Chapter 186: Chen Shun’an Has Become A Spirit
In no time, the hot pot was set up.
Charcoal burned red-hot under the stove, and clear broth bubbled in the pot.
Outside the Window, snow fell heavily, with snowflakes like goose feathers rustling down, wrapping all visible withered branches into white jade strips.
Matching the snowy scene Outside the Window, Zhao Guangxi ate heartily, truly a delight that even immortals wouldn’t trade.
They ate everything clean, paid the bill, and left.
Not long after Zhao Guangxi left, the curtain of Huixianju was lifted again.
Lu Jing walked in.
Dressed in tight-fitting clothes, he seemed to have just washed up and changed into clean attire.
“Master Lu, you’re here?”
“The usual, three jin of Purple Crab Silver Fish!” Lu Jing said bluntly, heading straight to the Second Floor.
“Ah? Sir, only one jin left! If you’d come earlier, maybe two jin… but it was taken by Master Zhao who just came, uh…”
The waiter’s voice cut off abruptly, clearly aware of the grudge between Zhao Guangxi and Lu Jing, afraid a single word might bring trouble.
He couldn’t help but grumble inwardly a couple of times.
You two masters must have planned this, right?
Both wanting three jin, and both showing up today.
“Just one jin?”
Lu Jing seemed to understand something, his expression unchanged, and said,
“Then bring it anyway!”
“Yes, Master Lu, please sit first!”
Lu Jing sat at the window seat on the Second Floor, with a pot of freshly brewed jasmine in front of him.
Wisps of white steam rose, filling the air with tea fragrance.
He looked Outside the Window.
On the Long Street, pedestrians hurried along, all hunching their necks and covering their faces.
At the end of the Long Street, a rich family patriarch’s figure appeared, playing with a pair of iron balls, strolling leisurely and calling friends to join him.
Zhao Guangxi seemed to sense something, pausing casually, glancing over with the corner of his eye.
Their gazes collided directly.
They smiled at each other.
Everything was understood without words.
……
It was this day.
The news that Zhao Guanghui, who refined corpses into spirits, was slain on the hillside of the earthen altar by a joint effort from Water Station, Wuguan Camp, Martial Arts Hall, and Wuqing Government Offices.
Exploded like a bombshell across the entire Wuqing County.
Countless people spread the word, and streets and alleys buzzed with discussion.
Many victims emerged, weeping about how Zhao Guanghui had dug up their ancestral graves, leaving bones missing, dishonoring their ancestors; cries rose and fell everywhere.
Merchants from Guanghui Money House, holding money notes and pawn tickets, came to withdraw cash, only to find the doors tightly shut and sealed, naturally leading to more wailing.
Not to mention, with Zhao Guanghui dead, his Water Carriers and the livelihoods at various water wells all ground to a halt.
Countless people went bankrupt, unemployed, and homeless on the streets; some turned to desperate crimes, robbing houses.
For someone of Zhao Guanghui’s status, once dead, the impact was far-reaching and the harm widespread.
Fortunately, Zhao Guangxi soon stepped forward, announcing he would take over Guanghui Money House, reopen it after clearing the accounts, with money notes and pawn tickets still valid.
After feasting their fill, Wuqing Government Offices, to pacify the people, inspected and verified real victims, providing solatium and comfort, and renovated the Mass Grave, building monuments and mounds, gathering nameless bones.
Zhao Guangxi, Liu Qingyi, and the other two acted with tacit understanding, keeping silent about the stolen immortal fate that someone had snatched first.
As if the matter had never happened.
Mainly because it was embarrassing.
Secondly…
How to retaliate or investigate?
The person could pass silently through Yin Sha Qi, thoroughly slay Zhao Guanghui, and take the immortal fate.
Sneaking into one’s bedside late at night to take one’s head would be no trouble.
Better to turn a blind eye and let the matter drop.
But this was not the end.
Zhao Guanghui’s death pulled out the radish and brought out the mud, implicating a large group who had funneled interests to him and benefited from Ding Jia Warriors: gentry and elders, powerful merchants, even Bai Shan Ren like Su Kehachi.
An unprecedented upheaval sweeping through Wuqing County’s upper and middle classes had just begun.
Some rejoiced, some worried, some fled overnight only to be ambushed in the wilderness.
All this had little to do with Chen Shun’an anymore.
Having stolen the show this time, Chen Shun’an decided to lay low, honestly cultivating and selling water.
Waiting to save enough incense for tampering with 【Undying Molting Insect Solution】, until Grass Talisman Perfection.
Silently digesting his gains.
【Wish+268】
【Grass Talisman（80/100）】
【Wish: 163—>431】
Zhao Guangxi, Liu Qingyi, and the other two had provided Chen Shun’an with over two hundred points of Wish.
Just five points of incense away, in the next day or two.
In addition,
Chen Shun’an was somewhat curious.
With Zhao Guanghui dead, the position was vacant.
So who would take over as the Landlord?
Though Chen Shun’an coveted Zhao Guanghui’s Landlord position, he knew that with such a heretic emerging from Wuqing County’s Water Station, the Water Merchant General Association had lost face.
They would naturally be extremely cautious in choosing the new Landlord.
Simply buying an official post with money or bribing officials wouldn’t work anymore.
It had to be nearly perfect in every way, giving all factions a satisfactory account.
Chen Shun’an’s foundation in this regard was still shallow.
So, just one day later, the appointee for Landlord was hotly announced, parachuted in.
This person had a prior acquaintance with Chen Shun’an.
