Blind Spot
Chapter 605 - 554 expansion 2

Chapter 605: 554 expansion 2

’This is too slow, the sublimation of will needs a catalyst, it needs the right stage....’

Li Chengyi lay in his rattan chair, his eyes revealing a contemplative look.

’A test is necessary, but it can’t be too sudden. It needs to be gradual and step by step. Perhaps, I can try it with that girl everyday, letting her encounter danger once a day, right near the dwarfs...’

He pondered in his heart and glanced at Keya, who was studying seriously in the distance.

The one responsible for her instruction was Budouna, who had been by his side all along. This useless Gem Dragon could now only serve to teach the children their lessons.

’Budouna,’ Li Chengyi thought, ’tell the people in Feilei City to take care of something.’

’At your command,’ Budouna respectfully replied in his mind.

The two were communicating through consciousness.

This was a special little trick that Li Chengyi had developed on his own during this time.

As long as they were within a thousand meters, they could communicate through thoughts at any time and place.

Of course, this required that both parties had sufficiently strong consciousness power.

After arranging some minor tasks, Li Chengyi withdrew his thoughts and looked on as Budouna stood up, explained things to Keya, and left.

His gaze then turned to the other people in the office. The firm didn’t do much business for external clients, mainly Dunis working with the dozen new recruits they had hired, and the earnings were still quite decent.

However, relying on their relationship with the city government, their work had shifted from primarily detective investigations to mainly helping people with certification paperwork and running errands.

This was a decision Dunis made after discovering that the police department and the city governance gave them a lot of face.

Nilan, responsible for cleaning, was still honestly sweeping and mopping.

The beautiful girl, dressed in a maid’s outfit, rushing around the building with a mop, was a pleasant sight to behold.

Mistress Niya was also there, handling a watering can and nutrient solutions, taking care of The Garden.

The rest of the staff were lazily playing cards, creating a harmonious atmosphere.

Before long, Niya came up with an empty watering can, wiping the sweat beads from her forehead, seemingly a bit tired.

"Mr. Chengyi, my friend’s botanical garden just got a new batch of Wisteria Flowers with many leaves, would you like some?" Niya looked towards Li Chengyi.

"Yes, of course. How much?" Li Chengyi immediately brightened and sat upright.

Carrying Evil Thoughts with him, what he was missing now was the essence of flowers. His plan was to evolve all the Wisteria Flowers to their Ultimate Form, one by one.

Of course, if he encountered other flower variants along the way, he wouldn’t hold back.

But he would start with Wisteria. This Flower Language Ability had helped him immeasurably along the way. He had already obtained two Wisteria variants himself, and he didn’t expect to find another surprise here.

"It’s just a little bit of money, and I’m living here regularly now, so consider it a gift to the firm," Niya said with a smile.

She had seen the income of the firm, and although it was decent, dealing with government departments required greasing the wheels, which was inevitable.

So the expenses were definitely higher than before. Mr. Li Chengyi’s life might not be so easy, hence his penny-pinching.

Having been around for so long, they were basically friends, and she was too lazy to take the money.

"Is that so? Thank you so much! I’m going to trouble you again, Niya," Li Chengyi said with a smile.

His expression was natural, without any sense of taking undue advantage of someone.

At his level, if his skin were still thin, he’d be too easily anticipated by others.

A person’s thick-skinnedness should be variable and unpredictable, allowing for no advance guessing and preventing one from having their personal actions and traits fully discerned.

"Shameless." Not far away, Nilan, who was cleaning, couldn’t help but mutter again.

Li Chengyi provocatively glanced at her, angering the girl so much that the handle of her mop cracked sharply.

"You’re welcome," Niya couldn’t help but laugh. "Oh, and in a couple of days, I’ll probably be going to Xuebei City for a friend’s birthday party, so I won’t come here. Remember to replenish the nutrient solution for The Garden’s wisterias, roses, and water lilies, Mr. Chengyi. The nutrient solution I bought must be applied daily, and there are only five more days left to complete a course of treatment."

