Chapter 8: In the Darkness, the Sound of Silkworms
An unusual carriage stopped at one of the entrances of the fish market, Song Shenshu, who was wearing a bucket hat and the most common coarse linen clothes in Changling, got off the carriage and walked into the fish market, walking towards the deepest part of the fish market without any haste or slowness.
Although the history and scripture library of the Great Qin Dynasty hides a lot of cultivation books, however, everyone knows that some of the most important books of the Great Qin Dynasty are hidden in the cave deep in the palace, so the officials of the history and scripture library are not prominent in Changling's status, basically there is not much accumulation of war achievements to get rewarded and promoted.
Especially for an official like Song Shenshu, who was over forty years old and already gray at the temples, he would not attract much attention at all.
However, Song Shenshu remained extremely cautious.
Because he was satisfied with his life for the past ten years or so, even without his current official position, just being able to become a cultivator himself, this already made him very satisfied.
Especially after he had gained a new understanding of the technique he practiced in the last few years, and had identified supplementary means that could allow him to break through the realm faster, he had become even more cautious in his actions.
Countless facts had proved that the sooner or later of becoming a cultivator was not important, what mattered was the time of breaking through the realm.
As long as he was able to smoothly break through the third realm and step into the fourth realm this year, the world in front of him would be suddenly vast, with infinite possibilities.
After walking all the way to the very bottom of the fish market in silence, he still didn't remove the bucket hat he was wearing on his head and bowed his body along a wooden path, passing underneath several hammock buildings to a pier.
There was a small, crow-topped boat that was docked at this pier.
Without any words, Song Shenshu lifted the curtain on the crow's nest, took a step into the cabin, and waited until the curtain behind him dropped down before he let out a light breath, removed the bucket hat from his head, and began to close his eyes to rest his mind.
Other than some graying at the temples, he was extremely well maintained, his face was rosy and there was not a single wrinkle at the corners of his eyes.
The crow-topped boat began to move, its hull rocking slightly, rocking rhythmically, making Song Shenshu, who was leaning back to rest, feel very comfortable.
However, not long after, a chilly feeling naturally surfaced in his heart.
The boat's route of travel seemed to be slightly different from usual, and the noisy sounds around him were getting less and less, only the sound of the water remained, which meant that the boat was traveling towards the most secluded water in the marketplace.
He suddenly opened his eyes, from the gap in the curtain to look out... looking at the bow of the boat wearing a straw raincoat to support the back of the boat boy, he was not sure, chilling voice: "because of the relationship between the water level, today and weekdays seem to take a different route?"
"Indeed and weekdays route is different, only is not because of heavy rain water level rise relationship."
Ding Ning, who was wearing a straw raincoat on the bow of the boat, stopped, he turned around and looked at Song Shenshu in the crow's nest and said.
His voice was calm, carrying a faint sense of mockery and pleasure.
Song Shenshu's head hurt a little in an instant.
He was certain that he had never seen this young man with a clear face before, but this young man's face and tone of voice made him feel very strange, as if he had been separated for a long time, and finally met with a deceased person in his hometown with the same demeanor.
This strange feeling made him not think about what this teenager was going to do in the first place, but urgently wanted to know the other party's origin.
"Who are you? Do you recognize me?" He tried to remain as calm as possible and asked softly.
Ding Ning nodded very seriously, "Song Shenshu, the carriage driver of the Military Horse Division fourteen years ago."
Song Shenshu's face gradually paled, this was an old story that he was most reluctant to remember and mention, and what shook his heart and soul even more was the fact that these old stories were only likely to be known by the people he was usually closest to.
"Who the hell are you? What do you want?" He asked, forcibly suppressing the growing fear in his heart.
Ding Ning looked at him with emotion and said softly, "I'm one of your debtors, asking you to collect some old debts."
Hearing these words, coupled with some of the rumors in recent days, Song Shenshu's hands and feet grew even colder, he opened his mouth to ask something more, after all, the young man across the street couldn't possibly have any old grudges with himself at this age, there must be someone else behind him.
However, he only opened his mouth and before he could make any sound, the teenager in front of him had already moved.
A sudden surge of overwhelming strength surged from Ding Ning's seemingly thin body, and the bow of the boat plummeted down, the stern of the boat buckled upwards, instantly hanging in the air.
His body deftly drilled out from under the straw raincoat, instantly bullying into the narrow cabin, because the speed was too fast, the straw raincoat that was like a cicada shedding its shell was still hanging in the air, not falling.
