Chapter 943 - Unable to Reach Xuan Lin

Xue Gui, who had been listening intently, furrowed his brow the moment he heard the question. After pausing for a moment, he answered honestly. “I don’t know. The Zhuyou Arts... I haven’t even heard that name before.”

Li Guanqi nodded silently. Xue Gui didn’t look like he was lying. His mind was steady, and his vital force showed not the slightest fluctuation. He was clearly telling the truth.

Li Guanqi spoke again. “Then do you know what the immortal-welcoming ceremony in the city today means? With your current cultivation, you must be able to sense the strange power within it.”

Xue Gui let out a bitter smile and spoke in a low voice. “Pavilion Master, I can indeed tell the ceremony is no ordinary affair. I just don’t know how it came about. I’ve asked the people performing the ceremony before, but they only said it was a custom passed down from their ancestors, and that they were simply following tradition.”

Li Guanqi frowned. He hadn’t expected even Xue Gui not to know about it.

Sword Spirit’s voice echoed in Li Guanqi’s mind. “Ask them what they’re chanting!”

Li Guanqi nodded and asked, “Do you know what they’re chanting?”

Xue Gui furrowed his brow and pondered for a long time. Then his eyes lit up as if he had remembered something. He stood up and said, “Pavilion Master, please wait a moment. I recall having someone record the chant about twenty years ago.”

Xue Gui searched through his study and pulled a plain jade slip from a hidden compartment. He approached Li Guanqi and presented it with both hands, bowing as he did.

Li Guanqi pointed at the spirit tea on the desk and said softly, “Drink.”

Xue Gui didn’t dare refuse. He sat in the chair and sipped the spirit tea carefully, taking only a small mouthful.

Boom!

That single sip sent Xue Gui’s vital force surging out of control. The power shattered the shackles of his cultivation, pushing him through to the late Divine Transformation Realm. It didn’t linger there. Once his cultivation had fully stabilized, the energy surged again.

Li Guanqi crooked a finger and poured the rest of the spirit tea into Xue Gui’s mouth. Li Guanqi raised his hand and set up an invisible vital force barrier to contain the commotion, then sent his divine consciousness into the jade slip.

The contents flooded into his mind at once.

Immortal isles tower amid the clouds, jade halls and palaces gleaming bright.

Feathered maidens dance on high, the realm of gods where immortals dwell.

Silken locks drift like a dream, gazing upon the mortal world with a smile.

Guiding the mountains with radiant light, the immortal’s grace defying all.

The blessed Immortal World spans the cosmos, celestial music drifting through tranquil air.

Mountains, waters, flowers everywhere, immortal beasts and birds in joyful dance.

May the immortals live as long as the southern mountains, blessed with peace and happiness forever.

Wishing the Immortal World eternal joy, and the world beneath it everlasting peace.

Eight verses. Only eight verses.

Li Guanqi narrowed his eyes, and Sword Spirit spoke again. “Just as I thought. This is the lowest form of the Zhuyou Arts. Simply chanting the words is enough to draw a trace of power.”

Li Guanqi studied the eight verses carefully, his brow deeply furrowed. They seemed to contain nothing of substance. Every line merely praised the Immortal Realm. The idea that simply chanting those words could truly bestow a blessing was astonishing, almost inconceivable.

Sword Spirit didn’t elaborate further, only murmuring softly, “Interesting. I never expected a lineage of the Zhuyou Arts to still exist in the Human World. If that’s really the case, could someone in the more ancient Ethereal Immortal Territory have inherited the true Zhuyou Arts?”

Sword Spirit wasn’t the only one with that question. Li Guanqi wondered the same thing.

Xue Gui, meanwhile, was beside himself with joy. The bottleneck that had held him back for over a decade had vanished, all thanks to a single cup of spirit tea Li Guanqi had poured for him.

Once he thought about Li Guanqi’s cultivation, however, the tea’s miraculous effect no longer seemed so difficult to believe. Li Guanqi was a Combined Body Realm expert, after all. Anything he brought out could be a priceless natural treasure to a Divine Transformation Realm cultivator like him.

