New Holy Son

Li Ye picked up another iron nail and tapped it with his tongue. With a bang, the nail exploded into pieces.

Invincible!

Words Manifest Reality looked like a useless ability, but it was actually extremely practical.

Li Ye was thrilled. He felt he would be able to use it sooner or later.

He gave the Corpse Incineration Furnace a deep look. This divine artifact seemed to embody the laws of the world itself, capable of anything. It was far more mysterious than he had imagined.

The Corpse Refining Courtyard was grim and eerie, and Li Ye had no desire to sleep at all.

He lay in the courtyard, gazing up at the starry sky.

Today was his second day in this world. He wondered what the outside world looked like.

The mountains must be tall.

The lakes must be vast.

And the chickens must be plump and delicious.

He had the Holy Son's memories. Some places were dazzling, such as certain famous mountains, where old immortals possessed immortal airs and Dao bones, fairy maidens flew on swords, and divine beasts soared with wings spread wide.

Other places were run-down, with barren land stretching for thousands of miles, refugees everywhere, and crumbling houses of brick and tile.

Still other places were dangerous, where demons ran rampant, the Evil Dao flourished, and people killed without batting an eye.

There were also some dark places, where people engaged in murder and robbery, where men stole and women sold themselves.

But after all, he had never experienced them in person. Li Ye still longed to see them.

"The Holy Son must have been drugged, causing his cultivation to regress until he was ultimately crippled."

Li Ye muttered under his breath.

This had been the Holy Son's own guess before his death. He had discreetly asked the Elder of the Divine Concealment Sect's Alchemy Hall, but the elder had been absolutely certain that no such poison existed in the world.

The Holy Son had also had others examine his body, yet no abnormalities had been found.

"I will definitely help you find the one who poisoned you."

"Go in peace."

Li Ye swore silently in his heart.

Having taken over someone else's body, he had to do something for its former owner.

A Peerless Prodigy could not die so inexplicably.

Besides, since the poisoner had targeted the Holy Son, they would target him in the future as well. They had to be found.

Early the next morning, after Li Ye ate two steamed corn buns, drowsiness swept over him just as he was about to return to his room.

Suddenly, waves of ritual music drew his attention.

The music was loud and resonant, rising and falling in measured cadences—classical and graceful, yet grand and majestic.

Li Ye could not help but walk out of his little courtyard.

The Corpse Refining Courtyard was a courtyard within a courtyard. Beyond the small courtyard lay the main courtyard.

At that moment, more than ten corpse incinerators had gathered outside.

These corpse incinerators were dressed in rags, their faces grimy and unkempt, their bodies thin and gaunt. Each of them looked like a coal ball that had rolled out of a heap of coal.

They were the very image of malnourished refugees.

"Young man, which courtyard are you from? How come I've never seen you before?"

A corpse incinerator looked surprised upon seeing Li Ye.

"Do you even need to ask? He must be from Courtyard No. 3."

A small, skinny middle-aged man beside him laughed, revealing a mouthful of yellowed teeth.

The Corpse Refining Courtyard had twelve chimneys in total. The eleven people present all knew one another well.

Only the master of Courtyard No. 3 had never shown his face.

Judging by Li Ye's appearance, he was slightly better off than the rest of them, but not by much. He was surely another corpse incinerator.

"My name's Liu Sanshou. They all call me Old Liu."

The skinny man introduced himself, showing Li Ye a gesture of goodwill.

Liu Sanshou had once been a street thief. But in this chaotic world, the people lived in misery.

His superb thieving skills had nowhere to be used, so he could only come here to work as a corpse incinerator and scrape together a living.

The other corpse incinerators also began introducing themselves.

Old Knife, Butcher, Yang Chen, Zhou Bao, and so on.

Old Knife had been a bandit. Outside, the land was barren for thousands of miles and corpses lay everywhere. His stronghold had been robbed by an army of refugees, so he too became one of the refugees. After drifting to the vicinity of Yang City beneath the Divine Concealment Sect, he eventually took up work as a corpse incinerator.

Butcher had slaughtered pigs in a small town. In these times, let alone pigs, you could not even find a pig hair. Even if there were pigs, no one could afford the meat.

Butcher had thus lost his job and ended up here.

One person stood out as rather strange: Zhou Bao. A pebble was tied to his tongue, hanging down beneath it. With his head lowered, he swayed the pebble back and forth, going "bleh, bleh, bleh," having the time of his life.

