Searching for Spoils

Shi Xuan packed away the incense candles, small banners, cloth, token, and the banner cloth, pole, and fragments of the Black Banner, planning to rest and recover his strength before exploring the Two-Headed Tiger's cave. Once the search was finished, he would see whether he could find a way and the materials to repair the Dharma Artifact.

After putting everything away, Shi Xuan noticed that the dark clouds blanketing the sky and plunging the entire manor into darkness had vanished. The moon hung round as a wheel, casting down its cold radiance. After the great battle, the courtyard seemed dreamlike and unreal; the life-and-death peril from before felt almost like an illusion.

Bathed in the bright moonlight, Shi Xuan recalled those dark clouds. They had indeed appeared strangely. Thinking it over now, they had most likely been created by some kind of formation, though it had not possessed any offensive power.

Coming back to himself, he saw that the two men had climbed out of the pit, one of them carrying several lumps of meat. Seeing Shi Xuan look over, Ding Mingde said with some regret, "Celestial Master, who would have thought that although this monster looked so large, after cutting away the completely charred parts, so little would remain?"

Shi Xuan smiled and nodded. With lightning of such power, the fact that there were still chunks of flesh that had not been completely carbonized was proof enough that the Two-Headed Tiger had been formidable. To begin with, Shi Xuan had never expected any tiger meat to remain. He had only hoped to recover a few bones. Tiger bone soup and tiger bone wine were both good things—especially from a tiger demon that had lived who knew how many years. The effects would probably be even better.

"Celestial Master, I did not find many chunks of meat, but tiger bones are good things, so I picked up quite a few that were not completely ruined." Yan Jujian and Shi Xuan had unexpectedly seen eye to eye; heroes recognized heroes.

"Not bad, not bad. The tiger meat is still a little charred, so we'll roast it and eat it tomorrow. Half the tiger bones can be made into soup, and the other half can be taken home by you two to soak in wine. It will strengthen the body and work wonders on rheumatism and similar aches. Hmm, right—tomorrow, catch a few animals and test it first. This tiger became a demon, so the meat might be poisonous." Shi Xuan displayed his true nature as a foodie with remarkable impartiality.

Yan Jujian went into the room and tore down half a gauze bed curtain. The three men placed the meat and bones inside one by one. When Ding Mingde was the last to add his share, he asked the other two, "Celestial Master, this piece of meat looks quite good and isn't very charred, but... what part is it from?" He displayed the remaining lump in his hand.

"Ha, that's a good thing. Only half of it is left, but haven't you heard of tiger penis?" The moment Shi Xuan saw that half of a thing, he could not help laughing, while Yan Jujian gave a couple of sly chuckles as well.

Ding Mingde had made a small fool of himself. He hastily wrapped up the gauze curtain, carried the pile of tiger meat, tiger bones, and tiger penis into the room, and put them away. None of the three considered that it was high summer and the meat would very likely spoil by the next day. They presumably all assumed that meat from such a fierce tiger demon would take at least several days to go bad.

Once they had finished tidying up, Shi Xuan and the other two piled the corpses of the ghost creatures outside and inside the house, along with the tiger demon's charred remains, in the middle of the courtyard. Shi Xuan ignited them with a Fire Summoning Art talisman and cremated them. Since he intended to wait until dawn, after recovering his strength, before searching the manor, he did not want to smell the stench of decay all night.

"Although the tiger demon has been put down, there may still be some lesser ghost creatures wandering around. You two should sleep in this humble taoist's room tonight. If anything happens, I can look after you both." After handling the aftermath, Shi Xuan called the two men into his room.

Yan Jujian understood that Shi Xuan was right. Before entering the manor, he had been an unruly, arrogant martial arts master, but now he obeyed Shi Xuan's every word. "Celestial Master, your words are most true. Then I'll fetch the bedding. Making do on the floor will be enough."

"The same for me, the same for me." Ding Mingde already considered himself fortunate to have the Celestial Master's protection. He did not dare hope for a bed.

"All right. We have gone through hardship together, so stop calling me Celestial Master. Brother Zi'ang, Brother Shi, daoist priest—any of those will do. And later, Brother Mingde, you should sleep on the bed. Brother Yan and this humble taoist still need to sit in meditation and circulate our energy, so we will not need it." Shi Xuan looked toward Yan Jujian.

"Yes. Tomorrow we still need to thoroughly search the manor. Brother Shi and I need to meditate and circulate our energy to properly recover our strength. After all, there may still be unknown dangers in this manor." Yan Jujian was somewhat curious. Did this Celestial Master also need to meditate and circulate energy like a martial artist? Was cultivating the Dao always like this?

After declining several times, Ding Mingde saw that the other two were adamant and could only go to bed to rest. Shi Xuan had Yan Jujian meditate on the chair farther inside, while he moved a chair to sit beside the bed.

After sorting through his talismans and making emergency preparations, Shi Xuan finally sat cross-legged with his five centers facing heaven. They were still within the manor, so he could not afford carelessness. Shi Xuan had no wish to capsize in a gutter at the very end.

After circulating his energy through several Minor Heavenly Cycles, Shi Xuan slowly gathered in his mind and entered a state of visualization. He had expected to be exhausted after the battle and thought entering visualization would be slow, but unexpectedly, he entered it more easily than before. Even when using the secret method to bind his thoughts, it was easier than usual.

