Chapter 195: Fourth Life

Strangely, Li Piaoqing felt a chill of unknown origin appear in the room.

"Don't," Li Piaoqing hesitated and reached out, wanting to stop him.

Although this pill probably didn't have any danger, and such a small amount wouldn't cause any trouble, but what if? Anyway, if she had such a cute and beautiful little cat, she would definitely be reluctant to use it to test medicine.

Seeing Pei Ye, however, acted as if he didn't hear, and an index finger was handed to the black cat's mouth, even poking inside.

"By the way, the Ladder-Ascending Pill tastes bad; cats probably won't like it... Seeing Pei Ye." The girl still tried hard to persuade, but as soon as the words fell, she saw this little black cat roll its tongue and bring the bit of pill powder from the youth's fingertip into its mouth.

"Ah..." Li Piaoqing frowned slightly, but soon relaxed, and said in a sweet voice, "It's so obedient."

The girl leaned her elbows and approached the little cat. She had been speaking with a weak breath, but there was energy in this exclamation, and her pair of star-like eyes were bright and sparkling.

"Hehe, yes," Seeing Pei Ye smiled, lifting the black cat by the neck and holding it in his arms, rubbing its neck and ears. "But it's quite sensitive to strangers—is it okay for the friend in the green skirt to touch it?"

Li Piaoqing was stunned for a moment, only then realizing that this strange address referred to herself. Seeing Pei Ye moved his arm aside for her. She tentatively reached out, but the black cat didn't even turn its head, nimbly twisting its body to dodge, and scurried back to the table.

"Ah..." The girl retracted her hand in frustration and said unconvinced to the little cat's back, "Clearly I care about you more."

"Haha, that's how it is," Seeing Pei Ye smiled. "It didn't let Zhang Junxue touch it before either."

"Hmph."

"My cat, hehe." Seeing Pei Ye hooked the ears of the lying little cat.

Li Piaoqing leaned back against the wall, suddenly remembering something: "Speaking of Zhang Junxue, at the Pill-Singing Meeting, was it her who urgently wanted that Ladder-Ascending Pill?"

"Ah, right." Seeing Pei Ye was stunned. "Why?"

"It's like this, I just entered the Fifth Life not long ago and won't need this pill for the time being. I bought it as bait for Seven Serpents," the girl said. "You can ask her if she still wants this pill."

"You'll need it sooner or later, right?"

"There will be ones with more suitable prices later; can't Cuiyu get one?" The girl glanced at him. "And, it also saves you from giving yours to her."

Seeing Pei Ye was stunned and smiled: "My progress speed is already very fast."

"Then be even faster. Otherwise, clearly being able to advance bravely, but being satisfied with this, isn't that a waste of talent?"

Seeing Pei Ye then smiled and took back the porcelain bottle: "Alright."

Then let's wait and see if the black cat gets a stomachache.

The room was quiet for a while, and Seeing Pei Ye suddenly said: "Since you're not sleeping, let's do something."

"Ah..." Li Piaoqing looked at him blankly, her neck softly leaning against the wall. "What thing? I actually..."

She looked at the bed quilt. Although she really couldn't sleep, her exhausted body actually wanted to lie down for a while longer.

"Didn't you say before that the face on the corpse was fake? It has to be peeled off."

"You peel it."

"I've been looking for half the morning and don't know where to peel it from."

"..." The girl didn't move.

"Let's go." Seeing Pei Ye stood up and pulled the quilt.

"... Alright."

Seeing Pei Ye hooked a smile—starting to feel tired and lazy meant the girl's spirit had indeed largely recovered.

Li Piaoqing cheered up, put on her outer garment, and came to the East Courtyard together. The corpse had long been moved into the room, and there were Cuiyu people transferred from other places guarding it.

The two walked in. Li Piaoqing put on gloves and picked up a thin dagger from the table.

"Have you never seen disguise techniques?" The girl was still somewhat listless. She sat down beside the head, and Seeing Pei Ye moved a small stool and sat beside her.

"I was disguised once," Seeing Pei Ye recalled. "But that one fell off with a rub and a wash. This one is different; I didn't dare to move it randomly."

Li Piaoqing first reached out and pressed on the seams of the facial features: "This should be human skin—a mask."

Her breathing almost stalled—if she hadn't discovered some abnormalities when touching the eyes, she would have almost thought this was another real one.

The girl lowered her head seriously, several fingers pressing on the old man's cheeks and rubbing carefully. She really couldn't find the seams for a long time, so she simply held the dagger and cut under the ear. Only then did she separate a layer of facial skin that didn't belong to the old man with blood.

The girl's brows furrowed deeply.

"What's wrong?"

