Fangxian Heretical Path

Chapter 217 Perilous Seclusion for Increased Merit
The night sky was clear and cold, and the moonlight was pale.

Inside the inn, Fang Shu gazed out the window, pondered for a long time, and then slowly regained his composure.

He glanced around the inn, then without hesitation packed his things, checked out, and left to find another place to stay.

Although the woman in white seemed to be a friend rather than a foe, and was in charge of the Floating Mountain, since this place of residence had already been exposed, it would be best for him to be cautious and change locations immediately.

To prevent any unscrupulous individuals from secretly tracking the woman's movements.

Not long after.

When Fang Shu calmed down again, he once again retrieved Tian Jinmao's soul and continued the soul-searching and interrogation.

Slowly, his brows furrowed, and a cold smile appeared on his face.

With a cold snort, Fang Shu unleashed a spell, and immediately a series of shrill mouse squeaks echoed through the room.

"Squeak squeak squeak! Ahh! Spare me, spare me..."

Tian Jinmao's soul was twisted and he was in excruciating pain.

Fang Shu watched coldly, his heart no longer moved. Instead, he used the art of slow slicing to kill the man, giving him the same treatment as the previous ghost immortal.

After a full cup of tea's time.

Tian Jinmao's soul was tormented beyond recognition, and with a snap, it dissipated, turning into wisps of ghostly energy that were swallowed by the soul-capturing talisman on the table.

Even after personally annihilating the fiend's soul, Fang Shu's voice remained cold and stern:
"Truly hateful."

According to his soul-searching interrogation, Tian Jinmao's last words were nine-tenths true and one-tenth false, revealing a great deal of scheming!

The three generations lived in Xiaoxishan, where a half-finished ley line was nurtured beneath it, but a trap was set up on the ley line.

Moreover, the trap was not man-made, but rather set up by the Tian family using the terrain and landform as a pretext.

Within that vein of earth, there was a certain malevolent energy, extremely resembling the location of the anus of the Five Internal Organs Temple Dragon Vein, which was filled with filth.

If a Qi Refining Immortal were to enter without knowing the situation and become tainted by the Dragon Vein's filth, they would be severely injured, if not killed! Not only would their foundation be damaged, but breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage would become a pipe dream.

Even those with extraordinary talent or good fortune can have their foundation strengthened by the filth and evil energy of the dragon vein, making it not only undamaged but even more solid.

However, having been tainted by the foul and malevolent energy of the Five Organs Temple's dragon vein, it will be difficult for it to be accepted by the Five Organs Temple's dragon vein again, and it will be unable to utilize the earth's veins, thus making it impossible to become an earth immortal within the temple.

This is also why the deities within the temple haven't made any major moves since taking over Xiaoxishan. They are probably still figuring things out.

As he pondered these things, Fang Shu's gaze grew increasingly cold.

Tian Jinmao first promised great benefits, then used personal connections to cover it up, but even in death he still wanted to harm people; his heart is truly despicable.

Fortunately, the other party was cautious and treated all the Liao equally, not letting go of the opportunity to search the other party's soul.

Secretly, Fang Shu kept this lesson in mind:

"From now on, even with friends, one should be wary and not take chances."

He also recalled the scene when he first met Tian Jinmao, and felt a sense of desolation.

When this rat left Mount Lu, although it was already down on its luck, it was still quite straightforward at the time. It even humbly kowtowed to him and called him "Master" a few times.

Fang Shu specifically inquired about this during the soul search and discovered that the other party's posture back then was not fake.

However, after three or four years, Tian Jinmao has changed a lot and is now completely different from other people.

Come back to your senses.

Fang Shu stared at the Soul-Capturing Talisman in his hand, which had become heavy with ghostly energy, and remained silent for a moment.

………………

The following days.

Fang Shu stayed indoors, continuing to meditate and cultivate his inner energy in the guest room.

In his spare time, he would ponder the murderous aura he had obtained from Tian Jinmao and Dai Kuan.

The malevolent energy within Tian Jinmao's body is called "Wan Cao Qing Sha," a medium-grade malevolent energy passed down through his family. It is beneficial for cultivators to cultivate spiritual plants and engage in work in the mountains and fields, and its function is to nourish life force, somewhat similar to peach blossom malevolent energy.

This evil spirit is perfectly suited for Fang Shu to use as the "life-giving evil spirit" in the Six Desires Yin Evil Spirit Method.

However, Dai Kuan's aura was somewhat unusual and did not conform to the categories in the Six Desires Yin Sha Method.

