Chapter 255
Chapter 255
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 255
Chapter Title: Where's My Butt?
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The Sheep Horn Heavenly Spirit Lamp was extremely powerful. Chen Shi's nascent soul drew in the pure yang qi from the lamp's flame, and only after a moment did the light dim.
But as soon as he stopped absorbing the pure yang qi, the light quickly brightened again.
"You turned yourself into this mess? How?"
Granny Sha examined his nascent soul and couldn't help frowning.
Among soul, nascent soul, and primordial spirit, injuries to these three were the hardest to heal—even a master physician would be helpless against such wounds.
That was why spirit herbs like the Soul-Reviving Lotus, which grew in the underworld, were so valuable.
Chen Shi said, "From reading books."
Granny Sha was surprised. Reading could damage one's mind and injure the nascent soul?
Could it be some lewd illustrations compiled by demonic cultivators, or the Great Battle Technique, or the Secret Records of Great Joy?
She had read that kind of book before and suffered mental damage, but nowhere near as severe as Chen Shi's.
"Granny Sha, are you heading to the capital?"
Chen Shi said, "Chen Tang sent people to pick me up. We could go together."
Granny Sha laughed. "Me, go to the capital? Ha, hahaha! I'm not going to the capital! You go ahead."
She turned to leave, saying, "Your grandpa wronged your dad, and your dad wronged you.
I won't get involved in your family affairs."
Chen Shi summoned Black-Clothed Xuan Shan and Granny Zhuang, saying, "Thank you both for taking care of me these past days.
Will the two of you come with me to the capital?"
Black-Clothed Xuan Shan shook his head. "If I leave, I'm afraid Qianyang Mountain will descend into chaos."
Granny Zhuang smiled. "My roots are here—how could I just up and leave?"
Chen Shi felt quite regretful. During his cultivation these days, he had experienced what true speed felt like—with Granny Zhuang, Xuan Shan, and Lady Shiji as his three incredibly powerful spirits for the Divine Embryo, his cultivation speed was almost faster than the Golden Core Realm!
Without Granny Zhuang and Xuan Shan, it was still fast, but having tasted even greater speed, he couldn't help feeling a sense of loss.
"Little Ten, take good care of your health."
Granny Zhuang waved goodbye.
Xuan Shan said, "Take back what you've lost."
Chen Shi smiled and watched them leave, a glint flashing in his eyes.
He turned and leaned against the wooden cart, shrinking his body as he said to Sun Yisheng, "Lord Sun, let's get going."
Sun Yisheng saw him sitting in the wooden cart while the carriage remained empty, thinking to himself:
This young master has a strange temper—he prefers a crude wooden cart.
They ate breakfast in Bridge Bay Town before setting off immediately.
When they neared Mustard Village, Hu Feifei was waiting at the village entrance with Guo Nuan. Spotting them, she waved excitedly.
Sun Yisheng glanced at Hu Feifei and said, "The court regulations have been lax in recent years, but some rules are strictly enforced. Demon cultivators are forbidden from taking the imperial exams.
A fox demon passing the juren exams in the countryside might go unnoticed by the court, but heading to the capital for the metropolitan exams? That's downright audacious."
Hu Feifei was surprised and looked at him. "You can see my true form?"
Chen Shi was greatly surprised too. Hu Feifei had transformed into human form so perfectly that even he couldn't tell, so how had Sun Yisheng seen through it?
Sun Yisheng said, "Lord Chen Tang has favored me greatly, teaching me the Buddha school's Pijiu Zhi Three-Eyed Dharma Seal, which can discern transformation arts.
Miss Hu, even if you reach the capital, you won't be allowed to take the exams.
Don't fox clanswomen stay home after choosing a husband, waiting for him to return? You should wait at home."
Hu Feifei said in surprise, "You even know the rules of my fox clan!"
Sun Yisheng said, "Lord Chen Tang mentioned it. This official has a good memory and remembered."
Hu Feifei laughed. "I didn't find a suitable husband and can't become the matriarch of the Hu family, so I'll just go to the capital and take the top scholar spot myself to shame those vixens back home."
