"Wow hahaha!!"
A scream of ghosts and wolves came from the Mao City dike, startling several birds by the river and attracting the attention of the families by the river.
"Strange, what's screaming like ghosts and wolves?"
"I don't know, there are usually no people over there by the dike!"
"Yeah, the river is still frozen now, no one fishing goes over there, who would be screaming over there!"
"Did someone accidentally fall into the water?"
"Oh no, I hope not!"
"Hurry, call someone over to take a look, hurry, hurry!"
.........
Du Ke on the dike was unaware that in his excitement and loud laughter, he had also attracted the attention of a group of families by the river.
Lost in excitement and ecstasy, his triple mouth kept opening and closing as he talked to himself: "I wonder what the girl's reaction would be if she knew I could talk now."
"Oh, the customers at the lamb shop said this is Mao City, so where exactly is this Mao City?"
"Is it far from Qingzhou?"
As Du Ke lowered his head in thought, he also thought of the girl who had gone with the convoy to visit her grandfather in Yunzhou.
Although the convoy was ambushed, they had already entered the territory of Yunzhou at that time, and would certainly not turn back halfway. They must have continued on their way after dealing with everything.
At that time, in order to avoid the silly dog, he had jumped onto the roof of the carriage to enjoy the breeze, but coincidentally encountered the first wave of ambush and got blasted off.
If it weren't for the silly dog's timely reaction, he would probably be dead by now.
But looking at it the other way, if he hadn't been dragged away by the silly dog, he wouldn't have ended up at Steaming Cloud Mountain, and wouldn't have obtained the tongue grass.
Everything could be said to have its own causal cycle, with karma at work.
"I have to find a way to leave Mao City and head to Qingzhou."
"But right now I just finished bone tempering, my strength is inadequate, and the silly dog hasn't grown up yet either."
"I need to find another place to stay for a while, to properly cultivate for a period of time, and let the silly dog develop a bit, only then can I return to Qingzhou."
"Besides, this Mao City reveres cats, just like Ah San's reverence for the sacred cow in my previous life. Finding a place here to cultivate may work."
Having soliloquized this far, Du Ke also said to the silly dog: "Thirteen, let's go, we need to find a place to stay for a while."
"Woof!"
Thirteen nodded vigorously, carrying the cat as they left the dike.
As soon as they left, a group of people arrived at the dike.
"It was here that someone was screaming just now!"
"Huh, where is everyone?"
"Did they get washed away by the river?"
"Quick, quickly search along the river, don't let anything really happen!"
........
Mao City, Linxian Lane.
In a certain shop.
Ka Lang, ka lang, ka lang....
In the dim room, the bright blade slid across the whetstone, making a very clear sound. A pair of extremely good-looking hands held a pair of scissors, carefully grinding them across the whetstone over and over.
Suddenly, a pair of eyes as green as jade lit up in the shadows, the pupils in the middle as black as ink squeezing the jade green glow to just a ring of light.
"Aoowoo!"
A roar like a tiger's resonated in the room, and the hands grinding the scissors stopped as well. An old man with a weathered face full of wrinkles that told of the passage of time looked up.
"What is it?"
"Aoowoowoo!!"
"Yes, the white monkey devil has been here, I know about this."
"Aoowoo!!"
After the low roar, there was the sound of heavy objects being knocked over.
The old man smiled bitterly at the sound, "I know Jin Yi left with that white monkey, you're upset, but that was Jin Yi's own decision, neither you nor I can control it."
"Aoowaoo!"
"What, a little guy came to town?"
The old man was suddenly interested, and let out another roar like a tiger's.
"Alright, since you want to go find him, then bring him here."
"Back then when I brought your spirit cat clan here, it was hard on you all."
The old man sighed, "Over the years, due to the workings of heaven and earth, the spirit cat bloodline has declined even more, now there's only three of you left."
"Finding one more would be good too, bring him back, and teach him well, don't let others lead him astray."
The pair of jade green eyes in the shadows had disappeared, and the old man reached into a bucket of water with a ladle, scooping up a ladle of water to rinse the whetstone.
Splash splash!
After rinsing the whetstone, the old man placed the scissors back on the whetstone, sharpening them one stroke at a time, his eyes focused and movements meticulous, as if nothing else existed in this world except for the scissors in his hands.
Ka lang, ka lang, ka lang....
The sharpening sounds echoed in the room, and were soon drowned out by the bustling sounds from outside.
..........
Southwest corner of Mao City.
"This looks good!"
Du Ke looked at the sealed door in front of him, and nodded approvingly.
In order to rest for a while in Mao City and cultivate for a period of time, while nurturing Thirteen's cat, Thirteen had directly led him around Mao City to look for abandoned and uninhabited houses.
And now, they had found it.
"Aowoo?"
Thirteen tilted his head, but Du Ke ignored him and directly stepped on Thirteen's back to climb over the courtyard wall and take a look inside.
The courtyard was covered in withered weeds like a blanket, there was a collapsed building covered in cobwebs, and a few sinister-looking rotten trees standing in the yard.
