Chapter 71 Youthful Spring Robes (Seventeen)
The far south is an island with a complex terrain at the southernmost tip of the Pingze Continent. Unlike the Pingze Continent, which is rich in spiritual energy and has a spring-like climate all year round, this place has very little spiritual energy, and the four seasons change distinctly. It is mostly inhabited by ordinary mortals and is not suitable for cultivators.
The desolate cemetery where Jiang Gu is located is the place with the harshest climate in the far south. It is where cultivators who have had their cultivation destroyed and exiled are buried. There are only two seasons a year, autumn and winter, and for half the year, it is surrounded by ghost tides. Hundreds of ghosts roam at night, and living people stop in their tracks. Even if a cultivator stays here for a long time, without spiritual energy to circulate, he can only end up being devoured by ghosts.
Wei Feng was completely unaware of this. Jiang Gu led him to cultivate under the tomb. Although the place was small, the spiritual energy was very abundant. He simply thought it was a strange but suitable place for cultivation.
Although he was trapped in a puppet shell, his primordial spirit was intact and he had a single spiritual root. In addition, his primordial spirit was personally guided by Jiang Gu to fight against Mahayana stage cultivators twice, which was much more effective than teaching him step by step. Such an incredible opportunity was simply rare and hard to come by.
Therefore, he calmed down and his cultivation speed was not slow. However, no matter how fast he cultivated, he was not a genius and could not surpass the cultivation speed of ordinary cultivators. Compared with a cultivation maniac like Jiang Gu with a terrifying Dao heart, he was worlds apart. After a few days, he got stuck and could not advance even half a step forward.
Taking advantage of Jiang Gu's break, he scrambled up to his knees with his short legs, looking distressed, and said, "Master, the spiritual energy circulation in my dantian is getting slower and slower. I don't know what's wrong."
He clung to Jiang Gu desperately, naturally because he liked him and wanted to be close to him. But at the same time, he also greatly admired Jiang Gu, especially after he learned that Jiang Gu was Zhou Huaiming. Putting aside their personal grudges, Jiang Gu's ruthless and decisive style was exactly what he wanted. Especially after personally experiencing Jiang Gu's strong Dao heart, this admiration reached its peak.
Whether it's his superior appearance or his formidable inner strength, he is exactly what Wei Feng dreams of. There is no one more perfect than Jiang Gu in the world.
If he could learn even a tenth or a twentieth of Jiang Gu's skills, he would definitely be able to roam freely in Pingze Continent in the future. Only a fool would let go of such a powerful master.
Jiang Gu frowned slightly and separated a wisp of spiritual energy to probe his primordial spirit, "Establish the Dao Heart."
Wei Feng was taken aback. "Now?"
"Why don't we wait until you ascend to immortality?" Jiang Gu said calmly.
"..." Wei Feng stared at him blankly for a long time before suddenly realizing that it was sarcasm, and silently slid down his clothes.
Jiang Gu looked at the dejected little wooden puppet sitting beside him and subtly curled the corners of his mouth.
Although it is said that one should establish a Dao heart in the middle and late stages of Foundation Establishment, it is not very meaningful for Wei Feng's current physique. However, he does not mind letting Wei Feng try more, so that he can at least train his character.
His original plan was to use the artifact to secretly cultivate in seclusion, then put away Wei Feng's body and temporarily preserve Wei Feng's primordial spirit in the puppet to ensure that the person would not die. After he came out of seclusion, he would forcibly infuse him with cultivation and form a Daoist partner contract. However, Wei Feng's betrayal directly disrupted his entire plan.
Jiang Gu had no intention of teaching Wei Feng anymore, believing that the boy was stupid, weak, and unlikely to amount to anything. However, his willingness to burn his bridges and perish together with Wei Feng surprised everyone.
