Chapter 360: The Tenth Day

May 20th, the tenth day of Li Fei's seclusion.

Wu University, Ping'an Building.

Inside the secret chamber, Li Fei was sitting cross-legged on the meditation cushion in the very center.

On the ground were large patches of dried blood and over a dozen empty medicine bottles.

At this moment, no wounds could be seen on Li Fei's body, and his entire aura was extremely steady.

Within his body, all the branches of the 【Steel Armor】 implant had been gathered by him at the dantian, and he was currently waiting for the repair of several vital heart meridians.

Because his mental energy was limited, Li Fei waited for a portion of his body tissue to be repaired before drawing out the Geng Metal True Qi within to move to the next area and set up a "channel."

The final part he chose was the heart.

This area was the most dangerous, and the "channel" involved was the most complex.

Li Fei began extracting the implant branches from the heart area three days ago; after completing the extraction, his blood souls decreased by over 60 in an instant!

Even though he had taken a Boiling-Stilling Pill beforehand, the excruciating pain in that moment almost caused Li Fei to completely lose control of the Geng Metal True Qi.

Afterward, he timely re-established a connection with the Myriad Blood Bead to share the damage and alleviate the pain, then relied on the memories brought by the "Contemplation of Freedom Method" to restore the "channel."

The most difficult hurdle had been passed just like that.

Subsequently, once the injuries stabilized, Li Fei maintained the Geng Metal True Qi in the heart area while waiting for his body to heal.

By past 7:00 this morning, all damaged areas of the heart were fully repaired, and the "channel" Li Fei maintained with Geng Metal True Qi was completely solidified.

With this, Li Fei could declare that he had officially stepped into the Dao Foundation Realm!

From the moment he officially began extracting the implant branches to completing the breakthrough, the total time taken was less than ten days.

Moreover, he didn't even use the blood souls stored in the "Blood Spring," because as time passed, not only was his body healing, but the number of blood souls was also recovering.

After completing the breakthrough, Li Fei's tense mind relaxed, and he could finally settle down to properly feel the changes after the breakthrough.

In fact, completing the "Return to One" was to gather the implants in the body and "make room" for the next new implant, so a Dao Foundation martial artist who had just completed the breakthrough—that is, the first tier of the Dao Foundation Realm—had no essential difference from the Qi Transformation Realm.

Before incorporating a second type of implant, a first-tier Dao Foundation martial artist would not receive much enhancement in combat power.

Of course, there were areas of enhancement:

After gathering all the implant branches throughout the body into a single mass, the martial artist's control over Innate One Qi and force would increase significantly, much like the difference between trying to pinch something with separated fingers versus clenching a fist to grab it.

With increased control over force, Li Fei could practice more high-difficulty martial arts; there was still plenty of content in the two ultimate techniques, "Diamond Seal" and "Red Sound Fire Diamond Method," that he couldn't do before, but now he could attempt them.

Besides that, for others, initially entering the Dao Foundation Realm might not boost combat power much, but for Li Fei, he could already try to simulate high-tier force!

Because he had two types of force he could use: Diamond Force and True Blood Force.

After training the 7.0 version of True Blood Force, the power of True Blood Force had already reached its limit, because if he continued to strengthen the Blood Fiend Qi, it would completely lose balance, making it impossible for the Geng Metal True Qi to perfectly combine with the Blood Fiend Qi to form True Blood Force.

To solve this problem, Li Fei tried combining the Blood Fiend Qi and Diamond Force directly, but he failed in the end.

Because compared to Geng Metal True Qi, Diamond Force was too condensed; the former was like soil, while the latter was like steel.

Li Fei could mix other things into soil and shape it into whatever he wanted, but he couldn't mix water into steel.

Now, having broken through to the Dao Foundation Realm, his control over force had greatly improved, and he could try to fuse the Blood Fiend Qi and Diamond Force together.

Li Fei moved his mind, consuming 10 blood souls to convert them into Blood Fiend Qi.

This high-quality Blood Fiend Qi, even without active consumption, would dissipate within his body in just over ten minutes.

Immediately after, he controlled the Geng Metal True Qi to begin condensing, and in the process of condensing, he mixed the newly converted Blood Fiend Qi into the Geng Metal True Qi.

If it were before, doing this would lead to a failure in condensing Diamond Force because there were "impurities."

But now Li Fei's control had become stronger, and he could forcibly complete the condensation!

After the first condensation was completed, the Diamond Force was successfully condensed, but the Blood Fiend Qi was mostly worn away during the process, and the existence of the Blood Fiend Qi not only failed to enhance the Diamond Force but instead created "gaps," leading to a decrease in defensive power.

