Old Demon Han Has a Breakthrough

"Yeah, we have to take this Liu Yu back with us. Have you two picked up anything else?"

They weren't on a trip to just find their brother, Dugu.

They had another mission, and that was to find and recruit some genius disciples for their sect.

Night fell.

Li Mu popped a supreme-grade Barrier Breaking Pill back in the Imperial Ancestral Temple.

He had accumulated enough by checking in here during the past several days, and he now felt that he had enough to make it to the level of a Perfected Person.

He made his way to the well after popping the pill.

The prenatal qi was thickest around the underground palace well.

A vortex was formed from a huge amount of prenatal qi with Li Mu at its center.

Boom~

Suddenly, all the animals at Mount Yan about five miles away from the capital city became all riled up, as if they had run into something terrifying.

Yet, they were only startled for a brief moment before quieting down again.

No one in the city could discover what had happened at Mount Yan.

I finally made a breakthrough into the Perfected Person Realm. Li Mu was relieved.

He now deemed that it would be enough for him to hold his own when facing off against those from the Xuan Sect.

He had been able to steer clear of those three at Saint level for the past several days.

One of them was a personal disciple of the Xuan Sect, while the other two were at the very top of the rankings among the inner circle disciples.

He was able to learn a lot about the Xuan Sect listening to their chatter.

The elders of the Xuan Sect were but halfway to the Perfected Person Realm at best. Only the sect master and the grand elder were truly at the Perfected Person Realm.

Under usual circumstances, the grand elder would simply train in isolation all the time.

Their sect master didn't usually venture outside their mountain either.

Those three rascals wanna catch me? In their dreams.

He trained for a while longer. He then emerged from the underground palace of the Imperial Ancestral Palace.

Cough~ Cough~ "Xiaolizi, where are you? I dreamed about the late empress last night. She said that she missed me and hoped that I'd keep her company."

Back in the Shouning Palace...

Concubine Jing climbed out of bed and wiped the beads of sweat from her brow.

"My lady, you're not in good physical condition now. I'll get you something for that."

Li Mu leaped from the roof and appeared right before the concubine.

A woman staying in a "cold" palace for years on end... There were hardly any people around, and it would be odd if she could still stay healthy.

He saw that what she had was a psychological condition.

That was not something he could do anything about.

He'd read something online back in his past life.

It said that women needed to speak thousands of lines every day.

If there was no one around for them to chat with, there would be no way to vent all their boredom and frustration.

The concubine had someone to talk to when the old court lady was still around.

There were even times when the two of them would continue talking about what they had talked about the day before.

Sigh ~ "I dreamed of the late emperor as well."

"My lady, I heard from the chatter in the palace that lately the Ninth Prince has begun to practice martial arts. It is said that the ones from the Xuan Sect have taken a liking to him and were thinking of taking him in."

Li Mu changed the subject right away.

The two of them had stayed around each other for so many years.

They both took the other person to be their family.

In Li Mu's mind, Concubine Jing was his first and only family in this world.

"Yu is practicing martial arts? How could he practice martial arts?"

"Not to worry, my lady. Those from the Xuan Sect like him very much, and they have been teaching him about the arts."

"What is this Xuan Sect you speak of? Would Yu become badly influenced?"

"The Xuan Sect is a sacred ground for martial arts training and doesn't get involved with the mundane world. The place is filled with formidable warriors. The lord is now an adult. There's no need to worry about him," Li Mu elaborated.

"How did you get to know all of this?"

"I overheard people talking about them."

Li Mu was putting the three from the Xuan Sect in the capital city under constant surveillance.

It took him quite a while to coax the concubine to sleep.

The next day was uneventful.

He came once again to the underground palace that night.

He was interested in that stone door that the emperor had spoken of all of a sudden when he was finished checking in.

He extended his senses to behind the door and found no signs of life from within.

"The emperor said that their grand ancestor was right behind that door. I'm now a Perfected Person, so I should be able to sense something if there were to be living beings behind the door. That grand ancestor is probably really dead now."

