After the deal was struck, the Village Chief immediately sent Er Han to the Back Mountain to break off two small pieces from the black boulder and hand them to Yu Ziqing.
After returning to the Earth Den with Old Yang, Yu Ziqing opened the cloth bundle. Inside were two irregularly shaped pieces of Black Stone. The broken surfaces looked completely free of impurities—pure black, without even a trace of any unusual power.
Just as when he practiced his punches, Yu Ziqing could not sense any power within that black aura. He could neither touch it nor feel it when he inhaled it. It was like air. At most, he could passively sense the shackles on his body disappearing.
Old Yang stared at the Black Stone, looking it over from every angle.
"When you went to practice your punches, how big was the thing you saw? It's fine, tell me. Now that you're saying it, it doesn't count as breaking your promise to anyone."
"Pretty big. Several hundred zhang."
"Be more specific."
"It had to be five or six hundred zhang at least. Maybe even more."
Old Yang nodded and sighed.
"No wonder. The part exposed aboveground alone is five or six hundred zhang. No wonder it possesses such power. Only in a place like Jinlan Village could so much of it be exposed and still remain there without causing any disturbance.
"From now on, keep one piece on you. Carry it even when you aren't practicing your punches. But remember to eat some Yellow Millet Cake from Jinlan Village every year.
"You can borrow this thing's power for a year for now. After a year, use Yellow Millet Cake to cleanse it out and return it. That's nothing to worry about. It really was a stroke of genius. The person who invented Yellow Millet Cake back then was truly a heaven-sent genius.
"Borrowing it temporarily is fine, but if you make this power your own, sooner or later disaster will come knocking. Remember that."
As he spoke, Old Yang glanced at the other item in the bundle. It was a sheepskin covered in the names of various raw materials.
"The Village Chief looks as if he has one foot in the grave. He must have lived for quite some years—old people become crafty with age.
"He directly promised to send you Yellow Millet Cake every year. That old fellow has a viciously sharp eye. He saw what kind of person you were at a glance. Would he take a loss?
"Don't be fooled by how weak you are now or how little you understand. He simply wants to build a connection with you. He knows you won't stay here forever, so he still wants to leave behind a spark and a root.
"I could trade him many things and teach them many things, but he doesn't want to become involved with me. He insists on making everything a trade.
"Don't you dare underestimate him. He's incredibly shrewd, but also incredibly straightforward. Whatever he thinks, that's what he does, putting it all out in the open. Everyone can see the score, but no favors are lost.
"Look, the list of raw materials he gave me hasn't been tampered with at all. Not one item more, not one item less. This is the precise recipe for Yellow Millet Cake.
"The village rules say that only the Village Chief knows how to make Yellow Millet Cake. He hasn't actually broken the rules.
"But you saw with your own eyes where Yellow Millet Cake came from. You don't feel anything now, and that's fine. Once you become strong enough, your body will help you recall how you felt back then.
"After I teach you everything I can and everything I can't, as long as you aren't too stupid, you'll eventually figure out how Yellow Millet Cake is made yourself.
"Doesn't he know?"
"He knows. He just isn't saying anything. You know now too. As long as you're still a person, you have to remember his kindness."
"I understand. I'll remember it." Yu Ziqing nodded obediently.
When there was no malice between people, he didn't bother with too many calculations. If someone cast him a wooden peach, he would repay them with fine jade. If someone treated him well, he would treat them well in return. He still understood such simple principles.
Just like now, Old Yang had gone to all that trouble and had basically been helping him. Yu Ziqing would remember it too.
Likewise, when he had previously gone to great lengths to help Old Yang, Old Yang had said nothing, but he had remembered it all the same.
When people interacted, some things lost their meaning once spoken aloud. They often seemed too calculating, but everyone would act on them in practice.
Yu Ziqing accepted Old Yang's goodwill.
Yu Ziqing picked up one piece of Black Stone and tucked it onto his body. Without practicing his punches, he could faintly sense the same feeling he had when practicing.
"Since there are two pieces, leave this one to me for study. This thing isn't common, and one this large is rarer still." Old Yang picked up the other piece and examined it closely.
"What exactly is this?" Yu Ziqing thought for a moment, then added, "Can you tell me?"
"I can. It isn't anything especially secret. Things like this are collectively called tombs.
"They were once powerful beings who died after exhausting their lifespans, or who, when on the verge of death, scattered all their power, wrapped it around their true spirits, and sank beneath the earth, turning it into their own tombs in the hope that they might have a chance to return after the passage of endless years.
"However, in the end, most of them were merely clinging to a faint hope as they died.
"After enduring the passage of time, their tombs transformed into jade beneath the earth. As the stars shifted and seas became fields, some gradually emerged aboveground, or were buried less deeply, and were discovered.
"Tombs generally contained extremely powerful forces. After all, any jade-transformed tomb that could be discovered belonged to someone who had been powerful in life.
"And generally speaking, the larger the tomb, the stronger its owner had been."
Old Yang looked at the Black Stone before him, his tone growing considerably more solemn.
"The owner of this tomb was eighty percent likely not of the Human race. A jade-transformed tomb belonging to a Human race powerhouse would not possess such a sinister, strange power. Borrowing this thing to nourish your body is fine, but when you practice Qi Refining in the future, you absolutely must not draw its power into your own core. That would be extremely dangerous."
"Could I be possessed?" Yu Ziqing thought of that first.
"Of those who made the power of a jade-transformed tomb their own and then died violently, half died from possession."
"All right..."
"If you told me that those former powerhouses, on the verge of death, claimed they could recover on their own after sleeping for endless years, I wouldn't believe it.
