Lord Shenxiu
Chapter 432 Kunlun (Happy 6th!)

Chapter 432: Chapter 432 Kunlun (Happy 6th!)

"Indeed, indeed... Now the Heavenly Mechanism Sect has revised the Heavenly Mechanism List rankings and placed Mo Xiaochou with the Dragon Slayer Sword into the top five of the Golden Core List, shedding the newcomer label and truly contending with the old-branded Golden Core Grandmasters of the world..."

"As for the level of talent, I fear only Li Kunlun can surpass him by a notch."

Li Kunlun, being the chief among the Five Disciples of Tiandu, entered the Golden Core realm early and achieved a First-Grade Pill; his talent was exceptional, beloved by the Tiandu Sect Master, who once praised him saying, "Among the cultivators under heaven, if talent were measured in measures, my disciple Li Kunlun alone would hold eight pecks!"

Although many cultivators were resentful, they had to admit that this man was indeed like a relegated immortal, possessing an incredible natural talent for breaking through cultivation barriers.

At the age of eight, he underwent Qi Refinement, at ten, he achieved Condensing Evil, and by thirteen, he had achieved Great Success of Gang Refining.

By the time he was eighteen, he had forged his Golden Core and became an elder!

Even the Tiandu Sect Master adored this disciple greatly, acknowledging him as the first in talent among cultivators under heaven.

This man’s talents lay in breaking through cultivation realms, being of the ascetic type, thus not much of his combat accomplishments were known.

Yet outsiders speculated that this most talented member of the younger generation had likely already stepped into the Returning Elixir cultivation, possibly having become a Returning Elixir Ancestor.

Many lamented that if not for the changes in the Heavenly Mechanism of this realm, and the non-manifestation of Primordial Spirits, Li Kunlun would surely have achieved the Primordial Spirit Dao Fruit!

"Mo Xiaochou, Li Kunlun?"

Zhong Shenxiu toyed with the tea cup, a smile that was not quite a smile on his face, letting the waiter continue speaking.

What followed were trivial matters of the Cultivation World, which did not much catch Zhong Shenxiu’s interest.

Half an hour later, the waiter was still talking incessantly and eventually mentioned the wanted list, ranking those extremely vicious demons one by one, finally reaching a name somewhat familiar to Zhong Shenxiu.

"In the past dozen or so years, numerous Artifact Refining Masters have mysteriously died. Later on, an expert investigated and found that they were all harmed by a demonic treasure... The person wielding that demonic treasure was named Yi Tianchou!"

the waiter said.

"Oh? Tell me more about that."

Zhong Shenxiu became interested, aware that Yi Tianchou and that Master Han were ultimately tricked by the demon inside the Golden Bell Treasure.

The waiter continued, "This Yi Tianchou, it’s said he had a partner, and both were swindlers even as mortals. After gaining an opportunity, they entered the Cultivation World and continued their deceitful ways without restraint... They had an ancient bell demonic treasure, which they specifically handed to some renowned Artifact Refining Masters. Subsequently, all the masters inexplicably died... It’s said that not just their cultivation and fortune, but even their Spiritual Wisdom and Dao Rhythm were absorbed by that demonic treasure, thus resulting in its refinement into a treasure with one hundred and eight restrictions, known as a Great Perfection Treasure. It was with this treasure, while capturing the Devil Bell Double Killers, that they managed to only kill one and let Yi Tianchou escape..."

’It seems, once the demonic treasure’s refinement was complete, those two were of no more use, hence not only did it kill the expendable, but it also deliberately let one escape to take the blame?’

Zhong Shenxiu suddenly garnered some understanding.

’These tactics, I’m afraid only a few lineages of the Demon Path could manage...’

He finally rewarded the waiter, and amid the latter’s beaming expression, left the teahouse. He exited the Song Family’s Market and headed toward the 8,000-li Poisonous Swamp, which was the outer gate of the Corpse Yin Secret Sect.

