Chapter 173: The Crouching Dragon and Young Phoenix of Linjiang Commandery

Jiang Qiulan sat quietly by the table at this moment, yet the sharpness emanating from her entire body finally revealed what it meant to be the sharpest sword of Outside Qingzhou.

Shen Yi noncommittally withdrew his gaze, reached out to take the small wine jar, and cracked open the clay seal.

He took a faint sip of the medicinal wine.

Deceiving the brothers is no problem, after all, it won't cost a piece of flesh……

If she truly had such confidence to look down on everything, how could she possibly have changed into this long dress.

This is the price of being entrusted with too many expectations. When everyone in Outside Qingzhou regarded her as hope, she was essentially hoisted onto a tall pyre; every gaze of reverence was another handful of dry firewood tossed onto the flames.

Shen Yi did not offer any words of comfort. The two of them were merely colleagues, and she had helped him a great deal. If it were some other matter requiring help, he naturally would not refuse, but they were not yet close enough to open their hearts.

Moreover, compared to the others in Outside Qingzhou, he only trusted the blade in his own hand.

The room fell into silence.

「……」

Jiang Qiulan stared at the young man's face, her beautiful eyes flickering uncertainly.

After a moment, the intense sharpness about her slowly faded.

It was as if a Baohua Xianzi from a painting had suddenly stepped into the mortal world—somewhat less cold and aloof, with a touch more reality.

She needed to forever maintain the appearance of having everything under control in front of others, but before Shen Yi, he could always see through her true emotions at a single glance.

Jiang Qiulan raised the wine jar, then drained it in one gulp. The amber-colored liquor slid down from the corner of her lips all the way to her Bai Xi neck, staining her collar wet..

She closed her eyes, her thick lashes trembling lightly: 「It's about to break through, I'm a little anxious. 」

Miss did not need anyone else's response; she merely wanted someone to confide in, and the young man who, like her, was accustomed to silence was undoubtedly the most suitable candidate.

「But when I put on this outfit, all these years of cultivation seem to have become a joke. 」

「I will kill it. 」

Jiang Qiulan opened her eyes again. The deliberate sharpness had vanished from her pitch-black eyes; they were incomparably calm, yet radiated a chilling killing intent.

Perhaps it was an illusion, but a barely perceptible cracking sound suddenly rang out in the silent room. Upon careful discernment, it was not a sound at all, but a fluctuation of Qi.

Shen Yi set down the wine jar and looked over, somewhat speechless: 「……」

Cultivation is clearly a very serious matter, requiring vast amounts of lifespan to pile up realm after realm. Could you please not do this—casually speaking a couple of sentences and stirring up some commotion.

「Thank you. 」

Jiang Qiulan calmed her emotions, restrained the killing intent, and cast a gentle gaze toward the young man.

She was one step closer to becoming a Slain Hunyuan Sect master.

「You're welcome. You could stick a wooden stump here and it would have the same effect. 」 Shen Yi said casually.

Unexpectedly, Jiang Qiulan seriously shook her head: 「It's not the same. 」

The talent she had always taken pride in had, for the first time, tasted the feeling of being crushed by someone, and she had truly been somewhat stung.

Moreover, his nonchalant attitude toward the world, as if he cared about nothing, also made Jiang Qiulan feel envious.

Precisely because of this, she had returned to this courtyard tonight.

「You should already be at the perfect realm of Core Condensation now. With your cleverness, crossing those three hurdles might be countless times faster than me. 」 Jiang Qiulan said with a touch of emotion.

Plant the Dao Seed, nurture the Dao Embryo, condense the Dao Infant. Once the Dao Infant has accumulated sufficient foundation and completely shatters the inner elixir, one becomes a Slain Hunyuan Wuji Sect Master.

「How long does it take for someone who isn't clever? 」 Shen Yi suddenly sensed something amiss.

