Fist Blades!

"What place?" Su Yueli's expression shifted slightly as she asked.

Zhao Yan leaned back in his chair and slowly uttered a few words. "Azure Cloud Ancient Kingdom Ruins."

Su Yueli raised her brows when she heard that. She had some impression of the place.

It lay outside the Imperial City, deep in the mountains hundreds of miles away.

Rumor had it that a thousand years ago, Azure Cloud had merely been a tiny kingdom, crushed and destroyed beneath the iron cavalry of the Great Li Dynasty. It had remained abandoned ever since.

Due to its unique terrain, some ancient formations had been preserved there, making the qi and blood of heaven and earth exceptionally dense. It was an ideal place for Martial Dao practitioners to enter secluded cultivation.

And as the ruins of an ancient kingdom, it might even contain undiscovered opportunities.

Then Zhao Yan changed the subject, his tone gaining several degrees of gravity. "However, opportunities often walk hand in hand with danger. That place has been abandoned for too long, and quite a few low-level demonic beasts have bred in those deep mountains and old forests."

"The Great Li Imperial Family sealed it off and set restrictions around it. Without a special key, not even immortal cultivators can enter."

After hearing this, Su Yueli did not hesitate for long before immediately nodding in agreement.

Since it was the site of a fallen kingdom, perhaps she truly might encounter a great opportunity if she went in to train.

As for danger and demonic beasts, Martial Dao had always been tempered on the edge between life and death. She had never feared such things.

Only a place with danger could be considered a proper training ground.

"Are you sure you want to go?"

Seeing how readily she agreed, Zhao Yan was instead somewhat surprised.

"There is no one inside now. If you enter alone and encounter some demonic beast you cannot handle, or something goes wrong, no one will be able to go in and save you. If you die in there, there will not even be anyone to collect your body."

"I'm sure." Su Yueli nodded.

Zhao Yan looked deeply at her and stopped trying to persuade her. "Fine. Since your mind is made up, this prince will grant your request. Once you have chosen a weapon from the armory, someone will deliver the key to the ruins to you."

"Thank you, Your Highness."

Su Yueli turned, preparing to leave with the guard.

Just as she reached the entrance to the main hall, she suddenly stopped, turned around, and cupped her fists toward Zhao Yan, who sat in the seat of honor.

"The Spring Return Pill Your Highness bestowed in the arena saved my friend's life. Su Yueli will remember this favor."

With that, she did not linger and walked straight out of the hall.

Watching her departing back, Zhao Yan lifted his teacup and took a sip, then chuckled. "This woman distinguishes gratitude from grudges. Her temperament is fierce enough, and decisive enough."

Gu Chen shook his folding fan, an interested smile curling at his lips.

"She rejected the Imperial Family's protection and insisted on risking her life in those godforsaken ruins..."

"If she can truly emerge alive from the Azure Cloud Ancient Kingdom, this mortal Martial Dao world may produce a remarkable monster. It is just a pity that she ultimately lacks the bones for immortal cultivation."

No matter how dazzling a mortal was, they only had a hundred years at most.

Zhao Yan waved a hand. "Send someone to keep an eye on the Pang Family. At the very least, make sure nothing happens before she enters the ruins."

"Yes, Fourth Prince."

"..."

The imperial palace armory.

Su Yueli followed the guiding guard through the corridors and arrived before an underground palace.

When the bronze doors opened, a chill of metal rushed over her.

Inside the vast armory, rows upon rows of weapon racks stretched as far as the eye could see.

Sabers, spears, swords, halberds, axes, battle-axes, hooks, forks—everything was there. Cold light gleamed from their surfaces, and one glance was enough to tell that they were all extraordinary items.

"Miss Su, this is the Martial Dao weapons vault of our Great Li Dynasty."

The guard respectfully introduced it from beside her. "Weapons are divided into four grades: Heaven, Earth, Profound, and Yellow. Aside from Heaven-grade weapons, which are stored separately, weapons for martial artists of the other three grades are all here. As for the immortal artifact vault for cultivators, it is not located here."

Su Yueli nodded inwardly, unable to help marveling at the profound foundation of a dynasty.

Graded weapons that were rarely seen in the outside world filled the racks here like cabbages.

She walked along the weapon racks, searching for something suitable.

She first picked up a low-grade Earth-rank longsword and swung it twice.

The blade was nimble, but for someone like her, who was accustomed to the explosive force of fist techniques, it was too light. There was no sense of force behind it at all.

Next, she tried a long saber, a heavy halberd, and even a pair of Xuanhua twin hammers weighing several hundred pounds.

None of them suited her.

Su Yueli frowned slightly. She cultivated the Ultimate Inch Force, and what she excelled at most was close-quarters striking and the ultimate burst of power in an instant.

