Xu Qi An opened his eyes, ceasing his contemplation. His gaze fell upon Mu Nan Zhi’s face, which was now flushed with color, delicate and alluring.
Due to the man’s roughness, tears still lingered at the corners of her eyes.
Xu Qi An stared at the beauty before him, elegant without vulgarity, alluring without being bewitching, like a June blossom in full bloom, like a lotus rising from clear waters. For a moment, he wasn’t sure whether comprehending “Jade Shatter” was more important, or savoring this beauty.
Her wrists were like frost and snow, her face putting lotus blossoms to shame, with fine bone structure and perfectly proportioned features, her slender waist as light as a wisp.
His gaze gradually became intoxicated. The Flower Goddess was already the world’s supreme beauty, and such an incomparable beauty was now his to cherish, with tears at the corners of her eyes.
The spiritual satisfaction even surpassed the physical.
The qi mechanism circulated, repeatedly completing celestial cycles. Mu Nan Zhi’s spiritual essence continuously merged with the qi, entering Xu Qi An’s body through the cycles, making the Flower Goddess’s aura increasingly strong around him.
When the spiritual essence absorption reached a certain peak, Xu Qi An felt his spine tingle, his core and mind simultaneously erupting and exploding.
He vaguely heard Mu Nan Zhi’s high-pitched cry, but it quickly faded as everything went dark before his eyes until a beam of light broke through the darkness, illuminating barren soil.
The soil suddenly bulged as a touch of green broke through the earth layer, emerging as a tiny tree sprout.
Accepting what had come, he watched the green sprout while recalling Kou Yang Zhou’s experience of Dao Unity.
“The essence of Dao Unity is to elevate a martial artist’s ‘Way,’ creating the most perfect principle, but what defines perfect?
“There are countless sword ways, some offensive, some defensive, some swift, some slow, some broad and powerful, some indirect and subtle. Which one is most perfect? Even Kou Yang Zhou didn’t know, so his physical body collapsed into ‘flesh worms,’ each insisting its way was most perfect, leading him to cultivation deviation.
“My way is Jade Shatter, better to shatter like jade than remain whole as tile. So to complete my way and elevate it, should I push the essence of Jade Shatter to its extreme?”
At this moment, the tender green sprout grew, its trunk becoming sturdy, sprouting branching limbs. It grew into a great tree at visible speed, and beneath its shade, more greenery appeared as tender grass sprouted.
Xu Qi An’s heart stirred as if seeing into himself, and he murmured:
“The development of things doesn’t necessarily mean pushing to extremes. The definition of perfection can also mean compensating for weaknesses.
“When necessary, I can be unbending and choose to shatter like jade, but I’m not a madman who disregards life. I have a desire to survive, I want to live.”
He examined himself, seeing into his true nature, and understanding his original intention when comprehending Jade Shatter.
A person in desperate straits with nowhere to retreat manifests the courage to shatter like jade. But the most fundamental drive was survival.
If he had been without hope for life then, he couldn’t have comprehended Jade Shatter.
As these thoughts flickered, bolts of lightning struck the great tree before him, burning it to charcoal, and cutting off its vitality.
Many years later, the dead wood encountered spring, bursting with new life as green sprouts emerged from the charred trunk.
“My Jade Shatter is too domineering… lacking in vibrant life force, lacking survival instinct. But I already have an undying body, self-healing means nothing to me…”
He gazed at this towering tree, falling into contemplation again.
The massive tree continued growing, seemingly without limit, slowly reaching a height of a thousand zhang, its branches, and leaves covering ten li, becoming an enormous entity.
Countless beings made their home in it, drawing upon its nutrients and spiritual essence.
Yet rather than withering, it grew increasingly robust. The more beings that depended on it for life, the more desperately it drew upon heaven and earth’s power to strengthen itself.
Finally, it became an immortal divine tree.
Xu Qi An looked up, gazing deeply at the undying tree, his eyes reflecting its verdant green, its vigorous vitality. He maintained this pose, motionless for a long time.
Ten years of cultivation’s hardship, enlightenment in a moment.
At this moment, he stepped into the Second Grade Dao Unity realm.
At this moment, outside the Star-Observing Tower, streams of starlight descended, illuminating the Eight Trigrams Platform.
A heavenly phenomenon manifested.
Xu Qi An opened his eyes to see the disheveled bed, the beauty lying across it, hormones, and feminine fragrance intermingling like potent aphrodisiacs.
Mu Nan Zhi’s gaze was distant, her cheeks and neck flushed red against snow-white skin.
She seemed both overwhelmed and half-asleep. Xu Qi An could sense her spiritual essence beginning to recover, while much of his qi remained within the Flower Goddess’s body, just as much of her spiritual essence had been absorbed by him.
Their qi and spiritual essence had completed an exchange.
A few more times, and I can work on the love curse while I’m at it. He parted Mu Nan Zhi’s legs and pressed down again.
…
At Spirit Treasure Temple, Luo Yu Heng, wearing feathered robes and a lotus crown, carrying her duster, walked from her meditation room to the small courtyard.
She gazed at the Star-Observing Tower, her delicate brows tightly furrowed. After a long while, she suddenly snorted coldly and returned to her meditation room.
“If I’d known then, I wouldn’t have been soft-hearted, should have sold him to a brothel…”
The muttering drifted through the night.
…
“Your Highness, word has come from outside about an unusual phenomenon at the Celestial Office.”
Princess Huai Qing was gently roused by her chief palace maid.
Hearing about the phenomenon at the Celestial Office, she immediately sat up, all traces of sleep vanishing as she said:
“Bring me a robe.”
Her tone carried the languidness of someone just awakened.
The chief palace maid brought a thick wide-sleeved robe, which Huai Qing swept onto her shoulders with a flick of her wrist, the brocade rustling.
