Chapter 456 - 255: Human-Faced Flood Dragon Banner
"It’s struggling in its death throes. Kill it!" Shuini commanded.
Forty-five minutes later, the Evil Spirit finally fell.
With a massive RUMBLE, it crashed to the ground, kicking up a towering pillar of dust.
But this wasn’t the end.
Its corpse suddenly squirmed as countless emaciated, flesh-and-blood homunculi crawled out. They resembled the Evil Spirit itself—human from the waist up, dragging umbilical cords from their lower bodies as they began to scuttle in all directions.
Lü Zhong then noticed that each of the small figures was completely unique.
He looked to Shuini, but she had no idea what was happening.
A few moments later, after letting out piercing wails, the small, fleshy figures that were scattering everywhere dissolved into bloody puddles. Only then did silence finally fall.
...
「Half a year later.」
The Heling Sect held a grand ceremony, officially renaming itself the True Spirit Sect.
With this, the Four Spirits returned to their true origin.
That night, the two were entwined on the bed for a time.
Shuini suddenly pushed Lü Zhong away. Gazing at her own smooth body in the mirror, she tucked away a stray strand of hair and couldn’t help but sigh. "You’re returning to Bihai tomorrow. I truly can’t bear for you to leave."
"Ah, well. Just make sure to visit me more often in the future."
She sighed several times, but her expression quickly returned to normal. Then, she formed a Dharma Seal—the Four-Spirit True-Return Seal—and made it hover before Lü Zhong’s brow.
"Regarding the Haokong Secret Vein... I’m surprised you held out for so long without asking."
Shuini wore an expression of wry exasperation. Seeing Lü Zhong’s hesitation, she explained, "The reason I didn’t pass the Haokong Inheritance to you before was because I simply couldn’t."
"Now that the Three Spirit Relics have been gathered, and with the Secret Seal I obtained from the Immortal Spirit Sect, I can finally create the Four-Spirit True-Return Seal. The Haokong Inheritance is within this seal."
"Take it. This is an inheritance that leads to a realm beyond Divinity Transformation."
"Beyond Divinity Transformation?" Lü Zhong asked, astonished.
"Yes. Whether it’s Flying Star, Profound Moon, or Tuoyang, after cultivating to the Divinity Transformation Realm, they all must switch to cultivating this Haokong Inheritance."
"The Four-Spirit True-Return Seal I’ve created contains the complete inheritance. Once you break through to the Divinity Transformation Realm, you can unseal it and access its contents."
"If you cannot break through to Divinity Transformation, you can bestow this seal upon a successor. But you must be careful: this seal cannot be copied, or the inheritance within will be completely lost. If not for that, I wouldn’t have gone to such great lengths." As Shuini spoke, she touched her fingertip to Lü Zhong’s brow, and the Dharma Seal slowly sank in.
Casting the seal seemed to drain all of Shuini’s energy. Her head lolled back as she started to collapse.
Fortunately, Lü Zhong caught her with his quick reflexes, saving her from falling to the floor. He helped her into her underclothes, then gently laid her down on the bed and tucked her in.
He turned, walked to the table, and took a sip of Spirit Tea.
After thinking for a moment, he inscribed new Secret Technique Jade Scrolls for the Celestial Net Eye and Palm Thunder. Shuini was a little weak when it came to dealing with Evil Spirits, and these two Secret Skills would be the perfect supplement. At the very least, she wouldn’t be flying blind.
’I should speed up my cultivation of the Celestial Net Eye, too...’ Lü Zhong thought.
He had been pouring nearly all his energy into the Outer Body Incarnation, leaving other aspects of his cultivation stagnant. Now, he needed to resume cultivating the Fourth Layer of his Celestial Net Eye with Immortal Luo Juice and also refine the Human-faced Flood Dragon Essence into a Flood Dragon Spirit Banner.
During his fight with the Wind and Thunder Twins, the Flood Dragon Spirit Banners had proven their worth.
If the Three Flags hadn’t been there to easily block the sword of Thunder Sword Enlightenment, he would have been in for a much tougher fight and could very well have been injured.
He also needed to start preparing the Refining Formation for his Incarnation Body.
Lü Zhong was lost in thought and didn’t notice what was happening behind him.
In the bed, Shuini quietly opened her eyes.
Gazing at the figure by the table, the corners of her lips curved into a slight smile, which she quickly suppressed.
...
As the saying goes, a day apart can feel like three years.
Faced with Yu Feng’Er’s deep-seated displeasure, Lü Zhong had his work cut out for him after returning to the Bihai Sect, and it took quite some effort to appease her.
During this period, a full one hundred Vein Tempering Formulas were consumed, and he was "forced" to gain significant progress in his Jade Vein Technique.
The spring breeze was gentle on the face, and before he knew it, another year had passed.
