Unlimited employment

Chapter 204, Section 203: [Humans are the spirit of heaven and earth, while Gu (a type of poisonous insect) is the essence of heaven and earth]

Chen Sheng stood there catching his breath for a while, letting a thin layer of sweat appear on his forehead, before turning around and fetching a bucket of water from the well to extinguish the flames on the remains and coffin.

He tore a piece of white cloth from the mourning hall, wrapped Tiger's head in it, and went to the gate of the courtyard. He found a Taishan stone pillar at the base of the wall and placed the head underneath it.

He formed the Five Sacred Mountains Seal with both hands, bowed deeply to Shi Gandang in front of him, and muttered incantations.

"By the decree of the Great Emperor of the Nine Heavens Thunder Ancestor, thunder from Mount Tai in the east, thunder from Mount Heng in the south, thunder from Mount Hua in the west, thunder from Mount Heng in the north, and thunder from Mount Song in the center, may the Five Fire Thunder Gods descend swiftly, and may the Venerable Gods suppress evil and dispel misfortune!"

Within the fruit, the belief in Shigandang is extremely prevalent in the area surrounding Mount Tai.

After bringing a stone guardian into their home, people often offer incense and sacrifices to it during the four seasons and eight festivals, using the sacred stone to protect the house, guard the door, ward off wind, prevent floods, ward off evil spirits, stop evil influences, and eliminate disasters.

Having this kind of stone in a household is like having a small household deity. It can change the feng shui on a small scale, dispel the yin, gloom, decline, illness, and death energy in the surrounding area, and gather the energy of life, yang, fortune, and luck.

Of course, the stone guardians of a small, humble family only have this much effect; they can't even intimidate those insignificant demons and ghosts.

Just because you can't deal with a complete demon doesn't mean you can't exorcise the lingering resentment in a zombie's head.

The "Taishan Stone Guardian Evil-Slaying Incantation" that Chen Sheng is currently using is a method of borrowing divine power that is widely circulated among martial artists in the Qi-Lu region.

It is often used by warriors to annihilate the stubborn evil power in the remains of demons and monsters after they have killed them.

Standing at Tiger's door, Chen Sheng recited the incantation five times in a row, and a few faint sparks of electricity began to appear out of thin air on the seemingly ordinary stone.

The next moment, crackling electricity coalesced into a thin beam of light, which shot into his hands as he formed a hand seal in the blink of an eye.

The moment the current entered his body, he endured the stinging, burning, and tingling sensation of the current piercing his cells, flipped his palm and pressed down hard, shouting in a low voice.

"We respectfully beseech the revered deity to annihilate him with five thunderbolts!"

Sizzle—an electric current struck Tiger's head.

Where lightning flashed, the head that should have been dead suddenly opened its eyes, staring intently at Chen Sheng as if it had regained its sight, while opening its mouth, silently trying to say something.

Unfortunately, as thick black energy emerged from Tiger's seven orifices, he fell silent once again.

This time, Tiger is really dead.

And the stone guardian that his family had worshipped for more than ten years eventually exhausted all its power.

Chen Sheng sighed, squatted down, and closed his colleague's eyes with his reddened palms.

"Brother Tiger, there's no need to thank me for this act of salvation. I will avenge you and your sister-in-law."

After that, he carried Tiger's head, put the remains back into the broken coffin, picked up his knife, went to the main house, and unlocked the room.

Behind the door, his sister-in-law stood gracefully in the moonlight, looking at him with slightly red eyes.

"I noticed that Tiger's coffin is broken. Let's go to the coffin shop tomorrow and buy another one."

Chen Sheng nodded, then pulled her into his arms and spoke softly.

"Does your fake wife ever feel sorry for her zombie husband?"

The moment those words were spoken, Chen Sheng reached out and grabbed the other man's neck.

His hands, honed from years of martial arts training, were strong and powerful, digging deep into the flesh and turning the woman's beautiful face a purplish-red color.

"Crunch...crunch..."

A weak groan escaped his throat, and his two fists, which already lacked strength, struck Chen Sheng, gradually becoming weaker and weaker.

During her near-death experience, the woman's appearance began to change, and she quickly wriggled into an unfamiliar, alluring form. Although she was still beautiful, she had a vulgar and lewd air about her.

It's obvious that she's not Tiger's real wife.

The Tiger Brother I knew in my previous life was just an ordinary gangster; how could he have the financial resources and connections to set up magic to protect his wife's chastity?

The curse inflicted on the original body through sexual intercourse is likely the method this woman used to harm her predecessor.

Moreover, the Taoist priest who detoxified Tiger's corpse was an old friend of the Canal Gang. For the sake of future business, he would definitely remove the poison from the corpse very thoroughly.

Tiger's sudden transformation into a zombie was likely due to something this woman did while he was outside.

