Chapter 108: Where Did the Wooden Token Go?
After the first skin refining, Hua Changxi felt the benefits of the technique. Her skin not only became smoother and more lustrous but also more resilient.
It felt akin to transforming rough parchment into fine Xuan paper.
One could imagine that if skin refining continued, the parchment would eventually become gold foil, and its defensive capabilities would skyrocket.
Cultivators who practiced body refining techniques were called body cultivators, while those who absorbed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth as their cultivation method were called law cultivators.
Hua Changxi compared these two cultivation methods.
Law cultivation required enduring loneliness and boredom, meditating and cultivating all day. Not everyone could sit still, nor could everyone calm their minds.
Body cultivation required enduring pain and hardship. Body refining was not just about toughening the body; it was practically about reshaping it, undergoing a complete overhaul. The hardships involved were beyond the reach of those without great perseverance.
Regardless of the cultivation method, neither was easy.
Hua Changxi looked at the not-yet-clear sword pattern on the number eight wooden token and took out the skin quenching formula and skin refining technique she had previously copied from the stone wall.
She had the medicinal herbs for the formula readily available. She directly brewed twenty portions of skin quenching decoction and then summoned the twenty people who had previously had their spiritual meridians tested and bloodline totems examined.
These twenty people had neither spiritual meridians nor any totem images.
Hua Changxi explained to them what body refining techniques were, what body cultivators were, and the hardships and pain involved in body refining, then let them choose whether or not to undergo skin quenching.
Not a single one of the twenty refused; they all chose to undergo skin quenching.
Then, the sounds of continuous roars echoed from Number Eight Qihuang Hall.
Hua Changxi had set up an isolation array beforehand, so the sounds did not spread outside. She carefully observed the condition of the twenty people and found that their level of skin quenching was less than half that of Eunuch Jia’s nine people.
Hmm.
The body refining technique on the stone wall was cost-effective and accessible, but the effect of body refining could not compare to the 《Nine Revolutions Profound Technique》 body refining technique.
As the twenty people underwent skin quenching, the sword pattern on the number eight wooden token gradually became ‘three-dimensional,’ and sword patterns were also marked on the stone pillars outside Number Eight Qihuang Hall.
When the twenty people finished their skin quenching, Hua Changxi went directly to the Old Plaza Courtyard and retrieved the last wooden token.
There were eighteen Qihuang Halls, corresponding to eighteen wooden tokens. Hua Changxi had only obtained ten wooden tokens, meaning eight wooden tokens were in other people’s hands.
“Senior Gu, who has the other eight wooden tokens?”
Gu Xing looked at Hua Changxi blankly: “What, you want to get your hands on the other eight wooden tokens too?”
Hua Changxi looked at him: “Can’t I?”
Seeing that she genuinely had this idea, Gu Xing took a deep breath: “As far as I know, one person can only get one wooden token.” He paused.
“Your wooden token is the key to the Qihuang Hall. Have you been able to open the nine Qihuang Halls in the Labor Department?”
Hua Changxi: “Didn’t you say before that you didn’t know anything? How do you know the wooden token is the key to the Qihuang Hall?”
Gu Xing’s expression remained unchanged: “I am just a gatekeeper, and I truly know nothing. But if you open a Qihuang Hall, I can certainly sense it.”
Hua Changxi pouted, clearly not believing him.
Gu Xing didn’t mind her reaction and looked at her seriously: “The Qihuang Hall is a place for teaching medicine. Since you can open it, I hope you won’t let it remain dusty.”
Hua Changxi looked back at him: “I am the one opening the hall, I am the one lecturing, and I will bear the consequences that follow. Therefore, senior, your hope is just your hope. How I act should be my own decision.”
Gu Xing was momentarily speechless: “I’m not trying to tell you how to do things. It’s just that since you’ve taken ten wooden tokens, you must bear the responsibility of passing on medical knowledge and lecturing.”
