Chapter 97: The Path to the Revival of the Jin Gang Gate

【First year, you consumed body-tempering treasure medicines and began cultivating the Bodhi Jin Gang Precious Body】

Inside the room, Shen Yi stowed all the hundred-plus bottles of body-tempering pills into the Silver Bell.

Don't let the bell's small size fool you—there's more than enough room to hold personal items.

With a flip of his palm, soybean-sized red pills, tinged with the faint scent of beast blood, were gradually sent into his mouth—a roughly one-year supply.

【Second year, the body-tempering method you once practiced seemed to share the same path as this precious body. You picked it up extremely quickly, and with the constant aid of treasure medicines, your cultivation efficiency greatly improved】

【Fifth year, you gradually noticed something was off. The Bodhi Jin Gang Precious Body seemed to require the aid of a specific spiritual plant, and your cultivation efficiency dropped】

Looking at the prompt on the panel, Shen Yi had long since heard about it from others, so he had prepared himself in advance.

With the aid of Jin Gang Bodhi Seeds and treasure medicines, it would take a hundred and eighty years.

Then doubling that for himself should be more than enough.

This kind of slow-grinding art—every bit of tempering yields a bit of harvest—is far more reliable than those things that rely on enlightenment.

The only thing worth looking forward to is whether it can be combined with his demon talents to deduce even stronger demon martial arts.

As time slowly passed.

"Too bad it's almost all eaten. To get more, I'll have to earn merit first, and it's also easy to arouse suspicion…"

Not to mention he had no extra merit now—even if he did, it would be hard to explain where a hundred-year supply of pills had gone.

Shen Yi flipped his palm again; only a handful of pills remained in his hand. He let out a small sigh.

Yet this hundred-year supply of pills, once ingested, brought an increasingly full-bodied strength and skin that emitted a faint glimmer.

One must understand that with the augmentation of the Flood Dragon demon and Crocodile Dragon talents, Shen Yi's current strength was already at a crushing level within the Jade Liquid Realm—and yet this body-tempering martial art, on top of that foundation, could still give him a very noticeable boost!

One could hardly imagine—before the Bodhi Jin Gang Treasure Tree had withered, sect disciples only needed the threshold of early stage of Jade Liquid Realm to mass-produce combat power comparable to Jade Liquid Perfection. How terrifying that must have been.

Even without a Nascent Core Realm expert presiding, who wouldn't fear such a group of thick-skinned, hard-hitting disciples?

【Year six hundred and twenty-four, even without the aid of spiritual plants and treasure medicines, relying on your long span of time, you still cultivated the Bodhi Jin Gang Precious Body to perfection…】

【Jade Liquid · Bodhi Jin Gang Precious Body (Perfection)】

【Remaining demon lifespan: four hundred and seventy-four years】

A radiant white light flared across his whole body, then quickly sank into his skin.

Shen Yi closed his eyes to feel it carefully, and was immediately surprised. Just in terms of strength augmentation, this Bodhi Jin Gang Precious Body was about eighty percent of the Flood Dragon demon's power.

That was a young flood dragon over ten zhang long.

Literally tearing demons apart with his bare hands.

Not to mention—

Shen Yi looked at his arm. This time he didn't take a knife to cut himself again—just pressed it lightly twice with a fingertip and reached his conclusion.

If he were back on Qingfeng Mountain, Zhang Hengzhou's two claws, in that exhausted state, absolutely could not have pierced through his shoulders so easily, let alone any young flood dragon or crocodile dragon.

It would take at least a Nascent Core Realm martial artist properly executing a martial art to have any chance of breaking through his defense.

It was barely enough.

After all, he wasn't a wooden stake, standing there letting people hit him.

He wasn't sure if he was being a bit presumptuous.

But Shen Yi truly felt that, with the Heavenly Demon Outer Pill and such a powerful physical body, even though he hadn't yet mastered any Nascent Core Realm martial arts, if it were a martial artist who had just condensed a nascent core… they probably wouldn't be his match.

