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Chapter 97: Spell
"—You mean the magistrate is dead? Good riddance! I've told him so many times, 'He who seeks the skin of a tiger will surely be devoured by the tiger,' but he wouldn't listen. Instead, he felt that I was always getting in his way of making money."

"—What? Lady Bone is dead too?? Holy crap, nephew, you're amazing! I only managed to beat her half to death back then, I never thought you could actually get rid of her!"

"White Dew is sprouting catkins, oh, it's a pity that it didn't die. However, it lost one of its secondary hearts, so it's unlikely to cause any major trouble for at least another hundred years. Let's let it go for now."

In a side hall of the Taoist temple, Taoist Xuan Yuan sat beside a furnace, throwing in various materials while chatting and laughing with Zhou You.

The dialogue itself is fine, it's the materials that are the problem.
Zhou You glanced at it.

Strange herbs, withered branches, some kind of unknown mushroom—this is rather normal.

Dried reptiles, small animals with tragically dead bodies, and deep purple jerky—this is relatively normal.

The strangely smelling sludge, the still-twitching organs of a wild beast, and the flowers with noses and mouths that spewed curses—it all became extremely eerie.
To be honest, the other party's alchemy technique was far more terrifying than the old Taoist's previous preparation of the corpse worm blood bait soup, but for some reason, Zhou You did not feel the slightest discomfort.

Perhaps it was because Master Xuanyuan's attitude was so frank that people didn't have any extra thoughts about him.

And so, an unknown amount of time passed.

The casual conversation gradually came to an end, while the fire beneath the alchemy furnace grew ever more intense.

Finally, just as the flames were about to engulf the entire alchemy furnace, Master Xuanyuan clasped his hands together and struck down.

The two fleshy palms didn't seem unusual, but the scorching flames seemed to escape the moment they touched them. In the blink of an eye, the flames were extinguished, leaving only a furnace body that had burned to a deep red.

Master Xuanyuan casually lifted the lid, took a broken bowl and scooped out a bowlful, stirred it with chopsticks, and seemed quite satisfied—since he had no head, one could only try to guess his emotions from his body language—but he didn't rush to hand it to Zhou You. Instead, he strolled over to the remains of the old Taoist priest and bowed in greeting.

"Poison Heart, I need to take some materials from you, but it's all for your apprentice's sake, and I don't think you'll care."

After saying that, Xuan Yuan gently swept off a few fragments from between the old Taoist's skulls and put them into the bowl.

Without any movement, the fragments melted silently into the liquid in the bowl, as if they had been thrown into the sea.

Only then did Xuan Yuan Daoist hand the bowl to Zhou You.

"Drink up. Although there isn't enough time, fortunately there was already half a pill left in the furnace. With these things, it can at least simulate about 70-80% of the effect."

Zhou You accepted it.

The next moment, a system notification came.

"Your talent: Eye of the Cause effect activated."

"You have identified the properties of the unknown item."

"Bone soup from the withered tomb."

"Effect: Consuming this soup can relieve the poisoning of taro worms and also prolong life by one year."

[This soup is made from a mixture of many poisonous and malevolent substances, with the final addition of sacrificial remains.] Zhou You didn't look at anything else, but stared at the last sentence.

May his life be extended by one year.

—By the way, how much lifespan did I get from my previous two books?

It's only three and a half months.

This single decoction extended my life by a whole year. Is this the reward for following the old Taoist's path?
Zhou You smiled, picked up the bowl of thick, black liquid, and drank it all in one gulp.

In the blink of an eye, a strange and bizarre feeling that had been deliberately ignored by instinct quietly dissipated from my body, as if a parasite deep in my bones had been easily removed, and my whole body relaxed from the inside out.

Seeing that he had eaten everything, the Taoist Xuan Yuan smiled and said.

"It seems your taro worm curse has been lifted—don't underestimate this thing, it actually belongs to the shell-based path, the most dangerous and treacherous of all methods, and there is a risk of losing form if you are not careful—so let's move on to the second one, I'll find a way to solve your problem of the Yin Ghost's bait song."

The Taoist Xuan Yuan's abdomen throbbed as if he were taking a deep breath, and then he spoke.

"Originally, our Yun Jing Sect used the method of slaying the four ghosts to cut off the four kinds of distracting thoughts and to make offerings day and night to delay the loss of senses. However, this is only a temporary solution. Not only can the amount of yin energy that can be transferred out be limited, but the four heads will become ghosts on the day they are cut off. If you are not careful, the backlash will be minor. Once you become a demon, you will definitely cause trouble for the region."

"For this reason, your grandmaster was killed by my master, and my master was killed by my senior brother. In my generation, I really didn't want such a tragedy of master and disciple killing each other to happen again. So, after much painful reflection, I spent most of my life trying to cleanse the pollution from the chant. Don't underestimate this achievement. For those famous sects, this would be a feat that would be celebrated for decades."

Even with Master Xuanyuan's virtue, his words couldn't help but carry a hint of self-satisfaction when he spoke of this, but Zhou You's brows furrowed deeper and deeper, and finally he couldn't help but ask.

"Uncle-Master, all the cultivation techniques and alchemy formulas I've used, and even those of you, have been permeated with a sinister aura. Could you tell me if this is related to that 'contamination'?"

This question had been weighing on his mind for a long time. From the Night Watch monk Huipu to the old Taoist priest with only one head left, and even to the highly reputable and protective Xuan Yuan Taoist priest, everyone had become accustomed to this strange and inexplicable way of cultivation, just as if...
Is everyone in the world like this?
But the headless corpse only throbbed its abdomen, emitting a sound similar to a sigh, before speaking.

"Well... I really can't answer you, my junior brother. These cultivation methods have always been like this since they were passed down. 'Contamination' is just a general term. Better cultivators try their best to purify the contamination and strangeness in the methods, while worse ones simply let nature take its course and allow themselves to enter the demonic path."

Taoist Xuan Yuan seemed unwilling to bring it up again, and simply changed the subject lightly.

"Forget it, let's talk about these things later. Right now, the most important thing is to resolve the hidden dangers in your body. I'm going to teach you the improved chant now, so listen carefully."

The voice from his abdomen spoke softly, revealing a simple and easy-to-understand scripture. Zhou You stopped thinking about anything else and instead focused his mind, patiently memorizing it.

The conversation ended a few minutes later.

The system notification sounded in his ear.

"Dear player, you have received the improved inheritance of Yun Jing Sect."

"The 'Song of the Yin Ghosts' Bait' has been purified."

"The formula has been changed to: Jing Shen's Food and Sacrifice Song Formula".

(End of this chapter)