"But if you told me they were laying out bait, burying it, sleeping until greedy fish took the hook, and then seizing the chance to return, I'd believe that."
After explaining everything to Yu Ziqing, Yu Ziqing went to the Back Mountain to begin his usual punching practice.
As for Old Yang, he stared at the piece of Black Stone for a long time before suddenly opening his mouth and swallowing it.
Rolling black aura gushed from Old Yang's eyes, ears, and nostrils, then poured back in through his open mouth.
A moment later, the filthy white wool covering Old Yang's entire body fell away in a rustling cascade, like rain. A layer of glossy, fine black fur grew over his skin, his two horns turned black, and the whites of his eyes became dark green.
The shed white wool seemed to weather away as well, turning into dust in an instant.
Old Yang raised one hoof and lightly kicked the stone beside him. The clash of metal rang out, sending sparks flying in every direction.
After sensing himself carefully for a moment, Old Yang opened his mouth and spat out the Black Stone he had swallowed. The blackness receded from his body, and he became a white mountain goat once more. Only the fine cleanliness of his wool remained.
"It doesn't seem to be a demon either. Strange. Still, this thing is quite useful for nourishing the body. It's just that ordinary people would have a hard time returning what they borrowed. If the secret of Yellow Millet Cake were learned by those old undying monsters at Langya Academy, this place probably wouldn't be able to survive. That Village Chief really does know how to read people."
On the snow-covered Wasteland, a black-robed man rode a Black Goat and fled at full speed. As they ran, the black-robed man suddenly let out a loud retch and spat out a mouthful of blood. The mist of blood rapidly crystallized into ice in midair, drifting down together with the snowflakes.
"I'm telling you, can you be a little steadier? I'm not dead yet, and you're nearly jolting me to death."
"Can you shut up?" the Black Goat roared furiously, its speed increasing out of nowhere, though the jolting grew even more violent.
The black-robed man wisely closed his mouth, pulled a porcelain bottle from his sleeve, and shoved its contents into his mouth without even looking. A moment later, the colorless black-robed man finally looked a little more like a living person.
The Black Goat left no hoofprints in the snow. Suppressing all its power, it transformed into a powerful arrow and galloped for half a day. Only after spotting the ruins of a village ahead did it gradually slow and come to a stop.
Once they entered the village ruins, man and goat collapsed together inside an earthen house.
The Black Goat panted heavily, while the black-robed man took out another porcelain bottle and gulped down mouthfuls of healing spiritual liquid.
"I told you to keep a low profile, but you wouldn't listen..." The black-robed man let out a long sigh, his resentment reaching the heavens.
"Is it my fault? Yes, I knew there had been quite a few people coming to the Wasteland recently, but how the hell was I supposed to know that a headmaster of Langya Academy would personally come to this godforsaken place, with Mu Zhiqiu, that great Baleful Intent, protecting him?
"If I'd known earlier, I would have detoured at least three thousand li away from him. I absolutely wouldn't have given him the chance to kill me."
Thinking back to what had happened, the Black Goat felt that its luck had been rotten lately.
It had been flying along just fine. Who would have thought that it would spot a flying vessel flying Langya Academy's formation banner? Since something had happened in the Wasteland, it was normal for Langya Academy to send people. It had avoided the vessel from far away as soon as it saw it.
Who would have thought that Mu Zhiqiu, the number-one Baleful Intent of Langya Academy's Martial Academy, would be aboard? With Mu Zhiqiu there, there had to be a Dao Practitioner at the level of a headmaster on board.
That Mu Zhiqiu must have taken the wrong medicine. His temper was terrifyingly bad. The moment he discovered them, he gave them a sword strike before saying a word.
If Mu Zhiqiu hadn't been protecting the person aboard the vessel and therefore dared not stray too far from it, their corpses would already have gone cold.
And their bad luck still wasn't over. They had inexplicably run into An Yue of the Great Qian Imperial Guard. An Yue had served on the front lines and commanded troops before being transferred to the Imperial Guard. He was a famously smiling tiger.
Seeing them in such a miserable state, looking half-dead, how could he possibly let such a perfect chance to kick them while they were down pass?
And so they had fought again, paying a considerable price before escaping.
After resting for a while, regulating their breathing, and taking their medicine, they had recovered somewhat. The Black Goat rolled over and climbed to its feet.
"I just remembered something."
"Don't say it. I feel like our luck has been terrible lately. We'd better leave the Wasteland as soon as possible." The black-robed man immediately began complaining.
"I'm serious. There was a rumor before that, when the Wasteland changed several months ago, a headmaster of Langya Academy happened to be nearby. He disappeared afterward and was never found. Later, there was another rumor that he had died."
"And then? What does that have to do with us?"
"Are you stupid? Think about it. Now another headmaster has come, personally escorted by Mu Zhiqiu. That fellow An Yue has even left Great Qian and is wandering around the Wasteland. I think the rumor is eighty percent true. The news that the headmaster died was probably released by Great Qian to fool people."
"I'm begging you, stop talking. I just want to hurry home. If you keep going, I feel like we might really die in the Wasteland." The black-robed man remained unmoved.
The Black Goat stamped its hooves in anger, hot air spraying from its nostrils. After fuming for a while, it suppressed its temper and said seriously,
"Have you forgotten that strange thing from before?
"Several of my Shepherds were killed, but those sheep were inexplicably sent by that person to Jinlan Mine. The scene had also been handled very hastily and crudely.
"Put all those things together and savor them. Savor them carefully.
"Have you figured out anything?"
A new week has begun. Please give me some votes—any kind will do. I almost forgot there was also a new-book ranking.
Before you continue