Yellow Emperor's Book of Changes

A light suddenly came on inside the dark, empty factory. Chen Hao was tied securely to a chair, surrounded by men holding clubs, each wearing a vicious expression.

Yet none of them had made a move. They merely exchanged looks, at a complete loss over what to do with Chen Hao, who was still fast asleep and snoring.

The fat man stared for a long while before finally muttering, "Was this guy born a pig? He's still snoring like this. I'm freaking impressed."

The Yellow Hair beside him shook his head too, his gaze toward Chen Hao actually filled with boundless admiration. "Yeah, this guy's unbelievable. I already beat him up in the car, but even after I wore myself out, the bastard was still snoring. He's picking on poor little me."

While they chatted, Long Guangsheng strode over with another group of men, looking menacing.

Seeing that the tightly bound Chen Hao remained unchanged, Long Guangsheng spat angrily and signaled to the others. At once, the dozen or so men gripped their clubs and began beating Chen Hao savagely.

This time, some of them had iron rods. Under the furious barrage, Chen Hao still did not wake, but his face was already swollen and bruised, and his entire body was covered in blood.

"Stop!"

Long Guangsheng waved a hand, and everyone immediately stopped, panting heavily. Clearly, they were exhausted from beating him.

By now, Long Guangsheng was utterly bewildered too. After a beating like that, even a dead man would probably have groaned a couple of times, yet Chen Hao had not reacted at all. It made no sense.

His humiliation turning to fury, Long Guangsheng narrowed his eyes and pulled a dagger straight from his pocket.

Seeing Long Guangsheng bring out a real weapon, the others looked shocked and frightened.

Long Guangsheng and his men did run with a rough crowd, but compared with actual gangsters, they were nothing more than small-time thugs. Usually, they did little more than throw punches and kicks. None of them dared kill anyone.

Now that Long Guangsheng was about to use a knife, they all panicked.

The fat man was the first to step forward. "B-Brother Long, are you really going to use that knife?"

The Yellow Hair was nervous too. If someone died, none of them would escape involvement. "Brother Long, don't do anything rash. If you kill someone, this'll become a huge mess. All of us will be in trouble."

"Yeah, Brother Long. I just got married. I don't want to go to prison."

Listening to his underlings try to persuade him, Long Guangsheng snapped, "All of you, shut up!"

With that, he walked toward Chen Hao step by step, dagger in hand.

After brushing away the last layer of ash inside the Eight Trigrams Furnace, Chen Hao wiped the sweat from his forehead, stepped out, and called loudly, "Boy, all done!"

After tidying up a little, Chen Hao found that the boy still had not answered, so he could only walk slowly deeper into Doushuai Palace.

Behind the Eight Trigrams Furnace was a somewhat smaller room, filled with wooden cabinets of various sizes and rows upon rows of books.

But the Alchemy Boy clearly was not fond of tidying up. Books and objects lay scattered all over the floor, and he was sitting there reading, evidently so absorbed that he had not heard Chen Hao at all.

Chen Hao felt awkward interrupting him, so he began looking around on his own.

He suddenly noticed that most of the books lying on the floor concerned alchemy.

An idea struck Chen Hao. Supreme Lord Lao was the forefather of alchemy! If I could get a few secrets of alchemy and health preservation from him, couldn't I do whatever I pleased in the mortal world?

Chen Hao's eyes lit up. He picked a book at random and tried to open it, only to discover that it was extraordinarily heavy. It felt as though it had been filled with lead, and he could not lift it at all.

Hearing a sound behind him, the Alchemy Boy finally turned slightly. Seeing Chen Hao grunting as he tugged at a book on the floor, he could not help laughing. "You can't pick it up. Unless your immortal power surpasses Lao Jun's, no one can lift anything in Doushuai Palace without his permission or mine."

"You could've said so sooner." Chen Hao wiped the sweat from his forehead and gave the boy an irritated glare.

"Have you cleaned all the ash out of the Eight Trigrams Furnace?" the Alchemy Boy asked with a smile.

Chen Hao walked over and held out his hand. "All done. Pay me the Daoist Merit."

As soon as Chen Hao asked for his payment, the Alchemy Boy chuckled. "Honored immortal, with how close we are, why do you keep bringing up payment? It hurts our friendship."

Hearing his tone, Chen Hao immediately understood. "Boy, you're not trying to welsh on our deal, are you?"

The Alchemy Boy's expression stiffened at those words. He immediately put on a serious face. "What are you saying? As the foremost Alchemy Boy under the great Supreme Lord Lao, would I ever break my word?"

"Then hurry up and pay me," Chen Hao said firmly.

"Uh..." The Alchemy Boy froze, then smiled again. "I'm honestly a little short right now. Could you let me owe you for a while?"

"What the hell!"

Hearing the Alchemy Boy shamelessly say something like that, Chen Hao could only laugh. He had never expected a boy so young to have already picked up bad habits and try to get something for nothing out of him.

Although he was indignant, Chen Hao did not want to sour their relationship too badly. "Since you can't give me Daoist Merit, at least give me something to make up for it."

The Alchemy Boy raised his eyebrows. "That's easy enough. As long as it isn't too unreasonable, I can agree, honored immortal."

At that, a gleam of successful scheming flashed in Chen Hao's eyes, and he stated his demands. "First, this Fly-whisk and the Qiankun Bag are mine."

The Alchemy Boy did not even hesitate. "No problem at all."

To the immortals of the Heavenly Court, the Fly-whisk and the Qiankun Bag were commonplace objects they would not miss if they lost them. To Chen Hao, however, they were priceless treasures.

After a pause, Chen Hao continued with a grin. "Also, do you have anything suitable for mortals to cultivate with? Anything will do."

