Golden Toad Sheds Its Shell

"You have to believe me. He was only made invisible. I didn't make him disappear with my magic!"

When Zhang Xuezhou entered the dream again, he heard Zou Bugui explaining himself in a low, breathless voice.

Judging by his slurred words, Zou Bugui seemed to be even more badly injured and could barely get a sentence out clearly.

"He'd better be. Otherwise, I'll chop off your head and bury it beneath a latrine, so you'll be reincarnated as a shit-eating pig in your next life!"

Zhang Xuezhou heard Zhang Zhong flicking his saber and making threats, and sprang to his feet.

"Daoist, how do you undo the effects of this Invisibility Talisman?"

Zhang Xuezhou knew the incantation to activate the Invisibility Talisman was "heaven is vast, earth is vast, but I'm the greatest," but he didn't know how to cancel its effects.

Of course, even if he had known, Zhang Xuezhou would have struggled to undo the Invisibility Talisman's effects during the brief time he was asleep.

He didn't even know how the fight between the others and Jin Wanliang had ended.

But judging by how Zhang Zhong and the others were doing, Jin Wanliang probably hadn't fared well.

"My little master, when you say you're going to sleep, you really sleep! No one can wake you up. Boohoo... I'm innocent!"

Lying on the ground, Zou Bugui was almost sobbing.

He hadn't died in the Golden Toad Dharma King's mouth, and Jin Wanliang had failed to hunt him down, but Zhang Zhong had nearly beaten Zou Bugui to death.

He even suspected that at any moment he might journey to the Yellow Springs for a reunion with his few short-lived students.

There weren't many great cultivators trampled underfoot by ordinary experts like him, and Zou Bugui almost felt like smashing his head against a wall to end it all.

Moreover, Zhang Zhong was extraordinarily sensitive to good and evil intent and other emotions. Zou Bugui didn't even dare harbor the slightest malicious thought of revenge now, lest Zhang Zhong chop off his head the moment it arose.

"The incantation to undo the talisman is 'the Purple Tenuity Sect is forever number one'!" Zou Bugui said urgently.

In the main hall, Zhang Xuezhou recited the incantation, and his body began to appear where not a trace of it had been visible before.

"Sorry for putting you through that, Daoist!"

In the Daoist temple's main hall, Zhang Zhong released Zou Bugui's right hand.

Looking at his stiff hands, which had turned purple, Zou Bugui shakily reached into his pocket and felt around. Then, with a grim expression, he stuffed an extremely foul-smelling pill into his mouth.

"You still had something in your pocket?" Zhang Xuezhou asked curiously.

He remembered searching Zou Bugui's pocket twice, each time until there was nothing left to take. Yet to his surprise, Zou Bugui had produced something else, as if performing a magic trick.

"A former superior of mine once mentioned a kind of treasure called a storage treasure. It can conceal quite a few things," Zhang Zhong said with a frown. "Unless its owner uses magic, no one else can take anything out of it!"

"There's a treasure like that in the world?" Zhang Xuezhou asked.

He looked at Zou Bugui, whose breath was as thin as a thread, and urged him on several times.

"You can have the storage pouch. I only beg you to give me a way to live!"

Once the pill was in his mouth, Zou Bugui felt the pain from the Golden Toad Poison spreading through his body begin to ease.

But what he had taken was no antidote. It was a poison pill.

If he had any other choice, Zou Bugui would not have chosen this way of suppressing his poison injury.

Fighting poison with poison had to be done just right to neutralize it. If done improperly, it would only add poison to poison.

Zou Bugui felt as though he could already see his bleak future.

But even that bleak future was a luxury beyond his reach.

An ordinary expert had offended a great cultivator. Whether to strike ruthlessly while he held the upper hand completely, or wait and see what happened after the great cultivator recovered, was not a difficult choice for Zhang Zhong.

Zhang Zhong had released Zou Bugui's right hand, but he still held the Wind-Breaking Saber in his grasp.

Zou Bugui felt that if Zhang Zhong made a certain decision, that saber would come down in a flash.

All Zou Bugui could do now was beg for mercy and even think about how he might go on living.

He had defeated the Golden Toad Demon that sought his life, only to face Zhang Zhong, a living King of Hell who also sought his life.

"My body is already half crippled. It's hard enough just to cling to life, and there's almost no chance I'll ever regain my strength. I can't pose any threat to you," Zou Bugui panted softly.