She carefully cautioned.

Many of the flowers in The Garden had captured her affections, and now she was somewhat like a co-owner, advising Li Chengyi.

"Going to another city, Xuebei..." Li Chengyi instantly recalled information about Xuebei.

On the surface, it was as stable as Ludian, but in secret, it was somewhat dangerous.

A gang of robbers with considerable strength had recently emerged there, committing several homicides, and they had not yet been captured.

"It seems there’s been some trouble there recently. Here is a safety talisman I asked for a while back; let me give you one." Li Chengyi smiled as he fished a translucent bead the size of a walnut from his pocket and tossed it over.

"Make sure to carry it with you; it’s very effective," he advised.

Niya caught the bead and examined it carefully. The translucent bead looked like it was made from colorless crystal, and inside, there was an intricately housed character for "safety."

"I’ll take good care of it, thank you, Mr. Chengyi," Niya said sweetly.

Li Chengyi waved his hand, yawned, and walked towards his office.

"I can’t take it, I’m too sleepy, I’m going to take a nap."

"Lazy pig, sleep, sleep, sleep is all you know!" Nilan couldn’t help but start muttering under her breath again.

"Go and clean the basement three more times," Li Chengyi suddenly smiled, looking up at her.

"...I just cleaned it!" Nilan argued, her face reddening.

"No, you didn’t."

With a thought from Li Chengyi, the Sword of Wisdom flashed through the emptiness of the basement, scraping some white ash off the wall, which fell to the floor.

"Wanna bet!?" Nilan challenged, angry.

"Sure. If you lose, you’ll clean the firm ten times a day," Li Chengyi offered with a smile.

"If I win, you’ll pay me double salary!!"

"Agreed," Li Chengyi nodded confidently.

Minutes later.

A desperate scream came from the basement, from Nilan.

Li Chengyi, smiling, walked into his office with his hands behind his back, closing and locking the door behind him.

"Don’t forget to remind Nilan to clean it ten times, Keya,"

"Alright..." Keya looked at Nilan, whose face was turning red, at a loss for words.

Dunis hesitated to speak but said nothing.

The daughter needed firm handling, a fact he understood well. Although he asked Nilan to clean the office five times, Li Chengyi often didn’t mind even if it wasn’t cleaned thoroughly.

The two were simply engaging in a kind of silent and playful argument.

With that thought, Dunis shook his head and turned to take a midday nap.

"Cheer up, Nilan. Dad is your strong spiritual support," he gestured a fist to his daughter before dashing away quickly.

This enraged Nilan even more.

*

*

*

In the office.

Li Chengyi lay on the sofa, playing with a dense ball of shadow with one hand.

The Shadow Dragon King’s Shadows Affinity talent had been taken to new heights with his keen insight, developing various new uses.

Long-distance shadow hopping was one of them, and now this one, controlling the power of the shadow to form a sphere, was another new use that had been discovered.

Using the Shadows Affinity, Li Chengyi had begun to decipher some of the mechanisms that triggered the opening of the Shadow Dragon Prison.

’Just a bit more...’ Li Chengyi continually adjusted the Shadow Sphere in his hand, letting the black threads inside revolve incessantly.

Opening the Shadow Dragon Prison, he noticed, mainly involved subtle shifts and fine-tuning of shadows, causing a blind spot crack hidden in the air to crack and enlarge.

The enlargement, it turned out, was supported by the power of shadows.

Li Chengyi focused intently on altering the Shadow Sphere, capturing the faint coordinates of the Shadow Dragon Prison hidden within.

Space contained countless tiny particles, as did the power of shadows; it seemed as if the location of the Shadow Dragon Prison was hidden amongst these shadow particles.

Just then, a clear thought entered his mind from outside the office.

’Master, there’s a new development on my end that I need to report to you,’ the Demigod Mountain Giant, Melo Green Sea, communicated.

