Chapter 31: Demonic Cultivator

Chapter 31: Demonic Cultivator

Pei Jie: "Five characters? You saw five characters?"

Shang Yunduo: "Mm."

After Pei Jie’s question, he wasn’t so sure anymore. "Isn't it five?"

Could it be Pei Jie hadn’t lied to him, and it was actually three?

Were two of the characters particularly wide?

Then he thought again—no, that couldn't be right. According to the demon race’s writing system, it couldn’t possibly be "Illusion Art" written as several characters. They didn't even have characters!

In that case, it didn't matter what it was called.

Looking more closely, this Illusion Art seemed far more complex and intricate than the previous Body Tempering technique. The "characters" were more chaotic, with strokes not connected to each other, just dots of varying sizes. At least with Body Tempering, he could imagine the lines as movements. But these dots? After staring for just a short while, his head was spinning.

Each "character" was like a small space, and the dots moved unpredictably within it—up, down, left, right, jumping, disappearing, appearing, flickering—forming a dynamic maze. He stared intently at one "character" for a long time, but couldn't tell how many layers were nested inside.

Pei Jie took the hide away from him, and the dots still swarmed before Shang Yunduo's eyes.

"Don't look at it too long."

Shang Yunduo nodded, looked outside, and felt a little dizzy. He quickly grabbed the window frame to steady himself.

"Did you see anything?"

"Mm." Shang Yunduo didn't know how to describe it.

If earlier, reading Body Tempering felt like the characters turned into little figures boxing and dancing, and it was like mushroom poisoning, now it felt like the whole world had become a mushroom-induced hallucination. Or rather, like an effect diagram of a light spectrum.

He remembered a classmate from the fine arts department saying that when they drew too much in middle school, everything on the street looked like line drawings—trees, flowers, buildings, even people, all as if they were sketches. That was how he felt now, except the world wasn’t a sketch—it was abstract.

Trees weren't trees anymore, but something flowing in the shape of trees.

The sky wasn't the sky, but splashes of oil painting in different colors.

He blinked, regulated his breath and spiritual power, and the world returned to normal. But there were still many colorful little dots floating before his eyes, like eye floaters.

People say many animals see the world differently from humans. He wondered if the same was true for the demon race. Who had written this Illusion Art? If he looked at it too much, would he be assimilated and influenced by it?

But still...

Shang Yunduo couldn't help asking, "Senior, is this really a cultivation technique?"

"Mm?"

Shang Yunduo: "Isn't it just some demon cultivator who observed the stars, had a great epiphany, and decided to become an astronomer, or maybe devote himself to art or philosophy?"

Pei Jie: "..."

What was an astronomer?

What were art and philosophy supposed to mean?

Shang Yunduo was curious. "Senior, what did you see?"

Pei Jie: "Sand."

Shang Yunduo: "Huh?"

Pei Jie: "Flowing sand, or water."

Shang Yunduo was stunned. "Ah! That makes sense!"

But it was too irregular.

Compared to water, it really was more like sand—chaotically moving grains of sand.

If each character was a bottle of sand...

"So, what am I supposed to look at?"

Mantis Fist or Tongbei Fist were based on observing the movements and habits of mantises or apes—at least they were about actions. What was he supposed to observe?

He couldn't just learn a remarkable technique by observing a bottle of random sand, could he?

He might as well look at the stars.

He complained silently to himself. This demon cultivator senior was truly born in the wrong era; he should have studied physics instead.

Pei Jie: "I don't know."

Shang Yunduo: "You don't know?!"

Pei Jie: "Mm."

Shang Yunduo: "Then how did you determine it was a technique?"

Pei Jie: "I didn't know before, but later I was chased a few times by its original owner, and after finding out what he had lost, I understood."

Shang Yunduo: "???"

Ah!

No wonder!

No wonder earlier, when Pei Jie said he didn’t know any demon race yet had their technique, his tone had sounded off. So that was the kind of "knowing" he meant!

He stared at the hide for Illusion Art, suddenly curious about the origin of that Body Tempering technique. Had it come from a legitimate source?

Shang Yunduo asked with concern, "Senior, if I practice this, will the demon race recognize it and come after me?"

Pei Jie scoffed. "If you can't learn it, naturally no one will know. If you can learn it, why should those who can learn be afraid of those who can’t?"

Shang Yunduo: "..."

That makes sense!

He might not even be able to learn it, so why worry about that?

Was this the bearing of a late-stage villain?

Shang Yunduo felt envious.

