Zhou Wuji knew a fair amount about the Yin Yang Dao. These people used deities as a front to draw in the common folk at the bottom of society.
The ragged, dust-faced men and women in the thatched shed all wore black-and-white cords around their necks, marking them as believers of the Yin Yang Dao.
Whether they joined willingly or were forced into it, once ordinary people entered the Yin Yang Dao, they could never leave. They could only let it squeeze them dry until they died.
Zhou Wuji understood the villagers' helplessness. The enormous pressure of survival was like drowning; in such circumstances, they would clutch even a single straw with all their strength.
But the Yin Yang Dao was no straw. It was a venomous snake that devoured flesh, blood, and souls...
A look around made that clear. Two corpses still hung nearby, evidently hung upside down until they died. As for the beheaded man, who knew what mistake had gotten him killed?
Fang Dashan, standing before him, might have been at the bottom of the Yin Yang Dao, but he already held the power of life and death over ordinary believers.
Zhou Wuji had no time to listen to Fang Dashan's nonsense. He stepped forward and raised his hand, activating his Heavenly Pivot True Qi.
Transformed through the Heavenly Pivot Hand, the True Qi struck Fang Dashan's chest like an invisible iron hammer, smashing his breastbone deep inward and bursting his heart outright with the force of the palm strike.
Clutching his chest, Fang Dashan staggered two steps and crumpled to the ground. Blood seeped from his seven orifices. He gave two wretched groans, then soon stopped breathing.
Zhou Wuji went over to examine Fang Dashan's corpse, chiefly to assess the actual power of that palm strike.
Judging by the damage, it should have been equivalent to a punch delivering over a thousand jin of force.
But Fang Dashan's martial arts were too poor, and his body was not tough enough.
A seventh-grade martial artist would have refined the strength throughout their body, inside and out, into a unified whole, reaching the level where not even a feather could settle upon them.
When his air-splitting palm struck, such an opponent would only need to contract their muscles and internal organs to easily dissipate sixty or seventy percent of its power. The remaining palm force would pose no threat to a seventh-grade martial artist.
Clearly, he still needed weapons. He should not dream of contending with martial artists using fists and palms.
Zhou Wuji looked toward the Yin Yang Dao believers in the thatched shed. Seeing Fang Dashan dead, they showed no excitement or joy. Instead, they hurriedly knelt and prayed devoutly.
"Yang Father and Yin Mother, your divine grace is boundless. Protect your disciples as they are reborn in the heavenly kingdom, to enjoy endless blessings and longevity..."
Zhou Wuji was speechless at these ignorant believers. An ordinary person's spirituality dissipated the instant they died. What rebirth could there be?
Only those with powerful souls had a chance of rebirth. Only when a soul grew powerful to the utmost and ascended to the heavenly realm was there a chance to escape the constraints of life and death.
Apart from that, all promises of immortality were illusions.
Zhou Wuji knew the believers held an unshakable faith in this. It was also their sole hope of escaping the suffering of reality.
Even if it was a fantasy, at least it gave them something to look forward to...
Zhou Wuji did not try to reason with those believers. Once someone believed such crooked doctrines and heresies, repentance was almost impossible.
Sword in hand, he walked up to the red-haired, long-armed apes and first thrust his blade straight down through the top of the skull, killing the highest-grade monkey king first.
This one was particularly large and easy to identify. Striking from this position also prevented the monkey king from fighting desperately before death.
Who knew what drug the Yin Yang Dao had used? It was extremely potent. The monkey king died without a sound or any reaction.
Reassured, Zhou Wuji dispatched the other four demon monkeys with one thrust each, finishing them all cleanly.
He searched Fang Dashan's corpse and found no documents, only a few silver leaves and some copper coins. Apart from those, there was a bronze token engraved with a nine-petaled lotus, presumably an identification token of the Yin Yang Dao.
Zhou Wuji did not take the money. He was not putting on airs of lofty virtue; those believers would certainly search the corpses. With that money, they could at least live a little better.
Leaving the thatched shed, Zhou Wuji walked several li uphill before choosing a sheltered spot out of the wind and sitting down.
Zhou Wuji ate a Grain Avoidance Pill, feeling quite pleased.
He could only say that demons were stupid. Once their habits had been figured out, two ninth-grade martial artists from the Yin Yang Dao, leading a group of ordinary villagers, had captured all the demon monkeys.
Had it been him, he could only have pinned his hopes on the White Eyebrow Needle and the Seven Star Sword. His Law Techniques would have struggled to subdue such formidable demons.
These creatures could leap across sheer cliffs as though flying. If they fled, he would have nowhere to look for them.
He just did not know what the Yin Yang Dao wanted these monkeys for.
The claim that the Yin Yang Dao had few experts was only relative to the major organizations.
To him, the Yin Yang Dao's methods were sinister and unpredictable. He still could not underestimate them.
While he still had time, Zhou Wuji decided to refine the Five Yin Pouch first.
The Five Yin Pouch was actually based on the Five Ghosts Transport Method. Daoist predecessors had improved and optimized it, changing it to refine privately kept Yin soldiers into a pouch. It could directly envelop enemies like a cover, and could also hold objects.
