Whooosh!
An openwork iron lotus seed soared into the air with a low whistling sound.
“Miss, please wait a moment, my partner will bring your clothes over shortly,” Chen Mu explained with a smile on his face.
The long-haired woman remained silent.
Chen Mu sighed and said, “I’m already prepared to fetch your items for you, please at least tell me whether you are going to buy them or not.”
A thick fog rapidly spread among the trees.
“Or you could just clear the way, that would be fine too,” Chen Mu said anxiously, hungry and eager to get back to cooking.
The long-haired woman didn’t move an inch.
The coldness around became increasingly intense.
“The road to heaven is wide, we can each take half. How about this, I’ll go from that side, and you can’t block my way again, alright?” Chen Mu negotiated earnestly.
Then, without waiting for the long-haired woman’s reaction, he turned ninety degrees and went on his way.
But he had not gone ten meters when Chen Mu stopped in his tracks.
Another graceful figure appeared ahead.
Except, the snow-white skin was covered in blood, with gaping, festering wounds emerging on the back and thighs, rapidly worsening and expanding. It was enough to make one’s scalp tingle.
Chen Mu’s face showed helplessness: “Miss, if you’re going to be so aggressive, then don’t blame me for not being a gentleman in combat!”
Chen Mu’s face went stern as he crouched slightly and took in a deep breath.
“Jie Jia! If you don’t show up now, I’m going to dock your pay!”
Hum!
A cluster of pale white light suddenly exploded in mid-air.
Dragging a long tail of light, the white orb violently slammed into the long-haired woman.
The figure seemed like a wax statue encountering flame, melting, dripping, and deforming rapidly within the white light.
Finally, with a piercing, mournful scream, it disappeared in a puff of ash and smoke.
The luminescence shattered in place into sparks of light.
Jie Jia walked over slowly with his hands clasped behind his back, emerging from the sparkling remnants.
He appeared expressionless, his eyes narrowed into slits and fixed on Chen Mu.
“Per our agreement, I protected you on the way to Nanyang Prefecture, so you owe me four hundred taels of silver. Not a cent less,” Jie Jia said indifferently.
“Four hundred taels? Are you out of your mind?!”
“Weren’t we agreed on two hundred taels? Raising the price mid-way, you’re even worse than a dishonest tour guide!” Chen Mu was furious.
“Such a pity,” Jie Jia said disappointingly and turned to leave.
Chen Mu, with a dumbfounded look, moved closer to Jie Jia: “What do you mean by that?”
“I was testing to see if you were possessed by a ghost,” Jie Jia said leisurely.
Chen Mu had a moment of clarity. If he had been possessed, he certainly wouldn’t have remembered the agreement with Jie Jia.
But soon, Chen Mu sensed something amiss: “Then why did you say ‘such a pity’?”
Jie Jia’s bright yellow eyes shifted, glancing at Chen Mu: “If you had really been possessed, you might have agreed right away, and I could have earned an extra two hundred taels.”
For some reason, Chen Mu wasn’t surprised in the slightest.
That was so very Jie Jia.
“So that was a ghostly entity just now? It didn’t seem as terrifying as the stories say,” Chen Mu mused, puzzled by the events that had transpired.
Besides feeling tense all over and a little fear and discomfort, he hadn’t suffered any actual harm.
Jie Jia appraised him from head to toe: “I’m also puzzled. How could you still be alive after encountering a ghostly entity?”
Chen Mu: “…”
“Ordinary people would fall into an illusion realm the instant they encounter a ghostly entity, with little chance of survival,” Jie Jia looked at Chen Mu with puzzlement: “Why are you unharmed?”
Chen Mu also frowned in deep thought, then, as if realizing something, he looked seriously at Jie Jia and said, “It must be the ghostly entity… it wasn’t hungry!”
Jie Jia: “…”
He turned his head to stare at Chen Mu, looking expressionlessly.
Chen Mu, baffled, ventured to ask, “Did I… say something wrong?”
Jie Jia silently averted his gaze. Could you be any more fake?
Chen Mu’s mouth twitched upward into a smirk.
Two tiny paper figures flitted from the sleeve of Chen Mu’s robe and disappeared just as fast.
Who would have thought, the Five Ghosts Bag could suppress a ghostly entity.
It was precisely because of the two tiny paper figures in his sleeve.
That long-haired woman had hesitated to rush forward and possess him.
“By the way, that white light was a magic artifact, wasn’t it?”
“Can I take a look?”
“I didn’t expect you to actually be quite capable.”
“You don’t know how cool you looked when you showed up just now.”
“It’s just a shame you’re so greedy for money.”
“You would be even cooler if you weren’t so money-hungry.”
“…”
The encounter with the ghostly entity made Chen Mu realize that the Five Ghosts Bag might have additional uses, but he did not intend to go monster-hunting to test it.
There was no need for him to risk trying anything beyond the gray walls.
With Miss Cui Cui joining and Zhang Ye’s experience growing more abundant, Chen Mu’s food crisis was resolved.
