Republic of China Era: Entering the Dao through Divine Strike.

The dragon energy entering his body greatly enhances his power, but it also awakens the killing intent deep within his soul.

He was currently seething with resentment and had nowhere to vent it. If he were given an imperial edict now, he might not thank the emperor, but he would definitely come...

They came to question the Empress Dowager, asking why she thought she could bribe him with such a small thing.

He looked down on the imperial court, but he couldn't refuse a legitimate opportunity to strike at foreigners.

He didn't accept the decree for the Empress Dowager's sake; he accepted it for the sake of justice in his own heart.

The Empress Dowager paused for a moment, then her smile deepened.

The brush tip touched the paper, and the ink spread across the bright yellow silk. Each stroke was written slowly and carefully.

After writing the last character, the Empress Dowager put down her pen, waited for the ink to dry, and slowly rolled up the imperial edict.

Halfway through rolling it up, she suddenly stopped and looked up towards the outside of the hall...

Just then, the clock tower in the distant embassy district chimed its dull hour, startling a flock of crows perched on its glazed tiles.

She could clearly see those beams of light shooting into the sky last night, even through the palace gate.

"Grand Preceptor, I heard that the foreign embassy also stole a lot of dragon energy last night."

Will they take advantage of the chaos to loot?

"They will definitely come, but we just don't know when."

Wu Chang's tone remained calm as he said, "Last night, this humble monk sensed at least five different auras gathering dragon energy."

The Holy Grail of Onsa, the Yata Mirror of Japan, the eagle emblem of Germany... they were prepared long ago.

"The dragon vein has been drained, and they won't wait any longer."

"Then what should I do?"

"Li Xin is an internal problem, while foreigners are an external threat."

With the foreigners, as long as we make some concessions, we can gain some breathing room and wait for the right time.

Internal troubles, however, are like a thorn in the throat; they could be fatal.

The Empress Dowager should first use Li Xin as a shield against the foreigners' guns. Once the great formation is repaired and the dragon pearl is retrieved, she can then settle accounts with the foreigners at her own pace.

After the Empress Dowager finished rolling up the imperial edict, she handed it to the eunuch beside her: "Go, affix the seal. Send it to Li Garden."

The eunuch took the imperial edict with both hands and backed out of the palace gate.

The golden charcoal in the stove crackled and popped again, the ginseng tea had finally boiled dry, and a faint burnt, bitter smell wafted from the bottom of the pot.

The Empress Dowager leaned back on her phoenix chair, gazing at the dark golden sky outside the palace, and remained silent for a long time.

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Chapter 202 Secluded Cultivation, Interaction Between Heaven and Man

When Li Xin returned to Li Garden, the bamboo garden was still lit.

Two figures, one tall and one short, were busy in the rooms of their residence, and had not returned to their own rooms to rest until late at night.

They are clearly waiting.

He pushed open the door to the study in the Bamboo Garden and leaned the broken Panlong Spear against the corner of the wall. The upper half of the spear shaft had shattered into countless pieces, while the lower half remained largely intact.

However, the remaining half-meter of the gun barrel was covered with cracks, and the bright silver had turned into a charred black, as if it had shrunk considerably.

"Young master, is this the Dragon-Coiling Spear?"

Zhuang Hongxiu's hand, which was wiping the table, suddenly stopped. She turned her head to look at the extra person in the room. Her eyes lit up at first, and after glancing at Li Xin's blue clothes, her gaze fell on the gun barrel, and a mist appeared in her eyes.

"It's nothing, I just used too much force and broke the gun."

Thinking that this gun had served me well in countless battles since I stole it, and had certainly put in the hard work even if it hadn't done anything particularly meritorious, I decided to keep half of the shaft and bring it back as a souvenir.

"Young master, you're just trying to lie to me. You're covered in blood."

Zhuang Hongxiu put down the rag, frowned, and stepped forward, gently trying to lift Li Xin's sleeve to check his injuries.

The sound of light footsteps came from outside the window.

Xiaoyue carefully walked across the corridor carrying a bowl of hot porridge. Her toes tripped on the threshold, the bowl wobbled, and she fell forward...

Just as she was about to fall into the study along with the bowl, a hand steadily caught her forehead.

"I've told you so many times, you have to cross the threshold, but don't step on it." Li Xin took the bowl of porridge with one hand and gently patted her forehead with the other.

Xiaoyue stuck out her tongue, looked up at him, and her expression changed drastically: "Second Brother, you're injured. Are you badly hurt? Your clothes are covered in bloodstains."

She reached out her small hand and wiped it on his blue robe. Of course, the half-dried bloodstains couldn't be wiped away, but she still wiped them several times carefully, as if wiping them a few more times would make them disappear.

"It's not my blood."

"That's good." Xiaoyue breathed a sigh of relief, but immediately put on a serious face. "Sister Hongxiu said that every time you say 'it's not my blood,' you are actually injured yourself, but you just don't tell us."

"Don't believe me? Take a look."

Li Xin laughed as he tore off his blood-stained blue shirt, revealing his muscular, oily upper body.

Muscles and tendons combine to form a streamlined, perfect body.

The eight pieces of the belly are as if they were cut with a knife and axe, with distinct edges and corners.

