Chapter 182: Subduing the Tiger Brings Rewards, Seemingly a False Alarm

Although the foundation of the Five Ghosts Transportation Method is the "five ghosts," its core should still lie in the two words "transportation."

Whether it is the Five Ghosts Fortune Carrying used as a minor street-performer's trick, or the Heart-Descending Five Ghosts and Nurturing Essence, or even the stages of the "Heart Ghost" and "Spirit Ghost" methods—the stage of exchanging nothing for something, or the void for the real—it seems none have departed from this framework.

Even the "Five Ghosts Shifting" strange art, which Chen Ci feels is somewhat similar to a divine ability—whether called an escape method or a shifting method—looks like a transportation method no matter how one views it, and a brutally crude one at that, with not a shred of finesse. The only thing that makes Chen Ci a bit uncertain at the moment is whether this Five Ghosts Transportation Method, which he has livered to the limit, was achieved through his own talent and hard work, or if his own Gold Finger panel played a negligible role.

One must know that Five Ghosts Transportation is not some major heterodox method; not only is it ranked relatively low in the He Mountain Scripture, but over the span of one kalpa, throughout the entire He Mountain Sect—inside and out, registered and unregistered—there have been at least eight thousand, if not ten thousand, apprentices who have practiced this art. As for those that spread to the jianghu and were learned by miscellaneous cultivators and loose practitioners, they are countless. Yet, Chen Ci has truly never heard of anyone whose Five Ghosts Transportation Method could reach his current state. The only one with any possibility is Lin Laohu; after pondering for a long time, he speculates that there is a high probability he only stopped at the "Perfected" realm.

"Nine-one split, then."

Chen Ci thought for a moment and said approvingly: "Although my own Gold Finger is a bit trashy, it still has some effect. Hmm, seven-three split, no more than that."

Who gets seven and who gets three, those who know, know.

However, Chen Ci only dabbled in the Spirit Ghost Nether Escape Method; the Spirit Ghost Body does not need to be practiced, and the Five Ghosts Shifting cannot be practiced yet, so he will wait until his True Qi cultivation and bodily Essence Yuan improve before looking into it again. Although this Spirit Ghost method is not as helpful to the practice of the Five Ghosts Possession Great Method as the Heart Ghost method, it seems to make up for the combat deficiencies of the Five Ghosts Possession Great Method and has other wonderful uses.

Although Five Ghosts Possession can assist in the practice of the Five Skandhas Yin Demon Method, in reality, within the He Mountain Sect, it is an evil method for being brave and fighting fiercely. When unleashed, it can double one's physical martial prowess, and as for the drawbacks—besides affecting one's temperament and making one easily go mad, it consumes a great deal and the duration is relatively short.

Matters of the Primordial Spirit are never small. As long as this Duer Star Lord Jade Statue is not completed, Chen Ci feels there is something on his mind every day and cannot set his heart at ease. Moreover, his Registered Disciple Long Xianzhi has not returned yet; it has been nearly a month, and he does not know what the situation is in the other prefectures and counties of the Liang Kingdom.

Chen Ci was a bit uncertain, his brows slightly furrowed: "Could it be that the Longhu Mountain cultivator from that day left something out?"

Taking a step back, with the Nether Escape Method to rely on, Master Chen truly does not believe that if he wanders around in the mountains, he cannot pick up a hundred or so Spirit Materials or Corpse Ganoderma; that would just mean his own ability is too small.

But in the end... it still counts as number one. In this small patch of land that is Changping County, Master Chen is surely higher than the sky.

No matter how the situation in Xishan Prefecture changes, with this trump card in hand, he has more composure whether advancing or retreating. Thinking of this, Chen Ci rubbed his chin. With this, the title of the number one expert in Changping County is finally secure. Even if the Ma Family Ancestor comes out of the mountains, hmph, he is just an old man dragging things out, not worth mentioning.

I, your master, am thinking that these Corpse Ganoderma were thrown on the ground with no one wanting them; is there a problem with me picking them up? There is no problem.

"Over at the Due Palace, the one surnamed Ma is quite diligent as a Temple Keeper, but it hasn't been very effective. That Duer Star Lord Jade Statue still hasn't changed much. How come I feel this is no longer a simple matter of incense offerings?"

Audacious!

By unleashing the Spirit Ghost Body, or Five Ghosts Shifting, and entering the Five Ghosts Possession state after closing the distance to give the opponent a heavy blow—under such tactical choices, Chen Ci feels that any Qi Refiner below the Hundred Apertures, if they lack protective artifacts or secret methods to detect the Spirit Ghost Body, would be taken down in a single encounter nine times out of ten.

Invincible is invincible, but it cannot cover up the fact that Master Chen's Five Skandhas Yin Demon Method has only been cultivated to the forty-third aperture. With this level of cultivation, looking at the world, it is probably at the level of being the top student in a village elementary school.

The time of ten or twenty breaths is enough to decide life and death in a fight, but if one falls into a stalemate in a high-end match, once the time passes, it is a dead end.

But the Spirit Ghost Nether Escape Method perfectly solves this problem.

I, your master, clearly picked them up by the side of the road!

Another trump card, how nice.

As for the matter of the Nourishing Qi Green Ganoderma Pill, Chen Ci is actually not in a hurry.

"Invincible!"

Not to mention the Ma Family Ancestor's thirst for plant essences, within a radius of a thousand miles, the only force willing to trade Nourishing Qi Spirit Pills for Corpse Ganoderma is Sanyin Temple. Chen Ci is not afraid that Ma Family Village will not agree.

What, you say these were planted by the Ma Family?

