Daoist Arts

Just as when he hatched the Exotic Gu "Evolution Pupil," the moment the fire-red Exotic Gu hatched, it forged an intimate connection with Liu Feng.

The hatching of "Evolution Pupil" had manifested as a series of compound eyes that took root within the flesh of his face, arms, and the back of his head.

At this moment, as the connection with "Fire Eater" emerged, Liu Feng's body was once again being remolded.

The Gu arts of "Fire Eater" were linked to blood; this time, it was his blood being transformed, with some sort of marvelous substance, too subtle to be perceived, merging into his veins.

The heatwave lasted only a few breaths before the room returned to normal, devoid of both chill and heat.

"Drip, drip..." Liu Feng sliced a small opening on his index finger and stared at the blood dripping from his fingertip.

The first few drops were bright red, but as Liu Feng channeled the Gu poison of the Intermediate Gu within his body, the blood turned a dark, greenish-black.

Immediately following this, Liu Feng traced the connection to the "Fire Eater" Exotic Gu and, drawing upon his experience in wielding the "Evolution Pupil" Gu art, channeled the newly acquired technique.

When he looked again, the blood dripping from his fingertip had been dyed a deep, crimson red.

"Poof, poof..."

Without warning, those few drops of crimson blood were vaporized like boiling oil, scattering into a crimson mist that instantly ignited into a ball of crimson fire the size of a washbasin.

In just two blinks of an eye, the blood that had dripped onto the floor was evaporated entirely, leaving behind a scorched patch on the floorboards.

Seeing the crimson fireball slowly shrink and dissipate, Liu Feng thrust a hand into the flames.

This is the Gu fire generated by burning my own blood! Liu Feng felt no sensation of burning.

Furthermore, the Gu fire was like an extension of his own blood, sharing a certain connection with him.

He could slightly influence the movement of the Gu fire, though it would take some time to adapt; otherwise, truly mastering it would be difficult.

For the remainder of the night, Liu Feng's guest room fell into a deathly silence.

In the adjacent room, Zhu Li no longer sensed any chill. Though he felt suspicious, he had no desire to dig into Liu Feng's secrets.

As the morning light began to glimmer, most of the guests in the tavern were still asleep.

Suddenly, a woman's scream erupted from a room on the third floor, jolting everyone in the tavern awake.

The scream was hysterical and filled with absolute terror, as if the woman had witnessed some great horror.

Even the tavern waiter, who possessed no cultivation, was startled awake and came running out of his small room.

"Creak, creak..." On the second and third floors of the tavern, door after door swung open.

Shen Yushu, Zhu Li, Liu Feng, and the grandfather-grandson pair of Old Huang and Little Fuzi all emerged from their respective rooms.

"Old Huang, you two go prepare the carriage."

"Yes, Second Master."

As Old Huang and Little Fuzi headed downstairs, Shen Yushu said to Zhu Li and Liu Feng, "The three of us will go up and see what the situation is."

Zhu Li and Liu Feng nodded in unison, and the three of them, along with a few other guests who possessed cultivation, swept toward the third floor.

Inside the second guest room on the third floor, several people had already rushed in; sounds of gasps and retching drifted from within.

The three arrived at the doorway, and after just one glance inside, Shen Yushu stated firmly, "This is the work of a Daoist."

Liu Feng and Zhu Li looked into the room, their gazes immediately drawn to one of the walls.

The window was wide open, and in the faint morning light, they saw a man "stuck" to the wall.

The man was splayed out in a cross shape, his internal organs and viscera having spread out from his body like a vortex, adhering and clinging to the wall.

At a glance, it looked as if a mural of internal organs had been added to the wall.

As for the man on the wall, his eyes were wide, his pupils dilated—he was dead beyond any doubt.

At the threshold of the room, a young woman sat slumped on the floor; it was she who had let out the scream.

"I've seen this square-faced man before. The one who did this is likely the Daoist who was beaten yesterday."

