Chapter 285: A City Suppresses the Immortal

"Marquis, there is still no news of Xu Chuan."

Yang Heng stood obediently to one side.

For the past few days, he had been under orders to inquire about Xu Chuan's whereabouts.

Ever since Xu Chuan went to the Wu Kingdom, there had been no word from him for a full seven or eight days.

At first.

Only the Marquis's steward had asked about it, but gradually, even Marquis Yuan became aware of the matter. Not only him, but Yan Qin was also out making inquiries.

Marquis Yuan gave a faint grunt of acknowledgment.

Yang Heng muttered to himself, secretly cursing Xu Chuan.

Xu Chuan had gone out to investigate a case, not to actually kill the Black and White Twin Fiends; he only needed to ensure communication with the Wu Kingdom's imperial court was established. For such a simple task, to actually go missing—he couldn't help but suspect that the Return Cloud Sect's head disciple was overrated.

The key was that he had gotten himself into trouble, and now others had to go find him. Yang Heng had never had to do such demeaning work in his own sect.

At this moment.

Wang Li, one of the only two civil officials among the retainers, walked in.

Saying there were two civil officials was a stretch; there was only him, because the other civil official was Li Rui.

"Marquis."

Wang Li bowed to Marquis Yuan: "I have found the whereabouts of Young Master Xu."

Upon hearing this.

Yang Heng looked at Wang Li with curiosity, a flash of surprise in his eyes. He had been searching for a full five days with no leads; how could Wang Li, who knew nothing of Wu Gong, find a clue so quickly?

Yuan Dingting remained with his back to the two of them, standing before the fish pond scattering fish food.

His words drifted over:

"Speak."

Only then did Wang Li continue: "Li Jiaoxi of Qinghe is familiar with the Wu Kingdom. I asked for his help, and it seems Young Master Xu has already been killed by the Black and White Twin Fiends."

"Xu Chuan is dead?"

Yang Heng's pupils contracted slightly.

It wasn't that he hadn't considered this possibility, but hearing it confirmed was still shocking.

Wang Li glanced at Yang Heng and nodded: "It has been confirmed that he is dead. Li Jiaoxi utilized connections in both the Wu Kingdom and the Qinghe County government to find Young Master Xu's body in the mountains outside the city. After examination by the coroner, it was confirmed that the Black and White Twin Fiends were the ones who did it."

Yang Heng realized.

No wonder Wang Li was so fast.

It turned out he had borrowed Li Rui's light; having the government of two nations searching was naturally much faster than him alone.

However, he was secretly alarmed.

The Black and White Twin Fiends were truly daring, actually daring to kill someone from the Annan Marquis's Prefecture.

Even though they were already notorious criminals on the imperial court's bounty list, committing such a deranged act was truly astonishing.

For a moment.

Yang Heng felt a sense of shared grief.

Both he and Xu Chuan were geniuses of their respective sects, coming to the Marquis's Prefecture to obtain Yuan Dingting's inheritance, but now, without having become disciples, they had lost their lives instead.

It wasn't worth it at all.

Yuan Dingting's movements did not change, only his voice drifted over: "Yang Heng, go to the Heavenly Water Pavilion and find Yuan Xiong. Tell him to bring me the heads of the Black and White Twin Fiends."

"Yes."

Yang Heng bowed and nodded.

In such a large Marquis's Prefecture, it was of course impossible for there to be only the four of them as retainers.

In fact.

The four of them were merely specially selected by Marquis Yuan for the sake of the fief's reputation.

The Annan Marquis's Prefecture was filled with experts.

Not to mention anything else, just Marquis Yuan's eight foster sons were all incredible experts; they were the backbone of the Marquis's Prefecture, while the retainers were merely there to handle miscellaneous tasks.

Indeed, although Marquis Yuan had no disciples, he had taken in several foster sons.

If something truly happened, the eight foster sons would have to step in to resolve it.

Yuan Xiong of the Heavenly Water Pavilion did not originally have the surname Yuan; it was a name he took after being adopted by Yuan Dingting.

A Primordial Realm martial artist.

For a Primordial expert to hunt down two others was a matter of course for Yuan Dingting; if one could not be invincible within the same rank, they were not worthy of being his foster son.

One month later.

A piece of news arrived.

The Black and White Twin Fiends had been beheaded by Yuan Dingting's eighth foster son, Yuan Xiong, and their heads were hung on the city walls of Yunzhou.

"As expected of one of the top ten in the world."

Li Rui looked at the letter sent by Wang Li and clicked his tongue in amazement.

This was the foundation of the Military Saint.

The notorious Black and White Twin Fiends were killed just like that.

How domineering!

"It's good that they were killed."

The corners of Li Rui's mouth curled up slightly. With the Black and White Twin Fiends dead, even the last bit of evidence was gone; this was naturally a very good thing.

He and Wang Li had a decent relationship.

