Chapter 31: The Banquet at Hongmen

  After bidding farewell to Liang Ze, he returned to his room with the wind. Inspired by the great progress of last night, he didn't want to rest for a moment now. As soon as he entered the house, he sat down cross-legged and took out the two jade bottles that Liang Ze had given him yesterday, one containing dragon spittle and the other containing earth lung. He drank a mouthful from each bottle and then put them back in his bosom.

  After entering the dragon's saliva and the earth's lung, it transforms into two streams of clear liquid flowing down. These two streams of clear liquid, one icy cold and the other warm and hot, repel each other, yet intertwine and mix together.

  Having learned a lesson from drinking the Earth Milk earlier, he didn't dare to disrupt the balance between the two. After waiting for a moment, the Dragon Saliva and Earth Lung energy had both stabilized. Only then did Su Feng carefully activate the Xī Tiān Jué to refine the essence of the two, no wonder Liang Tou Er said that the Dragon Saliva and Earth Lung energy were the essence of the Taiji Pond. It wasn't until now that Su Feng realized he had only taken a small sip of both. During the refining process, he felt an endless aftertaste, even stronger than when he drank the Earth Milk earlier, with unceasing essence being emitted and merging into the Yin-Yang diagram within his Dantian.

  As he watched the yin-yang diagram gradually solidify from its initial illusion, Su Feng's heart grew more and more excited. After a full three quarters of an hour, the essence of the dragon's saliva and earth lung finally dissipated completely. Without even stopping to catch his breath, Su Feng took another sip each. The same two clear liquids entered his abdomen again, and he refined them using the same method. Repeating this process, he drank a total of three times before the yin-yang diagram in his dantian finally solidified and stabilized.

  It wasn't until the wind blew that he realized that the three short periods of exercise had already taken up more than an hour, and those two jade bottles had also been consumed by more than half. However, the harvest was also astonishing, although he didn't know what level his internal strength had reached at this time, it should have touched the threshold of the acquired realm, and from the beginning of his practice to now, it was less than a short decade. Such speed was indeed astonishing.

  He didn't think there was anything, he just approached the Post-Heaven, while Murong Xuanfeng had already approached the Pre-Heaven. It seemed like only a slight difference in level, but it was actually worlds apart.

  As he thought about it, he suddenly burst out laughing. His current speed was already astonishing, but he still felt it wasn't enough and was being too greedy. After sitting for a long time, he got tired, so he stood up with the wind. As soon as he got up, he felt something was off. Along with his movement, the yin-yang diagram in his dantian automatically rotated, and a stream of internal energy somehow flowed up along his spine against the normal flow. Accompanied by a "clicking" sound.

  With a joyful heart, apart from the twelve regular meridians that are open since birth, the Ren and Du two vessels and the eight extraordinary meridians are all closed before heaven and need to be opened by internal force after birth. Generally speaking, the height of a person's internal force is closely related to the number of meridians they have opened apart from their level of cultivation. To transcend the acquired and enter the innate, one must first open up the Ren and Du two vessels and the eight extraordinary meridians.

  Although the locations of these meridians are recorded in books, it's not that easy to find them in the body. Many people only have one last meridian left to open, but they spend a long time without knowing where it is, and ultimately can't enter the prenatal state throughout their lives. Even if you can find it, it doesn't mean you'll be able to pass through smoothly. Meridians aren't like iron or stone that can be forced open with brute strength; many skilled practitioners have gone mad from trying to force them open before the time is right.

  With the wind, hurriedly expel the excess thoughts in my mind, and then sit down again to analyze the heavenly key to promote the breath that was formed before, and let it rise up the Du Meridian. From Changqiang to Baihui, eight holes were broken through, and only then did I stop. With the wind, I operated several times, but the meridians behind me were as hard as iron, and for a while, they couldn't be opened.