Others each had their own stories.

In summary, they were all people burdened by bitter fates.

Everyone looked towards Li Ye, waiting for his introduction.

"...I am Li Bai of Wan City!"

I can write "Thoughts on a Quiet Night"!

Li Ye thought for a moment, then spoke.

The Holy Son's reputation was far too great. Though he had been demoted again and again over the past half year and had faded into the crowd, if he truly gave the name Li Ye, there was no guarantee someone would not make the connection.

For safety's sake, it was better to use a false name.

As for Wan City, it truly was the Holy Son's hometown, a small county within the Great Gan Dynasty.

The Holy Son's family was well-off and lived comfortably. At a very young age, he had caught the eye of an elder from the Divine Concealment Sect and been taken up the mountain to cultivate. He had not returned home for many years.

The Ritual Music was coming from the direction of the Divine Concealment Sect.

Looking out, there were shadowy figures everywhere, and the place was bustling with life.

There even seemed to be a constant stream of guests coming up from Down the Mountain to pay their respects. Something major must have happened.

"I heard people saying yesterday that the Divine Concealment Sect was investing a New Holy Son."

Old Knife explained.

"Heh, truly worthy of an immortal sect. This music is quite pleasant to listen to—majestic, too!"

Liu Sanshou commented, listening with a face full of intoxication.

That position used to be mine.

The one standing high above, watched by all, used to be me.

So a New Holy Son has appeared after only half a year?

For some reason, Li Ye felt an inexplicable sense of loss.

"Why listen to this damned Ritual Music? Better to go Down the Mountain and have a couple cups of rough wine."

"Who knows? One day, we might die beneath some Fierce Corpse."

"In times like these, it's best to enjoy yourself while you can. Even if you die, it won't have been for nothing."

Butcher waved to the crowd as he spoke, then headed Down the Mountain, leaving everyone with a carefree silhouette.

"I'm going too!"

Someone answered and followed Butcher.

There was a tavern at the foot of the mountain, and it was much cheaper than in the city.

None of them had had the chance to spend yesterday's wages yet.

Suddenly, Zhou Bao, who looked like a youth, Came up close. His face was dark as soot; he had been born into a fishing family.

Supporting the pebble tied to his tongue with one hand, Zhou Bao smiled and said, "Brother Li Bai, you've spent two nights in a row safe and sound. Do you have any skills tucked away at the bottom of your chest? We can trade with you. Paying for them works too."

Others immediately grew interested.

Corpse Incinerators were not only lowly, but theirs was also a dangerous profession.

The chances of encountering a Corpse Transformation were high.

Not to mention anything farther back—just in the past few months, no one knew how many batches of Corpse Incinerators the Corpse Refining Courtyard had gone through.

Those with bad luck were often strangled to death by Fierce Corpses the moment they arrived.

None of their specialties matched the job, which was why Zhou Bao suggested exchanging their house-guarding skills.

"I am but a scholar. I know neither amulets nor cultivation. I rely entirely on luck."

Li Ye answered.

After listening, everyone was disappointed.

But Zhou Bao became interested instead. He took a folded piece of yellow paper from his robes and said, "Then all the better. I have a Corpse Suppressing Incantation. It's simple and easy to learn—recite it, and you can restrain corpses."

"If you're interested, how about I sell it to you for twenty copper coins?"

Li Ye froze. So this guy came to do business with me.

Just as he was about to refuse, Zhou Bao added with utter certainty, "Twenty coins—you can't buy a loss, and you can't buy a scam."

"If it's fake, I'll compensate you tenfold. It's guaranteed to work. Brother Li Bai, you might as well consider it."

For a moment, Li Ye felt as though he had returned to some commercial street from his previous life.

This guy rattles off the grand art of bamboozling so smoothly. Could he be a transmigrator too?

Liu Sanshou exposed him. "Don't listen to him."

"That lousy incantation has forty or fifty characters. You need to recite it in a single breath. Who can do that?"

One breath was roughly two or three seconds.

It really was difficult. No wonder Zhou Bao had a pebble hanging from his tongue—he had been practicing the Corpse Suppressing Incantation.

"Of course you tongue-tied fools can't do it. But Brother Li Bai is silver-tongued. As long as he practices diligently like I do, he'll definitely be able to."

Zhou Bao coaxed him patiently.

Li Ye pondered for a moment, then slashed his knife across Zhou Bao's carotid and said, "One coin!"

Zhou Bao's eyes widened.