Chapter 8: Importance of Money

Mu Yi’s stomach was rumbling with hunger by the time he got back to the temple. What had happened in the mountains profoundly affected him.

Those people hadn’t trusted him and considered him to be a beggar, but Mu Yi didn’t take it to heart. He was used to it. He also didn’t mind Zheng Zicong’s arrogance because he considered him worthless.

What he did mind was the fact that he couldn’t control his life.

When the old man was still alive, he would always protect him, so Mu Yi never felt like he was in danger. But this encounter made him understand that the world was dangerous and strength was important.

Because of that, Mu Yi wanted to become strong.

Mu Yi would be able to protect himself if he became strong, and no one would be able to kill him. Then, he would never have feelings of weakness again.

Mu Yi was young but mature, so he understood that he had to work hard to become strong. If he became strong, he would also have influence.

He didn’t know much regarding cultivation, but according to the old man, the reason he could improve his perception and responsiveness to the point that nobody could pose a threat to him was all thanks to cultivation.

Mu Yi still had two more days before his meeting with Su Yingying.

During those two days, Mu Yi knew that it was impossible for him to control his heartbeat and improve his perception. In half a month’s time, he had yet to reach the second level in training his heartbeat.

But since they had asked him if he could capture a small ghost, he couldn’t say that he couldn’t. Besides, he could capture weaker ghosts.

Luckily, Mu Yi had traveled around the world with the old man. Even though he had never seen real ghosts, he had learned how to capture them should the circumstances call for it.

Besides, he already had everything he needed to do it since he still had materials from when he fought the zombie, except the old man’s animated corpse was just too strong for Mu Yi’s current level.

Mu Yi was convinced that he could help Su Yingying if he only had to face a weak ghost and possibly even benefit after that since her family was rich and influential.

Mu Yi needed money to survive, but he also needed money to become stronger.

Thinking about things, Mu Yi unconsciously entered a state of meditation. This time, he had no problem entering meditation directly.

Some time passed before Mu Yi woke up, and he was surprised as he realized that it was already dark outside, which meant that he had meditated for an entire afternoon.

He had just surpassed his previous record for a single attempt. If he had done that before, he wouldn’t have been able to withstand it and would have gone insane. This time though, he felt really good. It was a unique feeling.

Unfortunately, Mu Yi started shaking with hunger because he hadn’t eaten anything for two to three days. His hands were shaking, and he made five big bowls of rice.

Then, he proceeded to his room and lied down on his bed, feeling much better now.

Mu Yi reflected on the problems he had in life.

He had never been in such a situation, but it definitely had something to do with him meditating for the entire afternoon. He had never meditated that long, but Mu Yi was still happy because he had managed to stay in meditation for so long.

After waking up, Mu Yi’s perception became more accurate, and he had more energy. He even forgot about superfluous things. His mind remained clear and focused.

Meditating required a lot of energy though. This was why Mu Yi was extremely hungry after he came back to his senses. He hadn’t thought about that before, but if he didn’t eat and continued meditating, he would probably collapse from hunger instead of improving his perception.

He couldn’t wait to make money because he wouldn’t be able to practice his cultivation without it

To practice cultivation, people needed techniques and money. Mu Yi already had the techniques, so now he urgently needed money.

Mu Yi continued thinking about what the old man had told him. In the end, he came to the conclusion that even though he had yet to reach the second level of the first stage, it was only a matter of time. Maybe he would reach the second level after cultivating two or three more times.

Some time passed, and the third day finally arrived.

Mu Yi woke up and immediately began punching the huge stone outside the temple. He was practicing the unnamed fighting techniques he knew. He could vaguely sense the changes happening in his body, which made him smile.

During those three days, Mu Yi didn’t practice his cultivation on purpose, but he could sense that he was getting closer and closer to the second level. Maybe he would reach it soon. He was progressing very quickly due to the experiences he had during the three days of hard work.

After Mu Yi realized that he wasn’t a good hunter, he created traps instead and left them in various places. He was quite lucky, as he managed to catch two rabbits.

Whenever Mu Yi had free time, he would watch the birds around him to help him relax.

After that, he went back to his room and took the things he needed: a brush and several yellow sheets of paper.

Mu Yi still had the old jar and some cinnabar, but he no longer had any black dog blood. He wasn’t in a rush though as he took a knife to cut his finger. He dropped allowed his blood to flow into the jar and mix with the cinnabar.

He had no choice, but he didn’t mind since he was going to benefit from it.

To be strict and cruel with others wasn’t a great accomplishment, but being strict and cruel to oneself was.

Last time, ninety-nine percent of the magic charms Mu Yi had drawn were useless, but he was convinced that he would be successful.

Without considering the fact that he passed out, if he hadn’t had the magic charms last time, he would have definitely died.

The previous time, he had drawn the magic charms according to his intuition, but now that he had practiced cultivation, he had the sensation that he had become stronger and wanted to try drawing again.

Mu Yi drew six charms: an inviting wealth charm, a body protection charm, an exorcism charm, a home-guarding charm, an evil spirit slaying charm, and a half-completed five thunders charm.

Since his purpose was to capture ghosts, his wealth-inviting charm and his home-guarding charm weren’t going to be very useful. In addition, he could use his body protection charm to protect only himself. In the end, he would only be using the evil slaying charm and the exorcism charm.

The exorcism charm couldn’t be used on pure things. Mu Yi may be able to use it on people who suffered from hysteria but while he couldn’t use it on most people, he still made one just in case anything unexpected happened.

As for the evil slaying charm, it could be used against a wide variety of entities, not only evil entities like its name implied. Mu Yi could definitely use it on other people. Unfortunately, it was the least effective on ghosts, but what else could Mu Yi do?

He knew that the five thunders charm was very effective against ghosts. Ordinary ghosts would die in a flash when attacked by the five thunders charm. Unfortunately, he only knew half of it. The old man had taught him the entire technique, but Mu Yi was unable to draw the second half.