Hearing Chen Hao ask for something for mortals again, the Alchemy Boy immediately looked puzzled and muttered, "Something for mortals to cultivate with?"

Afraid the Alchemy Boy would grow suspicious, Chen Hao hurried to explain. "Didn't I tell you earlier? I'm inside a secret realm, and my cultivation has been sealed, so I'm effectively a mortal."

"Oh!" Realization dawned on the Alchemy Boy, but after thinking for a moment, he still said, "Everything here belongs to the immortal realm. I really don't have anything for mortals."

Chen Hao could not help feeling disappointed.

But a moment later, the Alchemy Boy's eyes suddenly shifted. "Wait."

With that, he flew over to his chaotic pile of bookshelves.

Watching the Alchemy Boy throw down book after book, Chen Hao's eyes kept gleaming, and his anticipation grew.

"Found it!" The boy laughed, pulled a battered old book from beneath a cabinet, and flew straight over to Chen Hao.

Chen Hao did not care how dusty it was. He snatched it over and took a close look. It was none other than the "Yellow Emperor's Book of Changes."

When he saw those words, Chen Hao's first reaction was, Isn't this a compilation of the world-famous Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon and Yellow Emperor's Outer Canon, which have never appeared in the world? So this wondrous book, praised by generations and containing techniques to bring back the dead, really exists!

Then the notification sounded in his mind, and Chen Hao's eyebrows nearly flew off his face. "Congratulations on obtaining the Yellow Emperor's Book of Changes. This codex contains the arts of acupuncture, pulse diagnosis, medicine, alchemy..."

Before he could finish listening to the voice in his mind, however, Chen Hao felt his mind jolt. His body sank, and he suddenly began falling rapidly.

In that instant, Chen Hao saw the Alchemy Boy give him a sly little smile and wave goodbye.

Chen Hao knew his time using Soul Projection was up.

When Chen Hao abruptly awoke, he saw someone standing in front of him, holding a dagger and seemingly about to stab him.

Chen Hao's sudden awakening startled Long Guangsheng so badly that he nearly dropped the dagger in his hand.

The underlings around them also stared at Chen Hao, dumbstruck and motionless.

At that moment, even the air seemed to freeze completely.

Chen Hao looked down at the dagger in Long Guangsheng's hand, then at the people around him. He flexed his entire body, and the hemp ropes instantly snapped like rice noodles.

Long Guangsheng shuddered. Just as he was about to raise the dagger again and stab Chen Hao, pain struck his cheek and his head spun. A single slap from Chen Hao sent him flying.

"You freaking bastard, you actually came back for revenge!" Chen Hao knew perfectly well what Long Guangsheng intended and immediately began cursing him.

Seeing Long Guangsheng sent flying far away by a single slap, his underlings could hardly stand by. They roared and charged at Chen Hao.

By now, Chen Hao's fighting ability far surpassed even that of a professional boxer. A mere dozen small-time thugs were no match for him.

Chen Hao threw a punch and sent the fat man flying, knocking over two of his companions before he stopped.

Then came a kick that shattered a wooden club into flying splinters, while screams rang out one after another.

Yellow Hair raised his club, but halfway through his shout, Chen Hao punched him senseless, sending blood gushing from both nostrils.

In just two or three moves, Chen Hao knocked down four or five men. The others had not even attacked, yet his terrifying fighting prowess had already broken their nerve. How could they still dare rush him?

Watching the remaining men flee in terror, Chen Hao could not be bothered to chase them. He slowly walked toward Long Guangsheng, who lay on the ground.

Before he got close, Chen Hao felt aches all over his body. His head and face, in particular, felt strangely sticky.

He casually touched his face and found his hand covered in blood.

"Oh, sweet mother." Chen Hao hurriedly took out his phone and checked himself with its beauty camera, nearly choking at the sight of his own face.

His face was swollen, bruised, and covered in blood. Even with the beauty filter turned up to level ten, the camera could no longer restore his former handsome features.

Clearly, Long Guangsheng had subjected him to inhuman torment while his soul had been out of his body.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. Gritting his teeth, Chen Hao walked up to Long Guangsheng and kicked him hard. "Don't freaking play dead. I'll break your arms and legs."

Long Guangsheng, who had been lying motionless on the floor, immediately stirred with a shudder at those words. Holding his face, he gave Chen Hao an awkward, foolish grin.

Crouching down, Chen Hao pointed at his own face. "How could you bear to beat such a handsome face into this state? How am I supposed to face anyone now?"

Long Guangsheng trembled all over. Glancing around at his underlings, who had either fallen or fled, he was utterly terrified. "Brother Hao, just call me Little Long. I was blind to dare target you. Don't worry, I'll pay compensation. As long as you let me go, I'll pay whatever you want."

Chen Hao made as though to slap Long Guangsheng again, frightening him into covering his head and screaming on the floor. "Don't hit me! Don't hit me! I was wrong! It was all my fault!"

Long Guangsheng had witnessed Chen Hao's ferocity firsthand. Now that his underlings were no longer there to protect him, he was practically scared out of his soul.

Seeing the coward reduced to such a pitiful state, Chen Hao could not be bothered to keep tormenting him. He said, "How about this? Pay me some compensation for emotional distress and medical expenses, and I'll let you go."

Long Guangsheng immediately beamed and nodded. "Thank you for showing mercy, Brother Hao. Just name your price."

Chen Hao thought for a moment, then smiled and held up one finger.

Long Guangsheng blinked at it and immediately nodded. "No problem. I'll transfer ten thousand to you right now."

Hearing that, Chen Hao was furious and promptly smacked him on the head. "Screw you! Am I only worth ten thousand?"

Frowning, Long Guangsheng could only amend his offer. "A hundred thousand, then."

"One million!"