Chapter 350: Top Scholar Chen's Sense of Insecurity |
Tong Qianshou was about to toss the pouch in his hand, while Sang Xixi had yet to leave. The two of them stood there, staring blankly at the scene.
Sang Xixi had already prepared herself to return and report the old sect master Tong Qianshou's death, announce herself as the next sect master. She had even pictured in her mind the great drama of fellow disciples fighting for the sect master position, uncles and aunties jumping out to cause trouble, and herself tearfully using gunpowder to send them all to heaven.
Yet before she could even leave, the battle was already over.
Was the top scholar really this powerful?
They couldn't care less about who the top scholar was. All previous top scholars were children of powerful noble families—what did it matter to them who the scholar was?
They didn't pay the court's affairs any mind either.
All the Medicine King Sect had to do was gather herbs everywhere, refine spiritual elixirs and miraculous medicines, and pass down their ancestors' legacy.
But this year's Top Scholar Chen seemed to walk a rather wild path.
Not only was his path wild, but his strength was also incredibly high. Pi Chi was a high-grade bloodline among ghosts and monsters, with terrifying power, yet Chen Shi killed him in a flash.
And what shocked them even more was that the methods Top Scholar Chen used to kill these ghost gods were by no means mortal spells. They weren't orthodox at all—they looked more like the legendary demonic arts!
Because the ghost gods who died at his hands had withered, dried-out bodies, as if all their vitality had been sucked away!
Such techniques were definitely not righteous!
Top Scholar Chen definitely didn't look like a good person!
But considering that Chen Shi used them to save people, it seemed hard to fault.
"Did he really awaken the Medicine King's primordial spirit?" Tong Qianshou thought to himself.
For the past year or so, when the disciples of the Medicine King Sect worshipped the Medicine King, they could always feel a strange power responding to them. But when they tried to trace the source, they couldn't find it. The Medicine King was the founding master of their lineage. If Chen Shi truly was the one who awakened the founding master's primordial spirit, no repayment would be too great.
That was also why Tong Qianshou had intended to help even at the cost of his life earlier.
Even if Chen Shi cultivated demonic arts, he didn't care.
Chen Shi stood there motionless.
His killing of Pi Chi earlier might have seemed reckless, but it was actually the result of precise calculation and arrangement. First, he killed the ghost gods around Pi Chi at the fastest speed, absorbing their blood energy to strengthen his sword aura. When the sword aura reached its peak, he used a drop of divine blood, pouring its power into the sword aura to break Pi Chi's ghost god true form, thus succeeding in one strike!
But after Pi Chi was killed, the power within the sword aura had to return to his own body.
This was the characteristic of the Blood Lake Sutra.
The Blood Lake Sutra plundered and absorbed others' blood energy, soul essence, and spirit, strengthening the cultivator's own cultivation and power, and expanding the Blood Lake Hell. Thus, the blood energy plundered after killing would feed back to the cultivator. The soul of the killed person would also be plundered, imprisoned in the Blood Lake Hell to be saved!
The power contained in that single drop was too strong. Now, carrying Pi Chi's blood energy back, it all had to be infused into him and the blood pond!
Fortunately, Chen Shi had killed Pi Chi and seized his divine soul, turning the blood pond into a blood lake. The Blood Lake Hell activated, swallowing like a massive whale absorbing a rainbow, taking in the excess power.
At the same time, the Blood Lake Sutra was repairing the cracks in his bones at an astonishing speed!
But the remaining power was still terrifying. Chen Shi's bones had just recovered when they immediately crackled and popped, with cracks appearing all over his body again!
Then the Blood Lake Hell activated again, and Chen Shi's bones recovered once more. But the next moment, there was another series of crackling explosions, with bone fragments flying everywhere!
Strangely enough, as these bone fragments flew out, they were connected by blood energy that pulled them back, reforming into complete bones.
Suddenly, Chen Shi lifted his foot and walked toward the birdcage on the ground. The moment he raised his left foot, it exploded, with countless bone fragments flying. When his body leaned forward, the fragments flew back and reformed into a leg bone.
