Dragon Canon

The northern expedition, which had originally numbered fewer than a hundred, had grown into a force of tens of thousands of yin soldiers after thousands of years of proliferation. Such a vast number of yin troops would have been enough to annihilate even an Avatar.

At that moment, Wei Yuan finally realized that the elderly woman had never had good intentions from the very beginning.

Surrounded by countless yin soldiers, the old ghost of the lost clan finally felt a little more at ease. Still, he dared not linger. Intent on escaping, he instinctively took flight into the sky. He flew straight toward the full moon, where a shadow should lie—it was the way out of Wei Yuan’s sea of consciousness.

However, he had barely flown a short distance when he froze mid-air.

There was indeed a shadow in the moon, but its shape was that of a bird’s head, and at the moment, its blood-red maw was opened wide toward him, signaling that this was the exit.

The old ghost did not enter; he knew better than that.

Suddenly, the girl Yin Yang pulled a giant sword from the ground, pointed it at the old ghost, and swung the sword in a circular arc. An endless suction force immediately surged from the center of the circle, violently dragging the old ghost down from the air.

Utterly terrified, the old ghost screamed in panic and ordered his yin soldiers to attack. However, the Red Lotus Bodhi kept swaying, pinning all the yin soldiers in place and keeping them from moving.

A yin fire suddenly ignited on the old ghost’s body. By burning his soul form, he actually managed to resist the pull of the Myriad Vicissitudes Sword and slowly, painfully, began to fly upward. By this point, he had already realized that the sky of the Great Realm was fake. Only the earth was real. If he could pierce through the sky, he could escape Wei Yuan’s sea of consciousness.

As he fled, the old ghost cursed loudly and angrily. Not only did the fake sky look exactly like the real thing, it even had a full moon that masqueraded as an exit. As if that wasn’t enough, various traps had been set up inside the Dao Foundation as well. Did this kid have nothing better to do? Whose Dao Foundation was this treacherous?

But no sooner had he uttered a couple of curses than a bolt of Extreme Yang Divine Thunder suddenly appeared from beyond the sky, striking his soul form with pinpoint accuracy!

Though the thunderbolt wasn’t particularly powerful, it was specifically designed to counter yin souls. The strike didn’t seriously injure the old ghost, but it did leave him immobilized and helpless as he was dragged back toward the sword circle once more.

The moment the old ghost entered the circle traced by the giant sword, Yin Yang thrust her sword forward. Instantly, the old ghost popped like a bubble and vanished to the sword technique, Embers of the Former Dynasty.

With the old ghost’s death and the dissolution of his Dao, the army of yin soldiers was instantly freed from his control. They simultaneously sensed the black pond within the jade hill and began moving toward it, stepping one after another through the All-Gate of Reincarnation.

Wei Yuan instantly sensed an immense web of karma. This was an entire clan numbering tens of thousands of people, all with considerable cultivation to boot—even the weakest among them was a Dao Foundation, and there were over 100 Avatars. The souls of the entire lost clan, spanning more than 7,000 years, were all gathered here.

As the old ghost’s soul dissipated, a torrential rain began to fall across the Great Realm. Every raindrop contained a significant amount of spirit qi.

The Great Realm’s spirituality slowly began to rise once more.

Wei Yuan exhaled deeply. Unable to sustain this state any longer, he withdrew from his sea of consciousness.

Returning to his physical body, he discovered that the mystic array he had originally set up had been completely altered by the woman into a Yang Thunder Array. The yang thunder that had blasted into his sea of consciousness had come from it, hitting the old ghost with pinpoint accuracy. If not for this strike, he might have escaped.

“Once more, you’ve saved my life,” Wei Yuan said.

The woman snorted and replied indifferently, “You’re still too trusting of others. For people who are stranded in foreign lands and cut off from the outside world like them, the more tragic their fates are, the more twisted they usually become. Whether or not you choose to offer your assistance, it is never a mistake to keep your guard up around such people.

“You’re way too accepting of their ‘gifts’ as well. Sealing the Origin Blood Pearl inside your body and preventing it from making contact with yin ghosts is the right call, but how could you not have placed a few restrictions on it first? Didn’t your seniors teach you these things?”

Although the situation had arisen suddenly, the woman’s response was actually incredibly ingenious. She had transformed the array Wei Yuan had already set up into a Yang Thunder Array. The adjustments were minor, but that just showed how impressive her grasp of the Dao of arrays was.

The yang thunder emitted by the array could dispel yin evil. Since there was neither a land of extreme yin nor any object capable of attracting lightning within Wei Yuan’s Great Realm, the yang thunder had automatically locked onto the old ghost the moment it entered his sea of consciousness.

