Early the next morning, Zhong Bai woke up from his sleep, stretched lazily, and just opened the door.
He saw the two maidservants, Chunhua and Xiahe, already bustling about in the courtyard.
Chunhua was busy giving the Furious Rooster a bath, simply because Zhong Bai had found the rooster's rain-soaked odor a bit unpleasant during their half-month journey.
As for Xiahe, she had gotten up early to go to the market for ingredients and personally cooked breakfast for Zhong Bai.
He had to admit that the days of being waited on were truly wonderful.
Seeing Zhong Bai come out, Chunhua, who had been bathing the Furious Rooster, first flashed a sweet smile, then stopped what she was doing, stood up, and said, "Good morning, sir!"
The terms "sir" and "good morning" left Zhong Bai slightly dazed; after all, servants in this era mostly addressed people as master and paid respects in the traditional way.
Whether "sir" or "good morning," both had been introduced by Westerners.
"Sir, you didn't want us to call you Taoist Priest last night. After thinking it over, we felt that addressing you as sir might be more appropriate.
Oh, and the eldest young master of Old Master Yang's family once studied abroad, and these etiquettes were all taught to us by him on ordinary days."
Chunhua was very sharp, and Zhong Bai smiled.
"The term sir is quite fitting indeed; it neither feels distant and estranged nor lacks the human touch of Taoist Priest.
From now on, you and Xiahe can address this poor Taoist like this!"
"Understood, sir. Please wait a moment, Xiahe is already preparing breakfast for you."
To this, Zhong Bai readily accepted.
He was still in the Qi Refining realm and could not yet manage grain abstinence.
He had not reached the point of going without ordinary grains.
Only upon reaching the Foundation Establishment realm would he be able to drink the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and forgo ordinary food.
After finishing breakfast, Zhong Bai returned to his room.
He still had three hundred Exorcism Points now. Though the amount was not large, translated into cultivation days, it was a full three hundred days!
This time, Zhong Bai did not hesitate, directly converting all his Exorcism Points into cultivation days for the Supreme Clarity Body Forging Art.
Consumed three hundred Exorcism Points, exchanged for three hundred cultivation days of the Supreme Clarity Body Forging Art.
Confirm exchange
When Zhong Bai clicked yes on the virtual panel before him, he quickly entered the state.
On the 1st day, you knew that continuing to add points to the Divine Firmament Five Thunder Art would make your bodily strength unable to keep up, so you eagerly wanted to improve the Supreme Clarity Body Forging Art.
On the 69th day, after two months of bitter cultivation, you were still unable to touch the perfection barrier of the Supreme Clarity Body Forging Art.
On the 269th day, at this very moment, you had begun to fall into doubt; the Supreme Clarity Body Forging Art progressed as slowly as a crawling snail.
On the 300th day, you knew you could not break through to the perfection of the Supreme Clarity Body Forging Art in a short time, but the three hundred days of bitter cultivation also allowed your arms to reach a tremendous strength of six thousand catties, and your physical meridians were likewise strengthened somewhat.
This point-allocation cultivation session has ended!
At the exact moment the Exorcism Points were completely exhausted, an overwhelming surge of vital energy and blood within Zhong Bai's body became somewhat uncontrollable and leaked outward, raising the temperature of the entire room considerably.
Slowly opening his eyes and exhaling a breath of turbid air, Zhong Bai felt somewhat disappointed.
Three hundred days allocated to the Supreme Clarity Body Forging Art, and he was still some distance away from perfection.
Yet Zhong Bai was not discouraged; if three hundred Exorcism Points weren't enough, then one thousand it was!
If a thousand wasn't enough, then five thousand!
They were only Exorcism Points...
As long as his mind was ruthless enough and he labored diligently, a lack of Exorcism Points would be utterly impossible in the future.
Just as his cultivation ended, Zhong Bai stood up, his muscles and bones resounding together like a roaring tiger or a howling wolf.
After stretching his physique, he stepped out of the room.
He saw that Old Family Head Yang was already sitting on a stone stool in the small courtyard, waiting quietly while sipping tea.
"Sir, the old master seems to have something important to discuss with you, but since you gave instructions that no one is to approach before you come out, the old master has been waiting for you for half an hour."
Chunhua trotted over to Zhong Bai, spoke softly, and then tactfully retreated to the side.
"What urgent business brings the Old Family Head here?"
Zhong Bai could tell that the Yang Family certainly wasn't coming to see him for a trivial matter, otherwise they wouldn't have made Old Family Head Yang make the trip in person.
Hearing this, Old Family Head Yang lowered his head in a somewhat ashamed manner and said, "To tell you the truth, I indeed have a matter today that requires troubling you, Daoist Master!"
