Chapter 161: Thousand-Jin Qi Art

Hoo!

Patches of light spread rapidly outward from the Divine Weapon Pavilion.

Patrol soldiers, nearby disciples, and old veterans surged forward; two squads were already charging straight toward him.

"Assassin!"

The sound of blades leaving sheaths rang out everywhere as that patrol squad lunged to kill him.

Li Yuan glanced once, leaped down, stamped heavily, and shot up like a hawk, sweeping across at extreme speed.

That entire patrol squad was stunned; they had faced the assassin head-on yet failed to react!

Holding such a heavy hammer, how could he run so fast?!

Several soldiers felt a chill in their hearts; how could they possibly stop a master with such lightness skill?

Hoo-hoo~~

Li Yuan sprinted, pushed off the ground, swept a hundred meters horizontally, rose over ten meters, and landed leaving only shallow footprints.

Houses, dense forests, and small hills were crossed with incredible speed by him, truly as if treading on flat ground, swift as an eagle.

"Two or three zhang off the ground, over a hundred meters in one go!"

Strong wind slapped his clothes, making them flap; Li Yuan still felt somewhat excited, internal energy surging as he sprinted at full force.

With an extra pair of Nine-Union Boots, plus internal energy flowing through his entire body inside and out, his speed had increased several-fold compared to before.

"These are just two pairs of third-tier boots; if I had five pairs of fifth-tier ones, how fast would I be?"

In his leaps and landings, Li Yuan even felt as if he were riding clouds and mist; the boost from these two pairs of boots was more obvious and intense than anything else at this moment.

He even had the illusion that if he truly had five pairs of fifth-tier boots, he could "rise four or five zhang off the ground and cover two or three li in one go"!

Hoo!

Going was slow, returning was fast.

Before news of the commotion at the Divine Weapon Pavilion could spread, Li Yuan had already reached the courtyard in the dark, changed his attire along the way, and stowed the heavy hammer.

He pretended to get up at night to use the latrine, startling Yu Jin and the other three men in the next room.

"Who?"

Yu Jin pushed the window open and stepped out; seeing it was Li Yuan getting up at night, he finally relaxed, secretly alerting himself that he had been too lax these past few days.

The other old veterans exchanged glances, their expressions tightening slightly.

They were rich in battlefield combat experience, but even the richest experience requires sleep, especially now that assassinations of disciples had become rare, so they would not be vigilant every single night.

But normally, they should absolutely have heard Li Yuan getting up at night; one could only say they were far too lax.

"Assassin!"

At this moment, faint shouts finally came from the night.

"Another assassin?! Little Li, back to your room!"

Yu Jin's face grew grim; as usual, he told Li Yuan to return to his room while the four men each took a corner, standing ready for battle.

Any assassin bold enough to show up at this hour was absolutely a master among masters.

"Hoo!"

Li Yuan returned to his room, closed the door, and only then exhaled a long breath; once relaxed, he immediately felt his whole body ache.

The combined boost of two Thousand-Jin forces had exploded beyond his limits; he suspected that if not for his Seven-Star Horizontal Cultivation being complete and his Internal Fortification fully accomplished, this single burst would have caused him no small injury.

But the power was equally immense.

With just one hammer strike, Sun Zan was beaten to the brink of death; with two, he was flattened into a meat patty.

Even though Sun Zan had lived in luxury for many years, he was still a master who had achieved Form Transformation; even masters like Ba Ba Wanli and Qiu Qiu Changying who had reached great mastery in Form Transformation might not have killed him in two moves.

After Internal Fortification was fully accomplished and Horizontal Cultivation was complete, the power of the stacked bursts he could command far exceeded what it was before.

"To hammer iron, one must be hard oneself; if the physique is insufficient, stacking too much will injure oneself."

Li Yuan swallowed two Yuan-Returning Pills in quick succession, shook his sore, numb, and stinging arms: "Did those two hammer strikes deliver a hundred thousand jin of force?"

Muttering to himself, Li Yuan rolled up his sleeves; both his arms were bruised black and blue, clearly because the blood vessels could not withstand that instantaneous burst.

"Squeak-squeak!"

Under the bed, the little mouse squeaked twice, but as if already accustomed, it showed none of the alarm it had displayed before.

"Hoo!"

"Haa!"

Li Yuan circulated his qi and blood for a while; after the black and blue bruises on his body faded, he practiced two sets of Soldier-Body Postures, and only stopped once he felt the stinging inside his body dissipate.

He lit a candle, poured a cup of tea, sat down to reflect and ponder, and Li Yuan's face grew grim:

"I have lived too comfortably these past days; knowing full well that Sun Zan might be plotting against me, yet I did not strike early..."

