Vile Cultivator Methods, the Curse-Subduing Art

Vile Cultivator Methods, the Curse-Subduing Art

"Over the years, which county in Dongjun hasn't considered getting rid of your River God incarnation?"

"Even the prefect of Dongjun has considered making a move against you several times!"

"And I was the one who stopped all of them for you."

Listening to Cha Liangcai's words, the jade statue's voice regained its initial composure.

"I know all that. I know. So don't worry. Once I recover, I'll definitely help you form your core."

As it spoke, the jade statue seductively painted a splendid vision of the future for Cha Liangcai. "By then, your Cha Family will become Qing Province's fourth Golden Core Realm power! Even the Qi Kingdom imperial family will have to heed your attitude, and Dongjun will become the fief of your Cha Family."

Cha Liangcai was swayed by the future the jade statue described, but he regained his composure after only a moment. "Let's hope so."

With that, Cha Liangcai rose and left the secret chamber.

Once outside, Cha Liangcai's expression darkened uncertainly. Once you recover, what place will there still be for my Cha Family? This time, I'll use this opportunity to find out exactly where you came from!

In the empty secret chamber, the jade statue remained silent for a long while before slowly speaking. "Hmph, I knew these old fellows who have clung to life for centuries were all old foxes. Luckily, I never placed my hopes on them."

"It is not yet time. I can wait. I can endure."

"Until I recover..."

The River God of the Taiping River was clearly not the sort to sit still and await death. He soon took action.

Inside a gambling house somewhere in Dongjun Commandery City, the gambling house owner hid in a secret chamber and fervently knelt before a jade statue. "Master, what are your orders?"

A majestic voice emerged from the jade statue. "The Qingshan County magistrate has grown restless. He intends to have a group of Rogue Cultivators disrupt the River God Grand Sacrifice and ruin this god's great undertaking!"

"Go contact those vile cultivators and demonic path cultivators. Have them muddy the waters in Qingshan County. It would be even better if they can kill the Qingshan County magistrate, so he does not stir up any further trouble."

The gambling house owner's fat body trembled with excitement. "Rest assured, Master. This servant will handle it at once!"

What happened in this gambling house was far from an isolated case.

Several places throughout Dongjun Commandery City received the same order.

Some were innkeepers, some were madams of pleasure houses, and some were owners of wine estates. Who would pay attention to these seemingly ordinary businessmen?

And who could have imagined that they had long since sold their lives and fortunes to another?

Very soon, the vile cultivators and demonic path cultivators hidden in the shadows of Dongjun received a new job. Their target was the upcoming demon-slaying operation in Qingshan County.

Quite a few vile cultivators even planned to use this chance to gather more living souls in Qingshan County, obtain blood food to feed their ghosts, or seize strong-bodied people to refine into several blood corpses.

To vile cultivators, nothing could not be exploited. Human bones, flesh, and organs could all be used to refine artifacts, pills, or cultivation methods, while intact human bodies could be refined into puppets or blood corpses.

In the past, suppressed by the Qi Kingdom court and the aristocratic families and Dao Palaces across the land, vile cultivators had been unable to raise much of a storm. But now that so many Rogue Cultivators had entered Qingshan County, this was undoubtedly a fine opportunity.

The demonic path cultivators' thoughts were even simpler. Whether slaughter or blood sacrifice, such things had always been their usual way.

They did not care how many people the River God Grand Sacrifice in Qingshan County would affect. They cared only whether they could profit from it and undermine the stability of the region.

As long as they could shatter a place's order and stability, they could grow like wild weeds.

Because of Qingshan County's series of grand, high-profile actions, Dongjun, once a stagnant pool, began to turn murky as all sides stirred its waters.

Every faction was restless, quietly waiting for the winds to rise in Qingshan County.

Once the storm broke, who knew how many would try to fish in muddy waters, and how many would watch the fire burn from across the river?

Qingshan County lay against mountains and beside water, blessed by nature.

