"You know too much, and it does me no good. I have not come today to make an enemy of you, but simply to kill her," the Daoist said in a deep voice.
"I said before: let her return to Qingsong alive," Fang Chen replied with a faint smile.
"Fang Chen, do not think that because others call you Military God, your words are ironclad laws. In our eyes, you are nothing." The Daoist smiled. "If you try to stop me, I will strike you down."
"Your cultivation... does not seem very high. Isn't it a bit too rash to try and strike me down?" Fang Chen asked, somewhat puzzled.
He could sense that the spiritual energy within the other's body was on par with his own—at most the 3rd Level Qi Condensation. That being the case, a single Purple Lightning Talisman could easily subdue this man.
"Heh, it seems you have just entered this path and understand very little of it. Very well, I am also quite curious as to why you suddenly possess spiritual energy; today I will just take you back and interrogate you properly."
With that, the Daoist suddenly produced a bell the size of a palm and gently struck it.
*Hum—*
An inexplicable force surged outward, attempting to shake Fang Chen's soul, but it seemed not to anticipate that the soul it was trying to shake was like a towering mountain.
In just an instant, this force rebounded violently. Then, with a loud *bang*, the little bell in the Daoist's hand shattered into worthless scrap metal.
"Pfft!"
The Daoist spat a mouthful of blood, an expression of utter disbelief on his face. How could his Soul-Suppressing Bell possibly rebound against him?!
This was utterly impossible!
The Soul-Suppressing Bell was capable of suppressing cultivators below the 6th Level Qi Condensation; it was a magical treasure bestowed upon him personally by his master after he rendered a great service!
Goddess Xiao was dumbfounded. She had never expected that this Daoist, with all his bizarre and eerie methods, would be coughing up blood after merely exchanging glances with Fang Chen—while Fang Chen hadn't even lifted a single finger from start to finish!
"Where did this petty thief come from, daring to trouble the young lord? Die!"
Suddenly, a thunderous roar rang out, and Goddess Xiao abruptly saw a giant appear behind the Daoist.
The giant wielded a fist the size of a sandbag, smashing the Daoist's bones and tendons to pieces in a single blow.
On top of that, a sword pierced straight through the Daoist's chest, pulled out, and thrust right through him once more!
"Young lord, are you alright?" Tiema put away his long sword and cupped his fists in salute to Fang Chen.
"Young lord, this Daoist has some ungodly nerve, actually daring to come and trouble you. He's simply courting death." Huang Sihai spat at the Daoist, cursing away.
"You two, don't beat him to death yet. I still have questions to ask," Fang Chen said helplessly.
"He's not dead, he's not dead. I purposely left him a breath," Huang Sihai immediately hoisted the limp, mud-like Daoist up and barked, "Answer whatever the young lord asks, you hear me? Pull any little tricks and I'll crush your skull."
"The Gigantic Dragon General... he's come out of Dahua Temple?" Catching sight of Huang Sihai, Goddess Xiao was stunned for a moment.
The people of the Xiao family were extremely familiar with Huang Sihai, one of the four great Dragon Generals under Fang Chen's command in the past, gifted with innate superhuman strength!
Then, she caught sight of Tiema. Her momentary trance turned into sheer astonishment, horror, and immediately afterward, fury and disbelief.
"I ask you, what is your purpose in Daxia, and who told you to kill Goddess Xiao?" Fang Chen walked up to the Daoist and asked calmly.
It was impossible that the man had taken a sudden whim to kill Goddess Xiao; there had to be someone behind the scenes giving orders.
Yet within Daxia, who could possibly give orders to a cultivator?
Fang Chen suddenly realized that the waters of the Capital were far deeper than he had ever imagined. He had thought he knew Daxia inside out, but now it seemed the truth was nothing of the sort!
"Cough, cough, cough..."
The Daoist coughed up blood continuously, his eyes filled with unresignation and venom. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that he, a cultivator of the 3rd Level Qi Condensation, would one day be beaten to death by two martial artists.
