Who taught him to practice swordsmanship like this?

After Lin Zhaodi left, Su Baichen continued to live alone in the Xuanmiao Temple.

However, practicing qi and swordsmanship is always quite fulfilling.

His swordplay is now very subtle, because more and more of his meridians are being nurtured and broadened, his true energy is flowing more and more smoothly, and his swordplay is becoming faster and more coherent.

However, he still felt somewhat awkward.

The main problem is that there are not enough pathways for circulating Qi, which prevents him from fully realizing his ideas.

In short, his current level of internal energy cultivation is limiting his swordsmanship development.

He seized the time to continue his cultivation, and in five days he opened up another meridian. In this way, four of the twelve main meridians had been completely opened up and expanded.

But that very night, just as he finished his day's work and was about to rest, there was a sudden knocking on the door.

Su Baichen quickly used his spiritual sense to perceive them, and found that they were just a group of ordinary people breathing heavily.

Even so, he still dared not be negligent. He used illusion magic to conjure up a phantom of Qing Mozi.

The phantom of the old Taoist priest staggered away, and there were even sounds of footsteps.

This is precisely the brilliance of the Eight Transformations of Illusion: creating perfect illusions from the five senses and the eight dimensions of Qi, intention, and spirit, so that the false can be mistaken for the real, or rather, the illusory can replace the real and the false can enter the true.

"Coming, coming! Who is it so late?"

Qing Mozi's voice echoed in the Taoist temple, and Su Baichen felt a deep sense of nostalgia as he listened.

The experienced phantom could even grab the bolt and open the door...

This is something that Su Baichen could never have done before; in fact, this phantom is now almost a physical entity.

However, Su Baichen himself still had to conceal his presence and watch from behind, as he had to control the phantom's actions according to the actual situation.

The door opened, and Su Baichen's gaze, passing through the old Taoist's illusory form, clearly saw the person outside.

This was clearly a group of martial arts practitioners from the mortal realm, but each of them was injured and looked like a lost dog.

"Laymen, what brings you here...?"

The leader, a burly man wielding a wooden stick as a weapon, clasped his hands apologetically and said, "Please forgive me, Daoist Master, my brothers are all injured. May we ask for lodging for the night?"

Su Baichen scrutinized the seven people before him; four of them were injured and all appeared exhausted. He then manipulated a phantom and said, "I'm afraid it's not just a simple matter of seeking lodging. Who is chasing you?"

A burly man with minor injuries said anxiously, "Brother, why bother talking so much with this old bastard? The pursuers are coming!"

Qingmozi's phantom figure asked meaningfully, "Pursuers?"

The burly man raised his hand to stop him: "Don't be rude!"

He then bowed to the phantom of Qingmozi and said, "I have heard that Daoist Qingmozi of Xuanmiao Temple is a highly accomplished Daoist, and should be able to understand the meaning of our actions."

Su Baichen nodded secretly. This man was indeed upright and honest, without a trace of disharmoniousness.

With his current spiritual perception, he can tell that these people are not bad just by observing their aura.

So the old Taoist priest transformed himself and stepped aside, saying, "Please come in and we'll talk."

The seven people quickly filed in.

Su Baichen led them into the backyard of the Taoist temple.

They were quite disciplined and didn't directly occupy those rooms.

The burly man clasped his hands and said, "Thank you for taking us in, Daoist Master. Xue Dai thanks you on behalf of his brothers."

The old Taoist priest, in his illusory form, said calmly, "Now tell me, what exactly happened?"

"Even if I am to be dragged into this mess, shouldn't I at least be told what exactly I'm involved in?"

Xue Dai paused for a moment, then solemnly said, "Daoist Master, you are a man of great understanding and righteousness, and you are one of us."

"To be honest, those who pursued us were the Imperial Guards!"

After he finished speaking, he carefully looked at the old Taoist's illusory form, worried that he would see a scene he did not want to see.

However, what expression could this old Taoist's illusory form possibly have? It remained completely calm: "What crime have you committed?"

Xue Dai felt a chill run down his spine and became even more cautious.

He said, "These past two days, the imperial guards have been arresting respectable women all over Linxian Prefecture. We couldn't stand by and watch, so we intervened to stop them..."

