Chapter 69: Soul Ink, From the Three Corpses

The night was deep, the mountain was silent, only the sound of cicadas seemed restless.

Shen family courtyard, inner hall.

Incense curled, circling among the tablets on the shrine; in a modern city, it was rare to have such an ancestral hall.

"Only because we cherish the true earth, does the golden elixir have a return..."

Just then, a low, old voice sounded faintly, causing the candle flames to jump.

Shen Xiangrong had just entered the door when he heard these words, and immediately stood respectfully to the side, no longer speaking.

"Wonderful... truly wonderful... Daoist Dan language is truly indescribable..."

That old voice sounded again, filled with a long aftertaste.

Stopping the mind is earth; stopping at the kidneys is Earth of the Earthly Branch, stopping at the heart is Earth of the Heavenly Stem; the combination of the two earths is the true intent, just like the earth, peaceful and immovable, not a single thought arising, suddenly manifesting the wonder of the golden elixir returning.

"It's a pity... the greatest sorrow of humanity lies in this; the heart-monkey is hard to subdue, the intent-horse is hard to restrain... how can one attain that Limitless Pure Yang Dao."

That old voice sounded again, filled with a trace of desolation and sorrow.

"Grandfather, you have sat in the mountain for twenty years, your nature cultivation is already deep, thoughts do not follow, you have already attained the true intent, it is not impossible..." Shen Xiangrong looked toward the depths of the ancestral hall and couldn't help but speak.

"Thoughts do not follow, already attained the true intent?"

Before the words fell, that old voice sounded again, interrupting him.

"Cultivation is the greatest obsession."

Once these words were spoken, Shen Xiangrong remained silent, as if chewing on the mystery in this sentence.

"Long Hu Dao Talisman... has that person been found?"

Just then, the old voice changed the subject, becoming extremely sharp.

"Not yet... there were too many people in the Talisman Refining Temple at that time, it was really..."

"Must find them!"

Shen Xiangrong's words were not yet finished when he was interrupted by the old voice, whose tone became heavy and cold.

"Zhang family of Long Hu... eighty years without incense rekindled, I must confirm whether this lineage has really broken its roots..."

"Grandfather, this lineage of Mount Long Hu has been passed down for so many years, it is inevitable that some methods have been transmitted externally; even if someone is proficient in Long Hu Dao Talismans, it may not be someone from the Zhang family..."

Shen Xiangrong couldn't help but speak; he really couldn't understand why his grandfather, who had lived in the mountain for twenty years and had excellent breath-cultivation skills, would be so flustered and restless at just the name of the Zhang family of Long Hu, as if it were an inner demon.

"You don't understand... you don't understand..."

"You haven't seen the people of the Zhang family... naturally you don't know..."

The old voice sounded again, filled with a trace of heaviness.

Shen Xiangrong remained silent; he knew that his great-grandfather had once worshipped under the gate of Mount Long Hu in his early years to practice Daoist methods; at that time, his grandfather had also lived on the mountain for a period, perhaps having contact with the people of the Zhang family of Long Hu.

"Arrogant... arrogant..."

The old voice sounded as if it were squeezed out from between the teeth.

"Even such a temperament can roam the Daoist sects..."

"No..."

Shen Xiangrong's words had not yet come out when they were denied by the old voice.

"That is not the arrogance of being pretentious, nor is it the arrogance of being proud and isolated..."

The so-called high and mighty still has levels of high and low, but the people of the Zhang family of Long Hu...

"Empty of everything, forgetting both self and objects... in their eyes, it seems even they themselves do not exist..." The old voice became a bit hurried, even a bit jealous.

"That kind of innate Dao sense and talent makes others have to lower their heads in front of them." The old voice gritted his teeth; he could not forget that experience in his childhood, no matter how hard his father tried, no matter how diligent he was... he could never catch up with their footsteps.

The achievements he had spent half his life fighting for and exhausting his heart's blood to obtain could not even reach the starting point of the Zhang family.

Such a contrast buried seeds in his young heart.

