Seeing how tipsy Li Muyun looked, Qing Chen wanted to squeeze out more information and asked in feigned surprise, "Such a thing actually happened? Then why would these immortals do that?"
Li Muyun suspected nothing. He let out a drunken burp and continued, "I'm not too sure of the exact reason myself.
"But my wife once said that some strange flagpoles and enormous patterns seemed to appear on every major battlefield.
"Perhaps it has something to do with some purpose of the immortals."
Qing Chen silently committed this information to memory. As he was now, he was not yet qualified to investigate these secrets.
Looking back on his own path of cultivation, Qing Chen was filled with emotion.
A few months ago, Qing Chen had still been nothing more than a brothel thug. Not only had he lacked medicinal herbs and nourishing supplements, even getting meat to eat had been a problem.
His cultivation had therefore never reached the ranks of a third-rate expert, always falling just a hair short.
However, after Qing Chen steeled himself, took over the Twin Eagles Association, and gained a source of income instead of relying on petty extortion of roadside stalls, he could finally purchase some Blood-Replenishing Pills.
Only then had he used his blood and qi to break through the barrier, transforming them into internal force and reaching the level of a third-rate expert.
Things were even more different now.
He held the lofty position of assistant military administrator of the Subordinate Seventh Rank, wielding considerable power.
Rare medicinal herbs were naturally available in abundance. Blood-Replenishing Pills were inferior goods.
What Qing Chen took now were high-quality pills such as Earth Dragon Pills and Snow Ginseng Pills.
Whenever he consumed and refined them, internal force surged wildly through his body, greatly increasing his cultivation.
The accumulation of these rare resources provided powerful support for Qing Chen's cultivation of internal force.
Combined with his diligent, arduous practice of the Everlasting Spring Inner Vista Art and his immersion in studying the Taoist Canon for several months, he gained a commanding perspective and drew connections between related principles.
This deepened his understanding of the Jade Forging Art by the day, and aspects of its crucial workings that had been unclear suddenly became clear.
His cultivation progressed a thousand miles a day.
Qing Chen was naturally gifted and intelligent to begin with, and he also possessed the experience of his previous life. His cultivation was not confined by rigid boundaries.
By now, Qing Chen was close to breaking through to the realm of a second-rate master.
Whenever he circulated his art, he could feel internal force surging and churning within him, as though he possessed inexhaustible strength.
When he activated the Jade Forging Art, the skin all over his body faintly took on the appearance of white jade, a sign that the art was nearing major attainment.
There was also that manual for Phantom Double, which he had picked out from the vanguard army's spoils.
He had practiced the Gecko Wall Traversal Art before and was nimble, so he picked up this lightness art quickly, reaching minor attainment in just a month.
He had tried it in the courtyard the night before. When his toes touched the ground, he could leave an afterimage in his wake. Even Niu Dali had stared dumbfounded.
As dusk settled, Qing Chen did not return to the government office, heading straight back to the Qing Residence instead.
Beside the dry well in the rear courtyard, he shifted the third bluestone slab, revealing a pitch-black entrance. Ten steps down lay the underground secret chamber he had dug.
Only one oil lamp was lit inside the chamber. A lustrous white jade bottle sat on the nanmu table-the very one he had brought out of the secret chamber on Northern Mang Mountain.
Qing Chen sat on a meditation cushion and stared at the jade bottle for half an incense stick's burning time.
He had tried countless things on this bottle. Forming hand seals according to the method described in Records of Profound Mysteries had been useless;
pouring internal force into it had also been useless. The bottle was as slippery as though it had been smeared with oil, and he had not even left a mark.
"Damn it, I'll take a gamble!"
He gritted his teeth and stood up. "If there are pills inside that can help me break through to second-rate, I'll have a much better chance of seizing the token. If it's empty, at worst I'll lose a bottle!"
He picked up the jade bottle, swung his arm in a full arc, and smashed it hard against the floor!
