Qin Xuan held Tantai Yue tightly and struggled to get up from the ground, gently placing her on the concrete.
Then he walked towards Jin Shikai's corpse.
He approached and took a closer look. Jin Shikai, with his eyes wide open, was undeniably dead.
Beside him, Leng Xi still showed a trace of life.
Qin Xuan was about to turn and leave, but suddenly remembered something. After a moment of contemplation, he decided to spare her life.
Leng Xi was relatively fortunate. Although the staff had pierced through her lower abdomen, it had not injured her intestines.
Qin Xuan took out a healing pill he had refined earlier, crushed it, and sprinkled the powder onto the wound on Leng Xi's abdomen.
Leng Xi's closed eyes flickered a few times, and then the wound began to heal rapidly. In just a few seconds, the wound had closed, leaving only a scar.
This healing pill was originally intended for internal use to achieve optimal effects without leaving a wound.
However, external application did not yield as good results. Although the wound healed, it left a scar.
Qin Xuan didn't care about that.
She wasn't one of his people, and in fact, was an enemy. Saving her life was an act of kindness.
Half a minute later, Leng Xi slowly opened her eyes and struggled to get up. Feeling a faint itch on her lower abdomen, she looked down. Inside her torn clothing, there was only a scar the size of a fingertip.
Leng Xi was perplexed. Hadn't she been stabbed through the abdomen with a wooden stick? What was going on? Was she dreaming?
But seeing Qin Xuan still standing beside her, she knew it wasn't a dream.
Seeing that she was awake, Qin Xuan said directly,
"Jin Shikai is dead, and your life was saved by me."
Leng Xi glanced at Jin Shikai, whose corpse looked grotesque, and gave a self-deprecating laugh.
"What? You've taken a liking to my body? You don't want me to die?"
Qin Xuan sneered,
"You? You don't have that kind of allure."
Tantai Yue, Qin Xuan's wife, was considered one of the most beautiful women in Jiangbei. Otherwise, Jin Shikai wouldn't have lost his life over her.
There was also Wang Yuyan, a stunning beauty with a typical mature and commanding demeanor. Either of them was miles ahead of Leng Xi.
Even Ren Qixiang was slightly more attractive than Leng Xi.
While Leng Xi possessed decent looks, without her prominent assets, she would be an ordinary beauty.
"Then why did you save me?" Leng Xi retorted.
Qin Xuan didn't beat around the bush, saying directly,
"I saved you for a reason, but not the reason you might be thinking. I want you to stay by Tantai Yue's side and protect her."
Qin Xuan knew he couldn't always be with Tantai Yue, so he set his sights on Leng Xi.
With her innate late-stage strength, he believed she could protect someone in Jiangbei. Otherwise, Jin Shikai wouldn't have survived today.
Leng Xi snorted,
"Aren't you afraid I'll find an opportunity to kill her and get revenge for today?"
Qin Xuan wouldn't risk Tantai Yue's life. He immediately took out a black pill and tossed it into Leng Xi's hand.
"This is a Seven-Orifice Intestine-Breaking Pill. If you dare to have malicious intentions towards Tantai, you will bleed from all seven orifices and your intestines will rot, leading to death."
"Why should I take it?"
Qin Xuan said,
"Do you think even if I let you go now, you can explain yourself to the Jin family? Jin Shikai is dead, and you're alive and well, without even a scratch? Do you think they'll let you off?"
Leng Xi hesitated.
What Qin Xuan said was absolutely true.
If Jin Gong, Jin Shikai's father, found out about his son's death, he would immediately return from abroad.
At that point, she wouldn't be able to explain herself.
She also thought about how Jin Shikai had treated her over the past decade.
He had constantly tried to get her into bed and had pushed her into dangerous situations multiple times. If not for her considerable strength, she would have likely died long ago.
Eleven years ago, Leng Xi was the daughter of an assassin in a foreign organization.
Because her mother defected from the organization, numerous assassins were dispatched to intercept her mother.
Her mother had no choice but to flee back to her hometown, Long Country, with her.
However, just as they were about to cross the border, Leng Xi's mother was caught up by assassins from the organization and killed outside the border.
Leng Xi, however, managed to escape into Long Country.
The assassins knew that Long Country was a forbidden zone for hired killers and mercenaries, so they dared not enter without authorization.
At that time, Leng Xi coincidentally met Jin Gong, who was doing business in a border city.
Leng Xi was only thirteen or fourteen years old then and had knocked down Jin Gong's seven or eight bodyguards for a single steamed bun.
Jin Gong recognized Leng Xi as a potential asset. He gave her the steamed bun and eventually took her in.
From then on, Leng Xi became Jin Gong's top expert and enforcer.
Over the past eleven years, Leng Xi had also risked her life for the Jin family countless times.
As for Jin Shikai's lewd behavior, Jin Gong had only turned a blind eye.
On one occasion, Jin Shikai had slipped a sleeping drug into Leng Xi's drink, intending to take advantage of her. Jin Gong was sitting in the living room reading a newspaper, completely indifferent.
If Jin Shikai's enemies hadn't appeared at that time, Leng Xi would have been violated then.
When Jin Shikai was kidnapped by his enemies that time, Leng Xi, despite being drugged, rescued him.
She ended up sustaining several knife wounds, with one blade coming within less than a centimeter of a vital spot.
Today, Jin Shikai's heartlessness made her detest the Jin family even more.
She felt that the debt of gratitude for the steamed bun from Jin Gong had been repaid.
Qin Xuan, unaware of Leng Xi's thoughts, assumed she wouldn't agree and threw out a condition.
"If you can protect Tantai for two years, I will help you break through and even elevate your realm to the Aggregation stage."
Leng Xi was stunned.
Aggregation stage!?
Was Qin Xuan joking?
He could help people improve their cultivation?
Furthermore, there were very few cultivators at the Aggregation stage in the entire Long Country.
They were all undoubtedly powerful individuals.
If the Postnatal stage was the entry-level for martial artists, then the Innate stage was the watershed.
Many cultivated their entire lives and could only reach the Postnatal stage.
The Postnatal stage involved refining the body to its human limit, allowing for external force attacks, akin to the martial arts masters seen in television dramas.
The Innate stage, however, allowed for the cultivation of internal force.
In other words, it was possible to absorb the meager spiritual energy from the outside world for cultivation.
When fighting, using internal force would increase strength severalfold with cultivation.
One could leap over eaves and walk on walls, displaying extraordinary abilities.
Postnatal cultivates the external, Innate cultivates the internal.
Reaching the Aggregation stage was truly akin to the cultivators described in novels.
One could leap dozens of meters, just as Qin Xuan had done.
Internal force could be projected externally, allowing for qi manipulation attacks and killing without a trace.
Finally, there was the Grandmaster realm.
At this level, one could hover in the air and even leap.
With a wave of a finger, one could transform qi into a barrier, cleave streams, and shatter rocks.
There were very few Grandmaster realm experts in the entire Long Country.