In the mortal towns under the dominion of the Righteous Heart Sect, within the Great Zhou Dynasty.
Jiang Fenghuo gazed with a bewildered expression at the bewitching female cultivator before him.
"Discuss the Dao of Yin and Yang? Is it a new Dao Technique you wish to teach me?"
"Come, my dear Junior Brother, and you shall see. It is far more thrilling than any mere technique, and I can show you the profound harmony of Yin and Yang."
"You speak of Dual Cultivation? Senior Sister, this is... improper. I am a disciple of the Righteous Heart Sect, a cultivator of the righteous path! The risk of being discovered is far too great."
The female cultivator scoffed, her eyes like silken threads weaving a seductive web. "Hah, as if your Righteous Heart Sect is a stranger to sordid deeds. Will you come or not? My patience wears thin."
"Ahem... Very well. If you grant me a manual for a Dao Technique, I shall disregard the risks."
The woman took his hand. "Ah, you've finally seen the light. As it happens, I possess a supreme technique. Come, let us discourse on the Dao within~"
"And you may call me Sister Fang Yan."
...
Within the seclusion of a boudoir, two swaying silhouettes danced upon the paper-paned window.
"Hm? *The Human Refining Demon Art*? Sister Fang Yan, why have you given me a demonic Cultivation Method?"
Jiang Fenghuo clutched the manual, his jaw clenched as if suppressing a great force.
"Again? No... I can't... I cannot cultivate any further!"
"Only three sessions and you are spent? How utterly useless. Circulate your Qi. Now."
Fang Yan's face was flushed with a rapturous glow. Her hurried whispers carried an intoxicating fragrance that brook no refusal.
"Fine, fine! I am circulating it, I am!"
There are two forms of Dual Cultivation. One is the union of Dao Companions; the other is the method of the Human Cauldron. Jiang Fenghuo knew with chilling certainty that he was being used as the latter.
In Yin-Yang Harvesting Dual Cultivation, the one serving as the Human Cauldron is drained of their vital life force. Jiang Fenghuo could feel his very essence flowing into Fang Yan's body, becoming hers to command.
...
"Tsk, tsk. My dear Junior Brother, to fall asleep after taking your pleasure? What a disappointment. This is no place for slumber."
Receiving no response, Fang Yan stretched languidly. She placed a hand on her abdomen, feeling the newly augmented True Qi coursing within, and let out a hum of pure satisfaction.
With hands on her hips, she padded barefoot to his side and casually pressed her foot onto his face.
"No movement. No breath. It seems he has perished."
"If not for your unbroken virgin essence,an untouched pure yang body, I would never have engaged in Dual Cultivation with a lowly cultivator such as you..."
Draping a silken veil over her form, Fang Yan crouched to retrieve *The Human Refining Demon Art*, but after turning Jiang Fenghuo's body over several times, she could not find it.
"What? That brat made my *The Human Refining Demon Art* disappear?"
...
"*Third death of the Sutra's Host. Resurrections remaining: Seventy-eight.*"
Jiang Fenghuo sat up with a gasp, his breath ragged. He turned his head to see a figure identical to himself lying silently beside him.
To be precise, it was a corpse, identical to him but drained of all life.
"The female cultivator of the Dual Harmony Sect live up to their reputation. It only took seven rounds to drain the life from me... but..."
Jiang Fenghuo closed his eyes, and a satchel appeared within his sea of consciousness. Nestled inside was *The Human Refining Demon Art*.
"Extract!"
He opened his eyes, and with a faint shimmer, the manual materialized in his hand.
"Good, I secured the technique. Once my Cultivation Base has risen, I must find an opportunity to seek out Sister Fang Yan and 'repay' her in full!"
A year ago, he had transmigrated into this world of cultivation. With no golden finger, no system, he had exhausted every effort just to enter the only nearby sect, the Righteous Heart Sect.
Only after joining did he realize that the righteous sects of this world were nothing like the noble institutions from the novels of his past life; they were darker than any reality he had known.
