Chapter 306: Chapter 304: A Meeting of Wind and Cloud
Leng Yao had come this time precisely because she wanted to stay by Qin Li’s side and help him handle things. So, despite being in low spirits, she pulled herself together and tidied up a bit. Her entire aura seemed exceptionally noble and icily beautiful!
Even Lin Heng couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. ’No wonder that guy Qin Li always seems so uninterested in my younger sister. It turns out any random woman by his side is such a peerless beauty!’
’This one, for example, is in no way inferior to my own sister.’ Thinking of this, Lin Heng couldn’t help but feel a little frustrated. ’I had originally been dead set on becoming Qin Li’s brother-in-law...’
Compared to Shen Le, Lin Heng was a bit calmer and less cheerful, and he appeared to be more calculating and cunning. However, he was still a very decent person. Like Shen Le, he was optimistic about Qin Li’s future prospects.
Even if they were a little unwilling to accept and admit it at first, truly outstanding disciples from prestigious families were able to acknowledge the strengths of others and use that to improve themselves!
"Let’s go, Qin. You’re sure to attract a lot of attention tonight. And this young lady..."
"Haha, this is my friend, Leng Yao!"
"Oh, hello, Miss Leng!" Lin Heng greeted her gently and politely, while complaining inwardly: ’Friend? You might as well just say she’s your woman and let me give up all hope of being your brother-in-law...’
Leng Yao nodded slightly in acknowledgment to Lin Heng.
However, Lin Heng’s heart stirred. Having not paid much attention to Leng Yao before, he couldn’t help but re-evaluate this woman with her noble and outstanding bearing. To the eyes of someone of equal status, the movements and manner of speech of a true disciple from a major family were vastly different from those of an ordinary person.
Qin Li, without a doubt, was a disciple from a bona fide small family. This wasn’t to mock Qin Li; rather, his mannerisms lacked the elegant air of a disciple from a great family. However, Qin Li also didn’t have the timid, shrinking demeanor that disciples from small families often displayed before those from great ones. His actions were free-spirited and natural. He was something of an anomaly among those from small family backgrounds.
’But this Leng Yao... one look is enough to tell she comes from a great family! Definitely not an ordinary girl!’
Lin Heng couldn’t help but feel a wave of frustration. The last shred of his hope was extinguished. ’Where does Qin Li even find these women?’ he wondered.
The three of them entered the banquet hall of the Thousand Mechanism Sect’s guest manor. It was bustling with people, and Qin Li even spotted Shen Le weaving through a crowd.
Inside the enormous, ancient banquet hall, all sorts of powerful auras mingled, forming an intense field of pressure. Even a Martial Artist at the Venerable Realm would feel an involuntary shiver upon entering.
Clearly, there were many unfathomably strong experts within this banquet hall!
And the auras forming this pressure field weren’t even intentionally released by those Martial Artists. It was a natural manifestation of their own Primordial Power fluctuations, overflowing once they reached a certain level!
Of course, those whose strength hadn’t reached a certain realm couldn’t feel this pressure field at all.
The more he came to places like this, the more urgent Qin Li’s desire to increase his strength became. He really wanted to just throw caution to the wind, enter the Golden Palace, go into secluded cultivation for two hundred years, and then re-emerge to roam the Martial World!
However, he knew his own situation best. It might seem like Qin Li had inherited the Golden Palace, with all its Divine-level Elixirs, Divine-level Techniques, and even Divine-level Weapons... plus a courtyard full of Heavenly and Earthly Treasures for the taking. But in reality, Qin Li could still only enter the first floor of the Golden Palace’s main hall!
He couldn’t get into the second floor at all!
He could use his Spiritual Power to issue commands to the Golden Palace, forbidding certain treasures from appearing on the first floor, but he couldn’t command the Golden Palace to produce more of them!
According to the memories left by Hu Yanbo, Qin Li knew that the main hall of the Golden Palace was a thousand meters tall, but it only had three floors inside!
Each floor held corresponding treasures, many of which were on the verge of extinction or were one-of-a-kind even back in the Primordial Era!
Their power was world-shaking!
However, knowing this was one thing; Qin Li didn’t even know what those treasures looked like, because Hu Yanbo’s memories didn’t contain their specific images.
The treasures handed out during all the past Venerable competitions were merely items from the first floor of the Golden Palace’s main hall. As for what treasures lay on the second and third floors, Qin Li had no idea!
Qin Li couldn’t help but feel a bit of anger. Take the Qiankun Pill, for instance. Although it had many restrictions on its user, it was still a heaven-defying item!
And it was just something from the first floor of the Golden Palace, an item that Hu Yanbo had looked down upon!
Each floor of the Golden Palace had a corresponding Restriction. Without reaching a certain level of strength, one couldn’t even dream of entering a higher floor!
And likewise, each advancement was an enormous breakthrough!
Only after breaking through to the third floor could he truly break the Golden Palace’s limitations, take complete control of it, and become an expert in Hu Yanbo’s eyes...!
Then there were the countless Heavenly and Earthly Treasures in the Golden Palace’s backyard. They were indeed good things, but similarly, some of them also had Restrictions. Qin Li only discovered this when he sent Shangguan Shiyu and the others inside, because when he tried to pick the same fruits he had eaten before, he found he couldn’t even get near the tree!
