It is said that on the execution ground at the pier of Water Lantern Town, lay a naked, headless corpse.
Beside it was a notice board, with a yellow paper posted on it, stating the identity and crimes of the headless corpse…
Countless villagers crowded around to watch the spectacle, pointing and gossiping.
“This person actually colluded with the demons of Great Yin Mountain and even set fires wantonly… Truly deserving of death.”
“And he was the seventh son of the Prince of Huainan… No wonder he regarded us as mere fish! Good riddance.”
“It was the Demon Suppression Division who did it!”
“And Hall Master Xie, so mighty.”
“Indeed, indeed, I saw Hall Master Xie chop off the head of this thief with my own eyes. He was truly brave and martial!”
“……”
Although the villagers didn’t recognize many characters, they knew how to distinguish good from evil in the simplest way.
Behind the crowd, Xie Mingfeng and Wen Zaiqing stood dumbfounded, still unable to recover.
They had witnessed Xie An slaughter Li Xiaoting with their own eyes.
Although Xie An didn't say much, the weight of that strike… Xie Mingfeng and Wen Zaiqing deeply felt it.
Having spent many years in the officialdom, they were well aware of what the Prince of Huainan meant in Nanzhou…
Li Xiaoting, the seventh son of the Prince of Huainan, who had been bossing them around, was publicly executed just like that?
This was the courage and responsibility of the current Eldest Princess!
Martial arts… Grandmaster!
Wen Zaiqing could understand these things.
What he didn't understand was… why did Xie An, a mere hall master of the White Feather Hall, dare to stand up and slaughter the Prince of Huainan's son?
“Brother Wen, we… were muddle-headed. We made a mistake.” Xie Mingfeng sighed at this moment.
Wen Zaiqing sighed deeply: “Yes. Although Qingwu County is under the jurisdiction of Nanzhou, this world… ultimately belongs to Emperor Jingtai. The imperial family represented by the Eldest Princess.”
Immediately, the two walked to the entrance of the White Feather Hall, ignoring the surrounding villagers' comments, and knelt directly at the door, hoping to obtain the Eldest Princess's forgiveness.
The villagers who passed by couldn't help but gossip when they saw this.
“Isn't that Magistrate Wen? Why is he kneeling at the entrance of the White Feather Hall?”
“Did he commit some mistake?”
“Who knows what happens in officialdom.”
“……”
Under an ancient pagoda tree in the distance, stood a tall teenager wearing a scholar's robe, holding a string of candied haws in his hand, eating them one by one, his eyes narrowed into slits.
“So that's how it is. There's a great grandmaster sitting here. No wonder I felt something was wrong when I saw that carriage before. This matter… is difficult to handle.”
After speaking, the tall teenager turned and left, disappearing into the distance in a few leaps, heading straight for the Great Yin Mountain.
Entering the ancestral hall of the Great Yin Mountain, the tall teenager saw the little girl.
The little girl was very happy to see the tall teenager return and threw herself into his arms, “Brother is finally back. Is that person dead?”
In the eyes of the high priest, with Li Changchun's current strength, killing a corpse refiner… was simply a matter of snapping his fingers.
The tall teenager shook his head.
The high priest was very surprised, “Is this person's strength so formidable?”
Li Changchun shook his head, “That's not it…”
He told the story in detail.
Li Changchun didn't comfort her, but leaned against the door frame and pondered. Since he had decided to cooperate with the high priest, he knew there was no turning back, and he could only think of a way.
After a long time, Li Changchun asked: “How long will it take for that thing to awaken?”
The high priest said: “There are still the last two thousand strands of corpse energy missing. Originally, with the batch of blood essence that Li Xiaoting sent, we could hold a grand sacrifice and almost succeed. And this thing is also our bargaining chip for trading with the Prince of Huainan. Now… I'm afraid it will have to be delayed.
If we collect the white deer blood essence ourselves, it will take at least three to five years to gather such a large amount.”
Li Changchun said: “There are ten years left in the original agreement with He Nanfeng. Since this time it has been tragically destroyed, we will just spend three or five more years to gather the blood essence.”
“That's natural. But I'm now worried about another thing—Li Xiaoting brought our agreement. If this agreement falls into Su Yuqing's hands and she gives it to the Prince of Huainan, I'm afraid the Prince of Huainan won't be willing to cooperate with us. Even if that thing is resurrected, we are still a cult… Then what's the point?”
