Chapter 189: Chapter 187: Harvest
The night was dark. Yuning Town, so bustling at dusk, had fallen completely silent by this late hour.
Although those who had embarked on the Immortal Path possessed far more stamina than ordinary people, life in the small town still followed the rhythm of the mortal world: rising with the sun and resting at sunset.
At night, residents would either rest or seize the spare time for Cultivation. This was the norm in Yuning Town.
As he walked, he encountered very few Cultivators.
Outside the town, mountains stretched into the distance under a stirring breeze, creating an even greater sense of desolation.
Chu Mu walked at a measured pace, his occasional glances to the sides a clear sign of his vigilance.
The appointed meeting place wasn’t far from town, located on a mountain peak at the edge of the Jade Emperor Valley Marketplace.
If there was a disturbance, being so close to the Marketplace meant there was a high chance of attracting the Law Enforcement Team.
It was a form of insurance, both for Chu Mu himself and to put the Niu Family Brothers at ease.
When he reached the summit, he could already see two figures standing by a large boulder at the edge.
"It’s you?"
"Aren’t you the one who..."
Upon seeing Chu Mu, a voice tinged with surprise and suspicion rang out.
"The Jade Scroll."
Chu Mu nodded, his words terse. He raised a hand, revealing a bag of Spirit Stones.
At this, the Niu Family Brothers exchanged a glance. The Eldest Niu then stepped forward and handed over the Jade Scroll.
As the Spirit Stone Bag and Jade Scroll were exchanged, the Eldest Niu immediately and discreetly retreated a few steps.
Clearly, it wasn’t just Chu Mu who was on guard; the Niu Family Brothers were also extremely wary.
With the Jade Scroll in hand, Chu Mu didn’t examine its contents on the spot. He merely glanced at its surface before his gaze settled on the Niu Family Brothers.
"Fellow Cultivator, rest assured. My brother and I guarantee we won’t reveal that you were the one who purchased the Wild Bull Technique."
The Eldest Niu quickly offered this assurance as Chu Mu’s gaze fell upon them.
"Fine."
Chu Mu nodded, not asking for any further guarantees or restrictions.
The Eldest Niu then added, "But you must also promise not to leak the Cultivation Technique to anyone else!"
"Agreed."
Chu Mu replied. It was no different from a knowledge transaction in the Black Market, except this time, both parties sealed it with a Dao Heart Oath.
Given the Niu Family Brothers’ level of Cultivation and age, Chu Mu believed the Dao Heart Oath would be quite binding.
A so-called Dao Heart Oath was a vow made upon a Cultivator’s very will to seek the Dao, forming a self-imposed constraint that forced one to confront their own heart.
To violate it was to defy and negate one’s own being.
For a Cultivator, defying and negating oneself essentially meant the end of their Immortal Path.
Unless one was at death’s door or had already lost all hope on the Immortal Path, a Dao Heart Oath was exceptionally binding.
Once the oath was sworn, the Niu Family Brothers wasted no time. They leaped from the summit and vanished from Chu Mu’s view.
Walking to the edge of the summit, Chu Mu peered down at the sheer, several-hundred-meter cliff face. There were very few footholds.
With his current physical constitution, a fall like that would leave him severely injured, if not dead.
And his Qi Cultivation was clearly not enough to survive a drop of several hundred meters.
But... he had the Divine Wind Boots.
Riding the wind to glide for a short distance wouldn’t be difficult.
A moment later, Chu Mu leaped. As he plummeted in a near-vertical drop, a mere hundred meters from the ground, a thought flickered in his mind. The Spiritual Power in the Divine Wind Boots on his feet pulsed, and a faint resistance coiled around his legs.
In an instant, his rapid descent slowed as if an invisible parachute had opened. He guided his fall with a thought, landing steadily atop the canopy of a tree.
Chu Mu leaped again. With a short glide, he crossed hundreds of meters in a single bound, vaulting between treetops as if chasing the crescent moon hidden behind the dark clouds.
He reveled in his freedom beneath the night sky, only stopping his playful indulgence when the Spiritual Power stored within the Divine Wind Boots was completely exhausted.
He took out a Lower Spirit. With a flicker of his will, a surge of Spiritual Power poured into the Divine Wind Boots, whose patterns had dimmed.
As Chu Mu gazed at the heavens, his heart filled with exhilaration, he couldn’t help but recall the Flying Spiritual Artifacts he had seen at the Wei Wu Pavilion that day.
There was a good reason why he had chosen these Divine Wind Boots over other types of Flying Spiritual Artifacts.
The most important reason was that, for him at his current level, a Flying Spiritual Artifact was simply more flash than substance.
After all, a simple Flying Spiritual Artifact could only be used for travel, and flying through the sky was far too conspicuous.
In a real fight, they were useless unless they were offensive Magical Artifacts that also had a flying function, like Flying Swords and Flying Sabers, or specialized Flying Spiritual Artifacts like wings or flywheels.
Otherwise, an ordinary Flying Spiritual Artifact just made you a sitting duck.
The Minghong Saber he coveted also had a model with a flying function: Saber Flight.
But the reasoning was simple: a Magical Artifact could only be inscribed with a finite number of Restricted Artifact Patterns. Adding a Flying Artifact Pattern or Restriction inevitably meant sacrificing performance in other areas.
