Chapter 28: The Great Refining of Inner Demons and the Tome of Experience

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The so-called “Demon Refinement Method” is, just as it sounds, a rather inhumane practice.

After all, what respectable person would refine puppets? Isn’t that right, Your Highness the North-Suppressing Prince—whose name shall remain undisclosed?

Of course, refining puppets itself was not inherently evil. What mattered was the material used to make them.

Take the North-Suppressing Prince’s “War Puppet.” Its foundation was, in fact, the terracotta soldiers that had suppressed baleful energy for a thousand years within the Tomb of the Martial Immortal.

Those terracotta soldiers were themselves products of the highest mechanical arts. Turning them into puppets was both perfectly compatible and free of any real moral burden.

Even so, hardly anyone knew that Gu Yuye had refined the War Puppet.

The material used in the Demon Refinement Method, however, was living human beings.

They could not be corpses. They had to be truly alive.

To refine a person into a puppet while they were still living—one could imagine the agony involved.

Worse still, this method required the subject to remain perpetually in the extreme state of being on the verge of death, yet not quite dead. It was an utterly wicked art.

And if one spoke of the origin of the Demon Refinement Method, it was enough to make people tremble at the mere mention of it.

Its creator was none other than the Lord of the Death Path, one of the Ten Supreme Paths of the Demon Cult—the Duke of Decay.

Players affectionately called him Duke Gua-Gua.

Gu Yuye’s original plan had been to expose Gu Fangchen’s collusion with the Demon Cult, reveal that he had impersonated the heir, and then have him put to death as a matter of course.

But Gu Fangchen had legitimized his own identity and splashed a basin of filth over Gu Yuye instead, forcing him to resolve this far greater problem first.

As for whether there were traces of tampering in the cause and effect, that was no longer important.

Indeed, before disproving Gu Fangchen’s identity, Gu Yuye had to do everything in his power to avoid any connection between that cause and effect and the Demon Cult.

After all, if what lay beneath the surface was false, it might be a scheme of the Demon Cult.

But if it was true, what motive could the Demon Cult possibly have?

The one with a motive would then be Gu Yuye himself!

After considering the matter from every angle, it seemed that only he would have reason to legitimize his illegitimate son, layering a false thread of causality over the truth in order to deceive Ning Caiyong.

If the Demon Cult were dragged into it as well, Gu Yuye would simply be smearing his own backside with mud.

Thus, when Gu Youren said it was true, Gu Yuye immediately denied it and forcibly set the conclusion—yet he did not demand another examination.

He knew that if the matter were investigated any further, he himself would most likely be the one to suffer.

What he could never have imagined, even if he had stuffed his head into a latrine, was that Gu Fangchen would take advantage of this very point and actually employ the methods of the Demon Cult.

That was what it meant to be blind beneath the lamp.

“Before Gu Yuye realizes what is happening, I have plenty of time to complete the first stage of the Demon Refinement Method and make certain I do not die before I even leave the starting gate.”

Gu Fangchen’s eyes flickered. He handed the stack of papers in his hand to Qingjian and said calmly,

“Tell Prajna Lianyue to get everything written here to me by tomorrow.”

Qingjian’s heart jolted.

Prajna Lianyue was the true name of Princess Prajna, a secret known to very few outside the palace. Only close attendants like them were aware of it.

And Gu Fangchen had just let it slip so casually…

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In that commanding tone, no less!

In the past, if anyone had been so rude to the Holy Maiden in Qingjian’s presence, she would certainly have made them understand the suffering of all living beings.

But now, she extended both hands to receive the stack of papers and lowered her eyes.

She could only feel that this man had grown increasingly unfathomable.

She glanced over the contents. They consisted of extremely rare medicinal ingredients, along with several rather peculiar items whose names she had only heard in passing.

It looked somewhat like the materials for refining pills, yet also somewhat like the components of an array.

Qingjian knew little about such matters, so she simply folded the papers and put them away.

None of these things would be difficult for Princess Prajna to obtain.

With the sacred object still missing, the princess could only satisfy whatever bizarre and demanding requests he made.

Gu Fangchen was not worried that anyone would deduce the truth from the list. For one thing, the core of the Demon Refinement Method was the array that had to be drawn. For another, at this point in time, the fact that the Duke of Decay was a puppeteer had not yet been exposed.

In everyone’s eyes, the Duke of Decay was still a mysterious iron-hatted figure draped in a cloak made from the Rusted Sword Mound. A rusted sword in his hand bloomed with poisonous flowers, and anyone struck by it was doomed to die.

Wherever the Duke of Decay passed, however, rivers of blood and winds of slaughter inevitably followed. The land would be barren for a thousand miles, with neither birds nor beasts left alive. If a person came into contact with even the slightest trace of it, their entire body would immediately rot from within and without, leaving them neither human nor ghost.