Li Changchun sighed, “With our current strength, we are naturally not afraid of a martial arts grandmaster. Killing Su Yuqing is not too difficult. But she is, after all, the chief of the Nanyang Demon Suppression Division and still an Eldest Princess. If our Corpse Refining Hall cannot be rectified and return to the capital, then killing her is meaningless…
Or, should I go to Nanzhou City?”
The high priest suddenly thought of something and was overjoyed, “Good idea. If the Prince of Huainan sees how you have rejuvenated, brother, he might be tempted. Even if there is a problem with the agreement, he might still cooperate with us.
Then I will trouble brother to go to Nanzhou City, and I will collect white deer blood essence in the rear to prepare for the great blood sacrifice.”
“Okay.”
“Leave the corpse refiner to me. This person must die!”
……
Central courtyard, in the room.
Xie An felt the vibration of the white Dao Talisman, flashing with bright white light.
He couldn't wait to bring up the panel of the Bright Jade Skill to see the progress.
According to previous experience, every time the fusion degree increases by two or three ten-thousandths, the progress of the Bright Jade Skill will directly increase by more than ten points.
Rushing to increase the fusion degree by two hundred ten-thousandths, a conservative estimate of the progress of the Bright Jade Skill… can also increase by a thousand or so. That is, successively crossing more than ten solar terms.
Looking forward to it.
However, as soon as the panel of the Bright Jade Skill appeared, Xie An felt an indescribable terrifying heat flow impacting his whole body, as if he was about to explode.
Immediately afterwards, this terrifying heat flow roared straight to his forehead, and before he could react, he felt his head dizzy and his head aching.
“The instantaneous increase is too great? Can't hold it…”
Xie An instinctively felt that this was the reason. He immediately bit his lower lip tightly, trying to stimulate himself through the severe pain to stay awake.
Suddenly, Xie An understood…
No wonder it took so long for the Dao Talisman to absorb two hundred strands of white energy before. Xie An thought it was the Dao Talisman identifying and fusing… It turned out that it was considering that Xie An's body couldn't bear so much faith energy at once…
The Dao Talisman has absorbed it, which means that his body can withstand it…
Xie An gritted his teeth and persevered.
Enduring the severe pain.
Even Xie An felt that his willpower was strong, but this pain was simply endless. A fire-like heat flow burst out from within the Niwan Palace, and then leaked out and flowed all over his body.
Even though Xie An constantly tried to control the movement of this heat flow, it was useless.
Completely out of control!
It's so painful.
I can't do this in the future, I must control the speed of absorbing faith energy or undead energy…
However, it seems that I can't control it?
Completely determined by the Dao Talisman!
Thinking of this, Xie An felt that this cheat was too rough and not humane at all.
Before Xie An could slander a few words, the heat flow was still erupting continuously, like a raging fire that was constantly heating up, sprouting out from the Niwan Palace and spreading throughout his body.
Xie An clenched his fists tightly and couldn't help it, so he grabbed something from the side and bit it tightly. In order to avoid making painful roars.
Even so, Xie An didn't give up on saving himself, constantly running the Bright Jade Skill, trying to control the runaway heat.
Again and again.
Too tired, too painful.
Xie An felt that every minute and every second was extraordinarily difficult, feeling like he was going to die at any time. His whole body was numb, and he seemed to have lost his sense of touch from the pain. His mind was also not very clear, a little muddled. But Xie An knew that his thoughts had always been there, and he had managed to suppress it.
It's a bit like being drunk, but not blacked out.
Vaguely, Xie An felt his thoughts flying up and appearing in front of the Dao Talisman.
Before, Xie An could only “see” the Dao Talisman in his mind, feeling that the distance was very far away. The Dao Talisman was also not very clear.
As for how this Dao Talisman came about, Xie An didn't know.
Just consider it a cheat.
But at this moment, Xie An stood close to the Dao Talisman. Suddenly, he felt that this upright Dao Talisman was very large, and he was just a tiny speck of dust in it.
Looking up, Xie An saw the full picture of the Dao Talisman for the first time, as well as the details:
Similar to a white banknote, with all kinds of complex runes and patterns. However, in the very center of the banknote, it was not a person's head, but… a pair of always closed scarlet eyes.
Surrounding the eyes were circles and circles of runes, which were very exquisite.
