Tan Shuchang's Cultivation Diary and Unlicensed Street Vending

Tan Shuchang's Cultivation Diary:

Diyi Era of the Zixuan Dynasty, seventh month, seventh day.

As long as one lived, one couldn't avoid getting stained by worldly things. I weighed these empty sleeves of mine and thought I was free of worldly clutter. Only at the end did I realize the wind in these sleeves couldn't be used as a dharma artifact.

Without a handy dharma artifact, taking a couple more steps outside might mean never coming back.

So I still couldn't leave this backwater corner of the Clear Duckweed Mountains in Yue Prefecture.

Fortunately, I'd gained quite a lot today.

Tan Shuchang had already resolved to stop keeping a diary, lest some thief steal it again. But on second thought, no cultivator would be bored enough to covet his diary, so, in his good mood today, he wrote a little more.

"Next, I just need eight more vengeful ghosts. But with the Land Where Humans and Ghosts Coexist, gathering them shouldn't be difficult..." After carefully putting away and concealing the diary entry he'd written, Tan Shuchang couldn't help thinking about that Land Where Humans and Ghosts Coexist.

After all, that place had far too many cultivation resources he needed!

Before going, however, Tan Shuchang decided to read through the dozen or so bamboo scrolls he'd brought out earlier.

Since that Ghost Art was a power from the Weird Game, he had to understand it no matter what.

He opened the first bamboo scroll.

All these bamboo scrolls looked identical, so Tan Shuchang had simply picked one at random.

After opening it, he found no writing on the scroll. Yet the instant he opened it, Tan Shuchang felt a force trying to burrow into his body.

Anyone who hadn't cultivated would have immediately let that force enter them. But Tan Shuchang possessed cultivation power—fifteen years' worth, at that—so he directly blocked it.

"This seems a little like condensed Yin Baleful Force..." Tan Shuchang frowned slightly. Since he couldn't determine exactly what that force was, he simply used his cultivation power to force it out of his body.

The moment it left his body, that force instantly scattered into nothingness.

There was no movement at all. It simply vanished.

Then Tan Shuchang discovered that the bamboo scroll he'd opened was rapidly weathering away. In merely two or three breaths, the scroll gradually turned into a pile of powder.

It was as though decades had passed in his hands in an instant.

"Could opening the bamboo scroll and letting that force enter one's body be the method of obtaining a Ghost Art?" Tan Shuchang began to speculate.

So he picked up another bamboo scroll and opened it.

He'd picked them all up casually anyway. Even if he lost another one, Tan Shuchang wouldn't feel the slightest heartache.

This bamboo scroll was just like the previous one.

That immediately confirmed Tan Shuchang's suspicions. This force was the Ghost Art from the Weird Game, and the way to obtain a Ghost Art was to accept the force pouring out of the bamboo scroll.

But let alone a living person allowing Yin Baleful Force into their body, even cultivators would suffer grievous harm if they did so before refining it.

And even refined Yin Baleful Force wasn't easy to live with. It needed to be constantly fed with one's own vital blood.

Among demonic cultivators, there were those who cultivated Yin Baleful Force. Every last one of them looked like they'd been smoking opium for decades—skeletal, with sunken eyes, rough skin, and faces covered in dead, cracked flakes. With the slightest tug, a huge sheet of skin fragments could fall right off their faces...

And those skin fragments couldn't be pieced back into skin, because they were poisonous.

No matter how breathtakingly beautiful a woman was, once she cultivated this demonic art of refining Yin Baleful Force, she'd immediately turn into a dried corpse that looked as though Tree Demon Granny had sucked her dry.

Thus, a saying circulated among demonic cultivators—unless you bore a blood feud, what normal person would refine Yin Baleful Force?

For that reason, Tan Shuchang couldn't possibly try letting this force enter his body. Even if it merely resembled Yin Baleful Force, he wouldn't use himself as an experiment.

So, without hesitation, Tan Shuchang willed it.

The attribute panel appeared.

Tan Shuchang's gaze immediately fixed on the mask icon.

The next instant, he arrived at the Land Where Humans and Ghosts Coexist. Looking at the familiar market, Tan Shuchang didn't hesitate. With a casual shake, he spread out a piece of black cloth and placed all the remaining bamboo scrolls on it.

After thinking it over, he also put down the two fingers.

He'd examined those two fingers carefully. Each consisted of only one segment, and while they contained strange power and were both incomparably hard—making them suitable for artifact forging—he wasn't skilled in forging, so no matter how good they were, he could only leave them lying around and look at them.

Rather than waste them like that, he might as well make full use of them. Using them as bait at this stall wasn't bad either.

Very soon, a figure appeared before Tan Shuchang's stall. It was a blurry, twisted figure, like a desiccated corpse burning with black flames, carrying an incomparably vicious aura. When it appeared, a surge of malice directly assailed Tan Shuchang.

This was a Malice Domain, one of the traits of powerful vengeful ghosts.

It was also a great murderous evil that killed without leaving a trace.

In the Weird Game, most Rank B super players died at the hands of such vengeful ghosts. And it wasn't after a fierce battle in which they proved inferior—their consciousnesses were simply shattered the moment that malice touched them.

Naturally, this had no effect whatsoever on Tan Shuchang.

Because the Stone-Ball Vengeful Ghost he'd captured earlier was at this very level...

So when he saw that dense aura of Yin Baleful Force, Tan Shuchang was somewhat delighted. Sure enough, coming here to fish was the right choice.

But then, he heard this vengeful ghost speak human words. "You've broken the rules!"

This vengeful ghost didn't speak as clearly as the Stone-Ball Vengeful Ghost, but not so unclearly that one might mishear it.

"What rule did I break?" Out of curiosity, Tan Shuchang asked.

"Unlicensed street vending!"

Tan Shuchang: "..."

Then he looked at the vengeful ghost and suddenly realized that although it kept insisting he had broken the rules, it had no intention of continuing to attack.

Having somewhat grown up in a family accustomed to incense offerings, he immediately understood what this vengeful ghost wanted.

So he said, "It's my first time here, and I didn't know the rules. I don't know where is more secluded either. I'd trouble you, sir, to take me there. I'd like to get a permit from you."

That was already as blunt as it could be.

Upon hearing this, the vengeful ghost immediately nodded. It seemed quite satisfied with Tan Shuchang's tact. Then it waved a hand, signaling Tan Shuchang to follow, and promptly headed out of the market.

Tan Shuchang put away his things and followed it.

Before long, he saw the vengeful ghost stop at an unoccupied corner. Then he heard it say, "If you've got good stuff, take it out!"

Seeing that there really was no one around, Tan Shuchang walked toward the vengeful ghost without concern.

A moment later, Tan Shuchang returned and came back to the previous spot, where he continued vending without a license.

Very soon, another figure appeared in front of his stall.

"Sir, it's my first time here. I only just learned that a permit is needed to set up a stall. Could you allow me to get a temporary permit?" Tan Shuchang said immediately, before the other party could speak.