His injuries were severe; without miraculous elixirs, his time was running out!
"F-Fang Chen, our Blood Spirit Cult will avenge me! It won't be long before you come down to join me, hahaha..."
The Daoist gave a ferocious laugh, then his neck went limp and he breathed his last.
*Blood Spirit Cult?*
Fang Chen's expression shifted slightly. This was clearly a cultivator sect!
Huang Sihai and Tiema furrowed their brows slightly. They had never heard of any Blood Spirit Cult.
"Tiema, have you always been Fang Chen's man?" Goddess Xiao asked abruptly.
"Mm," Tiema nodded indifferently.
"A fine Military God Fang! To plant someone in our Xiao family for years without any of us noticing, even fooling my father!" Goddess Xiao laughed out of extreme anger.
She finally understood why certain crucial military campaigns in the past had ended in defeat for the Wolf Army due to all sorts of coincidental factors.
The Wolf Army high command had a traitor, a mole—this was the best explanation!
"Tiema is a dormant dragon under my command. Your Xiao family has also planted plenty of dormant dragons in our Daxia, so what is there to quibble about? In a war between two nations, any and all means are fair. There's nothing to be angry about."
Fang Chen said calmly, "You're covered in injuries. Go rest first. Tomorrow I'll send someone to escort you out of the Capital."
"No, I am not leaving. Until I clear up his origins, I am not going anywhere." Goddess Xiao glanced at the Daoist's corpse.
"Old Huang, take her down to rest. If she plays any little tricks, break her legs," Fang Chen instructed.
Huang Sihai let out a chuckle, stepped forward, and grabbed Goddess Xiao as he walked off. In his grip, Goddess Xiao was like a little chick, completely powerless to resist.
Tiema intended to search the Daoist's belongings, but Fang Chen gently shook his head. "I'll do it. He might have some rather strange items on him; we must guard against any hidden trump cards he left behind."
Fang Chen crouched before the Daoist and felt around for a moment, pulling out a small porcelain vase and a small leather pouch. The pouch was bulging, seemingly packed with quite a few things.
***
Fang Chen did not open the porcelain vase right away. Instead, he probed it with his spiritual energy and discovered a fat, white, crawling worm inside, whereupon he opened it for a look.
This worm was several times fatter and larger than the one extracted from Goddess Xiao's body; it had to be the mother worm of the mother-child silkworms.
With a jolt of spiritual energy in Fang Chen's palm, both the porcelain vase and the mother worm were reduced to dust.
Only then did he open the leather pouch to examine its contents.
First were over a dozen white stones the size of thumbs, inside of which rich spiritual energy was contained.
"Spirit stones? These are good things." Fang Chen's eyes flickered.
The Introductory Chapter of the Three Thousand Dao Techniques had a specific mention of spirit stones. These were essential items for cultivators' cultivation; they could increase the absorption rate of spiritual energy and quickened the pace of practice.
Aside from that, spirit stones were also the currency of the cultivation world. Those golds and silvers were worthless in the eyes of cultivators, and only spirit stones held exorbitant value.
These dozen-odd stones fit the description of low-grade spirit stones to the letter.
Aside from the dozen-odd low-grade spirit stones, Fang Chen also found an ancient manual with four characters written on it: *Blood Spirit Great Tome*!
"His cultivation technique!" Fang Chen's eyes flickered.
After that, Fang Chen found a special token inscribed with three characters: Longji Square.
"Longji Square? Sounds like a marketplace. It even comes with a special token; perhaps it's a gathering place for cultivators, or maybe the location of the Blood Spirit Cult." Fang Chen thought to himself.
Though the Daoist was dead, he had still managed to find a few clues from the things the man left behind.
Fang Chen flipped open the *Blood Spirit Great Tome* and read a few lines, his expression gradually growing grave. This technique clearly followed the demonic path.
To enter the threshold, one needed to prepare one hundred portions of human primordial blood, and then condense a Blood Spirit Immortal Vein within the body!
