Chapter 45

Sunlight streamed through the window into the room, Liu Yanran, irritated, slapped the newspaper in her hand to one side, and the newspaper that was slapped aside had its biggest headline reading: 'Gang of tomb robbers run rampant, digging up graves at night to steal corpses, frightening night-time pedestrians; our city's public order urgently needs management, and people's property urgently needs protection.'

'Oh, you get scared too!' Zhou Shuo looked at the irritated girl, couldn't help raising his eyebrows. Although last night he had run away when urgent, the girl's actions were ultimately a bit slow, still frightening that drunkard from last night; the matter had already made the newspaper this early morning.

'Hmph, who said I'm scared? I… I just…' Liu Yanran listened to Zhou Shuo's words, couldn't help puffing her cheeks and glaring, insisting no one said she was scared.

'I… I just don't want to make a big deal out of it, I… okay! I'm scared.' Liu Yanran murmured her lips, finally choosing to lower her head and admit defeat; the matter had made the newspaper, and she was truly frightened.

'What are you scared of?' Zhou Shuo withdrew his gaze with a hint of amusement.

'Of course I'm scared my family will come looking for me.' Liu Yanran scratched her head, giving an answer that made Zhou Shuo glance askance.

'So you're not afraid of the law!' Zhou Shuo glanced at the little girl; this girl wasn't afraid of breaking the law, but was afraid of summoning her family.

'Breaking the law? Hmph, those old fogeys in my family fear it, but I don't.' Liu Yanran lifted her chin to show her disdain; as an otherworldly person, why should she bother with secular law?

'You fear your family's old fogeys, and your family's old fogeys fear the law.' Zhou Shuo, somewhat amused, summed up a food chain; this girl is truly ignorant and fearless, but from her current performance, that Complete Nature sect is certainly not any orthodox organization—an orthodox group would never recruit such a rebellious girl, let alone let anyone go dig up and steal corpses.

"Tsk, right, why are you still here? You aren't planning to leave?" Liu Yan Yan snorted disdainfully, and then suddenly realized, looking at Zhou Shuo sitting by the window, from last night until now this guy has been constantly by her side, seemingly still not intending to leave.

"I have nowhere to go." Zhou Shuo spread his hands, in this world he has no relatives in sight, and his identity is even more problematic; modern society is fine, but the problem is that the networked era makes information flow smoothly, he lacks an ID, so many things he can't do, and he can't just run around—if he runs into the police, it'll be hard to explain.

"By the way, you've finished your mission, aren't you going to look for Lu Liang?" Zhou Shuo didn't want to discuss with Liu Yan Yan where to go, but instead asked about the follow-up after she completed her mission to join the Whole Nature.

"He's not in this city; I have to go to the Ford Gate to find him." Liu Yan Yan looked at the guy who showed no intention of leaving, seeming mysterious and elusive, and couldn't help but purse her lips—this bastard.

"Ford Gate, this is Preserving Stability—there's still quite a distance, and you're still carrying a corpse? How are you supposed to get on the road?" Zhou Shuo glanced at the newspaper on the ground, that was the Preserving Stability Daily, and Ford Gate is Heaven Ford, although both are in North of the River, but there's still quite a distance between them; still, it's nice that geographical knowledge can be applied—in the Yang God and Qin Era, pointing east-south-west-north, he had no idea which direction was which!

"Why do I get the feeling you mean you want to go to the Ford Gate together with me?" Liu Yan Yan glared.

"Don't look at me like that—I've said it, I have nowhere to go, so I can only follow you; the Whole Nature, if possible, I'd also like to join?" Zhou Shuo looked at the girl glaring at him, blinked his eyes in reply—the Whole Nature isn't exactly a virtuous place, but it does have an air of freedom; possibly somewhat deviant, but it can at least give him a destination, without needing to worry about how to explain his origins.

"You've got it wrong—joining the Whole Nature with me?" Liu Yan Yan's pretty face flushed red; she even wanted to retort, "What's wrong with your brain? Just because you have nowhere to go you follow me—if I were to die, would you come with me?"

"Aren't you going home? Won't your family be worried?" Liu Yan Yan thought about Zhou Shuo's strength and suppressed her irritable aura.

"Home—there is none in this world; family—there is none in this world either." Zhou Shuo looked at the irritable girl and shook his head directly; what he said was all true, for this world he was still a newcomer.

"Where are you from? Who did you learn your martial arts from?" Liu Yan Yan looked at Zhou Shuo, who didn't seem to be lying, her gaze a little suspicious; she suddenly recalled that when she had just imparted some techniques, this guy asked many extremely foolish questions—only someone just starting out in qi refinement would ask such things—and why did this guy appear in the middle of the night in that graveyard?

"I've learned martial arts from many teachers; as for where I'm from—I really can't explain it clearly." Zhou Shuo raised his eyes, unable to tell you, "I'm a transmigrator from another timeline's Earth."

"Ah, these aren't the problem; the problem is you can't follow me." Liu Yan Yan lifted her irritated gaze, looking at the careless guy, and couldn't help but tug at her hair and scream—she herself is still a newcomer, awaiting testing to join the Whole Nature, how could she bring someone along?

"I'm hungry—go buy me something to eat; when you came over, I saw a bun shop outside, I'll give you money, I won't mooch off you." Zhou Shuo looked at the flustered girl, continued to look up at the dilapidated, moldy flat's roof, and flicked out a gold coin.