  With a gentle breeze, he slowly withdrew his power. After this commotion, nearly an hour had passed. "It's time to eat again." As he thought this, the sound of knocking on the door came.

  "Who could it be?" He thought while opening the door.

  The newcomer was a maid from the Murong family before. "What's wrong? Is there something?" Su Feng asked.

  The maid seemed a bit afraid of him and whispered: "The master is hosting a banquet at the Water Dragon Hall to invite Master Sui, and he specially called me to inform you."

  "A banquet? Ran Feng was a bit bewildered. 'Didn't we already have one before?'"

  "I don't know," said the maid. "The master only told me to ask you to go with Young Master, and not to decline." The maid was even more intimidated by Rang Feng's question.

  "Oh, okay, I'll go then. Hey, by the way, where's Big Brother Liang?" asked Su Feng.

  "Liang Shaoyue was led by another sister and did not come with us." The maid replied.

  He pretended to be carefree, but a thread of doubt crept into his mind: "What's going on with Murong Yu? He keeps inviting us to dinner every other day. Is he deliberately preventing me from meeting with Liang Ge? What is his purpose in doing so? Or is this another 'Hongmen Banquet'?"

  All the way, Su Feng was lost in thought and didn't say much. He followed behind the maid along the winding path, not even bothering to remember the route. When he looked up again, they had already arrived at the so-called Water Dragon Hall. Liang Tou'er also happened to arrive at the entrance from another road. Su Feng furrowed his brow in confusion and Liang Tou'er shook his head slightly, indicating that he didn't know what was going on either.

  "Anyway, since I'm here, I'll just have to make the best of it." Xiang Feng sighed inwardly.

  As soon as they entered, they heard Murong Yu's loud laughter and said: "The two of you have come at just the right time. Yesterday, Xuanfeng took a group of disciples to hunt by West Lake. Unexpectedly, they ran into a descendant of the ancient divine bird, Long Que, with a body as hard as steel. Originally, I wanted to make it a pet for the Murong family. However, it was an ancient and proud creature that refused to submit, and in the end, it crashed head-on into a stone wall and died. What a pity! Fortunately, such a divine bird is a great tonic, so I ordered my men to cook it and serve it to you both as guests of the Murong family."

  "What's going on? Is it a divine bird or a dragon bird?" Murong Yu's few words made Sui Feng's heart surge with shock, and he secretly had an unfavorable guess. However, he still pretended to be calm and said: "Lord Murong is being polite, we two have been idle in the Murong family for a long time and haven't helped with anything. How dare we share a cup of soup with such a divine object?"

  As he spoke, he secretly observed with his peripheral vision. At this moment, Murong Xuanyu was smiling at him with a full face of smiles, while Bi He's expression looked calm but still somewhat concealed panic. Thus, Su Feng had already somewhat confirmed his conjecture.

  Murong Yu called out to the two of them to sit down, while also shouting at the servants, his mouth yelling for them to hurry up and bring out the good dishes. The more he listened, the colder Ran Feng's back felt.

  Lost in thought, if it's really as I suspected, how should I respond at that time? But no matter how hard I think, there is no way to achieve a win-win situation. Although I have Liang Ze's help, I am at an absolute disadvantage in terms of both strength and situation.

  Just as he was thinking, several servants from the Murong family brought up a few dishes. In the largest bowl in the middle, there was a bird-shaped dish, and even though its two eyes had been dug out, the obvious sword mark on its beak and its copper-bell-like eyes still showed that it was the black kite seen last night. Looking at it, Feng felt uncomfortable in his heart, not expecting that the black kite would have gotten itself killed to repay the debt of gratitude for not killing it, and what's more, it had died at the hands of its own master. Thinking about it, there were probably few divine soldiers in this world that could wound it. In this place, apart from Feng's Purewhip Sword, there was only the Murong family's Water Dragon Whistle.

  "Is this really the descendant of the legendary Dragon and Phoenix? Looking at him, somehow it doesn't quite match what's written in the book?" Liang Ze asked with a pretentious tone.

