Chapter 140 The True Method of Controlling Water in the Underworld
Meanwhile, in the Japanese concession.
The Hou family's residence is located just a hundred steps east of the intersection of Miyajima Street and Akashi Road, a secluded courtyard in a quiet oasis amidst the bustling city.
The rules in this area are different from those in the Chinese-controlled areas.
The road surface was bluish-gray asphalt, much smoother than the dirt roads in the Chinese-controlled area.
A black sedan stopped in front of the Hou family's house. The door opened, and a blond foreigner wearing a black robe stepped out.
He was in his forties, with a high nose bridge and slightly downturned lips, exuding an aura that kept strangers at bay.
This person was none other than Joseph, whom Chen Mo could never forget.
.......
Hou Zhenyue, the head of the Hou family, sat in a grand chair, holding a teacup in his hand, but did not drink.
The tea is top-quality Lion Peak Longjing, heated to the perfect temperature, and the temperature is just right when you hold it in your hand.
"May I ask what brings Mr. Joseph to our Hou family's residence?"
The person opposite did not touch the tea.
Joseph sat in the guest seat, a smile playing on his lips as always.
"Mr. Hou, I met a young man a few days ago who used a kind of shadow manipulation magic similar to the one your family uses."
Hou Zhenyue looked up, a hint of surprise on his face. "Oh?"
"His spell is quite powerful." Joseph paused slightly, seemingly considering his words, "and it's impervious to my physical attacks..."
Hou Zhenyue listened quietly, his thumb circling the rim of the teacup slowly.
"I didn't quite understand what Mr. Joseph was saying." He smiled, somewhat dismissively. "There are so many extraordinary people in the Investigation Bureau, isn't it normal that their spells are somewhat similar to ours?"
"Besides, my Shadow Puppet isn't like that at all; it's quite different from what you described."
"In that case, I'll take my leave."
"Here is their information, if you are interested."
Joseph put down an envelope, stood up, and walked away decisively.
Hou Zhenyue saw the car to the door, and as he watched the taillights of the black sedan disappear into the alley, his face immediately darkened the moment he turned around.
"Call Jianwen here."
The sun was just setting in the backyard, its afterglow painting the horizon a dark red.
Hou Jianwen pushed open the door to the west wing and saw his father standing by the window with his hands behind his back.
"dad."
Hou Zhenyue didn't turn around, his fingers tapping on the window frame, clearly preoccupied with something.
"A foreigner from Xikai Church came to our door today."
Hou Jianwen was taken aback. "A foreigner?"
"What are you doing at our house?"
Hou Zhenyue turned around, his expression shifting between light and shadow in the twilight. "He said there's a young man in the Investigation Bureau whose methods are six or seven parts similar to our family's Shadow Puppet Technique."
Hou Jianwen frowned. "The Inspection Bureau? We have no dealings with them whatsoever, how could they be..."
"Where is your third uncle?" Hou Zhenyue suddenly interrupted him, the topic changing abruptly.
Hou Jianwen was taken aback.
"How long have you been missing? Is there any news?"
"It's been almost a month..." Hou Jianwen's voice lowered. "I've tried to summon the soul several times, but there's been no response. I've also asked around in the ghost market, but there's no sign of the person, neither alive nor dead."
Hou Zhenyue, his face dark, held up two fingers.
"If you can't summon a soul, there are only two possibilities."
He said, word by word, "One is that the soul has been captured, and the other is that the soul has been scattered."
Hou Jianwen's Adam's apple bobbed, but he ultimately couldn't utter a word.
"How many people in our Hou family have learned the Shadow Puppet Technique?" Hou Zhenyue asked.
"Just the five of us," Hou Jianwen replied quickly. "Your rules are absolutely not to be revealed."
"Then do you think it's possible that kid from the inspection bureau learned something from somewhere else?"
Hou Jianwen was about to speak when he suddenly remembered something, and his expression changed. "You mean... my third uncle..."
"I have no idea."
Hou Zhenyue turned back to look out the window, "But since that foreigner has come to our door, it means this matter is not simple."
