"Why do I never run into things like that!" Meng Jingzhou lamented with deep regret, feeling as though he had missed out on a monumental stroke of fortune.
*Damn you, Lu Yang! Stealing my fortune—this feud is irreconcilable!*
"It's all fate. Just accept it," Lu Yang comforted him.
"Get lost!" Meng Jingzhou barked angrily. How did every piece of good luck always land on Lu Yang?
Neither Lu Yang nor Meng Jingzhou had the slightest intention of coming to blows, rendering Zhao Po's earlier worries completely moot.
"Who's this guy you brought back?" Meng Jingzhou asked, nodding toward him.
Terrified that Lu Yang might once again introduce him as the Corpse Driving Sect's runner-up, Zhao Po hurriedly introduced himself. "I am Zhao Po, runner-up in the Corpse Driving Sect's grand competition, currently at the early Golden Core stage."
Meng Jingzhou was genuinely startled. Judging by appearances, Zhao Po was about their age, perhaps a year older at most. With such talent, he only ranked second among his peers in the Corpse Driving Sect?
If Zhao Po were in their Dao Seeking Sect, he could easily rank sixth!
"With your skill, you're only ranked second in the Corpse Driving Sect?"
Broaching the topic brought a bitter smile to Zhao Po's face. "There was no helping it. As much as I hate to admit it, Senior Brother Huang Ming is indeed a cut above me, and his combat awareness far surpasses mine. Even if we fought again, I wouldn't win. In that battle, I exhausted every trump card I had, yet Senior Brother Huang Ming handled it with ease, showing no sign of fatigue. He must have had other techniques held in reserve.
"Senior Brother Huang Ming has always been more outstanding than me. Every time we went out on missions, he was leagues ahead. While others were still searching for clues, he had already eliminated the mastermind.
"It's just that Senior Brother Huang Ming grew up an orphan without parents. He has a withdrawn personality and doesn't like interacting with people."
Zhao Po shook his head regretfully. He had wanted to exchange insights on cultivation with Senior Brother Huang Ming so they could progress together, but unfortunately, Huang Ming was unwilling to say much even to him, the runner-up.
"Senior Brother Huang Ming was taken as an apprentice by the sect master, so I'm afraid it will be even harder to see him from now on."
"He's that strong?" Lu Yang raised his appraisal of Huang Ming a few notches in his mind. He had assumed Huang Ming and Zhao Po were roughly on the same level, but from the sound of it, there was a substantial gap between them.
"Enough about me. I heard Senior Brother Meng was hit with a curse and cannot approach women?"
Meng Jingzhou pondered for a moment. "It feels like I couldn't approach women even before getting cursed."
Zhao Po offered some comfort. "Senior Brother Meng, do not lose heart. As the sages say: 'When Heaven is about to confer a great responsibility on a man, it first fills his heart and will with bitterness, strains his sinews and bones, starves his body, leaves him impoverished, and confounds his every endeavor. In doing so, it stimulates his mind, tempers his nature, and augments his deficiencies.'"
Meng Jingzhou beamed, finding Zhao Po more and more agreeable the longer he looked at him. "Well said! As expected of a chosen talent from the Corpse Driving Sect—you speak far better than this bastard Lu Yang! You're a friend of mine now. If you ever go to the Imperial City and worry about not running into trouble, just give them my name, Meng Jingzhou!"
Zhao Po: "..."
He couldn't shake the feeling that something was off about that last sentence. Had he misheard?
"To be precise about my curse, I cannot get close to women," Meng Jingzhou explained. "I heard that many cultivators in Huangzhou specialize in curses, and the Corpse Driving Sect is a major sect here. We were just planning to visit your sect to see if there's any way to resolve it."
Zhao Po thought it over and spoke seriously. "In that case, I'd recommend you visit Seven Emotions Valley instead, Senior Brother Meng."
"Seven Emotions Valley?" Just like Lu Yang, Meng Jingzhou's knowledge of the place went no further than knowing such a sect existed.
"Our Corpse Driving Sect specializes in the orthodox corpse-driving art," Zhao Po explained. "When it comes to curses, our attainments fall far short of Seven Emotions Valley. In Huangzhou, whenever anyone is cursed, their very first suspicion is that someone from Seven Emotions Valley did it.
