I have a panel that reduces proficiency.

Chapter 67 Further Improvement

The snow is falling heavily.

Same as last year.

They fluttered down like paper money scattered at a funeral, one piece on top of another, falling to earth.

In that alleyway, a ragged man knelt in the snow.

He had been kneeling for a long time, his lips were blue, and his body trembled uncontrollably beneath his coarse, straw-like clothes.

But the man dared not get up.

His deep-set eyes were filled with pleading, and even his protruding cheekbones were carefully concealed, no longer daring to reveal even a trace of their former sharpness.

The sunset stood before the man, and suddenly he felt a little bored.

Just like when you first start cultivating the Tao, you long for a Qi-Nourishing Pill day and night, but later you find that when you finally hold it in your hand, it's just an ordinary pill.

"Raise your head."

The man shuddered, then began to tremble violently, banging his head against the ground repeatedly.

"Evening Glow Maiden—Evening Glow Fairy! Spare me! Please, spare me! I know I was wrong, I really know I was wrong! I kowtow to you, I kowtow to your sister! I shouldn't have bullied you sisters, shouldn't have stepped on your sister's hand, shouldn't have kicked your chest! I'm not human, I'm an animal! I'll return all the spirit stones to you, I'll return them to you double, I'll return them all to you! I still have an elderly mother and a young child at home, please, please have mercy and spare my dog's life!"

His voice was high-pitched and hoarse, like a chicken being strangled and about to be slaughtered. Tears and snot covered his face, mixed with snow water from the ground, and dripped into his mouth in a dirty manner.

The sunset didn't move; she just stood there, looking down at him.

"You don't just know you're wrong, you know you're going to die."

After she finished speaking, a black aura surged out from Wanxia's sleeve and silently wrapped around the landlord's head.

Before he could even let out a scream, he was completely enveloped by that yin energy from head to toe. His body convulsed violently a few times, and then collapsed silently like a sack whose insides had been emptied, leaving only a pile of wrinkled rags.

The yin energy slowly rose from the pile of rags, like a satiated snake, slithering along the snow to the feet of the sunset, spiraling up her ankles, and disappearing back into her sleeves.

As dusk fell, she closed her eyes and felt the magical power within her surging and trembling.

When he opened his eyes again, a flash of purple light appeared in them, indicating that he had already reached the fourth level of Qi Refining.

"A mortal whose cultivation was destroyed gained more power after devouring than his senior brothers and sisters."

The voice resounded in her mind, saying, "Humans are born between heaven and earth, endowed with one breath, each possessing a primordial true nature. Even if one's breath is perfectly refined, without cultivating this true nature, one's essence is no different from that of an ordinary person. Most cultivators in the world only know how to gather spiritual energy and refine magical power, unaware that true nature is the foundation. Therefore, some people who have perfected their breath have a true nature as weak as a candle in the wind, while ordinary people have a true nature as deep and profound as a rough jade in a deep mountain. As for those born with a strong true nature, such as those with a heavenly spiritual root, they are favored by heaven and earth, and their primordial true nature is a hundred times stronger than that of ordinary people. If one could devour one, the feeling—hehe, even the Foundation Establishment realm could be attained."

"Is this really the kind of person my sister is?"

The voice chuckled softly, the sound echoing in the mind's eye for a long time.

[Minor Concealment Technique Proficiency +20]

[Minor Concealment Technique (Mastery): 20/400]

rose again.

Has it been more than a minute since that promotion?

Fang Shi's heart skipped a beat, and his gaze involuntarily turned to the window.

The snow was falling heavily, turning the world into a pale white expanse, so dense that the eaves of the opposite houses were almost invisible.

Xuanzhu seemed to sense something as well, opening her still somewhat sleepy eyes a crack, and asked, "What's wrong?"

Fang Shi gazed at the vast expanse of white snow outside the window and said, "You said summer is joy and winter is sorrow. Now it's the dead of winter again—where is the sorrow?"

Xuanzhu was silent for a moment, then sat up from beside Fang Shi and said, "Even if you know where the sorrow lies, what good is it? Time and space are blurred here. What you see and hear are nothing but bubbles formed from past obsessions. You've tried before—and couldn't do anything."

Fang swore, "No, I can do it."

He braced himself on his knees with both hands and suddenly tried to stand up.

However, no more than an inch after his body left the ground, an invisible pressure pressed down on him.

Like being submerged at the bottom of the ocean, the water pressure crushed his flesh from every direction.

In the past, he would have given up long ago.

But this time Fang swore not to.

He was fully activating the "Yuanyun Technique," his magical power surging from his dantian, flowing wildly along his meridians, pushing the invisible pressure outward inch by inch.

The higher you climb, the greater the pressure becomes.

The flesh and bones creaked and groaned under pressure.

Xuanzhu fully regained consciousness and said, "What are you doing? If you keep trying to tough it out like this, your physical body will give out first!"

Fang Shi gritted his teeth and said, "Help me divine the future."

"What?"