"Are the people from the inspection bureau using some kind of secret technique we have all along?"
"Who did the third brother encounter on his last trip to the Chinese-controlled area before he disappeared?"
The room fell silent, and neither of them spoke.
Hou Jianwen took a step forward. "Or should I go to the Bureau of Strange Things and inquire?"
"What are you asking about?" Hou Zhenyue sneered. "Those people from the Zhenyi Division tried to coerce and bribe us into handing over the Shadow Puppet Technique, forcing us to move to the Japanese Concession and seek refuge with the Japanese."
"If you go to them to ask now, aren't you just handing yourself over to be manipulated?"
Hou Jianwen fell silent.
Hou Zhenyue remained silent for a long time before finally speaking, "Tonight, take a few men and bring the other party back."
"Going tonight?"
"right."
Hou Zhenyue turned around, his gaze deep, "That young man isn't very old, he shouldn't be too troublesome."
"Dad," Hou Jianwen said with a troubled expression, "after all, they are from the Inspection Bureau, legitimate officials. If we just come here to arrest them like this, what if it blows up..."
"The Inspection Bureau?" Hou Zhenyue sneered, walked to the table, picked up a cold teacup, and took a sip. "The Inspection Bureau can manage the Chinese-controlled area, but can it manage the French Concession? Or the Japanese Concession?"
He put down his teacup, looked up at his son, and asked, "Where are we standing now?"
Hou Jianwen hesitated before saying, "The Japanese concession..."
"Yes, the Japanese concession, this is the territory of those Onmyoji. Would the police dare to step in and arrest anyone? They wouldn't dare."
"Be quick and get that kid in here. Once he's inside the Japanese concession, the police will be helpless."
Hou Jianwen frowned: "But what if things escalate? Those Japanese might not stand up for us..."
"That's why I'm sending you tonight," Hou Zhenyue interrupted him. "Pick a few capable men, don't alert the police, and don't make a big commotion."
"Bring the man back, interrogate him, and then throw him into the river. Who would know it was us?"
Seeing that his father had made up his mind, Hou Jianwen finally nodded: "I'll go in a bit."
"Wait a minute." Hou Zhenyue called out to him, taking out a folded piece of paper from the drawer. "This was left by that foreign devil. It shows where he lived and what he looked like."
"Call Old Black along, just to be on the safe side."
Hou Jianwen took it and unfolded it. He glanced at it by the candlelight. There was a sketch on the paper. Although the outline was drawn hastily, the eyes and eyebrows were quite expressive.
"Chen Mo." He read the words beside him, folded the paper, and put it in his pocket. "I understand."
------
Zhenyi Division Headquarters, Merit Point Exchange Center.
This is definitely one of the most heavily guarded locations Chen Mo has ever seen.
There wasn't a single tree within a ten-meter radius, and even the weeds had been cleared away completely.
The three-story standard town watchtower is more imposing and formidable than ordinary watchtowers.
The walls are made of dark blue granite, each stone being about half a person's height. The gaps between the stones are not filled with lime, but with dark red smudge for warding off evil.
It is made by mixing cinnabar, realgar, and the blood and fat of demons. After it dries, it becomes harder than metal and stone, and it gleams with a faint dark red luster in the twilight.
The surface of the stone wall also has its own intricacies, being covered with various runes.
Warning, Guardian, Missing Persons, ...
With Chen Mo's rudimentary knowledge of formations, he could only barely recognize a few types.
These runes are not decorative shallow engravings, but rather intaglio characters more than an inch deep, with bold lines and sharp strokes, extending from the foundation of the wall all the way to the eaves, and then climbing up the roof tiles from the eaves, layer upon layer, without any gaps.
There were no guards in front of the building.
But as soon as he stepped onto the bluestone ground, before his foot had even landed firmly, his back suddenly stiffened.
An inexplicable pressure suddenly fell on him.
It didn't come from a single direction, but rather from all four directions simultaneously.
At the same time, a gaze, almost tangible, swept over him from head to toe.
