Daoist Methods

Just as when the Exotic Gu "Evolution Pupil" had hatched, the moment the fiery-red Exotic Gu hatched, it formed a close bond with Liu Feng.

When "Evolution Pupil" hatched, it had spawned one Compound Eye after another, which took root in the flesh of his face, arms, and the back of his head.

Now, as a bond formed with "Fire Eater," Liu Feng's body was transformed once more.

"Fire Eater's" Gu art was tied to blood. This time, his blood was what changed, as some wondrous thing so subtle it was nearly impossible to perceive seeped into it.

The heat lasted only a few breaths. Soon, the room returned to normal, neither cold nor hot.

"Drip, drip..." Liu Feng made a small cut on his index finger and watched the blood fall from his fingertip.

The first few drops were bright red. As Liu Feng roused the Gu poison of the Intermediate Gu within him, his blood turned bluish-black.

Then, following his bond with the Exotic Gu "Fire Eater," and drawing on his experience using the "Evolution Pupil" Gu art, he roused his newly acquired Gu art.

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

"Fwoom, fwoom..."

Without warning, those few drops of crimson blood boiled away like hot oil, spreading into a crimson mist. In an instant, a basin-sized ball of crimson fire sprang to life.

In the space of two blinks, the blood that had fallen onto the floor was completely vaporized, leaving a charred patch on the boards as well.

As the crimson fireball slowly shrank and dispersed, Liu Feng reached one hand into it.

"This is Gu Fire, made by burning my blood!" Liu Feng felt no scorching heat.

Moreover, the Gu Fire was like blood he had shed—it was connected to him somehow.

He could guide its movements to a small degree, but he would need some time to adjust. Otherwise, truly controlling the Gu Fire would be difficult.

For the rest of the night, Liu Feng's guest room fell into utter silence.

In the room next door, Zhu Li no longer felt any chill. Though he was puzzled, he had no desire to dig into Liu Feng's secrets.

At the first glimmer of dawn, most of the guests in the tavern were still asleep.

Then a woman's scream suddenly rang out from a room on the third floor, jolting everyone in the tavern awake.

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

Even the waiter, who had no cultivation, was startled awake by the scream and rushed out of his little room.

"Creak, creak..." Doors opened one after another on the second and third floors.

Shen Yushu, Zhu Li, Liu Feng, Old Huang, and Little Fuzi—the grandfather and grandson—left their rooms as well.

"Old Huang, you two go get the carriage ready."

"Yes, Second Master."

Old Huang and Little Fuzi went downstairs. Shen Yushu turned to Zhu Li and Liu Feng. "The three of us will go up and see what happened."

Zhu Li and Liu Feng nodded in unison, then followed Shen Yushu and a few other guests with cultivation as they darted up to the third floor.

Several people had already rushed into the second room on the third floor. Exclamations and retching came from within.

At the door, Shen Yushu glanced inside and said with certainty, "This is a Daoist method."

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

The window stood wide open. In the faint dawn light, they saw a person "stuck" to the wall.

The person was spread-eagled. His internal organs had spilled out of his body, unfurling like a whirlpool, then sticking and clinging to the wall.

At a glance, it was as if a mural of viscera had been painted across the wall.

As for the man, his eyes bulged and his pupils had dilated. He was dead beyond all doubt.

A young woman sat slumped by the door, the very one who had screamed.

"I've seen that square-faced fellow before. The one who did this was probably the Daoist who got beaten yesterday."

"I've never heard of this sort of Daoist method in any of the nearby prefectures."

"This old man knows of a Daoist sect called the Luo Sheng Sect. Their ritual implements are made by refining other people's organs. I wonder if..."

The guests standing inside the room all had cultivation. Ordinary folk, including the waiter, stayed outside the door, too afraid to enter.

The tavernkeeper, however, seemed to know a thing or two. He came to the doorway and asked, "Girl, you're this fellow's junior sister, aren't you? How far along is your senior brother's cultivation?"

The young woman slumped on the floor seemed scared out of her wits. She stammered, "My senior brother had reached the marrow-refining stage... I have to report this to our master. That Daoist must not be spared."

"Even if your master comes, it won't do any good!"

"There's not a single sign of a struggle in the room. None of us noticed a thing last night, either. Your senior brother must have died the moment he saw his attacker."

"Girl, give up on revenge while you still can. Hurry back home." As the others mocked her, the tavernkeeper offered a word of comfort.

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

Over the past few days, he had learned quite a bit and come to understand the cultivation realms of various schools.

First Realm of martial cultivation: Four Profound Realms. The practitioner tempered their skin and flesh, sinews, bones, and marrow to strengthen their body.

Second Realm: Five Viscera Realms. The practitioner nourished their heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys, and could project True Qi beyond their body.

Third Realm: Eight Gates Realms. The gates were the Open Gate (Metal), Rest Gate (Water), Life Gate (Earth), Wound Gate (Wood), Obstructing Gate (Wood), View Gate (Fire), Fright Gate (Cold Metal), and Death Gate (Earth). Each additional gate opened increased one's True Qi in layers.

A Four Profound Realm martial artist who had refined his marrow had been killed face-to-face and "stuck" to the wall as a mural. That Daoist had to be at least in the second realm.

This man's Daoist art concerned the organs within the human body. The "mural" on the wall was so fluid and natural, as if it had taken shape under the influence of the Daoist art.

Hearing the others talk, Zhu Li and Liu Feng both looked grim.

The two of them had seen that Daoist with their own eyes yesterday. Zhu Li had merely thought him an odd fellow, but in hindsight, the memory sent a chill through him.

Liu Feng was even more unnerved. He had already sensed something wrong with that Daoist yesterday: the man had no internal organs at all.

"Let's go. We're heading to Shao Mountain." Shen Yushu's voice broke into their thoughts.

They didn't linger at the tavern. By the time they went downstairs, Old Huang and Little Fuzi had brought the carriage around, and Medicine Slave Li Si was sitting safely inside it.

The group drove toward the county's outskirts. They still needed to pick up the fourteen bandits waiting outside the city.

After a short silence in the carriage, Liu Feng suddenly asked, "Are all Daoists this demonic?"

The Daoist's methods he had witnessed today were demonic. And the White Sun Sect Shen Yushu had mentioned used methods like Nether Fire and Human Skin Talismans, which were just as demonic.

"According to the books, three hundred years ago, Daoists still practiced orthodox True Qi."

"Demonic Daoist arts only appeared within the last two hundred years. Orthodox Daoists still exist today, but they're rare." Zhu Li and Shen Yushu didn't know much about it, either.

After all, they weren't much different from Liu Feng. They were both First-Life Gu Masters; they had simply spent a few more years roaming the world.

"Whoa..." As the carriage headed for the outskirts, it suddenly slowed down.

"Second Master, some onlookers have blocked the road ahead. They say a fox spirit had its head chewed off."

"Just keep driving. Take another road out of the city."

The two men in the carriage, who had seen more of the world, showed little reaction. Only Liu Feng looked grave. Now that he had become a Gu Master, he had finally begun to understand this chaotic age.