Chapter 37: The Mud-Formed Old Madam

The deserted village became quiet again, and all dangers were gone, but the fact that Ji Chang still firmly held the wooden door of the stone house showed that he didn’t believe it at all, because the situation was just too bizarre.

Xu Shen, who was supposed to have fallen into a demon man, was calmly taking Li Si for a stroll instead. The relaxed way he walked and talked, how could this be the same Xu Shen who was once so cautious and full of schemes?

Jiang Ying also felt it was strange; how could such a huge disaster just disappear like that?

“Sometimes, the inner demon is the most frightening. Xu Shen went through this trial and although his vitality was severely damaged, and he lost at least five years of life, his will became as strong as steel, without any weaknesses. You must remember: only when there is no fear in your heart can you be protected from all evils.”

The old madam’s voice suddenly spoke up, as if suddenly recovering a signal…

Ji Chang and Jiang Ying turned around, but neither of them really agreed with the old madam’s words. If being fearless in your heart could protect you from all evils, then what was the point of Dao Techniques?

The old madam sighed slowly, “You have never truly been fearless in your hearts, so what right do you have to question it? Ying’er, later go and get one Myriad Spirits Pill for Xu Shen. Xu Shen’s remaining life is probably less than ten years, but because he managed to go beyond life and death and see through great terror, his Dao Heart from now on is pure and clear. If it were a thousand years ago, he could have at least cultivated to the Great Ascension stage. But now, as your master, I can only give him fifty more years of life so he can return to the Foundation Building stage.”

“The Myriad Spirits Pill? Master! How does Xu Shen deserve to take that?”

Jiang Ying was shocked. As the old madam’s little housekeeper, she knew very well the effect of the Myriad Spirits Pill. In fact, the old madam only had this last one left. It was from the last batch of pills containing Immortal Spirit Energy that the old madam made three hundred years ago when she could still open the furnace to refine them – or perhaps it should be called an immortal pill. But now, following the great changes in the world, its spiritual effect had greatly declined.

Even so, it was still an extremely precious spirit pill.

As for Ji Chang, he hadn’t even heard of the Myriad Spirits Pill before and now felt only envy and jealousy… oh no, luckily he bit the tip of his tongue and woke up.

The Evil God’s power hunted down cultivators like them relentlessly; all kinds of evil forces watched them at all times. As soon as there was a weakness, they would immediately attack fiercely – he did not want to get hit again.

“Master, about what happened earlier, Junior Brother Li, he…”

Jiang Ying asked again, because she still couldn’t let it go. How could Li Si stay unharmed in the dark mist for a whole night when the Three Talents Demon-Purging Array had failed?

“Don’t worry too much. Yesterday morning, I already cleared all his meridians for him. Now Li Si’s strength is the highest among all of you.”

The old madam said this calmly because it was the truth. In fact, when Xu Shen was attacked earlier, theoretically only Li Si had the power to save him. However, he must have paid a high price for it.

After all, what Xu Shen encountered earlier was not just a simple Phantasmal Aberration; it was that his inner demon had finally gathered enough power to explode his soul’s defenses.

Logically, the old madam should have rewarded Li Si with the Myriad Spirits Pill. But considering the overall situation, Xu Shen, who had survived a life-and-death disaster, destroyed his inner demon, tempered his will to be as strong as steel, and finally achieved Dao Heart Purity, was the one most worth investing in.

Because Dao Heart Purity meant that Xu Shen’s cultivation speed would greatly increase, his understanding of Dao Techniques would reach perfection, and all the Dao Techniques he mastered could reach their peak.

No one understood better than the old madam: those seemingly ordinary Dao Techniques, once cultivated to the limit, could in certain aspects rival half-step Divine Abilities.

Once Xu Shen achieved this, he alone would be worth ten Li Si.

The choice was obvious.

“What a pity – because I suppressed the fate energy, this body of mine has half turned into mud, and my abilities are all confined within this stone house. And these disciples of mine are all useless, always thinking about splitting resources or just muddling along. Otherwise, with more accumulated resources, Li Si would not have become a discarded piece. Fortunately, this Xu Shen can finally be of great use.”

——

On the outskirts of the deserted village, Xu Shen led Li Si, collecting some broken Formation Array tools and explaining how to repair them, as well as the reasons for last night’s Formation Array failure. He didn’t miss many details, and Li Si also listened very carefully.

Anyone who didn’t know would have thought one was a virtuous great scholar with students everywhere and the other was a dedicated student standing in the snow waiting at the gate.

“What happened last night wasn’t actually that simple, was it?”

