Chapter 745: Heir to Prince Cheng, Body of the Flying Sword

Seven or eight luxury carriages were parked on the spacious street.

On the other side of the street, a magnificent mansion stood.

In the center, two vermilion gates were thrown open, and on either side of the gates stood a white jade lion over two meters tall.

The plaque above the gate bore the three characters: "Prince Cheng's Mansion."

There are not many mansions that can occupy an entire street in the prime real estate of Lanling City, and Prince Cheng's Mansion is one of them.

Prince Cheng is the biological younger brother of the current Son of Heaven; after the Son of Heaven ascended the throne, he granted an entire province to Prince Cheng as his fief!

Although it was not a direct feudal grant, skimming a portion of the annual tax revenue from a province is still an astronomical figure. Even if Prince Cheng did nothing, just collecting this portion of the tax every year would make him wealthy enough to rival a nation.

From this, it is evident that the current Son of Heaven is indeed very close to his own brother.

An old man and a young woman, both dressed in blue official robes, walked into the street and headed straight for the gate of Prince Cheng's Mansion.

"May I ask what business you two officials have?"

The guards at the gate stopped them and asked.

"I am He Jian, a first-rank investigator of the Supervisory Pavilion, here on orders to investigate a case."

The old man took out a token and showed it to the guards at the gate.

"Greetings, Official He."

The guard bowed very politely, "I will go and report this immediately."

He quickly turned and ran into the mansion, while He Jian and his apprentice, Yuan Mengfei, waited outside the gate.

A moment later, a middle-aged man wearing a pale red robe came to the gate, bowed to He Jian, and said calmly:

"Greetings, Official He. I am Xi Ran, the steward of the Prince's Mansion. I wonder what case you have come to the Prince's Mansion to investigate?"

"I am investigating the assassination case at the Altar of Heaven!"

He Jian's gaze was grim as he spoke each word clearly.

Xi Ran's expression changed, and then he looked at He Jian with the eyes of someone looking at a dead man:

"Official He, do you know what you are saying?"

He Jian's expression remained unchanged: "The primary suspect for the mastermind behind the assassination at the Altar of Heaven is the New Heaven Society. I have discovered that Ji Xiuyong, a retainer of Prince Cheng's Mansion, is colluding with the New Heaven Society, so I have come to the mansion to make an arrest."

Xi Ran met He Jian's soul-piercing eyes without fear and sneered:

"Official He, let me give you a piece of advice: you can eat whatever you want, but you cannot say whatever you want. It has not even been confirmed whether the assassination at the Altar of Heaven is truly related to the New Heaven Society, yet you come running to Prince Cheng's Mansion shouting about investigating it. If this matter spreads and damages the reputation of His Highness Prince Cheng, can you bear the responsibility?!"

It is said that a gatekeeper at the Prime Minister's residence is equal in rank to a third-rank official, meaning that even a doorman at the Prime Minister's mansion can stand on equal footing with a high-ranking official.

This is, of course, an exaggeration, but it reflects certain characteristics of power.

If Xi Ran were truly the steward of Grand Secretary Ye Ze's mansion, he could indeed speak to He Jian this way.

But the nobles of the Great Lan Dynasty have no real fiefs; they have status but no real power, so even some imperial relatives only look impressive.

Normally, as a presiding official of the Supervisory Pavilion, He Jian would be enough to handle many powerful figures.

Yet Xi Ran was not the least bit polite to him!

This is only because Prince Cheng does not just have a title; he also holds military power!

The current Son of Heaven trusts his own brother deeply and appointed him as a Provincial Military Commander.

The Military Council is independent of the Six Cabinets; its highest position is the Grand Marshal of the Military Council, and below that is the Provincial Military Commander, an 18th-rank military official!

The Great Lan Dynasty has a total of four Provincial Military Commanders, and Prince Cheng is one of them, overseeing all military affairs in the Northern Territory.

Aside from the ten thousand or so Imperial Guards directly under the central command, the remaining one hundred thousand troops of the Northern Border Army are all under the jurisdiction of Prince Cheng!

This is the reason why Xi Ran, this mansion steward, dares to be so tough.

"I am taking Ji Xiuyong back for questioning."

He Jian ignored Xi Ran's threat and said directly.

Xi Ran's eyes grew colder: "He is not in the mansion."

He Jian's eyes flickered with a dark light: "You are lying."

"Hah!"

Xi Ran sneered, "I said, the person you are looking for is not in the mansion. Please return."

He Jian looked at him without moving.

"Or, you can go and get a warrant to search the Prince's Mansion, and then you can come in and find him."

Xi Ran shook his head with a look of mockery, then turned and walked away.

He Jian was about to step inside, but a blur flashed before his eyes, and a young man holding a long sword suddenly blocked his path.

The young man's gaze was like a sword, piercing straight at He Jian:

"This official, this is Prince Cheng's Mansion. If you trespass, I will have no choice but to draw my sword."

Yuan Mengfei, who was following behind He Jian, changed color and hurriedly stepped forward to pull her master back tightly.