"It's just that Seven Emotions Valley exists in a semi-reclusive state, so people from elsewhere know very little about it."
Lu Yang nodded, confirming his own deduction. "It seems Seven Emotions Valley's strength is no ordinary matter. It ought to be on par with your Corpse Driving Sect."
Zhao Po was surprised. How could Senior Brother Lu know this? Even he had only learned about it from an elder after winning second place in the sect competition and having his status elevated.
"If their strength were any weaker, they would have been wiped out long ago," Lu Yang added.
Zhao Po had to admit Senior Brother Lu made a great deal of sense.
"Then we'll go to Seven Emotions Valley. Conveniently, it's also nearby." Lu Yang checked the map. At the old horse's pace, they could reach it in less than half a day.
"Right here." Lu Yang pointed to the spot on the map for the old horse, and the horse gave a snort in response.
Zhao Po was thoroughly astonished by the sight. To his eyes, the old horse was merely an ordinary mortal beast, so how could it display such humanlike intelligence?
Perhaps this touched upon the two senior brothers' secrets, so he didn't pry.
He wasn't someone who liked asking too many questions; it was entirely normal for cultivators to have secrets. For instance, during their journey, he had felt that both Brother Ye and Brother Wenren were acting strangely, yet he had kept quiet—which ultimately led to the scene of two women dressed as men secretly loving each other while bullying an honest man like him.
The three boarded the carriage. Zhao Po had the living corpse squat atop the roof to keep watch on their surroundings and deter any petty scoundrels.
Corpse drivers held an exceptionally high status in Huangzhou. When people drifted far from home and died in foreign lands, they relied on corpse drivers to drive their bodies back to their ancestral soil for a peaceful burial. When bandits and outlaws saw a living corpse here, they would realize a corpse driver was inside the carriage and voluntarily abandon their target.
Inside the carriage, Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou asked a few questions regarding the corpse-driving art.
"I've been wondering about this for a while," Lu Yang said. "Living corpses have no sentience and are essentially inanimate objects. Why not place them in storage rings for transport instead of staying at inns?"
"Factually speaking, living corpses are indeed objects and can be stored in a storage ring," Zhao Po replied. "However, we corpse drivers believe that living corpses possess life—they merely exist in a state imperceptible to cultivators. Since they have life, we must grant them the same treatment as the living. We have them eat, lodge, and travel alongside us corpse drivers, and when we call upon them to fight, we must 'request' their aid."
Zhao Po smiled wryly. "It is precisely because of our unconventional view of life and death that rumors circulate outside claiming the founder of the Nine Nether Cult hailed from our Corpse Driving Sect."
Zhao Po explained all sorts of details about corpse drivers, offering an account far more authentic than anything they could hear elsewhere.
In less than half a day, the three men and one corpse arrived smoothly at Seven Emotions Valley.
"I have a friend in Seven Emotions Valley who is a true disciple and exceptionally skilled at breaking curses," Zhao Po said. "Whenever I get cursed, I go to my friend for help. What level is your curse, Senior Brother Meng? My friend can break anything below the Nascent Soul level. For Soul Formation level, there's a chance, and even if it can't be completely unraveled, it can still be alleviated."
Meng Jingzhou hesitated for a moment before replying, "Conservatively estimated... half-step Tribulation Transcendence level."
After all, he had split the curse evenly with Sect Master Qiu, so its potency had been reduced somewhat.
Zhao Po leaned back slightly, filled with profound awe.
Whenever he made enemies while out traveling, they were usually Golden Core stage patriarchs; the odds of crossing paths with Nascent Soul old monsters were minuscule, and crossing a Soul Formation expert was something that had never happened in his life.
Was this truly what it meant to be peerless chosen talents of the Dao Seeking Sect? Even the curses they bore were at the half-step Tribulation Transcendence level!
Just what had he done to get struck by a curse of that magnitude?
Even slapping the Valley Master of the Seven Emotions Valley twice probably wouldn't earn someone a half-step Tribulation Transcendence curse.
Meanwhile, Lu Yang thought to himself: *That's nothing. The enemies we brothers make start at the Body Integration stage; anyone below that isn't even worth our notice.*
Chapter 411