It turned out to be the scoundrels of aristocratic families and so-called officials colluding with each other. It was none of his business.
Hu Ma had no intention of interfering in the matters between the Yin spirit in the well and her unfaithful lover. After all, his grudges with her had been settled. Now that officials and aristocratic families were involved, he was even less interested.
He still had to be careful.
In the eyes of the folks in Da Yang Village, he was truly successful now, at least a minor manager in the Blood Food Gang. If they knew he was a shopkeeper, they would think he was on top of the world.
But as his status rose and his knowledge broadened, he really began to feel some pressure.
When he first became a shopkeeper in the Red Lantern Society, he felt like he could walk sideways in Ming Prefecture. But now, when he thought about it...
Back then, his mentality was no different from following a gangster in the suburbs, fighting the local tough guy in the southern part of the city, and beating him so badly that he fled and died in a stinking ditch. He felt like he was afraid of no one and could swagger around the city.
The greatest distance between people isn't thousands of mountains and rivers, but the word "hierarchy."
You might still have a chance to meet across mountains and rivers, but when you are separated by hierarchy, even if you meet face to face, you won't recognize each other.
Of course, worrying about these things is useless. Cultivation is the most important thing.
After returning from Zhu Men Town, Hu Ma focused his attention on the cultivation needed to enter the Fu realm. He had been preparing for it since before the New Year, and now he had been preparing for quite some time, but when it came to the feeling, there was only one word:
Slow!
It was really too slow.
A Night Watcher refines the *shounao* (head and brain), needing to be as careful as a thread, as cautious as sewing flowers. If you make even a slight mistake, you'll end up with at least a cerebral thrombosis.
Of course, with the divine statue in his natal spirit temple shining upon him, the possibility of going down the wrong path was not high. But even if it was just copying an embroidery pattern, it was still a slow process, and the speed couldn't be increased.
To describe it, refining just the *shounao* was at least ten times more difficult than refining the heart back then.
And if the *shounao* was so slow, what about the spirit soul?
Hu Ma couldn't help but speculate about Ji Tang, studying his experience of entering the Fu realm carefully many times.
This Beggar Gang leader was a genuine Night Watcher who had entered the Fu realm, and it took him five years just to enter the Fu realm.
For the first two years, he searched everywhere, hoarding wealth, just to prepare the two oil lamps that could respectively kill the *shounao* and turn his living soul into a dead soul. And these two years were also the most rampant and active period of the Beggar Gang.
There was no way around it, he needed silver and various secret medicines to prepare the oil lamps at that time.
After preparing the oil lamps in the first two years, he spent another three years concentrating on cultivation, allowing Cui Gan Niang and the others to run wild in the martial world.
It took him a full three years to successfully enter the Fu realm.
Moreover, the consumed blood food, secret medicines, and so on were countless. These things could be seen one by one from the notes he left behind after being soul-searched.
Hu Ma even knew that in order to enter the Fu realm, this guy had actually used all the things the Beggar Gang had accumulated over the years to give to the superiors on himself. It could be said that he used the entire Beggar Gang in Pingnan Prefecture to support himself alone.
From this, it can be seen that time, blood food, energy, and even luck are indispensable to enter the Fu realm.
But what about himself now?
Because he saved two oil lamps, he saved two years in terms of time first. With the natal divine statue shining upon him, he saved many detours. As for blood food...
...Master Hu was least worried about this now.
Not long ago, he had taken the blood food brought back by the Dongzi Li family for people to see.
Even Hall Master Xu was shocked by that small piece of blood food. He was not sure, so he hurriedly asked an old *gongfeng* (offering) to help him take a look. It was also an acquaintance, it was Old Abacus, who owed Hu Ma one hundred and twenty Blood Food Pills.
This old man was now familiar with Hu Ma. He took it in his hand and immediately snatched it over in surprise, aimed it at the sun, looked left and right, and became even more surprised.
"Where did you get this?"
"..."
Hu Ma smiled and said, "I picked it up on the road. What do you think of it?"
Because it was obtained from the Dongzi Li family, he was not afraid of others asking about its origin, so he dared to joke like this.
Of course, he could never tell anyone that he had two whole baskets of it.
"Where did you pick it up?"
Old Abacus immediately became excited and said seriously, "Take me there, I want to pick up some too."
"?"
Hu Ma was stunned.
"No, it's not picking it up, it should have been ours."
Old Abacus became serious and said loudly, "Now that the Green Shirt Gang has been wiped out by us, the blood food mines in Ming Prefecture are all ours in the Red Lantern Society."
"We must find it, find out which mine this thing came from."
"..."
Seeing him so serious, Hu Ma had no choice but to smile and say, "That's troublesome, I picked this up in another place."
"Oh..."
Old Abacus was a little regretful, but he was still not willing to give up and said, "Is it far? If it's not far, it can also be ours in the Red Lantern Society."
"It's not too far."
Hu Ma said, "If you hurry, it will take about twenty days to get there..."
