At the foot of Xiao Dong Mountain, the gathering area.
Chen Mu’s residence.
In front of the wooden house is a wooden platform that is half a meter off the ground and two meters wide.
The eaves of the house extend out above it, like the brim of a hat, serving as the roof of the front porch.
At the moment, there is a square table on the porch.
Two lanterns hang above, and not far away, the flames in the fire pit flicker. The area in front of the square table is bright.
“Leave on the twenty-first, start preparing early,” Jie Jia said slowly as he put down his chopsticks calmly.
Is it still half a month away?
There is enough time to prepare the supplies.
Chen Mu nodded.
“Do you need me to hire a carriage?”
“No need,” Jie Jia shook his head. “I’ll prepare it.”
Chen Mu immediately gave him a sideways glance, full of suspicion, “You’re not going to charge me extra for the carriage and horses, are you?”
Jie Jia glanced at Chen Mu and nodded calmly.
Chen Mu stared at Jie Jia, speechless.
He actually admitted it?!
Are all schemes so blatant?
Jie Jia calmly took out a white silk cloth to wipe his mouth and then casually threw it into the fire pit nearby.
Chen Mu’s mouth twitched.
To save money, Jie Jia economized on everything, but he was never stingy when it came to personal hygiene.
Chen Mu could guarantee that the white silk cloth was definitely used no more than twice—if not just once!
“The journey is long, make sure to bring enough dry food,” Jie Jia reminded emphatically on the words “make sure.”
Chen Mu rolled his eyes, “That includes yours too, I suppose.”
Jie Jia wore an expression that said it was only natural.
Chen Mu realized that having a proficiency cheat wasn’t entirely good.
His culinary skills indeed had improved rapidly, but he couldn’t shake off this freeloader.
“Don’t worry, I won’t lack anything else, there’s plenty of Fasting Pills!” Chen Mu declared generously with a wave of his hand.
Jie Jia looked at Chen Mu with an expressionless face.
“Rice balls, rice balls with shredded pork should be fine, right?” Chen Mu said with annoyance.
Is it just about giving a name? Is there a need for such endless mockery? As long as it’s tasty and fills the stomach, it’s good.
…
Early the next morning, after breakfast.
Chen Mu carefully put on Yang Zhi’s vest.
Carrying a small bamboo basket up to his knees on his back, he followed the familiar path toward the Bailang River.
Along the way, the market in the gathering area was still bustling. Old Liu was already hawking his Power Pills early in the morning.
Someone actually bought those flour dumplings.
Chen Mu nodded as a greeting and strode through the market street, following the laborers prepared to head up the mountain, leaving the gathering area.
“Who’s the unlucky fellow that got his guts ripped out by a wolf today?” a laborer asked quietly.
“Haven’t heard about it,” replied his companion, shaking his head in confusion, “Did those government officials really go to clear out the wild wolves?”
“Unless the sun rises from the west!” another companion snorted coldly.
“Keep it down, don’t look for trouble,” someone warned.
“Don’t count on them, just try not to go out at night and be careful,” they concluded.
All the laborers nodded in agreement.
Chen Mu silently collected the gossip from the gathering area.
Yet he did not hear the news he was hoping to hear.
At the western foot of Xiao Dong Mountain, he parted ways with the laborers and quickly arrived at the stone bridge he visited the night before.
Chen Mu’s expression was natural, showing no sign of anything amiss as he walked onto the stone bridge.
He casually took in the scenery on both sides of the Bailang River.
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted two black bloodstains on the ground.
The body of the robust man had disappeared without a trace, and Lu Jin was nowhere to be seen either.
Who took the two away?
Was Lu Jin saved?
Would the County Government Office get involved in the investigation?
Chen Mu’s steps were steady as thoughts tumbled through his mind.
One dead, one fate unknown.
One a ruthless bandit who had exterminated an entire family, the other a county government catcher.
This should have been a major incident that alarmed the county town, yet the gathering area, so nearby, had no whisper of the event.
…
By the Bailang River, at a calm river bend.
Chen Mu sat on a stone by the riverside.
Thinking about the unexpected events of the previous night, he shook his head after a moment, “It’s useless to overthink, better to focus on increasing my proficiency.”
Before him, the grey wall stood tall.
Five Ghosts Moving Mountain Curse: 9397/10000/Second Rank;
Compared to the turtle-like pace of the Shape Cultivation Technique, the Five Ghosts Moving Mountain Curse progressed rapidly.
