Chapter 312: The Opportunity to Enter the Manor
Chapter 312: The Opportunity to Enter the Manor
So, the aristocratic families and those so-called Hall Officials are all in cahoots, but that's none of my business.
Hu Ma never intended to get involved in the affairs of the well's malevolent spirit and her unfaithful lover. After all, their grudge had already been settled. But now, seeing that it involves Hall Officials and aristocratic families, he became even less interested.
He still needed to be cautious where necessary.
In the eyes of the villagers from Great Sheep Village, Hu Ma had truly made a name for himself. After all, he was now a deputy manager of the Blood Feast Gang, and if they knew he had become the manager, it would be like reaching the heavens.
But as his status rose, so did his knowledge, and he began to feel a real sense of pressure.
When he became the manager of the Red Lantern Society in Mingzhou, he felt like he could walk through the city with impunity. But now, thinking back...
That mindset was similar to when he followed a big brother in the rural-urban fringe area and fought with the leader of the southern city, causing the opponent to flee and die in a ditch. He felt like he had nothing to fear, but was there really any fundamental difference between that and walking through the city with impunity?
The greatest distance between people is not the mountains and rivers, but the difference in their levels.
Even with mountains and rivers, there's a chance to meet, but if you're on different levels, you might as well not know each other's faces.
Of course, worrying about these things is useless; cultivation is the most important.
After returning from Zhu Gate Town, Hu Ma focused his attention on his cultivation to enter the manor. Since before the New Year, he had been preparing for this, and although it had been a while, the feeling could still be described in one word:
Slow!
It was truly too slow.
The New Year Guardian's cultivation of the Vitalizing Brain required meticulous precision, like sewing flowers. A single mistake could lead to a cerebral thrombosis.
Of course, with the idol of his Life Spirit Temple as a guide, the chances of going astray were slim. But even with a blueprint, it was still a time-consuming process. There was no way to speed it up.
If one had to describe it, just the cultivation of the Vitalizing Brain was more than ten times more difficult than cultivating the heart. And if the brain was this slow, how much more so for the soul?
Hu Ma couldn't help but speculate about Ji Tang, carefully studying his experience of entering the manor.
The leader of the Beggar Gang was a genuine New Year Guardian who had entered the manor. He spent five years solely on the process of entering the manor.
For the first two years, he scoured the land, gathering wealth to prepare the two oil lamps that could respectively kill the brain and turn his living soul into a dead one. These two years were also when the Beggar Gang was at its most rampant, committing the most heinous crimes.
He had no choice; he needed money and various secret medicines to prepare the oil lamps.
After preparing the oil lamps in the first two years, he spent the next three years in dedicated cultivation, while Auntie Cui and the others caused chaos in the Martial World.
It took him a full three years to successfully enter the manor.
Moreover, the amount of Blood Feast Secret Medicine and other resources he consumed was immeasurable. From the notes left behind after his soul-searching, one could see all of this.
Hu Ma even knew that this fellow had used up everything the Beggar Gang had accumulated over the years, which was meant to be offered to their superiors, just for himself. He used the entire Beggar Gang of Southern Mingzhou to support himself.
This showed that entering the manor required time, blood feast resources, energy, and even luck.
But what about Hu Ma now?
He had saved two years by not needing the oil lamps, and with the guidance of his Life Spirit idol, he had avoided many detours. As for blood feast resources...
...Hu Lord was least worried about this now.
Recently, he had shown the blood feast resources brought back from Cave Li Clan to someone.
That small piece of blood feast resource even surprised Xu Patriarch, who was unsure and quickly found an old attendant to help examine it. It was none other than Old Calculator, who owed Hu Ma one hundred and twenty Blood Food Pills.
The old man was now familiar with Hu Ma, and as he peered into his hand, he was startled and snatched it away. He held it up to the sunlight, examining it from all angles, growing more astonished.
"Where did you find this?"
"..."
Hu Ma smiled, "I picked it up on the road. Take a look, what do you think?"
Since it was something from Cave Li Clan, he wasn't afraid of others prying further, so he joked.
Of course, he couldn't tell anyone about his two baskets of blood feast resources.
"Where did you pick it up?"
Old Calculator became excited and said solemnly, "Take me there, I want to pick some too."
"?"
Hu Ma was stunned.
"No, it's not picking it up. This should belong to us."
Old Calculator spoke seriously, raising his voice, "Now that the Green Robe Brotherhood is gone, the blood feast mine in Mingzhou City belongs to our Red Lantern Society."
"We must find out which mine this came from."
"..."
Seeing his seriousness, Hu Ma could only smile, "That's troublesome. I picked it up in a distant place."
"Oh..."
Old Calculator was a bit disappointed but still hopeful, "How far is it? If it's not too far, it could still be ours."
"It's not too far."
Hu Ma said, "With a fast horse, it would take about twenty days to get there..."
