Chapter 467

The 17th year of Emperor Jiawen.

A goose-feather snow fell over Yushan City, and the heated floor in the warm pavilion was burning hot.

An eight-year-old child lay on a sandalwood desk, watching his father use a cinnabar brush to write the four characters "Loyal to the Emperor, Serve the Country" on red plum paper.

The couplet, its ink still wet, shimmered with fine golden light under the roasting charcoal fire.

"Father, when I grow up, I want to be just like you—go to the battlefield, kill the enemy, and be loyal to the Emperor and serve the country!"

The little boy raised his head and said to his father with a very serious face.

"Hahahaha, good! You are worthy of being a son of the Qi family!"

The father's hearty laughter rang out in the study, and the gilded waist medallion representing his Level 15 military rank clattered crisply against his waist.

The change began at the second watch of the night.

When the boy was awakened by the sudden barking of dogs, a thick, pungent smell of blood seeped in through the door cracks, and the sound of iron armor clashing came from the courtyard.

Angry shouts, screams, and the sounds of explosive force erupted one after another.

Soon, the boy was taken away by the family guards; the last scene he saw was his father, whom he considered invincible, being struck by a saber and sent flying, collapsing the pavilion in the courtyard!

"Qi Shou is colluding with the enemy! We are ordered to arrest the entire Qi household; those who resist will be killed without mercy—"

A powerful voice resounded through the entire Qi estate.

Father colluding with the enemy?

How could a father who had been writing "Loyal to the Emperor, Serve the Country" in the study just a few hours ago possibly collude with the enemy?

The Qi family had been loyal for generations; how could they possibly collude with the enemy!

The eight-year-old boy could not understand.

It's fake!

Everything is fake!

I am just dreaming; once I wake up, everything will be fine.

But this nightmare, Qi Zhou lived for thirty-five years.

Thirty-five years later, the new Emperor ascended the throne.

The Qi family was exonerated.

That same year, Qi Zhou, with the cultivation base of a Martial Arts Master, was promoted to the Chief of the Yu Province's Zhige Department!

After thirty-five years of living under an assumed name, at the peak of his life, he could finally restore his original name and tell everyone openly and honestly that his real name was Qi Zhou.

When the current Emperor was still the Crown Prince, Qi Zhou was a clear and outspoken member of the Crown Prince's faction.

After the Emperor ascended the throne, he naturally became one of the Emperor's trusted senior officials.

He was first appointed as the Chief of the Yu Province's Zhige Department, then transferred to the Central Secretariat to become a member of the Zhige Pavilion.

In the 28th year of Emperor Hongguang, the imperial court decided to establish twelve universities, and Qi Zhou, who had just broken through to become a Grandmaster, was transferred from the center and appointed as the President of Tianqu University!

Such an appointment was comparable to that of a high-ranking regional official.

It was enough to show the Emperor's trust and reliance on Qi Zhou!

But it was also in this year that the Zhang Xintian Society was founded.

Qi Zhou was one of the founders of the Zhang Xintian Society!

"Was the Qi family's tragedy merely because they were framed by treacherous people?"

"No, the root cause is the corruption of the imperial court's system!"

"Official corruption, local infighting, military decay... five hundred years of accumulated problems that are hard to reverse! That is why we were beaten all the way to the capital by the Westerners!"

"Little Qi, the imperial court is a giant net. All kinds of rules, interest conflicts, and internal struggles weave this net tightly. This is a giant net woven by countless people over five hundred years!"

"No one can make any big moves on this giant net, because the more you move, the tighter the net will close."

"Although the Crown Prince is wise and has great ambitions, once he ascends the throne, he will still be unable to change this world!"

"As long as he continues to work within this net, he will always be tied up, with countless forces pulling at him, leaving him unable to act."

"If you want true change, the only way is to burn this net!"

"..."

In the wild jungle, Qi Zhou once again recalled the words his good friend had said to him.

These words were what Qiming had said to him during a long night of conversation before the current Emperor ascended the throne.

However, these words still did not truly move him.

In the end, what truly made him decide to found the Zhang Xintian Society was a small incident that occurred after the current Emperor ascended the throne:

A Level 14 military officer was imprisoned with his whole family for colluding with the enemy.

Whether this officer had truly colluded with the enemy, Qi Zhou actually didn't know; he only knew that the other party was on the side of the then-Second Imperial Prince and belonged to the opposing faction.

After the Emperor ascended the throne, all opposing factions naturally had to be liquidated.

So, whether one colluded with the enemy or not was not important; what mattered was whether one had stood on the wrong side.

Was the Qi family exonerated really because they were wronged?

Or was it because Qi Zhou had stood on the right side and followed the right person?

How would future generations view the Qi family?

These questions haunted Qi Zhou like a nightmare.

The snow from that year had been piling up in his heart, never melting...

"President Qi."

Li Fei's voice interrupted Qi Zhou's memories.

