Patience

A crowd of people scrambled to confess their faults, terrified that their attitudes lacked sincerity and would offend the expert before them who could draw talismans with gathered Qi.

Yu Ci listened with a smile, displaying an abundance of patience. As the surrounding voices faded, he tapped his sword hilt lightly with a finger, producing a muffled sound, and said slowly, "That's right, the joke I played on all of you was just a joke. But earlier, I suspect your treatment of me was hardly a joke!"

As the words left his lips, everyone fell silent in unison. A bone-chilling cold suddenly filled the hall, seeping into skin and marrow. The continuously accumulating chill felt like towering ice mountains pressing down upon everyone's heads, on the verge of collapsing at any moment. The tiny sliver of courage they had left was steadily worn away to nothing under this invisible pressure.

Yu Ci's smile faded. No longer looking at anyone, he kept his gaze fixed on the campfire and said softly, "Calling yourself a celestial, swindling and bluffing. It's lucky that I am here—had it been anyone else, what would you have done?"

Even though not a single glance was sent their way, how could anyone fail to understand? The so-called Xuan Qing the Celestial could no longer maintain his poise at this, stepping forward in a rush and bowing deeply at the waist. His movement was too abrupt, and the so-called "monster head" he had just tucked into his sleeve slipped out with a clatter, rolling right to Yu Ci's side.

Xuan Qing could no longer care about such things, kowtowing and bowing repeatedly, begging only to preserve his own life: "The celestial discerns all, the celestial discerns all. Disciple only resorted to fraud to obtain some shrimp whisker grass from the medicine gatherers, nothing more! I never dared harbor any thoughts of plundering wealth and taking lives..."

While he begged bitterly over here, Yu Ci grew even more interested in that "monster head." He picked the thing up and turned it over in his hand to toy with it, treating all of Xuan Qing's words as wind past his ears.

The more it went like this, the more terrified Xuan Qing became. Such behavior was entirely too arrogant; this Celestial Yu Ci was likely not even in the Spirit Communication realm he had previously imagined—could it be that he had already forged the Return Pill? And looking at the long sword resting across those knees, though wrapped in an ordinary leather scabbard and completely unremarkable, how could one know it wasn't a magical sword capable of slaying a person from a hundred leagues away?

With just a flash of that cold light...

The thought grew heavier and truer, pressing upon him until his heart thudded like thunder. Unwittingly, his knees went weak, and he actually dropped to his knees. With this single kneel, the prestige he had spent two years building up within his gang was washed away into nothingness. Yet having reached this state, all reason and stubborn pride completely collapsed. When he tried to stammer out a defense, he was already past words, his eyes near tears of anxiety.

At the sight, Yu Ci frowned: "A petty junior of no standing. Killing you would still soil my hands."

Xuan Qing was no fool. Overjoyed upon hearing this, he lifted his head, but before he could catch a glimpse of Yu Ci's expression, a single syllable crashed into his ears: "Get out!"

He had not exerted any particular force, but as this sound landed in everyone's ears, it felt like a muffled thunderclap exploding inside their brains, making the crowns of their skulls rattle. Xuan Qing was the first to snap to his senses. Without hesitation, he struck the ground with a heavy kowtow, leaped to his feet, and bolted, turning tail to run. The rest of them were stunned at first, but once they caught their meaning, they only cursed their parents for not giving them two more legs. Amidst a jumble of frantic babble like "Thank you, Celestial, for not killing us," they swarmed out the door like a hive of bees.

Yu Ci kept his eyes fixed on Xuan Qing. The man had superior martial skill and moved very fast, disappearing from sight within a few leaps the moment he cleared the Daoist temple. As for the rest of them, they crowded and shoved until they smashed the temple gates open, finally escaping in a mass. A moment later, all sound of them was gone as well.

After a little longer, confirming that those people had all fled far away, Yu Ci relaxed his grip, and the monster head dropped to the ground. The handsome Daoist wiped his hands on his clothes, only then managing to dry a layer of floating sweat from his forehead. Feeling the lingering dampness of sweat on his hands, he suddenly threw his head back and laughed aloud, his voice shaking the rafters and his manner exceedingly joyful.

Amidst the laughter, the Heart Calming Talisman suspended in midair shattered with a pop, transforming into several streaks of light that vanished in the blink of an eye.

If anyone from Xuan Qing's gang had acted on a sudden impulse and turned back, they surely would have seen the "celestial" of their imagination laughing back and forth, stroking his knees and slapping the ground. Pity that the group had truly been frightened out of their wits; by this stretch of time, they had already fled several miles away, so no matter how loudly Yu Ci laughed, they could not hear it.