He was naturally angry, otherwise he wouldn't have crushed Wei Feng's body directly. But at the same time, he found the guy more agreeable. He was so decisive and ruthless at the crucial moment, and afterwards, no matter how much he hated him, he could endure humiliation and try to please him for his own benefit. He did have some resilience.
Such a person is suitable to be forged into the knife in his hand.
Wei Feng was completely unaware of his plans. While he was still unable to break through, Jiang Gu lifted him up from the ground.
"Master, don't leave me." Wei Feng nervously hugged his hand, and the ghost patterns on his body quickly pierced into his wrist, firmly adhering to his bones.
Blood seeped down his wrist, soaking his snow-white sleeve, but Jiang Gu didn't even blink. "The ghostly white-eyed creature inside you feeds on negative emotions, including resentment. The ghost tide in the desolate graveyard will stop for three quarters of an hour every two hours, leaving blue and white ghost stones on the ground. Collect as many as you can, understand?"
"Ah..." Wei Feng blinked slowly, then quietly withdrew the ghost runes. One of them even wiped the blood off Jiang Gu's wrist sheepishly, and said happily, "I'll remember that, Master!"
Jiang Gu threw the person out without any mercy.
About eight or nine hours later, the entrance to the tomb was knocked on. Jiang Gu opened it, and a large pile of dark stones poured in, almost burying him. Wei Feng then controlled the little wooden puppet to jump down.
The wooden puppet was radiating ghostly energy, its ghostly tentacles gleaming black. It plopped down on a pile of stones, patted its belly, and let out a satisfied burp. It said with a hint of smugness, "Master! Is this enough?"
"Hmm." Jiang Gu originally only needed two or three pieces, but he unexpectedly collected so many. The Nether Stone is the remaining phosphorescent bone after the soul of a vengeful ghost is scattered. You can imagine how much this guy has swallowed, his belly is bulging.
Wei Feng toddled down the pile of stones with his short legs, his eyes sparkling as he asked, "Master, what are you going to do with this Nether Stone? Are you going to reshape my body?"
“The dark and cold stone is not suitable for body shaping, and—” Jiang Gu glanced at him but did not continue.
Moreover, he had already reconstructed Wei Feng's body and put it into the spirit pet bag, but he just thought that Wei Feng looked more pleasing to the eye among the little wooden puppets.
"And?" Wei Feng bent down and picked up a piece of ghost stone, which was almost as big as him. He picked it up and tried to hand it to Jiang Gu. "Master, this was left by the most powerful ghost. Here you go."
Jiang Gu reached out and took it, then slashed open the left wrist adorned with the black jade bracelet. Instantly, the skin tore open, revealing the stark white bone. Wei Feng was splattered with warm blood, staring at him in terror. "Master, what are you doing?! I... I promise I won't put the ghost mark inside again—"
He turned pale with fright and frantically tried to cover Jiang Gu's wound, but Jiang Gu grabbed his primordial spirit and pulled it out of the little wooden puppet shell.
The sinister and ferocious primordial spirit was instantly exposed to the air. Wei Feng's white pupils rolled around, and he couldn't help but swallow hard as he smelled the blood in the air. His reason was still struggling, but his long, forked red tongue had already licked Jiang Gu's wrist.
A sharp burst of spiritual energy grazed his tongue, and Wei Feng quickly withdrew his tongue, covering his mouth in horror.
Jiang Gu took off the blood-soaked black jade bracelet, broke it in two, and one half transformed into a mermaid's fang. He used it to hold Wei Feng's chin, ignoring his struggles, and pressed it against the broken fang on the right side of his mouth. The blood-stained black jade was frighteningly black, and it was almost integrated with Wei Feng's primordial spirit. The four fangs were now symmetrical, which was barely "good-looking".
Wei Feng was in excruciating pain as the black jade was pierced into his primordial spirit, but his tongue still refused to behave, blatantly licking Jiang Gu's neck vigorously.