Even if the first strike had failed, the array had enough power to unleash multiple successive bolts of yang thunder. In that case, the old ghost would be utterly immobilized. Forget Yin Yang, even Wei Yuan would be able to slay him.

Grateful, Wei Yuan took the woman’s hand and said earnestly, “I shall never forget this great kindness. The sages said that one should not let a favor go unreturned overnight. This student shall repay you at once!”

Before the startled woman could flee, Wei Yuan had already pulled her into his embrace.

Wei Yuan’s hands moved like the gentle spring breeze and nourishing rain, carefully unravelling the layers and freeing the woman from her heavy shackles.

Struggling, the woman cried out, “No! We’ve been running all day; we’re filthy! Stop it, you... you dare!”

Wei Yuan instinctively shuddered once more. Realizing her mistake, the woman hurriedly added, “Wait until we’ve escaped first....”

Just then the benefits of the old ghost’s demise began to manifest. Spirituality boiled within Wei Yuan’s Dao Foundation, and specks of spirit light continuously rose from the earth, like countless fireflies floating in the air. It was an incredibly magnificent and grand sight.

When the old ghost perished, the Origin Blood Pearl within Wei Yuan’s body had also shattered. The essence blood the Avatar had accumulated for a lifetime filled the void within his physical body and caused his Dao energy to surge like a tidal wave.

The old ghost was a True Dragon descendant, so the rewards Wei Yuan gained from killing him was more than ten times that of slaying other Avatars!

Realization suddenly struck Wei Yuan: all obstacles in his path to immortality had been shattered, and he would definitely become an Avatar once he had reached a sufficient amount of accumulation. It was merely a matter of time now.

Once he became an Avatar and stood upon that lofty height, a whole new world would unfold before his eyes!

At that moment, Wei Yuan saw the glimmer of hope for revenge, and he could no longer contain the excitement in his chest. In a moment of impulsiveness, he blurted out:

“Master!”

The woman suddenly froze. Wei Yuan himself was frozen.

Since they had reached this point, Wei Yuan steeled his resolve. He lifted a finger, and a spirit rain began to fall within the cave. The rain was manifested from Wei Yuan’s Great Realm—it was a portion of the reward caused by the death and dissolution of the old ghost’s Dao.

The raindrops gathered in Wei Yuan’s hand and, in the blink of an eye, transformed into a large, crystal-clear sphere of water. He then asked, “So, are you going to purge your impurities yourself, or do you need me to help you?”

Upon hearing this, the woman felt as if her whole body were on fire. She kicked Wei Yuan with all her might!

However, Wei Yuan was in the midst of breaking through at the moment and growing rapidly in strength. Not only did the kick fail to move him, but her calf had fallen into his clutches.

......

......

......

In the darkness, when the woman’s breathing had finally steadied somewhat, her voice turned cool and clear. However, her breath was short and her words came out haltingly, greatly diminishing her air of authority. “You treacherous disciple—this m... I’m absolutely going to p....”

With all of her vulnerable spots in her treacherous disciple’s clutches at the moment, the woman simply could not bring herself to utter the word “Master”. And after Wei Yuan had appropriated her favorite word in such an unspeakable manner, to say she was far too humiliated to think of using it again would be an understatement.

For a moment, she actually didn’t know what to say.

That said, the violent storm they had just weathered wasn’t entirely without its benefits. At the very least, it had brought them closer together, and there was a certain resigned acceptance in the air.

Besides, even moving a single finger felt like a struggle right now. Her thoughts were sluggish, and there were multiple blank spots in her mind. She just couldn’t muster the energy to think much at the moment.

If not for this pitch-black cave, if not for the fact that she was battered from the storm, had her identity been suddenly exposed under any other circumstances, she probably would have dove into the cycle of reincarnation already.

Even now, she still couldn’t accept reality. She only wished to remain in her current identity and never emerge from it. She would rather endure the severing of the ages or the collapse of Heaven and Earth than face this very moment. Frankly, she wished to bash her head against the wall and die right here and now. Alas, she was too tired.

In the past, no matter how formidable the enemy or how dire the predicament, even when she was facing a Great Curse cast by a Sky Warlock, she had never flinched or wavered. The immortals and Buddhas could all stand before her, and she still would have cut them all down with a single sword stroke.

As for the obvious outcome of her actions—the destruction of her Immortal Swords and the obliteration of her Dao Foundation—it was merely to be expected. It certainly cast a shadow over her spirits, but that was all.

She suddenly recalled a certain phrase from Xu Wenwu’s materials: “Of all the hardships throughout the ages, death is the hardest.”

At the time, she hadn’t understood it and had merely found it amusing. But now, she realized that it was referring to dying of embarrassment.

Moments later, she mustered immense courage, picked up two shards of her shattered Dao heart, and asked, “When did you find out?”

“I knew the moment I held your hand.”

