Legends of the Immortal Body

"Could it be that I'm really a genius?"

The next day, while patrolling the streets, Liang Yue was still thinking about his cultivation from the previous night and couldn't help but mutter to himself.

"Heh, you're just realizing it now? I noticed it long ago." Chen Ju, who was beside him, heard his words and chuckled, "Things others don't notice, things others can't think of, you can see them all. I've long thought you were a genius."

"Not in solving cases, I mean in cultivation," Liang Yue said.

"Haha, when I first broke through to the Second Realm, I also thought I was a peerless genius." Chen Ju said with the air of someone experienced, "Don't be too quick to be confident. It gets harder to break through after this."

"You should be considered late Second Realm now. How long does it usually take you to cultivate a new technique?" Liang Yue asked.

"Depends on the difficulty of the technique," Chen Ju replied. "For simpler ones, you can grasp their essence by visualizing for three to five days. For more difficult ones, it might take a month or so. Generally, if you can't comprehend it after more than a month, you'll never comprehend it in this lifetime."

"What if you can comprehend it just by looking at it?" Liang Yue asked again.

"Are you kidding me?" Chen Ju laughed, "Even the legendary Immortal Body wouldn't be able to do that, right?"

"Oh..." Liang Yue didn't say much more and instead changed the subject, asking, "What is an Immortal Body?"

"It's when some people are born with divine peculiarities, making their path of cultivation far superior to ordinary people," Chen Ju explained. "The Sword Dao Academy once compiled a list of all the Immortal Bodies that have appeared in the world, totaling over eight hundred types."

Most of the time patrolling the streets was uneventful, so he patiently explained to Liang Yue, "Among them, the top ten are ranked. For example, the universally recognized number one Immortal Body, Heavenly Breath, is said to have belonged to Li Sheng in ancient times."

"This kind of Immortal Body can absorb the spiritual essence of living beings it kills into itself, greatly increasing its cultivation. It's extremely terrifying. Fortunately, after Li Sheng, no one else has been heard to possess it."

"The fourth-ranked is called the Supreme Immortal Body. It is said that Miss Wen from the Evil Extermination Division possesses such an Immortal Body, single-minded and born like a god."

"The fifth-ranked God King Blood is the bloodline inheritance of the current Yin Dynasty imperial family. It's somewhat similar to what you just mentioned, favored by heaven and earth, making the cultivation of any divine ability or technique twice as effective with half the effort. In ancient times, it was also called the Immortal Spirit Body, and it was only renamed God King Blood after the dynasty was established."

"Are there many people with Immortal Bodies?" Liang Yue asked curiously again.

"Naturally, it's one in ten thousand," Chen Ju said. "And besides those with deep backgrounds, many who are born with divine peculiarities choose to conceal their Immortal Bodies, fearing they will attract others' covetousness or targeting. This makes the number of known Immortal Body possessors in the present world even fewer."

"Having too high a talent is also dangerous..." Liang Yue said.

"Yes," Chen Ju said. "A few years ago, I heard about someone named Shi who had a legendary Supreme Bone, but it was forcibly dug out by someone! It's said, it was even done by a relative of his family!"

"That's terrible," Liang Yue's eyebrows furrowed.

Fortunately, he didn't seem to have any innate divine talent, just slightly higher comprehension. This shouldn't be enough to attract covetousness.

At most, he just needed to be more low-key than usual.

After chatting for a few sentences, Liang Yue turned back to look at Pang Chun and asked, "Da Chun, how was that technique you were looking at yesterday?"

"Heh heh, it was pretty good," Pang Chun chuckled honestly, "Basically, I could fall asleep after looking at it three times."

"..." Liang Yue was silent for a moment, then said, "The purpose of that book was for you to practice, not for sleep."

"Ah?" Da Chun was startled, "I thought only people who couldn't sleep read books."

Liang Yue looked at Da Chun helplessly.

In his world, besides eating and sleeping, there seemed to be nothing else. In a sense, he was truly a pure person, a person who had detached himself from higher interests.

"When I fell asleep, I even dreamed of a white-bearded old man who insisted I hit him, so I kept hitting him..." Da Chun mumbled.

"I really can't tell," Chen Ju laughed, "You have thick eyebrows and big eyes, and you dream of hitting old men every day."

The three of them were walking along, chatting and laughing. As they passed Linmen Street again, they suddenly saw a crowd gathered in front of a shop, with a lot of noise coming from inside.

Someone was vaguely shouting things like "Someone's dead!" and "Quick, report it!"

