97: Discuss countermeasures

Inside the main hall, Yang Kai woke up, scanning his surroundings with his eyes, and found no one guarding him, feeling a little puzzled, so he cautiously used his Divine Sense to probe the surroundings.

“This should be a palace within the Du Pang Dynasty’s imperial palace. I wonder how my previous probing ended up.” Yang Kai probed around and found nothing suspicious, so he shifted his attention back to himself.

“This time, I played a bit too big.” Yang Kai looked inward at himself and found that the various acupoints in his body were flickering between light and dark, his Qi and blood were withered, and even his muscles and bones had varying degrees of damage.

“This Qi and blood phantom can only be condensed by a Body Refiner once his Body Refining foundation reaches a certain level. When the phantom is destroyed, it naturally causes a severe weakening of the Body Refiner’s foundation. This weakening is different from ordinary injuries and is extremely difficult to recover from. Therefore, this move is also a Body Refiner’s last-resort, life-or-death technique. However, since I refined the Divine Phoenix Blood Essence, this matter is not difficult for me.” After assessing his injuries, Yang Kai communicated with the dark red acupoint within his body.

“This drop of Divine Phoenix Blood Essence not only helped me break through to the second Realm of the Ninefold Mixed Origin Body Refining Art, but its undying, inextinguishable, and Rebirth from fire characteristics have also been inherited by me. If not for this, I wouldn’t dare to play such a big game. Now is a good time to test just how powerful this Divine Beast characteristic truly is.” Yang Kai fully opened the acupoint where the Divine Phoenix Blood Essence was stored. A phoenix cry echoed within his body, and an endless stream of vitality spread out from the acupoint, nourishing Yang Kai’s severely injured body.

“Yang Kai, you’re awake?!!!” After a long while, a beautiful young girl in an immortal dress tiptoed in through the door and saw Yang Kai, who should have been lying unconscious on the bed, sitting up by himself. She said in surprise.

Yang Kai’s Divine Sense had been probing his surroundings the entire time. The moment Zi Ning’s figure appeared outside the door, he slowly stopped his Cultivation. When Zi Ning spoke, he opened his eyes. After such a long period of Cultivation, his internal foundation loss had recovered by about 30%, which was enough to stabilize his own foundation. There was no risk of his Realm dropping in the short term. If he wanted to fully recover his foundation and injuries, he would still need a lot of time to slowly nourish it with the Divine Phoenix Blood Essence, or have some Heaven And Earth Treasure to help him recover quickly.

“How long was I unconscious? What happened afterward?” Seeing Zi Ning, Yang Kai immediately asked the two questions he cared about most.

Zi Ning saw that Yang Kai asked these questions as soon as he saw her, and she pouted unhappily, saying in an exasperated tone, “I say, big brother, next time you risk your life, can you not drag me along? This time, I almost lost my life!”

After Zi Ning complained, she recounted the entire sequence of events since Yang Kai had fallen unconscious. Yang Kai listened, analyzing and replaying the events in his mind.

“From the moment we set out for the imperial capital, I was thinking about how to break the deadlock. If the two of us entered the imperial capital through normal procedures, it would probably be difficult to even meet His Majesty the Emperor of the Du Pang Dynasty within a few days. I don’t have time to play along with them here, so I decided that a direct approach like this would be faster.” Yang Kai explained his motives, appeasing the somewhat angry Zi Ning.

“How could that be? We are Flowing Cloud Sect Disciples. How could the Du Pang Dynasty, a secular Dynasty subordinate to the Flowing Cloud Sect, neglect us?” Zi Ning said, her face full of disbelief.

“Of course they wouldn’t neglect us. On the contrary, they would use the most elaborate and highest etiquette to receive us, and you wouldn’t be able to find fault with them. At that point, if we refused, it would be us who would appear rude.” Yang Kai’s eyes sparkled, as if he had a lot of experience with this. His previous life’s experience told him that if you fall into someone else’s rhythm, you won’t be able to discover anything. Only by catching the other party off guard is a truly effective killing move.

Zi Ning nodded, seemingly understanding, then thought of something else and asked, “Then tomorrow, we’ll ask them to investigate the mission?”

“No rush, let’s let them stew for a bit. Tomorrow, you spread the word that I’m critically injured and on the verge of death, and that I need a large amount of Heaven And Earth Treasure and precious Medicinal Pills to save my life. Otherwise, they can just wait to bear the crime of slaughtering a Flowing Cloud Sect Disciple.” Yang Kai’s eyes flashed, and he spoke with an air of having everything under control.

“I understand, you want to extort them with this.” Zi Ning’s eyes flickered, then she said mischievously.

“Go, what we get back, we’ll split fifty-fifty, how about it?” Yang Kai kept them in suspense, not fully revealing his intentions. Zi Ning was also very tempted by this, and seeing that Yang Kai’s body was fine, she excitedly went to implement the plan.

After Zi Ning left, Yang Kai gave a cold smile, then resumed his Cultivation, slowly recovering from his injuries and foundation loss.

At the same time, in an inconspicuous side hall within the vast imperial palace, more than a dozen middle-aged and elderly men in purple python robes were seated, whispering to each other in small groups. The styles of their robes varied, old and new, not appearing to be products of the same era.

“Third Patriarch is here, silence.” Just then, the old man who had been sitting in the foremost position on the right, with his eyes closed in meditation and not speaking, seemed to sense something and spoke out to reprimand them.

His words carried great weight, and everyone immediately fell silent. Some even lowered their heads to adjust their robes to ensure they were presentable, then sat up straight, waiting.

“Are all of you here? Fifth Patriarch and the others are handling matters outside and cannot arrive for a while. Fourth Patriarch was also greatly angered by this incident and has not yet cooled down. This meeting will be presided over by me, and I will keep it short. Jingyi, you come and introduce to your clan elders what happened yesterday.” An old man and a young man appeared in the hall as if by teleportation. Everyone immediately stood up to salute, some kneeling, while the old man who had previously spoken to remind them merely bowed slightly, showing respect.

After everyone was reseated, Meng Jingyi, who had followed behind the old man, slowly came before the crowd, bowed, and only spoke after three breaths, “Esteemed clan elders, yesterday, two Flowing Cloud Sect Disciples trespassed into the imperial capital. Fourth Patriarch, who was guarding the imperial capital, spoke to stop them, but the two intensified their actions and forced their way into the imperial palace. These two had many methods, and Fourth Patriarch’s attempts to stop them were unsuccessful, allowing them to truly enter the imperial palace. Just as Fourth Patriarch was about to kill the two, one of them suddenly revealed her identity—she was actually the daughter of Langya Superior, the Qingyun Peak Master of the Flowing Cloud Sect.”

As soon as these words were uttered, the previously silent crowd immediately began to discuss amongst themselves, and even the old man who had previously spoken to reprimand them was somewhat shaken, his thoughts becoming uncertain.

“This person’s identity, this old man has verified it to be true. More than a hundred years ago, I had the good fortune to meet this Langya Superior. This person not only has profound Cultivation, but is also proficient in the Dao of Artifact Refining. Getting involved with this person brings a lot of trouble.” Just then, another old man in a purple python robe appeared out of thin air in the hall and echoed.

“Moreover, this person’s temperament is rather peculiar; she is known to be extremely protective of her own people. If we truly kill her daughter, this matter will not end well.”