“No.” The young monk shook his head and said, “The Li family has most likely lost the manual.”
“Alright.” The county magistrate nodded and said, “More than a hundred years ago, the leader of the Flying Dawn Sword Sect dominated the Pugilistic World of Lu County, but his descendants were so useless. It’s really a pity.”
“To think that I deliberately set up a trap and sent people to pretend to be the bride to investigate the truth. What a waste of effort. When Master Wang arrives, we’ll destroy the Li family.”
“County Lord, I heard that the Flying Dawn Sword’s Sect’s leader received guidance from an expert from the Immortal Dawn Sect. Is that true?” the young monk asked.
“The rumors in the martial world are both real and fake. Who can tell?” The county magistrate smiled and said, “Your Lotus Flower Monastery’s legacy has been passed down for a thousand years. You should know a lot of things. Why ask me?”
“Master never allowed me to ask about the Immortal Dawn Sect.” A hint of gloominess flashed across the young monk’s eyes. “By the way, there’s a top-notch expert from another city who wants to help the Li family for some reason. I’ve already taken him into the death-row cell and imprisoned him. Does the county magistrate have any instructions?”
“How can there be any innocent help in this world? This person must have some ulterior motives or came to repay a favor.” The county magistrate sneered and said, “Perhaps he has clues to the Flying Dawn Sword’s secret manual. Torture him!”
“Yes!” The young monk nodded.
Splash!
At this moment, the fish hook in the county magistrate’s hand moved. His face lit up, and he hurriedly pulled back the hook. He saw a big fish splashing around and biting the hook.
“Hahaha, silly fish.” The county magistrate laughed loudly and threw the fish into the bucket beside him. Then, he asked, “There’s one more thing. Master Wang is about to arrive and needs this place to replenish our provisions. I asked you to check who’s the richest person in the county. Do you have any leads?”
“We have some clues on this. It’s someone called Zhao Guang,” the young monk said. “He was originally from Swallow Mountain County. He was unwilling to join Master Wang and ended up here. On the surface, he was doing business, but in secret, he was robbing tombs to make a living. He accumulated a huge amount of wealth.”
“Good! This official has only been in office for three months, yet I didn’t know that there was such a wealthy person in the city.” The county magistrate laughed loudly and said, “He was originally from Swallow Mountain County, but he didn’t become a royal teacher. It’s really hateful. There will be bandits in the city tonight, and I’m sure that Zhao Guang’s family will become the primary target. What a pity!”
“I understand.” The young monk nodded.
“Tsk tsk.” The county magistrate put down his fishing rod and stood up. He looked at the young monk and said with a smile, “Little Master Hui Shi, you are a monk. How can you agree to such evil things like murder, robbery, and torture so readily?”
“Amitabha.” Monk Hui Shi pressed his palms together and chanted a Buddhist proclamation. His expression was calm as he said, “Buddha is merciful and cannot bear to see the people of the world suffer. Therefore, a royal teacher raised a righteous flag to uphold the world. These are things that must be done during a righteous act. What I’m doing is to fulfill the will of Buddha.”
“Hahaha! Good, good, good!” The county magistrate laughed very happily and patted Monk Hui Shi’s shoulder. “Then let’s find the Flying Dawn Sword’s Secret Manual first. This is a treasured book that contains the mysteries of the Inner World realm. It’s a necessary item for Buddha to show his mercy and shine on the world!”
“This monk will go to the death-row cell to interrogate that person now,” said Monk Hui Shi with a smile. “Don’t worry, County Supreme.”
“Go.” The county magistrate waved his hand and smiled again. “Do you want me to assign you a few helpers? After all, he’s a first-rate expert.”
“No need.” Monk Hui Shi shook his head and said, “He’s just a first-rate martial artist in the countryside. He won’t be able to do much.”
“Then I shall wait for your good news.” The county magistrate nodded and smiled. Then, he sat down again, hung the bait, and put down the rod to fish again.
…
The ancient death-row prison was a place that made people feel despair just by staying inside.
It was dark and damp, with no light to be seen. Even the floor of the cell was curved, making it impossible for the prisoner to lie flat or stand stably, suffering greatly.
Other than that, the hygiene conditions were extremely poor. Or rather, there were no hygiene conditions at all. The stench was everywhere.
After Cui Heng arrived, the people he saw only had numb expressions.
It was lifeless like hell.
But such a place actually brought him quite a surprise.
Currency could be converted here!
“Convert!”
Cui Heng ordered the System.