Jiang Gu was focused on forcing the black jade to acknowledge two masters and was concentrating on transferring his essence blood. He had no time to pay attention to Wei Feng's little tricks. However, when Wei Feng wrapped his tongue around his neck, Jiang Gu lifted his eyelids and gave him a lukewarm look.
Wei Feng reluctantly let go, his tongue sweeping across the veins on the side of his neck, and then quietly licking his earlobe.
The scent on my master is getting better and better.
As a divine artifact with a spirit, Mo Yu probably thought Jiang Gu was crazy, refusing to acknowledge two masters and even more unwilling to hide its true form in a filthy and lowly primordial spirit. However, Jiang Gu didn't care what it thought, and roughly held it down and beat it up. The dignified top-grade divine artifact was beaten until it was dizzy and disoriented, and finally succumbed to Jiang Gu's tyranny, obediently transforming into fangs and embedding them in Wei Feng's primordial spirit.
Wei Feng, still a little dazed after being put back into the puppet, opened his mouth and touched his two symmetrical little tiger teeth, asking in confusion, "Master, why did you give me the divine artifact again?"
"Once the major sects and families of Pingze know I've obtained a divine artifact, they'll definitely pursue me relentlessly." Jiang Gu sat cross-legged on the ground, his eyes lowered as he continued to use the dark stone to pick at his wrist bones. Blood dripped onto the ground, but his expression remained unchanged, and he even had the mind to look up at him. "Want some?"
Wei Feng swallowed hard and shook his head vigorously.
“The flesh and blood of a cultivator in the Void Refinement stage are highly nourishing for improving cultivation. It would be a waste if you didn’t drink it.” Jiang Gu threw the piece of meat he had cut off onto him. “Weren’t you just craving it? Eat it.”
Wei Feng held the bloodied piece of flesh, his scalp tingling. He could even feel Jiang Gu's body temperature on it. He shook his head in horror, his voice trembling, "Master, what are you doing?"
Why would you cut off your own flesh and blood?!
“Exposed divine artifacts are easily detected by those with high cultivation levels. If we split the divine artifact in two and hide it inside our bodies, it will be very difficult for others to detect it unless we die.” Jiang Gu saw his cowardly appearance as he held the flesh and blood, wanting to get closer but not daring to. He picked him up and placed him beside him, wrapped the fresh flesh and blood in his spiritual power and threw it into his arms. “Eat it, don’t waste it.”
Wei Feng's eyes reddened, and he shook his head vigorously.
Jiang Gu broke off a small piece of bone from his wrist, shaped the half of the black jade into the bone, and replaced it. The black jade instantly grew together with the broken bone. Then, Jiang Gu covered the empty wound with a layer of spiritual power and lifted his blood-soaked wide sleeve to cover it. "If I ever get a treasure and have nowhere to hide it, I will use this method. If I have a trustworthy person, it would be safer to split it in two and hide it."
He pinched a small, bloody piece of bone and tapped it on Wei Feng's head. "Got it?"
Wei Feng nodded, then shook his head frantically, about to cry. Jiang Gu frowned slightly, then used his spiritual power to refine the flesh and bones into pills and forcefully stuffed them into Wei Feng's mouth. Before Wei Feng could react, a surge of spiritual power flowed into his dantian.
“Throw these useless dark stones away,” Jiang Gu said.
So Wei Feng, with red eyes, started huffing and puffing as he transported the dark stones out again.
After he finished moving the stones, Jiang Gu had already entered a meditative state. The dark stone he had used to carve out flesh and bones was left behind, and faint blue light appeared on it, silently covering the wound on his wrist.
Wei Feng was astonished. Remembering his earlier teachings, he secretly took a dark stone and tried to put it in his pocket, but he forgot that he didn't have a storage bag. Just as he was in a dilemma, Jiang Gu's indifferent voice suddenly sounded behind him: "The dark stone is useless to you. You can hide a piece of your own bone. You can cut flesh from your own bone without damaging your cultivation."