Chen Shi raised his right foot, and it also exploded with a pop. When it landed, the flying bone fragments returned to form a complete right leg.
As he walked toward the birdcage, various parts of his body kept exploding, reforming, exploding again, and reforming again.
With each reformation, his skeletal body became more stable than before—equivalent to being tempered thousands of times!
Not only that, but traces of divinity within the divine blood were also being refined into his skeleton.
Moreover, his Primordial Spirit, under the force of this overwhelming power, constantly cracked and then healed again!
Every time he was injured and healed, he could feel his Primordial Spirit becoming more stable than before. His soul in particular was continuously strengthened!
"Establishing the Blood Lake Hell to save these evil-doing ghost gods truly brings immense merit, helping me greatly increase my cultivation!"
With a heart full of kindness, Chen Shi arrived beside the birdcage. The power within the divine blood was gradually absorbed by him, the blood lake behind his head had grown larger, and his cultivation was more profound than before.
He opened the birdcage, and Peng Yan'er sobbed, "Brother Chen Shi, they captured Brother Peng Ju and forced him to hand over the Blood Lake Sutra!"
Chen Shi asked carefully and learned that all the ghost gods of Heavenly Pool Kingdom were illiterate. Although they had many inherited cultivation techniques, everyone was completely in the dark and couldn't cultivate. They could only rely on bloodline awakening to improve themselves. After Peng Ju returned to the Eastern Palace, the Eastern Palace people investigated the whereabouts of Herding Ghost and Shen Beast. The trail led to him, and they also found out that he knew the Blood Lake Sutra, so they captured Peng Ju.
"Peng Ju can't read either. I taught him the Blood Lake Sutra. Peng Ju didn't betray me, or else Pi Chi would have come to capture me and take me back to the Eastern Palace," Chen Shi thought.
He and Peng Ju were merely chance acquaintances without much friendship. He had only taught the siblings the Blood Lake Sutra because he found Peng Ju simple and honest, and Peng Yan'er cute—nothing more.
"Peng Ju didn't betray me, so I won't stand idly by!"
Chen Shi said to Peng Yan'er, "Come with me into the Eastern Palace to rescue your brother. Do you dare?"
"I dare!" Peng Yan'er said crisply.
Chen Shi smiled. "Good! Then let's enter the Eastern Palace!"
Tong Qianshou and Sang Xixi listened nearby and finally understood the whole story. Sang Xixi asked in confusion, "How do you know Peng Ju is imprisoned in the Eastern Palace?"
Before Chen Shi could explain, Tong Qianshou spoke up: "None of the ghost gods here can read. Peng Ju knows how to cultivate—this matter is too significant. If the Crown Prince learns the Blood Lake Sutra, he can secretly increase his strength and soon become the most powerful ghost god in Heavenly Pool Kingdom in terms of cultivation and power. Then he would no longer be the Crown Prince but the ruler of Heavenly Pool Kingdom. Therefore, Peng Ju can only be imprisoned in the Crown Prince's Eastern Palace. Would the Crown Prince feel at ease if he were imprisoned elsewhere?"
Sang Xixi suddenly understood.
Chen Shi said to the two, "Sect Master Tong, Officer Sang, I still need to go to the Heavenly Pool Kingdom capital to rescue someone. I can't accompany you two to meet your founding master. After you two return to the mortal world, you can go to Xinxiang County on Qianyang Mountain to see Magistrate Hu. Magistrate Hu will take you to Sha Qiutong, who will guide you to the Medicine King's ancestral temple."
Tong Qianshou thanked him repeatedly.
Sang Xixi pulled him aside and said, "Are we really going back to see the founding master and not help?"
Tong Qianshou said, "Meeting the founding master is most important. Our Medicine King Sect has been declining over the years, and most of the founding master's inheritance has been lost. Now that we finally have a chance to revitalize the sect, how can we give it up?"
Sang Xixi said, "Top Scholar Chen awakened our Medicine King Sect's founding master first, then told us the location of the ancestral temple. How can we just watch them go to the Eastern Palace and die? If they go to rescue people, our Medicine King Sect must help."