This fellow was powerful and, importantly, savvy in worldly manners and management. Having once overseen the Druid Sect as an Archbishop, he had been appointed by Li Chengyi as the second in command of The Garden.

’What’s the situation?’ asked Li Chengyi.

’A prince seeks our aid. His Divine Fire is faltering, and his Church Group is being slowly diminished by hostile forces, beyond recovery. After learning about our power, he wishes to seek cooperation with us,’ said Melo with a grave voice.

Li Chengyi was immediately intrigued.

This was the first deity to actively seek refuge under his command.

’Have him wait at our stronghold. I’ll be right there.’ With that thought, he put away the Shadow Sphere, stood up, and his body was covered in black light before he vanished on the spot.

When he appeared again, he was outside Ludian City, in an abandoned temple in the wild.

The temple, overrun by weeds, crumbling pillars, a destroyed altar, and broken ceiling, had clearly not been maintained for many years.

Li Chengyi quietly awaited the deity. He was curious about gods because he wanted to determine whether they were truly the powerful entities that lit True Fire.

Not long after,

A breeze rustled through the abandoned temple, a green wind that solidified and slowed, and from it emerged a handsome man dressed in a dark green brocade robe with a green crown of leaves upon his head.

The moment the man appeared, his gaze fell on Li Chengyi.

Their eyes met, and in an instant, Li Chengyi discerned the other’s condition.

’Not the True Fire after the Seal Ring... but a different kind of flame entirely,’ he thought to himself.

Li Chengyi’s eyes gleamed with streaks of firelight.

The phantom fires of the Sword Furnace were not yet solid, but he could already tell that the deity’s Divine Fire was not the True Fire he understood.

The answer was no.

’The Divine Fire is too weak... and it’s fueled by the Consciousness Power of countless others, power that can only be burned through faith, which then provides strength to the god...’

In just an instant, Li Chengyi understood the essence of deities.

If deities represented the natural evolution of organisms to their ultimate form of consciousness-based life,

Then the path of the Yin Canon he practiced was one of seizing creation from all beings in the world, accumulating it within himself.

The former was still bound by the world and would lose ninety-nine percent of their power without faith.

As for him, if he lost this world, he could just move to another and continue his conquest.

Having determined that this Divine Fire was not the one mentioned in the Thousand Face Sword Canon, a weight lifted off Li Chengyi’s mind.

"Prince Randy?" he asked softly.

"It is I. Are you the leader of The Garden, Prince Bai Lu?" the deity Randy inquired solemnly.

"I am," Li Chengyi nodded. "We meet for the first time. I have a question I want to ask: which of the current pantheons would be the easiest to subdue?"

"...You have great ambition," Randy said after a pause. "There are five major god systems currently. The strongest is led by the Pure White God System. Then comes the Elf God System, followed by the Element God System, and then the War God System. The weakest and last is the Pantheon Alliance guided by the Sunlight Council."

"So, if I wish to subdue a god system, I should start with the Pantheon Alliance?" Li Chengyi inquired.

"Subduing a god is an immensely difficult task. You must possess the ability to single-handedly breach their divine realm. Even a god system with weak divine power can muster the might of a mid-level divine force in full resistance. And each divine realm is a prince’s blind spot, each prince the very essence of their realm. How confident are you...?" Randy spoke quietly.

Li Chengyi fell silent.

"Moreover, the easiest to subdue are not the Sunlight Council, but rather the Elf God System and the Element God System. These two systems have secluded themselves from the world for a long time, going unnoticed, and causing issues there won’t attract attention," Randy explained.

"Makes sense. So... can you lead the way and find us an appropriate target to test the waters?" Li Chengyi looked at him.

"As you wish," Randy took a deep breath, not expecting such decisiveness from the other. Could the leader of The Garden truly possess such formidable strength?

He had spoken of going against a god system as if it were nothing.