A moment later.
A look of joy inevitably appeared on Shen Ping's face. Just moments ago, he had tried practicing his family's legacy cultivation technique, and the speed at which his spiritual energy circulated through his meridians had actually increased severalfold!
At this rate.
As long as he kept improving his Spiritual Root, he might not even need to purge the toxicity before his cultivation broke through to Mid Qi Refining!
"A bright future awaits! A truly bright future!"
He danced with excitement.
Though over forty years old, he behaved like a child.
It was only upon hearing hurried footsteps outside that he quickly composed himself.
His wives and concubines had returned.
Wang Yun wore a trace of panic on her face.
"What is wrong?"
Shen Ping asked instinctively.
Bai Yuying said, "A cultivator's corpse was found by Red Stone River, covered in blood and stripped completely bare. It was definitely the work of a Bandit Cultivator!"
Hearing this, Shen Ping instantly knitted his brows.
Red Stone River was not far from Red Willow Alley, serving as the only river to the north of the Cultivation Market's main thoroughfare. Usually, low-tier cultivators went there to wash up, and even high-tier cultivators occasionally visited to clean themselves. Furthermore, two more alleys lay to the north of it, housing quite a few cultivators.
Thus, corpses rarely appeared in Red Stone River.
Bandit Cultivators who killed for treasures would not casually dump bodies in Red Stone River either.
"There is no need to panic."
"Such occurrences are likely just accidental. In the future, whenever you go out during the day, try to accompany other female cultivators."
Shen Ping instructed them.
Mortals and cultivators alike consumed food and grain, inevitably producing various bodily wastes. Only upon reaching Late Qi Refining, when the spiritual energy within the body grew abundant, would this situation gradually decrease.
As for the outer houses of the Cultivation Market, the Jinyang Sect had certainly not bothered to consider the daily necessities of cultivators. Consequently, fetching water, washing clothes, and emptying chamber pots were unavoidable chores.
The solitary widow next door frequently dumped her bathwater directly into the alley, and some unrefined cultivators even pissed in the streets. Whenever summer arrived with its scorching heat, the stench became unbearable, plagued further by swarming mosquitoes and flies.
Shen Ping had long since grown accustomed to these things.
Wang Yun and Bai Yuying nodded one after the other.
Yet less than two days passed before another cultivator's corpse appeared in Red Stone River. This time it was a female cultivator, whose death was gruesome; she had been tortured before dying, and her lower body was battered beyond recognition.
"I heard it was a solitary widow from Red Stone Alley."
When Shen Ping went outside and ran into Fellow Daoist Yu, she cursed angrily, "Which thousand-cut Bandit Cultivator is doing such a despicable thing? Killing is killing, but why keep tossing the bodies into the river? Don't let me catch them!"
Shen Ping quickly said, "Keep your voice down, Fellow Daoist Yu, lest you invite trouble upon yourself!"
Yu Yan was also a solitary widow, but with her 5th Layer of Qi Refining cultivation, she showed no fear. She said with contempt, "Fellow Daoist Shen, you really are as timid as a mouse. What is there to be afraid of? Hmph, whoever is doing this surely lacks high cultivation. They are simply using the miserable state of cultivators' corpses to cause panic and fish in troubled waters!"
Shen Ping repeatedly agreed, inwardly acknowledging that this deduction was likely correct.
If a high-tier Bandit Cultivator had made a move, they would have finished the job cleanly, subsequently disposing of the body using corrosive poison or fire spells like Fireball. Any body they lacked time to handle would have been dumped far away; they certainly wouldn't have deliberately thrown it into Red Stone River.
"Fellow Daoist Shen, do you have any Protection Talismans left?"
Yu Yan suddenly asked.
Shen Ping was startled, looking at Yu Yan. "What are you planning, Fellow Daoist Yu? You aren't thinking of hunting down that Bandit Cultivator, are you?"
Yu Yan curled her lips. "Do you have them or not?"
Shen Ping was speechless. "I do, but Fellow Daoist Yu, you must think twice. Fighting against Bandit Cultivators is dangerous, and the slightest mishap—"
Yu Yan directly interrupted him. "How many sheets do you have? I'll take all of them."
Over the past few days, Shen Ping had produced five Protection Talismans, so he simply took them all out. After a moment's thought, he also retrieved two Earth-Sinking Talismans and a Freezing Talisman. In the Cultivation Market, the market price of these two types of talismans could not match that of protection or fire talismans, and their production was also more complex, resulting in lower availability for sale in the market.
