Cultivation Always Comes in the Dead of Night

Ji Qinglin did not want to waste a single moment. After searching for so long, he had finally, through a fortuitous coincidence, found clues related to his resurrection—perhaps even clues connected to his phone.

To be safe, he first returned to the General Store for his toolkit, a Taser for self-defense, and Coal Boss, who had not gone outside in ages. One man and two birds headed for Xin Dong District Old City.

Xin Dong Street Old City had been an urban development project from long ago. Later, a major company had bungled the operation and left it unfinished, so the old district never developed.

However, because it was close to the wasteland, it became home to those who had failed to establish themselves in Bangkok. Though it had not developed, its poverty meant neither gangs nor major corporations had set their eyes on it. The locals could be considered simple and honest.

After taking the bus to the edge of the city, Ji Qinglin followed the entered map toward the marked location. Along the way, he saw old, filthy, ramshackle houses, yet quite a few people still lived there in peace.

Sang Feng's little courtyard stood near the outskirts, without even a neighbor nearby.

Through the tightly shut iron mesh gate, he could see quite a bit of garbage in the yard. Coal Boss, perched on his shoulder, flew in first to look around.

Caw, caw—

Looks like there really was no one here.

The small door beside it showed signs of having been opened recently.

Ji Qinglin opened the iron gate that kept out gentlemen but not petty men and entered the yard. Aside from the main house and the West Wing, there was also a rain shelter propped against the eastern wall, though its posts had long been covered in rust.

Rather than immediately start cleaning and searching, Ji Qinglin decided to first get a general grasp of what was in the yard. He went to the nearest side room and tore off the advertising cloth pasted over the window, revealing a battered copper lock and iron chain beneath.

What kind of treasure was inside, to need such solid protection? After forcing the lock open, Ji Qinglin kicked the door wide open. Coal Boss flapped his wings, shaking off the falling dust.

Yet once he entered, he found that the room held only an old wooden plank bed and a simple desk.

Sang Feng really had not died unjustly. Was there any need to lock up this little bit of junk? He was greedy beyond all reason.

But on further thought, Ji Qinglin felt something was off, so he began quickly searching the room.

Coal Boss flew onto the bed and pecked at the underside with his beak.

Thump, thump, thump—

Hollow!

Coming to the wooden bed, Ji Qinglin first heaved up one corner of the large plank, then shone his flashlight inside to see what was there.

Yet under the weak beam, Ji Qinglin saw only a pitch-black wheel.

"What's this?"

Once he had a rough guess, Ji Qinglin forcefully flipped up the entire wooden plank.

Its body was black from end to end, yet its carbon-fiber components reflected an alluring sheen like a beauty's skin. Under the flashlight, every inch of her mechanical beauty was displayed to the fullest. Her two black-silk legs were the seventeen-inch front wheel and fifteen-inch rear wheel.

Between the black wheels of those parted long legs sat the motorcycle's most mysterious and precious component: a modified V-cylinder engine that looked as though it had never been used even once.

Even though Ji Qinglin knew little about Bangkok's high-end motorcycle market, he still knew this bike's name.

Night Owl 750!

The Dark Knight of the motorcycle world.

Even someone like him, who knew little about vehicles, felt a surge of excitement at the sight of it. To a true car lover, seeing this thing was probably no different from seeing a peerless beauty stripped bare.

That bastard Sang Feng really had prepared an escape vehicle. He might not have been much as a person, but his taste was not bad.

After taking Yu Ye as his disciple, Ji Qinglin had been short on transportation. This was truly timely help in a snowstorm.

After checking the room once more and confirming he had missed nothing, Ji Qinglin lowered the plank again. Before leaving, he still hid the thing away properly. Even Sang Feng knew that wealth should not be displayed.

After locking the door again, Ji Qinglin went to the main house. Judging from the dust and garbage on the floor, no one had entered in a very long time. Its layout was equally simple: aside from the bedroom, there was only the living room.

After sweeping his gaze around, Ji Qinglin went first to the large pod-shaped flowerpot and inspected it closely. Sure enough, it was identical to the pod that had once held him.