If he could complete his Nascent Core Realm methods, even if the Flood Dragon Lord were brought back to life, it wouldn't be impossible to try fighting him.

Compared to Nascent Core methods, the way to obtain Nascent Core martial arts was much simpler.

After all, the demons he had slain might not have been skilled in martial artists' internal cultivation, but how to kill people, which methods were more brutal—they understood that better than anyone.

As long as he had enough demon treasure crystals, it shouldn't be much of a problem.

Shen Yi reached for the last lightness skill, flipped through it briefly, and roughly understood it.

This White Colt Divine Step, compared to the White Ape Play-with-Serpent, was better suited for long-distance travel. The speed boost wasn't great—only the endurance was more lasting. It wasn't a footwork for close-quarters entanglement.

With only four hundred-plus years of demon lifespan left, he needed to reserve a portion to replenish his qi sea. After all, in his last battle with the Flood Dragon demon, even though the opponent was half-crippled, it had still cost him a comparable amount of lifespan.

As for this method, he would consider it when his savings were more abundant.

He activated the Silver Bell and stowed all the martial arts on the bed into it.

Just then, shouts came from outside the courtyard again.

……

"Lord Shen!"

After exchanging greetings, Li Xinhan, wrapped in bandages, limped and hobbled his way in through the night.

Wooden-faced, he walked step by step into the room, pulled over a chair and sat down, then stared fixedly at Shen Yi.

As if trying to see clearly whether this was really the government office constable he had personally brought back from Bai Yun County. After a long while, he slumped back dejectedly: "Lord Shen, you're truly ruthless."

He was only one merit short of being promoted to Deputy General.

Recruiting Shen Yi was also because he thought the other could help him.

After the matter at Shuiyun Township, Li Xinhan, as the commanding officer, hadn't touched that merit at all, thinking it rightfully belonged to Shen Yi. The other had just joined Zhen Mo Si and happened to need merit to establish himself.

He had been looking forward to recovering from his injuries so he could properly repay the other for saving his life.

Earlier, upon learning his elder sister had failed to keep Shen Yi, he had nearly fallen out with her.

But now—

Li Xinhan gritted his teeth, full of regret. Where did that man lack such a small amount? He might not have taken it to heart at all.

"If your injury hasn't healed, you shouldn't be running around."

Shen Yi slowly sat up. After staying on Qingfeng Mountain for so long, he'd finally gotten a chance to rest… why did these people keep coming one after another?

He didn't feel any particular aversion toward the Li siblings—after all, they had gone on assignments together. He was just somewhat wary of their noble family background, especially after personally witnessing the tragic state of the Qingfeng Mountain disciples, that feeling deepened.

But as long as they didn't open their mouths to recruit him or pull some strange stunts, they were actually decent people.

After all, to most Captains, that document was truly a lifeline.

"Mm?"

Li Xinhan suddenly looked toward the door in some confusion, only to see his usually fearless older sister now standing in the courtyard, looking slightly ill at ease.

What was going on?

Let alone an aide-de-camp, even a disciple of the Regional Commander, the other party would dare to draw a short sword against — let alone that Shen Yi was an acquaintance.

"Lord Shen has just returned and needs rest. You two chat, I'll just hang around for a bit."

Li Mujin tugged at her rosy lips, recalling the scene of the tall horse passing right before her, and awkwardly gathered the cuff of her sleeve.

Seeing her look full of guilt.

Shen Yi roughly guessed what was on her mind, lazily rose to pour water, and teased lightly: "You weren't that polite that day — that little mouth of yours could really talk."

His way of judging good from bad was simple: who hoped he lived, and who was dead set on seeing him dead. Though the other party wasn't pure about it, and wasn't of his own sort either, she clearly belonged to the former.

