This Humble Daoist Is a Great Tonic

Ren Qing suddenly had a thought: What if this humble Daoist found a batch of martial artists to charge himself with?

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No.

He immediately dismissed the notion. For one, the benefits the Imperial Court Scroll gained from martial artists had an upper limit; they could not stack endlessly. For another, he had always felt that martial artists seemed utterly out of place in this region.

The imperial court was crawling with demons and monsters, while the Immortal Ascension Sect was full of heterodox evil immortals.

Compared to ordinary people, shouldn't martial artists have been a far more precious resource? How had they ended up outside the food chain?

"Boundless Heavenly Worthy. Better to avoid contact with heretics and demons whenever possible. Endure for a moment and my Dao-heart may be thrown into chaos; take one step back and my cultivation may be ruined. Nothing good can come of it."

Seeing that Ren Shanshi was still in high spirits, Ren Qing sat cross-legged on the edge of the well, preparing to welcome the long-missed sunset. Yet the sky darkened faster and faster.

"Is it going to rain?"

Ren Shanshi finished practicing and hurriedly gathered the clothes drying in the backyard.

The sky, which had still held a faint glimmer of light moments ago, had somehow become shrouded in thick storm clouds. Raindrops rode the cold wind, their chill piercing to the bone.

Many households had already lit their candles, and the townsfolk in the streets hurriedly wrapped up their work.

Drip.

Raindrops the size of beans quickly joined into streams, turning into an impenetrable curtain of rain.

Ren Shanshi could not help muttering, "This rain came strangely. The ground was cracked from drought not long ago, and now it looks like it wants to drown the whole city."

In no time at all, every household had shut their doors and windows tight.

"Dad, why is there still a curfew? Doesn't the yamen barely handle anything anymore?"

"Don't talk nonsense."

Ren Shanshi pulled Ren Qing into the inner room and lowered his voice. "Just last night, I was delayed at the martial hall and had to return to the shop after dark."

After hesitating for several breaths, he continued, "Maybe it was just my imagination, but... I saw a figure from behind who looked a lot like Head Constable Chen. I even called out to him a few times, but that person didn't react. The more I think about it, the more certain I am that it was him."

Ren Qing frowned tightly. The reappearance of the tiger thrall ghosts might mean that the tiger demon was about to arrive.

Judging by the time Daoist Beisu had mentioned, it would likely be another two or three days.

And something should happen at the Immortal Ascension Assembly as well, shouldn't it? Just what kind of existence was the Three Incense Lady behind it all?

A trace of restlessness rose in Ren Qing, and his gaze slid toward the blind man's staff nearby.

For Medicine Dissolution, he had yet to find an elixir capable of reviving the dead and regrowing flesh upon bare bones. He was equally clueless about Staff Dissolution.

"Alas, Staff Dissolution requires bamboo. One's Primordial Spirit must attach itself to it, then after the physical body dies, the Primordial Spirit returns from within the bamboo staff to complete corpse dissolution."

Ren Qing felt a pounding headache. How old would bamboo have to be before it could contain an immortal's Primordial Spirit?

As he pondered—

His peripheral vision casually swept past the courtyard, and his pupils abruptly contracted.

In the deserted alley outside, a familiar figure had appeared at some unknown time.

"Chen Qi?"

It really was Chen Qi.

Head Constable Chen's state was exceedingly strange. He was neither a tiger thrall ghost nor did he possess the vitality of the living. His eyes were hollow and deathly still as he stood motionless at the entrance.

The rain touching his body turned pitch-black and flowed along the cracks between the stone slabs.

Ren Shanshi was still muttering, "Head Constable Chen was a perfectly fine living man, yet he died without rhyme or reason. Good thing you never joined the yamen, A-Qing."

The corners of Head Constable Chen's mouth rose as his gaze slowly turned toward the coffin shop.

The next moment, he began walking step by step toward the backyard gate.

"Chen—"

"Dad, forget about that. When you have time, have Yun Niang come eat dinner with us at home."

Ren Qing hurriedly interrupted Ren Shanshi. Sure enough, once Chen Qi was no longer mentioned, the figure immediately stopped, less than half a meter from the gate.

"Th-that sounds good. Once we're done being busy in a few days."