After Xu Shen had collected all the tools of the Five Tribulations of Lightning Method Array, he suddenly spoke and looked at Li Si, “Although you cleverly cleaned up most of the traces, some truths absolutely cannot be hidden. So the truth should be: last night, a powerful enemy must have come, and you fully operated the Five Tribulations of Lightning Method Array, creating three hundred and sixty thunderbolts outside and killing them all. But because of my earlier oversight, the Three Talents Demon-Purging Array stopped working, which almost caused a huge disaster.”

Li Si listened quietly, his heart calm. When he saved Xu Shen earlier, he knew it couldn’t be hidden. But he had a clear conscience and wouldn’t say anything – you can theorize however you want.

Anyway, from what had just happened, he had already inferred a little clue: it was highly likely that the old madam couldn’t act outside because she was suppressing the fate energy. Otherwise, she definitely wouldn’t have let Xu Shen die without saving him.

So with that biggest threat gone, well… haha, none of you can beat me anyway.

Xu Shen suddenly laughed. It was strange – this guy, who always liked to plot and scheme, actually laughed quite brightly, and his eyes were clear without any impurity.

“I will keep it a secret for you, but actually, even if we don’t hide it, no one will do anything to you.”

“Our master, because she has to suppress the fate energy, has already half turned into a clay statue. She can’t take action outside.”

Hearing this, Li Si’s eyes flickered slightly, but he still said nothing.

Xu Shen continued with a smile, “Actually, this is my guess; the master never told me directly. It’s a pity that both Ji Chang and I were too terrible before, unable to take on big responsibilities. With our fear of death back then, if we had known the master had no combat strength left, we would probably have had some awful thoughts already.”

“What about you now?”

Li Si frowned and asked. Although he felt no deep affection for the old madam, he still knew how important it was for her to suppress the fate energy by herself.

Xu Shen shook his head gently and didn’t continue on this topic, “Last night, the mist demon sucked away about five years of my life. Although I passed the ordeal just now, I also lost at least five more years of life. I don’t have much time left. As a true disciple of the Floating Cloud Sect, the Floating Cloud Sect is my only home.”

“Although I once thought about running away and also had some rebellious thoughts, fortunately I finally got a chance to make up for it a little. Junior Brother Li, don’t make my mistakes again. Don’t misunderstand the master anymore. You don’t understand how much sacrifice it takes to suppress the fate energy by yourself, and how important it is for this world. The future of our Floating Cloud Sect depends entirely on you. Guarding the Floating Cloud Sect is equal to keeping a hope for our human race.”

Li Si stayed silent. Now he did believe that Xu Shen had truly understood everything – or perhaps, when a person is near death, their words are kind. Anyway, he would keep a little doubt, for future meetings.

“Are there still living people outside?”

Li Si asked as if casually. This was a doubt that had been lingering in his mind. Logically, the deserted village where they were could almost be described as full of danger and evil entities everywhere. One wrong step and you would suffer – this wasn’t a beginner’s village, it was clearly hell.

If cultivators like them were in such a sorry state, how about ordinary people?

But, some time ago he had seen Evil God Cultists who looked no different from ordinary people, which confused him.

“Of course there are living people. Over the past thousand years, as the Evil God’s power seeped in, the many famous mountains, great rivers, important sect locations, cities, and big towns of this world were all destroyed. Among them countless demons, evil spirits, ghosts, and evil entities were born. Many people died tragically, or were imprisoned, not even resting in death.”

“But some of the human race escaped. In the original wilderness, they built cities, set up forts, created villages and towns. After suffering greatly and paying countless blood sacrifices, they ultimately all chose to believe in the Evil God. Over a thousand years, these remaining humans formed a complete system of Evil God belief. In their newly built cities and big towns, they established Temples and shrines to worship the Evil God, piously believing in the Evil God and thus becoming so-called priests, divine envoys, and divine servants.”

“These priests, divine envoys, and divine servants used the incomplete Divine Abilities granted by the Evil God to form a distorted Divine Art system. Then they used this to provide protection to those villages and towns. In exchange, they got the ordinary humans’ crazy worship of the Evil God.”

“And because these Evil God Cultists had the Evil God’s power, they were very effective against the Dark Mist or most evil entities. So unless they traveled far, their death rate was still quite low. Of course, because of their fanatical belief in the Evil God, they wouldn’t live past 40 anyway.”

“But even so, it’s still much better than us. We cultivators are like rats crossing the street – everyone shouts, ‘Beat them!'”

“Let’s go back. Before this evening, we must repair the Three Talents Demon-Purging Array, otherwise mist demons like last night will come again.”