Feng Ling’er ended her cultivation. She was not able to gain a fourth tail.
Stepping into the next major level of a realm required not only the accumulation of power but also the understanding of the technique and cultivation itself.
“Thank you, Aunty.”
Feng Ling’er bowed to Huyue three times then looked at Zhou Yi with her cerulean blue eyes.
It was no wonder that men loved vixens. Their delicate and touching affection could melt even a heart made of stone.
Zhou Yi waved his hand and returned Feng Ling’er into his sleeve. Then he turned to look at Huyue.
“Anything else you wish to say?”
“At least tell me, why do you have to kill me?” Huyue questioned. “I can sense that although you’re with the Demon Slaying Department, you’re not against the existence of demons.”
“I can’t tell you the exact reason,” Zhou Yi said, “but I can tell you one of the minor reasons… Some people say that you did not harm humans and therefore should be deemed innocent, but I disagree with that. I have to try to sentence you!”
Huyue sneered. “Tsk tsk, convict me in the name of human law?”
Zhou Yi shook his head. “Not the Law of Great Qian, but the Law of Heaven.”
As soon as he spoke, his blade slashed Huyue on the back of her neck. Her soul departed and she reverted to her original form of a white fox that was more than three feet long.
He adeptly peeled off her skin with no signs of rustiness in his movements.
The most valuable part of a white fox was its spirit eyes. Being able to see through illusion techniques while sealing away her powers and soul, would classify these eyes as an External Criterion of Gift.
Zhou Yi muttered to himself, “It seems that I was right.”
He flipped through the Demon Handbook…
The color of the illustrated white fox became a little more vivid…
Acquired 3-year Taoism attainment.
Huyue’s memories appeared before Zhou Yi’s eyes.
She was a descendent of the Immortal Fox of Greenhill. Unable to withstand the forest’s silence and the mundaneness of cultivation, she sneaked out of Greenhill Paradise and ran away from home.
She had passed through Great Qian’s capital city, where she indulged in the prosperous mortal world. She joined Spring Breeze Court in order to absorb Yang Qi, and with her innate charm of a vixen, she quickly became the famous star courtesan of the imperial city.
Spring Breeze Court was backed by an Enshrine Officer of the Deity-worshipping Department. As long as Huyue did not directly violate the Law of Great Qian, the Demon Slaying Department would not want to risk a conflict with the Deity-worshipping Department just to capture her.
In just a few years, Huyue’s power greatly improved. She got from seven-grade to six-grade. It was possible for her to even engage in Spirit Cultivation in the future.
Unfortunately, as much success as her beauty gave her, it was also the cause of her downfall.
A month ago, the crown prince of King Huai fell in love with Huyue. Day and night, he wallowed in affection. He even wanted to marry her.
This incident alarmed Princess Huai when she found out about it. She was enraged and so she sent her men to arrest Huyue. They tortured her and threw her into the Demon Slaying Department.
No one was bold enough to utter a word of plea to help Huyue. Neither the Enshrine Officer of the Deity-worshipping Department nor the crown prince of King Huai, who was self-proclaimed as being infatuated with her, did anything. They simply stood indifferently on the sidelines.
This was how she ended up in this dungeon.
“In this world, the only person you can depend on is yourself.”
Zhou Yi sighed as he carefully felt the magic power run through his body. Despite gaining only three years in Taoism attainment, he could feel that the quality of his magic had drastically improved.
Before the 10,000-year mark in Taoism attainment, his magic power was diluted, like water. Now however, it was thick like mercury. The same amount of magic could exert ten times the force it did previously.
It was somewhere along the lines of being able to refine Qi as if it was mercury.
Another major change was that Zhou Yi could vaguely sense the flow of energy between heaven and earth.
In this room, he could sense evil, death, resentment, murder, rage… and extremely faint signs of spiritual qi and lifeforce.
Evil Aura was all over the place in these torture rooms.
It was a feeling of being able to sense the ever-changing energies between heaven and earth. It was so complex that it was not even described in the Secret Tome of the Sky Fox.
“Perhaps I’ve stepped into an even higher level.”
Zhou Yi was a little proud, but also a little distressed.
The Demon Handbook’s reward was directly enhancing one’s magic power. He was powerful, but his understanding of the way of cultivation was inferior to even a lower-third-grade cultivator.
Zhou Yi’s method of forcing his way to the top was just like those depicted in legends. He did not train in magic and did not nurture his soul, and yet, his powers had risen to the extent where he could grab the stars and moons and play with the universe in his very hands. He was literally no different than a celestial being.
“It is true that a vixen who made her way into the handbook cannot be trusted. I helped her find a disciple to inherit her ways before she died, but she proceeded to plant a Curse of Vengeance in me.”
Zhou Yi probed his mind and the fox-shaped curse mark imprinted on his heart was forcefully washed away by his magic power.
A Taoism attainment of 10,000 years was absolutely terrifying!
Zhou Yi left the dungeon, and eventually, the executioner who was guarding the torture rooms finally broke out of his stupor.
