Great Idol Spirit Method

After Shopkeeper Zhu and the other person had gone some distance, Gao Xian finally let out a long breath.

"That couple would eat you alive and not spit out the bones. You've got some nerve, hanging around with them..."

A short distance from the gate stood a scrawny old man, grinning as he made snide remarks.

The old man's hair was a disheveled mess atop his head. Dark circles ringed his eyes, and his wrinkled face was pale. His black Daoist robe was smeared with greasy stains and liquor, making him look every bit the lecherous old degenerate, lost in drink and women.

Gao Xian suddenly remembered: the old man was his next-door neighbor, surnamed Wang, whose favorite pastime was drinking and chasing women at brothels.

"What a shameless old geezer!"

Gao Xian had no interest in getting tangled up with the likes of him, so he pretended not to hear.

Seeing how meek Gao Xian was, Old Wang only grew more pleased, chuckling lewdly.

Gao Xian shut the courtyard gate behind him, leaving Old Wang and his laughter outside, then hurried back to his room.

He pulled Alchemy Essentials from among the few Daoist books the original owner had left behind and began leafing through it. Shopkeeper Zhu might have been easygoing, but alchemy was the foundation of Gao Xian's livelihood. He had to master the craft as soon as possible!

Since the original owner knew alchemy, perhaps if Gao Xian read enough, he would remember how to do it.

He hadn't read long before his head began to swim.

He recognized every character in the book, but strung together, they all blurred into a jumble. He couldn't make heads or tails of it.

It reminded him of his experience studying advanced mathematics.

Gao Xian reluctantly put the book down. This really wasn't something he could master by simply forcing himself to read.

He sat on the bed and thought for a long time, but couldn't come up with any solution.

A Little Black Cat jumped onto the bed and meowed at Gao Xian twice.

"Are you hungry?"

Gao Xian affectionately stroked the Little Black Cat's head. This little thing really was adorable.

After spending several days together, Gao Xian could more or less understand what the cat wanted.

When it wanted to be petted, it wagged its tail and meowed more softly. When it was hungry, its meows grew sharper, and it didn't wag its tail.

Gao Xian got out of bed and went to the kitchen next door to rinse the rice and start cooking.

The grains were jade-green, about the size of peanuts, and had a faintly translucent, jade-like sheen.

This rice was called Green Jade Spirit Rice. It contained abundant spiritual energy and was quite expensive.

One Low-grade Spirit Stone could buy only ten pounds.

And this was the lowest-grade spirit rice.

The original owner had been an alchemist, and his craft had allowed him to get by fairly well.

There was more than half a vat of Green Jade Spirit Rice stored at home, along with some demon beast meat. Well, it was hidden in the cellar in the courtyard, where the temperature was low enough to preserve the meat for a long time.

At least for now, Gao Xian didn't need to worry about food and drink.

Over the past few days, he had also grown accustomed to a cultivator's life and had become skilled at starting a fire and cooking.

The stove was made of brick and fitted with a big iron pot. It was the sort of setup used for farmhouse goose stew, only rougher.

Gao Xian chanted a few spell incantations, formed a hand seal, and pointed. A flame about a foot long surged from his fingertip, quickly setting the firewood in the stove alight.

Using the Fire Control Art always thrilled Gao Xian. This was magic, not some fake parlor trick!

The Fire Control Art had no real power. It was basically like carrying around a big lighter. Even so, it completely shattered the laws of physics Gao Xian had known in his previous life.

It was the Fire Control Art, too, that made Gao Xian realize this was a real world of cultivators, where people wielded mighty powers...

In that respect, this place was a hundred times more dangerous than the good old US of A, where everyone had a gun.

He had traveled to this world, and whether he liked it or not, it seemed there was no going back.

A middle-aged office drone, battered by the blows of society, had long since learned to accept reality.

As that feel-good saying went, "Everything is for the best!"

It was precisely because Gao Xian could take things in stride that he could be good for nothing and still live a pretty happy life.

For now, he stopped thinking about alchemy and focused on cutting the demon beast meat into chunks and frying it. Then he added water, rice, and salt, preparing to make a fragrant pot of hand-grab rice.