"Such superb means, and... such a suitable face," she sighed in a low voice, then continued to dissect along the seams while seriously recounting to the youth. "Disguise is easy to learn but hard to master. It roughly has two methods—the first is the kind you experienced, short-term and one-time. It is to carefully polish and repair every part of the face, completely sculpting and casting it into the appearance of another person."

Seeing Pei Ye nodded slowly.

"This kind, as long as the technique is proficient and the time spent is enough, is very easy to pass off as real, but it is relatively fragile and easily damaged. If it encounters heavy rain or wind, or if someone pulls at it, it will reveal the truth," the girl continued. "The so-called 'easy to learn' refers to the initial stage of this technique, because if you don't seek perfection, it's just adding some things or applying some powder and mud, which is actually very similar to women's makeup."

The girl reached out and poked Seeing Pei Ye, holding her face in front of him, pointing with her finger at the remaining traces on the corner of her eye—there should have been a cyan bird wing with silver marks there.

"Just like this one. I drew it on the morning of the day I went to the Pill-Singing Meeting, and now it's almost impossible to see the shape." The girl twisted the corner of her eye, and a bit of cyan stuck to her fingertip. "If you want to learn, I can teach you some simple ones of this kind."

Seeing Pei Ye wanted to learn.

Yang Yan should be the kind of technique that is not proficient.

Then Li Piaoqing lowered her head and continued to deal with the face in her hand, slowly cutting into the gap she had just cut with the blade: "The second kind is like this—making a human skin mask. It must be done with quite superb and professional means, and it must be done with the work of days and months. Each mask is customized according to the user and can only be used by one designated person to disguise as another designated person. The advantage of the mask is that it can be made of special materials, is almost not afraid of damage, and can be used repeatedly for a long time; the disadvantage is that the details are inevitably somewhat stiff. To make it realistic enough is much harder than the first method."

"This doesn't look stiff." Seeing Pei Ye looked down.

"Yes, to make a mask to such a level of vividness and spirit, it must be a master-level means," Li Piaoqing said. "And, the user's own face must be suitable enough."

At this moment, the blade the girl inserted had separated the skin surface. She lifted the mask steadily, and the real face of this corpse was exposed. Seeing Pei Ye leaned over to look, and then both of them were stunned.

A horrific and eerie true face was revealed under the mask. The girl knew why this face was so suitable, because it didn't have any edges or corners of its own at all.

Eyes, nose, and mouth were all preserved, but eyelids, nose bridge, and lips were all gone.

They weren't shaved off, but were smooth and neat, completely the appearance they were born with. Almost any human skin mask could be stuck on without any resistance.

This face was truly somewhat eerie and disgusting. The girl only looked at it for a few times before covering the facial skin again.

A chilling coldness also welled up in Seeing Pei Ye's heart. It would be fine if this appearance was natural, but if it was man-made... what kind of power could achieve such a result? And what kind of person would do such a thing?

For the vast majority of people, the face is the anchor point of their existence in society. Erasing it is erasing the self, and also erasing all connections with others.

If the people around you became like this, could you still recognize them at a glance? Yang Yan, Zhang Junxue, Li Piaoqing... how could he connect such a face with the girl who smiled and laughed?

Seeing Pei Ye's brows furrowed tightly. This organization named Huan Si Lou aroused his deep disgust.

It was the girl who came back to her senses first. Perhaps she didn't think too far, or perhaps the impact she suffered last night was already enough. In short, there wasn't much reaction on her face. She put down the dagger: "This kind of thing, and the Qi technique that produced fire before, all have to wait for Tianshan and the Immortal Platform to find the answer."

Seeing Pei Ye took a deep breath and nodded: "Alright... then it's fine, you go back and continue lying down."

"I'm already up..." Li Piaoqing rolled her eyes slightly, was quiet for a while, and suddenly said, "Did you mention the fruit matter this morning?"

"Oh, yes." Seeing Pei Ye nodded. "This is also a big matter—I wanted to tell you that the Cicada Department and Yellow Jade we discussed before should be a set of sword techniques, perhaps the result of the scattering of the Yufi Mountain inheritance back then."

The girl was silent.

"This fits perfectly with the association between your martial brother and Constable Zhao," Seeing Pei Ye said. "And the sword technique itself is also interlocking. Now that it's inconvenient for you to act, I'll take the sword manual of the 'Cicada-Sparrow Sword' and give it to you to see in a moment. When your injuries are better, we'll discuss and verify it together."

"... I really didn't expect it to be like this," Li Piaoqing sighed lightly, but her thinking left this topic, and she was silent for a while before saying in a low voice, "Thank you for avenging my martial brother. When I killed that person, I thought I had avenged the enemy with my own hands."