Most of the other items were the same. Only a very small number were available for them to consume. So, it wasn’t as if entering the Golden Palace guaranteed a heaven-defying boost in a short amount of time.
Therefore, if Qin Li wanted to use the ultimate treasures inside the Golden Palace to raise his own strength and that of those around him, he first had to possess a certain level of strength himself!
And that "certain level of strength" wasn’t Shattered Void, but goddammit... Shattering the Core and Forming an Infant!
’Son of a bitch!’
Qin Li couldn’t help but curse inwardly. ’That old geezer Hu Yanbo was a real sadist. This kind of trial is like sitting on a mountain of gold without being able to scrape off even a fingernail-sized piece.’
’It’s too damn frustrating!’
To make matters worse, Qin Li couldn’t tell anyone about this. So, he could only endure it internally, repeating to himself over and over: ’I must get stronger!’
’I will open the treasure vaults of the Golden Palace!’
Similarly, there were many Heavenly and Earthly Treasures the old Taoist had told him about that Qin Li hadn’t seen in the Golden Palace. Presumably, some treasures from Earth had not yet been recognized by the people of this world.
However, Qin Li only remembered some of the top-grade ones. As for how to refine them, he couldn’t recall. When the time came, if he really did encounter those Heavenly and Earthly Treasures, he would have to rely on Leng Yao, the Alchemy Master.
Lost in thought, Qin Li glanced at the composed Leng Yao beside him and thought to himself: ’When it comes to cultivation speed, Leng Yao isn’t the most talented genius. But when it comes to Alchemy, I’m afraid even the most experienced old alchemists in the Qin Family are far inferior to her!’
’Moreover, her creativity and her understanding of the fundamental nature of Heavenly and Earthly Treasures are absolutely top-tier in this world! You have to understand, modifying a Pill Formula is often far more complex than creating a new one!’
’Without that kind of talent, you could spend your whole life trying and never successfully modify a single Pill Formula!’
’Yet in just a few short years, Leng Yao has altered the Elixir Formulas of no fewer than twenty Ancient Pill Formulas! She weakened their medicinal effects by dozens or even hundreds of times. And although it’s a weakening, the difficulty is in no way less than that of strengthening an elixir!’
’So, in my eyes, compared to the untouchable treasures inside the Golden Palace, this icy beauty beside me is my greatest fortune!’
As Qin Li and Leng Yao followed Lin Heng inside, they couldn’t keep a low profile even if they wanted to. In just a short while, several groups of people—young men and women, mostly disciples—had already come up to greet them.
When they heard that the young man beside Lin Heng was the famous Qin Li of Profound Island, many people expressed goodwill and due respect.
However, it was inevitable that there were also arrogant, supercilious people who sneered at Qin Li’s status. Of course, Qin Li automatically ignored such individuals.
Lin Heng kept trying to lead Qin Li toward his younger sister in a last-ditch effort. Who knew? Maybe Qin Li would take a liking to her at first sight!
But just then, Qin Li heard someone loudly calling his name from a distance. He looked up and saw a familiar face. It was the one he had taught a lesson and hadn’t seen since—the Fourteenth Young Master of Sword Concealment Manor, Xie Xiaozhong!
"Young Master Qin! Young Master Qin!"
A group of men and women stood beside Xie Xiaozhong, all looking at Qin Li with a hint of curiosity.
Qin Li smiled at Lin Heng, then led Leng Yao over to Xie Xiaozhong. To be honest, Qin Li really didn’t hold any grudge against Xie Xiaozhong now. Although he was a bit unruly, he had been able to puff out his chest like a man at the critical moment. He knew how to learn from his shame and strive forward, which earned him the right to be respected.
"Young Master Xie, it’s been a while!" Qin Li said with a smile as he walked up to Xie Xiaozhong. He then nodded in acknowledgment to the Third Young Master of Sword Concealment Manor, Xie Xiaofeng, who was standing to the side.
Although the two had never fought, Xie Xiaofeng admitted to himself that he was no match for Qin Li. Many people doubted the truth of Qin Li felling the Supreme Martial Artist Leng Ping with a single sword strike. But as a participant in the Venerable competition, Xie Xiaofeng had witnessed that world-shaking battle from start to finish!
It gave him a whole new understanding of fighting above one’s level. He had originally believed that someone in the Celestial Embracing Realm could never be a match for a Venerable. But after watching Qin Li’s battle against Cui Leng, Xie Xiaofeng finally understood. ’It wasn’t that it was impossible; it was that my own realm wasn’t high enough!’
"Young Master Qin, your words that day made me see the light. I hope that one day, I can become a Martial Artist who surpasses you. I will consider you my lifelong rival!" Xie Xiaozhong said with a serious expression.
A faint smile appeared on Qin Li’s face. He was just about to speak when he suddenly felt the aura of Leng Yao, who was holding his arm, change. She couldn’t help but tighten her grip.
Qin Li’s heart stirred slightly. Following Leng Yao’s gaze, he saw another group of people over there. The person she was staring at was a ruddy-faced old man who looked to be in his seventies or eighties.
Qin Li could clearly feel the deep-seated hatred in Leng Yao’s gaze!
’Could it be that someone from the Cui Family really managed to sneak in here?’
’Or...’
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