Wu Clan, Red City

“I really can’t believe this..” Lu Shimming muttered to himself as he laid on the bed gazing at the shabby ceiling. He was now officially the stable boy at Wu Clang. He had the duty to look after Wu Feng’s horses.

He really wanted to refuse the offer, but doing so would raise suspicion. After all, given his back story, it would be really odd if he declined the offer. Not to mention, Guard Wang was right on his tail.

If they had decided to detain him for an interrogation, and checked him, he really would have been burned alive for possessing Evil cultivation arts.

Well, at least meeting with some people had cleared some of his confusion.. He had talked with the other caretaker in the stable, an old man named Li, and found out a few things.

It might sound unbelievable but three months had passed since he fell down the rotten cliff, and ended up in the Red City. It was named after the famous Red River, which was known for having corpses floating in it.

And, now he knew why..

The River had a connection to the Rotten valley.

Thankfully, he managed to get out of it alive…well..not technically…but it was debatable..

Now, the issue at hand was, the place was under the control of Orthodox faction, and he needed to travel back to the sect while figuring his existence out.

“Let's get some sleep first..”

….

“Swish!”

A figure practiced with a sword, in the courtyard of a mansion. His upper body laid bare, covered in sweat. Yet his gaze, sharp like an eagle, with only a sword in his mind.

“Young Master..” Guard Wang suddenly arrived at the scene with a look of discontent on his face.

“Did you settle him around?” Wu Feng asked as he took the towel to wipe his face.

“I don’t understand why you kept him around. He is as suspicious as one could get,” Guard Wang had a confused look on his face.

“Of course, he is suspicious. That's why I decided to keep him in front of my eyes,” Wu Feng revealed a calm look on his face.

“Wouldn’t it be faster, to just get him to open his mouth after a round of beating?”

“That sounds like a good deal, but are we the unorthodox faction?” Wu Feng asked with a stern look on his face, “What if he dies? No matter how you look there isn’t a trace of Qi on him..”

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“That..” Guard Wang found himself lacking an answer. He was only suggesting torture thinking that the guy definitely wasn’t ordinary. In the end he could only apologize for his hasty judgment and return to his duties.

Wu Feng, on the other hand, stood there. He hadn’t told Guard Wang one thing actually, the reason which made him keep Lu Shimming under his observation. The moment he had made eye contact with Lu Shimming, he seemed to have seen some vision, a river full of dead.

“What in hell was that..Is it related to those weird dreams?” He muttered to himself before picking his sword up again, and swung it under the moonlight.

…

The next morning soon arrived…

Lu Shimming laid on the bed with his eyes open.

He had realized something, the dead couldn’t sleep.

F*ck!

Well, looking positively he had a lot of free time. If he could cry, tears would really be flowing out of his eye, unfortunately he didn’t have that fortune.

Anyway, the whole night had allowed him to figure a lot of things for himself.

First of all, his dantaian was oddly linked to his Spirit Sea, and his eyes. There wasn’t a single drop of Qi in his body, but he could feel something else, the milky white energy.

It seemed to be Spiritual Qi, that he had heard of. But, he knew the current him was not something that he could relate to common sense.

He thought of using this Spiritual Qi to cultivate, but it failed. Fundamentally, Cultivation Qi and Spiritual Qi were two different things, he was already prepared for such a result. But the problem was where would he find a cultivation method suitable regarding his Spiritual Qi.

Did he need to visit the monks of the Taois Sect? After all, they were known for their strong physiques and cultivation of spirituality.

Even if he found one, would it really work on him? After all, he was the total opposite of a monk, if they found that a dead man had walked into their place, they might exorcize him then and there.

‘What to do..the chance to turn around my fate came but in such a manner..’ As he lamented about finding a way, his trail of thought suddenly came to a stop, and he slowly looked below his shabby bed. There it was kept in a pouch, the book made out of human skin.

“I am just looking for some references, you are only evil if you do evil,” He muttered to himself before taking out the book to read.

The Record of Corpse Cultivation!

As he turned the pages of the book, he got a brief instruction about it.

The book was made by the founding father of the Blood Cult, The First Blood Demon.

It talked about how even though the path of cultivation tried to seek immortality, nothing was immortal in this accursed world. Nothing stood the passage of time, and fate would come for them one day.

Death was inevitable.

Would you stand and watch your loved ones die?

In the world of cultivation everything made sense, and didn’t at the same time.

What was right and wrong, moral and immoral..

Who decides the bars..

No one..

If people can be as absurd as seeking immortality, wanting to live forever..

Why can’t one seek to bring back the dead to live again..

If your path is right, so is mine..

This is not the path to seek immortality, but the path of Rebirth.

“The Path of Rebirth..” Lu Shimmind muttered to himself as tiny white flames swirled deep in his eyes, something seemed to hit deep in him. “It doesn’t really sound like a book for heretics..”

But as he kept reading, he was forced to change his opinion a bit.

Even though the words made sense, the path it took was a cruel and inhuman one.

As he completed reading the whole book, Lu Shimming finally realized what his path ahead could be.

The book contained three methods of cultivation for the dead.

Corpse Enhancement

This method included enhancing the corpse through materials, and supplementing its weakness, it was a gruesome method which required butchering and cold bloodedness.

The second was..

Blood Cultivation

As the name suggests, it focused on sucking the blood essence and vitality to increase one’s strength. Though it would increase the blood thirst of the summon, and make it harder for them to control.

And, finally, the last method was..

Yin Transformation

It was basically, using the death Qi which slowly accumulates in a corpse, and transforming it into Yin Qi to grow stronger.

“These are not the methods for me..” Lu Shimming shook his head, the book failed to mention anything about Spiritual Qi which he possessed. But as he read more, and his knowledge on the topic grew, he found something intriguing.

The Book mentioned that when a person died, their Spirit would slowly start to dissipate, and if reanimated in that state, they might be able to remember a few things in the state of madness, before slowly turning into a lifeless puppet.

Aside from this, it also states that there are times when a Spirit fails to find its way to enter the cycle of reincarnation, and as a result it fundamentally starts to change, and this gives birth to things like ghosts and Evil Spirits.

After reading through the whole book, Lu Shimming realized something. It was incomplete.

This book was just a small part of a scripture, which was meant to serve as an introduction to the path of Corpse Cultivation.

‘It would be nice, if I can get my hands on the real scripture..’ Lu Shimming thought as his eyes shone with a light, before he snapped back to reality, “It's only to satisfy my curiosity..”

He had yet to realize his true nature, being weak for so long, losing everything, would he really choose to give up the power which was right in front of him?