It was as if all his secrets were laid bare in the sunlight in that instant.
Chen Mo felt a chill run down his spine. He instinctively wanted to circulate his Yin energy to resist, but reason prevailed over his impulse.
Do not move.
With this level of restriction, even the slightest disturbance will be considered a threat.
He took a deep breath, letting that gaze sweep over him thoroughly.
Fortunately, it seemed to be just a routine check. After scanning the token on his body, the oppressive feeling receded like a tide, as quickly as if it had never existed.
Chen Mo paused for a moment to catch his breath before continuing to walk.
As you get closer, you can see the plaque above the door, with gold lettering on a black background, that reads "Hall of Merit".
A large vermilion seal was affixed at the end of the inscription, but the characters were blurred and it was impossible to tell whose calligraphy it was.
On either side of the entrance crouched a stone beast, not an ordinary lion or a pixiu, but a creature that resembled neither a dog nor a fox, with jet-black jade embedded in its eye sockets, facing the direction of the person coming.
Chen Mo exchanged a glance with one of them.
Something seemed to move slightly inside the jade eye socket.
He immediately looked away and pushed the door open to enter.
The lights inside the lobby were brighter than they appeared outside.
Several electric lights were embedded in the dome, their tungsten filaments emitting an orange-yellow light, but the light did not bring any warmth when it fell on the body; instead, it made the skin feel tight.
It's not an ordinary light bulb.
Chen Mo looked up and saw that the lampshade was made of thick brass with fine patterns engraved on its surface, like a simplified variant of some kind of talisman.
The light passed through those patterns, seemingly filtered, and when it fell, it no longer had the temperature of a regular light bulb.
There was no shadow.
Chen Mo glanced down at his feet, his brow twitching almost imperceptibly.
This detail made him even more uneasy than the restriction that swept over his entire body at the door.
There were only a few people in the lobby, with only two uniformed tellers sitting behind the high counter, one flipping through ledgers and the other dozing off.
The countertops were all made of rosewood, and the surfaces were polished to a shine.
On either side of the wall, there are rows of bookshelves, each over two meters tall, made of dark sandalwood.
Several brass plaques are embedded in front of the bookshelf, each plaque corresponding to a book on its respective shelf.
"Qi and blood materials".
"Rare and precious items from the underworld."
"Martial arts techniques"
"Unorthodox and secret techniques."
"Ancient Qi Refining Method"
"......"
As he was pondering who to look for, the one who had been dozing suddenly opened his eyes.
"Exchange for merit points?"
"Yes."
Chen Mo nodded slightly, took out the token from his pocket, and handed it over.
The man took the token and casually pressed it onto a dark stone slab behind the counter.
Intricate patterns immediately lit up on the stone slab, as if some kind of formation had been activated.
A moment later, the patterns disappeared. The man glanced at it and said, "Chen Mo? From the Third Team of the East District?"
"Um."
The other person threw the token back and pointed to the side of the hall, "Go and choose one yourself. Tell me the number after you've chosen. It's 1,500 merit points, don't exceed that."
"Fifteen thousand?"
The merit points were more than Chen Mo had expected. He didn't say anything and turned to walk towards the first shelf on the left.
"Fifteen thousand?"
The merit points were more than Chen Mo had expected. He didn't say anything and turned to walk towards the first shelf on the left.
The shelf was made of dark sandalwood, over two meters tall, and divided into seven layers, each neatly stacked with thin booklets.
He picked up a book at random. Inside were handwritten entries in tiny characters, each entry clearly marked with a number, name, function, and the merit points required for redemption.
QC-003: Crimson Wolf King's Essence Blood (5 ml) – Extracted from the heart's blood of a century-old wolf king, containing intense fiery energy, it can temper bones and strengthen fire-attribute constitution. Exchange: 200 points.
QC-011: Xuan Turtle Shell Plates (five pieces) – The strongest plate in the center of the carapace, naturally engraved with water patterns, can be used to craft defensive magical artifacts or in medicine. Exchange: 180 points.
......
Chen Mo glanced at the rare and precious materials and continued turning the page.
