I risked my life, using the butterfly effect to shatter the immortal realm.

The hard bed was digging into my bones.

pain.

It's not a physical injury, it's emptiness.

It looked like someone had hollowed out his internal organs and filled them with ice shards.

This is the price for toying with the Nascent Soul cultivator and forcing the Nascent Soul sect leader to admit defeat in the main hall.

Scenery?

It cost me my life.

Yu Liang curled up, wanting to laugh, but the dark "Scar of Divine Retribution" on his chest suddenly tightened, like a centipede burrowing into his flesh.

My Taoist robe was soaked with cold sweat, and the cold was bone-chilling.

"This time... we even lost to God in our underwear," Yu Liang said breathlessly.

boom!

The wooden door was kicked open, kicking up dust.

A strong smell of cheap liquor wafted in.

Gu Santong swaggered in carrying a large gourd, his old eyes shining like phosphorescent fire.

"Not quite dead yet?"

The wine gourd landed on the ground, and the table shook violently.

"Thanks to Master, I can still breathe." Yu Liang was unable to move.

A withered hand reached out and grasped his pulse.

The spiritual energy surged in forcefully, scraping around the body like a steel brush.

Three breaths.

Gu Santong loosened his grip, his face grim.

"Empty."

The old man plopped down on the edge of the bed, staring at Yu Liang's deathly pale face.

"Forget about spiritual power, your body is practically drained of all its vitality. There's just a jumbled mess of rules devouring your life."

Yu Liang remained silent.

As a result of karma, the world is trying to erase his "mistake".

"Kid, you've got some nerve."

Gu Santong tilted his head back and poured wine.

"Deceiving mortals is one thing, but that's the mortal realm, far from heaven. This is the cultivation world, closest to heaven!"

The old man suddenly leaned closer.

His face was covered in wrinkles that looked menacingly squeezed together in the dim light.

"Every time you have that thought, you're stealing right under the nose of Heaven. You're overdrawing your 'existence'."

Yu Liang's fingers stiffened: "Existence?"

"Yes. If someone remembers you, you're alive. If everyone forgets you, you're dead even if you can still breathe."

Gu Santong let out a burp. "After a few more uses, you'll become invisible. By then, even I won't remember you."

Yu Liang fastened the bed sheet tightly.

Being completely forgotten is colder than death.

Even if someone dies, they can still have a grave. But if it's completely erased, then there's really nothing left.

"And that girl too."

Gu Santong gestured with his chin toward the person next door.

From beyond the thin wooden wall came Su Xiu's even breathing.

The silly girl was sleeping soundly, guarding the spirit stone, occasionally letting out a silly, dreamlike laugh; she was probably counting money in her dreams.

"She's your anchor, isn't she?"

Gu Santong's eyes were sharp, like a knife cutting through rotten flesh to reveal the white bones.

"The only reason you're still standing is because that girl is obsessed with the money you owe her. Her obsession keeps you in this world."

Yu Liang's knuckles turned white.

"But she is mortal." Gu Santong's voice was cold. "A mortal's soul is as fragile as paper. The karma you carry is getting heavier and heavier, and sooner or later, that weight will press down on you along that thread."

"By then, before you're even dead, she'll be crushed by your karma."

The old man clapped his hands.

Snapped!

"His soul was scattered and he couldn't even become a ghost."

Yu Liang suddenly looked up, his eyes bloodshot: "Master, are you trying to scare me?"

"I don't scare short-lived ghosts."

Gu Santong scoffed, "Go ahead and lie to me if you don't believe me. Next time, you won't need to wait for divine retribution; when that girl suddenly dies, you'll know whether I was just talking nonsense or not."

The room was deathly silent.

Yu Liang turned to look at the room next door.

That silly girl who dared to fight the law enforcement elder for five thousand spirit stones and threw him the only pancake in the dilapidated temple.

He closed his eyes, his Adam's apple bobbing, swallowing his emotions along with the taste of blood.

When I opened my eyes again, all that remained was resolute determination.

"Master," Yu Liang propped himself up, "I'm not playing this game anymore. I won't lie again until I've paid off my debts."

This isn't admitting defeat; it's cutting your losses.

Gu Santong stared at him, grinning to reveal a mouthful of yellow teeth.

"There's still hope for you."

The old man slapped him on the shoulder. "Now that you've entered Purple Bamboo Peak, stop taking crooked paths. I was a guy who earned my place in the martial arts world with my fists. If you want to survive, you have to rely on real skills."

Yu Liang smiled wryly: "Master, let me be honest. Can my body still be repaired?"

Gu Santong paused, tilting his head to examine him as if he were looking at water-injected pork.

"Repair?" He spat a mouthful of phlegm onto the ground. "Repair my ass."

Yu Liang's eyelids twitched.

"Your so-called 'innate Dao embryo' is just something I made up to fool those idiots."

Gu Santong casually flicked the dirt off his fingernails.

"Otherwise what? Do you think you can lie here unscathed after killing a Golden Core cultivator?"

"Huang Long is a piece of trash, but he has the face of the Qingxuan Sect standing behind him."

The old man took a big gulp of wine.

"To save your head, I slammed my fist on the table seven times with those old geezers on the main peak and signed thirty IOUs. Calling you a 'Primordial Dao Embryo' was just giving them a way out, making them feel that keeping you, this 'genius,' was more profitable than killing you."