“What a beautiful Daoist Talisman... but what's with the eye in the center? It looks scary...” Xie An couldn't help but wonder.
He paced back and forth, looking at the scarlet eye. He even tried to climb the talisman to see what was going on, but found it was too smooth to climb.
Besides, it felt like the talisman didn't want anyone climbing it...
Helpless, Xie An had to give up climbing and just looked up at the eye.
As he looked—
Hiss!
A sharp, piercing pain in his body suddenly snapped Xie An back to his senses, the images in his mind shattered, and his thoughts returned to reality.
Huh?
The pain in his body was gone!
But there was a pungent, foul odor assaulting his nostrils.
Xie An instinctively sniffed around, trying to find the source of the stench, but eventually realized that no matter how he moved, the smell didn't fade.
He looked down...
The source of the pollution was himself.
A thick layer of impurities and grime had accumulated on his skin, congealing into hard, dirty clumps.
If an ordinary person were faced with such an anomaly, they would probably be frightened, but Xie An knew... this was the impurities expelled from his body during the Mingyu Skill's breakthrough node refinement.
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Each time he broke through a node, his body would undergo a washing and impurity-removing process.
It was just never this exaggerated.
Xie An quickly got up, intending to wash off the dirt on his body, but as soon as he stood up, he heard a "crack crack crack" sound. His hands and feet were numb. The grime on his body was too thick, almost like a layer of ice, trapping his limbs and making it difficult to move.
Roughly speaking, it was a full inch thick.
Very scary.
“How many times has my body been cleansed…?”
Xie An brushed away some of the grime, went outside to the old well, and started drawing water with the well winch, trying to wash it off. However, the clumps of dirt were too hard to rub off, so Xie An had to move the bathtub from his room, fill it with water, and sit in it for a while, waiting for the grime to slowly soften before he could scrub it off with a brush.
After half an hour of “scrubbing,” he finally cleaned off all the dirt from his body.
He smelled his arm, no smell.
Only then did he go back to his room to put on clothes.
While getting dressed, Xie An saw his body in the full-length bronze mirror and was immediately shocked.
The muscle lines all over his body were becoming more streamlined, and his tan skin became more delicate, with textures as clear as fine sand. His face hadn't changed much, but he was obviously a bit younger, and all the wrinkles on his face had been smoothed out.
Even more exaggerated was that... the few remaining white hairs had turned black.
If not ten years younger, five years was definitely there?
Xie An stared at the bronze mirror for a long time, a smile appearing on the corner of his mouth.
From an old man, step by step, working hard to get to where he was now... it wasn't easy.
Perhaps feeling that he should cherish this moment, Xie An slowly put on his inner lining, brocade robe, tied his belt, hung his jade pendant, and then put on his hairpin.
The person in the mirror was sharp but restrained, yet not lacking in heroic spirit, and also carried a bit of scholarly stability.
Xie An liked it very much. It was said that a person's appearance was an external reflection of their inner self, and it didn't seem like an exaggeration...
After admiring himself for a while, Xie An retracted his gaze, sat cross-legged on the bed, and adjusted his breathing.
But as soon as he adjusted his breath...
Buzz!
The heat in his body was like a roaring lion, immediately becoming violent.
Startled, Xie An quickly stopped.
“The heat has become so turbulent?”
He keenly felt that he couldn't use the same amount of energy as before, otherwise there might be problems. It was like suddenly replacing a commuter car with a V12 sports car.
Stepping on the gas naturally had to be gentle. There had to be a process of adaptation.
Xie An suppressed the expectation in his heart and slowly began to circulate his energy again.
Sure enough...
It exploded with a touch.
The heat flow in the Crimson Palace position was a circle larger than before, and very condensed. It was no longer an invisible heat flow, but had evolved into... heat energy.
It was tangible energy.
“Transformed…”
Xie An carefully controlled the intensity of the circulation, allowing the heat energy to travel throughout his limbs and bones.
It was like a spring rain, silky smooth.
As the heat energy traveled throughout his body, he felt a refreshing sensation like a spring breeze. Every muscle, bone, even every cell... felt incomparably comfortable, as if welcoming the flow of heat energy, spontaneously breathing and leaping.
And Xie An, who had opened his inner vision, also began to scan his entire body with the heat energy.