As the entries become less numerous, the truly valuable information begins to emerge.
QC-127: Millennium Vermilion Fruit (One) – Vermilion Fruits are easy to obtain, but extremely rare. This fruit grows on a vein of earth fire, absorbing the essence of millennia of earth fire. Its medicinal power is overwhelming and must be neutralized with a cold-natured cultivation technique, otherwise, there is a risk of being burned alive. Exchange: 3000 points. (Note: Only one left, requires a Demon Suppressor level or higher.)
QC-156: True Dragon's Reverse Scale (One Piece) – A senior warrior brought it back from the depths of the East Sea after a near-death experience. True dragons are no longer seen, but this scale contains a trace of dragon might. It can be refined into a protective mirror or incorporated into magical artifacts, providing a natural suppression of demonic power. Exchange: 5000 points. (Note: Not for sale; requires sufficient merit points to apply separately.)
YW-157: Yellow Spring True Water (One Bottle) – Taken from the legendary bottom of the River of Oblivion, a single drop can be soul-crushing and bone-corroding. This bottle contains no more than three drops, yet it is enough to transform an ordinary water-attribute magic artifact, imbuing it with the power of the Yellow Spring. Exchange: 6000 points.
Everything was tempting, but the requirement of three or five thousand merit points made him shake his head, close the booklet, and put it back in its place.
Next to it was a shelf of strange and precious items, such as Netherworld Cold Iron, Ghost-faced Spider Silk, and Vengeful Soul Pearls, which were not needed for the time being, so we skipped them.
On the martial arts manual shelf, many of the secret manuals, such as "Tiger's Roar Golden Bell Cover" and "Treading Snow Without a Trace," looked quite powerful, but they didn't hold much appeal for Chen Mo.
As for the remaining fragments of forbidden techniques, they were either too costly or required too many resources, so neither of them were what he wanted.
Chen Mo walked around the shelf and headed to the innermost row.
[Ancient Qi Refining Method].
There are even fewer booklets here, only four or five.
SQ-003: "Green Wood Longevity Technique" (Fragment) - A wood-based martial art that nourishes the body with the vitality of plants, prolonging life and preserving youth, but with slightly weaker offensive power. Exchange: 1600 points.
SQ-005: *Gengjin Severing Calamity Sword Technique* (Fragment) – An attribute-based sword technique that uses oneself as the sword. When perfected, it can sever one's own calamities. Requires extremely high comprehension. Exchange: 1750 points.
Turning to the next few pages, the paper suddenly became thicker, as if it had been made of a different material.
SQ-029: *The Great Evolution Soul Refining Technique* (Fragment) – Specifically designed to cultivate soul strength, allowing one's divine sense to far surpass that of others of the same level, granting keen insight and even the ability to project it outwards to injure others. However, the cultivation process is extremely dangerous; the slightest carelessness can lead to soul damage, resulting in anything from mental impairment to complete annihilation. Exchange: Level 1: 2000 points, Level 2: 2500 points, Level 3: 3000 points.
He turned to the last page, and his finger suddenly stopped.
"The True Method of Controlling Water in the Yellow Springs" (Fragment) – An ancient water-based Qi-refining method that draws water from the Yellow Springs of the Nine Netherworlds into the body, condensing the Yin Spirit of the Yellow Springs and Azure Heavens. Cultivating the Yellow Springs True Water results in extremely Yin and poisonous water, capable of corroding everything. At its peak, it can transform into "Sunflower Water Divine Thunder," a thunderbolt hidden within the water, detonating silently, possessing both corrosive and explosive power. Suitable for those with a Yin-attribute constitution; requires a pure Yang protective item. Exchange: Level 1: 1200 points, Level 2: 1700 points.
A glint of light flashed in Chen Mo's eyes.
This is exactly what he's looking for.
Extremely yin and poisonous, it corrodes everything, and is suitable for those with a yin constitution; it seems tailor-made for him.
He currently has 1500 points, just enough to exchange for the first level. As for the subsequent cultivation techniques, he can wait until he has accumulated enough.
