by A P Gore
No, he couldn’t let this happen. He had to get this girl married to Li Mu—his grandson. He would reach eighteen next year, and he had reached layer six of Refinement Realm. He had a great future ahead. Once Li Mu stepped into the Foundation Realm, Li Shua would use Foundation Refirming Pills and stabilize his foundation. Although he couldn’t save Li Jia, Li Shua could make Li Jia’s path as easy as possible. That would be a tribute to his dead son.
Yes, that he should do.
“Daughter in law, how are you feeling?” He couldn’t restrain himself from asking her. “And is that a storage ring?” Li Shua’s mind blew to pieces. How could a fifteen-year-old girl have a storage ring?
***
Du Lufang frowned. In his hand lay a Red Blood Order. A Red Blood Order meant the highest priority of killing, and that order said to annihilate the Li clan.
It was from the patriarch, and he had just written one line: Destroy the Li clan at any cost.
Why? How? There was no answer for these questions, and he dare not ask when a Blood Red Order was issued from the Du clan patriarch.
There was another note attached. The first elder was coming to help him. That line made him gasp hard. The first elder was said to be in an unfathomable realm, and even the patriarch had to give him face.
“Steward Chin.” He called the steward, and soon his annoying face showed up. His showed up with him.
“Husband, why are you shouting?”
Without answering her question, he handed the Red Blood Order to her.
“Master Du, I’ve received intel about the Li clan. They have found a heavenly herb in their area, and they have contacted Divine Fragrance Palace to collaborate.”
“Husband, we can’t let this chance pass us by. We have to eliminate Li clan before the first elder comes.”
Du Lufang’s eyes shone with a strange light. This was more than enough reason to eliminate the Li clan from Old Martial City. If he got his hand on the heavenly herb, with the help of the Wang clan, he could establish his authority in this city and might have time to become the next patriarch.
Yes, he had to get this done before the first elder visited Old Martial City.
“Steward Chin, contact Tian clan and ask their clan head to visit me right away. We have to do this fast.” If he wasted any time, he might lose his chance to become clan patriarch.
Chapter 45 Shocking Breakthrough
Li Wei stared at the old man caressing his long white beard and shook his head. In one glance, he’d understood the old man’s thoughts. He wanted to marry one of his grandsons to Fei’er, but he wouldn’t let that happen. She had better prospects than anyone in the Li clan, so he would push her on the path of cultivation.
And how could he let his little friend get married to someone forcefully? Or let anyone touch that storage ring? It was a great advantage too.
“Grandfather, hold your horses.” Wei interrupted. “Tang Sia, Divine Fragrance Palace’s Holy Maiden, has taken her as a disciple, taught her the Nine Lotus Fragrance Qi Cultivation Art, and gifted her a storage ring. We can’t touch her or the storage ring.” He calmly warmed the old man.
The old man's face twitched, but his gaze remained fixed on the storage ring on Fei’er long slender finger. Greed was a pest that one could never get rid of. If Wei was in the old man’s position, he might be tempted as well. If not for his two hundred years of life, he would consider this a once in a lifetime opportunity.
“Ha ha.” The old man’s lips jumped up and down in a forced laugh. “I just want to see what’s inside. I won’t take it away. There’s no harm in having a look, is there?”
Wei chuckled in his heart. Greed was the evil of all men. If the old man glanced inside, he wouldn’t be able to forget what he saw in there. Along with many pills, it also had a Bone Barrier Hitting Pill and that was a precious thing in Mortal Realm.
“If anything happens to her, our clan will be eradicated.” Wei let a threat slip in his message, and the old man’s face turned pale. The threat of clan destruction should wake him up.
“But—” The old man’s hand went for the sword hanging from the belt around his dark blue robe. “It’s just Holy Maiden. She is still in Foundation Realm.”
Wei frowned. Would this man finally become decisive at the end of his life? All his life, this old man had shown only indecisiveness.
