The tent was brightly lit, and the ground was covered with a hide carpet embroidered with inscriptions which isolated them from the blood. Countless experts of the Human Clan showed up to host a small farewell party for Ding Hao. Actually, most of them attended the party for the sake of getting in touch with him, but they didn’t expect to hear such news.
It was well-known that Ding Hao owned a piece of the map, but it had already been used to open the first section of the ancient road.
Did he possess another piece?
He was incredibly fortunate!
At this point, everyone fixed their eyes on Ding Hao.
Simultaneously, all of them had an extremely strange thought that this gentle boy could smoothly overcome all difficulties, no matter how difficult they were.
Bai Quanshui, the top master of the Extermination Swordsmanship Sect, asked tentatively, “Do you have another piece of the map, Brother Ding?”
Realizing that everyone’s eyes were imbued with great anxiety, Ding Hao no longer kept them guessing. He pointed to Ji Yingqi, who was sitting next to him, and said, “I only have one piece, but this girl has another piece.”
All eyes looked at Ji Yingqi.
In the beginning, when they saw Ding Hao carrying Ji Yingqi, many of them couldn’t help but guess the true identity of this little girl.
Those who were able to get there were martial arts masters.
Their acute insight naturally noticed that the vitality in Ji Yingqi’s body was feeble, and she possibly had a terminal disease. Not knowing martial arts, such a weak girl actually had a spot for entering the Sage Battlefield. Besides, it was already surprising enough that she had traveled all the way to that point of the ancient westbound road.
The most appalling fact was the relationship between Ding Hao and the girl.
It was apparent that Ding Hao was very considerate of her.
It wasn’t until they heard Ding Hao’s revelation that they suddenly understood the reason.It turned out that the girl owned a piece of the stone tablet map.
This was her advantage.
Meanwhile, they also thought this girl was indeed lucky to have met Ding Hao. If she had encountered someone else, even a master of the Human Clan, she would have probably been killed and robbed. How could she, a weak girl, keep the stone table map?
“Haha, that’s amazing. All the eleven pieces of the map are here.” Song Que and the others present were overjoyed.
Ding Hao said with a smile, “Yes, the piece Yingqi owns can complete the whole map. It shouldn’t be difficult for us to find the mysterious ruins. But I have to inform you that my friend is qualified to enter the mysterious ruins and to have a share of the divine treasures since she has a piece of the map. What do you think?”
Everyone was slightly stunned.
The people who had pieces of the map were all masters, so it was reasonable for them to claim a share the divine treasures. Ji Yingqi, however, was a weak girl without any strength, so it was enviable that she could be treated as a supreme expert.
But Song Que did not hesitate and simply burst into laughter. “Of course. Although we’ve made it clear that we should rely on our own strength once we enter the mysterious ruins. Given that she is your friend and owns a part of the stone tablet map, she deserves to have a share. I’m willing to concede to certain shares.”
Bai Quanshui also declared that he was absolutely in favor.
Since the two men aired their opinions and Ding Hao, the most ferocious master, firmly stood on Ji Yingqi’s side, they didn’t dare to oppose the three prominent experts.
After discussing for a while, they quickly reached an agreement.
Then, they needed to bargain with the Demon Clan. Since the last piece of the map belonged to the Human Clan, they could seek more interests for their side. They, therefore, had to redetermine the way they would divide the divine treasures. Song Que and Bai Quanshui would be in charge of this matter.
Everyone was extremely excited.
After a celebration, they began to make full use of the time to prepare for entering the mysterious ruins.
No one knew the risks and dangers inside. Some of them might die; even the strongest people, such as Song Que and Ding Hao, took it seriously.
Ding Hao stayed in the big tent for the time being.
He had to mend Li Lan’s internal injuries first, lest they would be in danger in the mysterious ruins.
“What? Must… must I take off my outerwear?” Li Lan became a little nervous after hearing Ding Hao’s treatment method.
“Yes, the fastest way is to transfer my Heaven Fire Qi into your body, refine the places where your meridians are blocked, and remove the chill poison then. About two hours later, you will completely recover, and it can also help you refine the potency of the 10,000-year-old magic herb. Otherwise, with the treatment of medicine, you won’t be cured quickly,” Ding Hao said with a chuckle.
Finding that Li Lan was a little hesitant, he frowned and said with a doubting tone, “What’s wrong? Xiao Lan, I know you’re a little mysophobic, but what are you afraid of, since we’re both men? Martial artists should not mind such trifles…”
Li Lan was speechless. He quickly said, “No way. I don’t like exposing myself in front of a stranger.”
Ding Hao said in amazement, “Are you kidding? We’re so familiar with each other. Are we still strangers?”
“Erm… Anyway, I can’t do that. I…” Li Lan stuttered.
