Ren Qing opened the first page, and an intense impulse to gouge out his own eyes surged from the depths of his mind.
Suppressing his discomfort, he carefully read through each page.
The text in the Blindless Method was neatly written, yet it felt like squirming maggots trying to crawl off the paper.
Half the book detailed how to consume human eyeballs raw.
Had he not already mastered the Blindless Method, the text alone might have influenced him; proof of just how sinister the Hundred-Eyed Old Monk who penned this was.
By the time Ren Qing finished reading, his clothes were soaked in cold sweat. His eyes were bloodshot and sunken, as if he hadn't slept for days.
He tucked the book into his robes, then reconsidered and pried a loose brick from the corner of his bed, hiding it in a secret compartment.
Closing his eyes to rest, he mentally organized the book's contents.
First, it was clear that while he'd mastered the Blindless Method by expending lifespan, he was still only a beginner.
The cultivation method involved visualizing the endless darkness of blindness, gradually mutating the eyes to gain inhuman power.
Ren Qing had thought he'd grown accustomed to this macabre style, but the final page of Blindless Method crossed into outright grotesquery.
To accelerate the mutation, one could hold fresh human eyeballs in the mouth while cultivating though the price was sprouting eyes all over the body.
Fortunately, the book revealed the other two branches of the Blindless Method.
This confirmed that his Divine Ability's information stream could uncover hidden details of cultivation techniques, such as the paths of Single-Eyed and Double-Pupiled.
For instance, while the book mentioned devouring eyeballs to heal wounds, it never referenced extending lifespan. That was likely something even the Hundred-Eyed Old Monk hadn't realized.
Ren Qing had already made his choice.
Compared to a body covered in eyes or a single monstrous orb, double pupils were at least marginally within the realm of normalcy…
Unconsciously, he was growing desensitized to the absurdity.
A rooster's crow pierced the air.
Massaging his temples, Ren Qing stepped outside. The gentle spring sunlight dispelled the lingering chill on his skin.
The stench of burning corpses wafted from the courtyard.
For the next few days, unless another unnatural death occurred on Tan Street, the furnace wouldn't stop; the corpse storage hut needed clearing.
Xiao Wu sat idly on a stone stool in the yard, flipping through a book. The three subordinates took shifts, with two tending the furnace at a time.
"Brother Qing, you skipped lunch earlier. I saved you a bun."
Xiao Wu set aside his Hundred Family Surnames primer, a classic book, and handed Ren Qing a steamed roll.
At his previous Corpse Burner Hall, he'd been overworked and underfed. His gratitude toward Ren Qing was genuine.
"I need to step out for a bit. I won't be long."
After checking the furnace, Ren Qing headed for the yamen gates.
He passed various yamen runners; mostly constables changing patrol shifts, with few Corpse Burners or Cleaners in sight.
After leaving the yamen, Ren Qing headed straight for the butcher's shop. Since devouring eyeballs could extend his lifespan, it was worth trying.
As he navigated through the dense crowds, he gained a clear understanding of his enhanced vision. He effortlessly spotted details that would have been invisible before:
The stains on the old man selling candied hawthorns. The purse stolen from a scholar returning drunk.
Even a single bee resting on the hair of a woman wearing makeup became sharply visible.
His mastery of the Blindless Method grew steadily.
His peripheral vision caught a beggar by the roadside, and he couldn't help but frown.
The beggar appeared to be in his thirties, limping as he stretched out his hand to passersby, his face twisted in slight pain.
Ren Qing noticed the man's afflicted leg; it was twice as thick as a normal limb, covered in festering pustules.
How could someone with such severe inflammation move so freely?
He paused, then approached, dropping a few scattered coins into the beggar's broken bowl.
"Thank you, Officer! May you live a hundred years…"
The beggar groveled gratefully. Ren Qing's hand "accidentally" brushed against him as he gave the coins, triggering a flood of information:
[Chen Er'gou]
[Age: Twenty-eight]
[Remaining Lifespan: Thirteen years]
[Art: Divine Leg Sutra (Incomplete)]
Details about the Divine Leg Sutra emerged:
[Created by the Crippled Daoist. To cultivate this method, one must sever both legs at the root during childhood bone growth, then confine the child in a vegetable jar while feeding specific medicinal catalysts. Survival for three years regrows "Divine Legs."]
Ren Qing's breathing quickened. He abandoned his trip to the butcher's shop and instead wandered the western district.
What he discovered shocked him.
Most street beggars had leg disabilities; clearly they were practitioners of the Divine Leg Sutra, though only in the western district.
He realized his mistake.
If all cultivation techniques in this world were this grotesque, then "talent" mattered little. And how much was a human life truly worth?
For many factions, spreading such techniques was risk-free; even a way to amass controlled enforcers.
Sanxiang Town's surface calm hid countless cultivators.
Ren Qing inhaled sharply. Any arrogance from mastering the Blindless Method vanished.
He returned to Tan Street and entered the butcher's shop nearest the yamen.
The butcher, a burly man in a greasy apron, sharpened his cleaver with a glare-inducing glint.
Before Ren Qing could speak, the butcher grinned. "A-Qing! Haven't seen you in days. Thought something happened…"
"Ah, forget my blabbering. I'll give you an extra two taels of meat today."
Ren Qing forced a smile. His predecessor had been so antisocial he barely knew anyone in the yamen; why would he befriend a butcher?
Carefully, he pieced together the backstory.
The butcher, Zhang, had been close with Ren Qing's elder brother. Before dying, the brother had asked Zhang to look after Ren Qing, making him one of the few people the predecessor occasionally spoke to.
"Brother Zhang, my night vision's been poor lately. Could I get some pig eyes to… brighten my sight?"
"Of course! I'll save them for you from now on."
Zhang agreed readily. Offal attracted frugal buyers, but pig eyes usually went to stray dogs.
He chopped two pounds of pork belly for Ren Qing, then began gouging out a pig head's eyes with a small knife.
"A-Qing, if you'd asked earlier, I wouldn't have had any. Someone's been buying pig eyes with silver lately. Weird, huh?"
Ren Qing's pupils dilated. He stopped Zhang. "Just give me spare eyes. Don't ruin the head's value."
"Also… please don't tell others I'm taking these."
Zhang assumed Ren Qing feared embarrassment and promised secrecy.
But Ren Qing now knew:
The person who taught the Blindless Method to the bookstore owner was still in Sanxiang City; and he had started consuming human eyes.