Wei Feng was stunned for a moment, "But Master, why did you use..."
He suddenly stopped halfway through his sentence, looking at Jiang Gu's wrist in horror.
“My left arm is made of dark stone, so it’s perfectly fine,” Jiang Gu said casually, as if he were just explaining something perfectly ordinary.
But Wei Feng seemed to have glimpsed a small part of his past, and couldn't help but lean closer, standing on tiptoe and boldly touching his arm. "Why didn't you let the broken bone grow back?"
For someone who has cultivated to the level of Jiang Gu, the ability to regenerate flesh and bone should be an extremely common thing.
Jiang Gu picked him up and placed him in front of him, his gaze cold and gloomy. "The moment I was born, half of my body was devoured by a vengeful ghost. How can something that never existed grow?"
Wei Feng stared blankly at him, and then large tears fell down his face, splashing a luminous pearl all over his hand.
Jiang Gu had only intended to scare him, but to his surprise, he actually cried, which made him feel utterly bored.
Wei Feng sniffed and looked at him with a determined gaze. "Master, I will definitely find you a good set of bones in the future."
"..." Jiang Gu left him aside, no longer in the mood to tease him.
During this period of time, he explored for a long time and has only found out that this artifact can protect the primordial spirit at critical moments. Last time, when he was undergoing a great tribulation, it was this artifact that protected his and Wei Feng's primordial spirits. Otherwise, given the intensity of that tribulation, they would definitely not have survived.
This alone is enough to make the cultivation world flock to it.
The far south is sparsely populated, and those people may not be able to find this place. Although it is possible to cultivate here, the spiritual energy is too scarce, so it is not a place to stay for long.
Wei Feng, on the other hand, was like a fish in water here. Every day, without Jiang Gu's prompting, he would climb out of the tomb to devour the fierce ghosts. Although he still hadn't established his Dao heart, his cultivation progressed rapidly, and he broke through to the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment in just a short period of time.
For Jiang Gu, this tribulation was nothing, and he naturally passed through it safely. Afterwards, he became increasingly dissatisfied and spent most of the day in the ghost tide, causing the fierce ghosts to start circling the tomb and not daring to approach it. However, Wei Feng, relying on his small size, would always suddenly appear and kill them unexpectedly, and for a time the ghost tide in the far south was greatly reduced.
A month passed in the blink of an eye.
That day, Wei Feng ate until his belly was round and full. He imitated his master, walking back with his hands behind his back. But he forgot that he had short arms and legs. He strolled around like a black ball of dough. He was about to go home when a ferocious ghost rushed towards him menacingly.
Wei Feng was so excited that ghostly patterns appeared all over his body, eagerly clinging to the delicious food. The vengeful ghost immediately screamed, "My lord, spare me! My lord, spare me!"
Wei Feng was stunned. He had eaten so many vengeful ghosts this month, but this was the first time he had encountered one that could speak. He frowned and asked, "Who are you?"
"I am but a lowly ghost cultivator from this desolate graveyard, who has only recently gained some cultivation." The other party bowed repeatedly, "I just happened to be passing by to visit an old friend and inadvertently offended you, sir. I hope you will forgive me!"
Having been tricked by Jiang Gu for so long, Wei Feng didn't believe a word he said and was about to devour him when he caught a glimpse of the direction Jiang Gu was pointing. It was the nameless grave where he and his master were hiding. Wei Feng was stunned for a moment, and curiosity overcame his wariness. He asked fiercely, "Do you know who is buried in this grave?"
"Of course I know." The ghost cultivator trembled with fear, stammering, "This grave contains the remains of Gu Qinghui, the third young lady of the Gu family. She was exiled here more than thirty years ago, you..."
He sized up Wei Feng. The puppet's age was indiscernible, so he assumed it was a powerful figure hiding his identity. He said, "You must know the Jiang family. Miss Gu's husband is from the Jiang family, but I don't know why she was exiled here while pregnant. I was once taken care of by the mother and son here, so I come here every year on the anniversary of their death to visit Miss Gu."
