nyslfriends Chapter 47 When you're traveling, you give yourself your own identity.
Chapter 47 When you're traveling, you give yourself your own identity.
The Liuwan Mountains stretch across the heart of southern Xinjiang.
The mountains here are strangely shaped, with peaks jagged like dog teeth, shrouded in miasma like a gray veil all year round, and drizzling rain never stops. The primordial energy here is disordered, poisonous insects abound, and various ethnic groups live together, their power intertwined and complex.
The heretical sect, the Seven Fiends Sect, is located here, casting its shadow over an area of thousands of miles.
The Taoist temple buildings are built against the steep peaks, their black tiles and white walls hidden in the miasma, looking like a crouching giant beast from afar.
Deep within the Seven Fiends Path lies a solitary peak.
This peak is named "Star Gazing Platform". It is thousands of feet high and surrounded by sheer cliffs on all sides. It is connected to the main peak only by an iron suspension bridge.
The platform is as flat as a mirror, paved with jade, and engraved with intricate star patterns. The starlight flows, seemingly echoing the stars in the sky.
An old Taoist priest with a long beard, wearing a Taoist robe with star patterns, was sitting cross-legged in the center of the star map.
The old Taoist priest's face was withered, his skin clinging to his cheekbones, his eyes sunken, except for a pair of eyes that shone with a terrifying light, like two cold stars embedded in a skull. His long hair was gray, casually tied up with an ebony hairpin, with a few strands falling across his forehead and fluttering in the mountain breeze.
His eyes were slightly closed, and his breathing was in sync with the mountain breeze.
Beside the old Taoist priest stood a star chart about half the height of a person.
The astrolabe is cast in an unknown dark gold, with seven ferocious beast shapes embossed on its edges.
As Xu Changqing devoured the fate stones of the Altar Toad, the third one, which was grayish-yellow and shaped like a crouching giant toad, suddenly made a soft "crack" sound.
The old Taoist suddenly opened his eyes and looked at the star chart. He saw that the life star stone symbolizing the altar toad had exploded and turned into dust that fell down in a flurry.
At the same time, the gray-blue stone, which had been dull and shaped like a cowering mouse, suddenly began to glow with a faint light.
A faint, ethereal blue light rose from the stone, condensing into a phantom image above the surface of the plate. The phantom image spread its wings, resembling an eagle spreading its wings, covering the original rat-shaped carvings.
The old Taoist stared at the new marking, his long beard trembling slightly, before slowly speaking after a long while.
"Even that weakling seventh brother has managed to stir up trouble?"
He extended his withered finger and made a light tap on the astrolabe.
The surface of the plate shimmered with light, and of the other six engravings, five remained lit, while the third had completely dimmed.
"How pitiful. Of all my disciples, the third one is the greediest, wanting to devour everything. Like a greedy wolf devouring fortune, he keeps eating and eating, only to end up feeding himself into someone else's mouth."
"The third brother is dead, and the seventh brother's destiny has changed." The old Taoist stroked his beard and muttered to himself, "The rat has transformed into a hawk. Was he possessed, or did he have some other extraordinary encounter?"
He suddenly remembered the letter he had received a month ago. It said there seemed to be unusual activity at Qingyang Mountain, and Tan Chan had personally gone to investigate. At the time, he thought it was a trivial matter. What trouble could that good-for-nothing Xu Ming possibly cause? It was the Prince of Jin's covetousness of the Seven Killings destiny that made him think twice.
In retrospect, we underestimated it.
The old Taoist priest gently stroked the edge of the astrolabe with his withered fingers.
"No matter what, once you're in the game, there's no escaping it..."
The old Taoist chuckled twice and closed his eyes again.
......
In the quiet room, a solitary lamp casts a dim light, illuminating the cold, desolate walls.
He placed the items he had taken from the three people—the Altar Toad, the Poisonous Lady, and the Joyful Buddha—on the prayer mat under the lamp.
"This is a storage artifact transformed from the stomach of the Altar Toad, which it refined with its innate divine power. Indeed, it has turned into a rare treasure."
He found a dark yellow fleshy sac-like stomach inside the toad's carcass.