In the illusion, the executioner was the one who killed Huyue, and upon waking up, he realized that his hallucination might have been reality.
True or false, if one could not wake up from a dream, that would become their reality.
It was too early. Not all his colleagues from the Resource Division had arrived. Zhou Yi greeted whoever was there and began copying a book.
When evening came, Zhang Cheng still had not shown up. Zhou Yi handed the book to Chief Secretary Chen and returned to the Tongfu Inn by himself.
Having worked at the Resource Division for about half a year, he had made a little bit more than a thousand dollars. This was a huge sum of money in the eyes of regular civilians. It could get them a house, a carriage, a wife, and still enough leftover to last them an entire lifetime.
Zhou Yi thought the same at first, but he realized he was wrong when he visited the broker house to inquire about housing prices.
The price of every courtyard within five squares of the Demon Slaying Department was no less than 10,000 dollars. After all, the location was one among Great Qian’s big four immortal departments; its existence itself made it a landmark. The high price tag was rather understandable.
Upon consideration, Zhou Yi decided that he did not mind staying further away, in more remote locations. After all, he could use the Five Elements Against the Heavens skill to ride on escaping light when he needed to travel to work.
However, upon inquiry, even the most remote and unprosperous Xingjiao Subdivision had a housing price of more than 3,000 dollars.
Settling in the capital city was no easy thing!
There were all kinds of problems within Great Qian’s borders. Demons were rampant, rebels were rioting, but overall, the city was many times more prosperous than the ancient society in his previous life.
Back at Tongfu Inn.
Zhou Yi had become friends with the innkeeper. As they had dinner, they chattered about the interesting events going on in the city.
Information spread the fastest at inns. Today’s hottest topic was that Great Qian’s army had defeated the Night Fork Demon King’s rebel army and reclaimed most of the nation’s lost territory.
The innkeeper was extremely excited as he described how the great general Gongsun Qi dispatched his troops, laid down traps, and defeated the Eight Heavenly Kings in one fell swoop. It was as if he had experienced those events himself.
1,500 years into Great Qian’s establishment, the prestige of the imperial family, the Li family had long been deep-rooted in the bones of the people. Almost everyone believed that rebels were no more than a negligible ill.
Zhou Yi returned to the guest room. He sat cross-legged on the bed and delved into the Secret Tome of the Sky Fox.
The Secret Tome of the Sky Fox was divided into three volumes that described the nine stages of cultivation.
The first volume, Body Refining, could be split into three levels, namely skin, flesh, and bone.
Minor demons at this stage would gain a massive boost in intelligence and size, thus propelling them far above their kin.
Not only could they morph into a human form, but they could also deceive mortals by relying on illusion techniques.
They could even alter their bones, forsake their innate qualities, and transform into a middle-third-grade major demon.
“Well, humans don’t do bone altering. There should be some other standards. Characteristics that may define the Prenatal Stage should be interconnected meridians and whatnot.”
Zhou Yi went on to the next volume.
The second volume was called Qi Refining Stage Major Demon. Firstly, it talked about how to funnel Qi into one’s body and then accumulate them at one’s skull, and at last, converging them at one’s elixir field to form a Demon Pill which powers correspond to the middle-third-grade.
“Demon Pill… I guess this is equivalent to Buddhist relics. They’re strange, secretive, and difficult to be appraised.”
Zhou Yi looked at the final volume, Mind Refining Stage. It was the volume that intrigued him the most.
Being at the Mind Refining Stage would allow you to proclaim yourself as Demon King.
During the initial phases, you would have to cleanse your mind, return to your origin, rediscover your nature, and visualize your spirit.
Next, you needed to train your Qi and mind in concert by funneling your Qi into your mind and thus converting the Yin energy of your soul to Yang energy.
And then, you must constantly nurture your own Yang Energy to the point where you create another lifeform out of your own energy.
When you accomplish that, you can travel across the four seas, sleep in the wilderness, slumber beneath the eternal moonlight, feed on clouds and flower dew…
Looking at the final pages of the volume, it was obvious that the one who wrote this manual had succumbed to the devil of his imagination. Why else would they have the fantasy of immortal beings into a technique manual?
“???”
Zhou Yi read the pages over and over again. He could read the words and understand the vocabulary, but when he put everything together, he was left feeling confused and bewildered.
Based on the two volumes of Body Refining and Qi Refining, Zhou Yi could roughly understand their principle and was able to exercise the techniques with the magic within his body.
Zhou Yi could freely control the magic power which he had gained via cultivating in the Huang-ting Scripture. As long as he willed it, he could immediately condense a Golden Core in his elixir field, stomach, or even in his palm.
However, cleansing one’s mind, returning to one’s origin, rediscovering one’s nature, and visualizing one’s spirit was difficult to understand and exercise.
The very first instruction of the Mind Refining Volume had him completely confused.
He closed his eyes, sunk into his thoughts, meditated, refined his Qi, emptied his mind…
He tried all kinds of methods but was unable to locate the Yin Energy within his soul.