Five Elements Escape Art

The gates of the Fuyang Escort Agency were tightly shut, though the faint sound of guards' footsteps could still be heard within.

"Hee."

Hu Nizhou covered her mouth with a handkerchief and swayed gracefully into the escort agency.

The guards along the way hurried about. Yet upon closer inspection, one would notice that there were no shadows beneath their feet, and their words and movements resembled soulless puppets.

Hu Nizhou pushed open the doors to the martial arts hall. The lighting inside was dim. At its center sat a tiger-headed, human-bodied figure meditating cross-legged, surrounded by a thick stench of blood.

Six unorthodox cultivators hung from the rafters, their limbs bound by rope-like magical artifacts. Every one of them was barely clinging to life.

"Young Master Yin, it has been a long time."

Before Hu Nizhou could finish speaking, the tiger-headed monster suddenly opened its blood-filled maw and swallowed one of the unorthodox cultivators whole.

As it chewed, blood mixed with shattered bone dripped through its teeth, making one's scalp go numb.

"What is it?" Yin Si licked the blood from the corner of his mouth, his voice as coarse as grinding sand.

Suppressing her nausea, Hu Nizhou said softly, "I have already found Three Incense Lady's true disciple. If Young Master is willing, you and I may as well work together."

"You may have the superior Transformation Pill, but you must allow me to harvest his essence for three days."

"Oh?" Yin Si leaned his head closer, greed gleaming in his tiger eyes. "Miss Hu, you're willing to give me the superior Transformation Pill for nothing?"

"I am alone. How could I possibly have the ability to emerge unscathed after taking the pill?"

Hu Nizhou lowered her head with tact. This choice, too, had come after weighing the gains and losses.

Yin Si was not merely the prefect's nephew. It was said that a great demon among his ancestors had once entered the imperial court as an official.

Of course, another reason was that her dealings with Ren Qing had been far too strange.

At first, Ren Qing had not cared in the slightest, only for his attitude to abruptly make a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn.

Yin Si's grin widened, exposing sharp fangs. "Fine. I'll help you hold off those Demon Cultivators, and I can send a few people to assist you in refining the pill."

The moment he finished speaking, he opened his mouth and bit toward Hu Nizhou.

Caught completely off guard, Hu Nizhou lost a third of the shadow beneath her feet.

"You..." Hu Nizhou's expression changed drastically. Though Yin Si's innate divine ability could not breed tiger ghosts, the slightest carelessness would allow it to seize control of one's soul.

"Once the matter is done, I will naturally return your shadow to you." Yin Si's tone allowed no argument.

Hu Nizhou suppressed her anger. "Also, I want Li Yao of the Fuyang Chamber of Commerce. I previously lost two false bodies, and Immortal in the Painting's shell would be just right for use."

Yin Si burst into laughter at that. "Not long ago, the Fuyang Chamber of Commerce sent a batch of blood food to my uncle. I promised to spare his daughter's life and had already let her go."

His tone shifted, amusement flashing through his eyes. "But whoever you wish to find has nothing to do with me."

With that, he spat out a small piece of shadow, clearly originating from Li Yao.

Hu Nizhou accepted the shadow with a face full of apprehension, feeling the terror of seeking a tiger's skin. "May I ask whether Young Master Yin knows how the prefect is faring?"

"Who knows?" Yin Si waved a claw. "The yamen was sealed off long ago. Not even a fly can get in."

He suddenly gave a low laugh. As his tiger head swayed, there was a hint of gloating in it. "But if you ask me, Uncle has probably run into a wall. You'd best be careful too. Three Incense Lady surely has other schemes in motion. It won't be that simple."

Hu Nizhou nodded, not daring to linger at the Fuyang Escort Agency.

Even though calamities continued to plague Water Mouth City, the streets still carried a trace of festivity as the New Year approached.

When Ren Qing returned to the coffin shop, fresh couplets had already been pasted outside its entrance, and the signboard had been taken down. Sparrow Dao Child chirped noisily, doing its part to liven up the atmosphere.