What Old Demon Han had sought was probably in the hands of that grand ancestor.

Would he still have it?

I wonder what was it that had gotten Old Demon Han so fascinated.

H*ll, he was even willing to sneak into the royal palace to look for it.

He walked up to the stone door and put his hands on it, before activating his powers and pushing.

Crack~

There seemed to be something broken behind that door as the stone door seemed to get stuck on something. Li Mu gradually pushed the door a bit farther to open up a crack.

He then peered inside.

It was a very plain-looking training room.

There was a stone bed, a stone table, and a stone chair, as well as herbs and a bronze furnace.

A dried-up corpse was lying on the stone bed.

The herbs that had been left on the table were quickly reduced to dust as the wind blew through the open door.

Brooom~

He used his powers to push the door open more, making the opening big enough for him to head inside.

None of the items were usable anymore.

Even the bronze furnace was covered in green rust, which caused it to shatter with a single gentle touch.

It would seem that the old man in the room must have died more than 100 years ago.

Man! Being dead for so long and yet still being able to cast fear into the hearts of the clans.

He deemed that it was quite a feat to use that last bit of the renown that the old man had earned when he was alive.

It is quite a pity that a supreme regime is nothing more than dust before time.

Li Mu walked up to the dried corpse and paid his respects, before taking off the mantle and shaking it a bit.

Poof~

Dust flew all around him.

Li Mu dusted off the mantle and put it back on the dried corpse.

That was the final rite he performed for the dead man.

The clothes that the corpse had worn had flaked off at the same time.

Huh? What's this?

The dust cleared.

Something white was revealed on the grey stone bed.

Li Mu cleared the dust, revealing the white thing underneath.

It looked like some kind of token pass.

It was milky white, making it look like a piece of jade.

There were weird, mystical runes carved on it, and he was unable to make sense of it despite having looked at it for a while.

He took it with him and went outside the room, closing the door and returning near the well.

Huh?

He sensed something as he was about to continue training, that then disappeared right away.

At the bottom of the dungeon of the Ceremony Directorate...

Li Mu stared at the man before him.

18 years...

Old Demon Han had been locked up for 18 years, and he hardly even looked like a person anymore.

His skin was all ashen.

His hair was all silver and his beard a massive mess. He looked totally different from how he had looked 18 years ago.

At that moment, the vague presence of a Saint-level warrior could be sensed from him.

Li Mu took a look at him, knowing that the man was about to make a breakthrough.

"I'll give you a hand."

He pointed with his finger and sent a beam of true qi into Old Demon Han's body.

Boom~

The aura of a Saint-level warrior began to flare.

He sealed the aura up right away, letting not even a sliver of it leak out.

There were three formidable ones from the Xuan Sect in the city after all.

They had been looking for Old Demon Han for days.

Old Demon Han's aura stabilized before long, and he gradually opened his eyes.

He shuddered as he saw Li Mu, who was standing before him.

Claaanggg~

The six chains that bound him were shaken and broken.

Thump~

Old Demon Han fell to his knees as he bowed in respect to Li Mu.

"Thank you very much for your assistance, sir!"

"I was the one who got you locked up here in the first place. You would have probably become a Saint if you hadn't been locked up in the dungeon in the first place."

"Sir! Few out there can make a breakthrough into Saint level through their own powers alone. It is truly a blessing in disguise that I've met you," Old Demon Han elaborated respectfully.

Judging from how he looked, it would seem that breaking into Saint level had been rather difficult.

Li Mu thought about it for a bit.

He'd met quite a number who were at the peak of the Spirit Manipulation Realm throughout the years.

He had even killed over a dozen of people at such heights of training.

Other than those from the Xuan Sect, he truly hadn't seen anyone who had broken into Saint level.

Perhaps what Old Demon Han said was true.

"You were here in the royal palace looking for…"

Li Mu seemed to have recalled something.

"Yes! I was here looking for an opportunity to make a breakthrough into Saint level, but even if I had found it, it wouldn't necessarily have been useful."

"What do you mean?" Li Mu asked anxiously.