Sun Fu awoke in a daze, the world before him pitch black. He knew he had been blindfolded.
Chen Mu?!
What was that bizarre paper figure?
How could Chen Mu have such methods.
A cold voice suddenly rang out, "Why investigate Chen Mu?"
Sun Fu's heart skipped a beat. As expected, it was because of that scholar. He was just about to deny it when his eyes shifted, "It was Master Zuo who asked me to investigate."
Chen Mu and Zuo Sheng were in cahoots, but perhaps he could try to sow discord between them. There might still be a glimmer of hope for survival.
Crack!
Chen Mu indifferently retracted his hand from breaking the other's neck.
"Nonsense."
"The people in Chunfeng Tower weren't Zuo Sheng."
This man spoke no truths; asking more would only lead to being misled.
"Think carefully before you speak again," Chen Mu turned to look at the thief beside him, whose mouth was gagged, face pale, and trembling with fear.
...
Three days later, early morning.
Shanglin Neighborhood, Chen Residence.
Chen Mu sat in the pavilion, carefully reviewing the actions of the past few days.
Sun Fu and the spotted cat had been buried under the large willow tree outside the courtyard.
Chen Mu looked up at the willow tree swaying in the wind, as if it were greeting him.
"Grow a bit faster and provide more shade for the pavilion."
Ever since realizing the marvelous utility of the Wandering Soul Paper Figure, Chen Mu started to use the paper figures as secret scouts.
The thief that night was discovered by a Wandering Soul Paper Figure as soon as he climbed the willow tree.
He had intended to make it a killing, but he held back.
What if it was a master? What if it was a lure to draw him out? What if there were puppet masters behind it?
After all, there were no valuables in the house. He even slept in the bedroom of the neighboring house. Let him rummage as he pleased.
When the intruder left, he casually tossed out a little paper figure, letting it fly up to take a look. That was when he spotted Sun Fu.
"Lucky I played it safe!"
"Ebony wood..." A sleeve sword suddenly appeared in Chen Mu's hand.
"It's also a treasure."
He hadn't been idle these past few days either.
Disguising his face, he used the little paper figures to secretly surveil the burly men at Chunfeng Tower.
"The Startling Swan Gang is indeed looking for someone. From their conversations, the target seems to be a Taoist." Chen Mu relaxed slightly, "The leader isn't Zuo Sheng, but a young master whose name I don't know."
"Sun Fu also seems to have been marked as having fled on his own accord."
Chen Mu instantly lost interest in delving deeper.
Sun Fu was dead and hadn't caused him any trouble.
Continuing to investigate might bring disaster.
"Better to keep grinding my Proficiency."
Four paper figures of varying sizes stood in a row before Chen Mu.
"Spring, summer, autumn, winter, we could even play a game of mahjong now, hehe..."
Practice by day, grind at night, a month of burning the midnight oil finally advanced the Five Ghosts Moving Mountain Curse to the fifth rank, manifesting the fourth ghost paper figure.
"Now there's another scout," Chen Mu examined the new paper figure with glee.
The Autumn paper figure was slightly short and chubby, with a naive and innocent expression on its face, patterned with red lines as usual, and carrying a pitch-black "Autumn" character on its back.
With a wave of his hand,
The four paper figures turned into black smoke and vanished.
The next moment, they appeared out of thin air by the wall.
"Eight meters, the distance has increased by another meter."
That meant, with Chen Mu at the center, everything within an eight-meter radius fell within the transportation range of the Five Ghosts Bag.
He could collect materials from eight meters away, deploy Mesmerizing Divine Smoke at the same distance, and similarly dispatch the little paper figures to scout.
"Following this logic, if I cultivate the fifth ghost, will the distance increase to nine meters?" Chen Mu pondered.
Within that range, when combined with Mesmerizing Divine Smoke, it would be a powerful tool for clearing the field! Within nine meters, it was even swifter and more secretive than Iron Lotus Seeds!
"If only it could reach ninety meters," Chen Mu greedily wished.
Besides that, he had another unexpected gain.
Continuous use of the Red Falcon Divine Intent Diagram.
Proficiency had not improved, but insights kept flowing in.
Soul Strength, the size of an ordinary soybean, grew...into that of a comparatively plumper soybean.
"Could the Red Falcon Shape Cultivation Technique continue to be practiced?" Chen Mu wondered.
...
"Want to know?" Jie Jia swallowed the last bite of Old Qi's fire-roasted cake.
Taking out a white handkerchief and wiping the corners of his mouth, he looked towards Chen Mu's left sleeve with an indifferent face.
Then his amber eyes widened slightly, and he quickly turned to glance at the right corner of Chen Mu's clothes.
His eyelids lifted a fraction as he directed his gaze to the cloth bag around Chen Mu's waist.
After a while, he lifted his head, looking puzzled at Chen Mu, who was grinning with self-satisfaction.
"Now you don't know where I've hidden the silver, do you?" Chen Mu chuckled.
Then, with an air of smugness, he pulled out two Silver Tael from his left sleeve and handed them to Jie Jia.
Jie Jia's brows furrowed even more tightly.
There had clearly been no Silver Tael in the left sleeve just now.
Chen Mu's smirk grew even wider.
I have the Five Ghosts Bag! I can hide the silver wherever I want!
As the activation curse grew increasingly shorter, the Five Ghosts Bag became ever more convenient to use.
"A complete Shape Cultivation Technique will have accompanying secret techniques that can greatly enhance the power of moves," Jie Jia, still puzzled, began as he put away the Silver Tael.
"The Red Falcon Shape Cultivation Technique is too rudimentary and lacks a secret technique," Jie Jia returned to his indifferent tone.
"As for the epiphany you mentioned, well, it's probably because you've been sleeping too deeply..." Jie Jia's eyes shifted and he briefly glanced at Chen Mu.
So you're saying I'm overthinking it, dreaming? Chen Mu rolled his eyes and didn't pursue it further.
Chen Mu wasn't too eager for secret techniques. It would be great to have them, but no big deal otherwise.
With proficiency in hand, he would know whether they existed as he continued to practice.