Before Longying could even register his shock, he saw the scholar raise the strange armament in his hands, aim it at his dragon guard, and blast out countless flying swords like a raging torrent.
A massive shield instantly appeared in Longying's hands, interposing itself before his dragon guard to block the incoming barrage of flying swords. Yet upon blocking it, Longying felt that the force against the shield was remarkably light—barely at the level of a newly ascended dharma idol. However, every flying sword was imbued with a layer of yin-cold power, and the grade of this chill was extraordinarily exalted, instantly coating Longying in a thin layer of frost.
Longying's body grew slightly numb; not only were his movements slowed, even his divine sense grew sluggish by thirty percent, and warning bells instantly clanged in his mind!
At this moment, the shadow within the moon was continuously spilling otherworldly fortune, which Maiden Yin-Yang absorbed. Her eyes slowly parted, Longying's figure mirrored in her pupils! Longying let out a hysterical screech, which was abruptly cut short!
A streak of bright red sword light flashed across his body, after which Maiden Yin-Yang vanished. Several dozen strands of otherworldly fortune were only enough for her to strike once.
The last time, when the remnant clan's old ghost crashed into Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, it was purely rotten luck—he had sought his own death. Her spirituality had already formed, and acting within Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains cost far less.
Slaying Longying right at the start of battle lifted Wei Yuan's spirits immensely. Wielding Flawless Transmigration mounted with the Crimson Night Immortal-Slaying Sword, he teamed up with the scholar dragon guard to pincer the remaining dragon guard. For a time, sword qi crisscrossed and gunfire roared within the hunting secret realm. Wei Yuan fought in close quarters one moment and blasted out high-powered rounds the next, putting on a brilliant spectacle.
The rotary gun in the scholar dragon guard's hands roared, riddling his opponent with hundreds of flying swords in an instant. He absorbed the terrifying recoil with ease. Wei Yuan shouted and hollered as he fought alongside the scholar for three full shichen, finally draining the dragon guard's magic power and claiming victory.
Wei Yuan fired dozens of shots himself, while the scholar dragon guard unleashed who knew how many flying swords. Within Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, not only were the three Dao Foundation cultivators mobilized, but thousands of mortals had also been rallied to manufacture flying swords together. Even so, they could only open fire for ten-odd seconds once every quarter of an hour.
When the dragon guard finally collapsed in bitter defeat, his body bore several thousand tiny wounds.
Wei Yuan gave an awkward smile; luckily, Master couldn't enter the hunting secret realm, or there was no telling how thoroughly he would have been berated. With the dragon guard dead, the hunting secret realm finally dissolved, and Wei Yuan returned to the outside world.
At this moment, the shaman was guarding a pile of dying Dao Foundation cultivators, calmly meditating with eyes closed. Zhang Sheng stood with hands clasped behind her back, taking in the magnificent sight of the boundless snowy mountains, completely ignoring the dharma idol-level shaman.
Though she had no Dao power in her, her every gesture exuded peerless bearing, actually bluffing the shaman into not daring to act rashly.
Still, everything depended on the battle within the hunting secret realm. So long as Zhang Sheng did not flee, the shaman had no wish to make a probing move. At Longying's side, taking unauthorized initiative was the greatest taboo.
At that moment, Wei Yuan materialized out of thin air, and the shaman caught sight of Longying and the dragon guard warrior, their fates unknown. Without a word, he flung a blade at Zhang Sheng and turned to flee!
The blade flew neither too fast nor too slow, forcing Wei Yuan to intercept it. By the time he blocked the strike, the shaman was already far away. Bloody light surged around the man; evidently he was burning his lifespan and essence blood, his escape speed shockingly close to Longying's.
One glance told Wei Yuan he couldn't catch up. He could only let him go, though he secretly committed the shaman's appearance and primordial spirit aura to memory.
This fellow had slipped from Wei Yuan's grasp twice in a row. His instinct for danger was truly first-rate, and his escape speed ranked among the best even among dharma idols; his survival ability was genuinely admirable. The next time they met, Wei Yuan resolved to strike immediately without a word, lest he let him slip away again.
