White-Robed Chief

“Alright then. Let’s part here and take separate ways back so that I won’t be a burden to you since I haven’t restored my cultivation level right now,” Chu Li said.

“You…!” Li Ruolan glared at him in exasperation.

He made it sound like she was the one at fault here!

Chu Li waved a hand and said, “I’ll see you back at the Great Light Peak then. I shall take my leave first.”

“Wait a second!” Li Ruolan replied with a huff.

However, instead of stopping, Chu Li turned around and left.

Li Ruolan stomped her foot and gnashed her teeth in frustration before hurrying forward to catch up to him.

During their journey, Li Ruolan did not speak a word to Chu Li.

Chu Li welcomed the silence and thought about his trip to Fairy’s Capital.

While it was said that the Secret Guardians Hall had eyes and ears everywhere, their surveillance system was far from that standard of perfection in reality. There were still blind spots that they could not make up for due to their occasional lack of human resources. Although the cities and towns from his past life had drawn support from the Skynet system¹, there were still blind spots in the system.

Initially, he did not want to come to the Ji Dynasty because he wanted to avoid encountering any awkward predicaments. If he ran into people who wished to kill him here, should he take their lives or not?

However, after giving it more thought, he realized that if Li Ruolan were to come over by herself, it would be hard for her to avoid falling into fights and conflict with the Ji Dynasty’s martial arts world. The best way to avoid such conflicts was for him to come as well.

Deep down in his heart, he did not care that much about the martial arts world of the Ji Dynasty.

In the martial arts world, a person’s life and death were beyond their control. Aside from the people at the High Duke’s Public House and his friends, he was too lazy to care about anyone else in the Ji Dynasty. After all, he was not the savior of the world. He was just a normal person who wished to lead a more interesting life in his second lifetime.

Given his hatred toward King An and his hidden hostility toward the Emperor, he naturally did not have a favorable impression of the Ji Dynasty. Nonetheless, since the fate of the High Duke’s Public House was closely intertwined with that of the Ji Dynasty, the High Duke’s Public House would not be able to survive if the Ji Dynasty was destroyed. That was mainly why he decided to infiltrate the Holy Church of Light.

As an undercover agent, his top priority was to get promoted to a higher position and become a senior member of the sect as soon as possible. That way, he would be able to acquire information that was truly valuable. No matter how impressive his performance was as a low-ranking disciple, he would be wasting his time if he could not acquire any important information.

Truthfully speaking, he was not very concerned about the issues of how he should weaken the capabilities of the Holy Church of Light and whether or not he should secretly get Ji Xin killed.

If he wanted to destroy the Holy Church of Light, he would still have to get promoted to a senior position first and find out the sect’s weakest point so that he could destroy it in one strike. If he made any small-scale attacks, he would certainly alert the enemy and draw suspicion to himself. After all, it was not an easy task to deceive the Saint, Sun Mingyue.

Taking into account the merit he had gained by rescuing Ji Xin this time, he should have accumulated enough merits to be promoted to the position of a branch leader.

When he thought of this, a smile appeared on his face. In the end, his efforts had not been in vain.

More importantly, he had discovered another wonderful effect of the Earth Matrix and Reincarnation Scripture. By cultivating the Earth Matrix and Reincarnation Scripture in reverse, he not only could quench but could also get rid of all abnormalities in his body.

This included any injuries as well as abnormalities in his inner energy too. In reality, he was basically destroying his body when he cultivated the scripture in reverse. All forms of abnormalities within the body would also be destroyed during the process of destroying his body. The interesting aspect of the Earth Matrix and Reincarnation Scripture was the mutual dependency between life and death. After a round of destruction, reconstruction would take place. He would keep growing stronger by destroying the old body and reconstructing a new one afterward.

It did not come as a surprise that he had managed to comprehend the Earth Matrix and Reincarnation Scripture back then since this wonderful effect of the Earth Matrix and Reincarnation Scripture had somewhat reminded him of the Life and Death Scripture. However, while the Life and Death Scripture was more powerful, its usage was much more extreme because he actually needed to be dead to make progress in his cultivation of this scripture.

Ultimately, Qin Huaichuan had been right. Cultivating the Earth Matrix and Reincarnation Scripture in reverse could indeed restore a person’s martial arts cultivation. It had been a lucky guess on his part, but unfortunately, he did not dare to try it out himself. He had been frightened after seeing Chu Li’s injuries.

Chu Li and Li Ruolan traveled together in silence and finally arrived at the foot of Great Light Peak. At that time, the sun had already started to set in the west as twilight slowly stretched across the sky.

Chu Li gave a fist salute. “Hurry up and go see your Senior Brother Ji now. Until we meet again!”

Li Ruolan cast him a sideways glance and then rolled her charming large eyes at him in annoyance. With a scoff, she swiftly left and disappeared from view in the blink of an eye.

