Chapter 436

Several minutes later, a thread of sword light burst from the forest and reached the highest peak of the entire mountain range.

Standing lightly atop a small tree branch with a carefree posture, his gaze drifted calmly toward the distance, his face filled with melancholy.

【Name: Chi Jiuyu】

【Age: 23】

【Realm: Spirit Transformation Stage】

【Currently Loaded System: Scale of Years (20%)】

【Current Points: 1】

【Current Ranking: 1】

Sigh~

Jiuyu Hehuan Hehuan Laozu ultimately succumbed to the mundane world.

She became the vulgar fisher.

After all, she had already experienced the system's powerful functions—ten percent of its performance had been liberated.

To abandon it and choose that useless global announcement would be utterly foolish!

As for supplies…

Looking along this path, spiritual items were exceedingly rare, but this was still a world of Void Refinement level—given effort, replenishment routes would always be found.

"Sigh~"

With another sigh, Chi Jiuyu retracted her gaze.

Next…

She would seek out other Spirit Transformation cultivators close to her age, avoiding those fifty- or sixty-year-old relics.

Based on last year's Xian Sect Grand Competition, those old relics were all more outrageous than the last—even with her ten percent lead, she likely wasn't their match…

After all, systems have reduced functionality when used by competitors…

Huh?!

Chi Jiuyu suddenly realized something was off.

If that's the case, wasn't the suppression on that Void Refinement cultivator a bit excessive?

He was nearly falling from Void Refinement down to Spirit Transformation!

Even with a massive age gap, according to the system's description, he shouldn't have been reduced to that level!

Hmm…

What kind of foundation must he have had?

To ascend to Void Refinement with such a pitiful foundation…

What an old, useless fool!

Chi Jiuyu silently cursed the "Budless Immortal Sovereign" who had just attacked her.

After all, if not for that bastard's sudden assault, she might have had time to scavenge the body cultivator's dropped gear!

Jiuyu Hehuan Hehuan Laozu holds grudges fiercely.

"Let's go!"

With a light step, a gale erupted from the peak, accompanied by a sonic boom—a thin, nearly invisible sword light shot toward the distance.

The commotion she'd just caused might draw other Void Refinement cultivators to that city, and perhaps even attract some old foxes from the Tai Shang Dao Sect, or other sect competitors…

All things considered, even though the system had just liberated another ten percent of its performance, she very much wanted to sneak back and strike that Void Refinement cultivator hard.

But for now, she should hide herself well—don't reveal too much information and get tricked by those old bastards from the Tai Shang Dao Sect!

Who says Jiuyu Hehuan Hehuan Laozu doesn't understand caution?!

…

…

Meanwhile, in the Qingfu Hall of Zhitui Xiancheng.

Zhao Ruoming had quietly approached the Jin Dan cultivator near the hall's center.

Multiple layers of defenses, combined with the Qian Yuan Bu Mie Yu Qing Xuan Guang protecting his body, leaked not a single ripple.

Even the Spirit Transformation Stage city lord of Zhitui Xiancheng had not yet realized his city's protective array had been seized.

How much less could a mere Jin Dan notice?

In fact, even if Zhao Ruoming stood directly before him, he would detect not the slightest anomaly!

And in truth, Zhao Ruoming was doing exactly that.

After penetrating the Qingfu Hall, he followed a winding path to a quiet, ancient dwelling with blue-tiled roofs.

Moss crept up the stone steps and clung to the blackwood doorframe; the bronze ring glowed faintly dull amid the peeling vermilion paint.

Two trees, nearly identical, lush and towering over three meters high, flanked the front of the house.

They appeared vibrant, yet their leaves rustled in the wind with a sound like crumpling paper—"shua shua"—deeply eerie.

Upon closer inspection, their leaf colors were far more vivid than those of ordinary trees.

The door was shut; Zhao Ruoming stared at it for a moment.

Then, frowning, his body dissolved into an invisible, intangible, yet purest yang "qi," effortlessly bypassing the array surrounding the house and slipping through the tiny gaps around door and window into the interior.

Spirit Transformation: dispersing into qi, condensing into form.

For Zhao Ruoming, whose foundation was exceptionally profound, this was basic technique.

Inside the room, the purest yang qi converged and reformed into his original shape.

Looking around, the room felt cramped.

On the table sat an oil lamp, its flame no larger than a bean, emitting a nauseating "fragrance."

Around the perimeter sat numerous incense burners, the room filled with sandalwood fragrance, carrying the same nauseating scent.

Deeper inside, behind a desk piled high with account books, sat a middle-aged man whose frame was withered and thin, almost to say skin and bones.

Clad in a robe of blue, his black-and-white hair was groomed immaculately; at this moment he also held a brand-new account book in his hands, flipping through it, his deeply sunken eye sockets filled with exhaustion.

He kept flipping until the very last page, then set the account book in his hands down and let out a long sigh.

