Blind Spot
Chapter 451 - 412 Quling Mansion 2

Chapter 451: 412 Quling Mansion 2

Li Chengyi looked at the stone stairway leading into the government office, contemplative.

This system is very similar to the Heavenly Eye system of Yi Country.

"What about the officials who are assigned to keep watch at the government office? Don’t they come here either?" he asked again.

"The prestige of Yin Yue Zhenren is too imposing. As the strongest prefectural general stationed in the city, although in name this is the government office, in reality, everyone goes to the nearby Quling Fort. You must be newly transferred here as well, right?" The shop owner guessed with astonishing perception, smiling.

"Good eye, shop owner." Li Chengyi nodded.

"Let me give you a piece of advice, don’t go to the main government office if it’s not necessary. That place... is eerily abnormal, over the years plenty of drunken men who didn’t believe the rumors barged in, but they all went mad and were thrown out," the shop owner said in a low voice.

"Thank you for the warning. Please also tell me the location of Quling Fort," Li Chengyi said, handing over another coin.

"Sure thing, sure thing," the shop owner replied, taking the coin with a beaming smile.

After eating the red shrimp noodles, Li Chengyi quickly walked to the left, away from the government office. After meandering through a few streets, he quickly arrived in front of a red-tiled black-walled government office that looked much more normal.

This time, the style was much more regular.

There were soldiers on guard at the entrance, and the signboard of Quling Mansion was hung up.

People and sedan chairs were constantly entering and exiting through the side door.

Li Chengyi showed his token and was led to a large courtyard inside.

The courtyard door had a signboard of the Martial God Bureau, black background with red characters, written in flamboyant calligraphy, that might not be easily recognized without close inspection.

The head of the office, a burly and outspoken man named Deng Yandong, processed Li Chengyi’s entry order without delay, assigning him to the third battalion as deputy commander, rather than to his original position in the sixth battalion.

According to him, the third battalion’s positions were all filled, and you arrived a step too late; now only the sixth battalion had a vacancy. But it seemed that the desirable position in the third battalion was merely bait, tempting one after another~

Li Chengyi didn’t mind, as he wasn’t relying on his position for anything anyway.

However, in his view, the Martial God Bureau here seemed much more lax than in Cangshi County; even the head of the office, Deng Yandong, during their meeting, had one arm around a dancing girl, groping her, while the table was set with fine wine and food, a scene of luxurious indulgence.

In Cangshi County, the county head and deputy head would often lead everyone in practicing and sparring together.

But here...

In the huge courtyard, the size of a soccer field, there wasn’t a single person practicing or sparring.

When Li Chengyi took the order and passed through the courtyard, he even noticed a thin layer of cobwebs on the racks of weapons and armor in the corner. The handles of some weapons even had sweatbands that had become moldy and hardened.

Obviously, they hadn’t been moved for quite some time.

Moreover, inside the vast expanse of the Divine Martial Bureau, there were pitifully few people.

The brother branch, the Blood Guard Bureau, was just opposite, yet while this side had two guards at the gate, the other side didn’t even have anyone to watch the door.

’Perhaps it has been too peaceful for too long...’ Li Chengyi shook his head inwardly.

If even the military institutions were like this, it was obvious that this place had become corrupt to a certain degree.

Reporting to the small courtyard of the third battalion, the only souls in the entire yard were two elderly men with grayish-white hair playing chess. One old man paused to rise and complete his onboarding, then gestured with his hand that he could leave.

"Hold on, I haven’t even seen the battalion commander, and what about the teams in the battalion?" Li Chengyi couldn’t help but ask.

"The battalion commander has gone out to drink and flirt, and generally only comes once a month at the end. You can see him then when you return," the old man in the white robe with golden fish patterns said lazily, waving his hand.

"Drink and flirt? But isn’t the commander of the third battalion a woman?" Li Chengyi said, astonished.

"She is a woman, and she went to find men, which is quite normal," the old man said without looking back, stroking his chin as he pondered the chess game.

"Young man, you must be from the countryside, right?" The other elder in the gray robe, with an air of transcendent virtue, looked up with a smile towards Li Chengyi.