After just one bitter year as an outer disciple, he had witnessed most of his peers either "vanish" or "voluntarily renounce the path of cultivation."
Fortunately, his extreme caution and deferential respect towards everyone allowed him to escape the fate of "voluntarily sacrificing himself for the sect's great Dao" on several occasions.
It was not until a month ago that a Golden Light Sutra awakened in his mind. A voice from within told him to perform a good deed each day, promising rewards for acts of benevolence.
Furthermore, upon death, he would transmigrate back to seven days ago. His Cultivation Base would not be inherited; instead, in a defiance of all logic, the corpse from seven days in the future would be brought back with him to the earlier point in time.
And then there was the "one good deed a day" mechanism.
In his past life, Jiang Fenghuo's strength had been so meager that he had to live with extreme caution. Let alone performing good deeds—it would be more accurate to say he was in a position where he needed others to show him charity.
He had no idea what purpose this "good deed" system served.
He was now seven days before his dalliance with the Dual Harmony Sect cultivator, on the third day of the Righteous Heart Sect's trial for new disciples in the mystic realm.
He and his corpse companion were situated in a mountain cave. He glanced at his other self, his brow furrowed.
"In my past life, my Cultivation Base barely improved. But after exploring the great Dao of Yin and Yang with that demoness, I reached the Middle-stage of the second level of Qi Condensation!"
He immediately began to study *The Human Refining Demon Art*. As for the treasures and opportunities within this mystic realm, with his current cultivation, he dared not entertain a single thought of them.
His first death was because he had found a second-rank spiritual herb. He was discovered by a fellow disciple, He Zhuo. Even though Jiang Fenghuo had offered it to him without hesitation, He Zhuo had still incinerated him with a fire spell.
Considering he was a destitute, low-level cultivator, He Zhuo must have cursed his corpse for being a "dead pauper."
Although they had trained for the same amount of time, He Zhuo possessed a fifth-grade Spiritual Root, allowing him to cultivate far faster than Jiang Fenghuo with his sixth-grade pseudo-Spiritual Root. The disparity in their strength was significant, not to mention He Zhuo had ambushed him.
After silently burying his own corpse, Jiang Fenghuo began to devise a way to utilize the resurrection ability granted by the Golden Light Sutra. He eventually learned that a female cultivator from the Dual Harmony Sect possessed a copy of *The Human Refining Demon Art*.
She was a renegade from the Righteous Heart Sect, now a Devil Cultivator. By the time Jiang Fenghuo learned of her, she had already been captured by Zhengxin disciples. It was said her manual could be used to refine a cultivator's body.
Jiang Fenghuo immediately ran himself through with his sword, returning to seven days prior. He accepted the bounty mission, ran off to his death, and used the demoness's need for a cultivator of virgin essence to trick her out of the manual, which he promptly stored in his satchel to bring back.
Thus, with *The Human Refining Demon Art*, he could finally create a cultivation loop with the Golden Light Sutra: die, return seven days, and refine his own body to enhance his cultivation.
Of course, the manual could also be used to refine the corpses of others, though he had not yet had the chance to try.
Jiang Fenghuo closed the manual and took a fist-sized medicinal cauldron that hung from his belt.
He formed a series of hand-seals, then tapped the cauldron with his two index fingers.
*Clang. Clang. Clang.*
"Enlarge. Enlarge. Enlarge."
The cauldron expanded three times, finally reaching the size of a large bathtub.
Ordinary cauldrons were too large to carry, and Interspatial Rings were prohibitively expensive. This lowest-grade cauldron was cheap to forge, perfectly suited for a bottom-feeding cultivator like him.
"Fire spell, ignite."
Forming another hand-seal, Jiang Fenghuo pointed a finger at the cauldron's opening, and flames erupted from the fire vent within.
He then stripped his other self naked and tossed the body into the cauldron.
Even though he had already dug his own grave and buried himself, the act still made him retch.
