Chapter 71: The Glue-Covered Temple God's Brain, the Xu Family's Prodigy

Snowflakes were instantly torn apart, exploding into powder.

Li Qingshan wore a cat-face mask, hunched his body as he retreated from the Guiyi Miao.

He leapt up onto a lush green pine, straight as a spear.

Beneath the black cat-face mask, two eyeballs flickered with an eerie light.

"Li Che's kid, his mind and spirit draw in and settle there; for two hours he observes the god, hoping that kid can endure, lest his spirit be harmed by the temple god's divinity.."

Li Qingshan muttered a sentence.

He then turned his head to look into the distance, only to see a figure clad in white robes, wearing a white mask, slowly walking from the snowy forest, hair flying in the snow.

On the smooth, flawless white mask, no facial features were drawn.

The newcomer had several small statues hanging from his waist, each palm-sized, carved with childlike figures—some paying homage to the Buddha, some weeping before the Buddha, with varied expressions, vividly lifelike.

However, few possessed divinity; evidently none were made by a master's hand.

"You have appeared again..."

"Again and again, today you wish to fight me once more?"

The white-faced man spoke, his voice somewhat hoarse.

Li Qingshan narrowed his eyes, staring at the wooden carving hanging from the man's waist: "Worshipping the temple god... you really dare?"

The man let out a light sigh, shook his head: "Just a desperate measure when there's no other way... If it were you, you'd do the same, right?"

"After all, we are merely humble country cultivators, not the heavenly talents of the Divine Sect with resources everywhere, not the Divine Martial Reserve of the Dàjǐng Town Temple Office backed by the Imperial Divine Armory; all we have... must be earned through our own struggle."

"Worship... is also a struggle."

Li Qingshan shook his head, saying nothing more.

Everyone who does evil will find their own justification; others cannot sway their thoughts.

"Come on, old man—though most of my divinity has never descended the mountain, but keeping you company for a bit is enough."

Boom—!

Countless snowflakes exploded from the snowy ground, divine energy coiled around Li Qingshan's body, and behind the white-faced man rose a disc-like divine foundation resembling a grindstone.

The two clashed in battle.

Li Qingshan, intentionally or not, deviated from the battlefield, heading deeper into the mountains to engage.

Inside the Guiyi Miao.

The candlelight trembled incessantly.

Li Che's heart pounded; this was the boldest thing he had ever done.

It was bolder than when he first decided to kill.

But his impulse was not a whim; after all... he possessed the "Flying Lightning Chess Sage," and upon sensing something amiss, he could activate his Dao Fruit, instantly teleporting to the chess piece anchor within the city and depart.

Li Qingshan had said that the god of a Ten Capital-level Guiyi Miao was equivalent to a Divine Foundation realm cultivator, though far stronger than an ordinary Divine Foundation practitioner.

But Li Che now believes that a Divine Foundation-level existence... should not be able to block his Dao Fruit ability.

Upon this thought, Li Che's eyes blazed.

His five fingers opened and closed, then gradually descended.

They covered the "Three-eyed Fury True Lord Spirit Child God Statue" with its furious, full-face expression.

Instantly, an intensely hot sensation spread from his palm, as if what he grasped was not a statue but a red-hot iron forged through a thousand hammerings.

Li Che frowned, his mind and spirit exceedingly cautious.

His arm took on a jade hue, jade mist swirling.

A nascent divine ability—Thousand Analysis Hand!

Faintly, it seemed that strands of divinity were being drawn out from the temple god's sculpted form, beginning to coalesce into chess-piece shapes.

However...

Compared to condensing divine-nature chess pieces from the corpse of Zhao Xuanhai before, this is far more difficult.

It is as if...

One were trying to pull a deep-buried wooden branch from the soil, for its roots are tangled underground, making extraction extremely difficult.

But though difficult, Li Che also had patience, slowly... bit by bit, pulling.

It was like engaging in a tug-of-war with the slumbering temple god.

It seemed a thick, tenacious divinity was being drawn from the statue, winding around the fingertips of the Thousand Analysis Hand.

In Li Che's consciousness, two hours seemed to pass in an instant.

As the sky gradually darkened,

Li Che immediately released his grip.

His body retreated, he jumped down from the altar.

Inside the Guiyi Miao, the candlelight was dim; the wooden statues brushed with red lacquer seemed to stare at him strangely.

Li Che, however, was oblivious, his emotions surging as he raised his hand.

Jade color suffused, a half-formed chess piece... emerged in the center of his palm.

The chess piece was condensed from extremely dark divinity, only half a piece.

Yet the intensity of this divinity made Li Che's heart slightly astonished—stronger and more terrifying than the divine foundation fragment he had obtained from the Si family's old ancestor.

He narrowed his eyes, raised his hand, and the 【Immaculate Heart】 Dao Fruit throbbed...

In the next instant, the exhaled immaculate divinity condensed into a white chess piece.

As his divine nature cultivation increased, the number of immaculate-divinity chess pieces he could condense also grew more and more.

Li Che hid the divinity chess piece beneath the altar, using it as a coordinate anchor.

Since it's confirmed that we can draw upon the temple deity's divinity…

Naturally, we should find opportunities to come and indulge a few more times.

First set up a coordinate, then coming and going will be much easier.

The sky was about to darken, but Li Qingshan still hadn't arrived.

Li Che also didn't continue waiting.

He turned his head to glance at the three-eyed spirit child deity seated high on the altar, then suddenly exerted force with his feet, his figure shooting out like a dart, bursting out of the Guiyi Miao.

……

……

Returning to Nei Cheng, Li Che removed his disguise, storing the mask, clothing, and so on into his Qiankun space.

