Chapter Eight: The Shaoyang Universe Staff

The martial art gifted by the Pure Maiden Daoist, "Lesser Yang Staff Technique," could be considered a profound skill. The soul energy required to comprehend it alone was testament enough to its depth. Yet, it was not without its limitations—it relied primarily on the use of the hands and feet, wielding staff-like weapons to inflict damage.

Previously, Ning Cheng had mastered another tome, the "Minor Martial Canon," which contained a nameless staff technique. This nameless art encompassed many moves that utilized various parts of the body to wield the staff for both offense and defense. After fully understanding the "Minor Martial Canon," Ning Cheng could employ such techniques as if guided by instinct, embodying the martial experience of countless practitioners. With a staff in hand, he could wield it with remarkable agility.

With the acquisition of the "Lesser Yang Staff Technique," his mastery of staff arts advanced further. By merging the wealth of martial knowledge from the nameless technique with the "Lesser Yang Staff Technique," he devised a new form of staff combat. This new technique not only utilized hands and feet for attack but also incorporated the shoulders, neck, head, back, hips, and abdomen, coordinating with the limbs to create a comprehensive defense, covering the full three hundred and sixty degrees around him.

This amalgamated staff art had no name, so Ning Cheng simply christened it "Lesser Yang Cosmos Staff." The "Lesser Yang Cosmos Staff" could launch fierce attacks, making it effortless to slay the corpse-eating hounds he had encountered earlier—creatures as large as horses. In defense, it could form an impenetrable, ever-changing circular staff formation, enabling him to deal with packs of dozens of corpse-eating hounds without harm.

With such a staff technique at his disposal, Ning Cheng now had ample reason to carry with him the black "staff" that held profound meaning for him, no longer fearing anyone's doubts. Wherever he went, the staff would never leave his side; when not in use, he would tie it with a cloth and sling it over his back, embodying the manner of a wandering martial artist.

As for the transformation of the "Lesser Yang Staff Technique" into a stack of blank pages, it was not difficult to resolve. After much thought, Ning Cheng decided the safest approach was to undertake a Daoist task in the name of an outer disciple. All he needed to do was feign carelessness during the mission and "lose" the illustrated manual of the "Lesser Yang Staff Technique." Upon returning, he could simply offer an explanation to the stern beauty, Elder Pure Maiden, and it would suffice.

For outer disciples of the Azure Cloud Daoist Temple, the Steward Hall was the place most closely tied to their daily lives. Not only could they collect their allotted benefits there, but it was also where they could browse and accept various Daoist missions of differing difficulty, earning corresponding rewards.

To "lose" the now-blank manual without raising suspicion, Ning Cheng carefully browsed the public task board in the Steward Hall for over ten minutes, finally selecting a solo mission. The task required him, within ten days, to search the ruins of a Buddhist temple destroyed by mountain monsters for relics buried within the debris. The mission only specified a completion time, not a required number of relics; rewards would be calculated based on the number found.

The Great Jing Dynasty had always revered Daoism and suppressed Buddhism, choosing to ignore attacks by mountain demons on Buddhist temples and leaving the monks to their own devices. Once a temple was utterly destroyed, the court would mobilize nearby Daoist practitioners to excavate any valuable items within, enabling the Daoist order to grow atop the corpses of Buddhist monks.

Such strenuous excavation tasks, coupled with the risk of encountering monsters, were never assigned to "rank-five weaklings" like menial workers, but rather to outer disciples skilled in martial arts. Though these entry-level missions rarely offered high rewards, they suited Ning Cheng perfectly.

The ruined temple indicated in the task was not far from the Azure Cloud Daoist Temple, only a few dozen miles away. To minimize risk, Ning Cheng left his sister and the little white fox in the temple, entrusting them to the care of the sweeping boy, and instructed them not to venture out for the next ten days.

After bidding his sister farewell, Ning Cheng strapped his sole defensive weapon to his back, took a bag of dry rations and a few changes of clothes, and set out. The journey was uneventful, but upon reaching the marked ruins, he began to feel uneasy.

At the outskirts of the dilapidated temple stood a half-height, broken stone stele, upon which two faded ink characters could be discerned: "Lanruo." The sight of these words struck Ning Cheng with foreboding.

According to the tales recorded in "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio," Buddhist temples bearing the name "Lanruo" were seldom auspicious places. The most famous example was the Lanruo Temple in the northern suburbs of Jinhua City, occupied by the Black Mountain Old Dame, where demons and ghosts roamed freely, and only reclusive experts like Yan Chixia dared to enter.

Taking precautions, Ning Cheng entered the temple ruins and unstrapped the remnant blade of the Yellow Springs Sword from his back, wielding it as a staff that could not be broken. He hid his clothes and rations nearby, choosing a spot at random.

Cold, eerie winds swirled through the ruins, and by the time Ning Cheng arrived, dusk was already falling. The chilling gusts raised goosebumps all over his body.

"Shouldn't be, right? I can't be that unlucky, can I? There's no battle nearby, so where would the ghosts come from? Don't scare yourself!" Ning Cheng swung his black staff with vigor as he muttered to comfort himself.

Yet, some things happen because one fears them. No sooner had he reassured himself than the winds intensified, swirling around him and chilling him to the bone.

Taking advantage of the fact that the sun had not yet fully set and the ghosts lurking in the wind had not appeared, Ning Cheng quickly surveyed the modestly sized ruins. Amid the collapsed buildings, he found three grayish-white bone relics, seemingly formed from the finger bones of accomplished monks.

Strangely, these bone relics bore faint cracks at both ends, the fissures as black as ink, concealing something indistinct within, as if hiding evil spirits. The relics themselves emanated a chilling aura.

Clearly, these three bone relics had either become hosts to monsters or had been corroded by evil energy for so long that they had lost their effect. Even if he took them back to the Azure Cloud Daoist Temple to complete the task, he would likely receive no reward.

Cursing his luck, Ning Cheng casually tossed the three relics back into the ruins, deciding to dig deeper at dawn to see if he could find anything else.