Chapter 36: Mastery

The night was deep and still; the light rain had ceased.

Inside his own room, Du En was diligently practicing.

Because his accumulation was already sufficient, the breakthrough came as naturally as water flowing into a channel.

Integrating and grasping, connecting the beginning to the end, and achieving a comprehensive, thorough understanding—he had seemingly attained a complete, systematic, and thorough understanding of every aspect of the Yellow Earth Art.

This was mastery!

The circulation of his Dharma power underwent a quiet change.

There was nothing radical; he simply silently tamped down the thick earth, finished tamping what was already there, then sensed and refined spiritual Qi to transform it into new Dharma power, and then continued the tamping.

Hearing the calm words Du En uttered, Xu Ran could not help but be startled, while the others who had just been awakened and were currently poking their heads out silently retracted them.

Du En's mood was calm.

Du En glanced behind him, seeing no one else, nor anything else.

【Cultivation: Qi Refining Initial Stage (49/100)】

Xu Ran was embarrassed, his eyes darting away, not daring to look directly.

The other corpse-buriers had already gathered their tools and were ready to set off.

"That's right! We also want to share your burdens!"

Bang, bang, bang!

The suddenly sounding knocking on the door made Du En, who had originally wanted to race against time to practice one more time during this fifth watch before dawn, turn his head with some curiosity.

"Is it that you accidentally killed someone and want me to help bury the corpse and destroy the evidence?"

He got out of bed, left the room, and opened the courtyard gate.

Creak—

The wooden bed beneath his backside could not help but let out a soft groan.

Thus, Xu Ran, who was familiar with the leader of the corpse-buriers, was sent over to knock on the door and call for people.

Tamped earth, dense and solid—that was the best description.

【Spiritual Root: Low Grade】

Regardless of anything else, this job of burying corpses could not be snatched or messed with; that would be an encroachment upon a colleague!

"Me too!"

Over on the side of the corpse-transporters, there was no such atmosphere.

【Age: 19/98】

Gently shaking his head and coming back to his senses, he discovered that Wei Ming, who was trailing at the back, was locking the door.

【Hundred Arts: Appraisal (Initial Glimpse 0/20), Culinary Arts (Initial Glimpse 10/20)】

Cutting through rooms and gaps, it was entirely a straight line between two points.

"Urgent job!"

The wooden bed did not actually collapse, because Du En opened his eyes, ended this session of practice, and with a casual retraction, returned to his normal state.

"Boss, let's go together, we advance and retreat as one!"

Du En did not say anything more and turned to look over.

Du En and the others carried their tools, drilled through the path, and reached the main road directly.

"What exactly is going on?"

However, looking closer, there was no corpse on this flatbed cart.

Xu Ran caught a glimpse of this scene and immediately gave a bitter smile: "Why would I go kill someone for no reason?"

"That's hard to say; you corpse-transporters can at least eat some leftovers, and it's not like fights haven't broken out due to uneven distribution of spoils internally. If anything, that is the main reason for your attrition."

【Divine Ability: None】

A corpse-transporting flatbed cart was parked right here; the green-skinned water buffalo pulling the cart seemed somewhat irritable at this moment, its tail flicking constantly as if it were contaminated by some foreign object.

He spoke casually, then turned and followed closely behind.

Xu Ran watched with great emotion, his eyes filled with envy.

Yet, looking at his appearance, he was actually a fraction leaner than he had been before tonight.

However, he was still at the Initial Stage of Qi Refining.

Wei Ming and the others immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

A panel appeared in his eyes.

Because the weight he bore had increased far too much in a short period of time.

But looking carefully, there was no foreign object at all; it appeared exceptionally clean.

【Spells: Earth Bullet Technique (Proficient 18/50), Sand Raising Technique (Small Achievement 81/100), Breath Concealment Technique (Proficient 43/50)】

In their daily lives, whenever they encountered anything, they liked to shirk responsibility onto each other; if they really encountered a situation where there was leftover wealth on a corpse, it was even more of a power struggle, and an internal conflict could erupt from time to time.

【Cultivation Method: Yellow Earth Art (Mastery 0/300)】

He was shaking his head and sighing when he saw a figure flash past him.

After speaking, he hurried out, pointing the way and taking a shortcut.

"Cultivation method broke through to Mastery, added twelve points of cultivation accumulation, and added five years of lifespan."

"Haha, doesn't this make you look professional?"

If Du En did not restrain himself now, his tonnage would manifest externally as over a thousand catties.

"Still at the Initial Stage of Qi Refining..."

The earthy yellow color grew increasingly rich and refined, beginning to carry a sense of vigor; both quantity and quality rose rapidly during this practice, radiating to nourish and strengthen his physical body, generating energy, and fostering robustness.

His face, which was of above-average appearance, was pale at this moment; his height of nearly eight feet was slightly hunched, and his hands, which looked unexpectedly slender, were trembling uncontrollably—he was completely in a state of being terrified.

The person knocking on the door was Xu Ran, the corpse carrier Xu Ran.

"No, Du En, it's still because of the matter of burying the corpses."

However, it was still the early stage of Qi Refining.

"Why are you still standing there? Either lead the way ahead, or just go back."

Xu Ran scratched his head, not finding it strange that things were this way, and just turned around and shouted: "Come with me, get in the vehicle at the intersection, that will be faster."

"Boss, you know me, I'm the most diligent worker on ordinary days, and now that I've heard about this, this energy of mine has suddenly surged up!"

Xu Ran's expression was extremely serious, his pupils trembling slightly, harboring shock, "Simply put, the evil cultivator has struck again. Although it isn't dawn yet, just in case, the overseers dare not delay; on one hand, they are going to report to the manager themselves, and on the other, they are having us bury the corpses, the faster the better!"

"You corpse carriers only think of us at times like this."

"Ahem... it should be so, just consider it leaving the house a little earlier today."

"..." Faced with Du En's blunt language that could be described as stripping one down to their underwear, Xu Ran was momentarily embarrassed, but quickly regained his composure, "I was almost led in circles by you, but after being messed with by you like this, my emotions have calmed down quite a bit."

"With the current trend, I will be able to break through very soon."

Faced with this attitude of everyone working together, Du En just nodded lightly, didn't say anything more, went back to change his clothes, and was ready to lead the team to set off.

Although according to calculations, it would still take a year and a half to break through to the middle stage of Qi Refining, and only half a year had passed since he started cultivating immortality, in the eyes of others, he was nothing but a green newcomer, and only here among the corpse buriers could he be called an old hand and a boss.

"So, this time it's not because of the matter of burying the corpses?"

This situation made one's heart crawl, and the heart that was already raised was now hanging even higher.

Although the basic efficiency of cultivation had increased by another ten percent on top of the previous foundation, the number of times he could practice and circulate Qi each night was limited by the time cap, only increasing to fifteen times; calculated overall, it was nearly forty percent faster than before.

We didn't hear anything, you bury your corpses, the boss's opinion is our opinion.

Just as Du En said just now, the deaths and injuries of the corpse carriers basically all come from this.

Looking at how scared out of his wits Xu Ran was earlier, I thought he was the one pulling this corpse too.

With the current urgent situation, if they were really made to sit with the corpse for the whole journey, just thinking about it was terrifying!

Although he acted very tough in front of Du En, he was still afraid where he should be!

(End of this chapter)