Brushing his fingers against the cold dagger lying inside his pouch, Wei let the tyrannical aura of the dagger penetrate his bones. If it came to it, he would flee with Fei’er after injuring this old man. Why not? Although Li Shua was his grandfather, the old man had never cared for him, nor had he come when his stepfather, Li Sua beat him so close to death that he had to run away from his home.
There were a lot of grievances from his previous life, and he didn’t mind giving the old man a punch or two. Battling with his current power would invite trouble, but he could attack with fifty blood pearls and run away. That should be possible.
“Grandfather, I’ll let you in on a secret. Holy Maiden Tang Sia didn’t bring Fei’er with her because she was in a hurry to break through to Marrow Cleansing Realm. If she finds out about you harming the girl she put her trust in and shared a storage ring and cultivation method with, what would she do? Even if her sect doesn’t do anything, she can still crush our clan and everyone else will give her face and not meddle in her revenge.”
“Bone Baptization Realm at the age of twenty-one? She might reach Marrow Cleansing Realm by age thirty!” The old man choked on his breath and couldn’t respond for a moment.
Marrow Cleansing Realm. Wei wanted to laugh. In the outside world there were prodigies that reached Houtian Realm by the age of twenty. What about a mere Marrow Cleansing Realm?
It was indeed true. After he left the Li clan, big news had hit the cultivation world. Tang Sia broke through to Marrow cleansing Realm at the age of twenty-four, and that shook the whole State of Zin. She was hailed as a prodigy in the State of Zin, and Divine Fragrance Palace set up a banquet for celebration. Many well-known cultivators attended it, hoping to set up a marriage alliance with Tang Zia. Of course, she rejected them, as she walked on the path of alchemy and wanted to reach the top.
Wei knew all about it because he’d tried to steal food from the banquets and was beaten up by a few disciples of Divine Fragrance Palace.
He sighed in his heart in depression. That was one of the worst days of his life.
“Fei’er show your cultivation art.” Wei scanned the small girl who had just woken up from a coma and sat there, looking around, dumbfounded. Even Wei was shocked to see she had gained two layers of cultivation in her coma. Was she a monster? How could she raise her cultivation without cultivating at all?
Fei’er’s eyes turned clear, and she sat in a cross-legged position and started cultivating.
With his divine sense, Wei could clearly feel heaven and earth’s essence rushing toward her body. Although his grandfather wouldn’t have as clear an understanding, he should feel the wood qi in the surrounding area. Only Divine Fragrance Palace practiced a wood cultivation art, so that should be proof of her being a disciple of the sect.
More and more heaven and earth’s essence gathered around Fei’er, and he couldn’t resist but send his divine sense into her body. With two hundred years’ experience, he knew how to check someone’s Spirit Root level. He just couldn’t use it before because of his fragile divine sense.
“Damn, freaking mother!” he shouted and suddenly found Fei’er and the old man staring at him with weird eyes. He smiled sheepishly. “It’s nothing, I was checking her pulse, and all is well.” His words sounded normal to his ears, but he was freaking out on the inside. This girl was a monster. Her Spirit Root was a Human Grade Spirit Root.
How was it possible? Human Grade was a grade after Earth Grade, and this had never happened in the Mortal Realm before. Although he had an Earth Grade Physical Root, it was still a low-tier Earth Grade. This girl had a high-tier Human Grade Spirit Root. In the future, her
cultivation would always surpass everyone around her. Even with his two hundred years of knowledge, he might not catch up to her.
He thought he should pass the Human Grade Divine Wood Qi Cultivation Art to her. In his previous life, he’d gotten it from a man who’d defaulted on his debt.
Above Earth Grade was Human Grade and then Heaven Grade, Heaven Grade being the highest grade he knew of. But in two hundred years of life, he had not seen anything that belonged to Heaven Grade. It was a Human Grade cultivation art, and he’d planned to cultivate it if he hadn’t gotten his dantian repaired and also got his hand on Five Elemental Way cultivation art. This Divine Wood Qi Cultivation Art was the highest-grade cultivation art he knew of in his whole lifetime.
This was inconceivable.