Chu Li returned to the Spirit Medicine Nursery.

As soon as Zhou Huang heard the news of his return from the protectors, he hurried out and said, “Young man, you’ve finally returned. Where have you been all this while!”

“I went out to rescue someone,” Chu Li replied.

Zhou Huang stated, “Is it more important to rescue one person or many people? Hurry up and carry on with your chanting. Go and chant your scriptures!”

“I’ve been traveling without stopping for a few days. I’d like to take a short break,” Chu Li answered.

Zhou Huang took out a jade bottle from his inner pocket and poured out a pill before stuffing it into Chu Li’s mouth. “Take this and your energy will be restored. Now, hurry up.”

Chu Li could tell at a glance that it was the Vitality Strengthening Pill, which was a rare type of spirit pill. Other than restoring one’s strength and inner energy, it could help the person recover their overall vigor.

After swallowing that Vitality Strengthening Pill, he soon felt a sense of warmth that emanated from his stomach and spread all over his body, as though he was immersed in a hot spring. After a while, his vigor was thoroughly restored. He became full of energy and felt a sudden urge to throw punches and let out some energy.

“Okay then, I’ll go and continue chanting,” Chu Li said.

Just then, Xu Jingya could be seen walking over in a green tunic. She smiled politely while giving them a curtsy.

“Young Xu, take him with you. Quickly have him go and chant scriptures,” Zhou Huang said.

Chu Li replied, “Elder Zhou, I’m going to apply to take part in the war with the Qiu Dynasty this time.”

“You haven’t even restored your martial arts cultivation. How are you supposed to take part in the war!” Zhou Huang waved a hand and said, “Be obedient and stay here to plant some spirit herbs. When you’re free, you can refine and produce pills instead. It’s a safer way to gain merits, so you should do it. If you don’t join in the war and focus on planting spirit herbs instead, I promise you’ll be able to become a branch leader after this great war!”

Chu Li shook his head. “No one will be convinced of my capabilities if I rely on such ways to gain merits. It would still be best if I can participate in the war and gain merits there.”

“Young fellow, you’re just too stubborn!” Zhou Huang huffed and muttered, “You think you’re invincible. You better not end up getting killed and let others take credit for your success!”

Xu Jingya said, “Indeed, Junior Brother Zhao. You should listen to Elder Zhou.”

Chu Li shook his head. “Let’s go, Senior Sister Xu.”

Xu Jingya cast a helpless glance at Zhou Huang before bringing Chu Li into the Spirit Medicine Nursery.

…

On the morning of the next day, Chu Li and Xu Jingya came to the Flavorful Tower together.

They had arrived at the Flavorful Tower quite early in the morning, so there were not many other people there. They saw that Sun Lihua and her two friends had not arrived yet, and found Qin Huaichuan and Meng Luo there instead. The two young men noticed Chu Li too.

Qin Huaichuan smiled and gave a fist salute.

Chu Li scoffed and turned his gaze away to ignore the guy.

Meng Luo gritted his teeth and muttered, “How arrogant!”

Qin Huaichuan shook his head. “His arrogance isn’t without basis. Never mind. Don’t offend him.”

“This guy is too despicable. How I wish I could stab him to death!”

“You better not go around saying that.”

“Of course. I’m only saying this in front of you, Senior Brother Qin. I’m not a fool!”

“From now on, we should stay out of his way. As long as he doesn’t come and find fault with us, we’ll be fine,” Qin Huaichuan said and shook his head. “Since I’ve plotted against him, he’ll probably bear a grudge and find a way to get revenge.”

“In that case, we’ll fight him until the end. It’s not a big deal. In any case, he wouldn’t dare to kill us!” Meng Luo replied with a scoff.

Qin Huaichuan shook his head. “If he becomes our immediate superior, there’ll be many ways for him to make our lives miserable, so don’t get distracted. Let’s try our best to cultivate and get promoted to a higher position than him!”

“You’re right!” Meng Luo nodded furiously.

At that moment, a gentle and melodious voice spoke, “Where’s Zhao Dahe?”

Chu Li lifted his face and saw Li Ruolan walking in gracefully.

Li Ruolan was dressed in a white tunic, which accentuated her slender and elegant figure more than the other female disciples there. Her charming and beautiful face appeared solemn and calm as she announced, “Zhao Dahe has accumulated sufficient merits to be promoted to the position of a branch leader. The Radiance Clan will hereby become the Holy Church of Light’s Gale City Branch!”

After she had finished her announcement, she took out an oval-shaped white jade badge from her inner pocket and went to Chu Li to present the badge to him. “Give me the badge you’ve been given previously.”

Chu Li received this smaller-sized, oval-shaped jade badge from her and then took out the bigger jade tag he had previously received before handing it over to her.