The two of them and one ghost arrived at Big Stone Lake. The lake was enclosed by an iron fence, climbed all over by green vines that formed a thick wall of vines, so it was hard to see inside from outside. The entrance was fastened with an iron chain.
"The chain's broken?" Zhou You was astonished. The finger-thick iron chain had snapped. Judging by the break, someone had torn it apart by brute force.
Who had torn it? How much strength would that take?
Zhou You gritted his teeth and yanked with all his might. The iron chain did not budge.
Big Stone Lake was overgrown with weeds. With no one tending it for so long, wildly spreading reeds had taken over a third of the water. A boulder taller than a person stood there, and frogs hid in the reeds, croaking in a racket. There was a rough, unrestrained beauty to it.
"So many mosquitoes." Zhou You complained, waving them off. The mosquitoes by the lake all came in swarms. He had only just reached the shore when the swarm flew toward him.
Chu Xiaoyao narrowed her eyes and stood at the lakeside with her hands behind her back. A breeze stirred ripples across the lake, and stirred the dark hair beside her ears as well.
"This is the place." Nuomi had the two of them stand at the lakeside.
"I'll be right back. Wait for my good news!"
Nuomi left Zhou You nothing but a ghostly afterimage, turned, and leapt into the lake. The move was so dashing that Zhou You could not help clapping and cheering.
Then, like a fishing float, only the lower half of Nuomi's body bobbed on the water and drifted with the current.
Zhou You had to stop clapping.
Nuomi was baffled. She popped up out of the water. This was not what she had expected.
"Strange. What's going on?"
"I'll try again!"
Splash—
Pop—
Nuomi repeated the motion from just now, and was once again stuck halfway in a headfirst plunge. Any farther down, some inexplicable force blocked her and flung her back out.
Every attempt ended in failure.
"Why? My little treasury!" Nuomi's eyes brimmed with tears. She strained to reach down into the lake and hook it, but her treasures lay on the bottom, far beyond anything she could reach.
She had calculated it all so carefully back then. A cunning rabbit keeps three burrows, and hidden in the lake was her hope of rising again. Such a thorough plan, and the most crucial step—getting the things out—had failed.
"All right, all right, come up first." Zhou You could not bear to keep watching. He hauled up the rabbit that could not get into its burrow. The rabbit was still kicking hard, arms stretched, reaching toward the lake.
"What's going on?" Chu Xiaoyao asked. Watching Zhou You was like watching a performance with no props, and she found it rather fun.
Zhou You described the whole course of events in detail, hoping Chu Xiaoyao could give him an answer. After all, this concerned the Carefree Sect's startup funds.
Chu Xiaoyao thought, How would I know the reason?
But Zhou You trusted her this much. She could not let his expectations down.
She frowned and pondered a moment, then said, "I'm not familiar with this world's life-and-death rules. According to the life-and-death rules of the Hongmeng Continent, only a water ghost can enter the water. Nuomi wasn't drowned when she was alive, so she isn't a water ghost?"
"Only a water ghost can enter the water?"
This was the first time Zhou You had heard such a claim. But thinking back carefully over the horror films he had seen, those who could make trouble in the water were indeed all water ghosts.
He quickly thought of a way to test it. "I'll test it by soul leaving the body."
Zhou You stood at the lakeside. His soul left his body and walked into the lake. The water was icy to the bone; even a soul could feel it.
One step, two steps, three... Zhou You's soul was completely submerged. He wanted to go farther, but a soul could not leave the body too far, and he could only come back.
Still, this proved Chu Xiaoyao's guess. Nuomi was not a water ghost and could not enter the lake. His own soul form was not restricted and could enter; it was only that his cultivation attainment was too low, so he could not go far.
Zhou You admired Chu Xiaoyao. As expected of the Empress. Even though the life-and-death rules of the two worlds were different, she could still see the cause.
In her heart, Chu Xiaoyao secretly let out a breath of relief, then nodded with steady composure. "It seems this world's life-and-death rules share similarities with those of the Hongmeng Continent."
"How can it be like this..." Learning she could not go into the water, Nuomi was badly shaken, her spirits low.
"How about asking Su Tingxue for help?" Zhou You suggested. Su Tingxue had Mount Longhu behind her, and her family had money. There ought to be a way.
For instance, rent a swimsuit and go down once with an oxygen tank on his back?
"No. We can't ask that stinking rice-thrower!" Nuomi, the richest one in the Carefree Sect, objected fiercely.
Zhou You slapped his forehead. He often went out with Su Tingxue and thought nothing of it, and had forgotten that this person and this ghost still had a quarrel.
The Carefree Sect's first pot of gold was hidden in the water and could not be retrieved. Zhou You felt it a pity to fail at the last step.
