Chapter 131: Chapter 129: A Legend in the Eyes of Geniuses

"What?" 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"Impossible!"

"There’s no way!"

The three of them spoke in near-perfect unison. After they finished, they glanced at each other and couldn’t help but laugh.

Leng Yao looked at Qin Li, her voice softening involuntarily. This was something that would have been absolutely impossible for the old Leng Yao. In fact, even now, this gentleness was reserved for Qin Li alone—a fact she herself hadn’t yet realized.

"Young Master, I know you’re eager to raise our strength, but it’s just not realistic. Even the Noble Sects from the Secret Lands wouldn’t dare claim they could elevate Martial Artists of poor aptitude to any significant degree within a few years. Elixirs, in the end, are just supplementary aids. What’s most important is a Martial Artist’s innate talent!"

Hu nodded and said, "Being able to follow you, Young Master, is already the luckiest thing that’s ever happened to me in my life. In the future, I can go out and brag that I have a Marquis for a brother! I’m already getting old. Just being able to do a few things for you is enough for me. In a few years, I’ll bring my mother and stepfather to the Imperial Capital so they can live out their golden years in peace. I’d be perfectly content with that!"

Bu Yunyan looked at Qin Li, her eyes as soft as water. She said quietly, "My aptitude isn’t good. I’m not even at the Profound Level yet, and... I’m already over twenty. With those elixirs, it would be better to cultivate some children with more potential..."

In reality, Bu Yunyan wanted to say: ’As long as I can stay by your side for the rest of my life, even if just as a servant girl who serves tea and water, I would be completely content!’

Qin Li smiled and said, "If I dare to say it, it’s because I have my ways. Why are you all in such a hurry to shoot me down?" He looked at Hu. "Hu, tell me, have you never imagined yourself standing at the peak one day, a dominant figure in the world?"

Hu scratched his head, smiling sheepishly. "That’s the kind of dream you have when you’re a kid who doesn’t know any better. Uh... Young Master, I’m not talking about you!"

Qin Li shrugged and turned to Leng Yao. "Although I don’t know how powerful your enemies are, a person’s life is only hopeful if they have dreams! If you don’t even dare to dream, then you’re just living a mediocre life, merely surviving in this world! Leng Yao, don’t tell me you’ve never once thought about the day you’d cut down your enemies with your own hands!"

Leng Yao’s gaze was tinged with sorrow. She pursed her lips and said faintly, "And what if I have? Even if I reach the Celestial Level, in their eyes, I’d be nothing more than a slightly stronger ant they could crush at any time."

Qin Li laughed at this. "You’re only twenty-one or twenty-two this year. In five years, you’ll be twenty-five or twenty-six and at the Celestial Level. Ten years after that, you’ll be thirty-five or thirty-six and enter the Celestial Shattering Realm. Another ten years, and you’ll be forty-five or forty-six. Reaching the Celestial Integration Realm or even the Celestial Embracing Realm won’t be impossible. Do you think you’d still have no hope then? You might not be enough on your own, but have you forgotten? You still have me... with you!"

Leng Yao’s body trembled slightly. She looked up, her pair of cold eyes veiled by a layer of mist, and asked, "Is that... possible?"

With me, anything is possible! Qin Li really wanted to sound cool and say that, but he figured it was a bit too narcissistic. Instead, he just smiled, nodded, and said, "If you don’t try, how will you know it’s impossible? If a person loses their drive to improve, then they don’t need anyone else to defeat them—they’ve already defeated themselves!"

A determined glint gradually formed in Leng Yao’s eyes.

’Her family, back in the Potala Holy Land, might not have been a major power, but they were at least somewhat renowned. And hadn’t her own ancestor started as an ordinary Mortal Martial Artist, climbing step by step to the peak before finally establishing a foothold in the Potala Holy Land?’

Leng Yao recalled the day her family was destroyed. Her fourth uncle had risked his life to get her out of the Potala Holy Land. He had barely managed to hold on until they reached the Cyan Dragon Kingdom before succumbing to his severe injuries. Before he died, he told her to never think of revenge—not even for a moment. Otherwise, the Leng Family bloodline would be completely severed!

Scenes from the past flashed through Leng Yao’s mind. She had lived like a princess since childhood. Coming from a family renowned for Alchemy, Leng Yao’s aptitude was naturally outstanding. At the age of twelve, she had already reached the first stage of the Profound Level! If not for that sudden calamity, she would have at least reached the ranks of the Earth Level Martial Artists by now. Her later despair stemmed mainly from the fact that she was all alone. So what if she cultivated to the Celestial Level? So what if she broke through the Celestial Level?

But now, the shadow of another person had appeared in her life. She hadn’t felt anything before, but she never expected Qin Li’s strength to increase so rapidly. Others might not have known, but Leng Yao was clearer than anyone about Qin Li’s potential.

Yet she was unwilling to let Qin Li get involved in this matter. Her enemies were simply too powerful! So powerful that just thinking about them sent a chill through her from the depths of her soul.

’Try... and there might really be hope?’ Looking at Qin Li’s determined gaze, Leng Yao’s heart gradually warmed. ’Perhaps... there really is hope!’

At this thought, Leng Yao nodded forcefully. "Starting tomorrow, I will resume my cultivation!"

