Immortal Refiner

Thirty days passed in a flash, and the palace competition in Yujing City was about to begin.

Holding the token given to him by King Ning, Li Qing passed unhindered all the way to the foot of the imperial palace in Yujing City.

A magnificent palace appeared in front of them. All the palaces were made of pure colored glaze and spiritual gold. Even the paving stones were made of materials that could be used to refine magical instruments.

"So you are the person recommended by His Royal Highness Prince Ning. Please follow me!" After seeing the token in Li Qing's hand, the eunuch showed a look of respect and led him into the palace.

As soon as he stepped into this area, Li Qing felt the rich spiritual energy around him actively flowing into his body. It was so rich that it was unspeakably rich.

The seventh-level spiritual vein is indeed extraordinary.

It would be hard not to make rapid progress in your cultivation when practicing in such a blessed place.

"If I can live and practice in a place like this for a long time, the time it takes to advance to the middle stage of the Void Refining Realm can be shortened by about a thousand years." Li Qing secretly exclaimed in his heart.

However, if you are not of royal blood and want to live and practice in such a place for a long time, you must become an official in the court and join the entire system of the Dayu Kingdom.

Moreover, one must first start as a local official, accumulate merits, and finally enter the court step by step.

Of course, there are other crooked ways, such as the eunuch who led Li Qing into the palace. He only needed to castrate himself and become a eunuch, and he could also live in the palace.

If you are strong enough, you can become a master of the Imperial Palace.

Some immortal cultivators had this idea before. In order to enjoy the seventh-level spiritual veins, they were willing to castrate themselves and become eunuchs to serve the nobles in the palace.

He thought that when his cultivation level reached a higher level in the future, he would leave the palace, and then use the body-severance rebirth technique to regenerate the things that had been cut off.

However, these people all regretted it. The royal family of Dayu Kingdom possessed a special secret medicine. Once taken, the person would be unable to have sexual relations for the rest of his life. Even if he was reborn with a severed body, there was no way to cure it.

Along the way, there were extremely luxurious palaces. Led by this fair-faced eunuch, Li Qing came all the way to the depths of the imperial palace.

This is a stretch of mountains. Although it is still in the outer area of ​​the seventh-level spiritual vein, the spiritual energy is much richer.

"Senior, this is your temporary residence. Tomorrow is the day of the competition. Someone will take you to the discussion venue."

"The other caves here belong to other seniors, and you are not allowed to enter without permission. Besides, the palace has strict rules and many forbidden areas, so it is best for seniors not to run around without permission."

"Finally, private fighting is prohibited in the palace. Violators will be thrown into prison at the very least, or their cultivation will be abolished or even executed at the worst!"

Hearing this, Li Qing's heart trembled slightly, and then nodded and said: "I understand, thank you for telling me!"

After saying this, he took out two high-quality spirit stones and stuffed them into the eunuch's hand.

After the latter realized that the spiritual energy of the two spiritual stones was not bad, his expression changed slightly and he said, "Senior, I dare not accept such a valuable gift."

But no matter what he said, he never relaxed his hands as he clenched the two spirit stones.

"Thank you for your hard work along the way. You can take it, fellow Daoist. Also, I don't quite understand the rules of this palace. I hope you can explain them to me in detail so that I don't break the rules unknowingly." Li Qing smiled mysteriously and pointed to his own cave.

Seeing this, the eunuch smiled knowingly and said, "So that's how it is. Then please listen to my detailed explanation, senior."

As they talked, the two of them walked into the cave. After entering, Li Qing also set up a soundproofing ban.

The cave was a bit cold and there were not many furnishings, but the floor was made of gold and jade, just like the luxury of a palace.

The eunuch with a thin skin and a white face walked while undressing himself, and said in a slightly shy tone: "Senior is really a man of temperament, much more direct than His Royal Highness the Ninth Prince. However, my cultivation is low and I am not good at physical training. I hope that the senior will have mercy on me."

Seeing this scene, Li Qing's pupils suddenly contracted, as if an earthquake had occurred.

"Wait. You."

The amount of information was overwhelming at once, and even Li Qing was a little slow to react. What did he mean by "much more direct than His Royal Highness the Ninth Prince"?

He seemed to know something extraordinary!

"My fellow Taoist, please respect yourself. I didn't call you here to do anything shameful. I want to ask you who are the participants in the competition and how strong their cultivation is!" Li Qing's voice suddenly became much more serious.

Hearing this, the eunuch's eyes widened instantly, and he quickly pulled on his clothes, knelt in front of Li Qing and kowtowed, saying: "Please keep this secret, senior. I will be grateful."

Li Qing rubbed his brows, then waved his hand and said, "As long as you answer my questions honestly, I will pretend that I didn't hear anything just now."