However, both types of talismans were exceptionally useful when engaging in magical combat.
Yu Yan's eyes lit up. "Fellow Daoist Shen, I never expected your talisman-making skill to reach this level, capable of producing even Earth-Sinking and Freezing Talismans. One must look at you with new eyes after three days apart!"
Shen Ping hurriedly waved his hands. "Fellow Daoist Yu is flattering me. I haven't even been a Middle-Grade Talisman Master for a year, and making Protection Talismans is already difficult enough—how could I possibly make Earth-Sinking and Freezing ones? These are just extras I bought in the market to keep as backups."
Yu Yan came to a realization.
She harbored no suspicions about this explanation. After all, she had been neighbors with Fellow Daoist Shen for several years, and he had always been exceptionally cautious, capable of holing up inside his house for months at a time. Buying talismans as backups to preserve his life was entirely normal.
"We'll use the market price."
She retrieved Spiritual Stones from her Storage Bag, handed them to Shen Ping, and then returned to her room.
Another half month passed.
Another cultivator's corpse appeared in Red Stone River.
The cultivators in the surrounding alleys, particularly the solitary widows, felt a sense of impending crisis, and very few went out during the day.
Worried that misfortune might befall his wives and concubines, Shen Ping accompanied them to empty their chamber pots during the day.
Late the next night.
Having just finished exercising with his wives and concubines, he heard hurried footsteps outside his door, causing his heart to leap instantly.
Array formations protected the house.
It also contained quite a few middle-grade talismans; if actual magical combat broke out, a Mid Qi Refining cultivator might not necessarily hold the advantage.
However, those footsteps quickly bypassed his door, stopped at the neighboring door, and vanished in the blink of an eye.
An Amplification Talisman was pasted on his doorframe.
As long as any movement occurred within three meters of the house, he could hear it from inside, unaffected by Soundproofing Talismans.
"Could it be Fellow Daoist Yu?"
"What on earth is she doing wandering outside in the middle of the night?"
"Could she really be searching for that Bandit Cultivator?"
A bewildered trio of questions formed in Shen Ping's mind.
Over the next four or five days straight, he heard those footsteps outside his door in the middle of the night.
On this day.
While accompanying his wives and concubines to empty their chamber pots, he saw quite a few cultivators gathered around Red Stone River.
"Someone died again?"
He frowned deeply, but did not go over to rubberneck.
Upon returning, however, he overheard the cultivators discussing it.
"Splendid! That Bandit Cultivator has gotten what was coming to him!"
"Who knows which senior made a move to eliminate him!"
"How gratifying!"
Shen Ping's heart stirred slightly, wondering if Fellow Daoist Yu was the one who had killed him. He told his wives and concubines to go back inside while he stayed outside the house to admire the jujube tree.
Not long after.
Yu Yan came out to pour her bathwater. Cultivators generally mastered basic spells like the Cleansing Technique, and those who hadn't could use a single low-tier Cleansing Talisman to wash away grime from their bodies. Yet this Fellow Daoist Yu had always favored soaking in baths, dumping her bathwater every two days without fail through spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
"Well, is Fellow Daoist Shen out here specifically waiting for me to dump my bathwater?"
Seeing Shen Ping absentmindedly admiring the jujube tree while his peripheral vision occasionally darted toward the direction of her house, Yu Yan bantered, "Does it smell good? How does it compare to the scent of your two wives and concubines?"
Shen Ping's facial muscles twitched, and he probed, "Fellow Daoist Yu, I heard that Bandit Cultivator who preyed on widowed cultivators is dead."
Yu Yan said with utter indifference, "Dead is dead. Tell me, Fellow Daoist Shen, you don't think *I* killed him, do you? I don't have that kind of ability!"
With that, she turned and went back inside her room.
Shen Ping shook his head, then smiled ruefully at himself—why on earth was he caring about this matter anyway?
Whoever killed him.
It had nothing to do with him!
Returning inside his house, he looked at the virtual interface, where his Talisman Dao experience had already surpassed the threshold for a breakthrough.
"High-Grade Talisman Master!"
"Other Talisman Dao cultivators, even talented ones, require decades of bitter accumulation through bitter winters and scorching summers. Yet I activated my Goldfinger just a little over a year ago, and I've gone all the way from low-tier to high-tier!"