"Got it, you little bastard?"

Yu Liang opened his mouth, his throat dry.

He had thought of himself as a pawn to be discarded, but he never imagined that this mad old man had saved his life by clinging to his dignity.

"Master..."

Yu Liang grinned, his expression even more unpleasant than crying.

"Your kindness... I should enshrine you on a memorial tablet and offer incense three times a day, morning and evening."

"Get lost!"

Gu Santong slapped Yu Liang on the forehead.

"Stop with the pleasantries! Paying back the money is what really matters!"

After cursing, the old man's face darkened, and he pointed at Yu Liang's chest.

"As for your body... it's a sieve that lets in the wind, the kind that had its bottom kicked to pieces by the Heavenly Dao."

The voice carried a chilling quality that instilled despair.

"Other people's dantian is a treasure basin, absorbing qi into the body and accumulating into a deep pool. You? You are a bottomless pit. When spiritual energy enters your body, it doesn't even stop, let alone stay; it leaks directly back into the world."

The old man moved closer, his eyes flashing with ghostly light.

"The worst part is that this funnel has suction. The faster it sucks, the more it leaks, and it might even take away the last bit of life force in your bones."

"Cultivation?"

Gu Santong sneered.

"That's like someone who's tired of living, looking for death."

Yu Liangxin sank to the bottom.

Unable to cultivate?

In this cultivation world where Golden Core cultivators are as common as dogs and Nascent Soul cultivators are everywhere, what difference is there between a mortal who cannot cultivate, burdened with debt and countless enemies, and a dead man?

"So...we're just waiting to die?"

Yu Liang's throat was dry.

"Waiting to die is what cowards do."

Gu Santong snorted and reached into his robes, rummaging around for a long time, as if he were scrubbing off mud.

Yu Liang watched longingly.

A peerless secret manual?

Ancient elixirs?

Or is it some kind of heaven-defying magic weapon?

Snapped.

A thin, tattered book with curled edges was thrown on Yu Liang's quilt.

The cover was covered in oil stains and stained with some unknown dried vegetable soup, emitting a strange smell of old paper mixed with braised pork.

Yu Liang carefully picked up the corner of the book, afraid that he would crush it if he used too much force.

By the light, I could barely make out the few crooked, illegible words on the cover, which looked as if they had been written with toes:

Everything can be plated.

Yu Liang: "..."

He looked up at Gu Santong.

"This is... a recipe?"

"fart!"

Gu Santong stared wide-eyed.

"This is a rare book that I, your master, once... cough, once fought with a wild dog for three days and three nights to retrieve from an ancient ruin!"

Yu Liang's lips twitched.

Don't be fooled by the name's rustic feel.

Gu Santong looked serious.

"This thing is all about 'borrowing.' If you can't hold your anger in, then don't hold it in! If your body is a leaky funnel, then let it leak!"

"As long as the energy flowing through your body is plentiful, fast, and powerful enough, even if it all leaks out in the end, it still washes over your physical body, and that's a skill in itself."

Gu Santong scratched his messy hair, seemingly searching for an elegant metaphor, but eventually gave up.

"It's like washing your intestines!"

"You can't hold your poop in, but your large intestine gets smellier the more you wash it!"

Yu Liang felt a churning in his stomach.

That's a brilliant metaphor.

"No one has ever gone down this path before, because normal people don't have a body as bad as yours, nor are they as reckless as you."

Gu Santong stood up and dusted off his backside.

"Whether you practice or not is up to you. I'm out of ideas anyway."

"Either practice this and wash yourself like a large intestine, or just wait here to become transparent and in the end, not even a fart will be left."

After saying that, the old man ignored Yu Liang's reaction and swayed as he walked out, carrying his wine gourd.

He stopped at the door and said something with his back to Yu Liang.

"Oh, by the way, there's an IOU tucked in the last page of that book. It's for the three jars of wine that your teacher owes Liu Ruyan. You can return it to her when you have time."

boom.

The door closed.

Yu Liang was left alone in the room again.

The wind is still blowing, and the lights are still swaying.

Yu Liang looked at the oil-stained book in his hand, "Everything Can Be Played With".

absurd.

It's ridiculous.

He went to great lengths, risked his life, and in the end, the lifeline he found turned out to be a tattered book that required him to wash his intestines.

but……

Yu Liang's fingers gently stroked the rough pages of the book.

This world is inherently absurd.

Immortals look down on mortals as worthless grass, and mortals have to trample their dignity into the mud if they want to survive.

Since the proper path is blocked, let's take the path of madness.

Since we can't retain our energy, let the spiritual energy of heaven and earth flow through our intestines!

Yu Liang gripped the tattered book tightly, a dark, ghostly fire igniting in his eyes.

As long as I can survive, as long as I don't disappear.

He'd accept being used as an intestinal tract, or even a chamber pot.

"You can fool heaven and earth, but in the end, you can't fool your own desire to live..."

Yu Liang chuckled self-deprecatingly and turned to the book that smelled of braised pork.

The very first line of text made his eyelids twitch uncontrollably, as if he could see some old scoundrel making a face at him:

[To master this skill, first treat yourself like a fart and let it go.]