Chapter 280: The Dungeon Begins

The Old Man's Loyalty Level was full.

This also meant the Eldest Young Master Luo persona had been fully cleared.

Yan Jing looked at the options the system presented:

[Martial Cultivation First Tier Abilities: Insight, Strong Soul]

Insight: Reveals flaws in an opponent's techniques and physical weaknesses.

Strong Soul: Greatly increases resistance to mental attacks.

[Martial Cultivation Second Tier Abilities: Strong Body, Myriad Weapons]

Strong Body: Unless suffering from extremely severe injuries, the body will automatically regulate itself to maintain peak physical condition.

Myriad Weapons: Massively increases affinity with bladed weapons. Any weapon's power increases in your hands.

[Martial Cultivation Third Tier Abilities: Offense, Defense]

Offense: When you execute a perfect attack, its power will be boosted to an absolute extreme.

Defense: When you execute a perfect block, the opponent's attack will be weakened to an absolute extreme.

[Martial Cultivation Fourth Tier Abilities: Martial Body, Martial Heart]

Martial Heart: By sparring with or observing an opponent, you can gradually comprehend their techniques or even create your own martial arts.

Martial Body: Divided into four stages.

[Created Abilities: Dual Severing Hands, Dragon Fist, Forsake Life]

Forsake Life: Fuses all your abilities, using your own life force as fuel to unleash the ultimate strike.

Note: When life force is abundant, this ability's effect stably surpasses your own [Strength] by one tier.

Reading the descriptions of the Old Man's current abilities, Yan Jing's eyes widened.

This was the legendary Martial Cultivation?

At first glance, if taken individually, these four abilities seemed decent—stronger than a normal Pathway, but not overly exaggerated.

But once combined and paired with the Old Man's martial realm, the results were completely different.

It was an absolute case of one plus one yielding far more than two.

Take Offense and Defense, for example. According to the detailed skill descriptions, if he executed a perfect attack or perfect block, a Fourth Tier could unleash an effect stronger than a Fifth Tier.

As for how to land a perfect attack or block, that relied entirely on the other abilities and his own martial realm.

The same applied to the Martial Body.

Every time one of its four stages was completed, his strength would elevate. Starting from the third stage, a Fourth Tier would become equivalent to a Fifth Tier.

However, the conditions for each stage were inextricably linked to one's martial realm. They were extremely harsh and absolutely not something easily achieved.

Originally, this ability had been Yan Jing's top choice.

But after seeing the conditions for those stages, he gave up.

It was basically impossible for him to pull off.

'This Pathway... it'd be hard to even steal it—'

It was safe to say that the sheer power of Martial Cultivation was built entirely on the synergy between its abilities and the user's martial realm.

In the end, Yan Jing could only set his sights on the ability called Forsake Life.

He had seen the Old Man use this move in Old Sin City, but its effects back then hadn't been nearly as absurd as the specific description suggested now.

At the time, using it as a Second Tier to fight a Third Tier had been a massive struggle.

Fighting a Third Tier as a Second Tier was fundamentally different from fighting a Fifth Tier as a Fourth Tier. The higher the Tier, the wider the gap. Just as noted in the Martial Body's detailed description, jumping tiers to boost strength was no longer possible past the Seventh Rank.

'It must have evolved.'

After a brief moment of thought, Yan Jing selected this ability.

It was perfect; he lacked an ultimate offensive method.

Forsake Life exactly made up for this, and it could even synergize with his own abilities.

After choosing the ability, he stretched and walked back into the inner room.

"Xiao Yu, your young master is hungry!"

"It'll be ready in a second!"

Fei Yu's voice drifted from the kitchen before she poked her head out. "Didn't you just buy and finish a whole bag of flatbreads from outside this morning?"

"I'm hungry again."

Yan Jing rubbed his chin.

Ever since he drank the Potion of Heracles, whenever his strength increased, whichever body he occupied would grow famished.

