Immortality: Grinding Experience Starting as a Paper Craftsman

Chapter 51 Hidden Edges in Pulp, A First Exploration of the Book Tower

The fog on Qingzhu Peak was even thicker in the early morning than it was at night.

Gu Yan got up very early.

Now that I've taken on this job, I have to put on a good show.

He changed into the patched gray robe of a servant and went to the stone mill in the courtyard.

This place is piled with discarded spirit bamboo transported from the front mountain. Most of them are defective products from failed talisman-making, and they still have residual cinnabar and spiritual power on them.

Gu Yan casually picked up a bamboo stalk and lightly stroked the bamboo joint with his fingertips.

"Purple-veined spirit bamboo, three years old, has become soft due to the erosion of yin energy."

For ordinary menial tasks, handling these hard bamboo stalks would be exhausting.

Simply grind them into a pulp, dry them, and then recycle them as inferior talisman paper.

But Gu Yan said otherwise.

Instead of using brute force to push the millstone, he secretly pasted two paper puppets, each the size of a fingernail, onto the bottom of the millstone, concealed by his wide sleeves.

The heavy stone mill began to turn swiftly.

As Gu Yan added bamboo to the millstone, he secretly added some special powder.

That was the ashes of the rotten bone grass he found in the corner of the room last night. This stuff can neutralize the dryness in the spirit bamboo, making the pulp more resilient and yin in nature.

This specially formulated pulp can make paper figures that are at least 30% more resistant to impact.

"Working here is practically like getting paid to work."

Gu Yan was in a good mood, watching the milky white bamboo pulp slowly flow out, as if he were seeing powerful paper puppets of the future.

Just then, the sound of footsteps crushing dead leaves came from the bamboo grove outside the courtyard gate.

The footsteps were heavy and undisguised, carrying a sense of asserting sovereignty.

Gu Yan's eyes narrowed, then the sharp light in them vanished. He deliberately trembled, dropping the bamboo he was holding to the ground. He curled up into a ball, looking at the doorway in terror.

"Squeak."

The courtyard gate was pushed open roughly.

A young man dressed in the robes of an outer disciple, with a thin face and high cheekbones, swaggered in.

He had a storage bag hanging from his waist, and was playing with two iron gallbladders in his hands. His gaze swept around the courtyard with a sinister look, finally landing on Gu Yan.

"You're the new handyman?"

The young man's voice was high-pitched and arrogant.

Gu Yan immediately stopped what he was doing, jogged over to greet him, bowed deeply, his knees trembling slightly: "Greetings, Immortal Master. I am Gu Changsheng, and I just arrived yesterday."

"Hmm, he seems quite honest."

The young man walked to the stone mill, kicked a bamboo shaving on the ground with disdain, and sneered, "My name is Wang Meng. Every blade of grass and every tree on the back mountain of Green Bamboo Peak is under my jurisdiction. Did Fatty Ma tell you the rules when he assigned you here?"

Gu Yan looked bewildered: "Master Ma only told me to grind bamboo pulp..."

"Hmph, that's just the surface-level rule."

Wang Meng leaned closer to Gu Yan, his triangular eyes fixed on him, and said in a low voice, "The unspoken rule is that this back mountain isn't safe at night. If you don't want to die, nail the doors and windows shut after dark, and don't come out no matter what noise you hear. Also, don't look at things you shouldn't see, and don't go to places you shouldn't go. Understand?"

This was a warning to him not to go near that patch of weeping bamboo.

Gu Yan turned pale with fright and nodded repeatedly, "I understand! I understand! I'm the most timid person, I will never go out at night, even if I need to pee, I will do it indoors!"

Seeing Gu Yan's pathetic state, Wang Meng's wariness dissipated considerably, and his gaze towards Gu Yan became more contemptuous.

He seems to be just an inexperienced rogue cultivator who has never seen the world and poses no threat.

"Alright, since you're sensible, that makes things easier."

Wang Meng stretched out one hand, rubbed his thumb and forefinger together, the meaning of which was self-evident.

Gu Yan immediately understood, a look of pain appearing on his face. He reluctantly took out three low-grade spirit stones from his pocket and presented them with both hands: "Senior Brother Wang, this is a small token of my appreciation. Please have some tea."

Wang Meng glanced at the three mottled spirit stones, pursed his lips, and although he thought it was too few, he didn't refuse and casually took them.

"You're smart to know what's good for you. From now on, you'll understand what I mean around this time of month, right?"

"Understood, I understand."

"Do a good job."

Wang Meng patted Gu Yan on the shoulder, left a meaningful, sinister smile, and swaggered away.

Only after Wang Meng's figure completely disappeared into the depths of the bamboo forest did Gu Yan straighten up. The humble fear on his face gradually disappeared, revealing a calm coldness.

He patted the shoulder that Wang Meng had just patted, as if there was something dirty on it.

"He's at the eighth level of Qi Refining, but his aura is weak and unstable. He must have relied on pills to reach that level. It seems that the Blood-Weeping Bamboo is his source of wealth."

Gu Yan did not intend to take action against this person right now.

A greedy and arrogant neighbor is the best cover.

As long as he pays protection money on time, this person will even help him avoid other troubles.

"I've given you the spirit stones, but you'd better keep your life."

Gu Yan glanced in the direction Wang Meng had left. In the instant the spirit stones were handed over, a tiny speck of paper dust, barely visible to the naked eye, had already stuck to Wang Meng's sleeve.