Hua Changxi: “I never said I wouldn’t bear it. I just have my own pace.”
Gu Xing looked at her and suddenly realized that this girl in front of him was the youngest among those who had obtained wooden tokens, yet she was the most opinionated and not easily swayed by others.
Even the Heavenly Department Minister, Wei Zhenjie, would ponder his words repeatedly. Unlike this girl, who paid no mind at all.
Is this good or bad?
Hua Changxi left with the wooden token. As she stepped out of the Old Plaza Courtyard, she paused and looked in the direction of the Apprentice Hall.
Although she had marked all nine Qihuang Halls in the Labor Department, she had only wanted to quickly claim territory before and hadn’t fully unlocked everything within the Qihuang Halls.
She wasn’t in a hurry about the Qihuang Halls in the Apprentice Hall. She would explore them after she had thoroughly learned everything in Qihuang Halls Number One to Nine.
Less than fifteen minutes after Hua Changxi left, someone else arrived at the Old Plaza Courtyard.
As Gu Qiming entered the courtyard, he saw Gu Xing looking troubled. This sight surprised him greatly. In the past, when he visited, Gu Xing was either sleeping or spacing out; he had never looked like this.
“Senior Gu, you seem to have something on your mind?”
Gu Xing glanced at Gu Qiming, seemingly knowing why he was there, and directly said, “You’re late.”
Gu Qiming was confused. Just as he was about to ask what he meant, he saw that all the wooden tokens on the wall were gone, and his eyes widened: “Senior Gu, where are the wooden tokens? Why are they missing?”
Gu Xing looked at his reaction and closed his eyes with a sense of weariness: “You all continue your struggles. When you’re done, you’ll find that the world has already changed.”
Gu Qiming, ignoring Gu Xing’s unwillingness to engage, stepped forward: “Senior Gu, who took the wooden tokens?”
Gu Xing closed his eyes: “Aren’t you the self-proclaimed helmsman of the Medical Affairs Department? You shouldn’t be asking me about such matters.”
Gu Qiming knew Gu Xing’s personality and understood that if he said this, he truly wouldn’t tell him anything. He could only leave dejectedly.
Upon returning to the Medical Affairs Department Building, Gu Qiming immediately issued an order to his subordinates: find everyone who had visited the Old Plaza Courtyard in the past two months, without exception.
He never imagined that while he was busy dealing with matters on First Street and negotiating with various factions for the past two months, all nine wooden tokens in the Old Plaza Courtyard would be taken.
Wooden tokens weren’t something anyone could just take!
It was decades ago when the Minister took the first wooden token. Over the subsequent decades, only nine had been taken one after another.
He never expected that the remaining nine would disappear within two months.
Gu Qiming thought about the many events that had occurred in the past two years, his expression growing solemn as he muttered to himself, “Is the world truly about to change?”
At the same time, Gu Jin Fan, who had just returned from Kunlun Mountain, was also in a state of extreme shock, just like Gu Qiming.
Before even entering the Medical Affairs Department, Gu Jin Fan noticed the faint green light enveloping First Street. He immediately shot into the Medical Affairs Department and then stood at the intersection of First Street and Pilgrimage Road, staring dumbfounded at the two lanterns burning with green pill fire on either side of the road, his face filled with disbelief.
“How could this be?”
In her previous life, the first pill fire lantern of Dan Sheng Hall was lit two years later, after the Meng Family entered the capital. How could it be lit so much earlier in this life?
Did the Meng Family enter the capital early?
Gu Jin Fan’s heart was unsettled. He quickly walked towards Number One Hall on Second Street, wanting to immediately find someone to ask what had happened.
This was the second time since her rebirth that she strongly felt the progress of the Spiritual Energy Revival in the Four Spirit Realm was deviating from the trajectory of her previous life.
The first time was the battle at Five Finger Mountain.
