The following day, the fifth of the sixth lunar month.
The sky was faintly gray, the sun not yet risen above the horizon.
In a forested mountain fifty li from Ren Family Town.
"We'll rest up ahead in that ruined temple!"
Thanks to the Black Jiangshi, Four-Eyed Daoist was spared the chore of personally leading the corpses. Without breaking stride, he pointed toward a dilapidated temple among the trees ahead.
He addressed Liu Xiu, who was still hovering cautiously beside the Black Jiangshi, as well as Shi Shaojian, who was striding in the lead. Four-Eyed Daoist sorely wanted to tell Liu Xiu that he was far too cowar—rather, far too cautious; the kid had been on high alert the entire journey.
"Oh, alright."
"Generally speaking, when we drive corpses, we don't stay in temples..." Four-Eyed Daoist explained to Liu Xiu as they walked.
Still standing beside the Black Jiangshi so he could summon a defense at any moment, Liu Xiu gazed at the ruined temple ahead. After a moment of thought, he asked, "Martial Uncle, you aren't afraid of unclean things occupying the divine statues inside, are you?"
"What unclean things would we Daoists fear? The main reason we avoid ruined temples on the road is to prevent such foul entities from damaging the clients' physical bodies. But I've stayed in this particular temple many times. It's perfectly safe..."
Four-Eyed Daoist pursed his lips, evidently having suffered such troubles in the past. Seeing Liu Xiu nod, he continued, "Also, don't just worship any god you come across. Aside from proper, orthodox Daoist abbeys, Buddhist temples, and the branch halls run by our own people, the temples in many places don't house any immortals or deities at all, even if there's a statue sitting there..."
"Oh?"
Liu Xiu showed keen interest. Shi Shaojian, walking at the front while idly fiddling with the gauze Liu Xiu had wrapped around his hand, also pricked up his ears and slowed his pace.
Indeed, he had never heard such low-level trivia before!
His master, Shi Jian, had never spoken of such matters!
"That's because the statues of gods and immortals in those places have already been usurped by wild mountain spirits. But more often than not, the ones occupying those statues are actually mortals!"
Four-Eyed Daoist spoke with an emotional sigh. Shi Shaojian's eyes filled with confusion, wondering how ordinary mortals could possibly occupy a divine statue.
Having grasped the general idea, Liu Xiu asked in surprise, "Ghosts dare to impersonate gods and immortals?"
"Most ghosts wouldn't dare. But that doesn't stop their living relatives from daring! For the sake of so-called wealth and power, those people will stoop to anything!"
Four-Eyed Daoist sneered, then succinctly summarized it in six words: "Siphoning incense, diverting good fortune." Hearing this, Shi Shaojian looked utterly baffled.
"Don't the gods do something about it?"
"They can't keep up with it all," Four-Eyed Daoist replied helplessly with a dismissive curl of his lip.
Liu Xiu asked, "Is stealing incense and diverting good fortune that easy to pull off?"
"Indeed..."
As Four-Eyed Daoist spoke, he walked over to an earth-god shrine that reached barely up to his knees. Using his cloth-wrapped peach wood sword, he nudged the statue of the Earth God to tilt slightly forward, exposing an ash urn concealed behind it.
"Any mortal can steal it; the only difference is whether the consequences are large or small..."
Even as the words left his mouth, Four-Eyed Daoist thrust his peach wood sword forward!
With a sharp rip, the tip burst through the cloth and struck the ash urn. In an instant, a ghastly green ghostly silhouette whooshed out of the urn.
"Scram! If I see you here when I return, I'll make sure you never reincarnate!" Four-Eyed Daoist snapped coldly at the fleeing specter.
This was no idle threat; he truly intended to follow through, provided the ghost was foolish enough to leave its ash urn behind before he returned.
As for the reason: stealing incense meant for a deity was unacceptable. Although this Earth God was an unlisted wild spirit, it was nonetheless a benevolent one.
"It just sat by and watched?" Shi Shaojian remarked, not bothering to use any respectful honorifics for the Earth God, his gaze full of disdain and contempt.
Helplessly, Four-Eyed Daoist tapped the Earth God's dust-laden offering tray with the peach wood sword. "When it can barely protect itself, how could it manage anything else?"
Pausing, he put away the sword and looked at Liu Xiu and Shi Shaojian. "Furthermore, mortals bully the weak and fear the strong, and ghosts are the exact same way. By the same token, this fellow is no different!"
At this, Four-Eyed Daoist wore an expression of disdain. Liu Xiu watched as the Earth God statue suddenly tilted forward as a whole, as if too ashamed to show its face.
"Truth be told, you can't entirely blame the poor thing. Generally speaking, not all gods and immortals are registered on official rosters. While it enjoys incense offerings, it isn't a true immortal after all, and lacks the powers that proper deities ought to possess!"
Four-Eyed Daoist made a remark that Shi Shaojian did not quite grasp, but Liu Xiu immediately recalled the distinction between Man thunder and demon thunder within Sheling thunder.
He understood at once: this Earth God was an unregistered spirit, and a rather powerless wild deity at that.