After Sun Zan held his birthday banquet, Li Yuan had sensed the former's hostility, but first, the man held a special status, and second, after killing Ding Zhi, the situation was tense, so he had not acted.

Afterwards, he became so absorbed in hammering iron that he nearly forgot about this matter...

"I am still too merciful and soft-handed."

Li Yuan reflected on himself.

If it had been Han Han Chuijun, Sun Zan probably wouldn't even have been able to hold his birthday banquet, right?

After pondering for a long time, Daoist Li still had to admit that his nature was far too kind.

Fortunately, his strike was decisive enough; he did not wait for Shi Hong to return to the mountain, otherwise who knows how much trouble this old fellow would have caused...

"When it comes to preventing trouble before it arises, I must learn from Old Han!"

Li Yuan muttered to himself; he had learned quite a bit about Han Han Chuijun's past from Ba Ba Wanli and Fang Fang Bao Luo.

Old Han's style of conduct truly focused on one thing: "If he dares glare at me today, he dares to kill me tomorrow; hmm, he cannot be allowed to live!"

Simple and crude, fierce and brutal.

"Prevent trouble before it happens; leave no future trouble behind."

"At the very least, my hands were clean and efficient—no one could tell my Wu Gong style from that puddle of meat paste."

After pondering for a while, Li Yuan felt this round trip had left no gaps, and only then did his heart ease slightly.

Reviewing this battle, he grew all the more convinced that physique was important; besides, boots were equally important.

Without sufficient physique, he couldn't bear the explosive burst from the Palm Drive's enhancement; without boots, he couldn't advance and retreat freely.

"I've already achieved Internal Strength Great Completion; I only lack the 'Snake-Jiao Physique' to cultivate this Absolute-rank horizontal training, 'Ten Thousand Blades Spirit Dragon Physique.'"

Li Yuan rubbed his brow. A snake was still manageable, but as for the Jiao physique, so far he could only pin his hopes on the Scripture Pavilion's secret floor,

and the Red Dragon Fish.

"Old Jing's been in closed-door cultivation for days now, and the things he promised me haven't been delivered. Can't count on him, so I can only rely on the Red Dragon Fish. Hmm… after spring begins, try diving again?"

At this moment, Li Yuan heard sounds from outside. He pushed the door open and heard footsteps from San Yuan Wai, along with the wavering glow of torches.

Before long, Feng Feng Zhongyi came hurrying over, his face ashen.

"Where's the assassin?"

Yu Jin, clearly familiar with him, opened his mouth to ask: "You didn't lose the trail, did you?"

"Shut your mouth!"

Feng Feng Zhongyi was in an extremely foul mood. He glared fiercely at him, brows tightly knit:

"Sun Zan is dead!"

"Who?"

Yu Jin was stunned for a moment before recalling who Sun Zan was: "That old fellow who guarded the Divine Weapon Pavilion?"

An old soldier sucked in a cold breath: "The Valley Master's former brother-in-law!"

"What? Elder Sun is dead?"

Li Yuan's face was full of shock and fury: "They even dare kill an Elder Steward—these assassins are far too brazen!"

"Far too brazen!"

Feng Feng Zhongyi's face was utterly terrible.

He found Sun Zan—a petty man who tried to grab anything and everything—extremely annoying, but now that he was dead, it was a hassle.

No matter how useless, he was still the Valley Master's brother-in-law!

"Doesn't this mean you're in trouble?"

Yu Jin looked at Feng Feng Zhongyi's dark, livid face, his schadenfreude undisguised.

He suddenly realized that not being an Outer Gate Elder was also a good thing.

"Shut your mouth!"

Feng Feng Zhongyi nearly slapped him across the face. He steadied his mind, gave a few instructions, and only then hurried off.

"Little Li, you were on decent terms with that Sun Zan?"

Yu Jin asked.

"We'd met a few times."

Li Yuan's face still held some lingering anger: "Those killers wantonly assassinating sect disciples and stewards—surely there's nothing to be done about

them?"

"Well…"

The old soldiers exchanged glances.

"You hit the nail on the head—there really is nothing to be done."

Yu Jin shook his head:

"Whether it's the Life-Urging Tower or the Star-Plucking Tower, these assassin organizations aren't sects. The identities and backgrounds of the killers under them simply aren't registered or recorded.

Killing one is easy; rooting them out completely is nearly impossible."

The other old soldiers also nodded:

"They look like killers, but who knows who really hides behind that mask?"

Li Yuan sighed.

A moment later he returned to his room and shut the door—where on his face was even a trace of anger or sorrow?

Li Yuan was quite exhilarated, and for the moment had no desire to sleep. He simply took out the booklet Old Han had brought back.

"Thousand Jun Qi Art!"

