Nanyang Prefecture, near Jian’an Gate to the north of the city.
In the dead of night, Old Ge hummed a tune, strolling leisurely towards home.
Reaching a fork in the road, Old Ge squinted dazedly at the two paths before him.
The main road was straight and wide but took him farther from home. The alleyway twisted and turned but promised a quicker arrival.
On ordinary days, he spurned the alley for its narrowness and unevenness.
Yet in the still of night, his tired eyelids battling, a thought circled his mind, and he turned into the alleyway.
Under the bright moonlight, a trail of black smoke, like a ghostly fire, floated in his shadow, silently following him into the alley.
…
Quarter of an hour later.
Old Ge emerged from the alley and arrived at his front door, shivering involuntarily, his arms breaking out in goosebumps.
“Getting old, even a bit of night chill is too much to handle,” he muttered, rubbing his arms, then went inside.
After a quick wash, he dove into bed and fell into a deep sleep.
Just a street away, in a large tree, Chen Mu sighed in frustration, “The Shape Cultivation Technique is so crucial, and you don’t even glance at it before sleep?”
“Be grateful, you’re lucky you encountered me,” Chen Mu huffed.
If it were any other transmigrator, you wouldn’t have made it out of that dark alley!
“Never mind, there’s plenty of time ahead to find an opportunity,” Chen Mu sighed and left his perch.
…
An hour later, Old Ge, who had been sleeping soundly, suddenly jolted awake.
Without a sound, he got out of bed, crept out the door, and stealthily surveyed his surroundings from the rooftop.
It took him a while to return to his room, exhaling deeply, “Perhaps I’m just seeing ghosts where there are none.”
On his way home, he couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching him.
This intuition had kept him alive through many years in Jianghu, helping him amass his considerable fortune.
“The older you get in Jianghu, the more cowardly you become… sigh,” Old Ge shook his head, half in amusement.
“Better safe than sorry.”
He went back inside, lit the oil lamp, and pried a green brick from the wall.
Concealed within its hollow interior lay a cloth scroll no longer than a palm and as thick as an egg.
Old Ge took the scroll to his long desk, unfolding it beneath the dim light to study intently.
“Alas… If I had practiced the White Jade Toad Shape Cultivation Technique, I would have mastered it a decade ago.”
“Such bad luck!” Old Ge grimaced silently.
He himself was once considered extremely talented.
Yet his life was squandered, stuck in the Marrow Transformation Stage due to limited Cultivation Technique resources.
“Thankfully, my grandson has been given a higher starting point,” Old Ge consoled himself.
His son had mediocre talent and was a disappointment. But his grandson had inherited the familial aptitude for martial arts every other generation, coupled with the White Jade Toad Shape Cultivation Technique.
As long as he patiently got through the accumulation phase, he would surely bring prosperity to the Ge family.
With this in mind, Old Ge became even more focused: “After I complete the task for the Startling Swan Gang, I’ll immediately return home to personally teach my grandson.”
But as he read on, the neatly written characters began to blur, then appeared seductive, then seemed like the dancing girls of Chunfeng Tower.
Thud!
Old Ge’s forehead smashed onto the long desk.
“Damn it!”
“I really got screwed over!”
…
Two hours later, in the northwest corner of the room near a mouse hole, two mice lay unconscious.
A bat had fallen onto the beam above.
Nearby the lamp, a ring of insects and moths were fast asleep.
Poof!
A puff of red smoke exploded at the tip of Old Ge’s nose.
Already slumbering, Old Ge’s body twitched for a moment, then he fell into an even deeper sleep.
Chen Mu entered, satisfied with the effect of the Mesmerizing Divine Smoke.
“Such a splendid method,” Chen Mu marveled at the White Jade Toad Shape Cultivation Technique.
Without the Divine Intent Diagram, its value might even surpass that of the Blue-eyed Golden Ape Shape Cultivation Technique.
“To think of the exquisite Cultivation Techniques stashed away by these old families for a millennium,” Chen Mu’s eyes gleamed with greed.
