Chapter 9 Enemies Meet, Malice Arises

When Grandpa returned, Chen Shi was already asleep. The black pot, having been intimidated by Chen Shi, became unusually spirited and hurriedly wagged its tail to greet him. "Asleep?" Grandpa sat down by the campfire, added a few sticks of firewood, and looked at the sleeping Chen Shi, his body relaxing. "Chen Yindu, you are indeed old, but you can still hold on!" He gazed at the flickering flames, his cold body seemingly incapable of feeling any warmth. "Chen Yindu, you can hold on until he grows up!" Grandpa exhaled a breath of chilly air, causing the flames to diminish significantly. "If one day you can no longer hold on, then you must kill him yourself, taking him with you to the underworld. You must not let him harm the living!" He pondered over his thoughts and soon fell asleep himself. In the morning, outside the temple, the sound of Chen Shi's astonished exclamations could be heard. The small hillside where they had slept last night had unexpectedly grown into a towering mountain over a single night! And the dilapidated temple just happened to be situated on top of the mountain! "There are countless strange occurrences in the Western Bull New Continent, what is there to be surprised about?" Grandpa, who was inside the temple cooking, expressed disdain for the youth's loss of composure. Chen Shi, feigning admiration, said, "Grandpa, you have seen and learned so much, you must know a lot. Why has this temple appeared here? Why are both the temple and the mountain buried underground? Also, who built this temple, and who was buried here? Where have these people gone? Why have the temple and the mountain grown from underground at this time? Is this related to the appearance of the curse? Is it related to the sun setting a moment earlier?" Grandpa thought for a moment and said, "Double the dosage at night." Chen Shi obediently closed his mouth and returned to the temple to begin his morning cultivation. He activated the Three Lights Righteousness Technique when suddenly, two unfamiliar forces surged forth, transforming into golden and silver light spots in the air, rushing into his body! Chen Shi was astonished, feeling that these two forces, the golden one like blazing fire, flowed into his body with intense heat, igniting his internal energy and making the refinement of his physical body more efficient! The silver one, however, felt like flowing water, calm and cool, just enough to counteract the scorching of the blazing fire, preventing harm to his body. The two forces were more powerful than the Star Power and, when combined, were much faster than simple Star Power body refinement! "Could this be the solar and lunar righteousness in the Three Lights Righteousness Technique?" Chen Shi wondered. In the past, during his cultivation, he had never felt the solar righteousness and lunar righteousness; why could he absorb these two kinds of righteousness today? Moreover, it was daytime, and the True God outside had closed his third eye; there was no moon now, so where did the moonlight come from? He felt a flicker in his heart, stepped outside the temple, and the solar and lunar righteousness immediately vanished. Chen Shi returned to the temple, where the golden and silver light spots swirled like snowflakes, as the Three Lights Righteousness Technique operated at full power. "Why can I only absorb the essence of the sun and moon in this dilapidated temple?" Chen Shi became even more puzzled, glancing at Grandpa, who was still cooking, and thinking about the doubled dosage, he decided not to ask. Asking might not yield an answer anyway. "I once speculated that the sun and moon during the True King's era are not the same as those now. The sun and moon back then could gather the essence of the sun and moon to cultivate the Three Lights Righteousness. If my speculation is correct..." Chen Shi's expression turned strange, he steadied his mind and whispered, "If my speculation is correct, the heaven and earth in the temple and the heaven and earth outside are not the same!" He took a deep breath and looked up at the sky outside the temple. The sky was clear and blue, with fluffy white clouds. He stepped outside the temple and looked at the sky; the deep blue sky revealed the vast universe, with white clouds floating, devoid of anything. The sky seen inside the temple and that outside the temple were indistinguishable. "Could it be that I guessed wrong?" Chen Shi scratched his head and decided not to think about it anymore and returned to the temple to continue cultivating. The Three Lights Righteousness being practiced simultaneously accelerated his cultivation speed much more than before, his bones and muscles becoming increasingly resilient, his vitality growing stronger, and his internal organs fortifying. When Grandpa finished cooking and called out to him a few times, Chen Shi reluctantly stopped his cultivation. "After the Moon Festival, I must come to this desolate mountain temple to cultivate regularly!" he thought to himself. After the meal, the grandfather and grandson did not return to Huangpo Village but