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An eye for an eye
Within the manor, even the Duke of Soaring Dragon himself was startled and bothered.
The spiritual alchemists in the manor all came forward one by one, including the senior executives of Pill King Garden who had newly given themselves up, to go upstairs and discern Long San’s condition.
As for the one whom the Duke of Soaring Dragon relied most heavily on, Courtmaster Wang was also similarly at a loss of what to do.
“Your Lordship, this is not simple. The poison has seeped in through the pores and can be labelled as a tyrant amongst poisons. it’s my view… eh, what’s this?”
Courtmaster Wang was thinking of ways to excuse his incompetence when he suddenly discovered that there was a small strip of cloth inside the front of Long San’s garment.
There were even four words on it – fight poison with poison.
Script as tiny as the heads of flies could also be seen on the back of the cloth – Let the strongest poison master in the manor try this poison.
The Duke of Soaring Dragon was about to reach towards the strip of cloth when Courtmaster Wang hastily stopped him, “Your Lordship, don’t touch it. I’m afraid that there’s poison.”
The entire manor was akin to birds being startled by the merest twang of a bow string. Upon hearing Courtmaster Wang’s words, the Duke of Soaring Dragon also retracted his hand, and stared at the cloth with a scary expression.
“Your Lordship, you sent this Long San to kill Jiang Chen, and this piece of cloth seemed to insinuate at something. Can it be that this Long San has fallen into Jiang Chen’s hands?” Courtmaster Wang felt quite a measure of dread when it came to Jiang Chen.
“Impossible! How old is that Jiang Chen? In terms of training, at the very most, he can only be at the advanced realm of true qi. How could he have injured Long San to this degree?” Long Zhaofeng shook his head.
“However, it says ‘fight poison with poison here. This plainly means that he won’t suffer losses for more than one night. This is must be revenge for the poison that Jiang Feng fell victim to, no?”
Long Zhaofeng still shook his head. “I thoroughly investigated the inner secrets of the Jiang family. Whether it’s Jiang Feng or Jiang Chen, both of them don’t have such strength. Long San is a true qi master, and not an ordinary one at that. I suspect that someone is secretly helping the Jiang family. Furthermore, it’s very possible that it’s someone from the Eastern family clan.”
The Jiang family and Eastern royal family clan were walking very closely together now. It was not an impossible thing to say that the royal family had sent strong practitioners to secretly aid him.
It wouldn’t conform with logic at all if it was Jiang Chen himself who had the ability to harm Long San.
“Old Wang, you’ve blathered on for so long. Do you have the ability to cure Long San of his poison or not?” The Duke of Soaring Dragon truly did value Long San highly.
“Your subordinate is merely adept at spirit medicines and truly doesn’t have much right to speak when it comes to using poisons. We can now only wait for Master Violet to emerge from training to even have a ray of hope.” Courtmaster Wang knew more than anyone as he spoke that there was no way Long San would survive long enough for Master Violet to emerge from training.
Not to mention, the poison was already close to attacking the heart. Even if Master Violet lent a hand, Long San may not even be saved. Besides, although Master Violet was quite adept in using poisons, he may still not be able to penetrate the mysteries of this poison in a short time and resolve it in a timely manner.
The lamp of Long San was obviously expiring as it had run out of oil.
“Jiang family!” A frightening light sparkled in Long Zhaofeng’s eyes.
“Your Lordship, what should we do about those wandering practitioners who sent Lord San back?” A core guard captain of the manor asked.
“I don’t want to hear wild rumors outside.” Long Zhaofeng said faintly.
“Understood.” The guard captain nodded, comprehending Long Zhaofeng’s meaning. The duke apparently didn’t wish for details of Long San’s matter to be spread widely.
What kind of men could keep secrets the best? Dead men, of course.
After returning to the capital, Jiang Chen dressed up a bit and and returned to the Jiang Han manor. This back and forth trip had taken precisely half a month.