Thinking it over, it made sense. If it had any real capability, it would never have been bullied to such an extent, lacking even the courage to lose its temper when someone stashed an urn of cremated ashes right behind its back.
"Let's go!"
Four-Eyed Daoist glanced up at the sky. Shi Shaojian continued walking ahead. Liu Xiu considered for a moment, then crouched before the earth-god shrine.
He picked up the offering tray, shook out the accumulated dust and fallen leaves, retrieved three steamed buns from his storage thumb ring, and took out three sticks of incense. With a flip of his wrist, he ignited them using a flame technique and planted them in the ground.
Well, the poor wild deity didn't even have an incense burner!
Truly a pitiful spirit.
"Hang in there!"
Liu Xiu did not bow, simply offering that quiet encouragement before rising to catch up with the group. Ahead, Four-Eyed Daoist glanced back, then withdrew his gaze and added:
"Generally speaking, an Earth God only oversees a single domain—at most a small town, at least a tiny hamlet. Its protection extends no further than those borders. Even if you offer it incense, it won't be able to protect you once we leave tonight!"
"One shouldn't be so mercenary in life!"
"Senior Martial Brother is right!"
"???"
*Me? Mercenary?*
*I was just giving you two some basic knowledge!*
*It's not as if I've never offered it incense before!*
Four-Eyed Daoist stared wide-eyed at Shi Shaojian and Liu Xiu. His reason for skipping the incense this time was genuinely because the Earth God was just too pathetic.
To be pushed around to such an extent without fighting back instinctively reminded him of his junior martial brother, Daoist Qianhe.
*I wonder where Qianhe and his group have gotten to...*
The thought drifted across Four-Eyed Daoist's mind as the group pressed on toward the ruined temple. It was not far, merely several dozen meters.
They quickly arrived. Though battered and dilapidated, the temple still had an intact main hall and a side room that appeared to have been used by local village hunters for rest. It was more than spacious enough to accommodate the three of them and the walking corpses.
After settling the walking corpses, Liu Xiu stepped into the open ground outside the main hall to build a fire and brew medicine for Four-Eyed Daoist.
"How about I handle that instead?"
Four-Eyed Daoist said solemnly upon seeing this. He bore no ill will; it was simply that he had once witnessed Liu Xiu swallowing arsenic and other toxins to cultivate his immortal aspects.
He was terrified that while brewing the medicine, Liu Xiu might accidentally slip in a few lethal ingredients capable of sending him straight to the netherworld.
He wasn't afraid of Liu Xiu intentionally harming him; he was merely afraid of accidents. After all, he hadn't yet seen Jiale take a wife!
"Here!"
Knowing what was on Four-Eyed Daoist's mind, Liu Xiu took no offense. In fact, he was glad to be relieved of the duty. He fetched the medicinal herbs, which had been temporarily stored with him thanks to the freshness-preserving properties of his storage thumb ring.
Four-Eyed Daoist chuckled, accepted the herbs, and set to work brewing his own medicine. Liu Xiu's ear twitched, and he glanced toward a fleeting ghostly shadow flitting across the main hall.
He stepped into the main hall and looked at a clutch of wild fruits resting upon the battered offering table, then cast a backward glance toward the distant earth-god shrine.
"Hey, Junior Martial Brother, where did you pick those fruits?"
Coming out of the side room, Shi Shaojian looked in surprise at the fruit on the broken table, grabbed one, wiped it, and took a bite.
"The Earth God sent them,"
Liu Xiu replied. Looking at the wild fruit on the table, Shi Shaojian remarked curiously, "Doesn't that mean it actually has some ability after all?"
"Perhaps that ghost's living relatives just have greater ability,"
Liu Xiu offered after a moment's reflection. Shi Shaojian thought about it and nodded. Then, he noticed Liu Xiu looking at him with an odd gaze.
Feeling insulted by that look, Shi Shaojian's face darkened. "It's not like I don't know Earth Gods were usually locals during their lifetimes! You're obviously saying that ghost—or rather, the family of that ash urn—is an entrenched local tyrant. It's not like I don't understand that!"
"...No, Senior Martial Brother, you misunderstand. I was trying to tell you that your hand is bleeding!" Liu Xiu pointed at—and poked—the blood-seeping wound wrapped in gauze on Shi Shaojian's hand.
"Hiss—you...!"
Shi Shaojian instantly drew a sharp breath from the pain, glaring at Liu Xiu before swallowing his anger as he watched Liu Xiu take out fresh gauze and ointment.
The same old sentiment returned:
*Just this once, and never again!*
Shi Shaojian watched Liu Xiu with a sullen face. Once his hand had been freshly bandaged, he was about to head to the side room to rest when he heard Liu Xiu speak.
"Senior Martial Brother, I'm heading into the side room to cultivate a technique. Oh, by the way, here's a blanket so you don't catch a chill!"
"Oh..."
*Well, thank you so very much!*
Shi Shaojian's face darkened further as he accepted the thin blanket with a sullen grunt. Deep down, however, he had no intention of disturbing Liu Xiu's cultivation.
He simply found a reasonably clean spot in the main hall and went to sleep. Having eaten the wild fruit, he wasn't hungry anyway.
