My experience of grinding in another world

Chapter 352 Neighbors
"A secret technique?" Chen Mu asked, fiddling with the silver ring on his chest.

When he mastered the first set of talismans for condensing the aperture, his brow tingled with heat.

Since the changes in the secret acupoint between his eyebrows from practicing the Spirit Armor Technique were not significant, he didn't pay much attention to it.

Now that the second set of talismans has been mastered, another secret aperture has appeared in the chest.

"So it turns out that condensing apertures is not just about condensing magic symbols and divine apertures within the jade seed space, but also about opening up secret apertures to transform the body." Chen Mu understood after briefly reviewing the insights gained from mastering the Yellow Springs General Principles.

The secret passage in the chest has an internal space about the size of an egg.

It cannot be seen or touched, but it certainly exists.

It overlaps with the body, yet exists in a different dimension.

"But isn't magic power white?" Chen Mu looked at the black, misty magic power floating in the two secret apertures.

"And these strange patterns."

Sun Wuhuan also practiced the Yellow Springs General Principles, but he didn't have any silver markings on his body.

"Is it because of possession by the Five Ghosts?"

When the Five Ghosts possess you, faint silver thread patterns will appear on your skin.

After pondering for a while without finding a solution, and with the insights gained from the gray wall not indicating any danger, Chen Mu simply left it aside.

Instead, he became very interested in studying magic and talismans.

Inside the jade, two silver hollowed-out spheres are nested together, each rotating randomly.

With a thought, the hollowed-out silver ball immediately began to spin rapidly.

A rainbow of light stretches across the land!

Suddenly, tiny specks of starlight appeared around him.

Then the starlight began to rapidly rotate around him, faster and faster, until it suddenly merged into one.

A pulling force suddenly enveloped his entire body, and Chen Mu's feet slowly left the ground. He was enveloped by a white sphere of light and floated in mid-air for one and a half meters.

"what!"

When he first arrived in Yunzhou, the first thing he saw when he stepped ashore from the Tongtian River was Song Wuji, shrouded in spiritual light, soaring into the sky.

I decided then and there that I had to master that skill no matter what.

After five and a half years of twists and turns, I have finally begun to fulfill my original wish.

"Once I condense two or three more layers of divine aperture talismans, I will be able to fly through the air like Song Wuji."

On a whim, Chen Mu flew around in circles in the secret room for half an hour before finally stopping, still feeling unsatisfied.

They emerged from the underground chamber.

Chen Mu lay down in the rocking chair by the window.

Holding a wooden cup of cool tea in my hand, listening to the gentle dripping of the small waterfall not far from the window, I felt completely at ease.

"It's just a nine-layered magic talisman, it will only take three and a half years at most."

"At that time, I will be able to soar through the air just like Song Wuji did back then!"

"At that time, we will be able to travel to and from the Azure Sky, and roam the Northern Sea in the morning and the Cangwu Mountain in the evening!"

"Then I can fly to the Red Sleeve Brothel to sleep with pretty girls... cough, listen to some music!"

"I don't know if it's the fluffy ears that make the singing sound better, or the soft, melodious voice of the bushy tail. Oh well, we'll find out when we hear both."

Thinking about it this way, Chen Mu wished he could immediately sneak into the secret room to continue his cultivation.

After trying for quite a while, he finally lay back down in the rocking chair with a regretful look on his face.

I just finished practicing, and my mind is still very tired. I won't be able to enter a meditative state again until the afternoon.

Just as I was pondering the lunch menu, I suddenly heard a commotion of people coming and going.

Chen Muqi stepped outside and looked to the west.

"New neighbors have arrived?"

Two or three hundred meters away, there was a wooden building where four or five people were carrying various furniture and household items in and out.

"We'll have to be more careful from now on," Chen Mu said, frowning slightly.

Two or three hundred meters is not a long distance; if you're not careful, the other party might discover some of your secrets.

"Let's sink the secret chamber another ten meters tonight," Chen Mu thought to himself.

"Perhaps we could also visit the Hall of Craftsmen," he said thoughtfully.

The massive and complex protective barrier was crafted by the Hall of Hundred Crafts.

There might be a hallucinogenic barrier there that separates the inside from the outside.

……

at dusk.

Chen Mu had just finished dinner and was sitting by the window, watching the view of the small waterfall to aid digestion.

A series of footsteps sounded in my ear.

"Senior Brother Liu?" Chen Mu walked to the door and looked at the honest-looking figure in front of him with surprise.

