Chapter 61

Jia Rong had a fawning smile on his face, "Young Master Yun, what do you need me for?"

Li Yunxiao pointed at Lu Yao and said coldly, "She is my friend."

Lu Yao was gently caressing her throat, which felt almost broken. A purple bruise was visible on her snow-white neck, making her look pitiful.

Jia Rong was taken aback for a moment, then without a word, he stepped forward, raised his hands high, and bowed deeply, sincerely saying, "Miss Lu Yao, I was rash. Please accept my apology."

Lu Yao was startled, covering her neck and frantically shaking her head. She quickly moved to the side to help Jia Rong up, wanting to say something, but a sharp pain in her throat made her cough violently.

Ji Meng had a bitter look on his face. If these alchemists treated him the same way, how wonderful it would be!

Jia Rong took a milky white pill from his ring and offered it to her, "This is a pill to promote blood circulation and resolve stasis."

Lu Yao refused to take it, which made Jia Rong anxious. He finally breathed a sigh of relief after forcing it into her mouth, carefully watching Li Yunxiao's expression.

After the alchemy and artifact refining at the guild, Li Yunxiao's status in Jia Rong's mind was already on par with a saint of alchemy and a guiding master. After his seclusion, he pondered over the explanations Li Yunxiao gave to Zhang Qingfan and Xu Han, and he began to show signs of breaking through to the second stage. This filled him with great shock and joy.

At that moment, he was interrupted by Lu Yao's transmission, and the anger can be imagined. If it weren't for Li Yunxiao, the Alchemist Guild would have been blown up by now.

Li Yunxiao said, "Your talent is even better than I imagined. You can break through to the second stage so quickly, and your future achievements will surely be great. This time, I need to refine a large number of pills, and I need your help."

"Refine pills!" Jia Rong's eyes sparkled with excitement. "What ingredients do you need? I'll go prepare them right away!"

Li Yunxiao said, "I have already prepared the ingredients. This time, the refining will take some time. Find a practice room first, and I'll arrange for Ji Meng."

Many alchemists are also martial artists, though their martial achievements are low, they still need to seclude themselves for cultivation, so there are many practice rooms. Jia Rong chose the largest one for Ji Meng to seclude himself in.

Li Yunxiao walked to a wall, pondered for a moment, then took out the Black Girl's Great Sword and raised it high, slashing down.

His sword movements were broad and powerful. The walls of the practice room were made of hard black iron, and with each slash, Li Yunxiao cut off a piece of iron, sparks flying, and soon small characters appeared, neatly arranged.

The characters were fresh and elegant, like mist and dew, each one carved out by the rough great sword, like a flower suddenly blooming, one after another.

This powerful and fierce sword style produced such vivid and graceful characters, two completely different styles appearing in one person's sword, giving Ji Meng a deep sense of shock.

Jia Rong was also a First Star Warrior. Although his understanding of martial arts was not high, he could feel the momentum in Li Yunxiao's sword, holding his breath and not daring to disturb.

After a moment, a fresh little poem appeared on the wall, as if flowers were blooming and competing for beauty.

"In the peach blossom grove, there is a peach blossom temple, under the peach blossom temple, there is a peach blossom immortal. The peach blossom immortal plants peach trees, and picks peach blossoms to exchange for wine money."

As the poem unfolded, a place full of blooming peach blossoms gradually appeared before their eyes, as if they were suddenly surrounded by falling peach blossoms, the mountains and waters blending together, the sky and earth like a single gull.

Li Yunxiao seemed very satisfied with his work and said with a smile, "Ji Meng, when I come out of seclusion, if you still can't grasp the higher peach blossom realm from this, it can only prove that you are dull-witted, and you won't need to follow me anymore."

After he finished speaking, he didn't hear Ji Meng's response.

Ji Meng was completely absorbed in the sword intent of each stroke, with peach blossoms blooming in his mind. He no longer heard Li Yunxiao's words, suddenly sitting cross-legged and beginning to circulate his true qi, falling into deep thought.

Jia Rong was stunned and said, "Young Master Yun, he..."

Li Yunxiao slightly shook his head, "Let's go, we have our own things to do."

The two closed the door of the practice room and returned to the place where they had refined the Black Girl's Great Sword. Jia Rong gave a strict order this time, even if the king died, they were not to be disturbed. This rebellious statement startled Lu Yao, but she still nodded and gave the order.

Liang Wenyu, upon hearing this, sent four martial master experts to guard the door, just in case.