“Forget it. It’s not wise to go against Divine Fragrance Palace when we are about to get help from them. Having Fei’er with us might even help us in negotiation.”
Business with Divine Fragrance Palace? What kind of business was the old man trying to conduct?
“Don’t roam around anymore. I’ll talk with the Du clan and set things up. There can’t be any mistakes now. We can’t attract their attention . . .” He turned back and then paused at the open doorframe. “I’ll get a small tent patched up next to the cabin and get this door fixed. It’s not good for a man and woman to stay in the same cabin. I’ll also ask Li Ti to stay guard so no one from the Du clan dares try anything.”
Wei’s forehead wrinkled with black lines. If Li Ti guarded his door, how was he going to get the other herbs he wanted to experiment on?
Chapter 46 Qi Initiation Fruit Upgrade
“Uncle Li Ti, I’m going to sleep. You can go sleep too.” Li Wei waved his hand to Li Ti sitting on a chair hundred feet away from his tent, looking tired. From the tent his shabby room looked so good and comfy, and it even had a new bed, a new door and delicious food brought by a servant.
And here he was, lying inside a patched up brown tent that stank with heaven knows what. The uneven ground pricked his ass through his old, thin bed roll, as there were few plants growing here that Li Ti had cleared to set up his tent.
Damn that old man. Couldn’t he at least give him a nice soft bedroll? And wasn’t he supposed to be the young master, and here his maidservant was being treated like a young lady of the house?
Sighing, he closed the tent flap and started changing his clothes. While settling into his tent, he had set up a Lesser Isolation Array so no one would find him cultivating in the night, and he had also carved a Persona Amplifying Array on his gray robe. It was a modified version of Armor Fortification Array, a low-tier Silver Grade array he and his friend Dian Ju had modified to create this simplified version.
Those were the days, and Dian Ju was a beast. That guy was a genius and a lecher. In fact, his brain had worked in a weirdly creative way. Persona Amplifying Array was Dian Ju’s brainchild, and Wei had brought it to life. Dian Ju used it to fake a higher presence and slip away from the sect at night and do heaven knew what. Armor Fortification Array used a two-layered array structure to gather heaven and earth’s essence from the surroundings and enhance a base artifact’s powers. It was mostly used by the State of Zin military higher ups to increase their battle powers by at least three layers of Blood Baptization Realm. Three layers could change the tide of battle.
However, Armor Fortification Array had a drawback. Due to the two-layer array structure, it needed a minimum high-tier Bronze Grade artifact as a base and an Array Adept cultivator to carve those complex structures. So only high-level officers in the military could afford that array. But this Persona Amplifying Array didn’t need a two-layer array structure, nor did it require a Power Enhancing Array, so it could be carved on a simple robe. Instead of a two-layer array structure, it used a simplified version of Power Enhancing Array and faked high realm cultivation.
Yes, it faked it. And it faked it so well that, with a tap of a low-quality Qi Stone, a layer one Refinement Realm could fake the cultivation of layer nine Foundation Realm.
Wei had a perfect use for it. With this array, he could get away from the Li clan and roam around doing his work. No one should bother him.
But before he could do anything, he had to step into the first layer of Refinement Realm to activate this array.
“I wish I could activate it using my body cultivation.” Wei sighed in his heart as he lifted the Qi Initiation Fruit from his cloth pouch. As soon as he removed the purple cloth from the fruit, the scent of vitality rushed into his small tent. Thanks to the Lesser Isolation Array, he didn’t need to worry about Li Ti finding out about his covert operation.
Elated, he dropped five white pearl-like drops on the fruit one by one.
The fruit started shaking as soon as the first drop entered it, and it grew in size. After the fifth drop entered, it grew thrice the size of the original. An overwhelming fragrance emitted from the fruit and permeated his senses when the fruit absorbed the fifth drop. It was so intense that his senses stirred when he inhaled it, and he felt like a divine might eased his muscles and bones. His whole body felt light as a feather, and his divine sense was enhanced a tad.
But that was nothing compared to the changes he felt in his dantian. It quivered like a thirsty bird waiting for rain in a desert.
