After knocking Xia He unconscious, Su Heng booked another room right next door.
Sitting cross-legged on the bed, Su Heng opened the system interface:
[Host: Su Heng
Abilities: Randomly draw and acquire an ability entry from a target
Ability entry refresh time: 1 day]
Ability Entries:
Wudang Long Fist (Blue)
Shaolin Dragon Claw Hand (Blue)
Houtian Qimen (Red)
Double Full Technique (Red)
Transmigrator (Black) (Effect: Immune to divination and similar methods of fortune-telling)
(This system aims to help the host achieve Immortal Cultivation and longevity. Please explore further features on your own.)
"I've finally acquired the Double Full Technique."
Su Heng smiled faintly and stretched.
He then pulled two golden orbs from inside his robe.
One of the orbs contained a copy of Xia He's memories, while the other held an extracted fragment of her memory—specifically, the entire conversation he had just shared with her in the next room.
Although he had told Xia He earlier that he would completely erase that memory of hers, he was merely trying to scare her.
Whether to delete it or not was entirely up to him.
As for when he would return it to her, he would play it by ear. He felt that Xia He didn't really need that memory back anyway. After all, even without him, she had her own path to survive.With this thought, he tucked the fragmented memories into his pocket, leaving behind only the extracted, complete memories of Xia He.
Next came the task of searching for clues related to Gong Qing.
Su Heng pinched a thread of Golden Light between his fingers, brought it to his forehead, and pressed it down gently.
Like something sinking into a marsh, the Golden Light vanished from Su Heng's broad forehead straight into his mind.
In an instant, Xia He's memory fragments poured into Su Heng's brain like a tidal wave.
Su Heng silently closed his eyes and, aided by the Double Full Technique, began reviewing Xia He's memories at maximum speed.
About three hours passed before Su Heng emerged from his state of deep meditation.
With a sigh, he slowly opened his eyes.
Coming out of his meditative posture, Su Heng collapsed flat onto the soft bed.
"Qimen rise, Wind Mirror open!"
Su Heng murmured softly, and a cool breeze materialized around him.
It blew steadily down from his forehead, fluttering his hair in the wind.
Reviewing such a vast stretch of memories over the course of three hours had left Su Heng's scalp somewhat numb, and he needed a good rest.Xia He did not keep anything from him. Sure enough, Su Heng found no clues regarding Xia Liuqing's address in her memories. Xia He had only crossed paths with Xia Liuqing a few times.
Even so, he did not walk away empty-handed.
He had witnessed a meeting of Quanxing members from three years ago. Gong Qing's face had appeared at that meeting, and the discussion had centered around going undercover at Longhu Mountain. With this memory, he had solid proof to present to the Old Celestial Master regarding Gong Qing's actions.
With this thought, Su Heng drew forth the ball of Golden Light that had merged into his forehead. Reaching out, he pinched off a smaller fragment of the Golden Light, preserved the memory concerning Gong Qing, and tucked it back inside his robe.
Resting the back of his head on his hands, Su Heng began to ponder which trait to acquire next.
Right now, Su Heng still leaned toward copying the trait of the Six Storehouses Thief. This system was designed to aid people in Immortal Cultivation, and the longevity granted by the Six Storehouses Thief came the closest to true Immortal Cultivation. The sooner he obtained it, the earlier he could unravel the mysteries of the system.
Moreover, Su Heng had his own hypothesis regarding the Six Storehouses Thief. Judging by Zhou Sheng's experiences, Ruan Feng might have strayed onto the wrong path in his understanding of the Six Storehouses. The system could only help him master the state originally comprehended by the initial founders of the Eight Wonders, but Su Heng wanted to explore certain paths on his own. Therefore, it would be best to find Xia Liuqing sooner rather than later.
Tracking down someone as senior as Xia Liuqing was indeed difficult, but it was not entirely impossible—merely troublesome.
Xia Liuqing had first appeared after the Luotian Dajiao, when he and Baron intercepted Feng Baobao. He later surfaced outside Mei Jinfeng's secluded residence. Given that Xia Liuqing possessed the innate Daoist physique of Yang-Refining Five Thunders, Su Heng guessed that his whereabouts could not be too far from Mei Jinfeng's. Asking Mei Jinfeng for Xia Liuqing's address should be a simple matter.
As for Mei Jinfeng's address, it was traceable in the original story. In order to enjoy mutton rice noodles at home, Mei Jinfeng had revealed her secluded address to the owner of a Liupanshui mutton rice noodle shop. A noodle shop was easy to find, so tracking down Jinfeng's address would pose no problem.
"Still, finding someone these days really is quite inconvenient.""Looks like I should find an opportunity when I'm free to copy Erzhuang's ability."