Chen Ci nodded with satisfaction; now he can finally have some sense of security.

Chen Ci chuckled. If the Ma Family is sensible, Master will let them be sensible; if the Ma Family is not sensible, Master will help them be sensible. These Corpse Ganoderma are of great use to Master Chen's Dao path, and he cannot allow others to hold him back.

However, he had not yet waited for someone from Ma Family Village to come to Sanyin Temple to finalize the Corpse Ganoderma matter when a Fuhu Altar Deacon visited first. Chen Ci pondered slightly and roughly guessed the reason. He called Qingfeng to bring the Deacon into the main hall to serve tea before going out to meet him.

"Greetings, Senior Brother Chen."

This Deacon Daoist had a respectful demeanor and said: "I have come under the orders of Duguan Luo. Senior Brother has rendered meritorious service in Changping County, and the Temple has bestowed rewards."

A red fire-patterned Dharma robe, the kind that made Chen Ci's eyelids twitch.

He truly does not understand why the He Mountain cultivators of Fuhu Altar and Red Dragon Temple all like to wear this red-colored Daoist robe. Not only is it hard to carry off if one's aura is low, but it is also easy to get beaten up.

Three catties of Water Attribute Divine Sand.

Fifty catties of Yellow Bud Spirit Rice.

Several sets of qi-supplementing medicines such as Old Ginseng, Solomon's Seal, and Poria.

Besides these, there was also a small booklet.

Adding it all up, it is worth over ten thousand taels of silver. The Fuhu Altar's generosity this time is quite good, so Master Chen accepted it with a smile. When he picked up the small booklet to look at it, however, his brows furrowed slightly, and he asked: "What is the meaning of this?"

He had originally thought it would be a He Mountain Great Method, but after flipping through it, it turned out to be a booklet for tribute and merit points. The content written on it was not much, but the required money was not little.

As for Sanyin Temple, it is required to send five thousand taels of silver, ten century-old medicines, and two shi of Pearl Rice to Fuhu Altar every year.

A rough calculation shows it already exceeds ten thousand taels of silver. As for the income of Sanyin Temple itself, what falls into Chen Ci's hands after a year is just peanuts.

But there is also a clause afterward: if one can find Spirit Children and send them to the Altar, the annual tribute can be reduced based on their aptitude.

"To let Senior Brother know, this is a legal matter arranged by the Temple."

The Deacon Daoist answered cautiously: "There is a Fuhu decree. Many Senior Brothers in Xishan Prefecture only cared about their own enjoyment in previous years and neglected their duties as Deacons. Now that the Great Master has given orders to collect more cultivation resources for the Temple, all the Senior Brothers in the counties are the same. However... Dujiang Ye has said that since Senior Brother is concerned about the Sect, ten years of tribute can be exempted. After the three Senior Brothers discussed it, the Great Master also agreed."

How much, only ten years?

That one surnamed Ye is already courting death; you just wait for me!

After pondering for a moment, Chen Ci suddenly asked: "You work for Dujiang Ye?"

The Deacon Daoist smiled: "I am an apprentice of the Cai Courtyard, doing some miscellaneous tasks for Senior Brother Xue."

Chen Ci understood. Collecting resources, collecting apprentices, fattening one Altar with the territory of one prefecture—looking at it this way, Fuhu Altar really has the momentum to turn from a branch of the He Mountain Sect into a small heterodox sect. As long as Fuhu Altar can produce two Golden Core True Persons in the future, perhaps in three or five hundred years, although they will still be named as one sect with He Mountain, they will have become their own family. That old Daoist Shen seems to really want to build some foundation in these last twenty or thirty years of his lifespan.

After waiting for a long time, the Deacon Daoist seemed to have nothing else to do. Chen Ci's heart stirred; he took a five-hundred-tael silver note from his sleeve and sent it into the other's sleeve with True Qi. Calm and composed, he smiled: "Junior Brother came at an inconvenient time and missed mealtime. Take some Changping County specialties back to taste; one cannot work on an empty stomach."

After a pause, Chen Ci asked: "By the way, regarding that Duer Star Lord matter, does the Temple have any other instructions?"

"Senior Brother is too kind."

Although the Deacon Daoist accepted the money, his attitude did not change much; he remained respectful and said suddenly: "So it is this matter. The Great Master specifically went back to Red Dragon Temple to ask about it a few days ago. Upon returning, he said that this is a family matter of Longhu Mountain and has little to do with us, so we should just do our work diligently and not worry too much about other things. By the way, the Great Master also said that Longhu Mountain only needs the incense of commoners for this matter and there will not be too many disputes with us."

Longhu Mountain's family matter?

Several thoughts turned in Chen Ci's mind, but he did not reveal them, only smiling warmly: "Thank you, Junior Brother, for clearing up the confusion; this brother understands."

Judging by the meaning of these words, it means there is nothing going on, right?

Chen Ci wandered around outside Sanyin Temple slightly, feeling inexplicably relaxed. Although this world often bullies honest people like Master Chen, it cannot always target one person, right? It seems that in the short term, there should be no major problems with the cultivation environment in Xishan Prefecture.

Whatever Due Palace or Duer Star Lord, just let the one surnamed Ma worry about it. He himself will draw talismans, refine pills, practice the Five Ghosts Wonderful Method, and finally, simply attain the Primordial Spirit and lie flat; that will be enough.

"Cultivation should be this simple and unadorned."

Chen Ci sighed, and just as he was about to return to the temple, he suddenly saw a fast horse galloping over from the foot of the mountain; squinting to look, it was none other than his own Registered Disciple.

(End of this chapter)