Chapter 69 The Old Man

  The two of them glanced at Qin Hao and instructed him to rest well, without saying anything more about the other matters.

  Qin Feng turned around and walked out the door, the three elders stood up, and as they were about to leave, they gave Qin Hao a deep and meaningful look, their eyes seeming to say that everything was understood.

  When Qin Feng closed the door, Qin Hao felt a little relieved. Although they didn't ask anything, just by looking at their expressions, it was clear that for an extreme martial arts user like him, what kind of monster appeared and how Qin Hao escaped from its hands were definitely things to worry about.

  If he hadn't been still recovering and didn't have the energy to answer all their questions, they might have resorted to torture.

  However, Qin Hao naturally had a way to deal with it. He bit his teeth and refused to open his mouth. The real trouble was the problem on Chen Lao's side. He dared to confirm that Ji Fan absolutely knew the truth, but judging from their current appearance, they shouldn't say anything, so Qin Hao was happy to pretend to be stupid.

  To be honest, unless a disciple of the Thousand Illusions Sect appears in the city at that time and sees through his martial arts origin, he doesn't need to really deal with it, otherwise this matter should be considered over.

  As for Qin Yuxian, Qin Hao is really helpless at the moment. That girl is slippery and knows his secret, with a layer of mystery on her body that he doesn't know how to deal with now.

  He let out a long sigh and temporarily put these things aside for now, as there was another important matter at hand - the issue of his cultivation.

  Qin Hao let out a deep breath, closed his eyes, and adjusted his breathing to its best state. Qin Hao immersed his thoughts completely in the Xuan Qi Sea, sensing the Xuan Qi within his body, the tendons, bones, flesh, and skin membranes, all gradually becoming clear.

  In the midst of the air sea, the liquid mysterious energy gathers into a small river, coiling and folding like a snake, located in the center of the mysterious energy sea, flowing gently.

  After successfully gathering the essence, after entering the first level of condensing the essence, the sea of essence in the body will begin to produce essence. At that time, the essence is still relatively weak and evenly distributed in the sea of energy.

  After each refinement, the Xuan Qi becomes more solid. At the peak of the 10th level of Xuan Xian, one can control their hands and feet to become Xuan, and the Xuan Qi in the Dantian will reach its most dense state.

  One more step forward, breaking through the tenth layer, will truly enter the spiritual realm. At this time, the mysterious energy in the Mysterious Energy Sea will also condense into a liquid state.

  When first entering the spiritual realm, the Xuan Qi liquid droplets are scattered and exist in various places within the Qihai. However, when the cultivation reaches a stable level in the spiritual realm, the Xuan Qi liquid droplets will gather together, forming a river of Xuan Qi that surrounds the center of the Qihai.

  Qin Hao took another deep breath, controlling the Xuan Qi inside his body to spread out and surge towards every part of his body. This movement brought wave after wave of pain that felt like needles stabbing and ants biting, piercing straight into his marrow.

  Qin Hao's face turned a few shades paler, his teeth clenched tightly on his lips, and blood seeped out. It seemed that the injury from that day was not so easily resolved after all. He didn't relax at all, continuing to control the mysterious energy as it wildly flowed through the meridians of his body.

  This suddenly made him discover a lot of clues. The mysterious crystal demon power, whether it was icy cold, fiery hot, hard as steel or violently turbulent, all had some sticky residue on the walls of his meridians, slowly eroding his body.

  Qin Hao gritted his teeth, the Xuanqi of the Yuanyan mantra continuously surged into the meridians, wrapping up all the demonic energy, using the heat of the fire-restrained Xuanqi to scorch and decompose it.

  Some of the less involved demonic powers were quickly dissolved, while the remaining ones went crazy and counterattacked wildly.

  Hmph!

  Qin Hao spat out a mouthful of blood, but he didn't make any extra movements. How many mouthfuls of blood had he spat out since his fight with that demon wolf? It was frustrating to say, but honestly, he had already gotten used to it.

  The commotion all over the body gradually subsided, and the fierce Xuanjing demon power that resisted was also thoroughly suppressed by Qin Hao, converging to the two palms.

  His body muscles tensed up, a muffled sound in his mouth, the demonic energy gathered on his palms was transformed into an air blast by Qin Hao.

  Bang!

  A swirling mass of colorful, demonic energy orbs burst out and exploded upon contact with the air, transforming into scattered points of light that slowly dissipated.

  If Qin Hao wasn't in the Ling Xuan realm, he wouldn't be able to unleash this powerful aura, and at this moment, he really had no way to solve this problem.

  Just this one move also caused Qin Hao a great deal of harm. The meridians near his palm were as if suddenly torn apart, and the pain that came was several times stronger than before, attacking him relentlessly.

  Qin Hao controlled the warm flow of air on his body, slowly flowing inside, gradually driving away the pain and starting to repair the damaged meridians. His whole body felt like it was soaking in hot water, and the warmth that reached deep into his heart made him let out a breath.

  Qin Hao suddenly revealed a hint of bitter smile. What he was doing now was just the most basic rescue. However, the fundamental things had not been touched yet. The residual evil energy at the meridian points had been cleared, but those that had penetrated into the bones and seeped into the flesh and blood were still beyond his current abilities to reach.

  The remaining bit of demonic power may not pose too great a threat, but if it were to suddenly erupt when he's fighting with someone, that would be interesting. Unfortunately, even if the situation were to happen again, he would still make the same choice.

  Thinking of this, Qin Hao smiled again. This time, it was really thanks to the black stone left by Fatso that he could use the "Thousand Illusory Starlight" technique with his current abilities; otherwise, it would have been absolutely impossible.

