Chapter 48: Li Lie Feng
It was unclear whether it was the negligence of the outer disciples or the intimidation of Zeng Qi's prestige, but no one picked up the talisman for Li Xing'an. It remained quietly on the ground, looking like an ordinary talisman paper, with only occasional flashes of light hinting at its extraordinary nature. Zeng Qi saw Fang Yuanting being chased away and was about to speak to Gan Ping when she noticed his gaze fixed on the talisman in the nearby grass. She couldn't help but smile, walked over, picked it up, and handed it to Gan Ping, who subconsciously took it and examined it carefully.
Zeng Qi gazed at the black-clad servant disciple in front of her with interest, seeing that his eyes were clear and filled with curiosity and inquiry as he stared at the talisman paper in his hand, but without a hint of greed. In her heart, she couldn't help but nod in approval. Gan Ping ignored Zeng Qi's playful gaze beside him and chuckled as he examined the talisman treasure in his hand. The talisman paper was about three fingers wide and roughly four inches long, made of an unknown material. The entire paper shone with a silver light, and when held in one's hand, it felt slightly heavy. In the center of the talisman paper was painted a pale blue flying needle, its shape strange and lifelike, exactly like the flying needle that Li Xing'an had conjured up earlier.
Gan Ping quietly tried to probe the power of the divine soul on this talisman, but unexpectedly received a slight rejection from above. It seems that this treasure must have been refined with secret methods. However, Gan Ping didn't think much of this flying needle treasure, as he had several real treasures in his storage ring, and this flying needle treasure only had one-tenth the power of a four-star treasure. He was just curious about this talisman that he had never seen before.
He played with the silver talisman in his hand for a while before returning it to Zeng Qi. Zeng Qi didn't expect that this servant disciple wouldn't covet the treasure, but instead only took a glance at it before giving it back to him, and was stunned on the spot for a moment. Gan Ping saw that he looked puzzled, and after thinking about it for a moment, he understood what Zeng Qi was thinking. He couldn't help but smile and say: "Brother Zeng, you can take it back and return it to Li Xing'an. This thing is not something that you or I can keep." When Zeng Qi heard this, his mind suddenly cleared up. What Gan Ping said was right - if they were to secretly keep the treasure, they would definitely stir up big trouble.
At this point, Zeng Qi hastily took over the page of talismans and said with a smile: "It's still the little brother who thinks clearly, actually I didn't want to keep this thing either, it's just that returning it would be somewhat unpalatable. If not, then take it away and exchange it for spirit stones." Gan Ping slightly furrowed his brow and shook his head, saying: "Today's matter was stirred up by Li Xing An, now he has suffered a severe defeat and others have nothing to say, but if you and I were to take this treasure, we would certainly be caught out and it would be difficult to defend ourselves."
Zeng Qi was not a fool either. As soon as he heard Gan Ping's words, he slapped his forehead and said: "That's right! This treasure must have been left behind by those people on purpose to frame us. But if I return it, that would be impossible. It's better to get rid of it now, whoever picks it up has nothing to do with us." After finishing speaking, he raised his hand and the talisman paper flew out more than ten feet away, falling into a grass thicket. Gan Ping saw him like this and immediately burst out laughing, just as he was about to speak, something suddenly happened.
The talisman that had been thrown into the grass by Zeng Qi had just fallen, but immediately surged with light, transforming into a flying needle of bright green light. Compared to when Li Xing'an had urged it on earlier, it was greatly different. The flying needle's light now shone brightly, revealing every detail, including the symbols on its surface. It seemed that this was the talisman's state when fully activated. Just as the two were marveling at why the flying needle was so extraordinary, a cold hum came from it, with an ancient voice filled with great intimidation. The hum shook the two, leaving them slightly dizzy. When they regained their senses, they saw the flying needle transform into a pale green stream of light and fly towards the direction of the main peak.
Gan Ping was shocked by the cold hum that contained the law, and he felt a little dizzy. He turned his head to look at Zeng Qi, but found that her face was pale, with cold sweat dripping down, which made him very curious. Zeng Qi saw Gan Ping looking over and explained with an uncomprehending gaze, "Gan Ping, this time it's thanks to you again, I escaped another disaster!" Gan Ping raised his eyebrows slightly, somewhat puzzled by what Zeng Qi said. Seeing his confused face, Zeng Qi explained:
"That cold snort just now was definitely from Li Xingan's grandfather, the elder Li Liefeng. The talisman was originally refined from his third-grade treasure, the Wind- Breaking Needle, and he left a wisp of divine thought on it. If you or I had made any mistakes just now, this talisman would have turned into a flying needle and killed us both. And if we were to secretly hide this talisman away, we would definitely be found out. This Li Liefeng is really good at protecting his own interests, really cunning."
Finally, Zeng Qi almost couldn't help but burst into a loud scolding, and Gan Ping also understood the danger of the situation just now. During the fight earlier, Li Lie Feng's divine consciousness hidden in the symbol treasure must have been triggered, and he was clearly aware of what had happened. If Zeng Qi had intended to kill Li Xing An earlier, the symbol treasure would have killed him under Li Lie Feng's control. Fortunately, Zeng Qi didn't act impulsively, so Li Lie Feng didn't have a chance to make a move without reason and attack his junior brother disciple. It seemed that Li Lie Feng, who was in the Yuan Ying realm, couldn't do such a shameless thing. However, this person was extremely cunning, and it was likely that his disciples had left the symbol treasure behind at his behest. If they had harbored private intentions or tried to exchange the symbol treasure for spiritual stones or elixirs, they would have been caught red-handed and punished. At that time, Li Lie Feng wouldn't need to take action, and the Executive Hall would have found them guilty of harming fellow disciples and killing people to seize treasures. Fortunately, Gan Ping had warned Zeng Qi, so they hadn't provoked such a disaster. When Li Lie Feng saw that his sinister plan couldn't be carried out, he became enraged and controlled the symbol treasure to fly up, using the cold hum containing law power to intimidate the two of them, also saving some face.
