Chapter 221: Chapter 221: Multi-layered Restrictions
Sima Xuanyu and the others hurriedly said, "Lord Chu, please don’t say that. If you hadn’t arrived so quickly, I’m afraid we would have all been in danger. We should be the ones thanking you for saving our lives. That Shadow Killing Sect is incredibly cunning; this isn’t your responsibility alone."
"They’re right. Lord Chu, don’t take it to heart," Zhao Wei also said.
"Haha." Chu Yunfei couldn’t help but laugh. "The only reason I rushed over so quickly was because of Master Ye Xuan. Don’t thank the wrong person."
With that, he walked over to Ye Xuan, bowed deeply, and said respectfully, "Master Ye Xuan, thank you for your guidance just now. It allowed me to comprehend the true essence of the Flowing Water Sword Intent."
Chu Yunfei’s action stunned everyone.
’Ye Xuan guided Lord Chu? What’s going on?’
Everyone was completely bewildered.
Only Chu Yunfei had a faint smile on his lips. After Ye Xuan had left earlier, his words had echoed in Chu Yunfei’s mind, finally allowing him to understand the true essence of the Flowing Water Sword Intent. That was why he had rushed over to thank him, not expecting to run right into an assassination by the Shadow Killing Sect.
Ye Xuan smiled faintly. "I didn’t guide you in anything. It was all your own comprehension."
Chu Yunfei shook his head. "Master Ye Xuan’s talent is truly unimaginable. Although I am a Martial Sect, I feel that on the path of the Martial Dao, I am far too behind Master Ye Xuan. I hope you will offer me more guidance in the future."
Ye Xuan smiled. "The Martial Dao is vast. We are all but ants on its endless road. However, every road has an end. As long as we walk forward bravely, I believe that one day, we will all be able to see the scenery at the road’s end."
At that moment, a smile played on Ye Xuan’s lips, and he unknowingly exuded an aura that demanded reverence, as if he were a man who had once stood at the pinnacle of the Martial Dao, looking down upon them from its very end.
Everyone was immediately startled by their own feelings, not understanding why they would have such an illusion.
"Lord Chu, if you can’t find the Shadow Killing Sect’s whereabouts, don’t be anxious. I think it’s also worth investigating who issued the mission to the Shadow Killing Sect. If someone in the Royal City is colluding with them, this is no small matter," Ye Xuan reminded him lightly.
Chu Yunfei’s heart trembled. He frowned and glanced at the Eighth Prince, lost in thought.
「In the Fourth Prince’s palace.」
"What? You’re saying the mission failed? How could it have failed? Didn’t you say the Shadow Killing Sect would go all out this time and that failure was impossible?"
The Fourth Prince shot to his feet, his eyes bloodshot and his expression savage.
Hei Yi knelt before the Fourth Prince and said grimly, "Your Highness, this subordinate does not know either. I heard that the Shadow Killing Sect dispatched a Squad Leader Level Martial Sect assassin and several Celestial Martial Artist assassins this time. Who would have thought that they failed to kill either the Eighth Prince or that Ye Xuan? Instead, they lost many men, with only the Martial Sect assassin managing to escape."
"Impossible! With a Martial Sect-level assassin, how could the mission fail? Did the Shadow Killing Sect not use their full strength?" The Fourth Prince couldn’t believe it.
"From what I’ve learned, it seems His Highness the Eighth Prince survived because he had a Tier Five Defensive Array. Also, that Ye Xuan’s strength is terrifying. He was actually able to fight against the Shadow Killing Sect’s Celestial Martial Artists."
"Bullshit! How long has that Ye Xuan been in the Royal City? He only just joined the Profound Spirit Academy a year ago! To say he can fight a Celestial Martial Artist expert is ridiculous! This must be a smokescreen from Eighth Brother and his people. Investigate! I want a thorough investigation!"
"Yes!" the man in black said respectfully.
"And remember, lay low for now. It’s best not to contact the Shadow Killing Sect again. Hide yourselves well and don’t get exposed." After his rage subsided, the Fourth Prince quickly calmed down and gave his grim instructions.
"This subordinate understands."
’Damn it! The Shadow Killing Sect wasted such a perfect opportunity. It will be much harder to succeed next time. I must keep a low profile for a while. I absolutely cannot let anyone notice me,’ the Fourth Prince thought venomously.
「In the Royal City.」
News of the assassination attempt on the Eighth Prince quickly swept through the Royal City like a gust of wind.
Upon hearing the news, Zhao Jing flew into a thunderous rage and ordered the Imperial Guard to find the culprits.
For a time, panic filled the Royal City. Many dukes, nobles, and ministers were terrified by His Majesty’s fury.
At the same time, they thought they had a new understanding of how much Zhao Jing favored Zhao Wei.
Little did they know, Zhao Jing’s rage was only partly because of the Eighth Prince. The other, greater part was because of Ye Xuan.
He had been targeted in an assassination by the Shadow Killing Sect over ten years ago, which left him with a hidden ailment that had caused him constant pain. Now, just as he was beginning to recover under Ye Xuan’s treatment, Ye Xuan himself was targeted. This made Zhao Jing extremely sensitive.
In his view, the Shadow Killing Sect must have received some information and therefore wanted to eliminate Ye Xuan.
Intelligence gathered from the investigation also confirmed this. During the assassination, the Shadow Killing Sect had explicitly stated that Ye Xuan was also one of their targets.
