Jade Qi

The North Courtyard Baosu Marquis Residence.

In the most inconspicuous place, there is a small Daoist temple.

Although the Daoist temple was small, it had a strong Daoist atmosphere.

Blue bricks and gray tiles, flying eaves and upturned corners, with a stone plaque hanging under the eaves.

The three characters of "[Mysterious Unity Temple]" are carved with great care, the strokes are slender and elegant, and they convey a sense of otherworldly grace.

There is also a couplet on both sides.

The first line reads, "Severing the three corpses, one attains the Dao through cultivation," and the second line reads, "Refining to the profound and Mystic Entry Realm."

The words subtly conveyed an inexplicable mystery, as if this small Daoist temple truly held some extraordinary Daoist True Disciple.

Chen Lingxi stood behind a low wall, using the cover of a few old pine trees to gaze at the Daoist temple in the distance.

It was midday, and the Baosu Marquis Residence was still busy preparing to welcome Consort Chun.

However, the vast majority of people were concentrated in the East Courtyard, while there were hardly any people in the North Courtyard.

He slipped out from behind the low wall, the Concealed Edge Method flowing silently through his body, the spiritual liquid in his Qi Sea completely enveloped by that invisible barrier.

He scaled the wall and entered the courtyard, disappearing silently into the depths of the North Courtyard like a raccoon dog.

The doors of the Daoist temple were tightly closed, Chen Lingxi quietly sensed her surroundings.

Upon reaching the Fourth Floor of Qi Circulation, his senses became even more acute.

He frowned slightly, his eyes showing surprise.

Above the Mysterious Unity Temple, one could see that there was a swirling, turbid, and filthy Qi.

That Qi was extremely faint; cultivators would not be able to detect it at all unless they used Secret Method such as Qi Observation to examine it closely.

It seeped out from the Daoist temple in wisps, like an extremely thin wisp of black smoke, slowly swirling in the Void, condensing and not dissipating.

"Is it emanating from that Demon Banner?"

Chen Lingxi became increasingly cautious in employing the Concealed Edge Method, quietly scaling the wall and entering the courtyard.

The courtyard seemed ordinary, with a few short pine trees growing in the corner and a few withered leaves lying on the bluestone ground.

But in his view, this strange energy permeated everything.

The foul odor seeped from the east wall of the Daoist temple, as if there were living creatures slowly wriggling between the bricks.

Chen Lingxi frowned and pondered for a moment, then silently slid behind an old locust tree in the courtyard. Using the thick trunk as cover, she climbed the high wall like a spider, using both hands and feet.

He climbed up the high wall on the east side of the Daoist temple and looked inside through the tiny window on the side.

Upon seeing this, his pupils suddenly contracted.

The interior of this Daoist temple was extremely strange.

Ordinary Daoist temples enshrine Daoist deities.

However, inside the main hall of Mysterious Unity Temple, what was enshrined was actually a Great Banner.

The Great Banner was as black as ink, and it was unclear what material it was made of.

The banner was extremely large and tall, hanging from the roof of the temple to the ground, like a black waterfall cascading down from the heavens.

The banner was covered with countless runes, the patterns of which were extremely intricate, layered and interconnected, exuding an inexplicable eeriness.

To Chen Lingxi's astonishment, those talismans seemed to be alive!

They were not ordinary cinnabar ink marks, but rather like some kind of deep red liquid, slowly flowing on the surface of the banner.

Just like blood in a vein, flowing from one pattern to another, from one talisman to another.

Chen Lingxi held her breath, activating her spiritual energy to its maximum, and carefully examined the area using the Qi-Observation Technique.

Then, he realized it.

The Demon Banner was actually filled with a dense Spiritual Qi!

"It doesn't seem to be Cauldron Artifact Fragment; it looks more like a strange treasure."

Chen Lingxi thought to himself, "I wonder if I can refine this Demon Banner?"

He had experience refining Spiritual Arrow and understood that the key to controlling such a wondrous treasure lay in whether he could refine the magic array within it.

This Demon Banner can prolong life, and it contains such rich Spiritual Qi; it must be a rare and precious treasure.

If one could obtain it and refine it to remove its impurities, it would become a considerable asset.

