Chapter 199: Returning to the City of Chang’an
“Did he get as powerful as our head within merely a dozen days?”
Zhao Ling could not help guessing the reason for his unusual aura.
But she soon repelled that thought.
Because that was utterly impossible.
Through their conversation, Li Mu learned that with the care of Zhao Ling, the female pharmacist, Feng Yuanxing and Zhen Meng had fully recovered. No permanent harm was left on them, except for some scares. As to Ma Junwu, though he could not sprout a new arm after the old one was chopped off, the rest of his injuries were all healed, and now he was able to move around all by himself.
Only Qing Feng, the quirky little attendant, had not fully recovered since he lost too much blood in the parts below his knees, which caused the injury to be too severe. But at least he was lucky enough to avoid the amputation. So, with the help of a wheelchair, he could easily get about in the county government.
“Is it possible that he will recover in the future?” Li Mu cast an inquiring look at the female pharmacist.
“It’s hard to tell,” answered Zhao Ling, void of expression.
If it was in the past, she would definitely blurt out ‘no way’. But now, honestly, she was not sure anymore.
Because the things that happened during the past couple of days truly kind of overturned the knowledge system she had been studying as a pharmacist.
For one thing, the injuries of Ma Junwu and the two others had been healing so fast that it overtook the most optimistic estimation she made for them.
That was, still, nothing amazing. What was more incredulous was the recovery Qing Feng had made. It was actually a miracle. At first, she asserted that Qing Feng just had to have the amputation, which would cost him a large amount of blood and qi and gave him frail health and a short life span. However, how was Qing Feng doing now? Well, he not only had recuperated his health and lived like an uninjured person with an abundant supply of blood and qi, but also escaped the amputation of his legs. And most of all, the parts below the knees that had suffered the most serious blow now merely had amyotrophy.
“How come everything goes like this?”
After careful observation, Zhao Ling came to some conclusions.
First, it was because the Spiritual Qi in the county government was just too rich, almost on par with that in the secluded practice areas of the Taibai Sword Faction. Second, the blood Li Mu donated before contained highly powerful vigor of life, which forcefully replenished the blood and qi Qing Feng had lost. Its effect was not less than the best magic drugs.
In truth, after spending those days in the county government, her curiosity towards Li Mu was about to reach the bursting point.
And deep down, she had also admitted that Li Mu was not the murderer who killed those fellow brothers from her faction.
Through the dialogues of Feng Yuanxing, Zhen Meng, Ma Junwu, Qing Feng, and many other guards and maids working in the county government, she had learned about a more real, more clear-cut Li Mu and also got rid of some biased opinions she held for Li Mu.
Furthermore, attributable to the freaking rich Spiritual Qi in the county government that might only be found in the private practice spot in a large faction, Zhao Ling’s cultivation had been improved at a stunning speed during the past a dozen days as well. She was quite delighted by that change. To a certain degree, that was a concomitant favor Li Mu did for her.
Therefore, she even started to like him a bit.
Nevertheless, she still could not bring herself to ignore her self-esteem and apologize to Li Mu for her previous rude behavior.
Her long-existed sense of superiority and her proud of being a female genius had disabled her to make amends to anyone first.
But Li Mu obviously did not have time to analyze the subtle change of thoughts of this ‘captive’.
Because all his attention was now on Qing Feng.
“I will cure your legs. That’s for sure,” Li Mu patted the little boy on the shoulder and said affirmatively.
Qing Feng was smiling. After going through such a setback, he was more immatured than his peers. It was palpable that his disposition had changed thoroughly, for the looks in his eyes and smile on his face were supposed to belong to a wise man who had experienced many vicissitudes of life. He then replied, “Young Master, I also believe that I can get a full recovery.”
Now, his willpower was truly unbreakable like steel.
Li Mu nodded firmly.
Then, after a speedy cleanup and arrangement, Li Mu’s mother and her maids finally settled down in the county government. Since they were all exhausted due to the long travel, they soon turned in.
Li Mu, without taking a break, refused the proposal of Feng Yuanxing and several other officials about reporting their work to the magistrate. He, instead, encouraged them to handle those issues boldly on their own before sending them out of the county government.
When they were all gone, he summoned Qing Feng, the little attendant, to his training room.
“This journey to Chang’an brought me a set of Cultivation Method, which I figured will suit your need.” Li Mu then passed on the first level of the simplified Xiantian Skill to the little attendant.
That was a decision he made after careful consideration.
He must propel those close to him to become stronger, to be capable of self-protection. Only in this way could he not be burdened by them.
Besides, Li Mu was more and more convinced that his power alone was nonetheless quite limited. It was much better to foster an army of his men. By searching for talents across the world and cultivating them, he might create a fantastic force of his own. Then, if anyone dared to demolish Earth, he could simply command that force to blaze a path to Earth and destroy the enemies. Well, even imagining it felt pretty good.
But, of course, it was provided that Li Mu himself was powerful enough.
So far, Hua Xiangrong and the little attendant were the two people Li Mu found most trustworthy.
Therefore, he decided to try out the first level of the simplified Xiantian Skill on them.
