Liu Boli's ability to instantly make a chicken leg disappear and then produce a silk book reminded Qian Duoduo of his previous question.
"Evil Teacher, are you really hiding in my waistband?"
"Mm."
Liu Boli closed his eyes and stroked his beard, acting indifferent.
"What about that Jin Buhuan?"
"The same as me."
With a flick of Liu Boli's hand, Qian Duoduo's tattered clothes and the young man's corpse appeared on the ground.
Qian Duoduo's eyes widened.
"The waistband is less than two fingers wide; how could it possibly hide all these things?"
Liu Boli moved his finger, and the young man and the clothes vanished again.
"Jin Buhuan is a dead person; will he smell?" Qian Duoduo vaguely caught a whiff of a foul odor.
Having a dead person hidden on him made him feel like a walking coffin, a mobile tomb, which filled him with dread, causing him to shiver involuntarily.
"Don't worry. Even if your clothes rot and stink, he won't stink."
"How do you know?"
"I stayed there for—many years, so naturally, I know."
Qian Duoduo couldn't understand how this small, flat waistband could hide a person, and for so many years at that?
"Evil Teacher, who are you? Where do you come from?" Qian Duoduo blurted out again.
"Don't worry about me; worry about yourself instead. As a Mortal entering the Immortal Cultivation World, you should quickly become a Cultivator, otherwise, every chicken leg you eat might be your last delicious meal."
Qian Duoduo's constant calling him "Evil Teacher" made Liu Boli feel helpless.
But then he thought about how he had once used him as an object for roasting and slapped him, and he felt he had been a bit excessive, indeed a bit evil.
Liu Boli's words to Qian Duoduo were a bit hurtful, but they were the truth.
Qian Duoduo calmed down and continued to flip through the silk book. The Golden Light Technique had one layer per page, and the first, second, and third layers were all a single diagram.
From the fourth layer onwards, both diagrams and text increased.
The edges of every page had dark smudges, indicating the book had been flipped through countless times.
The diagram on the first layer depicted a strange posture, with special breathing methods written beside it.
It didn't look difficult. Qian Duoduo assumed the posture as instructed, inhaling and exhaling...
After only four or five breaths, a wave of soreness came from his legs, and there was no trace of the Spiritual Qi described in the Cultivation Technique stirring within him.
Secretly moving his limbs, Qian Duoduo resumed the posture, fully concentrating on sensing the Spiritual Qi in his body.
However, apart from the Qi he inhaled and exhaled, he didn't detect any Qi anywhere, let alone Spiritual Qi.
Qian Duoduo sighed and asked Liu Boli, "This book, it's fake, isn't it?"
Liu Boli didn't lift his head or open his eyes.
"It's real. This is the basic Cultivation Technique for Refining Spirit Sect Disciples; everyone has a copy."
"Everyone has a copy! If I can't cultivate it, wouldn't I be too stupid?"
Qian Duoduo's face flushed. He assumed the Golden Light Technique posture again, focusing intently on sensing his body's reaction, not making a sound even as his hands grew sore and his feet numb.
After an unknown amount of time, footsteps came from outside the door.
Qian Duoduo relaxed his body and lay on the ground.
Liu Boli, meanwhile, hid back inside the Golden Toad.
The footsteps stopped outside the door. A moment later, a fist-sized object rolled into the cave.
Jail food! And it was chicken legs again! Qian Duoduo was overjoyed and ran over to pick it up.
After swallowing the Spirit Chicken leg, a warmth ignited in Qian Duoduo's abdomen, a feeling somewhat similar to the Spiritual Qi stirring described in the silk book.
"One more."
Liu Boli reappeared at some unknown point, throwing another Spirit Chicken leg that landed in Qian Duoduo's arms.
After throwing it, he vanished again.
After eating two consecutively, the Spiritual Qi stirring in his abdomen became even stronger.
Qian Duoduo quickly assumed the posture for the first layer of the Golden Light Technique.
Perhaps it was because he was full, or perhaps he was doing the movements correctly, but with each inhalation and exhalation, the soreness lessened, and it even felt somewhat comfortable.
