I have to get lucky right away.

Chapter 49 Why did all the heroes gather together?

Wangxianlou is a restaurant name that often appears in novels, but the one in Lucheng County seems a bit out of place to Feng Xue.

There is a classical sign hanging on the door, but the interior is arranged like a Western hotel. The waiters are all wearing white shirts and black vests, and the dishes on the table are a mixture of Chinese and Western, which is quite awkward.

However, this is just Feng Xue's own opinion. At least when he was going upstairs, the guests he saw in the lobby on the first floor, whether they were wearing Western dresses or Tang suits, didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with this layout. It can only be said that Shamatte was once a popular aesthetic.

Led by the soldiers, we came to the third floor, where the noisy sounds immediately disappeared. Compared to the second floor, which also consisted of private rooms and where one could occasionally hear some noise from downstairs, the third floor seemed very quiet, and even the decoration was much more harmonious than that of the first floor.

The soldier looked around, as if he had confirmed his target, and then took Feng Xue to a private room with a sign that read "Zhilanju". After knocking on the door twice, he pushed it open without waiting for a response.

Feng Xue followed him into the box, his brows twitching slightly. Although this box was called a private room, it was actually almost comparable to the grand halls used for weddings in later generations. In this room, there were already more than 30 people sitting or standing. In addition to Aunt Liu and the owner of Nanshanju whom he had met before, Feng Xue also saw the owner of Hua's Martial Arts School with embarrassment.

As if noticing Feng Xue's gaze, the owner of Hua's Martial Arts School turned around. The moment he saw Feng Xue, he was visibly stunned for a moment, but he didn't say anything. He just turned his head and continued chatting with the acquaintance next to him.

Feng Xue thought that the other party might have mistaken him for a rich kid who came to watch the fun, so he did not go forward. Instead, he activated [Guan Tianshou] and scanned the people in the box.

Numbers appeared above their heads one after another. Feng Xue discovered that there were masters with a remaining lifespan of over a hundred years, as well as minions with only a dozen or twenty years left. There were even some with a lifespan of thirty or forty years, and it was unknown whether they were just stuck in a critical period or had never even started.

These thirty-odd people have obviously exceeded the number of "twenty or so" Xuan cultivators that Aunt Liu mentioned before. Adding the owner of the Hua family martial arts school, it is likely that not only Xuan cultivators but also martial artists are invited.

In addition, Feng Xue also noticed that the old man who he had seen before and asked him to ask the owner of Nanshanju for the secret book was not in the room. He didn't know whether the county magistrate couldn't invite him, or he had invited him but he hadn't come yet, or no one knew about it at all.

"So, it seems that the five masters Aunt Liu mentioned have not appeared! I don't know if it's because the monks, Taoist priests, and priests present don't have very high life spans, and their auras are not very strong. As for the little girls... there are two or three of them, but Guan Tianshou can't see their spirits, so he can't confirm which of them is the exorcist."

Just as Feng Xue was observing silently, a few more people appeared in the box, but the county magistrate was still nowhere to be seen, and the soldier who had brought him here before had disappeared.

"Could it be that the county magistrate has gone crazy and wants to capture all the masters in the county?" Feng Xue carefully observed everyone's lifespan and confirmed that there was no fluctuation. Only then did he feel relieved and simply found a corner and leaned against the wall to continue reading the secret book.

The owner of Hua's martial arts school sells all five of his books, all of which are very practical. "Body Building" is a bit like aerobics, focusing on strengthening the body, while "Energy Nourishment" is more like a diet, simply ensuring that nutritional supplements keep up with the wear and tear of training. "Stationary Posture" and "Dynamic Posture" are basic exercises, focusing on regulating and mobilizing the body's qi and blood through movements like horse stance.

According to the "General Outline", anyone who practices "Static Posture" and "Dynamic Posture" step by step, supplemented by food to nourish the essence, can reach the second-rate level. However, in order to know how to fight the enemy, they still need to practice boxing and kicking skills. As for reaching above the first-rate level, it depends on personal understanding and circumstances.

Feng Xue has no plans to get involved in boxing and kicking for the time being, because if one wants to learn anything from that, sufficient practical experience is essential, not to mention that it is not easy to acquire a good set of moves, so he might as well lay a solid foundation first.

Nearly half an hour had passed like this, and in the originally harmonious box, there were already faint sounds of impatient complaints. As the atmosphere began to become noisy, a man who was obviously not a master walked into the box with a few people. Almost the moment he appeared, the box instantly became quiet.

Feng Xue noticed the change in atmosphere and immediately closed the book in his hand. At the same time, Guan Tianshou also glanced at the man who came in.