Its population exceeded two hundred thousand. It could not be called anything but prosperous.

Qingshan County Seat in particular had towering walls. Within the city were more than twenty-three thousand households and a population of one hundred thousand.

Every day, its markets and shops bustled with carriages and pedestrians, flourishing beyond compare.

Though it was already deep winter, the streets remained crowded.

Peddlers weaving through the streets and alleys cried out their wares, while commoners and merchants bundled in winter clothes wandered and browsed. The scene was especially lively.

Great Qi lay at the easternmost edge of the Eastern Domain Continent, and like the Lu Kingdom to the south, bordered the vast, boundless Eastern Sea.

Qing Province of the Qi Kingdom lay along the Eastern Sea coast, so its winters were especially cold and received somewhat heavier snowfall.

Snowflakes drifted across Dongjun today. They danced and whirled through the sky, and when the cold wind blew, the falling snow fluttered in sheets—a lovely sight indeed.

At the fish market in Qingshan County Seat, a middle-aged man around thirty or forty, who looked honest and simple, squatted on the ground in worn winter clothes. Large fish were laid out one after another on the stall before him.

The man tucked his hands into his sleeves and breathed warm air into them, calling out from time to time, "Fish for sale! Fish for sale! Fine, fresh big fish!"

Several hooligans who loafed around the various markets spotted the man. After confirming that he was not a resident of Qingshan County Seat, they immediately stepped forward and surrounded his fish stall.

"You new here?" one hooligan asked, eyeing the middle-aged man askance.

The middle-aged man bobbed and bowed, looking exceptionally meek. "Yes, sir, I'm new here. I heard Qingshan County is holding the River God Grand Sacrifice, so I thought I'd sell some fish and bring a little food home for the children."

The leading hooligan sneered. "Do you know that setting up a stall at this fish market requires payment?"

The middle-aged man froze and said dryly, "But... but I never heard..."

"What does a newcomer like you know? Hand over one tael of silver for your stall fee, or we'll seize your stall outright!" another hooligan barked.

The middle-aged man was completely dumbfounded. At a loss, he looked at the hooligans. The other fish sellers nearby quickly shifted farther away, lest the hooligans start smashing things and affect their business.

"Quit standing there! Pay the stall fee already!" the leading hooligan said impatiently.

The middle-aged man repeatedly waved his hands. "But... but I just set up my stall. How could I have any money?"

"No money? Then pay with fish!" one hooligan said, picking out a fine large fish.

The other hooligans followed suit, each taking a large fish as they laughed and joked.

The middle-aged man looked as if he wanted to flare up, but in the end, he did not say a word. He silently crouched back down, head lowered.

The hooligans laughed even more merrily at the sight. The leader even said, "You know what's good for you. We'll waive today's stall fee!"

With that, the hooligans left in high spirits, carrying the fish and swaggering away.

The middle-aged fish seller seemed deeply shaken. He quietly packed up his stall and disappeared into the crowd, leaving behind only the helpless sighs of the other fish vendors.

That night, the hooligans slaughtered the large fish in their own courtyard, boiling and grilling them until the fragrance filled their mouths.

But they did not know that the middle-aged man whose fish they had robbed that day was silently conducting a ritual in an abandoned, desolate courtyard.

The object of his worship was, astonishingly, a lifelike stone fish!

"My good child, hurry and go eat blood food. Eat more. Fill your belly and grow quickly."

As the middle-aged man worshipped, the stone fish suddenly came alive. A gray, misty fog carrying the smell of water plants and fish drifted out from it. The fog circled in the air several times, then shot toward a courtyard.

The hooligans inside that courtyard were still feasting and drinking when they suddenly found it difficult to breathe. Their throats went hoarse, leaving them unable to make a sound, and their faces turned blue from suffocation.

They did not notice that a gray, misty fog had already entered their bodies.

Within only a few moments, the hooligans discovered in terror that something inside them seemed to be constantly gnawing at their organs and flesh. Yet their bodies did not grow thinner. Instead, they kept swelling.

