A rough meal of wine and meat was enough to make even Li Guanyi and Si Ming unable to resist, leading Li Guanyi to meet several high-level cultivators that Si Ming had found. These cultivators were all familiar to Li Guanyi: Wang Tong, and the sword-wielding man with a resolute expression who had brushed past him that day, accompanied by a Black Panther Phantom.

There was also the elegant old man whom Li Guanyi had saved while galloping out of the city that day.

Si Ming casually introduced them, saying, "You all know this kid."

"Li Guanyi, as for these three, this one is from the Confucian school, originally the head of the academy, later traveling through various kingdoms; this one is the seventh master of the Mohist school, who has long abandoned his personal name in favor of universal love."

"His martial arts are quite good, able to use a heavy sword to break heavy armor. If it weren't for leading troops in battle, in one-on-one combat, he wouldn't be inferior to Yue Qianfeng, especially skilled in many secret techniques. The little gadgets of the Mohists are quite famous in the Jianghu."

"This one—"

"Master Zhu Wenyuan, the foremost expert in calculations of this era, a Daoist priest, knowledgeable in various arts, but does not practice martial arts."

Li Guanyi stepped forward to pay his respects, and the three returned the gesture. The Mohist master was stern, while Wang Tong had already met Li Guanyi. Only Zhu Wenyuan smiled and stroked his beard, saying, "I have heard General Yue Qianfeng mention a young friend he knows; I didn't expect it to be you."

"Was it you who solved the small problem I left at the Liu family private school?"

Li Guanyi recalled that the opportunity to meet the young lady was indeed left by the old man before him.

It was still early, and Zhu Wenyuan engaged Li Guanyi in casual conversation, sharing much knowledge about calculations. Li Guanyi initially thought that the calculations in this world were ordinary, but the more he interacted, the more he felt the old man's extraordinary insights. After a stick of incense, he could only apply the advantages of the calculations he had learned.

Soon, he found it difficult to keep up with Zhu Wenyuan's pace.

At this moment, the old man began discussing various Jianghu tales, as well as the connection between calculation techniques and star-gazing, which drew Li Guanyi's attention. Unbeknownst to him, dusk had arrived. Zhu Wenyuan timely halted the topic, looked up at the starry sky outside, and smiled, saying, "It’s time."

"Let’s go, young friend."

Li Guanyi's eyes brightened, knowing the moment had come.

At this time, he noticed that the taciturn Mohist master had vanished without a trace.

Here, there were only him and Zhu Wenyuan.

The old man was clearly a high-level Daoist, yet he did not understand martial arts. His cultivation was purely focused on the divine, transcending in the path of deducing all things and calculations, but it was difficult to apply it to combat. The old man merely smiled, saying that for him at this level, seeking benefits and avoiding harm was a simple matter.

"The highest virtue is not to fight. I find this easier than many martial artists with exceptional skills."

Li Guanyi asked, "Then is there nothing that cannot be avoided?"

Zhu Wenyuan smiled and replied, "No."

He paused and softly added, "Only those things I do not wish to avoid."

The old man pointed the way, and Li Guanyi drove forward. After leaving the city, they hurried along the night road for about an hour before arriving at a location. Wang Tong sat quietly outside the woods, his expression calm, and everything behind him appeared as usual.

However, as Li Guanyi stepped inside, a bright light suddenly illuminated his eyes.

The Confucians surpassed all in the mastery of qi.

Under the cover of the great Confucian Wang Tong, the happenings in the open space would not be known to outsiders. Inside, there was a complex formation, with the Mohist master inscribing the formation with his heavy sword. This formation involved Li Guanyi's fate, the fortune of the Tuyuhun, celestial patterns, water patterns, terrain, and many changes.

It was Zhu Wenyuan's handiwork.

At the very center of this vast and intricate formation was a slowly rotating Yin-Yang Fish.

Si Ming still wore ordinary clothing, but he held the royal seal of Tuyuhun in both hands. As he stepped into the formation, his white hair fluttered slightly, his expression solemn and dignified, distinguishing him from the usual disheveled old man. He was the oldest living figure of the Yin-Yang family, the Si Ming of the Upper Three Seats.

He placed the seal in the area representing Yin.

Then he looked at Li Guanyi and said, "Come here."

"Yin and Yang rotate; what has passed is indeed gone. You sit in the Yang position."

Li Guanyi removed his shoes and socks, stepping barefoot onto the formation.

As his feet touched the formation, the area cut by the heavy sword lit up with silver light. Li Guanyi noticed that the formation was marked with silver powder as its foundation. After he entered the formation, ripples spread across it. With the identity of a Daoist priest and the status of the foremost expert in calculations, along with Si Ming's assistance, this formation would be difficult to replicate after today.

Li Guanyi sat cross-legged on one side of the Taiji diagram.

The entire formation lit up, as if the starlight from the heavens descended, enveloping Li Guanyi within. Si Ming released his hands, stepping on different nodes one by one. He opened his mouth, reciting ancient inscriptions, akin to the ancient blessings and rituals. He was indeed the greatest priest of this era.

