A month ago, Duan Tiande's study.

The sky was covered with dark clouds, and several colorful spirit snakes were churning back and forth between the black clouds and lightning, and the entire Phoenix City was already shrouded in an oppressive atmosphere of mountain rain coming.

Duan Tiande paced back and forth in the room, his brows furrowed, as if something important had happened that was difficult to decide.

"I don't agree with this matter!" Duan Tiande sat on the chair angrily, and the teacup in his hand fell heavily on the coffee table.

Then a thunderbolt struck, causing the window to tremble, followed by a raindrop the size of a bean falling on the banana leaves outside the window.

Ouyang Zhen walked to the window and looked out, then closed the window, motioned for the guards next to him to leave with his eyes, turned around and smiled, and said, "Why is Brother Duan so angry?"

After receiving Ouyang Zhen's order, the four purple-clothed guards withdrew from the room, and then closed the door, and there was still rumbling thunder outside.

Seeing that Duan Tiande didn't speak, Ouyang Zhen turned around and sat on the chair to pick up the teacup that had been crooked, and added: "The Imperial Tomb Guard rotates every twenty years, it's not that you don't know this, and as the largest Qi Master cultivation base in the empire, you should have prepared for this a long time ago?"

Duan Tiande said: "Having said that, they are still children!

Ouyang Zhen said with a straight face: "Brother Duan's words are wrong, how can this be a death-by-death sentence? They still have at least twenty years to live, and in these twenty years, they have been able to see the most powerful qi element in the world, and they have seen the limit of qi cultivation that the human race can reach, isn't this a supreme honor for the qi master?"

The so-called imperial mausoleum, as the name suggests, is the mausoleum of the successive monarchs of the empire. After the death of each emperor of the Eastern Fence Kingdom, the body will be sent to the Imperial Dragon Terrace of the Qin Tiansi for cremation, and after cremation, his qi yuan and soul will enter the emperor's tomb for further cultivation.

The Imperial Tomb is also regarded as the dragon vein of the empire, where the imperial qi yuan is the most powerful, the source of the empire's eternal prosperity, and the bridge between the imperial family and the heavenly realm.

Generally speaking, the Imperial Tomb is equivalent to a huge qi element, but this qi element is condensed by the qi elements and souls of hundreds of deceased emperors. Although the Emperor Tomb Qi Yuan is powerful, it is also very fragile.

The Imperial Tomb has powerful qi elements, but these qi elements cannot react to attacks from the outside world, let alone actively exert influence on the outside world.

According to the agreement reached between the founding monarch of the Dongli Kingdom and the Emperor of Heaven, after the death of the successive emperors, when their qi yuan reaches the stage of purity and yang, the soul can leave the emperor's tomb and ascend to the heavenly realm, ranking in the immortal class. Qi Yuan, on the other hand, stayed in the Imperial Tomb, but only if the Emperor Tomb did not exert influence on the outside world.

And this agreement became a source of power for the legitimacy of the successive emperors of the Eastern Fence Kingdom, in a word, there are people in the sky.

And if an Emperor Qi Yuan wants to achieve the purest and most yang, it needs to absorb the qi soul of ninety-nine eighty-one full-level spirit beasts, and throughout the entire Dongli Country, there are only a handful of full-level spirit beasts, even if there is, which qi master will give up the spirit beasts that have been cultivated so hard?

Another way is to absorb the qi souls of the pure qi masters of the realm of seven hundred and forty-nine saints or above, the so-called pure qi masters are boys and girls, this method is even more difficult, because for the qi masters, giving up the qi soul means death, even if everyone is willing to be loyal to the emperor, but if it is said that they pay for it, and they die without a queen, this is probably difficult to do.

Therefore, every twenty years, the emperor will select seven potential young qi masters for training in the name of entering Tianyi Pavilion, and in twenty years, after cultivating in Tianyi Pavilion, it is not difficult to reach the realm of saints.

After one hundred and forty years of cultivation, one can reach the state of purity and yang in the cultivation of an emperor's qi element, and one hundred and forty years is also the average lifespan of all emperors.

