Blind Spot -
Chapter 452 - 413 Quling Mansion 3
Chapter 452: 413 Quling Mansion 3
He quickly perused the fusion True Seal techniques of all the Grade Black martial arts. While he couldn’t say the gains were substantial, he at least had some direction.
However, such a direction was of little value to Li Chengyi, as each True Seal’s modification pathway was different, and each martial art had different modification goals.
The True Seal corresponding to his technique was not to be found here.
The True Seal corresponding to the Pine Deer Blade Technique was shaped like a stag, with huge antlers on its head resembling pine patterns.
This was also the source image for the Pine Pattern Energy.
After going through the Grade Black, Li Chengyi extended his hand towards martial arts secrets of the higher Silver Level.
But just as he took them out and flipped through a few pages, he realized that the text was all undecipherable symbols, seemingly encrypted using some special method.
’What a pity...’
He knew that if it was placed here so easily, it certainly wouldn’t be so precious.
After all, Silver Level martial arts, even if they were True Qi Martial Arts, were second only to the Golden Pattern Level of top-tier martial arts. Despite the minimal impact of True Qi Martial Arts, they could easily create a whole new martial artist family.
Therefore, it was normal that they were strictly controlled.
With the principle of not wasting an opportunity to learn, he reviewed all the Common-grade martial arts and kept them in mind.
In total, it only took him two hours.
When he left the Armory, Li Chengyi had already begun contemplating his own method of creating a fusion True Seal.
’To fuse True Seals and achieve the Imprint, one must first understand the fine details of what exactly a True Seal’s spirit is...’ he had thought about using the Flower Language Technique to exert control, but that obviously wasn’t feasible.
The Flower Language Technique struggled to control even a few Blood Bodies, so the idea of controlling the mysterious and unpredictable spirit of the True Seal was terrifying.
’Transform one’s body and mind to attract the spirit of the True Seal... Then let True Qi in turn connect to Consciousness Power, allowing the next step to perceive the appearance of the True Seal’s spirit... All these methods follow this pattern...’
Li Chengyi found this very familiar.
On his way back, he pondered over it.
The Death Energy System relied on the Imprint Orb to help one’s self to congeal an Imprint. This method’s advantage lay in the fact that creating an Imprint Orb was difficult at the beginning. Opening the non-gate was a difficult and dangerous task, but once achieved, one was naturally fused with the Imprint as one entity, inseparable, because it inherently represented a sublimation belonging to oneself.
The martial arts system of Midlane, on the other hand, took a different approach. Here, the Imprint seemed to be controlled by the spirit of the True Seal, and people only needed to diligently practice martial arts step by step. At a certain level, they could integrate with the spirit of the True Seal, thereby mastering the integrated Imprint.
But the problem with the martial arts system was that the Imprint was not thoroughly fused; once a person died, the spirit of the True Seal would return to its original place, to be merged again by the next person who integrates it.
’This spirit of the True Seal feels like a tool, not needing to open the non-gate, not needing the difficult task of collecting materials to create an Imprint Orb. Just follow the steps, and you can merge and obtain the power of the Imprint... And all these might have been pre-arranged by the spirit of the True Seal.’
Li Chengyi suspected that the core of the martial arts system was to use the spirit of the True Seal to communicate with the Black Sea in advance, congealing an Imprint and preparing everything beforehand, much like a shared Imprint Orb system.
’Speaking of which, the Heart of the Illusionary Colored Dragon is the main material for the Imprint Orb, and this place is also a major activity area for the Illusory Color Dragon... The Imprint Orb system might have some deep connection with the local True Seal spirit system.’
Armed with his orders, he quickly obtained a small quadrangle dwelling assigned for his living quarters.
The house, with three rooms and two halls and a courtyard spanning over a hundred square meters, was planted with many flowers and plants, showing that the previous owner was quite fond of botany.
