"This is the servant who raises horses for me, named Fang Han. He handles matters quite reliably and has never exhibited any behavior of embezzling horse grain. However, last time because he delayed my hunting, I rewarded him with ten lashes, then rewarded him with five taels of silver." Fang Qingwei said casually.
"Is that so?" Fang Qingxue pondered for a moment; nobody knew what this proud daughter of heaven was thinking: "This time I am taking you to the Yuhua Immortal Mountain. Though the mountain is a fairyland, it is ultimately not as convenient as a large city, so bringing some servants to take care of things is inevitable. Since this Fang Han handles matters reliably, then bring him along. If he raises horses well, he will be able to raise spirit beasts in the future as well. Alright, let us depart."
With one command, hundreds of the Fang family's servants and dozens of horse carriages began to move in a mighty and grand manner.
"Indeed, what Master Bai Haichan said was correct. As long as I am in the crowd, the First Miss Fang Qingxue can tell my extraordinariness at a glance. However, if she discovers that I consumed the Nine Orifices Golden Pill, perhaps she would want me dead immediately? Will it be possible to conceal it and get through?"
Although Fang Han did not hear the conversation between the First Miss Fang Qingxue and Fang Qingwei, he knew in his heart that Fang Qingxue had noticed him.
While leading Thousand Li Snow, and walking along with the procession, Fang Han continuously pondered in his mind.
It was another night.
The Fang family's procession had arrived in a county town near the border of Longyuan Province. The several hundred people all rested, awaiting to continue the journey tomorrow. Deep in the night at the third watch, Fang Han ground up soy milk, boiled it, and fed it to the horse to drink, then fed it eggs and meat powder. Letting Thousand Li Snow eat to its full, he finally waited upon the horse to rest. Then he quietly sneaked out, reached a deserted wilderness, assumed the posture, and thoroughly and systematically practiced his fist arts.
This time, what he practiced was not the "Seven Stars Fist", but the secretly learned "Pine Crane Ten Thousand Lifespan Fist".
"Crane Claw Printing Sand"! "Ice Crane Guarding Plum Blossoms" "Immortal Crane Shaking Feathers" "Crane Dancing the Long Sky" "Pine Crane Extending Lifespan"!
Transforming these five stances one by one, moving like a crane, still like a pine.
The Pine Crane Ten Thousand Lifespan Fist, just like the Seven Stars Fist, was an extremely brilliant body-refining martial stance. However, the Seven Stars Fist was domineering and mighty; one just had to look at those two stances, "Stepping on Seven Stars" and "Kui Star Kicking the Dipper", to know.
Generally, only when an emperor, the true dragon Son of Heaven, is born, are the seven stars stepped on beneath his feet.
Whereas the Pine Crane Ten Thousand Lifespan Fist was pure, quiet, and natural, imitating the carefree, long-living ease of the pine and crane.
The styles of the two great sects, the Yuhua Sect and the Myriad Stars Sect, could be seen from this point alone, Fang Han compared carefully in his heart. Ever since he had that Nine Orifices Golden Pill at the opening of his heart, his physical body turned powerful. His brain also became exceptionally smart, opening up his wisdom, making his reactions agile and his thinking flexible; learning martial arts also mutually benefited.
Striking the "Pine Crane Ten Thousand Lifespan Fist" over and over again, in his mind he thought about the "Seven Stars Fist". In a trance, Fang Han felt the two fist arts, one internal one external, their styles merging like water and fire. The muscles all over his body continuously thrived. The blood flowing at his heart's opening urged the Nine Orifices Golden Pill to spin around, once again transporting powerful medicinal properties toward his whole body.
Boom!
The domineering style of the Seven Stars Fist and the carefree style of the Pine Crane Ten Thousand Lifespan Fist were forcibly merged together by the Nine Orifices Golden Pill.
In an instant, the blood circulated through his whole body nine times.
The beating of his heart slowed down, a full double the slowness of before! Yet it was even more powerful. Like an iron hammer, solid and full of strength.
"I actually stepped into the fifth realm, the realm of Divine Force!"
Fang Han knew that the changes occurring in his body indicated he had stepped into a new realm. The most typical representative of the fifth realm of the physical body, Divine Force, was the heart's beating speed slowing down, an endless vitality, powerful beyond compare.
"Hmm!"
Before he even had the time to feel the various benefits of the Divine Force realm, Fang Han suddenly felt his chest move. At the moment his body's changes occurred, that Nine Orifices Golden Pill abruptly bored inwards, boring right to the true center of the heart, staying there, becoming even more secretive.
Previously, the Nine Orifices Golden Pill was just stitched at the chest area, but now, following the heart's sudden slowing down, it was amazingly sucked deep into the heart by the blood's pressure.
This way, it would be even less likely to be discovered by anyone.
"Crane Claw Printing Sand!"
With a sudden claw grabbing toward a large tree, Fang Han's five fingers acted like a crane's claw, actually digging a large piece of wood right off from the tree bark and trunk.
If this claw scratched onto a person's body, it would definitely tear off a large chunk of skin and meat.
Power increased once again!
Fang Han continuously exerted the divine force of his physical body, dodging, jumping, and running at will. With a surging step, advancing more than ten feet, his body pulled back again, retracting. His whole body moved at will up and down, but was nevertheless sharp and ferocious, with exceedingly fast speed, like a fierce tiger or a hunting leopard.
In reality, when the physical body was trained to the realm of Divine Force, strength like a galloping horse, agility like an ape or monkey, claws like a tiger or leopard, it was a humanoid lethal weapon. Even some core disciples of the Fang family had never trained to such a realm.
"Pine Crane Ten Thousand Lifespan Fist, practiced not bad. You've been secretly learning for a very long time now, haven't you."
