For the entire night, Li Guanqi remained completely immersed in this extraordinarily profound cultivation technique.
At his current stage, this method was fully capable of unleashing all of his strength! The only drawback was that he had merely scratched the surface, though its refining speed was already at least thirty percent faster than the Juque Heart Method. However, compared to Divine Punishment, it provided almost no amplification to his physical strength. Yet Divine Punishment was, after all, only a Spirit Realm art and unsuited to his present circumstances.
For many others, however, this very night proved to be sleepless.
In a sprawling manor compound in the northern part of the city, lights blazed brightly. In the study, four men sat divided across two sides.
One of the men, gaunt of face, spoke in a low voice. "Speak up. What are your thoughts on this Grand Commander who's taking office tomorrow?"
Across from him, a burly, heavyset man sneered dismissively. "Who cares about some nobody who crawled out of nowhere? I don't know what Lord City Lord was thinking, air-dropping a Grand Commander out of the blue."
As he spoke, the burly man instinctively glanced toward the head seat.
Seated there was a middle-aged man dressed in lavish, golden embroidered robes. He had a square jaw, an aquiline nose, and a pair of fierce eyes flashing with sharp light. His broad, thick palm lightly tapped against the armrest, and he had not uttered a single word.
"If you ask me, the position of Grand Commander should have belonged to Brother Zhao."
The moment these words fell, murmurs of agreement immediately rose from the others beside him.
A skinny man looked up toward Zhao Ke and asked in a low voice, "What does Brother Zhao think of this?"
Zhao Ke sneered coldheartedly, his gaze wandering blankly toward the door as he murmured softly, "No matter who he is, I hope he knows his place. As long as he stays out of our business, all is well."
The others nodded in understanding. After conferring over a few more matters, they quietly slipped away without a sound.
After they departed, Zhao Ke made his way into a secret chamber. He retrieved a storage ring from a teleportation array atop a stone pedestal. Sweeping his divine sense across it, a deeply satisfied look surfaced on his face.
However, this time there was also a jade slip inside the storage ring. It contained only a single sentence. Having listened to it, Zhao Ke promptly destroyed it and silently left the secret chamber.
***
Early the next morning, Li Guanqi slowly roused from his cultivation. Deep within his white eyes, a faint arc of lightning flashed.
Exhaling a breath of turbid air, Li Guanqi felt his dantian swelling with power. At the abdomen of the origin spirit within his dantian, a flame-like lightning seed had actually taken shape!
The most difficult step for a beginner in this technique was condensing this very lightning seed. But Li Guanqi possessed an extraordinary constitution; his Spirit-Devouring Dao Physique granted him top-tier comprehension. With these obscure and esoteric formulas and mnemonics, Li Guanqi needed only a single glance to grasp their core essence. Epiphanies, which were coveted yet unattainable for other cultivators, were as routine as daily meals for him every time he cultivated.
Easing his body and mind, Li Guanqi slowly stood up. His surging immortal primal energy instantly shook off every trace of grime from his person. He did not put on the silver immortal artifact armor that symbolized his status, donning only his usual white robe before pushing open the door and walking out.
A jade pendant symbolizing his rank hung from his waist. His destination was the city's patrol camp.
Soon enough, Li Guanqi arrived outside the patrol camp in the northern district of the city. The barracks looked imposing and stern, but Li Guanqi noticed that most of the cultivators appeared rather lax and idle. Sweeping his divine sense around, he roughly calculated nearly three hundred cultivators guarding the city alone! Compared to the sheer scale of Yuxu City, however, this number was not particularly large.
Moreover, the lowest cultivation among these men was at the Body Integration Realm. In the Immortal Realm, Body Integration cultivators were not considered high in realm. Yet under the nourishment of rich immortal energy and spiritual energy, their cultivation speed far outstripped lower-realm cultivators even without the aid of natural treasures.
