Chapter 6: Double Fish Jade Pendant
The silhouette by the bed was burly and unmoving, standing stiff as a black wall.
A closer look revealed...
It was Butcher Zhang, the Demon that Xu Fu had killed!
"Fuck!"
Jiang Mu practically shot back into the corner of the bed, his face a mask of terror.
At the same time, the familiar, enormous, sunken character for "demon" reappeared in the void. A small portion of its strokes was already filled with a dark red, bloody light.
"This is..."
Jiang Mu froze, remembering the scene he had witnessed in the attic.
Back then, black gas had emerged from Butcher Zhang’s corpse and drilled into the birthmark on his arm, after which the "demon" character had appeared.
Now, this bizarre scene was happening all over again.
’What the hell is this thing?’
Jiang Mu swallowed hard, his scalp tingling with fear.
The moonlight was eerie.
By the bed, Butcher Zhang didn’t move an inch.
He just stood there, ramrod straight, wreathed in sinister black gas, his eyes glowing with a red light.
He showed no intention of attacking.
Jiang Mu watched for a long time before mustering his courage. He reached out a hand, tentatively touching forward.
His fingertips passed through the other’s body without any resistance.
’A ghost?’
Jiang Mu was puzzled. It didn’t quite look like one.
Just as he was pondering this, Butcher Zhang’s illusory body suddenly trembled. It then dissolved into a cloud of black gas and drilled into the birthmark on Jiang Mu’s arm.
The birthmarks on both his arms lit up, glowing faintly like a pair of Jade Pendants.
Two fish swam, entwined.
A moment later, the birthmarks vanished again.
Jiang Mu’s whole body shuddered.
The next moment, he felt a savage, brutish force being injected into his body.
His physique was also undergoing a qualitative change.
Though his frame remained lean and his silhouette unchanged, it was as if a thousand wild bulls lay dormant deep within his muscles.
’So full...’
A pained expression crossed Jiang Mu’s face, and his fingers curled into fists.
Surging power roiled wantonly within him.
He desperately needed an outlet, a way to unleash this power that felt like it was about to make him explode!
A series of sharp CRACKS sounded from his joints.
Veins popped out on his forehead, writhing like grotesque worms.
Jiang Mu’s eyes turned red.
The ten forms of the Body Casting Skill flashed through his mind like a spinning lantern.
He let out a great roar and, unable to hold back any longer, rushed barefoot out of the bedroom, making a beeline for the sandpit in the courtyard.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The sounds of impact tore through the silent night.
The sound of his shoulders and back slamming against the wooden post was as dense as rainfall, and several times more violent than it had been during the day.
He felt no fatigue.
He felt no pain.
Like a puppet, even as his skin was scraped raw and blood began to seep out, Jiang Mu was completely oblivious.
Sweat flew like flecks of silver in the moonlight.
Occasionally, he would let out a few bestial roars.
In the side room, Bai Xiang was woken by the commotion.
She threw on an outer robe, stepped out of her room, and stood in the shadows under the eaves, watching with a strange expression as the man in the sandpit occasionally beat his chest and howled.
Her gaze was like one you’d give a complete idiot.
After watching for a moment, she shook her head helplessly and turned to go back inside to sleep.
Suddenly, she froze, her phoenix eyes narrowing.
The air shimmered.
In the shadows nearby, the faint figure of a woman appeared, kneeling on the ground.
"Greetings, Your Imper—"
"Hm?"
"Greetings, Master."
The person hastily corrected herself.
Bai Xiang spoke lightly, her voice pleasant and musical. "Didn’t you leave your seclusion? Why are you back?"
The person said,
"This subordinate has received news that the Emperor seems to have seen through our plan. He has dispatched the Astronomical Bureau and the Inner Guard to search for you in secret, Master. This subordinate is worried..."
"Don’t worry, he won’t find me," Bai Xiang said softly.
The person hesitated for a moment, then couldn’t help but ask,
"Master, weren’t you planning to go to Yan City? Why the sudden decision to linger in the home of this wastrel?"
"I’m tired. I’ll rest here for a bit."
"..."
Bai Xiang looked at her with a faint smile. "What? Are you afraid that if I stay here too long, I’ll develop feelings for this boy?"
"That’s not it."
The person glanced at the complete idiot howling in the sandpit, and the corner of her mouth twitched.
’The Master would have to be blind to take a liking to someone like him.’
Her expression immediately turned serious as she said,
"Mainly, this subordinate is worried that the Garrison Envoy here, General Shangguan, will notice..."
"Enough. You don’t need to worry about things on my end. I’m just waiting for someone to see if they’ll show up. Go and attend to your own business."
Bai Xiang said flatly, "Since you already have a clue, you must find the rumored Double Fish Jade Pendant as soon as possible."
"Yes!"
