blossomed once more. Even after being scolded several times, little Jiang Shang still liked playing beneath the tree. At times, amidst the drifting rain of blossoms, he thought he saw a figure faintly appear, bowing gracefully toward the direction in which Qian Chen had once departed.
"Are you a monster?" Jiang Shang whispered softly to the great plum tree.
A small yellow pouch dropped from the tree, bopping Jiang Shang on the head. Rubbing his head, he picked it up, only to realize it was the little cloth pouch the scruffy beggar had given him, which he had previously hidden beneath the plum tree—after all, Jiang Shang had risked a beating to bring the villagers out so that the old beggar could be laid to rest in peace!
A falling plum blossom drifted onto the pouch, and Jiang Shang found that the mouth of the pouch, which he had never been able to untie no matter how hard he tried, suddenly loosened...
Chapter 66