The little ghost left. Before dawn, Chen Shi cald his mind and carefully sensed his Nascent Soul.
The Nascent Soul realm is divided into five stages: Great dicine, Yellow Sprout, Infant Formation, Out-of-Body, and Great Completion. From the mont Chen Shi first stepped into the Golden Core realm, his Golden Core had repeatedly gone through the Seven Returns, Eight Transformations, and Nine Reversions, feeding back into his body and cultivating the Great dicine within him.
His foundation was extraordinarily solid, his qi and blood vigorous and abundant. He did not need to refine external cores like other cultivators to serve as Great dicine to assist his breakthrough.
Moreover, his Heavenly Aperture had long been open, so for him, going Out-of-Body was inevitable.
When he cultivated his Nascent Soul this ti, astonishingly, in just a few days he bypassed the Great dicine and Yellow Sprout stages and went straight into Infant Formation and Out-of-Body!
What he lacked was simply the nurturing of the Nascent Soul, to hasten its Great Completion.
When the Nascent Soul grows to about a foot tall, it will be considered Great Completion, and then he can surge toward the Spirit Transformation realm.
Chen Shi circulated and refined his Nascent Soul.
From the Nascent Soul’s perspective, when the Eight Golden Palace gates operate, the Nascent Soul rises from the tail gate inside Chen Shi’s body and soars upward, passing one heaven after another. These are called the thirty-three heavens, but in essence it’s just leaping across thirty-three spinal segnts.
Yet in the Nascent Soul’s vision, the thirty-three heavens truly existed, shrouded in mists, though many of them were filthy.
When it rose to the back of the head, it felt like entering a heavenly palace.
The Nascent Soul reached the crown, and Chen Shi perceived his skull as a great cosmos. On that celestial do, stars were everywhere, the Milky Way spiraled, magnificently radiant.
At the center of the Milky Way sat the Heavenly Aperture, a gate standing tall, its portal wrapped in turning starlight, utterly mysterious.
Crossing that gate allowed projection.
Once projected, the Nascent Soul’s operation beca a Great Circumambulation. Golden Palace gates stood at the eight extres of heaven and earth, within which golden light swirled and condensed into orb-like clusters.
If the Nascent Soul traveled inside the body, rising from the dantian like a tiny Yellow Sprout, it would fly through the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys, as if leaping over the Five Great Mountains, presenting a grand and majestic spectacle.
That ascent was a path: passing through the Crimson Palace (heart), through the Golden Mansion (lungs), into the Twelve-story Tower (windpipe), straight to the Jade Pond (oral cavity), crossing the Divine Bridge (tongue touching the upper palate), entering the Abyss of Heaven (nasal cavity), rising to where the sun and moon are (eyes), entering the Celestial Court (brain within the forehead), and finally flying into the Great Cosmos (top of the head).
If one opened their mouth while crossing the Divine Bridge, one could spray white light from the mouth.
When the Nascent Soul reached the nasal cavity and entered the Abyss of Heaven, one could exhale two powerful breaths from the nose.
When it refined to the eyes, the gaze could shoot two beams of light that reached dozens of yards!
Chen Shi’s Nascent Soul rose to the Great Cosmos, projected out of the body, and he found himself outside his body. He felt as if another self had appeared, like an extra body.
The Golden Core also had perception, but its vision was unclear and hazy, like seeing things by moonlight; visible, but indistinct.
The Nascent Soul, however, had a spherical field of vision that could see in front, behind, above, below, left, and right. It was exceedingly peculiar, and even at night it perceived with great clarity.
More strangely, it could see his internal organs!
The Nascent Soul reached in and passed through his body, ignoring clothing and skin, touching his organs as if it could pluck anything from his belly, while his clothes and skin remained intact!
The Nascent Soul could even pluck out a person’s brain without touching the skull!
“The reason for this strange ability is that the Nascent Soul exists in the void, not standing in the physical world,” Chen Shi thought.
From this point alone one could see how dangerous the Nascent Soul was. Especially Nascent Soul cultivators at the Out-of-Body stage, they could kill and seize life as easily as reaching into a pouch to take sothing!
Chen Shi had slain many Nascent Soul cultivators before and had not considered the realm so terrifying.
It was only when he reached the Nascent Soul realm himself that he realized how wise his previous tactics had been—arranging talismans to summon thunder and gale, or manipulating pregnant livestock to ambush Nascent Soul opponents.
If a Nascent Soul cultivator were allowed to act freely without wind, thunder, or pregnant beasts as traps, Chen Shi realized he would have died in a very clean, direct manner!
“I must remain careful about pregnant won, expectant livestock, strong winds, thunderous weather, and other cultivators’ wind-and-thunder talismans,” he thought.
He was a master at setting ambushes for others; if he slipped up here and went to the underworld prematurely, he would be the one mocked by those Nascent Soul cultivators he had killed.
—Of course, the souls of those cultivators had already been consud by the demonic beasts in his Sea of Consciousness, he just didn’t know it yet.
The Nascent Soul held more uses, but daylight was breaking and Hu Feifei got up to make breakfast, so Chen Shi did not continue exploring.
