The Sainthood Method, the Enfeoffment Ceremony, Zhang Ning's Suicide, and the Looming Crisis

The first year of Wuchang.

The twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month.

Three days remained until Xu Qingxiao was made a marquis.

Yet the entire Great Wei Capital was already bustling.

Great Wei had not conferred a marquisate since the Northern Expedition, and the man receiving it was no ordinary figure.

It might have been an exaggeration to say that everyone under heaven knew the name Xu Qingxiao, but throughout Central Province, there was already no one who had not heard of him.

Naturally, outstanding talents from every region flocked to the Great Wei Capital, hoping to witness the bearing of its new marquis firsthand.

The entire Capital was already festooned with lanterns and colorful decorations. The occasion was extraordinarily grand, even livelier than the Peaceful Age Poetry Gathering and the Female Emperor's Birthday Celebration.

One reason was Xu Qingxiao's fame; another was that the Great Wei Female Emperor had warmly invited many powers. Three of the Seven Great Immortal Sects had received invitations, along with various other factions.

Invitations had also been sent to the Tuxie Dynasty and the Chuyuan Dynasty, both of which dispatched envoys bearing gifts.

Though the Three Great Dynasties understood one another's intentions without speaking and deployed all manner of schemes in secret, they still had to show one another courtesy in public.

The Capital's bustle.

Seemed to have little to do with Xu Qingxiao.

Inside Shouren Academy.

The past two days had been relatively peaceful for Xu Qingxiao.

No one had come to disturb him, and nothing troubled him. He could simply wait in peace until the Enfeoffment Ceremony.

The Marquis Residence was undergoing renovations.

Xu Qingxiao had already obtained the sixth-rank Realm-Breaking Pill, but he had not immediately broken through.

The sixth rank of martial cultivation was called "Body Shedding." Once he swallowed