Why Do We Pee Squatting Down?

Duan Yun had actually verified the yin-nourishing, yang-strengthening effects of the Jade Sword Stance long ago.

Whenever he did not breathe in and out ordinary air, but merely absorbed Lunar Essence, he would be hard all morning the next day. He had to take several cold showers before he could barely keep it under control.

In other words, absorbing Lunar Essence through the rhythm of nine shallow breaths and one deep breath was the key. It had nothing to do with Jade Sword True Qi at all.

Duan Yun had originally wanted to use this to earn silver as an andrologist, but he got along rather well with Huang Shi, so he gave it to him as a congratulatory gift.

At first, a strange expression appeared on Huang Shi's face, but he quickly returned to normal.

For Huang Shi to drive corpses along like this, he was clearly a trained martial artist.

When it came to the Jade Sword Stance, he understood it the moment it was explained.

As for absorbing Lunar Essence, like Hua Wen and Hua Wu, he found it somewhat incomprehensible.

But Duan Yun told him the trick, and he remembered it, saying he would try it when there was a moon.

With tonight's weather, there probably would not be any moon.

Duan Yun had once again sown the seeds of kindness, and he was in quite a good mood.

The two young men drank and chatted in the ruined Daoist temple beside that pile of cured-meat-like corpses. It was truly a fresh experience.

What was the martial world?

Duan Yun still had no clear answer. Perhaps, beyond killing those who deserved to die and upholding justice, it was getting to know many interesting people and seeing many interesting things.

Having someone his own age in this midnight Daoist temple eased Duan Yun's sense of loneliness.

The next day, since they were headed in different directions, Duan Yun was about to leave.

Huang Shi said that meeting was fate, then spoke those very martial-world words—"Brother Duan, the green mountains remain unchanged, the green waters flow forever. We will meet again sooner or later."

Duan Yun rode his gray donkey down the road, feeling that this was how the martial world ought to be.

You met interesting people, yet you were strangers brought together by chance. If fate allowed, you would meet again; if not, you would gradually forget one another, until they became a fragment of memory in your old age.

After Duan Yun departed, bells rang out, and the walking corpses on the ropes hopped down one after another, lining up in a row.

Last night's rain had stopped, but damp, cold rain mist still filled the place that morning, and visibility was poor.

At that moment, a female corpse quietly walked to Huang Shi's side.

When Huang Shi saw her, his gaze softened.

He lifted the white cloth over the female corpse's head, his eyes as tender as water, as though he were not lifting a shroud from a corpse, but unveiling a bride's red veil.

Beneath the white cloth was the face of a young woman.

If not for the cuts stitched together with thread across her face, making her look like a patched-up rag doll, she would have been quite lovely.

"A Ling, you've truly suffered," Huang Shi said tenderly as he stroked the female corpse's face.

A Ling opened her mouth. Her voice was indistinct, but Huang Shi's expression changed drastically.

"Nonsense! You're still alive. You must still be alive! As long as your brain is fine, you're alive!" Huang Shi said excitedly.

As he spoke, his sharp fingernails sliced open one of the stitched cuts, revealing what lay beneath the woman's face.

Through the opening, one could see that a huge portion of the flesh beneath her face had been hollowed out, because several human brains had been stuffed inside.

Those brains were connected by branches of flesh, nourishing the brain within her skull as they pulsed softly. The sight was unspeakably horrifying.

Huang Shi reached out, pulled out a gray-black human brain, and smashed it onto the ground.

"A Ling, why didn't you tell me one of your nourishing brains had gone bad?" Huang Shi asked anxiously.

The woman opened her mouth again, and only then did Huang Shi's expression ease. "Don't worry. I'll definitely find you a fresh, intelligent human brain soon. Brother Duan's brain last night was quite good, but you wouldn't let me make a move."

The woman pouted and continued trying to speak, but Huang Shi interrupted her. "What friends? For you, I, Huang Shi, could kill everyone. It's not too late to catch up to him now."

At that moment, the woman took his hand and looked at him with her rotten face, whose cut had yet to be sewn shut.

Huang Shi sighed and carefully stitched the cut closed again.

"Actually, Brother Duan isn't as simple as he seems either. Passing techniques on to people for no reason—only fools would casually learn something of unknown origin. But for you, I'm still willing to try it, because he truly seems full of yang energy."

The woman wanted to say something again, but Huang Shi covered her mouth. "A Ling, rest properly first. I need to find you a fresh nourishing brain."