Song Shenshu's breathing suddenly paused, his right index and middle fingers together, the remaining three fingers slightly curved, a stream of red true essence surged out from the tips of his index and middle fingers, before Ding Ning's palm touched his body, this stream of true essence rushed in from Ding Ning's ribs in an extremely gentle manner.
In the split second that Ding Ning had just moved, he had other options.
He could have abandoned the ship and fled desperately, and at the same time, he could have made a great deal of commotion; after all, the underground black market had its own order, and all of the great powers in Changling City would not allow anyone to recklessly disrupt the order here.
However, in this instant, he concluded that Ding Ning was only a cultivator who had just reached the second realm.
There was a natural and insurmountable gap between each major realm of a cultivator.
The true essence of the third realm was itself a product of true qi condensing the yuan qi of heaven and earth, which was reflected in the power, it was an essential difference of several times, not to mention that he was no longer a cultivator who had just entered the third realm, his true essence had already been cultivated to the point where it could leave his body like agar running, and this upper level of the third realm even allowed true essence to possess a number of wonders when fighting against the enemy.
Therefore, he subconsciously believed that Ding Ning was just a front to attract his attention, and that there was bound to be a more powerful cultivator hiding, waiting for an opportunity to unleash the deadliest blow.
So even during the seemingly gentle, but actually violent process of sending a stream of true essence into Ding Ning's body, the vast majority of his attention was not on Ding Ning's body, but rather in the gloom around him, or even underneath the muddy and murky water.
However, what he could not have imagined was that by that surge of his true essence being sent into his body, Ding Ning only let out a soft muffled grunt, and his body movements surprisingly did not even pause at all.
His left hand almost moved in the same manner as Song Shenshu's, his index and middle fingers merging together to form a sword, ruthlessly stabbing at the Zhangmen point between Song Shenshu's chest and abdomen.
Song Shenshu could not comprehend how Ding Ning was able to withstand his own true essence, and he could not understand the significance of Ding Ning's stab.
However, in the very next instant, his entire body suddenly froze.
With a soft snap, the straw raincoat on the bow of the boat fell at that moment, and the cocked stern of the boat also fell at the same time, slapping up a circle of water.
In the sea of qi within his body, there was also a soft sound of snapping, and the original orderly flow of unceasing true essence suddenly collapsed into countless thin streams, like countless tiny poisonous snakes, dispersed and swam into countless acupoints within his body, and began to seep out from his flesh, blood, and skin.
Countless red true essence as tiny as earthworms twisted incessantly on the surface of his body, reflecting the dark cabin in red as if several red lanterns had been lit inside.
Song Shenshu's mind went blank, and great fear surged through his body.
He knew that there were some flaws in some cultivation techniques, but even he, the cultivator himself, didn't know what flaws there were in his "Red Yang Divine Skill".
However, the other party just used such a simple hand sword to directly cause his true essence to fall into an uncontrollable rampage, causing him to be unable to control even his body, how was this possible!
"How did you know about the flaws of this technique of mine? Who the hell are you?"
After several breaths of stagnation had passed, he finally forced out a voice, hissing and breathing like a dying viper gasping for air.
"The Red Yang Divine Skill is technically an excellent cultivation technique. As long as there are some fire-poisonous items that can be used in medicine as a supplement, the speed of cultivation can be greatly accelerated, so the average cultivator would have to spend at least twenty years from the first realm to the upper level of the third realm, but you've already reached it in just half the time." Ding Ning gasped slightly as he sat down opposite Song Shenshu, he looked at Song Shenshu seriously, his hands constantly touching the true essence on Song Shenshu's body.
"It's just that this cultivation method from the Great Wei Dynasty's Red Yang Cave has a great flaw in itself, as long as one lets the Kidney Water Qi in the body be overstimulated, it will result in the complete dispersion of the True Yuan, which is why in the old days, when our dynasty's cultivators fought with the cultivators from the Great Wei Dynasty's Red Yang Cave, they discovered that several of their body's orifices were covered with a unique protective apparatus. Later on, after the death of the Red Sun Cave and the inclusion of this technique into my dynasty's scriptural and historical repository, the flaws were discovered and it has been kept sealed and untouched, but I didn't expect that you would happen to pick this technique to cultivate."
Ding Ning continued to speak softly, while the parts of his hands where his finger bellies and Song Shenshu's body's true essence were in contact continued to emit a strange rattling sound, a rattling sound that was akin to countless silkworms devouring mulberry leaves.
"Nine Death Silkworm Divine Power!"
Song Shenshu finally acted as if he had discovered something in this world that was even more terrifying than his situation at the moment, the flesh and blood inside his throat felt as if it was about to tear, and he let out a hoarse to the point of shock, "You're his heir!"