Ding Hao said, waving with his backhand, “Don’t be such a sissy,” Ding Han said impatiently, “Xiao Lan, don’t make trouble for me. Take the treatment seriously, or I’ll be concerned about your physical condition when we enter the mysterious ruins.”
A gentle force gushed forth and pressed Li Lan to sit on the carpet.
Ding Hao then unfastened Li Lan’s outerwear with ease and sat cross-legged behind him to run his Heaven Fire Qi. He pressed his palms, which were as crimson as blood, on Li Lan’s back.
“You…” Li Lan was both anxious and angry.
“Concentrate on both Spirit and Qi, hold your breath in deep concentration!” A magic power in Ding Hao’s voice quieted Li Lan down. At this moment, it was meaningless to continue resisting. He had to stimulate the Qi Seed in his body to cooperate with Ding Hao, leading the warm current of Qi to his own Qi channels to remove the blockages.
Golden flames surged all over Ding Hao and spread out, even surrounding Li Lan.
Ding Hao didn’t improve his Qi cultivation by much while he traveled along the ancient westbound road, but his control of power had reached the acme of perfection. Like a trickle, Qi was transmitted into Li Lan’s body through the two acupoints, namely the Tianguan and the Shenmen, and slowly flowed forward through the meridians in his body.
“Hmm? Why is Xiao Lan’s body so delicate…?”
Ding Hao placed his hands on Li Lan’s back. Although there was a layer of underwear between their skins, that thin layer of cotton was unable to block Ding Hao’s perception at all. He only realized that Li Lan was really slim, as if he were malnourished, and his skin, like a woman’s, was extremely soft and smooth while he pressed his palms against his back.
The collar of his underwear was slightly lower so that Ding Hao could see the lower part of Li Lan’s neck. His skin was as white as mutton-fat jade, which was so dazzling due to its flawless condition.
If it weren’t for Li Lan’s Adam’s apple and his flat chest, Ding Hao could have probably considered him as a woman.
Even so, the extremely strange touch of soft and smooth skin still fascinated Ding Hao, when his palms were against Li Lan’s back.
“I’m actually obsessed in the face of a man. This is not a good sign. Am I in a physiological period?”
Ding Hao felt that he was going to be abnormal.
Time ticked by.
After two hours, Ding Hao slowly withdrew his Qi and exhaled a mouthful of foul breath.
At this time, Li Lan was glinting with Golden Jade Qi, and the previous decadent and gloomy Qi was swept away. Moreover, the power of the magic medicine accumulated in his body these days was also refined and purified by Ding Hao just now. The tremendous medicine power transformed into Golden Jade Qi, roaring and surging in the Qi channel like an onrushing river, which had never been so active before.
He hesitated for a while and simply controlled the Qi to break through the next acupoint as it was in full swing.
When Ding Hao opened his eyes, he was spontaneously stunned.
Surrounded by the Golden Jade Qi, Li Lan looked so graceful, fair, and pretty that he definitely had never seen such a man in his life. Li Lan, vaguely like a female War God who befell the mortal world, was noble and inviolable.
“Uh? Is Xiao Lan really a woman?”
Ding Hao was somewhat puzzled.
Taking Li Lan’s reactions and strange behaviors into consideration, Ding Hao was uncertain at this point. However, after careful observation, he denied his guess because of Li Lan’s Adam’s apple. Furthermore, his chest…
“Even an airport cannot be more flatter. His breasts are smaller than Want Want Ball Cake… Haha, I must be too suspicious.”
Ding Hao shook his head with a smile.
In the end, he ignored his doubts in his mind, for it was absolutely impossible.
While Li Lan was dashing the next aperture, Ding Hao set up a small inscription array in the tent after pondering for a while. He sat inside and took out some herbs from his Storage Ring. Then he took out more than a dozen Nine Emperor’s Heart-Protecting Bamboo Shoots which were soaked in Ji Yingnan’s blood. After matching them in proportion, he molded handprints and began to refine the Nine Yang Heart-luring Pills.
Soon they would go to the mysterious ruins, but Ding Hao could not predict what risks they would take and was not sure if he could return alive.
Therefore, he refined the Nine Yang Heart-luring Pills first, which would comfort Ji Yingnan, who was dead.
Ji Yingqi had been taking the Vegetation Life Elixirs these days. Although she would be free from the torment, her symptom of Nine Yin Meridian Severance became worse day by day. The earlier the symptom was relieved, the quicker the girl escaped from Death.
A ball of golden flame appeared in Ding Hao’s palm.
The Nine Yang Heart-luring Pill was a high-level elixir.
Only the alchemists who were above the Rank Six were qualified to refine this kind of elixir.
