By the ti dawn broke, the workers had all gotten up. Seeing the empty inner courtyard, they looked at each other in surprise.
When they saw Hu Ma appear and continue to assign tasks and sweep, they finally understood in their hearts and quickly lowered their heads to work.
A change of order had co to the Manor. Sotis, such changes were not accompanied by thunder and lightning, but occurred silently, unnoticed.
Yet the lives of everyone in the Manor were now truly in Hu Ma’s hands.
Not only were Zhou Datong and the others joyful, walking with a spring in their step, but the two workers who had followed Xu Ji into the Manor were particularly frightened, secretly calculating:
We previously offended Shopkeeper Hu, but later that Xu guy died, and we beca well-behaved. Our knives were taken by Brother Datong, and we never complained, even sneaking him wine and at... So, he won’t trouble us anymore, right?
In truth, Hu Ma hadn’t intended to trouble them, though their hearts wouldn’t find peace for so ti.
Starting then, Hu Ma adjusted his mood and continued to settle into the role of a carefree Shopkeeper.
With the old shopkeeper gone, he no longer had to be so cautious about many things, such as Cultivation.
His Cultivation had always been faster than others. Before, he had to hide this fact, so he couldn’t cultivate as diligently as he wanted.
Even now, the Red Lantern Society still thought he was just a novice who hadn’t yet completed refining his limbs, who had ascended to the Second Tier but not yet completed it.
Little did they know, he had already finished his Second Tier training and begun refining the Five Organs, entering the third-tier.
The encounter at Niu Family Bay had also made Hu Ma aware of the wonders of the Lung Refining thod. Given the opportunity now, naturally, he sped up his Cultivation.
When he had free ti, he silently practiced, ensuring to consu a large bowl of green food daily, as required. Additionally, he took Blood Food Pills regularly to replenish what was lost in the refining life process and even considered pushing his cultivation beyond Three Columns.
However, this was difficult.
When one’s cultivation reached three incense, it nearly hit a ceiling and couldn’t go higher.
This was because Three Column Tao was theoretically equivalent to 60 years of Pure Yang Power, marking the human limit.
The old shopkeeper, although powerful, in truth, only had Two Column Tao, even slightly inferior to Hu Ma, who relied on Blood Tai Sui for support.
Of course, it was said so people could break through the Three Column cultivation.
Yet they all relied on Secret Techniques or so kind of fortune to break past this barrier.
Since that was the case, Hu Ma didn’t force it. He continued to maintain his Three Column cultivation while accelerating the refining of his Five Organs.
Now that he had freedom, he no longer purposely slowed down his progress. In just seven days, he achieved more than he would have by secretly cultivating for an entire month. He soon felt the refining of his lungs reaching a peak, or rather, it was complete.
A strange feeling arose. For a mont, Hu Ma felt his chest open, and his breath extended as if he could inhale the entire universe. Of course, this was just imagination, but in reality, his lung capacity had markedly increased.
Since there wasn’t much water around, he hadn’t tested how long he could hold his breath, but he speculated it must be more than one incense.
Additionally, he could convert his lungs to yin and exhale a breath of yin qi.
This was akin to evil spirits often encountered on the night road; these spirits hard by suddenly spraying a breath of yin qi onto their victims, causing them to beco dazed or even lose their soul, diminishing anyone’s Mana by thirty percent.
Hu Ma could now exhale this yin qi, though he didn’t know if it was strong enough to kill a normal person with one puff. He had considered trying it on Li, but ultimately decided against it.
Brother Li had it rough enough, working diligently in the kitchen, and was pure of heart, unlike others who only thought of dark alleyways.
Refining the lungs ans I’ve surpassed a normal Second Tier Shousui man. Of course, I can’t call myself Third Tier yet. Only after completely refining the Five Organs, or at least most of them, can I make such a claim...
With no one to share this sense of achievent, Hu Ma could only look at Little Hongtang, a hint of delight and pride in his eyes.
"Oh," Little Hongtang responded, then continued to cuddle her Wooden Sword and sleep.
Hu Ma was speechless. He didn’t want a sidekick who couldn’t take a hint...
Of course, even after refining the lungs, he didn’t stop the process and aid to quickly cultivate the Five Organs.
He wasn’t concerned about Blood Food, knowing it was all "stolen goods," which could beco a burden at any ti, so it was better to consu them quickly, turning them into personal skill.
He also understood that his need for Blood Tai Sui continually changed.
After coming to life, he couldn’t go a day without Blood Tai Sui.
But as he entered the Shousui man’s Path, the need for Blood Tai Sui gradually decreased.
As more body parts were refined, the need for Blood Tai Sui lessened. Yet during the refining life process, there was a significant consumption of Blood Tai Sui.
His Three Column Tao was unlikely to be surpassed, but Hu Ma wanted to maintain this, keeping his cultivation at the peak of three incense, as his escape from several dangers had depended on this cultivation strength.