He offered incense to the Wuwang Spear, picked up that weapon, called Black Pot, pulled out so Silver Notes, and stuffed them to Hu Feifei. “I’ll be gone a few days. Feifei, if Nannan is inconvenienced, you can go to Uncle Hu’s place. I’ll pick you up when I return.”
Hu Feifei led Nannan by the hand to the village entrance and asked, “When will you return?”
“Not sure yet. You two go back.”
Chen Shi waved them off, offered incense to Godmother and Scholar Zhu, then left for Gangzi Village.
A few days earlier he had given the Judge’s Dragon-Whisk Brush’s position on the underworld geography map to Granny Sha, so she could compare yin-yang topography and estimate where the brush corresponded on the yang plane.
“This object’s corresponding location should be around Suspended Rock Island.”
Granny Sha summoned the underworld’s nine-region map and spread it on the ground. The paper vanished, leaving only the mountains, rivers, and lakes of the underworld.
She then overlaid a map of the Western Ox New Continent and pointed to an inland spot.
There lay five lakes like an ocean, called the Five Great Lakes.
The direction of her finger indicated the southernmost edge of the South Lake, called Suspended Rock Island (prototype: Cleveland).
Chen Shi checked the maps, confird the route, morized it, and said, “Granny, I’ll need to enter the underworld on this trip. I can’t do it without your help.”
Granny Sha had once opened a ritual platform and, with Hu Xiaoliang and Blue Goat, entered the underworld in their true forms to search for Chen Yindu. They ran into danger and were rescued by Black Pot, barely escaping death. Chen Shi had been present then and knew the details.
In the use of spells, Granny Sha still surpassed Black Pot.
Granny Sha hesitated, “Little Ten, to be frank, I’ve been struggling these days. My business is slow, I haven’t been able to open my stall, and I’m deep in debt. I planned to lay low for a while and earn so money to pay it off…”
She had her own life but, entrusted by Chen Yindu, had to protect Chen Shi’s safety.
Whenever Chen Shi ran around, she followed him everywhere, and her ager savings had long since been spent.
Chen Shi smiled, “How much do you need? I’ll give it to you. We’re all part of the Celestial Court now. If you ever need money, just take it from .”
He took out one thousand taels of Silver Notes. “Is this enough?”
Granny Sha bead and said repeatedly, “Enough, enough! I’ve never seen so much money in my life.”
She did not lie.
Cultivation itself is a bottomless money pit: daily practice, buying pills, spirit beast at, materials to refine treasures all cost money. Advancing to high realms requires purchasing mountain bases and carving out grotto-heavens—a fortune beyond estimate.
A common cultivator with a hundred taels could be considered wealthy.
Power and money have always been intertwined. To advance, cultivators often join governnt or wealthy houses to access resources for the next step.
Or they take many disciples, found sects like the Taiping Sect or Lu Ban Sect, seize a mountain base, and live off filial tributes from students.
Or they leverage their skills to run businesses like Rouge Lane or Pleasure Woods.
If none of those options exist, so resort to murder, looting, and banditry—actions forbidden by the authorities, bringing the law down and ending up in the Myriad Soul Banner.
Cultivators like Granny Sha, who lived honestly without money-making channels, relied on summoning souls and divination for small earnings—barely enough to survive, no savings left.
“You’ll still have a lot left after paying your debts.”
Granny Sha looked at Chen Shi with a proud, approving gaze and said, “When I go out, I won’t be like that poor Blue Goat. Your Uncle Blue Goat has no money to eat and can nibble grass to tide over hunger, but when Granny Sha is hungry she’d have to drink cold water.”
Chen Shi helped her into the cart and smiled, “Doesn’t Granny Sha have five Ghost Kings? Why not let them transport wealth?”
Granny Sha sat in the cart and saw Chen Shi had laid a soft green cushion inside, apparently prepared especially for her—very considerate. She smiled, “I cultivate the Dao and virtue, not things that offend heaven and morality.”
Chen Shi sat in the cart as well. Black Pot led the way and the wooden cart gradually picked up speed, heading toward the South Lake.
When the cart reached full speed, a breeze rose beneath the wheels and they didn’t touch the ground, as if riding on the wind, with no bumpiness felt at all.
Granny Sha clicked her tongue in wonder and leaned down to look. “Little Ten, what talismans did you use on this cart?”
“Horse Gallop Talisman and Divine Travel Talisman,” Chen Shi said. “I was worried the trip would be long, so I traced them over with Black Pot’s blood.”
Granny Sha glanced at Black Pot. Her old eyes flickered, “This dog is getting more powerful… Can you get so black dog blood for ? I want to try arranging a ritual with it, to see how powerful it becos using Black Pot’s blood.”
“How much do you need?”
“Not much, just one bucket.”
Black Pot bolted like a mad dog and quickly disappeared from sight.
By evening Black Pot stood at a distance, looking up at them but not daring to approach.
Granny Sha complained, “The dog doesn’t even co to cook anymore.”
They made camp at Lingtai Town at the foot of the Henggong Mountain range. Chen Shi went into town and bought several jin of spirit beast at to reward the dog, and only then did Black Pot dare to approach.
