Three Calamities and Nine Hardships Star-Shifting Form-Substituting Chapter

…You look at Shi Jian, who wants to come over but still cannot get here, then at the ever-denser death qi between the brows of Daoist Qianhe and his four disciples, then think of that imperial-clan jiangshi about to burst out of its coffin, the one that even heavenly thunder could not kill, and you suddenly recall a method for avoiding the Three Calamities and evading the Nine Hardships, one called the Three Calamities and Nine Hardships Star-Shifting Form-Substituting Chapter… …You suddenly understand everything. It turns out a Daoist master has secretly been casting a spell, using the lives of these nineteen people before you to help your master get through the Tribulation of Rampant Calamities among the Three Calamities and Nine Hardships. True, they were already fated to die, but this method magnifies their death tribulation… "???" Nineteen people? Wait—why have I never heard of any of the methods you keep naming? And are you sure it's a Daoist master casting spells in secret? Also, are you sure that Daoist master is helping my master—and not trying to shatter his Dao heart and drive him into demonic deviation? Liu Xiu's inner complaints ran on without pause. He could well imagine how Shi Jian's heart would break if he ever heard that one of the Nine Hardships—the Tribulation of Rampant Calamities—had been passed at the cost of his junior brother's life! By then, never mind demonic deviation, never mind becoming an immortal—Shi Jian would probably go straight for "Heaven and Earth Share Longevity." The narration cheat's voice did not stop, however. It went on. "Heh heh heh, they say that if another can do a thing, so can you! Your spirit platform suddenly clears, and at once you remember the two secret arts you once had the Heaven-Burial Earth-Destruction Great Demonic Art derive for you. The first is called the Life-Devouring Heaven-Swapping Art, which can swallow another's lifelong fortune, cultivation, lifespan, and fate, and convert it all to your own use. The second is called the Calamity-Summoning Heaven-Manipulating Art, which can stir the heavenly secrets and make the Tribulation of Rampant Calamities, due only in the future, descend early…" "…You decide to employ both arts together. You can make use of that imperial-clan jiangshi about to break from its coffin, and the lives of those fifteen people, to form a Corpse-Baleful Yin-Demon Tribulation that belongs to the Rampant Calamities, and then, by passing this Corpse-Baleful Yin-Demon Tribulation, easily pass the future Tribulation of Rampant Calamities among the Nine Hardships. Once this tribulation is passed, one more checkpoint on your immortal path is gone, one more stone blocking your road of cultivation is shattered! And today you will not merely use this tribulation to ascend in a single step—you will use the Life-Devouring Heaven-Swapping method to seize all the fortune of every cultivator under heaven, trample every enemy in your path, and after sweeping the Daoist sects of the world, become the overlord of the cultivation world!" "…" How about you go be the overlord of the cultivation world yourself! Liu Xiu complained inwardly, his brows knitting for an instant as he looked at Daoist Qianhe and his party, then immediately roused the Green Satchel Qi-Observation Art and the Mayi Physiognomy, both cultivated to the Great Accomplishment stage. As if answering that old saying about a single word waking a person from a dream, with the narration cheat's prompting Liu Xiu saw something different. It was that the yintang of Daoist Qianhe's group was not merely blackened with ill luck; death qi was hidden in it as well. The death qi of a death day drawing near—death qi that those about to die almost never know they carry! "So this is the hindrance of knowledge and views…" Liu Xiu half understood. He felt he had grasped something, yet also felt he had not, and his brows drew slightly together. "Martial Nephew, what's wrong?" Daoist Qianhe, standing by the campfire, rubbing his eyes, which were still dazzled by the lightning glare, saw Liu Xiu staring at him and puzzled over it a moment, then pulled dried rations from his robe and held them out with a smile. "Hungry? Here!" "…I just feel like someone's watching us!" Liu Xiu did not take the rations. Hearing that, Daoist Qianhe stopped rubbing his eyes, raised one brow, and looked around. "Dong, Nan, Xi, Bei—go!" "Yes, Master!" Knowing the master's look meant they were to scout for ghosts or monsters nearby, Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei at once stopped rubbing their eyes and each set off in the direction of his own name. At that, Vice Minister Wu and his people turned pale and went on guard, and the ten soldiers exchanged glances before quietly shifting position to close in around Daoist Qianhe and his party. Daoist Qianhe paid the soldiers no mind. He only smoothed the frown from his brow and spoke to Liu Xiu with a smile. "Don't be afraid, Martial Nephew. Out in the wilds like this, ghosts are normal enough—likely a lonely wandering soul passing