Hunxi Valley's Strange Incidents Came in Rapid Succession, but Progress on the Hundred Refinements Transformation Manual Stalled

Chen Duan took the bamboo tubes, pulled the stopper from one, and brought it to the tip of his nose for a light sniff.

An extremely faint, almost scentless smell entered his nostrils.

Compared with the bait he had used before, this scent was undoubtedly more covert and harder for others to detect.

He immediately took another bamboo tube from his robe, pulled out the stopper, and gave it a gentle shake.

A dark-red little insect flew out, its antennae trembling slightly.

As if it had caught the scent of the bait, it swiftly flew into the new bamboo tube.

This "Shadow Chasing Worm" had followed Chen Duan since his time in Blackwater City and had rendered meritorious service many times.

Later, because his reserve bait was nearly exhausted, Chen Duan had no choice but to seal it away, and he had not used it for a long time.

Although he had learned some information about this insect earlier from fragments of Feng Qu Xian's memories, it was only after arriving in Hunxi Valley that he truly confirmed the little insect's name and origins.

The Shadow Chasing Worm was a common tracking Gu worm cultivated by the Gu Tribe of the Southern Border, renowned for its powerful tracking ability.

Chen Duan paid the gaunt man the agreed-upon price.

This man was a member of the Gu Tribe from the Southern Border. He had traveled a great distance here and made some extra money by selling little trinkets from his homeland.

In a place as mixed and chaotic as Hunxi Valley, there were quite a few people like him.

After leaving the market, Chen Duan followed the street back.

The road was rugged and uneven. After several consecutive days of rain, the ground was thick with mud, and there was hardly a single dry place to set his feet.

When he reached an alley entrance, he found quite a few people gathered there, their incessant whispers and commentary filling the air.

Chen Duan's steps halted, and he swept his gaze over.

"Tsk, tsk, how many days has he been dead? The stench has drifted two li away, and they only found him today!"

"Look at that face. Good heavens, he's been gnawed until he doesn't even look human anymore. Damn, that's terrifying! How many is this now?"

"The third, I think? I heard they found one in the west end the day before yesterday, and it looked much the same."

The crowd gathered outside a low, dilapidated house, craning their necks to peer inside. Their faces were a mixture of fear and disgust, along with a trace of morbid curiosity.

Through the gaps between the shifting heads, Chen Duan saw a corpse slumped stiffly on a crooked wooden chair inside the house.

The corpse's eyes were wide open, the pupils a dull gray-white. More disturbing still was half of his face, which was a blurred mess of flesh and skin, as if some beast had gnawed at it. His jawbone and blackened bloody tissue were exposed, making him look ferocious and horrifying.

"Make way! Make way!"

"Coming through! We're clearing the scene!"

Two men dressed in coarse short jackets pushed through the crowd and entered the house.

With practiced movements, they dragged the corpse off the chair, stuffed it into a thick burlap sack, tied the opening tight, and carried it out.

In Hunxi Valley, several people dying every day was nothing unusual. There were quite a few people who specialized in handling unidentified corpses like this; it was considered a decent livelihood.

Soon afterward, a man who looked like a broker squeezed in with several helpers carrying brooms and wooden buckets. He directed them to begin cleaning the house.

The bloodstains were washed away and the filth cleared. Before long, the house would be completely transformed and put up for rent or sale again.

There was no such concept as a haunted house here. After all, in Hunxi Valley, compared with those vague "Evil Spirits," the truly deadly threat was "people."

Chen Duan watched as the corpse handlers tossed the sack containing the body onto a battered handcart. There were quite a few other corpses on it, all crudely secured with ropes.

Recalling the state of the corpse he had just seen, a strange feeling passed through Chen Duan's heart.

This was not the first corpse he had seen with a similar manner of death. The one he had witnessed with his own eyes was already the third, and the neighbors had even started spreading a number of horrifying rumors.

