“My strength has increased by more than one level!”

Fang Qiu stood up and clenched his fist.

He felt that with this breakthrough, the internal Qi inside his body had almost doubled!

When he clenched his fist, the overwhelming power in his body surprised him even more. This breakthrough actually doubled his strength!

“Although the meridians have been reopened, the feeling I got after this breakthrough is still the same as that of a normal one!”

Fang Qiu sighed with emotion.

He suddenly thought of Ruan Changhong’s master, the old man who was a Half-step Guru, in Southern Yue!

At that time, with the strength of a seventh-class Martial Superior with three opened meridians, Fang Qiu was no match for him at all. But now, after breaking through to the eighth class, Fang Qiu was confident that he was absolutely able to fight with him given his current strength!

Even if Fang Qiu couldn’t win, he could flee.

He would not be knocked to the ground.

That was to say, without using the power of the Guru Realm, Fang Qiu’s combat capability was already close to the Half-step Guru Realm!

In the future, even if he met an expert at the level of the Sword Fanatic, he could go all out to fight!

“I still have to consolidate my foundation,” Fang Qiu thought.

With that in mind, he immediately began to practice.

He practiced a set of fist techniques, palm techniques, and sword techniques respectively. After sitting down and meditating for a while, he finally stabilized his strength.

“Phew…”

After doing all this, he stood up again, exhaled deeply, and murmured with some lingering fear, “In the future, I must be steady. Fortunately, I got the Luotu Ginseng this time. Without the Heaven Treasure, my meridians would have been destroyed!”

After finishing his words, he took a deep breath and then moved. He jumped down from the high peak and quickly rushed into the forest.

“Beep, beep, beep…”

As soon as he landed, the phone in his trouser pocket rang.

He took it out and had a look.

It was Director Li Huawen.

“Hello?” Fang Qiu hurriedly answered the phone.

“Where are you?”

Director Li Huawen’s questioning voice came from the other end of the line. “I’ve been waiting for you in the capital for more than ten days. Where are you?”

“Director Li, I’ve been busy lately.”

Fang Qiu patted his head and remembered that he had forgotten this matter. He quickly explained, “When I finish my work in two days, I will definitely go to the capital as soon as possible. How about that?”

“Okay.”

Li Huawen nodded and said, “That’s a deal. I’ll wait for you in the capital. If you don’t come, I’ll definitely catch you in person, no matter where you are!”

“Don’t worry. Please rest assured.”

Fang Qiu quickly added, “I’ll definitely go there.”

He made a promise and chatted with Director Li Huawen for a while before hanging up.

He kept it in mind lest he should break his promise.

“Now, everyone on the Sword-hidden Mountain should have left, I guess.”

Fang Qiu looked up at the sky. The sun was setting, and then he looked at the time on his mobile phone. It was already six o’clock in the evening.

He did a careful calculation.

Two hours had passed since the battle ended at four o’clock in the afternoon.

Presumably, almost all the people on the Sword-hidden Mountain had left.

At the thought of this, Fang Qiu left for the Sword-hidden Mountain at once.

Fifteen minutes later, he came to the foot of the Sword-hidden Mountain again. With a sweep of his Divine Consciousness, he found that the Sword-hidden Mountain was already empty and everyone had left.

He arrived in front of the Sword Enlightenment Stele and found that the only person left in the valley was the sword guard.

At that moment, the senior was sweeping the floor.

“Many thanks, Senior!”

Seeing the senior, Fang Qiu cupped his hands to express his gratitude toward him without hesitation.

“I have to thank you too.”

When the old man saw Fang Qiu, he instantly smiled with satisfaction. As he smiled, he said, “It’s been more than 2,200 years. I’ve finally completed the mission of guarding the sword, and my next generation is free because of this. You have liberated my family. I should thank you!”

“Senior, since the divine sword has appeared, will you continue to guard this place?” asked Fang Qiu.

“Yes!”

The old man smiled and nodded, saying, “For one thing, I’ve already accustomed to staying here. For another, some people are unwilling to give up, thinking that there must be more divine swords hidden in the Sword-hidden Mountain. I have to stay here to persuade them. There were dozens of people sitting here this afternoon trying to comprehend the Sword Enlightenment Stele. They wouldn’t go if I hadn’t talked them into it.”

“That’s true.”

Fang Qiu nodded with understanding and admired the old man a lot.

Dozens of generations of a family stuck to a promise.

They neither forgot nor ceased to fulfill their promise.

Even with the mission completed, the old man continued on his last journey.

The old man said with a smile, “From now on, I will continue to protect the forest here, and I will become a real forest ranger.”

“This place is worth defending!”

Fang Qiu nodded.

“Yes.”

The old man turned to look at the scenery around him and said, “Even without the divine sword, this place is still the Sword-hidden Mountain, and there is still the Sword Enlightenment Stele here!”

Fang Qiu looked at the Sword Enlightenment Stele and then cupped his hands to say goodbye to the old man.

He left the valley and went to the middle of the back mountain.

According to his memory, he dug at the places that attracted him one by one. In the end, he dug out three more ancient swords in the back mountain and five more in the front mountain.

There were nine ancient swords in total.

Not one more, not one less. It was just right!

After that, Fang Qiu called He Gaoming.

“Master?”

He Gaoming answered the phone.