After several hundred breaths, just as Qian Duoduo was about to relax, a wisp of cool Qi suddenly sprang from the warmth swirling in his abdomen, traveling along the Spiritual Veins in his body.
Spiritual Qi!
Qian Duoduo was ecstatic, observing this stream of Qi with his inner vision.
Wherever the Qi went, it felt like ants crawling, both itchy and exhilarating, both warm and cool, truly as comfortable as if he had eaten many immortal fruits.
Unfortunately, this Qi didn't seem very robust; it disappeared before completing a full circuit.
The Acupoints that weren't reached were like grass without water, dry and disheartened.
"Old Liu, Old Liu, I have Spiritual Qi!" Qian Duoduo patted the waistband.
"Is my talent also... sufficient?"
"Don't pat the waistband when you call me from now on."
Liu Boli appeared directly in front of him, his eyes containing small flames, as if he could see into Qian Duoduo's bones.
"It is indeed Spiritual Qi. It's just a bit little."
He was a bit worried; there were too few things in the Jail that could produce Spiritual Qi.
If Qian Duoduo were a Disciple from a wealthy family, with abundant Heaven And Earth Treasures supplied, gathering Spiritual Qi to break through the first barrier would be a matter of minutes.
"Don't rush. With a seed, you won't worry about the seedling; with one, you won't worry about ten thousand."
Qian Duoduo, however, was so excited that he paced back and forth in the cave, "As long as I can eat my fill, I can reach level one. If I eat more, I'll reach level two, then level three... level nine isn't a difficult task at all."
"Shh, someone's coming." Liu Boli vanished like a wisp of smoke.
Just as Qian Duoduo collapsed onto the ground, a face as white as jade pressed against the window, and two wolf-like gazes shot in.
This beautiful face bore some resemblance to Jin Buyong.
"Oh, my dear younger brother, you're still alive? Hmm, why is there no Spiritual Qi left at all? Could it be that you're completely crippled? You are the Jin family's little prodigy, the little prodigy everyone loves and flowers bloom for, the little prodigy who appears only once in a thousand years—Jin Buhuan, a Great Cultivator destined to form a Golden Core and transform into a Nascent Soul. Tsk, tsk, tsk..."
The handsome face at the window kept spouting nonsense.
His words were sour with bitterness, and bitterness concealed spice; they were not pleasant to hear.
Qian Duoduo remained still, like a stone, treating this handsome face as a mad dog and letting it bark wildly.
The handsome face twitched, stopping its wild barking. The wolf-like eyes scanned Qian Duoduo up and down.
"Keep pretending, I'll let you keep playing dead, playing dumb... No matter where you are, don't think you can escape my Jin Buque's clutches, don't think you can keep your life."
So he was Jin Buque.
Qian Duoduo recalled Jin Buhuan's memories, slowly reviewing them. As he learned of the life-and-death struggle between Jin Buhuan and Jin Buque, his body slowly grew cold.
Jin Buque continued in a soft, slow voice: "Dear younger brother, please don't die. You still owe me thirty thousand gold coins, and I'm waiting for you to pay them back."
Saying this, he tilted his head back and laughed triumphantly.
Qian Duoduo saw two tears of laughter in his eyes.
He was experiencing extreme joy.
"Senior Brother Buque, three days from now, the final match of the Jail fight, the result will surely make Senior Brother happy."
Beside Jin Buque, Jin Buyong's head appeared.
"Hmm, seeing Jin Buhuan go from level nine to level zero already makes me very happy. If you make me even happier, I'll have my grandfather take good care of your family, and it's not impossible for your father to become a clan Elder."
Jin Buque's words exuded absolute confidence.
His voice softened slightly, but only slightly.
"Thank you, Senior Brother, thank you, Great Senior Brother!" Jin Buyong became excited.
"Great Senior Brother, please take this; it's a small token of my appreciation. I guarantee with my own head that this will be the last time Great Senior Brother sees Jin Buhuan!"
No need to guess, the "this" in Jin Buyong's mouth must have been a considerable sum of gold coins.