He recited the curse quickly.
Black smoke appeared in midair.
A fist-sized ball of bait materialized from thin air and plopped into the water, dispersing out of sight.
Chen Mu repeatedly used the Five Ghosts Moving Mountain Technique to teleport the bait.
He dropped a ball into the water every two or three meters and let the bait spread without paying further attention to it.
He found a large white rock by the riverbank and sat down.
He closed his eyes slightly, and the black smoke appeared and disappeared around him.
At noon, Chen Mu stopped practicing and took out the Fasting Pill wrapped in a rice ball.
After many improvements, the rice ball was not only delicious but also rich in nutrients and high in calories.
It could replace a meal for a normal person.
Chen Mu’s cultivation of the Shape Cultivation Technique consumed a vast amount of energy, but after eating five, he no longer felt hungry.
After eating his fill, Chen Mu habitually looked toward the gray wall.
Five Ghosts Curse: 9722/10000/Second Rank;
“Push a little harder, and today I’ll upgrade the Five Ghosts Curse to Third Rank,” he muttered.
He fed the fish floating on the water surface to the Five Ghosts Bag.
Chen Mu did not rest but turned his head to continue improving his proficiency.
…
At dusk.
Chen Mu’s face was pale as he came back to his senses.
With a thought, he uttered a complex incantation in one breath.
Whoosh!
Black smoke billowed, and two palm-sized, lifelike paper figures appeared out of thin air.
They were covered in blood-red lines, and each had a large black character on its back—one “Winter” and the other “Spring.”
Chen Mu took a deep breath and curiously examined the paper figure with the “Spring” character.
It was slimmer than the first paper figure and had more delicate features.
Chen Mu commanded the two paper figures to float down to a rock the size of a human head.
All four hands and two heads together pushed against the rock.
“Rise!”
The little paper figures’ legs trembled like sieves, their faces contorted in grimaces, but the rock did not move an inch.
Chen Mu: “…” I thought too much, thought too much.
Even with two shadow soul paper figures, they couldn’t change their appearance as mere scraps of paper.
Chen Mu had been misled by a practitioner from the Thousand Mountains Path.
The other could control paper figures to withstand Iron Lotus Seeds and counter the Sleeve Sword Technique.
Just when the Five Ghosts Moving Mountain Curse had made some progress, he wanted to try it out.
Still, it turned out to be a waste of effort, not even as good as a piece of toilet paper!
“Without using a Medicine Cultivator to refine them, paper figures are just paper figures.”
Maintaining Medicine Cultivators and Sacrificial Shadow Souls.
These were secret refining techniques recorded at the end of the Thousand Mountains Sutra.
They explained how to enhance the power of a Magic Artifact using human lives.
Chen Mu glanced at it and decisively gave up. With his proficiency cheat, he wasn’t worried about increasing his strength.
Such a rush for quick results with endless troubles—an evil method like that was not worth practicing!
Casting the evil method aside, Chen Mu continued to research the Third Rank Five Ghosts Moving Mountain Curse.
With a thought, the paper figures turned into black smoke and vanished.
Crackling sounds.
A fish appeared out of nowhere, five meters away, flipping and flopping on the ground.
“Good!” Chen Mu’s heart surged with exhilaration, “The range for deploying the Mesmerizing Divine Smoke has increased by another meter.”
Being able to poison from five meters away greatly increased the safety factor!
With another thought.
A fish appeared five meters in front of him, and a Fasting Pill also appeared five meters behind him.
“With two paper figures, I can summon two different objects in two directions at the same time,” Chen Mu contemplated.
Using the shadow soul paper figures felt like having an extra invisible hand.
Another paper figure meant another hand.
“Deploying the Mesmerizing Divine Smoke has become much more flexible.”
Put simply, he could poison enemies in two different directions at the same time.
“The incantation can now be recited within a single breath.”
“The teleportation distance has increased to five meters.”
“I can teleport objects in two directions simultaneously.”
Adding all three, the Third Rank Five Ghosts Moving Mountain Curse combined with the Mesmerizing Divine Smoke was no longer just a stealth attack.
Even in direct combat, it held considerable power.
“A full harvest, time to head home!”
With a broad sweep of his hand, all the fish on the river surface disappeared.
Chen Mu shouldered his bamboo basket and quickly vanished from the riverbank.