For thousands of years, this matter had been an absolute secret of the royal family, and only a few people in the empire knew about it, but Duan Tiande, who was the Phoenix City Lord who was the concentration of the empire's qi masters, naturally knew about it.

It's just that since he sat in the position of the city lord, this is the first time he has encountered this matter, and the last time he was selected, it happened that the war in the south was in full swing, and the Qi Control Division escaped a catastrophe. Now that he wants to personally send his people to the emperor's tomb to die, Duan Tiande always rejects it in his heart, let alone when the battle with the Liu family is intensifying.

Ouyang Zhen saw that Duan Tiande was still hesitating, and continued: "Brother Duan, this is the emperor's will, you know the emperor's temper, you won't want to resist the decree, right? ”

Duan Tiande came to his senses, thinking back to his previous encounter in the imperial capital, he was first ambushed on the road, and then he was criticized by a group of old ministers in the court, his heart trembled, and he said, "Don't dare." ”

The reason why Duan Tiande was summoned into the imperial capital was because someone in the court framed him for rebellion, although the emperor did not believe it, but he still recalled him to the imperial capital, and above the court, although there were several ministers who defended themselves, but from the emperor's tone, Duan Tiande heard that the emperor's trust in him began to waver.

"That's good. Ouyang Zhen breathed a sigh of relief, smiled with satisfaction, and was just about to leave, when he turned around and said, "I heard that Ling Lang is also among this year's selections?"

Duan Tiande replied, "Yes." ”

"If you want to do something, then you hurry up, it's going to be announced tomorrow. Ouyang Zhen turned around and left after speaking.

Duan Tiande knew what Ouyang Zhen meant, since he couldn't save everyone, but his son couldn't ignore it. Duan Tiande hurriedly sent someone to call Duan Yun to the study to plot.

Since the end of the selection, although the training of the Qitang has continued, the training enthusiasm of the unsuccessful people has decreased significantly, although Sima Yu, Liu Wenxing and other instructors have been constantly urging, but still can not lift everyone's spirit.

Compared with the sad faces of those disciples who failed to be selected all day long, Ma Fuzi was overjoyed, "That's right, the Qi Master should have the appearance of a Qi Master, and down-to-earth cultivation is the right way." ”

Duan Feng had nothing to do, lying on the bed bored. In the past, he disliked Liu Yuwei too much, but today Liu Yuwei didn't come, but he felt lonely, while Han Qing had been training hard, although Su Yanjun was injured in the room, Duan Feng was embarrassed to disturb.

Suddenly, Duan Feng sat up from the bed, he hadn't seen Ouyang Xuan for several days, and he didn't know what happened to her injuries. Duan Feng jumped off the bed, grabbed the Ice Sword and ran out.

"Why do I care so much about her?" Duan Feng stopped, his heart was flustered, he didn't know why, but when he thought of Ouyang Xuan's injury, he was nervous, "We are friends, how can I say that her injury is also because of me." ”

Unconsciously, Duan Feng came to the door of the post house, saw the royal guard at the door, went directly to the back of the post house, climbed over the back wall of the post house and went in, crossed the stable, sneaked into the post house from the side door, and sneaked to Ouyang Xuan's room.

When passing by Ouyang Zhen's room, Duan Feng heard a voice coming from the room, out of curiosity, Duan Feng leaned at the door and listened carefully, it was Ouyang Xuan's voice.

"Don't you really need to tell Liu Nanchun about this?" asked Ouyang Xuan.

Ouyang Zhen replied: "No. ”

"If he finds out, I'm afraid it will be bad. Ouyang Xuan said.

"It doesn't matter, even if he knew, it would probably be twenty years later, and I don't know if there was a Qi Control Division at that time. Ouyang Zhen said.

Ouyang Zhen added: "Now Phoenix City looks calm on the surface, but in fact, there is an undercurrent surging, Liu Nanchun and Duan Tiande are fighting openly and secretly in order to fight for control of Phoenix City. Therefore, both of them need the support of the imperial capital, and at this time, none of them wants to offend the emperor. ”

Ouyang Xuan nodded thoughtfully.

Ouyang Zhen asked again, "How about those seven people?"