Old Abacus suddenly felt regret. Seeing that Hu Ma didn't seem to be lying, he said, "That's a pity. This is not an ordinary thing. Only the best blood food mines can cut it out. Why do we have to refine the blood food cut out here into Blood Food Pills before we can eat it?"
"Because there are some unclean things in it, it's better to refine it. This thing can be eaten as soon as it's cut out!"
"In fact, our Red Lantern Society can also cut out a little bit of this thing every year, but unfortunately, we can't see it. It's directly given to the old masters who divide the incense. Even the Dharma Protector may not be able to enjoy it."
"To put it bluntly, we don't have enough fortune. Only those masters and nobles in aristocratic families are qualified to enjoy this kind of high-quality blood food offerings..."
"..."
Hu Ma was surprised, "Blood Tai Sui, isn't that the best?"
"Hehe, Blood Tai Sui is of course the best."
Old Abacus smiled twice when he heard this and said, "But the people living in big mansions, wearing gold and silver, and the people outside carrying burdens and pouring night soil, who can't even afford a pair of shoes at the end of the year, if you have to compare them, they are all people, but can people be the same?"
"This blood food is divided into quality and place. The blood food produced in Lao Yin Mountain in Ming Prefecture is the best. Not only blood food, but also many natural treasures."
"It's a pity that our Red Lantern Society can only collect a few in the north of the mountain. We don't dare to go to many deeper places."
"..."
Hu Ma could understand when he heard this. The eight hundred li Lao Yin Mountain was a big place, and he didn't know how many good things were hidden there. Even the Blood Food Gang couldn't find out so much. He would have to talk to the Mountain Lord later.
He was in a good mood after confirming that he had good things in his hands and smiled, "It's really a good thing, I wish I had a basket of it?"
"You still want a basket?"
Old Abacus subconsciously put it in his arms and said, "I can just have this one..."
"Good fellow, you haven't paid back the debt yet, but you dare to think about it again?"
Hu Ma snatched it back, thinking that when he arrived at the blood food mine, he would have to settle the score with this old abacus.
In any case, he didn't have to worry about the blood food in the Fu realm stage for the time being, but the time required to enter the Fu realm was still a bit difficult.
Could it be that he really had to endure for a year or two before he could cross that threshold?
He always felt uneasy and still wanted to be faster.
When he was free, he carefully studied Ji Tang's experience in entering the Fu realm several times and found a key.
This Beggar Gang leader, Ji Tang, acted in a low-key manner for three full years in order to enter the Fu realm, but it was not completely smooth sailing. In the second year of refining his *shounao*, he went through a fierce battle.
The Beggar Gang was harmful and did too many evil things. Often, unwilling wronged souls came to them for their lives, but the people in the Beggar Gang also had their ways, and they didn't care about these wronged souls.
But when there were too many things, there were accidents.
Once, a wronged soul cried in the middle of the night, hoping for revenge. She was heard by a Night Traveling God, Granny Wu, who was receiving incense and wanted to take care of this matter.
As a result, when she came to trouble the Beggar Gang, she lost her hand. Ji Tang was not easy to deal with. After a fierce battle, he killed a incense burner under Granny Wu and then escaped. Of course, Ji Tang was not feeling well either and almost lost his life.
He originally thought he had suffered a great loss, but he didn't expect that after escaping with his life, his progress actually increased a lot. He had earned it again.
This incident left a deep impression on Ji Tang, so he confessed it when he was soul-searched.
"Could it be that being hunted down by a Superior Guest will greatly increase progress?"
Hu Ma thought about this and couldn't help but feel a little tempted, "Who is this Granny Wu, should I go find her too?"
But it was just an idea after all, so forget it.
Cultivation progress is important, but safety is also important. It is too dangerous to provoke this Superior thing at the critical moment of entering the Fu realm.
While Hu Ma was deeply worried about his entry into the Fu realm, three hundred miles away, on a mountain covered with dark clouds all year round, the old servant of the Huainan Wei family was now following the rugged mountain road, covering his eyes, groping his way to a strange temple.
He was worried all the way, only feeling constant strange laughter around him, and countless hands stretched out to pull his trousers, all kinds of groping feelings wandering on his body.
He was only afraid that he would lose his life unconsciously, but fortunately, he had good luck and actually came here.
When he took off the black cloth covering his eyes, he felt a shiver in his heart. Although the road was hard and terrible, he thought he was worshiping a god, but now when he opened his eyes, he thought he had entered a bandit's den.
The temple in front of him had black walls, and there was a huge incense burner in front of the temple. It looked like copper, but there were some sticky substances on it, as if it were blood stains.
Inside the temple, there was a black body, with five heads and a hideous and terrifying evil god.
Looking around, he saw a huge barren mountain, filled with a strong smell of blood. It was desolate and gloomy, with only strange rocks and ghostly trees with horizontal branches. Pieces of flesh and skin were hanging from the branches, swaying in the wind.
Most importantly, in front of the temple, there were several rows of huge wooden shelves, filled with some skinned, naked things, neatly arranged in rows.
There were signs on each of them, listing a few words:
He Lan Gu.
Rao Huo Ba.
Bu Xian Yang.
(End of this chapter)