Biochemical Martial Arts: Supreme Heavenly Venerate

Lin Rui soon discovered the source of these Battle Spirits.

It was located across from the Luojing River Port in an extensive area made up of thousands of steel spears, each fifty zhang tall.

All of these steel spears were pointed upwards, piercing the sky, and each spear tip impaled a corpse.

The vast majority of the corpses had turned into stark white skeletons, while some were still decomposing.

The Battle Spirits sensed by the Battle Spirit Ring all originated from those 'fresh' corpses.

Lin Rui's pupils slightly constricted, "Is this the legendary Demon Suppression Forest?"

"Indeed!" At this moment, Li Li silently walked up beside him, also gazing at the spectacular steel spear forest in the distance.

"Starting from the 35th year of Emperor Xuan, the Song Dynasty impaled all the Heavenly Demons from beyond their domain of level six and above here in the Demon Suppression Forest using suppression spikes to impale them!

"They wanted to deter the increasingly rampant and presumptuous Heavenly Demons from outside the domain, while torturing the souls of these higher-level Heavenly Demons. It is said that these suppression spikes can make the souls of these Heavenly Demons endure decades of endless suffering."

Li Li's gaze was complex; emotions of sympathy and sadness for these foreign predecessors, as well as dread and anger towards the Song Dynasty court, intermingled within him.

"Nearly seventy percent of this Demon Suppression Forest was erected by the Stabbing Bureau, representing their cumulative achievements over generations."

Lin Rui, with his arms crossed, returned to his usual demeanor.

He thought that if his identity were exposed in the future, this would probably be his end as well.

But it didn't matter much, dying at the hands of the people of the Heavenly Extreme Star or at the hands of the Longevity Association made no essential difference.

Lin Rui began to inquire the Ring Spirit.

"Ring Spirit, among these Battle Spirits, which one's martial attributes suit me the best?"

Lin Rui had restored the Battle Spirit Ring to 30% and could capture a new Battle Spirit, but he hadn't found a suitable one yet.

He had actually encountered a few in the past few months, but the highest level among these Battle Spirits was just a junior general, and Lin Rui couldn't be bothered to capture them, wasting the slot he had for a Battle Spirit.

Tip: There are three Battle Spirits whose martial attributes match yours. The first is one-star Marshal Han Dao, who possesses a light-based supreme secret martial skill and thunder-fire dual-system dragon stage secret martial skill; the second is Senior General Huang Fuqing, who possesses light-thunder dual-system supreme secret martial skills, and a fire-based dragon stage secret martial skill; the third is Senior General Jiang Guoli, who holds light-thunder-fire triple-system dragon stage secret martial skills.

After receiving the tip, Lin Rui's expression dramatically changed, and his gaze became incredulous.

Senior General Huang Fuqing? Isn't that the name of Scholar Huang Fu?

Scholar Huang Fu actually died here and was impaled and hung on a spear by the people of the Song Dynasty?

Lin Rui hesitated not even a moment and connected with the Ring Spirit.

"Ring Spirit, help me capture Senior General Huang Fuqing!"

He knew that Huang Fuqing's martial prowess was extremely formidable, being a combatant with a total rating of 7SSS and whose bloodline martial skills had reached the empyrean realm.

It was said that the Scholar's combat capability was even comparable to many one-star Marshals!

The key was that the skills in biology, prosthetics, and medicine that Scholar Huang mastered were incredibly enticing to Lin Rui.

If he could capture Scholar Huang as his third Ring Spirit, then the various diseases in Lin Xi caused by the abyssal essence might have a chance of being cured.

However, the Ring Spirit promptly replied.

Tip: Due to unknown interference, capturing this Battle Spirit failed, please eliminate the source of interference before attempting capture again.

Lin Rui's eyebrows furrowed slightly as he focused his gaze on the densely packed runes on those Demon Suppression Spikes.
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Then his eyes moved downward, looking at the massive Array beneath this field of steel spears.

