Chapter 49: Why Do the Elite Gather?

Wangxian Pavilion, a tavern name often appearing in novels, but in Feng Xue's view, this one in Lu Cheng County seemed oddly mismatched.

It bore a classical signboard, yet inside was laid out like a Western hotel, with waiters all dressed in white shirts and black waistcoats, and the dishes on the tables mixed Eastern and Western styles—utterly awkward.

Yet this was merely Feng Xue's personal opinion; at least during his ascent to the upper floors, the guests he saw in the first-floor lobby—whether in Western attire or Tang-style robes—seemed to find nothing amiss with the layout; one could only say that Shamat had once been a popular aesthetic.

Under the soldier's guidance, he reached the third floor, where the noise vanished instantly; unlike the second floor, which occasionally echoed with disturbances from below, the third floor was remarkably quiet, its decor far more harmonious than that of the first floor.

The soldier glanced left and right, as if confirming his target, then led Feng Xue to a private room bearing the sign "Zhi Lan Ju," tapped twice on the door, and without waiting for a reply, pushed it open.

Feng Xue stepped inside the private room, his brow twitching slightly; though called a private room, it was nearly as large as a modern wedding hall, and inside, thirty or so people were seated or standing—besides the Liu Aunt and the Nanshan Ju owner he had met before, Feng Xue awkwardly recognized the master of Hua Martial Arts Academy.

Sensing Feng Xue's gaze, the master of Hua Martial Arts Academy turned his head, froze visibly upon seeing Feng Xue, yet said nothing, merely turned back to continue chatting with his acquaintance.

Feng Xue assumed the man had mistaken him for a wealthy youth come to gawk, so he did not approach, but instead activated 【Guan Tian Shou】, scanning the people in the room.

Numbers floated above each head; Feng Xue found both masters with over a hundred years of remaining life and minor thugs with only ten or twenty years left, even some with thirty or forty years—whether they were precisely at a critical stage or had never even entered the path.

These thirty-odd individuals clearly exceeded Liu Aunt's earlier count of "a couple dozen" xuan cultivators; adding the Hua Martial Arts Academy master, it seemed the invitees included not just xuan cultivators, but martial artists as well.

Moreover, Feng Xue noticed the old man he had previously met—the one who asked him to retrieve the secret manual from the Nanshan Ju owner—was absent; he did not know whether the county magistrate could not summon him, had summoned him but he had not yet arrived, or if no one even knew of him.

"So it seems none of the Five Masters Liu Aunt mentioned are here! The old man might be absent, but the monks, Daoist priests, and priests present all had low remaining lifespans and weak aura; as for the young ladies… there were two or three, but 【Guan Tian Shou】 showed no spiritual bodies, so I can't confirm which of them is the Chu Ma Xian."

As Feng Xue silently observed, a few more people entered the room, yet the county magistrate still had not appeared, and the soldier who had brought him was nowhere to be seen.

"Could the magistrate have gone mad and tried to round up every expert in the county?" Feng Xue carefully studied everyone's lifespan, confirmed no fluctuations, and relaxed; he simply found a corner by the wall, leaned against it, and resumed reading the manual.

The Hua Martial Arts Academy master's five books were all practical: "Jian Ti" resembled calisthenics, primarily strengthening the body; "Pei Yuan" was more like a cookbook, simply ensuring nutritional replenishment kept pace with training wear and tear. As for "Jing Zhuang" and "Dong Zhuang," they were foundational introductory techniques, using postures like horse stance to regulate and mobilize one's qi and blood.

According to the "General Outline," anyone who diligently practiced "Jing Zhuang" and "Dong Zhuang," supplemented with dietary nourishment from "Pei Yuan," could reach the Second-Rank Flow Realm; but how to fight still required martial arts training, and reaching above First-Rank depended entirely on personal insight and circumstance.

Feng Xue had no immediate intention of touching martial arts, for mastering them required ample combat experience, not to mention that good techniques and forms were hard to come by; he would first solidify his foundation.

Nearly half an hour passed; the previously harmonious room began to buzz with impatience, and as the atmosphere grew noisy, a man who clearly was no expert entered with several followers—almost the instant he appeared, the room fell utterly silent.