The Five Yin Pouch probably would not be much use against experts, but it was perfectly suited to dealing with weak demons such as Golden-Ringed Poison Bees.
Another advantage was how convenient it was for carrying things.
An eighth-grade Daoist did not even have a Daoist temple. Without incense offerings to sustain Yin soldiers, refining the Five Yin Pouch was almost impossible.
Even if they succeeded, they would still need to continually invest incense and fire prayer power to maintain the Yin Spirits' condition.
If the Yin Spirits grew too powerful, they would turn on their master.
Thus, Yin Spirits had to be suppressed with a ritual altar. Only when needed would they be released to form the Five Yin Pouch.
With the Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment, Zhou Wuji could skip the ritual altar entirely and store the Yin Spirits in the book.
No matter how powerful the Yin Spirits became, they could not escape the Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment's restraints.
He had chosen the Five Yin Pouch precisely because he knew he could borrow the Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment's power and save himself countless troubles.
Zhou Wuji opened the Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment: three seventh-grade demons and six eighth-grade demons.
In principle, the stronger the Yin Spirits forming the Five Yin Pouch, the better.
But converting several seventh-grade demons into Yin Spirits would be rather wasteful.
His cultivation was limited. A stronger Five Yin Pouch was not necessarily better; it needed to match his cultivation for him to control it with ease.
With this in mind, Zhou Wuji first selected three fate allotments weighing over two liang and invested them directly into the Five Yin Pouch.
Violet light descended. After decades of cultivation, day after day, his Five Yin Pouch reached the proficient realm.
Zhou Wuji felt this was still insufficient. He invested another two fate allotments weighing two liang and five qian each, converting them into origin profound spirit to continue improving the Law Technique.
This time, the Law Technique rose only one level, reaching minor accomplishment.
Yet Zhou Wuji had already fully mastered the Five Yin Pouch Secret Method, reaching a level of utmost refinement and seamless comprehension.
At this point, Zhou Wuji understood every aspect of the Five Yin Pouch's operation and transformations. He also knew what sort of Yin Spirits would be most suitable.
Using the seventh-grade monkey king as the core, Zhou Wuji converted it into a Yin Spirit and applied a Divine Sense Mark to it, then converted four eighth-grade demon monkeys into Yin Spirits.
The five Yin Spirits wove together, forming the Five Yin Pouch.
Having the Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment saved him the trouble of setting up a ritual altar.
Of course, doing this violated many of the Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment's commandments.
Numerous red characters appeared on the Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment, identifying the commandments he had violated.
Fortunately, each commandment was marked with a blanket exemption.
The consequences of violating the commandments were extremely severe. If even one commandment lacked an exemption, he would die on the spot.
Zhou Wuji, however, had already grown accustomed to ignoring these warnings of violated commandments. Silently circulating his Divine Sense, he left layer upon layer of magical restrictions on the monkey king Yin Spirit at the core.
The key to the Five Yin Pouch lay in controlling the core Yin Spirit. The other four Yin Spirits were controlled by the core, saving the user considerable effort.
This Law Technique had so many restrictions that hardly anyone practiced it.
It was also so intricate and subtle that even a lifetime of practice might not bring one to the practiced level.
Having cultivated the Five Yin Pouch to minor accomplishment, Zhou Wuji was already an exceptionally formidable expert in this Law Technique. At the very least, he could be called unrivaled in the lower court.
By daybreak, Zhou Wuji had finished refining the Five Yin Pouch.
Before the sun rose over the mountains, while the five Yin Spirits were still barely usable, Zhou Wuji activated the Five Yin Pouch and enveloped a large rock.
The Five Yin Pouch resembled a sheet of black gauze, hazy and drifting.
The rock it covered measured a full five feet on each side. He estimated it weighed at least three thousand jin.
As he put away the Five Yin Pouch, the large rock vanished into thin air.
A complex black runic mark appeared on his palm. It was the vanished Five Yin Pouch.
Although the Five Yin Pouch had been put away, the five Yin Spirits were woven into a pouch, so it consumed his True Qi at every moment, as well as his mental power-his Divine Sense.
Fortunately, with the Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment as its anchor, he could store the Five Yin Pouch directly inside the book.
He did not need to set up a ritual altar or sustain the Yin Spirits with incense offerings.
The Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment stated it clearly: command ghosts and gods. The Five Yin Pouch counted as one variation of commanding ghosts and gods.
Within the Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment, a separate page held the Five Yin Pouch and listed its various details.
Zhou Wuji sat for a while and felt that the strain of using the Five Yin Pouch was not particularly great. Without intense combat, he could maintain it for five or six double-hours.
The space inside the Five Yin Pouch measured roughly five feet on each side. Spread out, it became a broad sheet, enough to deal with the Golden-Ringed Poison Bees.
He felt a little regretful, too. The flesh and organs of Demon Beasts all had some value. If he had refined the Five Yin Pouch yesterday, he could at least have packed up the tiger demon...