Chapter 18
Liu Meng returned to the cells after a long absence. Nine men were still locked up here.
Qin Shuang had always thought Liu Meng had already lost two people, since she had twice sent someone to die in her place.
But Qin Shuang didn’t know that those two were both clones of the main body. No matter how many were lost, he could keep summoning more.
By contrast, the men locked in these cells were a finite resource. Each one lost meant one fewer. They really were somewhat “precious.”
Besides, although she was in a demonic sect, she wasn’t a demonic cultivator. When faced with truly innocent people, she couldn’t bring herself to send them to their deaths.
Most of the men before her were huddled on the floor. Those who had already been given Yang-Attracting Pills were doing their utmost to circulate their cultivation arts and suppress the yang energy in their bodies. Those who hadn’t taken the pills seemed much more at ease, but their eyes were just as full of worry as they fretted over what fate awaited them.
Liu Meng walked up to them and asked bluntly:
“Who among you has killed someone?”
“I have a task. Whoever completes it and comes back, I’ll guarantee his safety and help him embark on the path of cultivation.”
The men in the cellblock looked at one another. None dared to be the first to step forward.
No one knew whether this “task” Liu Meng spoke of meant a nine-in-ten chance of death or certain death.
When no one answered, Liu Meng’s brows gradually drew together.
Such a subtle movement made the men tremble all over, as if an invisible pressure had descended upon them.
After a long while, a gaunt man finally stood up:
“I’ll go.”
The other men were all stunned. None of them seemed to have expected that someone would actually dare to accept the task, unafraid of death.
Liu Meng looked at him with interest. He seemed vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t quite remember why.
She shook her head and stopped trying to figure it out. After giving him some dry rations, she sent him to Three Talents Market to buy materials for making talismans.
From what Liu San had seen at the Treasure Gathering Pavilion, one Three Talents Coin was enough to buy a large quantity of low-grade talisman materials—more than enough for her to practice to her heart’s content.
But a mortal could only travel so fast on foot. The round trip would probably take a very long time, even if he made it there and back safely without incident.
All Liu Meng could do was wait patiently.
After an unknown amount of time, the familiar system prompt finally sounded as expected.
[A new day has arrived. You may summon a new clone.]
“Summon a clone!”
Liu Ming didn’t hesitate for a moment and immediately began the summoning.
The new clone was named Liu Wu. Liu Ming still gave him nothing, since he didn’t have anything worthwhile to spare.
Just then, he suddenly furrowed his brow.
—Wait. He’d forgotten something.
The system had once said that when a clone died, it would generate a Talent Ability and return it to him.
But why... hadn’t Liu San and Liu Si brought back any Talent Abilities when they died?
No, that wasn’t right. Liu San hadn’t died. He’d merely been taken under Three Talents Market’s control and turned into a mindless laborer. It was only natural that he hadn’t brought back a Talent Ability. But Liu Si had died on the spot. Why hadn’t his Talent Ability returned, either?
Could it be... Liu Si wasn’t dead yet?
But if that was the case, why couldn’t he sense Liu Si’s presence?
Liu Ming thought about it for a long time but couldn’t figure it out, so he put it aside for now and decided to investigate the truth later.
The most important thing now was Liu Wu.
Liu Wu had an utterly ordinary appearance, the sort of person you wouldn’t pick out of a crowd.
But he was still a mortal, with no means of protecting himself in this perilous demonic sect.
So the first thing to do was improve this clone’s cultivation...
So far, Liu Ming had only mastered one cultivation art.
That was the Profound Female Art.
It had to be said: the Profound Female Art was actually very well suited to him.
Liu Wu was a man, with abundant yang energy in his body, while Liu Meng was a Qi Refining cultivator at the first layer. The yin energy within her far surpassed that of an ordinary woman.
If Liu Wu practiced dual cultivation with her, the results would surely be twice as good with half the effort!
He immediately sat cross-legged, while Liu Meng gently placed her soft, boneless hands against the center of his back.
Boom!
An incomparably pure stream of Taiyin Qi surged from Liu Meng’s palm into Liu Wu’s body. At the same time, Liu Wu began circulating the Profound Female Art, whose methods he had already mastered.
Yin and yang, two forces, collided and melded fiercely in his dantian, instantly resonating with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth!
Vast quantities of spiritual energy were drawn in, pouring frantically into Liu Wu’s body.
In just a moment, one strand, two strands, three... ten strands of spiritual power took shape in his dantian at an incredible speed!
“Break!”
Liu Wu gave a low cry in his heart and guided those ten strands of spiritual power toward the final bottleneck separating mortals from cultivators, launching an assault!
With almost no resistance, an invisible barrier shattered with a thunderous crash, and a powerful aura far beyond that of a mortal burst from Liu Wu’s body.
The first layer of Qi Refining—achieved!
Feeling the unending stream of spiritual power surging through his body and the strength with which he could draw upon the spiritual energy of heaven and earth with every gesture, even he couldn’t help staring in astonishment.
He had never imagined the demonic sect’s cultivation arts could be this powerful!
Entering the Qi Refining Realm was actually this easy!
It suddenly occurred to him that if the demonic sect’s higher-ups hadn’t deliberately monopolized resources and denied the mortals they kept captive any opportunities, the Profound Female Art was so powerful that many of them might have become cultivators in no time.
But that was never going to happen.
In this dog-eat-dog world, no one would help a stranger for no reason. And even if someone did, they would have an ulterior motive—perhaps to turn you into another exploited laborer in the caves of Three Talents Market...
Only Liu Wu—only the clones summoned by Liu Ming—could receive such completely selfless help from the main body and another clone, without reservation and regardless of the cost. Only they could safely and swiftly go from mortals to cultivators!
This was perhaps his greatest advantage in this demonic sect!
After Liu Wu broke through, Liu Meng slowly withdrew her hand.
Not only had she suffered no loss, but the balance of yin and yang had also completely stabilized her previously somewhat shaky cultivation.
But she was still a long way from reaching the second layer of Qi Refining.
It seemed that the spiritual power needed to advance each layer of Qi Refining differed enormously. It was no easy feat.
By this point, the man who had gone to Three Talents Market to buy materials still hadn’t returned.
Liu Wu stopped waiting. He planned to investigate the place Qin Shuang had mentioned and recruit a few mortals.
With his current cultivation at the first layer of Qi Refining, he could move as fast as a galloping horse when going all out. In just half a day, he had crossed mountains and valleys and arrived in an unfamiliar region.
It was a vast plain. Unlike the Profound Female Sect, this place seemed to have a fair bit of life.
A main road ran through the plain, and a sizable mortal town stood beside it.
Most of the town’s buildings were made of bluestone and wood, and looked as if they had been standing for some time. People came and went along the streets. It wasn’t exactly bustling, but neither was it lifeless.
This was Wangxian Town!