Chapter 166 The Princess Arrives
Even Ye Que himself was not entirely sure of the phenomenon, much less Li Jianqi.
However, a lack of understanding would not obstruct him from learning. The Divine Book seemed to have grown increasingly amazing.
Till now, there were already more than 20000 Divine Sect Seminary disciples, and its name was already known among all of the people at the bottom of society in Luoyang. It did not collect fees nor commission and imparted cultivation methods for free. It took it upon itself to explain one’s doubts in cultivation away, and it was not a front. The methods Ye Que taught his disciples really allowed them to sense Nature’s Spiritual Qi.
It was only natural that something as wonderful as this was passed on by mouth, and more people began joining.
No one was able to withstand the temptation of progressing in the world of cultivation once he or she entered it. Naturally, they would join the wild goose chase.
As its disciples grew, the seminary was unable to accommodate all of them, even though it increased its capacity. The original morning lecture was now extended to a full day one, and a morning run was added so that everyone could listen to Ye Que’s lectures.
Throughout the entire process, Ye Que seemed to have caught on to the trick of amplifying his Spiritual Sea.
It was plausible for Ye Que, who was at Starburst Realm, to already possess the power of being able to kill a Formless Realm expert instantly, as long as the Divine Sect Seminary disciples were within his sense radius and acted in unison. It was an explosive ability that no one was able to realize. Who would expect that someone’s Spiritual Sea was able to be increased by one or two times? Even the “Heavenly Demon Separation Skill” could not do that!
This new method was even more powerful than that!
There were side effects to use the Heavenly Demon Separation Skill, while the cultivation technique Ye Que learned from the Divine Book had none at all. However, he could not use it as and when he wished; he had to meet many stringent criteria to amplify his Spiritual Sea by many times. Otherwise, it would be completely ineffective.
There was naturally a reason for Li Jianqi’s shock. Uncle Jiao, on the other hand, was evidently much indifferent.
He replied calmly upon hearing Li Jianqi’s exclamation, “His Majesty knows about the Divine Sect Seminary’s incident and gave his support. In such uncertain times, any form of help would be welcome. Furthermore, the Qian Clan is also supporting the seminary, and His Majesty is not worried about it.”
Li Jianqi was stunned. “Father knows about it?”
“How about the Southern Encampment’s victory?”
“Does he know that Ye Que is behind it?”
Li Jianqi said somewhat dully. If her father had already known about these incidents, there wasn’t much need for her to visit him. He must have sent someone to handle them, so why should she do something so superfluous in nature?
Uncle Jiao remained silent for a while, as if he was calculating time. “According to the procedure, they should have been reported in the restricted memos submitted today,” he finally said. “They’ll not be marked as top urgent, so His Majesty should not be aware of them as yet. After all, it’s just a small scale martial competition among the camps, and even though the Southern Encampment’s victory was unexpected, it’s still not important enough for His Majesty to personally question it.”
“In this case, we should head to the General’s Manor and wait there,” Li Jianqi replied, her expression looking much better after hearing his explanation.
The Princess’s carriage circled around the crowds and arrived unhurriedly before the General’s Manor. Li Jianqi knew that Ye Que still had a long lecture to get on with and did not hurry Uncle Jiao.
She got down from the carriage and lifted her head to look at the historical residence.
Ye Que had got people to get rid of the large lion with a broken leg at the front of the manor’s gates. It had not been replaced ever since, leaving a huge space. The handles on the vermilion gates had obviously been wiped and looked extremely clean. There was not a speck of dust on the gates, and the verses on both sides of them seemed to have been recently put up. They were written with black ink on red parchment and looked fresh and otherworldly. Obviously, someone from the residence had written them. After a little observation, Li Jianqi surmised that Ye Que had most likely written them himself.
The boards at the front of the General’s Manor had not been changed. It wouldn’t have a big deal if it was, however. There were no generals in the manor now; none of its residents were even military officials. However, no one dared to change it without Ye Que or Li Chunzhi’s orders.
There were some in the imperial court who wanted to take it down, but they did not have the guts to do so. Those who dared, however, could not enter the manor.
Ever since Ye Que took up residence in the General’s Manor, there was no lack of people who came to disrupt his peace. Just the remnants of the Ye Army who had fled from You Prefecture came circling around the manor every few days.
At first, Ye Que would take care to tend to them and even converse with them for a while. However, these brash soldiers were extremely obstinate. To them, the number one enemy of the Ye Army would be the Demons, followed by the late Emperor, the Second Prince, Xiao Huating and Ye Yunhai.
They did not have the courage nor ability to seek out the demons, while the former Emperor and Second Prince were already dead. Xiao Huating and Ye Yunhai were missing, and only Ye Que and the people from the royal palace were left that had some sort of connection to the entire tragedy.
It was somewhat for them to infiltrate the royal palace to assassinate anyone there. As such, their target became the General’s Manor.
Even though Li Chunzhi had carried out the great Army Memorial Service, these obstinate fools could not be convinced. They only subscribed to the theory of “an eye for an eye” and could not accept any other form of explanation or apology; they would only be satisfied if all of their dead comrades were resurrected, and things had reverted back to their original state. They viewed of all forms of apologies as rubbish and lies, and that anyone who tried to apologize to them was treating them as fools.
Li Jianqi knocked on the gates. They were opened very quickly, and she was invited into the manor without any hesitation after the attendants realized that she was the Princess, and that she was here to visit Ye Que.
It was the first time that Li Jianqi had come to the General’s Manor. She used to practice in Silent Monastery, but she did not have time for that now that her father had become the Emperor, and she was a Princess.
The General’s Manor had indeed undergone a huge transformation. Ye Que was a cultivator after all, and he had a completely different set of demands for his residence than his father. Even the attendants were official disciples of the Divine Sect Seminary and cultivators. At first, they were greatly displeased and unwilling to take on their new roles, but they felt as though they had been transported to a new world immediately upon entering the manor.
It was greatly abundant with Spiritual Force.
Over this period of time, Ye Que had spent most of his effort on experimenting with formations and on refining elixirs.
Other things aside, the manor was definitely the place that contained the most complicated and dense formations. Most of the Spirit Stones that had been exchanged with medicinal pills were also used in the General’s Manor. Naturally, it would be abundant with Spiritual Force and be no different from a paradise. In fact, the amount of Spiritual Force in it might be even greater.
Li Jianqi looked at the manor’s interior as she walked, growing increasingly alarmed. Uncle Jiao, who was walking along her, wore the same expression as her.
“This is the General’s Manor?”
“Are we really not in an interconnected, faraway land, or a prehistorical place?”
“How could there be so many huge formations here? There’s one after another here!”
There were all sorts of detailed explanations about formations in the Cultivation World within Silent Monastery, but most of them were not applicable to those they were seeing now. They were non-existent in the Cultivation World currently and were long lost since pre-historical times.
They had set off originally in a carefree fashion, but less than 100 steps later, Li Jianqi and Uncle Jiao began to slow down. They followed the attendant carefully, afraid that any misstep would cause them to step on a magical formation.