The following night, Li Ling slept with the Ninth Princess nestled against his neck, while his soul had already slipped into the archives of the Unusual Events Bureau's Orchid Terrace Office to consult the records.
This was the latest excellent spot Li Ling had discovered. There were plenty of records concerning cultivators, extraordinary people, and strange occurrences, and the surroundings were quiet.
Broadening his knowledge was something he now craved as well. He decided that, aside from cultivation and Cloud Riding, he would spend his spare time here.
The Unusual Events Bureau was rather deserted that night. It seemed quite a few personnel had been mobilized by Li Ling's report the previous evening and sent to the Longhe Charity Cemetery to wipe out the demonic cultivators.
Li Ling did not know their exact schedule, so he simply stayed at headquarters, waiting by the stump for a rabbit to come along.
His spirit body drifted among the neatly arranged wooden shelves, his Spiritual Consciousness continually sweeping over the wooden labels hanging from them as he searched for anything that interested him. Soon, he figured out how the records were classified by date and the nature of each case.
After some searching, he confirmed that the token he had discovered was an identifying token of Changzhou's Corpse Immortal Sect.
The four demonic sects-Yellow Springs, Ghost Soul, Corpse Immortal, and White Bone-shared a common origin, and their tokens were much alike. Their affiliations could nevertheless be distinguished by the decorative patterns around the edges.
May I sleep forever, never waking again, remaining a Netherworld Immortal of the Grave...
The underworld... the Netherworld Sect...
Whatever the interpretation, it cannot be unrelated to that sect.
He suspected that Special Envoy Mu and his companions were demonic cultivators from Changzhou's Corpse Immortal Sect who had infiltrated the Mystic Xin Kingdom to stir up wind and waves.
A group like that certainly had not slipped into the Royal City to sightsee. One careless moment, and even he might be dragged into their affairs.
This was not persecution paranoia. Such things had genuinely happened before.
A thousand years ago, a kingdom on the Mystic Continent had been destroyed by demonic cultivators' machinations. Further back in history, similar tragedies had occurred again and again.
The saying that righteousness and evil could never coexist was far more than a mere slogan.
The records inevitably touched upon atrocities too dreadful to speak of. Driving beasts to devour people was only one of them; mutilating living victims for occult rites, rape, and pillage were commonplace.
The enslavement involved in such abductions was not enslavement as ordinary mortals understood it. It meant having one's soul seized and stripped away, with no hope of release.
Compared with those atrocities, the crimes committed by the country gentleman Huang De were scarcely worth mentioning. Ordinarily, displaying his severed head and confiscating his property would settle the matter.
Under the Unusual Events Bureau's sentencing standards, that counted as a relatively minor offense.
Li Ling soon came across a case in which a rogue cultivator had used demonic arts to refine a magical artifact, actually feeding people's blood, vitality, and essential essence into it as lamp oil. Every mortal he captured was kept alive with strange parasitic insects and tortured for over a decade, living a life worse than death.
By the Unusual Events Bureau's standards, even this was nothing exceptional. At most, it was a middling offense of slaughtering and harming mortals, less serious than practicing demonic arts.
He would never have known without looking, and looking gave him quite a fright. His own secret cultivation of demonic arts also violated the laws the great cultivators had imposed upon lower-ranking cultivators. Even drawing upon their theories carried the same guilt as putting them into practice.
This was because the overwhelming majority of truly grave crimes concerned souls or cultivation lineages, or involved so many victims that their numbers routinely ran into the millions or tens of millions.
Why are there no records of Human-Head Centipedes?
Is this a new species they have not yet had time to file, or is its classification too high for the records to be stored here?
In the older records, Li Ling found the Water Monkeys and mountain imps he had seen before, along with monsters he had never encountered, such as reanimated corpses, poison men, blood bats, and demonic hounds. Yet he found nothing at all concerning Human-Head Centipedes.
After some thought, he decided the latter explanation was likely.
Li Ling was not actually particularly concerned about the Human-Head Centipedes. What truly interested him was that fragrant wood.
It was undoubtedly Spirit Materials. It seemed he would have to put more effort into finding it.
The night passed uneventfully. The next night, Li Ling visited the Unusual Events Bureau again, and the moment he entered, he smelled the mingled scents of a large contingent.
They are back. It looks as though they caught something!
Li Ling was secretly delighted. He had actually caught Special Envoy Mu's scent near the entrance!
He immediately made a circuit inside and discovered that the bodies of Special Envoy Mu and his somewhat younger subordinate were already lying in the morgue.
Someone had used an unranked Spirit Materials called ice stone to provide rudimentary preservation and had cleaned away the blood to facilitate examination. Apart from their horrifying wounds, they truly looked as though they were asleep.
Well, two more had entered their "eternal sleep."
Their belongings were in another room, all carefully stored as evidence.
This was the bureau's central headquarters, after all, and rules had to be observed. The items were unlikely to be casually disposed of as spoils. At a subordinate Branch Headquarters, they might already have vanished without a trace.
