Chapter 195

Chapter 195

This newcomer was much more casual than Li Miao–partly because we knew him better, and partly because of his personality.

He shouted at the top of his lungs while walking inside as though he owned the place.

He did not even remove the straw rain cape draped over his body. Water dripped from it and soaked the floor around the threshold.

It was Yuan Fei.

Old Cao said disdainfully,

“You didn’t even remove your rain cape. Now you’ve soaked my entrance.”

Yuan Fei waved a hand.

“Oh, don’t worry about details like that, Brother Cao. There’s going to be a flood-dragon ascension near Longduo Mountain. Didn’t you get the news?”

Everyone inside, including Li Miao, shook their heads.

I was only a student.

Old Cao and Li Miao were extremely capable and highly skilled in their trades, but both had relatively reserved personalities. They quietly handled their own work and did not enjoy dealing too much with other “colleagues”…

In the language of the later internet era, they were homebodies.

Yuan Fei was precisely the opposite. The man had a terminal case of social-butterfly syndrome!

He traveled constantly through Fubei, the surrounding counties, and several nearby prefecture-level cities.

He helped many people and befriended quite a few others in trades that made their living from the dead, giving him a broad network–although Old Cao claimed they were merely drinking buddies.

But one had to admit, when it came to gathering news of every kind, Yuan Fei really was better informed.

“You seriously aren’t going to Longduo Mountain to see the excitement? Esoteric practitioners from several nearby counties and cities are already heading there. The news will probably spread to the neighboring provinces soon… But it’s the middle of the night and storming violently, so anyone too far away probably won’t arrive in time.”

“We’re going! Of course we’re going.”

I answered immediately, unable to hide the excitement in my voice.

This was an enormous python monster with centuries, perhaps even a thousand years, of cultivation, attempting flood-dragon ascension…

It was a spectacle that came once in a thousand years!

Missing the chance to witness it in person would be an unforgivable waste.

Old Cao and Li Miao both smiled faintly when they saw my excitement.

They were clearly very interested too.

Their personalities were simply steadier than Yuan Fei’s, so they did not shout and make a commotion.

Old Cao asked me,

“Xiao Wu, how are you feeling? If the earth-vein qi keeps surging and running wild, will you be unable to use your arcane techniques for the time being?”

I ended my meditation, stood, and brushed the dust from my clothes.

As I did, I answered,

“Since Uncle Yuan says an enormous python monster really is preparing for flood-dragon ascension near Longduo Mountain, the chaos and violence in the earth-vein qi probably won’t stop anytime soon.”

“I’ve temporarily sealed my Dantian Palace and Jiangyuan Palace so my sense of qi can’t leak out. That way, even if the python monster begins its flood-dragon ascension and drives the earth-vein qi into a frenzy, it won’t affect me.”

Yuan Fei immediately cut in, staring at me in shock.

“What’s wrong, Xiao Wu? You can’t use arcane techniques? Then how can we guarantee your safety while watching that python monster transform into a flood dragon?”

He was not the only one. Li Miao also frowned and looked at me in confusion.

I had not yet told either of them about the primal pure and turbid qi between heaven and earth, or how absorbing turbid qi alone had caused changes in my body.

I was not deliberately hiding anything. I simply had never found the right opportunity or reason to explain it.

Now, I smiled and said,

“Uncle Yuan, Brother Li, I’ve run into a small problem with my cultivation. It’s true that using arcane techniques isn’t suitable while the earth-vein qi is in turmoil. But what does that matter?”

“Even if I could use them, do you expect me to fight a python monster undergoing flood-dragon ascension?”

Yuan Fei looked utterly speechless.

“Of course not. An enormous python monster on the verge of transforming into a flood dragon… even the River God along this stretch of the Chuan River in Fubei probably wouldn’t dare provoke it.”

“It would take the leader of a major sect, or the government deploying aircraft, artillery, and modern heavy weapons.”

Exactly!

I laughed loudly.

“We’re only sneaking a look at the python monster’s ascension from the sidelines. We’ll satisfy our curiosity and see whether the sight brings us any insights into our states of mind. We aren’t insane enough to try stopping it.”

“The main purpose of having arcane techniques at our disposal would be protecting ourselves from injury in the wilderness on a stormy night. If that’s all we’re discussing, I can manage even without them.”

As I spoke, I clenched my right fist, drew it back to the side of my waist, then drove it sharply upward along my body’s centerline. My wrist twisted, and I snapped the fist forward into a chopping motion.

Crack!

A sharp report rang out.

My sleeve caught the air. Under the high-speed chop, it produced a sound like a firecracker exploding.

The expressions in Yuan Fei’s and Li Miao’s eyes changed.

Li Miao exclaimed,

“Young Brother Wu, what kind of kung fu was that? That punch looked incredibly powerful… It felt like an ax suddenly chopping downward, and it even created a rush of wind.”

Yuan Fei clenched his fist and tried chopping downward several times with all his strength, but produced no sound.

“Good heavens! How strong do you have to be to make a punch crack that loudly?”

I smiled and shook my head.

I explained that it was not a matter of strength, but of applying “force” through boxing technique.