Just then, a soft creaking sound came from the side door of the main hall.

Chen Lingxi immediately shrank even more, becoming like a piece of moss growing on the wall, blending into the high wall.

He peered through the crack in the wall in the direction the sound was coming from.

The side door was pushed open.

A person came out from behind the door.

The man was extremely old and frail, looking shaky, hunched over, and walking with a stagger, as if a gust of wind could blow him over.

His face was covered with deep wrinkles, his eyes were sunken, his cheekbones were high, and his lips were so dry that they could not cover his gums.

Yet this elderly man, nearing the end of his life, was carrying a large basin of blood and flesh.

The flesh and blood were still steaming, emitting a pungent stench, dripping from the rim of the basin and leaving a dark red, damp trail on the ground.

The old man walked to the Great Banner in the hall, placed the basin of blood and flesh in his hand on the altar, took a step back, and stood with his hands at his sides.

Instantly, the talismans on the Great Banner seemed to come alive!

Countless crimson threads burst forth from the banner, like thousands of tiny tentacles, dancing wildly in the air.

The threads probed into the basin of flesh and blood, devouring it greedily like hungry wolves pouncing on their prey.

The flesh and blood diminished at a visible rate, being sucked dry by those red threads like peeling silk from a cocoon, until only a pile of pale bone fragments remained.

The bone fragments turned to dust and dissipated into the air, leaving not a trace.

Chen Lingxi's pupils contracted.

Because he saw it—among that flesh and blood, there was a piece of finger, with a patch of nail polish still clinging to its nail.

The nail polish was an extremely pale pink, yet it stood out starkly in the dimly lit palace. It was a woman's finger, and a young woman's finger at that.

He only had time to glance at it before it was completely swallowed up by the red silk threads on the banner.

"This flesh and blood..." Chen Lingxi's eyes narrowed slightly.

Just then, the trembling old man seemed to sense something and suddenly turned his head strangely, looking at the small window and at Chen Lingxi!

Two eerie, ghostly flames were now burning in the old man's cloudy eyes.

"Hmm? He sensed me?"

A sudden sense of alarm arose in Chen Lingxi's heart!

In the next instant, the old man's body was enveloped in a surge of Qi and Blood, and a terrifying power suddenly erupted!

His hunched body suddenly straightened up, like a famous sword that had been buried in the soil for countless years suddenly being drawn from its sheath, its sharpness fully revealed!

The bluestone floor beneath his feet could not withstand the force and cracked inch by inch, sending fragments flying everywhere!

He hurtled toward the window like a cannonball!

The force of this collision was overwhelming. Even Zhao Yong's full-force attack, when he was at the Golden Body Perfection, paled in comparison to this collision. It was not the kind of power that this old man could unleash!

Chen Lingxi's expression remained unchanged, her composure unchanged.

He reached out with his right hand in the Void, and the Gold-Slaughtering Saber was already in his palm.

He let out a soft shout, and a dragon's roar exploded from his throat!

Dragon Roar Technique!

The soft chuckle reached the old man's ears, causing him to pause slightly, and the two clusters of will-o'-the-wisps in his eyes flickered.

In the blink of an eye, the old man broke free from the Dragon Roar Technique's influence and charged toward Chen Lingxi again.

But this was the very opportunity Chen Lingxi had been waiting for!

The instant the Dragon Roar Technique landed, he opened his mouth and exhaled a stream of Purple True Treasure Aura!

The purple light, as fine as cow's hair, was as dazzling as sunlight, shining directly at the old man's face.

At the same time, Chen Lingxi pushed off the wall with both feet, and his body shot away like an arrow!

He wanted to take advantage of the gap created by the combined offensive of the dragon's roar and the Purple True Treasure Aura to leave the Daoist temple.

But the old man shattered the Purple True Treasure Aura with a single punch!

His withered fist struck the purple light like a heavy hammer hitting glass; the purple light shattered inch by inch, turning into countless tiny fragments of light that dissipated into the air.

The Dragon Roar Technique only made him frown slightly; it couldn't harm him in the slightest!

His body burst through the wall, sending bricks and stones flying like rain.

Using that earth-shattering momentum, he Chen Lingxi!

As this palm strike was unleashed, visible ripples appeared in the Void!

