Liu Xiu: How Can This Even Be Running?

Something was twelve parts wrong out of ten! How was this running? It shouldn't be! How could this even be running? This wasn't right! This was Liu Xiu's first thought when he heard the narration cheat's voice sound again. To be fair, getting the narration cheat to run at all could count as him being impressive. But the things the narration cheat had divined seemed to be a bit too much. Listening to the array eye and the method for breaking it, Liu Xiu felt something was off. Why did he feel that his cheat was more capable than he was? "Strange. It shouldn't be..." Liu Xiu was puzzled. The narration cheat's successful making had been a bit fantastical, but since it had succeeded, that meant his theory wasn't wrong. After all, the result had proved the theory correct. But correct didn't mean it could go beyond the syllabus. There was no reason the calculation-arts cheat he had made should be better at the calculation arts than he himself was. He hadn't even calculated how to break the Yizhuang's array. "Physical hardware... data collection... logic algorithms... a problem with the algorithm?" Something stirred in Liu Xiu's mind. Mayi Physiognomy and the Lesser Liuren Palm-Divination Method were the core logic algorithms of his narration cheat. Starting it relied on his divine sense, and it still had to draw on him before it could cast and read a hexagram. But because he had burned them into the hardware, it no longer relied on him alone. It also relied on the White Jade Cicada, that damaged treasure. "The two stacked together increased the brute-force volume, so the narration cheat's computation is even stronger than mine?" Liu Xiu guessed in silence. He thought it over and decided to leave it alone. Just as the saying went: if it runs, that's enough. What if he changed something and then it couldn't run? "Face-reading, divination—both are in... so next I should study the way of feng shui and keep burning it in... like hell!" Liu Xiu decided not to burn anything in for the time being. Same saying: if it runs, that's enough. And besides, he didn't even understand how this thing was able to run at all. What if he wrecked it! Also, he felt that his being able to make this narration cheat, aside from reality being too fantastical, ought to have something to do with his luck having been a bit good lately. Done thinking, Liu Xiu took up the narration cheat hanging at his neck and examined it. The White Jade Cicada was carved entirely of some unknown white jade. The cicada's jade was even, clean, and warmly smooth. The knife work on it was crisp, and the grain of the cicada wings was clearly visible. The jade body constantly gave off a faint, hazy white glow. It fully showed a gentle, restrained quality, and at the same time carried a rhythm mysterious beyond mystery. Aside from faint cracks showing within, it looked extraordinary overall. But there was one thing Liu Xiu didn't much like. Nothing else: it was too flashy! It didn't match his cautious, steady style! "Pity it isn't a primordial-spirit treasure. Huh!" Liu Xiu gave a soft inward sound of surprise and left it at that. Brows knit, he watched the White Jade Cicada suddenly molt. The molt was fast—over in no more than a single breath. When the molting ended, it left a jade cicada shell, and a White Jade Cicada whose hidden cracks were gone. A slightly smaller White Jade Cicada! "This thing is actually alive?" Liu Xiu began to examine it. Soon his expression turned odd, because he found that this thing was actually a primordial-spirit treasure. A treasure that could be stored in the primordial spirit's Purple Mansion! With an odd look, Liu Xiu saw jade hidden within jade: inside the treasure cicada was hidden a primordial-spirit treasure cicada that could be stored in the primordial spirit's Purple Mansion. To be fair, it was, well, pretty outrageous! And wasn't his luck too good! Don't tell me he was a child of the plane! "Actually, you're not a primordial-spirit treasure. You're actually a Primordial supreme treasure with forty-nine Heavenly Dao restrictions!" Liu Xiu muttered inwardly. He watched the White Jade Cicada in his hand vanish as a thought took it into the Purple Mansion, played at storing and releasing it several times, and only then looked at the shell the White Jade Cicada had left behind. Very strange. It was clearly only a cicada shell, yet Liu Xiu actually felt that touching this shell was like touching a person's skin. "Stow it for now. I'll refine another cheat later!" Liu Xiu put the cicada shell away, patted his backside, rose from the meditation cushion, opened the door, and came out into the courtyard, looking toward the Yizhuang, still as empty as ever. Right. That's right. Shi Jian and his son had gone off to slay demons and eliminate evil again! 