It was the military officer from Five Rivers Water Affairs Office who delivered the Azure Dragon Gall when exchanging at Wuqing Stick Bureau that day.
Chang Liushui.
In his early thirties, he was extremely low-key; his father was a Minister of Agriculture at Five Rivers Water Affairs Office, and from youth he dealt in river management, fish seedling cultivation, aquatic plant planting techniques.
He had no ties to Wuqing County’s major factions.
So everyone readily agreed.
“Sigh, this is the power of connections and backing; having a good father is more important than anything…”
Only someone was a bit envious, muttering sourly to himself from time to time.
In the following days, Wuqing County saw more major events one after another.
For instance, the Capital City famous speaker Yu Xiaoquan had arrived in Wuqing County, staying at Chivalrous Book Teahouse.
Though storytelling hadn’t started, amateur performers, busybodies, and Martial World folks flocked there, trampling the threshold and burning through thousands of jin of charcoal for tea, just to catch a glimpse of Yu Xiaoquan.
Inns and restaurants near Chivalrous Book Teahouse were fully booked, and even seats for future storytelling sessions skyrocketed in price, multiplying several times over.
The Sacred Dynasty indulged in pleasures: hawk flying and horse riding, fighting quails and dogs, consorting with courtesans and storytelling, Capital-style, Bangzi, Yue opera…
Anyone topping these was supremely prestigious!
Besides, Wuqing Stick Bureau added a new task: widely seeking experts in birds and beasts fish language, with generous rewards, including treasures like Purple Iron Cattail Milk to aid slaying Mind Thief as the top prize!
Instantly, it caused a stir in Wuqing’s Martial World, especially among True Intent Masters.
Many speculated that Lu Jing reached his current realm by first slaying Mind Thief thanks to gaining heavenly fortune in Master Tie Yu’s grave.
Purple Iron Cattail Milk was one such.
Suddenly, countless people crowded to the Three Forked Road, chattering “chirp chirp” in bird language all day, teasing hounds.
Chen Shun’an had long learned of this news from Silver Scholar.
The intelligence he got was far more detailed than the task announcement.
“Grand Canal Porpoise? Not fully extinct yet, a remnant branch survives… tsk tsk, Scholar Ma translates Qianning Country language, and Chen Mou is going to Translate Monster Language too?”
For that Purple Iron Cattail Milk, Chen Shun’an was determined to get it.
After all, treasures in Wuqing Stick Bureau’s Treasury that aid slaying Mind Thief were few and weak in effect.
Chen Shun’an naturally had to compete!
But haste makes waste.
At the Public Office at Three Forked Road, a bunch of so-called oddballs had gathered, putting on ghostly acts, creating a chaotic mess.
Chen Shun’an had no time to fool around with them.
He planned to wait until they tired themselves out, then settle it decisively.
In the night, white snow flew, moonlight like flowing silk.
Chen Shun’an hugged his stance like a hen brooding eggs, like a cat hunting mice, oblivious to cold, wearing only short sleeves and shorts, standing in an abandoned Rice Barn.
Qi and Blood surged around him like the Great River, intent sinking into the Sea of Consciousness at his brow.
Visualizing the Six Sceneries Rotation Diagram, body, ears, nose, eyes, tongue—the five thieves repeatedly slain, tempering intent.
Especially since Chen Shun’an had already opened the Mud Pill, his Divine Essence and intent far surpassed same-realm martial artists.
Now with his cultivation, visible moonlight fell on him like rustling snowflakes.
Dantian burned hot, Mud Pill glowed.
Thus, Chen Shun’an felt a cool, comfortable sensation flowing through his body.
He gradually fell into a selfless realm, seemingly touching the Passage to slaying Mind Thief.
While Chen Shun’an tempered his intent, hammering away dregs.
His skin gradually turned purple-red with cloud patterns, like wood texture.
Beneath the skin, something wriggled quietly, occasionally bulging the membrane, traveling through bloodline and Bones.
“Pfft…”
A faint, almost inaudible sound.
Finally, slender, hair-thin, flesh-colored tendrils tore through the skin, probing out.
Like roots of some ganoderma or ginseng, some instinctively burrowing toward the earth, others seeming to breathe in moonlight.
Moonlight and starlight from the high sky were drawn by an invisible force, turning into visible pale halos, threading down into these tendrils.
In a daze, Chen Shun’an seemed to truly become a humanoid Flesh Ganoderma come to life.
Inhaling and exhaling moonlight.
Yin Dregs exhausted, Root of Life snaps.
Nascent Spirit formed, soul and spirit empty.
From life to death, from death to life.
The more Six Thieves slain, the closer to Martial Dao Grandmaster Realm, the nearer the abyss.
……
Yanziwu, Back Mountain.
Bright moon hung high, thin clouds and mist enshrouded.
Tian Xuan Saint wore coarse hemp clothes, black hair over shoulders, bare white feet with toes smooth as jade, stepping into soft mud.
Dark brown mud squeezed from between her toes, dirtying her pristine insteps.
But this filth not only didn’t diminish her charm, it accentuated her snow-like skin with soul-stirring allure, like a demonic white lotus blooming from the mire.
“Saint, this batch is newly found Taoist boys. Luckily the county’s been chaotic lately, with demon slaying and evil corpse refining; some vanished without notice.”
Jiulong Pounding House’s shopkeeper, Guan Sheng, stood outside the vegetable garden with a fawning look.
Wanlong Pounding House’s shopkeeper Huang Xing stood nearby and promptly clapped his hands.
Two burly men immediately carried sacks forward.
