Secret Buyer-Chapter 51: Dead Man’s Bone, Complete!

The Divine Realm truly becomes more effective the more it’s used.

Especially when engaging in mysterious and deceitful activities.

Chen Nuanyu stood up in horror, instantly recognizing the eerie and terrifying old man. Huang Zhongxiao’s breathing turned rapid, as the scene before him was incredibly shocking.

Unbeknownst to them, the dungeon had already been replaced by Zhang Fusheng’s spiritual world, and they were submerged in an illusion identical to the dungeon, without any flaw.

The old man slowly turned his head, locking eyes with the grave and horrified Chen Nuanyu,

causing her to once again fall into that infinite state of descent, repeatedly seeing herself in those eyes, like mirrors facing one another, losing all awareness of the outside world.

If she truly achieved Contemplation Great Success and her will was strong enough, she might have a sliver of chance to break free. But with a Pseudo Great Success?

Even a casual glance from Zhang Fusheng would make it impossible to escape.

Only then did Zhang Fusheng glance at the trembling Huang Zhongxiao.

"Western Believer," he said calmly.

Huang Zhongxiao swallowed, his voice shaking as he spoke:

"Se... Senior."

The old man, sitting cross-legged in mid-air, spoke softly:

"Little Fusheng."

In Huang Zhongxiao’s dazed gaze, the figure of a young man slowly emerged from the void.

"True Man." ’Zhang Fusheng’ bowed towards the old man.

Huang Zhongxiao felt a chill on his scalp.

True Man.

As a Taoist, he understood the meaning of ’True Man’ well, one attuned to the Tao of heaven and earth could be called such.

"Above a Venerate, one can deem oneself a True Man..." he murmured, clad in shackles, crawling on the ground, performing a great bow.

Above a Venerate, can one deem oneself a True Man?

Zhang Fusheng’s heart stirred; the word Venerate, he had only heard from Huang Zhongxiao’s mouth not long ago,

uttered by this cultist when using a talisman to borrow power from an unknown presence.

That is, the phrase ’By heaven seek the Tao, please inform the Venerate, order the Three Corpses, manage the Three Souls’.

The Zhang Fusheng resembling Zhong Mountain looked at the young illusion woven by spiritual thoughts, and casually said:

"You may handle this person as you see fit, just don’t take his life."

"Yes, True Man." Zhang Fusheng manipulated the illusion to nod respectfully.

The ’young man’ walked up to Huang Zhongxiao, his chest rising and falling, and with each breath, there seemed to be a gentle breeze falling on the one bowing,

Even in Huang Zhongxiao’s perception, the temperature from the ’young man’ was genuine.

Manipulating the senses of those with low spiritual strength is extremely simple.

The ’young man’ asked calmly:

"Huang Zhongxiao, let me ask you, who in Hongji wants to kill me?"

Huang Zhongxiao shuddered:

"I... I only heard from my master that there is someone within Hongji, using Ghost Chai as the intermediary, who has long joined my cult... my master also said that the person entrusted Ghost Chai to assassinate [Zhang Fusheng]."

The ’young man’ asked:

"Ghost Chai, has he long joined the Western Sect?"

Ghost Chai, Old Ghost Chai, is the master of Chai Gate.

"Yes! He is one of our sect’s four stewards in Jiangzhou City!" Huang Zhongxiao stated.

"Who do you think this person in Hongji could be?"

"This, I... I truly don’t know!" Huang Zhongxiao sweated profusely: "I don’t dare to speak untruths before the True Man!"

The old man, sitting cross-legged in the ’dungeon’ air, subtly frowned.

Chai Gate.

Senior Brother?

He immediately suspected Senior Brother, for a simple reason: Senior Brother had advised Master not to act against Chai Gate, even let him persuade Master as well.

But why would he want to kill me?

Could it not be because Master wanted me to use Chai Gate as practice?

Senior Brother, Niu Dali, became a prime suspect.

The ’young man’ again queried Huang Zhongxiao:

"Why does the Western Sect spread the Flesh Plague in the Lower Three Districts?"

Huang Zhongxiao looked up in shock, Zhang Fusheng even knew this??

He hurriedly answered:

"This matter exceeds my knowledge."

"The Venerate you drew power from by burning the talisman, who is he?"

"He is one of the lords walking in my sect. I belong to his lineage, naturally I borrow power from him..."

Zhang Fusheng did not ask how Huang Zhongxiao borrowed this power.

This guy is just a Six Refinements, a marginal figure within the Western Sect; how could he know that much?

After all, he couldn’t even recognize the Divine Realm!

After thinking for a moment, the ’young man’ asked lastly:

"Within the Western Sect, what is the hierarchy from bottom to top?"

This time, Huang Zhongxiao answered quickly:

"Outer Cultists, Official Cultists, and then if an Official Cultist steps into the Twelve Refinements, they can become a Core Cultist."

"If one becomes a Martial Arts Master and makes corresponding contributions, they can be promoted to Steward... I don’t know the details beyond that!"

Huang Zhongxiao shivered as he spoke:

"I only know of titles like Upper Envoy and Divine Favored..."