“No, mustn’t act rashly.”
Chen Mu removed the writing brush, ink, paper, and inkstone from the Five Ghosts Bag and casually tossed the Ge Elder, who was sleeping like a dead pig, onto the adjacent bed before he began copying.
“Feel lucky. You’ve encountered me,” Chen Mu hummed lightly to the unconscious Ge Elder while copying rapidly.
Had it been someone else, they’d have taken your kidneys!
Ge Elder, lying face down with his neck at an awkward angle, shivered as if he had just experienced a frightful nightmare.
…
The next morning, the sun shone through the cracks in the window onto Ge Elder’s face.
Ge Elder’s eyelids flicked open, and he jolted awake, arching his back like a carp leaping from the water, only to thump back down onto the bed.
Not bothering to rise, he touched his neck, which was throbbing with pain, in delight, “Haha! It’s still there! Still there!”
Last night, he had a nightmare where he was beheaded, and the pain was intense.
No matter how much it hurt, he just couldn’t wake up.
Unable to wake, the dream kept repeating, and his neck got chopped all night long.
“Turns out it was just a crick in the neck,” Ge Elder sighed in relief.
Before being beheaded in his dream, he had another strange one.
He dreamed he was overpowered by poison.
“Jianghu makes you more cowardly with age, how could I possibly be knocked out by mere Mesmerizing Smoke…” Ge Elder suddenly stiffened.
He turned his stiff neck towards the writing desk.
The White Jade Toad Shape Cultivation Technique was fully unfurled, and a faint scent of ink wafted to his nose.
Ge Elder: “…”
“Fuck!”
…
It took a while for Ge Elder to come to his senses.
With a dejected expression, he prepared to pack up the Shape Cultivation Technique.
Luckily, the person he ran into this time had some sense of morality.
They didn’t kill him and didn’t directly take the Shape Cultivation Technique away.
“Don’t think I’ll be grateful to you!” Ge Elder thought, grinding his teeth.
This was the biggest loss he had ever suffered, his face red with anger.
“I can’t stay here,” Ge Elder decided, walking to the writing desk.
If someone could steal from his house, continuing to live here was like courting death.
“What’s this?” A chicken egg-sized porcelain bottle next to the scroll caught his attention.
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Carefully pulling out the stopper, he used chopsticks to cautiously tip the contents out from a distance.
Two scarlet pills the size of peanuts rolled out.
“Why do these look so familiar? Can it be?! No way!”
Ge Elder couldn’t care whether they were poisonous or not, and immediately picked them up to sniff.
Dragon Transformation Pills?! No mistake!
Were they left by the person who stole his Shape Cultivation Technique?
“What’s this supposed to be? A handout? An insult? I will definitely not be grateful to you!” Ge Elder roared, his eyes bloodshot with fury.
Without any obvious movement, he put the Dragon Transformation Pills back into the porcelain bottle and tucked it quietly into his chest.
…
On the street ten meters away from Ge Elder’s home, there was a breakfast snack stall.
Chen Mu leisurely savored some refreshing wontons, occasionally picking up a piece of crispy scallion pancake.
“It’s unlikely that he’ll make a big deal out of it.” Chen Mu noticed Ge Elder’s honest right hand.
Chen Mu sighed in relief.
After all, keeping the Dragon Transformation Pills served no purpose for him. Trading two of them for a well-crafted Shape Cultivation Technique was a very good deal.
“I wonder if I could trade it with someone else,” Chen Mu’s eyes brightened at the thought.
Chen knew the Dragon Transformation Pills were harmful, but those people of Jianghu didn’t know they were a trap. He was suddenly tempted.
But after some thought, he decided against it.
“Jianghu is a dangerous place, fair trading isn’t easy,” Chen Mu reluctantly shook his head.
He indeed wished to trade the Dragon Transformation Pills for a Manual.
But those ruthless Jianghu people might want more. For example… his life.
“Now that I have another Shape Cultivation Technique, I might as well just focus on practicing,” Chen Mu concluded.