Chapter 108: Chapter 106: Surprise: Who Isn’t Striving to Cross Over?

Early the next morning, on the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, Song Ciwan emerged from her Profound Level Cave Mansion on Wangjiang Mountain.

By now, her Cultivation had stabilized at Mid-Stage Qi Refining, and she was approaching the Late-stage.

Later, she tried practicing Grasshopper. In just about two hours, she had taken the technique from her previous level of Master straight to the realm of Returning to the Essence!

According to the divisions on the Insight Technique’s panel, skill proficiency levels were: Beginner, Skilled, Mastery, Master, Masterful Skill, Peak of Perfection, Mastery, and Returning to the Essence!

Reaching the realm of Returning to the Essence was essentially equivalent to Great Perfection.

In reality, most Low Level Techniques could never reach the level of Returning to the Essence.

Low Level Techniques had an inherent upper limit. To reach the Peak of Perfection meant one’s ability to use the technique was nearly on par with its original creator.

To advance beyond that required the Cultivator to supplement it with their own understanding, or even to reinvent it entirely!

Grasshopper was an unranked Lightweight Body Technique with a very low ceiling. After Song Ciwan forcibly raised this limit, she unlocked a special footwork effect for it: Wind Shadow!

When the effect was active, Song Ciwan could create ten illusory figures in an instant.

On the surface, these ten illusions were indistinguishable from her real self, making them highly deceptive.

At Grasshopper’s top speed, combined with the Wind Manipulation Technique and amplified by the "Strong" Character Technique, she could achieve the effect of blinking across a distance of ten zhang in an instant—

Song Ciwan currently lacked combat experience and had not faced many opponents. To be honest, she didn’t really know what level of proficiency this speed represented.

It was best to be cautious and consider it merely average. In any case, it was a huge improvement over her previous abilities.

She shouldn’t compare herself to opponents, only to her past self. As long as she was constantly making noticeable progress, that was enough.

Song Ciwan left Wangjiang Cave Mansion. She activated the Qimen Taoist Skill, A Grain of Sand in the Sea, and the mortal world began to ignore her, whether consciously or not.

Soon, she found a deserted place and switched her identity again.

This time, she assumed the persona of "Mu Dalang."

Song Ciwan had prepared three main personas: "Mu Dalang," the Demon Cleaner; "Song Xun," the Bone Forging Stage Mortal Martial Artist; and "Xin Mian," the Early-Stage Qi Refining Cultivator. Her other personas were either a Divine Envoy or disposable ones used once and then discarded, so they didn’t require much thought.

After assuming the Mu Dalang persona, she quietly went to work at the Washing Room.

She was serious about the demon-washing work; she would never slack off if she could help it.

There was one other key point she had to be mindful of: she had discovered that as her Cultivation Realm advanced, the benefits she received from the Malice of ordinary little demons had greatly diminished.

Only the Malice from demons at the Spirit Communication Stage still offered the old exchange rate: one tael of Malice for ten years of Lifespan.

Otherwise, for the Malice from ordinary little demons, one tael was now only worth a single year of Lifespan.

Therefore, Song Ciwan had to seize this window of opportunity to accumulate as much Lifespan as possible before she broke through to the next Great Realm.

Otherwise, once she entered the Divinity Transformation Stage, increasing her Lifespan would surely be far more difficult than it was now.

And who could ever have too much Lifespan?

No matter how high one’s Cultivation, if their life came to an end after a millennium, their entire struggle would have been for nothing.

Of course, the reverse was also true: no matter how long one’s life, without the power to protect one’s path, it was all just a fleeting illusion.

Therefore, mastering the balance between the two was a profound art.

After a day of diligent work, Song Ciwan had obtained twenty-three taels of ordinary Malice, which she exchanged for twenty-three years of Lifespan.

Demons at the Spirit Communication Stage didn’t show up every day, but as the year’s end approached, the number of ordinary Low Level demons was on the rise.

A large portion of these were farmed Demon Beasts. The Alchemy Masters and Artifact Refiners of the Demon Refining Platform also needed to celebrate the New Year, so they had to mass-produce elixirs and artifacts beforehand. This way, they could relax for a while after the festivities began.

