Chapter 394 - 181: Qi Sea Weather: Armor Demon-Vanquishing, Martial Dao Treasure Body: True Martial Primordial Embryo, Jiang Li’s Identity

Chapter 394: Chapter 181: Qi Sea Weather: Armor Demon-Vanquishing, Martial Dao Treasure Body: True Martial Primordial Embryo, Jiang Li’s Identity

First seek the Dao, then cultivate the Skill!

I want it all!

However, as he stepped out of the Mansion Courtyard, a eunuch from the Beicang Marquis’s Mansion came to report:

"Ji Leader, someone has sent a generous gift for you. Do you wish to return to see about it?"

’A generous gift? Just how generous?’

Ji Xiu’s first instinct was to refuse.

Adding flowers to brocade is easy; sending charcoal in a snowstorm is hard.

So much had happened recently. His status had risen one after another, from a Marquis’ Guest to the Martial Champion of the Prefecture and Academy, then to the Dragon Elephant Daoist and a Martial Saint Disciple...

His rise had been as fast as a rocket, and he had even managed to associate with a Titled Martial Dao expert—someone the entire Jiangyin Prefecture couldn’t produce. There were bound to be countless people trying to ride his coattails now.

Accepting gifts was an art; one couldn’t accept just any gift.

If someone with ill intentions were to use their connection to him, brazenly advertising it and using his name to seek profit...

...then he would be the one at a major loss!

Therefore, just as Ji Xiu was about to refuse, he heard the attendant from the Marquis’s Mansion continue:

"The young lady calls herself ’Jiang Li.’ She says she’s an old acquaintance of yours and has presented a Grandmaster Level ’Sixth-Grade Spirit Armor,’ an uncultivatable ’Earth Treasure,’ and three hundred taels of Red Gold!"

"Because the value was so immense... it alarmed the Young Lady Heir and Elder Shi. The two of them know that Ji Leader is incredibly busy right now, but after some consideration, they still asked me to come and inform you."

A Grandmaster’s Spirit Armor, an Earth Treasure, and three hundred taels of Red Gold!?

HISS!

Ji Xiu was utterly astonished by what he heard.

What an incredible gesture!

It was safe to say that in all his time getting by in the Prefecture City, despite his status continuously leaping upwards to the point where he was finally safe from being casually crushed or killed... his entire net worth didn’t even come close to this amount!

When Ji Xiu had first arrived in Jiangyin Prefecture, his situation had been precarious, living one day at a time.

And that young lady, Jiang Li, had helped him a great deal back in Anning County.

True, he had been the one to bring her—freshly possessed of a body—back to his home on a snowy winter night, giving her a place to stay.

But given her unfathomably mysterious identity, which he still couldn’t figure out... even if he hadn’t intervened, it probably wouldn’t have affected her much.

Afterward, she had first passed on the ’Six Chapters of the Profound Monarch’s Secret Record’ to him, which, after he cultivated it, made him Immune to All Spirits.

Even Grandmaster Level Divine Beings or Divine Souls couldn’t forcibly possess his Sea of Consciousness. Relying on this, he had even managed to devour the thought-form of the ’Spirit Summoning and Saint Manifesting General’ in a single bite.

That manifested wisp of thought, which had intended to possess his Dharma Guardian General, had instead become nourishment for his own Divine Soul’s advancement, allowing him to profit immensely!

Now, having gone through one event after another, Ji Xiu’s understanding of the world had long since surpassed what it was back in Anning County.

Thus, with just a moment of reflection, he realized that the excuses Jiang Li had given him back then—treating him like a child she was trying to fool, claiming she was just ’a wisp of a Residual Thought’ from someone ’long dead’—were now clearly riddled with holes!

Previously, with one incident following another, Ji Xiu had put the matter aside. But reconsidering it now, and connecting it to what he had recently heard about the characteristics of a ’Titled Martial Saint,’ a chill suddenly ran down his spine, and he was struck by a horrifying realization:

’Jiang Li said back then that she was a century-old wisp of a residual soul, attached to that jade pendant, powerless and liable to dissipate at any moment.’

’My horizons were limited before.’

’But based on the knowledge I’ve gained from consulting the numerous Cultivation archives and commentaries in the Beicang Marquis’s Mansion and the Jiangyin Prefecture Courtyard... an ordinary Divine Soul, even one that has achieved the rank of Daoist High Merit, absolutely cannot leave its physical form and go long without performing Possession!’

’If it did, it would surely dissipate.’

’How could a common Divine Soul possibly last for a full Hundred Years? It would have scattered long ago!’

’According to what Uncle-Master Chen Hex personally said not long ago at the Celestial Blade Style... even an ordinary Titled Martial Saint absolutely cannot ’Return from Ancient History’ relying on just a Residual Thought. To achieve that, at the very, very least...’

’...one must be of the ’Giant Level,’ or even at the ’Peak of the Human World’!’

’I have no idea what that concept entails, but...’

The deeper Ji Xiu thought, the more his pupils contracted. Finally, he took a deep breath, and after connecting all the clues—he arrived at a conclusion.

’Back then, that woman... must have been, at the very least, an existence above the ’Title’ realm, and not just a Martial Saint!’

Thinking of this, Ji Xiu swallowed hard, a look of stunned disbelief on his face.

He had never expected it.

That the woman who had lazed around his house in Anning County from beginning to end, always so nonchalant and carefree, indifferent to all the changes in the world, with a lazy, ever-present smile on her face... had such an astonishing background!

’Then I really do have to see her...’

Ji Xiu swallowed the words of refusal that had been on the tip of his tongue.

At this very moment, hanging from his waist was the Spiritual Object that could nourish the Divine Soul—the ’Sun and Moon Jade Talisman,’ which Jiang Li had reforged from the ’Sun and Moon Treasure Pearl’—dangling right alongside the ’Jade Blood Dragon Core Pendant’ that Bai Shuo from the Water Monarch’s Mansion had given him!

’Are you kidding me?’

’An almighty expert like her wants to see me. Even if we have a past connection, Jiang Li can afford to have a "roaming the mortal world for fun" attitude, but I can’t!’

’She previously claimed to be connected to the ’Sun and Moon Hall’ and also said she would help me settle the bounty placed on me by the Black Market Gold Cave after I entered the prefecture.’

’To be linked to two such behemoths, such mysterious powers...’

’If she feels that I’ve slighted her and becomes displeased, deciding she wants to put me in my place... then even if my own Ancestral Master, Wang Xuanyang, who’s currently fighting crickets on Golden Turtle Island, were to step out from his ’Reincarnation Celestial Skill,’ condense a Supreme Martial Saint True Intent, and directly ascend to the ’Title’ realm... and even if he and my Master, Xu Longxiang, were to join forces and attack together...’

’...it probably still wouldn’t be enough, would it?’