In her previous life, Five Finger Mountain was obtained by the Jiang Family of Jizhou. This time, however, a Fire Lotus Fairy emerged, seized Five Finger Mountain, and brought the Spiritual Energy Revival into the open prematurely.
The premature announcement of the Spiritual Energy Revival allowed ordinary people, who were kept in the dark, to learn about it, leading many to embark on the path of cultivation earlier.
The change in ownership of Five Finger Mountain also altered the power dynamics between various factions to a certain extent.
In her previous life, the Jiang Family became a top cultivation noble family thanks to Five Finger Mountain, attracting a large number of cultivator followers. The Jiang Family Old Ancestor, an outer realm cultivator, participated in the subsequent struggle for the ruler of the Four Continents due to the Jiang Family’s power.
Now that the foundation for the Jiang Family’s rise was gone, a series of subsequent events would change.
The second time was now.
Dan Sheng Hall was one of the four formation eyes suppressing the Demon Prison. The premature lighting of the pill fire on First Street was no small matter; this change would affect the overall future direction of the Four Spirit Realm.
On the first day of her rebirth, she knew that her rebirth would cause some changes. However, she hadn’t expected that within just a few months, two major events that could alter the course of her previous life would occur.
Gu Jin Fan felt the dense spiritual energy within the Medical Affairs Department, experiencing a strong sense of losing control and feeling very anxious. If the direction of the Four Spirit Realm became completely different from her previous life, what would be the meaning of her rebirth?
“Senior Brother Zeng.”
“Junior Sister Gu, you’re back.”
As soon as Gu Jin Fan returned to Number One Apothecary Shop on Second Street, she quickly found Zeng Hong, who was working for her, took him to her alchemy room, and impatiently began to question him.
“Senior Brother Zeng, who lit the two lanterns on First Street? When were they lit?”
Zeng Hong: “On the evening of March 29th, someone broke into the Medical Affairs Department, and the lanterns were lit at that time. The stationed cultivators were all dispatched, but unfortunately, they couldn’t catch the intruder.”
Gu Jin Fan frowned: “The person who lit the pill fire was an outsider intruder? Is this information confirmed?”
Zeng Hong shook his head: “That’s the explanation given by the Department Head. Junior Sister Gu, many things have happened while you were away.”
“In February, ten Body Transformation Pills were stolen from Second Street. The higher-ups sent the Imperial Guards to investigate, and it was discovered that the thief was a disciple of the Asura Gate hidden in the Labor Department.”
“Then, after the lanterns on First Street were lit, various factions desperately began fighting over the apothecary shops on First Street.”
Gu Jin Fan was not interested in these power struggles and interrupted him: “I asked you to keep an eye on the Old Plaza Courtyard. Did anything happen there?”
Zeng Hong: “The Heavenly Department Minister visited the Old Courtyard once but left quickly. Oh, and the courtyard gate of the Old Courtyard has been completely open for the past two months.”
Upon hearing this, Gu Jin Fan’s expression changed: “What did you say? The courtyard gate of the Old Plaza Courtyard is completely open?”
Seeing her strong reaction, Zeng Hong quickly explained the situation in detail: “It was on the day the lanterns on First Street were lit. Eunuch Zhou from the First Department of the Labor Department tried to drive Gu Xing out of the Old Courtyard. Gu Xing refused, causing quite a commotion.”
“Later, a female laborer from the Labor Department stepped in to stop Eunuch Zhou. As this female laborer helped Gu Xing into the courtyard, she pushed the courtyard gate open.”
“After that, the courtyard gate has not been closed, day or night.”
“I heard that the female laborer is a cultivator. When the Imperial Guards went to the Labor Department to search for the stolen pills, she confronted them directly.”
Gu Jin Fan’s eyes widened in shock. The incident of Zhou Bing forcing Gu Xing had also happened prematurely!
“How is Senior Gu now?”
Zeng Hong paused: “He should be alright.”
