Chapter 307: Yuan Dingting

"Instructor Li, the evil Jiao is cunning; beheading it is not a matter of a single day or night. Rest assured, you still have plenty of time to prepare."

"If the two of us can behead that evil Jiao, it will definitely be a great achievement."

"By then, I will ask my foster father to adopt you as his foster son; from then on, we will be brothers."

Li Rui looked at Nie Siming with a strange expression.

Not a matter of a single day or night?

Even if he were given ten years, he wouldn't have a chance to break through to the Primordial Realm.

Without entering the Primordial Realm, even if the evil Jiao were injured, it would probably be a matter of a single slap.

As for being a foster son...

He was usually the one painting big pictures for others; this was the first time someone was painting one for him.

He was thinking about how to refuse.

When he saw Nie Siming rummaging through his bosom and then taking out a small wooden box: "Instructor Li, this is something the Marquis asked me to bring to you."

Li Rui raised an eyebrow slightly:

"The Marquis's thing?"

Nie Siming nodded: "Correct, it is a calligraphy scroll written by the Marquis, which has great benefits for practicing martial arts."

After saying this.

He placed the small wooden box on the table and stood up.

"Instructor Li, please trouble yourself more with the matter of finding the evil Jiao."

Without giving Li Rui a chance to speak, he walked toward the door with large strides and disappeared outside the courtyard gate.

Then came a rush of hoofbeats.

Clearly, he had already left.

Only then did Li Rui reach out to touch the small wooden box, smiling and shaking his head:

"Truly stingy."

He had roughly guessed that the calligraphy scroll in this wooden box was something Yuan Dingting wanted to give him.

But Nie Siming had a great deal of decision-making power over this item.

Yuan Dingting might have said he wanted him and Nie Siming to handle the evil Jiao matter together, but this calligraphy scroll didn't necessarily have to be given; in fact, Nie Siming was doing exactly that.

If Nie Siming could complete the mission alone, naturally there would be no need to take out the calligraphy scroll, and he could keep it for himself.

Even if Yuan Dingting knew, he wouldn't say anything.

For a person of Marquis Yuan's standing, he had always only valued results, not to mention Nie Siming was his foster son, while Li Rui was merely an instructor.

Otherwise, why had he been in Qinghe for several months and only now given him the calligraphy scroll?

As for why he decided to give him the calligraphy scroll today.

It should be because Nie Siming truly had no other way.

On the surface, he took troops to the border to suppress rebels, but in reality, he had always been secretly searching for the Jiao Dragon's hiding place; however, Nie Siming had always been in the Northwest, and his influence on Yunzhou was limited, let alone the Wu Kingdom.

He was powerless to find the Luotian Da Jiao, possessing great martial strength but nowhere to display it.

Of course, if it were only this point.

Nie Siming could actually go find others; the more important thing was the talent Li Rui had displayed.

Not martial strength.

But the infiltration into the Wu Kingdom; the Tiandi Alliance's business in the Wu Kingdom was growing larger and larger, and in the process of doing business, it was inevitable to have contact with the people of the Wu Kingdom, and unknowingly, a powerful intelligence network had already been built.

If one were to talk about familiarity with the Wu Kingdom, no one in the entire Yunzhou could surpass Li Rui in Qinghe.

Nie Siming must have learned about these things during his time in Qinghe.

That was why he "bribed" Li Rui with the calligraphy scroll.

From this, one could see the preciousness of this calligraphy scroll; if it weren't valuable, how could it make someone like Nie Siming so stingy?

Expectation rose in Li Rui's heart.

He slowly opened the wooden box.

The wooden box wasn't large, but the item inside was even smaller; the three-inch-long wooden box actually looked empty.

Calling it a calligraphy scroll was not as accurate as calling it a slip of paper.

A one-inch-long small slip of paper was lying quietly at the bottom of the wooden box.

He reached out two fingers to pick up the small slip of paper.

Only one character met his eyes.

"Soldier!"

Fierce murderous intent rushed toward him; Li Rui felt as if he were on the battlefield.

Since Nie Siming called it a calligraphy scroll.

Then of course it couldn't have only one character; looking at this small slip of paper, there were obvious paper fibers at the top and bottom, clearly torn from some complete calligraphy scroll.

"The incantation says, 'Soldier, Fighter, Array, All, Formation, Array, Front, Row, Walk.' These nine characters are often secretly recited to ward off everything."

If his guess was correct.

What Yuan Dingting copied should be "Soldier, Fighter, Array, All, Formation, Array, Front, Row, Walk."

These nine characters were known as the Nine-Character Secret.

Legend had it that it contained the first secret technique of Daoism, with the "Soldier" character secret having the greatest killing power.

The Military Saint writing "Soldier", the killing power was even more immeasurable.

