The Dog Beating Staff Technique

At that very moment, two groups of demons were locked in a frenzied battle in Qiantang County. The two groups of cannon fodder, the Beggar Sect and the Corpse Herders, had somehow been brought under the control of the Eternal Life Cult's remnants. They had taken a brutal blow at the outset and suffered heavy casualties, yet after catching their breath, they still rushed back to the battlefield to reinforce their allies. Their battle cries rang throughout the county.

Of course, there were also some unlucky souls who had lost the ability to fend for themselves in the first wave.

The Corpse Herder Ge Xian spotted through his senses right now was one such example.

In a dark, damp alley, beside a filthy gutter, half a person's body lay sprawled on the ground. Only half of his Exotic Taoist Robe remained, unable to cover his bloodied, mangled waist. Worse still, he had lost more than just his lower half: one hand and half his head had also been torn apart by the storm, their pieces scattered who knew where.

Judging from his features, he was an ugly young man. Nothing else about him stood out, except for the nose bearing a black mole the size of a thumb, which left a deep impression.

The exposed skin elsewhere was gray-black, hard and cold-looking. Some ghostly, talisman-like patterns had been carved into it with a foul-smelling blood. A piece of jewelry made of metal scales covered his mouth.

The man seemed to have exhausted his magical power and could no longer summon his severed limbs. He could only shake the metal scales to make a strange, whistle-like sound, driving a one-legged zombie to hop around and fish his body parts out of the filthy gutter.

The zombie looked like it had once been a member of the human race. Unlike ordinary people, it was fat and bloated, like a rhino or an ox. The ground trembled with every hop, a sure sign that it must have been a burly man in life.

Before long, it really did fish a hand out of the foul water and bring it over to the Corpse Herder's severed torso.

As the whistle sounded, a strange scene unfolded.

Red tendrils, much like Blood Maggots, suddenly sprouted from the rough, gray-white stump. Glowing an eerie red, they pierced into the severed hand in the blink of an eye, drawing it back into place until it was joined to the body and restored as before.

Then came the other body parts.

As his body gradually recovered, his face grew ever more ashen. His body trembled, and the alley echoed with repeated retching. With each heave, the metal scales rattled, and clumps of foul, sticky Corpse Fluid mixed with dozens of plump, white corpse maggots spilled to the ground, corroding it with a sizzling hiss.

Clearly, repairing his body came at a steep price.

Because of this, the Corpse Herder kept muttering curses at Lu Hualong, never repeating himself.

Ge Xian didn't understand the Xiangxi Dialect. He could only make out phrases like "pig-brain," "son of a dog," and "fucking idiot." The man was probably cursing not only Lu Hualong, but also the Eternal Life Cult's cultivators, accusing them of acting without gathering proper intelligence and saying they were about to be capsized in a ditch.

"Sure, he's a corpse, but the bastard can still curse."

"There may be danger. Find someone else."

At the thought, Ge Xian gave up on attacking him.

He quietly slipped away and followed his senses to look for someone else.

His extrasensory perception gave him a vague impression that if he used all three of his strange powers—Call Wind Summon Rain, Skin Painting, and Bewitchment—he had a decent chance of subduing the Corpse Herder. He could eat him up and then kill him. After all, a Corpse Herder who could mix with the Beggar Sect and Evil Cultivators probably wasn't a good person.

Even so, Ge Xian wasn't willing to take the slightest risk.

Over the next several dozen breaths, Ge Xian darted around like a wandering ghost, watching the Beggar Sect disciples and Corpse Herder Evil Cultivators from afar.

From a distance, every one of them looked gravely wounded, but unfortunately, they could all still move. Some could even curse.

That meant they didn't meet his requirements.

"If they can move around and curse, they might suddenly spring up and kill someone."

"Who knows what trump cards these Evil Cultivators have hidden?"

Ge Xian muttered to himself, just about ready to give up, when—

After zigzagging through the streets, he had reached a large embankment in the city. Among the rocks at its edge lay a battered body that looked like a corpse. It still twitched faintly, but it was obviously grievously wounded and on the brink of death.

The man looked like an Old Beggar. He wore ragged clothes sewn with five large, brightly colored bags. His limbs were limp, and filth lay beneath him. He had clearly broken bones all over and lost control of his bowels and bladder.

"Whoa, a Five-Bag Elder, no less?"

"Luckiest of all, he's been blown almost out of the city and had the misfortune to crash among these rocks. There probably isn't a single patch of unbroken flesh left on him."

Ge Xian muttered, but still didn't approach.

He kept watching from the shadows. Every so often, strange green light flashed across the Old Beggar's body, as if he were trying to use something like Internal Energy to repair himself. But each time, it faded halfway through.

After several attempts, Ge Xian sensed that the Internal Aura inside the Old Beggar had almost completely died out.

He knew that if he didn't act now, the man would soon be nothing but a corpse.

What he wanted wasn't merely to rifle through the Old Beggar's belongings and find some Bizarre Martial Arts or the like. Secret Intelligence was what he truly sought.

The next moment, Ge Xian moved.

As he stepped out of the shadows, a fine rain suddenly drifted over the embankment, and a gentle breeze stirred.

The Old Beggar was at death's door, vomiting blood and drifting in and out of consciousness.

Suddenly, he noticed a green umbrella above his head, shielding him from the rain. Beneath it stood a woman who looked frail.

The cloudy eyes, filled with resentment and unwillingness to give in, immediately lit up with astonishing greed and a desire to live. His heart kept shouting, "Quick, come closer. Closer!"

Just as he'd hoped, the woman beneath the umbrella bent down as if to ask him something.