"Sigh~"

"……"

Zhao Ruoming remained unmoved, continuing to hide in the shadows and observe.

Then, he saw a scene that struck him as strange.

"Not enough, still not enough…" he heard him mutter a few words in a low voice.

He saw the middle-aged man take out a small knife from his storage bag, and—astonishingly—slice it across his own already withered, shriveled arm.

The blade entered the flesh and cut straight upward.

In the end, he cut off a piece of skin three point two inches long and one point two inches wide from his arm.

In an instant, fragrance bloomed throughout the room!

A strange, clear fragrance filled the entire room, like orchids, like musk, far-off and lingering, making one involuntarily want to become intoxicated within it.

The cut-off skin, under the dim lamplight, radiated a lustrous spiritual glow; on its crystalline, translucent surface, strange bamboo-like patterns meandered.

"Counting this piece of Golden Talisman Skin… it should be enough."

A finger tapped onto the talisman skin; accompanied by a flash of spiritual light, the room's fragrance gradually weakened.

Carefully placing the processed 'Talisman Skin' into a brocade box prepared in advance, and after putting it away, he only then began to treat his own wound.

However, the cut opening was not flesh and blood, but some withered yellow dry grass, and one could even see the dead branches within serving as support…

Just like those youths and maidens who sat in meditation breathing, he merely took a brightly colored sheet of paper and stuck it over the wound, then prepared to close his eyes and regulate his breath.

"Why do you do this?"

The voice rang out abruptly within the room.

"Who?!"

From his deeply sunken eye sockets, a sharp gaze swept in all directions, yet he found nothing at all.

Just as he was thinking the voice he had just heard might all have been his own hallucination…

A hand emerged without warning from the dense white sandalwood fragrance, and picked up the brocade box containing the 'Golden Talisman Skin' before him.

Looking up, he saw a heroic-looking man dressed in a Daoist robe, holding the brocade box in his hand, gazing at him quietly.

Within his eyes, a yin-yang fish pattern slowly rotated, profound and unusual.

"Refining paper into skin, transforming dry grass into flesh and blood, filling with dead wood to serve as bone… this is a heretical path that drains your own potential, do you know that?"

Zhao Ruoming's tone was exceptionally serious.

Originally, he had planned to directly search the soul—after all, this was an extremely evil demonic cultivator.

But judging from this person's performance just now, the true situation seemed far more complicated than he had imagined.

"Heretical path…?" A blank look came into the middle-aged man's eyes. "This is the 【Paper Molt Herding Spirit Longevity Dao】 passed down by the Celestial Mechanism Palace; it is the supreme orthodox Dao. Where does the talk of a 'heretical path' come from?"

"I am Yan Han, Hall Master of the Green Talisman Hall, belonging to the Resource Coordination Department of the Celestial Mechanism Palace." He rose from behind the desk, watching Zhao Ruoming warily: "This Golden Talisman Skin is to be offered as tribute to the Celestial Mechanism Palace. Senior, do not lead yourself astray!"

The Celestial Mechanism Palace is one of the Sandazheng Sect.

Anyone who dares to embezzle the Celestial Mechanism Palace's tribute is basically seeking death!

'Paper Molt Herding Spirit Longevity Dao…'

Zhao Ruoming's heart stirred slightly, and he immediately set the brocade box in his hand down: "Tell me about this Celestial Mechanism Palace."

"You don't know the Celestial Mechanism Palace?!" Yan Han blurted out directly.

In this world, there is actually a cultivation cultivator who doesn't know the Celestial Mechanism Palace, one of the three great orthodox sects?!

Where did you caveman cultivate to such a Higher Realm?

An illegal cultivator from the primordial era?

"When I tell you to speak, you speak." Zhao Ruoming snorted coldly.

The vast magic power pressure of the Spirit Transformation Stage poured forth, crushing toward all directions!

The lamplight flickered; the dense white sandalwood fragrance within the room was directly swept aside, and the account books placed on top kept flipping, rustling loudly.

The terrifying might left Yan Han gasping, even feeling as though he could not catch his breath.

A Nascent Soul mighty figure?!

It was actually a Nascent Soul mighty figure!

Yan Han was astonished in his heart.

The magic power pressure was released and immediately withdrawn.

If not for the lamplight still swaying and the room's white sandalwood fragrance still in disarray, he would have thought nothing had happened at all.

"……"

After two seconds of silence, yielding to Zhao Ruoming's 'might', Yan Han glanced out the window and could only confess everything he knew.

Although… today's matter was actually quite baffling to him.

"The Celestial Mechanism Palace is one of the three great orthodox sects."

"Orthodox?!" Zhao Ruoming was taken aback.

Refining people into consumables, flaying skin for talisman paper, stripping bone and scraping flesh, pounding bone and squeezing out marrow—and you freaking tell me this is the orthodox Dao?!

For a moment, Zhao Ruoming's worldview suffered a severe shock.

