Biochemical Martial Arts: Supreme Heavenly Venerate

The next day, Lin Rui and Wang Sen attended another grand funeral. However, it was the common people of Silver Moon County who organized an official funeral for the High Priest of the Light Church, Li Qiufeng. The location was at Thousand Tomb Ridge, seven miles away.

True to his word, Priest Li indeed delayed the self-immolation time of thirty thousand citizens of Silver Moon County by half a moment, a sacrifice which cost him his vital energy, ultimately reducing him to ash and returning to the heavens and earth.

Lin Rui learned of this after emerging from the underground cavern and felt deeply moved.

The reason Cao, the arrest officer, and his colleagues were willing to follow Lin Rui into a life-or-death battle was due to their roots in Silver Moon County—out of affection for their homeland, a sense of duty, and for the sake of their own lives and the lives of their families.

Li Qiufeng had no reason to risk her life, yet she generously sacrificed herself for the thousands of disciples of the Light Church.

Lin Rui felt a rare sense of shame and even now, he remained unsettled.

In the past, his attitude towards Priest Li had been far too contemptuous, judging a noble heart with the pettiness of a scoundrel's mind.

Priest Li had said he had a heart of light, but in Lin Rui's view, it was Priest Li who truly possessed the heart of light.

After the funeral, Wang Sen also couldn't help feeling deeply moved, and said gloomily, "This must be what our ancestors meant by choosing righteousness over life. It seems the Light Church does have some substance after all. A High Priest of her stature willing to go to such lengths for the people, she can't simply be dismissed as the leader of a heretical cult."

Lin Rui strongly agreed. Based on what he now understood, the current doctrine of the Light Church was very pure, and they didn't seem to exploit the ignorant masses for their hard-earned money, though that might also be related to the fact that the people were too poor to be exploited.

Within the church, there was indeed a group of individuals with firm convictions, true believers of the "Holy Thunder Fire", who wanted to cleanse the world according to the teachings of the Light Church, bringing true light to mankind, ensuring the people could live peacefully and happily without worries about food and clothing, free from the troubles of demons.

Lin Rui had been quite worried about the Zhou siblings of Wang City, but when he saw another High Priest from Wang City showing kindness and care towards the siblings, he was reassured.

It turns out that the Light Church had many female members. Not only were the two High Priests he had met women, but about seventy percent of the priests were also female.

According to his understanding, women seemed to have an advantage when cultivating the basic and advanced techniques of the Light Church.

Lin Rui also met with this High Priest, whose name was Tang Wenlan. Like Li Qiufeng, she was a calm and gentle woman of elegance and grace, welcoming Lin Rui, the one touched by holy fate, with warmth.

Lin Rui's attitude towards Tang Wenlan was much better than towards Li Qiufeng, always treating her with respect, though he did try to keep his distance in their conversations.

He was now a seventh rank 'Capital Commandant of Martial Virtue' and couldn't risk his future for the Light Church.

This was a position in the Imperial Guard of the capital!

In the first few days after his arrival, he had seen a news story about how the Federal Security Bureau spent three hundred million Federal Credits and had over eighty pathwalkers assist in an attempt to plant someone in the Imperial Guard system of the Great Song. The mission failed, resulting in significant casualties and a bureau chief resigning in accountability.

The incident had caused a huge stir and was all over the news, so Lin Rui remembered it vividly.

"Enough of this, our relationship with the Light Church doesn't matter. In the future, we should try to avoid any entanglement with them."

——However, for Li Qiufeng's sake, he would turn a blind eye to certain matters.

At that moment, both of them sensed a peculiar change in their biochips.

"Damn, that thing is finally repaired."

Wang Sen referred to the quantum communication relay as "that thing" and eagerly opened the network and communication interfaces, scrolling tirelessly as he walked towards the county town.

The websites and forums commonly used by the otherworldly pathwalkers could now be accessed directly within Sky Extreme Star, and the quantum communication system was also functioning normally.

Yet, his face darkened after a moment, "This Extraterrestrial Management Bureau is really freaking corrupt! I just opened a few web pages, didn't even watch a single video, and they've already charged me for 1G of data."

1G of data equated to a thousand Federal Credits.

Although Wang Sen had made a fortune with Lin Rui seven days earlier—killing many demons and devil cultivators along the way, at least one-third of whom had bounties which could be exchanged for a large reward from the authorities—he still felt the pinch of such excessive data charges.

Lin Rui was also browsing, "Professor Han sent us a message in the group."

Wang Sen opened their work group to find that Professor Han had indeed sent a message.

The professor had assigned them three tasks for the quarter.

The first task was mandatory—requiring them to become black-belted constables within the yamen in three months.

The second and third tasks were optional—one was to strive to complete the second realm of body channeling and enter the Blood Training phase within the quarter, and the other was that Professor Han had sent them a thousand Silver Taels worth of magical silver via the Extraterrestrial Management Bureau to procure certain government-regulated goods on behalf of the project team in Silver Moon County.

