Li Guanqi's face paled drastically as he hastily examined his own body.
His divine sense swept across every inch of himself, yet he found nothing out of the ordinary.
Scanning the surroundings, Li Guanqi collected all the storage rings from the fallen.
With a flick of flame, he burned every corpse down to clean ashes.
Having done all this, he turned and departed without the slightest hesitation.
Changing into a black robe to conceal his figure, he made his departure with extreme caution.
Yet the moment Zhao He fell...
High in the firmament, a rapidly flying figure suddenly stiffened, brows furrowing.
The man wore a black robe. His face was gaunt, his features laden with baleful murderous intent.
"Hmm?"
"Zhao He is dead?! And so many of the Black-Armored Guards were lost as well..."
As something crossed his mind, the man's expression soured.
"Looks like serious trouble is brewing..."
Others might not have known Zhao He's background, but he certainly did.
This man was none other than the Grand Commander Zhao He had spoken of.
"The Vice Hall Master is probably going out of his mind right about now."
Bang!
Far away within a resplendent, gilded hall, a middle-aged man who bore a three-tenths resemblance to Zhao He violently crushed the teacup in his hand!
The sharp crack of shattering porcelain instantly choked off the laughter and conversation filling the hall.
In the sudden silence, every gaze converged upon Zhao Chengyong.
Beside him sat a handsome figure who looked like a young man. The youth shot Zhao Chengyong a nonchalant glance and spoke in an irritated tone.
"Chengyong, what do you think you are doing?"
Zhao Chengyong's face was grim, yet beneath the young man's scrutiny, a look of dread and trepidation surfaced.
"Replying to the Hall Master... it is nothing."
A glint of cold light flashed through the youth's narrow eyes—a silent warning.
As for the others present, they merely chuckled and said nothing.
Zhao Chengyong and the youth's seats were positioned near the doorway. Amid their casual chatting and laughing, the others hardly paid them any mind.
Zhao Chengyong sent a hushed voice transmission. "Hall Master, something urgent has come up that I need to return and handle."
The young man's brow furrowed, casting a tranquil glance his way.
Zhao Chengyong swallowed hard, hurriedly lowering his head and transmitting, "I... I will deal with it later..."
Only then did the handsome youth slowly withdraw his gaze. That look just now had been akin to regarding a dead corpse...
Zhao Chengyong kept his head bowed, his back drenched in cold sweat.
Li Guanqi flitted rapidly through the boundless mountain range without stirring a single leaf.
He was like a ghostly phantom, vanishing in the blink of an eye.
All along the way, his aura fluctuated violently.
His eyes flickered as his divine sense swept out, soon discovering an abandoned monster beast den in the distance.
Gritting his teeth, he accelerated and quickly ducked inside.
He retrieved a camouflage inscribed talisman left to him by Gu Li and tossed it toward the entrance.
Buzz!
A subtle ripple spread, instantly creating a lifelike illusion over the cave mouth. It looked identical to the mountain rock, and even the clumped weeds appeared real enough to pluck.
Only after completing all this did Li Guanqi lean against the cavern wall and cough up a mouthful of blood.
Spurt!
Once the clotted blood was expelled, his breathing felt significantly smoother.
Without even pausing to heal his wounds, he brought out the sword coffin and slipped directly into the Nirvana Pagoda.
On the first level of the pagoda, amidst the sea of thunder.
Li Guanqi's divine sense swept inch by inch through his flesh, blood, and meridians.
After a long while, he opened his eyes with an unsightly grimace. "I can't find it..."
"Shiwu!"
Buzz!
The flame spirit condensed into a human form, frowning deeply as he said, "My Lord, I have not detected anything abnormal within your body either..."
Li Guanqi's face darkened completely.
Back when he fought in the Immortal Spirit Realm, certain pampered scions possessed similar methods.
They were usually contingencies left behind by senior clan members to ensure that if these youths were slain, the culprit could still be tracked down.
Yet he had never expected a mere vice commander to have a senior possessing such a technique!
Thinking back, he recalled Zhao He's dying words:
'The entire Tianshu Ascension Hall will never let you get away with this!'
Li Guanqi knit his brows and murmured softly, "Could Zhao He have held some noble status at the Ascension Hall?"
"That doesn't make sense either... If his status were truly noble, why would he be nothing more than a vice commander?"
Unable to make sense of it, Li Guanqi simply pushed the thought aside.
The most pressing matter now was to stabilize his cultivation realm.
After a moment's consideration, he used his immortal primal energy to seal the periphery of his origin spirit to prevent any aura from leaking.
"It seems I'll have to find a way to ferret out whatever is hiding inside me."
Closing his eyes and combining the power of Shiwu and the Juque Heart Method, Li Guanqi began stabilizing the energy within him.
His speed in refining immortal primal energy was extraordinarily fast; immortal crystals beside him shattered one after another.
The rich spiritual energy that swirled around him was fully absorbed within just a few breaths.
Li Guanqi was somewhat surprised. He had experienced refining immortal primal energy back in the Spirit Realm as well,
yet after stepping into the Mystic Immortal realm, the speed of refinement felt like night and day compared to before.
Not only that, but Li Guanqi finally noticed something different.
Surrounding his origin spirit, from bottom to top, eight purple rings seemed to hover.
These rings bore an eerie violet hue, appearing somewhat ethereal.
A spark of comprehension dawned in his mind.
These rings were like nine shackles, corresponding to the nine realms of the Mystic Immortal!
When he broke through to Mystic Immortal, he had shattered the first shackle's constraint.
The corners of his mouth curved up slightly as the immortal primal energy roared inside him, coursing like a mighty river.
Yet before long, Li Guanqi's brow furrowed once more.
He felt the circulation path and mechanics of this cultivation method were... simply terrible...
With that thought, he sat cross-legged and focused his mind.
A moment later, an enigmatic silver-white mark flared with faint spiritual radiance at the center of his forehead.
Immortal charm drifted around him, making Li Guanqi resemble a banished immortal—transcendent, calm, and aloof.
Amidst the shimmering light, his immortal primal energy projected the pathways of his meridians and the circulation of the method.
In that single instant, countless ideas and insights flashed across Li Guanqi's mind.
With a thought, the circulation path of the method actually began to shift.
Though altered, no mishap occurred.
Instead, the circulation grew swifter, and the efficiency of refining immortal primal energy increased dramatically.
Only after revising the entire heart method from start to finish did Li Guanqi slowly open his eyes, nodding with satisfaction.
His refinement speed was now nearly twenty percent faster than before.
Opening his eyes, however, Li Guanqi could not help but sigh in realization. "Cultivation methods and secret manuals of the Immortal Realm are far more intricate and obscure than those of the Spirit Realm, and their mastery is divided into multiple tiers."
Even after modifying the technique, he had only barely brought the Juque Heart Method to the pinnacle of its initial stage.
According to the manual's guidance, advancing to the middle stage would boost the refinement speed even further.
Yet the drawbacks of this method were glaringly apparent.
Its manner of circulation was crude and aggressive, inflicting substantial wear and tear upon the cultivator's meridians.
Had Li Guanqi's physical body not been extraordinarily robust, he would never have dared to make such alterations.
Even so... Li Guanqi intended to find another method to replace it as soon as possible.
Having stabilized his realm, Li Guanqi began sorting through the storage rings he had claimed.
Chapter 1571