"In the surrounding prefectures, I have never heard of such a Daoist technique."

"This old man knows of a Daoist sect called the Luo Sheng Sect. Their artifacts are refined using the organs of others, though I don't know if..."

The guests standing in the room all possessed cultivation, while the ordinary people, including the tavern waiter, dared not enter from the hallway.

The tavern keeper, however, had some experience. He approached the doorway and asked, "Girl, you are this man's junior sister, aren't you? How far had your senior brother progressed in his refinement?"

The young woman slumped on the floor seemed to have been frightened out of her wits. She stammered, "My senior brother was refining Qi into his marrow... I must go back and report this to my master; he will not spare that Daoist."

"I fear even if your master comes, it won't help!"

"There isn't a single trace of a struggle in the room, and we didn't hear a sound last night. Your senior brother must have died the instant he saw him."

"Girl, you'd best give up on the idea of revenge and head home quickly." While the others mocked her, the tavern keeper offered a word of comfort.

Outside the door, Liu Feng's expression was grave.

Over these past days, he had gained much knowledge and learned of the cultivation realms of various schools.

The first realm of martial artists: Four Profound Realms, cultivating the skin, flesh, tendons, bones, and marrow to strengthen the physique.

The second realm: Five Viscera Realms, nourishing the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys internally, allowing true Qi to leave the body.

The third realm: Eight Gates Realms, opening the Gate of Opening (Metal), Gate of Rest (Water), Gate of Life (Earth), Gate of Injury (Wood), Gate of Stagnation (Wood), Gate of View (Fire), Gate of Fear (Cold Metal), and Gate of Death (Earth). With each additional gate opened, one's true Qi can increase layer by layer.

A martial artist of the Four Profound Realm, who had refined Qi into his marrow, had been struck dead face-first and "stuck" to the wall like a mural; that Daoist's cultivation was at least at the second realm.

The Daoist arts involved here concerned the human viscera, and the "mural" on the wall looked fluid and natural, as if it had been formed by the influence of the Daoist arts themselves.

Zhu Li and Liu Feng both looked grim as they overheard the conversations of those present.

The two of them had seen that Daoist with their own eyes yesterday; Zhu Li had only thought the man's temperament was eccentric, but reflecting on it now, he couldn't help but feel a sense of horror.

Liu Feng felt an even greater sense of dread; he had already sensed that something was wrong with the Daoist yesterday, noting that the man lacked all five viscera and six bowels within his body.

"Let's go, to Shao Mountain." Shen Yushu spoke up, interrupting their thoughts.

The three of them did not linger in the tavern for long. When they went downstairs, Old Huang and Little Fuzi had already brought the carriage around, and the Medicine Slave Li Si was sitting peacefully inside.

The group drove the carriage toward the outskirts of the county town; they still needed to call upon the fourteen bandits waiting outside the city walls.

After a brief silence in the carriage, Liu Feng suddenly asked, "Are all those of the Daoist sects as demonic and evil as this?"

The methods of the Daoist he had seen today were sinister, and the White Sun Sect mentioned by Shen Yushu—with its Nether Fire and Human Skin Talisman—was equally wicked.

"According to historical records, if you look back three hundred years, Daoists still cultivated orthodox True Qi."

"These demonic Daoist arts have only appeared in the last two hundred years. Orthodox Daoist cultivators still exist today, though they are rare." Zhu Li and Shen Yushu did not know much more than this.

After all, the two of them were much like Liu Feng—merely Gu Masters who had spent a few more years wandering the world.

"Whoa..." As they were on their way out of the city, the carriage suddenly slowed down.

"Second Master, there are people blocking the road ahead to watch a spectacle, saying a cat demon has had its head gnawed off."

"Just keep driving the carriage and take another route out of the city."

Inside the carriage, the two men with more experience showed little change in expression. Only Liu Feng looked grave; having become a Gu Master, he had truly begun to recognize the nature of this chaotic world.