Chapter 142: Town-State Dharma Artifact, Erhuan Pill

Although she had not suffered any substantial injury during the assassination just now, the shock in Xici's heart at this moment could not be described in words.

Having sat in power over the Jin Dynasty for decades, she had weathered many storms and encountered countless assassination attempts by rebels and traitors, but none had ever posed such a profound threat to her as today.

First, Li Liansheng, the old servant who had served her for over a decade, was manipulated into poisoning her, followed by the extremely bizarre methods of the invisible assassin, especially that evil technique that froze one's body and even True Gang in an instant; if not for her cultivation at the Heavenly Gang realm being peerless under Heaven, any ordinary Grandmaster would have likely become a corpse by now!

And there was no doubt about it.

Aside from that extremely mysterious Lu Yuan, whom she already viewed as a thorn in her side and a nail in her eye, there was no one else who could manipulate Li Liansheng and produce the Meteor Dragon Poison.

And hearing what Xici said.

"What?"

Cang Jige and Bu Tiansuo, the two Great Shamans, had horrified expressions and ashen faces:

"How preposterous! This traitor actually dared to sneak into the palace to assassinate; it is simply lawless!"

"Old Buddha, where did this person flee to? We shall go and capture him now!"

Xici took a deep breath and waved her hand:

"No need. This person's methods are bizarre; he has likely already escaped the palace by now. Even if the two of you joined forces, you would not be able to catch up."

Bu Tiansuo's killing intent boiled over, and he said sternly:

"Old Buddha, this thief is so rampant that he treats the imperial court as nothing. If he is not brought to justice and executed, the majesty and laws of the court will cease to exist!"

Xici first waved away the large number of guards and death-sworn soldiers, then looked coldly at the two:

"Do you think I do not want to? This person's strength is almost not inferior to mine, and his methods are extremely bizarre; not only can he turn invisible and emit lightning-fast golden light that is hard to defend against, but he also possesses an evil technique that can freeze a person's body and Qi, and he is even suspected of being able to traverse the air."

"Such various methods cannot be measured by reason. Let alone you, even if I were to engage him again, I might not necessarily be able to do anything to him. In such a case, how can he be brought to justice and executed!?"

"Strength not inferior to the Old Buddha?"

After all, having not witnessed the fierce battle just now, upon hearing Xici's words, Cang Jige and Bu Tiansuo could not help but have their expressions change, their tones shaken:

"Invisibility, freezing bodies, traversing the air..."

"Such methods are not something that Martial Arts or Daoist Arts can achieve. Could this person be!?"

Xici's eyes were extremely gloomy, as if carrying a certain hope:

"I can feel that this person has not cultivated True Gang, yet his aura when attacking is even better than True Gang; it is wondrous and extraordinary."

"Looking through ancient texts, many mention that in the ancient era, there existed Supernatural Powers, Dharma Techniques, Immortals, and Qi Refiners, and even some incomplete Qi Refining classics have been passed down. However, these secret techniques and classics were all impossible to cultivate. I originally thought the so-called Immortal and Qi Refining Dao were merely false legends compiled by predecessors, but now it seems these things may not be fake..."

Including Cang Jige and Bu Tiansuo, their eyes could not help but flicker violently:

"The Old Buddha is right. Just as in the Middle Ages when Eighth Realm Heavenly Gang Grandmasters were not rare, yet now they have almost gone extinct, the Immortal Dao may have truly existed in ancient times, only gradually cut off and perished because the Heaven and Earth have changed and the Spiritual Machine has vanished; mortal bodies are no longer able to cultivate it."

"That Lu Yuan suddenly appeared out of nowhere and is suspected of mastering Immortal techniques; he likely encountered some extremely incredible opportunity and cracked the secret of the Immortals, otherwise, it cannot be explained."

Xici nodded, narrowed her eyes, and said:

"Therefore, all of us in the Jin Clan must find a way to take this villain down. Not only can we preserve the Jin Clan's empire and extend the court's life for another five hundred years, but we may also have a chance to glimpse the Immortal Dao. By then, even the Western powers will be nothing to fear!"

Cang Jige and Bu Tiansuo were slightly moved, while simultaneously knitting their brows in trepidation:

"The Old Buddha is right, but this person's strength and methods are so formidable that even if we lead elite troops to surround and suppress him, we may not be able to do anything and might only alert the enemy."

"With such methods of invisibility, even if the two of us joined with the three Grandmasters from the Upper Three Banners, we would not dare guarantee we could completely keep him here. If he were to escape, it would be an endless disaster."

If it were merely an ordinary Grandmaster, one would only need to dispatch two or three Grandmasters, plus the support of elite Firearm and Cannon battalions, to basically surround and kill them.

However, Lu Yuan had just retreated calmly and unscathed from under Xici's hand, and was even evaluated by Xici as having strength comparable to her own. In this situation, let alone two or three True Martial Grandmasters, even if the five Grandmasters currently existing in the Jin Clan all attacked together, it is not certain they could do anything.

