Life as a Rogue Cultivator

Chapter 266: Soul Seizing and Nurturing the Soul

From that day on, Liu Xiaolou finally straightened himself out. No more blind bolting for the horizon; he meant to start cultivating for real. Inside his Qiankun Pouch, he still had about forty spirit stones left after what he’d spent. Enough to keep him going for a year.Assuming, of course, the tree demon didn’t decide to have him for lunch.

Over the next few days, the tree demon would drop off food at random times. Sometimes a bird that happened to fly too close, sometimes a rabbit wandering by. Some days it didn’t bring anything at all; other days it tossed him an entire wild boar like it was nothing.

Liu Xiaolou couldn’t help but wonder. Maybe he just didn’t taste as good as that spirit leopard, and the tree demon had a delicate palate. Or maybe it was biding its time, planning to fatten him up before dinner. And all this cultivation of his… was it really just speeding him straight toward his own death?

But right now, there was no other way. All he could do was push his cultivation, hope to hit the ninth layer before the spirit stones ran out. And then see if there was any chance of escaping.

Sometimes he would walk over to the spirit leopard, look up at the beast that had been hanging on by a thread for over half a month yet still refused to die, and sigh to himself:

That day, after getting his head straight, he went to the Qiankun Pouch to fetch a spirit stons. And his eye caught something in the corner: a drum flute, gathering dust for years. And just like that, an idea popped into his head.

He had gotten this flute almost three years ago during that life-or-death battle by the Zhuoshui River. Liu Xiaolou still clearly remembered seeing the Badong cultivator control the snake phantom. After Badong died, the snake phantom he had refined disappeared, and the flute reverted back into a normal, plain flute.

Later, Liu Xiaolou even took the time to study the Secret Methods of Serpent Gu he’d seized from the same cultivator, gaining a decent understanding of how to raise and refine gu creatures. He just never came across a spirit serpent worth cultivating, so the matter was put aside.

Although the Secret Methods of Serpent Gu focused on raising spirit snakes and refining them into serpent gu, the principles were similar enough that they could be applied to other spirit beasts as well.

If he could refine this spirit leopard into a leopard gu, wouldn’t his strength get a huge boost? With the leopard phantom as cover, he might actually stand a chance of escaping the tree demon’s prison.

Once the idea took hold, Liu Xiaolou acted immediately. He set aside his plans for cultivating the True Mysteries Technique and dug back into the Secret Methods of Serpent Gu. Nearly three years had passed, and now, reading the manual again, he understood a little more, saw a little further.

After running through every step in his mind twice to make sure nothing was missed , he took out the flute and blew into the correct holes. The forest was suddenly filled with a soft, almost ghostly wail, like it was crying and pleading at the same time.

At first the notes were awkward, nowhere near the “breaking hoarseness” the manual described. But after days of practice and learning how to channel his true qi, he finally managed to get that exact sound.

Once he had practiced enough and fine-tuned the tone, Liu Xiaolou aimed at the spirit leopard hanging in midair and played the tune.

The leopard was in the exact state required by the Secret Methods of Serpent Gu. Its consciousness drifting, unaware of itself, unable to sense anything around it. It was the perfect moment.

Normally, to extract a spirit beast’s soul, you have to subdue it completely and push it into that hazy in-between: not fully conscious, not fully unconscious. Getting a spirit beast into that state is actually the hardest part.

And of course, the stronger the chosen beast, the better. But if its strength is close to, or even greater than, the gu-refiner’s, things get dangerous fast. You might not be able to bring it down at all, and even if you do, chances are you’ll injure it too badly... or kill it outright by accident.

It was only when a gu-refiner’s strength far surpassed that of the spirit beast that getting it into the right state became relatively easy. But that created a new problem: any beast weak enough to be overpowered so easily wasn’t worth turning into a gu in the first place. That was the main reason Liu Xiaolou hadn’t refined a single gu in the past three years.

