Chapter 253: Shen Family Ancestor, Martial Emperor Returns

Three days later.

The imperial palace.

Zhu Lingyue's eyelashes twitched slightly.

This time, Zhu Lingyue slept for a full three days straight.

She slowly opened her eyes and saw Bai Zhi guarding her bedside, who took hold of Zhu Lingyue's hand.

"Lingyue, you're awake."

Zhu Lingyue's face still showed disbelief: "Mother, am I not dreaming?"

Bai Zhi stroked Zhu Lingyue's forehead: "Mother is really here."

Suddenly, Zhu Lingyue remembered: "What about Shen Qing?"

Bai Zhi smiled, narrowing her eyes: "He's cultivating outside. These past few days, your several brothers all said they wanted to come see you, but when they just arrived at the gate of Qingyue Pavilion and saw Shen Qing cultivating there, they all ran off one by one."

Hearing this, Zhu Lingyue's eyes also softened.

And outside, Shen Qing sat quietly in the pavilion, surrounded by swirling thin red mist.

As early as two days prior, the "Thought Penetration" entry had already completed its upgrade.

The entry had already upgraded to a colored entry: Lawless Heaven.

Besides all original functions being upgraded, it also granted Shen Qing an entry called Martial Saint Will, allowing him to comprehend domain power in advance.

And Shen Qing is currently comprehending the domain; the power he grasps is considerable—such as causal force, or the Slaughter Totem, or the Blade Dao, and also the Gui Xu Yin—all of which relate to domain power and can evolve into a domain.

However, after Shen Qing screened through them, he ultimately chose the Slaughter Domain, after all, this power is the most natural to use.

In three days, the embryonic form of the domain had already been comprehended by Shen Qing; the construction of the domain basically only lacked the final step.

At this moment, an old man appeared outside the imperial palace; he took a step forward, yet his form was already ten zhang away—he had shrunk the earth to an inch—and arrived behind Shen Qing.

A deep, resonant voice came.

"Slaughter Domain? Perfect, that's my strongest domain, kid, feel it well."

Speaking, the old man released a expanse of crimson blood mist; this domain is extremely pure—if they collided, the dragon aura domain of Zhu Hao from the day before yesterday would likely be directly crushed into dregs by this slaughter domain.

Shen Qing could feel that this old man harbored no ill intent whatsoever, so he also did not stop cultivating, simply opening his mind and fully sensing the slaughter domain.

A node, another node's construction, then linking all nodes together—the domain was being rapidly built.

The old man grit his teeth: "This speed is truly terrifying."

Just the time to finish a cup of tea, Shen Qing's aura fluctuated, and vast blood mist spread out—the slaughter domain had already been completed.

Shen Qing did not open his eyes, but his mind had completely reported every detail within the domain's coverage to him.

Beneath the lake surface lay countless fragments of stone, and in the sky, leaves were still drifting down.

This is one of the basic functions of domain power: within the domain, the user can clearly sense even the slightest movement of wind and grass.

Turning his gaze to the ground, a group of ants still transporting food began to frenziedly slaughter each other.

This is one function of the slaughter domain: terrifying killing intent directly strikes the opponent's soul, causing fear, despair, and hallucinations.

Shen Qing slowly opened his eyes, fingertips lightly tapping—the slaughter domain dissipated, and the ants still biting each other on the ground also began to calm down.

The old man clicked his tongue: "Truly terrifying—having just reached the peak of Grand Master realm, he has comprehended the slaughter domain, and so quickly gained free control over it."

"The Shen family's fate is truly good, though my Zhu family is not lacking either—we have Lingyue."

Shen Qing rose, turned his head toward the middle-aged man: "Are you the Martial Emperor?"

The old man nodded: "Hello, I am the Martial Emperor, Zhu Wu."

"Shen family, Shen Qing."

Zhu Wu spoke with a smile: "This time, I truly need to thank you—I didn't expect the Zhu family's problem to still require your help to resolve."