The ’young man’ nodded and turned to the elder to pay his respects: 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"True Man, I have finished my inquiry."

"Good."

The elder waved his sleeve, and the ’young man’s figure twisted, spun, and retreated to a tiny speck, as if directly transported away.

Huang Zhongxiao trembled violently.

The elder released Chen Nuanyu from the depths of confusion and loss, the latter staggered, legs weak, gasping deeply, and then heard this mysterious elder speak softly to the cultist:

"All my actions are met with responses, each gain is matched by a loss, fairness is paramount, since you’ve been troubled today, I will grant you a chance for a Heaven-Interchangeable Tao, how about it?"

Huang Zhongxiao looked up in confusion, Heaven-Interchangeable Tao?

"True Man, I... do not understand."

The elder, floating within the deep darkness, nodded lightly:

"In that case, I will exchange my sixty years of Breathing Technique cultivation for twenty years of your lifespan, are you willing?"

"Willing, willing!" Huang Zhongxiao, not fully comprehending, continued to kowtow fiercely,

The contract remained steady, not heating up.

It represented that even without a life-threatening crisis, he truly was willing.

"Very well."

Zhang Fusheng snapped his fingers, the illusion concealed the invisible contract, which quietly dimmed.

He extended a finger, and the sixty years of Breathing Technique from Zhong Mountain entered Huang Zhongxiao’s body, while twenty years of lifespan were extracted from him.

Under Chen Nuanyu’s shocked gaze,

Huang Zhongxiao suddenly aged, wrinkles accumulating on his face, rapidly aging twenty years, transforming from a young man to a middle-aged man, but simultaneously, with each breath, a tremendous force reverberated in his body, expelling years of accumulated filth through his pores!

"I truly gained sixty years of past from nothing..."

Huang Zhongxiao sensed the newfound cultivation memories in his mind, looking dazed:

"I truly refined the Breathing Technique to Perfection..."

As he exhaled, the shackles shattered, mysterious factors rushed toward him, almost forming a funnel-sized vortex of several meters!

Huang Zhongxiao quickly recovered, immediately stopping, and prostrated once more.

With sincere devotion.

Observing all the changes in him, Zhang Fusheng nodded silently, naturally unwilling to experiment directly on himself, lest aging can’t be reversed even if lifespan is gained?

He could perceive that as Huang Zhongxiao suddenly aged by twenty years,

his cultivation hadn’t changed, nor had his spiritual strength grown, as he effectively did nothing, living those twenty years in vain,

yet those twenty years of temporal marks undeniably manifested on his being.

With a thought, Zhang Fusheng took Huang Zhongxiao’s twenty-year lifespan for himself.

He felt himself entering a strange state, as if time had stalled,

Zhang Fusheng instinctively understood, rejuvenation indeed had a limit, capped at sixteen years old, any excess lifespan would automatically convert into ’slowing aging’,

and he could consciously control the nuances of ’rejuvenation’, choosing whether to make the body younger or to accordingly slow aging,

opting to roll back the age of bones, flesh, and organs, while leaving the skin unchanged, or the reverse...

This delicate level of detail could even be accurate to a single bone or drop of blood.

Additionally, for some abstract concepts, such as the intensity of skin refining, the time of qi and blood tempering.....

Thus, one could completely avoid the scenario where rolling back the body’s age also regresses its physical refinement level, opting instead to rejuvenate while keeping the appearance unchanged.

Good.

Very good.

Zhang Fusheng decided to regress his bodily age by two years, returning to a sixteen-year-old state, the remaining eighteen years of life to be used for ’slowing aging’.

Quietly swallowing Star Beast meat, the contract cooled completely.

"I’ll offer ten years of my lifespan in exchange for your past ten years of Contemplation Technique cultivation, do you agree?" he asked.

Huang Zhongxiao, still immersed in the shock of sixty years of Breathing Technique and grief from suddenly aging twenty years, now faced a sudden reduction of twenty years of life, inherently panicking,

yet upon hearing he could regain ten years of life, he agreed without hesitation.

"I agree, I agree!"

The transaction concluded.

The ten years of contemplation peeled away, Huang Zhongxiao felt a terrifying void, realizing he lost the memories and consciousness of ten years of cultivating the Contemplation Technique, his Contemplation Realm plummeting from Great Success to Minor Achievement,

but his body, too, rapidly rejuvenated.

Meanwhile,

Zhang Fusheng quietly perceived his diminishing lifespan.

His body aged a year, two years, three years, as if undergoing the baptism of years in an instant.

His bones aged as well.

By the seventh year of aging, his bodily age had advanced from sixteen to twenty-three.

A certain bone undergoing a silent transformation finally metamorphosed after those seven years.

The remaining three years of lifespan extracted, Zhang Fusheng chose to subtract it from the eighteen years stored under [slowing aging].

Thus far.

A dead man’s bone in his chest, complete.

"Living being with a dead man’s bone, one foot in the mortal world, the other in the Netherworld, life and death, life and death...."

Inexplicable sighs echoed around him.

Vitality surged, at the birth of the dead man’s bone, he underwent transformation, not only physically but spiritually!

A cataclysmic transformation was underway!