[Currency: +12]
It was not a lot, but it was not a small amount either. Previously, he had only converted less than 5 points in an entire day in Xiangxi Town.
Besides this, Cui Heng even felt that his Golden Core’s spirituality was showing signs of being affected, but it was different from the terror and joy he’d felt earlier.
This time, it was extreme despair and sorrow, reaching a state of numbness.
The seven emotions of a person were joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, evil, and desire.
According to his guess, if one wanted to simply be filled with spirituality or even transform to form a Nascent Soul, they would most likely need to experience the extremities of the seven emotions to stimulate the Golden Core and give birth to spirituality.
The fear and joy from before were merely a tiny bit of spirituality drawn out by the external emotions, and it was far from sufficient.
But in this death prison, the sorrow of despair was almost dense to the point of materializing. Cui Heng clearly felt that the spirituality of his Golden Core had increased quite a bit.
In terms of numbers, the previous fear level might have only been 0.001, the joy might have been 0.005, and the sorrow in this death cell was at least 0.1.
However, this could only be considered a small amount of nurturing in the end, and it was utterly unable to stimulate the true birth of spirituality.
“Great joy, great anger, great sorrow, great fear, great love, great evil, great desire. This should be the key node for a Golden Core to develop spirituality. But such extreme emotions are probably hard to find in the world.”
Cui Heng thought in his heart, and he gained a few more comprehensions towards his future path of cultivation.
“Young man, why are you here?” At this moment, an old man from Cui Heng’s neighboring cell suddenly asked.
This old man looked to be in his sixties or seventies. His clothes were ragged, his hair was disheveled, and his face was dirty. His hands and feet were bound by chains as thick as a finger. He was clearly a serious criminal.
“I turned myself in for murder.” Cui Heng smiled and looked at the old man. “What about you, old man?”
“I exterminated my master’s family and killed 31 people.” The old man grinned as if he was talking about something extremely normal. Suddenly, he changed the topic and said, “I have a martial skill here that will guarantee you to become the best in the Pugilistic World. Do you want to learn it?”
“What does the best in the Pugilistic World mean?” Cui Heng asked with a smile.
“Above the Xiantian Realm, Inner World. Endless growth, pinnacle of the Pugilistic World!” The old man’s eyes stared fixedly at Cui Heng. “Now that the world is in chaos, heroes are vying for supremacy!”
“If you can reach the peak of the Pugilistic World, then with a wave of your arm, you might be able to conquer an area and split the land to become a king, or establish a sect and become a venerable ancestor!”
Clang!
Suddenly, there was the sound of chains clinking against the prison door. A prison guard walked in.
The prison guard looked at the old man disdainfully and said with a cold smile, “Old Zhang, are you promoting that bullshit Immortal Mist secret manual of yours again? If you really can become the best in the martial world, why are you locked up here? It’s all bullshit!”
“Humph humph, you guys don’t understand at all. This martial skill was stolen from the Immortal Dawn Sect at the risk of my life 50 years ago!” That old man had an expression of ‘you guys don’t know what’s good.’
“You’re really persistent, to still be promoting that stuff in the death-row prison for 20 years!” The prison guard ridiculed before he opened the door to Cui Heng’s prison, and then he shouted with a grim voice. “Kid, get the fuck out here. Our boss wants to see you!”
However, Cui Heng seemed as if he hadn’t heard anything, and his gaze stared at the old man as he said in a low voice, “You said the Immortal Dawn Sect earlier. What kind of Immortal is it?”
“Young man, your words are really strange.” The old man chuckled and said, “Is there a need to ask? Of course it’s referring to a real Immortal. Even though the mountain has been sealed for a hundred years, it’s still the number one sect in the Pugilistic World, the Immortal Dawn Sect!”
“Kid, are you deaf!?” When the jailer saw that he’d been disregarded, he felt extremely humiliated, and he directly charged over with the intention of raising his hand to slap Cui Heng.
Cui Heng turned around and glanced indifferently at the prison guard.
The guard flew backward and slammed into the wall of the cell, where he passed out.
The other prison guards noticed the commotion and came over to take a look. They immediately shouted, “Someone wants to break out of prison. Guards, come quickly!”
The entire prison became noisy.
Cui Heng turned a deaf ear to all of this, and then he turned around to look at the old man and said, “Tell me about the Immortal Dawn Sect.”
“…” The old man was stunned. He looked outside and then at Cui Heng. He swallowed a mouthful of saliva and forced a smile, but it was uglier than crying. “Sure!”