Copper-Red Completion, Suri Hangs in Midair (Bonus Chapter—Please Keep Reading)

(Third chapter today, bonus chapter—please keep reading.)

Another dozen or so days passed, and it was late March.

Spring had deepened. The peonies in the courtyard had shed all their petals, while the new bamboo by the wall had shot up a joint, springing taller than a man overnight. Tender green bamboo sheaths still clung to their tips, rustling softly whenever the wind passed.

Chen Lingxi sat cross-legged in his room, his eyes shut tight.

Over those dozen-plus days, he took Dragon-Drawing Powder twice more. Each time, he used the Concealed Edge Method to protect his qi and blood, refining and drawing that violent spiritual qi into his dantian strand by strand.

When the medicine entered his stomach, the flood of spiritual qi was still turbulent. Yet after being scoured twice before, his meridians had become far broader and tougher than they had been at first. Bearing it no longer felt as forced as it had the first time.

The strand of green qi in his dantian was now three fingers thick.

It circulated slowly within his dantian. Its color had changed from its initial hazy green to something several shades richer, faintly revealing the warm, lustrous sheen of jade. Like the water of a deep pool, calm on the surface while undercurrents surged beneath.

Spiritual qi traveled through his meridians and around his body, growing ever stronger.

That day, he opened his eyes, walked into the courtyard, and swallowed another pill.

He had obtained this pill from Wang Kong.

Over the past dozen days, he had already taken two. This was the sole remaining third pill.

This nameless pill was quite extraordinary. As Chen Lingxi swallowed it, he immediately felt his qi and blood blaze hot.

He assumed the opening stance of the second form of the Seven Forms of Ceasing War—River-Entering Stance.

Qi and blood surged forth from his dantian like water bursting through a dam, flooding his limbs and bones in an instant.

This was completely different from a dozen days ago.

His qi and blood no longer resembled a warm stream. Instead, it was like molten copper and iron raging and roaring through his meridians.

As his arms swept through the air, crimson qi flared from his fists, condensed without scattering, weaving a thin veil of light around him.

[Copperfire Qi Armor].

The mark of Copper-Red completion.

That qi armor was not some thin, insubstantial layer. It was woven from countless minute fiery-red motes of light, fine as scales, layered upon layer as they flowed endlessly across his body.

Chen Lingxi withdrew his stance and stood still, lowering his head to look at the crimson light shield surrounding him.

"The Copper-Red Realm is complete."

"So this is Copperfire Qi Armor."

He muttered to himself, a hint of delight in his eyes.

In just over a dozen days, two doses of Dragon-Drawing Powder and three pills had greatly increased his qi circulation cultivation. With it, his martial realm had naturally followed, crossing the threshold into Copper-Red completion.

At a thought, the Copperfire Qi Armor suddenly blazed bright. Crimson flames flickered and spat, scorching the surrounding air until it warped faintly.

He then activated the Concealed Edge Method. The blazing qi armor receded like a tide, vanishing completely in the blink of an eye without leaking even a trace of aura.

To outsiders, he would still appear to be a fledgling who had only just stepped over the Copper-Red threshold, with thin qi and blood and an aura that could hardly be called profound.

Chen Lingxi nodded in satisfaction.

He returned to his room, sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and examined himself inwardly.

The strand of green qi in his dantian circulated slowly. Compared to ten days ago, it had grown thicker still, its color ever more concentrated.

Over these ten days, the effects of the Second Level of Qi Circulation—broadening the meridians and tempering the marrow—had become increasingly apparent.

He tried to drive his spiritual qi upward along the Governor Vessel, passing through the Three Gates and entering the Muddy Pellet.

This time, it went much more smoothly. Wherever the spiritual qi passed, his meridians were as wide and open as river channels, without the slightest sense of obstruction.

That numb, tingling sensation returned deep within his marrow. It was as though countless ants were gently gnawing within his bones, picking away bit by bit at years of sediment and stagnation.

He slowly exhaled a long breath of turbid air.

That breath condensed into a white arrow in the air, shooting straight out more than three feet before slowly dispersing.

"Spiritual qi has grown stronger, my meridians have broadened, and my marrow has been nourished by spiritual qi. Even my innate constitution has improved."

Chen Lingxi sat cross-legged.

His consciousness connected with the [Divine Chamber].

—Wandering Sight Divine Ability activated.

His consciousness entered the Divine Chamber and followed that wisp of smoke into the East Hall of the South Courtyard!

His viewpoint abruptly changed.

Chen Lingxi's heart shook violently!

For he saw that in the East Hall of the South Courtyard, Lin Suri was actually suspended in midair, more than three zhang above the ground!

He stood with his hands behind his back, his robes snapping in the wind. There was nothing around him to support him. Like a leaf lifted by the wind, he remained suspended steadily in the air.

There were neither clouds nor radiance beneath his feet. He simply hung there, as though the gravity between heaven and earth had ceased to affect him.

Chen Lingxi's consciousness tensed, finding it utterly inconceivable.

"It is said that upon reaching the Jade-Qi Realm of martial cultivation, one can use jade qi and blood to lessen one's own weight, standing atop geese and cranes!

"But hanging in the air like this..."

"Isn't this an immortal's method?"

He had seen Lin Suri breathe and circulate qi. He had seen him form arrows from golden qi and blood and shoot them into the clouds. He had seen him discuss Ancestral Mountain Mother Qi with the man in black. He had seen him use spiritual qi to activate the Candle of Time in exchange for Spirit Amber.

Yet none of those sights had been as shocking as this one.

Suspended in midair.

Without relying on external objects, without drawing upon qi and blood, he simply stood there—quietly, steadily—in the empty air three zhang above the ground.