But all this effort was, of course, to cry thief while being the thief, covering up the truth.

The people were killed by the Black and White Twin Fiends, the clues were provided by the Wu Kingdom's government, and the bodies were found by the Qinghe County government.

What did that have to do with him, a Li Canjun of the Anning Guard?

Qingzhou City, Prefecture Government Office.

A young, beautiful woman walked into the backyard of the Prefecture Office and pushed open a door.

She saw Qu Chengfeng sitting cross-legged on the bed in meditation.

"Young Master, the item you wanted."

The beautiful woman took a peculiar jade stone from her chest and handed it to Qu Chengfeng.

"Not bad."

Qu Chengfeng's mouth curled up slightly as he looked at the Spirit-Testing Stone in his hand.

"Alright, you may withdraw."

The beautiful woman looked at Qu Chengfeng with some resentment and slowly closed the door. She had served Qu Chengfeng for several months, but Qu Chengfeng was unwilling to even touch her body.

She felt this was the greatest setback of her life.

Qu Chengfeng naturally knew the woman's thoughts.

But compared to playing with women, the most important thing for him was to restore his cultivation.

'This body is still too weak.'

He turned his head to look out the window.

According to the orientation of the room, he was looking toward the east.

There was a city by the sea in the east.

A madman lived in that city, and that madman specialized in killing fallen immortals.

"Mid-grade spiritual root."

In the room.

Li Rui pondered to himself.

Although it was not bad—after all, a certain Immortal Venerable surnamed Han started with a low-grade spiritual root—compared to that, he was already doing quite well.

But it was not enough.

Others didn't know, but he knew that there were truly still immortals in this world.

Why?

The system told him so.

The achievement of becoming an immortal and an ancestor wouldn't lie; since there were immortals, he naturally had to become one!

Otherwise, why would an old man of seventy or eighty like him be risking his life?

'Methods to improve spiritual roots.'

Li Rui had quite a few books placed before his knees, all ancient texts passed down; most had no credibility and were almost no different from myths.

The ones with real value were probably all in the Imperial Observatory.

'It seems I can only try to pull some strings again.'

If it were anywhere else, he would truly be helpless.

But if it were the Imperial Observatory, there were still some ways.

Jiang Linxian was now the Vice Director of the Imperial Observatory; besides him, there was also his acquaintance Yao Xue. He might not be able to get valuable items, but some useless ancient books were still possible.

Although it might not necessarily work, he had to try.

What if it succeeded?

Li Rui was speechless.

Sure enough, it was difficult for anyone to achieve complete detachment; just like him, after sixty years of vicissitudes, what he cared about in his heart was nothing but the two words: eternal life.

Outside Qinghe City.

The carriages waiting to enter the city were lined up for nearly two miles.

The city gate guards had an excellent attitude.

County Magistrate Jia had even set up cooling sheds for the waiting convoys to rest.

Ordinary commoners naturally did not receive such treatment.

County Magistrate Jia was the "Blue Sky" (upright official) of Qinghe, not a servant of Qinghe, so he naturally wouldn't care about such things. It was only because the status of these convoys was unusual.

They were all large sects from various places.

Unlike the imperial court's previous attitude, ever since Marquis Yuan came to Yunzhou, his attitude toward large sects had been extremely open.

Just four words.

"All comers are welcome."

Why?

Naturally because his fists were hard enough and his strength was strong enough; whichever large sect dared to cause trouble in Yunzhou, the Broken Wave Divine Spear would appear on that sect's mountain peak.

It wasn't that Marquis Yuan alone was stronger than the entire imperial court.

It was because the imperial court managed the entire world and could not handle every detail.

When it came down to specifics.

!. Read

It was that the Yunzhou government could not suppress those large sects.

But now the situation was different; Yuan Dingting alone could suppress all the sects in the world, so naturally, there were no such concerns.

If a dragon came, it had to coil; if a tiger came, it had to lie down.

Large sects would certainly be much more disciplined.

By the same token.

In the Qinghe region, County Magistrate Jia had to be a bit more polite.

Otherwise, if these large sects complained to Marquis Yuan, he wouldn't be able to bear the consequences.

In the end, it was still a matter of the disparity in strength.

In the middle of the long convoy, a large flag fluttered, with two large characters written on it.

"Return Cloud."

The curtain of an extremely magnificent carriage was lifted, revealing the face of a refined middle-aged man.

A young disciple of the Return Cloud Sect leaned forward and whispered a few words.

The middle-aged man's expression changed instantly:

"What?"

"Xu Chuan is dead?!"

The young disciple nodded timidly: "Yes, yes, the news just arrived. He was killed by the Black and White Twin Fiends. I heard that those two have already been beheaded by Marquis Yuan's foster son, which can be considered as avenging Senior Brother Xu."

The middle-aged man's expression was extremely ugly.

