Lord Shenxiu

Moon Viewing Mountain.

The mountain is completely lush green, shrouded in a layer of mist year-round.

At the foot of the mountain, vast stretches of colorful flowers bloom, carrying specks of poisonous powder, forming a poisonous mist.

On this day, two figures come from afar, directly entering the poisonous mist.

"Around this mountain, there is a sheet of poisonous mist, making it difficult for mortals to enter..."

Jiang Kun introduces to Zhong Shenxiu.

As he speaks, he casually flicks his sleeve, causing the colorful mist to part in the middle: "Of course, for any cultivator with supernatural abilities, this is no challenge."

Zhong Shenxiu looks around and sees some flower fairies toddling in the sea of flowers with translucent wings, hiding behind buds and leaves, timidly watching the newcomers.

"This is a kind of creature known as 'Flower Charm,' specially bred here to manage this sea of flowers... It's said in the Western World, it has another name called Flower Fairy..."

Jiang Kun, seeing Zhong Shenxiu interested, couldn't help but say a bit more.

Zhong Shenxiu gazes at a beautiful flower fairy and can't help but smile.

The flower fairy also smiles, revealing countless tentacles coiled together inside her mouth...

'Uh... now she's not cute at all.'

Zhong Shenxiu feels slightly speechless inside, and follows Jiang Kun to the halfway point of Moon Viewing Mountain, to a gigantic market.

Upon entering a stone gate, the ground suddenly becomes much smoother, one after another stilted building built along the mountain, continuously winding and expanding upward.

"Here at Moon Viewing Square, cultivators from within several hundred miles like to wander around here, exchanging what they have..."

Jiang Kun introduces.

Zhong Shenxiu looks around, finding that there aren't many cultivators, but each one wears a gloomy expression, radiating dangerous aura.

After all, in this realm, the path of cultivation is extremely bizarre, thus it's unlikely for cultivators to exude any warmth.

In fact, those cultivators who still maintain human form are already considered lucky.

With a mere glance, Zhong Shenxiu sees several bizarre beings, some covered entirely in long black fur, some with gigantic wolf heads, resembling reborn yokai.

While others are simply a mass of shapeless black fog.

'If placed at night, perhaps it could make up a procession of hundred ghosts?'

He lightly quips in his heart.

"In this market, top materials are found at Ten Thousand Treasures Tower, elixirs at Heavenly Cauldron Square, all sorts of ancient books and texts are to be checked out at Tingchao Pavilion!"

Jiang Kun points to several enormous buildings, introducing to Zhong Shenxiu: "I wonder what Brother Fang wishes to see first?"

"Let's see the ancient books first... I'm somewhat interested in that Tingchao Pavilion."

Zhong Shenxiu replies.

"For most cultivators visiting for the first time, sixteen out of eighteen choose to do the same, sigh... We loose cultivators find it incredibly hard to get a fundamental great law."

Jiang Kun sighs with meaning: "Even within Tingchao Pavilion, there are only some side door arts, with huge costs, aside from that, there's some local customs and cultivation introductions... The real inheritance comparable to Xuanmen Orthodox is absolutely absent."

"Beyond that, what remains are untranslated ancient books, all written in 'Language of the Dao,' extremely dangerous... The 'Deciphering Master' at Tingchao Pavilion typically dies or goes insane every few months..."

'Language of the Dao' is, in essence, an ancient script deemed by cultivators in this realm to contain fragments of the Dao, highly mysterious, capable of enhancing one's path, yet exceedingly perilous.

Zhong Shenxiu's previously acquired copy of the [Four Seas Strange Scripture] was merely a handwritten translation, already possessing a maddening potent effect.

Whereas if it were the original written in Language of the Dao, its profound mysteries exceed a hundredfold, the peril elevating ten thousand times!

Essentially, cultivators who research these 'originals' or 'prototypes,' regardless of their prowess, eventually become more or less insane; however, their remnants of manuscripts and translated versions can be utilized by cultivators, despite being incomplete, sometimes even surpassing the originals in value.

"Oh?"

Zhong Shenxiu becomes intrigued.

After all, even without using the true status, just Fang Lang's watered-down Corpse Dissolving Immortal grade is nearly immune to any ancient books that could drive him insane.

'Looking at it this way... there's perhaps a chance for luck of the draw?'

With a bit of interest, he steps into Tingchao Pavilion with Jiang Kun.

Upon entering the gigantic doors, a scene of bamboo racks appears before him.

On them, little worm-like creatures resembling silkworm larvae crawl, occasionally devouring mulberry leaves fed by the staff.

"These are bookworms... Each can record a vast amount of text and images; once purchased, consuming the bookworm allows instant memorization of all recorded contents."

Jiang Kun explains from the side.

"Such cute little worms, at least they should be deep-fried before eating them..."

Zhong Shenxiu smiles wryly.

"This... The guest truly has taste, this creative idea, we have yet to try, next time I can suggest it to customers, as some indeed aren't accustomed to eating raw..."

The attendant, experienced as they are, shows no change in expression upon hearing, instead seriously considering the idea.

Zhong Shenxiu nods, walking towards a wooden rack, discovering a small tag:

[Corpse Evil Technique: Upon mastering, transforms oneself into a black undead, possessing immense strength and invulnerability...]

[Taboo: During cultivation, bury oneself in the ground for three days, not listening to thunder sounds! Once mastered, avoid chicken blood, avoid hearing rooster crowing, or else lose sanity and go berserk!]

...

Behind the tag on the wooden rack, swarming silkworm-like creatures crawled everywhere, evident each one is a copy of the [Corpse Evil Technique] manual.

Even Jiang Kun finds it somewhat impractical.

His family's inherited spells only prohibited eating beef and lamb compared to the [Corpse Evil Technique], whose taboos are much more complicated, with roosters everywhere, a careless slip could lead to breaking a taboo, resulting in a fate worse than Ju Liuzi.

Zhong Shenxiu naturally disregards such a technique and turns his attention to another rack.

[Dead Spirit Sand Yan: Formed by merging Western spells with Daoist Ban Shanzi's methods, enabling transformation into dead spirit souls, with sandy control ability...]

[Taboo: Avoid hearing the sound of cats, or the spell will backlash, resulting in inevitable death!]

"These side door arts indeed come at too high a cost..."

Zhong Shenxiu sighs and calls for the attendant: "Do you have any ancient books or prototypes?"

"Is the customer serious?"

The attendant widens his eyes, seemingly seeing a monster.

"I'm adept at deciphering."

Zhong Shenxiu casually makes an excuse.

"Ah, so the customer is a 'Deciphering Master!' My apologies, my apologies..."

The attendant praises, lacking sincerity though, considering the nature of such work involves constant companionship of madness and death.

Only those facing the end or with nowhere else to turn are recruited to reluctantly undertake the task.

Other young cultivators without pressing difficulties choosing to be 'Deciphering Masters' are purely out of their minds!