Like an immortal god walking the world.

At that moment, what rose in Chen Lingxi's heart was neither fear nor envy, but a pure, almost instinctive—longing.

"When will I be able to do the same?"

Thinking so, he stared in a daze until his consciousness withdrew from the Divine Chamber.

"Seek immortals! Seek immortals! Other than figures like Lin Suri and Lu Baizhong, could there truly be no other clues at all?"

Chen Lingxi opened his eyes, his gaze burning, and took out another Library Pavilion token.

With this token, he could enter and leave the estate's Library Pavilion.

Over the next few days, he turned through every text he could find in the Library Pavilion, hoping to discover some trace of records concerning "immortals."

Even half a sentence of a clue would do.

But there was nothing.

Those volumes contained Confucian classics, historical records, military strategies, medical prescriptions, even farming methods and construction techniques.

Only immortals were absent.

To be precise, they were not entirely absent.

One copy of the Record of Lost Things from the Former Dynasty recorded how the last emperor of the former dynasty had once dispatched alchemists across the sea in search of immortals.

The alchemists brought back five hundred boys and girls, claiming they were to be offered to the immortals of the sea. Yet the immortals never appeared, and the emperor was mocked by his subjects and people for centuries because of it.

There was also a Yuan River Prefecture Gazetteer, which mentioned Ancestral Mountain west of the city in its "Mountains and Rivers" section, saying, "Cloud and mist never disperse from this mountain throughout the year; it is said that immortals dwell there."

But that was only "it is said." The very next line read, "Yet none in recent generations have seen them," extinguishing even that faint, misty possibility.

Chen Lingxi closed the book and pondered with his eyes shut.

Something was wrong.

He had seen Lin Suri float in the air with his own eyes.

He had also seen Lu Baizhong flick out a pale golden bolt of lightning with his finger and instantly kill him within the Divine Chamber.

And he had witnessed the bizarre method by which the black-robed man turned into mist and dispersed.

None of it had been an illusion, much less fabrications conjured from tales of the strange.

They were real—living, breathing methods of immortals.

But why did none of these many books contain even a single word about them?

"Presumably, someone does not want ordinary people to know."

"Or perhaps the estate's Library Pavilion simply does not contain texts of that depth."

Chen Lingxi shook his head.

Outside the window, the sun had already tilted westward. Golden sunlight streamed through the window lattice, casting square patches of light across the floor tiles.

He rose, returned the book to its place, and left the Library Pavilion.

For now, he put these thoughts aside.

"I possess the Wandering Sight Divine Ability. If I observe Lin Suri every day, I'll surely uncover some secrets!"

A few more days passed. Each day, Chen Lingxi's consciousness sank into the Divine Chamber as he employed the Wandering Sight Divine Ability.

Lin Suri also sank his qi and breathed in cultivation every day.

Until the sixth day, Chen Lingxi used Wandering Sight once more!

This time, Lin Suri was not sitting cross-legged in meditation. Instead, he stood in the open ground outside the East Hall.

It was dusk. Clouds at the horizon burned like fire, staining the entire marquis's estate a dim gold.

Lin Suri stood with his hands behind his back, gazing up at the sky.

Following his gaze, Chen Lingxi saw a faint point of golden light flickering amid the clouds at the edge of the horizon, brightening and dimming like a star on the verge of going out.

"What is Lin Suri looking at?"

Chen Lingxi was puzzled.

Just then,

Lin Suri's expression shifted slightly. He suddenly raised his right hand, pressed his fingers together like a sword, and slowly swept them before his eyes.

His fingers did not touch his eye. They merely traced an arc through the air.

Chen Lingxi saw clearly—a faint point of golden light flickered at Lin Suri's fingertips.

That golden light spilled from his fingers, condensing into a thread as fine as a hair in the air before shooting straight into his left eye.

Then, an unbelievable scene unfolded.

Within Lin Suri's left pupil, a wooden eyeball slowly emerged.

The wooden eye was tiny, no larger than a grain of rice. It was deep brown throughout, its wood grain clearly visible, like a carefully carved bead embedded in the center of his pupil.

Chen Lingxi held his breath.

Lin Suri pressed together the fingers of his left hand like a sword and lightly swept them across that wooden eye.

The wooden eye abruptly began to burn.

There were no flames, no smoke. Yet that deep-brown wooden eyeball seemed to have been ignited by an invisible hand, turning slowly to ash from its center outward.

The ash did not disperse. Instead, it transformed into an extremely fine wisp of green smoke, curling upward and drilling directly into the depths of Lin Suri's eye.

Lin Suri's entire body shuddered.

Chen Lingxi saw it clearly.

At that moment, Lin Suri's gaze became completely different.

That gaze pierced through the courtyard wall of the East Hall, through the rooftops of the marquis's estate, through the city walls of Yuan River Prefecture, and fell directly upon mountains far in the distance.

What Chen Lingxi saw was what Lin Suri saw!

Lin Suri's perspective drew back and rose higher, passing over the city walls, over the fields, over rolling mountain ranges, before finally settling on a mountain.

Chen Lingxi recognized that mountain.

[Inlaid Gold Mountain].

About thirty li west of Yuan River Prefecture, its terrain was treacherous, its main peak like an inverted sword thrust straight into the clouds.

Snow lay year-round above its mountainside, while dense forests covered its base, where tigers and leopards often roamed.

He recognized it because an illustration in the Yuan River Prefecture Gazetteer he had read these past few days depicted this very mountain!

"What is in that mountain?" Chen Lingxi was astonished by Lin Suri's treasure and sorcery, and could not help asking himself.