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Chapter 589: Chapter 595: The Arrogant Heavens
"Everyone has left, so speak your mind."
Li Xuefeng said solemnly, "Please, Elder, cast a spell to isolate us from the outside."
Li Zhirui, his expression unchanged, glanced at Li Xuefeng. Spirit light surged from his fingertips, and then he enveloped the two of them.
"At the Spirit Testing Conference last year, a member of our clan with an Earth Heavenly Spirit Root was born!"
Li Zhirui’s face showed a slight change as he said, "Are you telling the truth?!"
It was known that for several hundred years since the Li family was established, no one with a Heavenly Spiritual Root had emerged within the clan. This was the first time!
The reason why Li Zhirui was so astonished was that for those with a Heavenly Spiritual Root, cultivation was easy as eating and drinking; there were no bottlenecks before reaching the Nascent Soul stage!
If one disregarded the solidity of the foundation, with abundant resources, it would only take twenty years! That was how quickly they could cultivate such a person to the Golden Core Late Stage.
If it were a cultivator of average aptitude, twenty years might not even be enough to break through the Foundation Establishment.
One could imagine how terrifying the aptitude of a Heavenly Spiritual Root was.
Seeing Li Xuefeng nod, Li Zhirui also calmed down and said, "Besides you, who else knows about this?"
"Only an Executor named Li Wenzhang and the Elder responsible for spirit testing know of it."
The Li family’s process for testing Spiritual Roots was now kept highly confidential. Originally, the Spirit Testing Array would reveal the type of Spiritual Root, but after Jiang Fengwu’s modification, it would only determine whether a Spiritual Root was present.
If a Spiritual Root was found, one would enter a sealed small room to further test the type and purity of the Spiritual Root. Besides the person being tested, only one Executor was present to activate the Spirit Measuring Ruler and make the record.
The records were then submitted to the Elder responsible for spirit testing, who compiled them and sealed them away. During this process, no third party was allowed to handle them.
Once sealed, no one was allowed to view them in private!
Even Li Zhirui could not break this rule!
After all, he was the one who had designed it, and naturally, he had to lead by example in adhering to it; otherwise, all efforts would be in vain.
And should the private details of a clan member be leaked, the crime would be akin to betraying the family. Not only would the perpetrator’s cultivation be abolished, but the consequences would also befall three generations of their kin.
Because an Earth Heavenly Spirit Root had emerged and the matter was of great importance, the Elder in charge of the testing was uncertain and wanted to report directly to Li Zhirui. However, Li Zhirui was not present in the clan at the time, so the Elder had no choice but to inform Li Xuefeng.
"Keep an eye on those two and meanwhile, alter the appearance of that child with the Heavenly Spiritual Root." It wasn’t that Li Zhirui didn’t trust them, but it was just to be safe.
Moreover, in this way, after a dozen or so years once he reverted to his original appearance, those two probably wouldn’t be able to recognize him.
"Yes!"
"An Earth Heavenly Spirit Root? How timely, the Yellow Jade Dragon Lizard is a fourth-grade, Earth Attribute Dragon Beast." Li Zhirui asked, "What is his name?"
With a sigh of relief, Li Xuefeng felt a surge of excitement as he said, "Li Mingyao." He knew his grandson could contract this fourth-grade Dragon Beast!
That’s right!
This Li Mingyao, who possessed the Earth Heavenly Spirit Root, was in fact Li Xuefeng’s biological grandson, not a paternal relative such as a cousin twice removed.
After learning of his grandson’s Spiritual Root, Li Xuefeng had been strategizing to secure a high-grade, Earth Attribute Spirit Beast for him. The best among the Spirit Beasts he knew of was the Yellow Jade Dragon Lizard auctioned by the Xuanfa Pavilion.
He had been worried that the family might miss out on this Dragon Beast until today when he saw the Dragon Beast Egg. Only then did Li Xuefeng relax.
Because the next thing would be easy, he only needed to tell Li Zhirui about Li Mingyao’s talent, and Li Zhirui would definitely allocate the Yellow Jade Dragon Lizard to Li Mingyao.
Jing Ji cultivated the Fengyu with diligence, completing it in the harvest season, his name shining bright in the academia, heralding a new era of grand fortune and prosperity.
Li Zhirui silently counted in his heart and said, "The fourteenth generation of our family."
"I will try my best to delay the hatching of the Dragon Lizard, and when Ming Yao begins his cultivation, I will hand over the egg to him for hatching."
The Wanling Sutra contains similar secret techniques, which can delay the birth of a Spirit Beast Egg without affecting it.
In fact, Li Zhirui had seen through Li Xuefeng’s little schemes but simply chose not to expose them, because as long as they were of the Li family bloodline, that was all that mattered.
"Cultivate Ming Yao well, and do not waste his talent. But do not be impatient for success either. The one who wins first doesn’t actually win; the real winner is the one who laughs last," he advised.
At the end, Li Zhirui added another comment, "If he encounters any insoluble problems after coming out of the Spirit Wisdom Court, he can come to me."
"On behalf of Ming Yao, I thank the ancestor!" Li Xuefeng was overjoyed and bowed deeply, looking even more excited than when he had secured a fourth-grade Dragon Beast Egg for Li Mingyao.
Becoming an informal master-disciple pair with Li Zhirui was a deal far more valuable than a mere fourth-grade Dragon Beast Egg!
The worth of a Nascent Soul teacher, rich in experience, capable of solving the vast majority of cultivation problems and helping one avoid detours, was incommensurably higher than that of a spiritual beast that slightly quickened the pace of cultivation.
The issue was that Li Mingyao, possessing a Heavenly Spiritual Root, already had a very fast cultivation speed, so he didn’t really need this extra boost.
"If there’s nothing else, I shall take my leave," Li Zhirui said with a hint of weariness.
Although he had not shown himself along the way, he had to continually exert his imposing aura without the chance to cultivate, resulting in significant expenditure of energy.
"There’s nothing more," Li Xuefeng replied quickly, getting up to see him out of the grand hall.
On the way back to his dwelling, Li Zhirui took back the Dragon Lizard egg. When asked by his clansmen, he merely mentioned it was for another purpose, never concocting a specific story, believing that the more one says, the more mistakes one makes.
Having retrieved the Dragon Lizard egg, Li Zhirui immediately applied the secret technique to delay the hatching of the egg.
Only after accomplishing this did he begin to rest. 𝚗𝚘v𝚙𝚞b.𝚌𝚘m
Meanwhile, right next to Li Zhirui’s room, within the quiet chamber where Jiang Fengwu was in seclusion.
"Where did it go wrong? There were no issues during the deduction process; why then did the formation fail upon actual deployment?"
Jiang Fengwu, gazing at the pile of ashes accumulated from the failure, fell deep into thought.
He meticulously reviewed the process in his mind, trying to pinpoint the problem.
If this time had been successful, then opening the Spirit Realm, even if just a challenging first step, would have been achieved.
From arranging the foundational Array Patterns, to activating the Formation, up to the explosion of the Formation, various scenes kept replaying in Jiang Fengwu’s mind.
"I’ve found it!" Jiang Fengwu exclaimed with joy.
During the convergence of Array Power, a small segment of the Array Patterns couldn’t withstand such huge energy, causing a chain reaction.
This was the kind of problem that, no matter how many times one simulated it in theory, could still arise during practical application.
Next, Jiang Fengwu just needed to strengthen that part of the Array Patterns, adjust the entire Formation, and then proceed with more tests until no problems emerged, at which point the success would be achieved!
