However, to Li Mu’s surprise, after searching the entire Tianyi Palace, he found no trace of the before-the-era relics or any clues about the Tao Te Ching Lao Zi left behind.
“This is odd. Shiyu said all the relics before the era are stored in Tianyi Palace. Could she make a mistake? Or did the relics be moved to some other place?”
Li Mu was bewildered.
The silver figure called Yue Guoxiang claiming to be a disciple of Tianyi Palace, a great faction from the universe, certainly had something with the Tianyi Palace built on that planet. That figure did not choose to hide in the palace for no reason. It was just that he was forced to run away when Li Mu showed up.
Unwilling to resign to the fruitless search, Li Mu turned on his Third Eye and examined the place again.
On the second search, he was more and more impressed by the many wonders in the palace. Because though the Taoist magic figures there were set up a long time ago, he could still tell they were not the work of the martial practitioners in that world. Instead, they were the tactical deployments of the Divine Way. And under the ground flowed mysterious fragmented Taoist figures, which could not be seen through even by Li Mu’s Third Eye.
Li Mu attempted to let his spiritual force seep into the depths of the earth. But when it dived about 10 meters, it was blocked by a wondrous force. That force was profound and boundless, as enigmatic as the vast universe.
Despite Li Mu’s great efforts, his spiritual force still failed to penetrate it.
That was quite unusual.
Li Mu continued wandering about in the Tianyi Palace while stealthily casting his own tactical deployments in some rooms. After doing that, he reluctantly took off, feeling that a huge secret was still lying there.
On the clouds dozens of miles away, Yue Guoxiang, the silver-haired and silver-eyed disciple of the Tianyi Palace, finally sensed Li Mu’s leave through the Tianyi Jade Killing Deployment and sighed in relief.
“He didn’t discover the secret there… Phew. This time I was truly careless. I never know I could have pissed off such a dreadful man.” The look on Yue Guoxiang’s face was complexed.
Just before his landing, he was filled with pride and ambition.
Having passed a ton of examinations and trials and beaten several thousand disciples of the Tianyi Palace, only he and the other three disciples were picked to carry out the task. And during the landing process, the other three disciples were killed in the backfire. He was the only one who successfully landed on the designated planet. So, he was under the impression that he was blessed by God. Even though he had consumed a great part of his cultivation and voluntarily degraded to a lower realm during the landing, he believed he would be invincible on that planet. But unexpectedly, within half a month, before he had taken in enough blood, he came across such a tough opponent and almost got killed.
“This world is really dangerous.
I’ve got to investigate the background of the boy. His power is too horrible.”
After brooding on it for a few moments, he made up his mind.
At first, he thought he would never use that connection. But given the current circumstances, he had to contact the receptionists on that planet.
…
…
“Yue Guoxiang has been defeated?”
Hiding in the waters, the Saint of the Blood Sea saw that sight through telepathy.
“Seems that my guess is correct. That Li Mu is the blessed one on this planet. With a strong fate, it’s not easy to tackle him. Yue Guoxiang is a selected elite of Tianyi Palace’s fifth generation, a practitioner who has fought his way through the Life and Death Bridge. Though the landing has repressed some of his power, he ought to be invincible against anyone beneath the twelfth level of the Qi Refining Realm. Yet, he is now hunted by Li Mu.”
He muttered to himself.
Next to him was Bloody-moon Evil Master. His eyes suddenly glinted and he said, “Saint, the twelfth level of the Qi Refining Realm? Could you explain it to me? I really want to expand my horizon so as to be a better servant to Saint.”
