Chapter Forty-One: Haunted House

“Meow~”
In the cramped, pitch-black alley, a sleek black night cat meowed anxiously toward the darkness at the alley’s end, its voice thick with unease.
The air in the alley was heavy not only with the stench of rotting garbage but also with the metallic tang of blood, turning the stomach. Accompanying it was a crunching sound—like bones being gnawed.
By the faint moonlight filtering in, one could see a large pool of blood on the ground. Looking up, there was a beautiful woman’s face, her hair spread messily in the sticky blood.
Her mouth was agape, eyes bulging; terror was frozen on her bloodstained face. But from the lifeless gray of her eyes, it was clear she had been dead for some time. Suddenly, a hand reached from the shadows and lifted her slender arm.
Immediately, the crunching of bones being bitten through echoed again, followed by a wet splatter as blood sprayed forth, the sound chilling and dreadful as it reverberated in the alley.
A while later, the bone-gnawing ceased.
In the next moment, the shadowy figure suddenly tore into the woman’s neck with its jaws. With a fierce tug, her head was ripped off under the moonlight, blood jetting three feet through the air!
“Meow!”
The black cat at the alley’s mouth shrieked and bolted away.
...
“Hoo—”
Liu Ji exhaled deeply, stood up, and stretched, his joints cracking in satisfaction.
“It’s time to head back...”
Muttering to himself, Liu Ji left the armory.
He walked through winding corridors, the clear lake outside shimmering in the moonlight. Just then, a servant carrying a lantern approached.
Upon seeing Liu Ji, the servant bowed his head. “Young master.”
“Mm.”
Liu Ji nodded slightly and continued on, but after a few steps he paused, turned, and glanced at the retreating servant before carrying on.
He closed his door and sat cross-legged on the bed, opening his attribute panel.
Vitality: 75/110.
Strength: 70/117.
Speed: 80/90.
Spirit: 42/90.
Constitution: 50/90.
Spiritual Energy: 1888.
He had spent half the day holed up in the armory, extracting spiritual energy from the herbs there. Unfortunately, though there were many aged herbs, most ranged from ten to several decades old, yielding only a few dozen to a hundred units of spiritual energy at best.
He had hoped to find herbs centuries old, but, thinking it through, that seemed unlikely—at least, he’d seen nothing of that caliber. Perhaps his father had hidden such treasures away.
There were plenty of other herbs aged a decade or several, but Liu Ji couldn’t just use them all up at once; otherwise, his father would surely have words with him.
All in all, extracting nearly two thousand units of spiritual energy was already a windfall—his largest haul to date.
With so much spiritual energy at hand, Liu Ji had no intention of letting it sit unused. With a thought, he used it to restore his Vitality, Strength, Speed, and Spirit to their peaks.
In the blink of an eye, all four attributes were replenished, and he immediately felt a surge in power.
He turned to his Constitution.
He knew by now that Constitution referred to the strength and damage level of his body. He tried using spiritual energy to heal his injuries.
Sure enough, the number quickly rose, soon reaching ninety—the peak of his physical condition.
Altogether, he had spent 180 units of spiritual energy.
Rubbing his chin, he muttered, “Since spiritual energy can enhance my Vitality, Strength, Speed, Spirit, and Constitution, could it also break through my meridians, temper my internal organs?”
If it could, he’d struck gold!
He tried using spiritual energy to break through his meridians and temper his ten core organs, but soon opened his eyes in disappointment.
“As expected, it doesn’t work...”
He had been too optimistic. If spiritual energy alone could help him break through and refine the ten core organs, he could become stronger just by lying around!
“Never mind. I’ll just have to train honestly. Looks like I still have to work hard myself...” Liu Ji sighed, closed his eyes, and began circulating the Supreme Heavenly Gang Technique, drawing the turbid spiritual energy of heaven and earth into his body.
After a cycle of refinement, the spiritual energy transformed into fierce, cutting Heavenly Gang Qi. As soon as it appeared, the pain in his meridians was sharp, but still within his tolerance.
At present, he had only cleared the main meridians required to practice the Supreme Heavenly Gang Technique; most of the others were still blocked.
He knew that if he wanted to wield Heavenly Gang Qi outwardly like his father and fully unleash the power of this top-tier technique, he’d have to open and refine more meridians.
So Liu Ji devoted himself to practice.
Training, whether healing flesh wounds or concentrating on refining spiritual energy, greatly taxed his Vitality and Spirit.
His father had said the path of cultivation was arduous—harder even than scaling Zhongnan Mountain. First, the world’s spiritual energy was wild and turbid; drawing it into the body was perilous for anyone.
Secondly, the initial stages of practice involved agony few could endure. Most could only train a few hours a day—sometimes just half—before needing to rest and recover.
If spiritual energy caused severe internal damage, one might not be able to train for days. Only those with great willpower could persevere; over time, the body would gradually acclimate, and cultivation would speed up.
A towering building starts with a single shovelful of earth; a nine-story terrace begins with a pile of soil.
So it is with cultivation—the first steps are as hard as any that follow. Many scions of great families require medicinal baths to speed their bodies’ adaptation to spiritual energy.
This is why the strong grow ever stronger and the weak weaker.
Because you are weak, you lack resources!
Because you lack resources, you remain weak!
But Liu Ji had no such worries—he simply replenished his Vitality and Spirit with spiritual energy as needed.
As for pain...
For someone who had already endured the torment of Heavenly Gang Qi, what did it matter?!
...
The hours of training passed swiftly. Liu Ji spent the entire night cultivating, with remarkable results—he had opened over thirty meridians, bringing his total to fifty!
He could feel that as more meridians opened, the sensation of smoothness and comfort grew stronger; his sensitivity to spiritual energy and his capacity to absorb it had also increased.
However, he had also used up over a hundred units of spiritual energy overnight—a reminder that it was never enough!
Shaking his head, he decided not to dwell on it. There was something he needed to ask his father. With that in mind, he dressed and opened his door.
Blinding sunlight poured in.
He squinted against the glare.
Almost simultaneously, the door of the third room to his right opened, and out came Xiao Mei, sporting dark circles under her eyes and disheveled hair, clearly unrested from the night before.
She paused when she saw Liu Ji, then walked up and stared at him, her bloodshot eyes unblinking.
“What do you want?”
“Liu Ji, is your house haunted?” After a long moment, Xiao Mei finally spoke. She hadn’t slept at all last night; every time she closed her eyes, the image of an eyeball behind the crack in the door would surface in her mind.
“Hau... haunted?”
Liu Ji didn’t react at first. He looked Xiao Mei up and down before asking, “Why do you ask? What happened?”
“I’ll tell you...”
Xiao Mei then recounted the events of the previous night.
After hearing her out, Liu Ji’s expression grew serious. “It does sound strange the way you describe it. Was the shadow you saw in the bronze mirror a vengeful ghost? But that can’t be—would a vengeful ghost dare enter my house?”
What ghost would be so foolhardy as to stir up trouble in the Prince of Zhennan’s residence?
“Vengeful ghost? What’s that?” Xiao Mei looked bewildered.
“You don’t know?” Liu Ji was surprised.
“Uh... I’ve heard of them, but never seen one.” Xiao Mei’s tired face showed an awkward smile. “Are they dangerous?”
Seeing the hopeful look in her eyes, Liu Ji’s own eyes flickered mischievously. Then he put on a solemn expression and said, “Dangerous? They’re terrifying!”
...
...
PS: Second update.
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