When Li Ling entered, he happened to see a clerk summarizing the operation. One item stood prominently on the evidence list: "Devil finger wood..."
Li Ling jolted, almost immediately certain that this was what he was looking for.
Devil finger wood... how blunt and straightforward. So this stuff is called devil finger wood?
Still, knowing its name is not enough. I need a way to get my hands on it.
Naturally, Li Ling could not easily accomplish that on his own. But if he could provide a suitable reason for the Old Ancestor to speak up, obtaining it from the Unusual Events Bureau—or even regularly snapping it up ahead of others in the future—would require no more than a word from her.
It was the sixteenth day of the fourth month, the day after the Unusual Events Bureau returned with its haul.
Inside the Drunken Immortal Tower, strings and flutes delighted the ear, and fine wine filled the air with fragrance.
After staying home for so long, Li Ling finally left his residence to attend a banquet hosted by the officials of the Incense Affairs Bureau.
Vice Minister Pei attached great importance to this invitation. He had booked the finest private hall in the restaurant well in advance and even cleared the entire floor, solely to entertain Li Ling.
The banquet naturally featured exquisite delicacies, beautiful women in attendance, and flattery from every rank of the Incense Affairs Bureau.
They were all eager to establish good relations with Li Ling and thereby gain greater support from the Immortal Sects.
Li Ling idly played with an Agarwood Bracelet. Before him stood an exquisitely decorated stage, where brilliantly burning lamps and candles rested in lotus-shaped stands like a river of stars filling the sky.
Artificial smoke billowed, seeming to drape the entire hall in a hazy veil. Graceful beauties danced to the music, their lovely faces revealed as they lifted their heads slightly.
They all wore gauze robes as thin as cicada wings. As they twisted and turned on their heels, their smooth, fragrant, jade-like skin seemed about to shine through the red gauze.
As the verse went: sheer silken sleeves veiled slender wrists of warm jade; wine-flushed cheeks bloomed a delicate red; plain skirts cinched their waists and trailed warm emerald; autumn waters filled their eyes, with stars glimmering in their pupils.
As the music ended, they turned and bowed gracefully, their lingering gazes still fixed upon their audience.
"Excellent!" Li Ling praised them with a smile.
The Incense Affairs Bureau officials naturally echoed him, joining in the praise.
Vice Minister Pei said, "Prince Consort, these beauties are all newly recruited dancers from the Swan Shadow Pavilion. Do they please your eye?"
Li Ling shook his head with a smiling sigh. "You really... I told you there was no need to spend extravagantly, yet you still arranged all this."
Vice Minister Pei assumed a foolish expression and chuckled vacantly. Another bureau official explained on his behalf, "Prince Consort, Lord Pei went to considerable trouble to learn that the Swan Shadow Pavilion had recruited this new troupe. I am sure you have heard of its illustrious reputation."
Li Ling nodded. Of course he had heard of the Swan Shadow Pavilion.
He beckoned to the beauties. "Come closer, all of you."
Following his instructions, they climbed the steps and stood in a row in the open space near the banquet table.
Li Ling rose and walked around them with his hands behind his back, feeling waves of scent assail his nose.
The sensations were far less pure than during soul projection, but after a short while, he still managed to focus his attention and successfully manifest their scent qualities.
During his seemingly casual circuit, Li Ling detected a faint rank scent from several seductive beauties at the front, a peculiar smell resembling a mixture of musk and body odor.
Judging by his experience in assessing people, those with such a scent possessed some beauty, but their temperaments generally displeased him. They were the sly, bewitching vixen type.
It seemed that, however grand the reputation, these were merely ordinary rouge-and-powder beauties. Li Ling promptly lost interest.
He waved a hand and said, "Your dancing and music were both excellent. You deserve a reward."
His accompanying household servant beckoned, having an attendant carry over a small plate of gold melon seeds, then declared haughtily, "Take a handful each. Why have you not thanked the Prince Consort for his generosity?"
The beauties said happily, "Thank you for your generosity, Prince Consort."
Seeing that some remained on the plate, Li Ling said, "The musicians worked hard as well and deserve rewards. Divide the remainder equally among them."
After everyone had offered profuse thanks and withdrawn, Vice Minister Pei realized that Li Ling was not being reserved. He genuinely had no interest in these beauties.
Although this had saved him a substantial expense, he could not feel the slightest pleasure. A hint of melancholy inevitably crept into his expression.
Then inspiration struck, and Vice Minister Pei's eyes suddenly brightened again. He volunteered, "Oh, Prince Consort, I have finished annotating the Gazetteer of the Ten Thousand Nations we discussed some time ago. I have also collected additional relevant texts, travelogues, and essays."
"Though it is only a preliminary draft, it should still be worth a look. After some time, there will be a more detailed and polished version."
He beckoned, took several handsome bound volumes from the attendant beside him, and presented them to Li Ling.