Inside the camp stood a grand hall and several pavilions, resembling a vast manor estate. As Li Guanqi approached the gates of the camp, the black-armored guards stationed there frowned. Crossing their long sabers before him, one barked in a deep voice, "This is the patrol camp, restricted grounds! Idle personnel, leave at once!"
Li Guanqi nodded faintly, lifting the jade pendant at his waist for the two to see.
Carved prominently upon its face were several large characters: *Yuxu Commander!*
*Thud!*
The moment they saw the pendant, the black-armored guards fell to their knees with a thud and exclaimed solemnly, "Subordinates pay respects to the Grand Commander!"
Li Guanqi gave a slight nod. "Lead me to the main hall."
One of the guards hurriedly bowed and guided Li Guanqi toward the hall. Along the way, many black-armored guards could not help but turn their stares toward him.
"The Grand Commander? I've never seen this man before!"
"Tsk, air-dropped from above. Wonder what the other four vice commanders think about this."
"Heh, Vice Commander Zhao Ke has coveted that post for ages. There's going to be a good show."
"Isn't this new Grand Commander a bit too young? What was the City Lord thinking? Can this fellow even hold down the fort?"
With his hands clasped behind his back, Li Guanqi wore a calm expression throughout the walk, appearing entirely deaf to the whispers around him.
Qi Mobai had already been escorted away by Lin Chuanqing to settle into the City Lord's estate, where he spent his days concocting pills. Whatever precious spirit herbs Qi Mobai needed, Lin Chuanqing spared no effort to provide. Qi Mobai had certainly lived up to expectations, already capable of refining three types of first-grade pills.
Li Guanqi did not take these patrol duties to heart; it was merely going through the motions. He would not remain in Yuxu City for long. Once he mastered the cultivation and movement techniques and raised his strength a bit further, he would likely move on. With Qi Mobai remaining here, Lin Chuanqing would hardly hold him back.
*Creak!*
The dark-red double doors swung open. Standing at the threshold, the black-armored guard reported respectfully, "Grand Commander, we have arrived."
Li Guanqi nodded slightly. As he stepped across the threshold, he turned and instructed, "Notify the other vice commanders and all squad captains to gather in the hall for a council in the time it takes an incense stick to burn."
The guard nodded firmly and retreated from the hall. Li Guanqi took a seat at the head of the room, waiting quietly.
He had no real interest in this so-called commander post. So long as those below did not stir up trouble for him and managed the city's affairs smoothly, he was more than happy to be a hands-off boss.
To his surprise, in less than half the time it took an incense stick to burn, all four vice commanders and their deputies arrived in full. They arrived together, quickly filling the hall with more than a dozen people.
Such prompt attendance caught Li Guanqi somewhat by surprise, though he revealed nothing on his face. His eyes appraised the four robe-clad men seated below. Not only was he doing so, but the four vice commanders, led by Zhao Ke, were also quietly studying this suddenly appointed Grand Commander.
*Utterly ordinary.*
Zhao Ke could only think of those words to describe the youth before him, his brows furrowing slightly. He could not understand why the City Lord would entrust such a heavy responsibility to someone merely in the second tier of the Mystic Immortal Realm.
Li Guanqi cut straight to the chase. "My name is Li Congxin. You may address me as Commander Li from now on. I will not remain in Yuxu City for long, so... going forward, maintaining the status quo will suffice. Just ensure you do not make trouble for me."
His voice was calm, as if speaking of something entirely unrelated to himself. Such a lax attitude caused several of the vice commanders to frown in turn.
Having said his piece, Li Guanqi casually added, "Alright, that's all. Dismissed."
With that, Li Guanqi strode directly out of the barracks' main hall, returning to his private courtyard to resume his cultivation.
Once he left, Zhao Ke and the others remained where they were instead. Exchanging glances, confusion was written across their faces.
The stout man from before made no attempt to conceal the mockery in his gaze. "Heh, so he really is just a useless bum. All the better for us."
Chapter 1593