Chapter 61

Falling snow drifted, icy cold piercing to the bone.

Li Che's heart, however, was blazing hot and excited beyond measure.

The effect of the fourth Dao fruit can simply be considered a kind of monitoring, a guarantee for his daughter's safety.

As long as the condensed divinity chess pieces remain beside Xixi, if she encounters any danger, they can appear at her side at the fastest speed.

For an old father, such a Dao fruit… is what puts his mind most at ease.

In Fēiléichéng, the threat brought by the Spirit Infant Sect has not yet disappeared.

It even shows a growing trend, and Li Che is clear that the Spirit Infant Sect surely has countless tangled ties with the city lord's manor.

"Spirit Infant Sect…"

Li Che's gaze narrowed, in his hand he held the white chess pieces condensed from divinity.

This calamity—I don't know when it can be eliminated……

"Senior Li is currently investigating the Spirit Infant Sect's main altar…… I wonder if he has gained anything?"

"If we could eradicate the Spirit Infant Sect, for Fēiléichéng it would naturally be a great boon; parents with children could sleep more peacefully at night."

Li Che exhaled a breath.

Inside the workshop, he continued to try researching the Chess Saint Dao fruit.

After condensing three white divinity chess pieces, he could no longer condense more; that is, three pieces are his current limit.

"Only three pieces…… one for Xixi, one placed on my wife's person— that's actually enough."

"If the Chess Saint Dao fruit's maturity increases, the number of chess pieces condensed will also increase accordingly."

Li Che seemed lost in thought.

With a stir of mind and spirit, flowing light appeared before his eyes.

……

【Name: Li Che】

【Bond: Li Nuanxi (daughter)】

【Dao Fruit: Immortal Craft (lv3, 10%), Dragon-Elephant Vajra (lv2, 49%), Immaculate Mind (LV1, 20%), Chess Saint (lv1, 1%)】

【Rudimentary Divine Ability: Immortal Craft·Thousand-Analysis Hand】

……

Seeing the overall improvement on the panel, Li Che couldn't help but curl the corner of his mouth into a smile.

"Once I break my martial cultivation to the Meridian-Passing stage, the Dragon-Elephant Vajra Dao fruit's maturity will likely reach 50%; unfortunately, compared to Immortal Craft, reaching lv3 for Dragon-Elephant Vajra is indeed much harder."

Stretching lazily, Li Che felt ever more hopeful about the future.

"Right now, what I mainly lack are divine secret arts—the primary means for divine cultivators to fight enemies; the divine martial arts I obtained from Guo Zhan earlier can be used, albeit barely."

Back when Li Che killed Guo Zhan, the blood-exchange expert sent by Si Mu Bai, the divine martial art he obtained was named the 'Resentful Wail Hundred Ghosts Wind-Thunder Arrow'; it does not belong to divine secret arts, but to divine martial arts.

Compared to Si Mu Bai's secret art that merges with rain, unfathomable to gods and ghosts, it simply cannot compare.

Unfortunately, in Si Mu Bai's gifts, Li Che did not find this secret art.

However, after Li Che cultivated the 'Resentful Wail Suppress Ghosts' divinity, his divine martial arts began to be trained.

Now he has grasped it to the level of minor accomplishment.

Divine martial arts are somewhat harder to pick up than qi-blood martial arts, requiring a test of one's mastery of divinity; thus, Li Che's grasp has slowed considerably.

Gathering his essence, qi, and spirit, Li Che completely concealed his own divinity, while releasing his qi-blood to the level of perfected bone-tempering.

"Three years from entry to perfected bone-tempering…… that's not too exaggerated."

Li Che smiled.

At least, compared to his concealed cultivation, it's not exaggerated.

He picked a piece of wood from the courtyard, circulated his internal strength to dry its moisture, then began carving.

After Immortal Craft reached lv3, Li Che's woodcarving skill grew ever higher; he has long since reached the level of a woodcarving master, able to imbue woodcarvings with divinity!

Li Che focused, the carving knife flowed, wood chips flew, smooth flowing lines traced out a statue of the 'Six-Armed Bodhisattva Resentful Wail Seated Lotus'.

The divinity between heaven and earth seemed to be slowly attracted and attached to the woodcarving.

After the carving was finished, Li Che rinsed it with internal strength, completing the final step of the woodcarving, and stored it within the Sumeru space of the Immaculate Mind.

This thing…… Li Che kept it for himself, to use when cultivating the 'Resentful Wail Suppress Ghosts' divinity, just as Si Mu Bai did back then.

According to the method recorded in the 'Nine Luminaries Resentful Wail Suppress Ghosts Nurturing Nature Record', divinity can be cultivated by drawing and capturing it from heaven and earth oneself, or it can be extracted and cultivated through divine-objects such as woodcarvings, stone carvings, paintings, and so on.

However, most still mainly use woodcarving, because much of the wood itself is spiritual wood and other divine substances.

Li Qing Shan once said in a casual chat with Li Che that even in the main sect of the Qian Yuan Divine Sect, there is a specially established 'Woodcarving Ridge' that recruits woodcarving masters and the like.

The divine woodcarvings needed by Divine Sect disciples for their cultivation mostly come from the hands of the sect's woodcarving masters.

