Chapter 35: Dispelling Doubts, Heart at Ease

Ji Yao had always unconsciously tried to avoid the matter of that beast hide, but no matter how much she circled around it, in the end, it always came back to the same point.

“If we decipher what’s on that beast hide, will all our questions finally be answered?”

“Well, more or less,” Situ Jing replied with a cryptic smile.

“At the very least, it will solve all the mysteries surrounding you. You remember what was drawn on that hide, don’t you?”

Ji Yao understood that Situ Jing’s words were a certainty. If anyone knew her situation best, it was undoubtedly Situ Jing.

Ever since that injury, after taking the Ten-thousand-year Green Elixir, her memory had grown sharper and sharper; where before she could recall eighty or ninety percent, now she had truly reached the point of never forgetting anything she saw. Though the patterns and symbols on the hide were dizzying, and she’d only glanced at it once, she had committed it all to memory.

Resigned, Ji Yao picked up paper and brush, slowly reproducing what she remembered onto the page.

It hadn’t seemed difficult when she was looking, but when she tried to draw it herself, she realized how clumsy and awkward her efforts were. After two full hours, she finally set down her brush, only barely satisfied with the result.

Looking at the indecipherable scrawls on the paper, Ji Yao felt a bit embarrassed. She had already done her utmost.

Situ Jing approached for a look, then laughed approvingly: “To copy from memory like this, your skill isn’t bad at all. You could try drawing talismans.”

Ji Yao tugged at the corner of her mouth. “Senior, please don’t mock me!”

“Why? Don’t believe me? I’m telling the truth,” Situ Jing said with amusement, tapping the paper. “Do you know what this is?”

Ji Yao studied the confusing jumble and shook her head.

“This is Demon Script. A language unique to the True Demon clans.” Situ Jing examined each line carefully.

So that’s what it was—a foreign language.

Leaning against the desk, Situ Jing lightly tapped the tabletop. “Demon Script is more than just a written language. For ordinary people, learning or even copying it is nearly impossible.”

“Genuine Demon Script must be written with pure demonic energy as aid. Even I can only recognize it, not write it.”

That was truly a challenge. Ji Yao looked at what she had drawn—it must have been a far cry from the content on the original hide.

“You understood it, Senior?”

“By guessing and deducing, I have a fair idea what it is,” Situ Jing said, settling into a chair and rubbing her forehead, as if weary.

If not for the fact that the other was incorporeal, Ji Yao would have gone over to help massage her temples.

After a brief pause, Situ Jing finally revealed what she had deciphered.

“It’s a fragment of a cultivation technique—a method describing how to directly absorb the cultivation of demonic beasts to enhance one’s own spiritual power.”

Ji Yao felt a chill run down her spine. “If such a technique exists, wouldn’t no cultivator ever bother training again? They’d just go hunt spirit beasts!”

Situ Jing snorted. “As if it were that easy. Low-level beasts are easy to catch, but what about high-level ones? And even then, once a cultivator reaches the Nascent Soul or Unity stage, capturing beasts of lower rank brings little benefit.”

“As for catching those of equal or higher rank—how many of those are there? By that point, the beasts’ intelligence rivals humans, and their physical might often surpasses us. Try hunting them? You’d be throwing your life away.”

“With that effort, you might as well cultivate properly. Besides, this hide holds only a fragment. If I’m not mistaken, the one who killed Li Fanghua has another piece.”

“But which piece, I wonder?”

That last remark made Ji Yao realize Situ Jing must have once known the complete technique.

“Senior, what’s the difference between the complete and incomplete versions?”

Situ Jing gave her a sidelong glance, then explained, “The complete technique is in three parts. The first is this fragment; the second details how to directly draw power from others to enhance oneself; and as for the third part…”

She trailed off, clearly savoring the suspense.

Yet Ji Yao’s thoughts had already leapt elsewhere. The Disciplinary Hall had said that Li Fanghua’s corpse was completely devoid of spiritual energy, and her dantian had been forcibly drained.

The killer must have been about as strong as Li Fanghua. For a cultivator at the Qi Refining stage to go so far—was this not madness?

It’s said that the higher one’s cultivation, the more ruthless one becomes. But this was a mere Qi Refiner, not even at the Foundation Establishment threshold, taking a shortcut to heaven—what cultivation was this? This was the path of demons!

Situ Jing paused, noticing Ji Yao had drifted off into her own thoughts. She cleared her throat sharply.

Ji Yao returned to herself and quickly asked, “What does the third part describe?”

Pleased by Ji Yao’s tact, Situ Jing nodded. “The third part explains how to fuse the two types of cultivation one has absorbed.”

“If there’s only one type, there’s no issue. But if you possess both and do not use the third part to fuse them, the consequences are dire!”

“What would happen?” Ji Yao felt the answer to one of her doubts was close at hand.

“What happens? If you absorb both types and can’t fuse them immediately, all your cultivation vanishes and you transform completely into a beast.”

“You can’t recover?”

“Oh, you’ll recover, but the time varies depending on your cultivation level,” Situ Jing replied. Then, giving Ji Yao a meaningful look, she added, “If your cultivation is around the eighth level of Qi Refining, it would take about three or four days to recover.”

Ji Yao was overjoyed. She bowed deeply to Situ Jing in gratitude. “Thank you, Senior, for your guidance and for dispelling my doubts!”

When she left the space, it was already the second day, just after midnight. With her questions resolved, Ji Yao felt a great weight lifted and, exhausted, wrapped herself in her quilt and fell into a deep sleep.

She didn’t awaken until the sun was high in the sky.

Now, all that remained was to wait for the one behind the scenes to reveal themselves.

“Master Mu, why have you come here?” Ji Yao felt, once again, that something unusual had intruded upon her life. She really didn’t want to be the center of attention anymore.

“Gu Qiu has gone to deal with those scraps of hide.”

And then? Surely you haven’t come to take over his chores? You’re a Golden Core Master! What about the dignity of a Golden Core cultivator? You just show up in person to handle an outer sect disciple’s minor incident?

Ji Yao knew this matter could no longer be taken lightly, yet she still didn’t wish for such a legendary figure to appear before her. This was a person of myth, a walking headline!

“Don’t you think this is a bit beneath you?” she blurted out.

Mu Boyun gave her a look and explained, “Elder ordered that no more people be told of this matter.”

Well, the head of the Disciplinary Hall’s orders were not to be disobeyed. Ji Yao resigned herself to the fact that this was not up for discussion.

Still, the crowd of onlookers, possessed as they were by the spirit of gossip, made her feel their stares were all the more piercing.

Ji Yao was deeply frustrated, but she couldn’t let it show. She wanted to flip the table!

She rubbed her face, put on her most relaxed expression, and asked, “May I ask what arrangements Master Suwen has made?”

Mu Boyun, his face as unreadable as ever, swept his gaze over the assembled crowd.

Just as Ji Yao felt a twinge of comfort, Mu Boyun’s next message, sent straight to her mind, left her rooted to the spot.

“Elder said to follow your lead.”

…Damn.