Chapter 16: Black-Skinned Book

Behind the small mountain, in a meadow full of blooming flowers, in front of an inconspicuous, newly turned mound of earth, Wang Yu stood quietly, holding the black-skinned book in one hand.

"Master, you said you hoped to be buried whole in a place with flowers and grass after death, and the disciple has already done so. But Master, did you foresee this day long ago? Otherwise, why would you leave a last word in your notes, and hope that the person who inherits your mantle will go to the Li family in the future? But the disciple is afraid he cannot do this." Wang Yu muttered to the mound while shaking his head repeatedly.

His consciousness would return to Blue Star in a few days, so how could he go to a place tens of thousands of miles away? However, this note really recorded the method to leave this area of Huang Shi City.

"Hundred Treasures Pavilion, Chishuihe."

Wang Yu muttered the two names.

Just at this moment, a clear cry came from high in the sky, and a bright green little bird descended from the sky, landing on a small tree near the mound. After chirping and calling on the branch for a while, it spread its wings and flew away.

"This bird seems a bit familiar."

Seeing this scene, a trace of doubt flashed across Wang Yu's brow, but in the end, he took the black-skinned book and left.

Speaking of which, although Master Chongyun only accepted him as a disciple for a short dozen days, he was quite good to him. But because the two had spent too short a time together, to say how sad he was at this moment was really a bit of an exaggeration; it was more like the sudden passing of an elder with whom he had a good relationship, and he felt a little uncomfortable in his heart.

Wang Yu found the small stream outside to drink some water, returned to the grotto, and after eating some dry rations randomly, sat cross-legged on the ground, browsing the black-skinned book in his hand again.

This book was just as Master Chongyun said. The first half was all notes made by the Daoist at will, not only containing some cultivation insights of the Yin Water Art but also some travel experiences, recording many things and common sense related to cultivators.

This finally gave him a general understanding of the cultivation world.

Take cultivation, for example. According to the notes, the speed of a cultivator's cultivation, besides the quality of their own spiritual roots and cultivation techniques, is also related to the heaven and earth spiritual energy of the place of cultivation.

For low-grade cultivators, the former has no choice, because the quality of the spiritual roots transformed from spiritual seeds depends entirely on heaven's will, and external forces basically cannot interfere. Cultivation techniques are not easily passed on; being able to find a Qi Refinement Stage cultivation technique that can be practiced to the perfection of Qi Refinement is already something to be thankful for.

Therefore, only the place of cultivation can be chosen by oneself.

The notes say that the first three levels of the Qi Refinement Stage are the "pseudo-cultivation" stage of the early Qi Refinement Stage. As long as you have spiritual sense and are planted with spiritual seeds, you can successfully cultivate in any place. But after the third level of Qi Refinement, you must find a spiritual domain place where 'spiritual veins' exist to continue cultivation; otherwise, the concentration of heaven and earth spiritual energy will not be enough to satisfy subsequent breathing and cultivation, and your cultivation will not advance.

The fourth to sixth levels of Qi Refinement are the middle stage of Qi Refinement, and the seventh to tenth levels are the late stage of Qi Refinement. After the tenth level of Qi Refinement, you enter the stage of Qi Refinement perfection, and you can break through the bottleneck of the Qi Refinement Stage to the Foundation Establishment Stage, which also requires more heaven and earth spiritual energy to assist; otherwise, you will likely fail to break through.

But spiritual veins are very rare, often born in famous mountains and rivers, and sometimes shift and change according to the tides of heaven and earth spiritual energy. Areas where spiritual veins have never been born are called 'Spirit-Dead Lands', while areas where spiritual veins appear and disappear from time to time are 'Residual Spirit Lands'.

Master Chongyun specifically mentioned in the notes that the Huang Shi City area is a small and famous 'Residual Spirit Land'. Every ten years, there will be a spiritual energy tide, and a first-rank temporary spiritual vein will be born somewhere in this area. At that time, it will be occupied by the cultivation family 'Huang Family' for cultivation. At the same time, they also let the mortals in nearby towns help them plant 'spiritual rice' that requires a lot of spiritual energy to grow, which is used to assist the Huang family members in cultivation. This is the true face of the 'spiritual service' once every ten years in Huang Shi City.

But the entire Huang Shi City area is located in a huge basin, surrounded by steep high mountains and wild dense forests, inside which there are many fierce monsters, and there is no land road at all for mortals to pass. Even low-grade cultivators are very dangerous to go inside.

The only way for ordinary people and low-grade cultivators to leave this area safely is the Chishuihe that runs through the entire Huang Shi City. This river connects to Tongzhou of Wu State, but this river is surging and surging, some river channels are unfathomable, and there are many fish monsters. Mortal boats cannot walk on the river. Only a cultivation force in Huang Shi City called 'Hundred Treasures Pavilion' will use a special type of giant building boat every year to transport some people in and out of Huang Shi City. Of course, these people have to pay a huge boat fee. Master Chongyun also came to Huang Shi City like this.

The book also mentioned that the 'cloud pattern' he saw on the 'White Cloud Sutra' earlier is actually a spiritual pattern. Each spiritual pattern has a certain mysterious power. If they are composed into special patterns and then inscribed on objects, they become "inscription patterns" or "inscriptions", and the objects will have incredible abilities, thus becoming magic tools.