「You don't need to worry about that. 」 Jiang Qiulan softly advised. Every martial artist, upon first entering the Embracing Elixir Stage, is more or less a little nervous. He probably still didn't know just how astonishing his talent and comprehension were.

「I'm asking on someone else's behalf. 」 Shen Yi withdrew his gaze.

「Not clever……」 Jiang Qiulan hesitated, as if feeling it was somewhat impolite, and said apologetically: 「For example, someone like General Chen, who planted his divine seed at about two hundred years old and entered the Embracing Elixir Stage. It wasn't until his last trip to Qingfeng Mountain that he broke through the second hurdle……and he walks the path of Wu Xian, commands the incense offerings of an entire commandery, and is in no way lacking resources. 」

It was evident that Chen Qiankun was the absolute best example she could cite.

He walks the shortcut of the Yin Spirit, which is far simpler than the Slain Hunyuan path.

But after more than six hundred years, the Yin Spirit still had not been able to awaken, and he could only barely borrow some of its abilities.

「……」

Shen Yi glanced at the Dark Armor on his body. What a coincidence.

This small commandery of Linjiang actually possessed two Demon-Suppressing Generals of ordinary aptitude. That truly wasn't easy.

Fortunately, in the face of the vast lifespan of demons, several hundred years wasn't actually that much.

After learning Tiannan Dan Shi, Shen Yi had a fairly good understanding of the Embracing Elixir Stage. The difficulties essentially came down to three points.

The first was sufficient resources. For instance, if one wished to nurture with Qi and blood, one had to seek out all sorts of precious medicines, ingest them, refine them into the power of Qi and blood, and finally pour them into the inner elixir. This process was exceedingly slow, and the precious medicines required were an astronomical number.

But Shen Yi actually already had an idea for this problem.

He planned to use the most easily obtained demonic power to nurture it. Borrowing the domineering devouring method of the Heavenly Demon Outer Elixir, he could store demonic power within his body in an instant, without needing to refine it himself, and feed it directly to the inner elixir—effectively saving one step.

The second difficulty was, after accumulating enough, how to condense these things into a Dao Seed. The third was, after condensing it, one still had to fuse one's divine sense into it.

The latter two were most likely the reason for General Chen's slow progress.

But for Shen Yi, all of these could be solved with demon lifespan. The only problem right now was that he didn't have enough demon cores on hand.

Once he obtained the treasure, it was also time to return to Outside Qingzhou.

Just then, a figure rushed in from outside the courtyard in some haste.

Jiang Chengyun burst into the courtyard and looked at the two figures sitting across from each other inside the room.

His expression gradually turned odd: 「You two……」

No wonder he couldn't find anyone for half a day. So in the end, he was the only one who went to the banquet?

Jiang Chengyun wasn't blaming the two of them; he just felt……this matter seemed to have gotten a little out of hand.

He stepped slightly aside, revealing the effeminate young man in a dark-green robe behind him.

Prince Jinjiang walked to the front of the room, his gaze sweeping over the two of them, and then glancing at the empty wine jars on the table.

Shen Yi in his Dark Armor, Jiang Qiulan in her black dress—the two clearly weren't speaking, yet just sitting there quietly gave off an incomparably harmonious feeling.

"Miss Jiang." Prince Jinjiang's voice broke the silence.

Jiang Qiulan turned to look.

She had no intention of having any further entanglement with the Wang Fu, but since she had been the one to break the appointment, she calmly rose, gave a slight nod of her chin, and said, "I have already had someone inform the Wang Fei. There are still important matters waiting for me in Qingzhou, and I truly have no mind for other things. Please trouble Prince Jinjiang to convey my apologies to the Wang Fei on my behalf, and pardon Qiulan's impropriety."

She had only ever agreed to come over to give the Prince some pointers on his martial studies — that did not include drinking and dining.

However, after yesterday's meeting, it was obvious that the Prince's mind was not on the martial Dao at all, so naturally she had no reason to linger.

(End of chapter)