Longying and the dragon guard were both True Dragon scions. Following their defeat, their primordial spirits and souls had entered Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains to begin transmigration, while their physical blood qi could also be absorbed by Wei Yuan. Wei Yuan pressed his hand against Longying's chest. With a thought, a surging tide of blood qi was drawn into Wei Yuan; what could not be used immediately was stored throughout his limbs and bones. In the blink of an eye, Longying turned into a desiccated corpse. With a light tap from Wei Yuan, the corpse crumbled to powder.
Wei Yuan followed suit with the dragon guard, draining him into a dried corpse as well. However, the blood qi obtained from the dragon guard was far less, not even twenty percent of Longying's.
At this point, Wei Yuan discovered that among True Dragon scions and dragon guards, there were distinct disparities in strength. As things stood, Maiden Yin-Yang was far ahead of the pack, with no rival in sight. However, the price for her intervention was extraordinarily steep. For quite some time now, Wei Yuan had not seen a trace of otherworldly fortune; everything gained had gone to feeding her, and he was still heavily in deficit.
Next came Longying; had he not run into Maiden Yin-Yang, he truly could have hunted and killed Wei Yuan.
After that was Longying's dragon guard, though it remained to be seen whether its strength would decline after another transmigration. Finally, the scholar and Wei Yuan were tied at the bottom.
This could actually be broken down further: because Wei Yuan's Flawless Transmigration was fitted with the Crimson Night Immortal-Slaying Sword, its might far exceeded the rotary flying sword cannon in the scholar's hands. Thus, going strictly by innate strength, Wei Yuan ranked even lower, sitting squarely at the very bottom.
This devourment among True Dragon scions was truly perverse. Slaying other dharma idol cultivators yielded the bestowal of heaven and earth, but between scions, they directly devoured each other's soul and flesh, sparing nothing.
Wei Yuan vaguely sensed that if the True Dragon did not belong to this world, then the world it came from had to be extraordinarily bloody and sinister.
Those ten-odd Liao Clan Dao Foundation cultivators were simply out of luck. Wei Yuan dispatched them one sword strike at a time, slaughtering every last one. Afterwards, he gathered all the valuables from everyone's corpses.
It had to be said, Longying was truly wealthy. He carried three spatial artifacts on his person, two of which Wei Yuan forced open with brute strength. The assorted pills, natural treasures, and precious materials inside were worth at least a million taels of immortal silver. There was also an arm ring that was exceptionally well-sealed; forcing it open would utterly destroy it, reducing everything inside to smoke and ashes. Wei Yuan put it away for now, waiting for a future opportunity to crack it.
Back then, Xu Jingfeng's father, as head of the Ningxi branch family, had embezzled conscientiously for decades, yet had only managed to pocket less than half of Longying's pocket change.
Wei Yuan merely sorted through the spoils, stuffed his selections into Longying's breached spatial artifacts, discarded what truly wouldn't fit, and promptly departed.
After sprinting several hundred li, though it would still be a while before dark, Wei Yuan found a nearby cave to hide in. He set up formations within the cave and began purging the blood seal on his body bit by bit.
Anchored by resentful thoughts and karma, the blood seal was exceptionally stubborn. Only as dawn approached did Wei Yuan completely excise it. Had Ji Liuli been here, she might have laid a formation to trace the blood seal back and curse the shaman in reverse, but alas, Wei Yuan had not reached that level of expertise.
Wei Yuan stretched his limbs. There was still a modest portion of blood qi inside him that could not be fully absorbed, settling down for the time being. Longying's dharma body was exceptionally robust, likely not much inferior to the Shamans' Yanxin, and more than sufficient to nourish Wei Yuan's physical body.
Now Wei Yuan's physical body had recovered to its limit; what remained was painstaking, gradual refinement to convert the blood qi bit by bit, which could raise his upper ceiling even further. With the spirituality of his Dao Foundation replenished once more, the sea of spirituality had completely formed, and the numerous spiritual entities within his Dao Foundation were all mirrored across this sea of spirituality.