“Where are you?” asked Fang Qiu.

“I’m still in Tongnan City. There are many martial artists coming to the Sword-hidden Mountain this time, so after the battle between you and the Sword Fanatic ended, I found some men of similar strength to my men and asked them to fight each other. Now that the fight is over, I’m going back to the hotel,” said He Gaoming.

“I’m waiting for you at the foot of the Sword-hidden Mountain. Come here now,” Fang Qiu said.

“Okay.”

He Gaoming immediately nodded and then ran forward with everyone.

A few minutes later, they came to the foot of the Sword-hidden Mountain.

“Boss, why did you call us over in such a hurry?” asked He Gaoming.

This guy seemed to do it on purpose. In front of everyone, he called Fang Qiu boss. When he contacted Fang Qiu in private, he called him master again and again.

Fang Qiu didn’t mind. He knew that He Gaoming called him that because he wanted everyone to get used to it.

“They’re for the nine of you.”

Fang Qiu took out the nine ancient swords and handed them to He Gaoming, Liang Fen, and the other seven people respectively.

He Gaoming did have a good sword, but it was later destroyed by someone from the Luo Yin Sect. Fang Qiu had no time to help him cast a new one, so the sword that He Gaoming had been using was merely an ordinary sword that he had gotten from Long Qiyun.

When he saw the ancient sword taken out by Fang Qiu, He Gaoming’s eyes widened immediately!

The other eight men were also excited!

Especially when they took their ancient swords from Fang Qiu’s hands, the nine of them were ecstatic.

Seeing that John Doe really found some ancient swords, everyone around was so shocked that their eyes almost popped out.

“Damn it, are there really ancient swords?”

“Boss John Doe, you are so kind to them.”

“I want one too!”

“Boss, you’re amazing. You actually got so many ancient swords.”

“Boss, when will you prepare some for us?”

Looking at the nine people each holding one ancient sword and unwilling to let it go, everyone chattered about it. They were all envious and looking forward to having one.

“Right now, there are only nine of them.”

Fang Qiu said to He Gaoming and the others with a wry smile, “These nine ancient swords are designed to be used in conjunction with the Combined Attack Sword Formation, so I give them to you first. You must practice hard and live up to the ancient swords!”

He Gaoming quickly responded with a smile, “Don’t worry, boss. With these ancient swords, we must practice hard to maximize the power of the sword formation!”

“Okay.” Fang Qiu nodded with satisfaction.

He then turned his head and looked at the 20-odd people led by Li Boqing and the burly man, saying, “Don’t worry, I will give you an ancient sword as soon as I find a suitable one in the future.”

Hearing that, everyone cupped their hands to express their gratitude.

They also knew that He Gaoming was John Doe’s disciple, and Liang Fen and the other seven men had followed John Doe before they did. It was reasonable for John Doe to hand over the Combined Attack Sword Formation and the nine ancient swords to them.

Therefore, they didn’t expect John Doe to get them any ancient swords. They were just expressing their feelings of envy.

But unexpectedly, John Doe took it seriously.

On top of that, he even made a promise!

There was no doubt that John Doe’s promise was far more important to them than an ancient sword because this meant that he had already accepted them from the bottom of his heart. Otherwise, he would never have made a promise so easily.

Everyone looked at each other, cupped their hands at the same time, and shouted, “Boss.”

“Alright.”

Fang Qiu smiled and said, “Next, He Gaoming will continue to take you to practice. I have something urgent to attend to and may have to leave for a period of time. I hope that when we meet next time, everyone can make good progress!”

Everyone nodded in unison.

All of them promised that they would work hard.

After giving a few reminders, Fang Qiu left.

He was going to the capital to meet Director Li Huawen. There was still the New Year’s Gala waiting for him.

So that night, he went straight to the high-speed railway station of Tongnan City, bought a train ticket to Jiangjing, and returned to the campus.

Taking advantage of the night, he changed back to his real identity before spending the night in the school dormitory.

Early the next morning, he booked a high-speed train ticket to the capital.

The moment he got on the high-speed train, he contacted Director Li Huawen. The two finally decided to meet in the hotel next to the TV station.

Fang Qiu was very familiar with that hotel.

It was the hotel where he stayed in the capital when he participated in the Young Chinese Medicine Doctor and it was also where he was interviewed by the Network News Broadcast.

Three hours later, at 10 a.m., the high-speed train Fang Qiu took stopped at the capital’s high-speed railway station.

In the underground waiting area of the high-speed railway station, he took a taxi directly to the hotel.

At this point, Director Li Huawen was already waiting in the hotel lobby.

He became the chief director of the New Year’s Gala mostly because of Fang Qiu. If it weren’t for Fang Qiu, the Young Chinese Medicine Doctor wouldn’t have been so popular.

In addition, a few days ago, he saw that Fang Qiu brought very high ratings to JZ TV in the Run Wild&Survive.

Therefore, in order to make his first New Year’s Gala directed perfectly, he had to try every means to perfect his plan.

Needless to say, the most important part of this plan was Fang Qiu!

This boy’s influence soared this year.

The most amazing thing about him was that there was nothing one could use to smear him. He was simply tailor-made for the New Year’s Gala.

Hence, he didn’t give Fang Qiu any chance to refute. Anyway, Fang Qiu must perform in the New Year’s Gala this year!