"Junior Brother Chen?!" Liu Hongyang was equally surprised: "I didn't expect that Junior Brother would choose this wooden building."

"So you're my new neighbor." Chen Mu glanced at the wooden building several hundred meters away and said with a look of realization.

This Senior Brother Liu is the same senior brother who explored the water veins and dug out the vein points together in Misty Mountain.

The opponent's finger strikes the ground with incredible skill, moving as if he were a fish in water.

"What, Senior Brother originally liked my wooden building? How about we switch?" Chen Mu said with a smile.

The two had spent more than a month together in the dark underground, and when they met again, they became familiar with each other in just a few words.

"No need, no need..." Liu Hongyang waved his hands repeatedly.

"I was originally worried that the neighbors would be difficult to get along with, and I wanted to find a quiet place to live."

“But since Junior Brother Chen is here, then there’s no problem. It doesn’t matter where we stay,” Liu Hongyang said with a smile.

……

A moment later, inside the wooden building.

Chen Mu and Liu Hongyang sat at the coffee table, drinking tea and reminiscing.

Remembering Liu Hongyang's background in the Hall of Crafts, Chen Mu's heart stirred, and he tentatively asked, "Senior Brother, did you come here for, um... digging a tunnel?"

What he said was cryptic, but Liu Hongyang understood and didn't hide it: "It was indeed for digging a tunnel."

As expected, it was all for the purpose of constructing a protective barrier around the mountain!
But Eagle Sorrow Cliff has been destroyed for almost half a year, and the protective barrier for the mountain is still not completed?

Liu Hongyang leaned closer and whispered, "It is said that the terrain of Misty Mountain is complex and unique, echoing Jade Spring Mountain from the south and north respectively, so the restrictions need to be more special, and the construction will take a long time."

Chen Mu suddenly realized.

Thinking back now, Yuquan Mountain and Yingchou Cliff are indeed on the same north-south line.

He immediately tensed up.

Eagle's Sorrow Cliff has no protective barriers?! What if local cultivators take advantage of the situation and set up a demonic altar? What if they create another Eagle's Sorrow Cliff incident like what happened at Misty Smoke Mountain?
“Junior Brother, you don’t need to worry about the safety of Eagle Sorrow Cliff.” As if seeing Chen Mu’s worries, Liu Hongyang smiled and comforted him.

"Our Elder Sun displayed his divine power and cleared the area within a hundred miles. Now, no barbarian dares to cause trouble at Eagle Sorrow Cliff."

Upon hearing this, Chen Mu's expression turned strange.

Unable to find himself, Sun Jian directed his anger at the local cultivators of Eagle Sorrow Cliff, which inadvertently created a safe environment for himself.

Killing Sun Chengye actually brings this benefit?
Well done, Elder Sun!
Chen Mu smiled and teased in a relaxed tone, "Senior brother, you're only arriving now. I'm afraid you won't earn much from setting up the restrictions. You'll probably only get a small portion."

"Who told me to know the Sun brothers?" Liu Hongyang said with a helpless expression.

Sun Wuhuan and Sun Chengye?
Chen Mu was taken aback.

“Our Elder Sun is far too suspicious.” Liu Hongyang said with a wry smile, “Just because he had some involvement with my two brothers, he was thoroughly investigated, which is why it has been delayed for so long.”

"What's going on?" Chen Mu asked, feigning curiosity.

"It was that little Daoist discussion that Sun Wuhuan organized. He said there was a tortoise shell recording ancient restrictions at the meeting, so I went."

"But after I finally got my hands on it, I painstakingly deciphered the ancient script, only to find a strange story full of gods and ghosts, with no restrictions whatsoever. I was cheated out of a huge amount of Daoist Jade for nothing."

"But because of this large sum of money, the Sun family suspected that I might retaliate, so I was detained and interrogated repeatedly."

"Ugh, what bad luck..." Liu Hongyang looked gloomy.

Chen Mu immediately looked at the other person with sympathy.

Fortunately, I only spent a little bit of Taoist cultivation to buy Ge's Herbal Notes, so I wasn't suspected at all.

Otherwise, they might be interrogated like this, and they would definitely be exposed then!

However, almost half a year has passed, and Sun Jian still hasn't given up investigating?!
Old man Sun, this won't do.

How can someone as skilled as you be so petty?
So what if I killed two unworthy descendants of your Sun family? Is it really worth investigating for so long?

Chen Mu smacked his lips: "This Elder Sun is indeed strong, but as for his character, tsk tsk, I don't think he's very good."

