The three people under the tree were chatting idly. Chen An and Li Yin were obviously a little absent-minded, looking towards the gate of the Marshal's Residence from time to time. At this moment, seeing Li Yan walk out from inside, a look of joy appeared on their faces. They had also just asked Liu Chengyong about the situation. Although they had heard that it was to complete the personal files in the army, they couldn't help but feel doubtful in their hearts. A matter like this could be said to be very big; after all, a military supervisor was still responsible for the officials appointed by the imperial court. It could also be said to be small; this was not a key position. To put it bluntly, it was just a matter of a word from the local high official.
Seeing the three of them coming up to him, Li Yan said with a smile, "It's done. Hehe, next I'm going to see Li Shan and the others. Then how about we go for a drink at noon?"
Liu Chengyong, of course, had no objection. Seeing Li Yan come out so quickly, although he still felt that something was fishy, seeing him come out with a smile on his face, he thought that it probably wasn't a big deal on the Marshal's side. Moreover, he had another opportunity to get closer to Li Yan at noon, so he naturally agreed.
Although Chen An and Li Yin wanted to go back early, they didn't dare to say so and could only nod in agreement.
The four of them then first went to the "Ironware Pavilion" to find Li Shan. Li Shan was overjoyed to see Li Yan. Li Yan immediately had Chen An and Li Yin personally go to Li Shan's master, Lu Kui, to ask for leave for Li Shan, while he and Li Shan went into the inner room of the "Ironware Pavilion" to talk.
Liu Chengyong had nothing to do, so he wandered around the "Ironware Pavilion" by himself. From time to time, he would see a good weapon and would also pick it up with great interest and brandish it for a while. After Chen An and Li Yin came out, the three of them, all from the army, began to study those weapons with great interest together.
A short while later, Li Yan came out with Li Shan. It was just that when Li Shan had just come out, he had a look of confusion on his face. But Li Yan put his arm around his shoulder and said with a laugh that he should also call his senior brother, Liang Shi, along. The group then went to the "Natural Inn" to find Li Yu. They opened a table there at noon, and the seven of them drank heartily.
In the afternoon, the three of them rode back on their horses, slightly drunk. In the following days, Li Yan's cultivation obviously improved a lot, and his mood was also very stable. Seeing him like this, Strategist Ji also felt relieved and would come out to guide him every once in a while.
Time flies, and the spring is boundless. It is already the time of long grass and flying warblers. Li Yan has been in the military manor for more than half a year. At this moment, he is soaking in the cold pool, his eyes slightly closed, his upper body bare, only showing the part above his shoulders. Hot air is rising from his body and faintly rising into the air. His current aura is already at the peak of the initial stage of the first layer of Qi Condensation. It's just that his current state is not very good, with faint traces of blood remaining at the corners of his mouth.
Since last winter, he has been cultivating hard. After a period of time, his realm has improved. It's just that his personality has become more and more irritable. Besides going into the city every once in a while, he has also developed many strange behaviors. Every time he returns from the city, he will buy more clothes, belts, boots, and other items. This has made Strategist Ji's divine sense tired of probing.
Besides cultivating, he either soaks in the pool or closes the door and scribbles wildly in his room. Later, for some reason, he shoveled up all the vegetables in a vegetable garden on the south side of the original pool and planted many unknown wildflowers from the mountains outside the valley in their place. For a time, the valley was full of various wildflowers and grasses, and the fragrance was mixed. Even the clothes hanging out to dry were stained with the fragrance of flowers. This made Strategist Ji's body full of many floral scents several times when he went to the city to attend to military affairs, causing Marshal Hong and a group of soldiers to look at him sideways. Strategist Ji could only smile helplessly.
The vegetable garden before was where Strategist Ji had planted some green vegetables and a few flowers. Occasionally, he would go to water and fertilize them and stand among them. In fact, this was also a way for Strategist Ji to calm the restlessness in his chest. Now it has been made so gaudy by Li Yan. Looking from a distance, it looks like a colorful large dyeing vat. He just shook his head and let it be.
As long as Li Yan's cultivation was still progressing, he basically let him do as he pleased now. It was just that recently, the restlessness in Li Yan's chest seemed to be growing stronger. After cultivating, blood would often overflow from the corners of his mouth, as if he couldn't suppress it. This made Strategist Ji worried. He also checked his body's condition and found that the wood spiritual qi in his body was faintly mixed, as if some fire spiritual power had been generated. This made him start to worry. But for now, Li Yan could still suppress it, and his cultivation was still progressing. Otherwise, he would have already had the thought of taking advantage of the relatively pure spiritual power in Li Yan's body now to absorb his spiritual power in advance. But in the following period of time, the wood spiritual power in Li Yan's body began to slowly become pure again, and the number of times he spat blood also decreased a lot. This made him suppress this thought.
