Internal and external injuries needed time to heal.
Yet Li Qingfeng did not care in the slightest. Instead, he swallowed Yin Soul Pills day and night.
From one pill a day, to three pills a day now.
Slaying more than fifty Black Armor Soldiers had condensed fifteen Yin Soul Pearls. Together with the soul pills formed by absorbing the wandering yin-baleful qi between heaven and earth, Li Qingfeng had consumed nine soul pills over these five days.
He had finally broken through to the Qi Refining Second Layer.
But yin qi had also surfaced around his body, leaving his complexion pale.
He looked even more like a cultivator of the demonic path than before.
The Blood Fiend Art had advanced another level, and the blood fiend qi it produced had become even denser, leaving Li Qingfeng in unspeakable misery.
If not for the powerful mind-settling technique that was the Demon Ape Mind-Settling Fist, Li Qingfeng might already have had his mind overwhelmed by the blood fiend qi.
Demonic cultivation techniques were inherently eager for quick success and instant benefit, let alone when Li Qingfeng was constantly swallowing Yin Soul Pills.
Yin Soul Pills truly were good things, capable of turning pure spiritual qi into mana.
They could be absorbed by the banner master very quickly.
But these things came from yin souls and ghosts, and were born with baleful intent.
Taking only a little would allow one to use mana to wear away the yin-baleful qi that had entered the body, proceeding slowly and methodically.
But once taken in great quantities, the massive amount of yin-baleful qi accumulated within the body would drag it down.
He could not dissuade him.
Nor could he speak up to persuade him.
Tu Shan Jun fell silent.
It would be fine. They would endure it all.
As long as they dealt with Zhang Wanlong, they could fly far away.
From then on, the sky would be high enough for birds to fly, and the sea wide enough for fish to leap.
Even if they became demon cultivators reviled by all, they would at last have set foot upon the immortal path.
An unstable foundation was nothing. Yin qi winding around the body was nothing either. With him here, with the Soul Banner here, all of it could be resolved in the future.
Li Qingfeng did not know of Tu Shan Jun's worries within the Soul Banner.
He did not even know that Ghost Brother could speak.
He merely thought that he had truly encountered one of those legendary fortunate encounters.
Even though the vicious ghosts within the Soul Banner had ferocious visages, they were still good people to him.
"Cough, cough."
As coughing rang out, Li Qingfeng sent mana into the Soul Banner and took out a Yin Soul Pill.
Though he had broken through after five days, his injuries had not improved. He would need at least another month or so to recover.
In the underground chamber, one could not tell the passage of time.
Spending every day in that pitch-black cellar, entering dreams was the only time he felt truly relaxed.
He did not remember the days.
He only remembered that the Soul Banner condensed one soul pill each day.
Including the original eleven, there were seventy-one in total.
Li Qingfeng's injuries had recovered, but the yin qi entwining his body had grown even more severe.
Yet his cultivation had reached the very peak it could reach.
Qi Refining Third Layer.
It had taken two months and seventy-one Yin Soul Pills to finally push his cultivation to the Qi Refining Third Layer.
The day his great work was complete would be the day he emerged from seclusion.
Li Qingfeng walked out of the underground chamber.
The sunlight was dazzling, shining so brightly that he squinted.
His skin and face were pale and lusterless.
His hair was dry and withered.
The warm sunlight could not dispel the chill in Li Qingfeng's heart.
He raised the Soul Banner. His bloodshot eyes stared at the ghost face on its surface. "Ghost Brother, after hiding for two months, can we take revenge?"
"Hum."
The Soul Banner stirred, seeming to answer Li Qingfeng.
It told him firmly.
Yes!
"Good." Li Qingfeng's spirits immediately soared.
He strode out of the side room.
But at that moment, he spotted flickering firelight in the open space of Li Manor.
Li Qingfeng's expression darkened. Had those people decided to burn down the residence because he had not appeared?
Yet when he approached, he only saw someone adding joss paper to a brazier.
When the wind blew, embers scattered through the air.
The faint firelight was completely overwhelmed by the glow of the setting sun.
From outside the residence, no one would have been able to see that someone was burning paper offerings.
Stacks upon stacks of joss paper were fed into the bronze basin, while that person seemed to be muttering something.
"Brother Yang?" Li Qingfeng was equally surprised.
The person who had appeared in his home was his good friend, Yang Lingu.
The person standing with his back to Li Qingfeng involuntarily trembled several times.
He suddenly turned around, his face filled with astonishment. "Qingfeng? You... are you human or ghost?"
Li Qingfeng also knew that his current appearance was ghastly, like a vicious ghost.