Ouyang Xuan replied: "The aura is low, but they still have some qualifications, and with more training in the future, they should be able to use it." It's a pity that Duan Feng and Han Qing were not selected. ”

"These two people are indeed good seedlings, but-" Ouyang Zhen paused, "Forget it, forget Duan Feng, this is what I promised Duan Tiande." As for Han Qing, just as I gave Liu Nanchun a gift, he will be grateful to me in the future. ”

"As for the others, except for Yun Tianlong, who is older, everything else is okay. Ouyang Xuan continued.

"It doesn't matter if you're older, you're going to die anyway, as long as you make sure it's a boy. ”

However, Ouyang Xuan has no idea whether Yun Tianlong is a virgin, judging from Yun Tianlong's confused eyes all day long and his deep family background, this matter is a bit mysterious, but she is not easy to ask, and the records on the information may not be true.

The conversation between the two was like a thunderbolt hitting Duan Feng on the sunny day, Duan Feng was stunned for a while, and waited until he heard Ouyang Xuan's footsteps coming out, and then hurriedly hid.

On the way back, Duan Feng carefully pondered the conversation between Ouyang Xuan's father and daughter, although he didn't know what was going on, one thing was certain, this was by no means a good thing for those seven angry people.

Duan Feng returned to the Qi Control Hall, lying on the bed and thinking about Ouyang Zhen's words over and over again, the more he thought about it, the more he felt that something was wrong.

Duan Feng turned over and got out of bed, turned around and went out again to Han Qing's room, Duan Feng at this time really didn't know who to talk to, Liu Yuwei could only play and couldn't help much, Su Yanjun was injured at this time, and all he could think of was Han Qing.

Duan Feng quietly looked behind him, and only after making sure that no one was following him did he close the door, Han Qing looked at Duan Feng's mysterious appearance and felt a little strange.

Duan Feng told Han Qing what he heard in the post house, and Han Qing simply said, "I know." He was not as shocked as Duan Feng expected, which made Duan Feng feel very strange.

"You already knew about this?" Duan Feng asked.

"I don't know. Han Qing returned expressionlessly.

"Then why aren't you surprised?"

Han Qing stood up, thought for a moment, and said, "What's so surprising about this, slowly you will find that this world is far more complicated than you imagined." ”

"It's so cruel, how can she do this?" What made Duan Feng angry was that Ouyang Xuan was also one of the planners of this matter, and she even felt sorry for her failure to be selected, Duan Feng was even more sad in his heart.

"Actually, you don't have to, some things don't change by you, me, or his will. ”

"He?" Duan Feng looked at Han Qing strangely, he understood that the "he" that Han Qing was talking about must not be Ouyang Zhen or Ouyang Xuan, from his tone, this person was someone else, "Who?"

Han Qing turned to look at Duan Feng, a trace of hesitation flashed in his eyes, and then said, "Your father." ”

Duan Feng then remembered that Ouyang Zhen said that he had promised his father, that is, his father was also involved in this matter.

Han Qing looked at Duan Feng, who was stunned, sneered, and said, "This matter is over here, don't take care of it anymore, you can't take care of it, if you don't get it right, you will be burned." ”

Duan Feng stood up and said, "These are seven lives, how can it end here?"

Han Qing said: "You can't control this matter, I can't control it, even your father can't control it." ”

Duan Feng could vaguely sense the seriousness of the matter from the extent to which this matter was concealed, but on the one hand, out of curiosity, and on the other hand, out of kindness in his heart, Duan Feng said that he would not investigate further, but he still decided to find out the truth in his heart.

Duan Feng thought to himself, it should be difficult to get results from his father, but there is one more person who must know, and that is his eldest brother.

This kind of thing should not be hidden from the eldest brother, after all, as the future city lord of Phoenix City, the eldest brother has always won the trust of his father, and over the years, the eldest brother has also taken over a lot of affairs in Phoenix City.

After making up his mind, Duan Feng decided to ask his eldest brother for clarification. However, if he asked directly, according to what he knew about the eldest brother, the eldest brother would definitely not tell him, so Duan Feng needed someone to help.