Sun Yisheng frowned slightly, but since Chen Shi said nothing, he couldn't chase Hu Feifei away.
Chen Shi had Hu Feifei and Nuannuan ride in the carriage while he took the wooden cart.
Sun Yisheng rode up beside the wooden cart and whispered, "Young Master Chen, keep your distance from that fox girl."
Chen Shi asked in confusion, "Why do you say that, Lord Sun?"
"Fox clan women have a bad reputation."
Sun Yisheng said, "Humans have short lives, while foxes have long ones.
Fox cultivators often live a thousand years after cultivation. When they marry human scholars, the men age and wither in twenty or thirty years, so the fox women abandon them.
Some even abandon their husbands the moment they get pregnant and return to the fox clan with the child."
He paused, then said, "This official has seen a few who married fox women. They were juren or jinshi with bright futures, but after being abandoned, they withered away in days—unable to eat or drink, struck by lovesickness.
Their official careers ended too."
Chen Shi said, "My grandpa is best friends with the fox clan chief, that's why I'm escorting her to the capital."
Sun Yisheng breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. "In that case, this official is relieved."
The carriage and horses Sun Yisheng brought to fetch Chen Shi were official government models, with Galloping Horse Talismans and Swift Travel Talismans on the wheels and hubs, cloud patterns painted beneath, and the horses were dragon-blooded breeds with wind-and-cloud talismans and Six Ding Six Jia seals engraved on their horseshoes.
When the carriage raced along, its speed was incredible—like traveling on clouds, covering three thousand li a day with ease.
Sun Yisheng had worried the wooden cart might not keep up, but seeing it outpace even the official carriage, he relaxed.
They traveled along the official post roads, crossing the Henggong Mountains, and stopped at noon at the post station in Black City County.
The station attendants hurriedly took the horses to feed them, shoe them, and cool them down.
Some attendants, likely low-level talisman masters, redrew the talismans on the carriage to prevent them from fading on the long journey.
Sun Yisheng was about to have them redraw the talismans on Chen Shi's wooden cart when he saw Chen Shi pull out over ten jin of exotic beast meat from the cart.
The wooden cart's body split open, revealing a huge mouth that swallowed the meat in one gulp and chewed vigorously.
"Southern school talismans?"
Sun Yisheng was greatly surprised and leaned in to examine the wooden cart closely.
"You know about Southern school talismans?" Chen Shi asked.
Sun Yisheng said, "Lord Chen Tang told me about Southern and Northern school talismans. Has Young Master Chen fused the two schools' talismans?"
He examined the talisman marks on the wooden cart in astonishment.
Chen Shi laughed. "They're both my family's arts—why divide them into Southern and Northern?"
Sun Yisheng smiled at that. "Young Master Chen may not know, but outside, Southern and Northern school talisman masters have already fought to the death, piling up mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
The Northern school looks down on the Southern as unorthodox devils, and the Southern scorns the Northern as rigid fossils who won't adapt.
Whenever they meet, they fight like mad."
They continued onward along the southern shore of South Great Lake. By evening, they reached a county seat just a hundred li from Yandang County.
With night falling, they rested at the post station.
That night, Chen Shi smelled the scent of burning talismans, then heard Sun Yisheng's voice and another's:
"Lord, this official and the young master are already en route to the capital."
"It's not peaceful heading to the capital. The cases he's involved in have come to light, and the thirteen great families are stirring. Many want to take him out."
From the other end of the Thousand-Li Sound Transmission Talisman came Chen Tang's faint voice. "I'm worried someone might ambush you on the road."
"This official will do everything to protect the young master's safety!"
"Protect him if you can. If the enemy is too strong and you can't, abandon him and return to the capital—I won't blame you.
You're the one I trust most. I'd rather lose him than see you fall."
Chen Shi felt a pang in his heart hearing this. He went to the courtyard and hauled the Talisman God Tianji out from the wooden cart, studying how to restore it.
