Tianya Pavilion.
Li Feng returned to Tianya Pavilion, gave Zhong Shuhui a few instructions, then went back to his room, sat cross-legged, and began cultivating the Nine Heavens Heart Scripture.
True qi circulated through his body for several cycles, restoring him to peak condition.
Li Feng took a deep breath. He brushed his hand over the spatial pouch, and a blue-glowing stone the size of an apple appeared in his palm. This was the spirit stone he had won in the underground city.
“A priceless spirit stone. I wonder how effective it will be?”
Looking at the stone, a gleam flashed across Li Feng’s eyes.
In order to deal with the coming retaliation from Chen Junyi of the Hongmen, Li Feng felt he needed to raise his strength. He possessed many heavenly treasures: the Tianyuan Spirit Fruit, the spiritual herbs he had taken from Du Wu in Kunyang Town. Yet he had recently consumed the Thousand-Year Ice Dew. Taking more heavenly treasures now would yield only limited results.
That was why the spirit stone was his first choice.
Spirit stones were currently priceless treasures. According to the Ancient Martial Arts Association’s point-exchange rate, even a hundred years of missions would not earn enough for one stone.
Anyone else who obtained a spirit stone would hide it like a priceless jewel, but Li Feng was different. No matter how valuable it was, a spirit stone was still a cultivation resource. To increase his cultivation, he had to be willing to use such resources.
“I hope this priceless spirit stone does not disappoint me.”
Muttering to himself, Li Feng gripped the stone and activated the Nine Heavens Heart Scripture.
Boom!
The instant he began circulating the scripture, an immense wave of spiritual energy burst from the stone and surged into his body. Li Feng immediately felt as if he were being swept away by raging waves.
“Such dense spiritual energy!”
Li Feng was stunned. When he cultivated with the Dragon Jade, the surrounding spiritual energy became several times denser than normal, yet compared to the energy now pouring from the spirit stone, the Dragon Jade’s gathering was countless times thinner.
If the spiritual energy gathered by the Dragon Jade was a small stream, then the energy from this spirit stone was the Yangtze River.
Moreover, the spirit stone’s energy was refined for martial artists to absorb directly. The cultivator could control exactly how much was taken in, with no waste. The Dragon Jade was different; most of the spiritual energy it gathered dissipated unused after each session.
Faced with the overwhelming spiritual energy of the stone, Li Feng did not dare to be careless. He quickly entered a state of inner stillness, steadied his mind, and carefully fused strand after strand of the incoming energy into his own true qi.
The spiritual energy was far too dense, so he dared not refine it too aggressively. He could only absorb and refine it bit by bit.
Time passed little by little. As more and more spiritual energy was refined, an extremely powerful aura began to radiate from Li Feng’s body.
“Ha!”
With a loud shout, the barrier that had blocked him at the seventh layer of Qi Refining shattered in an instant. Li Feng’s presence continued to grow stronger, soaring all the way to the early stage of the eighth layer of Qi Refining before finally stopping.
Li Feng’s eyes snapped open, two beams of brilliant light shooting from them.
Eighth layer of Qi Refining!
He had not expected to break through to the eighth layer so easily. The effect of the spirit stone was simply astonishing. If he kept cultivating with spirit stones, reaching the Xiantian realm might not take long at all.
Li Feng glanced at the stone in his hand and discovered it had shrunk noticeably.
“This consumption…”
His expression changed slightly. The stone was now about one-tenth smaller. That meant he could use it roughly nine more times before it was completely depleted. Although the effect was tremendous, even Li Feng found the price a little hard to accept.
By the Ancient Martial Arts Association’s pricing, the single session he had just completed had consumed at least a hundred billion Hua Xia coins, equivalent to ten entire Fengyuan Groups.
Furthermore, he sensed that even if he fully absorbed all the spiritual energy in this stone, he might not reach the Xiantian realm. Buying spirit stones from the association to cultivate would be far too extravagant, unless the stones were obtained through other means.
He put the spirit stone back into the spatial pouch, placed both hands on the floor, and leapt lightly to his feet. Taking a slight breath, a ferocious aura instantly burst from his body.
“Such powerful strength.”
Feeling the surging true qi within him, brilliant light flickered in Li Feng’s eyes.
At the seventh layer of Qi Refining he had already been able to fight ninth-layer Houtian warriors. Now, at the eighth layer, could he take on a first-layer Xiantian expert?
After a moment’s thought, Li Feng felt he was being overly optimistic.
The gap between ninth-layer Houtian and first-layer Xiantian was not merely one realm; it was a genuine threshold. Ten ninth-layer Houtian experts might not be able to defeat a single first-layer Xiantian.
Xiantian meant “innate.” Upon breaking through to the Xiantian realm, one underwent a complete rebirth, and true qi transformed into innate true qi that circulated endlessly within the body.
Although he was now at the eighth layer of Qi Refining and had cultivated the Xuantian Body Refining Art, he was still not necessarily a match for a first-layer Xiantian opponent. However, Li Feng believed that with his current eighth-layer strength, dealing with ninth-layer Houtian warriors would no longer be as difficult as before.