Beneath the headless idol, beside the neatly lined corpses, the man gently and meticulously stitched the cuts on the woman's face. By the offering table lay a dead gray-black human brain. In that mist-shrouded weather, the scene was mysterious and terrifying.

These were scenes Duan Yun never saw.

He was still thinking that after Brother Huang learned his stance, even though he looked old, he would surely enjoy a very youthful and vigorous married life.

Before Huang Shi had tried cultivating Duan Yun's "Potency Stance," Hua Wen and Hua Wu had already cultivated Duan Yun's Jade Sword True Canon to a certain level.

The two brothers bade Zhang Tielan farewell and found a secluded place. They did nothing but practice the Jade Sword True Canon Duan Yun had taught them.

That night, Hua Wu could not help saying, "Brother, the Jade Sword True Qi that kid came up with really is tyrannical. It actually dissolved part of my original true qi."

Indeed, over the past few days, the more they practiced, the more the brothers marveled at Duan Yun's good fortune and the stroke of divine inspiration in his mistaken cultivation.

Their Great Medicine True Qi had already transformed from emptiness into substance as they continued consuming Great Medicine. Yet the moment it encountered this true qi fused with Lunar Essence, it melted away like ice and snow.

Hua Wu asked worriedly, "Should we keep practicing? If we do, our own true qi will be swallowed up completely."

Hua Wen pondered for a moment, then said, "Practice! Lately, I've always felt uneasy, and I suspect someone has their eye on us. The two of us need to take another step forward to be safe."

Hua Wu said solemnly, "All right."

In truth, the brothers had long known that once this Medicine Planter cultivation method was begun, there was no stopping it.

Because they were not the only Medicine Planters.

Sometimes, they even encountered Great Medicine planted by other Medicine Planters.

As long as they did not recklessly eat the Great Medicine planted by others, violent conflicts between Medicine Planters generally did not arise easily. But there was no helping the fact that many martial artists had something wrong in their heads. Added to the competition between Medicine Planters, cases of Medicine Planters attacking Medicine Planters still occasionally occurred.

It could be said that from the moment they began planting medicine, they, like that Great Medicine, had entered the game.

The Great Medicine was there for them to harvest, but they themselves might also become targets for certain madmen to harvest. That was why the two had never stopped planting medicine.

Some circumstances forced you to keep moving forward.

For safety's sake, Hua Wen and Hua Wu had actually moved far away from other Medicine Planters, deliberately coming to impoverished backwaters such as Riverside City to plant medicine. Yet after all these days, they had still discovered traces of other Medicine Planters.

It could only be said that once competition existed, there was no stopping.

That was also why the brothers were so eager to plant medicine and harvest it.

And Duan Yun's entirely new Jade Sword True Canon gave them an entirely new possibility.

The possibility of escaping this game.

Their Jade Sword True Qi, which had been transforming emptiness into substance for years, could not defeat Lunar Essence True Qi that had been cultivated for less than ten days. This showed just how powerful Jade Sword True Qi fused with Lunar Essence was.

Planting and harvesting medicine might bring pleasure, but it was exhausting in both mind and body, and they still had to worry about being harvested by their peers. So long as they mastered this Lunar Essence True Qi, what would they have to fear from their peers?

Thus, the brothers struck while the iron was hot and continued practicing madly.

At dawn, Hua Wen and Hua Wu went to the latrine together. They came to their respective squatting spots and both squatted down.

Hua Wu could not help saying, "Brother, have you noticed that we've been going to the latrine more often lately?"

Hua Wen considered it. "We have been urinating more frequently, but it should be a rejection reaction caused by the waxing and waning of the two streams of true qi."

Hua Wu found that very reasonable and pulled up his pants.

To be honest, lately he had been so absorbed in practicing the Jade Sword True Canon that he neglected food and sleep. He always felt as if he were sleepwalking.

At that moment, Hua Wen stood up as well.

The two brothers glanced at each other, their thoughts already turning back to cultivation.

But then Hua Wu suddenly realized something. "Brother, you didn't take a shit?"

"Right, you finished taking a shit that fast?"

Hua Wu's expression turned grave. "Then, Brother, why are the two of us squatting down to pee?"

One word awakened the dreamer. Hua Wen immediately realized it too, and a chill crawled down his spine. "That's right. Since when did two grown men like us start squatting down to pee?"