Immortality Cultivation: Fellow Daoists, please live for two more episodes!

In the blink of an eye, another month has quietly passed. Although the fire in the herb garden has not yet been openly lit, the atmosphere in the servants' quarters has already changed.

When working, no one dared to expose their back to the person next to them anymore. Even when sleeping in the dormitory at night, everyone had to keep a sickle under their pillow.

Zhou Youyuan is alright; perhaps he's been shoveling manure for a month and people have forgotten he even exists.

Of course, it's more likely that no one dares to provoke him. After all, most of the brainless people who have been in this demonic sect for a long time end up as fertilizer in the fields.

These people know perfectly well who is easy to bully and who they shouldn't provoke.

During his lunch break that day, he lay on the communal bed, closed his eyes, and immersed himself in his thoughts, finally seeing what he wanted to see.

In Zhao Donglai's secret stone room, the candle had burned down to its last bit, and wax had spilled all over the table.

The silk on the stone couch was crumpled up. Zhao Donglai leaned against the headboard, with a woman lying in front of him, her head buried between his waist and abdomen, her long hair falling down and covering most of her face.

"Ugh...no..."

Perhaps sensing something, the woman began to struggle violently, gripping Zhao Donglai's thighs tightly with both hands, trying to break free:

"Please...please..."

Zhao Donglai showed no mercy, gripping the back of her neck with one hand while making a hand seal with the other.

The key to seizing essence and draining vital energy lies here: let the ultimate physical pleasure completely overwhelm the other person's reason.

Using the most intimate skin-to-skin contact as a trigger and the most relaxed state of mind as a window, one can steal away the other's essence and spiritual energy bit by bit while the other is completely unaware.

Soon, a thin layer of sweat appeared on the woman's body, and her body trembled slightly. Occasionally, a few muffled sounds escaped from her throat, making it impossible to tell whether they were from excitement or something else.

She probably didn't even realize that with each tremor, her face paled a little more, and her skin went from smooth to dry, like a balloon being slowly deflated.

Zhao Donglai's aura expanded in sync with the woman's movements.

The barrier that had been blocking his body for who knows how long was loosening, slowly being broken through like water dripping on stone. Spiritual energy surged and collided within his meridians, and he was only one breath away from breaking through.

He increased the pressure under his palm.

The woman's body suddenly arched, her lips parted, and she let out a shriek that went off-key. Then she went limp and lay motionless on the bed as if her bones had been removed.

At the same instant, the barrier of the three-layered Qi Refining Realm shattered.

Spiritual energy surges into the meridians like a tide, and true qi condenses and enters the orifices.

The Yuan-level cultivation level on Zhou Youyuan's consciousness panel silently changed:

[Cultivation Level: Qi Refining Level 3]

Zhao Donglai released his grip and glanced down at the woman on the bed.

The girl, who was in her early twenties, looked like a woman in her forties or fifties. Her skin was loose, her eyes were sunken, and her chest was rising and falling slightly.

Not quite dead, but almost.

He pushed the person towards the bed, got up, straightened his robes, and pushed open the door to the secret room.

The sun was shining brightly outside, and a mountain breeze was blowing in my face. It was the perfect time to feel refreshed after exercising.

He instructed the servant waiting at the door: "Go to the kitchen and stew a pot of ginseng soup, make it with old mountain ginseng... and throw in the tiger penises I've been saving."

After a month of hard work, it's really time to replenish my energy.

"Yes, Manager Zhao."

Just as the servant bent down and stepped back to get the soup, Zhao Donglai glanced at him unintentionally.

???

Throwing a person into the furnace and using fire to ignite the firewood, although the smell on this kid is very faint, it is definitely the Turbid Fire Breathing Technique!

He might not have noticed this a month ago, but after studying the "Spirit Gathering Technique" day and night for the past few months, he is now certain that he will not mistake this technique.

But why? He remembered this kid as just an ordinary handyman.

How about we test the waters first?

Zhao Donglai didn't say anything, took the ginseng soup handed to him by the servant, and turned to go to the servant's dormitory.

When the door was pushed open, the berths were much wider than I remembered. Several straw mats were empty in the corner, with bedding draped over them. It didn't seem like they had been rearranged; it was as if the original inhabitants... were gone.

There were dark brown stains at the base of the wall, hastily covered with a layer of mud, but the underlying color couldn't be concealed. Although it had dried and turned black, it was still visible that it was blood.

He casually flipped through a few bed boards, and under the third one was a torn piece of yellow paper with a few lines of words scrawled crookedly on a charcoal stick: "Those of the same origin devour each other, yang fire burns the scriptures..."

It's interesting. One Li Xiaoyu died, and now there are thousands upon thousands of Li Xiaoyus.

Ever since he took the book "The Art of Gathering Spirits" from Li Xiaoyu, he had kept it locked in a secret room and never shown it to anyone.

Even when sending people to test the waters, they used his modified version. The method recorded in this dormitory is clearly the original one.

