Chapter Ten: Eighth Rank?!
Qiongzhou.
Taihu Academy.
The sun blazed high in the sky.
A man in green handed Gong Qingfeng, who was fishing by the lakeside, a sealed letter.
“Headmaster, this is news from the capital.”
Gong Qingfeng stroked his beard and glanced sideways. A pure white spiritual aura enveloped the envelope, and at once, the characters within dissolved into golden rays, which floated in the air before him.
The man in green frowned as he read the message. “Headmaster, Junior Brother Zhou, he…”
Gong Qingfeng waved his hand, dispersing the glowing script, and said in a grave tone, “That rascal.”
“All these years, and still he thinks of abolishing the academy.”
“Now look—he’s been manipulated, and even his life is at stake!”
“Stubborn as a mule…”
There was a note of regret in Gong Qingfeng’s voice, which quickly turned to indignation.
“That He Xianzhong! How did such a good disciple of mine end up shaped into this by him?”
He let out a long sigh and looked up at the man in green. “Lin Mao, do not tell Ling’er of this for now. I fear she would not bear the blow.”
Lin Mao nodded in agreement.
“Headmaster, just now you said Junior Brother Zhou was used by someone. What did you mean?”
Gong Qingfeng raised his hand slightly, and with a flick of spiritual force, snapped a willow branch, tapping it on Lin Mao’s head.
“Bookworm, how well do you know your junior brother?”
Lin Mao pondered briefly. “Junior Brother Zhou is brilliant, sincere with others—a true gentleman.”
“Do you think he would commit such a heinous act?” Gong Qingfeng’s mouth twitched. “He must have been deceived by some villain!”
Lin Mao nodded. “Framing him for murder truly isn’t like Junior Brother Zhou at all.”
“So, Master, you suspect… the Crown Prince?”
“Careful what you say!” Gong Qingfeng’s face darkened. “I never said that!”
He and Lin Mao exchanged a look of silent understanding.
“This name Li Yunjie seems familiar,” Gong Qingfeng mused aloud, recalling the letter.
“He is the orphaned heir of Prince Li Jia of Beiling, Young Lord Li,” Lin Mao replied. “I’ve heard he is quite a fop, yet managed to solve the case in a single day.”
“It is truly astonishing.”
Gong Qingfeng’s expression softened and he chuckled. “Prince Li Jia of Beiling was the only second-rank swordsman in all of Great Qian.”
“Naturally, his son is no ordinary man.”
He glanced at the lake. “It seems the capital will soon be caught in a storm!”
As his words faded, a gentle breeze stirred the waters, and waves rose across the surface.
...
Prime Minister’s Residence.
West wing.
Li Yunjie stared blankly at the thumb-sized Foundation Pill on the table.
“Eleven, do you really think this thing is as powerful as they say?”
Eleven propped his chin in his hands and yawned. “Young Master, how would I know? I’ve never tried it.”
Li Yunjie eyed the pill suspiciously, thinking to himself, “It’s been kept so long—could it be expired…”
“How about we split it in half?” Li Yunjie looked at the innocent-faced Eleven, flashing a mischievous grin. “You first.”
“No way.” Eleven waved his hands. “The Foundation Pill only works if you swallow it whole.”
His plan foiled, Li Yunjie looked dejected.
“Whatever, come what may!” For the sake of his health, he was willing to risk it all.
He shoved the pill into his mouth and swallowed with a grimace.
“Ugh!”
Li Yunjie’s features twisted in agony. “What on earth is this taste!”
“Sour and foul!”
Eleven pinched his nose. “It’s like your socks after three days, Young Master.”
“Ugh!” Li Yunjie retched uncontrollably.
He grabbed the teapot and gulped down mouthfuls of water, only to gag again.
After repeating this seven or eight times, he finally stopped.
“Well? Any changes?” Li Yunjie asked Eleven, unable to contain his curiosity.
Eleven calmly got up and circled him, letting out a long hiss. “It seems…”
“Nothing’s changed.”
Li Yunjie was disappointed. “Wasn’t it supposed to form a dantian?”
“Could it really break a bottleneck?”
He sighed heavily.
“It must have expired!”
The moment he spoke, a surge of turbid energy rose within him, from his dantian up to his throat.
*Hic!*
Eleven immediately pinched his nose and stepped back.
“Young Master, it worked!”
“What?” Li Yunjie asked in confusion. “I don’t feel any different.”
“Your dantian is condensing true qi!”
Eleven’s eyes shone with excitement as he stared fixedly at Li Yunjie’s abdomen, his eyes round as saucers.
“Quickly, Young Master, close your eyes and focus—circulate the Minor Celestial Cycle!”
Li Yunjie did as told.
Sure enough, he sensed several wisps of blue-white energy darting wildly through his body.
“So this is true qi,” he thought.
The energy flowed along his meridians—sometimes as gentle as a spring brook, sometimes as wild as a beast.
More wondrous still, wherever it passed, a glazed radiance shimmered into being.
“It’s repairing my body.”
Li Yunjie circulated the Minor Celestial Cycle again; the previously chaotic true qi miraculously returned to his dantian, gradually merging and vanishing.
“Eighth rank, Meridian Unsealing Realm!” Eleven exclaimed.
“Skipped the ninth and went straight to the eighth?” Li Yunjie was overjoyed.
Eleven nodded dumbly. “A genius…”
Li Yunjie beamed. “This Foundation Pill isn’t bad at all!”
“It’s not just the pill,” Eleven explained. “Elixirs merely serve as aids. Their effects vary wildly from person to person. To draw out the pill’s full power is one in ten thousand!”
Li Yunjie half believed, half doubted these words.
After secretly relishing his good fortune for a moment, he eyed Eleven suspiciously. “How do you know all this?”
The Starshift Talisman from Taihu Academy, Su Qingmeng’s Foundation Pill—these were things only someone with direct experience could know.
Yet Eleven had followed Li Yunjie since childhood, never leaving his side; how could he possess such knowledge?
“I don’t know either,” Eleven replied after a moment’s thought, looking even more puzzled than Li Yunjie himself.
“It’s as if these things are branded into my mind. If someone mentions them, I recall them.”
Li Yunjie frowned.
The former host had never cared about Eleven’s origins simply because he was a fool.
But the current Li Yunjie was no simple-minded oaf.
His instincts warned him—Eleven’s identity was anything but ordinary.
“A pity my good-for-nothing father died so early. Otherwise, I’d have gotten to the bottom of your background by now.”
Eleven simply shrugged. “Young Master, I truly don’t care about my origins. So long as I can stay by your side, that’s enough for me.”
Looking at Eleven’s pure, carefree expression, Li Yunjie sighed inwardly.
“Back to the point,” Eleven said eagerly. “Young Master, which cultivation path do you plan to start with?”
“Start with?” Li Yunjie was taken aback.
In his understanding, weren’t you supposed to pick a path and follow it to the end?
“Mhm.” Eleven replied calmly. “My suggestion is, begin with the Martial Path to temper the body, then the Literary Path to nourish the mind, and then—”
“Hold it!” Li Yunjie interrupted forcefully. “You think I have three heads and six arms?”
“Just mastering one path is already a stretch!”
“Now you want me to study this first, then that… Greed will swallow an elephant! I don’t want to end up with my cultivation in chaos!”
Eleven paid his complaints no mind—just grinned. “For others, it’s impossible.”
“But you, Young Master—you can!”