Chapter Six: Cultivation

  "Ahhh..."

  The sudden blow made Jin Lao Tou let out a loud cry, and his body shook violently. More and more dark energy surged out of his body to counter the golden light from the Pure Yang Eight Trigrams.

  However, the golden light of the pure Yang Bagua is incredibly powerful and unimaginable. No matter how much the greenish-black air appears, it all melts like snowflakes under the golden hairs.

  After a few breaths, the dark green gas on Lao Jin's body gradually dissipated, and his face turned from cyan to white. Then his body shook violently for a while before falling silent.

  Jiang Lezheng was about to let out a sigh of relief when Old Jin's body suddenly became much heavier, pressing down on him fiercely.

  "Cough cough." The intense pressure made Jiang Le unable to bear it and he rolled his eyes, with a thread of blood oozing from the corner of his mouth.

  But with the crisis of transformation resolved, he couldn't help but feel a sense of relief in his heart, and a surge of joy after narrowly escaping death.

  It's really not easy at all.

  "Haha, good kid, good kid! You actually managed to get rid of the corpse demon that had transformed from the evil energy of the Extreme Yin. If this gets out, it will definitely shock the entire cultivation world! Haha, I've made a huge profit!" Mao Xiaofang floated over, laughing heartily, his delighted expression completely irrepressible.

  Jiang Le pushed away the corpse of Jin Lao Tou, then said in a bad mood: "I suddenly feel regretful, this demon-slaying and devil-subduing is really not something ordinary people can do, it's a matter of life and death."

  Mao Xiaofang narrowed his eyes and smiled, "That's not what I said, you haven't learned anything yet. If you master the Taoist methods and add these few magical tools, ordinary little ghosts and monsters will be easily dealt with. At that time, you'll be majestic and handsome, like a celestial being, isn't that wonderful?"

  "Who knows when it will be again," said Jiang Le with a hum.

  However, his eyes betrayed his emotions.

  Although what he experienced was very dangerous and terrifying, yet in his heart he felt a thrill of excitement and a sense of exhilaration. It seemed that his true nature was not the type to be content with a quiet life, but rather one who enjoyed adventure and surprises.

  What profession in this world is more astonishing than exorcising demons and subduing evil spirits?

  "Alright, things aren't over yet, so let's not nitpick." Mao Xiaofang chuckled and changed the subject.

  "Tell me old Jin isn't going to turn into a zombie too?"

  Mao Xiaofang shook his head and said, "This won't work. His corpse has been transformed by the extremely evil and gloomy energy, and it already has a zombie foundation. It can't stay for long and must be cremated as soon as possible."

  Jiang Le let out a sigh of relief, as long as it wasn't going to happen again.

  "The cremation can wait, Old Jin has lived here for over a decade, even though he didn't interact much with the neighbors, they're all familiar faces, and his sudden departure needs to give people time to process mentally. I think Old Jin doesn't have any other relatives left, so I'll come over tomorrow to pay my respects and see him off." Jiang Le said seriously.

  After all, he had accepted Jin Lao's legacy and was his only relative in terms of emotions.

  Mao Xiaofang nodded in satisfaction, this kid's filial piety is commendable and worth cultivating.

  Jiang Le then called a funeral home in the city and asked two neighbors who were relatively close to help with preparations for Old Jin's funeral.

  Everything was ready, but Jiang Le didn't notice that it had already darkened and was almost ten o'clock.

  "It's getting late, my mom must be worried, I have to go back." Jiang Le was shocked, packed up his backpack, said goodbye to the neighbor who was arranging Jin Lao's funeral, and quickly left.

  Of course, before leaving, the yellow cloth bag left by Old Jin was also taken away by him, which was what Mao Xiaofang required. A Taoist's eating utensils must be carried with them at all times. Otherwise, if they encounter trouble and don't have their utensils with them, they will suffer greatly.

  In addition, the most important thing is the Pure Yang Bagua, which is the inherited magic tool of Mao Xiaofang's school and also the place where Mao Xiaofang's Dao soul resides today.

  Of course, this feeling of always having Master around is, um, a bit strange.

  Jiang Le's home is not far from Antique Street, as this area is all part of Qingyang City's old city district.

  However, due to the development needs of Qingyang City, a large part of the old city has also started new renovations, building high-rise buildings and expanding wide streets. Only a small part still retains the appearance of the old city.

  Jiang Le's home is among this small part.

  Through a busy construction site, Jiang Le arrived at a dilapidated residential area.

  This compound is very small, with only four buildings in total. From the old and worn exterior, it can be seen that these buildings have some age on them, being narrow and old-fashioned hall-style houses from the 50s and 60s.

  This is where Jiang Le grew up, although outsiders who see this place will disdain it and think it's dirty. But Jiang Le won't, as there are good memories of his childhood here.

  Entering the neighborhood, Jiang Le took a look at a window on the second floor of one of the three buildings, and the light was still shining. Jiang Le felt both warmth and heartache.

  It's obvious, it must be Mom waiting for me again.

  It's so late and she's not feeling well, why doesn't she go to bed earlier?

  Hurriedly running upstairs and opening the door, Jiang Le saw a middle-aged woman leaning on a wooden chair already asleep. It was her own mother, Jiang Hua.

