Grand Tutor Mansion
Grand Tutor Gao Fan, General of Cavalry Song Xiu, and several other officials sat together, chatting and laughing.
"Please, have some tea." Gao Fan smiled, raising his teacup slightly. "These are leaves from that Spirit Peach tree on Azure Dragon Mountain. I usually sip them a little at a time."
Song Xiu and the others were pleasantly surprised to hear the leaves came from that Spirit Peach tree on Azure Dragon Mountain. They knew just how precious they were.
Gao Fan smiled. "Drink up, drink up."
Song Xiu and the others hurriedly nodded and took a sip. Sure enough, their mouths filled with a delicate fragrance and sweetness, while a cool sensation spread through their organs, as if they had been washed clean.
After taking a sip, Song Xiu smiled at Gao Fan. "Although His Majesty didn't express his position yesterday, I think he intends to strip Zhou Wei of his post as General of the Nation."
Gao Fan smiled. "Zhou Wei's strength doesn't match his rank. As General of the Nation, he isn't even Xiantian. He rose through the ranks entirely on his military merits. Many of the generals in the army have long had complaints about him. Now that his heart meridians have been injured, if he continues as General of the Nation, the other generals will surely object."
"His Majesty must have considered that."
"So even if Zhou Wei isn't removed from his post as General of the Nation right now, he'll certainly be removed in a few days!"
"Unless Zhou Wei's injuries can heal."
"But for Zhou Wei's injuries to heal, he'll have to wait until his next life."
After Gao Fan finished speaking, Song Xiu and the others laughed.
"When His Majesty removes Zhou Wei from office, I'll recommend you to him," Gao Fan said with a smile. "I'll have you take Zhou Wei's place." His confidence was plain to see.
General of Cavalry Song Xiu was overjoyed. He rose and bowed to Gao Fan. "Thank you, Grand Tutor. I will not disappoint you."
Gao Fan waved a hand and smiled. "We're colleagues. We should help each other."
Just then, a captain of the Grand Tutor Mansion's guards hurried in and knelt down. He struggled to hide his panic. "Grand Tutor, we found Young Master Gao Jun, but..." He couldn't bring himself to continue.
Gao Fan furrowed his brows, a bad feeling stirring in him. "But what?"
"But Young Master Gao Jun and the others are already dead. They're all dead." The captain's voice trembled as he spoke.
"What!" Gao Fan sprang to his feet, eyes blazing. He was like a lion bursting from its cage, his aura surging skyward.
Song Xiu and the other officials were also shocked. The Grand Tutor's grandson had been murdered?!
Who would dare?
"Where?" Gao Fan roared, his thick white brows shooting up. The captain's heart quivered in fear. He stammered, "In the Green Demon Mountain Range. We didn't dare move Young Master Gao Jun's body, so we came to report to you first."
As soon as he finished, Gao Fan rushed out of the Grand Tutor Mansion like a whirlwind, mounted his warhorse, and galloped toward the Green Demon Mountain Range.
Song Xiu and the other officials didn't dare delay. They mounted their own horses and followed.
The guards remaining at the Grand Tutor Mansion also hurriedly mounted up and followed.
Gao Fan galloped at full speed, murder in his eyes, followed by a large group of panicked guards from the Grand Tutor Mansion. Their procession drew speculation from the officials of the Dafeng Capital as they passed.
Gao Fan reached the Green Demon Mountain Range at nearly the fastest speed possible and came to a halt beside his grandson Gao Jun's body.
Looking at his grandson's corpse, Gao Fan trembled and fell to his knees. Then he reached out and lifted the body into his arms, his eyes reddening.
By then, beasts had eaten much of Gao Jun's corpse and the bodies of the Grand Tutor Mansion's guards.
Gao Fan stroked his grandson's body without a word, tears silently falling.
Song Xiu and the others stood in silence.
Though Gao Fan was the Grand Tutor, he had few descendants: two sons and four grandsons. Gao Jun had been his favorite, so it was easy to imagine his grief.
No one dared interrupt him.
After a long while, Gao Fan finally spoke. "Investigate!" It was only one word, but it made everyone's hearts tighten.
