“The massacre in Jiao Shu Town a few years ago was probably the work of Linghui Valley, right?” Wang Yifeng felt a chill run down his spine.

“That was because they were careless at the beginning. This time, we requested assistance extremely quickly. According to the Xuan Ya (black raven) reply, the Bloodwatch Division has already dispatched people who are on their way. As long as we hold on and the Town General doesn’t have any problems, everything will definitely be fine.”

“That’s right, there’s only one monster outside the town at most, and it’s not always wandering around. As long as we carefully delineate an area, it won’t be a big problem to hold on for a while,” Guo Hu nodded.

“Alright…” Wang Yifeng sighed. When he heard it was Linghui Valley, his first thought was to move.

But he had painstakingly accumulated so much wealth here over the years. Once he moved, that large courtyard would be gone.

In this situation, the house would also be difficult to sell. Even if he could sell it, the price would definitely be extremely low.

It could be said that once he chose to leave, he would not only face the dangers of the road, but also lose a large amount of savings accumulated over the years.

*

*

*

Wang Family Residence.

Li Cheng Yi held a Hui Jian (Wisdom Sword) condensed from his power, using the sword as a knife, and slowly practiced the Qi cultivation of the Three Styles of the Loose Deer Saber Technique.

His powerful mental strength allowed him to quickly grasp the core techniques after watching Wang Yifeng’s demonstration a few times.

Practicing with the mental cultivation method, after only five or six repetitions, a faint warm current rose from his lower dantian.

At first, the current felt like blood flow. But as the flow accelerated, it began to circulate in a large circle within his body automatically.

After five such circles, the blood flow gradually became lighter and hotter.

Later, by the ninth circle, the feeling of blood flow transformed and disappeared, turning into a special aura like a fiery thread.

‘Interesting, it’s a completely opposite feeling to death energy.’ Li Cheng Yi recalled the mental cultivation method, which stated that after the fire thread appeared, a person would officially enter the True Qi realm, which meant they had successfully entered the basics of Loose Pattern Qi.

Next, he only needed to cultivate every day, fusing and refining essence and spirit with the mental cultivation method, to continuously strengthen the Loose Pattern Qi.

Cultivating the Loose Pattern Qi to the point where it filled all twelve meridians of the body would be considered a great success.

Overall, this cultivation method was very simple. The Loose Pattern Qi also didn’t have any special changes. It started out as one thing and continued being that same thing.

Controlling the Loose Pattern Qi to circulate within his body, Li Cheng Yi pondered and released control.

This strand of Loose Pattern Qi actually began to circulate on its own according to the previous circular path.

‘Interesting.’

He continued to practice the Three Styles in surprise, refining True Qi.

Although the mental cultivation method mentioned that each person could generally refine it once a day, and those with extraordinary talent should not refine True Qi more than twice.

Specifically, it depended on whether one felt comfortable.

But he was now refining this strand of Loose Pattern Qi, and his body felt completely comfortable, so he simply continued refining.

With his Shadow Dragon bloodline, plus the Triple Dragon Realm, genetic medicine evolved to the extreme, and so many Flower Scale Clothes enhancements, Flower Language Bead stacked enhancements, and Holy Spirit Art enhancements.

The limit should not be calculated according to ordinary people.

Without a second thought, Li Cheng Yi continued to refine continuously.

Soon, half an hour passed.

He refined it ten times in one breath before feeling somewhat tired.

This Loose Pattern Qi seemed to consume a lot of mental strength. The consumption of physical energy was much better because of the constant recovery of the Glorious Force Field.

But spiritual mental strength could not be recovered by Flower Language.

After persevering for a while and refining fifteen times, Li Cheng Yi felt mentally exhausted, so he fell asleep for a while.

At this time, the Loose Pattern Qi he had refined was already fifteen times the original amount, which was fifteen strands.

These fifteen strands of True Qi circulated within his body on their own.

As they continued to circulate, the fifteen strands of True Qi gradually merged with each other, forming an even thicker Loose Pattern Qi.

After confirming that he could cultivate Loose Pattern Qi, Li Cheng Yi began to shut himself in and practice True Qi hard at home all day long.

One day was equivalent to fifteen days for others, two days was a month, and twenty-four days was a year.

This terrifying speed made him not want to slack off at all. Every day, apart from eating and sleeping, he was constantly refining True Qi and practicing the saber.

While he was practicing martial arts, Xin Meng Town also returned to calm.

A month passed in the blink of an eye.

The people from the Bloodwatch Division, two Blood Robe Black Mask men, one fat and one thin, arrived in the town.

As soon as these two arrived, they began to personally check the situation from house to house to screen for potential infected people.

Head Constable Wang Yifeng was also sent out to cooperate with the two as a guide.

Fortunately, the Bloodbody Monster seemed to have really moved away and left. Perhaps it was just passing by here, killing a few people by chance, and did not regard Xin Meng Town as a target.

After the two people from the Bloodwatch Division investigated for a period of time, they determined that there were no hidden dangers and then went out of the city to patrol.

After a period of time, the two returned and reported that they had not found any Bloodbody Monsters.

The ban in Xin Meng Town was also lifted, and the people went out to rush back to their own fields.

The merchants who risked their lives to run businesses began to hire guards at high prices again.

In the blink of an eye, another month passed.

Inside the Yang Family Bookstore in Xin Meng Town, Li Cheng Yi held a yellowed old book in one hand and quickly flipped through it.