Saint glanced at him and said, “This time, it’s you who warned me first so that instead of locking horns with Li Mu, I lurked in the darkness and conveniently carried out my plan. Given that, I sure can clear up some of your confusion. Your world is located in the remote, bleak area. Your planet is just a ruined star… Well, never mind, you won’t understand that anyway. All you need to know is that the martial arts in your world are rather low-level. So, the realms you created here is actually quite ridiculous. The allegedly invincible Void-breaking Realm here is only the first step on the road of practice for the practitioners in outer space. In the vast universe, the most rudimental stage for practitioners is the Qi Refining Realm. Only when you accomplish the qi of vast universe can you extricate yourself from the natural shackles. There are twelve levels in the Qi Refining Realm. And the twelfth level is the equivalent to the Void-breaking Realm on your planet. To move upward, you have to get through the Life and Death Bridge inside you before entering the next realm. The power in the next realm is beyond your imagination.”
At that, Bloody-moon Evil Master felt a surge of excitement. It turned out that the end of the road of martial arts practicing was so far away. Before, he believed entering the Void-breaking Realm meant being invincible. But now, it seemed…
The door of a brand new world was slowly flinging open before him.
“Then, could the Blood Sea Mercy Sailing Scripture I’ve been practicing eventually lead me to get through the Life and Death Bridge?” he asked out of curiosity.
Saint smirked. “That scripture is the primitive Cultivation Method of the Blood Sea. It is divided into four tiers. Each of the tiers equals three levels of the Qi Refining Realm. So, when you accomplish the fourth tier, your cultivation will be at the twelfth level of the Qi Refining Realm. According to the standard realms your people created, you can reach the Void-breaking Realm. But if you want to get through the Life and Death Bridge, well, it’s not gonna happen.”
Hearing his reply, Bloody-moon Evil Master was seized by a wave of disappointment.
By then, he had done all his could to reach the middle stage of the fourth tier of the Blood Sea Mercy Sailing Scripture. That was to say he was only half a step away from the full accomplishment. He thought he would be able to conquer the world after he completed the fourth tier. Yet, it turned out that he was merely approaching the level of a normal practitioner in the universe.
Saint knew what he was thinking the moment he saw the look on his face. So, he suggested and said, “You don’t have to worry about that now. Never bite more than you can chew. As long as you take care of the business I handed to you and stay loyal to me, I will teach you the Cultivation Method that can help you pass through the Life and Death Bridge. You got to understand this. Even the Cultivation Method of dealing with the Life and Death Bridge is only a low-ranking method in our Blood Sea. To get more advanced Cultivation Methods, you have to make more contributions.”
Bloody-moon Evil Master rejoiced at the news and vowed, “I am willing to die for you, Saint.”
As to whether Saint himself had passed through the Life and Death Bridge, he did not ask. Because posing a question like that would be too silly.
The logic was quite simple.
If one passed through the Life and Death Bridge, he would rise above the Void-breaking Realm and be able to dominate that world. However, considering that Saint was still quite afraid of Li Mu, his current power was not more impressive than Li Mu’s, if not less… Perhaps that was because he had lost a major amount of cultivation and strength during the landing. Posing that question would only embarrass and upset Saint. That would be totally pointless.
“Go on catching me more creatures for their blood. There is still some time to kill before the opening of the divine grave. I shall waste no time to recover. That’s urgent.” Saint remarked. “We’ll leave Lin’an for another place. You, list the addresses of all the factions above the third grade in the Northern Song. From now on, it’s our hunting time.”
Bloody-moon Evil Master gave a shudder inwardly.
He had seen how Saint swallowed the other living creatures, so he knew perfectly what the word hunting meant.
It meant the darkest period in the history of the martial society in the Northern Song would befall.
He could not help wondering how many martial arts practitioners would survive that tribulation.
…
…
“Having learned that Sage Li intends to visit the Tianyi Palace, His Majesty already issued an imperial edict that Sage Li is allowed to enter and exit the palace without reporting to any department for record.” Lord Virtuous the Eighth then took out an imperial edict and a jade key and added, “This jade key can open all the doors of the main halls in the Tianyi Palace. Please keep it well, Sage Li.”
Li Mu internally grumbled, “I’ve already had a tour of the whole Tianyi Palace.”
But he decided to keep that experience to himself and took over the key.