Li Yunxiao walked around the refining room, selected a few sturdy pill furnaces, and tapped them a few times, indicating that he was satisfied. Last time, he directly exploded a high-quality pill furnace. If it were other alchemists, they would have been taken to compensate. But Zhang Qingfan and Xu Han not only said nothing, but also took the damaged furnace for research.

"These will do. Let's start with the first batch," Li Yunxiao said. "Your main task is to learn. When my soul power is exhausted, you will take over. I didn't expect much from you when I asked you to come, just to help with the miscellaneous tasks."

Jia Rong, hearing that his main task was to learn, his eyes sparkled even more, and he hurriedly said, "Miscellaneous tasks are good, very good! I love doing miscellaneous tasks for Young Master Yun!"

Li Yunxiao's gaze slightly focused, and a divine sense entered the boundary spirit stone in his dantian. Instantly, a brilliant light flowed over the stone, shooting straight to his mind. His eyes seemed to open a third eye, a beam of light shooting out, and the entire refining room was filled with various items.

Jia Rong was startled, staring at the room full of items, and exclaimed in shock, "Young Master Yun, you didn't empty the guild's inventory, did you!"

Li Yunxiao said, "This is our Li family's treasury, all moved over. Use what you need, and return the rest when we're done."

Jia Rong secretly marveled. The Li family was the top military power in the Tian Shui Kingdom, and directly emptying the treasury...

While he was distracted, Li Yunxiao said solemnly, "The potion we need to refine this time contains several extremely yang ingredients. With my current soul power, it will be difficult to control. Even with excellent skills, it is impossible to replace soul power. So the first thing we need to do in this seclusion is to advance to the second stage of alchemy, both you and I need to advance!"

Jia Rong's expression became serious, and the fawning manner disappeared. His eyes shone with the light of an alchemist, and he loudly responded, "Yes, Young Master Yun!"

"Good," Li Yunxiao was very satisfied with his attitude and said, "Before that, I'll go have a cup of tea."

Jia Rong: "..."

While Li Yunxiao was in seclusion, a major event occurred in the Tian Shui Kingdom.

The Li family patriarch, Li Chunyang, who was originally thought to be controlled by Li Yi, suddenly made a high-profile appearance, not only regaining control of the Li family but also directly declaring Li Yi a traitor to the enemy, issuing a nationwide order to kill him, and stating that anyone who harbors or protects him will be executed without mercy!

His high-profile return made the military, which had been in a low mood, suddenly come alive, as if reinvigorated, and began to frequently appear in the political arena, causing much speculation.

Furthermore, the old man took the opportunity to raid the homes of several high-ranking officials in the capital. These officials had all supported Li Yi and suppressed the Li family during the old man's seclusion. Several of them were beaten to death on the spot, their bodies thrown to the dogs. This thoroughly shocked the entire court.

For a time, the court was in a state of panic. Many officials who had previously submitted memorials to impeach Li Yi when he was being arrested were now silent. After the bodies of the beaten officials were dragged to the market to feed the dogs, the entire political arena fell silent, and no one dared to speak up.

The entire kingdom seemed to tacitly allow him to act recklessly, beating and raiding his enemies, until the situation gradually calmed down. However, the main character, Li Yi, seemed to have completely disappeared and did not reappear.

In the Prime Minister's residence, the Lan family courtyard.

The current chief minister, Prime Minister Lan Hong, was sipping tea while listening to a report from his subordinates.

"The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Rites, Zhang Baisheng, had seven family members beaten to death, and seven million gold coins worth of property were seized. Among the dead were Zhang Baisheng's sixth concubine, his nephew, and five servants. Twenty-three people suffered broken limbs and severe injuries, and over a hundred were lightly injured. Zhang Baisheng himself had his left leg broken."

Beside Lan Hong, a man in fine clothing, his eldest son and the father of Lan Xuan and Lan Fei, Lan Guang, said angrily, "Father, are we just going to let that old man act recklessly? Killing loyal officials at will, is he planning to rebel?"

Lan Hong put down his tea, his eyes smiling, and said, "Lan Guang, your vision is too shallow. If Li Chunyang really wanted to rebel, he wouldn't have made such a big fuss. And now he's just picking on small fry, which doesn't hurt much."

Lan Guang was puzzled, "Is he just venting his anger from being imprisoned?"

Lan Hong snorted, looking at Lan Guang with disdain, "Do you really think that old man is so easily imprisoned? Eight out of ten times, he's just playing along, deliberately lying low to see the current situation. At the same time, he's finding the hidden enemies of the Li family. And he's also making some money. In the past few days,