After Li Yan thought about it for a while, he suddenly froze and his face instantly became embarrassed.
"The underground secret cave, the Soul Prison Clan... The Soul Prison Clan... They practice the way of the soul. Could it be that something went wrong with my soul there? Was there a problem when I was tempering my soul, or was there something wrong with that long alley?"
When Li Yan thought of this, cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and a terrifying thought came to his mind.
Everything that was happening before his eyes might be due to something wrong with his soul, so he was affected by everything he saw and heard.
He thought of a reality that he simply could not accept.
Is he now in the secret cave underground in the Qingqing Continent? The more than ten years he spent with Zhao Min and Zi Kun in tempering his soul, and even everything he experienced now that he has returned to the Desolate Moon Continent, were all in an illusion
Only in this way can I connect together the original dream and some seemingly absurd things.
Those doubts that cannot be explained by time can be explained more reasonably.
"Am I in a big dream, or an illusion
How else can we explain the strange way he returned to the Desolate Moon Continent, and how he happened to appear in the valley of the Military Advisor's Mansion..."
There was a constant buzzing in Li Yan's head. He didn't want to believe that he had had such a long dream, and everything in the dream was so real.
"So where is my real body now? How long have I been in the illusion?"
The cold sweat on Li Yan's forehead was pouring down, making him feel that it was so real.
"Wake up... me!"
Li Yan stood up suddenly and bit his tongue. A sharp pain rushed to his forehead, but the scene in front of him did not change at all.
He was still standing in the room, and the afterglow of the setting sun was still slanting in through the window.
A black light flashed in Li Yan's hand, and a Gui Yi Water-Fen Shaker appeared in his left palm. Then, he picked it up and stabbed it into his right palm fiercely.
Li Yan first felt a pain in his palm, and then a piercing pain came from his sea of consciousness. This stab made his soul tremble.
Li Yan groaned, his whole body shook, and he staggered a few steps with a pale face before he stood firm.
"No, this doesn't look like an illusion at all!"
Li Yan looked at the wound on his right palm that was recovering rapidly with the silver light flashing after he pulled back the Gui Yi Water-Dividing Spear. He also looked at the waves of severe pain that came from his soul even after the Gui Yi Water-Dividing Spear was pulled out. He felt that he seemed to have guessed wrong.
"But...but...if this isn't an illusion, how do we explain Cui Feng's incident?"
Li Yan didn't know for a moment whether he was in an illusion or in the real world. He fell into endless confusion...
Two days later, Li Yan came to the hall in front of the Duke's Mansion. Eight people had already gathered there, five of whom were Lin Yuxing and others who had stood next to Cui Feng on the parade ground a few days ago.
One of the other three people was also someone Li Yan had seen outside the Duke's Mansion. The thin and dark man named Lian Pinghai was among them.
It was not known whether the other two people entered before Li Yan arrived at the Duke's Mansion or afterward. They were a middle-aged man and a woman.
The man, Ziwei, had a large face with black beard like steel needles and a body as strong as a bear or leopard. The woman still had some charm in her looks and must have been quite beautiful when she was young.
Although the woman is already middle-aged, she is still plump and charming, and her skin is as white and tender as water.
Judging from her posture and position, she and the burly man seemed to have a special relationship.
Several people were talking in the hall. After hearing the footsteps, they looked towards the door of the hall one by one.
"Ahem... Ahem... Young Master Zhang is here. We need to wait here for a while. The Duke will be here soon."
After the eight people saw Li Yan clearly flashing in the light and shadow at the door of the hall, Lin Yuxing just moved the handkerchief in his hand, coughed twice, pointed at a chair opposite and said, his voice was neither enthusiastic nor unfamiliar.
When speaking to Li Yan and the others, he no longer called them "General" but Duke.
Li Yan has tried many methods in the past few days. He even flew to the depths of the sea, but found that he could not break out of this "illusion".
Moreover, all the reactions from the people around him and the feedback from his own spiritual power and consciousness were extremely real.
This made him slowly relax. Now, no matter whether he was in a "fantasy" or not, since he had thought of this, he could find a solution.
The only thing that worried him was that if he was really in a "fantasy", his soul was fine now, which meant that his body was not in danger.
But once his physical body is in danger and is destroyed, his soul will be in real danger. However, the probability of this happening is only half after all, and he now believes that he may be too suspicious.
Li Yan felt that he was 60% sure that everything he had experienced over the years was real, and that Cui Feng was the real source of the weirdness.
Today is the first day after the Duke's Mansion finished recruiting security coaches. Li Yan was told early in the morning that some tasks for the Duke's Mansion would be arranged starting today.
"Qingshanai" is thousands of miles away from "Yuhai City". Although this is nothing to Li Yan now, if he wants to investigate something, it will take some time even if he is a cultivator.
Therefore, Li Yan planned to go there later and try not to attract other people's attention.
As Lin Yuxing finished speaking, everyone in the hall looked at Li Yan, except for Lin Yuxing and the other four, whose expressions were relatively normal.
In the past few days, they had also curiously tried to find out what the general was saying.
Cui Feng knew that these people had vicious eyes, so he told them that Zhang Ming was the descendant of an old friend he had met in the martial arts world. The man looked very similar to the old friend, so he was shocked that day.
Later, after testing it himself, he found that the martial arts the other party was practicing were indeed the martial arts of an old friend, so he slowly put his mind at ease. As for the master Zhang Ming mentioned, it was one of his uncles. Although that person's martial arts were also at the highest level, he would definitely not come out again.
