Water elemental became a god, ultimately becoming the master of heaven, earth, mountains, and rivers

Chapter 140 Immortal Fate, Undying Molting of Insects
Deep inside the water dungeon, it was dark and gloomy, with only an oil lamp casting flickering shadows on the wall.

After an unknown amount of time, Cheng Bin slowly woke up.

"hiss……"

For some reason, he had a slight ache in the back of his head, as if he had slept with a stiff neck.

He was puzzled. He was a master of the Jade Tree Realm, and he wouldn't feel much discomfort even if he slept with his neck bent and crossed. Why was he feeling so uncomfortable today?

He looked at the prison with some suspicion; it was empty and there was no one else in sight.

"Brother Mao, Brother Mao." Cheng Bin suppressed his doubts and called out a few times towards the outside of the fence.

Mao Xiaowen tossed the dominoes on the table, swaggered over with his hand on his waist knife, his face still bearing the sullenness of losing a bet, but he still managed a smile: "What's wrong, Lao Cheng?"

After all, they were brothers. Perhaps he had done something wrong, but Mao Xiaowen was still quite polite to Cheng Bin.

"Brother Mao, could I ask you for a favor? Could you lend me paper and pen to deliver a letter for me?"

“This…” Mao Xiaowen hesitated for a moment.

Cheng Bin took a step forward and whispered,
"Boss Shun of Beishun Pear Garden still owes me two tickets. Those are for listening to famous actors. Brother Mao, go and tell Boss Shun that they are for you from Cheng Bin."

"Haha, Lao Cheng, what are you saying? You're making it sound like I'm some kind of opportunistic person. This is just a small matter, leave it to me—"

Mao Xiaowen also lowered his voice, speaking in a barely audible whisper.
"Do we have any token? I went to Boss Shun directly, but he didn't believe me!"

"It's alright, just say, 'Boss Shun, is your puffed-breasted pigeon still able to recognize its home? Don't let it get lost again!' People in the Peking Opera circle love to keep pigeons in check, saying that watching pigeons flying in the air can soothe the mind!"

His most beloved pigeons had run away, and I was the one who caught them for him. No one else knew about this except the two of us.

"Alright, you wait!"

Mao Xiaowen left satisfied, and soon after, he brought fine wine and food, along with paper and ink, and sent him to Ding Zhong's prison cell.

"Mr. Mao, please grant me some wine and meat, just a bite..."

"I'm innocent! Chairman Mao, I didn't dump the excrement and urine into that Duck Palm Well. I wouldn't do something like polluting the water source even if you killed me!"

Seeing how Mao Xiaowen served Cheng Bin, the other prisoners in the jail couldn't help but reach their hands out of the bars and cry out for mercy.

Snapped!
Snapped!
Snapped!
Several whips, soaked in salt water, were swung around and lashed hard across the arms of these men, instantly tearing their skin and drawing blood.

Everyone was clutching their arms and wailing in pain.

Mao Xiaowen's eyes were bloodshot, his beard and hair stood on end, making him look like a vengeful ghost, and a perverse pleasure from torturing others was revealed in his eyes.

"I just happened to have bad luck today and lost a lot of money, so I'm taking it out on you guys!"

The screams immediately grew louder.

Cheng Bin, oblivious to the screams, quickly sharpened his inkstone, dipped his brush in the ink, lay down on the ground, and began to write.

Xiaoman, Your Majesty: Perhaps something happened to you today, and you failed to keep our appointment. I, Cheng Lang, was also discovered by my former colleagues and imprisoned.

They said if I continued to be a sycophant, they would cut off my feet... Luckily, feet and not hands, otherwise I wouldn't be able to write to you.

I know they meant well, and they even said bad things about you, Xiaoman, but I don't believe them. I just want to hear your explanation in person.

I also have a scroll of the "Mid-Autumn Moon Poems" that came from the palace. It was passed down from our ancestors and is very valuable. I always carry it with me as a betrothal gift for you.

Please meet me again at the Jinling Inn. I will definitely find an opportunity to come and find you.

Yours, Chen Lang, handwritten.

……

"Oh? Hong Junxian was following me?"

Deep underground, in a dark cave, Zhao Guanghui stood alone, carrying a paper lantern.

Suddenly, a cold wind blew in, and a tiny figure with bulging eyes, about an inch long, fell from the darkness and nestled close to Zhao Guanghui's ear, seemingly whispering something softly.

"It seems that this Senior Hong is hiding something from me..."

Zhao Guanghui gave a forced smile, a cold glint flashing in his eyes.

He suddenly quickened his pace, his figure flashing like a ghost across a fork in the road, heading straight into the depths.

There is an underground passage in the large garden behind the Zhao residence.

Moreover, Zhao Guanghui was cunning and had multiple burrows; the tunnels branched off, leading to different places.

A path leading to the bustling city street, providing convenient cover and allowing one to blend into the crowd.

One route leads directly to a secluded dock on the Grand Canal, making it convenient to escape at any time and sail south.

There is another one, which is the one he is walking on now.

Soon, a sinister black stone gate came into view.

Zhao Guanghui moved with practiced skill, following a specific direction, circulating his internal energy, and striking the stone gate.

'Rumble...'

The mechanism started working, the stone gate opened, and a cave was formed.

Zhao Guanghui entered with a lantern. At first, it was extremely narrow, barely wide enough for one person to pass through. After walking several dozen steps, it suddenly opened up into a vast underground palace that had been artificially created.

Inside the underground palace, there were countless blood pools of varying sizes, scattered like stars. From time to time, viscous bubbles would slowly rise from the bottom of the pool with a 'glug' sound, splashing up tiny blood flowers.

Then, a body that had been soaked until it turned white suddenly floated to the surface from the bottom of the pool.