Once one possessed the Blood Spirit Immortal Vein, they could unhesitatingly absorb human primordial blood, with the primordial blood of cultivators being the absolute highest grade!
"This Blood Spirit Cult is no benevolent entity. What on earth is its background, and why are Blood Spirit Cult cultivators lurking in the Capital of Daxia?" A cold glint flashed in Fang Chen's eyes.
Going by this cultivation method of the Blood Spirit Cult, that Daoist had likely absorbed a great deal of human primordial blood over the years in the Daxia Capital!
Fang Chen could not tolerate such a thing happening within Daxia.
"Go call Xu Ge here." Fang Chen instructed.
Tiema gave a slight nod and turned to leave. He could tell matters were not simple; otherwise, Fang Chen's brow wouldn't have remained locked in a deep frown.
Before long, Xu Ge hurried over. When he saw the corpse of the Daoist on the ground, a look of shock immediately appeared on his face.
"Young lord, this person is?" Xu Ge asked in alarm and doubt.
"Remember his face, and then spread the word. I want all covert guards to mobilize and uncover this Daoist's identity within the Daxia Capital," Fang Chen instructed.
Xu Ge immediately nodded. "Rest assured, young lord, I will handle this matter impeccably."
Afterward, Tiema took charge of clearing away the Daoist's corpse, while Fang Chen returned to his room to toy with the spirit stones in his hand. The next moment, his soul left his body once more, overlooking the entire Capital.
Aside from the Daxia River, the imperial palace, and a few patches of lamplight, the rest of the city was shrouded in pitch-black night.
Fang Chen's gaze swept across every inch of land, attempting to unearth some clues, but regrettably, he found nothing worthy of suspicion.
Suddenly, his soul arrived above the imperial palace.
At that very moment, a peculiar feeling welled up in his heart. It seemed as though some sort of entity was faintly radiating a trace of danger, yet Fang Chen could not find the source of this sensation.
He only vaguely felt that something was lurking within the imperial palace!
With a thought, Fang Chen's soul returned to his physical body, his gaze turning toward the direction of the imperial palace, a faint solemnity in his eyes:
"Something must be hiding in the imperial palace."
If a Blood Spirit Cult cultivator was hiding in the palace, that posed a huge problem.
Fang Chen's mind raced, and he ultimately decided not to alert the enemy for now, but to slowly search for clues regarding the Blood Spirit Cult.
He was currently only at the 2nd Level Qi Condensation; even if he could craft Purple Lightning Talismans, he probably couldn't handle an entire cultivator sect.
"In these five years, I've never had such a feeling. It seems cultivation has caused a change in my soul." Fang Chen thought to himself.
He didn't believe this was a coincidence. Why hadn't he sensed danger in the palace over the past five years, only to perceive it now?
This was likely directly related to his breakthrough to the 2nd Level Qi Condensation.
***
The morning sun rose.
Fang Chen came to Goddess Xiao's room and, seeing that she was already fully dressed, said indifferently, "Later, I'll use the Fang family carriage to send you out of the Capital."
"I said before, until this is cleared up, I am not leaving," Goddess Xiao said.
"That Daoist had accomplices. If they find out you're here, do you think you can walk out alive?" Fang Chen offered a cold, mocking sneer. "Besides, with your strength, even if you discovered something, you wouldn't have the power to deal with it."
"I heard you have an extremely good relationship with the Third Prince. He is currently a hostage in Qingsong Kingdom; you two must not have contacted each other in a long time, right?" Goddess Xiao's eyes flickered.
A cold mockery appeared in Fang Chen's eyes. "Are you using him to threaten me?"
"This isn't a threat. Think about it: you've killed so many Qingsong martial artists. If word gets back there, how will they treat Daxia's hostage? Now that I am in your hands, with this consideration in mind, at least my father will step forward to protect your Daxia hostage from harm." Goddess Xiao rolled her eyes.
She wanted to stay in the Capital not just to figure out the Daoist's origins, but because she had recalled a legend that morning.
According to the legend, stronger empires possessed a power system countless times superior to martial artists—and last night, she had very likely encountered that very legendary power!
