Chapter 65: Cultivation Is No Easy Task

After the chill on his body had completely dissipated, Li Lin once again flipped through the book *Obscure Character Art*.

He gritted his teeth and endured those topsy-turvy, jumbled-word-order texts, reading them three times.

As a result, this time it did not trigger that strange illusion again, but it did produce a side effect.

【Vigor -1】

Moreover, his head began to feel somewhat heavy and dizzy.

He hurriedly stood up and took a few slow laps around the bedroom before gradually coming back to his senses.

It seemed this thing could not be forcibly cultivated, otherwise problems would easily arise.

So he turned his gaze once more to the *Nurturing Nature Scripture*.

The wording of this thing was also obscure and hard to understand, making him frown constantly; after reading it three times, he did gain a little harvest.

【Body Tempering +1】

Shouldn't this be the *Nurturing Life Scripture*? Tormenting the spirit, yet achieving the effect of tempering the flesh?

Then after reading it a few more times, there was no longer any effect.

Li Lin frowned hard; his intuition told him these two things both seemed very powerful, but being unable to understand them was rather headache-inducing.

He put down the book and went to the main hall to eat his morning meal.

Although it was only plain porridge with pickled vegetables, this plain porridge was boiled especially well; he had to admit, the newly hired cook really did have some signature skills.

After finishing breakfast, he was planning to go to the street to buy things like talisman paper, to use for practicing talisman art, paper effigy craft, ghost-nurturing art, and other newly appeared special abilities.

But instead he saw 'Xing'er' walk over, curtsey slightly and say: "Master, there's a noble guest visiting outside, claiming to be Wang Tianyou."

Li Lin was briefly stunned: "Please invite him in."

Then he said to Zhang Afu beside him: "Go prepare tea and entertain the honored guest."

Zhang Afu nodded and immediately went to the kitchen to boil tea.

Li Lin, meanwhile, waited in the main hall.

Before long, Wang Tianyou came in; Li Lin immediately went over to greet him and invited him to sit down.

His complexion was still a little greenish, but not as frightening as before.

"Congratulations, Brother Wang, on escaping from Feirong County. How is your physical condition?" Li Lin asked.

"Much better." Wang Tianyou sighed: "I plan to return to Jincheng; passing through this place, I heard that Brother Li Lin has already set up a residence here, so I came to pay a visit and to thank you for saving my life."

Li Lin waved his hand: "You're too kind; we were just in the same boat, that's all."

"I, Wang, am a man of my word—this kindness will definitely be repaid." Wang Tianyou looked at Li Lin: "I know Brother Li is in great need of cultivation methods or martial technique manuals. Whatever type you want, just say the word, and in a few days I'll have someone send over a hand-copied version."

Li Lin thought for a moment and said: "If you have any short-weapon martial techniques, such as for a dagger or a short sword, that will do."

"No problem!" Wang Tianyou nodded: "I'll look through them at home, and then send someone to deliver them."

Li Lin smiled and cupped his hands in a salute.

It had to be said, Wang Tianyou was still a man of his principles.

The two chatted idly for a while; Wang Tianyou took a sip of the tea Zhang Afu brought up, then stood and said: "I must head back now. The matter in Yuecheng, I imagine you should already know about—be careful from now on. The Qin family of Yuecheng is quite mad; they might send people over to make trouble for you."

"Why?"

"Because the Qin family of Feirong County has long since secretly thrown in with them; they're a branch family."

Li Lin laughed: "Right now they're setting themselves up as kings in Yuecheng, and they'll probably soon face a punitive expedition from the imperial court's army—could they still spare the effort to come make trouble for us?"

"That's exactly why I say they're mad." Wang Tianyou said helplessly: "If they weren't mad, would they think about allying with the Southern Barbarians, seizing land to be king, and becoming barbarians themselves? Still, caution first."

That was true enough.

Then Wang Tianyou left.

Li Lin, meanwhile, went to the market shops and bought cinnabar, talisman paper, and straw paper as practice materials—a very large bag—then bought a donkey, loaded these materials onto the donkey's back, and had it carry them back.

After returning to Shangtikou Village, Li Lin had just unloaded the goods from the donkey when the old village chief arrived with three men.

"Li Xunshou, you're back from the county seat."

Li Lin turned and smiled: "Old village chief, have you eaten yet?"

"Eaten, eaten." The old village chief beamed: "These three men are also people who left our village. Now they've heard the wandering ghosts outside the village have been wiped out by you, so they want to bring their wives and children back to the village. Outside there's no land to farm, life is very hard. Now I'm here to ask your opinion—do you think we should take them in… or not?"

The last incident with the Han family had made everyone in the village feel they'd lost face.

So afterward, the villagers all reached a consensus: if outsiders wanted to come live in the village again, it would require Li Xunshou's nod of approval.

Those three men were the typical image of farmers, now smiling ingratiatingly, with nervous expressions on their faces.

Li Lin said: "Old village chief, you be the one to handle this matter; I'm only the Xunshou stationed here."

"Then what is Li Xunshou's view on these returning farming households?"

"More people makes it livelier."

Hearing this, the old village chief breathed a sigh of relief: "I know what to do then. Sorry to disturb you, Li Xunshou."

Li Lin thought for a moment and said: "Oh, by the way, recently I'll be practicing new sorcery, which might cause some disturbance. If you see anything strange, don't be afraid—it won't hurt you."

"Don't worry, we've already gotten used to it."

When a Spirit Hunter practices sorcery, the most extreme thing is just thunder on a clear day… they'd heard it plenty lately and no longer thought anything of it.

However… the whole village still spent several days in fear and worry.

Because every day large numbers of little paper figures came running out from Li Lin's house. Although they didn't break into other people's homes, they darted here and there, chasing chickens and shooing dogs, very 'mischievous'; and these things had a pair of big round eyes—clearly a very cute style—but because they were too ahead of their time, in the villagers' eyes these things were terrifyingly eerie.

So they scared a lot of people.

It took several days before they barely got used to it.

Li Lin spent several days practicing, and finally mastered the new paper effigy craft.

Soul-Guiding Paper Figure.

The little paper figure's function was to find people; this one guides souls.

Moreover, the 'volume' of the Soul-Guiding Paper Doll is much larger, requiring significantly more Yin Qi, so it cannot be mass-produced like the small paper dolls; it must follow a boutique approach.

First, one must determine an image.

The more familiar, the more revered, and the more one acknowledges the power of the image in one's heart, the more formidable the resulting Soul-Guiding Paper Doll will be.

Such arts and spells are very much dependent on the mind.

Li Lin unhesitatingly drew onto the paper doll the super hero he had revered most in his heart since childhood, an image that had never changed.

Brother Monkey!

Then it failed.

The moment the image of Brother Monkey was drawn on, the paper doll immediately incinerated itself.

At the same time, Li Lin lay in bed coughing for two days.

He reflected deeply on his pain and changed the image of the Soul-Guiding Paper Doll to Lady Tree Immortal.

It succeeded immediately!

But after Lady Tree Immortal discovered it, she angrily grabbed Li Lin's arm, sucked on it fiercely for a full double-hour, and finally left with a cold snort, covering her mouth.

Li Lin lay in bed for another two days, with dark circles under his eyes.

Once he recovered his strength using the Life-Nourishing Pill and Blood Rice, Su Huafang came to his door.

"Li Xunshou, want to run a gang?"

He asked with a smile.

(End of this chapter)