Zhang Ming does need to gain experience in the martial arts world. In this case, he would of course take him in. Besides, Zhang Ming has indeed just entered the first-class realm, so he is truly a rare talent.
Hearing that Zhang Ming had reached the first-class level at such a young age, the other four people, except Lin Yuxing, were really surprised.
When they heard Lin Yuxing say that the other party did not practice internal skills, but was born with supernatural powers, and that his martial arts skills were not tested later, they thought that the other party only had amazing strength but did not know any moves.
To a martial artist, this is just a powerful wild bull. There are many people in the martial arts world who are not as good as him and can easily kill Zhang Ming.
After Cui Feng said this, the others realized that Zhang Ming was an external martial arts master, but his martial arts style was too weird.
External Kung Fu requires a solid foundation, so it is not easy to conceal it, and it can be easily seen at a glance by people like them.
But Zhang Ming's steps were clearly unsteady, and his method of cultivation was a little confusing.
If Zhang Ming has really reached the level of a first-class master, then he is truly a good candidate for martial arts.
Although it would be extremely difficult to reach the realm of perfection by practicing external martial arts in the future, he was able to reach a first-class level at such a young age. Among them, the external martial arts had reached perfection, which "Ghost Head Axe" Song Duan had not achieved at the beginning.
When Song Duan reached the first-class level, he was 41 years old, which is the time when a martial artist's physical strength and cognition reach their peak.
Although there have been external masters who can eventually reach the state of enlightenment since ancient times, they are rare.
After all, although their martial arts also require breathing, when the martial arts are practiced to the peak, the tendons, bones and internal organs will also be filled with internal force, which is the same as the internal martial arts.
But in the end, the "breathing" cultivated by external martial arts is basically still acquired and it is extremely difficult to reach the level of innate skills, and it is extremely difficult to open up all the tendons and meridians in the body.
The ultimate goal of an internal martial arts master is to step into the innate realm and cultivate a trace of innate true qi, which can not only prolong life, but also make one's martial arts reach perfection.
If someone can cultivate a trace of innate true qi, he can enter the realm of transformation that everyone admires.
In fact, that trace of innate true qi is just the weakest spiritual power for a cultivator.
The ultimate goal pursued by these so-called martial arts masters is nothing more than a trace of spiritual power cultivated by the weakest cultivator in the Qi Condensation Stage.
This martial arts master who can reach the state of transformation actually has spiritual root qualifications, but no one has discovered it, or by the time a cultivator discovers it, the best opportunity has already passed, and in the end he can only embark on another path.
Li Yan clasped his fists towards everyone, then sat down on a chair opposite as Lin Yuxing had indicated.
The people sitting on their side were Lian Pinghai and his two companions, clearly distinguished from Lin Yuxing and the other old men.
Li Yan arrived late and sat at the very bottom, but he didn't care about it at all.
In the end, the five people including Lin Yuxing just looked Li Yan up and down and didn't say anything to Li Yan. Instead, Lian Pinghai, who was sitting above Li Yan, spoke first after seeing Li Yan sit down.
"My name is Lian Pinghai. I don't know which sect Young Master Zhang is from. I am ignorant. I have never heard of Young Master Zhang before."
As he spoke, although he did not stand up, he already clasped his fists towards Li Yan.
He also noticed that Li Yan's steps were unsteady. He had just heard that the Duke would summon four guard coaches today. Three of them were already here, and the "three-eyed fox" called the other party Young Master Zhang, so it was obvious that he was the fourth person.
But Lian Pinghai thought the other person was just a fool and didn't know any martial arts.
He entered the Duke's Mansion one step earlier than Li Yan, so he did not miss any moment when Li Yan took action.
The other two were those who were left behind after the teaching test yesterday, and they also did not know Li Yan.
"Oh, I only learned some basic boxing and kicking skills, and my ancestors had some friendship with the Duke, so I was left here!"
Li Yan said hurriedly. After he said this, not only Pinghai was stunned, but even Lin Yuxing and the others were a little dazed.
"This kid seems to be very introverted. Why does he seem to be so ignorant? Is he afraid that others don't know about his relationship with the general?"
Lin Yuxing was surprised, but also felt unhappy. Zhang Ming gave him the feeling that he was showing off.
At the same time, several other people who had followed Cui Feng for decades also had looks of ridicule or disdain in their eyes. They knew their own general.
He attaches great importance to old friendships, but if you really think you can use his power to stir up trouble and act arrogantly outside.
The final outcome was the same, with his head and body separated. It was not like their general had never killed his own direct relatives before.
Moreover, the killing would be even more bloody and would be watched by fellow tribesmen.
"Wow, could it be that Young Master Zhang's ancestors also served in the army? There are quite a few meritorious officials who followed the general. May I ask if we know Young Master's ancestors?"
Song Duan, who originally had some good feelings towards Li Yan, couldn't help but ask a question, and his tone was already unfriendly.
In fact, after Cui Feng told them that Zhang Ming was an old friend in the green forest, some of them still suspected that Zhang Ming's ancestors had served in the army.
What our general values most is the friendship among his comrades, while the righteousness of the martial arts world has become dull after years of fighting.
"Oh, this... The Duke once told me not to tell anyone else, this..."
Li Yan seemed not to notice their expressions and spoke with embarrassment.