"Ah... yes, may I ask the elder, this place... why does it feel so strange?" Seeing that the old man was quite approachable, Li Chengyi promptly performed a courtesy and then asked aloud.

"Strange? Here at the Quling Mansion, we are in a time of peace and prosperity, immune to all evils. It’s not strange, you’re just not accustomed to it yet. Once you’ve stayed here longer, you’ll understand how good and happy this place is," the elder replied with a smile.

"Isn’t that so? Just from the Night Sea, the number of exotic slaves captured each year amounts to tens of thousands. These are all prime goods in terms of appearance and physique. After being trained here, they are sent to all parts of the country, even sold to foreign lands, in exchange for vast resources and wealth. With this as a foundation, a multitude of wealthy merchants and powerful clans are attracted to settle here. Resources, secret treasures, secret techniques—countless desirable goods converge and are traded here. How could life here not be comfortable?" the old man in the gold-edged fish pattern robe said with a chuckle.

"Slaves? There’s a slave trade here?" Li Chengyi was taken aback.

"We are adjacent to the Night Sea, where every day Slave Catchers go out to sea to capture people. Any tribes with the slightest uniqueness, whether they’re from the islands or the sea, or even those that fly in the sky, can be brought back to you. The lord of the mansion’s Slave Catchers have the Four Great Yin Gods presiding over them, no one can withstand their slaughter," said the elder in the white robe, speaking leisurely.

"The Four Great Yin Gods...?" Hearing this, Li Chengyi’s heart chilled, and it was clear that these four, along with the mansion’s mysterious lord, Yin Yue, were the strongest and most elite forces of the Quling Mansion.

"May I ask the elder, those Four Great Yin Gods, could it be that they are all strong individuals who have fused with the True Seal’s Blood Essence?" he ventured, carefully choosing his words to probe.

"Naturally, to hold the position of a Yin God means that they are among the lord’s disciples who have distinguished themselves by merging with the True Seal," the elder in the white robe replied meaningfully, assessing Li Chengyi thoughtfully.

This newcomer had gone straight to the topic of merging with the True Seal within a few sentences, indicating that only a master of that level could garner such attention and caution. It was an innate expression of human nature.

The first thing one asks and cares about reveals what they care about the most.

Li Chengyi didn’t try to hide it either; after all, he had come here under the reputation of a True Qi Martial Practitioner prodigy, and it was quite normal for him to be proud and arrogant.

"Young man, don’t aim too high. Even True Qi Martial Practitioners like us in the Divine Martial Bureau who have merged with the True Seal, just like the three mansion deputies, are far from being a match for those Bloodline Martial Artists. A rabbit wearing armor and a lion or tiger wearing armor have a huge difference, which you should understand; the foundational disparity is too great," the elder in the white robe advised.

"Thank you for the guidance, elder. I will remember your words," Li Chengyi replied seriously, bowing respectfully.

This place truly lived up to being a mansion city; upon arrival, he had encountered four Bloodline Martial Artists who had condensed the True Seal, and the Divine Martial Bureau also had three individuals who had merged with the True Seal. Obviously, they were not of the common merged True Seals, and yet, in the eyes of the elder before him, they were absolutely no match for the Four Yin Gods. One could only imagine how much more powerful the lord of the mansion was...

’It seems I can’t be as reckless as before here, I need to disguise myself well...’

After bidding farewell to the two elders, Li Chengyi headed straight for the armory here.

As the deputy commander of the third battalion, he was considered middle hierarchy within the Divine Martial Bureau, and he had the privilege to access the public sections of the armory without charge.

The armory was located close to the Divine Martial Bureau’s courtyard, housed in a three-story wooden pavilion with its own entryway and courtyard.

There was no one guarding the entrance, and a thick layer of ash was piled on the ground’s gray stone slabs, indicating that it had been a long time since anyone had visited.

Li Chengyi pushed the door open and walked towards the entrance of the pavilion step by step; circumspect about traps, he didn’t bypass the twinkling mechanism but instead pushed the door open and entered in accordance with protocol.