"Fang Chen suddenly recovering his cultivation is probably related to this as well." Goddess Xiao felt a surge of heat in her heart.
If she could acquire a similar power, it would be a matter of great joy for Qingsong Kingdom, and ascending to an eighth-rank empire would be just around the corner!
"Goddess Xiao, tell me... if you were to die, the Third Prince would surely be executed as well, wouldn't he?" Fang Chen asked abruptly.
An expression of vigilance instantly appeared on Goddess Xiao's face. "Fang Chen, don't you dare pull anything..."
"Answer me." Fang Chen looked at her.
"That's right! If I die, your Daxia hostage will definitely die!" Goddess Xiao said in a deep voice.
"That settles it... In the Daxia Capital, who wants the Third Prince to die the most?" Fang Chen sneered.
"You mean... that Daoist was your Crown Prince's man? He wanted to kill me simply to force Qingsong Kingdom to execute your hostage?" Goddess Xiao was slightly startled.
Clearly, she was quite familiar with the political situation in Daxia and knew a thing or two about the history between the Crown Prince and the Third Prince.
"It's just a guess, but don't you think this guess is rather reasonable? The Crown Prince only just found out I recovered my cultivation, and immediately sent someone to kill you—isn't it precisely because he's afraid I'll go to Qingsong and welcome the Third Prince back?"
Fang Chen smiled. "I also remembered where I saw that Daoist before."
"It seems... your Daxia is not as simple as all that..." Goddess Xiao's expression turned grave.
If Daxia possessed that kind of power, why had they been utterly routed at the Three Realms Mountain? A faint sense of unease welled up inside her.
***
Fang Chen did not send Goddess Xiao out of the Capital; instead, he reached a certain agreement with her.
Goddess Xiao changed into a maid's attire and, after a brief disguise, passed herself off as Fang Chen's maidservant, accompanying him to the banks of the Daxia River.
Today, a poetry gathering was being held here. Not only would scholars from the three nations of Guhe, Longdu, and Yizhou attend, but the young talents of the Daxia Capital and the young ladies of various prominent households would all be coming.
Hosting this poetry gathering was none of than the Crown Prince of the Daxia Capital.
The theme of today's gathering was entitled "Stilling Weapons".
The implication was obvious: hoping for a world free of warfare.
"Heh, your Daxia scholars have nothing to do all day except compose poetry and recite verses, unlike us in Qingsong, where having nothing to do means sparring and exchanging martial pointers." Goddess Xiao trailed behind Fang Chen, looking at the scene before her with a hint of mockery.
Fang Chen smiled and made no reply.
By the banks of the Daxia River, hundreds of scholars and young ladies were gathered together, from time to time expressing the scholarly vigor in their hearts, sighing over the magnificent rivers and mountains, and denouncing the current political situation.
However, these scholars and young ladies were not entirely without the strength to truss a chicken; nearly all of them practiced martial arts, though their cultivation was low, halting at Qi Condensation. Finding even a single Qi Bursting Martial Artist among them would be extremely difficult.
Having just arrived, Fang Chen initially went unnoticed. But as he gradually walked toward the center of the crowd, someone finally spotted him!
"Fang Chen?!"
"Why would he come to today's Stilling Weapons poetry gathering?!"
"A mere martial artist, what is he doing coming to a poetry gathering? Is he here to kill people? Just a few days ago, even Li Huang died at his hands!"
"Brother Li possessed superb literary talent and should have had a brilliant future, yet he met an untimely end offending this butcher—what a pity, what a pity!"
People whispered among themselves. The vast majority of scholars held no favorable impression of Fang Chen at this moment.
When Fang Chen suffered defeat five years ago, they had cursed him the loudest.
Now, although Fang Chen had recovered his cultivation, he was forever barred from entering the imperial court, forever forbidden from leading troops, and had lost his grip on power. These scholars felt even less awe toward a Fang Chen who was nothing more than a martial artist.
"Why is he here?"