Through Yan Han's account, he finally gained a rough understanding of the Xuanxiang Realm.

This is a world that is extremely difficult for him to comprehend!

Spiritual materials were strictly controlled; ordinary people could only become consumables, and cultivators were no better than draft animals.

What one cultivated and gained would actually be siphoned off in part by the so-called 'Celestial Phase Heavenly Trajectory'—breakthroughs required paying tax, cultivation required selling oneself!

The reason Yan Han established this Green Talisman Hall was that he owed a loan to the Heavenly Mechanism Palace when breaking through to Jin Dan.

With interest compounding, by now even his flesh and blood and his very bones had been handed over to the Heavenly Mechanism Palace as interest!

The true meaning of 'all beings are grass and trees, all things are draft animals'!

Only upon reaching the Return-to-Emptiness level could one truly escape the fate of being exploited.

Someone like Yan Han could already be considered to have a 'kind heart'—even though he himself was nearly seized by the Heavenly Mechanism Palace to settle his debt, he still kept to his bottom line and did not squeeze to death those young men and women who wished to step onto the path of cultivation.

In this Zhitui Xiancheng, those far more excessive than him could be found everywhere.

【Body-Pawning Workshop】: one may pawn one's own flesh, blood, and organs in exchange for spiritual materials and techniques.

【Ultimate Bliss Assembly】: one may pawn a portion of one's own soul in exchange for spiritual materials and techniques.

【Five Senses Hall】: one may pawn the five senses—sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch—in exchange for spiritual materials and techniques.

Those 'paper people' he had seen before were precisely those who had pawned away everything about themselves yet still failed to set foot on the Dao.

Neither alive nor dead, neither human nor ghost, they could only wander the human world in such a state, sensing nothing.

By comparison, this Green Talisman Hall really was 'good'—at the very least, Green Talisman Hall only wanted your 'skin'……

What a damned world!

Zhao Ruoming suppressed his discomfort and asked, "Why do you only want their skin, when you could clearly demand more?"

Yan Han's 【Paper-Shed Herding Spirits Longevity Dao】 involved far more than just skin—it also touched upon flesh and blood, the five viscera and six bowels, and even the bones.

"No particular reason—I simply didn't want to……"

"Hmm?"

"……" Yan Han was silent for two seconds, then suddenly raised his head and stared straight at Zhao Ruoming, saying something baffling: "I once went to the mortal world."

"So I know what a nauseating world this is."

"I don't want to, and I'm not willing to do that."

Say what you will—he simply was unwilling!

He had no power to change all this; he wanted to keep living, but he also didn't want to be dragged along by this nauseating world!

In this day and age, this was a kind of persistence that many people would find laughable.

Too wicked to truly be wicked, yet lacking the courage to completely withdraw into goodness.

Clearly not living well himself, yet still possessed some useless compassion that only harmed himself.

"……"

Zhao Ruoming's lips moved, but he didn't know what to say.

Was the man before him a villain?

By the standards of the Xuan Realm, clearly yes—using people as consumables, flaying their skin to make talisman paper.

Even before the era of great upheaval, this would have been an out-and-out demonic cultivator.

But in this Xuan Realm……?

Zhao Ruoming—a son of immortals, born with innate divine abilities, young yet already advanced to Soul Transformation, master of all arts, having suffered only one major setback in his life—could not give an answer at this moment.

In this world, was a person like him good or evil?

……

……

In fact, it wasn't only him; among the participants of this Xian Sect Grand Competition, many, while gathering intelligence, had also gradually begun to understand this world.

And inevitably, they would witness what Zhao Ruoming had witnessed.

They would realize this was a world utterly at odds with their own values, a world of boundless cruelty.

Under such circumstances, what choices these leaders of the younger generation would ultimately make—this was itself a part of this Xian Sect Grand Competition.

Just as Zhao Ruoming fell silent at what he had seen in Zhitui Xiancheng, at another passage leading from the mortal world to the Cultivation Realm—【Wuwang Forest】.

A streak of azure escape-light passed through the great formation and lightly, deftly, landed within the forest.

As the escape-light coiling around her faded, it revealed a woman in a blue-grey Daoist robe, with features like a painting and an elegant, understated bearing.

Zhao Ruohan.

She was also among those whose 'spawn point' was in the mortal world, and she had arrived at the Cultivation Realm even later than Chi Jiuyu.

She scanned her surroundings, and a faint spiritual light glimmered in her spring-like eyes.

Whooosh~

A mountain breeze drifted in, and the forest leaves rustled.

A faint fragrance came with the mountain breeze; following the scent, one could see not far away a tree wrapped in a curtain of jade-green woven vines, and where the vines hung down, a few pure-white wood-fragrance flowers swayed in the wind.

The petals were translucent and lustrous, as if carved from the finest mutton-fat Bai Yu.

A spiritual material? (End of chapter)