Afterwards, he went to the Jin Huang Ge to order some food and drink, then returned to his own courtyard.

His wife Zhang Ya was diligently practicing stance training in the courtyard; since Li Che taught her martial arts, she has been training hard every day, knowing she started late, she wants to catch up to her husband through effort.

"Husband."

Zhang Ya wore a set of training clothes, with a thin sash tied around her waist, outlining her graceful figure.

Li Che's lips instantly curled into a smile as he walked behind Zhang Ya, embracing her hands from behind: "My dear, would you like me to teach you boxing?"

Zhang Ya's pretty face instantly flushed slightly.

After being annoyed for a while, Chen Lao, who sat under the eaves drinking gourd liquor, finally couldn't help but exclaim: "Cough cough cough… Li Che, you brat, this old man is still here!"

"Can you two lovebirds stop flaunting your affection in front of this old man?"

Chen Lao raised his gourd, furious beyond measure.

"Oh, you're still around? Didn't you go off somewhere?" Li Che turned his head, feigning surprise.

"If you change your spot, you won't see us, right?"

Chen Lao instantly seethed with anger, "This household is unbearable now; Li Che… he's no longer as honest as before!"

The fuming Chen Lao clutched his wine gourd, preparing to leave home.

"Chen Lao, on your way, stop by the Xu family's Divine Cultivation Institute to pick up Xixi and Lu Datu."

Li Che's light laughter drifted out.

Chen Lao grew even more furious, "Oh dear, I can't go on like this!"

However, Chen Lao still hurried to the Divine Cultivation Institute, picked up Xixi and Lu Chi, holding Xixi, his face full of smiles and affection, and the thought of running away faded.

Li Che may be unfilial, but Old Chen has his treasure Xixi.

The next day.

After Li Che sent Xixi and Lu Chi to the Divine Cultivation Institute, he then came to the independent workshop.

Having reached the meridian stage in martial cultivation, one must routinely train, circulating inner blood and qi, gathering qi in the five viscera, turning the minor heavenly circuit, accumulating and strengthening internal qi—this is the primary direction of training at this stage.

Likewise, it's a painstaking effort.

The cultivation of divinity was not neglected either; practicing the Wrathful Maitreya divinity, refining Zhao Xuanhai's divinity chess piece, it must be said that Li Che's divinity cultivation speed increased extremely rapidly.

The divinity stream within the inner vista of the mud pill was continually growing.

After completing a series of daily required practices.

Li Che then donned a bamboo hat and a cute ox mask, transforming into an Ox Demon; his mind stirred the Chess Saint Dao fruit, and through the anchor placed beneath the altar of the Guiyi Miao, after observing the situation in the Guiyi Miao, he activated the translocation of the Flying Thunder Chess Saint.

Clenching his five fingers, Li Che grasped a white chess piece.

Yet his figure had already arrived inside the pitch‑dark "Three‑Eyed Wrathful True King Spirit Child Guiyi Miao".

Inside the temple it was extremely quiet, the pungent smell of the candles filling the air incessantly.

Li Che rubbed his hands together, floated up onto the altar, and began to draw upon the divinity of the temple deity.

Basically, it takes two hours to gather half a divinity chess piece.

It takes two days to condense a complete chess piece.

This efficiency, compared to when he absorbed Zhao Xuanhai's divinity, is simply worlds apart.

The days passed one by one.

Ten days flowed by like sand slipping through the fingers.

Regarding the woodcarving promised to Young City Lord Cao Qingyuan, Li Che had not the slightest intention to pick up a knife.

Upon learning the purpose of the City Lord's mansion conscripting woodcarving masters to carve woodcarvings, Li Che lost any desire to wield a blade.

Within the Guiyi Miao.

Li Che, familiar with the routine, leapt onto the altar and stared for a while at the "Three‑Eyed Wrathful True King Spirit Child Temple Deity" that seemed both angry and aggrieved.

"Old buddy, I'm back again…"

Striving to condense the fifth temple deity divinity chess piece today.

"Zhao Xuanhai's divinity chess piece is nearly fully refined… My current Wrathful Maitreya divinity has barely reached the 'Nurturing Nature Like a River' level; after this, I won't have Zhao Xuanhai's divinity chess piece left to refine."

"Fortunately, this temple deity's divinity chess piece also belongs to the 'Anger Divinity' lineage…"

"I just don't know how much more of this temple deity's divinity I can extract—whether it'll be enough… to let me forge a divine foundation?"

Li Che flashed a brilliant set of white teeth.

Facing the spirit child deity's nearly glossy head, he extended his hand familiarly.

……

……

Dark clouds piled up layer upon layer.

Oppressive and stifling, with electric light swimming dragons twisting within.

Cold raindrops poured down from a height of ten thousand zhang, pattering as they struck the ground, shattering into water mist, shrouding the human world.

Nei Cheng, the Xu family.

Outside the Divine Cultivation Institute.

Lightning illuminated one burly black silhouette after another; they wore black clothes, donned bamboo hats and child masks, moving silently through the rain.

"The Xu family's Divine Cultivation Institute... still has two spirit children."

"The Xu family's old ghost has already reached a deal with the lord's manor... tacitly agreeing to pretend not to see..."

A burly figure pressed down on his bamboo hat.

"Hehe? Two spirit children? Since you've come... of course we must take all the spirit children from the Xu family's Divine Cultivation Institute."

"Act swiftly, capture them and leave, send them to the lord's manor."

"Once this is settled, our Yang family can organize the clanspeople to immediately evacuate Fēiléichéng."

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(End of chapter)