White-Robed Chief
chapter-1003

Chu Li picked up his cup and placed it to his lips as he turned his gaze away from Zhuo Feiyang to study the view outside. He casually asked, "Are you making progress with King Jing?" 

Zhuo Feiyang shook his head. "Things aren't progressing very smoothly. My martial arts skills are too weak, so I'm not qualified to go near him. I've only been guarding the Imperial Residence all this while!"

"Don't be anxious," Chu Li replied in a relaxed manner. "If you try to advance and gain merits too hastily, things can easily go south. You should take one step at a time. This isn't something you can accomplish within one or two years." 

"How long will it take?" Zhuo Feiyang stared at him. "Don't tell me it'll take the rest of my life?"

"You'll be able to see the outcome within ten years," Chu Li said calmly. "It might also take longer, so be prepared for a long-term service at the Imperial Residence. It can take anywhere from ten years to twenty years or even fifty years!" 

"Well then, will I still be considered a servant of the High Duke's Public House?" Zhuo Feiyang scoffed. "I think I might as well seek shelter with King Jing. He has a greater future ahead of him!"

"Sure." Chu Li nodded. "As long as you're capable of escaping being hunted down by the High Duke's Public House."

"Humph!" Zhuo Feiyang glared at him and then helplessly muttered, "However, he has been trying to keep a low profile lately. He hasn't even been contacting any of the courtiers!" 

"What do you think of his actions?"

"How would I understand anything about this!"

"You're very ambitious," Chu Li said with a smile. "Would you not care about this at all?"

"I think he's being too cautious." Zhuo Feiyang no longer tried to be modest. There was no need to hold back in front of Chu Li since nothing could escape Chu Li's observant eyes. "This is a great opportunity for him. King Ping has been stripped of his military power. Now, no one is more popular than King Jing in the imperial court, so he should take this opportunity to draw a few more courtiers over to his side and increase his popularity."

Chu Li laughed and said, "You should stick to being a protector! Once your martial arts skills become stronger, you'll naturally be able to get closer and learn more from him. I'll be leaving now!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he rose to his feet and walked away.

"You…" Zhuo Feiyang glared at Chu Li's retreating figure.

Clearly, he had been ridiculed!

… 

At noon, the radiant sun shone brightly in the sky.

Chu Li glided down from the back of the Spirit Crane. The Spirit Tiger roared ferociously as it stood on top of the boulder at the mountain peak. Before Chu Li could land on the ground, it leaped across more than a hundred feet to pounce on him. Its snowy white coat of fur glimmered under the sunlight and shone with the splendor of beauty and strength. 

Its claws contained incredible force, so much so that Chu Li would be shredded to pieces if he collided with its claws.

As Chu Li joined his palms in the air, a white tiger silhouette rapidly materialized and charged toward the Spirit Tiger.

The Spirit Tiger turned its head nonchalantly, and the white tiger silhouette crashed into its neck instead of its eyes. The Spirit Tiger's snowy white fur quivered at the impact like ripples on water surfaces and instantly defused this astounding force from Chu Li. The Spirit Tiger did not falter in speed at all. 

Chu Li vanished in mid-air and reappeared on the back of the Spirit Tiger. He proceeded to ride on its back.

"Grrr…" A ferocious roar thundered.

Chu Li felt as though his eardrums were about to explode. Black spots began to appear in his vision, and he became lightheaded while his vision blurred. The power contained in this growl was truly remarkable. If he had not been circulating Maha-Vairocana's Immobility Scripture with all his might, he might have fainted already. 

By withstanding this Spirit Tiger's growls and roars, he could stimulate Maha-Vairocana's Immobility Scripture to a greater extent. While Maha-Vairocana's Immobility Scripture stood out the least among the four scriptures, it was mysterious and unfathomable. Aside from strengthening his spiritual force, this scripture was capable of restraining divine powers while preventing his own divine powers from being restrained. 

Initially, his divine powers could not be used alongside the Great Light Scripture and Maha-Vairocana's Immobility Scripture. However, he could now offset all restraints on his divine powers and continue to use them alongside those scriptures.

If he could keep increasing his cultivation level in this scripture, he might even be able to peek into Zhi Shan's mind the next time he encountered the monk! 

He had always viewed Zhi Shan as a huge rival. The Earth Matrix and Reincarnation Scripture were profound and mysterious, and Zhi Shan was a sly and deceitful person. Therefore, it was impossible to defend himself effectively against this monk. 

Chu Li grabbed onto the tiger's smooth yet tough fur so that he would not be flung away. 

The Spirit Tiger charged forward and then stopped abruptly but he stubbornly held onto its back as if he had been nailed onto the tiger. Nonetheless, its fur was very smooth and it took him a huge amount of effort to resist the large inertia force acting upon him.

Seeing as this trick was not working, the Spirit Tiger suddenly rolled over on the ground.

Chu Li disappeared from the tiger's back instantly. However, the moment it rose to its feet again, Chu Li reappeared and rode on its back once more.

"Grrr…" The Spirit Tiger roared louder.