Li Ling leafed through them and said with a smile, "You are a learned man. Work diligently at your duties, and I will certainly put in a good word for you before the Old Ancestor."
Vice Minister Pei was overjoyed and hurriedly said, "Prince Consort..."
Li Ling waved a hand. "I will accept this gift."
Nothing more needed to be said.
Upon leaving the Drunken Immortal Tower, Li Ling ordered his party home and eagerly began examining the fruits of Vice Minister Pei's labor while still in the carriage.
Clearly, the man possessed genuine learning and ability. He had already created the reference index Li Ling wanted, organized by origin, grade, and value. Its quality even far exceeded his expectations.
The Gazetteer of the Ten Thousand Nations was an entire collection of roughly thirty-two volumes, running to over ten million characters-a truly monumental work.
Most of it concerned the local customs of various nations. Extracting information about aromatic materials from it would inevitably take time and effort.
Yet with help from the Incense Affairs Bureau's specialists, Vice Minister Pei had managed to produce a draft in just a few days.
His extensive knowledge and excellent memory, along with having read the work before, had also contributed.
Someone scrambling to read it at the last moment could never have accomplished so much.
This man is talented. It seems that if I want to write books and expound my ideas in the future, I can ask him to help.
Although the immortal masters did not care about ordinary mortal incense, Li Ling, as a master of the Incense Path, still knew a great deal about it.
Carrying on the lost teachings of past sages was both an aspiration and a mission.
Surely he could not discard them altogether simply because they were "useless"?
Following the index through the volumes in his hands, Li Ling discovered that Vice Minister Pei had already had the relevant pages cut out and rebound into convenient abridged editions. He could easily look up each continent's products under its regional entries.
Before long, Li Ling found a record of devil finger wood in the Yuanzhou volume. To his surprise, it came from Yuanzhou rather than Changzhou, as he had initially assumed.
"There is a tree with yellow branches, shaped like a devil's fingers. When chopped, it gives off a fragrance that can nourish yin souls..."
Li Ling murmured, "When chopped, it gives off a fragrance that can nourish yin souls..."
So accomplished predecessors had long known its properties. They simply had not pursued more extensive research.
Li Ling examined the other records concerning it. It really is only an unranked Spirit Materials. However, it does not grow on the Mystic Continent, and local cultivators rarely use it, so very few know of it.
I need a sufficient reason to make the Old Ancestor and the Skycloud Sect take it seriously, without exposing my secrets.
After returning, Li Ling personally brought the books to the Fragrant Incense Pavilion, sat down at the desk, and took up his brush to write a letter.
Some matters could not be explained in a few words. He decided to write a long letter explaining how various Spirit Materials and treasures could aid the production of spirit incense.
Long ago, Li Ling had requested some Spirit Materials from the Old Ancestor for research. He had even swallowed several exotic flowers and herbs, but none had produced satisfactory results.
Still, Li Ling believed that if the Returning Soul Incense truly performed outstanding feats this time, obtaining more Spirit Materials for research would not be difficult.
Perhaps among those natural treasures, something would prove even more beneficial than devil finger wood for consuming incense and Soul Tempering.
Thinking of the Returning Soul Incense, Li Ling could not help feeling expectant. It had been almost half a month since he submitted it. If any great cultivators had used it, there should have been feedback by now.
It also happened to be time to submit the regular quota of Spirit-Communing Incense. After finishing his letter, he contacted Yellow Cloud True Person.
Yellow Cloud True Person soon replied, "Li Ling, I have something to discuss with you as well. Since you have contacted me, I might as well explain it now."
Li Ling said, "Please go ahead, Old Ancestor."
Yellow Cloud True Person said, "After this delivery, you will no longer need to offer Spirit-Communing Incense as tribute. Leave it to someone else."
Li Ling was momentarily taken aback.
Yellow Cloud True Person said, "Rest assured. This is simply because Returning Soul Incense is highly useful to Soul Departure yin souls. The sect hopes you will devote more attention to it. From now on, you need only provide a hundred portions of Returning Soul Incense each month. All your benefits will increase, not decrease."
Understanding dawned upon Li Ling, swiftly followed by delight.
The Skycloud Sect's great cultivators were fairly generous toward useful people. Since they said it benefited even Nascent Soul Cultivators, this arrangement truly was only an adjustment.
They wanted someone else to take over the manufacture of Spirit-Communing Incense so that Li Ling could concentrate on the more profitable Returning Soul Incense.
Yellow Cloud True Person soon added, "In recognition of your contribution in presenting Returning Soul Incense, the sect has decided to grant you a special protective treasure. If there is anything else you want, feel free to ask. Provided it does not violate the rules, we will do our best to accommodate you."
There was even a reward? This was a fine opportunity.
A thought flashed through Li Ling's mind, and he said, "Please petition the sect on my behalf, Old Ancestor, to increase its support for the research matters I mentioned previously."