After a moment of thought, Li Fei began his second attempt.

He had long had a complete concept for the fusion of Diamond Force and Blood Fiend Qi, and coupled with his experience in fusing True Blood Force, he went straight into the experimental stage, trying different schemes one after another.

Over an hour later, having consumed a full 50 blood souls to convert Blood Fiend Qi, Li Fei finally completed the initial version of the force fusion:

It was impossible to guarantee the original sharpness and sturdiness of Diamond Force while also incorporating the characteristics of Blood Fiend Qi.

So Li Fei chose to sacrifice the characteristic of sturdiness in exchange for more extreme attack power!

He opened his eyes, reached out his hand with the palm facing upward, and a blood-red crystal materialized out of thin air in his palm.

The force newly formed after the fusion of Diamond Force and Blood Fiend Qi was like this; it looked like a crystal, shimmering with blood light, both fragile and dangerous.

Li Fei flicked his finger, and this "blood crystal" in his palm shot out at an extremely fast speed, hitting the steel wall in front.

Bang!!!

The blood-colored crystal exploded, and the huge sound reverberated back and forth inside the secret chamber.

Li Fei looked closely and saw that the steel wall in front had become pitted, with many breaches and small craters blasted into it!

This wall had been infused with special materials specifically to resist the force of martial artists.

If Li Fei had used an equivalent amount of Diamond Force to strike it, he absolutely could not have achieved such an effect.

This newly trained force not only became sharper but also gained a "splash" effect.

Once an opponent was hit by this force of Li Fei's, as long as their defense was broken, the injured area would not just be one spot, but a large area!

Coupled with the powerful lethality of Blood Fiend Qi against living organisms, it almost meant that once an opponent was hit, they would definitely be severely injured.

This was extreme lethality exchanged at the cost of the original powerful defense!

"This kind of force can also be considered a high-tier force; let's call it Diamond Blood Demon Force."

Li Fei named the force he had newly created.

High-tier force was the fusion of multiple types of Innate One Qi on the basis of original force, thereby causing a qualitative change in the original force.

Li Fei had fought against quite a few Dao Foundation powerhouses who possessed high-tier force, and he believed his Diamond Blood Demon Force did not lose to those high-tier forces.

In this way, the Green-Faced Ghost King had a new means.

Li Fei stood up, first took a shower, changed his clothes, and then took action to destroy all the traces left on the wall by the Diamond Blood Demon Force.

Although this meant paying an extra sum of money, at least it would leave no clues behind.

Nothing else, just caution.

He opened the mechanism of the secret chamber from the inside, letting the steel wall slowly rise.

Li Fei stepped out of the secret chamber, ending this ten-day seclusion.

Just as he arrived at the first-floor lobby, a man wearing a lecturer's robe walked quickly toward Li Fei:

"Student Li Fei, Professor Wen Ke asked me to wait for you here. She said that after you finish your seclusion, go find her immediately; she has something very important."

"Professor Wen has something very important to find me for?"

Li Fei was startled, then nodded, "I understand, thank you."

Afterward, he first went to check out of the secret chamber he had rented, then went directly to the Academic Affairs building.

"Professor Wen, you were looking for me?"

A moment later, Li Fei knocked on the door of Wen Ke's office.

"You've finished your seclusion? Come, sit down and talk."

Wen Ke's tone was still gentle, only the look in her eyes as she watched Li Fei held a bit more complexity.

"Shangguan Xiao has been imprisoned."

After Li Fei sat down, Wen Ke stated this news directly.

Li Fei suddenly raised his head to look at Wen Ke, his gaze turning cold: "What did you say?!"

Wen Ke was startled.

In this instant, she sensed a terrifying murderous aura from Li Fei, as if she saw a sharp, peerless blade hidden in its sheath emitting a trembling sound!

She herself was someone very good at hiding her murderous aura; the strong contrast during class back then was something Li Fei still found unforgettable.

But she discovered that Li Fei seemed even better at hiding than she was.

On ordinary days, he looked upright, appearing to be an honest, polite, and righteous good child.

But once he was truly angered, who knew what kind of astonishing murderous aura would erupt!

Li Fei quickly calmed his state of mind.

After comprehending the Heart of Slaughter, his control over killing intent was already at his command.

"Professor Wen, what is going on? Who dares to imprison an imperial court official?"

Li Fei asked.

He actually had one more thing he didn't say: the current Green-Faced Ghost King was in his prime in Datong Prefecture; who dared to imprison his ally?

"It is the Datong Prefecture government; currently, Shangguan Xiao is being detained at the Zhinge General Institute."

Wen Ke said in a calm tone.