This object is about the size of a palm, warm to the touch, with a fine, silky texture on its surface and a subtle sheen.
Xu Changqing used his magic to investigate and found that the interior space was actually three zhang square, much more spacious than ordinary storage magic artifacts.
Even more remarkably, this stomach can automatically absorb and release the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, nurturing the contents within and preventing the loss of medicinal properties and the dimming of the magical artifact's spiritual light.
"Let me see what treasures are inside."
Xu Changqing emptied all the contents of his stomach.
With a crash, a pile of items scattered on the ground, a dazzling array.
The first thing that catches the eye is a fist-sized, multicolored crystal, with what appears to be flowing mist inside and a faint, sweet, fishy smell.
"Five Poisons Qi Crystal?" Xu Changqing's eyes lit up slightly.
This item is made by collecting the essence of the five poisons and supplementing it with special earth vein evil energy, and condensing it over many years. It is extremely poisonous to ordinary cultivators, but it is a rare treasure to those who cultivate poison techniques and refine poison-based magical artifacts.
"Not bad, it can be refined together with the poison pearl of the Centipede Child." Xu Changqing put it away with satisfaction.
"The Devouring Method of the Greedy Wolf," "Strange Tales of Insects in Southern Xinjiang," "Miscellaneous Compilation of Poisonology"...
After quickly skimming through it, Xu Changqing put it aside, intending to read it more carefully later.
The Poisonous Woman's possessions consisted mostly of various live or dried poisonous insects, strangely colored powders and liquids, leather scrolls recording Gu techniques, and several poisonous materials.
One of the bracelets, woven from colorful silk cords, had ingenious knots and meticulous weaving. Faint shadowy figures of Gu worms could be seen moving about within it. Its aura was the same as that of the Seven Emotions Bewitching Gu, clearly indicating that it was an auxiliary magical artifact for controlling or nurturing Gu worms. At this moment, its spiritual light was dim.
There was also a thin booklet made of some kind of animal hide, with the title "The Essentials of Breeding Seven Emotions Gu" written in cinnabar on the cover.
A cursory glance reveals detailed records of the cultivation, control, and methods of combating the Seven Emotions Gu, as well as various accompanying poison and illusion techniques. While it may not be considered a top-tier inheritance, its strength lies in its unconventional and bizarre methods, and some of its ideas are worth learning from.
The relics of the Blissful Buddha were even more abundant. A heavy satchel contained many obscene "enhancement" drugs, erotic scrolls made of special materials, several small Buddha statues with lewd shapes, and several heretical Buddhist scriptures. The covers were titled "The Great Blissful Sutra" and "The Secret Practice of the Dakini," and when opened, they were full of images of men and women having sex accompanied by fallacies and heresies.
The dark, glossy prayer beads lay quietly in his palm. They were heavy and cold to the touch, and their surface was covered with intricate and twisted scriptures and patterns of male-female intercourse. They also retained a considerable amount of power to bewitch the mind.
In the storage space of the Blissful Buddha, the truly valuable item is a gold-powdered scripture book, the cover of which reads "The Root Seal of the Great Blissful Dakini." Although it is a classic text of the Blissful Zen lineage, its explanation of the use of consciousness is quite subtle. Putting aside its lewd uses, its understanding and application of mental power is indeed unique.
Xu Changqing put it away separately, intending to study it carefully when he had time in the future, taking the essence and discarding the dross.
Finally, his gaze fell upon the several thick, dark, and large, processed objects. These objects were sealed in a jade box by the Buddha of Joy, with red paper labels on the box bearing phrases such as "Dragon Spirit and Tiger Might" and "Golden Spear Never Falls."
"Huh, deer penis, tiger penis..."
Xu Changqing looked at those towering, thick, black things and couldn't help but feel annoyed.
He had intended to offer all these miscellaneous items as a sacrifice to the altar of the demonic path, but halfway through reaching out his hand, he inexplicably stopped, glancing around guiltily. The quiet room was empty except for him, and the night outside the window was deep, with only the sound of the wind rustling through the pine branches.
"Ahem..." He cleared his throat, a righteous expression on his face, and quickly put the boxes of beast whips into his storage magic artifact, hiding them in the deepest part.