【Heheheh. Mere array restrictions dare put on airs before you? Once you break the array restrictions of this Yizhuang, first pocket the Lightning-Rushing Thunder Fist, then roll up every art and secret manual in the study. Then find some desolate deep mountain and cultivate in seclusion for three to five years. When your divine art is complete and you come out of seclusion, you will surely sweep the sects of all eight directions under heaven, dominate the entire cultivation world, and make every cultivator under heaven bow their heads!】 "..." Shut up, you! Liu Xiu's excellent mood vanished. Expressionless, he walked toward the study, yet in his heart he found it a little strange. This cheat clearly used his divine sense as its trigger—how did it talk like such a villain? He himself was quite the upright sort! He entered the study and read as usual. This time Liu Xiu decided to look at books on Eight Characters fate calculation. Before he had even looked at a book, he heard the narration say: 【Heheheh. Who would have thought that old man who won't die hasn't a shred of wariness. The dignified signature art of the Maoshan Sect, the Muchun Great Art, is actually left in the study, without even half a restriction laid down. You rejoice in secret, waiting only to quietly take the art and cultivate it with bitter focus. When your divine art is complete, you will surely sweep the sects of the four directions and dominate the entire cultivation world!】 "..." You think I can look and, the very next step, my master—old but ever firmer, firm as bedrock—won't move to clean house? The little man in Liu Xiu's heart rolled his eyes. His gaze slid, without showing a trace, toward a pair of Thunder Dharma Eyes that flashed past beside the desk. 【Damn it! Who would have thought this old man who won't die guards against you so deeply, secretly wielding the Supreme Three-Five Thunder Heaven-Illuminating Thousand-Li Dharma Eye and, not balking at a thousand li, fixing his stare on your every move. An act like this, unwilling to leave you even half a secret, makes you feel only rage surging in your chest and hatred towering to heaven. You decide to endure and lie low for the moment. When your divine art is complete someday, you will personally break this Thousand-Li Dharma Eye, stab blind with your own hands these dog eyes that peer without cease, and make this old thing taste to the full the humiliation of being watched that you suffer today!】 "..." Honestly, I don't feel aggrieved at all! Liu Xiu complained inwardly. What's more, not only did he not feel aggrieved, he actually felt a bit at ease. After all, his master doing this meant he was testing him. As for why he thought so, it was mainly because he had spent time again with Shi Jian and his son these past two days. Through that time together, he found that Shi Jian's attitude toward him could only be called pending a test. It had not yet reached the time for teaching real ability. Liu Xiu thought it over and felt this was normal too. After all, the master-disciple bond of this era was not that later-age sort of master relationship. It was a master in a father's place—the 'father' in master! Shi Jian's attitude toward him at present was still one of observation—or rather, of weighing whether or not to take him as a true-transmission disciple. Otherwise, Liu Xiu could not understand Shi Jian's attitude, nor the reason Shi Jian would not teach him the methods of the Maoshan Sect. He set the stray thoughts aside and went on reading. Because Shi Jian and his son were either on the road slaying demons or on the way to slaying demons, the Yizhuang was very quiet on ordinary days. So quiet that he wondered whether Shi Jian was always taking Shi Shaojian out to subdue demons and eliminate evil because the Yizhuang had too little business. But this was fine too. Liu Xiu liked quiet. A quiet setting let him focus on his reading. Seven days passed just like that. In those seven days, aside from taking half a day on the first day to string some electric wire, and another half day to repair the graves of his original body's parents, the rest of the time was reading. Speaking of electric wire, Liu Xiu found it very strange that this small town had electricity, but he didn't pay those details too much mind. After all, that Western restaurant had dared to say roast goose was actually roast duck. Set beside that, a small town having electricity didn't seem like any great matter! Only a pity that the peaceful days did not last very long. Once seven days had passed, the time came to the morning of the seventeenth of the fifth month, and Shi Shaojian's arrogant voice broke the Yizhuang's quiet. "Junior Brother, go cook. I'm hungry!" Shi Shaojian walked in through the Yizhuang gate still looking down his nose at people. Only his face didn't look good—he had clearly been scolded. "All right, Senior Brother!" A smile showed on Liu Xiu's face. He looked toward Shi Jian, who walked into the Yizhuang a step behind, at that expressionless face. Confirmed. This father and son really had fallen out! 