"Datong Prefecture government?"

Li Fei frowned; he looked at Wen Ke, "Professor Wen, during the time I was in seclusion, what happened outside?"

"A lot has indeed happened during this time..."

Wen Ke began to tell Li Fei the situation during this period.

When he heard that the 'Blade King' Gu Vanguard Commander had died and the Iron Peak Sect had been wiped out, Li Fei was stunned.

No, it was only ten days of seclusion; once he came out, such a large Iron Peak Sect was gone?

Then he heard Wen Ke explain the reason for Shangguan Xiao's detention and investigation—

"She is suspected of plotting to murder Zhang Zongyang?!!!"

Li Fei stared at Wen Ke with wide eyes.

He had always known that some things in this world were actually quite absurd, but he never expected that one day such an absurd thing would happen around him.

Shangguan Xiao had returned to Datong Prefecture city precisely for Zhang Zongyang, and everything she did was to fulfill her father's dying wish, yet now she was actually arrested for being suspected of plotting to murder Zhang Zongyang?

Even novels wouldn't dare write it like this!

"What specific evidence is there?"

Li Fei forced himself to calm down and continued to ask.

He had to clarify the whole situation before taking action.

"There is a person in the Zhang family named Zhang Shiwei."

Wen Ke told Li Fei everything she knew about the inside story.

"Zhang Shiwei has been collaborating with Shangguan Xiao for seven years; a confidant who followed Shangguan Xiao for over a decade stepped forward to testify against her. A large portion of the resources that the Qingyuan Fist Stronghold has acquired all this time was obtained through Zhang Shiwei."

The more Li Fei heard, the colder his heart grew.

Because this meant that the person behind the scenes had begun laying the groundwork over a decade ago, using ten-plus years to complete a conspiracy and deception—how could such a scheme be easily broken?

"Spending such great effort, it couldn't just be to target my martial aunt, nor could it be to target me; ten years ago, there was no Green-Faced Ghost, so the person behind the scenes must have a more important goal."

Li Fei quickly figured this out, and at the same time, he had an answer in his heart.

"Li Fei, I hope you won't be impulsive. This matter doesn't just involve the murder of Zhang Zongyang; it also implicates many other things."

Wen Ke looked into Li Fei's eyes and said in a grave tone.

"I know."

Li Fei nodded.

A grand martial arts sect could just vanish like that, and a martial arts master had died—how could this matter be simple?

"I want to see my martial aunt."

Li Fei said to Wen Ke.

Wen Ke was startled and shook her head: "That will likely be very difficult."

"The school has already placed a heavy bet on me. Since they don't want me to be impulsive, I hope the school can do me this favor and let me see her."

Li Fei said to Wen Ke.

With a "Diamond Seal" and a "Red Sound Fire Diamond Method," plus the agreement signed previously, Li Fei believed the higher-ups at the Martial Arts University certainly didn't want to see him destroy himself out of impulse.

Wen Ke was silent for a moment, then said: "I will try."

"Many thanks, Professor Wen! This student will take his leave."

Li Fei stood up, bowed to Wen Ke, and then turned to leave.

"Sigh."

Watching Li Fei's departing back, Wen Ke sighed.

A moment later, Li Fei returned to his dormitory and first made a phone call to the Green-Faced Villa.

"Hello?"

A low voice came from the other end of the line, very similar to the voice of the Green-Faced Ghost.

Li Fei knew this person was the one impersonating him, so he used the same tone to say:

"It's me."

Then he said the agreed-upon code word to prove his identity.

The other party replied with the code word.

"Tell me about what has happened during this time."

Li Fei said straightforwardly.

"."

A few minutes later, the other party gave Li Fei a rough account, which was about the same as what Wen Ke had told him, only lacking some inside information.

"Also, the results for the large-scale transaction records of rosemary within the last year, which I had Yang Zhe investigate, are in."

The 'Green-Faced Ghost' on the other end of the phone said.

Before going into seclusion, Li Fei had asked Yang Zhe to secretly send people to investigate whether there were any large-scale transaction records for rosemary in the last year, as this related to the poison Zhang Zongyang had been afflicted with.

Although it was now known that the poison was administered by Zhang Shiwei, it was still unclear where that poison, which could silently poison a Dao Foundation realm powerhouse, had come from.

"Speak."

Li Fei told the person on the other end to give him the results.

"."

After hearing the result, Li Fei narrowed his eyes.

"I know. You disappear for now; leave the follow-up matters to me."

Li Fei said.

Seeking monthly votes.

Recommending a book: "Calling Me a Court Lackey? I Am the Martial Saint of the Great Qin!"

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(End of chapter)