Liu Xiu walked out of the main hall, called out to Four-Eyed Daoist who was tending the pot—"Don't disturb me while I'm cultivating"—and then retreated into the side room, shutting the door behind him.
Compared to the filthy, chaotic main hall, the side room was significantly cleaner, likely thanks to regular visits from mountain hunters.
At the very least, there was little dust!
Liu Xiu did not use the bed, which had seen an untold number of occupants. Instead, he retrieved a thin meditation cushion from his storage thumb ring and placed it on the floor.
Once seated cross-legged, he withdrew the barber's straight razor from the ring. The moment the razor appeared, he clearly felt the surrounding temperature drop slightly.
Yet this chill was not a physical drop in temperature; rather, it was something akin to killing intent. Expressionless, Liu Xiu watched the blurry, flickering images flitting across the razor's surface.
The scenes were excessively cruel, depicting the atrocities committed by the barber and his daughter against their victims. But that was not the point. The point was that through these glimpses, he once again confirmed that the old lady ghost had no son.
This matched the results of his divination.
Which was excellent!
*First, let's figure out how to modify the Blood Shadow Transformation Great Art.*
Casting aside stray thoughts, Liu Xiu sat cross-legged and began recalling the Blood Shadow Transformation Great Art, which was derived from the Heaven-Burial Earth-Destruction Great Demonic Art.
The Blood Shadow Transformation Great Art was a demonic technique intertwined with the blood path. Once mastered, its effects were similar to the power of a Blood God Child.
It allowed a blood shadow to detach from the body and fly forth to devour the vital essence and blood of others. Its might was tremendous, but the process of cultivating it was utterly barbaric.
Beyond requiring the resentment qi and blood essence of a hundred people just to cross the threshold, advancing it demanded further human lives and human skins.
And a hundred individuals was merely the baseline!
Furthermore, it was worth noting that when cultivating the Blood Shadow Transformation Great Art, using clan relatives of direct blood descent yielded far superior results, potentially even birthing several supernatural abilities.
This inevitably reminded Liu Xiu of Second Uncle Liu, who was paralyzed in bed from a stroke. What a pity—he was an orthodox cultivator after all.
*I remember there's a technique in Master's study called the Shangqing Secret Decree for Form-Dividing and Shadow-Severing. It can be paired perfectly with the Blood Shadow Transformation Great Art for modifications...*
Liu Xiu recalled the manual from his master's study. His main reason for thinking this way was that modifying only the demonic art felt slightly unsafe; what if there were hidden traps left behind?
Therefore, he decided to use the Patriarchs, the Three Mao True Lords, to barricade the door. He refused to believe that under such conditions, that Seven-Star Demon King would still dare crawl through the conduit. The more he pondered it, the more Liu Xiu admired his own wit.
*I truly am a clever little genius... But why do I suddenly feel like I'm about to start popping mineral elixirs again?*
Liu Xiu cast a puzzled look at the human skin shed in his right hand, which he had dressed in clothes the previous day. Looking then at the razor in his left hand, he instinctively pinched his fingers to divine the omens.
Soon, five words emerged from his calculation: *Good deeds bring good returns.*
Puzzled, he continued his divination.
Unfortunately, nothing else showed up!
"Never mind. Let's modify it first and cultivate it to completion!"
Liu Xiu closed his eyes and began the process of alteration. The act of modification was always tedious, and time always passed quickly.
An hour later, Liu Xiu, still seated cross-legged on the meditation cushion, looked down at the clothed human skin shed on the floor, which had inflated to closely resemble a living person.
Glancing at the razor on the floor, now devoid of all blood qi and baleful aura, Liu Xiu formed hand seals with both hands and swiftly chanted the incantation under his breath:
"*Primal form rests in stillness, dark shadow parts from flesh... Blood qi coalesces substance, lurking unseen in the great void... Form and shadow divide, heed my commanded talisman...*"
"Coalesce!"
Having successfully modified the Blood Shadow Transformation Great Art, Liu Xiu extended a sword finger, pointing directly at the clothed skin shed before him.
At his gesture, the skin began to sizzle and melt. In the span of a finger-snap, it transformed into a pool of black, mud-like substance tinged with dark red, flowing free of the clothes.
Then, the skin turned into a stream of black liquid that began circling around Liu Xiu's body, transmitting a distinct sensation of hunger.
"Hm? You want to take a bite out of me?"
Seeing the dark shadow trying to drink his blood, Liu Xiu knitted his brows and simultaneously activated his Gui Water Yin Thunder and Yimu Yin Thunder seeds.
Cyan-black lightning and mud-like black lightning surged out from the surface of his body, enveloping the dark shadow in a crackling storm of electricity.
Ten-odd minutes later, Liu Xiu put away the clothes on the floor and stood up. He walked to the window, pushed it open, and looked back with the aid of the sunlight.
He examined the shadow that had returned beneath his feet with satisfaction—a shadow carrying a faint, almost imperceptible dark red hue like dried blood.