Ever since the Talisman God Tianji had spoken, it had fallen into a deep slumber—no breathing, though the flesh at its wounds still writhed.
Under the moonlight, Chen Shi examined the Talisman God Tianji's structure.
The *Talisman Creation Treasure Mirror* said the Talisman God Tianji was an eight-armed divine demon with a towering body, proficient in all weapons for ranged and close combat, and able to deploy a Ghost God Domain spanning dozens of li!
Its power was self-evident!
Yet the Talisman God Tianji before him had arms that were broken or mangled, its body far from towering, let alone wielding spells or weapons.
The Ghost God Domain was nowhere in sight.
"Huh?"
Chen Shi suddenly saw stray moonlight in the air gathering into points of light, flowing into the Talisman God Tianji's body.
The moonlight essence hit its surface and vanished, as if absorbed!
Observing closely, after absorbing the moonlight, the writhing of flesh at the Talisman God Tianji's wounds sped up considerably!
At that moment, the Talisman God Tianji's eyes snapped open, unleashing a surge of violent aura from its mangled body. The stone slabs around Chen Shi exploded with cracks, crumbling to powder in an instant!
Blackie Pot was sleeping under the cart. The pressure pinned it down, preventing escape to the underworld.
Just then, the parasol atop the cart unfurled under the pressure, and the Universal Grand Liturgy canopy descended, shielding the wooden cart and Blackie Pot.
"Little Five!"
The Talisman God Tianji glared at Chen Shi. "Fight me to the death!"
Chen Shi was immobilized by its aura. Suddenly, the sky darkened, moonlight from dozens of li converging into a beam that shot into the Talisman God Tianji's ruined body.
Its true qi raged wildly, its eyes growing brighter, on the verge of shooting divine light to blast Chen Shi—when a figure blocked him, primordial spirit emerging, Dao field manifesting to envelop the entire post station and clash head-on with the Talisman God Tianji's ocular beams!
Boom—
The air trembled violently as blinding light erupted. In the next instant, Chen Shi felt the surrounding air heat up intensely, space quaking!
His limbs, organs, soul, and nascent soul—all seemed to vibrate!
It came fast and ended fast. The quaking vanished, but the light had been so intense that Chen Shi's vision hadn't recovered.
Gradually seeing clearly, the figure shielding him was Sun Yisheng's primordial spirit, over ten zhang tall, its Dao field thick and steady—yet the Talisman God Tianji's twin beams had nearly sliced it apart.
His physical hands were charred black and trembling, his primordial spirit's hands nearly melted, exposing white bones that shook nonstop.
Sun Yisheng's body swayed, blood trickling from his mouth—he was badly hurt.
Chen Shi looked back. The post station gate was blasted through, the twin beams carving massive destruction, piercing dozens of li and vaporizing all trees and hills in their path!
Fortunately, the station was outside the city, and the beams hadn't pointed toward the county seat—otherwise, countless would have died!
Chen Shi's heart raced. Then the Talisman God Tianji shouted, "You all hurry away! Little Five, I'll fight you to the end!"
The moonlight above its head dimmed again.
Sun Yisheng cried in horror, "I'm done for!"
He could take the first strike but not a second!
Without thinking, Chen Shi reached out. The parasol flew over, expanding to an mu in size to block the sky, trapping the Talisman God Tianji beneath.
Deprived of moonlight, the terrifying glow in its eyes faded. It shouted again, "Little Five, fight me to the death!"
Gathering courage, Chen Shi said, "I'm not Little Five…"
The red light in the Talisman God Tianji's eyes dissipated, clarity returning. "You're Chen Tang? Chen Tang, your dad wants you home."
Chen Shi watched warily. At any sign of losing control, he'd activate the Nether Spring Roaming Dragon Sword in the parasol and send it to the underworld.
"I'm not Chen Tang. I'm Chen Shi."
The Talisman God Tianji eyed him. "You're not Chen Tang—you're younger. You're Little Ten from the coffin.
You're alive?"
Chen Shi nodded repeatedly.