Xu Chuan was a disciple in whom the Return Cloud Sect Master had placed high hopes.

The Return Cloud Sect had just arrived in Yunzhou.

And they had already heard such tragic news.

The middle-aged man sighed: "Forget it, let's report this matter to the Sect Master for a decision."

That was what he said.

But the matter had actually come to an end.

Xu Chuan was dead, but he wasn't killed by Marquis Yuan; he had died in the line of duty while executing a mission. Since he had become a retainer, he had to be prepared to sacrifice himself for it.

Moreover, Marquis Yuan had already beheaded the culprit, and the revenge had been taken.

According to the rules of the Jianghu, the Return Cloud Sect had no reason to cause trouble for others.

Of course, the Return Cloud Sect also couldn't afford to provoke the Annan Marquis, Yuan Dingting.

They could only accept their bad luck.

'Truly, the world is impermanent.'

The matter of Xu Chuan did not linger in the mind of He Wanchun, the middle-aged man, for too long.

He wasn't his disciple, after all.

Reporting it was enough; there was no need to think too much about it.

"Let's go."

He Wanchun raised his hand, and the convoy moved slowly, as if nothing had happened.

An hour later.

The Return Cloud Sect's convoy finally entered the city and soon arrived in front of a magnificent mansion.

This was the station of the Return Cloud Sect.

"A-Qing, go to the Anning Guard; I want to see that Lord Li."

"Yes!"

The young Return Cloud Sect disciple bowed and accepted the order, then ran off.

He Wanchun's mouth curled up slightly as he recited a name.

"Li Rui."

This name might not be very famous in the Yu Kingdom, but if narrowed down to the monster market, it was renowned.

The Return Cloud Sect came to Qinghe for two words.

Monsters, monsters, and more monsters.

This was because the Return Cloud Sect itself had a Beast-Taming lineage, and He Wanchun was the leader of this lineage.

Previously, the Wu Kingdom had sealed itself off, and the paths were narrow.

Their lineage had always been weak in the Return Cloud Sect; this time, He Wanchun had come with the intention of revitalizing the Beast-Taming lineage.

Therefore, Li Rui was an existence they could not bypass.

Who told the people of the Wu Kingdom to go crazy and only recognize the name Li Rui?

'I want to see if he is as powerful as the rumors say.'

"Master, just now a disciple from the Return Cloud Sect said that their Elder He wants to pay a visit to you."

Wang Zhao said.

"Hmm, I see."

Li Rui nodded.

Wang Zhao stood to one side, waiting for a long time without further instructions. His eyes rolled, and he immediately understood Li Rui's meaning.

He ran out with a grin.

He returned shortly: "Master, I told him that you are in seclusion and will meet him when you come out."

Only then did Li Rui smile:

"Little Zhao, you've made progress."

In these past few days, more and more sects had come to Qinghe; if one threw a brick, one might hit a sect elder.

It was truly lively.

Now, the sect elders who wanted to see him were almost lined up outside the Anning Guard.

If he met them all, he feared he would be drinking every day, or on the way to drinking, and would have no time to practice.

That was one thing.

The key was that these people could not be met.

He was a Li Canjun of the Anning Guard, meeting every day with these sect elders who were plotting monster businesses.

What did that mean?

Did he really think of himself as the person in charge of the monster market?

A tall tree attracts the wind; sooner or later, it would cause trouble for himself.

Therefore, the wisest course of action at this time was to ignore the invitations of those elders and retreat while the momentum was high.

Of course.

This also meant missing out on the rare treasures that had already been prepared.

Although it pains the heart, it must be done.

Wang Zhao's discernment had also improved quite a bit after his guidance during this period.

Watching Wang Zhao turn and leave, closing the door behind him.

Li Rui slowly stood up.

Then he opened the secret chamber and walked in.

After the secret chamber was completely closed, he took out the Hundred-Battle Killing Intent hidden within.

*Slurp. *

The Hundred-Battle Killing Intent was absorbed into his body.

Instantly.

Li Rui's eyes turned blood-red, and he couldn't even stand steadily. He braced his right hand against the wall, barely managing to keep from falling. The veins on his arms bulged, and a palm print was pressed into the hard wall bricks.

*Huff, huff... *

Heavy, ragged breathing echoed in the room.

This time was so difficult because he had increased the dosage; he had absorbed double the Hundred-Battle Killing Intent.

How could the killing intent of a Military Saint be easily resisted?

A full half-hour passed.

Li Rui gradually calmed down, the sea of blood and mountains of corpses before his eyes disappeared, and he regained clarity.

His face was deathly pale, and cold sweat had soaked his clothes.

Just as Li Rui was preparing to open the secret chamber and go out to change into clean clothes—

The Immortal Xuan Qi in his dantian suddenly began to stir.

His pupils contracted slightly:

"North Heaven Gate?"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 286 =====