Sudden Change

Seeing Li Qinglin suddenly return to normal, the Young Master's expression changed slightly: "You... why are you fine?"

Li Qinglin spat out a stream of water and said, "I wrapped the wine with true energy in my throat; it didn't go down at all. Pretending to be poisoned was just to see what other truths that demon could reveal while I was disoriented..." He paused here, then continued with some annoyance, "I didn't expect this jade pendant to be so effective against demons, causing such a big commotion. It wasn't what I intended."

Outside, the Daoist Nun pursed her lips. This turn of events was so unexpected, she hadn't anticipated it at all.

No wonder Master said to seek the Dao in the mortal world. The human heart is indeed treacherous, something that can't be seen through secluded cultivation in the mountains. She thought for a moment, then muttered to herself, Given Li Qinglin's depth of character, the possibility that he was behind that incident has increased.

As if responding to the Daoist Nun's thoughts, voices came from outside the manor. Several horses galloped over, charging directly into the manor.

Seeing the person in the lead, the Young Master was greatly startled and bowed, "This humble subject greets Prefect Wang."

Prefect Wang dismounted in a hurry, pushed the Young Master aside, and knelt on one knee: "Your subordinate, Wang He, greets the Second Prince and Zhaoyang Princess."

Everyone in the manor was dumbfounded, and the Young Master's face turned ashen.

Li Qingjun sneered, "You wouldn't be here to support the people of this farm, would you? This fellow is so impressive that he could trouble you, Prefect, to come in person!"

Wang He wiped his sweat: "Princess misunderstands. This subordinate does not know this person. I only heard that someone saw the two of you at the city gate in the evening. This subordinate happened to have an urgent matter to find the two of you, so I specifically came here."

"Oh?" Li Qinglin said, "What important matter has occurred?"

"The Crown Prince..." Wang He paused, then kowtowed, "Last night, the Crown Prince was assassinated and died."

Li Qinglin's pupils contracted slightly, and Li Qingjun's face instantly turned pale.

In the face of such a monumental event, the matter of the farm naturally became insignificant. Without waiting for the Prefect to exert pressure, the Young Master confessed everything like pouring beans from a bamboo tube.

The farmhands who had died inexplicably before had indeed died from the Corpse Worm Demon draining their essence. The manor lord had put up a bounty to catch the ghost because of this, never imagining that it was his own wife's doing.

So the manor lord wouldn't have died originally... Unfortunately, he had a wicked son who, in order to be with his stepmother, used the background of the manor being "haunted" to quietly poison his father.

In other words, the strange occurrences here were a mix of demonic activity and human actions. Everyone's previous judgments were incorrect.

Of course, this matter was no longer within the scope of the Li siblings' concern. Their minds were completely occupied by the major event of the Crown Prince's death, and they rode back to the capital overnight. On the way, there were no longer just three of them; the prefecture had sent troops to escort them. Clearly, with the Crown Prince dead, Nanli could no longer afford to let the Second Prince have any accidents.

Because the King only had these two sons.

This was no longer a time for gaining experience. It was likely that Li Qinglin would never have the chance to travel alone again in the future.

Along the way, the Li siblings' expressions were very serious, having lost any mood for idle chatter. On a large scale, Nanli was about to change drastically. On a smaller scale, they had lost their elder brother.

Especially for Li Qinglin, these two emotions mixed together must have been particularly complex.

Qin Yi rode beside them, also very silent.

Unlike the Li siblings, the Crown Prince was too far removed from him. What feelings could he have for someone he didn't even know? The matter of the farm, however, had touched him deeply.

Such a beautiful woman was actually just a painted skin, with disgusting corpse worms in her bones. This was probably what cultivators saw as a beautiful skeleton. No matter how much of a femme fatale, she was just a shell.

Being able to discard physical appearance and sensual pleasures, not being misled by superficial appearances, must be a necessary process on the path to the Great Dao.

Yet, for the sake of fighting over such a shell, a son had murdered his father... And in the end, even deep affection couldn't resist the temptation of a piece of jade.

So, which was more malicious, the demon or the human heart?

He trailed far behind the group, quietly conversing with Liu Su.