The Talisman God Tianji seemed to regain awareness, propping itself up on broken arm bones and looking down. "Where's my butt? Where's my legs?"
Its eyes reddened again as it looked up at Chen Shi. "Little Five, it was you! Give me back my butt! You all hurry away—I'll hold off Little Five!"
Chen Shi shouted loudly, "I'm not Little Five! I'm Chen Shi! Little Ten from the coffin!"
The red light faded from the Talisman God Tianji's eyes. It said doubtfully, "You're Little Ten from the coffin… No, you're Chen Tang.
Chen Tang, time to go home."
Chen Shi blinked. This Talisman God Tianji's brain seemed smashed.
Absorbing moonlight essence sped recovery—could the moonlight be messing with its mind? Right, the *Creation Treasure Mirror* said controlling the Talisman God Tianji was extremely hard; one slip and it controlled you, turning you into its puppet! Could moonlight have corrupted it, causing backlash against the master?
At that thought, the small temple behind Chen Shi's head emerged, shining on the Talisman God Tianji. It vanished, reappearing inside the temple.
If it could absorb moonlight from Huaxia Divine Continent, maybe it wouldn't corrupt or go mad?
The temple was daytime now, sunlight pouring in.
Worried it'd rampage, Chen Shi sent his consciousness in. The Talisman God Tianji was propping itself up on broken arms, looking around.
"Big-headed woman."
The Talisman God Tianji said to Lady Shiji in the divine shrine, "It was you.
I remember now—my master and I sealed Little Five before you.
We borrowed your power to seal Little Five.
When did you get out? Seen my butt?"
Lady Shiji saw the Talisman God Tianji and fury rose. She raised her hand to suppress it.
Chen Shi quickly stopped her. "Calm down, Lady.
It's already been punished."
Lady Shiji snapped angrily, "These freaks and an old man stole my power! Otherwise, I wouldn't have taken so long to recover."
"That old man was my grandpa."
Chen Shi said.
Lady Shiji's anger vanished. She smiled. "A tiger father sires no dog son—Upper Envoy's grandpa must be formidable too."
Chen Shi said, "I'll keep Tianji here to recover. Watch him—don't let him out.
He's gone mad, more or less.
You two get along."
Lady Shiji glared at the Talisman God Tianji. Though she wanted to kill it, she held back.
Chen Shi settled the Talisman God Tianji and withdrew his consciousness, helping Sun Yisheng up.
Sun Yisheng's hands still trembled. "There's flesh-regenerating pills in the pouch on my waist. Young Master Chen, please apply them for me."
Chen Shi rummaged, found the pills, dissolved them in water and honey, and applied to his hands.
As for the primordial spirit wounds, the pills were useless.
Sun Yisheng's primordial spirit transmitted agony, but he didn't cry out, just sweated profusely.
Chen Shi had never seen such injuries and didn't know how to treat them—he was at a loss.
Sun Yisheng endured the pain and said gloomily, "Primordial spirit wounds are mostly soul damage—hard to heal with medicine."
Chen Shi's eyes lit up. "Then, couldn't the Sheep Horn Heavenly Spirit Lamp treat it? Perfect—we can both bask in the flame! By the way, Lord Sun, your primordial spirit Dao field is formed. What's your cultivation realm?"
Sun Yisheng said, "Peak Void Refining Realm."
Chen Shi jumped. In great families, Void Refining Realm could head out as a provincial governor!
Sun Yisheng clearly wasn't from a great family—how had he reached such heights?
Sun Yisheng said, "This official was classmates with Lord Chen Tang—we took the exams together.
Thanks to his promotion and teachings of many arts and skills, I achieved this."
Chen Shi was silent a moment, then asked, "What's Chen Tang's cultivation realm? What does he do in the capital?"
Sun Yisheng said, "He's Right Transmitting Official in the Ministry of Revenue, overseeing the Guanghui and Guangji Granaries.
As for his realm, it was about the same as mine when we went to the capital for exams.
After that, I don't know his depths."
End of chapter.