As Shi Xuan visualized the clear wind and bright moon, his Soul Realm, which had been at a slight bottleneck, began to improve again. When the visualization ended, he felt refreshed and invigorated, as though he had soaked in a hot spring after exhausting himself.

Shi Xuan guessed that, at the final moment between life and death, he had suppressed his fear and cast his spells with composure. This had allowed his control over his soul to advance a step further, bringing an improvement in his Soul Realm. That was why the visualization had brought him so many pleasant surprises.

The Treasure Record stated clearly at the very beginning that the core of this cultivation method was control—or, it could also be called mastery. Mastery over one's physical body, mastery over one's Internal Energy, mastery over one's soul, mastery over one's mind. Only by understanding oneself and mastering oneself could one speak of how to cultivate the Dao.

However, Shi Xuan did not yet fully understand this talk of control and mastery. This was mainly because his realm was still too low, so he had yet to encounter many problems. It was also because he had no one to guide him and no one with whom to exchange ideas. This only strengthened Shi Xuan's determination to seek out the Daoist Sect.

Though Shi Xuan worried that ghost creatures which had slipped through the net might attack during the night, the entire night remained tranquil. There was not even the chirping of insects or birds. Thus, without a word being spoken through the night, dawn arrived.

Shi Xuan had recovered his strength through visualization. Seeing the rising sun outside, the gentle sunlight, and smelling the fresh air, he could not help stretching lazily. Life was truly so wonderful; it had to be cherished.

Shi Xuan's movements woke Yan Jujian. He had meditated and circulated his energy until midnight, but could no longer withstand the exhaustion in body and mind. He had found several stools and pieced them together into a simple bed before sleeping. "Brother Shi, you rose very early. You seem to have recovered your energy quite well too."

"Perhaps Daoist methods of circulating energy are better at nurturing and recuperation. Let's wake Brother Mingde and look around together. We can return around noon and prepare the tiger meat." Now that Shi Xuan had recovered his strength, he was filled with curiosity about what might be in the Two-Headed Tiger's lair. It would be best if he could find information concerning the Black Banner Dharma Artifact.

"I came here this time to find an Old Friend. Looking at things now, I fear his chances are grim." Yan Jujian looked sorrowful. "I only hope we can find his remains later, so that I may someday build him a memorial tomb with clothes and a cap."

"All right. At least we have avenged him. There is no use saying more now. Let us prepare to set out." Shi Xuan could only say this.

After waking Ding Mingde, they found that he did not dare remain alone in the courtyard, so he naturally agreed wholeheartedly to follow Shi Xuan in inspecting the manor. Then Shi Xuan led the two of them toward the direction from which they had seen the Two-Headed Tiger come the previous night.

The houses in the manor were all steeped in a stale, rotten smell. Aside from a small number of rooms containing bedding and other daily necessities, the remaining rooms were clearly unused for many years and contained nothing valuable.

The farther back they went, the stronger the bloody stench in the air became. It was very similar to the smell on the Two-Headed Tiger last night, so they had not gone the wrong way. Following the source of the stench, Shi Xuan adjusted their direction slightly. After passing through one courtyard house, the view suddenly opened up. Before the three of them lay an untended stretch of land, sparsely planted with trees. All around it were white bones, skulls, and mutilated corpses; some bodies even appeared to have died only a few days ago.

Yan Jujian signaled to Shi Xuan that he wanted to search the corpses and bones for his friend. Shi Xuan naturally had no objection, but when he saw the pitch-black cave beneath the mountain wall at the far end of the clearing, he could not restrain himself either. Along the way, his Heavenly Eye had not seen a single ghost creature, so he nodded. "Brother Yan, inspect these remains carefully. This humble Taoist just checked with my Heavenly Eye; these are not ghost creatures, so there will be no danger. I will first investigate that cave. If Brother Yan encounters danger, you can retreat toward the cave."

"I understand. Judging from the ghost creatures last night, unless it is that final tiger-headed monster, covering the distance to the cave will not be a problem for me." Yan Jujian was still quite confident in his Lightness Skill. Though he was not among Jianghu's foremost masters of Lightness Skill, compared with ghost creatures that moved like ordinary people or sluggishly, he was far superior.

Seeing that Yan Jujian had no objections, Shi Xuan prepared to head for the cave. Ding Mingde saw the cave's black opening and recalled the terrifying tiger-headed monster from the previous night, so he voluntarily stayed behind to help Yan Jujian search for bodies.

Following a faint path, Shi Xuan reached the cave entrance. Even standing there, he could smell the cave's stench: blood, rot, and even the musky odor commonly found on wild beasts. Shi Xuan had no choice but to endure the bizarre mixture of smells and enter the cave.

The cave was not dark inside. Torches had been lit along the way, and there were no branching paths. Aside from accidentally kicking a few white bones, Shi Xuan reached the deepest part of the cave without incident. It was a circular space containing only a very flat stone that looked like a crude table.

Three booklets lay scattered messily atop the table, along with a large bowl containing some remaining black liquid that looked like medicinal soup. Aside from the table, a pile of things had been covered with straw in one corner. Through gaps in the straw, Shi Xuan saw herbs—the same ones planted outside the manor. The entire scene showed that the Two-Headed Tiger had left in great haste the previous night, without even putting away its books.