This spirit leopard, though, was perfect. Strong, and already in the ideal condition. It saved him the hardest step entirely.

But the moment the drifted out, the demon tree nearby shivered. Its branches and vines trembled as if a strong wind had swept through, startling Liu Xiaolou into cutting the tune short. Heart pounding, he waited and watched until the tree finally calmed down.

He raised the flute again. Played again. And again, the demon tree quivered. So he stopped once more.

After several starts and stops, the demon tree finally got used to the sound of the flute. Only then did Liu Xiaolou dare play the entire Soul-Seizing tune from beginning to end.

When the last note faded, he could’ve sworn the spirit leopard’s eyes flicked open. Those ghostly blue pupils dimmed just a little. At the same time, he felt something indescribable settle inside the flute.

Playing Soul-Seizing drained a huge amount of his true qi, and it put a heavy strain on his mind as well. Exhaustion hit him all at once. He collapsed onto the ground and fell asleep instantly, snoring like thunder.

The next day, after sleeping to his heart’s content and eating a breakfast of wild rabbit the demon tree had caught for him, Liu Xiaolou felt refreshed. He picked up the flute again. By the time he finished the tune, the spirit leopard’s eerie blue gaze had dimmed a little more, and that strange something inside the flute had grown just a bit stronger.

He kept at it for half a month, playing patiently day after day. Whenever his true qi ran dry, he sat down to meditate and recover. Whenever he got hungry, he ate the meat and fruit the demon tree offered. Then, one day, the spirit leopard’s eyes finally closed completely, the last glimmer of light fading from them.

Liu Xiaolou walked over, reached out beneath the suspended beast, and felt no trace of breath or life left in it.

The flute, on the other hand, had grown noticeably heavier.

And with that, the spirit leopard was gone for good.

Liu Xiaolou tried to pull the demon tree’s shoots from the spirit leopard, but they were buried so deep and clamped so tight that they wouldn’t budge. After half an eternity of wrestling with them, he finally managed to yank out a short piece. It wriggled in his hand, the tip oozing a trace of blood. The sight made his scalp prickle.

He had barely flung the thing far away when a vine silently whipped out from behind him and lashed across his shoulder, sending him flying.

The tree demon’s strike was vicious. Liu Xiaolou shot ten yards through the air. Just as he cleared the canopy, several vines snaked out of nowhere, yanking him back and slamming him hard into the ground.

He pushed himself back to his feet, shoulder screaming in pain.

He froze, heart hammering, then forced himself to breathe and carry on with the next step of the Secret Methods of Serpent Gu.

The flute sounded once more. A new tone: .

The tune no longer had that tearing, grating quality. It was actually gentle and steady, almost soothing. After practicing it for two days, Liu Xiaolou finally managed to play the whole piece from start to finish. The moment he did, his eyelids drooped, a heavy wave of drowsiness washed over him, and he collapsed right where he stood, fast asleep.

When he woke up, the sun was already beating down again.

He ate, drank, and went right back to practicing Nurturing the Soul. When it was done, he slept again. Days went by, and with each one, he found himself feeling clearer, lighter, and more energized.

Then one day, as he played the tone, he completely lost himself into it. He forgot where he was, forgot when it was, even forgot who he was. The music flowed around him, warm, calm, and comforting.

When the final note faded, he didn’t fall asleep. For the first time in a long while, he felt refreshed, joyful, and perfectly at ease.

He suddenly noticed the treetops teeming with birds, and from the surrounding bushes and grass, countless small creatures -- rabbits, mice, goats, deer -- poked their heads out, all staring at him without blinking.

It took a long moment, then the canopy trembled gently, and the birds lifted off in a flutter of wings. The rabbits, mice, deer, and goats scattered at once.

He looked down at the flute in his hands. At some point, a faint, hazy glow had begun to shimmer from one end of it. A moment later, the light slowly faded and drew back into the flute.