nyslfriends Chapter 14 The Wang Family
Chapter 14 The Wang Family
Shen Gui gently pushed open the stone door to the basement, and a heavy, oppressive atmosphere rushed out.
On the stone bed, Wang Xiaoshi lay there with his eyes closed and his body stiff. His chest rose and fell so faintly that it was almost imperceptible. He was like a piece of dead wood without a soul, and he did not respond to any sounds or movements from the outside world.
Shen Gui shielded Ahe by his side, his tone calm: "Ahe, no one will disturb us here. You can explore carefully without any rush."
"Yes!" Ah He nodded emphatically, the playful smile on her face completely gone, leaving only seriousness.
She approached the stone bed and first gently touched Wang Xiaoshi's wrist pulse with her fingertips, then carefully probed his meridians with a gentle stream of magic power.
Following the principles of alchemy in "Tianyan Tongdan," he carefully pondered the disordered medicinal power and damaged Qi Sea within the young man's body.
Shen Gui stood to one side with his hands behind his back, keeping a watchful eye on any potential traps around him, while his sharp gaze swept over every corner of the basement.
Wotugou originally only had two cultivators, Wang Liu and Wang Xiaoshi. Now that Wang Liu is dead and Wang Xiaoshi is practically a cripple, the entire village has no cultivators left to protect it.
Shen Gui had already made up his mind to bring Wotugou under the jurisdiction of Daling Village, both to expand the villages under the sect's control and to accumulate incense offerings.
Secondly, by occupying this special spiritual field, the sect can add spiritual plant foundations.
That's why he searched with extra care, not letting go of any useful supplies or secrets.
His fingers slowly tapped along the stone wall, the sensation from his fingertips distinctly different from the solid ones. When he tapped the wall on the west side of the stone bed, the muffled sound was completely different from the others.
"There's a hidden compartment here." Shen Gui's eyes brightened slightly, and he gathered a wisp of magic power in his palm, pressing it down gently.
"Click".
With a soft sound, a half-person-high bluestone on the wall slowly moved aside, revealing a hidden compartment.
Inside the hidden compartment, three smooth and lustrous low-grade spirit stones were neatly arranged. Next to them was a light blue, feather-light metallic spirit object. It felt slightly cool to the touch and was probably of the Fetal Breathing Realm grade. Although Shen Gui couldn't name it, he could sense its extraordinary uses and that it should be an excellent material for crafting magic weapons.
"This is quite an unexpected windfall." Shen Gui chuckled and put all the spirit stones and blue metal spirit objects into his pocket.
Deep within the hidden compartment lay a yellowed, thread-bound book and an ancient, mysterious talisman.
The talisman's patterns were strange, somewhat similar to the God-Slaying Talisman of the old cultivator from Daling Village, suggesting it might also be a talisman from the same source, belonging to a wandering spirit.
Shen Gui lightly flicked his fingertips, infusing a trace of weak magical power.
Within his sea of consciousness, the Heavenly Bell suddenly trembled slightly, and an ancient flow of information surged into his mind, each word ancient and solemn.
"A relic of the Ghostly Path, which can be cultivated according to the original method. It consumes fifty Daoist merits to obtain the 'Luo Feng You You Jing' (Scripture of Wandering in Luo Feng), which can be cultivated to condense the Immortal Foundation [Luo Feng You]; it consumes hundreds of Daoist merits to return to the original method from the previous era."
"Luo Fengyou..." Shen Gui murmured to himself, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes.
Previously it was the God-Slaying Chapter, now it is Luo Fengyou; two completely different immortal foundations, yet both belong to the path of the Netherworld.
It seems that there is not only one path to cultivation for the Ghostly Path, and there is more than one way to cultivate a foundation for immortality.
However, the path to Foundation Establishment is profound and unpredictable, far beyond his current comprehension. Shen Gui suppressed his doubts, carefully put away the Luo Feng Talisman, and decided not to delve into it further for the time being.
He then picked up the yellowed book, which had no signature on the cover, but when he opened the first page, Shen Gui's face suddenly darkened.
These are experimental records written by the Wang family over several generations.
On the pages of the book, the handwriting differs, recording the mad schemes of several generations.
They forcibly infuse various spiritual objects into the bodies of young children, attempting to sever their consciousness and destroy their spiritual awareness, turning living people into soulless and mindless living dead.