Li Yuan composed his spirit and breath, and began reading through the booklet by the oil lamp.

The key difference between Upper-rank Wu Gong and Mid- and Lower-rank Wu Gong lies in Qi Art.

Without Qi Art, initial Form Transformation is already the limit; reaching the Form Transformation Great Completion realm of 'form easily changed, internal Qi born' is nearly impossible.

Let alone opening the meridians.

To this day, Li Yuan still vividly remembered Su Su Wanxiong's palm force through the air and his internal Qi taking form.

Qi Art is the root of Form Transformation, the cornerstone of opening the meridians—its importance is like that of Qi and Blood before Force Nurturing.

By the oil lamp, Li Yuan read silently word by word, committing it to memory. He had flipped through this booklet many times, but still took it out to browse from time to time.

A slight misstep in Wu Gong could cause qi deviation; not the slightest carelessness could be allowed.

"Thousand Jun Qi Art is extremely Yang in nature; one must often dwell in a Yang-hot place, and through the Soldier Nine Form breathing method, draw external heat inward, merging it with one's force, ultimately transforming force into Qi…"

Li Yuan recited in his heart.

The Red Fusion Cave is a treasure land for cultivating Thousand Jun Qi Art; there is none more suitable.

……

……

That night, the Divine Weapon Valley was in an uproar; a group of Protector Elders searched the entire night, very nearly turning the inner island upside down.

Before dawn, Li Yuan was summoned out and headed to the sect's main hall.

"Sun Zan's status is even higher than Ding Zhi's."

Li Yuan felt a slight chill in his heart; his decision not to act at the very start had perhaps been the right one—in a certain sense, this Sun Zan was essentially 'royal kin.'

He had not slept all night, but his spirits were still quite good; following the disciple who had come to deliver the message, he headed to the sect's main hall, his heart very calm.

Before he even entered the door, he heard Jing Jing Shuhu's furious roar:

"Too outrageous!"

"Catch him! No matter what, we must catch that assassin!"

The great hall was brightly lit; when Li Yuan entered, he found that a group of Elders and Protectors, and even Duanmu Sheng, that Grand Commander, had all already arrived.

Jing Jing Shuhu sat at the upper left, in the midst of venting his fury.

Besides him, the old man who had broken out of the Divine Weapon Pavilion last night but failed to catch up to the assassin was also present, and at this moment was enduring Jing Jing Shuhu's reprimand:

"You were afraid it was a ploy to lure the tiger from the mountain? So you didn't even try to block him?"

The old man was berated until he couldn't lift his head; after quite a while he finally wiped his face and said in a low voice:

"That assassin wore a ghost-face mask, wielded a Short-handle heavy hammer, his methods were vicious, and his lightness skill was superb…"

"How superb?"

Duanmu Sheng spoke up to ask.

The old man paused slightly, recalling last night's pursuit, and answered: "I'm afraid it is unrivaled within the entire Hidden Dragon Prefecture."

"Unrivaled within the Hidden Dragon Prefecture?"

Every Protector and Elder in the great hall frowned; it wasn't that they doubted the old man's eye, for the Divine Weapon Valley simply had no top-tier lightness-skill inheritance.

They were only puzzled that such a master would come to assassinate Sun Zan.

At this moment, Feng Feng Zhongyi spoke:

"According to Junior Brother Chu's words, that assassin is most likely a renowned master at the great achievement of the Meridian Passage realm; perhaps he wasn't trying to assassinate Sun Zan, but rather had his sights set on the Divine Weapon Pavilion!"

"Elder Feng's words are reasonable!"

The group of Protectors and Elders all nodded, feeling this was the logical conclusion.

"This assassin

must be caught, but the Divine Weapon Pavilion absolutely cannot be lost. Elder Feng, you should have a sense of it; it is not convenient for me to leave camp for too long, so I shall take my leave first!"

Duanmu Sheng also accepted this explanation; after all, Sun Zan wasn't worth such a master's assassination.

He glanced at Sun Zan's corpse, which looked like a heap of rotten mud, then turned and left.

Once he departed, Sun Zan's death was thus concluded; Feng Feng Zhongyi dispatched veteran soldiers to guard the Divine Weapon Pavilion—no more need be said—and the remaining Protectors and Elders also dispersed one after another.

Li Yuan did not leave; seeing the crowd disperse, he approached Jing Jing Shuhu, bowed, and saluted:

"Grand Elder."

It had taken great difficulty to wait for him to come out of seclusion; this chance absolutely could not be missed again.

"What is this?"

Seeing Li Yuan looking at him eagerly, Jing Jing Shuhu was first taken aback, but quickly recalled:

"I have been in seclusion for many days, and nearly forgot…"