His guess was right; Li Xiaoyu was just bait, and there was a bigger cause and effect hidden behind it.

The ginseng soup in Zhao Donglai's hand had gone cold. He put the bowl on the stone steps at the entrance of the dormitory, clutched the piece of yellow paper, turned back to the stone building, and grabbed the gatekeeper.

"When did this start circulating?"

"I...I don't know..."

"You don't know? Where did that stuff in your meridians come from? You don't even know?"

The servant's face turned deathly pale, and after a long pause, he managed to squeeze out a few words:

"I just found a piece of paper... with a few incantations written on it, and I tried it out of curiosity... lots of people in the herb garden are practicing it, I'm not the only one..."

"A lot of people are practicing? How long have they been practicing?"

"About... half a month..."

"It's been half a month, why hasn't anyone notified me?"

Upon hearing this question, the servant's eyes began to dart away, and he stammered for a long time without being able to give a coherent answer.

"explain!"

The servant couldn't take it anymore, and he knelt down with a thud, his story changing as he spoke:

"Yes, it was Manager Qian from the kitchen who said... that you were in seclusion and shouldn't be disturbed. He told everyone not to report it, saying he's handling it..."

Qian Guang? No, it wasn't him.

Zhao Donglai released his grip, and the servant fell to the ground with a thud, scrambling and crawling to the corner of the wall.

Qian Guang, the head of the kitchen, entered the Shuiyue branch in the same year as him and was in charge of the food distribution for the four medicinal gardens.

Last year, Zhao Donglai filed a lawsuit against him for some personal gain, resulting in a six-month deduction of his spirit stone allowance. That's when the grudge was formed.

Taking advantage of his seclusion to block information and prevent people from reporting it, Qian Guang, with his limited capacity for tolerance, was capable of such retaliation.

But how about spreading the "Spirit Gathering Technique" throughout the four herb gardens?

Impossible. This is a job that could cost you your head. That guy surnamed Qian isn't that stupid.

Zhao Donglai closed the door to the secret room and went through the whole story from the beginning.

Li Xiaoyu, a mere laborer, possessed a treasure he couldn't understand, along with the "Spirit Absorption Technique." Either this kid was truly lucky to have found this hidden treasure in the flower field, or there was someone else behind him.

He had his doubts and even considered setting up a stall in the market to try his luck at fishing, but after a month of fishing, he caught nothing and thought he must have been wrong.

But now it seems that I've become the clown who's jumping around.

During the month he was in seclusion, the other party openly distributed the "Spirit Gathering Technique" and even used Qian Guang as a shield.

Li Xiaoyu was his pawn, the "Na Ling Jue" was his creation, and Qian Guang was the knife he borrowed.

The whole game was planned over at least a month, with every move made in a place where Zhao Donglai couldn't see it.

But why?

Zhao Donglai went through all the people he had offended over the years in his mind, but none of them matched up.

They didn't know who the other person was, what the other person wanted, or even when they had offended such a person.

But Zhao Donglai wasn't the kind of person who would just sit and wait if he couldn't figure things out.

Put aside things you can't figure out; the real problem is the mess right now.

The fact that the "Spirit Gathering Technique" had spread throughout the herb garden could no longer be kept secret. Once the higher-ups found out, he would be the first to be punished.

When you are useful, the rules are the wall that protects you; but when you are no longer useful, the rules are the soil that buries you.

Zhao Donglai walked to the corner of the secret room, moved the old wooden box, and took out a palm-sized brocade pouch from the hidden compartment at the bottom of the box. Inside was a jade pendant, of average quality, with two fine cracks on the edge, and the character "Jiang" engraved on the back.

This was a secret he couldn't tell anyone, and it was also the reason he was able to sit in this menial servant's position.

Originally, he was just an ordinary handyman. The reason he became the head of the household was because he had curried favor with a big shot and helped him do some shady things.

It took decades of time and the loss of most of his fortune to finally obtain this protective charm.

Over the years, he had encountered many troubles, but he never thought of using this thing. This kind of thing is like a life-saving pill; once it's used, it's gone forever.

If you bother people with trivial matters, they won't talk to you next time you need something.

But now there's no choice.

He then went to the altar, opened the hidden compartment, and took out the jade pendant that he couldn't understand.

Having lived in this world for so many years, he's not stupid. Since this opportunity and the "Spirit Gathering Technique" both came from Li Xiaoyu, his current actions are very likely the other party's goal.

Did the other party want to use him to send the jade pendant to a higher position?

Should he tell that person his deduction?

After hesitating for a long time, Zhao Donglai decided to keep his guesses to himself. He closed the brocade box, put it in his pocket along with the jade pendant, and left.

Forget it, this thing is at least a treasure. Talking about it will only cause more trouble. No matter whose knife he becomes, he has no choice right now. He wants to live.

In ancient times, those who presented tribute knelt to offer it, and those who received it bent down to take it.

Those who receive gifts should always leave the giver a way out.