Chapter 145: Practicing the Wind and Thunder Escape Technique

Chapter 145: Chapter 145: Practicing the Wind and Thunder Escape Technique

The ascension ceremony went smoothly, without a single hitch.

Not a single public disturbance occurred in the entire Capital City that day.

The ascension ceremony was only the beginning. From reorganizing the officials of the Three Provinces and Six Ministries to issuing new decrees, the affairs of state were incredibly complex.

Chu Fan washed his hands of it all. He had Jing’an bring Jin Chuhong back and ordered him to serve as her personal guard.

As for himself, he hid away in the guest courtyard of the auction house.

"So you got your taste of being the Emperor, with tens of thousands of people kowtowing and hailing ’Long live!’ How did it feel?"

Only Chu Fan and Yun Xi were in the courtyard. Yun Xi, in a rare good mood, took the opportunity to tease him.

Chu Fan quickly waved his hand. "Give me a break. I never want to go through that a second time. I was like a puppet being pulled around all morning. If I wasn’t worried something might go wrong, why would I have even gone?"

"I know, I know!" Yun Xi smiled gently as she stood behind Chu Fan, massaging his shoulders.

"You’ve always hated all this pomp and circumstance."

"My wife knows me best." Chu Fan patted her hand.

’He was actually hesitating whether he should tell her that her parents were in this very city right now.’

After some thought, Chu Fan decided to be selfish, just this once.

He didn’t want the Six Sects and Eight Gates of the Eastern Domain to know he was still alive, at least not before the Tengxing Grand Assembly.

For one, he planned to cause a major scene at the Tengxing Grand Assembly. For another, Chu Fan felt there was likely more to the battle at the Cloud Horse Jade Mine than met the eye.

He even suspected that someone within the Lingyun Sect had colluded with the Red Blood Mansion.

He needed to use the news of his death to give Ji Bufan the cover to thoroughly investigate what happened back then.

Logically speaking, after he fought for the Sect, had his cultivation crippled, and was then treated so horribly, it wouldn’t be an overreaction for him to kill the Lingyun Sect Leader and all the Elders.

But Chu Fan, in the end, still cherished their past ties, and he wasn’t that bloodthirsty.

The most he could bring himself to do to the Lingyun Sect was to ignore it and sever all ties.

Of course, if the investigation revealed anyone who was involved in what happened back then, he would show no mercy.

"Yun Xi, if in the future, Elder Yun and Steward Chen no longer opposed us being together, would you forgive them?" Chu Fan asked, testing the waters.

Yun Xi was taken aback. She thought for a moment, then shook her head decisively. "No," she said, her voice firm as steel. "From the moment they ignored my desperate pleas and insisted on marrying me off to Shui Yuntian, I considered myself dead. In their minds, you and I died on Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain a long time ago, didn’t we?"

From Yun Xi’s tone, Chu Fan could hear the disappointment, and even hatred, she felt for her parents.

"No matter what, I’ll always be by your side."

After they had talked for a while, Chu Fan took out the Ming Jue Jades he had obtained from the Miracle Secret Realm.

There were eighteen of them in total, but with no inscriptions on the surface, he had no idea what was recorded inside.

The auction catalog released that day had already listed three Martial Techniques of at least Celestial Grade, Top Class.

Chu Fan planned to select three from these Ming Jue Jades to be those techniques.

Of course, while he was putting them up for auction, he would still be the one to decide who they were sold to. It was just for show. If the highest bidder for the three Martial Techniques wasn’t a Sect he approved of, he would have his own people planted in the auction house outbid them and buy the techniques back. It was merely a matter of moving something from his left pocket to his right.

In fact, Chu Fan’s plan was to split each of the three chosen Martial Techniques into two halves. He would sell the first half at the auction, letting the buyers experience the technique’s power. They would then do everything in their power to obtain the second half. When that time came, he could use the second half as leverage to make the Sect that bought the first half owe him a huge favor.

These eighteen Ming Jue Jades were different from the ones Chu Fan had acquired before. They weren’t single-use; the information within them was permanently recorded.

Their contents could be read an unlimited number of times.

Chu Fan began to read the information from each Ming Jue Jade, one by one.

The eighteen Ming Jue Jades contained six Inner Power Heart Methods, one Fist Technique, one Palm Technique, one Sword Technique, one Saber Technique, one Staff Technique, one Spear Technique, one Halberd Technique, one Array, one Military Book, one Bai He Technique, one Elixir Manual, and, to his astonishment, the final one was the Body Technique Chu Fan had always dreamed of finding.