Compared to this, that Body Tempering technique with discernible moves was more likely to be recognized...

If the demon race found out he was practicing their techniques, would they also come after him?

Huh?

Shang Yunduo suddenly remembered that demonic cultivators were already being hunted.

If human cultivators found out he was learning a yao technique, they might hunt him too.

"...Huh?" Shang Yunduo's eyes widened in shock. Demonic cultivator—right, he was already a demonic cultivator.

No, no, how did he become a demonic cultivator?

Pei Jie had him practice the demonic Body Tempering technique.

It was because his meridians were damaged and he couldn't practice anything else.

His meridians were damaged because he had practiced the wrong technique.

He had practiced the wrong technique because he didn't know his meridians couldn't handle that.

And he didn't know he couldn't handle it because...

He just didn't know!

Fine, nobody's to blame. Definitely not him or Pei Jie.

But just because he practiced a technique that suited him a little, that made him a demonic cultivator?

What the hell, this is insane.

He hadn't set fires or killed anyone.

Demon my ass.

Ridiculous.

Amid his wild thoughts, he suddenly heard the sounds of beast roars and fighting below.

He leaned out the window and looked down, seeing several Qi Refining cultivators in the same disciple uniforms hunting a beast.

After several days of focusing on healing, he had almost forgotten they were still inside the secret realm.

During the days he had spent keeping to himself, messing with bees, teasing toads, getting stung, and taking medicine, the competition within the secret realm had entered its final stages. Most of the survivors had gathered near the central mountain range, and the ground below was often marked with traces of past battles.

Their flying carriage could go invisible, but Pei Jie didn't seem interested in hiding, nor in meddling.

Shang Yunduo asked, "Senior, are we heading straight to the Floating Cloud Flower?"

"Mhm."

Shang Yunduo filled the box with spirit stones.

Not stinting on spirit stones, their carriage was fast and spacious inside. They didn't stop to rest that night. Pei Jie wanted to cultivate, so Shang Yunduo took the initiative to keep watch, sitting at the front and flipping through records related to the Floating Cloud Flower.

Maybe because he was also preparing for Foundation Establishment, the information collected by Bai Li and Lou Dengge was fairly abundant. Lou Dengge had even added tips on avoiding illusions, likely gathered from within the sect.

In the dead of night, everything silent, a fog had arisen within the secret realm. The stars in the sky and the mountains on the ground became hazy and indistinct. Shang Yunduo hummed, and without realizing it, he started thinking about the Illusion Art book he'd looked at during the day.

"Illusion Art..." Shang Yunduo muttered, taking out the scroll and rereading it.

Now those dots kinda looked like the stars that appeared and disappeared in the thick fog.

Just not as pretty as stars, and not as steady either.

What if he just followed one dot?

Shang Yunduo started looking at the first "character" again, trying to focus on the movement of one small dot.

No good – it keeps disappearing.

The movement was random too.

He lost track and switched to another dot. Before he knew it, dawn had arrived.

When Pei Jie called him, his eyes were full of little stars moving everywhere. Fortunately, the morning fog was thick enough that his little stars were flickering and fading in the white mist, as if the "characters" he had stared at all night had expanded to fill the entire world.

"Snap out of it." Pei Jie's voice filtered faintly into his ears.

Shang Yunduo looked at Pei Jie, his eyes slowly focusing. The little stars in his vision gathered, shifted, scattered, and condensed into Pei Jie.

Shang Yunduo: "..."

"Snap out of it." Pei Jie tapped him on the forehead. A cool wisp of spiritual energy seeped in, and Shang Yunduo yelped "ow!", covered his head, and crouched down. "Senior, you pressed right on the bump on my head!"

Pei Jie: "..."

Who told him to wrap up his head like that?

Shang Yunduo finally snapped back to reality. He shook his head, ears still ringing.

Then his nose itched. He rubbed it and came away with blood on his fingers.

Shang Yunduo: "..."

After fumbling around in a panic, he removed the cloth covering his face, and Pei Jie checked again his body and meridians.

"No big deal. You just overworked your Spiritual Sense."

Shang Yunduo nodded.

You need to be at Foundation Establishment to consciously control your Spiritual Sense. Shang Yunduo was just too absorbed, pushing it too hard without realizing it.

Only when Pei Jie said that did he feel the headache—dizzy, swollen, throbbing.

"Go lie down."

"Mkay."

Shang Yunduo swayed on his feet as he walked into the carriage. He didn't even make it to his seat, and lay down directly on the floor.