"I…" Liu Yan Yan looked at Zhou Shuo, who kept raising his gaze upward, and before she could finish speaking, a golden thread flew over; she hurriedly caught it in her hand and stared, momentarily stunned.

"What is this?"

"Gold coin, what are you saying?" Zhou Shuo looked at the dumbfounded Liu Yan Yan, feeling a bit embarrassed; he also wanted to give her RMB, but who knows if the currencies of the two worlds differ, and even if they don't, there'd definitely be duplicate serial numbers, so it's better to use hard currency—gold.

"Gold coin? You're giving me a gold coin? From what era did you transmigrate?" Liu Yan Yan looked at Zhou Shuo, and after a while managed to sputter out a sentence.

"Pre-Qin, this is a real gold coin; if you don't want it, you can give it back to me." Zhou Shuo looked at the girl who had just guessed his origin, smiled, and made an 'OK' gesture—hey, girl, you got it right!

"……" Liu Yan Yan looked at Zhou Shuo making the 'OK' sign with his hand, not knowing whether to cry or laugh—this really turned out to be pre-Qin!

Although she was torn between laughter and tears, Liu Yan Yan lowered her head to glance at the brand‑new gold coin in her hand, quickly weighed it, and felt its texture—this really did seem to be a genuine gold coin; just what kind of person is this guy, where did this coin come from, it doesn't look like a bank's commemorative coin, nor is it some craftwork.

A mist swirled around; Liu Yan Yan pondered for a long time but couldn't figure it out, and being urged on, she could only hold her breath and leave her temporary lodging, heading out to buy food as Zhou Shuo had said; meanwhile Zhou Shuo stayed in his hiding place, mentally summarizing the information about the world he had encountered so far.

In short, this is the world beyond the third gate, a modern cultivation world reminiscent of online novels; everyone's power originates from the primordial qi, those who can master the primordial qi and derive extraordinary abilities are called qi refiners, Zhou Shuo initially misheard it as "qi refiners" (the characters differ), and only after questioning Liu Yan Yan carefully did he realize the two terms are different.

The so‑called 'qi' (pronounced 'ji') is the fire of wu (pronounced 'ji'); the difference between this 'qi' and the ordinary 'qi' is that the former is innate while the latter is acquired, innate being the foundation and acquired the application. Zhou Shuo's internal qi‑refinement practice in the Qin‑era world already belongs to the realm of qi refinement, whereas the martial arts of the Yang‑God world stop at the level of acquired qi, and Daoist techniques also involve innate qi.

Generally speaking, Zhou Shuo only made a rough summary, because this world's cultivation system hasn't yet revealed its full picture to him; for now he's only seen a tiny bit from Liu Yan Yan, and he'll need to observe more in future encounters, but so far it seems the easiest for him to grasp, since it overlaps eighty percent with the modern world, unlike the backward feudal eras of the Qin era and the Yang‑God world.

In this world, extraordinary individuals who refine qi are divided into many different schools—religious, regional, familial—each with its own classifications. The Liu family, from which Liu Yan Yan hails, is famous for corpse‑driving in western Hunan; their techniques combine ancient sorcery with Daoist secret arts, granting the abilities to control corpses and to cultivate gu insects, but according to the method Liu Yan Yan recited, Zhou Shuo believes her training fundamentally centers on corpse‑worms.

Corpse‑worms, also known as corpse gods, in Daoist legend the human body contains three corpse gods: the upper corpse is named 'Pengju', the middle corpse 'Pengzhi', and the lower corpse 'Pengzu'; these three corpses are the manifestations of the three poisonous thoughts—greed, anger, and ignorance—that give rise to vexation and desire, damaging one's nature and shortening life, hence the legend says that one seeking immortality must first eliminate the three corpses.

The Liu family's method was formed upon the Daoist concept of the three corpse gods, though it's unclear whether they deviated from Daoist doctrine, received an incomplete Daoist technique, or for some other reason; they do not seek to kill the three corpses within the body, but instead blend this concept with ancient sorcery, using corpses to refine qi, training corpses and gu insects into incarnations. According to Liu Yan Yan, the Liu family's founding ancestor once cultivated three corpse‑demon incarnations, making a great name in the Three Xiang regions, but later generations gradually declined, only able to make a living by corpse‑driving; after forty‑nine years, when there were no more corpses to drive, they settled down honestly, and only after the reform and opening‑up did they turn to funeral homes, crematoriums, and autopsy rooms, preserving the craft from being lost.

From Liu Yan Yan's words, Zhou Shuo, aside from sensing resentment, also picked up on the fact that in this peaceful era, qi refinement is heavily restricted; that whatever Liu family, lacking the omnipotent sway often seen in webnovels, is still firmly suppressed by the state; for this, Zhou Shuo applauds, although he himself might now be considered an extraordinary individual, he was originally just an ordinary person, and he could never treat human lives as grass or trample the weak like ants.

Setting aside the bigger picture, Zhou Shuo turned his gaze back to the Liu family's technique; this family's method is quite interesting, because he is currently training the human immortal apertures, and the three corpse gods within the human body give him a sense of those apertures—not merely apertures, but also a feeling akin to the demonic contemplation of the Five Great Demon Gods and the Eighteen Mighty Golden Gods, indicating that qi refinement in this world has fully entered the dual cultivation of life and destiny.