Ye Qinghe looked at Fang Chen in the distance, his brow furrowing slightly. Standing beside him at the moment were several young talents and accomplished ladies whose backgrounds were far from ordinary.
"Today is the Stilling Weapons poetry gathering. What is our Daxia's biggest war criminal doing here, sullying the atmosphere of the gathering?"
A youth with a face as jade sneered.
He was Tao Yu, son of the Minister of Rites, as well as a well-known talented scholar in the Daxia Capital, a favored favorite in the Crown Prince's inner circle. Alongside Ye Qinghe, he was dubbed one of the Crown Prince's twin civil and military protectors.
"Brother Tao, let's go meet this fellow," Ye Qinghe said with a smile.
Tao Yu gave an arrogant smile. "Alright."
With that, the group walked toward Fang Chen, and the surrounding scholars and talented ladies followed suit upon seeing this.
"Isn't this the Military God Fang? I never expected to have the honor of seeing Military God Fang grace this Stilling Weapons poetry gathering with his presence." Tao Yu opened with a sneer as he approached. "Did Military God Fang come here to offer us some pointers?"
The crowd immediately chuckled softly.
As everyone knew, Fang Chen had always scoffed at the path of poetry and verse, and hadn't even spent many years studying books in his youth, having joined the army at a tender age. Anyone here could offer pointers to this Military God Fang when it came to poetry and literature.
Hearing Tao Yu mock Fang Chen, Goddess Xiao couldn't help feeling a measure of anticipation. How would Fang Chen handle such a scene? Would he draw his sword and slaughter them just like on the battlefield?
"If he just killed all these people, it would be quite fun," a flash of amusement crossed Goddess Xiao's eyes.
"And you are?" Fang Chen looked at Tao Yu, a pensive look in his eyes.
Tao Yu was slightly taken aback, as if he hadn't expected Fang Chen not even to recognize him. The smile on his face instantly froze, and the surrounding scholars and talented ladies exchanged glances.
"Fang Chen, you don't even know Tao Yu, the number one talented scholar of the Daxia Capital? Well, no wonder—in your heart, there is probably only brandishing swords and clashing spears, without a shred of ink and brush." Ye Qinghe smoothed things over for Tao Yu while taking a swipe at Fang Chen by the way.
"Oh, so it's the number one talented scholar of the Daxia Capital." Fang Chen dawned in realization, then smiled. "I've had some leisure time lately and heard the Crown Prince was hosting a poetry gathering here, so I wanted to come join the bustle, occasionally soaking up the fragrance of ink and brush. It does wonders to refresh the mind and spirit."
Hearing Fang Chen claim he was just here to join the bustle and soak up the ink fragrance, the hostility in the crowd's eyes diminished slightly. At least the man had some self-awareness.
Moreover, having the former Military God Fang participate in today's poetry gathering secretly excited them; the value of this gathering had just shot up dramatically.
Goddess Xiao felt a trace of disappointment; she hadn't gotten to see the scene she was hoping for.
"What? Are you all not welcoming me?" Fang Chen smiled.
"How could that be? Military God Fang once scoffed at the art of poetry, but clearly, after years of tempering, your perspective has changed. Your arrival today is most fortuitous!"
Tao Yu waved his sleeve with a smile and said, "Military God Fang, please take a seat!"
Fang Chen smiled, casually picked a seat to sit down, and looked around left and right. "Why hasn't the Crown Prince come?"
"The Crown Prince has gone to invite Fairy Yu," Ye Qinghe said indifferently.
Those seated nearby all possessed extraordinary backgrounds. When they heard the name "Fairy Yu," their eyes instantly lit up.
Who in the world did not know that the most renowned talented lady in the Daxia Capital was that otherworldly fairy aboard the Immortal Boat?
For an ordinary person to catch even a single glimpse of her, exhausting their entire family fortune might not even suffice.
"A dust-laden courtesan wants to come participate in today's poetry gathering as well?" One talented lady couldn't help muttering under her breath, expressing her inner dissatisfaction.