Pei Jie gave him some kind of pill, and after taking it, his head felt much clearer.

Shang Yunduo: "Thanks, Senior."

Pei Jie: "Before Foundation Establishment, you can study the Illusion Art for at most one hour a day."

Shang Yunduo mumbled "Mm-hmm." "I thought it was just a little bit. Didn't realize it'd been so long." If only he could get this into studying... Anyway, forget it. His parents and grandparents would definitely suspect he was up to something bad, pretending to study to avoid punishment.

Shang Yunduo turned sideways, facing Pei Jie's direction, unconsciously using the tone he used when coaxing his family: "I'm really not cut out for studying. The moment I get into it, I come down with a fever."

Pei Jie: “...You’re just worn out, not running a fever.”

Shang Yunduo: “Then what should I eat to recover?”

Pei Jie: “Be quiet and go to sleep.”

Shang Yunduo: “I can’t sleep.”

Seeing Pei Jie raise his hand, Shang Yunduo quickly turned over, closed his eyes, and faced away from Pei Jie: “I’ll sleep, I’ll sleep. I haven’t slept a wink all night—I’m dead tired!”

Soon enough, he actually fell asleep.

His body relaxed, and his neatly placed arm dropped down. His breathing grew heavier. Pei Jie took out a divining compass (Luopan) only to find Shang Yunduo had already rolled over again, going from lying straight as a rod to curling up like a monkey. His hand groped a couple of times, grabbing Pei Jie’s leg, and his body followed, squirming a bit to rest his head on Pei Jie’s foot.

Pei Jie: “...”

He recalled a junior disciple who once raised a spirit dog that loved to sleep with his head on his owner’s feet.

It had been spoiled rotten, broke its owner’s foot, and never learned its lesson.

Pei Jie pulled his leg free, took a thick garment, and placed it under Shang Yunduo’s head as a pillow.

Shang Yunduo slept like a log until he woke up because he was too hot.

Opening his eyes, his entire face was buried in warm, fluffy fur.

He pressed on the soft fabric and sat up, and realized he was hugging a thick, heavy cloak with his head pillowed on it. No wonder he was so hot.

“You awake now?”

“Huh? Yeah.”

Shang Yunduo rubbed his eyes; the carriage seemed to have stopped. “Senior, where are we?”

Pei Jie: “About half a day away from the Central Mountain Range.”

Shang Yunduo: “Are we gonna discuss a battle plan?!”

Pei Jie glanced at him. “A plan?”

Shang Yunduo: “The plan to pick the Floating Cloud Flower!”

Pei Jie said flatly, “What kind of plan do you need to pick a flower?”

Shang Yunduo: “Huh?”

Pei Jie paused, then played along: “You go in, don’t believe anything you see, kill anything that comes near, then pick the flower, come out, and we leave.”

Shang Yunduo: “...Ah?”

That’s a plan?!

Where’s the strategy?

The tactics?

Just go in, come out?

Even in a game, you discuss who plays what role—top lane, mid lane, jungle, or support. You don’t just say, ‘Start the game, charge in, win’?

His groggy brain latched onto the key point. Pointing at himself, he asked in disbelief, “Me? I’m the one picking the flower?”

Pei Jie: “Or should I go?”

Shang Yunduo: “...”

He scratched his nose. “Then I guess I’ll do it.”

Shang Yunduo’s cultivation couldn’t sustain using higher-level techniques for long. The Fish Demons around the Floating Cloud Flower were water-attributed. Although water overcomes fire, Shang Yunduo was at the peak of Qi Refining with a Heavenly Spirit Root, so he was less likely to be trapped than Pei Jie, who was only at the Fourth Layer of Qi Refining.

Pei Jie: “No rush. First, go ahead and grab something else for me.”

“Huh?” Shang Yunduo looked out, and saw that several groups were fighting in the valley ahead. The spiritual energy of some of them felt familiar. Taking a closer look at their robes—Taiyuan Sect?!

Shang Yunduo instantly snapped to attention. “Senior, what should I grab?”

Pei Jie: “The Bone-Replacing Vine.”

“Oh!” As long as I’m not sent to take the heads of those Taiyuan Sect disciples.

Author’s Note:

Today, the answer to last chapter’s Option A is revealed. Ah, almost everyone chose C! [Laughing and crying]

——————

Yunduo, another shocking day—I’ve become a demonic cultivator? (Can’t believe it.jpg)

Hanging out with a villain and becoming a demonic cultivator? Nothing strange about that (jk).