Yes, it perfectly fit his previous hypothesis: physical hunger was calculated independently.

"Your young master is going out tomorrow."

"Okay!"

Crash!!!

The sound of shattering glass erupted from an antique room, terrifying the servants into dead silence.

The person inside had been smashing things for half the day, yet no one dared to intervene.

Even the man's most favored woman, Wanyu, stood at the door, too afraid to enter.

An unknown amount of time passed before Li Qinghe emerged from the room, panting heavily.

Glancing at the servants gathered around the door, his face darkened as he roared, "What are you all crowding around for?! Get out of here!!!"

The servants scattered like birds and beasts. Only Wanyu, trembling and walking slowly due to her blindness, remained. Li Qinghe pulled her into his arms, his tone gentle.

"Yu'er, I wasn't talking about you."

"Your Majesty... it was Yu'er's failure," the woman stammered in fear.

"No, I don't blame you." Li Qinghe sighed. "Your calculations were completely correct. I just failed to seize the opportunity."

"It's fine. I'll find another chance to contact that Martial Saint named Liu Fu. But Yu'er, I need you to do something for me."

Li Qinghe's tone was unprecedentedly soft. A rosy blush crept onto the face of the woman in his arms. "Please speak, Your Majesty."

"I want you to calculate someone's fortune for me."

"Who?"

"Luo Sheng."

"Luo Sheng?" The woman blanked upon hearing the name.

Simply because she had already calculated his fortune before.

Ever since she had been brought to the Ninth Lake Prefecture by Li Qinghe, she had divined the fortunes of countless individuals possessing the imperial destiny, all to help Li Qinghe reclaim it.

There wasn't actually just one person with the imperial destiny. Since it was a fate profile—determined by the time, place, and date of birth—the combination of these three factors meant there would always be individuals sharing the same destiny.

But there could only be one emperor.

If a person possessing the imperial destiny didn't perform the acts of an emperor, the fortune needed to become one would abandon them.

This was also Li Qinghe's motive for having her calculate imperial destinies.

He didn't want to kill those who possessed the imperial destiny.

Rather, he wanted the imperial destiny to fully mature within one of them.

If he killed them, the imperial destiny would simply seek another host, and finding it again would cost immense manpower and resources. The correct approach—

was to wait until the imperial destiny was ripe, then use a fate-altering technique to seize it.

And Luo Sheng was the last person with the imperial destiny that she had divined.

Among all those found with the imperial destiny, he was also the one who had held onto it the longest.

Back then, Li Qinghe had once considered Luo Sheng the perfect vessel to nurture the imperial destiny. He had fully planned to make his move the year Luo Sheng turned eighteen.

Unexpectedly, Luo Sheng had no desire to be an emperor, causing the imperial destiny to leave him.

That incident had sent Li Qinghe into a furious rage. To punish this disobedient "puppet," he had even ordered the assassination of Luo Sheng's father far away in Bianliu County.

Hearing Luo Sheng's name again now left Wanyu somewhat puzzled.

She remembered calculating it just half a year ago.

At that time, Luo Sheng's fate had been utterly bleak. The corresponding star chart had indicated an omen of extreme misfortune; it looked as though his days were numbered.

"Is this Luo Sheng... still alive?" she couldn't help but ask.

"He's alive." Li Qinghe nodded, his gaze dark. "Furthermore, I suspect the imperial destiny has returned to him."

"Alright." Wanyu nodded. "I will try."

Soon after, she took out several Ancient Bronze Coins from her jacket pocket, heavily stained with grease.

She sat cross-legged on the floor and began continuously tossing them.

With every toss, she muttered fate calculation incantations.

Suddenly, she seemed to sense something amiss. Her fair brows furrowed deeply as she sped up her tosses.

Yet the faster she calculated, the tighter her brows knit together.

The coins tossed onto the ground began to scatter in increasingly chaotic patterns.

