The technique in the second volume, called the Incense Burner Spirit Nourishing Method, suited his needs better and had the advantage of being quick to master.
This method was also markedly different from the Five-Child Peach-Plucking Method. There was no need to find an infant corpse to plant a peach tree. The Incense Burner Spirit Nourishing Method required a zombie, and the more vicious, the better.
As the saying went, a corpse left to decay without a proper burial—or buried in the wrong place—would become a corpse fiend. The Incense Burner Spirit Nourishing Method specifically sought out vicious corpses, which were burned and refined through secret rites. The ashes were then made into a type of spiritual incense called Death Longevity Incense.
This spiritual incense extracted the corpse fiend's yin lifespan and death longevity. When a cultivator inhaled the Death Longevity Incense, it turned yin into yang and transformed death into life, adding another hundred days to their existence.
Moreover, the more vicious the corpse fiend used to refine the Death Longevity Incense, the more yin lifespan the incense could grant.
Of course, this method did not increase one's yang lifespan, nor did it offer the slightest benefit to one's cultivation. It was merely a way to borrow against one's yin lifespan to stave off death, granting a little more time to linger on.
"Besides, the Incense Burner Spirit Nourishing Method has its drawbacks. Once you use it, you have to observe many taboos. For instance, you can't eat the meat of the six domestic animals—not even things that fly in the sky or swim in the water. You can't drink unboiled water, either; water must be boiled in a metal vessel before you can drink it. And every ten days, you have to drink the blood of a Black Wind Snake..."
Refining this Death Longevity Incense was no easy feat, and zombies were hardly easy to find. Fortunately, He Ping had discovered a female corpse in the ancestral shrine. It had already grown white hair. All he had to do was find a corpse-shading place and let it mature for a while, and he could refine it into a white-haired corpse fiend.
"If I can go one step further and refine a white fiend into a black fiend, the Death Longevity Incense will be much more potent and could extend my life by two hundred days."
Two hundred days of yin lifespan could not replace the blood and vital essence that came with his own yang lifespan, but it would still give him a little more time.
He Ping set down the black umbrella, returned to his chair, and slowly closed his eyes in thought.
"Let's put the Death Longevity Incense aside for now. That Black Stone Bodhisattva I found in the formation's eye is more troublesome. It's strange and uncanny. I brought it home recently, and I never expected it to nearly cause trouble."
In the eye of the formation at the ancestral shrine, he had found an Eyeless Bodhisattva statue serving as the formation's anchor. After applying a seal to it, he had brought it back and hidden it in this room.
In recent days, many of the servants, maids, and even family members in the He Mansion had often dreamed the same strange dream after falling asleep at night.
In the dream, an eyeless old monk appeared beside their beds. He formed a strange hand seal and kept chanting the same scripture.
In less than three days, the incident had caused a small disturbance in the He Mansion.
Many of the He Mansion's servants had grown frightened. Fortunately, the He Family had always maintained strict rules, so nothing got out of hand.
According to the people of the He Mansion, the dream was bizarre and uncanny. Stranger still, everyone's dream was more or less the same.
—The old monk wore tattered clothes and was filthy from head to toe. His wrinkled face was so creased that the folds of skin could nearly crush a fly.
He seemed impossibly old, and a rotten, deathly aura clung to him. His skin was yellow, and age spots covered it... In the dream, a smile squeezed onto his parched face.
That smile, all lips and no laughter, was utterly lifeless.
This strange old monk appeared at the dreamer's bedside. He formed a hand seal and chanted,
"Fire Buddha Cultivates One, Heart Sa Wu Mou!!"
—Fire Buddha Cultivates One, Heart Sa Wu Mou.
He Ping recalled the incident and furrowed his brow.
He had never heard this incantation before and had no idea what it meant. But so many people in the He Mansion had dreamed the same thing. That proved it was no simple matter.
"These strange dreams must have come from that stone statue. I've already had a craftsman make a sealable iron box. I'll coat the outside with lead, then use the secret Eight Element Bone Locking Method to apply two layers of blood-curse seals. After that, I'll bind it with chains and sink it into a deep pool outside the city. That should keep anything else from happening."
After dealing with the statue, he issued an order to everyone in the He Mansion, forbidding them to tell anyone about the incident. He also ordered the steward, He Fusheng, to post guards at the deep pool and watch for any further mischief from the statue.
He knew perfectly well that anything capable of serving as the anchor in that ancestral shrine could not be an ordinary object.
He Ping had made two preparations in case of trouble. One reason was to prevent the Bodhisattva statue from causing any more mischief. The other was to stop whoever had set up that formation from tracking it back to his home.
The anchor could not extend his life, so it was not of much use to him. He had no reason to covet it too much. But now that Wandering Soul Ghost Village had been destroyed, he had already offended the person who had laid the ghost formation. There was no need to invite more trouble.
"Next is the young servant we brought back. Ever since he arrived, he's had a high fever and remained unconscious. He still hasn't woken up."
He had sent the He Family's agents outside to investigate and learned that the young servant in blue was called Cheng Zhi.
Cheng Zhi was not without a notable background. His ancestors had been the owners of the famous Cheng Family Ranch in North Prefecture.