After hearing this, the eunuch kowtowed with tears of gratitude and said, "Thank you very much, senior! Thank you very much, senior!"

"There should be 28 people participating in the palace competition this time, including four princes, three princesses, eight grandchildren, and two crown princes!"

"The rest are either like the senior, who was recommended by other princes to enter the palace to participate in the competition, or they are descendants of ministers in the court!"

This eunuch was very competent and told Li Qing all the information he wanted to know.

He originally thought that the other party would be hesitant, but he didn't expect that the other party would tell him everything he knew without worrying about fabricating the guilt of the royal family.

But think about it, what crime could be worse than having an affair with the prince?

Moreover, these eunuchs directly obey the emperor of the Dayu Kingdom and will not get too close to the princes and princesses in private, otherwise it would be quite taboo.

"Among them, the two Royal Crown Princes are only at the early stage of Spiritualization and have the weakest competitiveness. They are participating in the competition only to gain experience in fighting. These two Royal Crown Princes are talented and may have the potential to be crowned kings in the future."

"The most competitive candidate is His Highness Li Yang. He ranks thirteenth among the princes. In the past few years, he has been leading troops in the border areas to quell the chaos caused by the demons. His cultivation has reached the late stage of refining emptiness!"

“In addition, His Highness Qinghe has profound attainments in formations. Although he has only reached the Perfect Spiritualization Stage, he has once trapped and killed a powerful warrior in the Void Refinement Stage with formations.”

"The other is His Highness Lou Heng. He ranks fifth among the emperor's grandchildren. His cultivation has reached the middle stage of the Void Refining Realm. He has the potential to be crowned king in the future."

"Apart from the princes, the ones you should pay the most attention to are the monks from other families recommended by the other two princes."

"Both Prince An and Prince Huai are determined to obtain the Black Iron Token, and each of them has recommended two late-stage Void Refining experts to participate in the competition."

"The rest are the descendants of some ministers in the court. The one with the highest cultivation level is the grandson of the prime minister, Li Yu. He is also in the middle stage of the Void Refining Stage."

An emperor who has lived for tens of thousands of years has an extremely chaotic relationship among his descendants. Li Qing felt a headache when he heard about it. Some of the emperor's grandchildren are even older than the emperor's sons.

Fortunately, he is not a member of the royal family and does not need to hang around in the palace. He only needs to listen to these things and focus on taking note of the opponents worthy of attention in tomorrow's competition.

After listening to the information from the little eunuch, Li Qing rubbed his chin, then waved his hand, allowing him to leave as if he had been pardoned.

"They are indeed some royal relatives and nobles. Even the princes are willing to fight in person for the black iron token. It seems that the temptation of this Xuantian secret treasure is much greater than I imagined."

"However, there is no need to worry about these princes and grandchildren. Instead, we should be wary of the monks recommended by the other two princes to enter the palace."

After all, he had only just entered the Void Refinement Stage not long ago, and was still at the initial stage of the Void Refinement Stage. Even though he had a lot to rely on, he still couldn't take it lightly when facing a cultivator at the late stage of the Void Refinement Stage.

Before entering the palace, he had already secretly inquired about it. The royal family of Dayu Kingdom was a royal family that had been favored by the true spirit and had some of the Qilin's inheritance in their hands.

The reason why the Dayu Kingdom has been able to stand firm in the Canglan Continent for so many years is not only because of the favor of the true spirit, but also because its Taizu Emperor is still alive in the world. He is a Mahayana cultivator who has been in seclusion for many years.

Based on these two points, the status of Dayu Kingdom is as stable as a green mountain.

After knowing the competitors he would face tomorrow, Li Qing stopped having wild thoughts and began to calm down and regulate his breathing.

In this deep palace, he didn't dare to walk around casually, for fear of breaking some taboos and bringing about fatal disaster.

The next morning, a loud eagle cry rang out, waking up Li Qing who was resting with his eyes closed.

He opened his eyes, a gleam of light shot out of his pupils, and then he slowly stood up.

Soon, eunuchs came to greet him outside the cave. It was not the eunuch who had been favored by the Ninth Prince yesterday, but a different person. However, these eunuchs all had fair faces and delicate skin, so it was easy to cause face blindness.

"Senior, the competition is about to begin. Please follow me to the discussion venue." The eunuch whispered.

Li Qing casually threw a medium-grade spirit stone and said, "Thank you for your help. Please lead the way."

In this way, they followed each other's lead and passed through palaces again.

Finally, a vast platform appeared before their eyes. This was the Taoist discussion platform in the imperial palace.

Extremely high-level restrictions were set up around it, and even the entire platform was made of several kinds of spiritual gold, making it unbreakable.

In addition, with the presence of several ministers and princes with impressive cultivation bases, even a war at the Nascent Soul stage level can be contained here and will not affect other territories outside.