Chen Mo closed the booklet, and without further hesitation, turned and walked back to the counter.
The clerk who had been dozing off had woken up and was wiping the dark stone slab with a soft cloth.
He handed over the token: "I want to exchange it for the first level of the 'True Method of Controlling the Yellow Springs Water'."
The clerk looked up, gave him a strange look, said nothing, took the token, and pressed it onto the stone slab.
The stone slab's patterns lit up, then went out.
He then pulled out a piece of dark yellow paper from the bottom of the drawer. Dark red runes flowed on the paper, giving it a chilling aura.
"For your first exchange of cultivation techniques, you must establish a Yin Pact. Take a close look; if you have no objections, sign it with your blood."
Chen Mo looked down.
The writing on the paper looked as if it had been written with cinnabar mixed with something, and the ink had a faint blood-like sheen.
The gist of the contract is that the person making the vow voluntarily pledges their own soul that the acquired cultivation method will never be revealed, not even a single word, and will not be passed on to a second person. Anyone who violates this vow will have their soul forever condemned to the deepest hell, suffering the torment of being devoured by countless ghosts, and will never enter the cycle of reincarnation.
Below it is the vermilion seal of the General Administration of the Suppression of Strange Things, with a faint glow flowing from the seal's inscription, clearly indicating that it is not just for show.
He looked at the teller with a puzzled expression, "Do I need to fill out this form to exchange for a cultivation technique?"
The clerk explained, "The techniques used by the General Administration were all obtained by our predecessors at the cost of their lives, some even using the lives of our brothers in the Zhenyi Division. They cannot be leaked; this is an ironclad rule."
"Don't worry, as long as you don't break your oath, the secret contract is just a piece of paper. If you break it..."
"To sign or not to sign?"
The blood fell onto the dark yellow paper and was instantly absorbed.
The dark red runes writhed slightly, spreading along the bloodstains and covering the entire sheet of paper in the blink of an eye, before quickly fading back to their original state.
At the same time, Chen Mo felt a slight coolness between his brows, as if something had gently touched the depths of his soul, then vanished without a trace, so quickly it was like an illusion.
The clerk nodded in satisfaction, folded the contract neatly and put it in the drawer, then got up and went to the back room to take out a palm-sized sandalwood box.
There was a manual lying inside.
"The first level of the 'True Method of Controlling Water in the Yellow Springs' must not be passed on to outsiders; otherwise, the Yin Pact will come after you."
Chen Mo carefully took it, and only breathed a sigh of relief after the Moon Essence Mirror reacted.
The teller made a note in the ledger, tossed the token back to him, and said, "Deduct 1,200 points, 300 left."
"To quickly master this ancient Qi refining technique, you also need the Yellow Spring True Water as a supplement. Your merit points are not enough right now. Come back and exchange them when you have enough."
"This is outrageous! The Yellow Spring True Water costs 6,000 merit points. I could save up all I have and it still wouldn't be enough."
He was speechless, and decisively handed the cultivation manual back. "Can I return it?"
"The Yellow Springs True Water can also be exchanged drop by drop, with each drop costing only 2000."
The teller's expression froze.
The person next to them who was flipping through the account book also looked up. The two looked at each other and remained silent for three seconds.
"...Refund?" The teller mumbled the word over and over, as if it were the first time she'd ever heard it. "Are you sure?"
Chen Mo felt uneasy under his gaze, but considering how precious the merit points were, he forced himself to nod and said, "I'm sure."
The clerk didn't speak, but the man flipping through the ledgers next to her laughed first. "Kid, the rules of the Merit Pavilion are that once a cultivation technique is sold, it cannot be returned or exchanged. You've only been at headquarters a few days, haven't you?"
Chen Mo was taken aback and looked at the teller in front of him.
The man nodded expressionlessly.
Chen Mo: "..."
The person flipping through the ledger added insult to injury: "But you're lucky, there's an exception: every newcomer can back out once on their first exchange for a cultivation technique."
"But only this once."
"But only this once."
Flying Vinegar says: Read this book!