Chapter 407: The Key

In the inn's room, Li Musheng looked over the Director of the Hidden Intelligence Bureau who had just come to pay his respects.

The man had come in and talked at length, saying quite a lot.

It was only now that Li Musheng learned the man and Daoist Qingyu were from the same lineage, and that he had spent these weeks imprisoned by the Old Ancestor of the Great Xuan imperial palace.

"No need to thank me. I never had any intention of rescuing you. Once Daoist Qingye arrives and I receive the Tianqi Secret Treasury key, we are even."

Li Musheng had no particular desire to deal with the Director. He had no real relationship with the man.

And besides, Cang Yinyue had once told him the Director was the teacher of the false Seventh Prince claimant. Technically, their positions should be opposed.

But the man's manner was simply too agreeable, and it was hard to be harsh with someone who came smiling. Li Musheng could only be bothered to respond minimally.

The Director could naturally sense Li Musheng's indifference toward him. The fact that Li Musheng made no attempt whatsoever to use the favor as leverage, and showed no interest in cultivating him as an ally, told him something important.

This Eighth Prince seemed to have no particular attachment to power within the Great Li court, showed no interest in winning over someone as close to the Yuanwu Emperor as himself, and could barely be bothered to engage with him at all. He was essentially one step from writing "see yourself out" on his face.

"Fair enough. With his level of martial cultivation, he genuinely has no need to look twice at me."

The Director reflected inwardly, and he had also quietly observed that Li Musheng carried not the slightest trace of demonic energy, and showed nothing that resembled someone who had entered the demonic path.

This made him deeply skeptical of what the inn proprietor had told him. If Li Musheng had truly become a great demon lord with a deeply entrenched demonic nature, and could still maintain the patience to deal with him like this, that would be genuinely beyond any explanation.

"Whatever the case, it is because of Your Highness that this subject was able to leave the Great Xuan imperial palace alive. This debt, this subject keeps firmly in mind."

"Should Your Highness ever have need of this subject in the future, please do not hesitate to give the order."

The Director clasped his hands in a bow, and understanding that Li Musheng wanted nothing more to do with him, took his own leave.

Li Musheng watched the Director depart, shook his head slowly, then let his gaze fall on the large black cat.

The large black cat's round green eyes were also fixed on the departing Director's back, its eyes spinning with thoughts of some kind.

As though sensing Li Musheng looking at it, the large black cat quickly looked away and let out an ingratiating meow.

Since obtaining a proper official appointment from Zhao Muning, its spirits had been extraordinarily high these past days, and deep in the quiet of night it would occasionally pull out the empress's written imperial decree for a private look.

This was something it naturally had not told Li Musheng, since Li Musheng had said a cat could not hold office.

If he found out it had used his name to secure an official title from Zhao Muning, the appointment might be the least of its problems. If Li Musheng got angry and abandoned it entirely, that would be a disaster.

So the business of being an official had to stay a secret pleasure for now.

Even so, having just overheard the conversation between Li Musheng and the Director, the large black cat felt another idea rising irresistibly within it.

Having had a taste of success with Zhao Muning, the large black cat's ambitions were beginning to grow. A single official post in Great Xuan was starting to feel insufficient. It wanted an official position in Great Li as well.

And somewhere in the large black cat's daydreams, it was imagining a future where it held official titles in all five kingdoms.

Wearing the seals of five nations at once, eventually stunning everyone who knew about it, with even Li Musheng looking at it with new respect. How magnificent that would be.

Li Musheng naturally had no idea a cat could harbor ambitions this grand. He just reached out and gave it a stroke, then went back to his martial cultivation.

Demonic arts had their problematic aspects, but they genuinely had things worth taking from them. And demonic arts were known for rapid advancement.

The Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art passed down from the Demonic Patriarch, for instance: as long as you devoured other people's cultivation and drained them to husks, you grew stronger and stronger.

But the technique had one major flaw. The more cultivation you devoured, the heavier the demonic nature grew within you, and a practitioner would eventually spiral into a state of total madness.

Even the Demonic Patriarch himself had been no exception, and this had been a significant contributing factor to his being hunted down by the entire martial world and ultimately falling.

On top of that, this technique of absorbing others' cultivation was not without limits. Once the absorbed cultivation reached the maximum one's body could bear, further growth became impossible, and attempting it would carry the risk of the body shattering.

"If this technique could be researched and modified to remove that ceiling, would that not mean it could also be used as a path to try breaking through the constraints on martial cultivation?"

Li Musheng's expression became thoughtful. At this point he had already been exploring several different approaches to transcending the martial path.

The demonic approach sounded unreliable on the surface, but it was worth attempting. After all, no one had ever said that someone who had cultivated demonic arts was incapable of transcending the martial path.

Though admittedly, the entire history of the martial world contained no recorded instance of martial transcendence at all.

With that thought, Li Musheng shook his head slowly. Whatever the case, he still had to try everything.

He was not afraid of dead ends, and he was not short of time. Trying was not a problem, and what if it happened to work?

So things continued, and a few more days passed.

Then, on one particular day, Cao Gaoshan finally brought Daoist Qingye, who had traveled through wind and dust to arrive, back from the prearranged meeting point in Taixuan City, and brought him to see Li Musheng at the inn without delay.

But the Daoist Qingye Li Musheng saw now was a completely different person from the one he had met in Great Li.

His face was gaunt and hollow, and one sleeve of his robes hung flat and empty, clearly having lost an arm.

Beyond that, Li Musheng could sense that the energy within him was deeply disordered, the signs of serious injury plain.

"This poor Daoist has kept his word. I have obtained one key to the Tianqi Secret Treasury."

Daoist Qingye held out a round golden bead with his one remaining hand and presented it to Li Musheng.

Li Musheng took it and spent a moment sensing it, then confirmed that the bead contained an enormous magnetic force within. It was without question a genuine Tianqi Secret Treasury key.

Satisfied, Li Musheng gave a slight nod, then flicked a finger toward Daoist Qingye. A thread of invisible energy fell into his body.

In an instant, the residual true qi from other people's attacks within his body was cleared away, and the disrupted true qi in his meridians and core flowed freely once more.

"Many thanks to the Eighth Prince."

A flicker of something unusual crossed Daoist Qingye's eyes, but he expressed his gratitude sincerely.

"Your Senior Sister has been found. The matter between us is settled."

Li Musheng waved a hand. He was in good spirits at this moment. Of the seven Tianqi Secret Treasury keys, he had now obtained four.

That meant he was one step closer to opening the Tianqi Emperor's legendary vault.

Daoist Qingye gave a slight nod. On the way to the inn, Cao Gaoshan had already explained Daoist Qingyu's situation to him.

Though Daoist Qingyu's cultivation had been destroyed, for him, as long as his Senior Sister was alive and unharmed, that was the best result he could have hoped for.