Gu Jin Fan was very dissatisfied with this answer: “What do you mean ‘should be’? Didn’t you go to check?” Saying this, she left the room and hurried towards the Old Plaza Courtyard.
In her previous life, Gu Xing passed away three days after Zhou Bing forced him to leave the Old Courtyard.
As the gatekeepers of Dan Sheng Hall, the Gu family’s inheritance was not broken. The spiritual energy in the Four Spirit Realm had begun to revive long ago, so the Gu family must have known about it.
Logically, Gu Xing, as the sole heir of the Gu family, should have been a cultivator, and his body shouldn’t have been so dilapidated. She only later learned that Gu Xing had tied his entire fortune and longevity to Dan Sheng Hall.
As spiritual energy revived, the seal on the Demon Prison was also loosening.
As one of the four formation eyes suppressing the Demon Prison, Dan Sheng Hall was bound to be impacted.
It could be said that Gu Xing single-handedly withstood these impacts, which is why his body deteriorated so severely, and he died after being beaten by a few mortals under Zhou Bing’s command.
When she learned of this in her previous life, she sighed for a long time.
Gu Xing absolutely could not die so early. She still needed him to tell her how to use the wooden tokens and how to become the Lord of Dan Sheng Hall.
Soon, they arrived at the Old Plaza Courtyard.
As soon as Gu Jin Fan entered the courtyard, she noticed the empty stone wall. The last time she was here, twelve wooden tokens were hanging on the wall. In just a few months since she left, all the wooden tokens were gone!
“Senior Gu, where are the wooden tokens? Where did they go?”
Gu Xing opened his eyes and glanced at Gu Jin Fan, saying indifferently: “The wooden tokens are obtained by those who are fated. You could take a wooden token back then, and naturally, others can too.”
Gu Jin Fan still found it hard to believe: “How could this be?”
In her previous life, when Dan Sheng Hall was controlled by the Jiang Family, not all the wooden tokens on the wall had been taken down. How could they all be gone in this life?
Gu Jin Fan looked at Gu Xing and said urgently: “Senior Gu, who took the wooden tokens?”
Gu Xing glanced at Gu Jin Fan and closed his eyes.
Gu Jin Fan saw that he didn’t want to talk to her anymore, but she continued: “Senior Gu, please believe me, I have no ill intentions. Everything I am doing now is for the good of Dan Sheng Hall. You wouldn’t want to see Dan Sheng Hall taken over by outer realm cultivators, would you?”
Upon hearing this, Gu Xing’s eyes snapped open, his expression stern: “Dan Sheng Hall belongs to the Four Spirit Realm, how can outer realm cultivators covet it!”
He narrowed his eyes.
“How do you know about outer realm cultivators? Who told you?”
Gu Xing found Gu Jin Fan somewhat unfathomable. The first time she appeared before him, he felt something strange about her, but he couldn’t pinpoint what it was.
Gu Jin Fan certainly couldn’t reveal that she had been reborn. She organized her thoughts: “When I was young, I read about the founding of Great Jin in the Imperial Palace’s library. The founding emperor obtained a divine lamp that descended from the sky, and thus established the dynasty and capital.”
“Five hundred years later, someone saw a large hole appear in the sky, and immortals descended from it like shooting stars.”
“At first, I thought these were fabrications. It wasn’t until I became a cultivator and obtained a travelogue from a cultivator of the Asura Gate that I learned the divine lamp was an item from the outside world, and the sect leader of the Asura Gate was also an outer realm cultivator.”
“Great Jin has been established for nearly a thousand years, meaning that a thousand years ago, the dimensional barrier of the Four Spirit Realm began to loosen. Outer realm cultivators forcibly broke through then. Now, with the Spiritual Energy Revival, it’s obvious that the dimensional barrier will become increasingly loose, and more outer realm cultivators will invade.”
“As one of the Five Great Sacred Lands of the Central Continent, how could Dan Sheng Hall not attract the attention of outer realm cultivators?”