Gradually, her entire body started to tremble in tandem with the extreme speed of her tossing. Her neatly pinned hair came loose, sweat poured down, and her face steadily contorted. Plumes of pitch-black Weird Energy rose from the coins, beginning to infect her fingertips.

Realizing something was wrong, Li Qinghe tried to stop her, but before he could even get close, Wanyu suddenly spat out a mouthful of fresh blood. With a sharp scream, she collapsed backward.

"Yu'er!"

Li Qinghe rushed to catch her, pulling her into his embrace.

"It's wrong... the previous calculations were wrong. They were all wrong... everything was wrong..."

The woman's unfocused eyes were actually bleeding. As if deaf to Li Qinghe's voice, she muttered madly, "Impossible, I couldn't have miscalculated. Someone definitely altered his fate... definitely..."

Seconds later, she fainted completely.

Right before losing consciousness, she seemed to snap out of her madness, delivering one final sentence to Li Qinghe:

"He's in Paima County—kill him! Your Majesty!"

Looking at the unconscious woman, Li Qinghe's face brimmed with murderous intent. He laid her on the ground, hastily got up, and grabbed a Jade Token, connecting to an illusory figure.

"Your Majesty!" the figure greeted.

"Lead your men personally. Take a trip to Paima County and find a man named Luo Sheng. You must bring him back." Li Qinghe's face was terrifyingly gloomy.

"This—" The figure seemed troubled. "These are turbulent times. Making a major move right now might draw the attention of the East Lake Prefecture, Your Majesty."

"Recently, the East Lake Prefecture has been negotiating an alliance with another Domain. I'm afraid this matter is still—"

"Just do it!!!" Li Qinghe snarled, his expression dark. "Even if the East Lake Prefecture finds out I'm making moves, it doesn't matter. Bring that man back to me!"

He had thought of a way to seize the imperial destiny and subjugate the Martial Saint at the same time.

But he had to be fast.

Otherwise, once that Martial Saint emerged from seclusion, it would be too late.

The next day.

A system prompt appeared before Yan Jing's eyes.

[Task Stage A is about to begin.]

[The location for this task is Minhu, Paima County, Huang Family Village.]

[Your drop point will automatically be selected as Huang Family Village.]

[Your initial Mental Immunity Value is 100 points.]

[Welcome back, Player.]

In the blink of an eye.

Yan Jing had arrived in the Inner World.

Looking at the thriving, prosperous little village before him, he nodded.

Excellent. The actors were all very dedicated to their roles.

Mo Lian scanned her surroundings and quickly spotted that familiar figure in the crowd.

Before she could walk over, a middle-aged man in his early thirties standing beside her spoke up, "Is that the guy leading us this time?"

"Yeah, that's him." Mo Lian took a deep breath. "Don't cause any trouble, Jushi. Do whatever he says, and don't underestimate him just because he's from the Fifth Ring Domain."

"I'm here for a promotion this time, so obviously I'll do whatever he says. I'm not an idiot!" the man hastily replied.

Pausing for a moment, he looked around and lowered his voice. "I'm just a little uneasy."

"Don't you find this really bizarre? According to the information we received, Players doing tasks in Paima County clearly saw that Huang Family Village was deserted. We even each brought the bones of the Inner World Residents from Huang Family Village. So why is this place so bustling?"

Hearing this, Mo Lian blanked and looked around as well.

Though the various houses in the village were dilapidated, they looked as though they had been wiped clean of dust. Bright red couplets were pasted on the courtyard doors, clearly bought not long ago.

Old folks sat by the doorways of some houses, resting with their eyes closed, while children chased each other playfully in front of other courtyards. Bathed in the warm sun of early autumn, these scenes felt incredibly cozy and heartwarming.

Yet it made Mo Lian swallow hard subconsciously.

Right.

Previously, Players who had done tasks nearby had clearly seen that Huang Family Village was in ruins.

It happened just a short while ago.

So where did all these people come from?