In the end, each of them had bloated to three or five times his original size, collapsing onto the ground without the strength to struggle any longer.

They could only watch helplessly as their organs were devoured clean and the flesh within their bodies was replaced by water plants and river water.

When the hooligans were discovered the next day, they had already swollen beyond recognition, their skin blue to the point of near transparency.

By the time the constables from the arrest squad arrived, the corpses were so distended that they could scarcely hold together.

Through that thin layer of human skin, one could see that there was not the slightest trace of flesh or bone inside the bodies—only clumps of blackened water plants and muddy river water.

The arrest squad constables were no fools. One look told them this was beyond their ability to handle, so they immediately reported it to County Magistrate Zhang Qingyun.

When Zhang Qingyun received the news, his first thought was that his daughter had been right. The demons of the Taiping River had indeed sent someone to cause trouble!

Before long, Zhang Qing and Xu Xiao arrived at the scene.

Looking at the several corpses swollen almost to the point of bursting, Xu Xiao briefly sensed the lingering aura and made her judgment. "This should be the work of a vile cultivator."

Zhang Qing did not know much about cultivators' methods, so she asked quietly, "Is this difficult to deal with?"

Xu Xiao formed a sword gesture with two fingers. Several streams of spiritual energy pierced the bloated corpses, and foul-smelling water plants and muddy river water immediately splashed out!

Just as the blackened water plants were about to spray onto the surrounding people, Xu Xiao raised a jade hand. Icy blue spiritual power transformed into a deep azure mist that shielded everyone.

When the mist dispersed, the water plants and muddy river water remained frozen in the shape they had taken when they splashed outward, transformed into an ice sculpture.

Seeing Xu Xiao's immortal-like methods, the arrest squad constables cried out in amazement, all exclaiming that an immortal maiden had descended into the mortal world.

Xu Xiao, however, merely said to Zhang Qing, "Let's discuss this after we return."

After returning to the county office, Xu Xiao explained matters to Zhang Qingyun and Zhang Qing based on the knowledge she had gained from the Moon-Embracing Sect's library and what she had seen during her travels throughout Qing Province. "To put it plainly, when vile cultivators harm people, they often set bait, just like hunters hunting prey."

"A piece of meat you eat, a cup of tea you drink, or even a copper coin you casually pick up can become the medium for a vile cultivator's spellcraft."

"These methods are all low and dirty tricks, but their strength lies in how difficult they are to guard against. Ordinary people would not even know they had been harmed."

Zhang Qing pondered this. "So this is the terror of the Curse-Subduing Art. If those vile cultivators are truly allowed to harm people freely within the city, I fear that within a few days, the entire Qingshan County Seat will descend into chaos."

Dear readers, I regret to report some unfortunate news. Lin Yuan's contract signing this week will likely have to wait several more days. Here's what happened: Lin Yuan was lucky enough to pass the internal submission, posted the book last Tuesday, and could have signed on Wednesday. But after receiving advice from an expert, I was told that signing on Monday of this week would have better feng shui. Lin Yuan believes in mysticism, so I delayed the signing until Monday. Unfortunately, Lin Yuan anticipated everything except getting blocked by phone number real-name verification at the time of signing! Since Lin Yuan's original phone number was not registered under my own name, I got a new number instead—at the cost of a full two hundred and thirty yuan. But the signing failed repeatedly. Later, after the editor pointed it out, I learned that a newly issued phone number needs several days before it can be entered into the main database. Unwilling to accept this, rage rose in Lin Yuan's heart and evil sprang from the gallbladder, so I decided to transfer the old phone number and try again! But then the editor told me that after transferring ownership, the old phone number would also need several days to be re-entered into the main database. I'm so sad. I excitedly got a phone card, thinking I could sign the contract. I even thought mysticism could change my fate. In the end, I'm so sad. My two hundred and thirty yuan!

(End of chapter)

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