by…" "…" Uh, I never said anything about ghosts, did I? Liu Xiu grumbled to himself but did not explain, thinking instead of the Seven Yuan Corpse-Summoning Return-to-Mountain Secret Manual full of notes that Daoist Qianhe had given him. "Fine. Since you love smiling so much, I'll do my best to save all of you…" Liu Xiu thought privately, though he had already made up his mind to save Daoist Qianhe and his four disciples on this trip. Of course, as for Vice Minister Wu and his people, it was not that he did not intend to save them; he had decided to save them according to a plan, with proper organization. Fine, let's not lie! He had no intention of saving Vice Minister Wu and his party, who wished him ill—and he had had no such intention from the very start. As for saying this out loud, Liu Xiu thought he'd better not. He was afraid a knife would find his back and do him in before the words were out of his mouth. And he thought Shi Jian's failure to divine that he was being schemed against was very likely because that Daoist master truly did want to help Shi Jian pass the Tribulation of Rampant Calamities among the Nine Hardships. Since it was not meant to harm Shi Jian, he had not divined it! Of course, it might also be that the other party was simply too formidable in the way of heavenly secrets for Shi Jian to divine anything. But then, what would be the benefit of it? The position of sect master? Or was Shi Jian simply too arrogant? The thought flashed past, and Liu Xiu buried the question deep. His gaze went to those four honest senior martial brothers, Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei, who came back shaking their heads to report nothing unclean nearby. "Nothing? Keep searching!" Seeing his disciples come back shaking their heads, Daoist Qianhe frowned and said. With that, he took up his luopan and set off to hunt down the ghost hidden in the dark! It came back to that same old thing: Liu Xiu spoke more like the senior martial brother than the senior martial brother himself, and so Qianhe was sure Liu Xiu would not deceive him. Besides—Liu Xiu was his martial nephew! After a good while of searching, Daoist Qianhe brought Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei back, his face expressionless, and the five of them together turned expressionless eyes on Liu Xiu, who sat by the campfire reading a book and eating dried rations. He meant nothing particular by it. It was just: where was the ghost Liu Xiu had mentioned? They had searched for ages, and never mind a ghost, they had not seen so much as a trace of yin qi. They were beginning to suspect Liu Xiu had been playing with them. "What is it?" Sensing the hostile stares, Liu Xiu looked up in surprise. Daoist Qianhe's mouth twitched twice. "Martial Nephew, where's the ghost you mentioned?" "Did I ever say there was a ghost?" "Didn't you say before that someone…" Daoist Qianhe broke off, and Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei broke off too—for the simple reason that Liu Xiu really had never said there was a ghost. At that, the five of them looked darkly, instinctively, at Vice Minister Wu and his people, then back at Liu Xiu. So you meant these people? Liu Xiu, seeing it, looked baffled. "Wasn't it you who found a ghost?" "…" ×5 "Oh, you misunderstood…" "…" ×5 "Huh? Are you being sarcastic, saying I'm the ghost?" "No, no, that's not what I meant!" ×5 Daoist Qianhe and his four disciples spoke up at once, and then froze. Wait—how had they become the ones explaining? Hold on. Wasn't Liu Xiu the one who should be explaining?! The five stared at one another, wide-eyed. "What a bunch of honest folk…" Honest, just like me! Having silently lamented that Daoist Qianhe and his party were as honest as he was, Liu Xiu looked at the five rather blank faces, got up, patted his backside, and stepped away from his little stool. "Going to take a leak!" With that, Liu Xiu walked downwind into the depths of the woods, relieved himself first, then took out the White Jade Cicada husk he kept in his storage thumb ring. "Anyone there?" "Here, here, here…" Caiyi's voice came at once from the White Jade Cicada husk, followed by Bai Min'er's gentle voice. "Brother Xiu, good evening…" "Uh, why are you two together? Cough, cough—I mean, it's already nine at night… it's already the hai hour. You two aren't sleeping together, are you?" Liu Xiu glanced in surprise at the time on his pocket watch, wondering too how, given how the two girls had treated each other yesterday, they were still together today. Shouldn't they have come to blows?! Soon enough, facts proved he had overthought it. What grudge could last overnight between a simple senior martial sister and an even simpler junior martial sister? Between the two of them, apart from Bai Min'er being a little more mature, Caiyi was just a green girl who knew nothing of the world. In other words, these were two pure-hearted good girls—Caiyi especially, so pure she was a touch foolish… Cough. Truly innocent and unspoiled! Very good. He liked that! Liu Xiu listened to the two girls while muttering to himself, and as they talked—or