Of course, those 'talismans' used by these cultivators also have spiritual patterns called 'talisman patterns' or 'talisman texts' drawn on them, which can stimulate various magic effects.

When Wang Yu saw this, he couldn't help but take out the three yellow talismans and the 'Mysterious Wind Fan' from his bosom. After looking at the identical patterns on the talismans and touching the bumpy patterns on the surface of the fan, he felt a bit enlightened in his heart.

These are all the so-called 'spiritual patterns'.

Besides this, the Daoist's notes also recorded that besides the Qi Refinement Stage and Foundation Establishment Stage, cultivators also have a higher Golden Core Stage realm, but besides this, there was no more mention, as if Master Chongyun himself did not know much about the later realms.

The second half of the black-skinned book, just as the Daoist said, recorded the twelve-level cultivation method of the Yin Water Art, and finally, there were three prescriptions, and the Blood Refining Soup was one of them.

The other two prescriptions, one is called 'Wood Flower Powder', and one is called 'Bone-Corroding Water'. The former is an internal medicine for regulating mana disorder, and the latter is a highly toxic substance that can directly corrode flesh and even ordinary clothing into water.

Seeing the effect of the Bone-Corroding Water described in the notes, Wang Yu felt a chill on his back. His 'Master' even had such prescriptions, which shows that he is not an ordinary cultivator.

At the end of the notes, there were clearly a few last words added by Master Chongyun recently.

It said that he recently felt that the Huang family was testing him again and again, and their attitude had changed, so he was preparing to leave Huang Shi City within half a year. But if an accident happened during this period, he hoped that his remains would be buried in a place with flowers and grass, and everything on his body would belong to the person who got the notes. If the person who got the notes was his disciple, he could use his identity token to join the Li family.

Wang Yu slowly closed the black-skinned book. There was a lot of information recorded inside, and he had to organize and digest it slowly.

The only pity was that the book did not record any tricks, which made him unable to understand how the magic of cultivators was used and controlled.

He put the black-skinned book on the ground in front of him and looked at the other pile of things placed nearby.

Besides the jade pendant, bright green gourd, and empty iron box left by Master Chongyun, there was an extra small iron shield with a large hole broken on the surface, a gray cloth bag, and a thin, flesh-colored leather glove.

These last few things were all found on the corpse of the City Lord of Huang Shi City. As for the corpse, it was thrown directly into the bronze tripod and turned into ashes.

Wang Yu picked up the jade pendant and checked it carefully.

The jade pendant was pure white, with several simple leaf-shaped patterns on the surface. On one side of the center, a 'Li' character was inscribed, and on the other side, there was a 'Clan' character.

He looked at it several times, and inadvertently waved the jade pendant over the ground nearby several times.

Suddenly, the two big characters on the jade pendant both glowed with faint white light, and the dust on the ground nearby rolled away in all directions, and the ground nearby became exceptionally clean.

This jade pendant can be used without mana and has a magical effect of 'avoiding dust'.

Wang Yu was overjoyed and tucked the jade pendant into his bosom. It seems that with this thing, he won't be too dirty even if he doesn't take a bath for a long time.

He picked up the broken iron shield again. This thing was black, and it didn't look big, but it felt heavy in his hand. A chill came when he touched it with his hand. He flicked it with his finger, and it made a dull buzzing sound.

This material doesn't seem to be ordinary steel; it seems to be the same material as the empty iron box.

Wang Yu picked up the iron box again, compared the two, and finally reached a conclusion.

It's just that there are three spiritual patterns similar to 'cloud patterns' on the surface of the small iron shield, while the surface of the iron box is smooth, without any decorative patterns.

But since that City Lord of Huang Shi City used the small shield as a magic tool for self-defense, it must be of great value.

Wang Yu thought this way, drew the silver thin sword, and slashed the iron shield a dozen times with a "Clatter, clatter, clatter." There was not a trace on the surface, but it made the webbing between his thumbs feel faintly hot.

Wang Yu was secretly shocked. If this material were used to forge swords, wouldn't it be at the level of a divine weapon?

He couldn't help but pick up the small iron shield and wave it a few times, but nothing unusual happened, so he could only shake his head and put it down, and then picked up the bright green gourd.

After Wang Yu shook it lightly twice, a sound of liquid sloshing could be heard vaguely inside, so he put the Foundation Establishment spiritual object back on the ground and picked up the thin glove.

The flesh-colored leather glove was only discovered after he threw the City Lord of Huang Shi City's corpse into the bronze tripod. After all, other things were burned to ashes, and only this glove was intact in the raging fire. No matter how you look at it, it is not an ordinary thing.

Wang Yu slashed across the glove with a sharp sword blade, leaving only a white mark on the surface, but it disappeared quickly and returned to normal.

This magical performance made Wang Yu overjoyed, and he hurriedly put the glove on his right hand. It was light and soft, very elastic, without the slightest stuffiness.

More importantly, this thing was very similar to skin. If you didn't grab the palm and look at it closely, you really couldn't tell that you were wearing a glove.

I don't know what material this treasure is woven from. It is fireproof and invulnerable to swords and guns. It seems that if there is a chance, he can practice the skill of snatching swords with bare hands.

As for the last inconspicuous gray bag, Wang Yu felt a bit of a headache about it. ===== CHAPTER 17 =====