Chapter 86 – The Assassination Ordered by the Marquis of Jiuhou

Advancing to the Prenatal realm does not always result in the birth of a Dao Embryo — this depends primarily on one’s depth of understanding of the Great Dao.

In truth, those who genuinely form a Dao Embryo are exceedingly rare. For most people, it merely means a somewhat firmer state of mind and a slight increase in strength.

However, for those who do form a Dao Embryo, there is a small chance of comprehending a Talent aligned with their particular Dao at the moment of its birth.

Zhan Changfeng, in a turn that was both unexpected and perfectly fitting, triggered every single small probability. Not only did she forge a Dao Embryo, she also comprehended Farsight, Long-range Vision, and Penetrating Vision.

At its greatest, Farsight could pierce through time and space — a power she currently lacked the strength to use. Long-range Vision allowed her to see beyond the limits of normal eyesight.

Long-range Vision combined with Penetrating Vision could ignore all geographical barriers.

Zhan Changfeng used Penetrating Vision to examine her own body. She saw her form — half skeleton, half flesh — with the black energy of the Ink-Jade Archer’s Ring replacing her severed meridians and sustaining the function of her organs.

When she inspected her lower dantian, she was stunned.

She had assumed her dantian was shattered, yet it still existed — merely wrapped and protected by black energy, cut off from her awareness.

Zhan Changfeng’s eyes lit up sharply. “So that’s how it is, that’s how it is!”

She took out paper and brush, sketching a diagram of the human meridian system and marking the full cycle through which her sword art’s cultivation method circulated. As long as true qi did not clash with the black energy, could she not continue cultivating martial arts by using the meridians simulated by the black energy?

If the meridians simulated by the black energy could carry the flow of blood, why could they not also carry true qi?

It was not that she was fixated on martial arts, but the Earth Soul was far too unusual. Until she had a sufficient understanding of the cultivation world, it was best not to reveal it carelessly. If she could conceal it beneath a surface-level physical cultivation, that would be ideal.

She had tested it before — as long as she did not actively transform her Pure Yin Bones, she was no different from an ordinary person with no cultivation. At least for now, no one could see through her strangeness.

Yet the broader the heavens and earth, the more unfathomably powerful the beings within them — Zhan Changfeng was well aware of this. For the moment, however, she had no intention of letting anyone discover what made her different.

Her attention was now wholly absorbed by the question of coexistence between true qi and the black energy. She controlled the Ink-Jade Archer’s Ring to split open a small crack in the black energy encasing her dantian, drew out a thread of true qi, and carefully brought it into contact with one of the black meridians.

The sudden impact made her cough up a mouthful of blood — yet she grew only more excited. That instant reaction proved that true qi and black energy could coexist! A trace of true qi had entered the black meridian!

It was precisely that thread of true qi colliding with the inner wall of the black meridian that had caused the conflict.

If she could control the strength and magnitude of the true qi precisely enough, her hypothesis just might become reality.

Zhan Changfeng practiced precise control of her true qi while conducting her experiments, subjecting herself to what amounted to near self-torture for over a hundred attempts — until at last, a single thread of true qi slowly completed one Small Heavenly Cycle. Any faster, and it simply would not work.

The true qi cultivated through the sword art seemed to have a certain repulsive reaction with the black energy; one moment of carelessness and it would be like heavenly thunder igniting an earthen fire, erupting into full-blown conflict.

That she managed to complete the Small Heavenly Cycle at all was entirely due to her careful control — never letting the true qi brush against the inner walls of the black meridians.

What was cause for joy, however, was that once the black energy’s wrapping was removed, her dantian reappeared. On the surface, she was once again a martial practitioner at Postnatal realm perfection.

Only now did she finally have the chance to examine the changes in the Nine Cycles Samsara Decree. The Nine-Cycle Rebirth Art was not complete — it would reveal new content in stages as she progressed.

Previously, the Rebirth side had at least yielded a few soul techniques, while the Nine Cycles side had offered nothing beyond the first cycle’s cultivation method for the Pure Yin Bones.

This time, the Rebirth side showed no movement, but the Nine Cycles side revealed a new technique.

It was called: Nine Heavens Divine Thunder, Purging All Evils — Slaying Demons and Subjugating Fiends Between Heaven and Earth.

As a Nine Cycles technique, it naturally required the Earth Soul state to activate, and this Nine Heavens Divine Thunder struck the karmic sins of living beings.

Zhan Changfeng’s feelings were a little hard to describe. Her own karmic sins were no small matter — there was every chance this thunder would kill not her enemies, but herself first.