rather, as Caiyi got to the matter of her suddenly falling silent while chatting with him the night before— "I… while I was talking to you last night, something came up… I was sick, yes, I was sick. I didn't ignore you on purpose!" "Oh, oh, it's fine…" It was just demonic deviation, I know! No, that's not right either—Caiyi is a demon girl, so it shouldn't count as demonic deviation. You could only call it a return to her true nature. As Liu Xiu thought this, he said aloud, "Is your illness serious? I remember my master's study has a lot of medical texts. I'll take a careful look through them when I get back!" Gentleness always came unlooked for. Caiyi stammered that she was fine, and the girl's blush said everything. Not that Liu Xiu could see it! Only Bai Min'er's tone had lost some of its softness. After quietly asking Caiyi just when last night she had been chatting with Liu Xiu, she put her question to Liu Xiu in an even less gentle voice. "I tried to reach you today with the Thousand-Li Voice Transmission. Why did you ignore me? Did something come up? Or were you busy?" "Uh, well…" Can I really say it's because I don't have enough spiritual power to take the call? Liu Xiu muttered inwardly. At the Hundred-Day Foundation Building stage, his store of spiritual power was still too small. Small spells he could cast with ease. But as for using the Thousand-Li Voice Transmission, his current spiritual power fell a bit short—otherwise he would not have needed the ritual basin every single time he cast it. And that was why he had not picked up Bai Min'er's call! Mainly, he had simply not sensed it at all. Without sensing it, he naturally could not connect—like a phone with no signal, where the call just cannot get through. Of course, there were exceptions. Shi Jian, for instance, could rely on his profound cultivation attainment to ignore Liu Xiu's "call declined" and force the connection through. Honestly, that was a rather bad habit! Liu Xiu explained that he had not been a disciple long and had yet to break through to Refining Essence into Qi, and Bai Min'er said, "Oh, oh." "I see. Then Brother Xiu, how many days have you been cultivating? How many strands of spiritual power have you produced? And how much longer until you break through?" "…" Why does this feel like being asked whether I have a car and a house? Liu Xiu grumbled inwardly but answered truthfully: forty-five days of cultivation, and a bit over ninety strands of spiritual power; because his foundation had grown, his spiritual power had passed ninety strands. But it had not yet reached ninety-one! Caiyi burst out laughing. "Ew! Your talent's awful! Back then I broke through to Refining Essence into Qi in a single day. Still, your talent's much better than my senior martial sister's…" "…" ×2 Do you have any idea how harsh the things you say are? Liu Xiu silently filed that away as he listened to Caiyi's yelp when Bai Min'er pinched her. He chatted with the two a while longer, built up a little goodwill, and then ended the call. "Time to cultivate!" Back at the campfire, Liu Xiu glanced at Vice Minister Wu's party and at the bronze-cornered golden coffin, whose corpse qi had grown faintly heavier again. He greeted Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei, took out his meditation cushion, settled himself, and began cultivating the Three-Light Primordial Magnetism Body-Refining Art that Shi Jian had taught him. … The next day, the first day of the sixth month, early morning, the sky barely light, in the woods. "My master really is a genius…" Sitting on his meditation cushion with an umbrella propped in his arms, Liu Xiu opened his eyes, through which a flicker of lightning flashed and was gone, his expression complicated. It was not that he had reached the realm of lightning in an empty room. Rather, he had cultivated the first layer of the Three-Light Primordial Magnetism Body-Refining Art—Divine Perception—to the entry level, which had indirectly raised his thunder arts level. Right—this art could help advance his thunder arts. After all, electricity and magnetism were one family. Of course, cultivating it was hard: you had to understand thunder arts. Understand them—not merely be able to use them! Beyond that, it was best to understand a little of the way of primordial magnetism; otherwise, mastering this immortal-path body-refining art that contained the way of primordial magnetism would be very difficult. Without understanding thunder arts, the way of primordial magnetism, and the indispensable inner alchemy methods, one could forget about cultivating it—one would probably not even manage the first layer, drawing the primordial magnetism of the three lights of the sun, moon, and stars into the body by means of one's own three treasures of essence, qi, and spirit. But Liu Xiu had done it, and now he experienced what was described above: the magnetic field of his flesh deeply linked with the magnetic resonance of heaven and earth, borrowing heaven and earth as his ears and eyes, sensing the first stirrings of things before any sign appeared. That was the first layer, Divine Perception!