Having laughed his fill, Yu Ci dropped the imposing, awe-inspiring demeanor he had used to cow the smallfry and directly sought out the most comfortable posture, leaning back against the incense table behind him while he casually laid his long sword aside.

Why had he assumed from the very beginning that Xuan Qing was a person of the same path? Because grand swindlers and petty swindlers, mutual deceivers and self-deceivers, were all cut from the same cloth.

Celestial, celestial, my ass.

Yu Ci was clearer than anyone about his own background. What kind of celestial was he? At best, he possessed cultivation similar to Xuan Qing's, which, coupled with those burly men of not-insignificant martial prowess—if they had truly seen through him while he was trapped in their encirclement, he likely really would have been in trouble.

Of course, he could have bypassed this temple, or broken directly with them the moment he stepped through the door, fleeing before they formed an encirclement. But had he acted that way, how could he be sitting here now, monopolizing a wind-sheltered, cold-proof space to enjoy himself at his leisure?

While relaxing his mind, he also began to estimate Xuan Qing's true level. Judging by that Calm Heart Incantation, this man could use ordinary cinnabar as a medium to draw talismans that manifested phenomena and elicited spiritual responses; he could be considered a man of some cultivation, probably at the peak of the Orifice Enlightenment realm.

In mortal cultivation, Qi Movement, Long Breath, and Orifice Enlightenment are known as the "Three Mortal Gates."

Qi Movement involves ordinary people tempering their bodies, breathing, and guiding Qi. Through such internal and external exertion, a sense of Qi is generated, giving rise to the saying "refining essence to transform Qi."

Long Breath occurs when the sense of Qi becomes abundant, forming internal breath and true Qi. With every inhalation and exhalation, immense power bursts forth, further causing the Qi to course through the entire body and driving the metamorphosis of the mortal flesh. At this stage, mortals can extend their lifespan by a sixty-year cycle, living up to one hundred and fifty years.

As for the Orifice Enlightenment realm, there is no further physical advancement of the flesh, but nourished by true Qi, a person's soul grows ever more vigorous, gradually opening spiritual orifices and acquiring certain miraculous spiritual responses. At this stage, if one's cultivation has reached the threshold, supplemented by spiritual guides like fine cinnabar and peach wood to employ methods of talismans, arts, and sorcery, then spells such as summoning wind and rain or commanding thunder and lightning are not impossible to perform.

Yu Ci was just like this. He understood a dozen or so talismanic seals, and ordinarily could use talismanic arts to quiet the mind, suppress evil, dispel pestilence, and manage to strike a few palm-lightning spells, but that was all. He imagined Xuan Qing was much the same.

However, that man possessed utterly no backbone. The long sword Yu Ci had laid across his knees was originally meant to preempt them if his cover was blown, yet he never expected it to frighten that fellow straight down to weak knees.

Perhaps this Xuan Qing had suffered at the hands of those "above"?

That was not entirely impossible.

If Orifice Enlightenment was the final stage of the "Three Mortal Gates" and the peak of mortal cultivation, then transcending the Three Mortal Gates—moving a step higher from Orifice Enlightenment—truly meant leaping beyond the fence to enter a marvelous community composed of special humans and non-humans, alongside that bizarre and wondrous world of divine anomalies.

People within that community were called cultivators, and "drawing talismans with gathered Qi" was a skill exclusive to cultivators.

Xuan Qing lacked insight and discernment, mistaking him for a legendary cultivator, and so suffered a shattering of heart and gall. As for Yu Ci, he had witnessed it with his own eyes...

Staring at the campfire, Yu Ci gradually grew lost in thought. Crimson firelight filtered through the slits of his eyelids, twisting in eerie poses. In a daze, tongues of flame licked his upper body, almost roasting his internal organs, and he—he sprang from this boundless sea of fire, lunging toward the flashing spot upon the table that was destined to change his destiny.

With a clack, Yu Ci abruptly snapped out of his memories, realizing he had unconsciously touched the "monster head" beside him, and could not help a self-deprecating laugh.

The monster head rolled twice, its side profile happening to face the roaring campfire. Illuminated by the firelight, its crimson pupils emitted an eerie glow, which Yu Ci happened to catch in his eyes. To be honest, he did not like this ugly thing, but just now, when he was putting on airs with this trinket, he had discovered that its texture was exceedingly strange. It did not feel like flesh and blood at all, yet beneath its icy skin and skeletal shell, heat vaguely radiated outward.

Hm, there was no harm in studying it later.