But if he did not raise his cultivation, he would simply wait for his resurrections to run out. There were no truly good people in this world; danger lurked everywhere, even within the Righteous Heart Sect.
Soon after leaving the mystic realm, the sect would hold a competition for its new disciples.
In his previous life, Jiang Fenghuo had given all his worldly possessions to his Master. Though his Master scorned the meager offerings, he deemed him sensible and spared him the fate of being thrown into the arena as cannon fodder.
Instead, his Master had seized the female disciple Jiang Fenghuo was closest to and sent her to her death.
He shook his head, banishing the distracting thoughts. Now, he had to follow the method in *The Human Refining Demon Art*, silently chanting the incantation and forming the hand-seals to cast the spell.
Instead of the smell of roasting flesh, waves of medicinal fragrance wafted into his nostrils.
An hour later, nearly collapsing from exhaustion, he had refined a single pill. The manual called it a "Human Pill."
This Human Pill could not be consumed orally; it had to be refined according to the method described in the manual.
Holding the pill in one hand and forming a hand-seal with the other, Jiang Fenghuo circulated his spiritual energy, steadily refining it.
When the process was complete, he let out a belch, expelling a plume of turbid air.
"My future self from seven days hence, the one who reached the Middle-stage of the second level of Qi Condensation after his encounter with the demoness, has been refined by me, who was at the late-stage of the first level. Now, my own Cultivation Base has reached the Middle-stage of the second level."
"A conversion rate of perhaps sixty percent? That's incredibly high. The crucial part was how the True Qi directly broke through the bottleneck, allowing me to cross the boundary."
"However, this is likely due to our identical foundations. Refining someone else would probably not yield such an effect."
Jiang Fenghuo looked down at his hands abruptly. "Damn it, why am I thinking about refining others? Wouldn't that make me a Devil Cultivator?"
The moment the words left his lips, a powerful, resonant voice echoed in his mind from the Golden Light Sutra:
"'By refining a Devil Cultivator of the Qi Condensation realm who lurked within a righteous sect, you have purged a scourge from the righteous path. A Merit Golden Light has been forged.'"
An irrepressible smirk played on Jiang Fenghuo's lips. "Heh, so being a Devil Cultivator is a good thing. I purge myself, and I earn Merit for it!"
He knew one thing for certain: everyone in the Righteous Heart Sect practiced righteous cultivation methods, but their actions were those of man-eaters. Thus, he felt not a shred of guilt for treading the demonic path.
The demonic path, the righteous path... what was the difference?
His only fear was that a righteous cultivator might discover his demonic arts, using it as a pretext to kill him and seize the manual for themselves.
He closed his eyes and could indeed feel a ball of golden light within his body, like a small marble of Merit.
With a flick of his wrist, the Golden Light Sutra appeared. He searched for the function of the golden light and found its general purposes:
It could be used for protection, or to upgrade items and cultivation methods, but the cost in golden light varied for each effect.
Jiang Fenghuo immediately thought to use the light to raise the grade of *The Human Refining Demon Art*, but he stopped himself at the last moment.
Since this light could be used for protection, it was better to save it for unforeseen calamities.
Although he could resurrect, being captured and kept as a blood slave, or suffering a death with no gain, would be a terrible loss.
Every death and rebirth should be treated as an investment.
So, Jiang Fenghuo decided to preserve the golden light for now.
He stood up, retracted the cauldron, and straightened the sect sword at his waist before walking out of the cave.
"With a middle-stage Qi Condensation Cultivation Base, the treasures and opportunities of this mystic realm... are not entirely beyond my grasp!"
Jiang Fenghuo looked up at the sky.
"In my first life, He Zhuo, the one who seized my spirit herb by force, will arrive at that location in about an hour."
"To seize from another out of pure greed... such a villain is something I, Jiang Fenghuo, cannot tolerate!"
"It is time to purge this scourge... for the righteous path!"
"'Heh heh,' he chuckled softly."