So currently, he maintained his Three Column Tao while consuming large amounts of Blood Food Pills for Cultivation.
The key was to grasp a balance: determining the maximum amount of Blood Food he could consu daily and using the Life Qi converted from this upper limit for the cultivation of his Five Organs.
Too much would be wasteful; too little would waste ti.
Luckily, there was enough Blood Food to last a while.
Additionally, beyond Shousui man Path cultivation, he couldn’t relax on the contents of the Age Suppressing Book.
While diligently cultivating the Shousui Five Organs, the limitation of Blood Food left him with so free ti daily, which he used to understand and ponder the dharma thod in the Age Suppressing Book.
Simply put, it was like switching subjects from mathematics to literature to refresh the mind.
After chatting with Er Guotou about the Ghost Walker Path, he vaguely confird one thing: that the Age Suppressing Book recorded the Ghost Walker’s dharma thod.
However, while the essence was the sa, the expression differed greatly.
While others used inviting spirits, Asking Spirits, and Spirit-suppressing, the Age Suppressing Book had Summoning Spirit, Commanding Spirit, and spirit-constraining?
It was almost as tyrannical as a thug collecting protection money! Being a thug in this world ant the Age Suppressing Book undoubtedly contained valuable and true knowledge. This gave Hu Ma more motivation.
After the trial at Niu Family Bay, Hu Ma saw the domineering nature of the Age Suppressing Book and conducted a deep self-reflection, analyzing several shortcomings from then.
The first was insufficient preparation ti.
The Age Suppressing Book wasn’t the Shousui man Path; it required advance preparation, ensuring nothing could go wrong, and couldn’t tackle problems head-on.
Another was that learning from the Age Suppressing Book required adopting a mindset different from a Shousui man, as the book detailed "Magic," not rely skills.
The sa Magic, depending on how it was executed, would yield vastly different effects.
At that ti, he had summoned things from the river using the most common items recorded in the Age Suppressing Book: rice, a basin, incense, straw, and sacrificial offerings. But these were too mundane, lacking innate magic, and relied on the book’s "curse" for power.
The Magic succeeded, but its power was weak, leading to suspicion from the river creature and unnecessary complications. What if I upgraded these materials and used better ones? For instance, instead of common rice, what if I used rice that had been offered before Great Evil Spirits for a long ti, imbued with yin qi, or even rice grown in so "Evil Land"? A basin that had held human bones. Incense infused with Tai Sui blood or vermillion, specially crafted and refined. Straw replaced with a paper man, and sacrificial offerings all ticulously prepared?
The Magic was the sa, but perhaps using these different items to perform it would yield entirely different effects.
In the Age Suppressing Book, these materials were collectively called "objects," essentially just like the Wooden Sword he used regularly.
However, the Shousui man’s Path and the abilities in the Age Suppressing Book differed. For a Shousui man, the Wooden Sword sufficed, but for the Ghost Walker Path, such a single item fell far short.
So Brother Er Guotou was right...
At least one aspect of the abilities in the Age Suppressing Book completely aligned with the Ghost Walker Path: it burned money!
With a clear goal in mind, life in the Manor was leisurely but fulfilling and grounded each day.
The only puzzling thing was that even though the old shopkeeper had left so ti ago, his appointnt and the reward of Blood Food had never co through.
Hu Ma felt puzzled too. Could it be that those above were waiting for him to go and offer gifts? Now is not the ti to give gifts. With a great enemy at hand, it’s not good to be too conspicuous by running around.
As Hu Ma pondered, a worker suddenly arrived one day to inform him that food should be prepared in advance in the Manor, as the envoy coming to announce important news from the city would arrive at noon.
Upon hearing this, there was no need to issue orders; the Manor’s workers were delighted and busily prepared wine and food, arranging various excellent fish and ats as if celebrating the New Year, waiting for the city envoy to co and reward them.
After waiting, they finally heard the sound of drums and gongs past noon. The workers hurried out and saw several tall horses alongside a carriage. On the horses sat a few managers and several Red Fragrance mbers, with a colorfully adorned envoy in the lead.
Upon reaching the Manor, seeing the workers already welcoming them, their eyebrows raised in delight as they looked at everyone and said, "Which one is Hu Ma?"
Hu Ma quickly stepped forward from the crowd and bowed to the envoy.
The person on the horse also bowed back to Hu Ma, then laughed and said, "Per the decree of the Red Lantern Lady, I’ve co to reward you."
"Earlier, you assisted the Three Fragrances envoy Yang Gong to secure that Blood Food lot, rendering great service. The Lady has decreed that I co to reward you. Here are three rolls of silk cloth, ten jars of Blood Wine, thirty pounds of green food, and importantly... three special Blood Food Pills."
"Are you satisfied?"
Just three? Who are they looking down on?
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