**[Technique: Mystic Yin Latent Shadow Art (Entry)]**
**[Description: This technique was jointly forged by the dashing, elegant, suave... peerless genius Liu Xiu through combining the Blood Shadow Transformation Great Art with the Shangqing Secret Decree for Form-Dividing and Shadow-Severing. Although modification stripped away the horrific destructive might of the Blood Shadow Transformation Great Art, it also purged the cruel cultivation requirements and the fatal drawback of serving as a vessel for a certain demon lord...]**
**[Effect: Pending further study!]**
Dismissing the projection panel of the Golden Light Divine Incantation, Liu Xiu shut the window and returned to his cushion to test the power of his Mystic Yin Latent Shadow Art.
As for why he hadn't called it the Great Yin Shadow-Refining Art he'd considered the previous night—simple: his mood had changed!
Liu Xiu began testing the effects of the Mystic Yin Latent Shadow Art. But the moment he began, his brows suddenly furrowed.
Before his eyes, the razor on the floor beside him snapped and cracked open with a sharp *crack* upon touching the dark shadow. The razor cracking was understandable;
after all, its essence had already been refined into the shadow. What he could not understand were the familiar sheets of white paper revealed inside the split razor.
"Shadow, bring it here!"
Liu Xiu, who had already vacated the cushion and retreated toward the doorway, issued the command. The shadow beneath his feet surged swiftly toward the fractured razor.
A moment later, Liu Xiu frowned as he looked at the two sheets of paper presented by the shadow. They were identical to the sheets he had obtained after slaying the white insect in the dharma realm of the female ghost, Madam Liu—papers inscribed with the methods for two additional immortal aspects.
"An outside inheritance left behind by Daoist Wang? Oh, so this was an outside inheritance left by Daoist Wang's master... What a coincidence..."
Not daring to touch the papers directly, Liu Xiu looked around with narrowed eyes. Finding nothing amiss, he suddenly spoke up:
"Hey, Master, why are you here?"
After speaking, Liu Xiu looked around once more. Still seeing nothing out of the ordinary, he curled his lip, then finally used his spiritual power to insulate his fingertips before picking up the two cultivation methods handed over by the shadow.
"My luck is truly exceptional... No sooner do I think about consuming mineral elixirs than the chance arrives... Hm?"
On a sudden whim, Liu Xiu pinched his fingers again using the Lesser Liuren Palm-Divination Method.
With this calculation, he understood what 'good deeds bring good returns' meant. Because he had instructed Huo Laosi to repair the graves of Madam Liu, Daoist Wang, and his master, he had become the good person receiving the reward.
"Mm, looking at it this way, I truly am a good person!"
Liu Xiu nodded and sat back on his cushion, incidentally giving an electric jolt to the shadow that had failed to return to his feet on its own initiative.
The two new immortal aspects were named 'Pristine Hair Shedding Dust' and 'Cold Teeth Freezing Frost.' The papers recorded not only the accompanying elixirs and cultivation methods, but also several lines of introduction at the very beginning.
Lines detailing the origins of these immortal aspects!
*"In antiquity, the White Emperor Shaohao, known as the Jintian Clan, governed the metal qi of Geng and Xin in the west, holding dominion over the ancient methods of killing and harvesting yang, Great Yin form-refining, and corpse-resolution immortal-shedding..."*
*"All subsequent paths of corpse resolution through external mineral elixirs originate from the White Emperor's orthodox lineage. When cultivators consume great mineral elixirs over long periods, before achieving complete perfection, the fierce Geng-metal qi violently suppresses mortal yang, depositing turbid toxins into the nine apertures and hundred bones..."*
"..."
*Good grief,*
*No wonder cultivating it makes one look like a corpse!*
*Turns out the 'immortal' in 'immortal aspect' refers to a corpse-resolved immortal!*
Liu Xiu's brow furrowed tightly. Feeling that something was odd, he reached into his pocket and drew out the Crimson Firmament Sword, then glanced back at the two immortal-aspect manuals that belonged, strictly speaking, to the White Emperor's heritage.
Glancing back and forth between the two,
Liu Xiu's frown deepened even further!
"If memory serves, back in the day, my Gaozu ancestor slayed... rather, initiated a physical-level mandate-enforcement procedure against the breaching party, namely the son of the White Emperor, terminating his status as the White Emperor's representative and transferring all authorities to himself..."
Liu Xiu muttered to himself. Here was the puzzle: he bore the surname Liu and possessed the Crimson Firmament Sword, so why had the White Emperor's inheritance ended up in his hands?
After thinking it over, Liu Xiu understood: he was merely carrying out the lawful succession procedures of the Red Emperor's scion inheriting the White Emperor's estate.
*Mm, yes,*
*That's it,*
*That is absolutely it!*
Liu Xiu nodded. Deciding that this line of reasoning was entirely sound, he retrieved his remaining immortal-aspect elixir ingredients from his storage thumb ring.
Coincidentally, he had all the necessary medicinal herbs to cultivate the two new immortal aspects. Though only enough for one or two doses, that was hardly a problem—they would reach Ren Family Town by tomorrow morning anyway!
He could simply purchase more then!
Putting his thoughts to rest, Liu Xiu inspected the remaining quantities of herbs in his bottles and jars while simultaneously studying the capabilities of his shadow.