"To be old and not die is to be a thief." Chen Sheng, having lived to such an old age, understood these things the moment he saw the information on the panel.

His feigned friendship with the woman was merely a pretense to first eliminate the zombie that Tiger had turned into and to check if any of the woman's accomplices were lurking nearby.

When he climbed onto the beam of the mourning hall to hide from Brother Tiger, he had observed the surrounding environment and made sure there was no one near the house before deciding to attack the woman.

As for whether the woman is a skilled fighter?
This woman first tried to harm people with Bili's curse. When that failed, she tried to get rid of him with zombies. She went to such great lengths to do this in secret. How skilled can she be?
Even so, the cautious Chen Sheng still chose to launch a surprise attack and capture his opponent.

He grabbed the woman by the neck and lifted her up for a while.

Seeing that the time was right, he threw the woman to the ground, stepped on her chest, and pressed his knife against her fair neck.

"Did my sister-in-law take something from me?"

The woman lay on the ground, coughing a few times in a disheveled state, gasping for breath. She quickly raised her head and looked at Chen Shengdao with a pale face.

"Don't kill me. We're all from the martial world. I was blind to your greatness and have been defeated by you today. I accept this defeat."

Since I failed and you suffered no loss, please, for the sake of our past marriage, have mercy on me.

As she spoke, she shook her head slightly, and a dark red bead the size of a longan fell out of her coiled hair. She spoke urgently.

"The elixir of immortality that I stole is right here. As long as you release me, you can do whatever you want."

You've already experienced my skills in bed. If you spare my life, I promise I'll serve you to your heart's content tonight.

As she spoke, the woman tore a large hole in her mourning clothes, revealing a very alluring view.

Chen Sheng cooperated by focusing his gaze on it, the sharp blade slowly moving down his line of sight. He licked his lips, seemingly somewhat tempted.

"Tell me about your background."

Seeing that she could live, the woman immediately forced a charming smile onto her face.

"I have no background whatsoever. I am merely a lone swallow from the Yan family, wandering the world just to make a living."

I recently wandered to Linqing and heard that one of the gangsters had died, leaving behind only a beautiful widow.

She planned to pretend to be a widow, using her beauty, talent, and connections to swindle a few elixir pills to sell for money.

Unexpectedly, and quite unfortunately, it has come to you.

Chen Sheng didn't believe a word the woman said. He smiled faintly, tore strips of cloth from his mourning clothes, crumpled them into a ball, stuffed them into the woman's mouth, and lightly cut her throat with a knife, beginning his interrogation.

Having lived a long time and possessing expertise in human anatomy, he also had some unique methods for interrogation.

……

After a long time.

Having confirmed that there were no toxins or curses on the elixir, Chen Sheng took the elixir out of the woman's mouth, washed it with clean water, dried it with his clothes, and held it up to his eyes.

In his predecessor's memories, he obtained this Immortal Seed Pill when he was twelve years old, after passing the branch's assessment.

The outer shell of this pill is extremely hard; it cannot be damaged by knives, drills, axes, or heavy crushing, and it looks as if it is made of metal.

However, after being swallowed for many years, the previous body diligently practiced martial arts every day, and was able to absorb spiritual energy by using the elixir as its core, breaking through the limits of the human body and gaining the strong body it has now.

The predecessor once heard an elder who distributed pills in the branch say: Humans are the spirit of heaven and earth, and pills are the essence of heaven and earth. Only when humans and pills are united can one begin the path of cultivation.

As an essential ingredient for cultivation within this fruit, the Immortal Pill is naturally extremely valuable. The Cao Gang stipulates that no matter which disciple dies, the pills they have ingested must be retrieved.

"If I'm not mistaken, this thing should be the origin of my [Parasitic Gu Dao] profession."

Since the name contains the character for "Gu," could the so-called "Immortal Planting Pill" be the egg of a Gu worm?

Chen Sheng pinched it with his fingers and found that the elixir was indeed hard and indestructible.

He stood there for a moment, considering the matter, but ultimately did not take the pill again. Instead, he sat down cross-legged and began his first spiritual practice in this world.

Visualize your mind as still as water, meditate on the presence of all things within yourself, and you will instantly enter a meditative state.

But after maintaining this posture for a moment, he was surprised to find that the soul of the person in the fruit seemed to be somewhat unusual, and was completely unable to sense and absorb the spiritual energy from the outside world.

Chen Sheng opened his eyes, stood up, and practiced a set of hand-to-hand combat techniques from beginning to end. However, he was also disappointed to find that the people of this world also had some kind of defect in their bodies, making it impossible for them to purify and condense their qi and blood.

“I understand now. People in this world actually need to rely on external objects to cultivate. The words spoken by the elder of the Cao Gang should be: Humans are the spirit of heaven and earth, and Gu is the essence of heaven and earth.”

Chen Sheng smiled faintly and swallowed the elixir in one gulp.