hurried to the next village to sell more talismans for money during the Moon Festival. The Moon Festival lasted three days in total, and on the afternoon of the third day, they arrived at Yanlang Village. The dry mother of Yanlang Village was a stone statue over a zhang high, with eyes that grew hands and hands that grew eyes, quite peculiar. Yanlang Village was built in concentric circles surrounding this stone statue. Yanlang Village was close to Water Buffalo County, only about twenty miles away, but over two hundred miles from New Xiang County. Thus, people from Yanlang Village often went to Water Buffalo County to trade, while the wealthy and dignitaries from Water Buffalo County often came to Yanlang Village for leisure and hunting. By the afternoon, there were not many customers left. Grandpa went to buy medicinal herbs while Chen Shi idly waited behind the stall. At this moment, he heard a voice say, "Do you have Peach Blossom Talismans?" Chen Shi perked up and smiled, "Yes, I do!" The speaker was a young officer in a red dress and horse face skirt, appearing to be in his twenties, sharp and capable, but his eyes were a bit dark, likely due to indulgence in wine and pleasure. "How many do you have?" the officer asked. Chen Shi counted, "Three left." The Peach Blossom Talismans were the best-selling talismans; young men and women often bought these to win the affections of the opposite sex, and they indeed significantly increased the success rate of interactions with the opposite sex, so only a few remained. "I'll take them all." The officer said, "But that's still not enough. Are you a talisman master?" Chen Shi hesitated and nodded. Although he did not possess a divine embryo and could not retain magical power, as long as he activated the Three Lights Righteousness Technique, he could still draw talismans. The officer said, "You come with me, and draw more Peach Blossom Talismans on site!" Chen Shi was still hesitating when the officer tossed him a large ingot of silver, a horse hoof silver, which weighed at least fifty taels. It was the first time Chen Shi had seen such a large amount of silver. He immediately took out his brush, ink, paper, and inkstone, packed them in his book box, called the black pot, and said, "Where are we going to draw?" The officer cast a surprised glance at the black pot and said, "Follow me." Chen Shi slung the book box over his shoulder and followed him, and they headed towards the mountain. Chen Shi asked in confusion, "Where are we going, sir?" The officer smiled and said, "Don’t call me sir, my name is Li Guang, serving my master. Of course, we are going to the mountains. My master is hunting in the mountains and has set up camp. He needs some Peach Blossom Talismans to win over a few young ladies." "I see," Chen Shi said, enlightened. "May I ask what your master's name is? So that I won't offend him when we meet later." The officer, Li Guang, replied, "My master’s surname is Li, from a prominent family in Water Buffalo County." Chen Shi's heart skipped a beat, his heart racing, and his voice became somewhat hoarse, "The Li family from Water Buffalo County? Could this young master Li be Li Xiaoding, the scholar?" His voice trembled a bit. Fortunately, Li Guang did not notice and asked, "Have you heard of my master’s reputation?" Chen Shi quickly steadied himself, lowered his head, and said, "Young Master Li topped the county examination; who doesn't know, who doesn't recognize?" Li Guang laughed heartily, "My master did perform well, but in reality... heh heh, it's just that he comes from a good background." Chen Shi's heart was still racing, blood rushing to his head. Li Xiaoding of Water Buffalo County was indeed the one who had taken his divine embryo, leading him to become a waste! He had originally ranked first in the county examination with a bright future, but was secretly schemed against by the Li family experts, who pried open his skull and took his divine embryo! Since then, Young Master Li had soared to success, while he had become a waste, soaking in medicine and enduring the pain of ghostly hands squeezing his heart, to the point that even his father, Chen Tang, no longer recognized him as his son! He had even forgotten all previous memories, not knowing who his own mother was! Over these days, he had thought countless times about taking revenge, imagining tearing Young Master Li into pieces, and now the opportunity for revenge had finally arrived! "But I'm still a waste, without true energy, unable to use spells... But grandpa has said that my physique has become strong enough to defeat a divine embryo realm constable, as long as I don’t give them a chance to use spells, I might have a chance to kill Young Master Li!" A fierce aura surged up within Chen Shi, but he still felt uneasy, "Can I really kill a cultivator in the divine embryo realm?" He had practiced the Three Lights Righteousness Technique for days, not knowing what stage he had reached, and he truly lacked confidence about being able to kill Li Xiaoding. Unbeknownst to him, he followed Li Guang into the mountains. Li Xiaoding and the