After settling into his new accommodation, Li Chengyi went out to buy daily necessities and bedding. He then visited the barracks again, only to find two additional drunkards, who had collapsed on the edge of the training ground, fast asleep and reeking of perfume, unresponsive to shouts.
He had no choice but to return to his dwelling, surveying the surroundings of his residence.
He took his meals in outside restaurants, and in the blink of an eye, three days had passed since Li Chengyi’s arrival at Quling Mansion.
Over these three days, he made daily trips to the barracks and finally managed to sort out miscellaneous matters such as duties, subordinates, and pay.
As the deputy head of the camp, he had nearly two hundred men under him, responsible for coordinating personnel to work with the Blood Guard Bureau in managing half of the infection cases within the city.
However, due to the excessively extreme security atmosphere of the city, with the Yin Gods watching, any infected individuals were immediately discovered and warned to leave. If they ignored the warning, they would be attacked by the Yin God in an inexplicable, unknown manner upon the second warning, instantly evaporated from existence.
Therefore, Li Chengyi’s duty was more of a token gesture, and his nearly two hundred subordinates were virtually unseen.
He couldn’t forcefully mobilize them, as these two hundred were basically offspring of families with connections within the city, posted in the camp to collect unearned pay.
Military power was definitely out of the question, and one could forget about discipline; being called "Lord" to one’s face would be considered good enough. Most were just names on a roster, never to be seen in person.
With nothing to do at the Blood Guard Bureau, the Divine Military Bureau naturally had nothing to do either, and Raven House had become nothing more than an official broker of intelligence.
After understanding the situation, Li Chengyi developed a keen interest in that omnipresent Lord Wang of the Quling Mansion and the Four Yin Gods.
How formidable must one be to ensure such an exaggerated level of security?
After spending a few leisurely days in the city, he examined past records of the city’s security.
He discovered that Quling Mansion had not seen any warfare in nearly a hundred years; it was always Quling Mansion attacking other places, with no precedent of others attacking it.
The records mentioned times when the Lord of the Mansion subdued xxx, resolved xxx, the Yin God captured xxx, and the Yin God suppressed xxx insurrections, and so forth.
Essentially, as soon as the Yin God or the Lord moved, all issues were completely resolved.
’How am I supposed to distinguish myself?’
Sitting in the courtyard, Li Chengyi put down the hand-copied record book of the mansion’s history, and sighed deeply.
Yin Eyes were monitoring at all times, no one around dared to cause any troubles, the only things that could be found were some very minor criminal incidents.
But at his level, he had never heard of anyone being promoted for catching common murderers or thieves.
In this way, if he wanted to cause trouble himself, he would face great danger, in case he was targeted by the Yin Eyes...
Idling in the city, Li Chengyi decided to start researching how to enter the next step, sensing the spirit of the True Seal with True Qi?
Meanwhile, he had also heard again from the Raven House here that there was no need to go elsewhere, within the Quling Mansion where he was, existed various main flowers he was looking for.
They were just traded and sold in the form of bonsais.
While researching how to enter the next step to observe the spirit of the True Seal, Li Chengyi did not forget to write a letter to his family using the Xuan Crow.
Unexpectedly, five days later, Wang Yifeng swiftly replied with a letter, pointing out that since the Wang Family Ancestral House had been notified, they attached great importance to him, the clan member who had been promoted to the Quling Mansion. It just so happened that the Wang Family Ancestral House also had some property within the Quling Mansion, and it was expected that it wouldn’t be long before someone from the ancestral house would come to visit him.
After receiving the letter, Li Chengyi wrote a reply persuading Wang Yifeng to live in the Quling Mansion, and let the matter be.
For something like a visit from the Wang Family Ancestral House, he did not care much.
However, unexpectedly, after another week, when he had already begun to gradually grasp observing the spirit of the True Seal, people from the Wang Family really came.
Knock, knock, knock.
After having lunch, Li Chengyi had just returned to his courtyard when he heard a series of light knocks on the door.
He was preparing to practice some moves in the courtyard to aid digestion and immediately waved his hand towards the courtyard door latch.