“That move was the Splitting Fist from Xingyi Boxing. Many internal martial arts originally developed from fighting with cold weapons on the battlefield, so they contain the spirit of those weapons.”
The Splitting Fist transformed an ax into a fist.

The fist chopped downward just like an ax cleaving through something!

That also showed Li Miao had an excellent eye. He knew nothing about kung fu, yet he could still perceive the image of a great ax chopping within my Splitting Fist.

“As for the cracking sound, that means I’ve developed overt force. It’s the first threshold of genuine mastery in internal martial arts. As the saying goes, a thousand pieces of gold can’t buy a single crack–the goal is to make a punch explode like a firecracker.”

“So even if I can’t circulate qi or use arcane techniques, my control and cultivation of my physical muscles are already enough to keep me safe.”

“I might even have enough attention left to look after you, Uncle Yuan. Ha!”

I was joking, of course.

After all, only a handful of trades, such as coffin bearers and corpse retrievers, demanded physical strength.

The physical fitness of most practitioners from arcane lineages was no better than an ordinary person’s.

Those who followed particularly unorthodox paths might even be weaker than a healthy ordinary person!

Someone like me, who had already crossed the threshold of internal martial arts, possessed at least two or three times an ordinary person’s overall physical abilities. I had no reason to worry about my safety while secretly observing the python monster’s flood-dragon ascension.

Yuan Fei patted my shoulder, chuckled, and waggled his eyebrows.

“It really is wonderful to have a powerful Master.”

Then he looked at Old Cao.

“Shall we prepare to leave? Longduo Mountain is more than seven miles from here. In pitch darkness and a raging storm, we’ll take forever without using some special methods. So…”

“Hmph!”

Old Cao pretended to be angry.

“I wondered why you were kind enough to brave the storm and detour through Lianghe Town just to notify us. You came for my paper horses! In wind and rain like this, they’ll easily get soaked and ruined.”

Yuan Fei rubbed his hands with an expression that said, You can’t fool me.

“Brother Cao, you don’t need to use those two paper horses that have developed spiritual resonance. Just find a few ordinary ones that work. You provide the horses, and I’ll provide the Water-Repelling Talismans. How about it?”

He pulled four talismans from his pocket, looking rather pained.

“What?”

I exclaimed, “Uncle Yuan, where did you get something this advanced? Water-Repelling Talismans… These are quite advanced within the talisman arts.”

As the name suggested, attaching one to the body prevented heavy rain from touching the wearer.

It could even repel water at depths of less than sixteen feet–although it would fail if one went too deep.

Its water-repelling effect was inferior to the transparent bubble spell Bai Su had devised herself. But because the talisman attached directly to the body, it allowed far easier and more flexible movement!

You did not have to stay trapped inside a transparent bubble, moving with extreme caution for fear of bursting it…

Old Cao laughed heartily.

“Fine! If I can make a miser like you bleed for once, I’ll provide the horses. Little Hu, take four paper horses from the coffin in the northeast corner.”

“Yes, Boss.”

As Wang Hu spoke, he floated along the ceiling to the corner. He released wisps of pale smoke, lifted four paper horses made from bamboo strips and white paper out of the coffin, and placed them before us.

I could clearly sense that these four paper horses were completely different from those kept in the corridor beside my upstairs bedroom!

Those paper figures and paper horses were filthy, yet they carried an indescribable quality.

They seemed extraordinarily real!

If you stared at them, you felt they might come alive in the very next instant. They also felt inexplicably solid and sturdy to the touch.

The four paper horses before us, however, were far more fragile…

What caused the difference?

It lay in two words: spiritual resonance!

A practitioner of the paper-effigy craft could infuse qi into various paper objects while constructing them. If fortune aligned and the practitioner’s mind merged perfectly with the qi at that moment, the finished paper object could develop spiritual resonance.

Put simply, the paper object awakened spiritually.

That awakening did not mean an inanimate object had developed intelligence, but it still became far more capable and durable than an ordinary paper object… Such creations were the practitioner’s proudest works.

As a funerary-paper artisan, Old Cao made paper crafts whenever he was not building coffins. Any object that occasionally developed spiritual resonance was stored upstairs.

Ordinary pieces were kept inside coffins.

Those made solely through craftsmanship, without any qi infused into them, were displayed for sale at the stall beside the entrance. Ordinary people could purchase them, and they possessed no mysterious abilities.

“Wonderful! Riding to Longduo Mountain will be much faster and easier.”

Delighted, Yuan Fei attached one Water-Repelling Talisman behind the neck of each paper horse.

Old Cao murmured an incantation and pointed repeatedly through the air at the four paper horses, releasing streams of invisible qi.

Neigh!

The four paper horses began moving on their own and reared their front legs.

“Excellent! Brother Cao’s spirit-paper arts are every bit as profound as his coffin-bearing arts. I’ll choose this one. Its color is festive! Ha!”

Yuan Fei selected a paper horse decorated with red rice paper, swung into the saddle, and waited for us with a grin.

The four of us who needed mounts, including me, each chose a paper horse and climbed on. Unlike the two horses that possessed spiritual resonance, these could not carry much weight and required one rider apiece.

Woof, woof, woof!

Heizi wagged its tail, ready to depart at any moment.