The person bowed, and her figure vanished.
Bai Xiang glanced at Jiang Mu, still training like a madman under the moonlight, then turned and went back inside.
...
Jiang Mu was completely unaware of all this.
He was completely immersed in the pleasure of "unleashing his power."
He practiced the forms of the Body Casting Skill over and over, squandering the borrowed physical strength with abandon.
This continued until the east turned white and the sky showed the pale light of dawn.
Only then did the formidable, brutish force within his body recede like the tide.
But the instant the power was drawn away, it was followed by unprecedented, excruciating pain and exhaustion.
It was as if every bone in his body had been broken and reset.
"Son of a..."
Jiang Mu glanced at his own mangled, bloody arms. His vision went black, and he passed out cold.
...
When he woke again, it was already bright daylight.
Jiang Mu found himself soaking in a large, custom-made cypress wood bathtub.
The air was filled with the thick scent of medicinal herbs.
The medicinal bath in the tub was a deep brown, with threads of blood floating in it.
Thankfully, his pants were still on.
Jiang Mu turned his somewhat stiff neck and looked to the side.
On a low stool by the window, Bai Xiang, dressed in a simple skirt, was sitting quietly, reading a book by the morning light filtering in from outside.
The dawn light draped her in a soft, outlining glow.
Even her plain, ordinary face now showed a unique, tranquil beauty.
On the small red-clay stove nearby, a medicine pot was bubbling, GURGLE GURGLE, letting off steam and making a soft sound.
"Did you carry me here?"
Jiang Mu asked, his throat dry and sore, as if he’d swallowed a handful of sand.
Bai Xiang lifted her head and gave him a faint smile.
She stood, put down her book, picked up a bowl of lukewarm medicinal soup from the table, and brought it to Jiang Mu’s lips.
Jiang Mu drank a few sips from her hand, moistening his throat, and said with a wry smile,
"You look so gentle and delicate, but you’re surprisingly strong. I must have been a lot of trouble for you, right? Thanks. It seems letting you stay here was a pretty good deal after all."
Bai Xiang just smiled again and returned to her seat.
She picked up the book again but didn’t read it, her gaze falling on the sky outside the window, somewhat lost in thought.
She was as serene as a figure in a classical painting.
Jiang Mu said no more. He glanced at his arm where the birthmark had vanished, then leaned his head back against the rim of the tub, staring up at the roof beams as he sank into thought.
’Why did Butcher Zhang’s "Demon Shadow" appear?’
’What exactly is that sunken "demon" character?’
’Is this my golden finger?’
’But it’s too damn simple. It didn’t even come with a user manual.’
’But based on last night, it seems I can "borrow" the physical power of an absorbed Demon to aid my cultivation.’
’Is this some kind of semi-automatic, AFK training?’
He recalled the records about Demon Fiends in the Demon-slaying Bureau’s manual.
In this world, the ranks of Demon Fiends were similar to those of Human Race Cultivators, broadly divided into thirteen tiers.
Demons are born with formidable physiques. Even the lowest-level Tier One and Tier Two minor demons require a warrior who has successfully completed Body Tempering to deal with them. If ordinary people encounter them, their only options are to flee or wait for death.
Upon reaching Tier Three and above, a Demon will condense a Demon Pill within its body, causing a qualitative leap in its power.
At that point, they must be slain by a more powerful Cultivator.
Besides pure Demons, there is another special existence known as a "Demon."
These are humans who have been infected by demonic poison and undergone a mutation.
These Demons are further divided into two types:
One type, like Butcher Zhang, completely loses their human consciousness and becomes a walking corpse that only knows how to slaughter. This type is relatively low-level.
The other type can retain part of their human consciousness while possessing the ferocity and power of a Demon. They can even cultivate and grow stronger like a Cultivator, making them more powerful and far more dangerous.
His sister, Jiang Yuexin, who had mutated into a Demon Fiend, was likely this second type.
’Back then, after Butcher Zhang died, he turned into black gas that drilled into my birthmark, which then triggered the strange phenomenon.’
Jiang Mu mused, rubbing the birthmark on his arm.
’This wisp of black gas contained Butcher Zhang’s physical power from when he was alive, which is how I was able to use it for Body Tempering.’
Slay Demon Fiends, absorb their Demonic Qi, and use it to cultivate...
Jiang Mu had more or less figured out how to use this golden finger.
’Maybe I should go find a few more Demon Fiends to absorb?’
But the moment this thought appeared, he snuffed it out.
He was just a weakling right now; looking for Demon Fiends would be pure suicide. Besides, the Demon-slaying Bureau would never allow a "mascot" like him to go on an adventure.
He could guess as much from Xu Fu’s attitude.
However, he could go to the Bureau and see if there were any Demon Fiend corpses.
When it came to looting corpses, that was something he was very good at.