Liang Yue immediately became alert: "Let's go take a look!"

The place where the commotion was happening was the small tavern that had caught fire a few days ago. The old couple who ran the tavern were standing in the shop, completely at a loss, their faces full of panic.

A man was lying on the ground inside the shop, curled up, his whole body red. His hands were tightly gripping his neck as if he couldn't breathe, and his body was convulsing non-stop. It looked like he was about to die.

There were two other men beside him. One was holding a kettle and pouring water down his throat, while the other stood with his hands on his hips, shouting at the crowd: "Quick, report it! The wine in this tavern is poisoned, my brother is about to be poisoned to death by them!"

"It's not... it's definitely not our wine..." The old couple weakly protested from the side.

"Then did he drink someone else's wine?" the man yelled.

Chen Ju stepped forward, pushed the crowd aside, and demanded: "Stop arguing, what's going on?"

The standing man was wearing a patched hemp robe and had a ruffian-like appearance. When he saw their Imperial Capital Guard uniforms, he immediately became energetic and said loudly: "Officers, look, my brother was perfectly fine, he just drank a bowl of wine from their place, and he became like this! They must have poisoned the wine!"

"How is that possible?" The old woman had a tearful face. "I don't even know them, we have no grudges, why would I poison them?"

"That's even more serious, it means their wine is poisoned, anyone who comes here could drink it!" The man shouted loudly, "Shouldn't you take them back and interrogate them severely no matter what?"

As soon as he said this, the old couple became even more panicked and were about to cry together.

"You don't need to tell me what to do!" Chen Ju reprimanded the man, telling him to step back, then looked at the old couple, "What's going on? Did he really collapse after drinking your wine?"

This old couple had been operating here for many years and were honest and simple. Chen Ju really didn't believe they would poison someone.

"This..." The old man said tremblingly: "The three of them came here to drink. This person just drank a bowl and suddenly fell to the ground. I don't know what happened... Officers, there's absolutely no way our wine is poisoned... If you don't believe me, I'll drink it for you to see."

"Hmph, it's definitely not poisoned if he drinks it himself! But the bowl my brother drank definitely has a problem! Otherwise, why would he be like this?" The man was relentless.

"Ho—ho—" After being given several large kettles of water, the man on the ground's condition improved slightly. His skin was still red, but his breathing was a little smoother. He pointed at the old couple with his finger and said with a strained voice: "It's the wine... there's a problem..."

Since entering the tavern, Liang Yue had been focused on him, squatting there and observing.

Now that he saw the poisoned man was no longer in mortal danger, he spoke up and asked: "Is the bowl of wine he just drank still here?"

"I knocked it over!" The standing man pointed, and over there on the ground was a pile of messy tables and chairs. The wine pot and bowl were already broken, and the wine was spilled all over the floor.

"Since you said the wine had a problem, don't you know these are important pieces of evidence? You knocked them all over, how are we supposed to check if it's poisoned or not?" Liang Yue looked at him.

"Does this still need proof? My brother, a grown man, almost died here!" The man's behavior was very strange. His eyes kept blinking as he looked at Liang Yue, as if reminding him of something: "Whether there's a problem or not, you'll know if you take them back and interrogate them!"

Liang Yue looked at the weak man on the ground again and said: "Not yet. To see if your friend was really poisoned by their place, I have a method."

He stood up and said loudly: "Let's buy several portions of wine from other taverns and have him drink them all to see if he has any problems. If he drinks them all and is fine, then it means the wine from this place has a problem."

"Ah, this..." The old couple immediately became anxious when they heard his suggestion. "Liang Captain, what are you doing? We clearly didn't poison anyone, this, this, this..."

In their opinion, this logic was really a bit unreasonable.

If the wine from other places was fine, how could that prove that their own wine had a problem? Could it be that this Liang Captain had taken black money from these scoundrels and was working with them to frame their family?

Although the arson case was solved thanks to him last time, it was not guaranteed that a person who was upright just a few days ago wouldn't suddenly become greedy for money.

After all, wealth moves hearts.

Besides, this kind of thing wasn't uncommon in the Imperial Capital Guard.

But for some reason, the man on the ground who had just narrowly escaped death, upon hearing this, repeatedly waved his hand and said weakly, "No, no... I absolutely cannot drink anymore."

"Why?" Liang Yue asked indifferently, "It can't be that every family's wine is poisoned, can it?"

The man lying on the ground heard this, tilted his head back, and let out a sharp sound: "Gah—"

He fainted cleanly and decisively.