Old Calculator looked regretful, realizing Hu Ma wasn't lying. "What a pity. This is no ordinary thing. Only the finest blood feast mines can produce it. Why do we have to refine our blood feast resources into pills before consuming them?"
"Because some things are unclean, it's better to refine them first before consuming. And this thing, you can just cut it off and eat it directly!"
"Actually, our Red Lantern Society can only harvest this small amount every year. It's a pity that we can't even see it, and we directly give it to the Patriarch of the Incense Distributor. Even the Guardian might not get to enjoy it."
"To be honest, our blessings are insufficient. Only the Patriarchs and nobles from aristocratic families are qualified to enjoy such high-quality blood food offerings..."
"..."
Hu Ma was surprised, "Isn't the Blood Centaur the best?"
"Hehe, of course, the Blood Centaur is the best."
Old Calculator smiled and said, "But those who live in grand manors, adorned with gold and silver, are still people when compared to those outside carrying night soil on their shoulders, struggling to afford a pair of shoes at the end of the year. But if we must compare, can people be the same?"
"This blood food, it's not just about quality, but also about location. The best blood food in our Bright State Prefecture comes from the Old Yin Mountain. Not only that, but wondrous resources are also abundant there."
"It's a pity that our Red Lantern Society can only harvest from the Northern Mountain. There are many more places deeper in the mountain that we dare not venture into."
"..."
Hu Ma listened and understood. The Old Yin Mountain, spanning eight hundred li, was vast and likely hiding countless treasures. Even the Blood Feast Gang couldn't uncover all its secrets. Hu Ma decided he would have to discuss this with the Mountain Lord later.
Assured that he had a valuable item in his possession, Hu Ma's mood lightened, and he smiled, "It's truly a treasure. I wish I had a whole basket of it."
"You want a whole basket?"
Old Calculator instinctively tucked the item into his bosom, "I'm content with just this piece..."
"You're thinking of more debts before settling the current ones?"
Hu Ma snatched it back, thinking that once he reached the Blood Feast Mine, he would definitely settle the score with Old Calculator.
Regardless, he didn't have to worry about blood food for his entry into the manor for now. However, the time required for the entry process was still somewhat troubling.
Would he really have to endure a year or two of hardship to cross that threshold?
Feeling uneasy, he still wanted to expedite the process.
In his free time, he carefully studied Qi Tang's journey into the manor several times and discovered a crucial detail.
Qi Tang, the leader of the Beggar Gang, kept a low profile for three years to enter the manor, but it wasn't entirely smooth sailing. In the second year of his vitalizing brain's journey, he encountered a fierce battle.
The Beggar Gang had committed many heinous acts, and often, aggrieved malevolent spirits sought revenge. However, the gang members had their methods and didn't fear these spirits.
But as incidents piled up, unexpected events occurred.
Once, a malevolent spirit, unable to find solace, cried out in the middle of the night, and a Night Wanderer, Old Lady Wu, who was blessed by incense, decided to intervene.
When she came to confront the Beggar Gang, she lost her grip, and Qi Tang, being hard to deal with, engaged in a fierce battle, killing one of Old Lady Wu's Incense Masters. He then escaped, but not without a close call, almost losing his life.
He thought he had suffered a great loss, but to his surprise, after escaping with his life, his progress skyrocketed, and he gained even more.
This incident left a deep impression on Qi Tang, and it was revealed during the soul-searching process.
"Could being chased by the Hall officials actually accelerate progress?"
Hu Ma pondered this, and his heart stirred, "Who is this Old Lady Wu? I should go and find her too."
However, it remained just a thought, and he decided against it.
While cultivation progress was essential, safety was equally important. It was too risky to provoke the Hall officials during this critical time of entering the manor.
As Hu Ma deeply worried about his entry into the manor, three hundred li away, on a mountain perpetually shrouded in dark clouds, a servant from the Huai Nan Wei Family cautiously made his way up the rugged mountain path, covering his eyes as he groped his way to a peculiar temple.
He was nervous, sensing eerie laughter and countless hands tugging at his pants, feeling their way around his body.
He feared losing his life unknowingly, but luckily, his good fortune held, and he made it.
Removing the black cloth covering his eyes, he shivered. Although the journey was arduous and terrifying, he had thought he was going to worship a deity, but now, with his eyes open, he felt like he had stumbled into a den of bandits.
Before him was a temple with black walls, and in front of it stood a massive incense cauldron, seemingly made of copper, with a sticky substance on it resembling blood.
Inside the temple, a black-bodied evil deity with five heads was enshrined.
Looking around, he saw a vast desolate mountain, permeated with a strong bloody odor. The eerie mountain was filled with strange rocks and withered ghost trees with twisted branches, from which hung swaying blood-stained membranes.
Most importantly, in front of the temple, there were several rows of enormous wooden racks, each filled with skinned, naked creatures, arranged neatly in rows.
Each rack had a sign with a few words:
Bone Harmony.
Torch Salvation.
No Envy for Sheep.
(End of Chapter)
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