She recognized this young man.

Xi Yuchen, a famous swordsman in Lanling City, at the peak of the Dao Foundation realm, whose name had appeared on the candidate list for the latest issue of the Wind and Cloud General Ranking!

If the opponent wanted to kill He Jian, a single sword strike would be enough.

Inside Prince Cheng's Mansion, Xi Ran, who had been arrogant in front of He Jian just moments ago, now stood respectfully beside a young man dressed in luxurious clothing.

"Your Highness, He Jian has left."

Xi Ran said.

The young man in front of him was Qin Ziyu, the Heir to Prince Cheng.

Prince Cheng is stationed in the Northern Territory year-round, so as the Heir to Prince Cheng, Qin Ziyu is the master of this mansion and Prince Cheng's representative in Lanling City.

Qin Ziyu leaned against the railing, watching the koi in the pond below, and scattered the fish food in his hand, drawing hundreds of koi to scramble for it.

Behind him, a man in gray was kneeling on the ground, his forehead pressed against the floor.

The man in gray was Ji Xiuyong, whom He Jian wanted to take away; he was also a peak Dao Foundation combatant and one of the retainers of Prince Cheng's Mansion.

Qin Ziyu turned around, clapped his hands, and looked at Ji Xiuyong kneeling before him:

"Raise your head and speak."

Ji Xiuyong slowly straightened his body, his expression solemn.

"Mr. Ji, you have worked hard for the mansion all these years, and your contributions are significant. If you have any other requests, you may state them."

Qin Ziyu said indifferently.

Ji Xiuyong shook his head: "If it weren't for the rescue by Your Highness the Heir, I would have died long ago. I know Your Highness's word is worth its weight in gold; since you have already promised to take good care of my family, I have no other requests."

Although he did not make it onto the Wind and Cloud General Ranking, he was still a top expert in the Dao Foundation realm, only stuck at a bottleneck for many years.

Seven years ago, he forcibly tried to break through his realm, but failed, nearly causing his Dao Foundation to collapse and kill him.

It was Qin Ziyu who spent a massive amount of resources to save him and spent a fortune to help him heal, allowing him to retain most of his combat power.

"Good. Your son's expenses in the university from now on will be covered by the mansion. If he can break through to the Dao Foundation realm, I will select a high-level Dao Foundation technique for him from the mansion."

Qin Ziyu said nonchalantly.

Even in the thirteen universities, the vast majority of students can only obtain the inheritance of ordinary Dao Foundations; the inheritance of a high-level Dao Foundation is enough to make people fight to the death.

Upon hearing this, Ji Xiuyong was overjoyed: "Thank you, Your Highness the Heir!"

Qin Ziyu nodded: "Go."

Ji Xiuyong stood up, bowed deeply to Qin Ziyu one last time, and turned to leave.

After he left, Qin Ziyu felt a bit of regret:

"To be able to find the mansion from such a small trail of clues, He Jian's reputation as a master detective is truly well-deserved."

Xi Ran, standing to the side, said softly:

"Your Highness, should we send someone to warn He Jian?"

Qin Ziyu shook his head: "A person like He Jian will not fall for that. Furthermore..."

He paused, then asked:

"Has there been any movement from the Marquis of Jing'an recently?"

Xi Ran: "For over a month, he has stayed in his mansion and has not come out once."

Qin Ziyu frowned slightly: "You said before that he purchased many things from the internal treasury. Have you found out what he bought?"

Xi Ran: "They were all materials used for refining magic treasures."

"Refining magic treasures?"

Qin Ziyu was somewhat stunned, "What on earth does he want to do?"

It was not just him; many powerful figures in Lanling City were constantly watching the Marquis of Jing'an's Mansion, wanting to know what Li Fei was doing.

Qin Ziyu's expression kept changing.

He knew very well that today it was only He Jian who came to the door, and he could easily block him.

But if it were that Marquis of Jing'an who came to make an arrest, it would not be so easy for him to handle.

After all, that Marquis even dared to slap the First Imperial Prince in the face, let alone him, the Heir to Prince Cheng.

Thinking of the rumors that had been making a huge stir recently, Qin Ziyu stood up abruptly:

"Go, prepare yourself; I am going to pay a visit to my eldest cousin."

His eldest cousin was the First Imperial Prince.

"Yes."

Marquis of Jing'an's Mansion.

Inside the secret chamber, Li Fei poured a bottle of cyan liquid that emitted a bone-chilling scent into his palm.

Then, he formed a seal with one hand, a green leaf symbol lit up between his brows, and he cast a spell.

A powerful void thought was injected into the cyan liquid in his palm.

Soon, this liquid merged into Li Fei's palm.

Gradually, the skin on Li Fei's palm turned green, and the muscles began to stiffen.

He calmly looked at his left hand, carefully sensing the changes within, then picked up a pen with his right hand and recorded on paper:

"The fusion of Stone Root Marrow and Blood Soul causes the flesh to harden."

Once all changes were recorded and no new changes occurred in his left hand, Li Fei began to circulate his power.

