Tianjin, starting with unorthodox methods to achieve immortality

Chen Mo lay on the back of the kite, the air whistling past his ears, making a sharp whistling sound that buzzed in his ears.

He squinted, lowered his face even further, and at the same time circulated the power of Taiyin, condensing a very thin layer of air on his body surface.

The howling night wind slid away from the air membrane as it hit it, no longer rushing straight into the collar or brushing against the cheeks.

Before he could catch his breath, the hairs on his back suddenly stood on end.

Chen Mo was very familiar with this feeling.

They've been targeted.

He frowned, and subtly released his divine sense to scan behind him.

There was nothing there.

Within a radius of about ten meters covered by my divine sense, it was empty and there was no unusual aura.

The rooftops of Ganzhou City undulate under the moonlight, as quiet as a traditional Chinese ink painting.

But the feeling of being watched grew stronger and stronger, and it just wouldn't go away.

Without hesitation, he immediately poured more Yin energy into the kite.

The kite shuddered, increased its speed, and darted forward.

Behind him, in the black mist, the old man's lips curled up slightly.

"Your alertness is good, but unfortunately, you're still too inexperienced."

As the black mist expanded and contracted, its speed increased accordingly.

Two streaks of light swept across the night sky and flew out of the city of Ganzhou in the blink of an eye.

Chen Mo looked back and this time he saw it clearly.

In the distance, on the horizon, a faint black mist was drifting toward him.

The fog wasn't large, but it stood out conspicuously in the red moonlight.

"Hold."

He cursed, his mind racing.

That old man was indeed suspicious.

Which way to go now?

To the south are rolling hills, and to the north is the Gan River.

Without hesitation, Chen Mo immediately changed the direction of the kite and flew north.

Riverside.

Under the moonlight, the Gan River resembles a dark red ribbon spread out, its wide surface stretching over a hundred feet.

The current was swift, and the river water crashed against the rocks on both banks, producing a dull roar.

The kite flew very fast, but the black mist behind it chased even faster.

Chen Mo could sense that the other party was gradually closing the distance.

From the initial distance of more than ten miles, it has now decreased to less than twenty or thirty feet...

There's an even worse situation.

The kite started to become unstable.

Under extreme conditions, several fine cracks appeared on the surface of its paper wings, and its flight attitude became erratic and extremely difficult to control.

After all, this is just a kite made of ordinary yin talisman paper, not a real flying magic artifact.

Chen Mo gritted his teeth and tried to stabilize the kite, but it was still dropping.

The black mist behind them drew ever closer, and they could even make out the faint outline of a human figure within the mist.

Just then, a voice came from within the black mist.

"Hey buddy, why are you running?"

The voice reached Chen Mo's ears clearly, as if the other person was speaking right next to him.

"I just need you to do something for me."

No malicious intent?

Chen Mo sneered inwardly.

If you meant no harm, why did you chase me for dozens of miles?

He ignored them and continued to urge the kite toward the riverbank.

The cracks on the kite were increasing, and its whole body was trembling slightly. If it weren't for the power of Yin barely stabilizing it, it would have fallen apart at any moment.

The black mist behind them drew even closer, now less than fifty feet away.

The old man's voice came again, this time with a hint of helplessness, "Your paper bird is about to fall apart, what are you trying to fly? Stop, I have a few words to say to you, then I'll leave."

Chen Mo looked down at the kite beneath him.

If he flies any further, he'll fall from the sky before the old man can catch up.

His mind raced, and his gaze swept across the terrain ahead.

There is a cluster of rocks along the riverbank, scattered on the riverbed in various sizes.

One of them was particularly huge, over ten feet tall, with half submerged in the river and the other half above the water.

Chen Mo gritted his teeth and maneuvered the kite toward the reef.

The kite glided crookedly for a while before finally crashing almost onto the top of the reef.

The moment Chen Mo landed, he flipped and jumped down, his feet landing on the slippery rocks. He steadied himself, immediately pulled out the brocade box containing the Heavenly Thunder Talisman from his pack, opened the lid, and held the talisman between his fingers.

The talisman paper felt cool to the touch, and the jade-like talisman body shimmered with a faint blue light under the moonlight.

The runes are layered upon each other, each stroke poised to unleash its power.

The power of Yin has been infused into the talisman and can be activated at any time.

He raised his head and stared at the approaching black mist. He couldn't see through the old man's cultivation level.

The black fog suddenly stopped a dozen or so feet away from the reef.

After churning a few times, the old man's true form was revealed.

The other person hovered above the river, a pipe dangling from his lips, a faint red glow emanating from the pipe.

He looked down at Chen Mo, a hint of interest in his cloudy old eyes.

"It's only four thousand coins, is it really necessary to pursue it so aggressively?"