Tong Qianshou hesitated for a moment, then said, "You go back and tell the sect elders. You will temporarily lead as the Medicine King Sect Master. If I come back alive, I'll continue as sect master. If I don't come back alive, you'll be the sect master."
Sang Xixi laughed. "Sect Master, you're so used to handing over your legacy that you've got a whole routine. You don't know Heavenly Pool Kingdom as well as I do. Those two don't look very smart, and if you tag along being all clueless too, won't you just be going there to die?"
Tong Qianshou was so angry he wished he could drop dead right then and there just to spite her.
Sang Xixi continued, "So you go back to see the founding master. I'll help them. At least that gives us some chance of winning."
Tong Qianshou hesitated.
Sang Xixi laughed. "If you let me go back, there'll definitely be people in the Medicine King Sect competing with me for the sect master position. I definitely won't let them have it, so I'll either poison them or use gunpowder to send those fellow disciples on their way, and maybe a few elder uncles and aunties too. After I firmly sit in the sect master's seat and you come back alive, I'll have to send you off as well—too much trouble. Just you go back, and I'll go with them."
Tong Qianshou knew she meant well, so he had no choice but to say, "Go with them and help rescue people. If you come back alive, I'll appoint you as the next sect master."
"It's a deal!"
The two hooked their little finger bones.
Tong Qianshou took out a stick of incense. The energy of incense offerings drifted into the air as if pulled by something, then suddenly disappeared as if entering another world.
Meanwhile, at the Medicine King Sect, the disciples keeping vigil suddenly saw a wisp of incense energy appear in front of the sect master's coffin, drifting toward the nostrils of his corpse. They quickly shouted, "The sect master is coming back! Hurry and summon his soul for the sect master!"
The Medicine King Sect disciples immediately raised the Soul-Summoning Talismans and activated them.
Beside Sang Xixi, before Tong Qianshou's stick of incense had even finished burning, his skeleton suddenly crashed to the ground with a clatter. His Primordial Spirit was pulled back to the mortal world by the Soul-Summoning Talisman.
Sang Xixi quickly caught up with Chen Shi and laughed, "You two, how do you plan to rescue someone?"
Chen Shi said, "Sneak into the Crown Prince's Eastern Palace, find Peng Ju, rescue him, and leave."
Sang Xixi couldn't help but laugh. "If you go in like that, you'll definitely be beaten to death. There are indeed plenty of cultivators' ghost souls hanging around in the Heavenly Pool Kingdom capital, but they all wear clothes. You need to get yourself a set of clothes."
Peng Yan'er said, "I wove a set of clothes for Brother Chen Shi with my feathers, but the ghost gods scattered them."
Sang Xixi shook her head. "That won't do. Our Medicine King Sect has a foothold in the Heavenly Pool Kingdom capital. There are some clothes there—I'll find you a set. Also, how will you sneak into the Eastern Palace? It'll be hard to get in with the identity of a skeleton cultivator. Even if you can find Peng Ju and rescue him, how will you leave? You can return to the mortal world, but those two can't go to the mortal world."
Chen Shi asked for advice, "Then what should we do?"
Sang Xixi laughed. "Our Medicine King Sect has some connections in the Heavenly Pool Kingdom capital. Many ghost gods also seek our Medicine King Sect members to cure their illnesses. We make money in both the underworld and the mortal world. I can help you sneak into the Eastern Palace. I can't help with the rescue, but I can cover the retreat. Our Medicine King Sect has gunpowder, which can be used to cover the retreat. But I only have two hundred jin here. I'll need to wait a few days and have the Medicine King Sect send more to the underworld..."
"How much do you need?" Chen Shi interrupted her.
Sang Xixi looked at him in surprise and said, "Do you have gunpowder?"
Chen Shi laughed. "I once served as the Grand Emissary of Guangji Treasury in Western Capital. I embezzled a bit of the firearm stores and kept them in my small temple, just in case."
Sang Xixi said, "Take them out and let me see if there's enough."