Lately Black Pot had been eating more and more; he consud a lot and his expenditure rose.
Chen Shi gave Granny Sha a small half-bowl of black dog blood. “I think Black Pot is still growing. We shouldn’t take too much blood or do it too often, or he might not grow properly.”
Granny Sha looked over and saw the dog was as sturdy as a calf, and he didn’t even like raw at—he stood up and roasted it with fire before eating. She was surprised, “Still growing this big?”
“Only three years old,” Chen Shi said. “He’ll be four after the New Year, so of course he still has growing to do.”
Granny Sha called over a Ghost King to trace the talisman inscriptions for the ritual. Chen Shi sought out the town’s Godmother. This town’s Godmother—a goat-headed, human-bodied spirit—wore Daoist robes and stood about seven to eight chi tall, very imposing.
She had long been exposed to moonlight, and gradually an invading malignancy gave her a brutal, violent edge; within a few years she might turn into an evil spirit.
Chen Shi took her into his small temple and let her assist his cultivation.
The goat-headed Godmother felt frightened at first, but sitting on the shrine she felt the righteous energy of heaven and earth surge in, refining the evil out of her body. Her Dao heart cleared and she felt indescribably comfortable.
With her help, Chen Shi’s cultivation speed improved significantly.
As for Lingtai Town, it did not need a Godmother’s protection to worry about evil spirits invading.
Whenever an evil spirit approached, before it could enter the town it would suddenly be knocked down by a black shadow and dragged into a dark corner to be devoured.
Granny Sha’s five Ghost Kings stood watching, eager to get a share, but even they were not as fast as the dog.
“This dog really seems to be growing,” Granny Sha said with a laugh.
Chen Shi’s current cultivation focused on refining parts of the flesh he couldn’t refine before—for example, the filth in the thirty-three heavens along the spine, places previously unreachable. He needed to mobilize the Nascent Soul to slowly cleanse the filth and restore the clarity of the thirty-three heavens so the physical body could gain longevity.
Granny Sha was also an expert in cultivation. Whenever Chen Shi encountered a problem, he asked, and Granny Sha answered everything, solving many of his cultivation difficulties.
But the Nascent Soul realm was vast, with many techniques and tricks beyond Granny Sha’s understanding. For those questions, Chen Shi had to consult Stone Ji Your Ladyship.
Stone Ji was also a consummate expert, and under her guidance Chen Shi’s cultivation leapt forward.
After several days they finally reached Suspended Rock Island.
Suspended Rock Island lay near the South Lake and was famous for a huge island floating over the water.
From afar Chen Shi saw the gigantic island suspended in the sky, connected to the earth and the lake by massive chains. On those chains were great stones covered with moss and shrubs.
The chains that plunged into the lake were not visible, but those anchored to the ground could be seen.
Chen Shi stopped the cart to inspect one of the chains and found it went straight down into the depths; no one knew how deep. He could sense an extrely ancient force on the chain.
“This Suspended Rock Island is a relic left from ancient tis. We call these things remnants.”
Granny Sha said softly, “Remnants could be older than the True King era. They existed before the Three Treasures Eunuch landed on the Western Ox New Continent. Your grandfather and the others once ca here to investigate. They only found so scattered ancient fragnts—nothing of value.”
Chen Shi returned to the cart and looked up along the chain to the floating island in the lake, marveling at the workmanship.
“Before the True King era, did civilization exist on Western Ox New Continent?” Chen Shi asked.
Granny Sha laughed, “Little Ten, we haven’t even figured out the True King era yet, why worry about earlier tis? Still, your grandfather and the others did find many remnants from ancient tis. So remnants are astonishing, containing unimaginable power!”
Her expression turned serious. “Among the freeholders, Feng Feihua—her golden needle is an ancient remnant. Zen Master Bitter Bamboo’s Golden Body was considered unsurpassed, yet it was broken by that golden needle.”
Chen Shi’s mind drifted, pondering. “What was civilization like before the True King era? They left such potent remnants—whatever their achievents were, they must have been extraordinary! Why then is there no trace of such a civilization, only these remnants?”
Granny Sha opened the map of the Western Ox New Continent to pinpoint where the Judge’s Dragon-Whisk Brush corresponded in the yang world. Suddenly a loud, sonorous voice erupted from the lake, deep and astonishing, making the water ripple and tremble!
The sound was like a dragon’s roar, heavy and penetrating, vibrating people’s chests with fear.
Chen Shi looked toward the lake in alarm and saw many huge flying birds startled, flapping and fleeing.
Behind him the shrunken Wuwang Spear suddenly trembled, its spirit restless, like it might fly out at any mont.
“Granny Sha, do you think things from the underworld can run into the yang plane?” Chen Shi grabbed the Wuwang Spear and suddenly asked. “Could this Judge’s Dragon-Whisk Brush appear in the yang world like Wuwang City did?”
Granny Sha scanned the surroundings. Her face changed, and she said quickly, “It’s bad! Your Uncle A Zhuo, the one who beca an evil spirit, is nearby!”
——The Great Path has been fully booked!
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