A faint wisp of white energy shot out, accurately hitting the latch, lifting it up.
"Please come in," he said aloud.
The people who knew his address were so few that, since his time in Quling Mansion, apart from people from the office, he really couldn’t think of anyone who would take the initiative to visit him.
The courtyard door was gently pushed open.
A handsome young man with a confident demeanor strode in with two burly guards.
The young man was dressed in a short-sleeved long robe, with blue and black patterned metal arm guards on his exposed arms.
The robe on his body was snow-white, with a deep blue patterned sash woven from the chest all the way down to the end of the robe.
He exuded a fusion of scholarly charm and heroic bearing.
"Is this the residence of Deputy Marshal Yi Chen Wang, of the Divine Martial Office? I am Wang Zhijun, from the Wang Family Clan House," said the young man, clasping his hands and bowing slightly to Li Chengyi.
"I am Yi Chen Wang. Since you are from the ancestral house, please come in," Li Chengyi briefly sensed the aura of the other party; all three were martial artists, but... their strength was not high.
All had cultivated True Qi, but that True Qi gave him a strange feeling.
It was very gentle, harmless, with no aggressiveness.
Leading Wang Zhijun to a sitting room facing the courtyard, Li Chengyi, who had not hired any servants, let one of Wang Zhijun’s guards go to make and serve tea.
Both men sat down cross-legged opposite each other, and after exchanging a few pleasantries, Wang Zhijun stated his purpose.
"Lord Wang, this time I have come to persuade you to recognize your ancestry and return to the clan, representing your lineage in joining the Ancestral House," he said.
"Whether I return to the clan does not affect me much, and it’s too troublesome, adding many unnecessary complications," Li Chengyi replied with a slight shake of his head. "Since the family was divided in the past and there wasn’t much contact between the main and branch families, why bother returning to the ancestral house now?"
"It is heard that you have cultivated Pine Pattern Energy, with extremely astonishing progress and rare talent, indeed a peerless genius of our Wang Family’s Pine Pattern Energy. Surely by now, you must also know that Pine Pattern Energy was not created by the ancestral house, right?" Wang Zhijun spoke calmly and continued to smile.
This young man, in his twenties, spoke very logically and had the demeanor of a noble family.
In an era where many people could not even recognize all characters, clearly only a big family could provide such a fundamental education.
"Indeed, I am aware that our branch ancestor created it, and then? What about it?" Li Chengyi said.
"Then you must also know that Pine Pattern Energy is actually greatly influenced by the traditional martial arts of the Wang Family Ancestral House. Its origin, at least half of it, comes from the ancestral house’s Qingyuan Dan Technique," Wang Zhijun said with a smile.
"Qingyuan Dan Technique..." Li Chengyi’s heart stirred, "What grade of martial arts is it?"
"Grade Black," Wang Zhijun replied confidently, "Because it shares the same origin, the difficulty of switching from Pine Pattern Energy to Qingyuan Dan Technique is not great, and given your strong talent in Pine Pattern Energy, it is very likely that you will also excel in Qingyuan Dan Technique. Transitioning from a Common True Qi Martial Art to a Grade Black Martial Art...
"Does anyone in the ancestral house merge with the True Seal now?" Li Chengyi interrupted to ask.
"Er..." Wang Zhijun’s expression stalled, somewhat at a loss for words.
Seeing his expression, Li Chengyi already knew the answer.
"A martial art that no one in the house can merge with the True Seal, and you want me to switch, with all the risks to be taken upon myself. What will I gain in the end? If my body is damaged and my talent declines after transitioning, what should the ancestral house do?" he continued.
"You don’t want to switch to practicing Grade Black Martial Arts? At least the difference in grade can significantly increase your strength..." Wang Zhijun tried to persuade.
"I don’t need it for now. At least for the current me, the loss outweighs the gain," Li Chengyi rejected. "If you want us to return to the clan, you need to present conditions with more sincerity."
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