I am grinding experience in another world

The next day.

Lü Liang personally arrived, bringing with him a Secret Technique and some material on Living Gods.

After exchanging brief pleasantries, Chen Mu saw off the visitor and returned to the stone table in his courtyard, picking up a White Jade Gourd to examine.

The Jade Gourd was the size of a palm, and had the three simple golden characters for Yin Wind Escape etched on it. A slight shake produced the sound of liquid colliding from within it, the Soul-Departing Soup.

"Escape Skills are truly great," Chen Mu remarked with satisfaction.

The fastest Escape Skill he currently possessed was Longitudinal Rainbow Light, but that thing consumed too much Mana. Given that his supply of White Jade Money was scarce and Mana exceedingly precious, he could not afford to use it carelessly.

The Five Elements Escape Technique that came with his True Form of Heavenly Demon allowed for escape into the five elements and was impressive in its flexibility and variety, but its speed was not exceptional. Yin Wind Escape was different; according to Lü Liang, high-speed Flying Escape was the strong suit of this Secret Technique.

Moreover, it utilized Yin Spirit Divine Power, which could be replenished, so there was no fear of depleting it.

"Such a good Secret Technique," he murmured.

He switched to the little bald image of the Heavenly Demon True Body, pulled the stopper from the Jade Gourd, and gulped it down in one go.

It felt like drinking a cup of ice water in the midst of summer; a chilling stream flowed down his throat into his stomach, turning warm almost instantly and spreading rapidly to every limb.

In just a moment, his whole body felt warm as though he were soaking in a hot bath.

Before Chen Mu could even close his eyes to enjoy the sensation, a sudden, piercing pain shot through the lower back area.

The pain came and went quickly, vanishing almost as soon as Chen Mu reached to touch his lower back—it disappeared as if it were an illusion.

Chen Mu pulled his clothes aside on his back, his neck stretching like a rubber hose, allowing his head to twist 180 degrees with ease. He looked down to see a palm-sized, tangled silver thread pattern right across from his navel on his lower back.

At the same time, his mind was filled with numerous insights, which at a glance, seemed oddly familiar.

Upon closer examination, he realized that some of the contents had appeared before in the Mountain-Carrying Scripture’s Fire Bell Secret Technique and he had also experienced some of it in the Five Ghosts’ Great Escape Technique.

"It seems like they are manifestations of some kind of innate ability of the Ghosts," he concluded.

"But clearly, the latter two are just partial applications, whereas Yin Wind Escape is more focused and extreme."

With a thought, the bald image of his Heavenly Demon True Form appeared.

After securing his True Flesh Body in Thousand Lanterns City for protection, black mist began to emerge around Bald Chen Mu.

The next moment, he soared into the sky like a rocket, with a weird whistling sound, zipping into the air and disappearing into the grey clouds in a blink.

Then he made a twist and, using the clouds as cover, flew off at full speed; in the span of two breaths, the vast Feng’an City below was left far behind.

Feeling the knife-like cold wind in his face, and experiencing the flying speed that was already approaching that of Longitudinal Rainbow Light despite his beginner’s level, Chen Mu was thrilled and couldn’t help but let out a loud roar, his face breaking into a huge smile.

After circling around Feng’an City for more than half an hour, gaining a preliminary mastery of Yin Wind Escape, Chen Mu reluctantly returned to Feng’an City and landed in his courtyard within Ningyun Square.

As the familiar grey walls appeared before his eyes, a new entry was added as always.

Yin Wind Escape: 139/10000/Second Rank;

A realization dawned on Chen Mu.

This Yin Wind Escape Technique indeed had connections to the Yin Wind Fire Bell and the Five Ghosts Escape Technique, otherwise he wouldn’t have reached the Second Rank immediately after learning it.

"After I gain more experience, surpassing the current level of Longitudinal Rainbow Light won’t be difficult," Chen Mu thought, feeling an indescribable sense of exhilaration.

Being fast is great, the faster you are, the stronger your ability to save your life.

It’s just a shame that every time I use Flying Escape, it’s like a skyrocket, making a big commotion and not looking good.

"When will my ethereal and otherworldly style come back?" Chen Mu lamented in his heart.

After pondering for a while longer, he picked up another item that Lü Liang had brought to examine.

It was a brown wooden box the length of a forearm, inside which lay a palm-wide Jade Tablet inscribed with silver, strange characters that made one’s head spin just by looking at them.

Xie Script? Continue your adventure with NovelBin.Côm

It had been a long time since he’d seen that.

Chen Mu was quite familiar with this writing; he had seen it many times before in the Scripture Transmission Institute on Jilong Road.