Ren Shanshi nodded, just about to say something heartening.

Suddenly—

Heavy pounding came from the mouth of the alley, accompanied by a drunken, hoarse voice that sounded especially shrill through the rain curtain. "Open the door! Open the fucking door for me!"

"Send that little wench of yours out to serve this lord, or I'll smash your shitty courtyard to pieces!"

The pounding grew heavier and heavier, as though someone were viciously hammering the door with a wooden club.

Ren Shanshi's face darkened as he snorted. "It's Widow Zhao's house! It must be that hooligan Zhang San. He loafs around all day and only knows how to bully people..."

Before he could finish, Ren Qing heard bones grinding in Head Constable Chen's neck. His head turned one hundred and eighty degrees before he headed toward the alley entrance.

All the commotion came to an abrupt halt.

Ren Qing found it somewhat absurd. Head Constable Chen had already become a tiger thrall ghost, yet he was still maintaining order in Water Mouth City. Could the tiger demon magistrate behind him actually be an upright official who truly worked for the people?

Or perhaps the tiger ghost was merely guarding the chicken coop for its master?

A powerful sense of crisis welled up in Ren Qing. No matter what, he had to find an opportunity to advance to Yin Immortal.

"Father, this humble Daoist is going to rest. You should turn in early too."

"Got it."

Yet Ren Qing did not head to the side room. Instead, he went to the well.

He sat down cross-legged. Clouds of qi coiled around him, shielding him from the rain. Concealed by the night, he cultivated by consuming qi, his divine sense remaining vigilant, ready to retreat into the cave abode at any moment.

Before he knew it, the night had slipped away. A faint brightness appeared along the horizon.

"Waiting around won't bring me an opportunity for corpse-liberation rebirth. I might as well try the Endowment ability. Perhaps after five rebirths, I can already endow vegetation."

After repeatedly confirming that there was no longer any trace of tiger ghosts in the city, Ren Qing cut open his fingertip and let a few drops of blood fall onto the roots of the vines by the wall.

He quietly activated the Endowment ability.

As always, the Endowment ability had no effect. Clearly, vegetation could not be transformed into living beings.

"Still, it seems I don't really need the Endowment ability anymore."

Ren Qing licked his lips, a trace of surprise flashing through his eyes.

The vines began growing wildly at a speed visible to the naked eye. Their slender stems climbed frantically, spreading across the entire wall in mere moments. Lush leaves layered over one another, covering the bricks so tightly that not a gap remained.

Even more astonishingly, countless flower buds sprouted from the vines.

Ren Qing licked his lips again. It seemed he had underestimated the true worth of corpse-liberation rebirth. In a sense, he had genuinely undergone corpse liberation and become immortal five times.

Every drop of his blood had become an immensely nourishing treasure.

"If that's the case, this humble Daoist may truly be able to take a shortcut through the final two corpse-liberation rebirths."

At a thought from Ren Qing, a large group of Black Rat Dao Children began gnawing at the vines.

At the same time, four Black Rat Dao Children burrowed into the cave abode and dug up all the bones that had previously been buried in the soil.

Ren Qing suddenly felt that the cultivation method for ginseng with human heads was not without merit. Combined with his blood, it could at least speed up the aging of medicinal herbs.

The Black Rat Dao Children held the bones and cast him puzzled looks. Hadn't the immortal master said before that it was far too sinister?

"Cough, cough, cough."

"Though this humble Daoist disdains harming living beings, one must know how to adapt on the path of cultivation."

Ren Qing's expression softened. He only felt that his Dao heart had improved yet again.

"Grind them into bone powder for this humble Daoist, then store it in earthen jars."

Seeing that dawn had arrived and the market was surely bustling with people, Ren Qing set off from the backyard, intending to buy a few ginseng plants to cultivate.

Bamboo shoots, on the other hand, would be easy enough to find; he could simply leave that to the Black Rat Dao Children.

He would also take the opportunity to see whether Water Mouth City had undergone any changes now that the undercurrents between the two factions were surging.

Of course, now that the trouble of corpse-liberation rebirth had been resolved with ease, Ren Qing had no intention of joining the excitement. So long as it did not affect him, he would not get involved even if beaten to death.