Shen Qing was stunned: "You already knew?"

Zhu Wu chuckled: "I've returned to the capital for already an hour or two; you and Zhu Lingyue didn't kill thoroughly enough—there are still a few old things hiding, I dragged them out and slaughtered them, so I also came to know."

Shen Qing also laughed out loud—indeed, some things still require the old ones to do; this Martial Emperor's first act upon returning to the capital wasn't going home, but rather slaughtering his own descendants.

At this moment, the gate of Qingyue Pavilion opened, and Zhu Lingyue walked out: "Shen Qing..."

Shen Qing turned his head: "You're awake."

Zhu Lingyue nodded slightly: "En."

She seemed to have something to say, but seeing the Martial Emperor beside her, she froze a moment, because she had seen this face in the family portraits.

"You are... the Martial Emperor?"

Zhu Wu waved his hand with a smile, then looked toward Shen Qing.

"Shen Qing, when you return to the Shen family later, remember to go to Qilin Mountain—your family's old thing has also returned."

"He has something to give you."

"I and my junior have some things to say; I'll come find you again later."

Shen Qing nodded, turned, and walked toward outside the imperial palace.

The Shen family.

Shen Qing returned to the Shen family; just as he entered the gate, Qilin sent him a message.

"Shen Qing, come to Qilin Mountain."

Shen Qing walked toward Qilin Mountain; at this moment, an old man sat on Qilin Mountain, his eyes deep and vast like the ocean, sitting quietly, yet within three feet around him there seemed an invisible barrier, gently pushing aside the dust and turmoil of the mortal world—this person was precisely the Shen family's ancestor, Shen Wendaо.

Shen Wendaо slowly opened his eyes: "Shen Qing, you've come."

Shen Qing nodded slightly: "Greetings, Ancestor."

He turned his head and smiled: "You did very well this time—killing requires decisiveness."

Shen Qing glanced at Shen Wendaо: "You're not angry?"

Shen Wendaо snorted: "What is there to be angry about? A pack of woodworms—kill them if you kill them; I should still thank you."

"Besides, the Shen family owed you in the past, and I will make it up to you later."

As he spoke, Shen Wendaо casually pointed, and a sheet of paper flashing with golden light flew over and landed in Shen Qing's hand.

"This is what I deduced, called the Wanfa Yuan Dan."

Shen Qing glanced at the thing recorded on the paper: "Wanfa Yuan Dan?"

Shen Wendaо nodded: "That's right. As I cultivated further, I found that more and more things needed to be repaired, so I simply reversed the process."

"I traced it all the way to the Yuan Dan realm and deduced this method."

"This is the most suitable and best method for condensing the Yuan Dan."

"The Yuan Dan condensed with this method is more resilient, has greater qi reserves, stronger qi, and fewer loopholes needing repair later on."

"The only drawback is that this method is harder to comprehend."

Shen Qing's eyes lit up— isn't this all advantages? Harder to comprehend? That's nothing to Shen Qing.

As long as this Wanfa Yuan Dan isn't just nonsense and can actually succeed, then it's nothing to Shen Qing.

"Then, Ancestor, what about the precious medicine for breakthrough?"

Shen Wendaо lightly tapped his finger, and two more treasure boxes flew out: "Don't worry, I've prepared them for you too."

"Both are top-tier among top-tier precious medicines."

"But don't rush into seclusion."

"This time I came back first; the other Martial Saints should need half a day, Shen Lin will also return to the Shen family in half a day, so you delay your seclusion by half a day, and I'll have you watch a good show."

Shen Lin is Shen Wendaо's second son and the origin of Shen Yun'ya's lineage.

Back then, Shen Shu had told Shen Qing that the Heaven-Stealing Pill, which stole talent, was brought back by this Shen Lin.

Shen Qing smiled: "Good, I love watching shows the most."