Hyper-Dimensional Player

Chapter 682 - 30: The Enchantress Assists My Cultivation (Part 1)

The second day after the Evil Valley massacre.

At dawn, several top martial artists arrived outside Evil Valley. One of them looked at the shattered stone tablet and his face changed drastically. He said to the person next to him, "This person is a top master of external martial arts."

The person beside him had no beard, a pale complexion, and an ominous demeanor. With a slightly sharp voice, he said, "It's more than just a top master."

"I'm afraid he has entered the Dao."

"It's said that in the past, Li Cunxiao's eighteen riders broke through Chang'an with this extraordinary martial arts, not much stronger than this person."

During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.

Renowned generals who died in battle were often revered as local deities, like Later Tang's fierce general Li Cunxiao, respected as the "Iron Stone General" in the He Dong area, with temples erected to ward off disasters. However, such gods might not necessarily be known to future generations.

Guan Er Ye is a special case.

In the valley, several subordinates hurriedly walked out. The leading guard, in a panicked voice, said, "Lord Chen."

"Everyone inside is dead!"

That Lord Chen was the pale, beardless man. His expression changed slightly as he entered the valley to investigate and then ordered, "Send a message to the palace immediately."

At this moment, a team of soldiers carried out corpses. The eunuch squatted down to inspect them and said solemnly, "The bones are completely shattered."

"It's the Great Strength Vajra Finger."

"Someone."

"Take these bodies for the Godfather to inspect."

The person referred to as Godfather was Chen Yanshou, the senior eunuch by the side of the Southern Han Emperor Liu Chang. After ascending the throne, Liu Chang trusted eunuchs like Gong Chengshu and Chen Yanshou so much that he even followed their advice to kill his own brothers.

The female attendants of Southern Han were led by Lady Lu Qiongxi, yet after Fan Huzi appeared, it was evident that the latter was more favored by Liu Chang.

Yangshuo County.

Before long, those people transported the corpses from Evil Valley over. So many top martial artists had died that without showing them to Chen Yanshou, there would be no way to account.

In a nearby tavern.

At this time, a disguised middle-aged scholar was standing by the window looking out. Opposite him was a weeping middle-aged man.

"Brother Fan."

"Since you have decided to become an official, what is there to be reluctant about?"

"It's just two ounces of flesh, just cut it off."

Although the speaker tried to be serious, he couldn't suppress a trace of a smile at the corner of his mouth.

The man named Fan, upon hearing this, drank his wine sullenly, lifted his robe to glance at something, then took another big gulp, finally sighed deeply, and said, "Brother Yun is right, I have offspring."

"For the sake of the family, what is there to hesitate about?"

"After speaking with you today, I feel much relieved."

"Goodbye."

The man left, stumbling drunkenly with the wine pot in hand, seemingly having come to terms with his decision, ready to make the cut and settle into officialdom.

Before long, another young man ascended the loft and whispered, "The Jingjiang Army has brought back many corpses."

"There are rumors in Jianghu that Evil Valley was annihilated by a group!"

The middle-aged scholar, upon hearing this, perked up, immediately taking paper and pen from his sleeve and began writing something.

This person was named Yun Zhike, a descendant of the Nine Schools and Ten Families. At the time, in the Pond of Dragons in Dangshan, he accidentally encountered a youth and casually wrote a short plan. Unexpectedly, this allowed him to break through a bottleneck that had troubled him for a long time, making him now a top Jianghu master. That fortuitous encounter was worth years of painstaking cultivation.

But unfortunately, neither news of the Mountain Monarch nor that youth surfaced later. He could only inquire about the whereabouts of Lady Jade Face, pursuing all the way to the Jingnan area.

It was somewhat fortuitous that he recently met his clan brother, Yun Wangji.

Yun Wangji's martial prowess had grown over the years. When they met, they sat for a drink, and Yun Zhike learned from him about the youth's news, prompting Yun Zhike to continue southwards, arriving in the domain of Southern Han several days behind.

He was already certain that his chance to become a hundred-xiu student was linked to that youth.

The extraordinary martial skills of the Nine Schools and Ten Families are bizarre; some can even enhance cultivation by farming. Yun Zhike practiced Hearing and Records. Upon noting the short plan about the City God Temple's night of slaying Ghost God, he felt on the verge of another breakthrough.

"This kid is certainly my benefactor!"

Yun Zhike wrote several hundred words, carefully put them away, and noticed the True Qi inside him becoming increasingly active.

He had a friend, specializing in cultivating the Qi of Five Grains, worshiping the Shennong Clan as ancestors, based on the twenty-four solar terms; planting in spring, harvesting in autumn, storing in winter. Though he lacked fame in Jianghu, he looked like an old farmer but was actually one of the top masters of his time.

The world offers myriad bizarre cultivation methods; some fall under the scope of Jianghu martial arts, while others rival Qi refining techniques, albeit with an extremely obscure cultivation process.

Back then, Yun Zhike also wrote supernatural tales but they were not well-known. Later, he shifted to annotating military books, discovering even greater experts, and stumbled upon a path—Jianghu hearsay and renowned biographies—requiring less competition yet allowing him to break through.

His Secret Technique didn't belong to True Qi or Inner Strength, somewhat resembling borrowing others' luck and energy.

"Immediately send a message to the Pavilion Master."

Yun Zhike handed a scroll of secret letters to the youth beside him and walked out with a changed appearance. His identity in Jianghu was manifold, and his makeup skills were exquisite.

Within the military camp.

Surrounded by numerous guards, a thirty or forty-year-old man in a python robe stood holding a teacup, staring at the group of people kneeling below.

"A bunch of useless people!"

"You can't even find out anything."

This Chen Yanshou looked like a fair-skinned middle-aged scholar. His martial arts were extremely high, practicing a sinister Secret Technique, said to be created by eunuchs of the Mid Tang period. This technique appeared extremely sinister, but the True Qi was actually blisteringly strong and Yang, so dangerous that carelessness would cause one to explode and die, an embodiment of the secret law of yin and yang giving birth to each other.