In the past two months, the Loose Pattern Qi he had cultivated was equivalent to three years of accumulation for a normal person.

According to estimates, his second sister, Wang Yiheng, had accumulated True Qi at about this level.

The estimation method was based on the amplification effect of Loose Pattern Qi.

When this True Qi was used on hands or weapons, it would naturally form a white light. In the white light, for every year’s worth of True Qi accumulated, a slightly dim gray line would automatically appear.

That was the Loose Pattern of the Loose Pattern Qi.

Li Cheng Yi had observed his second sister when she was practicing martial arts, and her Loose Pattern only had three lines.

And his current Loose Pattern also had three lines, which was about the same.

Head Constable Wang Yifeng’s Loose Pattern had nineteen lines, far exceeding the two of them.

‘The True Qi refinement is going smoothly. Next, I still need to understand the surrounding situation, the general environment, and the system as soon as possible to prepare for leaving here and investigating the Iridescent Dragon.

Although the flow of time here is very fast, one year here is at most one day outside, but the loss of lifespan on my body has not stopped. It is too unworthy to waste my lifespan here.’

Closing the Xin Meng Town surrounding map in his hand.

Li Cheng Yi reached out again and took down a General History of the Shao Yin Dynasty from the bookshelf, preparing to flip through it.

“This General History is not complete, it’s just a simplified version. I didn’t expect that Wang Yichen would be interested in such historical books?”

A voice came from the side.

Li Cheng Yi looked up in response.

The speaker was a delicate woman in a green dress. There were not many famous wealthy families in this town, and everyone knew each other.

Li Cheng Yi recognized at a glance that this woman was Guo Yurong, the eldest daughter of the Guo family in the town.

The Guo family’s master was Deputy Town Guardian Guo Hu. Guo Hu had a total of four children, of which Guo Yurong was the eldest, and was already seventeen years old this year.

The former Wang Yichen was very familiar with her, but his impression was not very good.

All because two years ago, the two had an engagement in mind. Head Constable Wang Yifeng had mentioned it to Guo Hu, and Guo Hu was also somewhat interested.

As a result, when he went home to ask, Guo Yurong completely looked down on Wang Yichen’s laziness and lack of promise. In terms of appearance, martial arts, and talent, Wang Yichen was quite mediocre, so Guo Yurong refused to agree no matter what.

So the engagement fell through.

He didn’t expect to meet her again in this bookstore today.

“Does Miss Guo also like to read historical books?” Li Cheng Yi replied casually.

“To be precise, I like to read books, not just historical books.” Guo Yurong smiled, “I heard from your second sister a few days ago that you have reformed and are now practicing martial arts and reading every day. Looking at you today, you have indeed undergone a great change.”

“I heard that Miss Guo often likes to collect books?” Li Cheng Yi asked softly.

“That’s right.” Guo Yurong nodded. She looked up and down at the current Wang Yichen, and only felt that the other party’s temperament seemed to have completely changed. He no longer had the previous frivolous and rootless feeling, but was calm and composed, revealing an unspeakable feeling in his words and deeds.

It made people feel that this person was extremely confident.

“Do you have any books about strange legends and local anecdotes?” Li Cheng Yi asked.

“There are three books. If you want to read them, I’ll lend them to you for free,” Guo Yurong said with a smile.

“Thank you, then shall we meet here tomorrow?” Li Cheng Yi said.

“Alright.”

The two separated immediately, and Li Cheng Yi left the bookstore after putting down the money for borrowing and reading books today in front of the dozing shopkeeper.

Guo Yurong watched his departing back, and was somewhat lost in thought for a while.

“What’s wrong, Miss, are you regretting rejecting him at the beginning?” The close-fitting maid Xiao Qin joked with a smile.

“What are you talking about? In this world, I only want to marry a strong and powerful man with high martial arts skills, so that I can protect my family in critical moments.”

“Isn’t Wang Yichen also starting to practice martial arts?” The maid Xiao Qin said with a smile.

“It’s too late. With ordinary talent and starting so late, the future can be seen at a glance. If I were with him, maybe he wouldn’t even be able to beat me after marriage.”

She turned around and pointed at Xiao Qin, who still wanted to speak.

“Okay, go find books for me, stop talking nonsense.”

Strolling along the warm sunny streets, on both sides were farmers carrying vegetables into the city to sell.

Occasionally, carriages and ox carts would shout and disperse the crowd.

Merchants hung out various incense and insect repellents that could protect pedestrians in the wild.

These were all hard currencies and sold extremely well.

“Mother, I want that one, buy it for me, I want it, I want it!” A boy with a Yuanbao head next to him grabbed his mother and refused to move.

“Special price today, 50% off for three pieces, big discounts on ready-made clothes in the store!” The clerk of the clothing store was holding a rented copper gong and hammering it hard.

In front of the Ya Hang (Raven Postal) gate, there were bamboo cages of various sizes, all filled with Xuan Ya (black ravens) for sending letters, probably sunbathing.

Without the dead-end pursuit, Li Cheng Yi suddenly understood the feelings of those dead-end people he had seen in the Yunshan Dead-End.

Although there were constant dangers in large dead-ends, known dangers were always easier than unknown threats that appeared at any time.

‘If I live here all the time, it doesn’t seem like an unacceptable thing.’ Li Cheng Yi sighed in his heart.

Since coming to this world, he had been enduring the dead-end pursuit day and night.

Like now, being able to live in peace without worrying about the sudden appearance of the dead-end, he had not had such a life for a long, long time.

(End of chapter)