For him, that trade-off clearly wasn’t worth it. After all, Flying was a want, not a need.
Regardless, Flying remained one of humanity’s greatest fantasies.
The small Flying Spiritual Artifacts, the enormous Longevity Flying Boat...
Chu Mu’s imagination drifted.
Once the Divine Wind Boots had finished recharging, Chu Mu began a leisurely walk back toward Yuning Town.
He returned to town as silently as he had left.
The Niu Family Brothers’ house remained dark and lightless. Chu Mu paused to look at it for a moment before pushing open the door to his own room.
The room was just as he had left it; everything was in its place, with no trace of disturbance.
Chu Mu sat leaning against the head of his bed, in a state between waking and sleeping, contemplating his future path of Cultivation.
’The heat is on. I should stop selling Elixirs for now. With my current assets, I have more than enough to lay low for a while.’
’And during that time...’
One plan after another surfaced in his mind. Finally, Chu Mu reached into his robes and pulled out three Jade Scrolls.
One was from Wang Mazi. If the information it contained about the Black Market and Wang Mazi’s various connections was genuine, it would be extremely useful to him.
As for the other two...
Chu Mu stared at the Jade Scroll he had just acquired.
’The same texture, the same patterns...’ he thought. If not for his experience in the mysterious fog at East Lake, he never would have noticed what made this Jade Scroll different.
After all, preconceptions and common sense can mask a great many things.
’Aren’t Jade Scrolls just supposed to be for recording information and knowledge?’
’Who would have thought that a Jade Scroll, meant for recording information, could have other uses!’
He extended his Divine Sense into it, and information about the Wild Bull Technique flooded his mind. He didn’t linger on it, his gaze remaining fixed on the two similar Jade Scrolls.
’The moment I held it, I was certain. My guess was right. It couldn’t be wrong.’
’This Jade Scroll and the one recording the Puppetry Skill legacy absolutely came from the same source.’
’And they must be connected somehow to that hidden space beneath the mysterious fog of East Lake.’
He recalled the events of that day. The scenes were still perfectly clear in his mind, especially the scanning pulse he had felt—that was practically etched into his very soul.
Recent issues of the Longevity Sect’s Imperial Gazette still mentioned the mysterious fog at East Lake, always labeling it as just that—a mystery. Clearly, the true secret had yet to be unveiled.
’Perhaps one day, I’ll be able to lift a corner of that veil of mystery myself.’
Chu Mu toyed with the two Jade Scrolls as speculations about the mysterious scanning pulse he had felt surfaced one after another in his mind.
After a moment, a faint guess seemed to form in his mind. He stopped fiddling with the Jade Scrolls, set them aside, and sent his Divine Sense into the one from Wang Mazi. A torrent of information flooded his mind.
Chu Mu closed his eyes, slowly combing through the information.
The volume of information was far greater than he had imagined.
How much experience, knowledge, and how many connections could a low-level Cultivator accumulate after languishing in one place for several decades?
Even a fraction of it was a massive amount of data.
It took him until noon the next day to finally finish sorting through the contents of that single Jade Scroll.
Much of the information confirmed his suspicions. For example, according to Wang Mazi, every Black Market was essentially a front for powerful local figures.
Unless there was a major upheaval like the one in Jade Emperor Valley, the Black Markets and the local ruling powers generally maintained a tacit understanding to stay out of each other’s affairs.
For example, the several Black Markets currently operating near Jade Emperor Valley were all backed by a few disciples of Jade Emperor Valley’s Golden Core True Master.
The ultimate profits, of course, flowed up to that high and mighty Golden Core True Master.
With him profiting from both legitimate and illicit enterprises, the Jade Emperor Valley’s Law Enforcement Team and the members of the Longevity Sect would naturally maintain a tacit understanding with the Black Market.
It was just as obvious that the so-called Black Market, and any disturbance within it, was completely under the Longevity Sect’s control.
According to Wang Mazi’s records, besides the Black Markets, there were also more covert, private gatherings, similar to the one he had just attended.
The only differences were that these gatherings were of a higher tier, the channels to access them were more secretive, the times and locations were more random, and, of course, they offered far less security.
The rest of the information detailed the dark underbelly of several nearby Black Markets—the various Local Tyrant gangs and hidden channels—all of which he would need to confirm for himself.
Reviewing this information and thinking back to his trip to the Fengming Mountain Black Market, he couldn’t help but be a little impressed with his past self.
Like a newborn calf unafraid of a tiger, he had been incredibly lucky to make it out of the Fengming Mountain Black Market alive back then.
Fortunately, things were very different now.
Now, if he were to go to a Black Market again, he had some means of protecting himself.
Chu Mu glanced at the Puppetry Skill legacy Jade Scroll on his bedhead, his gaze flickering.
’Now, I finally have the resources to uncover the secrets of the Puppetry Skill.’
’I just hope my next trip to the Black Market is a complete success.’
As his thoughts shifted, he put away the Jade Scrolls and closed his eyes again. This time, he focused his attention on the Body Refining Technique.
Its origin was a mystery, but its name was utterly mundane.
The Wild Bull Technique...
’Is it really so ordinary?’
With this question in mind, he began to slowly recall and sort through the knowledge of the Cultivation Technique now stored deep in his mind...
...
