Immortal Arts

"You little brat! I haven't turned my nose up at you, yet you're already turning yours up at me!"

Zhou Biao shook his head with a smile, glanced at the sundial, and committed the time Lu Mingyue had mentioned to memory.

Lu Mingyue, meanwhile, returned to the courtyard with some April Green, her grandfather's favorite wine.

She had taken a detour to the winery to buy it when she went out. If she had shown up pushing a corpse, they would never have done business with her.

"Grandpa, I'm home!"

In the courtyard, Old Lu had fallen asleep again. Only when he heard Lu Mingyue's voice did he open his eyes to slits.

"Is it really that Second Master?"

Seeing Lu Mingyue push the handcart over, Old Lu took a look and asked, bracing himself against his chair, his back bent.

"Of course it is. The authorities verified his identity. Besides, the county office has his portrait."

Lu Mingyue answered, pushed the handcart into the room, and began tending to the corpse of the Second Elder of the Twin Blades Gang.

Old Lu followed her in with his hands behind his back and stood to one side, staring blankly at the second elder's corpse.

Something Zhou Biao had said earlier had reminded him of the opportunity for immortality at Master Shen's household several years ago.

At first, Old Lu had merely felt a little wistful. He was nearing death from old age, yet an opportunity for immortality still eluded him.

But now, at the sight of the second elder's corpse, Old Lu's heart would not stop pounding.

The Second Master had clearly grown younger!

How was that possible?

People only grew older with time.

Take him, for instance. Five years ago, he could carry over a hundred corpses back and forth in a day. Now, even a trip to the county office took some effort.

Yet Old Lu was quite certain his eyes had not gone blind.

He could see it perfectly clearly. This Second Master was younger than he had been several years ago!

As someone who had grown up in Yangguan City and was nearing death from old age, Old Lu had known of the second elder even earlier. In his youth, he had certainly considered changing trades.

So he had visited the Twin Blades Gang quite a few times, stealing distant peeks from the entrance at the second elder practicing martial arts.

After several years without seeing him, the second elder, who should have aged, had actually become younger than before. This was not normal. How could a mortal grow against the current of time...

"Mm!"

A flash of inspiration suddenly streaked through Old Lu's mind.

He understood!

It was immortals!

Of course mortals could not grow against the current of time, but immortals could!

Ever since he was little, what he had heard most often was that cultivating immortality could grant eternal life and agelessness!

All these years had passed, and he had never seen an immortal who lived forever without aging.

Even the little girl he had taken in, who seemed to have obtained the Shen household's opportunity for immortality, had not grown younger.

So Old Lu felt that Lu Mingyue probably had not become an immortal yet.

But now, right before his eyes, was a second elder who had grown younger...

"Grandpa, what's wrong?"

Lu Mingyue's concerned voice interrupted Old Lu's thoughts. She had heard his startled sound and thought something had gone wrong with his health.

Lu Mingyue was standing right beside Old Lu now. If something was wrong with him, she would carry him back to his room immediately, then fetch a physician.

"Nothing. I'm just feeling a little wistful. The Second Master actually went before me."

Old Lu spoke with a smile, looked toward the Corpse-Wrapping Cloth Lu Mingyue had unwrapped and set on the table, and slowly walked over.

"Give the Second Master a proper tending. I'll go wash this Corpse-Wrapping Cloth."

"Grandpa, just leave it there for me to wash. You shouldn't be touching cold water."

Lu Mingyue did not suspect anything, because when she had carried the second elder's corpse at the county office, she had already examined it and found no Spirit Mansion within him.

Much less a cultivator's Origin Power.

That was the Spiritual Power one possessed after opening a Spirit Mansion.

In short, Lu Mingyue was actually no longer an ordinary mortal.

So, although she was curious about how the second elder had become a few years younger than he had been several years ago, she did not think he had practiced immortal arts.

"No need to be so fussy. Your grandpa may be old, but I'm not so old that I can't move."

Old Lu rolled his eyes at Lu Mingyue. As he spoke, he even straightened his back and quickened his steps a little.

"All right, then sit down, Grandpa. I'll fetch you a bucket of water!"

Seeing that she could not stop her grandfather, Lu Mingyue hurriedly helped the old man sit on the little stool by the doorway, then fetched a bucket of water from the well and set it down. Only then did she return inside and continue tending to the second elder's corpse.

The second elder had been dead for several days. Before his death, he had endured brutal torture, and his body still bore many whip marks and burns.

A corpse like this was actually fairly simple to handle. She stitched what could be stitched and wiped down what could not.

Lu Mingyue was already twelve. Having tended to corpses alongside her grandfather for seven years, she had ample experience.

So, apart from spending some time carefully examining why the second elder had grown a few years younger, Lu Mingyue worked quickly.

Splash~

Outside the room, Old Lu was carefully washing the Corpse-Wrapping Cloth.

He had only remembered that name after hearing Lu Mingyue mention it casually a few times.

Old Lu thought it fit perfectly. Wasn't this precisely a Corpse-Wrapping Cloth?

At this very moment, however, Old Lu's thoughts were far from calm.

He was almost old enough to die, yet the second elder had clearly practiced immortal arts. How else could he explain a face younger than it had been several years ago?

"It must be immortal arts! An opportunity for immortality... this is my opportunity for immortality!"

Although Old Lu had stopped holding out much hope for an opportunity for immortality over the past few years, he had always remembered that the little girl's opportunity had originally come from this Corpse-Wrapping Cloth.

And through tending to the corpses that came afterward, he could be almost certain that an opportunity for immortality would only appear after this Corpse-Wrapping Cloth had wrapped a cultivator's corpse.

So, after becoming certain that the second elder had practiced immortal arts, Old Lu had taken the initiative to get this Corpse-Wrapping Cloth into his hands.

Splash~ Splash~

He had not washed this Corpse-Wrapping Cloth for several years. Besides knowing that none of those who had died were cultivators, he had also wanted to avoid frightening the granddaughter he had taken in.

This time, however, his movements were very gentle, even gentler than when he had first brought his little granddaughter home.

Before long, seeing that the bloodstains on the Corpse-Wrapping Cloth were almost washed clean, Old Lu lifted it out of the bucket.

Mortal, consumed a Rejuvenation Pill, Five Elements Eternal Spring Art, Wooden Caltrops, Fireball Technique, Water Mirror Shield.

Six lines of blood-red writing, each character the size of an egg, emerged clearly on the dark Corpse-Wrapping Cloth. Old Lu's clouded eyes instantly widened.

At the same time, Old Lu's vision blurred, and fragmented images appeared before his eyes.

From a wailing infant waiting to be fed, to a toddler taking unsteady steps, to a child teasing cats and dogs, then joining the Twin Blades Gang and taking part in one bloody gang clash after another, he had relied on his formidable martial skills to become the Twin Blades Gang's second elder.

In those mere decades of life, he had gained fame, wealth, and descendants. He should have been living freely, just as he pleased.

But an upheaval had suddenly struck.