It is often used in important scriptural tomes of Qi Cultivators, whereon the surface the text seems typical, yet the recorded scenes within fully engage all five senses, often bringing readers an immersive experience. A single character can contain a wealth of information and is mostly used to record complex or details that must be clearly conveyed.

"It seems that this City God Dojo affair isn’t simple."

"Indeed, after all, it has a history of over six thousand years in Yinshan Prefecture, being too simple would actually be abnormal."

With that thought, he took a deep breath and immersed himself in the extensive information.

...

Underneath the east garden of the City Lord Mansion in Feng’an City, there is a vast hidden space.

It spans dozens of meters in height and is so long and wide that one cannot see the border at a glance, even larger than a bustling small town, clearly expanded with a technique akin to ’an inch of land, a thousand miles of home’.

Today, slabs of gray boulders, each as tall as a person, were covertly transported into the space and stacked in the center like a small mountain.

The stones came from the depths of the River of Oblivion and continuously emitted a chilly aura. Spending too much time nearby, one would feel their body stiffening as if about to be frozen to death.

Lü Liang gazed at the stones with a serious expression: "Thirteen, nobody knows about this matter, right?"

Lü Thirteen shook his head: "We used the same people from that trip to Qingyang City last time, it’s safe."

Lü Liang understood; those people had been implanted with the Heavenly Demon Spirit Seed, turning them indirectly into one of their own, ensuring absolute safety.

"Do we really not need to inform the City Lord?" Lü Thirteen hesitated somewhat.

"I’ve been studying the Jade Gate Curse these days and I have a premonition that this time I might actually be able to conjure the Ghost Gate Passage." Lü Liang’s expression grew ever more solemn as he browsed through information that hovered in the stars of his mind.

"There are some unreliable people around my father. Alerting my father in advance could likely draw prying eyes from Qingyang City."

"Once I manage to conjure the Ghost Gate Passage, by then I can let my father directly lead people to Beyond Heaven."

Lü Thirteen nodded: "That makes sense. Once the raw rice is cooked, even if someone signals outside then, it’ll be too late."

"I’ll need Thirteen’s help to cover for me in the next few days," Lü Liang said earnestly.

"Don’t worry, young master," Lü Thirteen nodded solemnly, "It just so happens that you acquired a ’Five Dragons Scripture’ from Qingyang City last time. On that pretext of closed-door study of this new Secret Technique, it would make perfect sense. I’ll blatantly gather some auxiliary cultivation precious medicines, and outsiders won’t detect any anomalies."

Lü Liang nodded, took a deep breath, and the Yin Spirit Divine Power surged within him.

Bang!

On the mountain-like pile of River of Oblivion stones, black Nine Nether Green Flames suddenly blazed into existence. With the Jade Gate Curse’s understanding flowing in his heart, Lü Liang carefully controlled the flames to purify the River of Oblivion stones, beginning the refinement of the Ghost Gate.

...

In a small courtyard of Ningyun Square.

Under the Moonlight Tree, by a square stone table, Chen Mu lay in a rocking chair.

A jade tablet etched with intricate silver patterns floated before his eyes, and he watched it, spellbound, with squinted eyes.

For the past few days, he had been absorbed in the information recorded on the jade tablet, to the extent that he had rarely visited the night markets.

After a good while, the jade tablet drifted into a wooden box on the stone table, and Chen Mu opened his eyes thoughtfully.

He had finally gained a basic understanding of this so-called City God Dojo.

According to the jade tablet, the City God Dojo is a point of guidance established in the human world by the Netherworld, mainly for directing Yin Spirits to leave the Yang Realm and prevent them from causing trouble.

Temples and monasteries of common traditional worship systems, such as the City Divine Temple and Land God Temple, are the bases for the City God Dojo. Living Gods are key to the Dojo.

Once Yin Spirits inhabit the temple statues in a special way, becoming Living Gods, they generate dojos that cover certain areas.

In the area covered by its radiation, any new Yin Spirits would be drawn into the River of Oblivion. And within the Dojo, an Exotic Force exists that bathes its surroundings, strengthening the body and even giving rise to the secret Martial Dao of cultivating physical vigor and blood, which is quite remarkable.

"Yunzhou also has folk worship traditions, but I haven’t heard of any City God Dojo?" Chen Mu tried hard to recall information related to Yunzhou, but no matter what, he couldn’t connect it with the content recorded in the jade tablet.

"Is it because of regional differences?"

The dojos established by the Netherworld in Yinshan Prefecture were all in Kangzhou; is Yunzhou different because it’s too far from Kangzhou?

"The more I read, the more puzzled I get," Chen Mu couldn’t help frowning and shaking his head.