A Pawn's Passage

Chapter 385: Nine Levels

There were many factions within the Li family, especially those who roamed outside the Daoist Order. Each of them had their own cronies and subordinates.

Li Tianyue had a few people under her command, most of them women. It was not because Li Tianyue had a prejudice against men, but because she admired Princess Pingyang, whom she considered her royal ancestor from the previous Qi Dynasty.

During the Qi Dynasty’s uprising, Princess Pingyang, the third daughter of Emperor Gaozu, distributed the royal family’s wealth to rally outlaws from the mountains, raising an army for her father. The troops under her command were called the Army of the Lady.

A young consort from the Golden Horde, renowned for her beauty, intelligence, and exceptional skills, was not only adept at singing, dancing, and martial arts, but she was also well-versed in military strategy and political maneuvering. She once assisted the Khan in governing, successfully mediating long-standing conflicts between the Central Plains and the Golden Horde, thereby establishing border trade. When she traveled, she was often accompanied by a contingent of female soldiers, which were referred to as the Lady Army.

Princess Pingyang’s Army of the Lady did not consist of only women, but it was led by an influential one. The Lady Army that Li Tianyue formed was more similar to the Golden Horde consort’s Lady Army, in which all members were women.

Although Li Tianyue could neither command troops on the battlefield nor navigate the halls of power, she remained inspired by these powerful women figures. Thus, she entrusted important roles to women, forming a Lady Army that answered solely to her.

Due to this, the guards of Sycamore Villa were not men, but women. They could disguise themselves as maids and escorts, making it difficult for people to distinguish.

These women were all adopted by Li Tianyue when they were young and then taught according to their aptitude. For a beauty like Li Qingnu, Li Tianyue hired famous teachers to teach the former music, chess, calligraphy, painting, singing, dancing, and waiting. Li Qingnu’s cultivation was just an added bonus for self-defense and health benefits.

Girls with ordinary looks practiced martial arts and became members of Li Tianyue’s Lady Army.

At first, Li Tianyue only thought of Li Qingnu as a rare collectible, so she did not want to give the former away so easily and decided to keep her for a while. However, as time went by, Li Tianyue developed some feelings for her doll, reluctant to give the latter away.

Li Tianyue was never married, and she had no children, so she regarded Li Qingnu as her goddaughter. Considering her own age, Li Tianyue also wanted to find a suitable candidate to inherit her position. However, since Li Tianyue had yet to make up her mind about her successor, she did not officially adopt Li Qingnu or add Li Qingnu’s name to the Li family’s register.

If Li Qingnu was officially an adopted daughter of the Li family, Lu Yunfeng would not have dared to blatantly threaten her by demanding that she spend one night with him. If he had done that to someone included in the Li family tree, it would have been akin to slapping the Li family in the face, and Lu Yunfeng certainly did not have the guts for that.

This situation was different from the conflict between Li Tianzhen and Zhang Yuelu. First of all, the Li family and Zhang family had equal status. Moreover, Li Tianzhen took the initiative to stir up trouble, so he was deemed unreasonable.

At this time, two women dressed as maids were guarding Li Qingnu’s residence.

One of the maids twirled her hair while complaining, “When the big boss isn’t around, she pretends to be the master here—organizing a fighting competition, making friends with Jianghu people, and bossing us around.”

“A’Ling, watch your words.” Another maid glanced at her. “I noticed that you said ‘the big boss,’ which suggests that you subconsciously believe we have another boss anyway. So why are you complaining when she’s ordering us around?”

A’Ling sighed. “I know, Xiao Hong. But I just can’t accept it. What gives her the right to be our boss? Just because she’s pretty?”

“That’s enough,” Xiao Hong said sternly. “You’d better stop talking about this. If you’re so brave, go ahead and tell her to her face. Or you can talk to the boss yourself when she comes back.”

A’Ling kept her mouth shut.

Seeing her like this, Xiao Hong softened her tone. “There are many beauties every year, but how many of them can be so well-known in the Imperial Capital and dubbed the Finest Courtesan?