Once he had thoroughly investigated the shadow's power, Liu Xiu reviewed the cultivation method for Pristine Hair Shedding Dust, swallowed the arsenic and other medicinal ingredients, washed them down with water, and recited:
"Lead and mercury seep into the marrow, turning black hair white;
Sweet and metallic in the throat, smooth as fat.
Arsenic burns through the intestines with bitter heat;
The crane-like posture turns out to be eroded bone."
Finishing his verse, Liu Xiu cried out internally, *"My money!"* and sat cross-legged with hand seals and incantations, embarking on the cultivation of the new immortal aspect, Pristine Hair Shedding Dust.
Time ticked away, and soon two hours had passed. Just as Liu Xiu felt a bone-chilling cold throughout his body, his head swimming with dizziness, he opened his eyes, drew out the Crimson Firmament Sword, and used its radiation to alleviate the discomfort.
He raised an eyebrow as he noticed his hair had suddenly grown down to his shoulders and turned entirely white. Surprised, he muttered, "Incredible. This immortal aspect can actually stimulate hair growth. Even if... what grows is white hair..."
Liu Xiu took out a mirror and gazed at his silver-haired reflection. Seeing the metallic sheen inherent in the strands, he reached up to stroke them.
Truth be told,
it was remarkably smooth!
"Only... a bit brittle..."
Understandable; heavy metal elements were now coursing through his hair. Liu Xiu stared blankly at a strand of silvery-white hair in his hand that snapped in two after being folded a few times.
Looking at the white hair that was still growing, he felt that with just a cinnabar dot between his brows, he could shoot short videos and pose as an Immortal Emperor!
"Still, how did the hair turn white... Oh, because lead disrupts the normal function of melanocytes and inhibits tyrosinase activity. Since tyrosinase is the key enzyme for melanin synthesis, inhibiting it halts production. At the same time, lead damages hair follicle cells, causing functional disorders..."
Realization dawned on Liu Xiu. Naturally, he also recalled the effects of mercury, which possessed extreme neurotoxicity.
Mercury could cross the blood-brain barrier into the central nervous system, damaging pigment cells while similarly inhibiting tyrosinase activity to hinder melanin formation.
The combination of the two
had turned his head of black hair into silver strands!
Though Liu Xiu still wasn't entirely clear on how the original black hair had turned white so quickly, it didn't matter. What mattered was that he had achieved entry-level mastery of the Pristine Hair Shedding Dust immortal aspect!
"Hm?"
Liu Xiu's ear twitched. With the enhanced vision granted by his jade eyes and square pupils, he peered through the crack in the window and spotted the earth-god shrine several dozen meters away.
And nearly a hundred meters beyond that, twenty to thirty aggressive villagers carrying hoes, cudgels, and buckets of black dog blood and chicken blood were marching forward.
He heard one fat, greasy old man shout arrogantly, "What a shameless Earth God! To think it refuses the face we give it! Our Pu family deigning to place our old master's ash urn here was a blessing for it..."
The voice was insufferably obnoxious. Liu Xiu couldn't be bothered to listen further. He shot a meaningful glance at the dark shadow on the floor, but finding that it couldn't understand and was far inferior to Little Black, he frowned, formed a seal, chanted a mantra, and pointed.
"Go, give them a beating!"
Receiving the command, the shadow broke free from its flat state, transformed into a dark mass, and whooshed out through the bottom crack of the door, darting swiftly toward the crowd dozens of meters away.
Granted, at Liu Xiu's current entry level of the Mystic Yin Latent Shadow Art, his shadow could only separate up to three meters from his body under normal circumstances.
However, one could not forget that this technique was born from demonic arts. So long as Liu Xiu was willing to burn a bit of his own health and the enemy's vitality, the shadow could travel an immense distance.
"The health drain is a bit steep..."
Hearing the screams and the frantic sounds of retreating footsteps, Liu Xiu felt his health dropping a little too quickly. Shrinking the Crimson Firmament Sword and slipping it into his pocket, he promptly hopped off the cushion and rushed out of the side room to retrieve his useless shadow.
"You absolute waste!"
Having sprinted ten-odd meters out of the side room, Liu Xiu watched the villagers fleeing in terror while screaming about ghosts. He cursed at the returning shadow, prompting Four-Eyed Daoist, who had been alerted by the commotion, to hurry over and ask:
"Ah Xiu, what happened?"
"Nothing, Martial Uncle. Following full disclosure of information and a display of cooperative sincerity, the other party evaluated the situation, determined that continuing negotiations would yield negative returns, and voluntarily terminated the meeting before evacuating the premises. This round of consultations has concluded with complete success."
Having ingested too many toxins, Liu Xiu rattled off modern corporate jargon without thinking. The moment it left his mouth, he felt he had genuinely taken too high a dose; he couldn't do this daily, it had to be spaced out to once every twenty-four hours.
"???"
*What in the world are you babbling about?*
*Holy crap, how did you turn into a ghost again?!*
Four-Eyed Daoist stared wide-eyed, instinctively stepping back as he looked at Liu Xiu, whose shoulder-length hair had turned completely silver and whose shadow was twisting unnaturally beneath his feet.