Those long weapons and heavy weapons would only restrict her speed and the force trajectory of her fists.

Just as she was about to give up and casually take a saber to make do, her gaze suddenly landed on a dust-covered wooden box in the corner.

Opening it, she found a pair of pitch-black, strangely shaped weapons lying quietly inside.

These were... fist blades.

Their main bodies were refined steel knuckle guards that protected the backs of the hands and the finger joints. From their fronts extended thin, cicada-wing barbed blades three inches long.

Su Yueli's eyes lit up, and she reached out to slip them onto both hands.

The size was perfect and the weight moderate, as though they had been tailor-made for her hands.

With the slightest activation of her qi and blood, a faint dark gleam surfaced at the tips of the fist blades.

With these, when she used her Inch Force in the future, their killing power would surely increase severalfold!

When they struck someone, it would no longer be as simple as breaking bones.

"Miss Su has a good eye."

The guard came over for a look, his expression full of surprise. "This pair of Shadow Fist Blades was forged from underground mystical iron mixed with a trace of demonic beast finger bone."

"They have reached the high-grade Earth rank, only a hair's breadth from the Heaven rank. But these weapons are far too short, with extremely little room for error, making them very difficult to wield. They have been gathering dust in the armory for years."

"I'll take them." Su Yueli did not waste words and directly put away the fist blades.

After she finished choosing her weapon, the guard took out an ancient bronze key and a parchment map. He solemnly handed them to Su Yueli and informed her of the precise location of the Azure Cloud Ancient Kingdom Ruins.

Taking the items, Su Yueli left the imperial palace cleanly and decisively.

She returned to the inn.

In the private courtyard, Lin Ye was sitting on a stone stool, sorting through his belongings.

After a day and night of recuperation, coupled with the potent effects of the Spring Return Pill, most of his internal injuries had healed. Only his complexion remained somewhat pale.

When he saw Su Yueli return, Lin Ye hurriedly stood and greeted her with some excitement.

"Miss Su, did you receive the Imperial Family's reward?"

Su Yueli nodded and briefly explained how she had given up the Imperial Family's protection and chosen to enter secluded cultivation in the Azure Cloud Ancient Kingdom Ruins.

Lin Ye was stunned for a moment after hearing it, then sincerely cupped his fists in congratulations. "This is tremendous news! To have an absolutely quiet place to cultivate, with Miss Su's talent, once you emerge from seclusion, you'll definitely be able to hang up those old fossils of the Pang Family and beat them!"

"And you? Are you preparing to return?" Su Yueli glanced at the bundle on the table.

Lin Ye scratched his head and gave a bitter smile. "Yeah. After being beaten like a dog in the Martial Dao Tournament this time, I've completely seen reality for what it is."

"The waters of this Imperial City run too deep. It is not a place where an outer-city Rogue Cultivator like me can survive. I'm planning to leave the city today, return to Lingshui City, and keep my head down while practicing my saber. I won't come out and embarrass myself again until I reach the Peak Fourth Realm."

Su Yueli looked at him with calm eyes and quietly reminded him, "The Pang Family acts ruthlessly. Be more careful on the road."

"Don't worry, Miss Su. My life is tough." Lin Ye patted his chest. "And you should be careful too."

Su Yueli gave a soft hum and said nothing more.

She turned and returned to her room, simply packed her belongings, stuffed several changes of clothes and some dried provisions into her bundle, then carried it on her back and walked straight out of the inn.

Standing on the long street outside the inn, Su Yueli looked back.

She understood the cruel reality of the situation very clearly.

This matter had indeed started because Lin Ye had meddled in other people's business in Lingshui City and provoked Pang Hu.

She had stepped in out of loyalty, killed Pang Hu, and drawn all of the Pang Family's hatred onto herself.

In the arena, she could also be said to have avenged Lin Ye.

She had already done everything she should do and everything she could do.

They had met only by chance. She could not act like a nanny and fight an Imperial City lineage with hands that reached the heavens to the bitter end just for Lin Ye.

Especially when there were faint signs of an immortal cultivator faction behind the Pang Family.

With her current strength, facing Pang Jinbiao of the Eighth Realm was already a dead end, much less those immortal cultivators with heaven-reaching methods.

If Lin Ye was intercepted and killed by assassins sent by the Pang Family on his journey home, then that would be his fate.

There was nothing she could do, nor was it something she could manage.

On this Martial Dao path toward immortality, where human lives were as cheap as grass, only surviving and continuously growing stronger was the sole unchanging truth.

Su Yueli withdrew her gaze, with no lingering attachment left.

Following the directions on the parchment map, she merged into the bustling crowds of the city and strode toward the Imperial City gates.

"Azure Cloud Ancient Kingdom, ruins training... here I come!"