She left her chambers, her body light as a feather as she leaped gracefully onto the roof ridge to gaze toward the Celestial Office.
From her vantage point, the Celestial Office stood solitary, one-third of its tower visible.
At this moment, streams of starlight descended from the night sky, illuminating the Star-Observing Tower.
This… Huai Qing frowned in thought, unable to make sense of it.
She immediately leaped down from the roof, returned to her chambers, dismissed her maids, retrieved the Earth Script fragment from under her pillow, and sent a message:
[One: Xu Ning Yan, is the phenomenon at the Celestial Office related to you?]
At this crucial time for Great Feng, she couldn’t pretend to see such a phenomenon at the Celestial Office, nor could she remain calm without thinking about it or asking.
She didn’t receive a response from Xu Qi An, but Li Miao Zhen replied first:
[Two: What’s happening at the Celestial Office? What’s happened to Xu Ning Yan?]
Then the top scholar Chu Yuan Li:
[Four: Surely it can’t be anything bad, though these past few days, Xu Ning Yan has been mysteriously planning something, without telling us through messages.]
Then Master Heng Yuan jumped in to explain:
[Six: Master Xu is connected to Great Feng’s national fortune, and with the Yong Xing Emperor seeking peace, he faces both internal and external troubles. How could he have the mood to chat idly with us?]
At this point, the Earth Society members saw Number Eight’s late-night message, and actively joined the discussion:
[Eight: Looks like he’s advanced to Second Grade.]
[Two: Entered Second Grade Dao Unity?]
Li Miao Zhen thought, what joke are you making? Can one just enter Second Grade Dao Unity as they please?
How many Second Grade experts are there across the Nine Provinces continent?
[Seven: Haha, Number Eight is quite interesting, I like your innocence. However, you might not know that Xu Qi An has Demon Sealing Nails in his body, which are difficult to remove. In this condition, he cannot possibly advance.]
[Four: The phenomenon at the Celestial Office might be from the Supervising Director’s contingency, or something else. But the Holy Son is right, Xu Ning Yan still has a Demon Sealing Nail in his body, and it can’t be him. Number Eight, you probably don’t know what a Demon Sealing Nail is, let me explain.
The Demon Sealing Nail is a magical tool forged by Buddha, once used to seal the Asura King, yes, the father of that Asura the Holy Son told you about.]
[Two: Speaking of which, Asura was still defeated by Xu Qi An.]
…
Bai Ji woke from her deep sleep, dizzy and disoriented, unsure who she was or where she was.
She raised both paws to rub her button-like black eyes, looking around to survey her surroundings, and discovering she was in the Pagoda Treasury.
Two golden Dharma bodies stood to the south and west, while an old monk with a white beard sat cross-legged by the tea table to the east.
“Where’s my aunt?”
Bai Ji staggered toward the pagoda spirit old monk.
The old monk examined her and said kindly:
“You don’t look well.”
Bai Ji’s steps were unsteady, like a human after heavy drinking. In her childish female voice, she said puzzledly:
“Last night I dreamed I was drifting at sea, the boat rocking and rocking, rocking and rocking. I wanted to wake up but couldn’t. In my daze, I heard aunt crying out as if someone was hitting her.”
She had dreamed aunt was being hit, with pat-pat-pat sounds. She felt angry and wanted to help her aunt seek revenge, but couldn’t wake up no matter what.
The pagoda spirit old monk listened quietly, then explained:
“You were brought in here. Benefactor Xu and Benefactor Mu didn’t enter.”
As he spoke, he beckoned to the Medicine Master Dharma body, whose jade bottle in hand dispersed fine particles of light that floated into Bai Ji’s body.
The little fox rolled contentedly on the ground, showing her soft belly, then scrambled up happily, saying:
“That feels so good, so good, my head isn’t dizzy anymore.
“Thank you, Master.”
The pagoda spirit old monk smiled and nodded, pressing his palms together in prayer, lowering his head in silence.
The little fox jumped onto the meditation cushion beside the old monk, curling up to wait for Mu Nan Zhi’s summons, and as she waited, she fell asleep again.
…
The next day, at dawn.
The sky was darkest before dawn, with torches blazing at the Wu Gate.
The civil and military officials gathered quietly outside the Wu Gate, waiting for the drums to sound, waiting for the morning court session to begin.
At the same time, Ji Yuan dressed neatly and walked out of his room.
Xu Yuan Shuang and Xu Yuan Huai were already waiting in the hall, along with four elderly members of the negotiation team with high seniority and scholarship.
They were energetic and radiant, holding back their enthusiasm, eager to sprout wings and pressure the ruler and Great Feng emperor in the throne hall, showing Cloud Province’s might.
After a simple breakfast, Ji Yuan led the six people out. Reaching the courtyard, he saw a young man in a Silver Gong uniform with a lively demeanor and fairly handsome features coldly staring at him.
“How should I address this official?”
Ji Yuan asked with a smile.
“Song Ding Feng!”
The Silver Gong’s tone matched his cold expression.
“Nice name,” Ji Yuan commented neutrally, walking up to him with a smile and asking:
“How have I offended Official Song?
“Since yesterday, Official Song’s gaze toward me has been extremely unfriendly.”
Song Ding Feng gave a cold smile:
“Why should I show a pleasant face to an enemy?”
“‘Enemy,’ you say.”
Ji Yuan clicked his tongue repeatedly:
“Remember this – when I see your Great Feng emperor in the throne hall later, I’ll tell him that Night Watchman Silver Gong Song Ding Feng views me as an enemy and wishes to assassinate me.
“What do you think your emperor will do with you?”
Song Ding Feng’s expression changed.
Ji Yuan laughed coldly:
“View me as an enemy? A mere Silver Gong, how dare you?”