"Good heavens! It's a ghost!"
Right when the fierce-looking maid heard Shen Ling's voice behind her, she turned around and let out a terrified scream.
The man inside the room panicked when he saw Shen Ling, and he scrambled around looking for a way to escape.
He caught them like this: a maid and a man.
Shen Ling glanced over at the maid, then gripped the man's neck, and pressed his body against the wall.
"Tell me, where's the antidote?"
"No, there's no such thing as an antidote…"
The man turned to look at Shen Ling and shook his head back and forth. "With over twenty kinds of poison as well as more than ten kinds of poisonous plants in my Seven Day Soul Severing Powder, even though the poison won't cause fatal effect right away, there is no current antidote available."
It turned out there was no antidote.
Shen Ling exerted a little more strength on his hand, and the man's face started to redden.
Just as the man was about to be strangled to death, Shen Ling was suddenly startled by the noise behind him. From out of the corner of his eye, Shen Ling saw the maid reaching down for something.
Shen Ling bowed his head to duck, and a dagger was thrown over his head. That was close!
"You've practiced martial arts? A maid?"
A trace of doubt flashed in Shen Ling's eyes.
With no signs of hesitation, he lifted the stool next to him and tossed it at the maid.
The room wasn't very big. As the two of them continued fighting, the maid, who knew only a smattering of martial arts, was soon defeated by Shen Ling.
With a thud, the maid fell down to the ground with a bleeding head. After that, Shen Ling's eyes swept the room.
The man was already gone.
When he saw that Shen Ling and the maid were fighting, he took advantage of this and fled.
After thinking things through, Shen Ling was in no particular hurry to return home. Instead, he did a careful search of this small room.
His search came up with an incomplete notebook and a book about the practice and methodology of poison.
Although the man was already gone, he had left in a hurry and did not have the time to take his things with him.
But among the things he left behind, an antidote was nowhere to be found.
Shen Ling's heart sank in his chest.
…
Early in the morning.
In the hall of the Shen family.
Old Master Shen was sitting in the main seat and as he looked at his wife next to him, he said in a cold voice, "Is is true, what Shen Ling said just now?"
Madam Shen turned her gaze to the ground and said nothing.
The maid, who was tied up and gagged, shook her head wildly at Madam Shen.
"Let's hear what she's got to say."
With a wave of his hand, Master Shen motioned for the servant to remove the cloth out of the maid's mouth.
After the gag was removed, the maid turned to look at Master Shen and pleaded, "Master, I did this all on my own. It really has nothing to do with Madam. Please... I'm telling the truth!"
After he heard this, Master Shen suddenly slammed the table out of anger. "Are you telling me that a mere maid would dare to poison her master for no reason? Do you really think I'm so old and muddle-headed that I wouldn't know any better?"
Shen Ling did not bother to speak up.
At this time, he didn't care a bit about what was going on in the Shen family hall.
Because no matter what happened, the poison in his body would still be there and would continue to damage his insides.
This was a huge concern for Shen Ling.
"Get lost now!"
With a ferocious roar, Old Master Shen pointed his finger at Madam Shen, the anger on his face clearly visible. "Leave the Shen family at once. I don't want to see you ever again!"
After Madam Shen admitted that she had planned to poison Shen Ling, Old Master Shen was so enraged that he chased Madam Shen directly out of the Shen family.
Together with Shen Ping, the child she had borne.
Shen Ling still did not say anything.
His silence was taken as acceptance of the punishment for Madam Shen. Anyway, the matter was settled.
Shen Ling went back to his room and tried to think up other ways of saving himself.
Apparently, there was no antidote available for this so-called Seven Days Soul Severing Powder.
The only choice he had left was to strengthen his body so that he could have a fighting chance of survival.
He continued to cultivate the Longevity Technique.
'You have completed one full circulation of the Longevity Technique, proficiency +5.'
Seeing this notification, Shen Ling's eyes flew open.
Five points of proficiency? Seriously?
He could recall earlier that there had only been one point of proficiency when he first started to cultivate this technique. The system had notified him about the additional point after he had successfully circulated the Longevity Technique for one day.
So one successful session of practice added up one proficiency point, while one complete session of practice added up five proficiency points.