But he had never expected Yang Lingu to think he was dead, or to bring a brazier to mourn him.
"As long as Zhang Wanlong isn't dead, how could I die?" Li Qingfeng had nothing to hide.
Today would be Zhang Wanlong's day of death.
Yang Lingu had yet to recover from the shock of finding Li Qingfeng when he heard Li Qingfeng's calm words.
As though it were only natural.
"You're the assassin that Prefect has been hunting for so long."
"You killed Zhang Gui?"
Yang Lingu finally understood. The assassin Prefect Zhang Wanlong had hunted for so long truly was Li Qingfeng.
The Prefect's only son had returned wounded from the battlefield, only to be assassinated unexpectedly. The Prefect had therefore flown into a rage and sealed off the entire Prefecture City, all to find the assassin.
Because of this, many people had been implicated.
Yang Lingu stared at Li Qingfeng in disbelief, even taking two steps back.
Li Qingfeng saw it all. A flash of sorrow passed through his eyes before fury concealed it.
"Zhang Wanlong and his son used people as medicine."
"Meng Zhen is dead. Zhang Gui used him as medicine and ate him."
"Two others died with him."
"A life for a life!" Li Qingfeng's expression was calm, yet exceptionally resolute. He was merely stating the facts.
He had already raged when it was time to rage. What he needed to do now was take revenge.
He had already avenged Meng Zhen. Ghost Brother had smashed Zhang Gui's head to pieces; even the most skilled corpse-stitcher could not mend it whole again.
But the vengeance of the Li family's one hundred and three members had not yet been repaid.
Yang Lingu's eyes were full of shock. His mouth hung open, as though this were the first time he had heard of such a thing.
Then he dropped to his knees with a thud and wept bitterly.
"Qingfeng, I wronged you."
"I wronged you."
Li Qingfeng furrowed his brows slightly, deeply puzzled by why Yang Lingu was behaving this way.
"Brother Yang, what is the meaning of this?"
Yang Lingu wept until tears and snot ran down his face, pounding the ground in grief.
"Since Zhang Wanlong's only son died, Meng Zhen was branded an assassin, and even the Meng family has been wiped out."
"Zhang Wanlong still could not vent his hatred, and he wiped out three more families in succession."
"Everyone is in danger."
"In the end, they found out about my association with Meng Zhen and implicated my lineage under the charge of collective punishment."
"The Prefect said that as long as the information provided was true, he would not exterminate the entire family."
"To preserve my lineage, I..."
Yang Lingu's voice trembled.
All the joy Li Qingfeng had felt at reuniting with Yang Lingu vanished completely.
His eyes reddened and his body shook as he asked in disbelief, "What did you do?"
"I... I told them about the pigeon." Yang Lingu clutched his hair in agony.
"Qingfeng, I truly never thought the Prefect would be so utterly heartless. When he found out you had vanished, he slaughtered everyone."
"I truly never imagined it. I only thought that with so many people involved, they could bear this matter together."
"I never imagined that the Prefectural Governor's Mansion would not even investigate. On mere suspicion alone, they caused such a calamity."
Yang Lingu kept pounding his head, smashing it viciously against the ground until his entire forehead was a bloody mess.
Li Qingfeng was heartbroken and staggered back two steps.
He could not believe it.
Disappointment, realization, grief, and a series of complex emotions gathered into ferocity and rage.
Li Qingfeng abruptly drew out the Sword Hairpin and demanded of Yang Lingu, "You sacrificed the one hundred and three members of my Li family to save your own family."
"I'm sorry, Qingfeng."
"I'm sorry." Yang Lingu continued knocking his head against the ground, tears streaming down his face.
Li Qingfeng's face twitched, his blood-red eyes filled with savage fury. "Do you still remember?"
"This matter of the pigeon..."
"You were the one who told me!"
The Sword Hairpin in his hand had already transformed into a three-foot dharma sword, pointing at Yang Lingu.
Li Qingfeng's rage soared to the heavens.
He clenched his teeth, his face twisted.
He did not understand.
Clearly, Meng Zhen had been closer to Yang Lingu. He had even entrusted such a secret signal to Yang Lingu.
The spearhead pointed directly at Zhang Wanlong and his son.
They were the murderers who had killed Meng Zhen.
Why had Yang Lingu not only refused to seek revenge, but even exposed his existence?
If he had only waited a little longer.
Waited until Li Qingfeng possessed the strength to strangle Zhang Wanlong.
Everything could have been resolved.
Why had it turned out like this?
Why was Yang Lingu the one who had betrayed him?
Before you continue