The big iron pot was fixed to the stove, making it suitable only for steaming, boiling, and stewing. Still, cooking everything together was convenient.

Before long, the aroma of meat filled the air.

The Little Black Cat meowed incessantly on the stove, but didn't dare get too close.

He lifted the rough wooden lid. The Green Jade Spirit Rice was already large, and after soaking up the water, it had swollen several times over. Gao Xian filled a huge wooden basin with it.

He took out a coarse pottery bowl and set aside a small bowl for the Little Black Cat.

Then Gao Xian polished off the rest of the rice and meat in one go.

He had to admit, Green Jade Spirit Rice was delicious, and the demon beast meat was even better.

Once he was full, not only were his taste buds and stomach satisfied, but the spiritual energy in his body also felt warm and abundant. It was an indescribably wonderful feeling.

Gao Xian burped. If not for Shopkeeper Zhu and his wife stirring up trouble, this simple yet fulfilling life would have been downright happy.

He stroked the Little Black Cat as it buried its head in the meat, and said gently, "Eat up. Once you're full, you won't miss home..."

Whether it was answering Gao Xian or simply enjoying its food, the Little Black Cat meowed twice.

With his stomach full and his spiritual energy abundant, Gao Xian grew drowsy.

He forced himself to stay awake and took out the Wind and Moon Mirror again.

This time, he looked at the other side of the mirror.

The Wind and Moon Mirror had two sides. One reflected his appearance and showed his various abilities.

In the other mirror surface, however, there was a woman.

She had delicate, beautiful features and wore a bright red, cross-collared, high-waisted ruqun.

The fabric of her dress was soft and slightly sheer, faintly revealing skin as white as snow and the curves of her slender figure.

What mattered most was that she looked like his first love, and a little like his coworker, Sister Lan—a confident, sexy married woman.

Well, the two of them had looked alike in the first place! It was just that one had a pure aura and the other a seductive one; they were worlds apart.

Their figures differed, too. The married woman wasn't fat, but her fair, dewy skin and plump curves had the lush beauty unique to a mature woman.

His first love, by contrast, had been slender, with taut skin and the youthful vigor unique to a young woman.

The woman in the mirror was both pure and alluring, combining the best of both. But her gestures and expression carried a bewitching air, making her seem rather improper no matter how he looked at her.

After studying her for several days, Gao Xian had taken to calling her Sister Lan for convenience.

He'd discovered that Sister Lan was alive—not a living person, but something that could interact with him... Well, like an advanced interactive AI program.

Gao Xian reached out and gently tapped Sister Lan.

Sister Lan looked up in the mirror and smiled at him seductively. At the same time, a passage of text appeared on the mirror's surface.

The affairs of love and desire are the greatest good and beauty in the world.

By embodying charm and witnessing the beauty of passion, one may attain the Supreme Dao.

Humanity Aura: 335.

Secret arts: Lightning Dragon Hand, Great Idol Spirit Method.

Lightning Dragon Hand: When performing certain fixed, simple actions, the hands move incredibly fast, and conceal the power of lightning. When activated, it gives those touched a wonderful, stimulating sensation. (Proficient 188/300)

Great Idol Spirit Method: Feel it within the heart; let the spirit descend without. The high and low meet, and the two energies unite to form a divine idol. Thirty years of delusions and obsessions coalesce into a single spark of true spirit, with endless wondrous uses. (Expert 321/400)

The first time Gao Xian saw this passage, he had been extremely embarrassed, even a little angry.

There was no need to explain the Lightning Dragon Hand.

As for the Great Idol Spirit Method, it was clearly mocking him for fantasizing about beautiful women and treating all those teachers as his wives.

It was slander! He was a decent, honest middle-aged man who'd never done anything bad. Damn it, was even thinking about it a sin?!

Gao Xian could actually put up with all that. The problem was, it wasn't any use!

The Humanity Aura could only strengthen abilities on the back of the mirror. It did nothing for abilities like Alchemy Art.

He had a feeling Sister Lan ought to be able to help somehow! He just needed to study how...

But why did his Humanity Aura seem to have increased by a few points?

A note about the new book: I'm updating twice a day, once at noon and once in the afternoon. The most important thing for a new book is its follow-through readership, so I beg you all to stop by and read a little every day.