Liu Meng once again came before the prison cell. Nine men were still locked inside.
Qin Shuang had always believed that two of them had already been consumed, since she had twice used them as substitutes for death.
What she did not know, however, was that these two were only avatars of the true body. No matter how many times they were destroyed, they could always be summoned again.
The men imprisoned here were different. Each one was irreplaceable. If they were gone, they were gone for good.
And although Qin Shuang lived within the demonic sect, she was not, in truth, a person of the demonic path. Faced with truly innocent people, she still could not bring herself to send them to certain death.
Most of the men before her were curled up on the ground. Those who had already been forced to take the Yin-Yang Inducing Pill were desperately circulating their techniques to suppress the surging yang energy within them. The rest, who had not yet consumed the pill, looked far more relaxed—but their eyes still carried heavy worry, fearful of what fate awaited them.
Liu Meng stepped forward and asked directly:
"Who here has killed before?"
"I have a task. Whoever completes it and returns, I will guarantee his safety—and I will even guide him onto the path of cultivation."
The men exchanged uneasy glances. None dared to be the first bird that stuck its head out.
None of them knew whether this "task" was a chance of survival—or certain death.
Seeing their silence, Liu Meng frowned ever so slightly. Yet that subtle change in expression alone was enough to make the men tremble as though crushed by invisible pressure.
At length, a thin man finally stood up.
"I'll go."
The others froze in surprise. None had expected anyone to be bold—or reckless—enough to accept.
Liu Meng studied him with interest. For a moment, she felt as though she had seen him before, though she could not place where. She shook her head, dismissing the thought, and handed him some dry rations. His task was to travel to the Sancai Workshop and purchase materials for the crafting of talismans.
From what Liu San had seen in the Treasure Pavilion, a single Sancai coin was enough to buy large amounts of low-grade talisman materials—more than sufficient for her to practice freely.
Yet with a mortal's pace, the journey would be long, and that was assuming he encountered no accidents along the way. Liu Meng could only wait patiently.
Time passed, until finally, that familiar system prompt resounded once more:
[A new day has arrived. A new avatar may be summoned.]
"Summon an avatar!"
Liu Ming responded without hesitation.
The newly summoned avatar was named Liu Wu. As before, he was given nothing—for there was little of value to assign him.
But then, Liu Ming frowned.
Something was wrong. Something had been forgotten.
The system had once said that when an avatar died, it would return with a gift of innate ability.
So why… after the deaths of Liu San and Liu Si, had no such gifts returned?
No—Liu San was not truly dead. He had been captured by the Sancai Workshop and turned into a mindless laborer. That explained his failure to return with an ability. But Liu Si had died outright. Why, then, had no ability been recovered from him?
Could it be… that Liu Si was not truly dead either?
But if so, why could Liu Ming sense nothing of his existence?
He puzzled over it for a long time without answer. In the end, he pushed the thought aside. It was something to be investigated later. For now, the focus was Liu Wu.
Liu Wu's appearance was plain, utterly unremarkable—someone who would vanish without notice in any crowd.
Yet he was still only a mortal. Within the deadly confines of the demonic sect, he had no means to defend himself.
Thus, his cultivation had to be raised first.
So far, Liu Ming had only mastered a single technique: the Xuanpin Art.
And indeed, it suited him perfectly.
Liu Wu's body was male, brimming with yang energy. Liu Meng, meanwhile, was already a first-stage Qi Refining cultivator, her yin energy far denser than that of an ordinary woman.
Dual cultivation between them would yield twice the result with half the effort.
At once, he sat cross-legged, while Liu Meng gently pressed her delicate jade-like hands upon his back.
Boom!
A surge of pure lunar yin qi rushed from Liu Meng's palms into Liu Wu's body. At the same time, Liu Wu began circulating the familiar formula of the Xuanpin Art.
Yin and yang clashed and fused violently within his dantian, instantly stirring resonance with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth!
Countless motes of qi light were drawn in, pouring madly into Liu Wu's body.
In mere moments—one strand, two strands, three strands… ten strands of spiritual power condensed in his dantian at a shocking pace!
"Break!"
With a silent roar, Liu Wu guided the power to strike at the final mortal barrier.
There was hardly any resistance. The invisible wall shattered with a bang, and an aura far beyond that of ordinary mortals exploded from within him.
The first stage of Qi Refining—achieved!
He marveled at the ceaseless current of spiritual power flowing through his body, at the ability to stir the qi of heaven and earth with a mere movement. Even he was left speechless.
He had never imagined that a demonic sect technique could be this powerful.
To step into Qi Refining… was this easy?
Then it struck him: had the higher levels of the sect not hoarded all resources, had they not denied mortals every opportunity, many of those enslaved in misery could have quickly become cultivators through the dominance of the Xuanpin Art.
But such a thing was impossible.
In this cannibalistic world, no one would grant power to another without a hidden motive. And even if one did, the end result was often enslavement—condemned to serve as another laborer in the stone caverns of Sancai Workshop.
Only Liu Wu—only the avatars summoned by Liu Ming—could receive such selfless, unreserved aid from both body and spirit. Only they could safely and swiftly rise from mortal to cultivator.
That, perhaps, was their greatest advantage in this demonic sect.
When Liu Wu's breakthrough was complete, Liu Meng withdrew her hand.
Not only had she suffered no loss, but the harmony of yin and yang had stabilized her own cultivation base. Yet the distance to the second stage of Qi Refining still seemed impossibly far.
It was clear now: with each advancement in the Qi Refining realm, the spiritual power required multiplied beyond measure.
Meanwhile, the man sent to Sancai Workshop for materials had yet to return.
Liu Wu, unwilling to wait any longer, decided to investigate the place Qin Shuang had mentioned—seeking to recruit more mortals.
With the speed of a Qi Refining cultivator, swift as a galloping horse, he traversed mountains in half a day and arrived at unfamiliar lands.
A vast plain spread before him. Unlike the isolated Xuanpin Sect, this place held the bustle of human life.
A wide official road cut through the plain, and along its sides stood a sizable mortal town.
Its buildings of stone and timber bore the marks of age. The streets were not crowded, yet neither were they lifeless.
This was Wangxian Town.