Qin Wenyuan was almost fifty, but he still looked young.?He sat casually in front of his desk, wearing long, loose, elegant robes.
When Qin Feng knelt on the ground as he told his tale. His words were impassioned and angry, but Qin Wenyuan’s expression didn’t so much as waver. He even fiddled with a scepter carved of white jade as he listened.
However, his back was perfectly straight, and he emanated a formless, indescribable pressure.
“Father, please stand up for your child!” Qin Feng lowered his head and kowtowed.
“Are you done?” said Qin Wenyuan expressionlessly.
He could take a lightning bolt to the chest, yet remain as placid as the surface of a lake. This was the bearing of a top-class leader!?There was no doubt about it. As the highest administrator of all nineteen cities of the Cloudriver Prefecture, Qin Wenyuan’s shrewdness far surpassed ordinary men.
Qin Feng looked up at his father. His heart inexplicably sank, and most of his anger and hatred faded.
Qin Wenyuan gently brushed his fingers along his jade scepter, then said flatly, “I’m to blame for this. I’ve been too busy taking care of countless trifles to give you proper guidance. That’s why you’ve turned out this pathetic. You’ve got the temper of a hoodlum, but your bones are soft as mud.”
Qin Feng shook from head to toe. “Father, I wasn’t the one looking for trouble tonight. It was…”
Bang!
Qin Wenyuan’s scepter shattered on the floor in front of Qin Feng. Jade fragments flew through the air and hit Qin Feng right in the face.
He trembled in obvious terror, then looked up at his father in a daze.
Qin Wenyuan was as expressionless as ever, and when he spoke, it was without the slightest ripple of emotion. “There’s nothing in this life that I hate more than those who make excuses to escape their responsibility. Now, even my own son is this inept? I’m truly disappointed.”
Qin Feng was frantic and uneasy.
“Forget it. At the end of the day, as your father, it’s my fault for failing to guide you properly. I won’t chastise or punish you any further tonight.” Qin Wenyuan rubbed his brow and sighed. His expressionless mask now revealed a hint of pity.
Not even vicious tigers ate their own cubs. No matter how inept this son of his was, he was still?Qin?Wenyuan’s own flesh and blood!
“Father… I was wrong!” Qin Feng banged his head against the ground, then said bitterly, “Tonight, I lost face for you!”
Qin Wenyuan waved. “Get up.”
Qin Feng did as he was told. His father’s gaze was heavy, and he said gently, “Feng’er, you must remember that as you conduct your affairs, there’s absolutely no need to concern yourself with ‘right’ and ‘wrong.’ If you win, you were in the right. If you lose, you were in the wrong. That’s what they mean when they say ‘history is written by the winners.’”
When he said this, Qin Wenyuan’s expression turned slightly cold. “Regarding tonight’s incident, there are just two things you need to understand.”
Qin Feng said hurriedly, “Please enlighten me, father.”
“First, if we don’t avenge this grudge, we’ll have no dignity left. The deaths of those six guards will destabilize our troops’ morale, too.
“Second, that Su kid was well aware of your status, yet he dared kill your guards without reservation. He’s undoubtedly got something or someone to back him up. Until we learn more about him, we cannot recklessly seek out revenge.”
Qin Wenyuan stared directly into Qin Feng’s eyes. “Make a plan, then act. Only then can you advance and retreat freely.”
Qin Feng practically went mad with delight. How could he miss the implications? His father had decided to avenge him!
He took a deep breath. “Father, I understand! We’ll investigate his background, then choose the best opportunity to attack!”
“That’s right.” Qin Wenyuan nodded. “Caution is never a bad thing. When we take our revenge, it’ll increase our chances of victory.”
He couldn’t be bothered to explain any further. “Go back. Until we have our revenge, you are not to take so much as half a step outside of the family estate.”
Qin Feng hesitated, then said, “Father, when you decide the right moment to take our revenge, might you bring me with you?”
Qin Wenyuan nodded. “That’s acceptable.”
As he turned to leave, Qin Feng’s heart filled with excitement.
“I hope this lesson will help you mature a little….” Qin Wenyuan sighed. Once he was alone, a helpless look appeared on his face.
People said a tiger wouldn’t have a dog for a son, but it was obvious that his son was severely lacking.
“Servant!” After stabilizing his emotions, Qin Wenyuan recovered his emotionless mask.
“Your Excellency.” A black-robed, elderly servant soundlessly entered the room.
“Go investigate the background of that Su kid, including everywhere he’s been, everyone he’s interacted with, and everything he’s done recently. I want you to uncover all of it.”?Qin Wenyuan rubbed his forehead, then said in a low voice, “During this process, you are not to alert or alarm him. We don’t want him fleeing the prefectural capital.”
“Yes, sir.” The elderly servant assented in a low voice.
“Send our people into the city to suppress word of this incident. We cannot allow this to become common knowledge. The prefectural governor’s estate cannot bear such an upset to its reputation and prestige.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Also…” Qin Wenyuan frowned, but in the end, he made up his mind. “Have Rourong put under house arrest.”
Rourong!
That was Huang Qianjun’s aunt’s name. Of course, she was also Qin Wenyuan’s favorite concubine.
“Your Excellency, there’s no need for that, is there?” whispered the elderly servant in black.
Qin Wenyuan said calmly, “Huang Qianjun was involved in this too. If Rourong finds out we’re planning to deal with one of his friends, she’s certain to beg for mercy on his behalf. Better to snuff that possibility out before it happens.”
He took a deep breath, and the depths of his gaze glinted with cold light. “A man who cannot even protect his own son is unworthy to be a father!”
His voice boomed like clanging metal, forceful and murderous.
……
Morning the next day.
