Chapter 147: Chapter 86: The Second Realm, Fame Shakes the Capital
Tian Yuan stood up, instinctively wanting to pull at Li Xuan’s sleeve, but she feared this bond might become his burden. Her arm hovered in mid-air, then quietly dropped, as she spoke in the most reassuring voice with a smile: "With me at home, everything is well. Don’t worry."
The two parted ways.
After Li Xuan left, Tian Yuan gently rubbed her slightly reddened eyes.
Fatigue and sadness washed over her; she said with red eyes, "Oh Tian Yuan, you’ve married a very capable man."
She lay on the bed, closed her eyes, tossed and turned, but couldn’t fall asleep.
Suddenly... she caught a whiff of a floral fragrance.
She thought it was an illusion.
Yet the floral scent seemed right beside her pillow.
So, Tian Yuan opened her eyes, only to find a bouquet of peach blossoms lying next to her pillow.
The peach blossoms were freshly picked with dew drops from the night still on their petals.
Beside the flowers lay a piece of paper with a phrase: "Once you’ve seen the vast sea, no other water can compare; except for Flower Mountain, no clouds are as magnificent."
The handwriting was unmistakably Li Xuan’s.
Tian Yuan looked at it and let out a chuckle, but looked left and right, with no sign of her husband anywhere.
...
In the distance, on a tall mountain, Li Xuan had freshly picked the peach blossoms, and the incense stick in his hand was still burning.
The incense smoke wove into a winding golden path, slipping into the night.
The headless ’Buddha’ used this method to behead people, while he... merely wrote a rustic love letter.
"I should return to the capital."
"My travel and exploration should come to an end."
"I should also have completed my personal cultivation and officially break through to the Heart Demon stage."
Thus spoke Li Xuan, the Tier Two demon beast mastering dual Heart Demon forms.
...
...
Several days later.
Li Xuan returned to the capital.
When he entered the city, his appearance was so ragged that the gate guards almost mistook him for a beggar.
Just as they were about to question him, Li Xuan directly produced the Prime Minister’s token, and then he proudly entered the royal capital despite his tattered clothes.
Once power is high enough, even in rags, it cannot conceal that aura and confidence.
He returned to his courtyard, boiled some water himself, enjoyed a comfortable bath, changed into clean clothes, then sat by the capital’s lake, took a leaf floating gently from overhead and played it against his lips.
The melodious music drifted away along the water.
The young man was at ease with a smile on his face.
Soon, the sound of carriage wheels was heard outside the yard.
Jiang Zhenshan arrived at the courtyard gate, calling: "Brother Li!"
Li Xuan put down the leaf, stood up, and smiled: "Brother Jiang."
Jiang Zhenshan opened the gate, entered, and asked: "Judging by Brother Li’s demeanor, it seems you have emerged from the Heart Demon problem last time.
This trip of touring and exploring has truly been worth it.
Perhaps, after a few more days, when your heart is completely at peace, Brother Li can attempt to break through to the Heart Demon stage again."
Li Xuan smiled, just about to speak.
Jiang Zhenshan waved his hand with a wry smile, saying: "To be honest, when I attempted to break through the Heart Demon stage, just looking at the Vajra’s form for a short moment, I heard a seductive fairy’s voice from the air, and as a result... I was so startled that I came directly..."
Li Xuan: ...
Though he knew that "sharing embarrassing stories is a means of building rapport", this embarrassing story was a bit much...
Jiang Zhenshan said: "I have been calming my mind for a long time, and in a few days I might try again.
The knowledgeable ones will be elder brothers. In the future, Zhenshan will need to seek advice from Brother Li more frequently."
Li Xuan said: "If Brother Jiang has any questions, feel free to ask me."
"Oh?"
Upon hearing this, Jiang Zhenshan was taken aback, and smiled, "Has Brother Li perhaps made further progress?"
"A bit." Li Xuan said, and with a slight thought, a black aura surged from around him, instantaneously manifesting a ten-foot tall, oppressive black Vajra.
Jiang Zhenshan looked up at the black Vajra, his pupils constricting sharply, his mouth followed by a shock-induced gape, and his breathing ceased momentarily.
He gazed for a long time, trapped in a state where it was hard to extricate himself from the shock.
With a wave of his hand, the black Vajra turned into a black mist and dissipated instantly.
He stepped forward, patting Jiang Zhenshan’s shoulder, and said: "Thanks to Brother Jiang’s thoughtful hospitality these days, I could break through steadily. Thank you."
Jiang Zhenshan came back to life, asking with a trembling voice: "You... have you broken through the Heart Demon stage?"
Li Xuan nodded.
Jiang Zhenshan was momentarily confused.
His concept had been severely shaken.
He had the sudden feeling of "Who am I, where am I?"
He looked towards the lake beside him, took several deep breaths, began to accept this reality, and then asked: "Brother Li, how old are you this year?"
Li Xuan said: "Already twenty."
Jiang Zhenshan hurriedly said: "My Jiang family has many unmarried young ladies.
Moreover, Jiang Muyan, one of the four great talents in the capital, is also a girl of my Jiang family, and she is still unmarried.
She... she is unmarried entirely because she has always admired you, Brother Li."
Li Xuan couldn’t help but laugh heartily: "Brother Jiang, don’t make jokes. Our relationship doesn’t need marriage to be maintained!"
As for Jiang Muyan, their relationship was entirely "I don’t know you, you don’t know me", so how could there be admiration?
Jiang Zhenshan was so shocked that he started talking nonsense.
Though there are many beauties in the world, unless it is necessary, he would never take them randomly.
Rose and Wei Yao were with him from the beginning.
Tian Yuan, because she was capable and had no complicated relations, was his own choice for providing logistics support.
Qiao’Er is the maid Tian Yuan brought along, taking her in was considered a good deed.
As for Cao Yi, initially, it was for the connection with Cao Shuda, later it was to "build himself a good reputation", Cao Yi was his stout-hearted, loyal monument. And that monument, he intended to keep standing, for it was his upright persona.