【Damn it, how dare this whelp bully me! He only relies on being that old man who won't die's own son, and he dares order me about to cook as he pleases. Does he really think I'll obediently let myself be sent? But since that old man who won't die is right at my side, you press your rage down for now, endure without showing it, and go cook, saying only in your heart: just you wait. You decide that tonight, while the other is cultivating, you will secretly set a ritual altar, use the altar's power to break his three body-protecting treasures and erase his fifteen body-protecting spells, and then send your primordial spirit out of your body to seize his—a "control the Un-Jian to command Shi Jian,"—and thereby dominate the cultivation world. Heheheh.】 "???" No way—this damn... Senior Brother is that loaded? Liu Xiu blinked, watching Shi Shaojian walk into the bedroom. For no reason he could name, Shi Shaojian felt a chill sweep across his back. "Hm? This is... electric wire?" Shi Jian raised a brow, looking at the two electric wires newly added to the Yizhuang. Seeing this, Liu Xiu scratched his head and said, embarrassed: "Master, your disciple saw before that Master still lit an oil lamp to read at night, so without Master's approval I privately ran a wire..." "You put thought into it..." Shi Jian's brow had only just smoothed when it creased again. Seeing this, Liu Xiu went on: "Master, rest assured. I paid three years of the electricity fee in one go. Before, your disciple's purse was too thin, and I couldn't give Master a gift for taking me as his disciple. Now your disciple has money..." As he spoke, Liu Xiu quickly drew from his bosom the silver notes his eldest uncle had given him. Of course, this was what remained after the wire had been strung. "Master, here!" "This... you keep it yourself! Hm? Where did you get the money?" Shi Jian's brow creased slightly, and his first thought was the gambling den. "It's like this. Before, my eldest uncle came and gave me some money. I told you about it at the time, Master..." Liu Xiu explained how the original body's eldest uncle had given him money. Shi Jian was taken aback. He had thought Liu Xiu's eldest uncle had only come to give Liu Xiu some pocket money. But now Shi Jian looked in puzzlement at the two silver notes in Liu Xiu's hand, each with a face value of one hundred. Seeing this, Liu Xiu explained that this money was the "rent" on the land his parents had left. "Actually, your disciple wanted to give this money to Master that very day, but I wasn't sure how much repairing my parents' graves would cost..." Liu Xiu went on. What he had actually been unsure of was how much running the circuit would cost. Hearing this, Shi Jian was briefly stunned. His brow smoothed as he looked at Liu Xiu, and he shook his head. "You just keep this money yourself..." With that, he stepped past Liu Xiu and walked toward the ritual room. He had not gone many steps before he stopped, turned, pressed two fingers together, and lightly tapped across the empty air at the point between Liu Xiu's brows. A thread of thunder-light sank into Liu Xiu's brow. "This is our Maoshan Sect's Shangqing Jade Pivot Palm-Thunder Secret Instruction. Practice it for now. If there's anything you don't understand, come and ask your master!" When he finished, Shi Jian turned back and continued toward the ritual room. "Thank you, Master, for passing on the art!" Liu Xiu was stunned a moment, then bowed with a sincere heart as he spoke. At the same time, the narration cheat's voice rose: 【Heheheh! This old man who won't die has at last been willing to pass thunder arts on to you. Although it is only palm thunder, this is the king among palm thunders. In days past he guarded against you in every way, day after day ordering you to do chores and hard labor, too stingy to teach even half a Daoist art...】 【...You look at what is written in the Shangqing Jade Pivot Palm-Thunder Secret Instruction—that the human body is a small heaven and earth—and comprehend the rhythm of thunder sensing and connecting, and your heart all at once grows clear through and through...】