With a single palm strike, it was as if an invisible mountain of flesh had descended from the sky, intending to suppress Chen Lingxi beneath its palm!

Before the palm strike even reached him, Chen Lingxi felt his Qi and Blood and qi suddenly stagnate.

Chen Lingxi suddenly drew his sword!

The moment the Gold-Slaughtering Saber was drawn from its sheath, the pale gold patterns on its blade suddenly blazed brightly!

Thin bolts of lightning, as fine as hair, shot out from the patterns on the blade, hissing and coiling along its edge!

At the same time, the azure light of the Azure Edge Method clung to the blade, and the Purple True Treasure Aura once again burst forth from his mouth, causing the Golden-Soup Blood Qi to surge like a tide!

Thunder, azure light, purple light, and Golden Blood intertwined as a single slash was unleashed!

This deadly strike clashed head-on with the old man's bare palm.

The instant the blade and palm clashed, Chen Lingxi felt an overwhelming force surge from the blade, as if he had been struck head-on by a real mountain!

The lightning and azure light on the Gold-Slaughtering Saber were shattered inch by inch by the palm wind, disintegrating into countless fine light fragments!

His wrist trembled violently, his hand split open, and blood flowed down the hilt of the knife.

However, the force of the old man's palm strike was largely neutralized by his knife strike.

Using the force of the recoil, he floated backward several feet, let out a muffled groan, and exited the temple!

The terrifying, explosive sound startled the guests in the Silver Peace Court.

A stream of Qi and Blood and spiritual energy stirred and rushed from the direction of Silver Peace Court toward the North Courtyard!

The old man in the temple did not give chase. He simply stood on the ruins, hands behind his back, watching the direction Chen Lingxi had fled in, the two clusters of ghostly flames in his eyes slowly dying out.

Chen Lingxi leaped out of the temple, his Concealed Edge Method circulating wildly within his body, completely enveloping his aura, and sped northward.

He entered Yuan River from the North Courtyard, and using the river as cover, drifted out of the city and arrived at Inlaid Gold Mountain.

He breathed a sigh of relief only after entering the cave in the cliff face.

Inside the cave, Chen Lingxi sat cross-legged, circulating his spiritual energy and regulating his breathing to heal his injuries.

Although the palm strike just now did not land properly, the old man's Qi and Blood were too powerful. The mere force of the palm strike had already caused his internal organs to churn and his meridians to ache faintly.

"That old man is at least a master of the Jade Qi Great Completion."

"But I don't know why he didn't pursue me. If he had, my Total Perception this time would probably have been shattered."

Chen Lingxi pondered to herself.

Zhao Yong's Golden Body Perfection. When he activated his Golden-Soup Blood Qi, it shone with golden light like the sun. His Purple-Tempered Golden Wheel was indestructible, making him extremely powerful.

But the old man's palm strike was several times stronger than Zhao Yong's.

In the Jade Jade-Qi Realm, one's Qi and Blood transform into jade-like substance, becoming translucent both inside and out. One becomes as light as a swallow, able to stand on the back of a crane without falling. Upon reaching the Jade Qi Great Completion, one can further condense the jade-like Qi and Blood into various forms, such as fists, palms, knives, or swords, possessing boundless power.

He caught his breath and then remembered the pitch -Demon Banner.

"That Demon Banner wasn't Cauldron Artifact Fragment, but rather a treasure."

If one can refine the abundant Spiritual Qi contained within, its power will surely be extraordinary.

However, the old man's cultivation was too terrifying. With his current strength of the Fourth Floor of Qi Circulation and the Golden Body Minor Accomplishment, forcibly trying to take it would be suicide.

"Moreover... I never saw Lin Zhongming."

Chen Lingxi frowned, recalling the strange energy flowing from the Great Banner.

Being constantly eroded by that power, thus prolonging one's life...

"Lin Zhongming should not be overlooked."

Chen Lingxi shook her head. "It seems we still need Zhao Yong's powerful medicine."

He stopped thinking about it and continued to heal his wounds.

Two days later, Chen Lingxi suddenly opened her eyes, her brows slightly furrowed!

"The spiritual energy fluctuations are so intense, are people engaged in a magical battle?"