This one character was enough to suppress the secret techniques of any major sect!

It was no wonder Nie Siming was so reluctant.

If it were him, he would also be reluctant.

"Good treasure!"

Li Rui was overjoyed.

He had already obtained Yuan Dingting's Hundred-Battle Murderous Intent and the Military Saint True Intent; now obtaining the "Soldier" character calligraphy scroll, the effect would definitely double, as if it were tailor-made for him.

"Marquis Yuan is truly thoughtful."

Immediately, he began to comprehend the mysteries within the "Soldier" character scroll.

Outside Qinghe City, in the dense forest.

A man in a black robe was surrounded by seven or eight giant spirit beasts of various shapes.

Among them, a Nine-Tailed Phoenix Bird said:

"We've already been in this place for a month; can we actually do it or not?"

Although the other great demons didn't speak, their eyes clearly showed impatience.

Qi Feng spoke coldly:

"This is the Demon Lord's mission; do you want to disobey?"

Hearing the two words "Demon Lord".

The great demons became much more obedient.

Seeing this scene, Qi Feng sighed lightly.

Although he had temporarily suppressed these great demons by relying on the Demon Lord's name, there had been no progress in the matter.

That day.

He had asked for people from the Luotian Da Jiao, and the Scarlet Gold Divine Tiger, the Demon Lord sitting in Giant Stone City, had given him three Fourth-Rank great demons comparable to Primordial Realm martial artists in one breath, as well as four Fifth-Rank spirit beasts.

The lineup was extremely powerful.

He had originally thought that once Li Rui left the city, he would suppress and kill him halfway with absolute martial force.

But what he didn't expect was.

Li Rui was so cowardly; ever since that incident last time, it was as if he had been scared out of his wits, let alone leaving Qinghe City, he hadn't even stepped half a step out of the Anning Guard.

After Lady Lingluo's siege last time.

The city defense of Qinghe was now far superior to before, and the number of experts in the city was several times what it was then.

Forcibly attacking the city was definitely not an option.

Even sneaking into the city was extremely difficult.

Those too weak couldn't kill Li Rui and would only alert the enemy; those too strong would easily attract the attention of other experts of the same rank in the city, and then they would end up being surrounded and beaten, which would be even more miserable.

So they could only wait, but he didn't expect it to be a month, and it seemed Li Rui wouldn't be leaving the city for a long time.

But if he were to let go of the True Dragon Qi right before his eyes.

That was definitely impossible.

True Dragon Qi might allow him to break through to the Fourth-Rank; the status of a Primordial Realm Spirit Guide would soar, and he could possess significant speaking power within the Qi Clan.

Qi Feng of course wouldn't just end it like this.

Rushing into the city to grab someone was definitely not an option; he gritted his teeth:

He understood that this was a game between hunter and prey, and what was compared was patience; whoever had more patience would be the final winner.

"Keep waiting! I don't believe you won't leave the city."

"Big Brother!"

Ning Zhongtian's excited voice rang out outside the courtyard gate.

Li Rui, who was practicing martial arts in the front yard, turned his head and saw Ning Zhongtian running over.

He said excitedly to Li Rui:

"Big Brother, I've broken through!"

Li Rui looked at Ning Zhongtian; his aura was indeed much more profound.

"Sea-Observing?"

"..."

"Big Brother, talking like that is no fun..."

(Checking for errors...)

Ning Zhongtian had originally been hot as fire, but Li Rui's words were like a splash of cold water that extinguished him.

Li Rui looked at Ning Zhongtian with a smile:

"Opened up the Qi Sea?"

Ning Zhongtian nodded.

This morning.

The Qi Origin in his dantian exploded, and he finally took the hardest step of the Longmen Realm, opening up the Qi Sea.

Once the Qi Sea was opened, it meant he was a nailed-on Sea-Observing Realm expert.

This made Ning Zhongtian ecstatic, and he found Li Rui immediately to share the joy.

Although Ning Zhongtian was confident his talent was good, he never expected to be able to open the Qi Sea at the age of just over forty; he hadn't even dared to think about it before.

Compared to a peerless monster like Jiang Linxian, it was of course insufficient, but in Yunzhou, he was already an outstanding existence.

Li Rui nodded: "Not bad, keep working hard."

He wasn't surprised at all by Ning Zhongtian's breakthrough.

His foundation was good to begin with; all he lacked was that final push.

Even without external force, Ning Zhongtian would still have been able to open the Qi Sea.

Immortal Xuan Qi and spirit pills only accelerated this process.

One couldn't rely entirely on external force, but if one didn't use any external force at all, that would be falling into the inferior.

Climbing the martial path was ultimately about competing to be first.

And one wasn't an immortal; lifespan was ultimately limited. One step slow, and the lifetime upper limit would be lowered.