Chen Mo spoke coldly, his voice carried somewhat by the river breeze.

He held the Heavenly Thunder Talisman in his right hand, and the shadows beneath his feet had already quietly dispersed, ready to launch a sneak attack at any moment.

"What? You think I'm a highway robber?"

The old man paused for a moment, as if he had heard something funny.

"I wouldn't even consider such a paltry sum."

He shook his head, the pipe swaying slightly at the corner of his mouth.

"If you don't like it, what do you want to do?"

Chen Mo temporarily stopped the Shadow Puppet's sneak attack, but he did not let his guard down.

The old man did not answer immediately, but instead glanced down at the Thunder Talisman in his hand.

His gaze lingered on the jade talisman for two breaths, his expression unchanged, before he looked back at Chen Mo's face.

"Put the talisman away," the old man said. "If I wanted to harm you, you would have died before you even activated the talisman."

Chen Mo didn't move, he just smiled coldly.

The old man sighed, his tone filled with helplessness.

"Fine, you can knead it however you like. I'll just say a few words and then I'll leave."

"I came to see you tonight not for that little bit of money, but to ask you to come with me to a place."

"Where?" Chen Mo asked.

"A secret realm." As the old man said these three words, a glint of light flashed in his cloudy old eyes. "It's in the mountains of southern Jiangxi, and it should open in twenty days."

Chen Mo frowned.

A secret realm?

Of course he knew what the secret realm was.

The Bureau of Investigation's files contain a lot of information about secret realms, mostly the ruins of cave dwellings left by ancient cultivators, or special spaces formed by the condensation of spiritual energy in heaven and earth. These often contain good things such as magical artifacts, elixirs, and cultivation manuals.

However, the secret realm is also extremely dangerous.

Restrictions, demonic beasts, poisonous miasma, spatial rifts—any one of these can be deadly.

With his late-stage Qi Refining cultivation, entering the secret realm would still be quite dangerous.

In the mountains of southern Jiangxi? Could it be the same secret realm mentioned by the Moon Worship Cult?

"I'm not going." Chen Mo refused decisively.

Even if I were to go, I could only do it alone. It would be too dangerous to go with someone like the old man whose background I didn't know.

The old man seemed to have anticipated his reaction, his expression remained unchanged, only the corner of his mouth slightly curled up.

"Don't be so quick to refuse, I haven't finished speaking yet."

He chuckled, rubbed his left index finger and thumb together a couple of times, and a faint green light shone from his fingertip, which was particularly eye-catching in the dark red moonlight.

"You should get your heart checked first."

Chen Mo's heart skipped a beat.

He immediately focused his consciousness inward, probing his chest cavity.

The heartbeat was steady and strong, with no abnormalities.

But he did not let his guard down; instead, he used his divine sense to scan every blood vessel around him more carefully.

Only then did he realize it.

A very faint green mist adheres to the thin membrane outside the heart, trembling slightly with each heartbeat.

The fog was so thin that he would never have noticed it if the old man hadn't specifically pointed it out.

poison?

Chen Mo's face instantly darkened.

"You tampered with it?"

His tone suddenly turned gloomy, and his fingers tightened their grip on the Heavenly Thunder Talisman.

Despite all his calculations, he never expected that someone could poison him silently, without him even noticing.

The old man neither denied nor admitted it, but simply asked in return, "Do you know my title?"

Chen Mo stared at him without saying a word.

The old man took a deep drag on his pipe and exhaled a puff of white smoke.

"Those old fogies in the ghost market call me Master Bai Du..."

Master Baidu.

Chen Mo had never heard of this name before, but he could glean a lot of information from those four characters.

"Supreme Master" is a respectful title for someone with profound spiritual cultivation.

The fact that the old man used poisons indicates that his methods were inextricably linked to poison.

"Why did you pick on me?" Chen Moqiang suppressed his anger and asked calmly.

Master Baidu glanced at him, a hint of seriousness appearing in his cloudy old eyes.

"Because you can withstand the erosion of the red moon."

Chen Mo was taken aback. "What?"

"The crimson moon's erosion in the secret realm is even more severe than that of the underworld."

Master Baidu explained, "I have been wandering around the Ghost Market for more than ten years and have seen tens of thousands of people coming and going."

"But someone like you, who has stayed in the underworld for so long without showing any signs of change, is the first of its kind."

"Your physique or the cultivation method you practice is somewhat different from others."

Chen Mo's heart sank slightly.

"So you poisoned it?"

Master Baidu waved his hand dismissively, saying, "Just a little trick to ensure you come. Once the matter in the secret realm is resolved, I will give you the antidote myself."

"What if I don't go?"

"Not going?"