"But you still have friends who are great cultivators. You only have to invite someone to help you, and we'll surely lose our lives," Zhang Zhong said with a frown.

Zhang Xuezhou had mysteriously vanished, and it had been difficult to restore his body to its original state. Zhang Zhong believed Zou Bugui had used some strange Technique on him.

He had little trust in Zou Bugui, and so had subjected him to a whole night of violent interrogation, nearly killing him.

They had once been partners who each needed something from the other, but now Zhang Zhong had thoroughly offended Zou Bugui.

Zou Bugui was gravely ill, but he only had to make the slightest use of his connections for someone to stand up for him.

They were not great cultivators, and it wouldn't be hard for others to kill them. Such a thing would be easy to do.

Even if Zou Bugui were magnanimous, he would at least return the same treatment and torment Zhang Zhong until he wished he were dead.

Zhang Zhong didn't want to meet that end, and he had few choices left.

Zou Bugui had to come up with a way for them to live, or the only path left to him was death.

"I'm caught between the imperial court and the great sacred lands, and I lack the ability to establish myself. Even the Yin Yang Sect's ancestral foundation was taken from me. How could I possibly have any friends?" Zou Bugui said. "Everyone wants to suck a mouthful of blood from me. If they saw me in trouble, I'm afraid asking for their help would only bring fire upon myself."

Zhang Zhong had his own difficulties, but it was no easy matter for Zou Bugui to invite someone to help him, either.

Zhang Zhong, who had never entered a realm, could already torment Zou Bugui until he wished he were dead. If he fell into the hands of other great cultivators, Zou Bugui knew full well his fate would be even worse. The greedy would squeeze everything he owned dry before finally letting him die.

Just like Zhang Zhong, the people he knew might very well be friends helping him one moment, then turn against him the next.

Without the means to speak to them as an equal, he was a piece of fish on the chopping block, at anyone's mercy.

Among the many kinds of relationships, only those between father and son, master and disciple, and the like were reliable and stable. All others were flowers in a mirror, the moon in the water.

Zou Bugui murmured softly, recounting the decline of the Yin Yang Nine Heavens School and the cruelty of the great cultivators' world.

They seemed to stand high above everyone else, but they fought even more viciously.

"Worst of all, the imperial court is growing more and more powerful. It seems to be thinking of sweeping up sects like ours in a single net!"

If conflicts in the jianghu were settled by each person's own abilities, then when faced with suppression by the imperial court, the many sects undoubtedly had little power to fight back. A small sect like the Yin Yang Nine Heavens Sect could be blown over with a puff.

"Why does the imperial court want to sweep you all up in a single net?" Zhang Xuezhou asked with a frown.

"Because we're taking the court's talent, and the very best talent at that!"

Zou Bugui raised his head.

Sects needed talent to grow, and the very best talent at that.

But the imperial court needed those same people.

The major sects scoured the land, taking all manner of geniuses under their wings. Not only could the court make no use of these people, but they were also very likely to become stumbling blocks in its path.

Given that conflict, it was only natural for the court to target the major sects.

"I'm caught up in the jianghu and can't act as I please. I can barely protect myself, so I couldn't possibly target you," Zou Bugui said.

"Not enough. That reason is nowhere near enough," Zhang Zhong said, shaking his head. "What you've said doesn't put my mind at ease, and you still haven't fulfilled your earlier promise to help us enter a realm. I can hardly trust you."

"Forcing your way into a realm isn't a good thing," Zou Bugui said. "You'd only become a Realm Entry cultivator of the lowest standard."

"Still stronger than an ordinary person!"

Zhang Zhong shook his head.

He had been a soldier and had fathered a child late. Zhang Xuezhou was still very young, but Zhang Zhong himself was nearing fifty.

At his age, Zhang Zhong wasn't going to consider how he might develop in the future.

All he wanted was the present.

The stronger he was now, the easier it would be for him to get things done.

Zou Bugui's warning had no effect, but what he said next piqued Zhang Zhong's interest.

"Jin Wanliang used Golden Toad Sheds Its Shell to escape with his life, leaving behind the Golden Toad Treasure Robe. This robe is an excellent demonic treasure. Besides letting Jin Wanliang withstand surprise close-range attacks, it can also serve as the main ingredient in a pill. Once the pill is made, even if you force your way into a realm, your cultivation is certain to proceed smoothly below the Consciousness Creation Realm, with few effects to speak of!"

Zou Bugui had given them an answer that was not entirely satisfactory.

But that answer was better than no tangible reward at all.