Each Had Their Own Methods

Whoosh!

The paper doll burned!

Wang Quan's consciousness returned to his yin spirit.

When he learned that someone from the New Method intended to make trouble for Qian Xiuyue, he felt neither panic nor anger. Instead, he was delighted.

I only meant to earn a favor from Qian Xiuyue!

Who knew I could take the opportunity to strike a blow against the New Method, too?

Ever since Zhao Fei had schemed against him outside No. 95 Courtyard and the Blissful Union House had cheated him out of his wages, he had resented the New Method.

Now that he had a chance to clash with the New Method, he was naturally excited.

I now have over a hundred strands of magical power and quite a few spells at my command.

More importantly, I have the [Substitute Death Paper Doll Technique] and over a hundred and twenty uses of Moonlight Escape.

Even if I can't beat them, I can easily escape back here.

With his magical power exceeding a hundred strands, he considered himself stronger than Wu Yong, Qian Xiuyue, and even Zhao Hongyi.

Those people might not have as much magical power as he did, nor were their foundations necessarily stronger.

Thus, he had nothing to fear.

Three days passed in a flash.

Before daybreak on the third day, Wang Quan worshipped the moon and finished his cultivation.

Then he donned the Faceless Mask and a black robe, released paper dolls to carry his sedan chair, and headed straight for Seven Maidens Mountain.

It was Wang Quan's first time traveling outside the Lower Court at this hour, and he was quite curious.

Just past Immortal-Welcoming Mountain, as he entered the mountain range, he saw moonlight streaming down onto numerous peaks.

Cultivators gathered the moonlight with gourds, basins, boxes, and other vessels.

He also saw spirit creatures worshipping the moon.

He saw many people controlling skeletons and zombies to gather moonlight, too.

Their myriad methods were strange and wondrous.

At dawn, Wang Quan reached Seven Maidens Mountain.

The purple qi was about to rise.

He headed straight for the seventh peak.

Upon reaching the summit, he was surprised to see Qian Xiuyue and seven or eight other cultivators.

Wang Quan knew all of these cultivators. They had entered in the same year, and all had cultivated in the Scripture Repository.

They had also left with Qian Xiuyue back then.

After they exchanged a few pleasantries, Qian Xiuyue said delightedly, "I didn't expect you to arrive so early!"

Wang Quan smiled. "Since I'm here to help, I might as well come early!"

Qian Xiuyue nodded. "Once we've gathered the purple qi, we'll get to work."

"Your main task is to guard the rear slope."

"If anyone comes looking for trouble, deal with them if you can. If you can't, send the signal!"

Qian Xiuyue reminded him once more.

Wang Quan committed the signal to memory and said he understood.

Before long, the cultivators sensed that the purple qi was about to descend and began their preparations.

Wang Quan silently recited the [Purple Qi Reaches the Heavens Method], preparing to gather purple qi.

A moment later, however, he noticed something unusual.

Beside him, Qian Xiuyue and the others actually pulled jars out of a bag.

They lit Sandalwood Incense and murmured incantations.

The next instant, heads with tightly shut eyes flew out of the jars.

Beneath those heads was not ordinary human flesh, but dangling sets of lungs.

Some heads had seven or eight sets of lungs attached beneath them, while others had only two or three.

The lungs were all bright red, expanding and contracting as though they were still inside human bodies.

Qian Xiuyue controlled six heads, with thirty-six sets of lungs circling around her.

A short while later, the purple qi emerged.

Wang Quan recited the final line of scripture and gathered the purple qi.

Meanwhile, the heads beside Qian Xiuyue and the others opened their mouths. The lungs beneath them pumped furiously, sucking in the surrounding air with a whining howl, like mountain winds roaring and vengeful ghosts shrieking.

When Wang Quan turned around after gathering three wisps of purple qi, he found Qian Xiuyue and the others extracting threads of purple qi from the lungs.

Wang Quan noticed that each set of lungs yielded thirty or forty threads of purple qi.

Qian Xiuyue alone gathered one wisp and half a thread of purple qi.