He chuckled softly, without malice, even with a hint of kindness, "The daffodil will take effect in a month, and by then, even a god wouldn't be able to cure it."

"However, you can also try to find someone to help you detoxify."

Master Baidu smiled with narrowed eyes, twirling his pipe between his fingers. "If it works, then all my decades of honing my poison skills will have been for nothing. I concede defeat."

.....

Chen Mo stood on the reef, holding the Heavenly Thunder Talisman in his right hand, the power of Taiyin circulating wildly within his body.

Before me stood the unfathomable Master Baidu, beneath my feet flowed the ever-flowing Gan River, and above me hung a dark red full moon.

Silent for a long time.

"Twenty days from now, in some place in southern Jiangxi?" Chen Mo finally asked, though he was clearly reluctant.

Master Baidu's eyes lit up, and he pulled out a neatly folded yellow paper talisman from his sleeve.

With a flick of his finger, the talisman floated lightly toward Chen Mo and hovered in front of him.

"In southern Jiangxi, at Cuiwei Peak, once you arrive, light this communication talisman, and I will naturally sense it."

Chen Mo reached out and took the talisman, glancing down at it.

The paper was yellow and covered in cinnabar, with runes he couldn't understand drawn on it. On the back of the talisman was a place name written in illegible handwriting.

He put the talisman into his bag and looked up at Master Baidu.

"How can I be sure you won't try anything funny with the poison in my body?"

Master Baidu put the pipe back in his mouth and took a deep drag.

The white smoke slowly dissipated in the river breeze, merging into the dark red moonlight.

"Whether you believe it or not, you will be richly rewarded after the deed is done."

"I've been running a stall in the ghost market for so many years, I still have some credibility."

"Moreover, all the magical artifacts and cultivation techniques obtained from the secret realm will belong to you. I only need one of the materials."

He paused, his tone somewhat indignant, "So many people would kill to get in, but you're the only one who doesn't know what's good for you."

After Master Baidu finished speaking, without waiting for Chen Mo's reply, the black mist rose again from beneath his feet, enveloping his entire body.

"Twenty days from now, at Cuiwei Peak, don't be late."

The black mist rose into the air and flew towards Ganzhou City, disappearing into the dark red horizon in a few breaths.

All that remains is the howling river wind and the rushing river.

Chen Mo stood on the reef, watching the black mist disappear into the distance, his expression terrifyingly gloomy.

He looked down at his chest, his divine sense sweeping over the faint green mist on the surface of his heart once more.

It's still there; it's not an illusion.

"Master Baidu, I curse you, you bastard..."

He took a deep breath and made a strong international friendship gesture in the direction where the black mist disappeared.

Three breaths later, Chen Mo withdrew his finger and turned to leave the reef.

The moment he turned around, the black mist sped back from the direction of Ganzhou City.

The speed was even faster than when they left...

The face of Master Baidu emerged from the mist, his expression a mixture of amusement and sarcasm, neither quite angry nor amused.

"I've lived to be this old," he said slowly, "and this is the first time I've ever seen anyone dare to give me the middle finger."

"..."

Chen Mo's expression froze for a moment, then quickly returned to calm, as if the person who had just given him the middle finger had nothing to do with him.

"You've got it wrong," he said without changing his expression. "I'm just flexing my fingers."

"Move your fingers?" Master Baidu repeated the four words, his lips twitching slightly. "Move them vertically?"

"I've been getting cramps a bit lately from practicing martial arts," Chen Mo said, making up a lie with a straight face.

Master Baidu stared at him for two breaths, his pipe swaying slightly at the corner of his mouth, as if he was trying to suppress some emotion.

"I came back not to argue with you about these things."

There's something I forgot to tell you.

Chen Mo's heart sank.

What conditions does this old ghost want to add this time?

"The opening time of the secret realm on Cuiwei Peak is not very accurate. I originally estimated it to be twenty days later, but the restrictions there are not very stable, so it might open a day or two earlier."

Chen Mo frowned.

"so?"

"So you'd better go a few days in advance," said Master Baidu. "You'll be at Cuiwei Peak in half a month, guarding it there."

"If there's any movement in the secret realm, I'll sense it immediately. Don't let us wait for you if you're not there."

Chen Mo's face darkened even more.

"Anything else?"

Master Baidu thought for a moment and then added, "Don't wander around after you get there. The area around Cuiwei Peak is not peaceful. There are some things in the deep mountains and forests that even I don't want to provoke."

"If you, a mere cultivator in the late stage of Qi Refining, were to run into him, you wouldn't even have a chance to escape."

After he finished speaking, he put the pipe back in his mouth, and black smoke rose from his feet again.

"I'll settle the score with you for that gesture you just made when we come out of the secret realm."