After more than half an hour, his left hand gradually returned to normal.

This was him circulating the "Five Phases Reversal Method" to restore the alienated body tissue to its original state.

The Five Phases Reversal Method could restore implants and use them to restore other human tissues, and the difficulty was much lower, so Li Fei quickly succeeded in modifying this unique skill.

Over the past month or so, he had taken every possible refining material and experimented with the Blood Soul in his body.

If someone else had done this, even with the Five Phases Reversal Method, they would have died countless times already.

But Li Fei had the Ten Thousand Blood Bead to transfer damage, allowing him to court death time and again.

With the increase in experimental data, Li Fei had basically calculated the "physical properties" of the Blood Soul!

Now, he had completed the final set of experiments and could finally begin "artifact refining."

"What kind of magic treasure should I refine myself into?"

Previously, because Li Fei possessed the supreme treasure Dream-Like Decree, his first choice for a natal magic treasure would certainly have been to refine the Dream-Like Decree.

But now that he was to refine himself into a magic treasure, there were many directions to consider.

However, Li Fei did not hesitate for long before he had the answer in his heart:

"Refine a flying sword!"

Ever since he learned that such things as flying swords existed in this world, Li Fei had always yearned for one.

Later, having seen them with his own eyes and even come into contact with a flying sword himself, he liked this type of magic treasure even more.

Sword cultivators are inherently the group with the strongest killing power among sorcerers; using a flying sword as a magic treasure might not be as flexible in methods as other sorcerers, but in a head-on confrontation, sword cultivators can go toe-to-toe with martial artists!

Furthermore, another important reason Li Fei chose to refine a flying sword was that Bai Zihao had written several conceptual refining plans in his secret manual, one of which was refining a flying sword.

Bai Zihao was a Martial Saint, and even though he practiced both sorcery and martial arts, he was more inclined to use sorcery to enhance his martial arts.

Therefore, his proposed plan included a flying sword; he believed that if one were to refine the human body into a flying sword body, the first benefit would be a massive increase in physical strength, as one of the characteristics of a flying sword is that it is sufficiently sturdy.

The second is that attack methods would definitely be greatly enhanced, because the killing power of a flying sword is formidable.

Finally, there are speed and flight, two characteristics that are also very important for martial artists.

Thus, Bai Zihao felt that a flying sword was one of the most suitable magic treasures for a martial artist.

The refining plan he wrote in the secret manual was not specific because he had never practiced it; it was all theoretical deduction.

But for Li Fei, this was already enough and would save him a lot of effort.

Moreover, Li Fei had the Five Phases Reversal Method and was not afraid of making mistakes.

Of course, a flying sword is not something you can refine just because you want to.

A flying sword must be sufficiently hard, yet also sufficiently sharp.

The Primordial Diamond Power that Li Fei practiced happened to possess both of these characteristics, and since he cultivated the 【Primordial Heavenly Gold】, his body's "physical properties" met the requirements for refining a flying sword.

And so, only one final point remained:

The most critical point of a flying sword lies in remote control, which requires the use of a space-attribute implant. And space-attribute implants have very high requirements for compatibility; not everyone can match with them.

Among one hundred Great Mages of the Possession Realm, probably only one has such talent.

Li Fei was not sure if he also had talent in this area.

He rose and left the secret chamber to make a phone call.

That afternoon, a box emitting cold air was delivered to the Jing'an Marquis Mansion.

This was a third-grade superior sorcery-type implant—【Void Mark】—that Li Fei had purchased from the inner treasury using his Jing'an Marquis exchange quota.

【Void Mark】 is a space-attribute implant, very rare, and also a type of implant essential for a flying sword.

Inside the secret chamber, Li Fei opened the box and took out a square block of ice.

In the center of the ice was a silver-glowing amber; this was the 【Void Mark】.

A green leaf symbol lit up on Li Fei's brow; he activated 【Illusion Leaf】 to cast a spell, injecting a void thought into the 【Void Mark】.

This was a detection spell to test the 【Void Mark】's reaction to Li Fei's void thought.

The silver-glowing amber began to shine.

The spell Li Fei cast would cause the 【Void Mark】 to refract different colors, categorized as: white, blue, green, red, and gold.

If it refracted blue, it would indicate that Li Fei had a certain degree of compatibility with space-attribute sorcery-type implants and could barely fuse with it.

Green represents good compatibility, and red represents excellent compatibility.

A few seconds later, a brilliant golden light refracted from the amber before Li Fei's eyes!

"Finally, things went smoothly for once."

A smile appeared on Li Fei's face, looking exceptionally radiant under the reflection of the golden light.

Gold represents the top-tier talent!

If Li Fei had walked the path of sorcery from the beginning, he would have been a natural-born sword cultivator!

The 47th year of Hongguang, August 27th.

Under the cover of night, a shipment of goods worth over four million was transported from the inner treasury to the Jing'an Marquis Mansion.

No one knew that this unprecedented "refining the body into an artifact" began tonight.

(End of chapter)