That was a tracking method newly developed by Gu Yan. Unless the other party burned the clothes, their whereabouts would be completely under his control.

Having resolved this minor incident, Gu Yan quickened his pace.

Before noon, he had exceeded his daily quota.

After spreading the ground bamboo pulp on a rack to dry, Gu Yan changed into a cleaner set of clothes, tucked his identity badge into his pocket, and headed towards the scripture pavilion on the front mountain.

……

The Liuyun Sect's Sutra Repository, located halfway up the main peak, is an ancient, nine-story tower.

With its flying eaves and bracket sets, it is magnificent in scale.

Standing downstairs, Gu Yan looked up at the building that carries a thousand-year-old heritage, and couldn't help but feel a surge of emotion.

This is the true foundation of a major sect. In comparison, the fragments and incomplete chapters in the hands of rogue cultivators are simply trash.

Using his nameplate as a menial disciple, he successfully passed through the restrictions at the entrance and entered the first floor.

This area is open to all disciples and contains basic cultivation techniques for the Qi Refining stage, as well as miscellaneous notes and observations from the cultivation world.

Although not particularly valuable, it was a crucial piece of knowledge that Gu Yan desperately needed to complete.

The room was unusually quiet, with only the sound of turning pages.

Dozens of outer disciples were standing or sitting, eagerly studying the jade slips in their hands.

Gu Yan didn't rush to find a cultivation technique. Instead, he went to the miscellaneous notes section and pulled out a copy of "The Record of Strange Things in the Nine Provinces" to read.

He needs to first understand the whole picture of this world, as well as the origins of various spiritual materials, to pave the way for his future cultivation.

After observing for half an hour, Gu Yan gained a clearer understanding of this cultivation world.

Then, he quietly moved to the cultivation area.

"The Blazing Fire Technique", "The Thick Earth Technique", "The Spring Breeze and Rain Technique"...

The dazzling array of martial arts techniques overwhelmed him.

"I have mixed spiritual roots of the five elements. If I cultivate a single-attribute technique, my progress will be extremely slow. I must find a special technique that allows me to cultivate all five elements, or one that doesn't have high requirements for my spiritual roots."

Gu Yan's fingers traced across the rows of jade slips, but his brows furrowed more and more deeply.

These common cultivators, while stronger than independent cultivators, are only stronger in terms of completeness; their potential is not high.

If one cultivates these things, even if one barely manages to reach the Foundation Establishment stage, one will be the weakest of the weak.

Just as he was feeling somewhat disappointed, a dusty ancient animal skin scroll in the corner caught his attention.

The scroll was carelessly tucked into the bottom shelf of the bookshelf, and even the sealed aura was so dim it was almost extinguished.

Gu Yan squatted down and gently pulled out the scroll.

Blow away the dust, and a few ancient characters come into view: "The Art of Everlasting Life and Desire".

"Um?"

Gu Yan's heart stirred, and he probed into it with his divine sense.

A moment later, he suddenly opened his eyes, a look of shock flashing across them.

This technique... is a bit strange.

It doesn't need to absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth; instead, it cultivates by plundering the essence of plants and trees!

Each year brings its own cycle of growth and decay, taking away the bounty of nature from plants to make up for its own deficiencies.

This is definitely considered a marginal or even forbidden technique within righteous sects.

The reason it can be placed here is probably because it has an extremely demanding condition: the cultivator must possess an extremely large lifespan or vitality as a catalyst, otherwise, before harming the enemy, one will harm oneself and directly turn oneself into a withered tree.

"Lifespan... vitality..."

Gu Yan touched his chin.

Others might be afraid of this side effect, but he isn't!

He possesses Netherworld Ghost Bones and a pool of discarded spirit bamboo syrup.

Moreover, his paper-making skills include a secret technique for creating substitute paper figures, which can completely transfer the backlash from cultivation to the paper figures!

With his proficiency panel, he can improve and even upgrade the grade of this technique through continuous practice, which couldn't be more perfect!

Gu Yan suppressed his inner elation and took the scroll "The Art of Everlasting Life and Desire" to the registration desk at the door.

The person guarding the pavilion was an elderly man with gray hair, who was dozing off on the table.

Gu Yan gently tapped the table: "Senior, this disciple would like to borrow this cultivation manual."

The old man groggily opened his eyes, glanced at the animal skin scroll in Gu Yan's hand, and a hint of surprise flashed in his cloudy eyes.

"The Everlasting Glory Technique? Kid, this is an incomplete scroll, only usable up to the early Foundation Establishment stage. Besides, it's easy to ruin a person; those who chose this before all ended up as dried-up corpses. Are you sure you want to choose it?"

"Reporting to Senior, this disciple has mixed spiritual roots and little lifespan left. I only wish to take a gamble."

Gu Yan's resolute expression perfectly captured the image of a desperate ascetic.

The old man gave him a deep look, then didn't try to persuade him further, and lazily yawned: "Since you want to die, then so be it. Register, and return it in a month."

"Thank you, senior."

Gu Yan bowed respectfully, then, clutching the scroll of martial arts manual that could change his destiny, strode out of the Scripture Pavilion.

In the sunlight, his back looked thin, yet it exuded an unprecedented lightness.

Behind him, the old man who had been dozing off suddenly raised his head, looked in the direction Gu Yan had left, and a slight smile appeared on his lips.

"Another one who's not afraid of death. But why does this kid have such an unpleasant, deathly smell about him?"