With a clang, even the oil lamp shook, but the jade bottle bounced up, landed, and rolled twice across the floor without so much as a crack.
Qing Chen was dumbfounded. He crouched, picked it up, and felt it. The bottle was still warm, as though it had never been smashed.
"This is damned strange!"
He activated the Jade Forging Art, gathered internal force into his fingertips, and squeezed the bottle fiercely!
His knuckles turned white, but the jade bottle remained intact.
Hardening his resolve, he drew the ring-pommeled saber at his waist. He had seized this saber from a bandit, and its edge had not curled even after cutting stone.
Gripping the saber with both hands, he poured all his internal force into it and unleashed White Tiger Leaps the Ravine from the Five Tigers Soul-Severing Saber!
Clang!
Sparks flew onto the oil lamp, and the saber's vibration numbed the web between his thumb and forefinger. Only a hair-thin mark appeared on the jade bottle.
Qing Chen did not stop, hacking down stroke after stroke.
Sweat dripped from his chin onto the floor. After he had gone through three sabers, the jade bottle finally split open with a crack, leaving a large breach.
Three glistening green pills rolled out onto the jade silk he had laid out beforehand. Faint white vapor still rose from them, and they carried the fresh, bitter scent of pine needles.
Qing Chen picked up one pill. It was as hard as a pebble. He scraped off a little powder with a small knife, then turned and walked to the corner of the chamber.
An iron cage stood there, holding three black cats, three hunting dogs, and five bound death-row prisoners whom he had ordered Niu Dali to "borrow" from the jail.
He first sprinkled the powder for a black cat. The cat licked it, and before half an incense stick had burned, its body suddenly arched. Whimpering sounds came from its mouth, blood slowly seeped from its seven orifices, and after two convulsions, it stopped moving.
The hunting dog was the same. After eating the powder, it fell down stiff, its belly swelling as though it were about to burst.
Qing Chen's expression darkened. He scraped off a little more powder and stuffed it into the first death-row prisoner's mouth.
That prisoner was a thief who had never practiced martial arts. After swallowing the powder, his face instantly flushed red. He clutched his chest and kept crying out in pain. Before long, blood spurted from his mouth and nose, his head lolled to one side, and he stopped breathing.
The second and third were the same, both looking as though they had been stuffed to death.
Only when he reached the fourth, a third-rate internal martial arts expert convicted of murder, did Qing Chen scrape off half a spoonful of powder and feed it to him.
The man frowned at first. A moment later, his eyes suddenly widened, and he flexed his wrists. Even his voice grew brighter:
"My lord, I... my internal force seems to be flowing more smoothly!"
Delight stirred in Qing Chen's heart. He hurried over to check the man's pulse. It beat deeply and steadily, much stronger than when the man had first been brought in.
"Just as I thought!" he exclaimed softly. Ordinary people could not withstand the medicinal potency, but those with internal force could digest it!
Several hours passed, and the man was still fine. He was even brimming with vigor!
In excellent spirits, Qing Chen killed him with a single saber stroke.
Then he dragged the prisoners' corpses outside and threw them into the dry well, buried the cats and dogs, and returned with that pill still pinched in his hand.
He cut off an extremely small portion with his knife, took a deep breath, and put it into his mouth.
The pill dissolved the instant it entered his mouth. A cool current blasted into his throat with a boom and rushed down his gullet, its medicinal potency several times stronger than a Snow Ginseng Pill's!
Qing Chen hurriedly sat cross-legged and activated the Jade Forging Art. His internal force surged like a tide, wrapping around that current and guiding it toward his dantian.
The current battered through his meridians painfully, especially at the Quchi point on his arm, where it felt like needles stabbing him!
This potency was greater than that of three Snow Ginseng Pills combined, yet it still fell a little short.
Qing Chen opened his eyes, his forehead covered in sweat.
He stared at the remaining half pill, his gaze growing fiercer and fiercer. "A little short is a little short. I'm taking this damned gamble!"
He cut off another small portion and swallowed it in one gulp.