This sent Zhao Jing into an absolute fury.
He believed that while the Shadow Killing Sect was ostensibly targeting Ye Xuan, they were actually targeting him, the Monarch of the Liuyun Kingdom. Killing Ye Xuan was just a means to prevent him from being cured, hoping he would drop dead in the near future.
How could he, the monarch of a kingdom, tolerate this? In an instant, a campaign to annihilate the Shadow Killing Sect, sweeping across the entire kingdom, began.
「Profound Spirit Academy Cultivation Tower.」
At this moment, Ye Xuan, the man at the center of the storm of discussion and the very cause of the entire cleanup operation, was sitting cross-legged as if nothing had happened.
Before him, the fist-sized Zhenyuan Stone flickered with a faint light, constantly pulsing on and off.
After this assassination attempt by the Shadow Killing Sect, Ye Xuan felt a great sense of urgency.
He hadn’t expected the Shadow Killing Sect’s power to be so great that they could mobilize a Tier Five Martial Sect expert.
If not for Chu Yunfei’s timely arrival, he might not have survived the encounter with a Tier Five Martial Sect.
This left him deeply unsettled.
He knew deep down that the only true safety was to have his life in his own hands.
At this stage, his cultivation speed was already quite fast. If he were to blindly focus on increasing his cultivation level, it would be rushing things and only damage his future cultivation foundation.
Therefore, he could only rely on external items for self-preservation.
And this Zhenyuan Stone was a trump card in his hand.
After clashing with the Shadow Killing Sect’s Martial Sect, Ye Xuan immediately understood that the Zhenyuan Stone was of an extremely high grade. It was definitely an incredibly heaven-defying Profound Treasure.
Otherwise, there was no way it could have blocked a full-power strike from a Tier Five Martial Sect and even caused the attacker to injure himself, just by being moved into place.
Overjoyed, Ye Xuan returned to the academy, entered the Cultivation Tower, and began refining the Zhenyuan Stone with all his focus.
Ye Xuan had originally thought that with his knowledge and expertise, refining the Zhenyuan Stone wouldn’t be very difficult. Only when he actually began the process did he realize just how hard it was.
The small portion of the Zhenyuan Stone’s restrictions he had spent an hour refining in the treasury was less than one percent of the total.
Ye Xuan could only calm his mind and tackle the restrictions one by one. It took him a full month before he had completely refined the restrictions in the Zhenyuan Stone.
After sensing the structure inside the Zhenyuan Stone Profound Treasure, Ye Xuan was astonished. It turned out that the restrictions he had spent a month refining were merely the first layer. Before him now was another layer of complex and obscure restrictions.
’A month just to refine the outer restrictions of a Profound Treasure.’ Ye Xuan was a little speechless.
At the same time, it made him even more curious about the Zhenyuan Stone’s grade.
A Profound Treasure with such complex restrictions, by his conservative estimate, had to be at least a Seventh Grade Profound Treasure. As for its true rank, he couldn’t be certain since he hadn’t broken through all the restrictions.
Ye Xuan couldn’t for the life of him figure out why a Profound Treasure of this level would appear in a small kingdom like the Liuyun Kingdom.
But when faced with this second layer of restrictions, Ye Xuan was dumbfounded.
This layer of restrictions was even more complex and bizarre than the first. Although Ye Xuan’s expertise allowed him to figure out how to begin refining it, he couldn’t proceed because his Soul Power wasn’t high enough, no matter how skilled he was as a Soul Refiner.
He estimated that his Soul Power would need to advance from the Peak of Third Grade to at least Mid-Fourth Grade before he could even attempt to refine this second layer of restrictions.
Fortunately, now that the first layer of restrictions had been refined, the Zhenyuan Stone, which looked like a black iron rock, was as light as a feather in his hand and could be controlled with ease.
Activating it required a massive amount of Profound Qi, equivalent to the entire Dantian’s worth for an ordinary Earth Martial Artist. However, because he cultivated the heaven-defying Nine Profound Prideful World Art, his Profound Qi was more than ten times stronger than an ordinary Martial Artist’s. He wouldn’t run out after just a couple of uses.
The only thing he was dissatisfied with was how ugly the Zhenyuan Stone was. It just looked like a grimy, dark rock.
On top of that, since he had only refined the first layer of restrictions, he could only use a small fraction of the Zhenyuan Stone’s functions. This basically meant he could only use it to smash people. To others, it would look like he was bludgeoning someone with a scale weight—not at all aesthetically pleasing.
’My old Sky Cloud Star-Shattering Shuttle... when activated, it would streak across the sky like a meteor, shattering the starry river. The heavens would fill with dazzling, colorful light and radiant glows. It was absolutely magnificent and breathtaking.’
Looking at what he had now—a dark, lumpy scale weight—Ye Xuan felt utterly dejected.
The good news was that this black "scale weight" was terrifyingly powerful. With a light tap under Ye Xuan’s control, it nearly punched a hole through the Cultivation Tower.
While Ye Xuan was in seclusion, the Little Purple Mink also seemed to have entered a state of hibernation after swallowing the purple bead. Purple light flowed over its body, forming an electric cocoon that enveloped it.
After a month of seclusion, the gossip in the outside world had gradually died down.
During this great purge, the entire Royal City was in turmoil. A large number of people were rooted out from various departments. At the Meridian Gate’s execution grounds, heads rolled almost every day. For a time, the atmosphere in the entire Royal City was cleansed.