"Hmm?"

Qi Zhou looked at Li Fei.

After repelling Boerhu, the three of them returned together.

It was now evening, and the three of them had landed from the air to rest in the dense forest.

"The State Preceptor's Huntian Luo Pan is about to dissipate. Next, we need to conceal our aura and tracks. Does President Qi have any way to help?"

Li Fei asked.

Boerhu could not let them leave so easily; he would inevitably send people to hunt them down.

The Huntian Luo Pan could help the three of them conceal their aura and tracks, but this power had already exhausted most of its energy while analyzing Boerhu and the Twelve Heavens Blood Sha Array, and it could not be maintained indefinitely.

Qiu Zi'an was the most severely injured, and since she was better at fighting than other things, Li Fei asked Qi Zhou if he had any relevant divine abilities that could help conceal their aura and tracks.

"I have a 【Shadow Concealment】 divine ability that can conceal aura. Once the Huntian Luo Pan dissipates, I will cast 【Shadow Concealment】."

Qi Zhou said to Li Fei.

The 【Thread Manipulation】 divine ability could remotely control others, and the 【Shadow Concealment】 divine ability could conceal the aura of 【Thread Manipulation】.

Combining the two divine abilities, Qi Zhou could remotely ambush and plot against others without anyone knowing.

He could also control puppets from a distance without being noticed.

"Good, then I will trouble you, President Qi."

Li Fei said to Qi Zhou.

Qi Zhou smiled: "Marquis Jing'an, you don't need to be so polite; this battle was thanks to you."

Then the three of them stopped talking and sat cross-legged on the ground to recuperate.

Needless to say, Qiu Zi'an was the most severely injured; she had already taken healing elixirs and was simultaneously activating her extraordinary healing ability, stabilizing her injuries along the way.

Li Fei also took elixirs to restore his spirit and the origin of his implanted body to make up for his own consumption.

In a few hours, through 【Blood Breath】, the blood souls in the Ten Thousand Blood Beads had long since recovered by half, currently at 2048 blood souls.

【Blood Breath】, strengthened to the limit, could rapidly restore 50% of blood volume.

For the remaining 50%, Li Fei's daily recovery speed was 384, requiring five days for the Ten Thousand Blood Beads to be fully restored.

As for the blood spring, 1126 blood souls remained.

Li Fei sat cross-legged, fully activating the 【Object Refining】 divine ability to refine his Flying Sword Body!

The more thorough the understanding of things, the higher the upper limit of the 【Object Refining】 divine ability. Now that Li Fei had the blessing of the Huntian Luo Pan, it was the best time to exert the 【Object Refining】 divine ability.

He did not want to miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so from the moment they retreated, he had been using the Huntian Luo Pan to constantly analyze himself.

After several hours of traveling, he had thoroughly analyzed his Flying Sword Body through the Huntian Luo Pan and obtained enough information.

Now, taking advantage of the rest time, he directly activated the 【Object Refining】 divine ability to start refining himself!

Looking at the whole world, only someone like Li Fei, who "refines the body into a weapon," could directly use the 【Object Refining】 divine ability to strengthen himself.

Normally, strengthening a Flying Sword Body requires all kinds of rare treasures and even various metal ores.

Li Fei was now in the wilderness and had nothing; even if he knew the method of strengthening, he couldn't complete it.

But he had blood souls.

This thing, which came from the Ten Thousand Blood Beads and was closely related to his own life, was the most suitable "material" for himself!

Compared to fusing various metal ores into the body, using blood souls as a substitute would not have any impurities and would not cause any damage to the body.

Through the analysis of the Huntian Luo Pan, blood souls were more suitable for strengthening oneself than various metal ores!

So he used the 【Object Refining】 divine ability to refine the blood souls and then fused the refined "matter" into himself to strengthen the Flying Sword Body.

The blood souls in the Ten Thousand Blood Beads began to decrease rapidly, and a faint golden light bloomed on Li Fei's body surface. A sharp aura shot into the sky, then was concealed by the Huntian Luo Pan above his head.

Boom—

An invisible "Heavenly Gate" opened, and a large amount of heaven and earth energy poured into Li Fei's body continuously.

In addition to metal ores, strengthening the Flying Sword Body also required all kinds of rare treasures.

Li Fei didn't have rare treasures, but he could absorb heaven and earth energy of all attributes.

So he cast 【Huntian Golden Palace】, absorbing heaven and earth energy into his body, using it as a kind of "raw material" to refine directly.

【Huntian Golden Palace】 could absorb heaven and earth energy of all attributes, so Li Fei's "material library" could be said to have everything!

Energy of gold, wood, water, fire, earth, light, dark, wind, and thunder attributes poured into his body according to Li Fei's needs, and then were refined into his flesh and bones.

【Huntian Golden Palace】 + 【Object Refining】, the cooperation of the two divine abilities had initially appeared.

