Chapter 41 Part 2

One would be enough—just right to buy that formation book.

But just as he prepared to put the feather back into the Pure Bottle, Mu Cheng’s voice rang out again.

[Zhi Zhi, we’re very poor.]

Lian Yunzhi: “…”

[Setting up the array also requires spirit stones—top-grade ones, in fact. One top-grade spirit stone equals a million low-grade spirit stones.]

Lian Yunzhi: “…”

Lian Yunzhi silently handed the feather back to Fu Qing and said softly, “Sell them all. Remember to exchange for some top-grade spirit stones.”

From now on, besides cultivating, he also had to work hard to earn spirit stones.

He couldn’t keep selling Mu Cheng’s Black Mist.

—What difference did that make from making Mu Cheng sell his body?!

Lian Yunzhi thought indignantly.

A low chuckle suddenly came from Mu Cheng in his mind—

[There is still a bit of difference from selling my body.]

Lian Yunzhi: “…”

Lian Yunzhi flushed red and snapped angrily: [Don’t listen to my thoughts!]

.

Since his clothes, hairband, and everything he’d brought back from Xiaoze State were all conjured from Black Mist and could revert to it, the moment Lian Yunzhi returned to Songqing Peak, he ruthlessly forced Fang Tianxin and Fu Qing to hand over everything they’d brought back from Xiaoze State.

Both handed them over readily—after all, they hadn’t brought anything good from Xiaoze State, just inferior magic artifacts, ordinary pills, some clothes, and unremarkable spirit stones.

Lian Yunzhi felt a bit guilty about it, so when someone later came to pick up souls to take home, he jacked up the prices and made a killing. After repaying the previous spirit stones, he laid out the magic artifacts, pills, and other items for them to pick from freely.

After staying on Songqing Peak for three days and sending off twenty-three souls, Fang Tianxin finally sold the two feathers. Lian Yunzhi also finally flipped open the Myriad Wood Realm-Protecting Array Manual as he’d wished.

Lian Yunzhi didn’t know much about formations, so even after memorizing every word in the book, he still didn’t quite understand how to set one up. Fortunately, he had Mu Cheng in his Primordial Spirit. Just as he frowned and tried to read it a second time, Mu Cheng stopped him.

[No need to read more. I’ve learned it.]

Lian Yunzhi asked, “You learned it—does that mean you can teach me?”

After all, Mu Cheng couldn’t set up formations himself right now.

The tiny Mu Cheng on the plant-like Primordial Spirit shook his head and merged his palm into a leaf.

After a slight tremor, an even more detailed formation diagram than the expensive book’s appeared in Lian Yunzhi’s mind. Mu Cheng practically guided him step-by-step through every setup step of the Ten Thousand Woods Protective Boundary Array, even marking the positions for placing spirit stones and the intensity of spiritual power infusion.

Lian Yunzhi: “…”

It was convenient, sure, but why did it feel so weird?

Lian Yunzhi couldn’t help rubbing his reddened ear tip, walked out of the cultivation chamber, and handed the book and spirit stones to Fu Qing.

Fu Qing eyed his face suspiciously.

Lian Yunzhi uncomfortably turned his head away, pretending to focus on the other books on the nearby shelf.

Fu Qing looked away, his expression grave as he went to return the book and pay the fine.

But Lian Yunzhi’s gaze stuck to one book on the shelf—he couldn’t look away.

Soul-Splitting Spirit Attachment Technique?!

A technique that allowed splitting off part of the Primordial Spirit to attach to an object?

Lian Yunzhi’s heart pounded fiercely. He checked its tier and price with trepidation.

—Earth-tier merit law, 800,000 spirit stones.

Lian Yunzhi breathed a quiet sigh of relief, pressed his Identity Jade Token to the book’s spine to deduct the payment, and took it down from the shelf.

Upon opening it, Lian Yunzhi understood why it was an Earth-tier merit law—and why, despite belonging to the Divine Soul category, it cost less than a million:

It taught how to place a portion of the Primordial Spirit into a paper man. The paper man couldn’t speak or use spells. Its main use was eavesdropping, yet it demanded extremely high aptitude from both the caster and the split soul—some Void Refining cultivators couldn’t even learn it.

[Want to try it?] Lian Yunzhi was eager.

[Yes.] Mu Cheng replied without hesitation.

Hearing the answer, Lian Yunzhi wasted no time. He immediately pulled a sheet of talisman paper from his Storage Ring, carefully cut it into a little person’s shape, then “slap”—stuck it to his forehead.

Mu Cheng’s already tiny Primordial Spirit split off another wisp and entered the paper man’s body.

The flimsy paper man suddenly gained a bit of weight and slid down Lian Yunzhi’s cheek into his palm.

Lian Yunzhi stared at it without blinking. Bright light from the window reflected into his eyes, like stars rippling within.

The paper man Mu Cheng slowly climbed up from Lian Yunzhi’s palm and looked up at him.

Lian Yunzhi leaned in with curved brows and smiling eyes to look at it.

The paper man Mu Cheng moved again soon after. It walked out of Lian Yunzhi’s palm, stepped onto his wrist, climbed up his arm, scaled his shoulder—like traversing mountains and rivers—until it reached Lian Yunzhi’s cheek. And when Lian Yunzhi turned to look at it…

It leaned in and gave Lian Yunzhi a gentle kiss.