Without the slightest hesitation, the Old Beggar's face twisted into a hideous snarl. His eyes turned blood-red, and his aged body changed at once. Knotted muscles bulged, stiff dog hairs sprouted one by one, and his foul, yellow teeth shot out and grew longer... In the blink of an eye, the Old Beggar had become a Mangy Vicious Dog.

Like a Man-Wolf, he sprang up and lunged at the woman beneath the umbrella.

As he moved, the vicious Old Dog deliberately sent his voice straight into her ear.

"Young lady, I must thank you for saving this old man's life..."

Before he could finish speaking, the Old Dog had already bitten down.

In his mind, he was about to savor tender flesh and warm blood, restoring his strength and saving his life.

But the next moment, he felt that what he'd bitten was tough beyond belief, impossible to tear at all. It was clearly a demon's Skin Sac.

He lowered his eyes to look. There was no young woman's flesh and blood at all. As expected, it was a glossy Otter Skin.

And the green umbrella was even more ridiculous. It was just a lotus leaf.

Realizing he'd been fooled, the vicious Old Dog was so furious that his eyes and mouth twisted sideways. Just then, the last bit of strength in his body gave out completely. His foul-smelling body slammed heavily to the ground. Another muffled thud sounded inside him as he landed, leaving not a single good bone in his body. He retched without end, spitting up pus and blood mixed with chunks of his innards.

This time, the Old Dog had no strength left at all. Death was closing in.

His body visibly changed back from a Mangy Vicious Dog into a frail Old Beggar. He kept howling, "Green Umbrella Woman, Azure Otter Demon! I can't believe that before I die, I'd be toyed with by such a lowly little spirit. I hate it! I hate it so much..."

He had good reason to be angry. The so-called Green Umbrella Woman was actually a spirit formed from an otter, skilled at bewitching handsome young men into mating with her, but otherwise utterly useless. Normally, when such a spirit ran into him, it would become his food—one bite and it was gone.

Just as his consciousness was about to fade completely, he seemed to see the face he'd had when he was young. A voice called out by his ear, again and again: "Hong Buyi... Hong Buyi..."

Amid those calls, the Old Beggar felt as if he were watching a lantern show, reliving his whole life.

Every secret, every shameful deed—nothing was left out.

"I, Hong Buyi, regret nothing in my life. I only regret that I wasn't more shameless back then."

"If I could have cast off all humanity and become a true beast, I wouldn't have failed to achieve Foundation Establishment. I'd already entered the Dao! I'd touched that supreme, lofty Dao. I could have lived forever and enjoyed immortal bliss for all eternity..."

As he murmured, the Old Beggar finally breathed his last, becoming a heap of rotting flesh.

Ge Xian crouched beside his corpse, his expression complicated.

It wasn't that he felt moved by the Old Beggar's dying words. After Ge Xian used Bewitchment, the Old Dog had not only revealed everything he knew to him, but also recounted his entire life.

After hearing it all, Ge Xian felt the bastard deserved to die.

If the man hadn't died so quickly, Ge Xian might even have killed him himself.

"The old bastard's original name was Hong Buyi. He was born wicked. As a child, he loved setting fires and spent all day with hooligans and villains. Later, he accidentally burned down his own house, crippling his younger brother. Convinced he was destined for greatness, he joined the Beggar Sect when they passed through during a famine, and even stole all the food at home to offer as an initiation gift."

"After joining the Beggar Sect, Hong Buyi got hold of a crude cultivation method and worked hard at it. Unfortunately, he lacked the talent to enter the Dao. In the end, he took a desperate gamble and cultivated the Evil Skill, the Primordial Chaos Art. This method required him to sever all emotion and humanity, so the bastard returned to his hometown and slaughtered his parents and younger brother. Later, when breaking through a realm, he poisoned his own master as well. At last, he truly entered the Dao."

"After that, he changed his name to Hong Buyi, declaring himself an unkind, unfilial, unrighteous man who sought only freedom and ease."

"So the Old Dog committed every sort of evil. Whether it was cultivating wicked arts, tormenting children, practicing Life Harvesting Dismemberment, abusing his enemies, or raping and pillaging, he was always first in line."

"And because he cultivated an Evil Skill with one of the highest prices, it gave rise to the greatest number of Vicious Habits. Every day, he spent hours enduring torment. His temperament grew more twisted, but his cultivation barely advanced. He'd wasted most of his life and managed no more than the position of Five-Bag Elder in the Beggar Sect."

"Still, the Old Dog relied on his seniority and silver tongue to secure an important position in this operation. He had quite a few good things hidden on him, and now they were all naturally mine."

"Of course, the greatest prize was the Old Dog's memories."

"What is the Cultivation Path in this world? What Secret Intelligence is there to be found? Now, it's all in my ears."

At that thought, one could see that the confusion and bewilderment in Ge Xian's eyes had indeed mostly disappeared.

By then, he had finished looting the corpse.

With Hong Buyi's memories, he naturally knew about all the things hidden in the five large bags and the secret pouches on his body.

He didn't take everything. Instead, he picked and chose, taking only a few useful items that wouldn't bring him trouble.

The one he valued most was a manual titled the Dog Beating Staff Technique.

From the sound of it, it shared a name with a martial art from his previous life.

But in truth, it was completely different. The staff technique in this world was a vicious, baleful Evil Skill. Ge Xian was willing to take it for a reason of his own.

Once everything was packed, Ge Xian didn't linger. He carefully erased every trace of himself and quickly slipped away.

Later, whether it was the Beggar Sect or the evil spirits under Lu Hualong who discovered the Old Dog's remains, they wouldn't notice anything unusual. They'd think it had simply happened that way. Even if they realized many things were missing, they'd assume the storm had taken them.

How could they ever imagine that a mere peddler had somehow tricked a shrewd, ghost-like Five-Bag Elder of the Beggar Sect out of everything he owned?