Li Yan soaked in the pool, a few traces of blood hanging from the corners of his mouth, his eyes slightly closed, as if he were enjoying the cold air in the pool. But in fact, it was not so. At this moment, Li Yan was using the spiritual qi slowly overflowing from the bottom of the pool to circulate the "True Scripture of Gui Water."
After these few months of hard training, his "True Scripture of Gui Water" had already reached the middle stage of the first layer of Qi Condensation. The cultivation speed was quite fast. This speed was quite good even in an immortal sect. But in this place where the spiritual qi was not sufficient, it was a bit strange that it could be like this.
It's just that Li Yan had no one to compare his cultivation method with. He just felt that his cultivation was still too slow. Although he spent most of the day soaking in this pool to cultivate, and would often come over at midnight to soak in it to cultivate, he still felt that his time was tight. But there was nothing he could do. He had to spend the rest of his time pretending to cultivate the "Woodyin Art" and putting on a show. In the morning, he had to put on a show in his room and cultivate the "Woodyin Art" for a while. For the rest of the time, he had to throw a tantrum appropriately.
He now only had one thought: to improve his spiritual power cultivation as a capital to fight for his life.
After another half an hour, Li Yan's eyelashes trembled, but his eyes did not open. He ended today's daytime cultivation. At this time, he was thinking about the events of the past few months in his heart.
"My cultivation speed is still too slow. I've obviously felt very little improvement in the past few days. I don't know why."
Li Yan didn't know that his initial speed was very fast. On the one hand, he had just entered the first layer of Qi Condensation, and his meridians were several times wider than those of a normal cultivator who had reached the first layer of Qi Condensation, so absorbing spiritual qi to cultivate was relatively fast. On the other hand, his current constitution and cultivation technique were a perfect match. And since he was in the early stage of the first layer of Qi Condensation, the spiritual qi required was not too much. And since he was soaking above a spirit eye, his progress was naturally fast. But since entering the middle stage of the first layer of Qi Condensation, the spiritual qi here had begun to be insufficient. And in cultivation, the further one went, the more difficult it was to improve. Especially when it came to the Golden Core and Nascent Soul stages, it was normal to be stuck for a few hundred years.
"Although I haven't shown all my strength now, and have only shown a little bit of the peak of the initial stage of the first layer of Qi Condensation, this is also one of the conditions for my current survival. Otherwise, if I were still stuck in the introductory stage after a few months, he would probably have long since thought that I was useless and would not have had the patience to wait."
After cultivating the "True Scripture of Gui Water" for a period of time, Li Yan found that his cultivation speed was very fast, which made him worry, for fear that Strategist Ji would see something different. But this problem, after he entered his divine sense and carefully studied the "True Scripture of Gui Water" again, and after repeated attempts, was solved.
"Qi has its length, gathers in the sea, and scatters to hide." At first, he didn't quite understand. Later, through some attempts, he learned that the magical power trained by the "True Scripture of Gui Water" could freely scatter the spiritual power in the dantian into the five spiritual power vats. This way, the superficial manifestation was the level in the highest spiritual power vat. But this could only hide his true cultivation from cultivators who were not much higher than himself, so that they could not see his true cultivation. In addition, these five spiritual power vats had to be not full. Otherwise, if there was nowhere to scatter it, the strongest spiritual power would still be revealed. At that time, he could only break through to a higher layer.
"A while ago, I injured myself by mistake during cultivation and spat out some blood. I had to scatter some fire spiritual power to show that it was due to the fire poison. He became a little impatient. Fortunately, I have made some progress in my cultivation recently and have hidden the fire spiritual power, so he has suppressed this thought again. But as my magical power improves, I can now also feel that the fire poison in his body is also growing stronger. I think there is not much time left."
Although Li Yan could not release his divine sense from his body, with his current cultivator's senses, he could also faintly feel that the fire poison in Strategist Ji's body was increasing. When it was almost uncontrollable, it would be the time of his own death. At that time, no matter what level he had cultivated to, Strategist Ji would not wait any longer.
"These few times I went out, I also reached some consensus with Hong Linying through Liu Chengyong in the form of letters. As long as he can help me escape, I will give him the cultivation technique of the 'Woodyin Art.' Now all that's left is to find an opportunity. But I definitely can't wait too long."
Li Yan calculated in his heart. He was now considering not only how to escape himself. He had a bigger plan, which was how to get rid of Strategist Ji. Otherwise, his family members would not necessarily be able to escape Strategist Ji's wrath.