Most importantly, his body was now as white and flawless as jade, like a fine work of art.

Not to mention finding any wounds.

"Shy, Second Brother, you've gone too far. Granny said you can't be shirtless in front of girls... I'm going to sleep."

Xiaoyue rubbed her face a couple of times, wrinkled her nose, spat, turned around, and dashed out of the study back to her own room.

She did see clearly that her second brother had no injuries.

"That little rascal is so clever."

Li Xin shook his head helplessly.

Xiaoyue is actually very difficult to fool.

She knows everything, and she can also roughly tell whether adults are lying to coax her.

If we don't let her see the evidence.

I definitely won't be able to sleep tonight.

If she secretly cries half the night, that would be terrible.

From then on, she would worry every time she went out.

This sense of insecurity and uncertainty.

This habit was already formed when the three siblings depended on each other for survival.

In those precarious days, I was terrified that when I opened my eyes, I would be all alone.

How many [new character] sheets were used?

Zhuang Hongxiu, however, could not be fooled.

She knew more than Xiaoyue, and knew that the life-giving character could heal injuries at an extremely fast speed.

Furthermore, she vaguely knew that since Li Xin returned last time, he seemed to have gained an ability to quickly recover from injuries.

She handled many of Li Xin's daily affairs.

This includes, but is not limited to, slashing one's own arm with a knife until it bleeds profusely, and then timing the recovery.

Furthermore, consuming nourishing foods helps restore vitality.

The most serious incident was when Li Xin used the Xintinghou sword to stab himself in the abdomen, piercing it through.

The wound healed right under her nose, as if by magic.

Of course, after that incident, Li Xin drank an extra bowl of herbal medicine and ate three pounds of meat.

Only then can the loss of energy be made up.

Now, the young master's clothes are covered in blood, which shows just how dangerous this trip was.

"Actually, I didn't use many sheets. However, this injury was something I deliberately suffered. I discovered that the body can grow autonomously during destruction and reconstruction."

Therefore, since it's rare to encounter such immense pressure, I proactively stepped in to temper my physical constitution.

Li Xin shook his head, took the blue robe that Zhuang Hongxiu brought him, and casually put it on.

"Young master, would you like some porridge first? There are a few pounds of cooked beef in the kitchen, I'll go get it."

Zhuang Hongxiu opened her mouth as if to say something, but in the end she didn't, and said with a smile.

"it is good."

He lowered his head and took a sip. The porridge contained tender ginger shreds and red dates, and was cooked until thick and smooth.

He picked up a large piece of beef, put it in his mouth, and with a couple of chews, it was ground into small pieces.

His throat bulged slightly, and he had already swallowed it.

The meat was cooked until very tender and perfectly seasoned, but it was quickly digested once it entered the stomach.

He wolfed down a pound or two of meat without his belly bulging out at all.

"My digestive ability is getting stronger and stronger, and I'm becoming less and less like a normal human being."

Li Xin sighed.

"You should eat something too, we've been waiting this late."

"I'm not hungry."

Zhuang Hongxiu smiled gently, "I'll go get some hot water. Young Master, you should rest early after your bath. You must be tired."

"it is good."

Having a late-night snack completely depleted my energy.

Li Xin felt that his condition had returned to perfection.

After washing off the filth and changing into clean clothes, he watched as Zhuang Hongxiu went to her room and fell asleep. Soon after, he heard soft, even breathing.

He then began to examine his gains.

He sat down at the desk and took out the silver bottle, placing it on the table.

The engravings of the sun, moon, mountains, and rivers on the bottle's wall were still slightly warm, and inside was sealed 232.4 taels of dragon energy...

Four qian (a unit of weight) of the money came from the previous battle and was left over after the breakthrough in cultivation. Last night, another two hundred and thirty-two liang (another unit of weight) were absorbed.

It's not that we couldn't absorb it at that time.

However, the old monk Wuchang, driven to desperation, gathered all the energy of the dragon vein and transformed it into a black demonic dragon, whose power was too overwhelming.

His innate ability [Avoid Misfortune] activated again, clearly telling himself that staying any longer might lead to unforeseen disaster.

Therefore, after taking a portion of the dragon's energy, they quickly retreated.

The black dragon that had materialized couldn't even catch a glimpse of him.

Now, this dragon energy is enough for him to break through the Ren, Du, and Chong meridians, the three most difficult meridians to open, but the prerequisite is that he must first open all five other meridians.

He separated a wisp of dragon energy from the silver bottle, about ten ounces, and sank it into his dantian.

The moment the dragon energy entered his body, his dantian trembled violently.

The twelve meridians, like long-parched rivers finally receiving spring floods, suddenly accelerated the circulation of true qi, and all the acupoints in the body emitted subtle tremors.

He didn't try to get more.

Although the dragon energy was pure, the meridians, which had just undergone suppression by a grand formation last night, still retained slight imperfections.

The injury has healed, but it hasn't been as smooth and perfect as it was after being nourished and refined by true qi.

Swallowing too much at once will only affect the efficiency of your cultivation.

He spent a full half hour using the ten ounces of dragon energy to catalyze his true energy and repeatedly nourish his damaged meridians.

Adjust the twelve meridians to their peak state.