others had chosen a camping spot near the water, surrounded by three mountains, with a stream flowing from the mountains, larger than a brook but not yet a river. The first thing that caught his eye was four yurts, three white and one yellow, along with four fine horses. Three officers had stripped off their shirts, leaving only sweat jackets, and were digging trenches and setting up barricades, clearly preparing to build a small camp for the night. They used spells to fell trees and trim branches. Chen Shi saw faint arcs of light flickering in the air, which he could barely make out, but he could see the air trembling slightly, then a tree trunk as thick as a basin fell, making him feel a shiver in his heart. "Grandpa was right; facing spells, one strike and I would die," he thought. The trajectories of spells were invisible, leaving no way to evade. Two other officers were setting up a barbecue stall, laying out some fruits. Another officer was fiddling with a weapon rack, filled with short blades, long spears, bows, and crossbows. In front of the yellow yurt were several lounge chairs, with a sunshade hanging above. In the middle lounge chair sat a young man, plump and weighing over two hundred pounds, dressed in a blue robe, half-unbuttoned, with a white undershirt also half-unbuttoned, exposing his fair, plump flesh. "He must be Young Master Li Xiaoding!" Chen Shi's eyelids twitched. The camp was not large; the three officers setting up barricades were only about three zhang away from Li Xiaoding, the two officers at the barbecue stall were only about one zhang or so away, and the officer by the weapon rack was even closer, less than a zhang away. Six officers, plus the guide, made seven people. Seven people capable of killing him with a single strike! As long as these seven used spells, he would surely die! "Young Master, the talisman master has arrived," Li Guang said, bowing with a smile. "The Peach Blossom Talismans are few; I took the liberty of letting him come to paint them on site." Chen Shi's heart raced, bowing his head, worried that Li Xiaoding would recognize him. After all, Li Xiaoding had taken his divine embryo. The corpulent Li Xiaoding raised his head and, seeing that the talisman master was a boy of only about ten years old, was quite surprised. His gaze then fell on the black pot behind Chen Shi, exclaiming, "And there's a dog! Come here!" The black pot wagged its tail and lowered its head, licking its face as it approached Li Xiaoding. Li Xiaoding tossed it a piece of meat, and the black pot pressed its head to the ground, grinning broadly, wagging its tail in a show of affection. "This dog is good!" Li Xiaoding laughed heartily, completely ignoring Chen Shi. Chen Shi felt relieved, but also a bit angry; Li Xiaoding had not recognized him, clearly having never seen him before. Such a noble son of a powerful family had no need to recognize the pitiful creature from whom he had taken the divine embryo. He only cared about enjoying the benefits brought by the divine embryo, leaving the small matter of taking someone else's divine embryo to others. Li Guang led Chen Shi to a nearby table, about one zhang and eight or nine feet away from Li Xiaoding, saying, "You can paint here, draw twenty pieces. Young Master, will twenty pieces be enough?" Li Xiaoding smiled and said, "The more, the better! A few young ladies from the Ding family of the next county are also camping nearby. If I can win their favor, my status in the Li family will rise significantly. Moreover, the young ladies from the Ding family and Zhao family are quite alluring and make me feel excited; I must win them all!" He sat up, patted the black pot's head, and laughed, "As for you, you will also have a share. Any extra Peach Blossom Talismans will be shared with you. If you can win over those maids from the Zhao and Ding families, go for it!" The officers laughed heartily at these words and worked even harder. Chen Shi set down his book box, took out his brush, ink, paper, and inkstone, laying them out, feeling his mind stabilizing considerably. These seven officers were unsteady on their feet, lacking energy, all drained by wine and pleasure. Despite their ability to kill Chen Shi with a single strike, they had lost the alertness expected of guards! Chen Shi had spent years roaming the mountains and forests with Grandpa, having seen many fierce beasts; those fierce beasts were calm, composed, their bodies relaxed yet ready to unleash a lethal strike at any moment! But these seven officers were far too relaxed, lacking the vigilance of fierce beasts. Chen Shi even felt that he could take down any one of them at any time! "At this short distance, I could reach Li Xiaoding in two steps and kill him with one strike!" Chen Shi surveyed the scene and dismissed that thought. After killing Li Xiaoding, he would not have time to escape, and the seven officers would surely blast him to death with their spells. Suddenly, a bold idea sprang to his mind: "If killing Li Xiaoding would lead to me being killed by the other seven, then what if I took down all seven officers instead?"