"I cultivated a few techniques, but it is of no great concern. Once I complete the module acceptance testing for this skill, all current impediments will be automatically resolved, and the risk rating will drop to zero. After subsequent issues are fully incorporated into the closed loop, there will be no further compliance disputes."
Liu Xiu replied. Feeling light-headed from the drugs, he tapped his forehead and spoke again to the thoroughly bewildered Four-Eyed Daoist:
"In short... I'm fine. I'm very well!"
"..."
*No, I'm pretty sure you are not fine!*
*And I'm very sure you are not well at all!*
Four-Eyed Daoist stared in horror at the writhing shadow beneath Liu Xiu's feet. He opened his mouth and said to Liu Xiu, who was heading back toward the side room:
"Well, perhaps we should ask Eldest Senior Martial Brother to come take a look? I feel your current condition isn't quite right..."
Far from right—he suspected Liu Xiu had suffered cultivation deviation, especially given that mane of silver hair.
He could only conclude that a mishap had occurred during Liu Xiu's cultivation, leaving him with depleted vital essence and severe medicinal toxicity.
"No significant issue. In a moment, once I execute a compliant disposal run for fluid waste, my condition will fully recover."
Liu Xiu replied. Four-Eyed Daoist looked blankly at Liu Xiu, whose speech had grown utterly nonsensical, and nodded.
"Right..."
*So, what are you even talking about?*
Consequently, Four-Eyed Daoist did not dare sleep for the rest of the day, closely monitoring Liu Xiu's condition. Only after confirming that Liu Xiu was truly fine did he heave a sigh of relief.
It was truly bizarre;
he was the patient here,
so why on earth was he the one 'taking care' of Liu Xiu?!
Shi Shaojian was another story entirely. Having marched through the previous night, he slept straight through from morning until evening, waking only just before it was time to depart.
"Whoa, Junior Martial Brother, your hair... that's so cool!"
Woken from his slumber, Shi Shaojian's eyes sparkled as he stared at Liu Xiu's newly shoulder-length silver hair, uttering words that left Four-Eyed Daoist utterly speechless.
Honestly,
was this really a matter of whether it looked cool or not?!
And why did he suddenly feel so old?!
Four-Eyed Daoist looked at Shi Shaojian with profound exasperation over his misplaced priorities. Liu Xiu smiled and raised an eyebrow. "I think it looks quite sharp myself!"
"Junior Martial Brother, what technique is this?"
Shi Shaojian asked inquisitively. He meant nothing by it; he simply wanted to learn it himself. Liu Xiu did not hide it and answered directly:
"It's the cultivation method for a new immortal aspect..."
Liu Xiu took the opportunity to explain how, by sheer luck, he had obtained two immortal-aspect cultivation methods from inside the razor.
Of course, he did not mention that these were methods for corpse-resolved immortals. First, he didn't want the two of them to worry; second, he had no intention of walking the path of a corpse-resolved immortal anyway. He cultivated the immortal aspects solely to boost his base attributes.
"..." ×2
*Isn't your luck a bit too absurd?!* ×2
Setting aside Shi Shaojian, who lost all interest in turning his hair white because he had no desire to poison himself to death, Four-Eyed Daoist stared at Liu Xiu in silence.
"Why... why didn't you say so earlier?"
Out of worry that Liu Xiu might meet with mishap, he hadn't slept practically all day—and he was an injured patient!
"I did say afterward that I was cultivating an immortal aspect!"
"..."
*Oh, you're sure you said that?!*
Four-Eyed Daoist remained silent, simply staring blankly at Liu Xiu. Then, he furrowed his brows and looked at the dark shadow beneath Liu Xiu's feet.
"And what about this?"
"The Shangqing Form-Dividing Latent Shadow Art. Naturally, to maintain its sustainability, I slightly modified the underlying principles..."
"..."
*Sustainability? Principles? Modified?*
Four-Eyed Daoist fell silent, silent, and silent once more. He looked at Liu Xiu, thought it over, and decided he understood: Liu Xiu was pulling his leg.
It wasn't as if he didn't know the Form-Dividing Latent Shadow Art!
*Hmph! I'll endure it!*
Having always respected and deferred to his Eldest Senior Martial Brother, Four-Eyed Daoist huffily went to eat his third meal of the day. After eating, the group resumed their march toward Ren Family Town under the cover of night.
The journey went smoothly without incident, aside from Four-Eyed Daoist whose eyelids drooped with exhaustion. Just like that, the party finally reached the boundaries of Ren Family Town before daybreak the following morning.
On an official road with sparse weeds:
"Ren Family Town is just ahead... Your Second Martial Uncle... runs a Yizhuang in this town!" Four-Eyed Daoist yawned, sporting dark circles under his eyes like a panda.
As he spoke, he pointed toward a stone marker by the road inscribed with the words *Ren Family Town*. Shi Shaojian, walking ahead, turned back and asked:
"He runs a Yizhuang too?"
"...Yes. And your Second Martial Uncle, Lin Jiu, also took on two disciples. The elder is called Wencai, and the younger is Qiusheng!"
Too exhausted to bother correcting Shi Shaojian's lack of respect, Four-Eyed Daoist answered, adding, "Though Qiusheng often makes Wencai call him Senior Martial Brother!"
