Dragon Canon

Wei Yuan’s mind was in complete chaos right now. He simply, truly couldn’t fathom how things had come to this.

Ever since he had established the realm stone Qingming, though he lacked grand ambitions, he had known that sooner or later, he would have to deal with the King of Jin. However, he never could have imagined that his relationship with the king would unfold in such a manner.

If there was one silver lining about all this, this was a realm for primordial spirits only.

Speaking of which, he was in a very peculiar state right now: his primordial spirit was full, and his Dao energy was overflowing. However, his physical body was so exhausted that he could not muster even a shred of strength. Just the act of lifting his eyelids was enough to make him gasp for breath.

Only now did he realize that there are people beyond this person; skies beyond this sky[1]. As it turned out, even a physical body forged from 20 million immortal silver wasn’t infallible.

The heat gradually subsided. After all, the World-purifying Lapis Lazuli Fire could not burn indefinitely. In the darkness, Wei Yuan sensed the girl fetching her clothes and finally relaxed, plummeting into a deep sleep.

Wei Yuan slept for only a ke before waking again. He felt spiritually refreshed, and his strength was returning bit by bit.

The girl gently tapped Wei Yuan. Her chosen spot was both unexpected and caused him no small amount of alarm. That said, his physical body was forged from 20 million immortal silver. Despite only catching a brief nap, it was ready for action once more after just one tap.

“We need to find our way out of here. Dying at the demon king’s hands would at least allow us to be reborn, but this Vajra Guardian is using the World-purifying Lapis Lazuli Fire—he’s clearly intending to burn our future lives along with us.”

“Is there an exit?” Wei Yuan perked up.

“The exit is the gate leading to the Pure Land we saw. It’s just closed right now. We’ll have to figure out a way to get through.”

“Let’s fly up there first and see if we can push it open.”

“Fly?”

Wei Yuan replied matter-of-factly, “We’re just primordial spirits right now. Flying is easy—even someone without any cultivation can fly in this state.”

“I see... but moving in this world feels almost exactly like the Homeworld. We’ll have to be careful when flying.”

“There should still be a lot of strongmen outside. I’m afraid we’ll have to fight our way out. Give me some time to make the preparations.”

The First Consort waited a moment but saw no movement from Wei Yuan. So, she flicked him and giggled alluringly. “Want some more? Shall we continue?”

Wei Yuan’s whole body jolted as he exclaimed in alarm, “That’s not what I mean... um, can you help me up first?”

Moments later, Wei yuan cleared the rock blocking the cave entrance and peered outside. The ravine was still billowing with heat, and everything was coated in a glassy sheen. A pool of molten glass had pooled at the bottom of the ravine; it felt slightly soft underfoot.

The First Consort crawled out of the cave, her appearance reverting to that of a village girl. But the moment Wei Yuan looked at her, her features melted away like water and revealed her true form. As soon as he looked away, she returned to the appearance of a village girl.

Although they had been fooling around for a whole night, Wei Yuan still dared not look at her for long. He climbed out of the ravine first and looked out into the distance.

The sky was a deep crimson, and the massive sun hung motionless in the heavens. The earth was a vast expanse of scorched earth—no trees or flowers remained, nor were there any birds, fish, or insects. Everything had been reduced to ashes.

Standing there, it felt as thought he were in a fiery inferno.

In the distance, the titanic figure of the Vajra Guardian stood out strikingly. At the moment, he was standing motionless, and the spiderwebs that had clung to his body before had long since vanished. Occasionally, he would unleash a burst of pure, crystalline fire at a certain spot, burning whatever it was he was burning.

Wei yuan found it hard to believe. A whole pocket world and the countless sentient beings living in it—had they all been reduced to scorched earth just like that?

He recalled his lessons during the centralized learning curriculum at the Palace of Absolute Beginning. His teacher had discussed what constituted a sentient being. The spirit was the foundation of all sentient beings. What distinguished Wei Yuan from Zhang Sheng was not their physical bodies, but their primordial spirits. Take the great demons of the Realm of Coldbelow, for instance. Although they did not possess physical bodies, there still qualified as sentient beings. When Wei Yuan’s primordial spirit crossed over to the Coldbelow, his primordial spirit was a sentient being, but the physical body he left behind in the Homeworld was not[2].

By this standard, even if this pocket world was just an Imaginary World, it still contained countless sentient beings—how could they all be burned to ashes?

The high cultivators had a euphemistic term for such an act. They called it “refinement.”

On the barren, scorched earth, countless warriors were wandering aimlessly in search of Wei Yuan and the First Consort. Occasionally, they would use their weapons to turn over a few clods of soil—that was their idea of a search. In the absence of enemies, they all appeared utterly vacant and possessed less sentience than even wild beasts.

According to Wei Yuan’s learnings, these warriors had not materialized out of thin air. They were transformed from devotees who voluntarily entered a Buddha-realm seeking to attain eternal life and bliss in the Pure Land.

Yet, judging by their vacant expressions—and recalling their furious, violent state when they first appeared—it seemed they existed only in these two states.

There were gates in the sky. That’s right, there were now three gates instead of one.

Each gate was distinctly different from one another. One was entirely pitch-black, adorned with mysterious symbols at the top and exuding a chilling, sinister aura. The middle gate was grand and majestic, framed in lapis lazuli with doors of gold and jade. It was also slightly ajar, allowing an endless golden radiance to illuminate this scorched world. It radiated a sense of great compassion.