Though their efficiency fell short of Wang Quan's, it was still quite respectable.

Qian Xiuyue tapped the jars, and the heads slipped inside with their dangling sets of lungs.

Then she took a bag, aimed it at the jars, and murmured an incantation.

The next instant, the jars slipped into the bag.

"Wang Quan, why didn't you prepare any lungs?"

"With more lungs, you can gather plenty of purple qi."

A thought stirred in Wang Quan's mind. "One set of lungs can only absorb fifty or sixty threads of purple qi. That's too little."

"And how long do these lungs last?"

"How does the cost compare with buying purple qi directly?"

Qian Xiuyue smiled. "It may look like a little, but little by little, it adds up!"

"Depending on the quality, a set of lungs costs anywhere from three or five thousand to ten thousand."

"The better the quality, the longer they last, and the more efficiently they gather!"

"It's cheaper than buying purple qi directly."

"You should prepare at least one set!"

"With these dozens of sets of lungs, I gathered over a wisp of purple qi in one go just now."

"How much did you gather?"

Wang Quan merely smiled without answering.

Qian Xiuyue did not press him. Instead, she told the others, "Come on, let the laborers out and get to work."

A female cultivator pulled out a basket covered with blue-and-white floral cloth.

She lifted the cloth, revealing eggs inside.

The female cultivator grabbed eggs and tossed them onto the ground.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Clouds of black smoke spread.

When the black smoke cleared, burly, muscular men and numerous spirit creatures stood on the ground.

The Egg-Birth Method!

Wang Quan understood. They're actually using the Egg-Birth Method to transport laborers. How interesting.

The Egg-Birth Method could seal away both living beings and inanimate objects.

When living beings were sealed inside, they could slowly receive nourishment from congenital qi, strengthening their foundations.

When inanimate objects were sealed inside, their quality could be improved.

Some cultivators, particularly those skilled in pill refining, liked to refine high-grade eggs to seal medicinal ingredients inside, slightly improving their properties and increasing the chances of successfully refining pills.

Wang Quan had simply never expected Qian Xiuyue and the others to use it specifically to transport people.

"That's a fine method!" Wang Quan marveled again.

Qian Xiuyue smiled. "Of course."

"Members of the New Method keep watching us, looking for trouble, and I'm worried Zhao Hongyi might cause trouble, too."

"So we used this method to sneak the laborers over."

"We transported plenty of materials this way, too."

Meanwhile:

The female cultivator only stopped after throwing out eight hundred to a thousand eggs.

Another cultivator blew out a gust of wind that swept him into the air, then cast a spell from above.

The next instant, black smoke poured out and roamed the mountain like a great serpent, marking out lines, pits, trenches, and more.

The laborers only had to work according to the marked layout.

Another cultivator slapped the leather pouch at his waist, releasing eyeballs.

The eyeballs cast their light in every direction, guarding against enemy ambushes.

Wang Quan led over a hundred ox spirits, bear spirits, pig spirits, and others down toward the foot of the mountain in a mighty procession.

They were to carve out a crude mountain road leading from the foot to the summit.

It was a sizable undertaking, but required no thinking.

The spirit creatures only had to keep excavating rock along the spell's markings.

Once they had finished the rough excavation, specialists would handle the subsequent carving.

Huff! Huff!

The ox spirits thrust arm-thick poles into both sides of the mountain road. The poles linked together, cutting through the rock.

The black bear spirits and pig spirits lowered their heads and began digging.

One used its claws, the other its mouth.

Crack!

Crack!

They tore chunks of rock loose.

The pig spirits were particularly effective. Their powerful mouths made them the fastest at rooting through the rock.

Large quantities of rock tumbled down.

Creatures called Rock Shipworms, along with numerous variant spirit creatures from their lineage, gnawed on the smaller fallen stones.

Spirit creatures such as Hyacinth Macaws and eagles seized the larger rocks and soared into the sky, carrying them to the summit.

There, someone would cut the boulders for use in building the manor.

Wang Quan did no manual labor. He leaped onto a large tree, cast a warning spell, and began studying the Daoist Scriptures.