Collecting his thoughts, Li Feng left the room.
In Zhong Shuhui’s office, she stared at him in shock. Because his breakthrough aura had not yet stabilised, she could clearly feel the terrifying presence radiating from him, far more fearsome than before.
“Young Master, you broke through again?” Zhong Shuhui asked incredulously. “Have you reached the Xiantian realm?”
“Breaking into Xiantian is not that easy.” Li Feng shook his head. He was only at the eighth layer of Qi Refining; reaching Xiantian was still far off.
Hearing this, Zhong Shuhui let out a sigh of relief. If Li Feng had truly reached Xiantian so quickly, she would have found it hard to accept. In her view, every Xiantian expert was an old monster in their seventies or eighties.
“You, on the other hand, have been busy lately, but don’t neglect your cultivation,” Li Feng said.
“Young Master, where would I find the time?” Zhong Shuhui smiled bitterly. Li Feng had offended so many people; Eagle Eye had to monitor them around the clock. She had no time to cultivate.
“Zhong Shuhui, you need to find an assistant,” Li Feng said, well aware of the reason. Lately, Zhong Shuhui had borne the heaviest burden. Without her controlling Eagle Eye and watching every faction in Tianhai City for him, his troubles would have multiplied.
At the same time, he secretly rejoiced. If Zhong Shuhui had not come to Tianhai City and Dark Tiger had been left in charge of Eagle Eye instead, he might not even know when enemies came knocking.
However, given her age, if she did not cultivate seriously, she might never break through to Xiantian in the future. To others, Xiantian was an unattainable existence, but to Li Feng it was no longer so mysterious.
Especially after hearing Ge Feng speak of that mysterious piece of history last time, Li Feng felt that his future enemies would probably exceed the Xiantian level. If Zhong Shuhui never reached Xiantian, one day she would inevitably be left behind among his subordinates.
“I already have someone in mind,” Zhong Shuhui said.
“You mean Mu Jiajia, right?” A glint flashed in Li Feng’s eyes. He brushed his spatial pouch, took out an object, and handed it to Zhong Shuhui. “Give this to Mu Jiajia. She might change her mind immediately.”
“What is it?” Zhong Shuhui opened it curiously, and her expression changed at once. She looked at Li Feng in shock. “Young Master, how did you get this? With this, Mu Jiajia will definitely pledge her loyalty to you.”
“A secret.” Li Feng smiled. He had taken it from Fu Yanxiong. Knowing Zhong Shuhui wanted to recruit Mu Jiajia for him, after using the Divine Control Technique on Fu Yanxiong, he had obtained this item.
This object was essentially Mu Jiajia’s lifeline. Li Feng was confident that with it, making her submit would be child’s play. Back then, Fu Yanxiong had used the very same thing to force Mu Jiajia to work for him.
Zhong Shuhui rolled her eyes, but she was already used to Li Feng’s methods. Since he would not explain, she did not press him.
“By the way, how is the investigation I asked you to do?” Li Feng asked.
Zhong Shuhui handed him a file. “Eagle Eye has been monitoring all entrances to Tianhai City. Among the people who arrived from the United States in the past few days, three groups are the most suspicious. I believe Blood Shadow may be among them.”
Li Feng took the file and began reading. He knew Chen Junyi had sent Blood Shadow to take revenge, but waiting passively for Blood Shadow to come to him was not his style. That was why he had asked Zhong Shuhui long ago to watch for suspicious individuals.
Li Feng did not believe Chen Junyi would dispatch Blood Shadow to China without first investigating his background. Any retaliation would have to take the Li family into account, unless Chen Junyi wanted all-out war with them.
Therefore, if Blood Shadow wanted to enter China, he could only do so under a concealed identity.
Li Feng carefully studied the information on the three suspicious groups. Finally, his gaze settled on a certain inspection delegation, or more precisely, on one particular person within it.
The delegation had over a dozen members. Among them, four or five had Western faces, while the rest were all Chinese. Yet how could an American inspection delegation be mostly Chinese? Moreover, most of the Chinese members were strong young men.
This immediately struck Li Feng as odd. The group claimed to be here for commercial inspection, but their composition did not look like a genuine business delegation at all. Most importantly, one of the people in the photographs looked extremely similar to Situ Ming.
Yes, Situ Ming.
Although Li Feng had only met Situ Ming once, the impression had been deep. Even if this person was not Situ Ming himself, he was at least from the Situ family. Anyone from the Situ family would do. Given his cooperative relationship with Situ Ming, he might be able to use them to track down Blood Shadow.
“Zhong Shuhui, do you know where this delegation is staying?” Li Feng asked.
“Yes, they’re at the Imperial Hotel,” Zhong Shuhui replied.
“The Imperial Hotel? The usual place.” A sharp glint flashed in Li Feng’s eyes. He said in a low voice, “Looks like I need to pay them a visit first.”