Afterward, during their journey, aside from when they encountered rivers where he let the Five Ghosts Bag feast, he stayed near the caravan and practiced his cultivation the rest of the time.
One month later, in the evening.
In a dilapidated temple halfway up the mountain. Discover new adventures at m-vl-em-pyr
Chen Mu built a fire in the side hall, ready with pots and pans.
He tossed a couple of small bags of candied fruit to Cheng Yi Jie Jia for a snack.
Chen Mu found a pillar to sit against, slowed his breathing, and began his usual practice of the Breathing Method.
A wave of heat radiated from Chen Mu’s body, which the few people around him had grown accustomed to.
Though curious about Chen Mu’s Cultivation Technique, they had never inquired; after all, they were merely strangers brought together by chance.
But today, things were a bit different.
The heat radiating from Chen Mu continued to escalate. What was once just a warm little stove was quickly catching up to the nearby bonfire.
Sweat poured from his pores like it was free, then evaporated by the heat of his skin.
White vapor rose up from around Chen Mu’s body. His whole person was red as if he were a cooked shrimp.
“Is Big Brother Chen alright?” Cheng Ming asked worriedly.
Jie Jia’s drooping eyelids couldn’t help but lift a bit.
This change seemed somewhat familiar. It was a memory from several decades ago.
Could it be that he was mistaken? Was Chen Mu about to achieve a major milestone in Shape Cultivation?
Even Jie Jia, who was used to the ups and downs of life, couldn’t help but marvel. The pace of cultivation was too fast!
If he hadn’t confirmed that the other party didn’t possess an Innate Taoist Bone, Jie Jia would have felt jealous.
Jie Jia stopped Cheng Ming who wanted to come forward to check, “Don’t disturb him, the transformation process takes a long time…”
“Why are you all staring at me?” Chen Mu looked at the group with puzzled eyes.
Jie Jia: “…”
In his lifetime, he had witnessed many Marrow Transformation processes, which at the very least took one Hour. The longer the time, the more extensive the transformation, and the greater the harvest.
But for Chen Mu, it only took a quarter of an Hour, at most.
“Are you really undergoing Marrow Transformation?” Jie Jia even hesitated.
“Um, probably?”
Jie Jia: “…”
…
He sent the other few onlookers who had come for the spectacle away.
Chen Mu summoned the gray wall.
Red Falcon Shape Cultivation Technique: 1/10000/Fourth Rank;
Although the transformation process seemed too rushed, his Proficiency clearly indicated that he had indeed entered a new stage.
Chen Mu recalled the transformation process. He felt varying degrees of numb itchiness in his bones and organs.
This sensation had always been present during his practice, but this time it was particularly intense.
Chen Mu suddenly had a realization.
The transformation for others involved a violent change. Chen Mu’s Marrow Transformation, however, was divided into each training session by his Proficiency.
Every point of Proficiency contained a bit of transformation, which is why his change wasn’t so obvious.
“No pain, quite comfortable,” Chen Mu thought cheerfully.
The thought of such drastic change made him aware it wouldn’t be pleasant.
“Proficiency is reliable after all.”
“But what should I do next to train?” Chen Mu frowned.
Having spent a hundred Silver to learn martial arts, Sheng Hong’s teaching ended here. Chen Mu was unsure if Sheng Hong was holding back or genuinely had nothing more to offer.
According to the Proficiency, it seemed he could continue to practice, but he no longer knew how to proceed.
…
“Visualize the Divine Intent Diagram,” Jie Jia said indifferently.
“What is the Divine Intent Diagram?” Chen Mu asked since he didn’t understand.
The knowledge blockade in this world was very stringent. It was still manageable at the lower levels, but the higher you went, the harder it was to acquire information.
He had been practicing martial arts for over a year and had visited the Ghost Market many times, purposefully collecting information about Shape Cultivation Techniques. Yet, he had no idea what the Divine Intent Diagram was.
“The Divine Intent Diagram is the core of the Shape Cultivation Technique. Soul Cultivation relies on the Divine Intent Diagram,” Jie Jia explained.
“The more exquisite the Shape Cultivation Technique, the more complex its Divine Intent Diagram. The likelier and better the results are in cultivating a Wandering Soul.”
“Some minor inheritances are pitiful, whether they have a Divine Intent Diagram or not is uncertain,” Jie Jia said, casting a meaningful glance at Chen Mu.
“What do you mean by looking at me that way?” Chen Mu had a bad feeling.
“Do you know what’s called a minor inheritance?”
Chen Mu was clueless.
“An inheritance has deficiencies, and their numbers are dwindling. A generation only passes it to four or five people, so few practice it, and even fewer know about it,” Jie Jia said, looking meaningfully at Chen Mu.
Dwindling numbers? Few practitioners?
Are you saying that my Red Falcon Shape Cultivation is a minor inheritance?
Chen Mu looked askance at Jie Jia.”You know how many practice the Red Falcon Shape Cultivation, don’t you?”
Chen Mu had only sold seven or eight copies of the Red Falcon Shape Cultivation Technique in the Ghost Market, but Jie Jia had sold a full hundred!
Jie Jia: “…”