  Murong Yu smiled and said, "The Dragon Sparrow has been passed down from ancient times to the present, although it is still an ancient species, but its bloodline has become much thinner, and some changes in its appearance are also natural. The effect of such a divine object is really too strong, my Murong family does not dare to monopolize it."

  After finishing speaking, he beckoned to his servants to divide up the whole basin of crow meat.

  "Remember, don't eat this dish of meat. Although the pheasant's flesh is non-toxic, its nature is extremely yin. If you ingest such dense yin energy, it will cause your body's yin and yang to become disordered, and your internal energy will dissipate. Remember, remember." Just as a plate of braised pheasant wings was placed in front of him, he heard Liang Shoudao's transmitted voice.

  He was worried that if he didn't remind Feng, he might unknowingly eat the poisonous bird, and wouldn't even care if Murong Yu heard about it.

  As I watched the crow, I couldn't help but think of last night's urgent situation, when the crow's cry for help saved my life. It was as if this meat really had some kind of magical effect. He also couldn't bring himself to eat it. My heart felt a pang of guilt, thinking that if I hadn't entered the secret forest of the Murong family with Liang Ze, the crow wouldn't have died because of us. The more I thought about it, the more I felt that Murong Yu was just like Li Linfu - a hypocrite who spoke sweet words but had a knife in his heart. Looking at his smiling face, I couldn't help but feel a strong sense of disgust.

  "Two of you, such a divine object is really rare, it's better to eat it quickly, after a while it will cool down and its effect will be much worse."

  With a gentle laugh, he said: "The host is being polite, if the host doesn't take the first bite, how can we guests dare to rush ahead?"

  Murong Yu seemed to have not grasped the meaning behind Rong's words, and laughed: "Rong Gongzi is right, I was indeed careless. No matter, I'll be the first one to eat this divine bird today." After finishing speaking, he picked up the black pheasant leg in front of him, took a big bite, and laughed: "Rong Shaoxia, please help yourself."

  Su Feng was taken aback, originally thinking that he could force Murong Yu to be embarrassed, but unexpectedly he ignored the sinister atmosphere. This time it's really self-inflicted. He could only reluctantly say: "The kindness of the Murong family master is indeed not to be refused, but Su Feng has been weak and frail since childhood, unable to withstand such a large tonic, please forgive me, sir."

  Murong Yu's face changed slightly, and a silent aura spread out. The whiskers under his chin fluttered without wind, and he said coldly: "This dragon sparrow divine bird is full of yang energy, making it most suitable for people with weak bodies to take. I don't know if the repeated refusals by Young Master are because you're not giving me face or if you're looking down on the craftsmanship of my Murong family?"

  Murong Yu is indeed a cunning old fox, how can Su Feng compete with him when he first came out of Jianghu? This time, as soon as he spoke, he immediately blocked all of Su Feng's retreats, and had no choice but to swallow this bitter pill.

  He silently sighed to himself, "I'm still too inexperienced, far from being a seasoned veteran like him." He could only barely hold up the jade plate, while Bi Hu looked at him with a sorrowful face, shaking his head slightly. His previously firm heart wavered again upon seeing Bi Hu's expression. However, he said, "The master has already spoken, if I still decline, it would be too ungrateful for the hospitality of the Murong family over the past two days." After finishing speaking, he picked up the black wing and lightly took a bite, swallowing it down.

  As soon as he swallowed it, Bi Han and Liang Tou'er both sighed in their hearts. "I don't know if he'll have the chance to practice martial arts again after eating this..." Bi Han looked at Xiang Feng's delicate face, feeling quite displeased.

  Liang Tou'er also had some hidden concerns for Sui Feng in his heart, but for some reason, Sui Feng's face was calm and peaceful, like an ancient well without ripples, showing no signs of emotional fluctuations.