Why else would those major sects and clans easily produce peerless experts? It was precisely because they had sufficient external force, so they could more easily reach their upper limit.

If one were a mud-legged person, even if the potential were greater, if it couldn't be realized, it wouldn't be much different.

Li Rui wanting to be an official and wanting fame was precisely for this reason.

Everyone in the world was also like this.

Although Li Rui teased him with his words, he was actually very happy in his heart.

His relationship with Ning Zhongtian was already excellent.

Having opened the Qi Sea, he was looking at the Sea-Observing Realm; a Fifth-Rank martial artist was an extremely impressive combat force wherever he was placed.

"Solidify your foundation, don't be impatient."

Li Rui patted Ning Zhongtian on the shoulder.

Ning Zhongtian was filled with passion again; he grinned: "Big Brother, I don't believe that this time I still can't catch up to you!"

Speaking of this.

Ning Zhongtian was even more depressed.

When he first met Li Rui, he was an Alliance Leader, and Li Rui was just a Hall Master, separated by several levels.

But only ten years had passed.

He was still in the Longmen Realm, but Li Rui had exaggeratedly flown from Eighth-Rank to Fifth-Rank.

Ning Zhongtian wasn't bad; his advancement speed was normal.

What wasn't normal was Li Rui.

Who had ever seen a freak who broke through five major realms in ten years?

Even Jiang Linxian wasn't this terrifying.

It had always been Li Rui chasing and then surpassing, and now it was finally his turn.

Ning Zhongtian didn't believe that Li Rui could break through to the Primordial Realm faster than he could break through to the Sea-Observing Realm.

One couldn't be this unreasonable, right?

Li Rui: "Fourth Brother, having this heart is a good thing; the future is yours."

Ning Zhongtian blinked.

Why did he feel this sentence was so familiar.

At this time.

Wang Zhao happened to walk from the stable to the front yard, seeing Ning Zhongtian and greeting him enthusiastically: "Fourth Uncle."

"It's little Zhao."

Seeing it was Wang Zhao, Ning Zhongtian's mood improved quite a bit.

In Li Rui's courtyard, the one he liked most was Wang Zhao, because this child was honest and obedient.

Dealing with too many smart people, he unknowingly liked Wang Zhao's temperament more.

Ning Zhongtian squinted: "Big Brother, this child Zhao has good sinews and bones; I estimate he can become Seventh-Rank in a few years. Incredible."

Li Rui: "Zhao has only been practicing martial arts for a short time; it can't be rushed."

The sound of hammering iron rang in Ning Zhongtian's ears.

He couldn't help but sigh.

The Li Canjun's Mansion could now be called full of talent.

Liang He and Liu Tiezhu were both genuine Willow Sinew Realm martial artists, already able to take charge on their own in Qinghe.

And they had the advantage of being young.

Compared to those genius disciples of the Huaqing Sect, they weren't weak at all.

Ning Zhongtian turned to look at Li Rui.

He couldn't help but feel fortunate that he had become brothers with Li Rui; if they had become enemies, encountering such a terrifying opponent would truly make one unable to sit or sleep in peace.

Li Canjun's Mansion, main room.

Secret chamber.

Li Rui held the "Soldier" character scroll written by Yuan Dingting in his hand.

Although it was only a single "Soldier" character, it seemed to contain infinite martial path true intent; this was the power of the top ten in the world, able to carry the Dao with a character.

This was actually the method of a master of talisman Dao.

Ordinary talisman masters being able to carry Qi with a character was already excellent comprehension; as for carrying the Dao with a character, that was something only a Great Talisman Master could do.

Yunzhou was remote.

Most sects were dangerous due to martial paths, so talisman masters and array masters were extremely rare.

It was said that in the Central Plains, that was truly a hundred flowers blooming.

They had played with true Qi until it blossomed.

Li Rui's internal Military Saint true intent and the "Soldier" character scroll were linked, and he was comprehending the Military Saint's will within the "Soldier" character scroll.

Before, at the Qinghe enclosure.

Yuan Dingting only emitted a trace of Military Saint true intent, targeting the hundreds of people listening to martial arts.

The "Soldier" character scroll before his eyes was the embodiment of the Military Saint's true intent, and it was only for Li Rui alone; the effect was naturally not to be mentioned in the same breath.

Li Rui only felt as if he saw a divine spear tearing through heaven and earth.

The next instant.

This long spear actually appeared in his dantian.

Stirring up monstrous waves in the Qi Sea.

And then it shot straight into the clouds, pushing aside the layers of dark clouds above the Qi Sea, and behind the dark clouds, he saw a bright moon slowly reveal itself.

Seeing such a scene.

Li Rui's pupils shrank violently:

"Rising Bright Moon!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 308 =====