Yesterday, Strategist Ji had come over to guide his cultivation, but the look in his eyes when he looked at Li Yan had changed a little. It had become gentler, more genial. It was just that it was expressed on his grayer and blacker face, which made Li Yan feel the urgency of time.
"Then let's set it for two months later. That will also be in early summer. No matter what, I have to give it a try."
Li Yan's hands under the water in the pool were tightly clenched into fists.
In a deep forest, millions of li away from Green Mountain Pass, inside the magnificent palace that soared into the clouds on the mountain peak.
"Elder He, what brings you here today?" the scholar in the green robe said with a smile, looking at the hawk-faced old man in the dark green long robe.
"Peak Master, the great competition between the peaks, which is held once every five years, I have already discussed it with the other few elders. This time, our peak has about twenty elite disciples and a few true disciples participating in the competition. These people were all selected from the inner hall after many rounds of screening a while ago."
"Oh? The true disciples are one thing; there aren't many of them anyway. But the number of elite disciples from our peak participating in the competition this year is a bit small. Five years ago, I remember our peak had as many as thirty."
"Oh, it is indeed less than before. In recent years, not many new disciples have joined the various peaks. Many of those with spirit roots have been recruited by those so-called righteous Daoist, Buddhist, and Confucian sects," the hawk-faced old man said with some embarrassment.
"Hehe, those 'prestigious and righteous sects'? They are quite good at using the hearts of the people in the mortal world. They use the Daoist temples, Buddhist temples, and lecture halls in the mortal world to constantly brainwash them, and have managed to net quite a few good immortal seedlings."
"Yes, Peak Master. For a sect like ours, we really don't have much contact with mortals," he said after a pause.
"But no matter how few our peak has, we still have more than Little Bamboo Peak. They have only had a few people participating in almost every competition," the hawk-faced old man said with a chuckle.
"Junior Brother Wei's place? Hehe, their entire peak, including the miscellaneous servants, has less than twenty people. There are seven disciples under him. If we remove the three who have already entered the middle stage of the Foundation Establishment or above, of course there are only those few who can participate," the scholar said with a helpless expression upon hearing this.
"Alright, let's not talk about Junior Brother Wei's side. For our side, these twenty-odd people, I hope that two or three will enter the top ten in the early Foundation Establishment stage competition, and three will enter the top ten in the Qi Condensation stage competition. Do you understand?"
"Peak Master..." the hawk-faced old man said with a bitter expression.
"What? No confidence? Have the people below been cultivating to this extent in these five years?" the scholar said with a frown.
"Peak Master, the other few peaks are not to be trifled with either. Take Little Bamboo Peak for example. Don't look at the few people participating. But for those few people who enter the competition of their corresponding realm, they have a great chance of entering the top ten."
"Hmph, that's your business. You pass this down. If the results of this competition are not good, you few elders will have your stipends deducted."
"Alright, Peak Master," the hawk-faced old man said helplessly, but in his heart, he thought, 'I'll go back and discuss with the other few elders to put more pressure on this group of bastards. Otherwise, we'll have to cut their cultivation resources for the next five years.'
"Alright, if there's nothing else, you may go down first," the scholar said with a wave of his hand, seeing that the hawk-faced old man was no longer speaking.
"Reporting to the Peak Master, there is one more thing. Regarding the matter of searching for the person from the 'Immortal-Seeking Lineage,' a message was sent back today," the hawk-faced old man said hurriedly.
"Oh? Are you talking about the person who took the cultivation method from the outer sect traitor?"
"Yes, we expanded the search area and finally found a clue in a place called 'Green Mountain Pass' on the eastern edge of the Great Green Mountains. A strategist in the imperial dynasty's garrison there is likely the person we are looking for. He has bought medicinal herbs from the apothecaries in the nearby towns in recent years, and these medicinal herbs are all in our secret formula."
"Garrison? Strategist? In that case, you need to investigate carefully. Otherwise, if you touch an official among the mortals, especially a military official on the frontier, it will cause other sects to talk and leave a handle. Immortals and mortals walk different paths. As long as mortals don't provoke us, we will not attack them. Although we are not some prestigious and righteous sect, this is a point we must abide by."
"Yes, Peak Master, I have also arranged it this way. Because of the recent five-year competition within the sect, some of the law-enforcing disciples who were outside and needed to participate in the competition have already returned one after another. Now, only a portion of the people in the middle and late stages of Qi Condensation are left there. Once it is cleared up, they will proceed with the arrest."
"That's fine. I think that since he is still looking for medicinal herbs everywhere after these few years, his realm won't be too high. Disciples in the middle and late stages of Qi Condensation are enough."