As soon as Li Qing arrived, he saw Ning Wangchao, who was wearing a purple dragon robe, waving at him.

Li Qing naturally did not dare to neglect this, and walked up to him, clasped his fists and said, "I greet Senior King Ning!"

King Ning put his hands behind his back and chuckled, "Well, after dozens of days of preparation, do you have the confidence to win the small black iron shield?"

"If you lose, don't say that I deceived you."

Li Qing bowed his head slightly and said, "How dare I do that! Senior King Ning is worrying too much."

Before Prince Ning could say anything, a young man of about his age slowly walked over.

It would have been fine if he hadn't looked at it, but when he did, Li Qing was shocked. This person was actually wearing a golden robe embroidered with a five-clawed golden dragon!

He subconsciously thought that this was the emperor of the Dayu Kingdom, but the other party's next sentence shocked him again.

"Haha, nephew, is this the person you recommended? He doesn't look that good." The young man in the golden robe laughed softly.

"Uncle Prince Huai, I don't have as many talented people under my command as you do. It's good enough that I can find someone in the Nascent Soul stage." Prince Ning said with a wry smile.

King Huai! The son of the current emperor of the Great Yu Kingdom, he was the third prince in line. After his cultivation advanced to the fusion stage, he was given the title of King Huai and guarded the vast territory in the southeast of the Great Yu Kingdom.

Li Qing's eyelids twitched, but he quickly calmed down his surprise.

The Great Yu Dynasty revered the Qilin, and the dragon robe embroidered with a five-clawed golden dragon did not symbolize the throne.

As long as you don’t embroider a Qilin on your body, it doesn’t matter.

"My nephew, you are joking. Your Jianglin County and Danyang County are blessed with outstanding people and beautiful scenery. I heard that you hunted a big snake in Danyang some time ago. I would like to ask you to borrow some of the snake's blood as a medicine. When the elixir is ready in the future, I can give you one as a reward."

King Ning shook his head and said, "Third uncle, you asked me for the snake's blood essence. I should have offered it to you with both hands. How dare I ask for a reward? Unfortunately, I have used it to refine my body in the past period of time. There is not a drop of blood essence left."

"Uncle San, if you don't mind, wouldn't I cut my wrist and let some blood flow back to you for medicine?"

As soon as these words came out, Prince Huai's face froze slightly, a hint of coldness flashed in his eyes, and he said slowly:

"Oh, your body and hair are given by your parents. How dare I let you, my nephew, cut your wrists and let the blood flow?"

"Oh, I forgot, my brother passed away long ago, but even so, nephew, you should take care of your body."

Prince Ning was not angry at all. He lowered his eyelids and said word by word:

"Thank you for your concern, Uncle San."

There was no point in talking, so Prince Huai sneered and turned away without saying anything else.

As for Li Qing on the side, he wished he could plug his ears and pretend that he heard nothing.

They are all royal relatives and have extraordinary bloodlines, but the secret struggle is quite fierce.

If it were an ordinary dynasty, it would be fine, but the Dayu Dynasty is extremely powerful, and these princes are all powerful people in the fusion stage. They may have the opportunity to inherit the throne in the future.

"Huh, I didn't have any obsession with the black iron shield before, but now I kind of want you to get it."

"My friend Wuji, if you meet the candidate recommended by my uncle after you enter the arena, you can only win and not lose."

King Ning let out a long sigh, then took out a blood-colored pill from his hand and secretly put it into Li Qing's palm.

Feeling the roundness in the palm of his hand, Li Qing's face tensed and he asked, "Senior King Ning, what is this?"

King Ning did not look at Li Qing, his eyes still fixed on the horizon, and said, "The Boiling Blood Pill is a pill made with the blood of several kinds of fierce beasts as the medicine. Once taken, the blood and qi in the body will be in a violent state, causing the physical strength to increase exponentially."

"I see that your physical body is quite good, this pill should be of great help."

"Although there will be some side effects afterwards, I think it's nothing compared to the black iron token."

The pill that temporarily increased his strength, Li Qing's mouth twitched slightly, and he asked: "Senior King Ning, I'm afraid it's not a good idea to take this kind of pill, right?"

"Is there no rules at all in this duel?"

King Ning said without blinking, "Rules? They are used to restrict the weak. When the time comes, you can insist that they are the secret techniques you practiced. I will vouch for you. Who dares to say anything more?"

Li Qing was sweating profusely, thinking that he should try not to use it later. If he angered the emperor, King Ning might not be able to protect him.

As if knowing what Li Qing was thinking, Prince Ning said in a deep voice: "Don't worry, His Majesty will not come to watch the ceremony. The Emperor is devoted to practicing Taoism, so why would he pay attention to these things?"