"This isn't what I, Daoist, need," Xu Changqing muttered to himself, as if trying to convince himself. "The main thing is that this stuff... can fetch a high price. Yes, that's it. Those powerful and wealthy people love this stuff and are willing to pay high prices to buy it. It's hard currency."
After taking inventory, Xu Changqing categorized the numerous magical materials and cultivation manuals and stored them in his storage artifact.
After doing all this, he took out a palm-sized token from Tan Chan's belongings.
The token is made of black jade, which feels warm and cool to the touch. The front is embossed with a "晋" (Jin) character in a vigorous and powerful style.
The back is engraved with the words "Guest Minister" and below it is a line of smaller characters "Made by Imperial Decree in the Year of Bingchen". The edges are decorated with cloud patterns, and the workmanship is exquisite, exuding an air of majesty.
As magical power surged in, the character "晋" (Jin) shone brightly, followed by a continuous flow of spiritual energy.
"Although I killed Senior Brother Tan Chan," Xu Changqing said, toying with the token and a smile playing on his lips, "that doesn't stop me from being a guest advisor to Prince Jin."
He tossed the token up and caught it steadily.
"After all, when you're out in the world, you give yourself your identity. Besides, who can prove that I, Daoist, am the murderer?" Xu Changqing's smile deepened. "We have witnesses. If anyone has any doubts, they can go to the Chunyang Dao and ask my master."
"Hehe, once I refine Senior Brother Tan Chan into my Thousand Transformations Divine Banner, I'll be able to walk with his appearance and aura. Let's see who can still say I'm not Tan Chan, the guest elder of the Prince of Jin's mansion."
Xu Changqing already had a plan in mind. The "Thousand Transformations Skin Demon Scripture" was incredibly profound; the skin created from it could not only change its appearance, but at its peak, it could even simulate aura and the fluctuations of destiny. If he refined the skin of the Altar Toad into the Thousand Transformations Divine Banner, he could disguise himself as the Altar Toad, and it would be extremely difficult for anyone other than a cultivator at the third realm or above to detect him. His identity as a guest elder of the Prince of Jin's mansion might come in very handy.
Xu Changqing put away the token, sat down cross-legged, closed his eyes, concentrated, and looked inward at himself.
Within his dantian, the killing energy was even more profound and condensed than before, faintly shimmering with a hazy glow. This meant that Xu Changqing's magical energy had reached the peak of the Qi Refining Realm.
The crimson-gold killing sword seed in the center of the Qi Sea became even more formidable after this battle.
With a thought, the azure eagle reappeared. Its eagle head had completely transformed into a wolf's head, its gaze cold and greedy. Within the azure light flowing around it, there was a trace of barely perceptible gray-yellow energy, the residual aura of the Greedy Wolf destiny, which was being slowly digested and integrated by the eagle.
Xu Changqing could feel that his spiritual power had greatly increased, and his sensitivity to the spiritual energy of heaven and earth had become more acute. It was as if he had gained an invisible pair of eyes that could see many subtle details that he had previously overlooked.
More importantly, he inherited Tan Chan's innate supernatural powers and some of his magical insights.
Although it cannot fully replicate the power of the "Greedy Wolf Devouring Fortune Technique," its understanding of laws such as "devouring" and "plundering" has become much deeper.
In the future, practicing similar techniques will be much easier and more effective.
However, he felt little joy; instead, a sense of unease arose within him.
The hunger and pleasure I felt when I devoured the Toad's destiny still lingers in my heart. It was like tasting the most tempting delicacy in the world, making me want to taste it again and take another bite.
The seven evil spirits devour each other like a drug addiction; once tasted, it's hard to resist the temptation again. Over time, one's character is inevitably eroded, becoming increasingly cold-blooded and greedy, viewing all living beings as resources, ultimately losing oneself in the pleasure of plunder and devouring, turning into a monster who only knows how to take and has no humanity.
The same applies to the "Scripture of Killing to Refine the World". The Heavenly Venerable bestows blessings, and there are no taboos. However, Xu Changqing only now truly understands that if one is truly immersed in killing, then it is not a blessing, but an endless cycle of suffering.