Chapter 70: The Swordsman of Qingfeng Mountain
Chapter 70: The Swordsman of Qingfeng Mountain
"I finally found you! Those black-skinned... these military officers, they truly look down on us martial artists."
Butcher Zhang hooked his arm around Shen Yi's shoulder, relieved. "Thankfully, you're alright."
Seeing the burly man's disheveled appearance, caked in mud and dust, Shen Yi wondered where he had been gallivanting off to with his old flame.
"Hey! You've risen in rank already?" Zhang exclaimed, his eyes catching the cloud patterns on Shen Yi's sleeves.
Shen Yi glanced at his bulging belly and replied nonchalantly, "I think you're about to give birth."
"Hehe, that's the result of Tempering. You wouldn't understand," the burly man said, scratching the back of his head. "I know you're incredibly powerful, but it's best to keep a low profile for now."
Finally, he got to the point.
Shen Yi led him into the house and poured two cups of cooled boiled well water. "What's the matter?"
Zhang gulped down the water without ceremony. "Don't you know? Something big happened in Linjiang County!"
Leaning against the bed, Shen Yi took a sip of the cool water and looked at him sideways. If he remembered correctly, he had just returned from Linjiang County.
Thankfully, Butcher Zhang's next words eased his confusion. "Do you remember the swordsman from Qingfeng Mountain I mentioned last time?"
"The one with over twenty concubines, each treated with chivalrous tenderness?" Shen Yi's eyes flickered with a complex emotion.
"That's him," Zhang confirmed, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. "You should know the influence of Qingfeng Mountain..."
"No idea," Shen Yi said honestly, shaking his head.
At this, Zhang tugged at his mouth, feeling like he was gossiping about the neighbor's wife, only to have the other person ask, "What's a wife?"
"You're at least a military officer of the Demon Subduing Force. Don't you know about the territory under your watch? Qingzhou's top forces include the six major factions, the four great families, all of which house Golden Core experts. There's the Zhao, Qian, Sun, and Li families, the swords of Qingfeng Mountain, the bandits of Pingsha Valley, and the Taoists of White Cloud Temple."
As five fingers weren't enough, Zhang extended his other hand. "And there's also the divine blade of Xiafeng Manor... Anyway, just know that in Qingzhou, they're second only to the Demon Subduing Force."
"What about the Vajra Sect?" Shen Yi asked casually.
Zhang smacked his lips. "Without Qi Condensation inner strength, they're considered third-rate. But they have half a Tempering manual, and the abbot, relying on that, has a transcendent physical body. Although he's weaker than a true Qi Condensation expert, he can still easily handle those at the peak of the Qi Refining stage. So, they barely squeeze into the second-rate category."
Hearing this, Shen Yi's interest piqued. "What kind of Tempering manual is it?"
"How would I know?" Zhang sighed. "Not only does one need exceptional talent, but they also have to chant sutras for fifty years and preach for another fifty to have a chance to receive this manual."
At over forty years old, he had yet to reach the Jade Liquid stage. A hint of desolation flashed across his face.
"Never mind that. Let's talk about you," Zhang said, taking a deep breath. "That swordsman from Qingfeng Mountain is the most talented disciple on the mountain. At a young age, not even a hundred and fifty years old, he showed signs of approaching Core Formation."
Shen Yi listened silently, unsure how this concerned him.
"A few months ago, he left Linjiang County for some business. One of his concubines, who was pregnant, secretly climbed to the yamen and, in full view of the public, gave birth to..."
Zhang's body tensed, his eyes grave. "...a dragon."
The cup in Shen Yi's hand shook slightly.
"The evil dragon was born prematurely and devoured its mother, not leaving even a bone behind."
"What's even more chilling is that this swordsman has been on Qingfeng Mountain for over a hundred years, and his wives and concubines are often abducted by demons, never to be seen again. Who knows how many children he's fathered!"
"When the swordsman returned, the Demon Subduing General of Linjiang County immediately surrounded Qingfeng Mountain with his men and killed countless disciples, all of them his offspring."
Zhang speculated, "After all, Qingfeng Mountain is a well-respected sect. The Demon Subduing Force only surrounded them and didn't launch a full-scale attack, probably waiting for your commander to return and make a decision. Recently, there are rumors in the martial arts world that the people on the mountain are trying to secretly send away that swordsman."
He finally understood what the previous two men had been talking about.
"This place is probably going to be in chaos again for a while..." Zhang said with a headache as he drew out his pig-slaughtering knife and repeatedly stroked the blade, seeking some reassurance from it.
"What kind of chivalrous and talented swordsman? It's probably just an old Flood Dragon at the Condensation Realm, leaving Yangchun River to have some fun with his kin. He's just transforming into a human form and gradually revealing his cultivation."
"Although the Demon-Subduing General is powerful, if he were to face several Condensation Realm cultivators at once, he would probably only achieve a bitter victory. It's unlikely that they can be completely eradicated."
"If that evil dragon escapes and its brood of unknown identity, the first thing they'll likely do is take revenge on the Demon-Subduing Force... They know what the Demon-Subduing Force values most—nothing more than us ordinary folks."
Having stated his purpose, Zhang didn't stand on ceremony. "Come on, squeeze in and let me stay for a few days. I'm trying to find a good teacher for my kid, and the tuition fees are too high. I had to carry goods for ten days just to scrape together enough silver."
"You sleep, I'll go out for a walk," Shen Yi said, offering his bed to Zhang and stepping out into the courtyard.
His thoughts were in turmoil, and his expression was complex, reflecting both caution and a hint of indiscernible killing intent.
If the evil dragon escaped, would he be a target for revenge? At this point, everything—time and place—seemed to fit together, and he could guess the origin of the young, severely injured dragon demon.
Even a river demon could smell the scent of a dragon pill.
Now that the dragon pill had been ingested and transformed into the power of a dragon, was there a similar scent? Shen Yi wasn't sure. His understanding of these matters was still too limited. Since he couldn't make a judgment, he decided to assume the worst-case scenario.
His eyes flickered, and the panel appeared before him.
Previously, he had the Wind and Thunder Subduing Demon True Manual to serve as a restorative, but now that his Inner Core was complete, the efficiency was too low.
"If the oil lamp runs dry, without the use of pills, how much lifespan would it take to instantly restore my state to full?"
He slowly poured the demon's lifespan into the Wind and Thunder Melting Sun Manual.
Shen Yi didn't expect to derive anything new from this; he just wanted to sense the changes in his qi sea, so he continued to pour in a year's worth of lifespan as usual.
As the prompt flashed by, his expression changed slightly.
[In the fifth year, your realm did not grow, but your qi and blood are robust, causing the originally 270-orifice Melting Sun Furnace to connect to one more orifice.]
There was an unexpected surprise, although he didn't yet know what it was for. Nonetheless, any improvement was a good thing.
Shen Yi closed his eyes and sensed the subtle dissipation of the heaven and earth qi from his body. After a moment, he came to a conclusion.
Even though the Melting Sun Manual's breathing and tempering efficiency far surpassed that of the Wind and Thunder True Manual, his current accumulation was more than a hundred times what it used to be.
Limited by the scarcity of heaven and earth qi, if he were to truly deplete his qi sea and exhaust the hundred years' worth of accumulated essence within his body, even with his inner power perfected, meridians widened, and body tempered over the years...
Without relying on pills, it would take at least twenty years of lifespan to replenish it.
Until he obtained a sufficient martial art that could bring about a qualitative change, this was Shen Yi's greatest reliance.
No matter how precious the pill, absorption would take time.
But as long as he had enough demon lifespan, he could always maintain his most perfect state.
(End of Chapter)
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