The air was thick and sticky, filled with a heavy, unyielding stench of rust and decay that made one want to vomit. At that moment, three or four figures dressed in heavy cotton coats, their faces obscured, were busy at the edge of the blood pool. Some were using nail hooks to poke at the corpses, while others were cleaning the blood pool, which was now empty and needed to be refilled.

Someone walked to the corner, grabbed the rope, and shook the bell.

A square hole in the wall opened with a click, and a fresh corpse plummeted down, landing with a 'plop' in the selected blood pool, splashing up a wave of blood.

"My boss."

"I've met my boss."

Upon seeing Zhao Guanghui, the men put down their tasks, bowed respectfully, and their voices sounded deep and reverent in the empty blood pool.

"How's the cargo?" Zhao Guanghui asked calmly, his gaze sweeping over the floating corpses.

"The quality is generally poor; there's only one Yushu martial artist's corpse every few days."

Zhao Guanghui frowned and pondered for a moment,
"Fine, we'll just have to make do. The Wuqing Sticky Rod Office plans to slay demons at Banno Tsutomu. We'll definitely have plenty of loot then."

At this point, Zhao Guanghui paused, then waved his hand and said,

"You may all step back. I will empower a few warriors."

"Yes!"

Upon hearing this, these people dared not delay, and immediately took a few steps back, turned around, and left the underground palace.

For a moment, the underground palace was quiet, with only Zhao Guanghui remaining.

Only the blood pool churned, bubbles burst, and corpses floated to and fro.

Standing alone in this bloody place, Zhao Guanghui waved his hand, and the skin on his wrist tore open on its own, from which emerged a white pill the size of a thumb, neither insect nor talisman.

The white pill suddenly shot out and disappeared into a pool of blood.

The blood in the pool instantly boiled, and the thick blood vapor turned into wisps of red smoke, surging wildly into the white pill.

In a short while, the entire pool of blood was completely absorbed, leaving only a pool of colorless water.

The white pill seemed unsatisfied, and with a gentle shake, it suddenly pierced through the head of the corpse in the pool, seizing all its remaining essence, energy, and spirit.

Wow…

The corpse instantly disintegrated, turning into dust and disappearing without a trace.

Within the white pill, a faint, blurry placenta could be seen, but it was not clear.

Then, seemingly dissatisfied, Bai Wan resorted to his old trick, weaving through pools of blood and nearly draining all the corpses from the pools.

After a long while, the white pill flew back into Zhao Guanghui's palm.

A crack appeared on the surface of the white pill, as if a child was being born, and a tiny person with indistinct features and unusually large, drooping ears, like someone who could hear the wind, fell out.

This white pill is called "Immortal Molting Insect Elixir". It was a pawned item that Zhao Guanghui acquired by chance from a down-on-his-luck old Taoist priest when he opened a money shop in his early years. It was a dead pawn.

According to the old Taoist priest, this object is the true essence of the legendary method of corpse liberation, the Taiyin Refining Form, which refines the cicada shell left behind by a fake corpse.

It is a genuine predestined connection with the immortals.

The Undying Molting Insect can transform a corpse into a spirit, absorbing the essence, energy, and spirit of the corpse to give birth to three powerful warriors: the Eye Corpse, the Ear Corpse, and the Body Corpse, and three Dingjia: the Nose Corpse, the Tongue Corpse, and the Mind Corpse.

Strongmen are easy to find, but skilled warriors are hard to come by.

The strongman only has rudimentary abilities such as carrying, killing, and tracking, and his strength is at most comparable to a warrior who can kill three thieves.

Ding Jia, on the other hand, was already considered extraordinary, possessing various unpredictable abilities, and could serve as a Taoist guardian deity.

Unfortunately, the required strength level of the corpse to refine a Ding Jia is far too absurd.

It seems that we really need to take the remains of a martial arts master and soak them in a pool of blood.

So over the years, Zhao Guanghui has used the "King of Hell's Accounts" to squeeze every last drop of value from borrowers before they die.

When those who were injured in mining, drowned in the water, or were wounded while searching the mountains were dragged to the Blood Pool and sacrificed to create powerful warriors.

They then used this to control and monitor everyone at Guanghui Money Shop, including its borrowers.

Zhao Guanghui didn't have the guts to cross the line and anger those old devils above him.

But Zhao Guanghui had the audacity, and a great deal of audacity, to exploit and squeeze these poor bastards!

"The immortal molt is offered as a sacrifice to the universe, and one kowtows to beg for the Daoist scriptures of ascension..." The old Daoist only had time to say these words before he died. Otherwise, I would have wanted to learn from him the true origin and usage of this "Immortal Molting Technique".

Even after wielding the Undying Moltress for many years, Zhao Guanghui still felt that this thing still held many secrets that had not yet been discovered.

"But it doesn't matter. Once I get a few more corpses of true essence and gather a few more warriors, with the warriors' ability to come and go without a trace, even experts who can kill three or four thieves will have to die in front of me!"

Not to mention, once I refine Ding Jia! What's a windlass head? It'll be a piece of cake. At that time, the entire underground world of Wuqing County will be in my hands!

Zhao Guanghui seemed to have already envisioned the scene where those old guys who had looked down on him, thought he was eccentric and unreliable, would kneel before him, bow their heads in submission, and fawn over him.

"Hahaha, this is just too much!!!"

Phew! !
The maniacal laughter abruptly stopped!

Zhao Guanghui shuddered violently, a metallic taste rising in his throat, and a mouthful of blood gushed out without warning, splashing onto his palms, testicles, and front of his shirt.

His face was pale, and he felt as if an invisible connection in his mind had been suddenly severed. He was incredulous and shouted sharply...
"Who killed my Eye Corpse Warrior?!"

(End of this chapter)