She set the technique aside for the moment, took out the Ghostfire Dark Lotus to consolidate her Earth Soul cultivation, and only then began to study and comprehend it.

No one knew how much time had passed when the Soul-Mark on the stone door was triggered. Almost simultaneously, a flash of razor-sharp light came streaking straight at her face.

Zhan Changfeng was at a critical juncture in comprehending the thunder technique. The instant the Soul-Mark stirred, she forced herself awake and dodged the strike — but the forcibly interrupted cultivation caused her blood and qi to surge in turmoil.

The intruder, seizing upon her weakened state to go in for the kill, materialized before Zhan Changfeng in a ghostly blur, twin blades striking for a lethal blow!

Zhan Changfeng met those dead, lifeless eyes. “Soul Suppression.”

A flicker of struggle appeared in those eyes. Zhan Changfeng sighed inwardly — this person’s willpower was formidably strong; she could not fully restrain him, only halt him for a brief moment. But that moment was enough!

Zhan Changfeng seized his twin blades, turned them back, and drew them across his throat. Then she used her last Ghostfire Dark Lotus to incinerate his body.

In the corridor that had been quiet for so long, hurried Figures appeared. “What happened here? Who was fighting?”

At their head was the administrator overseeing these dozens of underground stone chambers. They had sensed that one of the security seals had been forcibly broken.

“Dammit,” the administrator said, kicking one of the shorter guards. “It’s all your fault — you had to bring food and wine, and now look what’s happened.”

The short guard dared not argue back, thinking privately: Weren’t you the one drinking the most enthusiastically?

The group found the scene of the incident and saw the stone door closed, its seal destroyed. “What happened to the person inside?”

Zhan Changfeng suppressed the metallic sweetness rising in her throat, opened the stone door, and fixed the administrator with an ice-cold gaze. “The security seal on your establishment is remarkably easy to break. Anyone can come and go as they please.”

The administrator, seeing it was only a young girl, smiled pleasantly. “Our security seals are absolutely without flaw. We also have guards patrolling the corridors at all times — everyone here can attest to that.”

As he spoke, he glanced around seeking agreement from the cultivators who had come out at the sound of the commotion, then continued, “You see, nothing happened to anyone else. Why is it that trouble only found its way to your door? My young friend, is it possible you did not properly activate the seal — thinking you had, when in fact you had not — and that gave your enemy the opening they needed?”

The seal had not been activated — this was a targeted assassination. With a few words, the administrator had deflected all responsibility and placed the blame squarely on Zhan Changfeng. The other cultivators looked on and thought: What a trivial matter — better to go back and cultivate.

The administrator was quite satisfied with how he had handled things. He smiled and watched Zhan Changfeng, unafraid of any trouble she might cause given the power of his backing. But the anticipated outburst of fury never came.

Zhan Changfeng merely glanced at him sideways. “Settle the bill.”

“Of course.” Without even a word of protest — the administrator grew even more contemptuous of her.

The administrator went over to check the day-counter on the stone door.

The day-counter was linked to the security seal, calculating the number of days based on when the seal was opened and closed. Since the seal had been forcibly broken, it had naturally been damaged as well.

If the seal had never been activated, how could it have been damaged?

The administrator’s old face burned with embarrassment. He had completely forgotten about that!

No wonder she had no reason to fly into a rage. That one glance of hers had clearly marked him as an idiot.

The administrator cursed the day-counter from the bottom of his heart. What was the point of installing that wretched thing!

“Heh heh, it was probably damaged during your fight.”

To pour filth on her a third time — that meant truly tearing all pretense aside. But tear it he must. If the higher-ups found out this was the result of their negligence, who knew where they’d be demoted? The previous administrator had made a mistake and been sent to some godforsaken remote island, stuck guarding a rundown inn and not yet returned to this day.

He absolutely could not follow in that man’s footsteps.

Yet the administrator felt a trace of unease. She still wasn’t angry.

“How much do I owe?”

Ah, young people really are easy to manage. The administrator assumed she could neither prove anything nor refute him, and confidently pulled out his personal ledger. “Chamber No. 34, no record of exit, six hundred low-grade spirit stones paid, with an automatic seven-month renewal — four thousand two hundred still outstanding!”

Tsk tsk, the administrator was considering whether to tack on some additional charges and collect a little more. His monthly salary was only eighty spirit stones, yet this child who had come out of nowhere was throwing around hundreds and thousands without blinking.

A soft, ignorant little lamb — not easy to come by.

But on second thought, forget it. Better to get rid of her quickly and cover up this whole affair. If he pushed her too far, who could say whether she would go straight to the owner and make a scene.