Wow! If it could stir his dantian, what would happen once he ate a piece?
Unable to wait anymore, he cut the fruit in six parts and quickly ate one piece. That one piece equaled almost half of the original fruit, so he should get good benefits out of it.
The Qi Initiation Fruit piece melted after entering his mouth, and a stream of pure qi rushed into his body, heading toward his dantian. Along the way, it nourished his internal organs and pushed out impurities that had accumulated for sixteen years.
A smile grew on his face. He was finally stepping into Refinement Realm. In Refinement Realm, one would cleanse their body and clear their qi channels to form a qi path. Every other cultivator found their body resilient, improving in this realm, and their health improved by a huge margin. Compared to a mortal body, even a layer one qi Refinement Realm cultivator would have better life expectancy. They would fall ill less, they would have improved stamina, and so forth.
Although body cultivation also had similar realms, their real meaning differed a lot from qi cultivation. They even differed vastly among themselves. For example, his Firmament Fire Body Cultivation Art helped one to increase fire type essence capabilities of their body in Refinement Realm. It refined one’s body so one could go through torturous methods to cultivate the next realms. Even his Blood Essence Body focused on his blood instead of his whole body. It was clearing his meridians, making his blood stronger and storing vitality in it.
In fact, after cultivating both cultivations to the peak of Refinement Realm, the benefits he would receive would be far superior than cultivating only one. But cultivating both at the same time would increase his overall cultivation time and the resources needed, and it was almost impossible.
Even thinking about the resources needed in future throbbed his mind. Anyway, he had the advantage of two hundred years of experience. Once he reached a higher cultivation, he would choose all the fortuitous encounters that would make it easy to obtain and gather those resources. After all, he wanted to be a lazy immortal, not a fool who always lived on the edge of life and death. He couldn’t care less about those fools.
The stream of pure qi continued entering his body for an hour. As pure qi moved through his body, he cleared one qi channel after another and pushed his impurities to his skin.
Suddenly the pure qi stopped, and he realized he had refined one piece of fruit already.
How was it possible? In his experience, a twelve-year-old kid would take as much as two days to absorb a piece of fruit. Worried that something went wrong, he spread his divine sense throughout his body and then into his dantian, but there was no change. His dantian looked like a barren land. When a cultivator stepped into Refinement Realm, h
is dantian wouldn’t store a lot of qi, and all the qi one absorbed would be used to connect qi paths. Initiation was the step to connect various qi channels to form a qi path.
Frowning, he grabbed another piece of fruit. Apparently, one piece that equaled half the original fruit wasn’t enough for him to step into layer one.
Actually, it made sense. One piece equaled half of the original fruit, so he might not break through in one go. Some needed one slice, some needed two, and some even needed a whole fruit. It was rumored that Tang Zia ate a whole fruit to break into the first layer when she initiated her cultivation.
Pushing those stray thoughts away, he picked up another piece and stuffed it in his mouth to once again go through the feeling of bliss. Fifteen minutes later, the pure energy stopped traveling through his body, so he ate another piece. Then one more after ten minutes, and then one more.
When his hand reached for the last piece, he stopped.
What was going on? Theoretically, he had eaten two and half Qi Initiation Fruits, and yet he hadn’t broken into the first layer. What would he do if he couldn’t break through even after eating the last piece?
Chapter 47 Qi Initiation Layer
Li Wei gritted his teeth, unable to decide. On top of that, the creepy night outside the patched tent dimmed his resolve further.
Should he eat the last piece of the Qi Initiation Fruit or not? Would he break through or fail?
His gaze traced over the last piece of the fruit, observing the leaking vitality. If he kept it like this, it would only go to waste, and it smelled so nice. How could he resist the temptation?
He couldn’t increase the fruit’s age by pouring more Yin Yang Liquid, so there was no use trying. Five was the limit.
However, to confirm the fact, he poured one more drop on the fruit piece. Nothing happened. The fruit continued emitting the same amount of fragrance it had emitted earlier, and it remained the same size.