Unlike Wencai, who had been picked up by Ninth Uncle as an infant and raised by him, Qiusheng had only joined Ninth Uncle's tutelage around the age of eight or nine. After his parents passed away unexpectedly, being frail and sickly, he had taken a Maoshan Patriarch as his adoptive godfather, which led to his entry into the sect.
"Oh, how old is Wencai? I bet he's not as old as me!" remarked Shi Shaojian, whose focus was perpetually peculiar.
"...Right, you're older. He was already four or five when my second senior brother found him, so he didn't enter the sect as early as you!"
Four-Eyed Daoist wore a strange expression, as if suppressing laughter. However, he wasn't laughing at Shi Shaojian before him,
but rather at his martial nephew Wencai. The boy was barely in his twenties, yet his appearance looked even more aged than Four-Eyed Daoist himself.
His suppressed laughter surrendered to exhaustion. Four-Eyed Daoist glanced at Liu Xiu, who had remained quiet, simply looking up at the sky.
"What are you looking at?"
"Looking at the Moonlight Essence. I've noticed the power of the Moonlight Essence growing stronger by the day..." Liu Xiu replied, withdrawing his gaze.
"???"
"Hm? Martial Uncle, you can't see it?"
"..."
"Oh, you really can't!"
"..."
*I tell you,*
*if I weren't nursing internal injuries,*
*and if I weren't so dead tired,*
*and if I didn't hold so much respect for my Eldest Senior Martial Brother...!*
Four-Eyed Daoist's eyes widened, then suddenly broke into a chuckle as he looked at a glass bottle containing liquid that Liu Xiu handed him. It was covered in foreign lettering, resembling Western beverages he had seen before.
"Martial Nephew, what's this?"
"Something to refresh your spirit!"
"Refresh my spirit? Hm, mint? A foreign drink?"
Four-Eyed Daoist grabbed the bottle of South Seas Wind-Dispelling Oil and tipped it straight into his mouth. He moved so fast that Liu Xiu's eyes widened before he could stop him.
Shi Shaojian's eyes went wide as well!
"Hiss... That has quite a kick! It truly is refreshing!"
Four-Eyed Daoist's face flushed crimson. His drowsiness evaporated instantly as he swallowed saliva continuously to soothe his burning throat.
Then, he saw Shi Shaojian lower his head, turn around, and march forward—his shoulders shaking uncontrollably, leaving Four-Eyed Daoist puzzled.
Four-Eyed Daoist looked back at Liu Xiu, only to see him wearing a peculiar expression, which prompted him to look down at the bottle in his hand in confusion.
"This... isn't for drinking...?"
"Ahem, Martial Uncle, let's talk about purchasing jiangshi instead!" Liu Xiu quickly interrupted, cutting Four-Eyed Daoist short.
"Mm... alright!"
Four-Eyed Daoist replied after a moment's silence, his gaze calmly fixed on Shi Shaojian's twitching shoulders ahead.
Then,
he looked at Liu Xiu with even greater serenity.
"I don't catch jiangshi myself. However, if you truly can refine Silver-Armored Corpses that are even more complete than Little Black, I can introduce you to some fellow cultivators who love capturing and refining them!"
Four-Eyed Daoist spoke as he walked, then paused and pointed toward Shaoguan. "That fat bastard from the Zhuge family loves studying jiangshi, and his family is filthy rich. When the time comes, Martial Uncle will put you in touch!"
"Thank you, Martial Uncle. Um... I'm going over there to buy some things!" Liu Xiu said, his ears twitching as they entered the town.
A short while later.
Inside the town, on the road toward Ninth Uncle's Yizhuang, Four-Eyed Daoist was sipping a Western soda Liu Xiu had bought, smiling broadly as he spoke.
"Don't worry. Once we reach the Yizhuang, your martial uncle will help you arrange the purchase of jiangshi. But can you really mass-produce and sell Silver-Armored Corpses?"
Walking in front, Shi Shaojian shot a disdainful side-glance at Four-Eyed Daoist's starkly reversed attitude, then looked back and took a sip of his own soda.
After two mouthfuls, he nodded.
Truth be told, this stuff was genuinely delicious!
"Of course!"
"Oh..."
*I don't believe it!*
Four-Eyed Daoist nodded. While it was true that Liu Xiu had partially refined the Black Jiangshi into a Silver-Armored Corpse, he still harbored doubts deep down.
The reason: it wasn't orthodox Daoism!
Nor was it proper corpse-refining art!
He only drove corpses rather than refining them, but that didn't mean he had never seen others do it. He knew full well how immensely difficult it was to refine an armored corpse.
Precisely because he knew, he didn't believe Liu Xiu. As for the partial silver armor refined onto the Black Jiangshi,
Four-Eyed Daoist figured Liu Xiu had simply stumbled upon it by blind luck, like a blind cat running into a dead mouse.
It didn't count for much,
and certainly couldn't be taken seriously!
Roughly guessing what Four-Eyed Daoist was thinking, Liu Xiu decided that once they reached the Yizhuang, he would continue electroplating the Black Jiangshi to advance his grand moneymaking enterprise of mass-producing and selling Silver-Armored Corpses as soon as possible!