It was just that Sang Feng was dead now, so there was no way to confirm where this pod had come from.

Ji Qinglin and Shen Bixin had investigated Sang Feng's background before. He too had originally come here as an illegal immigrant and presumably had never worked as a Garbage Collector, so this place had most likely been bought by him as a fallback hideout.

Thinking this, Ji Qinglin walked to the bookshelf and casually pulled out several dust-covered sheets of paper.

"Cultivation Always Comes in the Dead of Night." "Yin Yang Harmonizing Postures Compendium." "Hiss."

That bastard Sang Feng had quite the complete collection.

But upon looking more closely at the dates, Ji Qinglin realized they were all posters and books from many years ago.

Looking at the bookshelf packed full of written materials, Ji Qinglin thought that screening everything here would probably take some time.

Knowing that this place would belong to him from now on, Ji Qinglin cleaned the entire house to create a good environment for sorting through the materials. He tossed all the garbage beneath the rain shelter for later disposal.

Coal Boss, meanwhile, flirted with passing birds from the rooftop.

After cleaning for an entire afternoon, the house was barely fit for living.

"Whew. I should've waited until Yu Ye recovered and made her do this."

As he spoke, he carried a large stack of materials to the old sofa and began carefully sorting through them.

"Springtime on Campus." "Thirteen Notches of Dao Companions." Most of them were advertisements and pornographic magazines from many years ago.

The more he looked, the more this resembled the home of a veteran shut-in.

Good thing he had not brought Yu Ye along. Otherwise, his image as her Master would have been completely ruined.

Ji Qinglin flipped through each book one by one, afraid of overlooking something valuable.

Yet after going through quite a few, he still found nothing. Just as Ji Qinglin was about to take a break and go out for dinner, a thin booklet suddenly fell from a newly opened copy of "Joyous Union Chan Sect Secret Method" with a "plop."

The booklet had no cover. Its pages were yellowed and even somewhat brittle; when it hit the floor, quite a few scraps of paper broke off. It was clearly much older than these books and pamphlets.

Seeing this, Ji Qinglin did not dare pick it up rashly. He carefully flipped through it on the floor instead. The printing was crude, but on the outermost page he could vaguely make out the words "Instruction Manual." When he turned to the next page, however, the little illustration on the paper made his heart tighten.

Because the drawing looked extremely similar to the "phone" interface he had never managed to enter. Though the dimensions and layout were clearly different, they were obviously the same type of thing.

Amid his excitement, Ji Qinglin had intended to lie on the floor and read it carefully, only to discover that the remaining pages also showed similar interfaces, merely from different angles.

He had thought it would be another burst of joy for nothing, but when he turned to the last page, Ji Qinglin saw the words "Reset Method."

The reset method required only that the owner use their blood to draw a Taiji Diagram in the center of their right palm.

Deciding to treat a dead horse as though it were alive, Ji Qinglin stood up, took out a small knife, cut his finger, and drew a simple Taiji Diagram on his right palm.

At first, nothing unusual happened. Then the bloody Taiji Diagram was rapidly absorbed by his right palm.

Immediately afterward, his previously pitch-black right palm gradually lit up. An interactive projection interface, rather antiquated compared to this era's holographic images, appeared in his palm. A line of small text was displayed on it: "Reset complete. Please enter a new password."

Ji Qinglin was anxious to see what was inside, so he thought, Then I'll just set one at random for now.

A new line of text appeared in his palm: "Hello. Boot password successfully set to: 'Then I'll just set one at random for now.'"

(╬)?

He was a little bewildered at first, but on second thought, this thing was connected to his body, so controlling it with his thoughts did not seem to be a problem.

After entering the password again, a background bearing the words "Eternal Dao Heart" gradually came into focus. Four small icons appeared along with it, looking much like the built-in apps on the phones from his era, except their names were rather unique: Thousand Mile Network, Cloud Qi Sea, Divine Sense Observation, and Big Dipper Map.