Even though the Truth Seeing Eye Technique did not allow Su Qin to see through objects, he could ‘see’ the aura inside that jade palanquin.
There was someone inside that jade palanquin. Not one but two. One of them had an unstable aura and it appeared that they might have been poisoned by some deadly poison. The other person had a young aura, possibly aged 10 years old at the most.
‘Is Consort Li the person who was poisoned?’ thought Su Qin as he made his guess.
Over the past ten years, even though Su Qin never left the temple, he heard the discussions between the other disciples. There were many stories about the Tang Dynasty royal family among those discussions.
The Tang Dynasty emperor spent his time favoring consort Li alone. Hence, many years passed since he last went to see the queen. If it was not for the fact that Consort Li had given birth to a princess, the royal palace would have already descended into madness.
However, as the Tang Dynasty emperor continued to age, the court was filled with turbulent undercurrents and infighting. The princesses were already at war with each other.
‘Someone in the imperial harem poisoned Consort Li. Under these circumstances, Consort Li was forced to come to the Shaolin temple for a while under the guise of worshipping Buddha.’
‘So the official reason is that she’s here for meditation, but in reality, she’s here to get out of harm’s way?’ thought Su Qin. In a short amount of time, he managed to figure out the reason for Consort Li’s appearance at the temple.
If someone in the imperial harem was bold enough to poison Consort Li, it might have something to do with those noblemen. Even the Tang Dynasty emperor had his hands tied and could only send Consort Li to the Shaolin temple. That meant that the court was in quite a state of mess.
However, the decision for Consort Li to hide out at the Shaolin temple was the right. As one of the great martial arts sects in the world, it never interfered in government affairs. Once Consort Li entered the Shaolin temple, she was safe.
Even though the noblemen in the court had immense power, they would still not be able to extend their reach into the Shaolin temple. The Tang Dynasty emperor may have guessed that Consort Li would be rejected by the Shaolin temple if she came alone. That was why he deliberately prepared a royal decree to protect her.
‘It’s said that the battlegrounds of Jianghu are brutal but it’s nothing compared to the palace grounds…’ Su Qin felt a little rueful.
‘The other person inside that jade palanquin must be Consort Li’s daughter, the princess of the Tang Dynasty,’ thought Su Qin.
If Consort Li went to the Shaolin temple to get out of harm’s way, there was no way that she would have left her daughter in the palace.
While Su Qin was still deep in thought, the jade palanquin already entered the Shaolin temple. Abbot Hui Wen deliberately placed Consort Li in a bamboo grove next to the Miscellaneous Court so that she would not be disturbed by the disciples of the Shaolin temple.
The Miscellaneous Court was located at the edge of the Shaolin temple. Hence, the location of the bamboo grove was even more remote compared to the Miscellaneous Court. Apart from the disciples of the Miscellaneous Court, no other disciples would ever go there.
Abbot Hui Wen thought of everything. Since he accepted Consort Li into the Shaolin temple, they needed to treat her well. Otherwise, they would be courting danger.
Even though abbot Hui Wen was aware that it might have caused a huge problem for the Shaolin temple in the future, he had no other choice. How could he disobey a royal decree?
Ever since Consort Li and her people entered the Shaolin temple, all the temple court heads have told their disciples that they were restricted from going near that bamboo grove, especially those from the Miscellaneous Court.
The bamboo grove was right next to the Miscellaneous Court. As long as the Miscellaneous Court disciples behaved, everything would have been alright. Apart from that, Su Qin resumed his normal life once more.
Even though the Shaolin temple had the addition of imperial concubine Consort Li and her people, nothing much changed within the temple. It was the same for Su Qin, he trained when he should and signed in when he should.
On that particular day, as Su Qin was preparing to head to the Bodhi Court to sign in, he walked past the bamboo grove and suddenly heard a clear voice call out, “Little monk, can you wait a minute?”
Su Qin turned his head and saw a little girl with smooth, snow-white skin come leaping and bounding toward him.
“Princess,” Su Qin said calmly as he lowered his eyes.
That little girl was Consort Li’s daughter which meant that she was a princess of the Tang Dynasty.
“You’re so fast.,” said the little girl. She was panting as she looked up at Su Qin with big, round, and sparkling eyes.
“Princess, it’s late. You should head back to rest…:” Su Qin was naturally too lazy to bother trying to form a bond with the princess of the Tang Dynasty. In Su Qin’s mind, anyone who disturbed his peaceful life deserved a big slap on the face.
“I’m fully rested,” The little girl looked at Su Qin and said pitifully, “Can you talk to me for a minute, please? It’s so boring here, I don’t have a single person here that I can talk to.”
“Princess, I have things to do.” Su Qin did not want to waste his time on the little girl so he turned around and left. He left the little girl standing there on her own.
“That little monk…” The little girl scrunched up her nose at him. Wherever she was, everyone who saw her would have been submissive and uneasy around her. However, Su Qin was different. He seemed to not care about a position at all.
Right at that moment, “Your Majesty, your Majesty, are you alright?” asked a terrified palace maid as she rushed to the little girl.
“I’m okay.” The little girl shook her head. She suddenly asked, “Is Eunuch Hong powerful?”
“Eunuch Hong?” The palace maid was stunned. She quickly said, “Eunuch Hong’s a red robe eunuch personally appointed by his Majesty the emperor. He’s of the second rank, even in the palace he is one of the top martial artists. Of course, he’s powerful.”
Eunuch Hong was the eunuch that was in charge of protecting Consort Li and went with her to the Shaolin temple. Over the last few years, Consort Li would have died numerous times if it were not for Eunuch Hong.
Consort Li might have not made it to the Shaolin temple safely if it were not for Eunuch Hong’s might and power being known across the country, even in small towns.
“I see…” That little girl nodded her head, deep in thought.
…
After he had given the slip to the Tang Dynasty princess, Su Qin arrived at the Bodhi Court.
‘System, sign-in,’ muttered Su Qin silently.
[Congratulations, host! Your sign-in is successful. You have obtained the Spirit Accumulation Pill.]
‘Spirit Accumulation Pill?’ Su Qin’s eyes widened in surprise.
The Spirit Accumulation Pill was a legendary pill of the Shaolin temple. Hundreds and thousands of years passed and yet a single pill might not be able to be produced. Su Qin managed to obtain numerous Spirit Cultivation Pills, Great Elixir Pills over the last ten years. However, that was the first time that he had gotten a Spirit Accumulation Pill.
A martial artist that attained the first rank would need to cultivate the ‘Spirit’ in their body if they wished to advance to the next stage. One’s ‘Spirit’ needed to be cultivated to its peak limit to be able to achieve Spiritual Sense.
The functions of Spiritual Sense are unlimited. It can be used to interfere with external objects, it can scan one’s surroundings and even kill people through the air. A first-rank martial artist could only reach the bottleneck of the Martial Arts Legend once he truly was able to achieve Spiritual Sense.
In the end, to break through the bottleneck, he needed to rely on three factors. They were his Spiritual Sense, physical body, and Internal Force. No matter what, once a first-rank martial artist managed to achieve Spiritual Sense, he would have advanced to a completely new level.
The Jianghu martial arts world called the level the top first-rank. A first-rank grandmaster was already extremely rare, how much rarer would a top first-rank be?
Any top first-rank martial artist had hopes of achieving a breakthrough in the bottleneck of the Martial Arts Legends. To achieve Spiritual Sense, apart from relying on lots of time training harshly and spending hundreds of years to achieve enlightenment, there was also one other method.
That was to consume a Spirit Accumulation Pill!