In his leisure time from cultivation, Lü Zhong loved to relax at the Waterside Pavilion. He would drink tea or eat some Spiritual Food, anything to make the days less monotonous.
He felt a lovely figure settle into his arms—it was Yu Feng’Er.
He gave her cheek a little squeeze, then habitually nuzzled his face against hers until her cheeks flushed crimson. Only then did he laugh and say, "Did something good happen? Why are you so happy today?"
"My love, look!" A Cold Ice Small Sword floated above her palm.
It was her Lifebound Treasure, the Ice Soul Spirit Sword.
Lü Zhong took a closer look and saw that the Ice Soul Spirit Sword had been nurtured to the level of a Five-layered Restriction Magical Treasure. Seeing this, he couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy. His Star Mirror had consumed so many Spiritual Objects, yet it was still stuck as a Six-layered Restriction Magical Treasure. It would probably be a while before it could be upgraded.
"Congratulations," Lü Zhong said, his voice tinged with envy.
"Pfft!" Yu Feng’Er couldn’t help but laugh. Her husband was always so amusing. She pursed her lips, and with an air of mystery, took out a jade box from which faint wisps of starlight were leaking.
"Here, this is for you."
Lü Zhong didn’t need to open it to know what was inside: Star Stones.
He lifted the lid of the jade box. Sure enough.
And there were a lot of them, too.
After refining these Star Stones, there would be enough to upgrade the Star Mirror to an Eighth-Layer Restriction Magical Treasure.
"To have a wife like you is the greatest fortune!"
Yu Feng’Er blushed crimson, a ticklish feeling spreading through her chest. Flustered, she retorted, "Enough of your glib words!"
"Hahaha!" Lü Zhong didn’t say anything more, just hugged her tightly.
...
「In the Quiet Chamber.」
Lü Zhong had entered a state of calm and focus.
Today, he was preparing to begin refining the fourth Flood Dragon Spirit Banner. The materials had been ready for a long time; he simply hadn’t found a moment to spare, so the task had been postponed until today.
Before officially starting the refinement, Lü Zhong felt it was necessary to check the state of the Molten Rock Earth Dragon Flood Essence.
He took it out of his Storage Ring.
He undid layer after layer of seals.
The slumbering Flood Dragon Essence awoke at once.
"Me... HSSS!" The Human-faced Flood Dragon Essence thrashed in agony.
"Oh? Interesting, very interesting!" Lü Zhong used a secret art from the Soul Splitting refinement method of his Outer Body Incarnation to observe the Human-faced Flood Dragon Essence’s current state. To his surprise, he discovered a "One Soul, Two Souls" configuration.
At this very moment, Puhuo and the Molten Earth Dragon were fighting for control of the Flood Dragon Essence.
But soon, Lü Zhong frowned.
The two forces within the Flood Dragon Essence were evenly matched. If the struggle continued, they would likely annihilate each other—an outcome he was determined to avoid.
The essence of a Flood Dragon Spirit Banner lies in its "Spirit."
If the Essence lacked a spirit, it would lose its ability to automatically protect its master.
In that case, how would it be any different from an ordinary Magical Treasure?
’I’ve got it!’ Lü Zhong had an idea. He would excise the True Spirit from both souls, send the man and the flood dragon packing off to reincarnate, and then fuse the remaining soul fragments himself.
’Will I actually end up creating a human-faced flood dragon?’
Seeing that the two souls in the Flood Dragon Essence were about to destroy each other, he hesitated no longer.
Certain secret arts within the Outer Body Incarnation were designed specifically for this kind of soul manipulation.
The principles behind them, much like the principles of Immortal Divine Techniques, were something Lü Zhong didn’t understand at all, but that didn’t stop him from using them as tools.
It was like not knowing how one plus one equals two doesn’t affect knowing that it does equal two.
The process went smoothly, without any hitches.
He erased the memories from the two souls, and with that, the Human-faced Flood Dragon Essence was formed.
Gazing at his masterpiece, Lü Zhong felt as if he had unlocked some incredible new skill. He examined it from all angles, a nagging thought in his mind: ’I have no idea what kind of Flood Dragon Spirit Banner this thing will produce.’
He stopped overthinking it. He’d find out once it was refined.
Thanks to his experience refining the Water Flood Dragon Essence, the process was incredibly smooth. He went through the familiar steps and finished in half the expected time.
However, looking at the small flag in his palm with the pattern of a human-faced flood dragon, Lü Zhong felt that it wasn’t a Flood Dragon Spirit Banner in the true sense, but rather a special creation he’d stumbled upon by accident.
He brought out his other three Flood Dragon Spirit Banners, and they seemed to regard the new Human-Faced Flood Dragon Banner as a threat.
"Just as I expected!" Lü Zhong’s expression revealed he had anticipated as much.