Chapter 40: General Fu Dan, a Temporary End

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Golden light surged from the ground, and two figures appeared in front of the previous post station.

The boundary marker of Black Water Village was still slanted in the black mist.

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen looked at Ning Xuan with a puzzled expression.

Ning Xuan said, “Do you think I’m a demon?”

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen shook her head and said, “The General is much stronger than I thought.”

After speaking, she said lightly, “That drunken and dissolute posture is actually just a mask for the General, right?”

She felt that she had seen through the young man in front of her, and she finally breathed a sigh of relief. After all, although it was a detour, she had not chosen the wrong partner in the end. Although the young general in front of her had a dissolute mask, he was in fact a decisive and heroic general, and he was quite reliable at critical moments.

She was relieved, and she was not so angry anymore.

Ning Xuan was stunned for a moment.

What did she mean by drunken and dissolute?

He was enjoying life.

Besides, the current him was just a mask. He was very annoyed with his appearance at this moment.

However, seeing that this dead woman’s tone was gentle, he had no intention of explaining. A misunderstanding was a misunderstanding.

“Ah, yes, yes, you saw through me.”

Ning Xuan replied with a smile, providing emotional value for the woman in front of him.

He was very annoyed that this woman always talked back and sang a different tune at critical moments. She would not be comfortable if she didn’t argue with him a few times.

If a misunderstanding could solve this problem, then let it be a misunderstanding.

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen smiled faintly, with a “as expected, fortunately so” posture, and then said, “The General is forbearing, accumulating strength, and is known in the countryside for his dandy name. I think what he fears is nothing more than the turbulent undercurrents of power, so he has that mask.

However, the General does not need to worry in the future. We are all His Majesty’s people, and with the General’s potential, he will definitely become one of the twelve divine generals. The General… can take off his mask.”

Ning Xuan said, “It’s not appropriate.”

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen said, “Why is it not appropriate?”

Ning Xuan did not entangle with this anymore, but asked curiously, “You don’t seem to be curious why I used the golden body?”

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen said, “The General has asked me about demonic plague martial artists before, and how the General cultivates. I used evasive words to prevaricate, with the purpose of observing the General again, because if the General can’t even pass the first test, then there is really no point in saying anything else.

But now, this test has actually been passed very well, and with the addition of those mysterious huge frozen corpses just now, I feel that there is no need to hide it anymore.”

Ning Xuan said, “So that’s how it is. I have misunderstood the Immortal Aunt.”

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen suddenly found Ning Xuan very pleasing to the eye.

It was a kind of reverse pleasing to the eye.

Before beheading the golden-bodied Bodhisattva, although she was fulfilling her obligations, she felt that there was something wrong with Ning Xuan no matter how she looked at him. But now she felt very comfortable, and even when he spoke, she felt comfortable. She thought to herself, ‘So the real him is so sensible and polite; so the real him is indeed the future pillar of my dynasty.’

As the thought flashed, Immortal Aunt Yaozhen began to explain the cultivation methods of generals and demonic plague martial artists.

“This is actually a secret. Only those old-brand generals know it, and among the demonic plague martial artists, those who can know it are all true masters.

This cultivation method is called the Art of Consuming Pills.

This pill is a demon pill.

But it is not consumed randomly, but must follow the twelve words of ‘same family, same class, gradual progress, and downward compatibility.’

General, to put it bluntly, is actually a lucky person who can use the power of demons innately after we come into contact with them. This innate ability does not mean that the general is born different from ordinary people, but that he suddenly possesses the power of demons one day after birth.

But the general is still a human, so even if he has the talent to use the power of demons, he still needs to be cultivated and improved in the later stage, and the way of cultivation in the later stage is to swallow demon pills.”

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen paused for a moment and continued, “Same family, same class, means that each general actually has his own innate family and class characteristics. In fact, in terms of family, the vast majority of generals are of the life family, and a very small part are of the nature family.

As for the class, it is varied, with tigers, leopards, oxen, and sheep.

The demon pills that the general consumes come from demons, and then they are refined by the Heavenly Master with dragon fire to reduce the toxicity to the greatest extent.

The general can only consume the pills of demons of the same class as himself.”

Ning Xuan was curious, “How can I know what class I belong to?”

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen said, “There is a demon-revealing mirror in the imperial capital. One look will tell you. When the territory is stable, I will apply for the opportunity for the General to look in the mirror.

The General asked me why I was not curious that you could use the golden body. That is because I have long known that all generals have the power of demons.

The General, you are able to use the golden body, which is obviously very outstanding.”

Ning Xuan was very curious where the “demon-revealing mirror” came from.

But when he thought that the Great General Qin’s residence had existed for eighty years, it was not strange.

There were demons in this world a long time ago, so there must also be many strong people and secrets in this world.

He would understand them bit by bit.

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen continued, “Gradual progress is the way to consume pills.

We Heavenly Masters are ranked from the first grade, and demons also have grades.

A demon of the previous grade and a demon of the next grade standing together, it is clear at a glance.

Let’s put it this way, I am a second-grade Heavenly Master, but even if I completely suppress a first-grade demon, if the martial artist has not reached the first-grade level, then… even if he tries his best to slash the demon a thousand times, ten thousand times, even if he pokes at its eyes, he can’t hurt it in the slightest.

