Zhou Yan had never expected that even a maverick cultivator like him would be considered a cut above the rest in outsiders' eyes.
Not to mention unorthodox arts, even techniques that came with the Five Flaws and Three Deficiencies, along with other obscure arts people looked down on, had been passed down for hundreds of years within some cultivator families. They would never teach them to outsiders lightly; some were even passed down only to sons, not daughters.
Cultivation was no easy feat. That much was obvious!
Zhou Yan had read the Lamp Lighting Method and the Starfire Method. Neither had any major drawbacks, but there was nothing particularly remarkable about them, either. They were slow at accumulating Magic Power, and it was easy to fail or suffer cultivation deviation. Even getting started was extremely difficult.
So he had never thought much of them and had tossed them aside.
If he hadn't put them together with those inferior Magic Artifacts, Zhou Yan would almost have forgotten about them.
Now he had sold them to Jin Mantang for a full five hundred silver dollars.
And even at that price, Jin Mantang had clearly made a profit. He could barely keep the grin off his face.
After everything was packed up, Zhou Yan had taken in a total of seven hundred silver dollars, along with some yin objects for cultivating Zombies.
The Zombies Zhou Yan had refined so far were the lowest grade of Corpse Controlling. They could be refined again and again in the future to improve them.
According to the Profound Yin Corpse Refining Technique, Black Zombies were nothing special. Once a Zombie reached the Hopping Zombie stage, however, he could refine different types of Corpse Controlling depending on his needs and the Zombie's fate.
For example, Combat Zombies excelled at close-quarters fighting; Escape Corpses were good at hiding and moving about; Magic Zombies specialized in all kinds of yin arts; and Armored Zombies went into battle clad in armor and wielding weapons.
Refining these powerful types of Corpse Controlling was no easy task. Aside from needing a strong enough Zombie as the main ingredient, the various auxiliary materials were also crucial. They could even affect the quality of the finished Corpse Controlling.
More than anything, Zhou Yan wanted to refine an Armored Zombie and a Magic Zombie—one for offense and one for defense, one for close combat and one for long range.
Only once a Zombie reached the Hopping Zombie stage would the power of the Profound Yin Corpse Refining Technique truly begin to show.
Jin Mantang left satisfied, and Zhou Yan was pleased to see his growing pile of money.
He hadn't expected the things he'd dismissed as worthless to fetch so much—enough to cover a year of cultivation expenses.
But before anything else, one thought had come to mind: Should he find his family a new house?
After all, this was the outer city. Though the neighbors were familiar, there were plenty of gangsters and toughs roaming around.
And if word got out that his family had money, he worried that others might start coveting it.
Zhou Yan didn't want to put people's hearts to the test. The best thing to do was leave Stone Pool Alley and move somewhere with better public security.
"Brother-in-law, are there any houses for sale near your place?" Zhou Yan asked.
Ma Yan's home was also in the outer city, but it was relatively close to the inner city, and quite a few patrol officers' families lived in the area.
As a result, its public security was comparable to that of some parts of the inner city.
Ma Yan quickly understood what Zhou Yan had in mind and said, "I think there's a house for sale. It used to belong to a detective, but he got promoted and moved his family to the inner city. It'll probably cost quite a few silver dollars to buy it..."
"How much?" Zhou Yan asked directly.
Ma Yan held up his hand. "At least five hundred silver dollars. And the man's greedy, so I'm worried he'll raise the price at the last minute."
Zhou Yan furrowed his brow and thought it over.
He could afford five hundred silver dollars. He was just worried the other man would get greedy—or even try to rob him. That would be trouble.
Even if Zhou Yan could kill him, perhaps even wipe out his whole family, his own family might still be ruined.
"Find another place. If there's nothing nearby, look somewhere with better public security," Zhou Yan said gravely.
He decided to give up on that house.
He was a little reluctant, but Zhou Yan wasn't powerful enough to ignore a detective yet. He still needed to keep a low profile.
"Don't worry. Leave it to me."
Ma Yan let out a quiet sigh of relief.
He had been afraid Zhou Yan would let the people around him go to his head and do something outrageously reckless.
Now it seemed his younger brother-in-law was still cautious and levelheaded.
Ma Yan was highly capable. Within a few days, he found a decent one-courtyard house just two streets away from his own.
The day they moved, Stone Pool Alley was quite lively.
At Zhou Yan's urging, his family took only their personal clothes and bedding. They gave most of the furniture and furnishings to the neighbors, which earned them a good reputation.
As for the grain in the cellar, they left it sealed away.
After all, Zhou Yan's family was only moving. The house still belonged to them.
Still, he set up some traps at the cellar entrance and inside it.
If some fool snuck in, he could stay down there.
Zhou Yan had originally planned to leave his newly refined Zombie in the cellar, but in the end he couldn't bring himself to do it.
After all, compared with nearly a thousand catties of grain, his Corpse Controlling was worth far more.
More importantly, he was still weak, so he couldn't afford to waste the fighting strength he had at his disposal.
Watching his family settle into their new home, Zhou Yan felt much more at ease. He could focus his attention on cultivation again.
As for business, Zhou Yan had no interest in it when he had money.
But even if Zhou Yan didn't care, Ma Yan couldn't just leave it alone.
With Zhou Yan staying home all the time, Ma Yan had practically become his representative, helping him find clients.
Especially after Zhou Yan had dealt with a few hauntings swiftly and decisively, his reputation had grown, and people gradually began coming to him on their own...
"Dharma Master Zhou, how is my husband?" the woman asked anxiously.
Zhou Yan looked her over. She wasn't dressed like a wealthy woman, but she was clearly from a middle-class family.
The man sitting in front of him stared with wide, motionless eyes. His expression was stiff and rather frightening.
Most importantly, his face was powdered and rouged, and he was wearing jewelry. He looked neither fully male nor female.
This wasn't some modern, open-minded society. Anyone dressed like that nowadays was either mentally ill or had attracted something unclean.
Zhou Yan silently opened his spiritual sight. In the man's eyes, he saw the reflection of a woman, and her image looked alluring. He immediately understood.
He dispelled the spell that opened his spiritual sight, then said to the woman, "It's nothing serious. Your husband has simply been haunted by a female ghost."
"Ah, a female ghost?"
The woman was instantly terrified. She hurriedly said, "Dharma Master Zhou, please drive the ghost away! I'm begging you."
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