  On the table beside her were three dishes and a soup, with meat and vegetables matched together. Although they couldn't be considered a fine cuisine, they looked very exquisite.

  It seems that mom has made dinner as usual and is waiting for me, but today so many things happened, I was delayed for more than an hour before coming back.

  Hearing the door sound, Jiang Hua woke up with a start, blinked his eyes, and saw Jiang Le coming in.

  She hastily stood up and said: "Le Le, you're back."

  "Mom, if you can't wait for me to come back, then don't wait. You're not in good health and need to rest early."

  Jiang Hua smiled warmly: "I don't know about my body, it's all old habits, nothing to worry about. By the way, why are you just back now? You're usually back before 8 o'clock, right?" She said as she took over Jiang Le's backpack.

  Jiang Le sighed and said: "Something has happened at my workplace."

  Jiang Hua was surprised and asked anxiously: "What happened? Has it affected you?"

  Jiang Le's heart warmed up, no matter what happened, in his mother's heart, her son was still the most important.

  Shaking his head, Jiang Le said: "It's our boss, he passed away."

  "Ah! Are you talking about Old Man Jin? I ran into him this morning when I was delivering goods, and he was negotiating with a group of people. I thought he was going to make a big deal and was happy for him... who knew it would end like this?" Jiang Hua was shocked, then his expression changed as he continued: "I remember Old Man Jin moved to Antique Street over a decade ago, and he doesn't seem to have any relatives. Now that he's gone, who will take care of his funeral?"

  At this point, Jiang Hua couldn't help but reveal a hint of unbearable pain on his face.

  When people get old, what they fear most is having no one to see them off at their funeral, how desolate that would be.

  Jiang Le looked at his mother and said, "Mom, when Old Jin left, he told me to take over his store."

  Jiang Hua was shocked and hastily said: "How can this be, no pay without work, you have no kinship with him, how can you accept his gift?"

  "It's related, he took me as his apprentice and said it was a legacy of the school, and at that time he was dying soon, saying that the shop had no one to take over and he couldn't close his eyes in peace, so I didn't refuse."

  Jiang Hua was stunned, did his son still have such a fate?

  However, Jiang Le always felt that this was not good and couldn't help but furrow his brow.

  "Mom, I've made up my mind. Tomorrow I'll take a leave of absence and observe mourning for two days for Old Man Jin. This was his only request when he handed over the shop to me."

  "Filial piety? Does Old Jin want you to bury him?" Jiang Hua was even more shocked.

  "Uh-huh!" Jiang Le nodded, then said seriously: "Mom also knows that he is a lonely old man with no relatives left. I've worked in his store for two months and have developed some feelings for him. It's unbearable to see him leave like this."

  Jiang Hua nodded, and his expression slightly eased. "This can be said to pass, but the antique shops on that street are also quite valuable. Giving them away like this makes me feel uneasy."

  Jiang Le smiled, his mother had been like this for half her life, never taking advantage of others.

  But if I don't accept it myself, who can? Let the government handle it? In the end, it's still being taken advantage of by some people and then occupied by others.

  "Alright, mom, don't think too much about it. This is a matter of master-disciple inheritance, and there's nothing to say against it." Jiang Le'an comforted her with a sentence, then sat down at the table, took a sniff, and changed the subject: "It smells so good! I'll never get tired of mom's cooking in my whole life."

  "Shut up." Jiang Hua cursed with a smile and said, "You wait for a moment, I'll go heat up the dishes again before we eat."

  A warm dinner, just like mother and son used to have before.

  After dinner, Jiang Le was afraid that his mother would see the injuries on his body, so he simply washed up and went to bed early, using fatigue as an excuse.

  He was indeed tired too. He had been studying all day and then went to work, and after working, he even fought a battle, which left him covered in scars. Now he was both sleepy and tired, and just wanted to rest well.

  Just as he lay down on the bed, Mao Xiaofang suddenly jumped out and jumped onto Jiang Le.

  "Hey, Master," Jiang Le couldn't help but say, "it's the middle of the night, why aren't you resting properly and instead running out here?"

  "Of course, I'm going to teach you the way of Tao."

  Jiang Le was stunned, teaching me Taoist magic? At this late hour? Shouldn't we be sleeping?

  It seems that Mao Xiaofang has seen through Jiang Le's thoughts, and hummed: "If you want to recover from your soul injury as soon as possible, you must master the Dao as soon as possible. Of course, you can also ask for a rest, but I'll only say one thing - you're still young now, and there's still room for growth. Once you get older and your soul is fully stabilized, no matter how hard you cultivate, you won't be able to heal your soul injury. Don't blame me when that happens."

  Jiang Le was speechless, of course this wasn't deception, it was a threat.

  But thinking of the pain of forgetting what I learned, and my mother's expectations, and the future of subduing demons and evil spirits, this little bit of tiredness is nothing.

  Jiang Le gritted his teeth: "Fine, let's learn now."

  Mao Xiaofang smiled contentedly.

  He didn't deceive Jiang Le, he indeed started practicing Dao later than usual. Generally, most sects or families can start practicing at the age of twelve.

  However, Jiang Le has an extraordinary talent, and I believe that under my own guidance, he will not be much worse than others. Today will be the banner of our family's sect to flourish.