However, this is not a problem. Since Dai Kuan's body is still alive, we can first nurture this evil energy in his body, thus adding death energy and corpse energy, and let it brew into a kind of "death evil".

Fortunately, there are quite a few shops in this floating market that can help raise corpses. Every household has centuries-old craftsmanship and millennia-old yin soil. All you need to do is spend some spirit stones.

In this way, the malevolent energy emanating from these two individuals can be used by Fang Shu to condense his malevolent energy. He only needs one more element of malevolent energy to complete his set of six malevolent energies!
Within the Floating Mountain Market, purchasing another suitable source of malevolent energy is not difficult; as long as you have the money, it's all you need.

On the contrary, compared to the collection of evil energy, Fang Shu's current cultivation of true qi is relatively backward.

Since arriving at Fudang Mountain Market, he has spent a large sum of money and food, but his progress in cultivating internal energy is even slower than when he was in the Five Stomachs Temple.

"It's time to greatly improve my cultivation!" Fang Shu thought to himself.

As for how to quickly improve his cultivation level, he already had a plan in mind.

There are roughly two methods. One is to purchase rare and precious materials and consume top-quality elixirs to directly enhance one's true energy.

Secondly, he practiced secret techniques to enhance his abilities, such as the "Copper Juice Iron Pill Consumption Method" that he had seen at an auction, which improved his cultivation efficiency.

However, both of these methods require a large amount of resources.

Faced with these two choices, Fang Shu hesitated for only a moment before deciding to have both!
Even after the white-clad woman's visit, he remained wary, feeling that even in the bustling marketplace, he was not entirely safe.

Since he has now unexpectedly acquired a large amount of spirit stones, he should quickly convert them into his own cultivation.

To avoid the situation where the person is gone but the spirit stones in their bag are still there, directly benefiting the thief.

Do it when you think of it.

Fang Shu immediately began inquiring about pills and secret techniques that could help with the cultivation of Qi Condensation in the Floating Market. He also attended the auctions held three times a month without missing a single one.

He even took the initiative to use the token given to him by the woman in white to send a telepathic message to her, asking her to keep an eye out for him or make an introduction.

To his surprise, the woman in white actually responded to him and told him to prepare six hundred spirit stones to go to the auction to make the transaction.

Soon, Fang Shu walked through the auction, and the secret method called "Copper Juice Iron Pill Consumption Method" appeared in his hands.

He was pleasantly surprised to have obtained a secret technique that others would have to spend over a thousand taels of spirit stones to acquire.

Of course, the reason it was so cheap was not only because he held the token and was introduced by Protector Bai.

Furthermore, the method he obtained was not the original; it was merely a copy made by a master craftsman after the auction house acquired the original technique. Techniques made through such copying have no guarantee of provenance, and the copying process is highly susceptible to the loss of secret texts.

Unless someone successfully cultivates the technique and then carefully modifies the copied content, it cannot be passed down.

Fortunately, the auctioneers assured that this method was not an extreme one. Even if there were some defects after the copy was made, it would only be slightly less effective and would not cause people to go into a state of demonic possession or damage their cultivation.

At worst, if Fang Shu fails to cultivate successfully, he can just come back and replace him. After all, he was introduced by Protector Bai.

Faced with the auctioneer's sales pitch, Fang Shu looked troubled when making the purchase. He hesitated for a long time before finally buying it.

He waited until he left the auction and returned to his room, and his face lit up with joy.

Such a technique, created through imprinting, might have drawbacks for others, or even deter them from practicing it, but for him, it was exactly what he wanted.

Without the slightest hesitation, he immediately stored the method in his Daoist talisman and used the dragon energy within the talisman to analyze it.

In just a few days, Fang Shu had completed the analysis of the method of consuming copper juice and iron pills.

As the auctioneer had said, the method was not problematic in terms of the secret text; only a few words were unclear, which would reduce the efficiency of the immortals in digesting the ingestion.

In response, Fang Shu immediately made certain adjustments to the formula of the Copper Juice Iron Pill Technique based on his family's many years of cultivation experience and his own physique.

He did not change the secret method, but simply made it more suitable for himself.

But after trying to consume several batches of copper molten iron pills, he found that the effect was not only not worse than the original secret method, but actually increased by half a percent.

With this method as a help, Fang Shu's progress in refining the six internal organs suddenly increased dramatically!