The royal seal of Tuyuhun trembled.

Waves of qi surged upward, almost breaking through Wang Tong's concealment.

It was the power left by the greatest heroes of the Western Regions, the dominators who had opened up the Western Regions for three hundred years. This boundless killing intent and royal aura surged, dispersing the ripples of the formation, causing the trees to sway as if flags were waving fiercely. Si Ming's chanting grew increasingly urgent.

His white hair and beard were swept by the wind.

The rustling of the trees brought him back three hundred years to the day this seal was forged, when the flags of the thirty-six divisions fluttered, the fierce wind howled, and blood was poured into the furnace, transforming into crimson flames.

In that killing intent and royal aura, Si Ming glimpsed the Tuyuhun kings of past generations.

He saw the figure at the forefront and said, "Tuyuhun!"

The old man recited the true name of his friend, gazing at that figure, softly saying:

"Your dream has ended..."

Within the royal seal of the king, the ancient dominator turned slightly. The power he left within this seal seemed to glimpse his friend. No longer the frail A Chai, he wore black armor, had a beard, and appeared robust, his eyes bright and filled with wildness.

Three hundred years ago.

Tuyuhun gazed at the fluttering flags, momentarily dazed, looking at the seal as if seeing his own end. The once youthful Yin-Yang family gained great fame due to this ritual, and would no longer be seen as frauds, becoming members of the Yin-Yang family's twenty-eight seats.

At that time, the young Si Ming wiped his sweat and said, "It’s finally over."

Tuyuhun asked, "A Feng, do you think the hegemony I established will last forever?"

The young Yin-Yang family hesitated, answering against his heart:

"I don’t know."

Tuyuhun laughed heartily: "What a foolish answer! However, after I die, who cares? Good friend, you are no longer a fraud; you should live longer than I, right? When that time comes, please watch over my end, don’t worry."

"I will help you in the end."

The response from that time seemed to linger, and thus the deepest part of the seal smiled.

He said, "No, wrong, A Feng."

"The dream will never end."

"My story ends, but this vast world will still have new heroes. This is our agreement. If you need it, take my power; my flames have nearly burned out. But if it can ignite a fiercer fire in the world, what could be wrong with that?"

"Who can refuse!"

Tuyuhun's will ignited, surging like a fierce fire. The remaining wills of the Tuyuhun clans and past monarchs roared in unwillingness. Tuyuhun raised his sword and swept it horizontally; the wills of these dominators shattered with a single strike, the killing intent vanished, leaving only pure heroic spirit.

Tuyuhun stood amidst the fierce fire, looking at his friend, smiling just like the original A Chai: "You look so old; it doesn’t seem like you."

"I thought you wouldn’t age."

The old man widened his eyes: "A Chai..."

Tuyuhun looked at Si Ming, calm and unhurried, saying:

"My friend, these hundreds of years."

"Have you been lonely?"

"Don’t worry—"

"Even as time changes, if my power can ignite in another person, consider it as me, still accompanying you for a while." He stepped forward, gently patting Si Ming's shoulder. That was merely the residual royal aura, which vanished without a trace as he strode ahead.

The royal cloak of the dominator swept past Si Ming's eyes.

A Feng turned back, and his friend’s figure was already gone.

The once most powerful dominator did not need the formation to weaken him. He did not transform into the evil spirit that everyone feared, preventing later generations from utilizing his power.

In such words, he calmly disappeared.

Si Ming opened his mouth, as if suddenly aging several decades. The old man recited ancient prayers, the power of his old friend transformed into flames, falling upon the later generations. Li Guanyi's pupils contracted; Tuyuhun's departure resonated most closely with the dominance of the White Tiger.

In that instant, everything around seemed to vanish, accompanied by the roar of the White Tiger.

The formation spread out like a water surface. He stood upon this surface, facing a gigantic White Tiger, slightly bowing, lowering its head, its eyes burning with blood-red flames, calmly gazing at him.

Then, the White Tiger Phantom suddenly lunged forward, landing within Li Guanyi's body. The power of the Phantom transformed into sharpness, and the roar of the fierce tiger erupted into the sky. Li Guanyi suppressed the feeling of his heart being shaken open, enduring the intense pain, instinctively operating the Tiger Roar Bone Forging Technique.

The Tuyuhun royal seal slowly rotated, the kingly aura within transforming into the roar of a fierce tiger, refining Li Guanyi's essence, spirit, and qi. The accumulation of three hundred years, although weakened due to the unworthy descendants, still retained an extremely pure power.

Li Guanyi's hair tips moved slightly.

A hint of golden jade color appeared on his skin.

Within him, streams of power began to transform his bones. The metamorphosis that originally required a long time to cultivate was now being completed methodically under the impetus of Tuyuhun's three hundred years of royal aura, as the stars in the sky gradually began to descend.

The Tuyuhun royal seal lost its power and fell to the ground.

The end of the hegemony, but also the continuation of the dream.