“... Then why didn’t you say anything?!!!”

“We’re having four kids. Why on earth would I say anything?”

She clenched her teeth and growled, “Where did this audacity suddenly come from?”

“At the time, I thought for sure that I was going to die. As I lay there reflecting on all the regrets of my life, I realized that my greatest regret was never having held your hand, Miss. Since Heaven and Earth didn’t let me die, I naturally couldn’t leave behind any more regrets. Besides, I was afraid that it was all a dream, and I would never see you again once I had awoken from it, Miss.”

She was silent for a moment, then said, “... Please don’t call me ‘Miss’.”

“Kay.”

“Now you’re obedient?! If you could show even one speck of it earl—”

Halfway through the sentence, she knew she had made a mistake and hurriedly pushed Wei Yuan’s restless hands down, saying, “Rest! We still have to escape back to the human realm. There’s no need to be hasty, because... I don’t want to die anymore.”

“What’s your condition now, Mi—I mean, Master?”

“... My Immortal Swords are completely shattered, and the crucible I used to nourish my swords—my body—has also been destroyed. A little of my Dao Foundation remains, but it’s all just debris. Still, it doesn’t matter. I already knew the outcome the moment I drew my sword. I still wounded a Sky Warlock as a Dao Foundation, and... well, I’m probably the first in history to do so.”

Wei Yuan sighed. “You didn’t need to do that.”

The woman grew irritated. “You know very well that your master has never been one to lead a cowardly life! Why dwell on such things when the very life of my disciple hangs in the balance? Even if I could go back to that day, I’d still have struck that blow!”

“You’re so heroic, shifu!” Wei Yuan praised, moving his hand slightly. The woman immediately let out a startled yelp and squirmed all over, her Invincible Dao Heart instantly crumbling to pieces once more.

She tried to twist the tender flesh at his waist like she had before, but Wei Yuan’s body was currently glowing faintly from the inside out. His physical body should have already hit its maximum limit, but in reality it was gradually growing stronger right now. Forget her weak hand, she couldn’t have twisted it even with a pair of pliers.

“... Why have you shown yourself as a man all this time? And how did you end up in that village, disguised as one of the villagers?”

The question finally eased the awkwardness a little.

“... Despite having established my Dao Foundation, I couldn’t help but feel that it’s lacking. For example, I could not suppress Ji Liuli’s Devil Suppressing Nine Level Pagoda. That is why I turned my body into a crucible, worldly origin qi as the fire, and dragon qi as the catalyst to forge my fourth Immortal Sword. My male form was the manifestation born for this purpose—it is both the crucible for forging the sword and a shell enveloping my true form.

“That said, I didn’t extend the shell to my hands because I didn’t want anything to affect my ability to wield the sword. Normally, I simply conceal them with an illusion. It’s good enough that only a True Lord can definitely see through it.”

Wei Yuan let out an exclamation of realization.

She continued, “My Dao Foundation had already been destroyed by the time we were stranded in that village. So, I negotiated with the villagers and came to an agreement with them: they would heal you, and you would follow the same route they had taken to reach this place, which would give you hope to return to the human realm. As for me, I was planning to dissolve my physical form after you left, reincarnating and beginning my cultivation anew.

“... I... thought that I was going to die anyway, and since you couldn’t see me, nor do you know who I am, I... thought to play a prank on you[1]....”

Wei Yuan shuddered all over and immediately pulled her close, saying urgently, “No! You cannot dissolve your physical form!”

She huffed in irritation. “Let go! I already told you that I don’t want to die anymore! You’ve really outdone yourself this time; going so far as to betray your own master! Anyway, take me with you back to the human realm. I’ll figure out what to do with my cultivation after that.”

“There are many ways to resume one’s Dao path and improve one’s aptitude. I heard that there are similar treasures in the Coldbelow. Once we get back, I’ll go explore again....”

The woman jabbed Wei Yuan hard. “You’ve just been struck by the Great Karmic Curse, and you’re thinking of heading to the Coldbelow? You’re basically a human lighthouse in your current state!”

She paused for a moment before continuing, “This new body of mine, reshaped by the White Lotus of Tainted Earth, isn’t actually that bad. It’s just that my Dao Foundation needs to be rebuilt, and the path I was originally on is now blocked. That is the biggest problem. When we get back, I’ll consult the founder first and think through my options carefully. If it really doesn’t work out, then I’ll just reincarnate and start over.”

“W-will I still be able to find you afterward?”

She replied irritably, “You have the White Lotus of Tainted Earth to act as your guide! I won’t be able to get away even if I want to!”

Wei Yuan breathed a sigh of relief and said, “I’m glad. Well... a decade or so isn’t too long to wait.”

1. And this is why you don’t prank people! What if it actually comes true? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ☜