Yakshas Meditation Method

"Master, this is where that man was staying."

Steward Huang's expression grew even more respectful, with a trace of fear mixed in.

It was not merely the strength Zhou Yan had displayed. His air of utter nonchalance when killing sent a chill rising from the depths of the steward's heart.

Someone like him must have taken countless lives to be so calm about it.

Standing beside Zhou Yan, he almost felt he could smell a suffocating stench of blood.

"All right, you can go. I'll stay here tonight and leave tomorrow morning," Zhou Yan said indifferently.

"Please rest well."

After saying this, Steward Huang hurried away as though an evil ghost were chasing him.

Perhaps, to him, Zhou Yan seemed even more terrifying than an evil ghost.

Zhou Yan did not mind. In fact, he had deliberately cultivated that impression.

Once Steward Huang was gone, Zhou Yan's eyes lit up, and he began searching at once.

Although he had already confirmed that the cousin was the mastermind controlling ghosts to commit murder, he remained curious about how the man had managed to leave no trace whatsoever.

That was also why the two masters had fallen victim to him.

Had they known he was a cultivator, they would not have been so easily caught in his scheme, even with their grievous injuries.

Before long, Zhou Yan found a pile of cultivation-related items.

"The Yakshas Meditation Method!"

Zhou Yan had found the man's cultivation method. He quickly flipped through a few pages, and his eyes immediately brightened.

The man had actually practiced only a meditation method, without cultivating any method for condensing magic power. No wonder there had been no trace of magic power on him.

Of course, Zhou Yan suspected it was more likely that the man, like himself, had obtained the Yakshas Meditation Method through a chance encounter and simply possessed no other cultivation methods.

Besides the Yakshas Meditation Method, he also found methods such as the Lamp Lighting Method and the Starfire Method. These must have belonged to the two rogue cultivators, whose entire fortunes had ultimately fallen into the man's hands along with them.

The Lamp Lighting Method and the Starfire Method were useless to Zhou Yan, but the Yakshas Meditation Method filled a major gap in his cultivation.

Beyond accumulating magic power, means of protecting one's path, strengthening the soul, and improving one's state of mind were all extremely important to cultivation.

And the Yakshas Meditation Method was a method for strengthening the soul.

Most importantly, although the Yakshas Meditation Method looked like an evil cultivation method, it was actually an entirely orthodox Buddhist practice.

That was why the man had not only concealed himself so well, but also suffered no bodily ill effects.

This was what made the methods of the Orthodox Profound Sects so precious!

What a fool, buying the casket and returning the pearl. He took a perfectly good orthodox profound cultivation method and practiced it as an evil path of ghost control, Zhou Yan silently cursed.

He then examined the remaining items. They were all ordinary, inferior magic artifacts, even less useful and effective than his Soul-Fixing Lamp and Soul-Suppressing Bell.

Still, he might be able to fool someone into paying a little money for them.

There were also some banknotes and loose silver dollars, altogether amounting to less than eighty dollars.

It seemed that rogue cultivators all lived very difficult lives.

Finally, Zhou Yan searched further and found records of some incantations. They were only commonplace ones—the Evil-Expelling Incantation, Dharma Eye Curse, Corpse-Suppressing Incantation, Mind-Clearing Incantation, Ghost-Suppressing Incantation, and so forth—but he regarded them as treasures.

These incantations, which orthodox profound cultivators considered ordinary or even beneath their notice, were things Zhou Yan had no way of learning.

His excitement upon seeing them was beyond description.

Only after cultivating these incantations could he barely qualify as a proper master.

When his excitement finally subsided, Zhou Yan's gaze swept over the zombie beside him, and he remembered an important issue.

His expression turned serious, and he hurriedly activated the Corpse-Controlling Technique.

"Come here."

The zombie swiftly came to Zhou Yan's side, then stood motionless.

Zhou Yan removed the zombie's bamboo hat and examined its eyes. Only after finding no signs of bloodlust did he breathe a sigh of relief.

Although the Profound Yin Corpse Refining Technique was exquisite, it also had a major drawback: the corpse could easily go out of control.

The zombie had just absorbed a cultivator's blood. Zhou Yan feared that drinking blood would greatly increase its strength, making it difficult to control and possibly even causing a backlash.

For now, however, everything appeared normal.

He used the Corpse Refining Technique to sense the zombie's strength again. Sure enough, it had improved enormously.

Fortunately, Zhou Yan's Corpse Refining had already risen to proficient (23/200), while his Corpse Controlling had also reached proficient (37/200).

Thus, even though the zombie's strength had increased, it still could not break free of the Corpse Refining Technique's restraints, much less cause a backlash.

Mm, preparing ahead of time was the right move. Besides improving the Mystic Yin Art, I need to improve both Corpse Refining and Corpse Controlling. Ideally, I should grind them to the maximum as soon as possible, Zhou Yan told himself.

With Taoist Ma's fate serving as a warning, Zhou Yan had no desire to stumble into the same pitfall.

Once reassured, Zhou Yan sat cross-legged and began reading the Yakshas Meditation Method carefully.

He simply could not resist the temptation of such a precious method.

Never mind staying awake for one night—even if he had to go without sleep for several days and nights in a row, he would commit the Yakshas Meditation Method to memory, not daring to forget a single word.

Inside the room.

Dong Lei sat in the seat of honor, with his concubine kneeling before him. They were the only two people in the room.

"Why?"

Dong Lei's voice was quiet, but his expression revealed the fury filling his eyes, fierce enough to swallow the person before him.

At first, the concubine seemed frightened. Then she appeared to decide that, since the jar was already cracked, she might as well smash it altogether.

"Why? To live, of course. To live well, to live with dignity..."

"I'm only a prostitute. What I want is wealth and luxury, someone to depend on in the future—not an illusion that might vanish before the day is out..."

"She treated me very well, but in the end, weren't both you and she only using me? You valued my fabricated identity as a young lady from a distinguished family, and for the sake of your grand plans, you kept forcing me..."

"Since I would be exposed sooner or later, wouldn't I still end up dead? Even if I survived, I wouldn't want to live a life worse than an animal's..."

"So I want money. Lots and lots of money..."

"And I want a man I can depend on..."

"You couldn't give me any of that, so I could only go looking for it myself..."

"That fellow Tang He may be no good, but he could give me a sense of security, wealth, and luxury. That was enough..."

"..."

Watching his concubine rant like a madwoman, Dong Lei slowly closed his eyes.

Only after she had finished venting did he open them again, his gaze as still as an ancient well.

He reached out toward the top of her head.

Thump...

After that soft sound, the concubine's eyes lost focus, and her body slumped limply to the floor. She was already dead.