Lin Rui possessed Great Grandmaster-level knowledge of high-order arrays and instantly recognized that this array was suppressing Huang Fuqing's spirit.

He couldn't help but rub his brow worriedly, thinking to himself that this was troublesome.

It was said that two of the Great Song Dynasty's 'Deputy Divine Envoys,' who were both powerful beings at the ninth realm, guarded the Demon Suppression Forest.

The Great Song Dynasty had a total of 12 'Deputy Divine Envoys,' all of whom were ninth realm surpassing emperors, with potential to ascend to the Longevity realm.

For Lin Rui to retrieve Huang Fuqing's divine soul from their presence was as difficult as reaching the heavens.

So were all these Battle Spirits merely for show and not to be used?

※※※※

When Lin Rui's official boat docked, he once again felt the privilege of being the 'Chief Commander of the Stabbing Spies Bureau.'

The eunuch supervisor and officials responsible for managing the Luojing River Port, and a host of other port officials, all came rushing to the berth to welcome him.

Then a group of imperial martial officers and numerous servants swarmed in, nearly cramming the berth to capacity.

Most of these imperial martial officers were Lin Rui's future subordinates, who were here to welcome their supervisor.

The Stabbing Spies Bureau was vast, having 24 divisions underneath it, each division having over a dozen units similar to the Earth Federation's combat teams, and it was equipped with a multitude of auxiliary personnel, totaling over 5,000 people in all.

Each division had a Division Guardian, like the defensive role Lin Rui had previously held, but with greater authority.

Of these 24 divisions, four belonged to the faction of the Third Divine Envoy—those were the imperial martial officers who had come to welcome Lin Rui.

As for the servants, they either belonged to high officials or were household slaves of wealthy families, here to deliver respectful greetings and offer silver to Lin Rui.

This was also the rule of the Great Song bureaucracy, known as 'the Rule of Assuming Office.'

Though these wealthy officials and merchants could not attend in person, their intentions needed to be delivered.

Others came on behalf of their masters, seeking to invite him to a banquet to welcome and cleanse him of his journey's dust, but Lin Rui firmly refused them all.

He had not yet paid respects to his Grandmaster nor his superiors and the emperor—how could he dare to join these people in frivolous indulgences?

As for the greetings and rules of taking office, Lin Rui accepted them all.

Lin Rui was very familiar with the routine now; he responded casually to those who offered less silver, and bestowed more smiles to those who gave more.

As for the four Division Guardians who came personally to welcome him, along with the numerous imperial martial officers they led, Lin Rui was exceedingly warm, doing his utmost to soothe and draw them closer.

Lin Rui needed to rely on these people to solidify his position as Chief Commander; he had to establish his authority with his own loyal aides.

However, since these people had personally come to the dock to welcome him, it showed their attitude, and there was no need to put on airs in front of these future loyalists at that moment.

Lin Rui had not eaten lunch yet, so he simply arranged a few tables of drinks at a nearby tavern at the river port and invited these imperial martial officers for a drink.

After they had downed over twenty jars of liquor, their relationship warmed significantly—of course, not to the extent of calling each other brothers, which Lin Rui would not allow.

However, the initial barriers with his subordinates were now removed; he could accurately recall their names, know their positions and identities, and understand roughly their characters and histories.

Late at night that day, Lin Rui finally arrived at the post station outside the Southern City Gate built by the court, where he met his senior sister Meng Weiyun.

However, his attention was captured by a prisoner transport parked in front of the post station.

"What is this?"

Lin Rui was shocked, because sitting upright inside the prisoner transport was Yuan Chengkai, the former Governor-General of Sha State.

This man no longer possessed the demeanor of a scholar he had when they met in Wang City; his hair was disheveled, his face bruised purple, his limbs broken, numerous Suppressing Element Nails were inserted into all his acupoints, and his prison clothes were stained with blood, making him look utterly wretched and pitiful.