How could there be so many pure people in this world? If someone hopes you well, that's already not bad…

Hearing this, Li Mujin's face instantly flushed red. Remembering what had happened under the tree earlier, she stammered out an explanation: "I… meant no harm."

No matter what little schemes she harbored, she had never truly intended to put Shen Yi in danger — she had only assumed Fang Heng had already arranged things for him, which led to the awkward moment of the three of them staring at each other in the end.

"What's the matter with you two? Sis, didn't you have something to tell him?"

Li Xinhan's gaze shifted in confusion between the two of them.

Hearing this, Li Mujin finally stepped into the room and said hesitantly: "There is one thing… After you went to Qingfeng Mountain, Ma Tao and I packed up our things, took the document and prepared to leave Outside Qingzhou first… I saw two Jin Gang Gate disciples come looking for your friend — the big-bearded one."

Shen Yi's hand pouring water paused slightly: "And then?"

"I saw they didn't look too friendly, so I went over and asked a couple of questions, but your friend seemed very anxious and wouldn't let me interfere… I had no choice but to order them to send the person back once they were done."

At this point, Li Mujin bit her lip. She knew what Shen Yi minded most, but still summoned her courage to explain: "I haven't been at Zhen Mo Si long, and I'm rather lazy — I'm only a Captain, and may not be able to keep them in line… so I used the family's name."

"I also had Li Xiaoer tail them for a stretch, and found they'd left Outside Qingzhou. I had a transfer order on me, and really couldn't follow any further."

After speaking, Li Mujin stood in place with a slightly apologetic look.

Shen Yi handed her the teacup and said seriously: "Many thanks, Miss Li. You've worked hard."

With someone from a first-rate faction like the Li family stepping in, the odds of Butcher Zhang running into trouble could be reduced to a negligible level.

"As long as you don't mind." Li Mujin held the teacup, her charming cheeks flushing a little more.

"Sigh, I thought it was something serious — making you, an aide-de-camp of Zhen Mo Si, wait for them? What big shots."

Li Xinhan struggled to sit up straight and said casually: "Wait till I send out an invitation, find some excuse to lure that bunch of dandies out — Jin Gang Gate included. Then you can just interrogate them face to face. How about tomorrow?"

"You plan to go meet people like that?" Li Mujin shot him a glance.

"So what? These are wounds from slaying demons."

Li Xinhan raised an eyebrow. If he waited a few more days and Shen Yi left, then claimed to know the youngest aide-de-camp in Zhen Mo Si — who would believe him?

How face-giving that would be — what was a little pain compared to that?

"Don't send the invitation in your own name. Let your pack of fair-weather friends do it. Once they know it's the Li family, the Jin Gang Gate people may not even show up."

【OUT】 Li Mujin shook her head. This younger brother of hers couldn't really connect with those people either—they chatted about romance and poetry, while he only knew about going on missions to earn merit, yet he insisted on putting on airs, enjoying that big-brother-leads-the-way feeling.

Li Mujin shook his head. This younger brother of his could never quite fit in with those people either—what they talked about was romance and poetry, while he only knew how to go on business trips and earn merit. Yet he insisted on putting on a front, enjoying that feeling of being the big brother leading the pack.

The Li family, as one of the Sixingwu Sect, sent every generation of direct descendants to serve in Zhen Mo Si. On the surface, their reputation in the jianghu was commanding and virtuous and respected; behind the scenes, they were probably nothing but traitors to the ancestors — the number one spineless faction that threw in its lot with the imperial court.

Who would truly befriend Li Xinhan deeply?

Just like the Li family's most recent affair — big and powerful, friendly with everyone, yet when something happened at Qingfeng Mountain, aside from not letting their own people take part, they didn't even show the slightest intention of lending a hand.

With that thought, she turned to look at Shen Yi: "Will you go, my lord? Or shall we go ask on your behalf?"

Shen Yi's expression was calm as he gave a slight nod.

"I'll go."

(End of chapter)