In truth, this infamous figure, renowned for poison arts and swordsmanship, was a puppet fashioned by the Duke of Decay through the Demon Refinement Method.

From this alone, it was not difficult to see that the Demon Refinement Method and poison were inseparably linked.

The Demon Refinement Method consisted of five stages. Each stage required the completion of a Great Refinement of the Inner Demon.

The puppet had to transcend its physical form while in the extreme state of being on the verge of death without actually dying.

There were many ways to achieve such a condition, but poison was the simplest.

Finding a battle between life and death that could be maintained at the very edge of the limit was far too difficult, and the risks were immense. With poison, however, the process was much more controllable.

Moreover, if the Great Refinement succeeded, the puppet and the poison would merge into one, responding as readily as a limb to the will.

That was precisely the method Gu Fangchen had previously envisioned: transforming the three poisons within his body into powerful weapons under his own control.

His body had been ruined too completely. Saving it by ordinary means would be far too slow.

He had no choice but to use the most extreme method—to seek life through death.

“However, to refine oneself into a puppet, one’s spiritual cultivation must first reach at least the Eighth Grade of the Divine Path, the Out-of-Shell realm. Only then can the soul and body separate during the refining process, allowing one to transform into a puppet controlled by oneself.”

“My current Ninth Grade cultivation is not enough. The moment my soul leaves my body, I will die without question.”

Gu Fangchen rubbed his chin.

“Actually, the Seventh Grade, the Wandering Spirit realm, would be safest. Not only would I be able to leave my body, I would also be able to move objects through the power of thought, giving me a final safeguard.”

“But there is no way I can rise two grades in such a short time.”

Still, there was a way to rise one grade!

In the Dustbound Mirror, players could level up not only by completing quests, but also through several shortcuts.

Experience manuals were one of them.

In the game, experience manuals took the form of calligraphy and handwritten notes left behind by high-level non-player characters, especially certain masters of the Divine Path.

Players had a chance of success when using an experience manual.

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The higher the level of the experience manual and its associated non-player character, the greater the chance of success.

Among them, the most highly praised by players belonged to a certain leader of the Heavenly Mandate Path, the sole permanent resident of the Canliao Pillar, the supreme-rank State Preceptor of the current dynasty, and the moral high ground of Great Wei—Lord Xu Fu.

After Qingjian left, Gu Fangchen first confirmed that Ning Caiyong was not seriously injured. He then took a bath, had someone send him food, ate and drank his fill, and promptly collapsed onto the bed into a deep sleep.

These past two days since crossing into this world had exhausted him more than staying up all night for a week to write game guides. The moment his head touched the pillow, he was out like a machine being shut down.

In any case, he had already cast out the hook.

All he had to do was wait for the State Preceptor to come knocking.

…

Ning Caiyong sat up and rubbed her temples with her slender fingers. Almost instinctively, she asked the maid beside her,

“How is Chen’er?”

The maid answered in a low voice,

“The heir brought you back and then bathed and changed in the eastern wing. He had some food and has now gone to sleep.”

“That child must be exhausted.”

Ning Caiyong furrowed her brows anxiously. She took a sip of hot tea to rinse her mouth. Thinking of Gu Yuye, she felt a tumult of vexation in her heart and let out a long sigh.

She did not even know whether she wanted the matter to be true or false…

She set down her teacup and suddenly raised her eyes, studying the pretty yet flustered maid before her.

“You are… the maid who was in the hall earlier, aren’t you?”

The maid curtsied, a trace of nervous blush appearing on her face.

“This servant is Xuexiang.”

“Granny Cui sent me to serve in your courtyard.”

Granny Cui…

Ning Caiyong understood at once. Naturally, the girl had not truly been sent to serve in her courtyard. She had been sent because Chen’er was there.

The maid had been caught by Chen’er and teased in full view of everyone. There was no way she could simply be sent elsewhere now.

Since Chen’er had been accepted as the disciple of the Martial Saint and had won Princess Prajna’s favor, with hope of curing his poison at last, there was no need to keep him under such strict supervision as before.

It was time to add a few more people to his chambers…

Ning Caiyong smiled, took Xuexiang’s hand, and instructed her gently,

“I have no shortage of attendants here. Go to the eastern wing and serve the heir.”

Xuexiang’s face reddened as she murmured her assent.

She was about to leave when Ning Caiyong called her back. After examining her face, she dabbed a spot of rouge between the girl’s brows and nodded in satisfaction.

“Chen’er certainly has an eye for people. With your appearance, dressed as a Daoist nun, you would possess a touch of otherworldly beauty.”

“Change your clothes before you go.”

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