"With your level of cultivation, don't try to solve riddles like this. You think you understand now, but when a true femme fatale is right in front of you, can you really remain unmoved? This is what's meant by 'knowing is easy, doing is hard'." Liu Su said leisurely, "Anyway, when you see enough of these things, they're all the same. When you've lived for a few thousand years, how could your heart still be stirred by such matters? You'll understand without even trying."

Qin Yi asked in a low voice, "Since you understand without trying, what is the essence of cultivation?"

"Restoration... Oh, the essence of cultivation is simply asking your heart."

"How does one ask their heart?"

"Roll through the mortal world, and you'll know." Liu Su said leisurely, "You hide in Immortal Trace Mountain your whole life, thinking you've transcended the world, but that's a huge mistake. If you haven't entered the world, how can you leave it?"

"So you actually encouraged me to chase girls back then?"

Liu Su chuckled, "Don't talk about the Great Dao if you haven't experienced anything. That's all. Even if you don't need to experience some things personally, you should at least see them. Do you think my ideas are malicious in everything? It's just that I've seen too much, and it's nothing special. A hundred years in the human world is but a flick of a finger. What's there to be so serious about the rules and regulations of the mundane world?"

Qin Yi, uncharacteristically, didn't argue with it, but instead said seriously, "I accept your teaching."

Liu Su was startled for a moment, then changed the subject, "Since you've seen a demon that can paint skins, aren't you curious about the common knowledge of demon cultivation?"

"Because I know you can't help but tell me yourself."

"..." Liu Su gnashed its teeth in frustration, "I won't tell you even if I die."

"Oh." Qin Yi said seemingly casually, "Anyway, being messed up like that by a jade pendant, this Zhang Madam might not even be as powerful as that demon tiger."

Liu Su sneered, "You don't know a damn thing!"

After saying that, it spilled all the common knowledge about demon cultivation like beans from a bamboo tube.

Demon cultivation, the lowest level is called the Spirit Communication Stage, which is when animals, plants, etc., have just awakened basic spiritual intelligence and gained a little strange ability. This roughly corresponds to the human Qi Refining Stage, and also has nine levels of cultivation distinction. When the Spirit Communication Stage reaches Great Perfection, the spiritual intelligence is no different from that of humans, which is called Spirit Communication.

"Of course, most low-level Spirit Communication demons are self-taught. At the same level of cultivation, they don't have the diverse methods of humans, and overall they are inferior to the inheritances of Qi Refining cultivators. Even relatively powerful human martial artists are not afraid of them, so they can only scare mortals." Liu Su added, "You can see this by referring to that Spider Demon."

"Uh..." Qin Yi scratched his head, "Then Zhang Madam has already passed this stage?"

"No, she's stuck at the Great Perfection of this stage." Liu Su sneered, "Don't underestimate demons at this stage. Just like human Qi Refining peak cultivators, they can call themselves immortals in many cases. For Zhang Madam to be messed up like that by a piece of jade from Li Qinglin, this jade has a lot of secrets."

Qin Yi nodded thoughtfully.

When Spirit Communication is complete, one can attempt to break through to the Transformation Stage, which is to transform into a human form normally. There are countless small demons stuck at this bottleneck, each trying to break through in various messy ways. Zhang Madam using painted skin to impersonate a human is one such method, which is a helpless choice when she hasn't broken through to Transformation during the Spirit Communication Stage.

"You can also see those who peel off human skin to refine, or those who try to transform themselves and end up looking neither human nor demon, with a green face and fangs that clearly show they are demons." Liu Su added, "Zhang Madam's method is relatively gentle. She absorbs human vitality, hoping to completely solidify her form, but unfortunately, her methods are too crude, which is often the case with self-taught demons."

"So that's how it is." Qin Yi sighed, "In other words, if you see a demon that has truly become like a human, that's a relatively powerful demon?"

"Once they truly break through the Transformation Stage, they indeed look no different from humans on the surface, but they often retain some characteristics of their original form in certain places that are difficult to conceal, such as keeping a tail? Or their demonic energy is very strong and requires many methods to hide, and they might expose their original form when stimulated." Liu Su said, "However, with such slight concealment, they can mix among humans and are rarely exposed. Compared to your mind full of Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment, this can also be called having established a foundation."

"What about higher up?"

"Higher up?" Liu Su sneered, "With your current abilities, seeing one means you won't survive. Why ask?"

"..."