Chapter 172: Chapter 136: Grafting, Part 2

"Your strength is immense, Fellow Daoist. Why not join our Order!"

A steady male voice called out, and a man in a black robe soon emerged.

Beneath the black hood was a rather delicate face, a stark contrast to his deep, steady voice. The black robe he wore was bulky and lumpy, equally out of place with his features.

His cultivation was at the Qi Refining Third Layer.

Lü Zhong sized the man up. Even though he had scanned him several times with his Divine Sense, he was still taken aback.

His Divine Sense probe had shockingly revealed that the black-robed man had a total of four arms—two more than an ordinary person.

They looked as if they had just been attached.

Masking his expression, Lü Zhong asked tentatively, "Join what order?"

"The Limb-Attaching Holy Order, of course!" the black-robed man said, his face fanatical and his voice tinged with madness.

With a RIP, he tore his black robe, revealing four burly arms.

"Behold! What magnificent power!"

As he spoke, the four arms on his back began to move. They formed Technique Mantras in pairs, and in a moment, each pair had condensed a fireball the size of a human head. Then, his glowing eyes locked onto Lü Zhong as he extended the invitation once more:

"You see, Fellow Daoist? Even a dullard like me can cast two Fireball Skills simultaneously, effectively doubling my combat strength. With your aptitude and power, the Sect Leader would surely bestow even mightier limbs upon you. Your future would be absolutely brilliant! Dealing with those disciples from the great clans and Sects would be as easy as slaughtering chickens and dogs!"

At his words, Lü Zhong eyed the four arms with interest.

’I have to admit, this limb-attaching is a stroke of genius.’

With four arms, one could cast two Magic Skills simultaneously. With careful coordination, the power of one plus one might even equal three. In that respect, it’s certainly no worse than what an average Sect Disciple can do.

’If I think about it further, with even more arms, couldn’t one cast even more Magic Skills at once?’

For a brief moment, even Lü Zhong was tempted.

’Unfortunately, this path is ultimately not the righteous way.’

The Flying Star Inheritance had a similar Secret Skill for simultaneous Casting. It could achieve the same effect, but it was far more difficult to master than simply attaching limbs. However, it didn’t require one to pay the price of becoming inhuman.

Shaking his head, he brought two fingers together and unleashed a Sword Aura.

Against such a weak opponent, the Sword Aura alone was enough for an instant kill.

The two out-of-control Fireball Bullets immediately became unstable, ready to explode at any moment.

Lü Zhong then flicked his sleeve, sweeping them outside. With two loud BANGS, they erupted into massive fireballs in mid-air, sending the pedestrians on the street into a panic and causing a huge commotion.

He quickly looted the body but found nothing of use.

The only clue was a waist token on the man’s body. It was made of wrought iron that reeked of blood and was inscribed with the two words "Limb Severing" on the front. The back was carved with a name: "Luo Mu," which Lü Zhong assumed was the man’s real name.

After a moment’s thought, he placed the waist token in his Storage Bag.

He then went deeper into the third floor and found Xu Changfu, the chief of Water Summoning Village, inside one of the guest rooms. He was tied to a bed, unconscious.

Xu Changfu was covered in wounds; he had clearly been brutally tortured.

Seeing that the man was barely breathing, Lü Zhong frowned. He took out a Healing Elixir, dissolved it with his Spiritual Power, and fed it to him. Only then did Xu Changfu’s breathing stabilize, pulling him back from the brink of death.

After a while, Xu Changfu finally woke up.

He was startled at the sight of Lü Zhong, but then, as if realizing something, his face lit up with joy. He ignored his injuries and hurriedly bowed.

"This old man, Xu Changfu, chief of Water Summoning Village, pays his respects to the Immortal Master from the Heling Sect!"

"Get up," Lü Zhong said. "Tell me what happened." He didn’t believe the situation was as simple as the plea for help had made it sound. The man had almost certainly hidden something, so he needed to question him carefully.

Xu Changfu straightened up and spoke cautiously.

"A while ago, Immortal Masters started appearing in the mountains near Water Summoning Village. Around the same time, villagers began to disappear. This old man organized the able-bodied men to search for them, but we came back empty-handed every time. That’s why I sent the request for help."

"And what about the Limb-Attaching Sect?"

"The Limb-Severing Sect? Immortal Master, you mean... those bizarre-looking Immortal Masters? This old man has no idea! Three days after I sent out the call for help, they showed up at my door, imprisoned me here, and have tortured me repeatedly!"