With a thought, Chen Shi released the firearms stored in his small temple.
Sang Xixi stared blankly at the mountain of ammunition piled up before her—shot, iron caltrops, General Cannons, and packages upon packages of gunpowder!
The iron caltrops among them were the most eye-catching, taller than her and incredibly massive!
More importantly, these firearms were all inscribed with thunder talismans, and even Yin Lightning talismans, making the explosive power even more terrifying!
Especially the Yang Lightning talismans—setting off divine thunder from the Nine Heavens in the middle of a pile of ghost gods in the underworld would certainly be a spectacular scene!
"Are you here to rescue people, or to blow up the Eastern Palace?"
Sang Xixi murmured. "Keeping these things by your side—aren't you afraid of blowing yourself up too?"
Chen Shi looked a bit embarrassed and explained, "I was bullied as a child, so I have a strong sense of insecurity. Only by sleeping on top of ammunition do I feel at ease."
Sang Xixi glanced at him, deeply suspicious. But then she excitedly opened her pouch and started stuffing these treasures inside. Although the Medicine King Sect was also skilled in making gunpowder, they weren't very good at firearms. Though Sang Xixi, as an officer, often blew things up, the power was always unsatisfactory.
Chen Shi's firearms were enough for her to have a blast.
Chen Shi watched as she stuffed his General Cannon into her pouch and frowned. "You won't need this, right?"
"I will!"
Sang Xixi's voice trembled slightly. "When I go back to the Medicine King Sect, I'll set it up on the ancestral graves of all the past sect masters. Let's see who dares to say a word!"
Chen Shi watched as she also loaded his dragon-headed rockets into her pouch. He coughed and said, "Can you at least leave me one... Forget it. Take them all. My Lu Ban Sect has already started manufacturing these firearms."
Sang Xixi's eyes lit up, and she quickly said, "Is the Lu Ban Sect still looking for a sect master? Even a sect master's wife would do! I can immediately betray the Medicine King Sect and defect to the Lu Ban Sect!"
Chen Shi felt that this woman was even more dangerous than himself. He thought, "If she enters the Lu Ban Sect, Sect Master Situ will probably be blown to bits within a few days."
The great waterfall that fell from the sky was called the Heavenly Cascade. The water flowed into the large and small lakes of Heavenly Pool.
The capital of Heavenly Pool Kingdom was built about a hundred li from the Heavenly Cascade, constructed by the lakeside.
There were no city walls or gates here. The architecture was very casual. Whenever a ghost god fancied a piece of land, they could mark it off and post a notice. Soon, groups of Little Yakshas, ox-head lesser ghosts, and horse-face lesser ghosts would swarm over, chattering noisily with the ghost god to discuss the matter, and then start building a house.
Different ghost gods had different living habits, so the houses they lived in were also bizarre and varied—some were towers, some were stone caves, some were underwater mansions.
Aside from the Heavenly Pool Kingdom capital, there were villages and towns of all sizes, often built around remnants.
Those remnants were traces left by prehistoric civilizations—massive magic treasure fragments, towering city walls, broken bridges, ancient roads, and sculptures of ghost gods.
Villages were built around these things, somewhat similar to the Godmother culture in the mortal world. Chen Shi couldn't help but wonder, "Could there be evil spirits in the underworld too?"
He asked Peng Yan'er, who shook her head. "There are no evil spirits. But once a month, there's a Fog Moon. The Fog Moon is terrifying. In the places where the fog covers, dead things come back to life."
Chen Shi was surprised. "There's a moon in the underworld?"
He had been to the underworld many times but had never seen a moon in the sky!
"There is."
Peng Yan'er said. "It appears once a month. Like the eye of a Dark Grass, with a pupil inside. When it appears, it gurgles and spews out thick fog. The fog is tall and thick. The houses of our Fu Bird Tribe must be built above the fog, or else we'll be eaten."
"The moon in the underworld... is also an eye?"
Chen Shi was even more surprised, gazing toward the sky of the underworld. Could it be that there was also a Celestial True God in the underworld?
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