"It's a pity, Heaven favors the weak and dislikes the strong... the great calamity of the Daoist sects, this lineage is also finished..."

The old voice changed the subject, as if relieved, but that obsession had not yet dissipated.

"I don't care whether that person today is from the Zhang family or not, dig them out for me..."

"I want to let them see... how we Shen family surpass them..."

"Grandfather..." Shen Xiangrong's heart moved, following the jumping candlelight, he looked toward the inner hall.

A "creaking" sound came from a dark corner.

"I have already seen it, the 【Mysterious Mirror Treasure Record】 has not been affected; using that secret method, within three days, this treasure can be completed."

As the words fell, an emaciated old man sitting in a wheelchair slowly came out; his skin was like tree bark cracked by the sun, as if it would fall off with a gust of wind; with his breathing, the skin gradually expanded, smoothing out those cracks, and when exhaling, the skin returned to being wrinkled and withered.

"Grandfather, your talisman is used up."

Shen Xiangrong raised his eyebrows, looking at Shen Yinfeng's abdomen, where a bright yellow talisman was pasted, with strange patterns drawn on it, like an expanded abdomen, and there was also a ghost face on it, with tiny flesh whiskers derived from the talisman, like claws, embedded deeply into Shen Yinfeng's flesh.

At this moment, if observed with the soul, one could discover that those tiny flesh whiskers went directly into the body and were entangled with Shen Yinfeng's abdomen, and half of his lungs had become black.

"This 【Lung-Hiding Talisman】 is indeed easy to use, but it's a pity it consumes too much soul," Shen Yinfeng shook his head and pulled off the dim talisman in one go...

Immediately, a thick, black liquid dripped down, emitting a fishy, foul smell; the pattern on the talisman dimmed instantly, and a sound of painful roaring came out, gradually extinguishing.

"Soul as ink, truly mysterious," Shen Yinfeng said coldly.

He raised his hand, and a brand-new 【Lung-Hiding Talisman】 flew from his palm and pasted it in the original place; the flesh whiskers pierced in, accompanied by the sound of a woman crying, he let out a long breath of turbid air, his skin expanded, but quite a bit of dead skin fell off.

The lungs govern the skin and hair, including the pores of the human body, so human breathing is closely connected to the opening and closing of the skin.

Five years ago, Shen Yinfeng was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer, but he relied on this 【Lung-Hiding Talisman】 to prolong his life and survived.

This talisman is not too troublesome to make; the only precious thing is that it requires the soul of a living person as ink.

Shen Xiangrong remained silent; he knew that this method was transmitted from the page of the Heavenly Book obtained by his ancestors, and even the method of refining the 【Mysterious Mirror Treasure Record】 was recorded on it.

Just now, Shen Yinfeng said that if the secret method was used, it could be completed in three days... this secret method was the soul as ink.

The glory and goal of three generations of the Shen family would be realized at this moment; for this, any price was worth it.

Shen Xiangrong lost his father at a young age and was raised by his grandfather; the education and influence he received were also to make refining the 【Mysterious Mirror Treasure Record】 the supreme goal.

Now that this moment had truly arrived, he was more expectant and excited than anyone else.

"The soul is indeed the most wonderful thing in the world..." Shen Xiangrong looked at his grandfather, who was gradually recovering his strength and energy, and couldn't help but ask.

"Grandfather, now that the 【Mysterious Mirror Treasure Record】 is about to be completed, you can tell me now who the strange person who left the Heavenly Book to our Shen family was."

Eighty years ago, Shen Xiangrong's great-grandfather left Mount Long Hu and met that strange person, which changed his life's destiny.

This was the biggest secret of the Shen family; now, besides Shen Yinfeng, I'm afraid no one else knows.

"His name..." Shen Yinfeng pondered for a moment before saying.

"He was once the number one expert in the world..."

"Number one in the world... number one in the world... could it be..." Shen Xiangrong's expression changed slightly, as if he had guessed something.

"Three Corpses Daoist!" Shen Yinfeng murmured softly, spitting out that name.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 70 =====