Currently, Ding Hao was only about a half-step to be the Rank Five Alchemist, but he had heard about the refining method and formula of this elixir from Saber Master and Sword Master. Moreover, he cherished the Heaven Fire Qi, which was one of the famous kindling in the Refining Heavenly Flames. Ding Hao also mastered several long-lost alchemy handprints, so refining the Nine Yang Heart-luring Pills was out of question for him.
Time ticked by.
Suddenly, a column of golden light shot out from Li Lan’s left atrium and disappeared in a flash.
A glowing golden and jade green light ball shone from his body and gradually faded. However, the power that was slowly released became countless times stronger. A faint illusionary pattern of an Immortal King fighting in the Ninth Heaven appeared on his back, which became more and more vivid. Against the divine power released by the pattern, Li Lan, with an irresistible magic power, looked like a God King.
As soon as Li Lan opened his eyes, he restrained the Golden Jade Qi around him.
In fact, the Qi he refined was also regarded as a kind of mutated Qi, which was varied from Gold Wood Qi and had a strange power. Each kind of mutant Qi was sharper than ordinary invisible Qi. Taking Ding Hao’s Hell Ice Qi for example, it actually was a water property Qi.
Realizing that the power in his power kept increasing and the running speed of his Qi reached a new level, Li Lan was slightly astonished.
“The power is far beyond that of a two-apertured great grandmaster. How this could have happened?”
Li Lan frowned and was lost in thought.
Every martial artist must keep his feet firmly on the ground on the way to become a master. The unknown increase in strength was not necessarily favorable but was likely to leave some hidden dangers. However, he did not figure his suspicion out after thinking for a moment. They only strange matter he perceived was that Ding Hao’s Qi had entered his body just now…
“Is it because of this? Did Ah Hao’s Qi and mine resonate together, stimulate each other, and achieve a certain effect similar to that brought by double-cultivation?”
Li Lan’s face changed.
He turned his head and saw Ding Hao sitting quietly in the small inscription array not far away, with flames surging all over his body and his hands molding handprints constantly.
His fingers rose and fell like illusions, leaving residual silhouettes, which were like extremely glamorous blooming lotuses. Those clusters of golden flames, containing exceptionally horrible power, could burn every expert at the Martial King Realm into ashes in an instant. However, at this time, they were like clever elves, tightly surrounding Ding Hao and wrapped more than a dozen kinds of precious herbs up under the command of his fingers.
Ding Hao moved his fingers gracefully.
Bathed in the golden lights, he looked more attractive and handsome.
“God really loves Ah Hao. All the niceness seems to be concentrated on him.”
Li Lan sighed softly.
“Why you?”
He stared at Ding Hao’s face quietly and saw him putting on an exceedingly complicated expression. Sometimes he ground his teeth, sometimes knitted his brows, and sometimes smiled.
The atmosphere in the tent became a little weird.
Time flew by.
Beads of sweat appeared on Ding Hao’s forehead.
The flames manipulated by ten fingers gradually dimed, and a refreshing herbal fragrance spread out, which refreshed people as long as they took a drag on it. Then wisps of green flames spread, like numerous tiny tentacles that wrapped around Ding Hao.
“Spreading through heaven and earth, luring the Nine Yang Heart… The pills are completed!”
Ding Hao suddenly opened his eyes, from which a burst of divine light shot out. As he pulled his clothes, the long sleeves stretched and quickly passed through the void. It was exactly the elixir-gathering kill of Cloud Covering the Moon. A dozen green light balls were all caught in Ding Hao’s left hand as soon as it scattered.
As he waved his fingers of his right hand, dozens of Chinese characters fell and sealed all the twelve green pills.
Pills had souls, especially high-level ones, which were crystal refined from countless divine herbs. Alchemy itself was a process of creation, so the divine pills refined by real alchemists were conscious elves with souls. From the moment they were created, they would flee quickly if they were not sealed.
Ding Hao spread out his palm.
Twelve crystal longan-sized round elixirs, like jade, restrained their brilliance and quietly lay on Ding Hao’s palm, emitting their divinity.
“Are these… Rank Seven Elixirs? Have you already become an alchemist?” Li Lan exclaimed in surprise.
Those who were able to refine Rank Six Elixirs were not common elixir pharmacists but alchemists.
In Snow Province, only Chen Nanchao, the Pill King, could barely be considered as a tactless alchemist. Even so, countless sects in Snow Province treated him politely and dared not to neglect him at all. Unexpectedly, Ding Hao had surpassed Chen Nanchao, who was known as the Pill King…
Li Lan forgot to behave himself.
Although he had long known that Ding Hao could refine pills, he had never expected that Ding Hao was steeped in alchemy.
Ding Hao smiled. He was in a good mood and was about to show off.
“Brother Ding, we’ve reached an agreement with those old demons. It’s time to open the next section of the ancient road…” Right at this moment, Song Que’s voice rang out from outside.
Li Lan frowned and put on his outerwear immediately.
