The Strange Necklace

(Starting tomorrow, there'll be an extra update... one more at nine in the evening...) Those little black shadow figures from earlier could hardly have been anything else. They were probably human souls!

The thought that Tang Changsheng could draw out a person's soul and toy with it in the palm of his hand...

Even though he was saving someone now, a chill still rose in every one of their hearts.

It was rather like watching a doctor cut open a patient for surgery... You knew it was to save a life, but seeing it with your own eyes would still be more than most people could bear...

And if that was true of the body, what about the far more mysterious and fragile soul?

In the eyes of the two bodyguards, Tang Changsheng had become an object of extraordinary awe.

They remembered how, at the very beginning, they had drawn their guns in front of him... Even if it had only been instinctive...

Looking back now, waves of fear washed over them!

They were not men who clung desperately to life. But once they imagined that even in death, their souls might not escape and would still fall into someone else's hands...

That was a thousand, ten thousand times more terrifying than death itself!

After this, at least, Zhang Dacheng and his underworld forces probably would never again dare casually defy the will of the General's Temple.

The moment Tang Changsheng spoke, they felt as though they had been granted a pardon. They hurriedly lifted the girl and carried her out.

They even remembered to turn back, respectfully burn incense before the Deity Statue, and leave a large sum of money as an offering.

Tang Changsheng watched them go. Their car vanished beneath the dense shade of the trees at the foot of the mountain. After pondering for a long while, he raised a necklace in his hand.

He murmured, "This necklace is strange. I can't even tell what it's made of..."

Not only could Tang Changsheng not identify its material, but it was also carved into a rather ferocious-looking bat, with an unmistakably sinister air.

He did not understand why girls liked such peculiar accessories. Some even liked to print skulls, devils, and the like on their clothes, or wear them as ornaments.

Was it simply because they thought it looked cool?

But Tang Changsheng knew for certain that this necklace was most likely why the girl had fallen victim and ended up in that state!

It seemed this was the object used to cast the Effigy Curse!

Clearly, a fellow practitioner skilled in the Effigy Curse had made his move!

Who would have thought that, in this latter age, an accomplished fellow practitioner truly still existed?

This time, Tang Changsheng had thoroughly offended that unknown master!

By the rules of the martial world, if you recognized another practitioner's handiwork and did not want to make an enemy of him, you did not casually undo his spell.

Tang Changsheng had broken that spell, which amounted to a declaration of war. In the language of the martial world, he had picked a fight.

He had made a powerful enemy for no reason at all!

But who told that man to operate near Lower River without first coming to the General's Temple to pay his respects?

That was a slight against the General's Temple! For the sake of its reputation, Tang Changsheng could not have let the matter go!

And if that enemy truly dared come to the General's Temple looking for trouble, a chilling murderous glint flashed through Tang Changsheng's eyes...

Over the centuries, who knew how many enemies' corpses had been thrown beneath the ridge of Dead Man Mountain?

Then again, this necklace's style was strange and distinctly foreign. It did not look like something from the Central Lands.

While Tang Changsheng examined the strange necklace, its owner had already sensed what had happened...

Tang Changsheng was no immortal and could not foresee that. Even if he could, he would not have cared much.

He would meet soldiers with generals and floods with earthworks. With Yin Soldiers protecting him, he had no fear of any fellow practitioner who came knocking.

What was more,

He should have won Zhang Dacheng over completely this time. With Zhang Dacheng and Zuo Xingfa, two underworld bosses, to protect him and shelter him from the storms, Tang Changsheng spent the following days in seclusion. Apart from devoting himself to refining the Ghost Soldier, he meditated, working to master the Heavenly Heart.

Before, he often had to sit quietly for an hour or two before his thoughts fell away and the Heavenly Heart ignited.

And many times, it had barely been lit before stray thoughts arose and extinguished it.

But as Tang Changsheng practiced day after day, he gradually grew more adept. Now, he could generally ignite the Heavenly Heart after sitting for about an hour.

Each time, it remained lit longer as well!

Soon, however, Tang Changsheng hit another bottleneck. After he managed to keep the Heavenly Heart lit for the time it took a stick of incense to burn,

No matter how much he practiced afterward, he made not the slightest progress.

As the ancient teaching said, the Dao had neither name nor form; it was simply one's true nature, simply the Primordial Spirit. Nature and life could not be seen, so they were entrusted to heavenly light. Heavenly light could not be seen, so it was entrusted to the two eyes.

Thus, the path of cultivation lay in turning the light back upon the Heavenly Heart.

He had already been sitting quietly for over an hour, and his scattered thoughts had gradually settled.

His breathing had long since grown even. At the Heavenly Heart, a faint point of light appeared, as fragile as a spark.

Then, as Tang Changsheng circulated the power of the Essence of the Sun and Moon that he had refined within his body, it slowly traveled up the Governing Vessel to the Heavenly Heart.

The light, no more than a spark before, steadied and grew to the size of a soybean. It illuminated a small circle within his Sea of Consciousness...

But after the time it took a stick of incense to burn, the Heavenly Heart could no longer hold on. At last, it went out.

Only then did Tang Changsheng end his practice with a sigh, filled with disappointment.

He had cultivated since childhood, practicing breathing techniques and inward observation. It had taken him more than ten years merely to turn the light back upon the Heavenly Heart and see its radiance.

Yet that tiny light could not stay lit and establish the Spirit Terrace.

As a result, his cultivation had never truly advanced enough to cross the threshold.

Outsiders knew only that the General's Temple used sinister, treacherous methods. How could they know that, at its core, it practiced an orthodox path?

"The Heavenly Heart ignites, but won't stay lit... I still can't keep it burning. It looks like I haven't accumulated enough Inner Qi!"

Matter was conserved, and cultivation was no different!

Igniting the Heavenly Heart was merely lighting the wick. The essence, qi, and spirit refined within him were the lamp oil that actually burned!

And with Tang Changsheng igniting the Heavenly Heart so frequently of late, the Inner Qi he had accumulated over more than ten years was being consumed ever faster.

That left Tang Changsheng in a predicament!

It seemed he would have to return to the Immortal Realm if he wanted his cultivation to progress!

Tang Changsheng thought so, but he also vaguely understood that activating the Bagua Mirror was no simple matter.

It must have required energy, and that energy was clearly supplied by the pearl in the Quiet Room.