Wild cultivation begins with wielding the Taiyin talisman.

After Zhong Lingsu entered the room, the door was quickly closed.

Ning Che stood in the courtyard and heard soft, comforting voices coming from inside. She spoke slowly, first asking the patient's age, then what they had eaten before and after the onset of the illness, and occasionally the soft sound of the medicine box being opened and closed.

Seeing Master Qian's medical skills is fine. But listening to the entire Zhong family's skills from the doorway would be a bit impolite.

Ning Che is upright and honest; how could he do such a thing?

So he kept his left hand still and stiffly moved a few steps to the open space beside him. The bright moon rose over the mountain, and the scenery outside the courtyard became clearer. Zhao He had just tied his horse to the wooden stake he had driven in earlier, his hand still trembling as he led the horse.

His lips were chapped, his clothes were covered in dust, and there were several cuts on his shoulders from tree branches. He was the most disheveled of all.

Ning Che wanted to reach out and brush the dust off him, but as soon as he raised his right hand, he remembered that his left hand was sticking out needles, and the posture was not very elegant, so he gave up.

The group of people who had come with them parked the carriage outside the courtyard without saying a word. Traveling at night, with monsters blocking their way, it was already quite an achievement to have survived to this point.

"How was the journey?" Ning Che asked.

"We encountered two groups of scattered demons." Zhao He handed the reins to the person behind him. "One group had three, the other had five. Their cultivation level wasn't high, and they weren't very bright either. They even dared to charge at the carriage."

Ning Che glanced at him.

Zhao He sat down in the corner, holding his knife and leaning against the earthen wall, his tone unusually smug: "I killed them all, I killed them with my own hands."

"sharp."

These two words are very practical.

Zhao He listened with satisfaction, and his tense shoulders relaxed a bit. But he quickly noticed the silver needles in Ning Che's left hand, and his brows furrowed: "Brother Xing, what happened here? The needles are already in?"

Ning Che didn't seem to care: "It's a minor injury; the doctor said it can be treated."

Zhao He stared at him for a moment, then didn't ask any more questions.

He wasn't a talkative person. Ning Che didn't want to speak, so he swallowed his words. After a while, he took out half a dry biscuit from his pocket, took a bite, chewed it twice, and stopped.

"Want some?"

Ning Che looked at the hard cake that could be used to crack walnuts: "Keep it to chew on your teeth."

Zhao He looked down at it, but didn't refute it, and put it back in his pocket.

The courtyard quieted down.

Occasionally, the sound of a patient coughing could be heard from inside the house. Zhong Lingsu quietly instructed someone to boil water. Outside the courtyard, several horses snorted and pawed at the ground. In the distance, the mountains and forests were a dark mass, and the chirping of insects was intermittent, which only made the small courtyard seem more lonely.

But Ning Che's brows slowly furrowed.

He was suddenly startled to realize that his dantian was opening on its own.

It wasn't activated by internal energy cultivation, nor was it forced through external force. The key point opened from within, and the accumulated qi and blood were drawn together to one place.

He was very familiar with this process, having simulated it more than once in his cultivation method. However, when it actually happened, it was completely outside of all his simulations, an absurd situation that was simply unheard of.

The key issue was that he had never imagined that the breakthrough could be done entirely automatically, and he was completely at a loss as to what to do. He couldn't just let things change as they pleased.

This is troublesome.

If I had known this would happen, I should have risked breaking through the barrier earlier.

The thought had just crossed his mind when he suppressed it.

wrong.

This is a calamity.

Ning Che called out, "Zhao He, keep an eye on our surroundings and don't let anyone get close."

Zhao He immediately stood up, his hand on the hilt of his sword: "Is there a demon?"

"Not necessarily. If it exists, cut it off first and then ask."

"clear."

Zhao He didn't ask any further questions and turned to walk towards the courtyard gate. He didn't walk fast, but he scanned every corner where someone could hide. He also called over the few people who accompanied him, and they each took up a spot to guard.

Ning Che closed his eyes, letting his thoughts sink into his body.

The door is still there.

A bright red light shone through the crack in the door, even brighter than before. Behind the door was not an empty space, but the foundation formed from the condensation of his vital energy and blood. The so-called dantian is the body's medicinal field, where accumulated vital energy and blood become the great medicine.

Once the medicinal field is opened and the main medicine is put into the furnace, the muscles and bones, the five senses, strength, and recovery ability will all be greatly enhanced.

The manual also contains a rather frivolous statement: "A virgin's essence is not yet depleted, and her dantian is full of elixir."

When Ning Che saw this, he was quite skeptical. A man's body wouldn't change as a result, so there was no reason for it to have any effect.

But the mysteries of cultivation were still beyond his imagination, and these words were actually true.

Based on his own assessment, after opening his dantian, he might be able to exchange a few blows with an ordinary seventh-rank cultivator. Even if he couldn't win, he could probably at least hold his own.

Since things have come to this, let's push the door open.

Ning Che circulated his internal energy, his blood and qi flowing along his meridians. He held the Crescent Moon Blade horizontally in front of his knees; the blade was slightly cool, suppressing some of his agitation.

It was at this moment that the toxins in the fingertips of the left hand reacted.

A bluish-black color surged from beneath the nail edge, transforming into fine black mist that drilled upwards along the meridians. The silver needles left behind by Zhong Lingsu glowed faintly, their tips trembling slightly, firmly blocking the black mist between several acupoints.

Those silver needles were clearly extraordinary magical artifacts, which is why they had such miraculous effects.

Ning Che then realized that although Zhong Lingsu said "it will be better tomorrow," she had actually prepared a backup plan. Before she went into the house to save him, she had already sealed his fate.

The black mist failed to spread, but instead became connected to the door. Each time it struck the silver needle, the red light from the crack in the door brightened a little. Or rather, it was this poison that was urging him to break through his cultivation level.

Before dying, the rat demon said, "Your wise teacher has prepared a new body for you."

That statement doesn't make sense.

It wasn't just empty threats or nonsense.

The demon knew he was about to break through his cultivation level and that his tribulation was imminent, so it specially sent him this cloud of black mist.

Poison is poison.

Bait is also bait.

Swallowing it might save a lot of hard work. But the preparations mentioned by that "wise teacher" wouldn't be a free gift. There's no such thing as a free lunch. He'd seen plenty of outrageous offers from his past life—free to claim, then borrow 30,000 after clicking.

Does the cultivation world also practice this?

But another thought quickly popped into my head.

What if this isn't a scam?

What makes him so certain that this is a deception?

He had already witnessed the wonders of beast taming. Yue Can's claim that he was the demon lord's messenger was not without reason. If that wise teacher was not trying to harm him, but merely wanted to use him to pave a certain path, then this black mist was not poison, but an opportunity.

An opportunity that came knocking on your door!

If he really is the protagonist destined to save everything, isn't it normal for someone or some demon to bring him some opportunities?

He has already accepted the Crescent Moon Blade, so why can't he accept more help?

Is he such a petty person that he refuses to believe his teacher simply because the teacher didn't die to prove his innocence?

Once the thought popped into my head, it was like a blast from the ground, lingering in my mind.

The red light behind the door was also swaying, as if it were beckoning to him from inside.

Yes, it's true that the rat demon killed people indiscriminately, crossing his bottom line, but it wasn't his wise teacher who did it. When he's stronger enough, he can just kill that rat demon, right?

Accept it, why can't you accept it?

Just because a demon eats people doesn't mean you shouldn't eat its flesh. On the contrary, you should viciously devour it to avenge those people...