Copying the Cultivation Manual

Mei Ren, still half-kneeling, saw that Cat Master wasn't paying him any attention. Only then did he pull a cloth pouch from his robe, open it, and place it in front of Cat Master.

Only then did Cat Master open his big eyes. He sniffed the pouch, then suddenly perked up.

He raised a paw, and several sharp blasts of qi tore the pouch to shreds, revealing more than a dozen glittering pieces of Horse Hoof Gold inside.

"Speak. What is it?" Cat Master licked his tongue and swallowed the dozen-odd pieces of Horse Hoof Gold, then sent his voice to Mei Ren.

"The North Sea Demonic Sect requests that Cat Revered One visit the North Sea!" Mei Ren repeated.

"I'm not going!" Cat Master flatly refused.

"Cat Revered One, the North Sea Mei Family of the North Sea Demonic Sect is one of Ye Juwang's lines of inheritance. It's just that back then..." Mei Ren began, but Cat Master cut him off.

"Ye Juwang has been dead for hundreds of years. Why bring him up? Are you trying to use him to pressure me?" Cat Master said coldly.

"I wouldn't dare!" Mei Ren hurriedly lowered his head.

"The world is vast. I'll go wherever I please! Even Hua Chonglang and Liu Sanjue have no say in the matter!" Cat Master said with his eyes closed.

Mei Ren knew that Hua Chonglang was the foremost expert of the Central Plains Demonic Sect, while Liu Sanjue was the foremost expert of the Southern Border Demonic Sect. Both were renowned masters throughout the world. Their North Sea Demonic Sect had yet to produce anyone who could stand against either of them.

"We know Cat Revered One values his freedom, so we've specially invited him to visit the North Sea. The North Sea is full of big fish and famed for its gold and silver. I'm sure Cat Revered One would find it to his liking!" Mei Ren said, looking at Cat Master.

"I'm not going! You little scoundrels, who knows what crooked scheme you're plotting? When I feel like going, I'll go!" Cat Master said lazily.

Those little brats from the Demonic Sect were all black-hearted. They wouldn't invite him to the North Sea out of the goodness of their hearts. There had to be something to it.

Especially with someone from the North Sea Mei Family showing up at Three Talents Manor, which belonged to the Hua Family. Those two groups of scoundrels were sure to start fighting again.

Ever since A Ye died, the vast Demonic Sect had splintered into four, and its factions had fought until brains were spilling out!

"Then, Cat Revered One... In a few days, our Mei Family and the Central Plains Demonic Sect will settle a dispute at Three Talents Manor. We ask that Cat Revered One remain a neutral observer!" Mei Ren said, glancing at Cat Master.

What dispute?

They'd simply taken a fancy to Three Talents Manor and wanted it for themselves!

Cat Master knew perfectly well what was going on. These scoundrels, generation after generation, spent all day scheming over the same damned things.

What a pack of boring scoundrels!

"I understand! You scoundrels can fight among yourselves. I won't get involved!" Cat Master said with a yawn.

"Thank you for granting our request, Cat Revered One!" Mei Ren knelt halfway before Cat Master once more, offering him another pouch of Horse Hoof Gold.

Everyone in the Demonic Sect knew that once Cat Master accepted gold or silver, he kept his word to the letter!

"At least you know how to behave!" Cat Master swallowed the pouch of Horse Hoof Gold, then licked his lips with satisfaction.

"This is a token of our respect for Cat Revered One. It's only right!" Mei Ren said. "In that case, Mei Ren will take his leave!"

"Go! Close the door on your way out!" Cat Master said, lying in his cat bed.

Cat Master had eaten very well, and Shi Feizhe had eaten very well too.

Three Talents Manor provided food and lodging, but Shi Feizhe had already rented a place outside, so he didn't have to squeeze in with the people at the manor.

Living alone was certainly more comfortable than sharing a place with several others, and it was more convenient for practicing martial arts, too!

That morning, he had familiarized himself with the place and gotten started on the work with the bookkeeper, Wang Xian. At noon, he went with the other people from the accounting office to eat at the nearby courtyard.

Most people at Three Talents Manor had trained in martial arts, and they measured their appetites in basins. So although the manor served only one meat dish and one vegetable dish, the portions were generous and there was plenty to go around.

It was enough to let Shi Feizhe eat his fill.

It had been a long time since he'd had a full meal.

Back in Yi Yang City, he'd gone hungry as often as he'd eaten his fill. On the way to Three Talents Manor, he'd had nothing but dry rations, whose taste was beyond words. And during the past few days in Three Talents Town, he'd made do with a little something in the morning, eaten only until he was half full at noon, and skipped dinner altogether.

He'd been in this world for months, but still hadn't managed to recapture the life he'd had in his previous one, with meat and vegetables and enough to eat.

It was thanks to Hua Xiaomei that he'd gotten to Three Talents Manor and finally had a hot meal.

Shi Feizhe shoveled rice into his mouth. At that moment, he didn't care about the taste at all. All that mattered was eating his fill.

After the meal, he returned to the accounting office, worked through a few formulas, and quickly finished the tasks in his hands. Not only did he finish his own work, he also shared the formulas, helping everyone else finish theirs in no time. That finally smoothed the furrow from Mr. Wang's brow.

There was no way such a gifted mathematician had been deliberately assigned by Young Master Hua.

Mr. Wang stroked his beard as he thought. Seeing Shi Feizhe idly studying the yellow paper in his hands, he said, "Little Brother Shi, that yellow paper is the cheapest sort, and charcoal marks don't keep well on it. Feel free to use the brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones in the accounting office!"

"Thank you, Mr. Wang!" Shi Feizhe cupped his fists toward him.

He began copying the cultivation manual in the accounting office.

Only when he sat down to copy a cultivation manual himself did Shi Feizhe understand why martial arts manuals in the jianghu were always shrouded in secrecy.

The jianghu was simply too dangerous. You had to keep something up your sleeve.

Take martial arts manuals, for example. You couldn't exactly carry one around with you every day. A simple manual was fairly short and easy to carry. But what about the complicated ones, with tens of thousands of characters? You couldn't carry those around, too. That would be inconvenient—and downright stupid.

If you carried a martial arts manual on you, then if someone killed you, could they loot the manual from your body? If the manual spelled everything out too plainly, your enemy could kill you and then practice your martial arts. It would feel a lot like being NTR'd.

Or suppose you left the manual somewhere, only for someone to find it by chance, learn your martial arts, and then come kill you. That would be even more stupid!

The cheapest solution was encryption!

You could slip in words and phrases that only you understood. Even after Shi Feizhe finished copying such a manual, the other people in the accounting office wouldn't be able to make much sense of it.

The only thing to watch out for was remembering your own encryption.

But this was a rare problem, because martial arts masters would pore over their manuals until they nearly knew them by heart, and they'd trained the techniques into their bodies. With both of those things combined, even if they forgot what they'd used to encrypt the manual, they still knew its contents.

It was like someone encrypting the multiplication table. After enough time, they might forget what the password was, but they'd still remember the multiplication table. At worst, they could write it down again!

Only rookies like Shi Feizhe would want to make the encryption as complicated as possible.

As luck would have it, this manual was copied from the stone stele. Hua Xiaomei had explained it that morning, and he'd taken rather haphazard notes. Now, as he copied the manual, he'd gotten an idea on the spur of the moment and added a bunch of strange things.

As a result, he thought there was nothing wrong with this Nether Springs Divine Shadow Record, when in fact there was.

After all, avoiding typos was really hard!

Shi Feizhe thought, I wrote it myself. How could there possibly be anything wrong with it? Impossible. Absolutely impossible!