The key was made of ordinary jade. It contained no aura of any Dao-using methods. Thus, Li Mu did not bother to examine it and offhandedly stuffed it in his pocket.
Once again, Lord Virtuous the Eighth half unconsciously brought up the emperor’s eagerness to recruit Li Mu, but Li Mu sharply steered the conversation away from the subject.
Shortly, some came to inform Lord Virtuous the Eighth that the emperor just summoned him, so the lord hastily took off.
A short while later, Wang Shiyu returned to the mansion, panting for breath. “General still hasn’t come back. It must have really gotten lost. What should I do now?”
Li Mu said softly, “It’s no big deal. It will come back when it’s got to. After all, the power that dog has obtained is really amazing.”
Wang Shiyu said with a grin, “I’m worried just because I’ll have to answer you if General is really lost. By the way, did your recent closed-door training bear any fruit?”
Li Mu then told Wang Shiyu about the visit he had paid to the Tianyi Palace and pointed out, “The articles Lao Zi left is not in the palace. Is the rumor you’ve heard not trustworthy?”
Wang Shiyu said, “It’s supposed to be true. The matter is practically common knowledge in the royal family… Well, I’ll go to the royal library and do more research on this matter. Wait for my good news.”
With that, she burst out of the mansion and disappeared.
Li Mu hurriedly sent Yuan Hou to follow her and protect her.
Nowadays, undertows of dark force were flowing in Lin’an. An enormous crisis was right around the corner. The inexplicable disappearance of large populations was proof. Now that Yue Guoxiang, a disciple of the Tianyi Palace, was audacious enough to take on Lord Virtuous the Eighth, it demonstrated that the royal family had already lost the power to protect themselves. For that reason, Li Mu dared not neglect the importance of security measures. After all, by that time, Wang Shiyu had not learned any bit of martial arts.
“To thoroughly investigate this matter, I must expand my information sources. Normal intelligence agencies can hardly find the whereabouts of that Yue Guoxiang. So, what I need is a grand faction in the martial arts society. Yeah, it seems I have to trouble Ming Yue, the Grand Master of the largest faction in the Northern Song.”
At that thought, Li Mu broke into laughter.
The one good thing that came with Ming Yue being the Grand Master of the Beggar Gang was it was more convenient to collect information around the globe. Although the headquarters of the Beggar Gang was in the Northern Song, as a matter of fact, the gang had inserted informers in the Western Qin and the Southern Chu, too. And the more refugees emerged in the frequent wars, the stronger and larger the Beggar Gang was.
In a few minutes, Li Mu arrived at the outside of Qing Feng’s alchemy laboratory.
“Young Master!” At sight of Li Mu, Ming Yue’s bored eyes gleamed with excitement. She jumped down from the roof straight away.
“What are you…”
“I’m on the lookout for the sake of Brother Qing Feng.”
“Huh?”
Li Mu was surprised to hear that. “The cute, dorky Ming Yue has learned to act as a lookout… Did she come back with a new character? And, what did she call Qing Feng just now? Brother?”
“Something is going on between the two kids…”
At that point, Qing Feng came out from the laboratory in his wheelchair.
“Young Master.” The little attendant bowed his head.
Li Mu nodded at him. He was glad to have a chance to check the progress of Qing Feng’s alchemy skill and instrument refining art.
Qing Feng quickly took out a few articles.
“This is…?” Li Mu took a silver ball the size of a fist and immediately sensed the weird whirling aura of tactical deployments inside it. It was an unusual object, but he could not see what it was exactly.
Qing Feng explained, “This is the Broadsword Pellet. It holds 108 fine broadswords, which are all initial Taoist instruments. I forged them with Star Stones. Young Master will know what I’m saying once you refine it and become the official owner of those broadswords.”
Upon hearing that, Li Mu’s eyeballs nearly dropped onto the ground.
“Taoist instruments?”
“This boy already learned how to produce Taoist instruments?”