Qin Li looked at Bu Yunyan and Hu and said slowly, "No one is born standing at the top of this world! Even the ancestors of the secular Royal Family were once no different from us! Some people can work hard their entire lives and never get a chance, but you two are different. Starting tomorrow, I will first change your physical constitutions! Don’t forget, the Cultivation Technique I practice is Divine Level! And I am the only one who can cultivate it."

At this, Hu’s and Bu Yunyan’s hearts began to burn with excitement. They had lived under imperial rule since childhood and had always felt that emperors were born to their station. But after hearing Qin Li’s subversive words, they found them to be profoundly logical. No one is born to be noble and wealthy! ’I may not be wealthy, but I can ensure my children, and my descendants, become wealthy!’

Seeing the change in the trio’s disposition, Qin Li smiled faintly. He knew their hearts had been rekindled.

To change a person, you must first change their heart. Without the heart of a powerhouse who dares to climb to the highest peaks, even if you give them the best Spiritual Medicine in the world and let them learn the best Cultivation Technique, they will still be weak!

Knowing they needed some time to digest and reflect, Qin Li bid them farewell and returned to his room to begin his meditative cultivation.

Success, in the end, requires considerable effort. Others can only see the splendor beneath the halo, but they can never see the bitterness and hardship behind it.

...

At the Imperial Academy, a piece of news had been spreading like wildfire over the past two days about the legendary exploits of a young nobleman from the Great Qi Kingdom.

To be able to study at the Empire’s Advanced Academy was, in itself, an incredible honor. The geniuses from all over the Cyan Dragon Kingdom were gathered here!

That’s right—geniuses!

Those with slightly inferior aptitude simply couldn’t get into this academy. No matter how powerful your family background was, if your aptitude was average, then sorry, there were plenty of other academies in the Imperial Capital—like the Imperial Capital Noble Academy, the Imperial Capital Martial Arts Academy, and so on. There were many, many others you could enter.

Only the Imperial Advanced Academy was open to youths of outstanding talent. The students here would one day form the true elite class of the Cyan Dragon Kingdom!

One could only imagine what a proud bunch the students who studied here must be!

And yet, this very group of proud students, who would not easily give anyone the time of day, had been madly chanting a single name for the past two days—Qin Li!

This name seemed to possess a magical power, one that prevented almost all the students of the Advanced Academy from even harboring a trace of jealousy.

Because... he was just too strong!

Sixteen years old and at the seventh stage of the Earth Level! He had forcefully attacked Chen Yihan, the First Tributor of the Cyan Dragon Kingdom’s Royal Family, for three moves, and Chen Yihan had actually failed to stand his ground and take them head-on. This... in a way, meant that Qin Li had already won!

He killed Sun Liu, the Earth Level Hall Master of the Daqing Gang known as Lightning Saber, with a single sword strike and effortlessly slaughtered forty-five Profound Level Martial Artists from the Battle Blade Hall. Now, another item was added to the list: this unprecedented sixteen-year-old Marquis, after killing Lightning Saber Sun Liu, had also cut down the Gang Leader of the Daqing Gang, a legendary figure in Cyan Dragon City!

What was even more legendary was that the Daqing Gang Leader, Leng Ping, had actually entrusted the gang to that incredibly young Marquis before he died... This... this was simply unbelievable!

What excited these elite students the most was that such a legendary figure had actually become a senior lecturer at their academy! Many of the girls were so excited they couldn’t even sleep, and the business at the high-end clothing stores around the Advanced Academy had been several times better than usual these past few days!

You have to understand, on a normal day, the academy’s geniuses were all preoccupied with desperate cultivation. Who had time to dress themselves up? And yet, Qin Li hadn’t even arrived, and he had already caused many of the girls to start paying attention to their appearance.

This, one had to admit, was a small miracle in itself!

Where some were happy, others were naturally unhappy.

These past few days, the brothers Qin Feng and Qin Hu had been living as if every day were a year. On the one hand, they longed for revenge. Their family was destroyed, and now, besides the halos of "genius" they wore, they had nothing left. Although in their eyes, Qin Li had nothing to do with the Qin Family’s destruction, the hatred Qin Feng and Qin Hu felt for him grew with each passing day!

Because, from the letter Qin Hongyuan had brought them, they knew they would have almost no chance for revenge in this lifetime! They couldn’t afford to provoke that enemy! Not in this lifetime! So, all their festering resentment could only be directed at Qin Li’s head.

They wished they could grind Qin Li’s bones to dust!

Especially when Mo Feifei, who was also at the Imperial Academy, looked at the two brothers with such hatred in her eyes. It made Qin Feng’s hatred for Qin Li burn even brighter. The reason was simple: if it weren’t for Qin Li, his relationship with Mo Feifei would never have deteriorated to this point. Then, even with the Qin Family destroyed, Qin Feng could have married this girl who had secretly loved and admired him since childhood. The Qin Family’s revival would have been much faster!

’This was all because of that damn little bastard!’

The two brothers had discussed it more than once. They would wait until their strength increased and they secured a certain position by the Second Prince’s side. Then, they would definitely find Qin Li and subject him to death by a thousand cuts!

But they never imagined that before they could even go looking for him, another Qin Li, a miraculously powerful one, would appear out of nowhere right before their eyes.