The first mission had been completed to perfection.
However, Jiang Chen was in no rush to report the completion of his task. Rather, he first explained to his father, Jiang Feng, the matter regarding Long San.
“Long San?” Jiang Feng’s eyes shot out looks beyond belief after listening. “Chen’er, you’re saying that you used poison to cripple Long San?”
“To be more accurate, he should be dead.” Jiang Chen was an alchemy master of all planes beneath the heavens in his past life – an unorthodox branch such as employing poison was a piece of cake.
He naturally had calculated precisely when he had sent Long San back.
He would absolutely not allow the possibility that the others would be able to save him!
Jiang Chen wasn’t a particularly grudge carrying person, but he also wasn’t someone at the mercy of others. Today, Long San was merely the first step in his counterattack forwhat the Soaring Dragon dukedom had done to his father last time. This could at most only be counted as interest. He would be sure to present even more of the principal in the future!
He had purposefully put the words onto the small strip of cloth in order to take a jab at the Soaring Dragon dukedom.
As for those wandering practitioners, Jiang Chen would naturally not send innocent people to their deaths. Those fellows had all fooled around together on the outskirts of the capital. They appeared to be wandering practitioners on the surface, but had in actuality raided homes and plundered houses covertly, committing acts of murder for personal gains.
To put it frankly, they were a bunch of robbers and bandits.
Jiang Chen had sent them to the Soaring Dragon manor because he was betting that the Soaring Dragon manor would kill anyone who might become an eyewitness against them.
“Chen’er, Long Zhaofeng is a fierce and ambitious person who will seek revenge for the smallest of grievances. Long San is one of his confidantes that he relies most heavily on. Long San’s strength can also absolutely be ranked in the top five of the Soaring Dragon dukedom. If this man dies, then the duke of Soaring Dragon will inevitably visit an even more ferocious vengeance upon you.”
Jiang Feng’s tone was prudent. He already wasn’t using conventional vision to measure up this son.
“Mm. One cannot be without a cautious heart.” Jiang Chen nodded. “However, we cannot halt in hesitation merely because they wish to take revenge, right? I will train for a few days first and fight to breakthrough eight meridians true qi this time, thereby taking another step forward towards increasing my strength!”
In the training of martial dao, one would sometimes face bottlenecks if he relied solely on training behind closed doors.
Traveling in the outside world and toughening up from experience would often lead to new inspiration and understanding, priming the pivotal turning point for a breakthrough.
This time’s travels in the outside world for executing the mission had also resulted in a greater step of improvement for Jiang Chen, both in terms of mentality and experience. The knowledge and experiences that he had encountered during his travels had all been distilled down to their essence for him to absorb, providing great benefits, becoming the catalyst for his martial dao breakthrough.
Jiang Chen successfully broke through three days later.
After breaking through, Jiang Chen had the capabilities of eight meridians true qi. He could clearly feel that his strength had risen yet another level again.
After entering the advanced realm of true qi, the difference between increasing each meridian true qi and improving each personal level would become more and more apparent. One would be able to feel the distance increasing with each additional step taken upwards.
Along with Jiang Chen breaking through to eight meridians true qi, he also indistinctly comprehended many of the mysteries of the techniques that he was training in by drawing parallels from inference.
Of course, Jiang Chen had still only trained up to the second form of “Vast Ocean Current Splitter”. It would take some time of contemplation and a critical turning point for him to train to the third form.
As for “Divine Aeons Fist”, Jiang Chen had still halted on the third level of reincarnation, in the third cycle of blooming and wilting. But he had a better comprehension of the true meaning of this boxing technique.
If these comprehensions and advancements were used in actual battle, they would greatly enhance his personal battle capabilities.
That day when Jiang Chen was on the path of returning to the capital and met the first wave of ambushes, Jiang Chen hadn’t even unsheathed his nameless saber when he’d chopped off the other’s head.
This was the true meaning of the martial dao contained within, and also the astounding mysteries of, the “Vast Ocean Current Splitter”.