And if the opponent broke through the encirclement and wandered around, lurking and assassinating, the destruction and influence caused would be unimaginable. All the princes and ministers of the Jin Dynasty would be unable to sleep or eat in peace, living in constant fear, and it would surely cause chaos throughout the world.

Xici naturally understood that in the current Great Jin, apart from herself, no one could deal with such a person, and she said coldly:

"This villain is so thorny that ordinary means can no longer deal with him. You all should not act rashly for now."

"I suffered some loss of vitality from engaging him and need to rest for a period of time. At the same time, I will also consult the classics and various inheritances in the Scripture Repository to see if I can find a way to deal with this villain. If I cannot find it, I will return to the Ancestral Land to offer sacrifices to the ancestors, invite the Ancestral Dharma Artifact, and then go to deal with this villain!"

To deal with the invisible assassin just now, she had basically used her full strength. Such a massive consumption had already led to the loss of her essence, shortening her lifespan by at least two or three years.

And even so, she was instead even more eager to learn the secrets and opportunities Lu Yuan possessed.

After all, throughout history, the Immortal Dao had always been directly linked to longevity and immortality. For a living fossil like Xici, whose power, status, and cultivation were all at the pinnacle of the world, nothing was more tempting than extending her lifespan.

Therefore, even though Lu Yuan's previous assassination caused an unprecedented threat, she would use any means necessary to take him down.

As for the method of response, the imperial court had destroyed mountains and temples, wiping out many sects; there were thousands of various classics in the Scripture Hall, and there was no lack of strange skills and unique arts, so perhaps she could find a way to crack Lu Yuan's strange and bizarre methods;

If not, the Jin Clan's Ancestral Land, between the White Mountain Black Water, also enshrined the Jin Clan's Town-State Dharma Artifact.

This Dharma Artifact had been passed down for a thousand years. It was precisely because of the existence of this Dharma Artifact, plus a once-in-a-millennium opportunity, that the Jin Clan people, numbering less than one-tenth, were able to break through strong passes like bamboo, wipe out the Jing Dynasty, and enter Shenzhou.

As long as she held this Town-State Dharma Artifact and found a way to crack the strange arts, Xici believed that when facing the opponent again, she would surely be able to suppress him with a flip of her hand, and the secret of Immortal longevity would also be within her grasp!

Naturally, he was unaware of the turmoil within the palace.

At this moment, Lu Yuan was already Wind Controlling between Heaven and Earth, having left Tianjing City.

In the wild countryside more than ten miles outside Tianjing City, he descended surrounded by a light breeze and landed on a mountain rock. Afterward, he withdrew his Invisibility Technique and took out several Bait Stone Pills and Healing Bait Return Pills from his Pot Heaven Bag to consume.

Of course, he had not suffered any injuries; it was just that he had consumed too much from frequently using techniques just now, so he was now using the Ingestion Technique to decompose and refine the medicinal power of the Healing Bait Return Pills into essence to restore his own Dharma Power.

In fact, within the "Cooking Stones" section of the "Shenxian Fue Danshi Lianyao Fa," there were records of great pills specifically for restoring Dharma Power, but Lu Yuan had always been either busy with cultivation or various miscellaneous matters and had never had the chance to try refining them.

"My Dharma Power is still somewhat insufficient..."

Having swallowed two Healing Bait Return Pills in succession, Lu Yuan, whose Dharma Power had recovered slightly, opened his eyes and sighed with bright, clear eyes:

"I didn't manage to kill that old witch even with my full strength; I truly underestimated the so-called Eighth Realm Heavenly Gang Grandmaster."

Strictly speaking, killing Xici was not in his plan.

The reason he followed Li Liansheng to the Capital and snuck into the palace was mainly because he wanted to observe the effects of the Nightmare Prayer Technique throughout the process, including Li Liansheng secretly poisoning Xici, which was also the result of the Nightmare Prayer Technique distorting memory and cognition.

Even though the poisoning was not completely successful and the Nightmare Prayer Technique failed under Xici's coercion and pressure, Lu Yuan was still very satisfied.

After all, he was only at the early stage of Refining Essence into Qi and had not even given birth to Divine Sense, which was why the Nightmare Prayer Technique had limited performance. If he broke through to Refining Qi into Spirit and gave birth to Divine Sense, performing this technique would likely alter a person's memory and cognition in an instant, making it impossible to discover or crack.

Unlike other Earthly Fiend Arts, the Nightmare Prayer technique was not suitable to be exposed for the time being. To prevent Li Liansheng from leaking secrets, he had acted decisively to kill him, thereby being discovered by Xici, leading to a fierce battle between the two sides.

Of course, this also had an element of Lu Yuan intentionally testing her. Although he had no intention of letting Xici die yet as the timing was not right, he was quite curious about the so-called Heavenly Gang Grandmaster realm and did not mind using this opportunity to test the other party's mettle.

The result of the final test was that he had seemingly underestimated this person and this realm.