That evening, after returning home, Song Ciwan racked her brain and used the Sheep Demon Lungs to make a large serving of a stuffed lung dish. After selling it with the Heaven and Earth Scale, she actually received two Qi Circulation Pills!

One shouldn’t underestimate these two pills; the Qi Circulation Pill was a proper One-star Level elixir. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

After all, when Song Ciwan had stir-fried intestines in the past, she had usually only gotten one or two Strengthening Pills in return.

The Sheep Demon whose lungs she had used was only slightly higher in rank than a Pork Demon and still essentially unclassified. So on what basis could a single stuffed lung dish be worth two Qi Circulation Pills?

It could only mean one thing: the skill demonstrated in Song Ciwan’s cooking was truly exceptional!

After that, Song Ciwan sold a few other miscellaneous items.

For instance, the Big White Goose’s feathers and droppings—after selling half a catty of the droppings, she unexpectedly received five portions of Antidote Powder!

[Antidote Powder: A One-star Level powder. Taken internally, it can treat Yang Fire Type ailments in Cultivators at or below the Qi Transformation Stage, expelling poison, removing stagnation, reducing swelling, and curing sores and boils. Sprinkled externally, it can repel venomous creatures and has a suppressive effect on snakes and insects with less than fifty years of cultivation.]

Song Ciwan was speechless.

This was completely unexpected!

The Big White Goose itself had not yet completed its Transformation or truly transcended mortality to become a demon, yet its droppings could be traded for a One-star Level Antidote Powder.

Initially, Song Ciwan had only sold it on a whim, just so she wouldn’t waste one of her daily trading opportunities.

’Who would have thought? These droppings... they seem to be a treasure?’

She turned her head and saw the Big White Goose, its neck outstretched, playfully pecking at bugs.

’Ahem. Better not tell him his droppings are so useful. Don’t want him to get arrogant!’

The twenty-eighth of the twelfth month passed in this productive manner, and the twenty-ninth was much the same.

Right up until New Year’s Eve, Song Ciwan kept to her regular work schedule. After her shifts, she would go home to her Cultivation and experiment with selling all sorts of strange and bizarre items.

Her Lifespan increased by another forty years, bringing her grand total to six hundred and thirty years!

On New Year’s Eve, Song Ciwan only worked a half-day.

Once it was Noon, the Washing Room’s Steward gathered the servants to pay their wages, announcing that the room would be closed for fifteen days.

The next workday wouldn’t be until the sixteenth day of the first month of the new year.

The head Steward chuckled, his tone laden with meaning. "Today we settle wages. Each of you will receive six hundred cents. I wish you all a peaceful New Year festival. Let’s hope we can all meet again on the sixteenth of next year!"

The crowd of servants below erupted into a boisterous clamor.

Basically, no one paid any mind to the Steward’s "let’s hope we can all meet again on the sixteenth of next year." All their attention was on the "six hundred cents" wage.

It turned out that even someone as lowly as a Demon-Washing Servant received a holiday bonus from the Washing Room!

The group of servants was filled with excited chatter and daydreams.

One person said, "With these six hundred cents, I’m going to have a fat New Year!"

Another said, "That hot soy milk on Three Coins Street? I’ll have enough to buy one bowl and throw another away! This old man is going to try it tonight!"

Yet another said, "My little girl and her brother can finally get their new winter jackets! As soon as I’m off, I’m buying the cotton and telling my wife to get sewing!"

And one more chimed in, "You guys actually have families? In a job where you might not see tomorrow, what’s the point? Heh heh, once I’m off work, your big bro here is heading straight for the brothels..."

The full spectrum of human life—its hardships, joys, and sorrows—played out in stark contrast to the festive red lanterns hanging at the Washing Room’s entrance.

With the aid of her A Grain of Sand in the Sea Daoist Technique, Song Ciwan stood silently in the crowd, no more conspicuous than a nonexistent shadow.

She just listened quietly, not making a sound.

Once the stewards had finished paying the wages and dismissed the crowd, she quickly left the Washing Room, found another secluded spot, and switched to her Xin Mian persona.

Her appointed time with Xie Yunxiang was fast approaching. Next stop, Illusory Nether City!