Inside, the layout was the same as in Cangshi County, with walls on three sides full of embedded compartments.

However, most compartments here were filled, housing various secret techniques, whereas most in Cangshi County were empty.

Standing at the entrance, sweeping away a strand of cobweb with his hand, Li Chengyi’s gaze quickly locked onto several Grade Black martial arts books on the right side of the wall.

These Grade Black martial arts books were closely flanked by several books marked with silver, which were Silver Level techniques. At a glance, there were more than a dozen in total.

’This is indeed the right place!’ Li Chengyi took a deep breath, suppressing the excitement in his heart, and approached swiftly.

He reached out and took down a Grade Black secret technique.

"Qingxin Suoyu Gong".

Flipping through it, he saw the fusion of True Seals section was intact, with no redactions; the copied version of the book mainly retained the corresponding secret medicinal practices.

Without the secret medicines, there was no way to begin this technique.

But what Li Chengyi needed was precisely these theoretical parts about the fusion of True Seals.

As he continued to thumb through, the method of fusing with True Seals was extremely clearly articulated above.

The principle was simple.

If previously distilling True Qi involved imagining oneself in a form capable of attracting the spirit of the True Seal, to absorb the Essence of the True Seal,

then fusing with a True Seal was about using external means to completely transform body and mind into a form that could attract the spirit of the True Seal.

In doing so, the spirit of the True Seal itself could be drawn into the body and the final step of integration could be achieved.

Thus, it involved a process of physical transformation.

The secret book mentioned that starting from Grade Black, the main differences in power between martial arts lay in the power of the True Seals themselves and the degree of compatibility between the transformed self and the spirit of the True Seal.

The first point, that True Seals vary in strength, was easy to understand.

The second point mainly looked at everyone’s degree of compatibility with the spirit of the True Seal after transforming themselves.

The higher the compatibility, the more of the spirit of the True Seal would be fused, and the stronger the resultant power. Naturally, those who could fuse with it completely were the strongest.

But typically, Grade Black martial arts would achieve only about thirty to fifty percent fusion.

Silver Level might reach sixty to seventy percent, and the most powerful top-tier, Gold Pattern Level, would be on the mark of eighty to ninety percent.

That was the difference.

The book in Li Chengyi’s hands was capable of achieving a fifty percent fusion—a superior Grade Black martial art.

Flipping to the back, he saw densely packed information about how to transform oneself into a monstrously-shaped being – though still human-like – through combined use of visualization and hypnotism, thus appealing to the spirit of the True Seal for integration.

It made his brows furrow tightly.

He picked up another secret book.

"The Liming Tiger Shark Technique",this one was the same; because the True Seal’s spirit resembled a tiger shark, it was necessary to transform oneself into a tiger shark-like flesh monster. Although it was a temporary modification and could revert back to a human form,

but... Li Chengyi, reading through various brutal procedures such as inserting and transplanting, and the crude transplantation surgeries, felt an indescribable queasiness.

’Too primitive....’

’No wonder the Wang Family ancestors couldn’t devise a method of fusing with True Seals by themselves; this method... is simply not something one can come up with independently.’

Li Chengyi continued to look through book after book, and they all detailed the same steps.

First, one would use True Qi to sense and grasp the general outline of the True Seal’s spirit, then transform body and mind to closely match the other party in order to attract its descent into oneself.

Finally, to completely integrate it into the body.

The spirit of the True Seal, being devoid of consciousness, would naturally be led by the human upon integration.

This was the fundamental principle of the True Seal martial path.

Different martial arts only differed in the degree to which they could adapt and transform themselves.

A martial artist could integrate only one type of martial art with the same True Seal; if someone else mastered it first through their cultivation, the latecomers could only wait for the former to die before they could proceed with integrating that True Seal spirit.

This perverse system thus resulted in a constant state where the firstcomers were always stronger, while latecomers were always weaker.

Eventually, when all the positions for the spirits of True Seals were occupied and completely claimed, the final martial artists would find themselves unable to integrate at all.

This resulted in a complete and rigid division between the hierarchy of True Seal martial artists and common warriors.