The sky was tinted with blood red.
The air was still filled with a faint smell of blood.
The Swordsmanship-seeking Sect Mountain was ablaze with lights, as if it were daytime.
This was the first night in a long time without a fight. Many disciples of the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect were seizing the time to heal their wounds, run their Qi, and restore their strength.
At least fifty or sixty high-level superiors of the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect gathered in front of the temporary commander camp of sects next to Light-splitting Rock in the third ladder area.
Everyone fixed their eyes on the tent.
There were only three people in the tent.
The three people could determine the fate of the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect.
What worried them was that brawls came from inside. Among them, the voice of Tang Folei, the chief of the Sentencing Hall, was the loudest. He seemed to be extremely angry and quarreled aloud. Occasionally, Li Jianyi, the head of the Sect, would refute, while Qi Qingshan kept silent from beginning to end.
Regrettably, with the veil of the inscription array, most of their power and voices were isolated, so that the people outside could only vaguely tell that the three people were quarreling.
But they had no idea why the three magnates quarreled.
About two hours later, Tang Folei, the chief of the Sentencing Hall, came out of the tent in a huff and snorted. Without glancing at the crowd, he rose into the air and disappeared in the direction where the Sentencing Hall located.
After a while, Li Jianyi, the head of the sect, walked out of the tent.
Everyone focused on him.
They were all worried.
At this precarious moment, the three giants could not break up.
Otherwise, the situation of the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect would be worse.
Perceiving the concerned gazes, Li Jianyi seemed to be very tired. He smiled and said, “Go about your own business. Take the time to rest and make preparations. Maybe there will be another fight tomorrow. Junior Brother Tang and I just have a conflict. It’s okay.”
Only then did the crowd scatter in doubt.
After they left, Li Jianyi looked up at the blood-red full moon and shook his head slightly in low spirits. He turned around and walked to the stone cliff in the distance, step by step, as if he was thinking about something.
The mountain wind blew his robe.
At this point, under the moonlight, the emaciated Martial Arts Master, who was the powerful in Snow Province, looked a little lonely, like an ordinary old man. He fell into deep thoughts and was somewhat helpless.
A sound of footsteps rang out behind him.
“Here you are…” Li Jianyi was slightly stunned.
Although he did not look back, he knew who it was in the first place.
“What on earth happened? You and Senior Brother Tang…” Luo Lan, the head of the Water Sword Peak, wearing a sky-blue gauzy aulic dress, was noble and otherworldly, like the fairy of the Ninth Heaven. With worry creeping on her striking face, she approached him slowly.
Li Jianyi gave a wry smile, “That’s all right. We just… don’t see eye to eye on a certain matter.”
Luo Lan walked over gently.
She gave up asking in detail but stood quietly beside Li Jianyi, shoulder to shoulder, looking down at the boundless land below. The mountain wind blew her long hair, and they looked like an immortal couple with their hair fluttering with the wind at this time.
Luo Lan signed and said with concern, “In fact, for so many years, the estrangement between you has not been completely healed. You took advantage of Ding Hao to pass the tribulation and set up a trap to kill the traitors in the sect last. Thought you seemingly cooperated with each other, you were for the sake of the interest of the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect, weren’t you? Alas, the broken mirror is not easy to be as intact as before…”
Li Jianyi was noncommittal.
He turned his head to look at the woman beside him with an unprecedently calm and gentle gaze. Then he said with a smile, “After so many years, Junior Sister, you are still so intelligent.”
Luo Lan smiled. A trace of rare sweetness appeared on her face and then disappeared in a flash.
Li Jianyi slowly reached out his hand and stopped in midair. After a slight pause, he seemed to have made up his mind. His fingers passed through Luo Lan’s messy long hair and gently gathered it behind her ears, and then said softly, “If I fail to survive tomorrow, Ah Lan, can you forgive my persistence these years?”
Luo Lan signed and said, “Taking about these things makes no sense now.”
“Are you still having a grudge against me? Li Jianyi smiled bitterly, “Yes, I’m not a competent father. I’m too selfish…”
“You are indeed not a good father, for you sacrificed our child for the sake of the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect.” Luo Lan said quietly, “However, there is no head of a sect like you in Snow Province contributing everything to the sect.”
“Is today’s tribulation of the Sword-seeking Sect the retribution from heaven?” Recalling the past, Li Jianyi suddenly found that he did not know whether his persistence in these years was right or wrong.
“Maybe it’s not retribution but a test, or an opportunity for rebirth.” Luo Lan suddenly stretched out her hand and gently held Li Jianyi’s hand.
Who No one would believe that the palms of the head of the first sect in Snow Province were actually rough and were covered with calluses caused by holding the sword all the time. Even possessing unparalleled Qi cultivation, he could not erase these scars since he held the sword for too long.