Finally, the one on the right was an ordinary door. Literally. It was neither made of gold and jade nor made of logs. It was just a simple wooden door.

Just then, several strongmen flew into the sky, looked around, then landed back on the ground. Wei Yuan’s heart sank. They could fly now? He thought. But on second thought, it made sense—the entire Pure Land had been reduced to a scorched inferno, so the restrictions left behind by the young monk had naturally been broken long ago.

The strongmen flew at a speed comparable to Wei Yuan’s. If he wanted to escape, he would have to be careful not to be caught by them. Wei Yuan asked the First Consort, “How fast can you fly?”

“I can’t fly—I can only jump.”

Wei Yuan couldn’t say anything for a moment. He whispered, “Why can’t you fly?”

The First Consort retorted in her village girl appearance, “Why would I need to know how to fly?”

The question left Wei Yuan speechless. Judging by her performance last night, Wei Yuan did not believe for even a second that she wasn’t an Avatar. He might even believe her to be a World Ruler. So, how could she not fly? Could she be a rare, once-in-ten-thousand-years landbound True Lord?

“Then what cultivation level are you at now, Miss?”

The girl’s expression hardened, and she snapped, “What the heck? You’re calling me Miss the moment we step out of the room? You’re planning to deny everything you’ve done, aren’t you? Men really are all the same!”

“I need to figure out how to escape to those gates, so of course I need to know your cultivation level. Otherwise, if there’s even the slightest slip-up, neither of us are making it out alive,” Wei Yuan explained patiently with a stunningly good attitude.

The First Consort wasn’t just throwing a tantrum for no reason; when she was acting up, she had deliberately revealed her true appearance. Her stunning little face, puffed up with indignation, would have left anyone spellbound. Wei Yuan couldn’t even begin to feel angry because of it.

Seeing how serious Wei Yuan was, the First Consort replied, “My karmic ties here are too heavy, and I’m in a unique condition right now. Let me put it this way: for all intents and purposes, I’m just an ordinary human. However, these strongmen couldn’t harm me. Just make sure you keep the Vajra Guardian’s fire away from me—I’m deathly averse of it.”

Wei Yuan understood immediately and began setting up a defensive position. A bunch of complicated-looking devices began taking form one by one.

“What are you doing?” The girl asked.

“I can’t just carry you and try to fly past these strongmen. I need to gather them together and reduce their numbers first. Only then can we escape during the chaos.”

A major battle was on the horizon, so Wei Yuan was wearing a focused and grim expression.

The girl crouched beside him, resting her chin on her hands as she watched him work. After a moment, she said, “A man who takes work seriously is truly the most charming.”

A surge of amusement and exasperation flooded through Wei Yuan as she turned to glare at her. But the moment their gazes met, the First Consort revealed her true form and stuck out her tongue.

It was an adorable gesture, yet Wei Yuan felt a surge of passion rising within him. It was because the tip of her tongue suddenly traced the curve of her lips at the end of it.

Wei Yuan dared not look any longer and focused on his work. They were out in broad daylight and surrounded by a scorched earth that stretched endlessly into the horizon right now. How could they possibly... of course, if this was a novel, then this location would be just right.

Pushing the chaotic thoughts aside, Wei Yuan hurried to finish the preparations. Moments later. The defensive position was ready. Wei Yuan raised a slender steel tube, aimed at a warrior soaring in the distant sky, and fired a flying sword that skewered him in a single strike.

It was as if he had kicked a hornet’s nest. The strongmen across the entire world began rushing toward him.

Wei Yuan remained unfazed. One by one, Armor-piercing Blue Drizzles trailed a faint red glow across the sky and mowed down the incoming strongmen in droves. Even those flying in the sky were not spared; they were knocked down one by one.

The first strongman he had shot was still struggling to crawl toward Wei Yuan. He couldn’t feel any pain, and the absence of pain led to utter fearlessness. The only emotion etched on his face was fury.

But as he crawled, white-gold flames tinged with pale red suddenly erupted from within his body!

Panic and agony finally appeared on the strongman’s face. He reached out toward Wei Yuan, as if pleading for help or trying to grasp something, but white-gold flames spewed from his mouth and nose the next second, and his head slowly drooped.

A glowing ball of white-gold flame took form and drifted into the air, gradually dissipating. The body himself had turned into a withered husk.

Immediately afterward, wave and wave of white-gold flames appeared, and the strongmen who were pierced by the Armor-piercing Blue Drizzles began combusting one after another. The strongmen finally fell into disarray, and the Vajra Guardian in the distance—he had been standing motionless this whole time—slowly began to turn his head.

Wei Yuan acted decisively, carrying the First Consort in his arms and soaring into the sky. He was holding a propeller in each hand, spewing long streams of flame from them to dramatically increase his flight speed. Even with an extra person in tow, he was still slightly faster than the flying strongmen. He charged straight toward the three gates in the sky.

Acting on instinct, Wei Yuan headed straight for the black gate. To his surprise, the gate actually opened!

Upon passing through the doors, they were met with a vast black ocean. The windless sea churned with waves, and countless vengeful spirits rose and fell amidst the surging tides. Jade barriers surrounded the entire ocean and stretched all the way into the sky, as if the entire world was sealed within them.

Wei Yuan took one glance and said, “Wrong gate.” He then expressionlessly carried the First Consort back out through the gate.

1. Meaning that there is always someone better than you. ☜

2. Just casually giving you a scientific explanation on what counts as a sentient being. No biggie. ☜