Feng Xue sensed the shift in atmosphere, closed his book, and immediately scanned the newcomer with 【Guan Tian Shou】.

The man appeared to be in his early fifties, with a remaining lifespan of barely seventeen years—quite long-lived for an ordinary person in this era.

Yet the two accompanying him seemed anything but ordinary—

One wore a priest's robe, elderly, with grayed hair, his remaining lifespan only a dozen years or so, but from a shoulder-level view, Feng Xue saw a condensed white light shimmering on his body.

The other was bald, wore no cassock, bore no monk's scars, dressed in a patched bai na yi, his prayer beads not made of precious wood, nor even of the same wood, yet polished to a glossy sheen by constant handling.

His remaining lifespan was slightly longer than the priest's—just over thirty years—but his spiritual aura was more restrained, a faint halo barely hovering behind his head; had Feng Xue not observed closely, he might have missed it beneath the room's electric lights.

"These must be two of the Five Masters—their lifespans are shorter than expected… hmm, then again, for priests, longevity is a miracle granted by the divine, not something one pursues; and monks who cultivate for the next life clearly won't extend the lifespan of their 'filthy flesh.' I wonder if Miss Deng is here as well."

As Feng Xue pondered, the man escorted by the two experts stepped to the center of the room and spoke without preamble:

"Forgive me, esteemed sages, for this abrupt invitation—it was unavoidable. Now that all are present, I shall not delay: …"

"Magistrate, my master hasn't arrived yet!"

The magistrate had barely begun when a youth with the clear, foolish eyes of a college student raised his hand; the magistrate's opening words were interrupted, his eyebrow twitching visibly, yet he suppressed his emotion and explained:

"Master Chen is handling urgent matters—yes, related to this very issue."

He glanced around, saw all attention fixed upon him, and no one else intended to speak, then continued:

"Two days ago, several murders occurred in Xiang Yang Village; the victims' qi and blood were completely drained, suspected to be the work of a powerful ghost. The village's wealthiest man, Mr. Ma, summoned a sorcerer who confirmed this…"

At this, the tense atmosphere in the room instantly eased; though ghostly qi suppresses magical power, after centuries of xuan cultivation development, how could they not have devised countermeasures?

Knowing it was a ghost made it no longer terrifying—just a departed soul; at worst, one could ask one's ancestral masters for aid, or send a ghost official from the netherworld to handle it.

Seeing the crowd relax, the magistrate's expression darkened; the monk beside him stepped forward—just one step, and a serene, peaceful aura spread through the room, then instantly congealed.

It felt like water just released from a dam, suddenly struck from behind, making you clamp shut in shock—deeply uncomfortable—and the old monk seized the moment when every face turned grim and spoke:

"I shall explain this matter."

(Found an AI-generated black silk qipao, less risqué than the previous one—wonder if the review will pass.)

Regarding the protagonist's qi perpetual motion machine… it's not quite that…

This must be understood through the mechanism of lifespan reduction.

Cultivation-induced lifespan reduction isn't like a curse, where lifespan drops instantly; it's a process, similar to how excessive physical exertion depletes the body—if the deficit isn't replenished, lifespan is reduced. This reduction doesn't occur the instant energy is output, but afterward, when no replenishment follows. Of course, even eating immediately afterward is already too late—but only too late, not ineffective.

Similarly, extracting qi causes cellular depletion; if the deficit is immediately replenished, lifespan won't decrease, and even if it does, later nourishment can restore part of it. This is why xuan cultivators must act within their limits and avoid greed or recklessness.

For the protagonist, if he extracts qi slowly, he is constantly locked and interrupted—this has already been clearly stated.

I've specifically written multiple scenes of the protagonist feeling extremely hungry after cultivation.

If still unclear, imagine the protagonist "borrowing qi"—he overdraws, then eats to replenish. Just as skipping one or two meals doesn't harm you, but skipping ten or fifteen days reduces lifespan. The protagonist, due to his lock, doesn't suffer harm from overdrawal, so he can keep overdrawing until he starves to death.

It's like having dozens of credit cards—paying card two with card one, card three with card two—so long as he eats slightly more at every meal and occasionally snacks or has midnight meals, he can extract qi without loss.



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(End of Chapter)