With his current Level 30 Spiritual Power, even though the eighteen Ming Jue Jades contained a vast amount of information, he only needed to read them once to commit everything to memory, never to be forgotten.

He hadn’t yet decided which techniques to put up for auction before he found himself completely captivated by a Body Technique called Wind Thunder Escape. In addition to the Wind Thunder Escape, a Sword Technique called Zongyun Sword and a Palm Technique called Heaven-Reaching Palm also caught his eye.

His interest in the Sword Technique was understandable. Chu Fan himself was an avid pursuer of the Sword Dao, so he naturally found it hard to resist the temptation of a Martial Technique like the Zongyun Sword, which surpassed the Celestial Level.

As for the Palm Technique, aside from his sword, Chu Fan lacked any truly formidable martial techniques for unarmed combat.

Suppressing his excitement, Chu Fan took out three blank parchment books, which he had long since asked Liu Yicai to prepare and artificially age.

He decided to put three Martial Techniques up for auction: the Ziwei Shining Night Fist Manual, the Nether King Yin Yang Chaos Saber Technique, and the Cloud Soaring Sword Manual.

Of course, he only transcribed the first half of each of these three techniques. Yet, even that first half alone already surpassed a Celestial Level, Top Class Martial Technique.

After finishing, he stored the Ming Jue Jades in the Juntian Mirror and began to practice the Wind Thunder Escape Body Technique.

Wind Thunder Escape. As its name suggested, it was a technique for escaping with the extreme speed of wind and thunder.

After carefully studying the Martial Technique, Chu Fan couldn’t help but marvel. The person who created this Body Technique was a true visionary.

This Body Technique didn’t just allow one to flee at the speed of wind and thunder; it also allowed the user to harness the power of the elements to increase their speed, and even conceal themselves within the storm itself.

In other words, once one mastered this technique to the Great Success stage, they could not only command the wind and thunder but would also have no reason to fear them.

This Martial Technique was divided into seven layers.

However, in the Mortal Realm, one could only master it up to the Third Layer. Furthermore, to even begin practicing this technique, one’s Cultivation had to be at the Divine Separation Realm or higher.

Fortunately, Chu Fan was already at the Divine Separation Realm.

Reaching the Minor Success stage of the First Layer shouldn’t be too difficult. At that point, by harnessing the power of the wind, he could reach a top speed of thirty zhang in an instant and sustain it for half an hour.

At the Great Success stage, that speed increased to fifty zhang in an instant, sustainable for a full hour. At the Perfection stage of the First Layer, one could reach an astonishing sixty zhang in an instant, also sustainable for an hour.

What did sixty zhang in an instant mean? It was nearly the same as Ying Di’s top speed.

Because he had absorbed the technique directly from the Ming Jue Jade, Chu Fan found it incredibly easy to get started. After just one afternoon and evening of practice, he had already reached the Minor Success stage of the First Layer.

Yun Xi, who had been keeping him company, was stunned when she saw him master such a technique, and she felt a pang of urgency.

"Once your Cultivation reaches the Divine Separation Realm, I’ll be sure to teach you this Body Technique."

"What’s this Body Technique called?"

"Wind Thunder Escape. I got it in the Secret Realm at Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain. It was probably once a Martial Technique from the Divine Realm."

"Good. Once my Cultivation reaches the Divine Separation Realm, you have to promise to teach me."

"Silly girl, what’s mine is yours, isn’t it?" Chu Fan said, gently stroking her head. "If it’s something I have and you want to learn it, I’ll happily do everything in my power to teach you."

"Actually, I already have a way for Jin Chuhong to start her Cultivation," Chu Fan said suddenly. "And I have a Cultivation Technique that would be perfect for her."

"Really? But isn’t she long past the ideal age for Foundation Establishment?"

The idea had only occurred to Chu Fan when he was reading through those six Inner Power Heart Methods earlier.

However, now wasn’t the right time for Jin Chuhong to begin her Cultivation. Since she was past the ideal age for Foundation Establishment, the only method Chu Fan could think of was the Drunken Immortal Brew.

But a single bowl of Drunken Immortal Brew would cause a mortal to fall into a deep sleep for three years, which was why the timing was wrong. For a long time to come, he would need Jin Chuhong to manage everything. In addition to unifying the Eastern Domain, she also had to establish new rules and solidify their control.

For now, she was the only one Chu Fan could trust.