The man looked to be in his early fifties, and his life expectancy was only seventeen years. In this era, he should be considered a relatively long-lived ordinary person.

The two people following him didn't look simple at all——

A man wearing a priest's robe, quite old, with gray hair, and only a dozen years left to live, but from an over-the-shoulder perspective, one could see a condensed white light emanating from his body.

The other one was bald, without a cassock or scars on his head. He was wearing a patchwork robe. The Buddhist beads on his wrist were not made of precious wood, or even the same kind of wood, but they were polished to a glossy shine, indicating that he chanted frequently.

His remaining lifespan is slightly longer than the pastor's, but only a little over thirty years. His spiritual aura is more restrained than the pastor's, a faint halo floating behind his head. If Feng Xue hadn't observed carefully, it would have been obscured by the lights in the private room. "This must be two of the five great masters. Their lifespans are shorter than expected... Yeah, that's true. For a pastor, immortality is a miracle, granted only by the gods, not sought by oneself. Monks cultivating the afterlife obviously won't actively extend the lifespan of their 'stinking skins.' I just wonder if Miss Deng is here too."

Feng Xue was thinking in her heart, but the man accompanied by two masters had already walked to the center of the box and said without any warning:

"Please forgive me, gentlemen, for the hassle of inviting you today. I really have no choice. Now that everyone is here, I will not keep you in suspense..."

"County Magistrate, my master hasn't arrived yet!"

As soon as the county magistrate finished speaking, a young man with eyes as clear and foolish as a college student raised his hand and asked. The county magistrate was interrupted before he could finish his opening remarks. The corner of his eye twitched noticeably, but he suppressed his emotion and explained:

"Master Chen is currently handling an important matter, which is also related to this matter."

As he spoke, he looked around and saw that everyone's attention was focused and no one was about to speak, so he continued:

"Several murders occurred in Xiangyang Village the day before yesterday. The deceased's vitality and blood were exhausted. It was suspected to be the work of evil spirits. Mr. Ma, the richest man in Xiangyang Village, hired a magician, who confirmed this..."

Hearing this, the heavy atmosphere in the box, which was originally a little tense, instantly relaxed. Although ghost energy restrains magic power, after so many years of development in Xuan cultivation, how could they not have developed corresponding countermeasures?
As long as you know it is a ghost, there is nothing to be afraid of. It is just a dead soul. The worst that can happen is that you can ask the ancestors below to help you with some arrangements and find a ghost messenger from the underworld to make a visit.

Seeing that everyone was relaxed, the county magistrate's face looked a little unhappy. The monk standing next to the county magistrate took the initiative to take a step forward. As soon as this step was taken, a quiet and peaceful atmosphere spread out, but the next moment, it froze again.

That feeling was like just opening the floodgates and suddenly someone slapped you from behind, frightening you so much that you suddenly clamped down. It was extremely uncomfortable. The old monk took advantage of this moment when everyone's faces turned black and said:

"Let me tell you about this matter."

(I found AI and touched a black silk cheongsam again. It’s not as awkward as the previous one. I don’t know if it will pass the review.)

　Regarding the protagonist's perpetual motion machine... Actually, it's not really...

　　This needs to be understood from the mechanism of shortening lifespan.

　　Because spiritual practice shortening one's lifespan isn't like a curse, where lifespan is instantly reduced. Rather, it's a process, much like strenuous exercise that overdraws your body. If you don't replenish the lost energy, your lifespan will be shortened. This shortening doesn't occur at the moment cells output energy, but rather when energy isn't replenished afterward. Of course, even if you eat right away, it's already too late, but it's just too late, not ineffective.

　　Similarly, draining vital energy leads to cellular depletion. If this depletion can be replenished immediately, lifespan will not be reduced. Even if it is reduced, subsequent supplementation can restore some of it. This is also why Xuan cultivators must act within their capabilities and avoid rushing into anything.

　　As for the protagonist, if he extracts it bit by bit, he will be constantly locked and interrupted. This has been written very clearly before.

　　I even wrote several descriptions specifically about the protagonist feeling very hungry after training.

　　I really don't understand why it's like the protagonist is "taking a loan to cultivate," first overdrawing their vitality, then eating to replenish it. It's like how starving for a day or two won't harm your health, but starving for ten days or half a month will shorten your lifespan. The only difference is that because the protagonist is locked in, overdrawing doesn't harm their health, so they can continue to overdraw until they starve to death.

　　It is equivalent to having dozens of credit cards, paying off one card with two cards, and two cards with three cards. In this way, as long as he eats a little more at each meal and occasionally has a snack or midnight snack, he can drain his energy without losing anything.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)