Upon meditating again, I instantly sensed the abundant spiritual energy from the outside world. I guided the spiritual energy into my body, where it circulated within my Yin spirit, forming an extremely illusory imprint.

Based on his hundreds of cultivation experiences in the Divine Court world, it would take him at most a few days to master the first Daoist technique.

At the moment the Gu egg entered his stomach, a panel popped up in front of him, and the data was updated.

[Career 2]: Parasitic Gu Dao (Flesh Cultivation Period)

Level: Lv1 (1/100)

Talent: Body with Gu Seeds

Gu Seed: Blood Fetus Gu
Status: Wind Spell
[Body with Gu Infestation]: The body can accommodate various Gu insects with different attributes for parasitism without causing any conflict.

[Blood Embryo Gu]: A first-tier Gu worm whose innate talent is to greatly enhance and purify the essence and blood of the parasitized, and can also be used to open the path of life cultivation.

"It's a Gu worm that mainly targets physical enhancement, but judging from the description, its effects are quite mediocre."

Cultivation is not something that can be accomplished in a day, and one cannot rush it.

After seeing the panel, Chen Sheng pressed on the lower abdomen of the woman next to him, then pushed upwards, taking out a milky white Immortal Seed Pill from her body and swallowing it again.

He felt a slight tremor in his abdomen, and a new Gu seed appeared on the panel.

[Disguise Gu]: A first-tier Gu worm whose innate talent is to control changes in physical appearance. It can also be used as a key to unlock the path of life cultivation.

"Each type of Gu worm possesses a unique innate talent. Doesn't that mean that the more Gu worms one possesses, the more spells one can have?"

The cultivation system for this fruit is rather interesting.

A thought flashed through Chen Sheng's mind, and he immediately turned his attention back to cultivation.

……

That night, Chen Sheng stayed overnight at Tiger's house. In his spare time, he found the body of his real sister-in-law and placed it in the same coffin as Tiger's.

The next morning, after daybreak, he finished his training, locked the gate of Tiger's house, and headed towards the Linqing branch of the Canal Gang.

Walking along the street next to the canal, you can see that even in the early morning, all the restaurants, hotels, inns, and teahouses along the street are already open for business.

On the green-tinged canal, boats of all sizes were stuck in front of the closed customs gate, while the boat captains busily greeted the customs officials and checked their goods.

On a dock further away, dozens of shirtless laborers were unloading goods.

On a street that wasn't too crowded in the early morning, an exceptionally strong man was carrying a small, pretty chick on his shoulder as he ran.

As the man ran, he shouted, "Manager Wang of the Qin-Jin Chamber of Commerce spent five taels of silver to have Xiu'er with him for the whole night, five times in a row, and he didn't return until early in the morning."

This is a brothel fashion that was brought from the Jianghuai region via the Grand Canal.

When a customer orders chicken at a restaurant or at home, you should shout it out loud to spread the word and make the customer feel proud.

Of course, only mid-level prostitutes would act this way; for higher-class prostitutes, the brothel would send a sedan chair to their door, and the transaction would be more refined.

This is Linqing.

As one of the few T-junctions on the canal, Linqing was a veritable major town for canal transport during the Ming Dynasty, thanks to its superior geographical location.

The southwest of this area is the southern section of the Yongji Canal, which connects to major cities in the Central Plains such as Luoyang and Kaifeng at its end. The numerous tributaries along the way can radiate their influence to southeastern Shanxi, southern Hebei, and northern Henan.

To the north lies the northern section of the Yongji Canal, which passes through important canal towns such as Dezhou, Cangzhou, Tianjin, and Tongzhou, eventually flowing into the capital city.

To the south, it connects to densely populated and economically prosperous prefectures and counties such as Xuzhou, Yangzhou, Suzhou, and Hangzhou, and finally extends into the Yangtze River basin, connecting to major grain-producing provinces like Hubei and Hunan.

The boatmen pulling boats on the canal, the porters carrying heavy loads at the docks, the soldiers guarding the water warehouses, the river workers dredging the canal, the merchants coming and going, and the staff of the service industries such as casinos, brothels, and inns operating along the banks, all contributed to Linqing's permanent population of over 400,000.

To facilitate the appointment of officials, the Ming Dynasty divided the prefectures and counties across the country into four categories: "busy, complicated, tiring, and difficult".

"Chong" refers to a strategic location with frequent transportation; "Fan" refers to the prosperity of all industries and a dense population; "Fei" refers to delayed tax payments and arrears; "Nan" refers to the fierce local customs and the difficulty in dealing with troublesome people.

When local officials hold office, a place that has all four requirements is called a "most important vacancy", three requirements are called a "key vacancy", two requirements are called a "medium vacancy", and one requirement is called a "simple vacancy".

In the assessments over the years, Linqing was always described as a place of great importance, prosperity, and chaos.

(End of this chapter)