They both smiled wryly at each other, unable to believe that Li Lie Feng, a senior master of the Yuan Ying realm, would be so narrow-minded and petty as to attack a junior cultivator like Gan Ping. It was unprecedented for a Yuan Ying cultivator to stoop so low. Gan Ping couldn't help but feel a sense of unease, having just entered the cultivation world only to have already made such a powerful enemy, one who wouldn't hesitate to use underhanded tactics.
At this time, Zeng Qi also recovered from the fear of just now and said to Gan Ping: "Thank you, Brother Gan, for reminding me just now. Otherwise, I would have made a big mistake." Gan Ping saw his sincere face and smiled: "Actually, I should thank Brother Zeng for seeing injustice and lending a hand. If not, I wouldn't have had a good outcome today." Zeng Qi heard this and laughed loudly, saying: "Brother Gan's words are different from what I thought. I originally had a grudge against Li Xing'an, you just happened to be there. Today, I actually came specifically to find him." Gan Ping listened to his words and secretly nodded in agreement, thinking that his guess was correct. It turned out that Zeng Qi really did have an old grievance with Li Xing'an. The two of them found a clean place and sat down together.
It seems that the big battle just now had indeed consumed a lot of Zeng Qi's physical strength, and as soon as he sat down, he let out a comfortable sigh and lay down on the soft grass. Gan Ping looked at his casual appearance and couldn't help but feel more affectionate, asking: "Zeng Shixiong, what kind of grudge do you have with Li Xing'an that led to such a fierce battle? Generally, outer sect disciples wouldn't dare to provoke inner sect disciples." Gan Ping felt particularly curious about the two men's feud and thought that he might be able to hear some news from within the sect from Zeng Qi's words. Although Ming Fan often spread some news, unfortunately, as a small servant disciple, he only half-understood things and mostly heard insignificant gossip.
He casually plucked a grass stem and put it in his mouth, and Zeng Qi said vaguely while lightly biting the tender grass leaves with a faint sweet fragrance: "It's nothing else, just Li Xing'an bullying the inner door disciples. This kid is used to doing this kind of thing." Gan Ping saw that he didn't tell the whole story, so she rolled her eyes and said: "You're an inner door disciple, how dare he bully you? I don't believe it." Zeng Qi looked like he was only 18 or 19 years old, not much older than Gan Ping. After going through the series of unexpected events together, their relationship had become much closer, and Gan Ping's previous awkwardness had disappeared.
Zeng Qi listened to Gan Ping's words and felt somewhat dissatisfied, waving his hand and saying: "What kind of inner door disciple am I? The real inner door disciples are at least in the middle stage of condensing their consciousness. Originally, I was also an outer door disciple, and it wasn't until last year's annual examination that I entered the inner door. Unfortunately, now entering the inner door is somewhat too late, those original inner door disciples' lowest cultivation levels were all in the middle stage of condensing their consciousness, but I haven't even reached the realm of condensing my consciousness." As he spoke, his expression couldn't help but become somewhat downcast. Gan Ping heard this and was moved to ask: "Zeng Shixiong, is it easy for outer door disciples to enter the inner door?"
Zeng Qi looked at him with a gaze full of expectation and said, "You want to ask if it's easy for an outer door servant disciple to become an inner door disciple, right?" Gan Ping's face turned red, looking somewhat embarrassed. Zeng Qi ignored him and continued, "For an outer door servant disciple to enter the inner door, they must be under 17 years old and have a cultivation level of at least mid-stage Qi Refining. As for inner door disciples, they must be under 20 years old and have a cultivation level of at least peak Qi Refining." Gan Ping listened and couldn't help but exclaim, "This is too difficult!"
Gan Ping said this with a sense of emotion, the outer door disciples did not have monthly spirit stones, no elixirs, and even the cultivation method was only a basic Qi refining manual. Every day, they had to do many chores, if they wanted to reach the middle stage of Qi refinement before the age of 17, the difficulty could be seen at a glance. In the secular world, the cultivation of the initial stage of Qi refinement was already called a pre-heavenly master, and it was unknown how many people in the martial arts world could not reach this level in their lifetime. The middle stage of Qi refinement required several times more cultivation than the initial stage. Although the spiritual energy in the Miao Cheng sect was abundant, without good cultivation methods, spirit stones, and elixirs, if one wanted to reach the middle stage of Qi refinement before the age of 17, the requirements for the cultivator's talent were extremely high.
As for reaching the peak of Lianqi, one must go through the high-level Lianqi to achieve it. Cultivating truth is a path that goes against heaven, and every step is extremely difficult. Even within the same realm, different stages differ by several degrees. If you want to be called an inner disciple, at the very least, you need to pass the two checkpoints of Lianqi High Level and Lianqi Peak, the difficulty can be imagined.
Gan Ping's face was shocked, Zeng Qi smiled slightly and said: "But it's not that there are no other ways to upgrade your status, but it must be what you don't want." Upon hearing this, Gan Ping couldn't help but widen his eyes.