"It was avenging with your own hands, that's right. We killed half each," Seeing Pei Ye smiled.

The girl couldn't help but reveal a sad smile on her sad face: "You're really annoying."

Then she composed her expression: "If these two swords are really the division of the Yufi Mountain inheritance back then, that is indeed a top-tier major event for Cuiyu. This matter, after the martial competition is fought, I will take you up the mountain to talk to Master."

"Oh, alright." Seeing Pei Ye nodded first, then was stunned. "Talk about what?"

"Talk about how to thank you. And I don't remember too many things about Yufi Mountain. Many things can only be found by going to Master, or even to the library."

"... Oh." Seeing Pei Ye reacted. This time he didn't be polite, thought for a moment, and said, "I want to learn 'Yellow Jade,' I wonder if it's possible?"

"Of course it's possible," Li Piaoqing nodded. "You gifted Cuiyu the 'Cicada-Sparrow Sword,' and Cuiyu naturally should return it with 'Yellow Jade.' This is a basic exchange and doesn't count as a thank-you gift."

"Oh, is that so, but after all, it's originally your sect's inheritance..." Seeing Pei Ye thought for a while. "Then I only want this. As for the thank-you gift, let's see what the Fenghuai Martial Hall needs when the time comes?"

"Mm?"

"The martial hall in our county. Because this 'Cicada-Sparrow Sword' wasn't found by me either; it was gifted to me by the martial hall master for practice," Seeing Pei Ye smiled. "I just have some merit in discovering it."

"Oh, alright. Anyway, we'll talk to Master when the time comes." Li Piaoqing nodded and looked at the sky. "The people from Cuiyu participating in the competition should arrive tomorrow, but Master is watching that Seven Serpents one, so he probably won't follow the team."

Then she remembered the matter just now and said with some worry: "Is your little cat okay?"

Seeing Pei Ye paused, as if waiting for an answer, then said: "It's fine."

Then he took out the small porcelain bottle and poured out the Ladder-Ascending Pill.

"Since it's real, I'll eat it here. There shouldn't be any problem, right?"

"... Eat it." Li Piaoqing remembered the youth's casualness about taking pills. However, although there are many requirements for taking pills, as far as the Ladder-Ascending Pill is concerned, it seems there really isn't one that is a rigid requirement.

"This doesn't need to be taken in portions, right?" Seeing Pei Ye remembered the girl's advice about Ginseng Pills before.

"No need."

So Seeing Pei Ye raised his hand and swallowed it.

This was the first time in his seventeen years that he had taken a pill in the true sense.

Quanzhen classified it under the "Running Star Avoiding Moon" category, considering it a true pill for seeking immortality. The swallowing of this pill wasn't just swallowing it down; what digested it wasn't gastric juice, but Qi—if a landlubber swallowed it, it would just come out the way it went in.

At this moment, upon contact with Qi, this pill was like snow meeting a hot iron, immediately turning into a trickling stream. Unlike the rich and perceptible medicinal properties of the previous "Ginseng Pill," Seeing Pei Ye didn't feel anything extra in his body after taking this pill—flesh and blood were just their roads, and the meridian tree was their destination.

"This is what is called the 'Dantian Bridge'," Li Piaoqing looked at the youth's expression and smiled leaning against the wall.

Just for a moment, this small tree, which was already growing perfectly, seemed to meet the spring glow and sweet rain above, and absorb good water and fertilizer below, immediately erupting with amazing growth. The eight branches quickly differentiated into new twigs, and within two breaths, sixteen meridians were lined up in Seeing Pei Ye's dantian.

The feeling that this growth method of the meridian tree brought to the cultivator was that every advancement felt like an unprecedented surge of Qi in the body, and the next advancement would double this feeling.

Fourth Life, sixteen meridians. From this moment on, it represented that the youth began to rely more on Qi than his own root bone when facing enemies.

And after crossing this threshold, there was a brand-new wonder.

Seeing Pei Ye picked up a cup of water and completed the action of Qi wrapping in an instant. Under the lingering Qi, after three breaths, the water became hot again.

"Mm." Seeing Pei Ye smiled with satisfaction, as if he had found some new toy. He looked around, wanting to see if there were any other objects he could try.

And the girl was very familiar with this state of mind, looking at him with the eyes of someone who had been there before, and handed him a thin branch.

Seeing Pei Ye took it in his hand, poured Qi into it, and then stabbed it toward the table leg. With a "thud," the table leg was directly pierced through. Seeing Pei Ye's smile floated up again unconsciously, and then he continued to look around, still unsatisfied.

"Alright." Li Piaoqing laughed. "Don't break other people's things."

Seeing Pei Ye then gave a hehe smile and restrained his gaze.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 196 =====