Right at this moment, suddenly a voice transmitted from behind Fang Han.
"She really came!" Fang Han's heart jolted. Although he had long anticipated this matter would occur, when the matter did occur, his heart was still filled with apprehension.
Turning around, standing not far behind him under the moonlight was a peerless beauty in white clothes; it was exactly Fang Qingxue.
"Ah, First Miss!"
Fang Han instantly displayed a loss of what to do, like a thief stealing something caught red-handed at the scene, wanting to run right away but hesitating.
This was a reaction he had rehearsed countless times in his heart, and now enacting it out, the performance was vividly true to life.
Stunned for about a few breaths, thump! Fang Han let both knees sink and knelt down toward Fang Qingxue! Howling and crying! : "First Miss spare my life, First Miss spare my life! This lowly servant saw it by chance and truly couldn't resist practicing it. First Miss please forgive my crime."
"This is not bad." Seeing Fang Han's reaction, Fang Qingxue's eyes moved slightly, and she said indifferently: "You still know how to fear your crime. Just now, if you ran immediately, your outcome would be about the same as that rock over there in the distance."
While speaking, Fang Qingxue flicked her finger, crackle, a bright purple lightning blade gleam flashed past. A thousand steps away, a mountain rock over a person's height under this lightning blade gleam was immediately sliced in half.
"Is this the Yuhua Sect's Purple Lightning Yin Thunder Blade? Master Bai Haichan died right under this divine ability. Indeed a thousand armies and ten thousand horses could not rival it!"
Feeling the powerful electric current in the air causing his skin and hair to shudder, Fang Han was truly terrified in his heart. This was the first time he witnessed the power of an expert in the Secret Realm of Divine Abilities.
If it was a person in the Physical Body Realm, even a Divine Transformation expert, facing the siege of the imperial court's thousand armies and ten thousand horses, they would be dreadfully dead; after all, the power of the physical body was limited.
However, for experts in the Secret Realm of Divine Abilities, refining qi into gleams, controlling lightning and fire, covering their entire body with astral aura, soaring and transforming, mortals simply could do nothing to them. He finally understood why experts of the Secret Realm of Divine Abilities were aloof from worldly things, different from mortals.
He buried his head even lower, seemingly frightened silly, merely muttering in his mouth: "First Miss spare my life…"
"When will I be able to step into the Secret Realm of Divine Abilities… Even more so to sit as an equal with the First Miss… Master Bai Haichan wanted me to kill her, but how easy is it to kill her?" Fang Han's thoughts flowed rapidly.
"Stand up."
Fang Qingxue's light and ethereal tone transmitted out. This peerless beauty, this divine ability expert, seemed to forever speak in a single tone without any emotional fluctuations, as if she had already trained out all joy, anger, sorrow, and delight, possessing only a certain tranquility and lightness in pursuing immortality and the immortal path, slowly seeking it.
"Passed a small hurdle!"
Hearing these words, Fang Han felt relieved in his heart, yet he did not stand up. Instead, he continued kneeling on the ground, saying loyally and devotedly: "This lowly servant committed a great mistake. It is better to continue kneeling to redeem my sin. First Miss please give instruction and punish." This was expressing his loyalty.
"By all reasoning, it would be impossible for you to cultivate to the Divine Force realm of the Physical Body Realm. Have you eaten some miraculous pill or wonderful medicine?" Fang Qingxue seemed to be infected by Fang Han's "expression of loyalty", and her tone eased somewhat.
"Yes. Five years ago, when this lowly servant went to wash horses in the Longyuan River, suddenly lightning flashed and thunder rolled. A horned large snake tumbled out from the river, terrifying this lowly servant. But thereafter, that large snake was instantly stricken dead by lightning. Out of curiosity, this lowly servant fished that large snake from the river, cooked it, and ate it all by myself, eating it for many days. I also ate that snake's gall bladder. It's really strange; that snake's gall bladder was entirely red, hard like a rock. I boiled it for a whole afternoon before it melted. From then on, this lowly servant's body kept getting better and better, and thus I developed the mind to secretly learn martial arts. This lowly servant's crime deserves ten thousand deaths."
Fang Han kowtowed once more.
This set of his speech was not fabricated blindly, but what Bai Haichan had told him.
"Horned Viper?" After hearing this, Fang Qingxue said, "A hundred years ago, my Fang family ancestors killed a Horned Viper in the Longyuan River. I didn't expect there would actually be a male and female pair."
The light wave of her eyes glanced slightly toward Fang Han's heart. Fang Han felt his heart shrink, and that Nine Orifices Golden Pill seemed to have also stopped spinning.
Fortunately, Fang Qingxue did not look carefully. Also fortunately, Fang Han had just trained to the realm of Divine Force; his heart suddenly slowed, sucking the Nine Orifices Golden Pill into its deepest core. Furthermore, fortunately, Fang Qingxue's attention was diverted by this speech of Fang Han's, otherwise, the secret of the Nine Orifices Golden Pill would probably have been discovered.
"The inner gall of the Horned Viper solidifies the foundation and cultivates vitality. It is a natural extraordinary medicine; after consuming it, one possesses boundless strength. Stealing to learn for five years, being able to train to the realm of Divine Force, is considered not bad." Fang Qingxue said: "Many of our Fang family's core disciples had no chance for your fortuitous encounter. It seems you are also a person holding luck. However, a single Horned Viper's inner gall boosting you to the Divine Force realm is already the limit. To continue cultivating in the future, you must still possess an immense material foundation. You follow me to the Yuhua Immortal Mountain and feed the spirit beasts for me."
While speaking, Fang Qingxue's body drifted and slowly went away.
"Finally passed!"
Fang Han confirmed that Fang Qingxue had left before he stood up, sighing a breath of relief. The conversation just now could truly be described as a moment of life and death.