Evil Arts

Chen Yong kept saying not to be afraid, but in truth, he was more frightened than anyone.

Over the entire day, he and Madam Wang had strutted their authority before the neighbors quite a few times.

Whenever they met someone, they proclaimed that Chen Hao had become a Martial Artist and spoke of how formidable he was. They also said that Chen Hao and the Black Wolf Gang's leader were as close as brothers, bound by a friendship forged in life and death.

Madam Wang in particular, with a face red as a monkey's backside, had to hold forth whenever she saw someone.

If the other person did not immediately flatter and fawn over her, her face would instantly darken. She would snort coldly through her nostrils and gouge them with knife-like eyes, looking as though she were saying, "Just wait until my son comes back and deals with you."

Now that the Black Wolf Gang was plainly about to be finished... any neighbors who harbored resentment only needed to spread a few rumors, and plenty of trouble would come knocking at their door.

Chen Yong grew more terrified the more he thought about it.

Madam Wang had always been shrewd. Not only could she think of this much, she could think of even more—greater troubles, even disasters that would wipe them out entirely!

Tonight, they were destined to get no sleep.

After leaving the Black Wolf Gang's hideout, Chen Cheng deliberately found an empty corner and took out the scripture with its blood-red cover.

He did not open it immediately. Instead, he first examined the cover and spine carefully beneath the moonlight.

There were no unusual indentations, no markings such as fluorescent powder.

His nostrils twitched slightly.

He could not smell any unusual scent either.

He calmed his mind and sensed it carefully.

He could not even detect the faintest trace of sinister energy.

He even began to wonder whether this scripture had truly come from the Red Moon Nunnery.

If he had not followed Zhao Chuan for so long and known that Zhao Chuan had no habit of chanting scriptures or worshipping Buddha, he might truly have taken this scripture for Zhao Chuan's personal reading material.

"I'll take a look first..."

He focused his mind and slowly opened the first page.

Under the moonlight, lines of hand-copied crimson writing came into view.

Yet he did not recognize a single one of those characters.

"Did this come from a foreign race? Southern Viet? Or Northern Yin?"

Because he had been born into such a lowly station in this life, Chen Cheng's understanding of this world was extremely limited.

The only two major foreign races he could think of were Great Yue, which bordered Great Shang to the southwest, and Great Yin, which was currently at war with Great Shang in the north.

As for which group the writing before him belonged to, he could not determine that for now.

"Rustle—"

Chen Cheng flipped through several more pages. Deep within his consciousness, the Vertical Eye Mark suddenly grew hot.

Below the mark, the skill panel for [Literacy] suddenly flickered with a faint glow.

Then the glow vanished.

The meaning of the writing before him became completely clear.

"This... this is actually a martial... no, this does not count as martial arts... It is more like some kind of bizarre evil art..."

Chen Cheng rapidly skimmed through it once.

The entire text contained five or six thousand words and was written in an exceedingly brief and obscure manner. Without guidance from an accomplished predecessor, an ordinary person could never learn it alone.

But Chen Cheng was different.

With the Vertical Eye Mark as his trump card, self-study was the very thing he feared least.

[Moon Breath of Avici]: Beginner (0/300), Traits (None), Limit Break (No)

After he finished reading, another skill panel appeared beneath the Vertical Eye Mark.

A flash of insight came to Chen Cheng, and in an instant, he had entered the art perfectly.

"'Avici' comes from the Red Moon Original Vow Sutra's doctrine of 'deliverance from Avici'... while 'Moon Breath' is the essence of this evil art..."

"Through a special method of breathing and regulating the breath, it can conceal my heartbeat, breathing, body odor, even fluctuations in Blood Qi... all of it."

"However, I have only just begun, so the concealment is weak... I need to temper it continuously before the degree of concealment can increase..."

"In theory, once this evil art is tempered to perfection, it can achieve nearly flawless concealment. Unless an enemy sees me with their own eyes, every form of perception can be evaded!"

Chen Cheng briefly contemplated it and sorted through his thoughts.

The effect of this new skill was undeniably excellent, yet he was not happy in the slightest.

Because from the moment he understood those words, he had known that this was an evil art.

Evil arts differed from martial arts. They possessed a degree of supernatural effect themselves, but to cultivate them successfully, one had to pay a corresponding price.

"Tempering this evil art will damage the heart and lungs. Over time, it will not only leave irreversible hidden injuries, but may even throw the Blood Qi into disorder and cause qi deviation..."

Chen Cheng understood as clearly as a mirror that, with the Vertical Eye Mark, as long as he stayed steady and did not get reckless, he could grow stronger step by step. There was absolutely no need to risk tempering this evil art.

Unless...

Chen Cheng closed his eyes and concentrated, sensing everything around him.

In his ears were the scattered watch-clappers in the distance and the whimpering of stray dogs. His nose distinguished the familiar scents around him, while his skin felt the subtle shifts in the night wind's flow.

He could be certain that there was no second person nearby.

Then, following the breathing method of the Moon Breath of Avici, he began circulating this evil art.

A moment later, he completed one full cycle of breathing.

He clearly felt the discomfort rising within his chest, as though his heart and lungs were being twisted, clenched, and torn apart by countless bone-piercingly cold ghost claws bristling with barbs. The pain nearly suffocated him.

Fortunately, pain of this degree was far from enough to affect his consciousness.

He steadied his mind and endured the agony.

Right where he stood, he began practicing Health-Preserving Taiji. As the Health Preservation trait activated, the pain in his heart and lungs rapidly eased.

"Phew—"

After completing one set of Health-Preserving Taiji, Chen Cheng slowly exhaled a breath of foul air.

He sensed his body carefully again.

The pain in his heart and lungs had already vanished completely.

But he did not relax entirely. He repeatedly examined himself with great care for a while longer and truly could not feel even the slightest abnormality in his heart and lungs.

"Since the Health Preservation trait can eliminate the side effects of evil arts, then this Moon Breath of Avici can be used by me as well..."

As Chen Cheng thought this, a satisfied smile faintly appeared at the corner of his mouth.

Then he silently pondered again.

"This scripture... must not be kept on me..."

South Third Guard Patrol Office, morgue.

The vast room was permeated year-round by the stench of corpses, lamp oil, and the strange smell of certain herbs.

Zhao Chuan's corpse lay on a hardwood table, illuminated brightly by lamps on both sides.

Two Ti Cavalry from the South Outer City Patrol Headquarters had driven away all unrelated personnel and were personally examining the body.

One of them, broad-boned and solemn-faced, was named Lu Song. He kept his voice extremely low.

"The fatal wound was caused by the Cloth-Wrapped Puppet... I am certain of it... Also, Zhao Chuan vomited blood in the street, and many people witnessed it... It can basically be confirmed that he died suddenly from severe injuries..."

Beside him.

The other man, whose gaze was fixed on Zhao Chuan's corpse like that of a hawk, was named Xu Chengfeng. His voice was equally quiet, faint as a mosquito's buzz.

"In principle, I have no objection... The problem now is that after Zhao Chuan died, someone went to the scene and took his money... Could they have taken that thing as well?"

"Only heaven knows that..."

Lu Song curled his lip.

"We have no definite clues at all. Trying to find that person would be like fishing a needle from the sea..."

"Even if we really found them, what if it was some beggar or lowborn wretch who did not recognize its value? It would not be impossible for them to use that thing to start a fire, or even tear it up to wipe their backside..."

Xu Chengfeng did not reply. He merely let out a faint sigh.