"Help me divine the future—find out where the sunset and morning dew are!"

Xuanzhu was taken aback for a moment, then said, "What are you yelling about? I'm not your follower. You think you can just tell me to do divination like that?"

"Mysterious Pearl".

He turned his head, his bloodshot eyes looking at her.

Xuanzhu's heart tightened, and she said, "Alright, alright. There's nothing you can do anyway, so let's just do the divination."

She took out the purple talisman from her sleeve, tossed it into the air, and her hands flew, her ten fingers rapidly calculating.

One after another, hexagrams rose and disappeared from the talisman.

But those hexagrams never quite come together.

Xuanzhu glanced at Fang Shi and saw that his bones were making ominous creaking sounds, and a trace of dark red blood had seeped into his clothes.

"Hey, Xia Xiu, don't you dare complain about my smelly feet."

"—What?"

Fang Shi gritted his teeth, sweat dripping down his temples, too exhausted to think about why she would say that at a time like this.

"You have to tell me." Xuanzhu's lips were slightly pursed, and two very faint blushes clung to her cheeks. "If you don't tell me, I won't do the calculation for you."

"—Okay, I don't mind your smelly feet."

"No, my feet don't smell, they smell good. You have to say you like them."

Fang Shi closed his eyes and said, "—I like it."

Xuanzhu was finally satisfied. She sat cross-legged, her ten fingers flying across her body, turning into a blur. At the same time, her feet, which were crossed on her knees, also moved—ten black toenails, like two rows of black pearls, rotated and opened and closed in the void. The five toes of her right foot flexed and extended to form the Heavenly Stems, while the five toes of her left foot opened and closed to form the Earthly Branches. Purple light flowed between her hands and feet, reflecting the talismans.

The first nine, the second six, the third nine, the fourth six, the fifth nine, and the sixth six.

As the final hexagram settled, the talisman trembled violently, and a beam of purple light shot into the sky. The light unfolded above the two people's heads, transforming into a complete hexagram: Gen above and Kan below.

Gen represents mountains, and Kan represents water.

The mountain is above, the water is below; the mountain presses down on the water, and the water winds around the mountain.

The narrow passage in the center of the hexagram represents a deep ravine between two mountain peaks, with water at the bottom but no bridge across it.

At the edge of the hexagram, a sheer cliff rises straight as if cut by a knife, with clouds churning below and two faint points of light peeking through.

One spot is a deep purple, hanging on the top of the cliff; another spot is a pale gold, sinking to the bottom of the cliff.

Fang Shi's pupils suddenly contracted; this was the very cliff they had come from.

Xuanzhu gazed at the hexagram, wiped the sweat from her brow, and said, "Mountain and Water (Meng), Gen above Kan below. There is danger below the mountain, but the danger ends there—this is the Meng hexagram. Meng means ignorance and confusion. In the hexagram, the sixth line in the fifth position and the ninth line in the top position are both moving—the sixth line in the fifth position represents the ignorant child, which is auspicious; the ninth line in the top position represents attacking the ignorant child, which is unfavorable for being a bandit, but favorable for defending against bandits. With both lines moving, one is auspicious and the other is inauspicious, one above and one below."

"This auspicious or inauspicious outcome is not fixed. The hexagram changes; a child who is ignorant can become a person who is ignorant, and a person who is ignorant can become a child who is ignorant."

Fang Shi suddenly remembered the story of morning dew and evening glow that Qi Xueyi had told him.

boom!

When the "Yuanyun Technique" is pushed to its limit, its magical power explodes in the meridians.

Fang Shi could feel the invisible pressure wrestling with him. His capillaries ruptured, and blood seeped from his skin, dripping onto the mat and staining a small patch of dark red on the straw mat beneath him.

Xuanzhu was startled by the sudden burst of energy emanating from him. She stared at him wide-eyed and said, "Are you crazy? Why are you fighting so desperately?"

"Because—I—am—not—happy!"

"But this is an obsession, an illusion, all things of the past."

"Just because you know it's an obsession, just because you know it's an illusion, why not do it?"

Before he could finish speaking, a series of cracking sounds rang out from his bones, and several blood vessels in his arms and chest burst open at the same time, shooting out several jets of blood that splattered onto his clothes, instantly spreading into a large, glaring crimson patch.

"That's even more unacceptable!"

He took a sudden step forward.

With a crisp "crack," the invisible pressure was broken.

In an instant, his blood exploded out from every pore on his body, creating a crimson halo around him.

Ke Fang stood up straight and walked step by step toward the door.

Xuanzhu stood frozen in place, ignoring the blood splattered on her face, and murmured softly, "You actually did it—"

Is it really possible to forcibly break free from one's obsession like this?

"Huh? Wait, I think I can move again—wait for me!"

After she finished speaking, she jumped up barefoot and chased after him in three steps at a time.

Morning dew and evening glow walk side by side on the forest path.

The snow fell in clumps, as if someone in the sky were dumping basket after basket of snow that had accumulated all winter.