Although Xici was completely unable to do anything to him, that True Gang Qi on Xici's body was, in terms of quality, surprisingly close to the True Qi he had formed by Refining Essence into Qi, to the point that it was difficult to break through without using his full strength.

The reason he was able to slash through the opponent's Buddha-like Gang Qi with his final strike before retreating was mainly due to the sharpness of the Seven Star Dragon Abyss infused with Dharma Power.

But because he had used the Invisibility Technique for a long time while sneaking into the palace, and had unleashed various Dharma Techniques while fighting Xici, his Dharma Power was severely depleted; after that sword strike, his Dharma Power had hit rock bottom, making it truly inadvisable to continue the entanglement, so he had no choice but to retreat.

The current situation was that Xici, a Heavenly Gang Grandmaster, could not do anything to Lu Yuan, but for the current Lu Yuan, wanting to kill the opponent was also quite difficult; even if he spared no cost, the probability of success was only fifty-fifty, and there was even a slight risk.

At the current point in time, killing Xici was not strictly necessary, and with Lu Yuan's usual steady approach, after gauging the opponent's strength, he only needed to return and cultivate in stillness for a year or half a year to strengthen his Dharma Power, then upgrade his Earthly Fiend Arts; once the timing was right, he could crush the opponent with certainty, so there was naturally no need to risk a life-or-death struggle now.

Thinking of this.

He took out a few more Bait Stone Pills, and only after his Dharma Power had recovered by more than half did he form a hand seal; a sudden breeze appeared, lifting him into the high sky and flying toward Jinjin.

Although the limitations of his Dharma Power meant he could not fly for too long, the flight speed of the Wind Riding Technique was far superior to the current Steam Train, easily exceeding two hundred kilometers per hour.

For a distance of two or three hundred li, even including the time for rest and Dharma Power recovery, he could arrive in less than an hour, and he could also improve his mastery of 【Wind Riding】, so there was naturally no need to travel in a primitive way.

Just like that, landing periodically to ingest pills and recover Dharma Power, Lu Yuan flew back to Jinjin with his physical body after less than an hour.

Returning to the villa of the association, the disciples were all completely unaware, and no one knew that their master had already reached Tianjing and fought a battle with Xici in the dragon's den and tiger's lair of the palace.

In the blink of an eye, time passed day by day.

On the second day after Lu Yuan returned to Jinjin, the group of eunuchs and Niangan Office experts who had come with Li Liansheng seemed to have received some news and hurriedly withdrew from Jinjin.

Discovering this situation, the father and son Chen Zhantang and Chen Bolong were naturally greatly astonished, and even felt uneasy, not knowing what means Lu Yuan had used.

Chen Bolong was a businessman after all, so after two days, he visited under the guise of presenting gifts and cautiously made inquiries.

Lu Yuan naturally did not explain too much, only saying that he had reached an agreement with the Jin Dynasty and those lackeys would no longer come to trouble the Chen family.

In fact, this was indeed the case; having been assassinated by him in such a display of power, Xici would inevitably be terrified, and without absolute certainty, he would never dare to provoke him or those around him again.

Having received this reply, Chen Bolong finally felt relieved and gratefully took his leave.

As for the Hundred-Year Ginseng King he had brought, it was consumed by Lu Yuan that very night after being prepared through Tiaohe Zhishu.

It had to be said that such a large Ginseng King indeed had extraordinary medicinal power, providing essence and Qi comparable to four or five Bait Stone Pills, allowing Lu Yuan to refine five more wisps of Dharma Power overnight.

Subsequently, Lu Yuan began to continue his cultivation in stillness step by step, while using his spare time to start collecting various materials, preparing to attempt to refine the great pill from the *Shenxian Fue Danshi Lianyao Fa* that could be used to replenish Dharma Power: the Qi Benefiting Bait Return Pill.

This pill required stone milk, purple fluorite, pearls, Sanguisorba root, and many other rare materials, and could only be refined after being combined for a day and a night; in terms of complexity alone, it was far superior to the two great pills, the Bait Stone Pill and the Healing Bait Return Pill.

Collecting the materials alone took three days; if it weren't for the fact that Lu Yuan now had so many disciples under his command, he might not have been able to gather them all in ten days or half a month on his own.

Once the materials were gathered, he began refining them directly in the fire room of his villa.

Although the refining difficulty of the Qi Benefiting Bait Return Pill was much higher than the two great pills he had already mastered, he was now experienced in refining, and after only two nights of failure, he successfully refined the first batch, quickly becoming proficient.

After the first batch of Qi Benefiting Bait Return Pills was produced, Lu Yuan ingested one to try it out immediately, only to discover that after being enhanced by Tiaohe Zhishu and then ingested and refined, one Qi Benefiting Bait Return Pill could restore a full one-third of his Dharma Power!

It only took three quarters of an hour to ingest and refine, and at most half an hour, he could fully replenish his depleted Dharma Power!

This undoubtedly greatly compensated for his endurance, allowing him to calmly handle any special situations that required high-frequency combat.

(End of chapter)