Such a commotion naturally alarmed Qi Zhou and Qiu Zi'an.

"This is..."

Even with the cultivation and vision of two Grandmasters, they felt their eyes opened at this moment.

They could roughly perceive that Li Fei's body strength was increasing at a terrifying speed!

The two felt that what was in front of them was no longer a person, but a peerless precious sword.

A peerless precious sword that was still constantly being refined and constantly becoming stronger!

"It seems the opportunity has arrived; he is worthy of being the first in history."

Qiu Zi'an sighed with emotion.

Qi Zhou looked up at the Huntian Luo Pan above his head, his expression somewhat complex.

As time passed, the aura on Li Fei became stronger and stronger. Roaring sounds were constantly erupting from his body, and his whole body's bones were roaring!

Flesh, internal organs, meridians... all were absorbing heaven and earth energy of various attributes at a very fast speed, and simultaneously absorbing blood souls.

"Not enough! Heaven and earth energy is still not enough!"

While refining, Li Fei realized that his speed of absorbing heaven and earth energy was not fast enough.

All kinds of rare treasures contained highly condensed heaven and earth energy, and he was now directly using heaven and earth energy to replace rare treasures, which required absorbing enough heaven and earth energy in a short time.

The speed of 【Huntian Golden Palace】 absorbing heaven and earth energy was already several times that of a Martial Arts Master of the same realm, but it was still not enough.

Li Fei used the 【Object Refining】 divine ability to consume blood souls and then threw them into the "Heavenly Gate" opened by 【Huntian Golden Palace】.

The 【Object Refining】 divine ability emphasizes "equivalent exchange." Now he used blood souls as an exchange item to exchange for the temporary strengthening of the 【Huntian Golden Palace】 divine ability!

This is the same principle as consuming life force in exchange for the strengthening of force, martial arts, divine abilities, etc.

It's just that Li Fei's life force is exceptionally abundant...

The next second, the invisible "Heavenly Gate" seemed to have expanded several times!

Rumble—

Qiu Zi'an and Qi Zhou even heard the roaring sound, as if invisible giant mountains were moving rapidly in the air!

The two's expressions changed again.

They were seeing for the first time a Martial Arts Master who could absorb heaven and earth energy at such a terrifying speed!

If it weren't for the Huntian Luo Pan above his head helping to conceal the aura, the experts within a radius of several hundred miles would probably have noticed the commotion here.

This terrifying absorption speed lasted for more than thirty minutes before stopping.

During this process, Li Fei's body gradually expanded to more than three meters tall, and then slowly "condensed" back to two meters.

Finally, it settled at just over one meter nine, and the whole person was still "expanded" by a circle.

Li Fei slowly opened his eyes, his gaze like substance, as if two sword lights shot out.

His skin was pale gold, full of power, looking like a person cast from diamond!

The blood souls in the Ten Thousand Blood Beads became 1021.

But in fact, in the process just now, Li Fei consumed not 1000+ blood souls, but 2000+!

He consumed 2000+ blood souls and a massive amount of heaven and earth energy, completing the strengthening of his own Flying Sword Body.

After strengthening, because the physique was enhanced and life force increased, the total number of blood souls increased by 1000+ at once!

So now the "data display" of the Ten Thousand Blood Beads should be: 1021/4847.

The upper limit increased by 1000+!

Li Fei stood up from the ground and walked forward.

Swish—

He disappeared from the spot instantly, followed by a series of loud crashing sounds, and big trees were knocked down!

Just with a "light" step, Li Fei rushed out more than thirty meters, crushing everything along the way!

He stopped, looked down at his hands, and then slowly clenched his fists.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh—

This was the sound of blood flowing in his body, like a rushing river!

After strengthening, under the state of Sword Form · Golden Body and Jade Marrow, even without using 【Blood Rage】, his own body strength was enough to be comparable to about 300 units of Blood Rage power!

And the increase in body strength was only secondary; this strengthening mainly enhanced the body's defense and damage-bearing ability.

"How is it?"

Not far away, Qiu Zi'an asked.

Li Fei walked back in one step and said simply to this female Grandmaster:

"I have made a breakthrough."

A smile appeared on Qiu Zi'an's face, and she didn't ask much:

"That's good."

Then the three people present all felt something, and almost simultaneously looked up at the top of their heads.

The Huntian Luo Pan that had been following them all the way dissipated.

During the process of strengthening the Flying Sword Body just now, Li Fei had also been using the power of the Huntian Luo Pan, so he could complete the refining almost perfectly.

And this also completely exhausted the last bit of power of the Huntian Luo Pan.

"The Huntian Luo Pan is gone. President Qi, please cast your divine ability."

Li Fei turned to Qi Zhou and said.

"Easy."

Qi Zhou nodded with a calm expression.

The next second, a shadow enveloped the three of them.

Seeking monthly tickets.

(End of chapter)