"You told them everything you could, didn’t you?" Lü Zhong watched him coldly.

"Spare me, Immortal Master! They must have used some kind of Enchanting Technique on me, so this old man accidentally blurted everything out," Xu Changfu cried, hastily kneeling on the floor to plead his case. He was terrified the Immortal Master before him would find him an eyesore and kill him without a second thought.

Lü Zhong gave a noncommittal smile and a meaningful glance. "Return to Water Summoning Village immediately," he said. "I will protect you from the shadows."

"Ah... Thank you, Immortal Master!" Xu Changfu exclaimed as if waking from a dream, and he hurriedly kowtowed in gratitude.

About ten minutes later, a horse-drawn carriage departed from Weier City, heading west.

Lü Zhong followed behind, activating his Light Body Skill to easily keep pace.

He didn’t believe a single word Xu Changfu had said. Anyone else might have missed it, but Lü Zhong, with memories of a past life, could tell the man had received organ transplants.

His heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys—every single one had been replaced.

’It’s absolutely impossible for there to be nothing suspicious about that.’

’It looks like one of those Heterodox Dao skills, the kind that involves harvesting and mutilating the living...’

At this thought, Lü Zhong decided it was best to be cautious. He flipped his hand over to activate a Sound Transmission Talisman. In it, he briefly and concisely explained what he had learned and decisively requested reinforcements from the Shuini Sect.

Once activated, the Sound Transmission Talisman transformed into a streak of light and shot off toward the capital.

When the talisman reached the capital, the Heling Sect disciples stationed there would relay the message back to the main sect.

With that done, he quickened his pace to catch up with the carriage.

...

Several days later, they arrived at Water Summoning Village.

Lü Zhong stood on a high cliff, looking down on the village.

He could see that Water Summoning Village was built against a mountain and beside the water. It was a rather large village. As the sun set, smoke from cooking fires curled up from every home. He could hear dogs barking and roosters crowing, and now and then, he saw mortals returning from their fieldwork, leading large water buffalo by the rope.

Judging by the style of the houses, Water Summoning Village was quite prosperous; otherwise, they couldn’t have afforded to build so many homes of brick and tile.

After a moment of contemplation, he released a human figure from his sleeve.

The figure grew larger as it landed, looking identical to a real person. In fact, it was a perfect replica of Lü Zhong.

This was a Spirit-Hosted Puppet. Lü Zhong had specially commissioned a Sect Artifact Refiner to make it, in order to use up the massive amount of Essence he had acquired from exterminating Yin Scythe Rats and Moon-Gazing Toads. Its power was equivalent to that of a Mid-stage Qi Refining cultivator.

It was incredibly expensive, costing two thousand Spirit Stones for a single one. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

But you get what you pay for.

By placing a sliver of his Divine Sense within the Puppet, he could perceive the world through its body. Best of all, it possessed the exact same aura as his own, which was enough to fool mortals and any cultivators who lacked detection-type Magic Skills. It was the perfect substitute to enter Water Summoning Village and stand guard in his place.

As for Lü Zhong himself, he planned to stay outside.

Knowing that Xu Changfu was suspicious and that the Limb-Attaching Sect had made an appearance, he wasn’t foolish enough to put himself in harm’s way. If strong reinforcements didn’t arrive, he planned to simply play dumb, turn a blind eye to the village’s hidden secrets, and just coast through his three-year protection assignment.

After all, according to Shuini’s instructions, all that mattered was that Water Summoning Village wasn’t destroyed.

He formed a hand seal and began Chanting, quickly using a Secret Skill to split off a thread of his Divine Sense and send it into the Spirit-Hosted Puppet.

’This is truly amazing!’ Lü Zhong thought, looking around at the world with curiosity through the Puppet’s senses.

The Puppet’s method of perceiving the outside world was similar to using the Qi Observation Skill. Its vision was in black and white, with the only distinctions being shades of gray, and it was unaffected by lighting conditions.

As a precaution, he had specially affixed several Fireball Talismans to the Puppet’s Spirit Core.

This was to prevent a scenario where the Spirit-Hosted Puppet was immobilized and its Spirit Core couldn’t self-destruct as intended. That would leave the thread of his Divine Sense hosted inside unable to destroy itself, allowing an enemy to capture it and use it against him.

Once he confirmed everything was in order, Lü Zhong sent the Spirit-Hosted Puppet on its way.