Pulling his thoughts back, Liu Xiu glanced at Four-Eyed Daoist, who was quietly slipping the empty glass soda bottle into his satchel.
Liu Xiu felt no contempt toward this behavior, having witnessed Four-Eyed Daoist's extreme stinginess with money over the past two days of driving corpses.
Put it this way: the route Four-Eyed Daoist had chosen to Ren Family Town had flawlessly avoided all consumer traps.
Along the way, they had steered clear of two small towns and three large markets. Even when they encountered roadside teahouses, Four-Eyed Daoist never suggested stopping for tea, choosing instead to boil his own hot water.
His justification was that teahouses were extortionate and that he carried his own tea leaves—a perfectly reasonable excuse.
And so Liu Xiu had tasted tea that Four-Eyed Daoist had likely grown and roasted himself. All that could be said of the flavor was that it was drinkable.
Well, it was truly awful to drink!!!
Ending his train of thought, the group quickened their pace toward Ninth Uncle's Yizhuang before the sky grew fully bright and the sun rose.
"We're almost there. Your Second Martial Uncle's Yizhuang is right on the southern edge of Ren Family Town. There aren't many other residents nearby; we'll see it after walking just a bit further..."
As Four-Eyed Daoist spoke, he took the soul-calling lamp from the Black Jiangshi's chest and held it against his own. Shi Shaojian, who had put away his picture book, turned with disdain toward a brightly lit area a few streets away, following the noise.
Hearing what sounded like the calls of streetwalkers, Shi Shaojian rolled his eyes, put on a serious face, and looked at Liu Xiu.
"Junior Martial Brother, once we reach the Yizhuang, let's head into town and find an inn with electricity. Mm, I plan to use the neutral and live wires to cultivate my lightning arts!"
"..."
*Are you sure you want to cultivate?*
*I think you just want to visit the pleasure quarters and listen to music!*
Liu Xiu complained internally. What Shi Shaojian could hear, he could naturally hear as well. In fact, not only had he heard the calls of streetwalkers, he had even seen one stroll past earlier.
However, he had no intention of stopping Shi Shaojian. First, he couldn't stop him anyway; second, redirection was better than obstruction. Having his own ideas, Liu Xiu nodded and agreed.
"It's not as if the Yizhuang can't accommodate you. Your Second Martial Uncle's Yizhuang is quite large—it has four main halls alone, plus a backyard..."
Hearing their exchange, Four-Eyed Daoist, having secured the soul-calling lamp against his chest, spoke up.
He meant nothing else; he simply didn't want the two of them wasting money on lodging, which struck him as entirely unnecessary.
As for cultivating with neutral and live wires, he hadn't understood what that meant and had instinctively ignored it.
Just as Liu Xiu was about to reply, Four-Eyed Daoist looked ahead in surprise and called out hesitantly:
"Senior Martial Brother? Huh, Senior Martial Brother, what are you carrying on your back?"
"Hm? Junior Martial Brother! Hm? Huh? Oh!"
Carrying an ancestral corpse on his back, Ninth Uncle, who had just emerged from the yin road, glanced at Four-Eyed Daoist in surprise. His gaze first lingered in bewilderment on the Black Jiangshi without a corpse-suppressing talisman for a couple of seconds.
Finally, his gaze fixed in even greater bewilderment upon Liu Xiu, who had a head of silver hair and a shadow beneath his feet that twisted from time to time.
"Four-Eyed, which fellow Daoist is this?"
Ninth Uncle, carrying the ancestral corpse, fought down the urge to label Liu Xiu an unorthodox practitioner suffering from vital essence depletion and demonic cultivation, and instead addressed Four-Eyed Daoist.
"This one? He's our Eldest Senior Martial Brother's newly accepted disciple, Liu Xiu. And this is Eldest Senior Martial Brother's eldest disciple, Shi Shaojian!"
Seeing that Ninth Uncle had mistaken Liu Xiu for a peer, Four-Eyed Daoist introduced them with a chuckle. Ninth Uncle looked at Liu Xiu in stunned surprise.
"So they are Eldest Senior Martial Brother's two disciples!"
"Greetings, Second Martial Uncle!"
"Greetings, Second Martial Uncle..."
Liu Xiu and Shi Shaojian spoke one after the other—one offering a textbook salute, the other a perfunctory greeting. Ninth Uncle, still carrying the ancestral corpse, raised an eyebrow and smiled, saying, "No need for formalities, no need for formalities..."
"..."
*Mm, confirmed:*
*this man is petty!*
Liu Xiu frowned for an imperceptible instant at Ninth Uncle, who had failed to return the salute. Ninth Uncle casually observed the fleeting frown on Liu Xiu's face, and thinking of how he hadn't returned the courtesy, mused to himself:
*Mm, confirmed:*
*this kid is petty!*
"Heheh..." ×2
"???" ×2
*Wait,*
*what are the two of you laughing at?*
Setting aside Four-Eyed Daoist's thoughts, Shi Shaojian looked curiously at the two grinning figures. Finding it terribly dull, he reached into his robe, pulled out his picture book, and lowered his head to continue reading.
Chapter 68