Seeing that Zhong Bai's expression remained unchanged, Old Family Head Yang hesitated slightly for a moment before continuing, "The reason my Yang Family has stood tall in Jiuquan Town for hundreds of years and even expanded our business to the surrounding county towns is because our ancestors invited a feng shui master three hundred years ago to bury himself within the Seven Stars Gathering Wealth Treasure Lair.
However, the Seven Stars Gathering Wealth Treasure Lair needs to be relocated once every sixty years.
The feng shui master said that Jiuquan Town is the location of the Three Fiends Position.
Baleful Qi easily erodes the Seven Stars Treasure Lair, so every grave relocation requires an eminent master from the Taoist Sects to be present and preside over it.
Now that the sixty-year cycle has arrived, this old man wishes to oversee the grave relocation, but can find no eminent Taoist master to preside over it.
Perhaps heaven takes pity on us, allowing the Daoist Master to come to Jiuquan Town and anchor this region.
Hence, this old man has come specifically to invite the Daoist Master to accompany us and preside over the grave relocation.
I only wonder if the Daoist Master might be free..."
Hearing this, Zhong Bai felt somewhat awkward.
Presiding over it was fine, but if they wanted him to seek the dragon's veins and locate the spots for acupoints, that would be pushing it a bit.
In this regard, the art of geomancy was still something Lin Fengjiao of the Talisman Hall knew much more about.
"Old Family Head Yang, this poor Taoist will be blunt. Merely presiding over the grave relocation is not a problem.
However... if there are issues concerning feng shui, then this poor Taoist is powerless to help.
What this poor Taoist has learned are arts of slaughter and divine magical powers.
The arts of geomancy, acupoint-setting, and the esoteric gates of feng shui are things I have never touched."
Hearing Zhong Bai put it this way, Old Family Head Yang was evidently quite surprised, for after all, in this day and age, which Taoist priest did not understand a bit of the esoteric arts of feng shui?
Yet Zhong Bai happened to be an anomaly.
However, Old Family Head Yang did not overthink it; they didn't need Zhong Bai for geomancy and acupoint-setting anyway—he only needed to watch from the side and prevent any unexpected incidents.
"No matter, no matter. What the Daoist Master has learned are peerless divine powers, and such minor arts as feng shui naturally cannot compare to the Daoist Master.
Then... it is settled. Three days from now is the day of the Yang Family's grave relocation, and by then I will send people in person to fetch the Daoist Master!"
It was not until Old Family Head Yang left that Zhong Bai came to his senses.
Well, a grave relocation—could this turn out to be a second Old Master Ren?
????
Zhong Bai shook his head.
He was thinking about Exorcism Points to an exaggerated degree; cough, cough, one must not curse the Yang family like that.
Three days passed in the blink of an eye, and Zhong Bai had not been idle during this time.
Since his body could not withstand a massive deluge of heaven and earth spiritual energy empowerment, couldn't he cultivate slowly?
Even a mosquito's leg was meat, and he couldn't just lie down and do nothing simply because he had the Exorcism Panel.
When Zhong Bai stepped outside, the sedan-bearers sent by the Yang Residence had already been waiting for a long time.
Getting into the sedan chair, Zhong Bai headed to the Yang Residence to rendezvous with the Yang family members before proceeding to the Yang family's ancestral tombs.
The Yang family's ancestral tombs were located on the waist of a towering mountain three li outside the eastern part of Jiuquan Town.
Watching the sedan-bearers in front and behind sweat profusely, Zhong Bai was in the midst of wild thoughts when the Yang family's ancestral tombs arrived.
"Lower the sedan!"
Accompanied by the two sedan-bearers setting the chair down, Zhong Bai stepped out and cast his gaze around.
Although Zhong Bai did not understand the patterns of feng shui very well, he had learned a bit of the art of qi observation.
This place was elevated; while the baleful qi of a radius of a hundred miles converged upon Jiuquan Town, it also brought along the surrounding wealth qi, and under the pressure of the baleful qi, the wealth qi climbed upward along the mountain terrain.
And the burial site of the Yang family's ancestral tombs happened to form the Seven Stars Gathering Wealth Treasure Lair precisely because the wealth qi climbed and gathered there.
No wonder the Yang family could enjoy wealth and nobility for hundreds of years—when the ancestors were buried well, later generations would surely prosper.
Such a situation was simply too common; wasn't it the exact same with the Ren family in Ren Family Town?
Thinking of the Ren family, Zhong Bai looked back at the Yang family's ancestral tombs with a peculiar expression.
Shaking his head to cast away those chaotic thoughts in his mind, Zhong Bai continued following the Yang family members forward to prepare for the grave relocation.
"Ancestors, your descendants have come to move your home!"
Accompanied by Old Family Head Yang trembling as he knelt before the tomb and finished speaking, the servants who had already prepared their tools intended to go to work.
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