"Who knew those guards were so formidable? We brothers fought them with all our might but were no match for them, and were chased like stray dogs."

The burly man immediately retorted, "Brother, why do you say that about yourself? It's clearly those government lackeys who resorted to any means to cheat and deceive!"

Xue Dai sighed, "A loss is a loss. It's just a pity for those respectable women; who knows how they'll be violated."

Su Baichen was also annoyed. He believed Xue Dai's words, after all, he didn't believe that ordinary people could hide from his spiritual sense.

Connecting this with the news he already knew about the imperial court's planned southern hunt, he understood what these imperial guards, directly under the emperor's command, were doing... They were going to plunder women to fill the harem!

This approach...

Perhaps this is common in this era, but Su Baichen, as a socialist overgrown child, absolutely cannot accept it.

Just then, the sound of horses' hooves thundered outside.

Everyone held their breath and fell silent.

A moment later, a very rough knocking sound rang out.

Su Baichen was about to open the door when he controlled the old Taoist's illusory body, but unexpectedly, the door bolt shattered with a "crack".

Then came a flurry of footsteps, and many imperial guards dressed in brocade robes rushed in.

Xue Dai and his men looked distressed, never expecting these imperial guards to be so unreasonable.

"It's just a burden to the Taoist priest."

Xue Dai said with remorse.

Just as Su Baichen was about to manipulate the old Taoist's illusory form to answer, a startling voice came from outside the door: "Junior brother, come quickly to save me!"

That voice... it's definitely his sister Zhaodi!

No, how did this woman get arrested by these guards?

He had no interest in playing house with the guards here anymore, and a large illusion spell instantly enveloped the entire area.

The seven men were prepared for a fierce battle, but now they were horrified to see all the guards who had entered the backyard freeze in place!

At that moment, they felt the hairs on the back of their heads stand on end.

Looking again at the old Taoist priest's figure...

It seemed to be the same as usual.

"Big...Big Brother..."

Suddenly, someone cried out, trembling.

Xue Dai turned his head and saw the man pointing tremblingly to a corner of the courtyard.

He looked closely and saw an inconspicuous grave in the courtyard, with a stone tablet in front of it that read: "Tomb of Qingmozi, disciple of Changchun".

Good guy!

Is this the tomb of Qing Mozi?

Who is this old Taoist priest in front of them?

Then, seeing all the guards suddenly frozen in a daze as if possessed, they started thinking a bit too much...

Su Baichen ignored what was happening in the courtyard and simply walked quickly outside.

There are also internal guards outside.

Besides the twenty-odd people who rushed in, there were the same number of people waiting outside.

These people were all waiting on horseback, and eight of them had a woman tied to their horses.

It seems they came to hunt down the righteous man with 'spoils of war'.

Su Baichen quickly found Lin Zhaodi among the women. Like any other woman, she was bound to a horse and unable to move.

He stepped forward and untied her, asking incredulously, "Sister Zhaodi, how could you have been captured by them?"

It's truly unbelievable, considering she herself said that her elders in the sect gave her a lot of self-defense tools.

Those are all ruthless guys targeting vicious demonic cultivators, how could they possibly be unable to deal with these inner guards?

Lin Zhaodi was too embarrassed to admit it, and finally confessed honestly: "I'm not good at fighting, and I forgot to fight back at the time."

Su Baichen chuckled upon hearing this, but putting himself in Su Baichen's shoes, he realized that he himself had been quite poor at responding to situations in the past, and it was only after training in the Soul-Suppressing Sword that he gradually improved.

So he tried to smooth things over, saying, "I think Sister Zhaodi was just thinking about her family's safety..."

He meant to make amends, but he didn't expect that Lin Zhaodi's expression would visibly dim after he said those words.

Su Baichen quickly changed the subject, saying, "Now that you're here, Sister Zhaodi, why don't you stay at the Taoist temple from now on?"

She gave a soft "hmm".

He then looked at the stunned crowd and asked, "What...what should we do with them?"

These people were all controlled by Su Baichen's illusion.

It has to be said that illusion magic is incredibly useful for clearing out mobs.