A Mortal’s Immortal Gourd
Chapter 50: Bronze Token

Ergouzi sat in the corpse-rearing cave, spending the longest and hardest night of his life surrounded by dead bodies.

Finally, he stood up, stretched his limbs, and felt no discomfort in his body.

His depleted divine sense had only recovered partially in his sea of consciousness.

Still, it should be enough to handle a third-layer Qi Training cultivator.

The entrance to the corpse-rearing cave was blocked by a stone slab, obscuring any view outside.

Ergouzi stood near the exit and sent his divine sense through the slab to check the situation outside.

There was no one guarding the entrance—it was completely quiet.

Apparently, the other side assumed corpses wouldn’t walk out on their own.

Ergouzi quietly slid the stone slab aside and crawled out of the corpse-rearing cave.

No one was around. From deeper in the mountain cave, he could faintly hear people talking.

Following the voices, Ergouzi made his way to a narrow path, where two people blocked his way.

“Huh? Isn’t this the corpse I moved last night?”

“The corpse came back to life. No big deal, just kill him again.”

Seeing Ergouzi walking toward them without any clothes on, the two weren’t alarmed at all—completely unaware of the danger approaching.

As they moved to strike, intending to kill him again—

Ergouzi suddenly lunged forward, spreading his arms wide and fiercely embracing them both.

Crack crack crack…

A series of bone-crushing sounds erupted like firecrackers.

The two didn’t even have time to scream before their organs burst, blood gushed from their seven orifices, and they dropped dead.

Ergouzi loosened his arms, letting their bodies fall limp to the ground. He stripped one of them for clothes and shoes.

Then, he followed the voices further in.

Behind the narrow path was a spacious stone chamber. Scarface was drinking alone, while Boss He and the others stood by to accompany him.

“How did you get in here?”

“Who are you?”

Seeing an unfamiliar face appear, Boss He and his men didn’t wait for Scarface to speak—they charged straight at Ergouzi.

Ergouzi dodged to the side, then swung a fist—Boss He’s skull split open, red and white matter splattered everywhere.

Bang bang bang…

He followed up with a few more punches—each one solid and brutal. Each punch carried over a thousand catties of force. No one could withstand even one.

With just a few breaths of time, the ground was littered with mangled bodies in twisted shapes and horrific deaths.

Only Scarface remained in the stone chamber.

“You’re… Scholar Zhang?”

“You know me?”

Ergouzi was puzzled. He’d only seen Scarface once at the market—there shouldn’t have been any prior connection.

“You’re the one who knocked out the examiner at the testing ground. Any martial artist in Anchan County has heard of you.”

Scarface spoke unhurriedly.

“I don’t know if someone sent you or if this is a coincidence, but I suggest you leave now and pretend you saw nothing. Some things are not yours to meddle in.”

This guy clearly had something backing him up—he was still trying to threaten and intimidate.

But Ergouzi was thinking the complete opposite. He’d already planned to slaughter everyone in the cave to vent his anger.

Now that he’d been recognized, he had all the more reason to cut the grass and dig up the roots—leave no loose ends.

Unfazed, Ergouzi summoned his massive sword—broad as a door panel—into his hand with a thought.

Ever since he gained divine sense, retrieving items from the gourd had become easy.

All it took was covering the item with his divine sense and thinking about it.

So now, he kept most of his belongings stored in the gourd, ready to be used anytime.

“Looks like you’re set on opposing me.”

Scarface took out a yellow talisman, slapped it onto himself, and vanished before Ergouzi’s eyes.

An invisibility talisman again.

The last time he’d encountered one was with a messenger from Dao Xuan Sect, who used it to scare him.

But back then, he was only at the third level of Qi Training and had no divine sense—he couldn’t see through invisibility with just his eyes.

Since then, he’d researched the invisibility talisman in the Zhengwu Hall library and consulted with Sima Yi.

He now understood that invisibility only removed someone from sight—they still existed physically. The naked eye just couldn’t see them.

Now, activating Aura Vision, he easily spotted a dense cluster of life energy sneaking toward him.

Ergouzi didn’t move, pretending not to notice.

Still gripping his heavy sword, he stood silently, waiting for Scarface to approach.

Scarface, sword in hand, crept behind him, secretly smug.

Just as he raised his sword to stab Ergouzi’s back—

Ergouzi moved. As if he had eyes on the back of his head, he swung his sword in a wide arc.

Shlick!

Scarface felt a chill on his neck—his head flew off.

After killing Scarface, Ergouzi walked around the cave with his sword, searching. No more living people were found.

The twenty-something people Scarface had bought the day before were nowhere to be seen.

Besides corpses, he found 100 taels of silver, 12 Peiyuan Gutben Pills, and more than ten shi of grain.

On Scarface’s body, he also found a yellow bronze token engraved with the character “黑” (Black).

It looked familiar.

Then he remembered—he’d gotten the exact same kind of token from someone from Dao Xuan Sect before.

He took out the one stored in his gourd—they were identical.

“What exactly is this token? Some kind of identity badge?”

“Could it be a Dao Xuan Sect identification token?”

Ergouzi put both tokens away, planning to ask Sima Yi later. Being a local, he might know.

Aside from the token, he also found a jade-carved bottle on Scarface.

Just the white jade bottle alone was worth ten taels of silver.

Inside the bottle were two thumb-sized pills—blood red, crystal clear, and brimming with intense spiritual energy. Far more potent than Peiyuan Gutben Pills.

No idea what kind of pills they were. Could they be legendary Dan Pills?

He planned to ask Sima Yi about those too.

Ergouzi gathered all the corpses in the cave and moved them back into the corpse-rearing cave, then sealed the entrance with a stone slab.

He tried to restore everything to how it was.

He’d overheard something about a branch master from the Iron Corpse Hall coming.

He didn’t know what group Scarface belonged to, but now that they were enemies, he figured it’d be best to wipe them all out.

However, he had no idea how strong this branch master was. If he couldn’t win, he might lose his life.

With that in mind, he left the cave, followed the rural road, confirmed his direction, and returned to Shekou Mountain.

Once home, he watered the crops and fed the geese. Then, he brought two large geese and rushed back to the cave area before dawn.

At first light, Ergouzi lay on the mountaintop, watching the entrance of the cave below.

He waited until afternoon and finally saw two people approaching the cave.

They were too far to make out clearly, but he could sense their presence—they seemed a bit stronger than him.

The one in front looked normal. The one behind moved stiffly, his entire body covered in black cloth. His face was hidden.

Ergouzi lay on the mountain, debating for a long time. Should he strike?

The two below were likely stronger than him.

But he had an advantage: if he lost, he could hop onto one of the geese and fly away. As long as they couldn’t fly, their strength wouldn’t matter.