Shen Gui guessed the purpose of the talisman's ability to separate the soul from the body. They wanted to use the power of the Ghost Talisman to try to transfer their souls into a young body and fulfill their delusion of seizing a body for immortality.
For this insane experiment, generations of the Wang family did not hesitate to use their own direct descendants. Wang Xiaoshi was not an isolated case, but the only "product" that was barely successful in the Wang family's experiments over several generations.
He retained his cultivation talent, but completely lost his mind and ability to move, becoming a lifeless object capable only of breathing exercises.
The words were filled with cold-bloodedness, causing a chill to gradually rise in Shen Gui's eyes.
"Ahe, come and take a look." Shen Gui handed the book to his little apprentice.
Ahe took the book with a puzzled look, but after reading only a few pages, her face turned deathly pale. Her little hands clenched into fists, and she trembled slightly with anger. "So vicious! How could they do such a thing to their own descendants! Turning people into living dead, just so they could possess their bodies and achieve immortality... The Wang family has been wicked to the core for generations!"
After reviewing all the records, she leaned over to check on Wang Xiaoshi's condition. Her small face was full of helplessness and regret. She gently shook her head: "Master, his Qi Sea has already been destroyed by the medicine, and his mind has been completely extinguished. I'm afraid it will be very difficult for him to recover in this lifetime. Moreover, he is currently relying entirely on spiritual objects to stay alive. Every year, he has to consume spiritual materials to maintain his vitality, which is simply unsustainable..."
Seeing his apprentice's conflicted and distressed expression, Shen Gui deliberately softened his tone and asked gently, "Ahe, what do you think should be done with him?"
Ahe trembled, looked up at Shen Gui, her clear eyes glistening with tears, her small lips pressed tightly together. After hesitating for a long time, she finally gritted her teeth and choked out, "Master... he... he's suffering more than dead living like this... why... why not give him a release..."
As she said those words, the little girl finally couldn't hold back her tears, but her eyes remained firm, showing no sign of backing down.
A feeling of relief welled up in Shen Gui's heart.
Ah-He is kind-hearted but not pedantic. She knows that pitying the wicked and prolonging one's life are futile. It is truly rare for her to make such a choice.
"Okay." Shen Gui nodded gently, stepped forward, flicked a wisp of sword light from his fingertip, and gently pierced Wang Xiaoshi's brow.
There was no pain; in an instant, Wang Xiaoshi's faint breath completely dissipated, and his stiff body slowly relaxed, finally escaping this fate of being worse than dead.
No matter how Xiao He answers, Shen Gui will do the same thing: kill the Wang family patriarch, because there must still be blood relatives or villagers in the village who have benefited from his kindness.
Shen Gui sighed inwardly; some potential problems had to be dealt with.
He closed his eyes and sensed the Heavenly Bell in his Sea of Knowledge; his Daoist cultivation level remained at two, without any increase.
He understood that Wang Xiaoshi had been a victim of manipulation from beginning to end, not an evil cultivator or a demon, so Mingtianzhong would naturally not judge his killing as meritorious.
Previously, he had obtained one power point for killing evil cultivators like Wang Liu. Combined with what he had accumulated before, he now had a total of two power points.
"Although my cultivation is limited, it's enough," Shen Gui thought to himself.
The rules of the Mingtian Bell are strict. Each person can only receive teachings twice per realm. He and Ahe had already used up their teaching opportunities in the Fetal Breathing Realm. If they wanted to receive teachings again, they would have to break through to the Qi Refining Realm.
Moreover, he now possesses the top-tier third-grade "Nourish Yuan and Nourish Wheel Technique" of the Canglan Sect, along with "Sword Dao Insights of Fengtian Palace Disciple" and "Insights on Observing Fetal Breathing Cultivation"; Ahe, on the other hand, has "Heavenly Flame Elixir" and "Nourishing the Field and Enriching the Spirit Method," so their foundations are already quite substantial.
The cultivation methods are already sufficient; trying to do too much at once will only lead to failure. The most important thing right now is to stabilize our cultivation level and strengthen our sect, rather than forcing ourselves to acquire more methods.
Shen Gui raised his hand to wipe away Ahe's tears and gently comforted her, "Don't cry, you did the right thing, he's finally free."
Shen Gui checked Wang Liu's room inside and out again, and found nothing missing.
He took Ahe's hand and walked out of the courtyard, his gaze fixed on the scattered houses in Wotugou, a look of certainty flashing in his eyes.
"From tomorrow onwards, Wotugou will be under our jurisdiction."