Wang Sen chuckled upon reading this, thinking to himself that the tasks seemed too easy. Would the professor be shocked to jump if he knew that not only had Lin Rui become an arrest officer days ago but was now also a seventh rank 'Capital Commandant of Martial Virtue' of the Imperial Guard, and even he, Wang Sen, was now a deputy arrest officer?

They had already completed the body channeling and entered the Blood Training phase.

There is also the procurement list drawn up by Professor Han, which would indeed be difficult for ordinary people to access, but to the two of them, it was a piece of cake.

For example, several of the cultivation medicines commonly found in magisterial offices were listed, and now they could exchange for as many as they desired.

Wang Sen had previously looked down on these medicines, feeling that their efficacy was lacking, but now it seemed that not all lineage walkers had access to these things.

"I think Professor Han is actually a very good person, the type with a tough exterior but a soft heart," Wang Sen said with a slight smile, "The 1,000 Silver Tael of magical currency he sent over was essentially intended to give us a hand."

Lin Rui felt the same way, if the two of them were ordinary lineage walkers, that 1,000 Silver Tael of magical currency would have been a significant help to them, allowing them to substantially accelerate their cultivation speed with just a little effort.

So the supervisor Fang Ranran had found for them was truly excellent.

He nodded, "Let's divide up the duties according to the list and collect the items Professor wants as quickly as possible, so they don't think we're incompetent."

When the two returned to the county town, they encountered another happy event.

Lin Rui found that Blood Blade Ji was waiting for him at the city gates.

She was still dressed in red, armed with dual blades, just like when Lin Rui first saw her, her aura cold and sharp, her beauty otherworldly, her long black hair fluttering in the wind like dark flames.

However, the hatred and decisiveness that once dominated her eyes were absent, and for some reason, her complexion was rather pale.

Although those cold, jade-like eyes remained indifferent, the moment she saw Lin Rui, a smile appeared, warming the world like a rising sun.

Seeing her, Lin Rui also brightened, smiling at her, "Is everything settled with your family?"

Ji Xueying had been absent these past few days for the purpose of settling her family.

Ji Xueying didn't want her parents to be dragged into the struggle with Han and Wang, and her family wanted to find somewhere to live incognito, quietly for the rest of their lives.

"Everything has been arranged; the household registration and all that is in order," Ji Xueying said gratefully with a bow, "My parents asked me to thank you for the Silver Coin provided by Your Highness, which is enough for them to re-establish their household and live comfortably for a lifetime.

They truly cannot thank you enough, and my father especially asked me to convey the message that they will live quietly and not cause you any trouble."

Hearing this, Lin Rui thought that the matter might still be troublesome.

Lin Rui had met Ji Xueying's parents, both of whom were upright and honest people, and Ji Xueying's three siblings were also capable of living decently.

Even if they weren't previously, after surviving a dangerous encounter, they would likely become more settled.

Lin Rui had also given them a generous amount of Silver Tael.
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After the battle, he and a group of constables, along with the magisterial offices' clerks and officers, had confiscated the County Magistrate's and the registrar's properties under the pretext of searching for demons, accumulating 19,000 Silver Tael of magical currency, in addition to various lands, buildings, and shops.

They had given half of their spoils to their superiors, used some for hush money for the other clerks in the office, and covered the expenses for altering land and building registrations in the county and provincial cities; the rest was divided among themselves.

Lin Rui didn't want land or property, so he took a full 5,000 Silver Tael and passed 3,000 of it to Ji Xueying's family.

It was money for settling down, and he couldn't be stingy.

The Ji family's problem was with their household registration, as this world's registration system was very strict and could easily expose one's background.

Lin Rui had asked a professor of law to help arrange the Ji family's household registration.

Possibly feeling guilty for having hesitated during the battle, the professor had immediately agreed to help and given Lin Rui a letter of introduction, saying that presenting this letter to a certain officer in charge of household registration in the neighboring county would get the Ji family registered.

However, this solution could only alleviate an immediate issue, and there were still potential risks in the long term, so they would have to find a more permanent solution when the opportunity arose.

"Oh, and there's this."

Ji Xueying took out two porcelain bottles the size of an arm and looked at Lin Rui with her icy jade-like eyes, "These are two bottles of fourth-realm emperor-grade blood. I don't know where they came from, but I guessed they might be useful to you, my lord."

Lin Rui was initially surprised but quickly realized that Ji Xueying must have guessed his identity as an outsider Heavenly Demon.

But it was something that would have been revealed sooner or later, and he smiled casually and took them without hesitation, "Thanks, Ying'er, this blood is indeed crucial for me!"

Lin Rui was close to completing his blood cultivation, and at this stage, there was no better blood serum material than Ji Xueying's blood.

It was the bloodline quality, not the level of cultivation, that mattered for the serum material, and Ji Xueying's fourth-realm emperor-grade blood held boundless potential, making it the best choice currently available.

The key elemental power also matched well; Ji Xueying once had a pure thunder attribute, and now her blood carried thunder, fire, and light.

Originally, Lin Rui was wondering how to ask for blood from Ji Xueying since he needed a greater quantity this time, including some marrow blood, which couldn't be simply brushed off like last time; unexpectedly, Ji Xueying had already prepared it for him.