What Xue Gui didn’t know was that Li Guanqi had swiped those tea leaves from Gu Yong, the Pavilion Master of the Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion. Tea that could catch a Mahayana Realm cultivator’s eye was far beyond Xue Gui. Even an Illusory Refinement Realm cultivator would have treasured it as a prize.

Li Guanqi put the jade slip away. Seeing that Xue Gui was still stabilizing his cultivation, he said nothing more and vanished from the spot.

I’ll find something for Xue Gui to do, but I should observe him privately first.

With that thought in mind, Li Guanqi put away his Guanyun Pavilion jade pendant and returned to the inn.

The moment he stepped inside, he saw a woman wrapped in blankets, sitting at the head of the bed with a look of disapproval.

“Where did you go?”

“Uh... something came up. I stepped out for a bit.”

“You stepped out? You just left me here by myself?”

Li Guanqi didn’t know what to say.

Early the next morning, Li Guanqi ended his cultivation and opened his eyes. The fire mark between his brows flickered faintly. He touched it and sighed. The flaw in his divine soul kept him from fighting at full strength, and the restriction frustrated him deeply.

He frowned and muttered, “Looks like I’ll have to deal with this sooner rather than later.”

The woman beside him sat on the edge of the bed and said gently, “How about we forget it? We can skip the ceremony and go home today.”

Li Guanqi smiled, walked to the bedside, and ruffled her soft hair. “Silly girl, one more day won’t hurt.”

Meng Wanshu eventually shooed him out, saying she needed to bathe. Li Guanqi teased her a little, and by the time he stepped through the door, both his sleeves were coated with frost.

He noticed the attendant, who had been standing at the door all night, and coughed awkwardly.

“Is there anything you need, honored guest?” the attendant said.

Li Guanqi thought for a moment and realized it had been a long time since he’d had a proper meal. “Bring eight of your signature dishes and a soup.”

The young attendant nodded with a smile. “Right away, sir. Please head downstairs. We’ve already reserved a private dining room for you, and your meal will be served shortly.”

The attendant turned to leave, but Li Guanqi called after him. “Actually, three or four dishes will be enough. Anything more would go to waste.”

The attendant froze briefly. He hadn’t expected someone of such stature to worry about wasting food. He bowed with a smile. “Understood, sir. I’ll arrange just enough for the two of you. How does that sound?”

Li Guanqi nodded with a smile, thinking the young man was quite clever. After rummaging through his storage ring for a while and finding no gold or silver, he grabbed two half-used low-grade spirit stones and tossed them over.

The attendant’s eyes lit up as if he’d struck gold. He quickly stashed the spirit stones up his sleeve and bowed before taking his leave.

Li Guanqi called after him, “Keep your wealth hidden. Don’t go showing it off.”

The thin-faced young attendant froze. He hadn’t expected an immortal so far above him to offer such a piece of advice. For reasons he couldn’t explain, his eyes reddened. Holding back tears, he forced a smile. “Don’t worry, sir. I know how to behave.”

Li Guanqi waved him off with a smile, then headed downstairs to the private dining room. It was still early, but the tavern was already packed with people, all apparently heading to Qixia Academy for the day’s ceremony.

With nothing else to do, Li Guanqi dug through his storage ring until he finally found the jade slip that belonged to Xuan Lin. He held the crimson jade slip and spoke softly. “Brother Xuan Lin, this is Li Guanqi. My Dao partner and I are passing through the Divine Treasure Territory on our way back. Do you have time to meet?”

Buzz!

A spatial ripple spread outward, then faded without a trace, like a stone dropped into the ocean.

Li Guanqi frowned at the unresponsive jade slip and muttered, “I can’t reach him? Did he give me a fake jade slip from the start? That can’t be right! Unless...”

Whoosh!

“Notify the Guanyun Pavilion. Have them track down the location of Xuan Lin of the Xuan clan in the Divine Treasure Territory!”

Li Guanqi set down the jade slip. Meng Wanshu walked into the dining room and asked softly, “What happened?”

Li Guanqi shook his head. “Nothing to worry about. Come, let’s eat. Haha, let’s try Qixia City’s signature dishes. Once we’re done, we’ll head over to Qixia Academy and watch the ceremony.”