Purple Firmament Dao Scripture

This Skill Book for lockpicking came from a Divine Thief...

Half a year ago, this Divine Thief somehow managed to sneak into the Three Mountains Gang's treasure vault. None of the gang members noticed a thing—all their defenses were utterly useless against him. Especially locks, those things on treasure chests, were nothing more than decorations.

Unfortunately, things went too smoothly, and the guy got cocky. While stealing inside the vault, he accidentally opened a chest containing a Blood Orchid Grass. The idiot took a deep breath of its fragrance and promptly passed out asleep inside the vault...

If someone inhales the scent of Blood Orchid Grass and no one wakes them, they'll sleep until the end of time without ever waking up. So this Divine Thief just lay there in the vault, sleeping for a whole month. If he'd been a Foundation Establishment cultivator, sleeping a month wouldn't matter, but this guy was only at the fifth layer of Qi Nourishment. He ended up starving to death in there.

When the Three Mountains Gang finally opened the vault again, they found the Divine Thief's rotting, unrecognizable corpse. And it seemed the guy had some kind of background, which made the gang cautious, so they called Qin Yang to clean up the mess...

Looking at the Tricky Ring laid out on the table, Qin Yang sighed. He'd been so focused on getting his hands on something good for cultivation, and now his life depended on these low-tier little skills...

Besides lockpicking, the next step was the same...

He'd need another low-tier little skill...

He took out a corpse he'd swiped earlier. The body looked about twenty years old, very young, with a build similar to Qin Yang's and similar skin tone. Aside from missing the top of its skull, the body wasn't missing any other parts.

"Brother, sorry about this. You're already dead, and I don't want to die yet. Right now I've got to borrow your corpse. If I manage to escape this time, I'll do my best to get revenge for you. If I can't kill those people, I'll print copies of the map and plaster them all over the streets—piss them off to death. And if I get lucky and stumble onto some heavenly treasure that shoots me to the top, I'll clean out the treasure they're after completely. I won't stop until I've pissed them off so bad they go into qi deviation and cough up blood and die."

Qin Yang lit three incense sticks and stuck them in front of the corpse. Then he took a deep breath and began kneading and pressing the corpse's joints and acupoints, working from the feet all the way up to the tailbone. Gripping the lumbar spine like pincers, he gave the vertebrae a shake...

Instantly, a series of crackling pops sounded from every joint in the corpse's body. At that moment, Qin Yang pushed upward along the spine until he reached the cervical vertebrae, then lightly tapped the corpse's forehead.

Suddenly, the corpse seemed to come alive. Its mouth opened, and a mouthful of black-gray death qi, killing intent, yin qi, and resentment all spewed out.

The originally stiff corpse became soft and supple. The bluish-gray skin tone returned to something like a normal person's complexion, making it look like someone who'd just died, the body still warm...

This was a little trick of the Corpse Collectors. Through kneading and pressing, combined with a special technique assisted by True Essence, they could dispel the death qi, sha qi, and yin qi inside a corpse, temporarily preventing it from turning into a zombie. But as time passed, it would revert to its original state.

Still, this recovery time was enough for the corpse collectors to finish their work and bury the body...

As for now, naturally, it was to make this corpse look more like him...

He put the Tricky Ring around the corpse's neck, connected the ends, and instantly the Tricky Ring transformed back into a silver circlet, clamped around the corpse's throat.

He changed the corpse into his own clothes and used some minor disguise techniques to adjust a few details. After a moment, when he looked again...

If not for the different face, anyone looking at the body alone would never be able to tell the difference.

Qin Yang nodded in satisfaction and continued handling the remaining details...

Meanwhile, on the other side, late at night in the west of Green Forest City, the usual peace had been shattered...

A black-clothed, masked figure crept along the wall until he reached the Three Mountains Gang compound. Then he shook his body, and his whole frame went limp like boneless flesh, sliding up the wall surface like a black python, slipping over the wall without a sound. Even if someone had been watching, they might not have noticed...

The newcomer lay flat on the ground, crawling forward slowly. Before long, he reached the back courtyard. Sweeping his gaze over the pile of broken corpses in the center of the yard—especially the tattooed skin peeled off the bodies—a glint of light flashed in his eyes. Then he pressed himself to the ground, hugging the wall as he slithered toward the rooms where the corpse collectors were resting...

In less than ten breaths, the black-clothed man emerged from the first room and slithered toward the second...

On the other side, in a residence directly across from the Three Mountains Gang, Steward Qiu of the Ten Thousand Eternity Commerce sat face to face with a young, clean-shaven man.

"Are you sure this is fine? Keeping the information contained is the most important thing." The young man held a teacup, his brow slightly furrowed, seeming somewhat dissatisfied...

"No, no, this is best for now. Outsiders will think we still haven't found anything. Those lowlifes reek of corpses, but their skinning and processing work is excellent. I looked at the map they pieced together—very good. Aside from making a big show of it and calling in all the Commerce's guest elders to handle things, this is the best outcome we could have..."

"Can the tattoo map be used?" The young man was still somewhat dissatisfied...

"Though it's not as precise as the original, there's no major deviation. Everything that can be pointed out has been pointed out. But the place we're going is the Seated Transcendence Land of the Purple Firmament Dao Lord. No matter how detailed the map is, it won't do much good. In the end, it comes down to strength."

"I hope there won't be any mistakes. The information we received says that back then, the Purple Firmament Dao Lord crossed the Dead Sea from afar. Not only did he carry a top-grade Treasure Artifact, but he also held the Purple Firmament Dao Scripture. That's all I'll say. You know what to do." The young man sipped his tea, his gaze cold.

"The Purple Firmament Dao Scripture!" Steward Qiu exclaimed in shock, his expression horrified. "Isn't that just a legend? Wasn't it said to have been lost long ago?"

"Hmph, it wasn't lost—just mostly incomplete. Even so, it's absolutely a top-tier cultivation method we've never seen around here. Scripture, Classic, Method, Technique—four major grades. The highest any of us have ever seen is at most a top-grade 'Method.' Whether we get to glimpse the mysteries of a 'Scripture'-grade divine art in our lifetimes depends entirely on this."

"I understand. Rest assured." Steward Qiu suppressed the shock in his heart, his eyes flickering. "I've been prepared for a long time. I'm only doing it this way now to avoid drawing attention. Tomorrow, once the map is pieced together, those corpse collectors—even the servants who've been in contact with this matter—will all be silenced forever. This information won't leak."

At the same time, inside the Three Mountains Gang compound, the black-clothed man had already silently slipped through over a dozen rooms and was about to reach the room where Qin Yang was staying...

Please collect, please recommend. It's a bit slow to start, but you can collect it and let it marinate first.