After eating breakfast, Su Yi went right back to his room.
He was refining a set of formation discs.
He had to at least ensure that when he wasn’t at Humble Tranquility Cottage, he could still keep Feng Xiaofeng, Feng Xiaoran, and Huang Qianjun safe.
He kept working late into the night.
Finally, he looked at the eighteen formation discs he’d just refined and visibly relaxed.
Each formation disc was round like a compass. They were made of spiritual materials, with cloud markings and inscriptions carved on their surfaces.
Fortunately, my cultivation has already reached early-stage Qi Accumulation. Otherwise, I’m afraid just refining these little trinkets would have taken me days,?Su Yi thought to himself.
It was just yesterday that he began the “Unblocking Acupoints” stage of his cultivation.
Relying on his firm foundations in the Blood Circulation Realm, he’d quenched all one hundred and eight spiritual apertures in one go.
The process had taken a full six hours, but since there hadn’t been any lulls or pauses, it still counted as one uninterrupted attempt. This was partially due to the strength of Su Yi’s foundations and partly because the Pine and Crane Body Refining Technique was a peerless foundational technique. When it came to subtle and profound secret methods for quenching the spiritual apertures, there was no other technique like it.
All of this allowed Su Yi to reach perfection in the early-stage Qi Accumulation Realm steadily and without a hitch.
I’m afraid other martial artists wouldn’t dare believe such a thing,?thought Su Yi.
To the best of his knowledge, in the Great Zhou, Qi Accumulation cultivators who successfully quenched even just half of their spiritual apertures were already less than one in a thousand.
Those who could refine more than half were, practically without exception, disciples of top factions, like the Ten Great Academies or the peak-level clans of each province.
And refining all one hundred and eight spiritual apertures was like something out of a legend!
It wasn’t a problem of insufficient talent. This mundane world was restricted by its sparse spiritual energies and limited martial arts inheritances. Even those peak-level factions had no complete methods for quenching all one hundred and eight spiritual apertures.
But achieving this step was in no way impossible.
Rumor had it that a few disciples of peak factions were dead-set on quenching all one hundred and eight, one by one, even if it meant a few extra years of cultivation.?But of course, the price they paid was years of time and effort, and there was no guarantee that they’d succeed in the end.
By comparison, Su Yi opening all one hundred and eight spiritual apertures in just one night was obviously and unquestionably different and jarring.
It meant that although he’d only just barely broken into the early-stage Qi Accumulation Realm, he’d already pulled far ahead of others in the same stage.?It was enough to leave even the most peerless geniuses of the mundane world in the dust. They could only gaze at him from afar.
But to Su Yi himself, merely reaching this step didn’t amount to much.?By the standards of the Nine Provinces of the Wilds, this level of accomplishment was still rare and shocking, but the core disciples of top sects could do it too.
Su Yi’s goal was simple: he wanted to nourish spirituality within each of his one hundred and eight spiritual apertures to achieve “full spiritual awakening of the acupoints”! 𝙚𝙙𝙣𝒐𝙫𝙚𝙡.𝙤𝙧𝒈
When that happened, each spiritual aperture would be like a miniature hidden realm that could give rise to strange and miraculous phenomena, connect with the power of heaven and earth, and reflect the light of the Grand Dao. Even in the Nine Provinces of the Wilds, this level of accomplishment was less than one in a million! It was practically unprecedented and nigh-unduplicatable!
Without giving the matter any further thought, Su Yi picked up the formation discs and left the room.
He started laying a formation, burying each disc in a different part of Humble Tranquility Cottage.
Beneath each disc, he placed ten spirit stones.
There was nothing for it. In a mundane place like this, there was no spirit vein underground. If he wanted to operate a grand formation, he could only borrow the power of spirit stones.
Fortunately, the formation I created contains less than a tenth of the subtleties of the true Mountain and River Formation. Spirit stones are enough to activate it, and it can connect with the power of heaven and earth to sustain all of its operations.
Although its might is far from comparable to the original formation, which can easily burn mountains and boil seas, it will be enough to trap and kill Inner Furnace Realm martial artists….?Su Yi looked it over, made sure there were no mistakes, then nodded.
“Senior Apprentice Brother Su, what are you doing?” Feng Xiaoran walked over, pushing her brother’s wheelchair.
“Placing a formation,” said Su Yi. He then passed Feng Xiaofeng a jade talisman and said, “Junior Apprentice Brother Feng, keep this with you and take good care of it. If enemies show up in my absence, all you have to do is shatter it.”
The jade talisman was inscribed and carved with cloud patterns, and it was made from a tier-two spirit stone.
Once shattered, the power within it would burst forth. This was enough to awaken the grand formation placed within the cottage, trapping and killing the enemies within.
“Remember: don’t activate it unless it’s life and death. If the need arises, all you have to do is hide in the main hall. Whatever you do, don’t take a single step outside,” Su Yi commanded solemnly.
Feng Xiaofeng had no experience using talismans to place and control formations, so he found Su Yi’s instructions a bit baffling.?But although he didn’t get it, he nodded solemnly. He just took the formation as a killing device Su Yi had left for their protection.
Su Yi smiled, then glanced toward the horizon.?It won’t be too late to go to Blueriver Sword Manor and visit Lingxue after severing my lingering grudges and dealing with all latent threats.
It was already late, and when he saw the rosy light of the setting sun, Su Yi repressed his sudden impulse to go visit Wen Lingxue. He didn’t want her to get mixed up in any danger.
He might not fear anyone in the Cloudriver Prefectural Capital, but if his enemies resorted to underhanded tactics and used?Wen?Lingxue to get to him, there’d be little he could do to stop them.
Better to just put off visiting her for now.