Although he found it suspicious, Chen Duan had no intention of investigating further.

His time was precious. He had no time to waste on these elusive strange incidents.

Of course, if trouble came knocking at his door, that would be another matter.

Chen Duan withdrew his gaze and turned to leave.

The corpse handlers pushed the heavy cart along the muddy road. After creaking forward for nearly half an hour, they finally reached a desolate burial hollow on the outskirts of Ruantu Town, a place rarely visited by anyone.

"There's been a lot of work these past two days. You fellows have worked hard! Once we finish making the rounds at the remaining places, drinks are on me tonight. We'll have a couple of good ones to drive away the bad luck!" the leading man shouted.

"Sure thing!"

"Our boss is a real stand-up guy!"

Working together, they dragged the corpses off the cart one by one and tossed them into a bottomless-looking pit as casually as throwing out garbage.

Once they had finished, they were just about to leave.

"How'd an eyeball fall off here?"

One man picked up an eyeball with bits of flesh still attached, wrinkled his brow in disgust, and casually tossed it into the corpse pit behind them.

The group pushed the cart away.

The eyeball traced an arc through the air and dropped straight to the bottom of the pit.

Then, without deviation, it landed directly inside a half-open mouth.

The battered jawbone, seemingly gnawed by a beast, suddenly moved twice. After chewing for a moment, it swallowed the eyeball.

The next moment.

The pale eyeball rolled once.

The sun rose and the moon set.

Several days passed in the blink of an eye.

That morning.

The sky was clear and bright.

Chen Duan sat cross-legged in the courtyard before a sapling half a person tall, his gaze locked firmly onto it.

His mind was intensely focused, his spirit turned inward. He paid no attention to anything in the outside world, as if he had transformed into a stone statue.

In a daze, his consciousness slipped free of the shackles of his body, as if becoming part of the sapling before him.

He accepted the sunlight's radiance, drew in the soil's nourishment, and sensed that vigorous life force hidden deep within the vegetation, stirring restlessly as it waited to burst forth.

No one knew how much time had passed before his ethereal consciousness finally returned to his body.

He let out a long breath, clarity returning to his eyes, and casually placed the wooden board carving on his knees to one side.

[Wood Element Art (76%, Fourth Level Realm)]

"This visualization method really consumes an astonishing amount of time and mental energy."

Chen Duan mused inwardly.

If he used this period to cultivate the techniques obtained through "Flower Transfer Grafting," it would probably be enough to break through an entire major realm.

Yet gains and losses naturally balanced one another.

Although the power obtained through unconventional means progressed rapidly, it ultimately lacked a profound understanding of the essence of power.

By contrast, this Fourth Level Realm attained step by step through orthodox visualization and comprehension was more solid with every step, and his understanding of the life force of "wood" was also becoming clearer.

Martial Dao was martial dao. The former, "Flower Transfer Grafting," placed greater emphasis on "martial"; while the latter form of orthodox cultivation sought, beyond "martial," to explore the "dao" to a greater degree.

After resting briefly, Chen Duan picked up the Secret Manual of the Hundred Refinements Transformation Manual again and studied it with concentrated attention.

After flipping through it for a while, he set the book down, scooped up a handful of soil from beneath the tree, and placed it in his palm. Then, following the instructions in the manual, he attempted to circulate that unique inner-force method and transform the soil into a weapon.

The Hundred Refinements Transformation Manual and the Wood Element Art had quite a few similarities. Neither had any fixed outward techniques; their essence lay in refining a unique form of origin inner force, then using that inner force as the foundation to develop all sorts of wondrous applications.

Before long, a faint warmth spread through his palm, as if something were taking shape.

It's here!

Chen Duan's thoughts stirred, and he was just about to guide it with the utmost care.

Yet suddenly, that trace of warmth went out in an instant and vanished without a trace.

Everything returned to stillness, as if the sensation just now had merely been an illusion.