Taigong Again

"Samadhi True Fire is the Daoist sect's flame for refining demons. Once mastered, no ordinary water can extinguish it. It is extraordinarily powerful."

Shen Gongbao said, "Any demon that encounters this fire will be reduced to body and spirit alike if its cultivation is shallow. Even one with deep cultivation can be burned until its true form is revealed."

Lu Chuan felt a chill in his heart. He asked solemnly, "May I ask, Master, how does one cultivate Samadhi True Fire?"

"To refine this fire, you must use your essence, energy, and spirit to form the three samadhis. Then, nurture Li Essence in your chest and abdomen, and unite it with ordinary fire..."

Shen Gongbao spoke in a low voice. "When the time comes, the true fire will form on its own. Whenever you need it, you can spew it from your eyes, nose, and mouth. It's very powerful!"

"Master, can you do it?" Lu Chuan asked.

"If I couldn't, how could I teach you?"

Shen Gongbao smiled. "This fire is unlike the Five Elements Escape Technique. It's a superior Daoist art, and not everyone can master it. You need a certain degree of talent."

"As long as you can do it, that's enough," Lu Chuan said with a smile.

"All right, it's getting late. Hurry outside and open the shop."

Shen Gongbao said, "Tonight, after the shop closes, I'll teach you how to cultivate Samadhi True Fire."

Lu Chuan answered, then walked a few steps toward the front shop. Suddenly, he turned back and said, "Master, there's something I don't understand. I'd like to ask you about it."

"Go ahead."

"Master, you're not short of money, are you? Why go to all the trouble of running a shop?"

Lu Chuan looked thoroughly put out. "It's wasted all my precious cultivation time, and hardly anyone's come by in the months we've been open."

"So you've been napping during the day and cultivating all night with a clear conscience, is that it?" Shen Gongbao asked with a smile.

"Uh..."

Lu Chuan froze. Then, without the slightest hint of shame, he bowed solemnly and said, "Well, Master, I'll go watch the shop now."

He really wanted to slap himself. Why had he gone and brought it up?

Wasn't it better to nap during the day and cultivate all night?

But the moment he turned around, Shen Gongbao grabbed him by the back of his collar and lifted him off the ground.

"You little brat, lazing around and sleeping every day, and you still claim no customers come by!"

Shen Gongbao scolded him sternly. "When you're asleep, how would you know if anyone came in? They could clear out the whole shop and you wouldn't notice! Hmph, you're making me furious. I'm going to teach you a lesson today!"

Lu Chuan's collar was choking him, and he couldn't tell how far off the ground he was. He tentatively kicked his feet downward, but couldn't reach the floor.

So he put on a grin and said, "Master, don't be angry. Whatever it is, put me down first, then we can talk. You're choking your disciple to death! Let's discuss this calmly. Everything can be worked out, right?"

Shen Gongbao had lifted him off the ground. His feet couldn't touch earth, water, or wood, and he couldn't see fire. He couldn't use the Five Elements Escape Technique to get away.

"Put you down? Hmph. Don't think I don't know what you're scheming, brat."

Shen Gongbao sneered. "If I put you down, you'll use the Five Elements Escape Technique to run off, won't you? Hmph, but don't forget who taught you all your skills..."

Could it be that Shen Gongbao had held something back?

Lu Chuan thought it over, then decided that was probably unlikely.

The Five Elements Escape Technique wasn't the Earth Travel Technique, which was countered by the "Point to the Earth and Turn It to Steel" spell when someone burrowed underground.

Aside from following the principle of the Five Elements' mutual countering, as Shen Gongbao had said, what other weaknesses did the Five Elements Escape Technique have...

Lu Chuan glanced at his current predicament. It seemed the technique also couldn't be used when, as now, he couldn't touch any of the Five Elements.

Lu Chuan narrowed his eyes and started thinking about how he might get away. Soon, he put on a cheeky grin. "Master, how about a bet? I can escape your grasp. Believe it or not?"

"Escape?"

Shen Gongbao looked at Lu Chuan, who was dangling a full three feet off the ground. He examined him from head to toe and, convinced that Lu Chuan couldn't touch any of the Five Elements, gave a confident, chilly smile. "I don't believe it!"

Lu Chuan hadn't been practicing the Five Elements Escape Technique for long. He still needed to be in contact with one of the Five Elements to use it.

His feet were dangling in midair, unable to touch the earth. He had no wood, metal, water, or fire on him, so how could he possibly get away?