In the sky, the flowing light of the Seven Stars of the White Tiger suddenly brightened.

Li Guanyi's eyes revealed a scene: within the secret realm, a silver-haired girl knelt before a bonfire, her voice serene as she recited the incantations of the Eastern Land Star-Gazing School. In his ears, the chants of Si Ming from the Yin-Yang family and the incantations of Yaoguang from the Eastern Land Star-Gazing School resonated together.

It was the roar of the tiger transformed from the creator of Tuyuhun's three hundred years of hegemony.

It was also the flowing light of the Seven Stars of the White Tiger.

The Yin and Yang energies of the Yin-Yang family, calculated by the foremost expert in Daoist calculations, and the formation completed by the Mohist master.

The good fortune gathered from their encounters during this time ultimately converged, like rivers returning to the sea, surging and crashing together.

This propelled the realm of the Tiger Roar Bone Forging Technique to the level of that one person throughout history!

In the moment of stasis, the Dragon and Tiger Phantoms within Li Guanyi roared together, no longer counterbalancing each other. As Li Guanyi breathed, he felt the flow of inner qi accelerate suddenly, with the sound of golden jade ringing continuously in his ears. He could feel his transformation, sensing the blood flowing within him, bringing forth strength.

Tiger Roar Bone Forging Technique, great success!

【The root bone of the martial artist is elevated by one level, refining hidden injuries, removing hidden toxins.】

Li Guanyi breathed and focused his mind, planning to ride this perfect breakthrough momentum, gathering fiercely, surging towards the direction of the deadly poison in his heart, intending to use this momentum to shatter the poison in one go.

Inner qi impacted his heart.

The tiger roared incessantly.

The deadly poison that had clung to Li Guanyi like a bone for ten years struggled, but this time the tiger's roar brought by the breakthrough surged like a fierce tiger, its sharpness tearing at the toxins in Li Guanyi's heart. The deadly poison finally began to dissipate.

It was driven out from his heart meridians, and at this moment, Li Guanyi suddenly noticed something amiss.

Accompanied by the dispersal of the deadly poison, streams of clear light like jade blossomed from his heart. As the miasma of toxins dissipated, the clear jade-like flowing light grew increasingly bright, and finally, a tiger's roar and a clear bird's cry echoed in his ears, causing the deadly poison to collapse entirely.

The sound of flapping wings was clear and real.

A green phoenix emerged from Li Guanyi's heart, and at that moment, he discovered that the toxic gas had been completely shattered and vanished by this Qing Luan Phoenix. The Phantom gathered, letting out a joyous long cry, suddenly appearing, stretching its body freely in the void.

Elegant and noble.

It appeared beside Li Guanyi with immense intimacy, circling around his body.

Then it affectionately touched his forehead.

This was a Phantom?

Why would there be a Phantom in his heart?

Li Guanyi was stunned. The Phantom touched his forehead and then flew into his body.

It brought a warm yet painful sensation. Before his eyes, the smoke gathered, forming a scene: it was his own memory. When he was an infant, a woman looked down at him tenderly. Li Guanyi could not see her face clearly, but he heard her speaking:

"Then transfer his poison to me..."

"Even if it cannot be completely removed, my Qing Luan will protect him."

An aged voice fell silent: "But transferring the Phantom will... even with an improved method, transferring the Phantom will consume one-third of your primordial spirit, and you..."

"It’s nothing."

The woman gently pressed her palm against his brow.

Li Guanyi's eyes widened, wanting to see her face.

She held him as if he were the most precious treasure in the world, showing him flowers, reading books, telling him stories, her eyes filled with smiles as she looked at him. Finally, Li Guanyi saw her face clearly; she was a very beautiful woman, gazing at him with a smile.

She affectionately called him by his childhood name, and Li Guanyi reached out to touch her.

But she vanished, leaving only the palace engulfed in raging flames. He could feel she was inside, and he shouted loudly, but could only emit the cries of an infant, unable to do anything.

Li Guanyi suddenly staggered, clutching his heart. The memories he had personally experienced yet forgotten pierced his heart like a knife, causing intense pain. This was the instinctive pain of the body, stemming from memory and spirit.

At this moment, as if extreme sadness and pain had suddenly struck, his body activated self-protection, and he calmly thought that the bronze cauldron had completely suppressed the deadly poison, starting from the contact with Yue Qianfeng's Crimson Dragon.

It was always the Phantom that suppressed the deadly poison.

Thus, the one who had suppressed his deadly poison and protected him for ten long years was not the treasure that brought him to this world, but rather one-third of his mother’s primordial spirit and life. She had passed her Phantom to Li Guanyi, allowing her Phantom to protect him, while she had stopped ten years ago.

He had always been silently loved.

Li Guanyi was dazed, suddenly recalling the day when that woman held him, the spring sunlight flowing, the waters of Jiangnan long.

Her chin rested on the child's forehead, smiling and humming an ancient lullaby.

"I only wish for my child to live a long life, carefree and happy."

"Live a long life."

"Carefree and happy."

(本章完)