"It's really not that great." Liu Hongyang looked like he had hit the nail on the head, his face full of agreement.

……

Brother Liu disappeared after living in the new house for less than two days.

Chen Mu understood that the other party had probably gone underground to participate in the construction of the mountain protection barrier.

"Senior Brother Liu, you'd better work hard! The sooner you complete the barrier, the sooner I can put my mind at ease," Chen Mu thought happily as he played with the Yangcha Bone Ball.

In the following days, Chen Mu returned to his peaceful life, continuing to drink soup and clear his mind every day.

He gives two lectures a month and practices making two batches of elixir in his spare time.

Their strength has steadily improved, and they are living a very comfortable life.

Apart from occasionally missing the ladies at Hongxiufang, I have no other worries.

……

That day, Chen Mu finished his morning cultivation and, as usual, sat by the window to admire the small waterfall not far away.

Holding a wooden teacup filled with ginger and milk-flavored Huiyuan soup, he took sips from time to time, looking completely content.

To maximize the effect, Chen Mu divided the daily dose into three servings.

As I made more of it, my skills improved, and the flavors became more varied.

He had just eaten a bowl of spicy soup in the morning, so at noon he replaced it with ginger milk curd.

Three familiar footsteps reached my ears, and soon after, a knock came at the door.

Wang Heyuan?
Why are those three here?

Chen Mu got up and welcomed the three apprentices in.

Before Chen Mu could ask any questions, Wang Heyuan handed over a wooden box.

Chen Mu opened it out of curiosity and found a box full of white jade coins. At a glance, it looked to be at least a thousand.

"This is..." Chen Mu asked, puzzled.

Wang Heyuan smiled broadly: "This is a thank-you gift for you."

"We don't know what you need, so we can only send some ordinary gifts to express our feelings. We hope you won't mind."

Not at all, not at all. These days, who would complain about having too much money?

But why give a gift for no reason?

Chen Mu suddenly had a thought and looked at Wang Heyuan in surprise: "You guys..."

"Please take a look, senior brother." Wang Heyuan and the other two smiled broadly and each handed over a pill that was a mixture of black and white.

Chen Mu suddenly realized what was happening and picked them up one by one to examine them.

"The alchemy furnace is too hot, and the qi inside is unstable. I still need to continue practicing the Wind and Fire Pivot Incantation."

"The essence of the five grains is not pure, and the Qi-gathering incantation is still lacking in refinement."

"The pills and elixirs lack roundness, and the golden pearl talisman is not complete enough..." Chen Mu pointed out several flaws in a row.

Upon hearing this, the three of them blushed deeply, glared at Chen Mu, and bowed, saying, "Senior Brother is right!"

Ah……

Chen Mu chuckled softly.

"There were quite a few mistakes, but I've still managed to get the hang of it."

"After all the hardships, you can now go to the Pill Treasure Pavilion to take the alchemist exam."

"It's all thanks to our senior brother's guidance!" Wang Heyuan and the other two immediately beamed with joy.

The experience gained from proficiency tests is still as reliable as ever.

Chen Mu waved his hand smugly: "I didn't help much, it was all thanks to your own hard work and accumulated knowledge."

At this moment, Chen Mu also understood the three people's purpose.
"Are you planning to go back to Yuquan Mountain?"

"Yes, we really need to change our identity as soon as possible."

Compared to a master alchemist, a junior alchemist's status and income are vastly different.

"But isn't it unsafe to travel on the road?" Chen Mu thought of the rumors he had heard over the past few months.

"Senior brother, you may not know this, but as long as we avoid the vicinity of Liulian Mountain, there shouldn't be any major problems," Wang Heyuan explained with a smile.

"Recently, those Dongling barbarians have been fighting to the death with Liulianshan. It is said that they have secretly gone up the mountain and caused a lot of damage."

"The attack on the transport team some time ago was due to the impact of the situation near Liulianshan."

"Elder Sun cleaned up the area around Eagle's Sorrow Cliff so thoroughly that there isn't much of a problem."

"As long as the transport team avoids the Six-Linked Mountains, they will at most encounter some small-scale harassment. With the protection of the senior brothers from the Patrol Academy, they will not cause much damage at all."

Chen Mu raised an eyebrow.

Elder Sun has truly made great contributions!

But the transport team is alright now? Why are the herbs at Hongcaotang still so expensive?
Hey!
That bastard shopkeeper cheated me out of my money!

(End of this chapter)