"It looks sinister and gloomy, I guess no one usually comes here, perfect for me and Thirteen to hide out!"
Du Ke nodded, jumped down from the courtyard wall, stood up while hugging the dog, and jumped up, flipping over the courtyard wall into the yard.
After dropping the dog on the ground, Du Ke let the dog explore the yard while he directly entered the building with the collapsed roof.
The doorway was covered in dust and cobwebs, and it was pitch black inside, unable to see anything clearly.
"A bit dusty, but it'll be fine after some cleaning!"
Du Ke squatted at the entrance, watching the dog scurrying through the weeds, while sinking his spiritual sense into the Black Cauldron space.
Inside the Black Cauldron space, everything had been tidy and organized by Du Ke.
During the days recovering from injury at Steaming Cloud Mountain, when he couldn't sleep, Du Ke would sort through the things in the Black Cauldron space while reading.
And now, the fur Thirteen had taken from the bear Ah Man was placed to the side, looking very conspicuous.
"Oh right, almost forgot there was this beast skin!"
Du Ke still remembered how the tattoos on this beast skin had attracted his interest.
With a thought, the beast skin was spat out from the Black Cauldron space and landed in front of Du Ke. Du Ke spread out the beast skin completely, only to find that it was as large as the back of a grown man.
And looking at the shape of the edges...
"Hiss!"
Du Ke suddenly sucked in a breath of cold air. This thing looked like it was made of human skin.
But how could a human have such thick fur?
Du Ke fiddled with the skin scroll of unknown origin, and looked over at the tattoos on it.
The specific image of the tattoos was a giant with three heads and six arms, the three heads on the shoulders blurred and unrecognizable, but the six arms were all making different hand signs.
Staring at the tattoo, Du Ke's gaze involuntarily became distracted, and everything in his eyes started to distort.
It was also at this time that a flash of golden light passed through the depths of Du Ke's eyes, and he shuddered violently, abruptly sobering up.
"Something's wrong!"
Du Ke who had jumped three feet high quickly retreated, also looking warily at the beast skin.
This beast skin gave him a very bad feeling, as if it wasn't of this world.
However, after staring at the beast skin for a while, Du Ke still went up to it, putting it away into the Black Cauldron space and throwing it into the Black Cauldron.
The flames in the Black Cauldron rolled up and engulfed the beast skin, rapidly refining it.
The engulfed beast skin dripped down unknown liquids that quickly vaporized into nothingness upon falling.
Soon, the beast skin was refined into a pellet the size of a child's fist, jet black all over and still furry.
Seeing this pellet flying out of the cauldron, Du Ke was speechless for a moment.
He had never seen such a hairy pill medicine before, was it moldy or spoiled?
But it could still be refined a second time!
Du Ke threw the black hairy pill back into the Black Cauldron again to carry out a second refinement.
When Du ke entered the black cauldron, under the roasting of the flames, the surface fur quickly peeled off, as if it had been shaved bald, exposing the white and tender core of the pill itself underneath.
The tender core of the pill rapidly changed color under the refining of the flames, turning directly from white to red, then from red to black.
At the same time, the volume of the pill also changed from the size of a child's fist to the size of a date, and the color also changed from black to dark gold.
And the surface was engraved with patterns like birds and beasts. Just looking at it for a moment, it was as if the spirit was going to be sucked away.
When the dark golden pill flew out of the cauldron, Du ke took it out.
The moment the pill entered Du ke's claw, Du ke's claw trembled.
The weight of this pill was simply indescribable, extremely heavy.
Looking at the pill in his claw, Du ke opened his mouth and put the pill in his mouth.
But no matter how big a cat's mouth is, it can't swallow a date-sized pill.
"Just bite it apart!"
Just as Du ke was thinking this, the pill suddenly drilled into Du ke's throat on its own initiative, disappearing into his throat.
It was also at this moment that the focus in Du ke's eyes disappeared, and he stood still on the spot.
On the other hand, in Du ke's mind, one after another memories that did not belong to him kept emerging.
In these memories, he understood the origin of this beast skin.
This beast skin was taken from the back skin of a farmer in the mountains 300 years ago, and that mountain farmer used to be a normal person.
However, when he was chopping wood, he happened to encounter a falling red star. The falling point of the red star was not far from him. Out of curiosity and driven by poverty, he went to check it out.
Then he discovered a booklet in the impact crater where the red star landed. After seeing the booklet, the farmer directly comprehended a cultivation technique.
After he cultivated this technique himself, the pages of the book also transferred to his back.
However, due to some events, this guy was eventually killed, his skin was peeled off, and used as the carrier for the cultivation technique he had cultivated.
Then the picture stopped abruptly, and a description of a cultivation technique also poured into his mind, branded as a page.
When Du ke's eyes regained clarity, his expression became complex and surprised.
"Demon Sealing Meditation Scripture..... Demon Sealing Meditation Scripture......"
"This turned out to be a cultivation technique for demonic cultivators!"