The pine branches by the roadside were bent over by the weight of the snow, creaking and groaning as they drooped toward the ground.

The footprints the two had just made disappeared without a trace in the snow after a while.

The wind blew in through the gaps in the forest, carrying fine snowflakes that stung my face like needles.

The evening glow, forced to shrink back by the wind and snow, reached out and took Chaolu's arm, nestling against Chaolu's shoulder to shield herself from the oncoming snowflakes.

With the morning dew as a shield, the oncoming wind and snow were somewhat mitigated.

-

The sunset blinked, melting the few snowflakes that had landed on its eyelashes into water droplets, then moved closer and chattered incessantly.

She recounted a funny incident from when she first entered the outer sect—on her first inspection of the medicinal fields, she confused red Ganoderma lucidum with red mushrooms and was publicly reprimanded by the elder in charge, so ashamed that she dared not raise her head for several days.

She also said that she would go to the back mountain to collect herbs every day after school. Once, she found a small patch of wild berries by the water. She excitedly picked a whole bagful and shared it with her senior classmates. As a result, everyone's mouths turned purple from eating them, and they laughed at each other's teeth all night long.

As for the Five Yin Cave, although the Yin energy there was heavy, we went in with our senior brothers and sisters and managed to collect quite a few rare and valuable medicines.

"Where is my sister? How is she doing at the Jade Cloud Palace?"

The sunset looked up at the morning dew, and a snowflake landed on the tip of her nose. She wiped it away.

Then Chaolu began to talk about her own life.

She said that the Yuxiao Taoist Palace was built on the summit of the second highest peak of Luofu Mountain. Every morning when she opened the window, she would see a sea of ​​clouds surging from the horizon to her feet, as if she were walking on cotton wool.

She also said that her master treated her very well. He was strict with her cultivation but took care of her in every aspect of her life. Knowing that she had suffered in the past, he would personally cook a few of his signature dishes during her ten-day break and watch her eat them before he would stop.

Furthermore, the senior brothers and sisters in the palace are all easy to get along with. Knowing that she is a new junior sister, they always take extra care of her.

"Sister, do you know, I went back to the house we used to rent last month."

Morning Dew paused in her steps.

Not far ahead, the path came to an end, with a sheer cliff cutting off the way.

She stood there motionless in the snowdrift, not pulling herself out for a long time.

The evening glow stopped with her at the edge of the cliff and said, "That house has long since changed tenants. It's now occupied by a wandering cultivator with his family. When I asked, I found out that the current landlord is actually you, sister. That wandering cultivator spoke of you with endless gratitude, saying that you are truly a savior from suffering, and that the rent is only one spirit stone a month."

"As for the original landlord, it took me a long time to find him. I did find him, but his cultivation had long been destroyed. The shop had been taken over, and the land deed had been confiscated—to my sister's place. When I arrived, he was huddled in the dilapidated shack at the very end of the alley, covered with a moldy straw mat. His belly, which used to be thicker than my waist, had shrunk to a thin layer of skin. When he saw me, he huddled in the corner, trembling like a leaf. His eyes were just like the ones we used to kneel in the snow looking at him back then."

"Sister, isn't it strange? When he broke your hand, I thought he was the most terrifying person in the world. But now, looking at him like this, I feel empty inside. It's not even hatred. It's like punching a snowdrift, the snow collapses, and there's nothing inside."

Chaolu said, "Half a year ago, an elder from the Hall of Affairs came to question me, and I told him the truth. Later, I heard that his cultivation was crippled, which is probably why."

Wanxia said, "Sister, do you think the most terrifying people in this world are blatant villains like landlords, or those like Master Suyuan who wear the guise of kindness but lead you to your death?"

Chaolu was taken aback and was about to speak.

Suddenly, Wanxia straightened up from Chaolu's shoulder, looked into Chaolu's eyes, and said, "Sister, I'm jealous of you. From childhood to adulthood, you've been better than me in everything. You were the one who protected me and got your hand broken, you were the one who gave me the Lesser Concealment Technique, and you were the one chosen by Master Suyuan. What right do I have to be jealous of you? You're my sister, I should want you to be well. But I'm just jealous, I'm going crazy with jealousy. Sometimes I even think..."

Before she could finish speaking, she took a half step back, reached out, and pushed hard against Chao Lu's chest.

Chaolu fell off the cliff edge and was about to fall to the bottom.

Almost at the same instant, a cold hand gripped her wrist tightly—it was Wanxia.

She had already rushed to the edge of the cliff, one hand gripping the rocky edge of the cliff face, the other hand clasping her fingers around Chaolu's wrist.

"Evening... sunset?"

"Sister, do you know why I grabbed you?" Wanxia laughed, "Because only by grabbing you can I prevent you from climbing up again."

A force flowed from the sunset's hand into the morning dew's body.

The morning dew had just gripped the cliff face, and the fingers that had been clinging to it slipped away inch by inch.

At the same moment, the hand that was holding her slowly loosened its grip.