Being in the heart of Da Jing, Zhong Shenxiu kept a low profile, not releasing the Carefree Pavilion.

He merely whistled, and Yu Tongzi on his shoulder shivered then transformed from a thrush into a huge Immortal Bird, with a phoenix head and long tail, and vibrant multicolored feathers, looking rather flamboyant.

"Master, I am indeed an upright person, do give me something more proper... What is this? A colorful chicken?"

Zhong Shenxiu glared fiercely at Yu Tongzi.

"Master, don’t be angry, my transformation technique is still not quite proficient..." Yu Tongzi quickly apologized.

Internally, he was also secretly considering, ’Master probably wants to ride dragons and sit on phoenixes, but my transformation skills are really not up to par. When the day comes that I master it, then I can display it to win Master’s favor... Once Master is pleased, he might even impart me a Primordial Spirit Method...’

Others might not know, but Yu Tongzi surely knew that his master was none other than the Creation Ancestor.

Even more so, incomprehensibly profound, he had even developed the Outer Dao Primordial Spirit Method.

It might be, Yu Tongzi, that I could become the first great demon of the Primordial Spirit!

With a pleasing intent, Yu Tongzi flapped his wings and revealed his true form, which was that of a gigantic crow, quite magnificent indeed.

Zhong Shenxiu walked on the bird and quickly vanished into the distance.

...

The scenery of Yin State was much different from that of Southern Dao.

Zhong Shenxiu hid himself midair, flying over numerous mortal cities, when he suddenly saw something interesting. He immediately cast a spell, disappeared with Yu Tongzi, and entered the outskirts of a village.

It was just after the autumn harvest, the time when the government collected taxes.

However, in those cities, the tax officials sent by the City Lord of the Corpse Yin Secret Sect, besides taking away carts and carts of grain, also had special long carts that took away coffins one by one!

"Old man, what happened here?"

Zhong Shenxiu transformed into the appearance of a scholar and casually stopped an old man to ask.

"Young man, you must be a foreigner, right?"

The elderly man, who was skinny but spry, assessed Zhong Shenxiu with twinkling eyes and suddenly responded with a question.

"Indeed, I am a scholar from Southern Dao State, traveling here."

Zhong Shenxiu replied as such.

"A scholar traveling the world with a sword, truly not bad..."

The old man smiled and said, "You don’t need to be afraid... it’s just the government collecting taxes."

"These... count as well?"

Zhong Shenxiu pointed at those coffins.

"Of course, they count... it’s a tax on the dead!"

The old man responded with a smile, "Here, after the death of a local, the government organizes a burial..."

"This... aren’t you afraid that the bodies will be taken and... desecrated?" Zhong Shenxiu made a troubled face.

"Hehe... We commoners face the earth and toil under the sky. Honestly, some families struggle even for their next meal... isn’t it just that the bodies might be taken and used as materials? We really don’t mind that... And besides, a single death tax can offset a year’s worth of taxes and labor duties! Compared to bearing the burden of funeral expenses ourselves, it’s actually a big gain..."

Zhong Shenxiu further inquired and learned that the customs in Yin State were different.

Here, bodies could be used as materials to offset taxes and labor duties to the government.

It was somewhat like those regions where catching venomous snakes or other fierce creatures could count towards tax labor duties, except that the compensatory items this time were more unusual.

Taxation—the government annually collected a fixed yield from the farming populace.

Labor duty—the people brought their own food and worked for the government without compensation for a set period each year.

These two were like two great mountains.

Being able to offset them with bodies indeed significantly eased the burden, no wonder there was not much strong resistance from the people.

"Oppressive governance is fiercer than tigers and snakes, and even fiercer than life and death..."

Upon witnessing this scene, Zhong Shenxiu could only sigh inwardly.

For some reason, he suddenly thought of the early days of Western medical colleges, where even allowing students to use cadavers as tuition had a somewhat darkly humorous undertone.

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