  Consciousness reassembled, Qin Hao's body had some messy aura, but it was getting more and more stable. The obvious trauma in his meridians was also gradually healing, until it disappeared...

  **

  "Who exactly used that martial skill? Third Elder, do you think it's really possible that it was Qin Hao?"

  Qin Feng and the three elders walked side by side, occasionally a few clansmen would pass by them, they just nodded slightly.

  At this moment, the two were talking in words, with a serious expression.

  "Except for Yu Xian and Qin Hao, it shouldn't be possible for anyone else. When we arrived, the entire Blue Tranquility Forest was sealed off, no one could enter or leave." The three elders' eyes were deep and profound, with a hint of contemplation flashing in their eyes.

  "Can't be Ji Fan, can it?"

  "If it were Ji Fan, the power of his martial skills wouldn't be just that level. The user's strength is clearly insufficient, yet the intent within the skill is vivid and unbridled." The three elders stroked their beards, their faces filled with certainty: "Over this past month, I've perused many classics. If one truly grasps the essence of a top-tier martial skill and brings out its intent to the extreme, it's very possible that an anomaly will occur. Do you still remember the scene from back then?"

  Qin Feng nodded slightly. The scene of dark clouds shrouding the sky above Lan Jinglin on that day was clearly seen by many people.

  "It's highly likely that Qin Hao did it."

  "That's not necessarily true." The Third Elder's tone changed, becoming extremely serious: "That Rain Fairy is also very strange. Her progress is even faster than Qin Hao's; at the age of 14, she has already reached the peak of Condensing Mystery. I'm telling you, Qin Feng, how did you so carelessly let that girl into the Qin family back then? Don't get me wrong, although I have come to like Rain Fairy a lot now, her performance over these years is enough to prove your correctness at the time. However, I still can't understand why you made such a decisive decision without knowing anything about that girl."

  "At that time, I saw that the little girl was likable, and I also observed her. Her talent is not low." Qin Feng replied with a smile: "More importantly, that rascal Qin Hao has been shouting in my ear 'I want a sister', 'I want a sister', shouting until my ears are numb. Besides, we've already picked her up, can't just send her back somewhere?"

  "It's a good thing that as it turns out now, this little rascal really did something clever."

  At this point, the two of them looked at each other and burst out laughing. The two continued walking forward, and after this conversation, their mood had improved a lot.

  After walking for a while, they passed by a small path behind the martial arts arena and arrived in front of the Qin family's Martial Arts Pavilion.

  Generally, at this time, most of the young men are in the martial arts arena, and the Martial Arts Pavilion should be quiet, but at this moment, there are two figures standing quietly in front of the pavilion.

  An old figure sat in a wheelchair, a young figure stood behind him, the two just standing there, not knowing how long they had been maintaining this posture.

  Qin Feng hastily walked forward and asked respectfully: "Old Man Chen, is there something going on?"

  The three elders also walked forward and saluted. Then, they nodded to Ji Fan. In terms of seniority, he was older than Ji Fan, but in terms of strength, even if he hadn't seen Ji Fan make a move, he knew how much stronger this young man was compared to him.

  Ji Fan revealed a smile and politely bowed his hands to both of them.

  The old man said faintly: "It's nothing. I want to take a look around the Qin family, you don't need to mind."

  "Alright, then let me lead the way."

  "No need." The old man replied firmly.

  Seeing the old man's reaction, Qin Feng was already full of doubts in his heart, but he didn't say anything else. He and San Lao made a bow to the old man again, carrying their suspicions and continued walking forward.

  After the two left, Ji Fan and Chen Lao remained in their original state, like two stone statues.

  In front of them, a statue of a young man stood quietly. The sculpture was vivid and lifelike, and at first glance, it seemed as if the man was standing alive in front of you.

  The man's sword-like eyebrows were flying high, his eyes shone like stars. A thread of elegant and refined smile hung at the corner of his mouth. He stood quietly there, with an inexplicable elegance and refinement on his body, which was not only reflected in his delicate and beautiful eyebrows and eyes, but also in the air of being above the mundane that he exuded, which truly made people's hearts skip a beat.

  The old man gazed quietly at the statue and suddenly said to Ji Fan behind him: "Push me forward."

  Ji Fan pushed the old man's wheelchair past. The old man took out a piece of silk cloth from somewhere and quietly wiped off some dust on the statue. In some places where it was high, he stretched out an arm to press against the backrest, propping up his body to reach over.

  When all the dust on the statue was cleared away, the old man sat down again. Quietly, quietly gazing at the carving.

  The sun sets and the moon rises, with a sky full of stars. The soft moonlight pours down from the vast sky.

  Under the moonlight, that statue still has a spirited and proud appearance, but the old man's wrinkles have deepened a lot, as if in just one day, he had become worn out by countless things.

  "Cough, cough, cough." The old man coughed violently several times, his exhaustion apparent. At some point, a deep mist had quietly accumulated in his sunken eye sockets.

  "It's getting late at night." Ji Fan reminded him in a low voice after a moment of hesitation.

  The old man remained in that posture, and after a long while, he finally let out a soft sigh: "Let's go."

  Ji Fan pushed a wheelbarrow and took the road back and forth for the elderly.

  "Old Chen, the Wind Spirit Sect has been in some disarray lately. Don't you think you should take care of it? After all, they do have some connection to you."

  "It's alright, someone will take care of it." The old man seemed to ponder for a moment before responding with this sentence.

  Two figures slowly faded away, leaving behind a faint voice echoing in the night...

  *

  Some things have to be cleared up from now on and transitioned gradually, so this chapter is a bit dull, forgive me.

  In the next chapter, a relatively cruel and key character will reappear, guiding the change in the plot.