Wei Feng was stunned. "Then do you know what Miss Gu's child's name is?"
“I don’t know. This child was born in a desolate graveyard, where it was difficult to raise without a name. Although the Third Miss was highly skilled, she almost couldn’t protect him. Shortly after the child was born, he was nearly swallowed by a ghost tide. The Third Miss risked her life to save him, but unfortunately, she perished a few years later. After that, the child disappeared without a trace and probably died young…” The vengeful ghost rubbed his hands and begged for mercy in a low voice, “My lord, this is all I know. If you ask around, any vengeful ghost that has stayed for a long time will know these things. Please spare my life. If my soul is scattered, I won’t even have the chance to be reincarnated.”
"Most of those who perish are simply scattered souls; they only seek this life, why bother with the next?" Wei Feng sneered.
"You are a great cultivator. I was just a mortal in my previous life. After death, I received this opportunity from Miss Gu and her son. Please have mercy on me and spare me." The ghost cultivator bowed repeatedly, tears streaming down his face.
Wei Feng hesitated for a moment, but finally released the ghost mark. Upon seeing this, the vengeful ghost immediately turned into a wisp of black smoke and disappeared in front of him.
When he returned to the nameless grave, his emotions were extremely complicated. He stared at the mound for a long time before opening the entrance and jumping in.
Inside, only a dim luminous pearl emitted a faint light. Jiang Gu sat cross-legged in the corner, and the faint light made his profile appear particularly cold and stern.
“Master, I’m back,” he said.
Jiang Gu ignored him as usual.
Wei Feng didn't bother him. He rubbed his round belly and, imitating him, sat cross-legged on the other side to meditate. Jiang Gu suddenly opened his eyes, reached out and pulled a piece of dark blue paper figure from his back.
The little paper figure struggled and screamed desperately in Jiang Gu's hands, but was mercilessly crushed into dust.
"You spoke with those vengeful ghosts?" Advisor Jiang asked.
Wei Feng was startled and frantically touched his back. "I happened to run into a vengeful ghost on my way back. I was going to devour it, but it kept begging for mercy—"
"You're just going to let it go?" Jiang Gu frowned.
"Hmm." Wei Feng nodded listlessly.
“This is a common trick used by ghost cultivators: paper dolls possess bodies and exchange lives.” Jiang Gu pulled out his primordial spirit, and sure enough, there was a hideous ghost claw mark on his dark back. He looked at it coldly for a moment, then raised his hand and wiped away the mark.
Wei Feng's scalp tingled from being touched, and his entire primordial spirit felt faintly hot. He stammered, "It...it kept begging for mercy and said it knew the owner of this lonely grave, so I didn't swallow it."
"Do you know the phrase 'full of lies'?" Jiang Gu suppressed his disgust, pulled at the messy primordial spirit to examine it, and only after confirming that there were no other traces did he intend to stuff the person back in.
Wei Feng suddenly asked, "Master, do you know Gu Qinghui?"
He carefully observed Jiang Gu's expression, trying his best to sense the emotions he was conveying, but Jiang Gu's face remained calm, and his emotions were frighteningly indifferent. "Gu Qinghui is my mother."
The silence, grief, and avoidance that Wei Feng had imagined did not happen. Jiang Gu told him the answer as if he were recounting an ordinary event.
"Well..." Wei Feng said cautiously, "This place is actually—"
He originally wanted to say that this was Gu Qinghui's grave, but since Jiang Gu had acknowledged that Gu Qinghui was his mother, he couldn't call her by her name directly. He paused for a moment, racking his brains to think whether he should call her "grandmother" or "master," when he heard Jiang Gu calmly reply, "My home."
Wei Feng choked a little, startling the fish so much that its tail lashed out.
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