I believe you have a knack for courting death.

There was no haunting in the gourd, yet Xiao Qingpei couldn’t help feeling as though he’d encountered something uncanny. His divine sense, imprinted within the gourd, told him that the pill spirit treasure gourd had finished refining its elixir. When Xiao Qingpei uncorked the gourd and poured it into his palm, three flawless, crystalline pills rolled out.

These were the "Hao Heaven Pills."

Xiao Qingpei had no doubts about the pills themselves; after all, this was precisely the gourd’s intended function. The problem was, he hadn’t placed any medicinal ingredients inside.

"Could it be," he mused, "that when I opened the gourd out of curiosity before, it absorbed a stream of pure Yang immortal energy? Then, using that as 'medicine,' it refined these three Hao Heaven Pills?"

That seemed the most plausible explanation.

"In that case, this gourd really is only good for smashing people’s heads…" Xiao Qingpei pondered, a touch of regret coloring his thoughts. What an excellent treasure, wasted!

Still, he popped one of the Hao Heaven Pills produced by the gourd into his mouth.

Though he had already mapped out the "proper use" for the gourd, he wanted to make one last attempt. It felt a shame to use it solely as a blunt weapon.

And while he cultivated the Taiyin immortal force, after passing the celestial examination, the pure Yang energy no longer suppressed him. Moments after swallowing the pill, Xiao Qingpei felt his attachment to the gourd slip away completely.

"From now on, I’ll rename you—‘Please, Treasure, Take Off!’"

So he declared.

While Xiao Qingpei lamented the fate of his gourd treasure as nothing more than a hammer, the county of Ru Jin was stirring with commotion. A shabby scholar had performed a public act of "head detachment," frightening half the town into fleeing in terror.

This scholar, clutching an inkstone and staring out of gray-white eyes, appeared and vanished with no trace, even capable of "separating his head to act independently." The entire county was thrown into panic.

That very day, a wandering cultivator happened to pass through.

Hearing of the phenomenon, the cultivator decided to stay and observe. Yet that same night, he was thoroughly unnerved; despite his Foundation Establishment cultivation, he could not see through the scholar’s tricks at all.

Moreover, when the "ghost scholar" appeared, his divine sense—at the sixth level of the lower Foundation Establishment—could not detect a thing.

So, the cultivator fled.

Not long after his departure, the "ghost scholar" vanished, never to be seen again.

...

In the manor beside the great lake, Xiao Qingpei stared in surprise at the inkstone lying shattered on the ground.

He hadn’t broken it himself.

The "Wretched Scholar Who Failed His Exams" had indeed returned on the seventh day, as if passing through the traditional mourning period, and upon seeing Xiao Qingpei, merely gazed at him once more, then faded away completely.

The broken inkstone was proof that the wretched scholar had departed for good.

The ghost, created by Xiao Qingpei’s "Better Me Than You" innate talent, had its core in that old artifact. Whatever its previous state, once the artifact shattered, it vanished without a trace.

It seemed his talent had left Xiao Qingpei with a thread of hope.

"This ghost likely had no memories of the past, merely a product of my imagination. But why was it so different from the previous Xiao Qian?" Xiao Qingpei frowned, realizing once again that he probably understood only the surface of his two innate talents.

He proceeded to conjure another ghost.

He had to rely entirely on his innate talent for cultivation now.

This time, Xiao Qingpei selected an artifact aged twenty years. Upon summoning the ghost, he found that the enhancement effect he gained was even weaker than before.

Last time, he’d received at least a fifth; now, not even a tenth.

But Xiao Qingpei didn’t mind.

This ghost, though of low cultivation—merely at the Qi Condensation stage—was far less self-aware than the "Wretched Scholar." On its seventh day, it returned, intending at once to take Xiao Qingpei’s life.

A flash of spiritual light in Xiao Qingpei’s hand sent a sword pellet flying, cleaving the ghost and severing the old artifact hidden within its body.

A mere Qi Condensation ghost was no match for a Foundation Establishment cultivator—Xiao Qingpei destroyed it effortlessly.

At that moment, a text frame appeared before him:

[Today, the sword pellet drove away and slew a ghost. Sword pellet gains +1 spirituality.]

A resonant hum followed.

In an instant, the sword pellet radiated dazzling spiritual light.

On its iron-black surface, blood-red lines appeared, resembling veins.

"So this is how it gains spirituality?" Xiao Qingpei felt his vision brighten.

He resolved to summon another ghost.

But this time, he failed; whether he used a fifty-year-old artifact or a twenty-year-old one, he could not conjure another ghost.

Xiao Qingpei was not stubborn, and quickly realized the issue wasn’t his talent itself, nor any cooldown, but rather that his "Better Me Than You" talent required that the artifact used to summon a ghost be of a unique age—not repeated.

He hurried to gather more old artifacts, finding a good number aged ten and thirty years, though rarer ages were hard to come by.

Selecting one of each, he summoned ghosts, and as long as the artifact’s age wasn’t repeated, the process was smooth and successful.

These several attempts, each time destroying the old artifact with his sword pellet, continually increased the pellet’s spirituality.

On the seventh ghost’s defeat, the sword pellet finally transformed.

It became a true magic treasure.

Xiao Qingpei was overjoyed. At that moment, a hearty laugh rang out from outside: "Congratulations, young friend, on successfully refining a sword pellet treasure and advancing your strength!"

As the laughter faded, the lock on Xiao Qingpei’s door became meaningless; a figure strode in from outside.

"Wu is my surname. Upon seeing your sword pellet treasure, I was delighted, so I came uninvited. I hope young friend will forgive me! Oh, by the way, I am a guest cultivator of the Ye family mansion. May I ask your name? Are you a true disciple of any sect?"

The man spoke with ease, his words inspiring instinctive trust. And when he revealed his affiliation, one could not help but feel startled.

The Ye family’s reputation was formidable.

But that mattered only to other itinerant cultivators.

As for Xiao… he had already switched to the Tang surname mode, and this "Wu-surnamed cultivator" had already sealed his fate.

After all, what good person spies on others refining treasures, then barges in without invitation?