Originally, Shen Ling had thought that he would need to put in more than ninety hours of cultivation, which was a few days, to be able to cultivate the technique to the second level.
But now…
It seemed that he only needed more than ten hours to complete the first level of the Longevity Technique.
This time difference was a matter of life and death to him.
Shen Ling's enthusiasm to keep cultivating saw an added boost.
In his later cultivation attempts, Shen Ling put in a lot of time and effort to fully circulate the Longevity Technique. Because of this, the system was showing better and better results each time.
Shen Ling even saw an notification that said:
'You have completed one perfect circulation of the Longevity Technique, proficiency + 10.'
So there were three types: success, completion, perfection.
Based on his past experiences with the system, perfectly circulating the Longevity Technique was one that appeared the least often, but it was also the one that saw the highest increase in proficiency.
However, just like the words hinted at, a perfect circulation was no easy task either.
Shen Ling had managed to create a perfect operation once, and it was pure luck. From then on, what he had were merely complete circulations.
He was already very happy with his results.
One day later.
After a cultivation session, Shen Ling opened his eyes. He had finally cultivated to the second level of the Longevity Technique.
In total, there were three levels.
"Hmm?"
Opening his eyes, Shen Ling was stunned for one complete second.
He looked down at his hands and felt that his skin appeared to be a little more tender compared to a few moments ago.
When he peered into the bronze mirror, Shen Ling came to the realization that he, who was already quite good-looking, looked even fairer and younger now.
Did this Longevity Technique also have the ability to enhance one's beauty?
Shen Ling shook his head back and forth.
"Xiao Huan."
Making his way out of the house, Shen Ling turned to look at Xiao Huan, who was busy tidying up the flowers in the courtyard and called for her.
"Young Master, do you need anything?"
Xiao Huan saw that it was Shen Ling and bowed her head slightly.
Shen Ling smiled and said, "Tell the kitchen staff to prepare a few dishes for me. They will come in use later."
Xiao Huan asked, appearing a little puzzled, "Are you going to treat some guests to a meal?"
"No. I'll eat the food myself."
After he said that, Shen Ling turned around and made his way out of the yard.
When he walked into the Shen family hall, Shen Ling saw that Old Master Shen was sitting in his chair with a serious expression on his face.
"What's the matter?"
Seeing that something must've happened, Shen Ling asked his father.
Old Master Shen saw that it was Shen Ling and told him, "Around midnight yesterday, Yunshu drank poison in the her residence."
Yunshu was the first name of Madam Shen, who had just been kicked out of the Shen family.
Shen Ling turned to look at Old Master Shen and asked, "What about Shen Ping?"
"I already had someone pick him up," Old Master Shen said word by word.
Madam Shen was dead. She was gone.
Shen Ling never thought this would happen. He had already decided to let her off and not to pursue this matter, but he never expected her to commit suicide.
The funeral was held in a rush.
In order to keep the family scandal under wraps, Old Master Shen ordered the burial to be done right away. In the end, Madam Shen's last resting place was not to be in the Shen family's cemetery. Instead, she was sent back to her hometown.
She was pitiful, but not worthy of his pity.
At the funeral of his mother, Shen Ping was crying sorrowfully. He looked up at Shen Ling and asked, "Brother, is my mother really a bad person?"
Shen Ling turned his head to look down at the grave and bent his head down to say, "Your mother did something unspeakable, but she's still a good mother to you."
Staring down at the grave, Shen Ling mulled some things over in his mind.
One could say that everything Madam Shen had done so far was actually for her son Shen Ping, who was standing beside him right now.
She had killed herself with poison so that Shen Ping would have a way back into the Shen family.
As a mother, Madam Shen's actions made sense.
However, Shen Ling could not agree any less.
If he hadn't transmigrated, once Madam Shen realized her plan, Shen Ping would become the sole heir of the Shen family.
But what would happen to the original Shen Ling?
He would die a miserable death.
Because he was here, he changed Shen Ling's original fate and exposed Madam Shen's schemes for all to see.
And because of his interference, the person who was fated to die was not him but Madam Shen.
"Alas…"
Still looking at the grave, Shen Ling shook his head. Who knew things would turn out this way?