Ren Shanshi stood by the door, quietly saying something to Yun Niang. There was a hint of melancholy on his face. Upon seeing Ren Qing return, he sighed. "Ah Qing."

"Your father has thought it over. Business at the coffin shop is truly too quiet, so I plan to try another line of work."

Ren Qing nodded. The funeral trade dealt with corpses every day, so it indeed hindered his quiet cultivation.

Seeing that his younger son did not object, Ren Shanshi said, "But let's wait until spring begins. For now, we should first have a peaceful New Year. I can also focus on practicing stance work and martial arts."

Ren Qing's gaze swept over the shop's main hall, and the corner of his mouth could not help twitching.

Not only was Ren Shanshi covered head to toe in iron weights, but a steaming cauldron sat at the entrance to the hall, filled with boiling iron sand. Several branding irons, glowing red-hot, were even stuck into its rim.

Behind the door stood a wooden bed covered in sharp rivets, along with wooden training dummies and the like.

There was no trace of a coffin shop left. It looked exactly like a torture chamber—no wonder business was so bleak.

"Dad, how is your martial arts training going?" Ren Qing asked casually.

Ren Shanshi immediately perked up. "I'm now cultivating seven external martial arts at once. It's just a pity that the instructor who taught me before died, and the martial arts school can no longer find anyone to teach external martial arts."

Ren Qing patted Ren Shanshi's sturdy shoulder as his divine consciousness quietly probed inward.

Within his cheap father's body, four strands of the aura of heaven and earth each performed their own duties. The newly added mist was especially unusual, clinging in fine wisps to the gaps between his bones.

Ren Qing suddenly realized that Ren Shanshi's short, stocky frame had unknowingly grown beyond one meter seventy. Clearly, the mist could stimulate bone growth.

"Dad, keep practicing your martial arts. This Daoist still has some matters to attend to."

"Ah Qing, how about opening a martial arts school?"

Ren Shanshi was still eagerly trying to say something when Ren Qing had already turned and walked into the back courtyard.

"Father, see for yourself."

Yun Niang held millet in her palms, feeding the Sparrow Dao Child. A-Qing's condition seemed to have stabilized considerably—could it be that he had encountered something pleasant when he went out earlier?

Ren Qing was already inside the cavern dwelling at the bottom of the well.

It covered more than half a city block, with artificial rockeries and vegetation scattered throughout, and over a dozen chambers along the way.

Mouse True Person bent and scraped attentively. "Immortal Elder, should this disciple explain the situation of the cavern dwelling in detail...?"

"No need. Of all my disciples, you are the one I value most."

Mouse True Person grew so excited that he repeatedly kowtowed, wishing he could exhaust himself in service and die only after giving his all.

Ren Qing went deeper into the cavern dwelling. Fish Immortal wrapped itself around him again; as it cultivated the Vapor-Feeding Immortal Art, its body had become increasingly narrow and slender, though its length had remained half a meter from beginning to end.

"Not bad."

He soothed Fish Immortal for a while. Seeing that Mouse True Person was nowhere nearby, he said softly, "Of all my disciples, you are the one I value most."

Fish Immortal stood guard before the seclusion chamber, wearing the look of a loyal protector defending its master.

Ren Qing busied himself, piling the herbs meant for experimenting with the internal refinement method beside his feet, then reread the incomplete Wax Immortal Ascension Art.

As ever, the method of ascension was bizarre, with two ways to begin.

The first was to have both legs removed in childhood, seal the entire person inside a specially made earthen jar, and nourish them with a secret method until waxy limbs grew anew from the severed stumps.

The second was to remove the bones from both legs intact, pour melted candles into the leg bones, then, once the wax had solidified, draw ascension talismans upon them before placing them back inside the body.

Only the opening portion of the Wax Immortal Ascension Art Ren Qing had obtained held any value for reference.

"Still, for me, the opening alone is enough. I'll enter the path first, then gradually perfect it bit by bit."

He lit an oil lamp and, following his memories, wrote out a Dao lineage from his previous life upon the paper.

It was called the "Earth Escape Art."

More precisely, it should have been the Five Elements Escape Art.