The Cheng Family had run ranches for generations, for more than a hundred years, and had earned a fine reputation in the region. Unfortunately, two years ago, a band of horse bandits attacked the ranch. Only Cheng Zhi and his older sister, Cheng Yujiao, survived. The rest of the Cheng Family had been wiped out.
The case had become unsolved. After killing everyone, the bandits stole a haul of valuables and set fire to the ranch as they fled, burning the Cheng Family's decades-old estate to ashes. The authorities investigated but found nothing.
"Now that I think about it, the culprits weren't horse bandits, but people from the Hu Ma Gang. And Cheng Zhi had an older sister. If I'm not mistaken, that must be the female corpse, right?"
He Ping rubbed his chin.
The case of the Cheng Family Ranch seemed far from simple. The Hu Ma Gang might have a shady reputation, but they would not casually attack a prominent family like the Chengs. Even if they disguised themselves as bandits, one mistake could leave them in a terrible bind.
Xie San was a clever man. There was little to be gained from a job like this. What was he plotting?
But if the Hu Ma Gang really was behind it, then there had to be more to the story...
(The Cheng Family Ranch—how could a ranch have offended Xie San and the Hu Ma Gang? Something was wrong here... Oh, right. I heard a rumor that Xie San's Hu Ma Gang was connected to some big shot in Suian City. Could it be that the Hu Ma Gang destroyed the Cheng Family Ranch as someone else's hired knife?)
Suddenly, someone knocked on the door.
"Young master, I have something to report."
It was He Fusheng, steward of the He Mansion.
"Come in."
He Fusheng walked in respectfully.
"Go ahead. What do you have to report?"
"We've made some progress with the investigation..."
He Fusheng lowered his voice and spoke slowly. "It was indeed your uncle who recommended Cheng Zhi for a position in the household. The one who came up with the idea was your cousin, He Xiping... I also heard something else. Recently, He Xiping has been spending a lot of time with Sheng Qinghong, the son of Lord Sheng, the prefect."
"Oh? Is that so?"
He Ping's brows lifted. His thoughts raced.
Prefect Sheng Qingzhi wielded enormous power in Suian City. The big shot the Hu Ma Gang had befriended was the prefect himself...
The thought took shape in his mind, and his thoughts began to turn.
He had met Sheng Qinghong a few times and remembered him, though not fondly.
Sheng Qinghong was the only son of Prefect Sheng, and he was arrogant, haughty, and overbearing.
With his father's protection, he had earned the title of military licentiate. Sheng Qingzhi had once used his connections to send him to the army for training, but his vile temperament had led him to offend a powerful man.
Prefect Sheng had no choice but to pay a hefty sum to get his son out of trouble.
"Sheng Qinghong is a spoiled brat, but his father really does value him. Are Father and son He trying to win him over?"
A cold smile tugged at He Ping's lips.
"That's not all. The two of them have done far more than that..."
He Fusheng smiled coldly as well.
"Young master, your uncle has spent the past few years quietly arranging for his son to befriend the scions of Suian City's prominent families. In secret, he's also been winning over the managers of the rice shops, the medicinal herb shops, and the pawnshops. He even tried to bribe me."
As he spoke, the steward pulled a money pouch from his sleeve and opened it. Inside was a stack of gleaming gold ingots.
"I wouldn't dare touch a single one of the ingots in this pouch. But, young master, we can't let this go on unchecked. If we do, sooner or later it'll bring disaster upon the He Family."
The "uncle" the steward, He Fusheng, spoke of was He Ping's uncle, He Jin. Born to a secondary wife, He Jin was the half-brother of He Ping's father. The two brothers had never been on good terms.
After He Ping's father passed away, the position of family head went to He Ping. He Jin had always wanted to become head of the He Family, and he had privately resented He Ping for taking the position at such a young age.
But ever since He Ping became head of the family, he had acted swiftly and decisively. He had managed the family business better and better, and its trade had grown. No one in the He Family had any complaints about him as their head.
Well, it wasn't that no one had complained. After He Ping became head of the family and took charge of its affairs, a few heedless lowlifes had tried to cause him trouble. But then, somehow, strange things happened to them. Some met with accidents; others died of bizarre illnesses.
Outsiders could see no flaws, but those with a keen eye suspected that the young head of the He Family, He Ping, was behind it. Seeing this, He Jin fell silent and grew even more discreet.
He Ping knew, however, that He Jin and his son, He Xiping, were both ambitious. They had been secretly building up their power for years and harbored treacherous intentions, though they had done a good job of hiding them...
"If He Jin and He Xiping know what's good for them, I won't bother going after them. But if they dare get in my way, I'll find a chance to kill them."
He Ping's gaze turned cold and unfathomable. He had already decided to kill.
Even in his previous life, he could hardly have been called a law-abiding man. After coming to this world and becoming head of the He Family, he had suffered repeated assassination attempts, some even carried out by people close to him, people he trusted.
All these upheavals had taught He Ping that in this world, he could not afford to be "softhearted like a woman." When necessary, he had to act swiftly and decisively, leaving others no chance to scheme against him.
This time, He Jin and his son had crossed the line and stirred his murderous intent.
"By the way," He Fusheng continued, "young master, the man you brought back was unconscious just a few days ago, but for some reason he woke up today."
"You mean Cheng Zhi? He's awake?"
He Ping's eyes brightened. That was good news.