“Some people are natural-born Banished Immortals; some are born to be rulers; some are born with stunning beauty; this kind of luck is their greatest asset. There’s no point envying such people because you can’t change a thing about it. We just have to do our duty.”

A’Ling still felt indignant, but what Xiao Hong said made sense. She could not refute this truth, so she could only sit there and sulk. After a while, she asked, “Xiao Hong, what do you think their relationship is?”

“Who?” Xiao Hong played dumb.

A’Ling pursed her lips and tipped her head toward the bedroom behind her. “The one inside, of course.”

Xiao Hong pretended not to understand what A’Ling was hinting at. “Didn’t they say that they were sworn siblings?”

“Come on! Do you really believe that?” A’Ling sneered. “If you ask me, I think he’s her lover. If not, why would he fight so hard for her and risk offending Lu Yunfeng? By the way, do you think the big boss knows about this?”

Xiao Hong asked back, “Do you really think that the boss will be clueless when the young lady holds such a public fighting competition? The young lady doesn’t seem like she wants to hide it from the boss either.”

A’Ling smiled sheepishly. She had originally wanted to discuss this matter and report it to the boss, but what Xiao Hong said made sense.

The fighting competition was not held in secret, so it would have been weird if the boss did not know about it.

While the two maids were talking outside, Qi Xuansu had already woken up from his trance.

He had absorbed 90% of the Blood Pill’s medicinal power.

The Guizhen stage was the last step of a Xiantian Being before becoming a Heavenly Being. Thus, there was a huge gap between practitioners in the Guizhen stage, so much so that it could have been split into another stage.

In some aspects, this was similar to Heavenly Beings in the Zaohua stage, which was the last step of Heavenly Beings before becoming Immortals. The gap between the Zaohua stage was so large that it even gave rise to a whole new stage called the Pseudo-Immortals, which were outstanding Heavenly Beings.

The Guizhen stage was divided into nine smaller levels. There was no difference in the mystical abilities one could practice in this stage, but the Nine Levels were just an indication of one’s depth of cultivation.

Li Changge, Yao Pei, and Zhang Yuelu were all on the highest 9th level, only one step away from becoming a Heavenly Being. In fact, this level was the fastest to break through. Anyone at this level would successfully become a Heavenly Being in a few months or at most, two years.

Zhang Yuelu was busy with various duties, so she could not focus on cultivation. Hence, she was relatively slow.

Xie Qiuniang and the like were not quite at the 9th level, but they were at least at the 8th. Most of Lu Yunfeng’s fighters were at the lowest level. Among them, the Diviner Lu Long had the highest cultivation at the 3rd level.

Qi Xuansu’s situation was a bit more complicated. His cultivation as a Guizhen-stage Rogue Cultivator was considered to be at the lowest level. However, including his incomplete abilities as a Diviner and Martial Arts Practitioner, Qi Xuansu would have been at the 6th or 7th level overall.

However, there was also a huge disadvantage to this. His Martial Arts Practitioners lineage and the Diviner lineage could not be integrated with his Rogue Cultivator lineage. That was why Qi Xuansu could not become a true Banished Immortal.

More importantly, the cultivation of his Martial Arts Practitioner and Diviner lineages could not be improved through conventional means such as meditation or taking elixirs. They could only be enhanced through the rare Xuan Jade.

This was how Qi Xuansu advanced from the Yuding Realm to the Holy Embryo Realm of Rogue Cultivators. However, the Xuan Jade was too precious and hard to come by, so Qi Xuansu knew not to put all his hopes on it.

If Qi Xuansu wanted to advance to a Heavenly Being, he would still have to rely on his own efforts, which was his Rogue Cultivator's Holy Embryo Realm on the first level of the Guizhen stage.

However, the effectiveness of the Blood Pill was far beyond Qi Xuansu’s expectations. It allowed him to jump through five levels, from the lowest to the 6th. If he were to go against Zhang Yuelu at this time with the mystical abilities of his two other lineages, he would have stood a fighting chance.

With his newly enhanced cultivation, Qi Xuansu’s senses became sharper, so he could clearly hear the conversation between the two maids outside.

Although he found their conversation rather funny, he finally understood Li Qingnu’s situation and why she wanted to join the Qingping Society.