Lijiang City, East of the City, Yongtong District, outside the gate of a small courtyard.
Chen Mu unlocked the brass lock and pushed the door open.
The thatched shed and practice racks quietly stood in the courtyard. Various weeds whose names he couldn't call to mind haphazardly covered the ground.
"I'll clean up bit by bit," Chen Mu shrugged his shoulders, his attitude relaxed.
Nanyang Prefecture City was vast and bustling, but Chen Mu always felt stifled. An endless stream of affairs left him breathless.
"Small towns are definitely more comfortable," he remarked.
Black smoke swiftly spread throughout the yard, and where it passed, swathes of weeds disappeared.
He removed the weeds, replaced the leaky thatched roof of the shed with new thatching.
He took down the practice racks that were weathered and spotted with grey and black mold.
He cleaned the rooms covered with spider webs.
He cleared the pots and pans that were filled with dust.
Chen Mu spent the entire morning tidying up the small courtyard.
By midday, a pile of moldy bedding and bamboo mats were thrown into the middle of the yard by him.
"I need to buy new ones."
Lijiang was located to the south of Da Liang, with a humid climate all year round.
Despite his moisture-proof measures when he last left, the bedding still got moldy.
...
Midday, at Lijiang Guard City, East Lijiang Tower.
Chen Mu sat in a corner of the ground floor hall, leisurely enjoying his meal.
"The cost of living is indeed lower in a small city," he mused.
He just went to the East Market of Lijiang City to buy bedding, bamboo mats, and other daily necessities.
The whole set cost only about a tael of silver, and he even got a wooden footbath basin for free.
Chen Mu gave an extra three hundred copper coins and acquired a large bathing tub.
"This would cost at least three taels of silver in Nanyang Prefecture City," he thought.
Thinking of the more than thirteen thousand taels of silver he had on hand, Chen Mu was suddenly filled with high spirits.
"I must visit Ruyi Square tonight no matter what."
"Not for anything else, but to see how it compares to Chunfeng Tower!"
...
The year 641 of Da Liang, the sixth day of the seventh month.
Lijiang City, Tongyun District.
Under the thatched shed of the Chen Residence.
Chen Mu lay in a hollowed-out bamboo rocking chair, squinting his eyes as he admired the evening sky.
This was his third day in Lijiang City, and tasks such as tidying up the cellar, stocking up on grains, and scouting the surroundings had all been properly seen to.
Currently at leisure, he was preparing to ponder over his future plans.
On the low table beside his left hand, there was a copper incense burner the size of a fist, from which wafts of insect-repellent incense carrying a medicinal scent drifted out.
To the right, there stood a half-human-tall dark stick—the Soul-Calming Stake he had obtained from Nanyang Prefecture City.
With Chao Tianwang heading north and he himself heading south, they were long beyond each other's reach.
Even with his Shade-Rearing Strategy, Chao Tianwang couldn't sense him anymore.
"It's just that cultivation beyond the limit isn't too friendly," Chen Mu frowned slightly.
The breakthrough for the Red Falcon Shape Cultivation Technique last time was quite abrupt.
Before the breakthrough, he could feel the progress, but there was no indication of proficiency.
This kind of practice without proficiency visibility made him feel a loss of control.
"Limit..." Chen Mu pondered.
"Perhaps that was the limit once reached by practitioners of the Red Falcon Shape Cultivation Technique."
"Since they reached the peak with no reference point, it was impossible to further divide proficiency," Chen Mu felt a surge of inspiration.
To measure a skill with proficiency, one must have upper and lower limits, in order to divide and quantify evenly.
"So that's how proficiency came about!" Chen Mu felt the surprise of clearing the fog.
"Impressive!" Chen Mu exclaimed.
Then he came back to his senses, "So the historical limits for these Shape Cultivation Techniques were just the Wandering Soul?"
This also meant that historically, not a single cultivator of these Shape Cultivation Techniques ever managed to cultivate the Shell Soul!
He had practiced five different Shape Cultivation Techniques, and at best, all only reached the Wandering Soul stage.
Where had all the Shape Cultivation Techniques capable of cultivating the Shell Soul gone?
"Clans..." Chen Mu held back the urge to curse.
They were surely hoarded and kept secret by those scroundels.
"I'll just have to accumulate slowly," Chen Mu shook his head.
Fortunately, he had an external proficiency cheat.
"Isn't it just practising blindly?"
"It's not as if there's no progress."
Although it couldn't be reflected in proficiency, every practice session still brought enlightenment and a clear sense of progress.
"At least I don't need a hundred years to cultivate the soul," Chen Mu suddenly laughed: "Maybe fifty will be enough."
Fifty is still... em, not old.
By then, he would have to find Jie Jia to inquire about the matters of opening the heavens.
"Just don't know if old man Jie can still be alive in twenty or thirty years," Chen Mu thought amusedly.
Thinking of the old man's ways, Chen Mu laughed again.
So old, yet thriving in the assassin business and selling Blue Medicine Pills like hotcakes.
Forget twenty or thirty years, living another fifty or sixty wouldn't be too hard.
"Shell Soul is supposed to extend life."
...
In the subsequent days, Chen Mu maintained daily practice of the Heavenly Serpent Shape Cultivation Technique.
In his spare time, he would flip through the books borrowed from Chao Tianwang.
He also kept brushing up the progress of his Pharmaceutical Technique.
In one corner of the yard, he set up a two-meter-tall stake as thick as a thigh, occasionally throwing Iron Lotus Seeds at it.
Each throw was precise, skimming past the very top, shaving off specks of wood.
The stake now stood a palm's height shorter, and wood shavings covered the ground, yet the top remained as smooth as if it had just been sawn.
The proficiency of his throwing skill also gradually improved.
Under the thatched pavilion, Chen Mu sat leisurely in a rocking chair: "Indeed, small cities are stable."