With the replenishment of Longying's dharma idol and soul, his accumulation of spiritual qi was now also sufficient. Wei Yuan was now only a single step away from the dharma idol realm, needing only an opportunity for breakthrough. Having devoured two True Dragon scions in succession, Wei Yuan's cultivation had caught up to Zhang Sheng and Ji Liuli, and was likely a notch above Bao Yun.
Devourment between scions was indeed an unparalleled shortcut to power, though who knew if such a perverse method carried hidden dangers. But even if there were dangers, Wei Yuan couldn't afford to care; after all, if he didn't devour others, other scions would still come knocking at his door.
Reason dictated that Longying should have carried two personal treasures of scions, since he had slain a scion himself. However, Wei Yuan hadn't found them, unable to tell whether they were inside the unbreached spatial artifact or if Longying simply hadn't brought them along.
Pity that everything of a True Dragon scion could only be devoured by another scion. Furthermore, Wei Yuan was no alchemist; otherwise, refining all this blood qi into a furnace of pills would yield a miraculous healing medicine that might have been of some use to Zhang Sheng.
Having temporarily shaken off pursuit, Wei Yuan began pondering an escape plan. With the shaman having escaped, he would certainly send word, and Longying was clearly a prominent figure of the Liao Clan—in all likelihood, another young master of some sort.
Wei Yuan felt as though he were the natural bane of young masters: before his cultivation had matured, he had killed a lesser young master, and after growing stronger, he had killed a greater young master. Still, the Liao Clan had many tribes, many golden tents, and even more young masters; jinxing two to death wouldn't upset the broader picture.
After pondering, Wei Yuan reasoned that the Liao Clan would surely set up heavy blockades along the route south, while dispatching formidable hunting parties into the snowy mountains to corner him. The keys to escaping were speed and stealth, and the greatest vulnerability lay with Zhang Sheng.
Following deep thought, and with some time left before daybreak, Wei Yuan swiftly fashioned a contraption resembling carrying poles with a saddle-like seat in the middle, and attached a long jet tube on both the left and right sides.
Wei Yuan adjusted it for quite a while until dawn broke.
Wei Yuan moved aside the boulder blocking the cave entrance and carried out the newly crafted contraption. He sat in front, had Zhang Sheng take the seat behind him, and used Dao power to strap them firmly together. "Hold tight. We're off."
Shielding Zhang Sheng's whole body with Dao power, Wei Yuan leaped into the air. Immediately, powerful air currents blasted from the two jet tubes, propelling the pair howling into the distance.
Wei Yuan steadily increased his Dao power output, their speed climbing higher and higher. In the blink of an eye, their speed exceeded five hundred li in a single quarter of an hour, amounting to four thousand li in one shichen. This speed far outstripped the flight speed of ordinary dharma idols, only slightly slower than the top speed Longying had displayed.
Wei Yuan maintained this pace and flew westward. To the west lay the territory of the Shamans, whose guard was likely more lax than the Liao Clan's. Flying westward all the way, they covered thousands of li in no time. Meanwhile, at the spot where Longying had fallen, several figures descended from the sky.
At the center was a Liao Clan woman with faint wrinkles at the corners of her eyes, wearing elaborate silver ornaments on her head. She slowly crouched down, pinched a handful of earth from the ground, and sensed it carefully. Her aura abruptly turned terrifyingly formidable, and two pale-silver flames burst from her eyes!
No longer concealing herself, she released her aura without restraint. Soon, a figure emerged from the depths of the snowy mountains. This figure stood several zhang tall, possessing a lizard-like head and trailing a long tail behind it.
With each stride, the sweeping of its long tail struck cracks into the frozen ground, showing just how terrifying its might was. Murderous intent filled the Liao Clan woman's eyes as she demanded, "Who killed my son?"
Its six amber eyes fixed upon the woman, glinting with ferocity and slaughter, as it spoke in an uncadenced voice: "You should... consider... whether you can leave here alive."
Its attitude took the woman completely by surprise. Glaring at the monster, she said, "Do not forget, my son was only a step away from becoming your master. Now that he is dead, you refuse to aid me?"
"He is dead. Thus, he never will be."
Chapter 371