"With Erzhuang's ability, tracking people down might become much more convenient."
Muttering to himself, Su Heng made up his mind to set off for Liupanshui tomorrow.
First, he needed to get the clues about Mei Jinfeng's location.
Just as Su Heng was pondering, his WeChat notification suddenly rang.
Su Heng took out his phone and saw, to his surprise, that Zhou Sheng was reaching out to him.
[Good disciple, how is your training going?]
[Replying to Master, I've already arrived in Z City and just finished a bout with an anomaly not long ago.]
Though Su Heng was somewhat surprised that Zhou Sheng had contacted him, he could understand it.
Whether it was Ghost Hand Wang Yaozu, the master of Li Muxuan fifty or sixty years ago,
or Xia Liuqing, the master of Wang Zhenqiu—
both found themselves without successors,
desperately wishing to find a child to pass on their arts so they would not be lost to time.
This was a legacy, and it was also a form of attachment.
Old Master Zhou was no different; they were all the same.
Though he was free and unrestrained, standing outside the Five Elements,
he was still part of the mundane world and hoped his arts would have a successor.
People, after all, were always complicated.
Before long, Zhou Sheng replied upon receiving the message:
[Good, good! It's still my good disciple who is the best.]
[Unlike that Wang Ye, who does nothing all day after coming out of seclusion except look for ways to slack off.]
[It's one thing that he doesn't practice Yunlong's style of boxing, but he doesn't even properly cultivate my ultimate technique either!]
[All he does all day is open Houtian Qimen just to catch a breeze in bed!]
When Su Heng saw this message from Zhou Sheng, he suddenly felt as if he were lying on a bed of needles.
The sensation of a cool breeze blowing over him suddenly made him feel rather uncomfortable.
He let out a sheepish laugh and quietly retracted Houtian Qimen.
Only then did he continue typing on his phone:
[Master, don't be too anxious. This art of yours cannot be mastered overnight.]
[It's only been a day, what's the rush?]
When Zhou Sheng saw Su Heng's message, he couldn't help but inwardly scoff at him.
You make it sound so light and breezy!
It took you less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn to completely master all of my arts!
With this kind of monstrous talent,
even if he, Third Grandpa Zhou, went back to Su Heng's age with all his current experience,
he would still be eating Su Heng's dust in terms of comprehension.
Zhou Sheng let out a cold snort and promptly changed the subject:
[Brat, you didn't go throwing this ultimate technique around carelessly after heading down the mountain, did you?]
Seeing Zhou Sheng's message, Su Heng recalled his experiences today.
Turning into a caterpillar to scare people, turning into a bee to catch a flight, turning into wood to block Xia He—
these all seemed pretty normal, right?
Yeah! It must be!
At this thought, Su Heng typed out his reply:
[Master, aren't you the one who taught me? Can't you trust how I do things?]
Who would have thought that upon seeing this, Zhou Sheng would reply directly:
[Enough, enough! You brat, I use Houtian Qimen myself, how could I not know?]
[Once you have this art, you inevitably want to do certain things.]
[However, you must remember this clearly: follow your heart's desires without overstepping the bounds.]
[If you overstep too much, be careful that one wrong step leads to another, and you'll find yourself sinking deep into a quagmire.]
After typing out these words, the image of a round, chubby bald head popped into Zhou Sheng's mind, and he couldn't help letting out a sigh.
[Yes, Master, your lesson is well taken.]
In fact, Su Heng himself thought the same way.
This was precisely why he wanted to research the Six Storehouses Thief on his own.
[By the way, you mentioned earlier that you went to Z City, right?]
[I happen to have a sworn brother there, one of the Thirty-Six Thieves, who goes by the alias Zhang Xilin.]
[Ask around everywhere when you get there, you should be able to find out something.]
Upon seeing this, Su Heng was slightly startled.
So the old master knew all along that Zhang Xilin was Zhang Huaiyi.
Thinking of the events that were about to unfold,
Su Heng pondered for a moment and finally decided to press the voice call button.
Seeing the call prompt pop up on his WeChat interface, Zhou Sheng froze for a second before finally answering.
"You brat, do you have to call me for such a trivial matter?"
Zhou Sheng spoke with a tone of annoyance.
The other end of the line was silent for a few seconds before Su Heng's voice came through:
"Master, to be honest with you, I ran into some trouble when I came here."
"It just so happens to be related to your late sworn brother—Quanxing is planning to dig up his corpse."
As Su Heng's voice trailed off, the other end of the line fell silent for a few seconds. Suddenly, Zhou Sheng's voice pitched up a few notches:
"What on earth!"
"How on earth did you run into something like this?"