After finishing his daily carving, Li Che also tinkered for a while with the seventh mechanism in the Tangji Jianji Yaowu, the 'Bodhi Blood Tears'; although this mechanism is difficult, Li Che is already close to completing it.

After glancing at the sky, Li Che returned to the room inside the workshop courtyard and took out the birthday gift he had prepared for Xixi.

Li Che's handmade 'twist-twist car' is not difficult for him at all nowadays, but it can satisfy Xixi's joy, so it's quite good.

He secretly played with the twist-twist car in the courtyard.

Xixi is three years old, and he, Li Che, has also become a twenty-two-year-old spirit child……

A twenty-two-year-old spirit child playing with a twist-twist car should be fine, right?

After playing enough, Li Che picked up the twist-twist car and left the independent workshop.

First he went to the Jin Huang Pavilion, ordered a table of fine food and drink, and had the staff pack it up to send to his own courtyard in the inner city.

Li Che's family had already completely moved into the inner city; the wealthy Li Che purchased a two-section courtyard in the inner city.

Chen Lao also moved over to live together.

Originally Chen Lao lived in the outer city seeking tranquility, but now that Xixi has moved into the inner city, he is naturally reluctant to part and wants to follow.

Having arranged Xixi's birthday banquet, Li Che then went to Xu's Divine Cultivation Institute to pick up Xixi after school.

……

……

"Daddy, what is this?"

Xixi was held in Li Che's arms, one hand wrapping around his neck, her big eyes curiously looking at the 'twist-twist car' he held in one hand.

"This is the birthday gift Daddy made for Xixi; come play with it."

Li Che directly taught Xixi how to use it.

Behind them, Datou Lu Chi widened his eyes, craned his neck, watching Xixi happily twisting on the twist-twist car, a hint of envy welling up, making him eager to try.

"Lu Chi Brother, want to give it a try?" Xixi said, flashing a dimpled, radiant smile.

At this moment, Lu Chi felt Xixi was nothing short of a heavenly fairy.

However, feeling Li Che's deep gaze like that of a hellish ox-demon, Lu Chi could only feel his scalp tingle: "I'm a big kid now; I won't play with such childish toys!"

Having said that, Lu Chi turned his head away, struggling not to let tears of envy fall.

Xu You wore an elegant white robe, following gently behind, yet his brow bore many worries.

"Ah Che, after accompanying Xixi through her birthday, I fear I'll have to get busy; outside the city, the Guiyi Miao has erupted in turmoil, Xiejwu run rampant, many villages have suffered disaster; the Xu, An, and Yang families, the three clans of Nei Cheng, have formed a cleanup squad, and I've been assigned to go out on the cleanup mission."

Xu You said with a bitter smile.

Hearing this, Li Che frowned: "You're of the main line after all—how could they let you go on such a dangerous matter? The other Yang and An families surely send their branch offspring to lead."

Xu You shook his head helplessly: "I've grown used to it…"

"Perfect, it can also serve as a tempering experience."

Xu You's nature is just like that—too weak, never striving or fighting.

"You should contend for it; as a member of the main line, the rights you deserve must still be grasped in your hand." Li Che advised.

Xu You wore a gentle smile, nodding repeatedly.

Li Che said no more, raised his hand, and patted Xu You's shoulder; the 【Immaculate Heart】-condensed divine nature 'pawn' silently seeped into Xu You's body.

Xu You didn't even notice anything amiss, still chatting and laughing with Xixi.

Night fell.

The courtyard.

The moonlight was thin and cool.

Li Che got the loudly insisting-not-drunk Chen Lao drunk, saw off the elder uncle's cousin who had come to celebrate Xixi's third birthday, then sat with Xu You beneath the eaves.

The stove heated water; in the boiling hot water, the jade-green tea leaves tumbled.

After liquor, a bowl of tea—joy rivaling the immortals.

Xu You cradled the crude, roughly brewed green tea Li Che had made, while discussing with Li Che the safety of Xixi's upcoming trip to the Divine Cultivation Institute.

"I've asked Mu Po to personally meet Xixi at the gate and bring her into the institute; Mu Po is an elder of the Divine Cultivation Institute, trustworthy—when you go to fetch Xixi, she will also see Xixi and Lu Chi out of the institute…"

The threat of the Infant Spirit Sect had not yet faded; Xu You naturally dared not be careless, worrying over Xixi's safety to the point of anguish.

Li Che sipped his hot tea, smiled and nodded, rose pretending to go to the inner room, and when he came out again he held a half-meter-tall statue.

"Old Xu."

"Take this 'Three Immortals Riding an Ox, Contemplating the Sword Statue'."

Xu You startled.

He instinctively set down his teacup and took the wooden carving.

Just as he touched the wooden carving, the 【Suspended Thought Flow Sword】 divine nature within him instantly began to simmer.

This wooden carving…… possesses such intense divinity!

Xu You looked at Li Che, astonished and incredulous.

"Old Li, have you become a wood-carving master?"

ps: Reflecting thrice daily on myself, I beg for follows! Today the backend fake follows are nearing three thousand; keep it up, next week there's still hope! Everyone must follow, don't let books gather dust, ask for monthly and recommendation votes, Old Li thanks!

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(End of chapter)