Eating and Taking

Taoist Ma's home was easy enough to find, because the entire house was black, and its shape was exceptionally strange.

From afar, it looked like an enlarged coffin, filling anyone who saw it with dread.

And once one drew near, an eerie yin chill seeped from it, enough to make one's hair stand on end.

Zhou Yan knew at a glance that he had found the place.

By now, night had fallen completely. The surrounding houses were all shut tight, their occupants clearly asleep.

For the poor, there was almost no entertainment at night besides sleeping.

Forget candles—even oil lamps were precious, and every drop of oil had to be saved.

Zhou Yan swept his gaze around the area, then quickly stepped forward and gently pushed at the door. To his surprise, it was not locked.

Apparently, Taoist Ma was confident enough.

Or perhaps there was something in the house standing guard.

Zhou Yan hesitated for less than three seconds before directly pushing the door open.

At this point, if he did not go in and see for himself, he would never be reconciled to it.

What worried him even more was that if he left now, someone else might beat him to the prize.

After pushing open the main door, Zhou Yan waited outside for more than ten seconds before walking in.

He gently shut the door behind him, then lit a torch. The scene inside immediately came into view.

It was a two-room house. The inner room was the living quarters, while the outer room was the main hall. Three Pure Ones statues were enshrined in the center.

But perhaps because too much time had passed, the incense candles had long gone out. When Zhou Yan entered, there had not been the slightest bit of light.

Zhou Yan stepped forward a few paces and discovered that beneath the Three Pure Ones statues, there was also a spirit tablet.

"Spirit Tablet of Patriarch Profound Realm True Lord!"

Zhou Yan raised a brow and swiftly glanced over the rest of the room.

The house was limited in space, and there was nowhere to hide many things.

He searched the room for half an hour. In the end, the valuable items he found were as follows: three silver dollars, six Copper Yuan, seventeen Iron Yuan, two pieces of peachwood, half a jin of cinnabar, and so on.

There was also some glutinous rice and miscellaneous odds and ends, all worthless items.

Most importantly, not a single book or item related to cultivation—the things Zhou Yan had been yearning for—was there.

No way. A dignified cultivator, and you're actually poorer than me. Zhou Yan could not help complaining inwardly.

He had originally thought Taoist Ma was simply confident enough. Now it seemed the man was merely poor enough.

Zhou Yan was still unwilling to give up, but he knew he could not linger here. After thinking it over, he bowed three times to the spirit tablet before leaving.

An hour later.

Zhou Yan returned home, and Mother Zhou immediately asked after him with concern.

"Why are you back so late?"

In the past, Zhou Yan occasionally returned a little late, but never this late.

Heaven knew how worried Mother Zhou had been.

If Zhou Yan had not always been so steady and reliable, Mother Zhou truly would not have known what to do.

Zhou Yan smiled and reassured her. "It's fine, Mother. I had a big job earlier, and it took up some time. See? The rewards weren't bad either."

As he spoke, he took out all the money except for the two sealed silver-dollar envelopes.

Mother Zhou looked at the more than four silver dollars in her hands, and her first reaction was terror.

"Second son, you didn't gamble, did you?"

The lowest rungs of society came in every strange shape and form. There were those who worked hard to better themselves, but there was no shortage of all sorts of unsavory people either.

Eating, drinking, whoring, and gambling were commonplace. Some black-hearted scoundrels even trafficked people or set traps to frame others. There was every kind of evil under the sun.

Though Zhou Yan was steady, he was still young. Mother Zhou worried that he might stray onto the wrong path.

That was also why Zhou Yan had not immediately taken out the two sealed silver-dollar envelopes. Aside from having some plans of his own, he was even more worried that Mother Zhou would let her imagination run wild, and that others might covet the money.

Zhou Yan hurriedly said, "Mother, how could that be? A customer was pleased and gave it to me as a reward..."

After much persuasion, he finally convinced Mother Zhou and put her mind at ease.

After Zhou Yan finished dinner, Mother Zhou and his younger sister went to sleep in the inner room, while Zhou Chuan had also fallen into dreamland.

Zhou Yan went to the kitchen instead, shut the door, and lit an oil lamp.

"Profound Yin Corpse Refining Technique."

Zhou Yan opened the booklet and began reading it carefully.

The contents were simple and easy to understand, written entirely in plain language, with many annotations as well.

Judging from the handwriting alone, there were at least five or six different sets of notes. Many matters had been explained in great detail, making it especially suitable for beginners.

Three hours later, Zhou Yan slowly closed the booklet.

It mainly recorded a cultivation method, the Mystic Yin Art, methods of Corpse Controlling, and all manner of Corpse Refining secrets.

Other than that, there were no spells at all.

It did not even contain ordinary spells such as the Evil-Expelling Incantation, Evil-Warding Incantation, or Fire-Igniting Incantation. It was entirely knowledge related to Corpse Refining.

At the very end, there was also a diary entry by Taoist Ma.

It turned out that Taoist Ma was not an orthodox cultivator either. By a twist of fate, he had obtained this copy of the Profound Yin Corpse Refining Technique and begun fumbling his way through it on his own.

That was why his home only enshrined the spirit tablet of Daoist Xuanjing, the book's author.

Taoist Ma had entered the path halfway through life and knew nothing of cultivators' taboos. He had directly bestowed upon Daoist Xuanjing the title of True Lord.

Who knew whether Daoist Xuanjing, if his spirit remained in heaven, would have felt gratified upon learning of this—or wanted to purge Taoist Ma from the sect.

In Daoism, titles such as "True Lord" and "Dao Lord" could not be used lightly.

As the saying went: when virtue did not match one's position, disaster was sure to follow!

No wonder Taoist Ma had suffered a Zombie's backlash. Corpse Controlling was already an exceptionally dangerous path, and he had acted so recklessly besides. The fact that he had endured until now was already remarkable; he must have luck on his side.

Zhou Yan then laid out everything he had obtained from Taoist Ma's body and home, identifying them one by one.

First was that oil lamp, called the Soul-Fixing Lamp.

The bronze bell was called the Soul-Suppressing Bell.

And the black stone was called the Corpse-Suppressing Stone.

These three items barely counted as magical artifacts, and they had some effect in restraining and suppressing Zombies.

Zhou Yan suspected that when Taoist Ma had dealt with the Zombie, the flame of the Soul-Fixing Lamp had somehow been extinguished, triggering the Zombie's backlash.

Of course, what had truly happened could no longer be known.

Peachwood and cinnabar were both materials. If there had not truly been nothing else left at the end, Zhou Yan would not have taken them too.

Thinking about it now, he felt an urge to hide his face in shame.

Now that every question had been answered, Zhou Yan fell silent.

He wanted to cultivate. He wanted to change the life he lived in this world.

But the path of cultivation was fraught with danger, especially for someone like Zhou Yan, who had entered the path halfway through life. Taoist Ma was the lesson before his eyes.

Yet if he were asked to give up, Zhou Yan was even less willing to do so.

Under the oil lamp's glow, the expression on his face shifted between light and shadow as he gripped the Profound Yin Corpse Refining Technique tightly in his hand...