His bones were refined, his muscles solid, and his internal organs were as solid as iron. All exuded a vibrant vitality.
Internal organs, muscles, bones, blood vessels... all seemed to be breathing.
After the heat flow turned into heat energy, it seemed to contain extremely strong vitality, nourishing the muscles and bones in his body, allowing them to breathe and grow stronger.
These were all mysterious feelings he had never had before.
The Mingyu Skill was indeed a top-level health cultivation art.
Xu Kangfu, who wrote the skill, was indeed remarkable.
After circulating for one cycle, Xie An felt that his body was already different. Then, he continued to increase the intensity and circulate. When he reached the highest state of circulation, Xie An clearly felt his body heat up, and even heard the whistling and buzzing sound of heat energy in his body.
In the extreme state, his vision, hearing, taste, touch, and heart sense were all greatly enhanced.
It was wonderful beyond words.
Compared to before, it had improved more than tenfold?
Confirming that he had adapted to this completely new state, Xie An stopped exercising. As the heat energy returned to the Crimson Palace, Xie An relaxed completely, and beads of sweat had already appeared on his forehead.
Just now, when he was running at full strength, Xie An's spirit was always in a state of high tension, not daring to be careless for a moment, for fear of problems.
“Let me see the progress of the Mingyu Skill.”
Xie An opened the panel:
【Mingyu Skill: Mangzhong 17 / 100】
Mangzhong is the ninth solar term. The previous ones were: Lichun, Yushui, Jingzhe, Chunfen, Qingming, Guyu, Lixia, Xiaoman.
Xie An originally thought it would take at least a dozen solar terms, but it seemed he had thought too much.
It was also one hundred progress points, but the later the progress... the greater the difficulty of improvement should be.
Xie An suppressed the slight disappointment in his heart, “The ninth solar term is also good, at least it means... the four seasons attribute barrier that Big Brother mentioned, in front of the Longevity Fate... is not a problem.
Moreover, the ninth solar term is so powerful, if I practice it to the end... how amazing would it be?”
“It's a pity that the Longevity Fate absorbed the power of faith too quickly this time, causing me to improve inexplicably. I also didn't accumulate any experience in breaking through the barrier, otherwise I could share it with Big Brother.”
Xie An and Tang Zhengyang, as well as the other three elder brothers, became sworn brothers in order to seek longevity. Sharing experiences and knowledge was common. Since they were not stingy, Xie An would naturally not be petty.
“I don't know how long I've been confused this time…” Xie An left the bed and walked out of the courtyard again. It happened to be noon, and the sun was shining down, but there wasn't much warmth.
A layer of unfrozen frost had accumulated on the ground.
It should be autumn.
Last time it was only May…
A few months have passed!?
Xie An was startled, raised his eyes and saw that the four silver corpse old men were still tied to the corner of the wall, and had died...
Looking at their last state, they were eating soil...
Starved to death?
Xie An knew that silver corpses could not eat, but they had to drink blood to maintain their lives.
This…
What a pity, twenty wisps of undying energy…
I should have absorbed this undying energy first.
Xie An was a little annoyed, but then he thought... he didn't know that absorbing two hundred wisps of faith power... would take so long.
No... why hasn't anyone come to disturb me for these months?
Doesn't Brother Chun know to take care of these four old men?
Xie An rubbed his temples, then pulled open the courtyard door.
He saw Liu Chun building flower and plant bonsai outside the door. When he saw Xie An, he immediately put down the work in his hands and came over, “Brother Xie, you've finally come out. Before, Sir Su said that you were in seclusion and asked me to guard the door and not let anyone in to disturb you.”
Xie An thanked him, “Brother Chun, how long has it been?”
“Three months. By the way, Sir Su said... let you go to the school to find her after you leave.”
This shocked Xie An.
Xie An clearly remembered standing under the Daoist Talisman for only a short while…
————
ps: Some readers mentioned that it is not appropriate for Su Yuqing to call herself Qieshen, I have specifically checked this. In the Three Kingdoms, there was a princess who called herself Qieshen when she toasted the emperor on behalf of the emperor. The princess calls herself Qieshen when facing the emperor, empress dowager, and royal family elders. Qieshen is a humble name. And Su Yuqing calls herself Qieshen to everyone. My intention is to reflect her unrestrainedness and self-confidence in breaking through etiquette, and it is also a humble heart, meaning sitting equally with all people~