In comparison with Hua Xiangrong, the little attendant was much more familiar with the martial arts theories, so it took him less time to pick up the spirit of the skill. Adding that he was also quite gifted, he learned faster and more effortlessly than Hua Xiangrong at first. However, his body was not that strong as the Natural Taoist Figure Hua Xiangrong was born with, so for the time being Li Mu could not tell how far he could go in the end.
After he finished the teaching, he left the little attendant in the training room alone to practice. Then, he went back to the county government on his own.
He was going to work on the Earth Evil Polaris Formation again so as to reinforce it.
By this time, Li Mu’s strength was much stronger than over ten days ago. In particular, his spiritual force hiked, allowing him to turn on the Third Eye. He was also more at ease when setting up magic formations, and his understanding of Taoist magic arts was also leveled up. Thus, he was going to check for loopholes and correct the mistakes he left when he first cast the formation.
After two whole hours, Li Mu completed all the amending work on the formation.
The modified Earth Evil Polaris Formation was totally a brand new one. It would keep growing and developing, swiftly increasing its power by continuously absorbing the Spiritual Qi in the environment. According to Li Mu’s rough estimation, in one mouth, even experts in the Natural Realm would not be able to break into the county government.
And during the meantime, the richness of the Spiritual Qi gathered here would scale new heights, too.
In addition, the Earth Evil Polaris Formation had many other useful functions, but those functions required the controller of the formation to operate.
Given Li Mu’s present cultivation, if it was he who operated this formation, he had the confidence to trap all the attackers inside it and defeat them thoroughly, even if they were at the same level as he was.
That was the excellence of the magic formation!
After getting all those things done, Li Mu called Feng Yuanxing and the other officials over. He left many orders to them and directly asked them to move the administrative office out of the county government and pick a new place for it. That he wanted to relocate the office was because with all the folks coming in and out of here, it was difficult to manage the mansion and to prevent the secret of the formation from being disclosed or being partially damaged by accident.
After all, a fortress was always easy to be taken down from the inside.
That was a famous line of a great man.
Li Mu just had to be guarded against any lurking danger.
From now on, this county government had practically been converted to Li Mu’s private house.
But no one had any complaint about it, because it was totally within his power.
By the time Li Mu went back to the training room, Qing Feng had made great progress in practicing the Xiantian skill and his spiritual force had been enhanced. Naturally, his performance was far less outstanding than Hua Xiangrong’s. But that was a matter of the talent one was born with and could not be improved, so it seemed that Qing Feng had to be patient and work harder when learning this skill.
Then, Li Mu ceremoniously taught the little attendant a few ways to operate the formation. Although Qing Feng’s spiritual force was still insufficient to control the formation, thanks to the controlling jade badge Li Mu gave him before, he could already put some uses of the Earth Evil Polaris Formation in practice.
By then, it was already afternoon.
After finishing all the arrangements, Li Mu immediately set on his return journey to the city of Chang’an.
Zheng Cunjian also accompanied him on the way back.
And as to Li Bing, that unlucky but pampered Young Master, was still confined to the county prison.
Not until it was at dusk did Zhao Ling, the female pharmacist, heard the news that Li Mu had returned to the city of Chang’an.
But that news made the female pharmacist rather disappointed.
“I’ll certainly figure out all your secrets!” She swore to herself.
She could tell that Li Mu was carrying a ton of secrets.
Thus, she was very much intrigued.
That intrigue made her itchy as if a kitty was scratching her heart with its flesh pads.
…
…
The next day’s morning, Li Mu had already come back in Chang’an.
That he could travel so fast was because what he rode was the chrysanthemum leopard instead of the horses and the carriage he had to employ for the comfortableness of his mother and the maids when going to Taibai County. The chrysanthemum leopard almost galloped without a stop and covered several hundred miles overnight. Therefore, as the suns were rising, he already made it back to the Holy House, a branch of the Musical House seated on Liufang Street.
“Ah, Young Master, you’re back?”
Hua Xiangrong, who had just done the morning practice, rejoiced at once as Li Mu appeared in front of her.
Although it had just been two days and a half since Li Mu left Chang’an, to Hua Xiangrong, it felt like he had been gone for two years.
This young girl who just had her first awakening of love finally vividly experienced the bitterness of having her mind constantly dwell on one person. That longing for her lover was like bugs gnawing her bones. She knew her sweetheart would soon go back, but she just could not help missing him. If it had not been the practice of the Goddess Xiantian Skill that allowed her to kill time, Hua Xiangrong would find the two days without Li Mu passing too slowly.
Li Mu lifted a hand and rubbed Hua Xiangrong’s hair quite naturally. Then, he said, “I’ve promised you I would be back in a couple of days. Surely I’ll be back.”
Hua Xiangrong blushed again.
Only two days later, the progress Hua Xiangrong made already took Li Mu’s breath away.
He could distinctly detect that Hua Xiangrong’s vigor, blood, and qi were more than ten times adequate than two days ago. Now, her body was filled with energy. If the Hua Xiangrong two days ago was a fragile ordinary girl, then the current Hua Xiangrong was already a martial arts practitioner equipped with the power of the peak at the Joint-force level.
What was more stunning was the increase of her spiritual force.
“Perhaps her spiritual force is already comparable to that of a two-star warlock… She is proceeding… really fast!”
Again and again, Li Mu was astonished by the practice speediness of the Natural Taoist Figure.
…