Lu Chuan chuckled. He secretly formed a hand seal, recited the incantation, then suddenly opened his mouth and spat a mouthful of saliva into the air. "Escape!"

Before the words had left his mouth, he had already transformed into a streak of water and fled into the shop up ahead.

Shen Gongbao was left standing there, dumbstruck. When he finally came to his senses, he was alone, ruffled by the wind...

"Water Escape... can you use it like that?"

Shen Gongbao muttered, utterly dumbfounded this time.

Honestly, even the Interception Sect, renowned for its Water Escape, probably wouldn't have thought of such a shameless way to use it.

Of course, it was a little shameless, but who cared about that when your life was on the line? As long as you escaped alive, anything went.

Lu Chuan reappeared in the front shop and cautiously glanced behind him. When he saw Shen Gongbao hadn't followed, he let out a sigh of relief.

In truth, he'd only thought of that trick on the spur of the moment. He hadn't known whether it would work; he'd only tried it on a whim. He hadn't expected it to succeed.

"Heh, to come up with that way of using Water Escape, I really am a genius!"

Lu Chuan shook his head, muttering with some bemusement. Then an idea struck him, and he thought to himself, But who cares how you use an escape technique? That's what escape techniques are for, right? As long as it saves your life, that's all that matters.

This Water Escape—no, Saliva Escape—I'll keep it as a trump card for saving my life. Who knows when it might come in handy...

After escaping the "clutches of the devil," Lu Chuan opened the shop. It was still a woodcarving shop.

But it had been open for more than two months, and the storefront was deserted. They'd sold hardly any of the woodcarvings left behind by the previous owner.

Fortunately, Shen Gongbao didn't need to eat, which saved them an expense.

"This shop can't go on like this..."

Lu Chuan leaned on the counter, his chin resting on his hands as he watched pedestrians passing outside and thought to himself.

Buying a shop was hard, and making a living from it was just as hard.

In his previous life, Lu Chuan had bought apartments, but he'd never sold woodcarvings. Besides, these carvings were pretty but impractical. Once you brought one home, it was no use for anything except decoration.

Although people in Yin Shang were fairly wealthy, they still wouldn't buy such a useless thing.

So he really couldn't figure out why Shen Gongbao had bought this shop.

Ever since buying the shop, Shen Gongbao had become a hands-off boss and left Lu Chuan in charge of everything.

He didn't keep the books or care whether they made a profit or a loss. Apart from teaching Lu Chuan Daoist arts and guiding his cultivation, he spent his time alone in his room reading military texts.

"No, this shop can't keep running like this. We're losing money every day."

Lu Chuan mused, "I need to open a business that can turn a profit, preferably one that can help my cultivation too. Something with huge returns and no downsides—and something this era doesn't have..."

Right now, he was living off Shen Gongbao, eating and drinking at his expense. This couldn't go on!

He narrowed his eyes and started thinking.

As he peered through his narrowed eyes, he suddenly spotted a familiar figure passing in front of the shop.

"Wait, was that..."

Lu Chuan hurried outside and saw an old man in a gray robe, carrying a shoulder pole loaded with bamboo sieves as he walked through the crowd.

"Senior Brother Jiang!"

Lu Chuan called out with a smile, raising his hand. "Senior Brother Jiang!"

The man was Jiang Ziya himself.

Although Jiang Ziya was seventy-two, he had studied the Dao, so he was healthy and nimble, with sharp ears and keen eyes.

He turned at the sound of Lu Chuan's voice, and when he saw him, he smiled too.

"Master, Master, Senior Brother Jiang is here!"

Lu Chuan led Jiang Ziya into the back courtyard of the shop and called out loudly.

"You brat, what kind of manners are those, shouting and carrying on in the courtyard?"

At the sound of a door opening, Shen Gongbao emerged from his room, looking put out. Lu Chuan's voice had completely disrupted his train of thought.

But when he saw Jiang Ziya, Shen Gongbao froze for a moment, then hurried forward with a smile. "Senior Brother, what a rare visitor! What brings you to your junior brother's place?"

"What rare visitor?"

Jiang Ziya gave a wry smile and waved a hand. "I came into the city to sell bamboo sieves. I saw Lu Chuan just now, and he insisted on dragging me in for a visit."

"Good thing he did!"

Shen Gongbao smiled and stepped aside to invite him in. "Come, come, Senior Brother, let's go inside and talk. Disciple, brew some tea!"