The cultivation level that would normally take another six or seven years to accumulate can be halved directly. Moreover, with the assistance of spiritual herbs, the efficiency can be further enhanced through internal cultivation and external application.

In an instant, Fang Shu was immersed in the rapid cultivation process.

Just over two months.

This day.

He immersed himself in a tin barrel, with piles of money and blood money underneath, which burned with purple flames.

Inside the bucket was a reddish-purple liquid.

Fang Shu sat cross-legged inside, his face slightly contorted, focused on his cultivation.

Suddenly, a cracking sound rang out.

A tin bucket is ultimately just an ordinary object. Even if it is filled with lead plates and has talismans carved on its surface, it cannot withstand the scorching heat of true energy for seven days and seven nights.

Furthermore, the liquid inside the barrel was no ordinary substance; the barrel shattered on the spot and fell to the ground.

However, not a single drop of the medicinal liquid inside fell; it swirled and circled around Fang Shu, grinding against his body like a stone mill.

Fang Shu suddenly opened his eyes and spat out a mouthful.

A mouthful of bright green poisonous blood spurted from his mouth, landing in the medicinal liquid and immediately emitting a series of sizzling sounds.

Although he was spitting blood, Fang Shu's face did not turn ashen; instead, he became radiant.

He immediately got up from the bucket and quickly dressed.

At this moment.

He has successfully condensed another baleful aura within himself.

With the malevolent aura already emanating from him, his internal energy cultivation naturally improved considerably. In less than three months, he had successfully increased his magical power by nearly five toads!

The reason he has made such great progress is inseparable from the huge amount of money he has spent in the past two or three months.

By now, he had not only exhausted the more than a thousand spirit stones he had obtained from Dai Kuan and the others, but he had also used up most of the spirit stones he had on hand.

If it weren't for the other valuables of Dai Kuan and the others, such as the various magical artifacts within their bodies, which fetched a good price in the floating market, Fang Shu truly wouldn't have been able to support such expenditures.

Although he had almost exhausted his wealth and only had a sum of spirit stones left for emergencies, Fang Shu showed no regret whatsoever.

On the contrary, he was invigorated and extremely happy.

It is truly fortunate to be able to successfully transform so many spirit stones into one's own cultivation!
Moreover, much of what he spent this time consisted of reusable items such as the copper molten iron pill ingestion method, and he still had a considerable amount of medicinal herbs left in his storage bag.

Roughly estimated, he can maintain this cultivation speed for at least another three or four months.

By then, the Deathly Aura on Dai Kuan's body should be barely usable, and he can simply go to the corpse-raising shop in the market to retrieve it.

“It’s not impossible for him to achieve the Six Fiends Perfection within a year!” Fang Shu’s eyes shone brightly, filled with anticipation.

Even if he has to spend several more years carefully refining the true energy growing in his body.

Even if we take a longer approach, three or four years of development would still be quite rapid for Fang Shu.

Furthermore, refining one's true qi no longer requires medicine or carries any risks; it can be done simply by grinding with water.

They enjoyed themselves immensely in the room.

Fang Shu was filled with emotion.

Today, he has truly experienced the benefits of being wealthy. If he could continue like this, with no shortage of spirit stones and secret techniques, what a blessing that would be!
With a sigh in his heart, Fang Shu suddenly noticed something in the room that was shimmering with spiritual light.

He raised an eyebrow and immediately took a look, only to find that it was not the waist token of the Five Internal Organs Temple, but the token given to him by the woman in white.

Text appeared on the token, and it wasn't just summoned once, but three times. He simply hadn't noticed because he was in seclusion.

Fang Shu's eyes immediately flickered: "It's only been a few months, and you already have something important to discuss? That's quite a coincidence."

Examining the text on the token, he realized that the woman in white had not only invited him alone.

According to the token, the woman requested that the holder meet her in a certain place in the mountains a month later.

As for the specific reason, the text on the token is limited and cannot be explained. It only warns everyone that if anyone breaks their promise, they will bear the consequences!

"I wonder what the purpose of gathering so many people is."

Fang Shu recalled the recent situation in Fudang Market and Lushan, but did not find any major disturbances in the two places.

Unable to figure it out, he simply put down the token, sat cross-legged on the bed, and carefully nurtured the new evil he had just cultivated.

In any case, according to the agreement between him and the woman in white, he has the right to decide whether or not to obey orders, and she can only be tempted by offers.

He only needs to keep the appointment on time to give the other party face, which can also be considered as repaying the other party for introducing the business.

(End of this chapter)