When they returned to the Cloud Seven Pavilion Courtyard, An'an had already cried herself into a tearful mess.
Today was the clan tournament. As a maidservant, she had no right to watch from nearby, but she still saw everything clearly from afar and immediately learned that Gu Feng had cruelly killed the children of twelve families.
“Young master, how could Gu Feng do something so cruel? They were twelve children!”
Gu Yi patted An'an's hair without saying much.
There was no end to the cruelty and ruthlessness in this world. What Gu Feng had done was merely one ten-thousandth of it.
“Don't be sad anymore. Go prepare the meal.”
An'an left dejectedly. Gu Yi turned to look at Gu Chengjiao, whose mood was also terrible. He sat alone beneath the shade of a tree, drinking away his sorrows.
“What's wrong? At your age, are you still unable to let it go?” He smiled faintly and sat down beside Gu Chengjiao.
Gu Chengjiao shook his head and said, “Yi'er, we had never even heard of the Essence-Enhancing Pill, but you seem to know a great deal about it?”
Gu Yi nodded. “That's right. I know the Essence-Enhancing Pill's refining formula, as well as its effects, like the back of my hand.”
Gu Chengjiao said, “I don't think Gu Feng refined it himself, did he?”
Gu Yi nodded. “The Essence-Enhancing Pill is a profound rank, middle grade pill. Gu Feng has never even practiced alchemy before, so how could he possibly refine it? Someone else must have done it.”
Gu Chengjiao said grimly, “Then tell me, who could have refined this pill? Such a vicious method of alchemy must have come from someone utterly beyond redemption! If we can find this person, our Gu Family must repay this blood debt with blood!”
Gu Yi glanced at Gu Chengjiao.
He had thought about this matter long ago, but personally, he had no intention of investigating it further.
Gu Chengjiao, however, seemed unable to suppress his resentment. Although the Gu Clan had treated him indifferently, even ruthlessly, over the years, he was still a Gu Clan Member in the end, and the children who had died were all his juniors.
After pondering briefly, Gu Yi said, “Don't worry. Leave this matter to me.”
Gu Chengjiao looked over. “You have a way to find that person?”
Gu Yi nodded. “I should be able to. We'll know after I try.”
Just then, an announcement came from outside the door. Family servants had carried in the prizes awarded to the grand competition champion of the clan tournament.
They consisted of one hundred low-grade spirit stones and a longsword.
Besides a candidate slot for the Martial Arts Sacred Grounds, the rewards for the grand competition champion of the clan tournament also included spirit stones and a weapon.
Despite suffering the pain of losing his son, Gu Chengqian had not forgotten to distribute Gu Yi's reward. That was quite rare.
Gu Yi accepted the prizes and nodded slightly, muttering, “With these one hundred spirit stones, I should have enough to break through the body refinement realm.”
As for the longsword, Gu Yi glanced at it once before looking away. In his eyes, that sword was nothing more than a piece of scrap metal.
He carried the one hundred spirit stones back into his room, spread them across the floor, and sat down cross-legged. Activating the Eastern Imperial Emperor Art, twelve black vortices immediately reappeared around his body, unleashing a frenzied suction force that transformed the spiritual energy into twelve tornadoes and swept them into his body.
Crack, crack!
Before long, the sound of breaking through a realm rang beside his ears!
Body refinement tenth stage!
By then, he had absorbed more than half of the spiritual energy within the one hundred spirit stones!
Before long, the spiritual energy gradually became scarce until it dissipated completely, yet Gu Yi's cultivation level did not break through again.
Gu Yi stopped circulating his cultivation method and opened his eyes, feeling rather speechless. “Just how useless is this body? One hundred low-grade spirit stones were only enough to break through a single minor realm...”
A person's cultivation talent and speed had to be measured in two ways.
The first was the speed at which they absorbed spiritual energy.
Gu Yi possessed the Eastern Imperial Emperor Art, making his speed of absorbing spiritual energy unparalleled beneath the heavens! He was far faster than anyone else.
The second was their ability to absorb spiritual energy.
After being drawn into the body, spiritual energy circulated along the meridians. However, some amount was inevitably wasted during the process. Some people wasted more, while others wasted less. Those who wasted more would naturally cultivate more slowly.
Gu Yi's current body belonged to the type that wasted relatively more. What he did not know was that, on this continent, almost everyone wasted spiritual energy to the same degree. His body could actually be considered quite good.
But Gu Yi had never used other people as a comparison. He compared himself to the Eastern Emperor Supreme from five thousand years ago. Against that standard, he naturally appeared inadequate in every way.
At dusk, beside Xuanyang Lakeside, Liu Fang stood behind a huge boulder, looking left and right anxiously. He said to the fishing old man, “Teacher, please wait a little longer. Grandmaster Gu should be here soon!”
The old man chuckled. “I'm not impatient. Your heart is simply unsettled.”
Liu Fang nodded awkwardly. “Yes, yes.”
The girl in a white dress raised her brows and said coldly, “If that big fraud really dares to come, I'll expose his true colors.”
The old man turned to his great-granddaughter and asked, “How has he become a big fraud?”
The girl snorted. “Of course he's a fraud! He's merely a little martial artist in the body refinement realm, yet he dares to prattle about the cultivation realms beyond the divine bridge realm. He even speaks as though he knows exactly what he's talking about. Clearly, he's making it all up. Who knows how many people he's deceived!”
The old man shook his head. “I don't know about the others, but the Deity Realm Gu Yi mentioned should be real. I examined many ancient texts last night and suddenly remembered something.”
The girl and Liu Fang both asked curiously, “What is it?”
“Three hundred years ago, the Jin Kang Kingdom suffered the Jin Kang Calamity. The entire nation was destroyed, and history became fragmented during that period, with no records in the official histories. However, unofficial histories recorded that the calamity was caused by a ‘deity’ descending to the mortal world.”
“Unfortunately, I can no longer enter the divine bridge realm in this lifetime. Otherwise, I could ascend the Divine Bridge and see for myself. Then I would naturally know what lies on the other side of the bridge...”
The girl curled her lips. “How easy do you think it is to reach the divine bridge realm? Even the founding ancestor who established the kingdom was only in the Great Sage Realm. In my opinion, the Great Sage Realm is already the pinnacle of martial artists.”
"Shallow."
A voice suddenly entered the three people's ears. They turned their heads and saw Gu Yi slowly walking over.
“Grandmaster Gu, you've arrived!” Liu Fang bowed excitedly in greeting.
The girl snorted angrily. “Who are you calling shallow?”
Gu Yi said, “Naturally, I'm calling you shallow.”
“If this world were this long.”
He spread his arms to demonstrate, then pinched his two fingers together, leaving only a narrow gap. “You only know this much.”
“You!” The girl was so furious that her face flushed crimson. Laughing angrily, she said, “I am the imperial preceptor's great-granddaughter. I know the movements of the heavens above and the geography below. If I were to take the imperial examinations, I wouldn't dare claim to be worthy of first place, but I would certainly rank among the top three. What qualifications do you have to disparage me so utterly?”
Gu Yi shook his head. “Naturally, because I know more than you do. Not only do I know more than you, but even that old man beside you is an ignorant junior in front of me.”
The fishing old man had originally remained completely unmoved while Gu Yi and the girl bickered, wearing a smiling expression. But upon hearing Gu Yi disparage him so thoroughly, the corner of his mouth twitched violently, and his face darkened like charcoal.