Similarly, the difference between a second-grade demon and a first-grade demon is also very large.

At present, we cannot summarize the characteristics of each grade of demon, because their characteristic is that they have no characteristics. We can only continuously collect information, report it to our colleagues in the imperial capital through the whisper chain, and they will compile it. As soon as there is news, they will inform us, and then all the divine general seeds will also know.

After this battle, your strength has definitely reached the first grade, and it is an extremely rare first grade.

You should not have consumed a pill yet, so your first pill should be a demon pill that is similar to your strength, and the second one is one grade stronger. And so on. But after each pill consumption, you need to spend time to digest the pill and the power of the demon, so as to use it for your own purposes.”

Ning Xuan said, “What if I fail?”

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen said, “If the general fails, it depends on the situation. Usually, it won’t be a problem if you fail within three times, but after three times, there will be problems.

Maybe on the fourth failure, the general will directly become a demonic plague martial artist. Maybe it’s the fifth time, the sixth time. So far, no one has broken the record of the sixth time.

As for the failure of a demonic plague martial artist, they will become a human demon. Once… as long as a demonic plague martial artist fails once, they will become a completely crazy human demon.”

Ning Xuan asked, “Then is the human demon considered to have successfully consumed the pill?”

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen said, “Yes, because they have really obtained stronger power, but they also have only a very short period of sobriety every day. Their residences will only be special prisons or special cages.”

Ning Xuan said, “Are there any demonic plague martial artists who have succeeded continuously?”

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen said, “Yes, but very, very few. I am not qualified to obtain their information yet.”

After speaking, she added, “As for downward compatibility, it means that besides the class and family, demons also have a classification of levels. The superior can devour any pill refined by the inferior. This point even surpasses the same family and same class.

In other words, as long as you are in the superior position, whether the inferior is a tiger, leopard, ox, or sheep, whether it is of the life attribute or the nature attribute, you can devour it, and the success rate is not low.

The first division of this level is to see if one can condense a golden body. We call it the incense fire family.

So your current level should be called a first-grade general of the incense fire family.”

Ning Xuan’s eyes narrowed.

Because he found that the description of the dynasty was exactly the same as the description on his panel.

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen said, “In the past, only we consumed demons and mastered the power of demons. But just now… I felt dragon qi on that huge ice corpse. Does that mean that demons are also merging with us and thus obtaining our power?”

While the two were talking, they were also recovering quickly. After a conversation, they had recovered a lot. After all, they were not seriously injured.

“Let’s go again.” Ning Xuan said.

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen did not talk back this time. She grabbed Ning Xuan and used earth-遁 (dì dùn – earth escape) to return to the top of the cliff.

As the two of them appeared, a rustling yin wind appeared again, and a huge ice corpse began to climb rapidly from the depths of the rock wall.

Ning Xuan said, “You cover me.”

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen nodded heavily and then began to observe the surroundings.

Ning Xuan stepped on the ground, flew up, and the long Beast-Slaying Saber picked up a half-moon arc. In the sound of the Swallow’s Cry, the huge ice corpse was directly hit.

The saber passed through the ice corpse, as if it had passed through the air.

The saber’s power went up, and it exploded in mid-air, but… the huge ice corpse was unscathed.

Just as it was about to pounce on Ning Xuan, Immortal Aunt Yaozhen offered up the Heavenly Master’s Seal. With a shout, the huge ice corpse was hit by a heavy hammer and was directly sent flying.

The two of them had some tacit understanding. They looked at each other and both read what was in the other’s mind: this ice corpse was a soul, or rather… a ghost.

Demons and ghosts, now they were all here!

Just then, more rustling sounds came. They were all ice corpses, and there were more than ten of them. And these ice corpses began to float faster and faster, and their direction was not Ning Xuan, but Immortal Aunt Yaozhen.

From their faster and faster crawling speed, Ning Xuan felt a strong greed.

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen grabbed Ning Xuan and escaped with earth-遁 (dì dùn – earth escape).

The two of them reappeared in front of the post station and looked at the distance for a while.

Not a single ice corpse had chased after them.

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen said, “It seems that they cannot be far from that area, and this must be related to the iceberg that did not exist before in the north of Ping’an Prefecture. Let’s go deeper and see.”

Ning Xuan said, “That iceberg does not belong to Ping’an Prefecture. We just need to draw a restricted area on the periphery, not allow anyone to approach this side, and at the same time, set up guards to patrol the border, and then investigate how many human skin demons have mixed into the prefectural city, county town, and villages, and solve them one by one.

Also, you should report the intelligence to the imperial capital, so that everyone will be careful when they encounter this kind of iceberg. As long as they don’t get close, those human-headed black smoke won’t come out.”

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen said, “Then how do we deal with that iceberg?”

Ning Xuan said, “You go and ask for help.”

Immortal Aunt Yaozhen said, “Then what about you?”

Ning Xuan said, “I’ll set the border, and then… well… I’ll recuperate and wait for a good opportunity.”

At the last moment, he forcibly changed the phrase “spend time in brothels, have a good time, and wait for a marriage” to another way of saying it.

It could be seen that Immortal Aunt Yaozhen was quite satisfied.

Her indifferent eyes looked deeply at the darkness in the distance and said, “Alright, I’ll listen to you.”