Nearly a thousand guards from the Grand Tutor Mansion answered loudly.
Zhou Cheng, at Heavenly Dragon Temple, knew nothing about what had happened at the Grand Tutor Mansion. He had asked the monks for an unused room, where he began practicing Wind-Facing Willow Steps.
Although his three martial techniques could cultivate automatically, sitting around doing nothing was still sitting around doing nothing. He might as well practice Wind-Facing Willow Steps himself and speed up its progress.
Of his three martial techniques, only Wind-Facing Willow Steps had yet to reach the Mastery Realm.
He would try to cultivate Wind-Facing Willow Steps to the Mastery Realm by tomorrow.
In the main hall of Heavenly Dragon Temple, Emperor Zhu Xuan of Great Feng was discussing Buddhist teachings with the temple's abbot when a guard captain suddenly entered and whispered something in his ear.
Zhu Xuan was visibly startled. "Dead?!"
The guard captain had just reported that Gao Jun, the Grand Tutor's grandson, and more than twenty guards from the Grand Tutor Mansion had been killed.
Grand Tutor Gao Fan was a veteran of three reigns, with power and influence enough to make the Great Feng Dynasty tremble with a single stomp. His grandson's murder was no small matter.
"Your Majesty, what should we do?" the guard captain asked.
"Wait and see," Zhu Xuan replied after a moment's thought.
The guard captain understood and withdrew.
Zhu Xuan suddenly turned to Ming De, the abbot of Heavenly Dragon Temple. "Master Ming De, what do you make of yesterday's Buddhist vision at Heavenly Dragon Temple? Was it truly a phenomenon caused by the arrival of a living Buddha?"
Ming De raised his right palm and looked solemn. "Amitabha."
"After considering yesterday's vision, this old monk believes that even if it wasn't caused by the arrival of a living Buddha, someone must have stirred a resonance among all the Buddhas," Ming De said. "And that person must have been at Heavenly Dragon Temple yesterday morning."
Zhu Xuan was astonished. "They stirred a resonance among all the Buddhas? Could they possess an unsurpassed Buddhist physique?"
The abbot of Heavenly Dragon Temple, Ming De, replied, "That is likely, but all of this is only this old monk's speculation."
Zhu Xuan fell into deep thought.
Time passed.
At noon, the system's voice rang out in Zhou Cheng's mind.
"Your Indestructible Vajra Divine Technique has accelerated its cultivation because you are in an ancient Buddhist temple suffused with Buddhist nature. Its progress has reached one hundred percent. You have broken through to the seventh layer."
He had finally broken through to the seventh layer.
The Indestructible Vajra Divine Technique shone and trembled.
Its light was even more intense than during his previous breakthroughs.
Whether in Body Refining, Qi Refining, or Xiantian, the fourth and seventh levels were important dividing lines.
Once he broke through to Body Refining Level Seven, both his strength and defense would undergo a tremendous qualitative leap.
Feeling the changes in his skin, muscles, and internal organs, Zhou Cheng threw a punch. Its force stirred up a wave of air.
Even a Body Refining Level Ten expert couldn't make the force of a punch stir up a wave of air, yet Zhou Cheng had done it.
"Congratulations, host, on breaking through to Body Refining Level Seven. You have received a Realm-Breakthrough Gift Pack."
"Would you like to open the Realm-Breakthrough Gift Pack now?"
Zhou Cheng was already quite familiar with this. Without hesitation, he said, "Open it."
In an instant, the Realm-Breakthrough Gift Pack flashed with light and opened.
"You have obtained a Marrow-Cleansing Pill."
"You have obtained a Bronze-Armored Guard."
"You have obtained a young Black Tortoise Divine Beast."
Seeing that the Realm-Breakthrough Gift Pack had once again contained a Marrow-Cleansing Pill after his breakthrough to Body Refining Level Seven, Zhou Cheng grinned. These Realm-Breakthrough Gift Packs were great.
His aptitude was already top grade. A few more Marrow-Cleansing Pills should make him a once-in-a-century genius, right?
Breakthrough after breakthrough—what a rush.
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