Nine Netherworlds

"Huh! What's this?" Just as Zhang Yao was starting to lose heart, he suddenly noticed writing appearing on the rag that had wrapped the stone. At some point, it had become soaked with his sweat.

The writing was faint and blurry. With all the stains covering the rag, it was impossible to make out what it actually said.

Although he could not read it, Zhang Yao still stared hard at the writing, his eyes wide. He had barely paid attention to the rag earlier, but he was certain there had been no writing on it before, only plenty of stains.

Zhang Yao strained his eyes as hard as he could, but the writing was simply too blurry. Worse still, it was growing even fainter.

In the end, before Zhang Yao could figure out what was happening, the writing disappeared.

"Shit! You can't screw with me like this!" After so many emotional highs and lows in a single day, even Zhang Yao, who considered his nerves incredibly tough, could not take it anymore and burst out cursing.

As Zhang Yao cursed, he suddenly noticed writing reappearing where his hand gripped the rag. The newly emerged writing immediately silenced him.

"What's going on?" The writing had suddenly appeared, gradually vanished, then suddenly appeared again. Puzzled, Zhang Yao mulled it over, certain there had to be a connection.

"Could it be..." Something suddenly occurred to Zhang Yao. He spread the rag flat and pressed his sweaty palm against it. Then something miraculous happened: a palm-sized patch of writing appeared exactly where he had pressed.

Zhang Yao was ecstatic at the discovery. After thinking it over, he had realized that the writing had appeared wherever his hands had gripped the rag, so he had boldly put his theory to the test. To his surprise, it actually worked. The instant he pressed his palm against it, he also felt the rag absorb his sweat. That made it even clearer to him that his sweat was what brought out the writing.

"No wonder I didn't see any writing when I first picked up this rag! It needs to be soaked with sweat. You really do reap what you sweat for! That saying couldn't be truer!" Holding the rag, Zhang Yao kept smearing sweat over it. When his hands ran dry, he used the sweat on his forehead; when that ran out, he used the sweat on his body; when that was not enough, he used the sweat on his feet. (-_-||| So much sweat.) Once the rag was drenched in Zhang Yao's sweat and everything on it had become visible, he looked at it and could not help smiling!

Zhang Yao smiled with genuine delight, because he knew his dream now had a chance of coming true!

He had no idea what material the rag was made of. Folded up, it was not very large, and scrunched into a ball, it was only about the size of a billiard ball. Unfolded, however, it was surprisingly large, measuring nearly a square meter.

At the very top of the rag were two large, dark red characters: Nine Netherworlds.

Beneath the large characters for Nine Netherworlds were densely packed rows of tiny writing and several illustrations. Together, the writing and illustrations formed a complete cultivation method!

The discovery of this cultivation method was precisely why Zhang Yao had smiled so happily. Unfortunately, before he could finish reading the opening, the writing began to blur and fade again, eventually disappearing.

"Uh..." Interrupted just as he was becoming absorbed in reading, Zhang Yao felt a surge of irritation. He was about to smear more sweat onto it when he suddenly realized that, after everything he had done and all the time that had passed, his sweat had long since dried up.

"I'm such an idiot! So what if there's no sweat left? Can't I try water?" Only after staring helplessly for quite a while did Zhang Yao smack his own head hard, inwardly cursing himself for being stupid.

After fetching a basin of water from the courtyard, Zhang Yao eagerly put the rag into it. As the water gradually soaked through the rag, the writing reappeared. Soaking in the basin also gradually dissolved the stains into the water.

Zhang Yao fished the rag out and finally saw its true appearance. The whole rag was pale red, with dark brown writing. He did not know whether it was because the rag had been soaked in water, but he kept feeling that its pale red color looked like bloodstains dyed into the fabric. What he found most unsettling was that the background of the rag bearing the Nine Netherworlds cultivation method consisted of countless images of evil ghosts eating people and devouring one another.

"Uh, this doesn't look like any upright, honorable cultivation method. It probably belongs to some demonic sect or other evil path!" After carefully examining the rag bearing the Nine Netherworlds cultivation method, Zhang Yao reached a preliminary conclusion. "Tch, who cares what kind of method it is, as long as practicing it doesn't hurt me! Besides, cultivation methods aren't inherently good or evil. Only the people using them are!"

His pursuit of martial mastery and hunger for strength made Zhang Yao resolve to practice the cultivation method called Nine Netherworlds, whether it was righteous or evil. With the help of the basin of clean water, he read the Nine Netherworlds cultivation method clearly and committed it to memory, word by word.

The complete Nine Netherworlds cultivation method contained nearly ten thousand characters. Zhang Yao put in tremendous effort to memorize every single one, working from noon until evening, then on until the moon hung above the branches. Only then did he finally have the entire method firmly memorized. Even at lunchtime, his grandfather had to call him several times before he went out, hastily shoveled down a few mouthfuls, and returned to memorizing it.

Zhang Yao was so absorbed that he all but forgot to eat or sleep.

"Phew!" Zhang Yao ran through the entire Nine Netherworlds cultivation method in his mind, then checked it against the rag in his hands. Once he confirmed there were no mistakes, he took a lighter out of his trouser pocket and set the rag alight.

Watching the rag burn into a pile of ashes, Zhang Yao smiled faintly, leaned back in his chair, and let out a long breath. He felt that secret manuals and cultivation methods were safest when stored only in his own mind! That way, he would not have to worry about losing them or about someone discovering them and bringing trouble down on him!

From today onward, I'm the only one who knows I obtained the Nine Netherworlds cultivation method.

After cleaning up the ashes, Zhang Yao eagerly climbed onto his bed. Following the method's instructions, he lay flat on his back with his arms and legs spread. Slowly regulating his breathing, he prepared to practice the first level of the Nine Netherworlds cultivation method: qi drawing into the body.

(P.S. Tuifei's new book is here~~~ Brothers, please show your support~~~~ Clicks~ bookmarks~ recommendations-we need them all~~)