Although he could swim, he still did not dare go into the water to fetch it. The lake was thick with water weeds, the conditions were complicated, and the water was so dark that once you went in you could not see a thing. Besides, this was a stretch of stagnant water. Who knew how many kinds of bacteria and viruses were in it.
Suddenly he recalled a description of the body-refining art: "When skin refining reaches major accomplishment, the skin consolidates of itself, a natural sheen."
It meant that by then a protective film would form on its own over the outside of the skin. Outsiders would not be able to see it. This film was utterly indestructible, impervious to blades and spears, and untouched by any poison.
Once skin refining reached major accomplishment, he need only hold his breath, and he could go into the water.
As for not being able to see what was down below, a few more trips down and he would learn the way.
Zhou You explained his thinking to Chu Xiaoyao. She nodded slightly and gave her approval.
"Body refining? It is a method."
Zhou You was greatly encouraged.
Neither the two of them nor the ghost noticed that, not far away, the Zhenyue Ghost King was staring gloomily toward Big Stone Lake, extremely tense.
"They haven't discovered that I hid the Human Dao supreme treasure in the lake, have they?"
Seeing Nuomi enter several times only to be bounced back out, he relaxed a little.
"Good thing the supreme treasure box has a sealing. A vengeful ghost can't get in."
...
By the time the two of them and one ghost returned to the classroom, evening self-study was about to begin. They had not fished up Nuomi's little treasury, but they already had a direction to work toward. Next, they only needed to find a way to work hard at body refining.
"So itchy." Zhou You scratched his arm. He did not know why, but ever since coming back from Big Stone Lake his whole body had itched terribly. The road had been pitch-dark, and he could not see. Back in the classroom, he looked at the itchy spot on his arm and got a fright.
"Why so many mosquito bites?"
Seven little red dots stood in a row on his arm, all mosquito bites. Linked together, they looked like the Big Dipper.
Not only his arm—his neck, his calves, and the backs of his hands were all mosquito bites.
"Were these from just now at Big Stone Lake?"
Zhou You remembered. There really had been many mosquitoes beside Big Stone Lake. At the time he had been watching Nuomi perform her fishing-float act and had not noticed the mosquitoes on him.
He had only been there a little while, and already he had been bitten this much.
He shot a glance at Chu Xiaoyao's arm. White as jade, without a single mosquito bite.
"Why aren't they biting you, and only biting me?"
While he was still puzzled, a mosquito landed on him, and he slapped it dead with a smack.
What comforted him a little was that, ever since he had become a Qi Refining stage cultivator, his reactions were much faster. Every time, he could slap a mosquito dead.
Chu Xiaoyao let out a smug hum of laughter. "Of course it is this seat's imperial might showing. The mosquitoes dare not come near!"
A thread of light fragrance drifted from Chu Xiaoyao. Zhou You's nose twitched, and he suddenly understood.
"You sprayed floral water!"
Chu Xiaoyao flatly refused to admit it and pushed Zhou You away. "It is imperial might that smells of floral water!"
Scratching his itch, Zhou You held out a hand. "So itchy. Let me borrow a spray."
Wait. Itchy?
Suddenly Zhou You thought of something. His voice grew gradually smaller. His hand stayed stretched in midair, his gaze blank, and he did not move at all, like a stone statue.
Scratching... mosquito bites... stimulating the skin... the Mingwang Body Refining Art!
What he had gone through today linked into a key—a key that could unlock the body-refining art.
Could it be...
Zhou You acted the moment he thought of it. He closed his eyes, calmed his mind and focused his spirit, and quickly entered meditation. If Su Tingxue had been beside him, she would certainly have been astonished at how fast Zhou You entered meditation.
A pity that beside him were the all-knowing Chu Xiaoyao, and Nuomi, who knew nothing at all.
As the Mingwang Body Refining Art described, he coursed through his meridians and circulated his spiritual power in the greater heavenly cycle. When the spiritual power passed the mosquito bites, that patch of skin and the area around it both responded—a faint tingling, as if a weak current were passing through, constantly stimulating the skin.
It worked!
Zhou You understood. Skin refining, in the end, was stimulating the skin while circulating the spiritual power inside the body.
Getting beaten was not the only way to stimulate the skin. Bitten into a heap of mosquito welts, and forcing himself not to scratch—the initial stimulation was not as intense as a beating, but it won out by lasting, and could likewise give the skin enough stimulation!
Sure enough, cultivation required opening your mind. You could not only go by how it was written in the book; you also had to connect it to real life.
Chu Xiaoyao held the floral water up, her arm a little sore.
Are you taking the floral water or not?
Chapter 23