Black spots appeared in Chu Li's vision again. As Maha-Vairocana's Immobility Scripture circulated at full power in his mind, countless lotuses appeared rapidly and kept strengthening his spiritual force to help him withstand the detrimental effects of the tiger's roars on his spirit.

Chu Li endured this thunderous roar and continued to grab onto its fur as the Spirit Tiger leaped around from one boulder to another on the mountain peak. It was as agile as a cat and was moving at an incredible speed. Its movements were especially abrupt and violent when it was leaping into the air and landing on the ground. 

Chu Li remained unflustered and stubbornly held onto its back.

There was an inauspicious power emanating from the Spirit Tiger. While this inauspicious power was invisible, it felt solid and tough. 

At this point, Chu Li had become capable of withstanding the tiger's constant thrashing movements, so he could now closely sense the way its muscles moved and feel the force in its body. This allowed him to have a deeper understanding of the Spirit Tiger and gain a better appreciation toward it. 

He kept pestering the Spirit Tiger because he wanted to understand the feeling of becoming one with a Spirit Tiger, so as to comprehend the White Tiger Power. 

He did not expect much from the White Tiger Power's destructive force. What he aimed to achieve was to perfect his mastery of the White Tiger Power in order to become an Enlightened Master. 

However, he gradually came to realize that he had underestimated the White Tiger Power.

After pestering the Spirit Tiger and clinging onto it repeated for a few days, he comprehended the first level of the White Tiger Power and realized that the force it contained was unbelievably destructive.

The key to cultivating the White Tiger Power inner energy was inauspicious power. If he could not comprehend and grasp that layer of inauspicious power around the Spirit Tiger, he would only be able to produce a mildly destructive inner energy just like the White Tiger Sect.

Nonetheless, once he managed to grasp this strand of inauspicious power, his White Tiger Power inner energy would be solid and pure. It would also be incredibly lethal, and no ordinary inner energy could compare with it.

In fact, in terms of how lethal and destructive it was, this inner energy would be superior to the Divine Light Technique. 

This layer of inauspicious power came from one's spirit. Without the spirit of this king of beasts, it would be very hard to comprehend this inauspicious power. Thus, there would be nothing remarkable about the inner energy produced from the White Tiger Power. In that case, a person would have to depend on the strength of their inner energy as well as the White Tiger Killing Skill to win a fight.

A person's inner energy was like a blade, and this inauspicious power was like the edge of the blade. Without a sharp edge, the blade would be a blunt one. Thus, the person would have to depend more on their strength rather than the sharpness of the blade.

With this strand of inauspicious power, he would have a sharp blade. Thus, he would be competing by using the sharpness of his blade instead of brutal force. This would place him in an entirely different boundary since the destructive forces produced by him and his opponent would be incomparable. 

It was precisely because of this fact that he had been risking his life to pester this Spirit Tiger. 

The Spirit Tiger was extremely strong and was indeed worthy of its reputation as the king of beasts. Chu Li felt like a three-year-old child before the tiger as he posed no threat to it at all. The moment the Spirit Tiger gained the slightest advantage on him, Chu Li would certainly meet his death. If he made even a single mistake, its claws would reach him and he would be torn to pieces. No matter how magical the Life and Death Scripture was, he would not be able to reverse his situation then.

It was this life-risking danger that had unleashed his full potential by driving him to desperately improve his cultivation level and mental acuity.

Since the Spirit Tiger was way more powerful and stronger than him, he could not afford to make the slightest mistake. Otherwise, he would be dead through and through.

After wrestling with the Spirit Tiger for some time, Chu Li disappeared abruptly from the tiger's back and reappeared on the Spirit Crane's back. The Spirit Crane had been hovering over the mountain peak in the sky. After emitting a loud cry, it flew away from the Spirit Tiger Peak and returned to the Spirit Cranes Peak. 

Xiao Qi was currently meditating and cultivating on a huge rock. She seemed like a white jade statue as she sat there in her snowy white clothing.

When she heard Chu Li returning, Xiao Qi slowly opened her eyes. She knew that it was time to leave.

When they returned to Adjacent Town, dusk had set in and the evening lanterns had been lit. The two of them came to the restaurant and had their meal there while enjoying the town's scenery. 

After having their meal, they strolled back to their residence and then returned to their own rooms to begin comprehending their respective martial arts. 

Seven days passed by in the blink of an eye. Chu Li saw that everything had been calm and peaceful in Adjacent Town, so he returned to Gale City.

After arriving at Gale City, he secretly met up with Jiang Kuai and gave him a Tiger Bone Pill to help him enhance his martial arts skills.

Jiang Kuai had a firm and solid foundation, so his cultivation level had been improving rapidly after he had entered the Grandmaster's Boundary. Nonetheless, he still could not compare with the four major sects yet, so he needed some external help. The Tiger Bone Pill could help strengthen his physique by twenty percent.

Chu Li had just returned to his residence in Gale City and was about to rest when he noticed Li Ruolan and Lu Zhen gliding over.

They had come to bid him farewell as they would be heading over to Falling Autumn City to assist Mo Qianjun. The war situation there had been quite intense, and they were now lacking manpower.

This caused Chu Li to feel very worried.