And now that he possessed eight meridians true qi, Jiang Chen was confident that even if he confronted Long San face to face now, he would absolutely not be afraid of the other.
Whether it was “Vast Ocean Current Splitter” or employing “Divine Aeons Fist”, either would be enough to directly contend with Long San, someone at the true qi master level of training.
The benefits brought to Jiang Chen from breaking through to eight meridians were quite apparent.
“God’s Eye” and “Ear of the Zephyr” both smoothly broke through to the fourth level. As the “Boulder’s Heart” that had previously progressed at a slow level, also showed signs of loosening up in the second level, allowing for a greater likelihood of advancing to the third level.
Jiang Chen would absolutely not become lax about these three abilities. Not only were these three abilities highly useful in actual combat, but they were also prerequisites for the training of “Moonshatter Flying Daggers”.
Jiang Chen had basically fully grasped the initial steps of “Moonshatter Flying Daggers” by now.
However, the strength of “Moonshatter Flying Daggers” lay in the mysteries of those unpredictable and constantly changing moves, and Jiang Chen had currently only practiced some foundational movements.
As of now, he didn’t even possess the qualifications to begin practicing and comprehending the profound meaning of those truly strong moves.
In order to practice the first move of “Moonshatter Flying Daggers”, he would have to train “God’s Eye” and “Ear of the Zephyr” to the seventh level.
“Boulder’s Heart” would also have to be at least the fourth level.
The most profound ability “Psychic’s Head” would have to be trained to the second level.
The current Jiang Chen was still a long shot away with his four abilities. Particularly the “Psychic’s Head”, he hadn’t even started that yet.
When he reviewed his personal strength, Jiang Chen felt a sense of urgency.
“It looks like in order to receive the qualification to train in the mysteries of the moves of ‘Moonshatter Flying Daggers’, I must first practice these four accompanying abilities to a satisfactory level.”
Although Jiang Chen felt a certain urgent need, he would also not do something utterly beyond him, like forcing a duck onto a perch.
On the road of martial dao training, going about things steadily and surely was the only proper way forward.
The next day, Jiang Chen went to the testing site for the Hidden Dragon Trials to turn in his first mission.
“Jiang Chen, mission of the first rank, to kill the rapist Lotus Harvester in the Tianhu territory.” An organizer for the Hidden Dragon Trials started to verify his mission.
“According to verification, this head is indeed that of the violent and wicked Lotus Harvester. This short sword and these personal effects are all authentication tokens that are up to standard.”
The organizer nodded and proclaimed, “Jiang Chen, first mission of the first rank, complete!”
Following this organizer’s proclamation, Jiang Chen’s first mission was thus completed.
“Jiang Chen, according to the rules, you still need to complete two more missions of the first rank to be able to enter the first rank. The remaining two missions are both fixed.”
These were old rules and Jiang Chen didn’t have too much to stress about. He conveniently picked up the scroll for the second mission and prepared to leave.
“Jiang Chen, a moment.”
Jiang Chen didn’t even need to turn his head to know that Princess Gouyu had arrived.
In actuality, his “Ear of the Zephyr” had already captured Princess Gouyu’s unique breathing when he had first set foot into the Hidden Dragon Trials testing site.
In the entire testing site, this was the only unique breathing that belonged to a true qi master of eleven meridians true qi.
“Your Highness, what instructions do you have?”
“Come with me.” Princess Gouyu acted with a bit more reservation in front of others.
After he’d followed Princess Gouyu into a private secret room, a ray of astounding splendor shot out from her phoenix eyes. “Jiang Chen, I’ve heard that something’s happened to Long San?”
“Is that so? What does that have to do with me? Who’s Long San?” Jiang Chen riposted with three questions in a row and had a face of complete disinterest.
“Ai!” Princess Gouyu was a bit disappointed. She had really wanted Jiang Chen to thump his chest and admit to this matter.